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thebadjoe · 7 days

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BAD JOE'S DRDT CH.2 CRIME SOLVING THEORY PART 6

Wow! It's been a long while, but it's finally here! DRDT Chapter 2 is back with part 2 starting since more than a week ago!

...Oh? What's that? There's some reveals that is damaging my theory and I should get to fixing? Awwww, man.... what a drag.... I am so doomed... nanchatte!

Anyways, hi! It's me, the dude who makes-overly-complex-and-ridiculously-long-theories-in-the-hopes-of-trying-to-solve-the-murder-case-that-not-many-people-agree-with-for-more-reasons-than-my-theory's-word-count. (Okay, the last part about the reasons is probably not true... yet!)

I am back yet again with some more updates regarding my theory.

NOOOOO!!! NOT AGAIN!!! PLEASE, I DON'T WANNA READ ANOTHER GODDAMN DICTIONARY LENGTH OF A THEORY POST!!!!

Woah! Calm down, imaginary self that is under the impression that some people were way too overwhelmed by my latest part of the theory post! You have nothing to worry about!

It would be silly of me to rewrite all of it again with some small changes. I will of course link up my part 5 later as source of reference, but really, all I'm gonna be doing here today is point out the newest problems with my theory ever since episode 12 and 13 and give my personal thoughts on those.

Also, to make sure that people hasn't forgotten what I've been all about since the beginning, I will do a short recap of my theory, displaying only what's most relevant to the murder case.

Besides, ain't no way I'm writing something this long ever again (except for maybe trying to solve the future chapters, but that's a matter for the far future).

With that said, I feel obliged to point out that this is spoilers for the fangan Danganronpa Despair Time Chapter 2, up until episode 13.

With that out of the way, let's get to it!

Hey look! I still remember how to use that show more button again, hurray! (I'm really sorry again to @1moreff-creator and everyone else who's been reading my very first posts last year that didn't have a show more button)

So, first things first, I'd like to apologize in advance because as amazing the episode 12 and 13 were, I will not be doing a reaction post of said episodes. I think I'm just too lazy to actually display my whole stream of consciousness through two whole videos and I think it is safe to say that practically all of us had a very similar reaction to those episodes.

What was the common reaction, you may ask? Well, it's simple, really... it went something like... OMG, THIS IS SO FUCKING HYPE! OMG!!! THAT WAS SO INSANE!!! THE DRAMA!!! DAVID BEING DAVID!!! THE LEVI REVEAL!!! THE FLASHBACK PART 2 SCENE!!! OMG, WHAT IS EDEN DOING?!! AREI IS HOLDING DAVID'S HANDS?! WE'RE FINALLY TALKING ABOUT THE MURDER METHODS?!?! OMG, SO GOOD!!!

...right? Yeah! I thought so! :D

Although I may not be showing proper and precise reactions to these episodes, if you're interested, I'd definitly recommend reading @venus-is-thinking 's, reactions on episode 12 and episode 13, @1moreff-creator 's reactions on episode 12 and episode 13 and @accirax 's reactions on episode 12 and episode 13. They're pretty good reads (and no, I'm not just saying this because they all believe that Eden is the culprit, I swear!).

And for those who are totally blind or new to my shenanigans, yes, I do believe that Eden is the culprit behind this murder case.

There is indeed a few problems that arose ever since the latest episodes, so to make sure that everyone is up to speed with what I'm gonna be talking about, I'm now going to be doing a short recap of the events, according to me.

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THE RECAP

DAY 1 : The day where everyone receives their mixed up secrets and explore the second floor. DAY 2 : The day where the attempted murder on Ace happened. DAY 3 : The day where Whit suggests David to chill for the evening in the relaxation room. DAY 4 : The day (morning) of the body discovery announcement.

Ever since Arei bullied Eden who then cried and exited the playground on DAY 2, that was what triggered Eden to decide to commit murder for the sake of escaping this hellish killing game. Knowing that her secret is that she kissed a girl, I deduced that she's probably trying to escape because she misses her beloved dearly.

So while she was off screen during most of that day, she spent time making plans for the murder set up and narrative, which is why she decided to share Arturo's secret (as seen in the flashback).

During the evening of DAY 2, Ace was working out in the gym, then he hears a conversation happening between David and Arei in the relax room. The conversation that Ace was quietly listening to did not happen in the evening of DAY 3, but rather the evening of DAY 2. Ace lied about when he was listening to that conversation.

At some point during the conversation or perhaps even after the conversation, Eden sneaks up on Ace and knocks him out with the turpentine that anyone could've gotten access to that day. Ace is Eden's chosen murder victim.

Sometime later, Eden eitheir used a letter or called out Arei's name to lure her into the playground or somewhere close to knock her unconscious with that very same turpentine. She then moves Arei's body into the relaxation room to lock her up inside because of the specific nighttime rules regarding that room.

Eden also brought old spares of clothing to cover Arei's body to make sure she doesn't get stained with starch from the water misting formula from the relaxation room.

During the night of DAY 2, she prepares the murder mechanism in the gym with some needed tools from the storage room and some wire that she took out from possibly a grandfather clock that she may have in her dorm. I deduced it as such because of Whit's description of everyone's dorms being suited to their needs.

I also deduced that there is actually a switch to turn on and off the fans, which is important since the attempted murder involved the fans. As Eden finished setting it up, as she was about to clear up with evidence, she heard someone using the elevator.

She hid in the dress up room, then Nico enters the second floor, looking for Ace to kill him. As Nico explores the gym, Teruko shortly enters the elevator to get to the second floor as well.

Teruko, looking for her spares, runs into Eden, who was hidden in the dress up room. After some talk, they heard a loud noise coming from the gym, which they both take a look inside.

Upon seeing this mess of a crime, Eden realised that her murder plan failed and that she needs to come up with a plan B really quick. So while she is taking time to "process this emotionally", Teruko was investigating.

Eden finally comes up with a plan B and figured that she needed to get her hands on the roll of tape ASAP. She managed to do so with a sleight of hand when Ace "suddenly wakes up", knocking Eden out of the way, distracting Teruko in the process.

Later that night, Eden proceeds with her plan B by making a murder mechanism in the playground. She also took the rope from the storage room. Once it's all properly set up, all's left was waiting for the relaxation to unlock at 8:00 AM on DAY 3.

In the morning of DAY 3, she retrieves Arei's unconscious body and proceeds with murdering Arei. Then, she proceeds to conceal the body somewhat behind the curtains in the relaxation room. She also grabs her glove, her monopad and the necessary materials in the dress up room for the next step of her plan.

She spends the rest of the morning to prepare her disguise trick. Then during lunchtime, Eden spends a short amount of time disguised as Arei to hide the actual time of death.

Once lunchtime is over, she returns to eitheir her or Arei's dorm to remove the disguise, spend time cleaning up, relax, power nap, etc. Then, during the evening of DAY 3, she spends time with Hu to fabricate her perfect alibi.

Later that evening, David explores the relaxation room. That's when he notices something wrong with the room and becomes the first person to discover Arei's dead body.

For some personal reasons, David brings the body back into the playground and hangs it by the swingset. Eitheir he or Eden (earlier in the morning) balls up the clothes and hides it in the closet of the dress-up room. Then, in the morning of DAY 4, David grabs everyone's attention to the fact that Arei is missing right before the secrets reveal. Then fast forward a bit, then we get the BDA of Arei

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And there ya go, that's my recap regarding how I believe the murder case happened. Pretty short, eh?

HELL NO!!! THAT WAS STILL PRETTY LONG!!! AHHHHH!!!!

Eh... I guess I couldn't really make it that shorter, my bad! If I tried to make it any shorter than that, it would've been extremely confusing.

Ah! Speaking of which, if you're confused in the sense that it feels like none of this should work at all, and there's a lot of contradictions and whatnot, then I would heavily recommend reading my actual theory post. I am not going to spend time refuting with people in the comments about points I've already pointed out in my previous post.

However, if there are things that are unclear to you, things that you do not understand and want to know what I'm talking about, please, feel free to ask away! I will help in any way I can.

With that out the way, I guess I can now start with pointing out the pr-

HAH! THERE IS A MAJOR ISSUE WITH YOUR THEORY!!! BASED ON EPISODE 12, THE MURDER COULD'VE ONLY HAPPENED IN THE MORNING OF DAY 4 BECAUSE OF THE BODY SWING! YOU'RE DONE FOR!

Ah... yeah... that! Of course! That's not a problem!

!!!

Let's talk about it first, shall we? :D

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AREI'S BODY SWING : CONFIRMED TIME OF DEATH???

I'd like to come clean with something, everyone. Ever since I came up with the theory that murder happened at a totally unexpected time, there was something that was constantly bothering me.

That's right, I was very well aware of the body swing happening during the BDA ever since the beginning.

HUH?! Then all this time, you wrote all of this despite knowing that?!

Correct! I'm really sorry about that, but please, understand that I had a very good reason for it. For you see... everytime I saw it, I was often under the impression that this was simply an eerie effect / animation, to give a more dramatic intensity towards the BDA, without meaning anything. I legit thought it could be a thing, I swear!

But despite all that... I couldn't help but feel uneasy about it. Deep down, I felt like that maybe there was an actual meaning to it, maybe it was an actual clue that I shouldn't disregard. But I figured that because of my theory beliefs, then it would be rather unlikely that it would be used as evidence.

But alas, I was wrong about that. The body swing plays a very important rule in determining what happened in this murder case. I cannot deny that fact, especially since Teruko brought it up, plain as day. Despite it seeming like it damages my theory, I'm thankful that the dev finally cleared that little doubt I had since then.

Then you admit it, the murder actually happened in the mor-

Oh, not so fast! Let's not jump to conclusions just yet, alright? Arei's body swinging by the swing set doesn't quite exactly prove that the murder occured during the morning of DAY 4. The body swing only proves that someone messed with the body by the swingset.

W-What?! That doesn't make sense! The murder clearly happened in the morning of DAY 4!

Nuh-uh, not quite. You believe it clearly happened in the morning because that's what the cast concluded on top of Charles pointing out that the culprit could've clearly fake the time of death by saving the fishes for later.

But unless we have decisive evidence that the murder happened in the morning, we can't be 100% sure that the murder happened in the morning of DAY 4.

From the looks of it, you just seem very desperate, if you ask me.

At first, when episode 12 released, I kind of was... up until I figured out a fairly logical solution to it. That's right! I have a way to explain who made the body swing and why.

You're not going to suggest that David did all of what he supposedly did in the evening of DAY 3, but instead in the morning of DAY 4, right?!

Nope! Not at all. Disregarding the facts that it wouldn't really make sense and that he'd have to move the body out of the relax room anyways before nighttime (because of the water misting rules), David actually has an alibi in the morning of DAY 4.

(As does Veronika too as she was with them in the cafeteria)

With all of these reasons mentioned above, as much as I initially wanted to make it somehow possible that David came back to the crime scene to mess with the body somehow, it just isn't possible.

So instead, someone else did it.

Then out with it already, you staller! Who is it?!

There is only one possible candidate that would make the most sense in that scenario : Eden. Eden is the person who messed with Arei's body in the morning of DAY 4.

WHHAAAAT?!?! WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT?! THAT'S SO RISKY!

That's what I initially thought at first, not gonna lie. But then... something hit me : Eden doesn't have an alibi for the morning of DAY 4 eitheir.

I thought that there would be absolutely no need for Eden to come back to the crime scene a certain short amount of time before the BDA, so instead, I needed to reverse my way of thinking.

What could she possibly aim to do that would prompt her to come back to the crime scene last minute?

Considering the facts (based on my theory, mind you) that she killed Arei in the morning of DAY 3, hid the body somewhere in the relaxation room, built up an evening to night alibi with Hu and that David was the first person to discover it during the evening, there is a simple explanation behind it.

Arei's BDA was meant to be triggered much earlier than the morning of DAY 4. The original intent behind this whole scheme was to have the BDA trigger during the evening of DAY 3.

That doesn't make sense!

No, that's wrong! It does make a whole lot of sense. Think about it. Let's say you were a participant in this killing game and were in David's shoes during the evening of DAY 3... you come across a dead body in the relaxation, what would you do?

!!!

That's right, you wouldn't just mess with the body and move it somewhere else, now would you? Aside from freaking out, the most natural and human thing to do would be to gather help.

If it were anyone else than David who discovered the body in that exact scenario, they would cry out for help, tell everyone that they found Arei dead inside the relaxation room, which would then result in a body discovery announcement.

But what if the person who found the body were to personally ask for Hu's and Eden's help, wouldn't that ruin her plan since it wouldn't trigger the BDA?

There's an easy solution to that. Eden could've simply decided to find more people to share the news to meet up with the corpse. This wouldn't ruin her plan in the slightest.

Quite the opposite, actually. If the body were to be discovered and trigger the BDA during the evening, it would solidify her air tight alibi even further as she wouldn't have any possible timeframe to commit murder in the evening as she was spending time with her friend Hu.

Ugh, so what? It didn't really happen anyways because of David being David! That doesn't change anything!

Actually, it does change things considerably. If you put yourself in the culprit's perspective where the whole intent was to have the body discovery happen in the evening of DAY 3 and that during the whole night, nothing happened, you would certainly find that very strange.

The culprit would be clearly confused, yet really curious to find out what even happened.

Couldn't she have taken a look much later during the night?

Perhaps, but she figured it would've been pointless. The reason why is that if she thought that nobody found the body, then the body would've still remained hidden in the relaxation room which would then be currently locked away because of the water misting.

So instead of checking it out during the late night of DAY 3, Eden decided to investigate during the very early morning of DAY 4, sometime past 7:30 AM.

But the relaxation room is still locked up until 8:00 AM! Why not wait until then?

It's simple! She just wanted to be there a little bit in advance to make sure she can enter the room as early as possible. And so... while she is waiting for the relaxation room to unlock, she probably figured that she should take a look around the other rooms, why not?

And thus, that leads to Eden finding the body being hung by the swingset, alongside fishes scattered around the floor for some reason.

To reconfirm, I still believe that David is the first person who discovered Arei's dead body in the relaxation room and that he's responsible for hanging her body alongside placing those fishes by the playground.

Okay, Eden discovers that the body has been moved to the playground? What now? Everything's already in place, so what could she possibly do with the dead body?

Well, since the BDA was not triggered on the evening of DAY 3, she figured that she may as well put Arei's monopad back into the corpse's pockets.

But what about her missing glove? Why didn't she return that as well if she wanted to return her monopad?

That's a good point, that's for sure. But there are two easy fixes to this counter argument. First one being that she simply forgot about the gloves. No one's really perfect, after all. She was so concerned about the body not being discovered yet that this completly slipped her mind.

The second fix would be that it would've been way too risky to try to retrieve the glove. Maybe initially, Eden, after she removed her disguise, she placed the clothes and the glove back into Arei's dorm. So if she wanted to retrieve the glove, she'd have to return to Arei's room, unlocking it with a monopad that isn't her own.

Would she really risk that again after making this much progress without getting caught so far? Like imagine if she tried to take that risk one last time only to get caught, that would be quite the devastating result, wouldn't it?

Ok, fine. Nevermind the gloves. Is that all she did?

Pretty much, yeah. She returned the monopad back into her pockets, which moved the body somewhat.

...

Well, it's also possible that she tripped and moved the body even more by accident. Or perhaps she felt like she was in such a hurry to avoid getting found out that she accidently bumped into Arei's dead body.

...Are you kidding me? There's no way that's gonna be enough to move the body for this long!

Well... maybe her being there at exactly 7:30 AM is not the exact time. She could've been there a couple minutes before 8:00 AM, which could make this possible.

But that's ridiculous! There's no way Eden is strong enough to make the body swing that way. To make the body swing for a good amount of time, she'd need more than just accidently bumping into the body! It needs considerable force.

And I'll stop you there. If you've read my last theory post, you should know by now that I'm a firm believer that because it's a work of fiction, anything that seems unlikely can become possible.

The main thing we should take from Arei's body swinging during the BDA is that at some point in time during the morning, someone messed with the body, proving that someone was there during the morning of DAY 4.

And there you go, that's my whole explanation as to how Arei's body was swinging during the BDA that doesn't necessarily mean that the murder occured during that exact morning.

If you're not quite convinced yet, there is a certain part of my theory that begins to make a lot more logical sense with this solution in mind. Take a look at this!

Thanks to the solution I suggested, these two lines become a lot more fitting to my updated theory. Here's why!

If Eden were to explore and find the body hanging by the swing set during the morning of DAY 4, she would know that at least 1 person found the body, but not who exactly.

Because of Whit's silly comment, Eden immediatly thought of the body in the playground and jumped to the worst conclusion : Whit is the person who found the body first.

So if they were to open the door to the playground, the BDA would not trigger since Eden is the culprit. So in a moment of panic, Eden uttered : "Teruko, wait--".

It is still pretty much the same as what I had in mind according to the previous part of my theory post, except that it works a whole lot better now that Eden personally saw the actual state of the dead body in the morning of DAY 4.

So there you have it. This seemingly major problem for my theory actually turned out to be very beneficial for my theory after all! Ah, the joys of making logical sounding deductions! My theory should be saf-

HAH! YOU THINK YOUR THEORY IS SAFE FROM HARM YET?! WRONG!!!! IN EPISODE 13, THEY ACTUALLY SHOWED HOW THE MURDER MECHANISM WORKED! NOT ONLY IS EDEN TOO WEAK TO OPERATE IT, BUT THEY PUT FISH WATER INSIDE THOSE JUGS! SINCE THEY REVEALED THAT MURDER METHOD, IT HAS TO BE THE SOLUTION. YOUR THEORY IS RUINED! GOOD DAY SIR!

Oh, you mean this?

Oh no, this murder mechanism is different from mine and this one requires a certain amount of strength that Eden possibly doesn't have! And the fishes! Since they brought it up, then there's no way my theory can work! Whatever shall I do??? It's joever.... just kidding!

I don't mean to alarm you guys, but the current proposed murder mechanism idea actually has flaws. Let's talk some more about the murder mechanism in the playground, shall we? :)

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TERUKO'S CURRENT MURDER MECHANISM IDEA : RIGHT OR WRONG???

Before I get into it, I'd like to remind everyone that just because we've been shown how the murder may have been done for the first time means that's how it actually happened. Let's not forget that they spent so much time arguing and discussing about the secrets that they barely ever talked about the murder case in itself.

So if anything, episode 13 is practically just them beginning their actual work! Mistakes are bound to happen. We shouldn't jump to conclusions just yet. Besides, there is actually a problem with this murder mechanism.

I'll present it to you in pictures to show you what I'm talking about.

The taped up wrists. This was practically the decisive proof that this wasn't a suicide nor could it have been an assisted suicide. So now that they've introduced a murder mechanism in an actual episode... what's actually the point of the taped wrists in that scenario?

If the culprit used exactly this kind of murder mechanism, then there would be absolutely no need to tape up her wrists together.

Maybe it was to stop Arei from trying to struggle?

Nope. If that was the case, we would've seen much more signs of struggle coming from Arei. There may be scuffs on the ground, but there's absolutely no other form of injury on Arei aside from her broken neck.

Well, I saw a theory where the accomplice was Levi and he could've easily overpower her!

(I believe that was something that @1moreff-creator theorized, if I recall? At least, that was the theory pre part 2)

It used to be borderline possible, but not this time anymore! Thanks to the first two episodes of part 2 of chapter 2, it seems extremely unlikely that Levi wanted to work with the culprit as an accomplice.

Not only because of what we find out regarding his secret, what kind of character he is, but also because of something he said in episode 12.

I don't know about you, but this doesn't look like something an accomplice would say at all, right? If the culprit was someone who didn't have an alibi in the evening, it would be a different story, but the most fitting theory for having Levi work as an accomplice is to work for Eden, who happens to have an alibi in the evening as you already know.

So since we gotta take Levi out of the equation, then we don't really have much other possible candidates who could've easily overpower Arei to the point where taping up her wrists would've helped better on that regard.

Therefore, the most logical solution would be that Arei was knocked unconscious with the turpentine. But since that's the most likely scenario, then what's up with the taped wrists?

If the taped wrists weren't used to prevent any remote chance for Arei to try to get out of this situation, then it must've been used as part of the murder mechanism.

But since the murder mechanism as shown by Teruko doesn't explain the taped up wrists whatsoever, then this becomes a discrepancy. Therefore, that can't be quite the correct answer to solving the how this murder mechanism works.

And since this murder mechanism idea is flawed, it also means that there's no guarantee that the jugs contained fish water inside, they could've simply gathered water somewhere else or perhaps there jugs were already filled with clean water to begin with.

Because this murder mechanism idea is flawed, there's no guarantee that the culprit used this method which required some unknown amount of strength, but an amount of strength regardless (unless the author wants to pass it off as anyone could've done it since it's easier to do it by spinning it, I'm not sure).

Because of that flaw, my theory isn't affected by the murder mechanism idea that Teruko suggested since there is no guarantee that this is the correct answer.

So yeah, there's no problem whatsoever! Also, as far as I'm aware, since the release of the latest episodes, I have a very logically sound reason to explain the taped up wrists as shown in part 5 of my theory.

To give you a small reminder, it was for something like this!

(Whole murder mechanism not properly shown in the drawing because I'm lazy as heck, but just take a close attention to the arms)

By having Arei's arms go between the pillars of the seasaw, you can make it so that she can't get out of it by taping her wrists together, which plays an important role in the murder mechanism. Not going to elaborate further, if you want to know more, you gotta read the big post right there!

And there you have it! Those were the two main concerns that could've negatively affect my theory, but fortunately for me, it doesn't. In fact, it supports it even more than before.

Especially regarding the David / Arei conversation flashback (shown from David's memory's perspective). This conversation told us a lot more between these two, do you know what that means?

That's right! It means that Ace is full of shit! There's no way he didn't hear anything else. The only way he could've not hear anything else is if he gets snuck up from behind and gets knocked out with the turpentine, but it could've easily simply been Ace witholding that information to make David look more suspicious.

Therefore, if he lied about this, he could've also easily lied about when he actually overheard that conversation for his own selfish gains!

There's also a few couple other points that could further support my theory, but I don't feel like going over every single little detail as of now. I mainly wanted to solve these two issues and nothing else.

So, DRDTers, I need to ask you the following : Do you still believe that I am delusional with this overly complex theory of mine? :)

Thanks for reading another one of my big posts, as usual!

#drdt #drdt spoilers #drdt theory #drdt solve #danganronpa despair time #I can't believe I'm doing this again #Can't wait to see what's gonna happen in episode 14 #I remain undaunted

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baldurs-gape · 2 months

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Something nice I did for myself? Went to a cat cafe after work and cuddled with them for an hour. There was one named Vinny that just crawled into my lap and wouldn’t leave, asked the staff and he will be available for adoption this fall….so I’m thinking about it.

That is so wonderful! Nonnie, if I could I would give you a gold star for doing something nice for yourself. And Vinny! Firstly, an excellent name for a cat and secondly, I really hope things work out for you both when it's time for him to be adopted. Cats have a knack for choosing their people and knowing who they'll be happiest with. It seems Vinny may have chosen you!

Scars

Truth be told, Astarion wasn't all that clued up on the intricacies of magic and healing potions. Over time he'd picked up dribs and drabs from his victims as they talked about scars they had. The richer the target, the less likely they were to have even the odd pockmark or childhood shenanigans.

Lying naked next to Gale, Astarion couldn't help but trace patterns through the smattering of chest hair. The sensation against his fingertips was soothing but so were the little divots he could feel in the warm skin. Propping his head up, he leaned in to get a better look.

"Did you explode a crystal ball and get caught in the rain of shards?"

Huffing in amusement, Gale reached up to feel the old scars. "Not quite. My mother told me not to play with fire mephits and I didn't listen. Was too scared to show her the damage the sparks did until it was too late." His hand clasped over Astarion's. "Not that it was severe enough for a healing potion or to go see someone. Wouldn't have wasted money on something so frivolous."

"It adds a rugged charm to your looks," Astarion purred and cuddled in.

It wasn't the only scarring Gale's body bore. Aside from the obvious of the orb there were others dotted around. Astarion found himself eager to hear the stories behind them. Taking Gale's hand, be brought it to his lips to kiss his palm. And maybe to trace the circular scar on the skin between thumb and index finger.

"You're curious tonight." Only an indulgent smile accompanied those words and Astarion hummed in quiet agreement. He always wanted to know more, knowledge about people was power but this was one of the few instances where he wanted to know for reasons other than his own safety and protection.

Gale craned his head a little better see Astarion as he spoke, "You're not going to believe this one. Tara bit me."

"She bit you?!"

"Indeed she did. Rightfully so, I was being an insufferable fool." Pulling his hand back, Gale smiled as he looked at his hand. "I chose to let it heal naturally as it were, a reminder that I don't actually always know everything best."

"Wait, you're actually aware of that?"

Hand playfully mussing up Astarion's hair, Gale bit out a giggle "arse" in response. Outrage had Astarion rolling on top of him, doing his best to flatten him into a pancake. It wasn't something he would ever succeed at but that had never stopped him from trying before.

"I've never met anyone who willingly let a wound heal with time. Well, there was the odd buffoon who thought it made them look more hard or something equally asinine. But usually scars meant hardship or lack of resources."

Arms wrapping around Astarion to hold him close, Gale took a moment to breathe and find his words. And relish in having Astarion's weight on him.

"Money was tight for us," he began. "After my father left it got very difficult. I was home from Blackstaff once when my mother needed some help with getting something down from the attic without magic. I think she just wanted me to give her a few minutes of peace and quiet." The aside was met with a snort. "Anyway, long story short, I was young, foolish and overly confident. What should have been a careful trip down the ladder turned into a very very quick one. But it's not a method I'd recommend. My foot got caught between rungs. It wasn't a pretty sight."

Wriggling around, Gale pulled a leg upand pointed to a gnarly scar on his calf. It wasn't one Astarion had really noticed before, usually too preoccupied with the rest of a naked Gale. He reached to touch it, familiarising himself with the feel of it.

"That's where the bone stuck out. Mother had half a bottle of healing potion left which was enough to get the bone set. Unfortunately the rest was left to nature, we couldn't afford a healer or more potions. By the time I was back at Blackstaff it was pretty much healed up. So I have that."

It wasn't exactly elegant as Astarion wormed around to actually kiss the scar. He ended up sitting atop Gale and looking down at him with a fierce expression that refused to soften. "I like it. It makes you different. I only have two scars, as you know." A hand drifted to his neck. "And my nature means I won't realistically be accruing anymore. Not unless someone takes an enchanted blade to me again like Cazador did and carves into me repeatedly."

"Over my dead body."

"I'd rather that didn't happen. But hush. What I'm trying to say is that I quite like it. Quite like you. As you are."

"Yeah?" Gale grinned lopsidedly up at him.

"Yes."

"Good. Beacuse I quite like you too."

#bloodweave #gale x astarion #astarion/gale #astarion #bg3 astarion #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #bg3 #baldur's gate 3

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a-killer-obsession · 3 months

Text

Wavelengths [Killer x Reader, Heat x Reader]

🔞 Minors DNI 🔞

A search for a rumored Vegapunk weapon leads the Kid Pirates to an unexpected new crewmate, with a bloodlust that rivals their own and an incredible power.

CW: Please check AO3 for all current warnings, but general warning for smut, slow burn, serious gore, and really dark themes. AFAB reader, she/her pronouns.

Masterlist || AO3 || Chapter 1

Chapter 28 - On Pranks and Pregnancies

Plans are hatched to handle your discontent, and Kid has a discontent of his own.

WC: ~4.5k

Taglist: @h0n3y-l3m0n05 @tremendoushorsepatrolgoth @iggy5055

“Alright lads, what's the plan,” you slapped down your hands on the table in the middle of the navigation room. Surrounding it, sitting in the chairs or leaning against walls, were the rest of the commanders, except for Double, who had told you that he didn't want a part in whatever shenanigans you were up to, and Kid, who was busy with your mask and had purposely not been invited to this meeting.

“Plan for what?” Wire asked, looking at you dubiously.

“For the newbies, obviously,” you huffed, “surely you can't all be on board with this ‘no being tied to the mast’ bullshit? We know its all cos he's trying to keep his new squeeze off the mast”

“Just be thankful your room wasn't next to his over the last days,” Mohawk mumbled.

“Kid said they're not going on the mast,” Killer sighed, “we can't just go against his orders”

“But there has to be something we can do to test them,” you pouted, “this is unfair! I'm calling my union representative and I'm filing a complaint unless they have as deservedly miserable of a first week as I did!”

“We don't have a union rep…” Wire mumbled, to which you quickly shushed him.

“What about pranks?” Heat suggested. You stroked your chin as you thought about it.

“I'm listening,” you replied in a slow, methodical tone.

“That's all I got,” Heat admitted with a shrug.

“You guys are useless,” you flopped into your chair with a groan, “am I gonna have to do this all on my own? Come onnnn, someone must have some prank suggestions. Don't tell me ‘invisible whoopie cushion’ is the best the crew can come up with”

“Well, initiation is usually seven days,” Mohawk pondered, “and there are seven of them. What if we give each a day to make them fucking miserable?”

“Now there's the initiative I'm looking for, thank you doctor,” you pointed excitedly at Mohawk. He was close enough to press his palm against your finger and move it so it wasn't pointing at him anymore. “Now, I have many useful abilities when it comes to pranking - invisibility, changing colours, making sounds - but I'm gonna need some input. Kil and I only met them last night so I think the rest of you will have a better idea of what would work for each person”

The conversation quickly erupted in to many devious ideas, and over the course of the next hour while Kid was still distracted, you were able to come up with a plan to make each new recruit's given day fucking miserable. But first, you needed your mask back. And there was a scary conversation to be had.

After the meeting Killer took your hand and led you to his room for a last minute pep talk before heading to the lair of the beast. You were both nervous, to say the least. You'd both been a bundle of nerves since you woke up, and the prank meeting had been a nice distraction, but outside of it people had been commenting that the two of you seemed more jittery than normal. It wasn't so bad for you, people knew you were jittery sometimes, but Killer was a clear mess, short tempered and agitated, so far from his usual calm demeanour, and it was making the other commanders more than nervous. Whenever they'd asked though, he'd just respond with “you'll find out soon enough, but I need to talk to Kid first” which did nothing to soothe anyone's minds.

In the end, Killer had decided to take on the beast alone. You'd get your mask, you'd leave, and you'd hope that Kid didn't immediately come charging out to throw you overboard. You walked hand in shaky hand to Kid's workshop, having given him more than enough time from what he said he'd need to finish your mask, and Killer knocked on the door for both of you. It opened on its own, thanks to Kid's devil fruit, and you both took one last anxious look at each other before entering. You did your best to stay calm and not give off nervous energy, but you could barely stay still, you felt like you were in fight or flight mode.

You cleared your throat and did your best to feign confidence. “Is uh.. is the mask ready?”

“Yup!” Oh good, Kid was in a good mood today. Can't wait to ruin that for everybody, you thought to yourself. He swung around on his chair, holding the mask and giving it one last polish with a cloth. He gave it one last inspection before holding it out for you to take. “Good as new, I hope. Give it a go, we won't know if I got the settings right unless you try it”

You took it with a shakey hand and slipped it on, flipping your seastone pendant and playing with the dials on the mask. Switching through the sound functions seemed fine, all good on that front, but you hadn't been very worried about them to begin with. The headset part had taken minimal damage in the storm, it was the visor you were worried about. It was definitely a little shorter, no longer smooth and level across the bottom edge, it was a tiny bit higher and now had a small bump in the middle near your nose, more like snow sport goggles. It was still more than enough coverage for what you needed though, and there didn't seem to be any impurities in the glass that could affect your vision.

Flicking through the mask functions now, you were relieved to find the default setting seemed to work perfectly, and you rotated through the other functions. It was hard to tell for sure given it wasn't pitch black in the workshop, but for the most part they seemed fine. The x-ray function was a little fuzzy though.

“Mmm, sound is good,” you noted, “and all the visual settings seem to be working okay except this one, its the x-ray function, it's just a little fuzzy”

Kid grunted and stood beside you, using his devil fruit to open up the headset and tinkering. “Tell me when it looks right”

You waited for a moment as the visor adjusted back and forth, the shade of green changing so slightly you weren't sure a normal person would even notice, till it finally looked clear and you could see through things without any hint of blurriness. “Right there!” You told him as he hit the right spot. He used his fruit to close it and you scanned through all the functions again to check nothing had been negatively affected by the tinkering, finding everything to be in order. “Looks good Captain, thanks”

“Good, put it in a fucking drawer or something next time we have a storm,” Kid grumbled, “it cost a fucking arm and a leg to get that glasswork done”

“Looks like it only cost an arm,” you pointed at his metal prosthetic, “did you skimp on the bill?”

“Harr harr,” Kid rolled his eyes. No longer distracted by the mask, he finally looked at Killer and noticed how jumpy he looked. “What's your fucking problem?”

Killer looked at you and pointedly stood aside for you to leave. You gave Kid a quiet “sorry,” in advance, squeezing Killer's hand on the way past before leaving a very confused Kid behind. As soon as you were outside you fled to the crows nest, relieved to find Heat had taken the afternoon watch. He raised an eyebrow as you landed in the nest and hid behind him, anxiously peering over his shoulder at the door to Kid's workshop.

“Do I dare ask what you did?” Heat asked curiously.

“Oh don't worry, I'm sure the whole ship will know in about five seconds,” you laughed nervously, clutching his shoulder from behind.

“SHE'S WHAT?” Kid roared from inside the workshop. You swore you felt the whole ship rattle, and you squeaked and hid yourself fully behind Heat. The workshop door opened with a hard slam and Kid came stomping out, scanning the deck, no doubt looking for you. Killer rushed out behind him, running in front to catch his attention before Kid could catch you.

“It was an accident!” Killer had his hands up defensively, “Mohawk did all the checks, but we had her age wrong, we couldn't have known it was expired!”

Heat turned and raised an eyebrow at you, but quickly faltered when he saw the fearful tears rolling down your cheeks. He scooted around on his butt till he was facing you and took you in his arms. He didn't know what had happened but he knew you were scared and that was enough for him. He stroked your back soothingly as Kid continued to yell and you whimpered at the sound. It had become painfully clear to Heat in your time here that despite how strong you were, nothing terrified you like authority figures being mad at you did.

“I DONT GIVE A RAT'S ASS HOW IT HAPPENED,” Kid barked at Killer, now right in his face, “WE HAD FIVE FUCKING DAYS ON THAT ISLAND FOR YOU TO GO GET IT TAKEN CARE OF SO WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU?”

What should be a private conversation was now a very public argument as henchmen and officers slowly appeared on deck, curious about the uproar.

“BECAUSE I WANTED TO KEEP IT,” Killer shouted back, “YOU KNOW THIS IS SOMETHING I ALWAYS WANTED, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE FUCKING HAPPY FOR ME FOR ONCE? I'VE DONE NOTHING BUT FOLLOW YOU AROUND ALL THESE YEARS, CLEANING UP YOUR FUCK UPS AND THROWING AWAY MY DREAMS FOR YOURS, I HAVE BEEN UNWAIVERINGLY LOYAL, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LET ME HAVE THIS ONE THING?”

“So what? You don't give a fuck about my dream anymore?!” Kid was still barking at his normal volume, but had at least lowered it a tiny amount from the full on yelling after noticing all the curious eyes on him, “How the fuck do you think this is going to go Kil? We're fucking pirates, this is no fucking place for a baby!”

Heat stiffened at that and looked down at you. You didn't know what to say, so you just wiggled out of his arms and curled in on yourself. Your arms were wrapped around your legs, pulling them tight to your chest, and he shuffled forward to place his hand on yours. He ran his thumb over the back of your hand reassuringly and you looked up at him. He said nothing, but he made sure you knew he was there for you, and he was in your corner. He didn't need to understand why you had decided to have a baby on a pirate ship, it wasn't his job to understand, it was his job to just make sure you felt loved and supported.

“WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?” Kid shouted again, “AND WHAT ARE YOU CUNTS LOOKING AT? GET BACK TO WORK”

The crew scattered other than the commanders who had gathered as well at the commotion. A few of them had seen you go up into the crow's nest, but nobody was willing to rat out a pregnant woman to face Kid's wrath. You appreciated it, but you couldn't stay hiding forever, so you took a deep sigh and stood. Heat gave your hand a supportive squeeze and you forced a smile for him, before swinging over the railing and jumping down to the deck.

“I'm here, Captain,” you sighed. His head swivelled towards you so fast you wondered if he might snap his neck, and he bolted towards you. Killer was faster though, and he put himself between you and the raging bull.

“Don't you fucking touch her,” Killer growled.

Kid sighed as he came to a swift stop, pulling his goggles down to hang around his neck so he could run a stressed hand through his hair. He turned a few times, pacing on the spot as he tried to organise his thoughts. “Just, fucking let me talk to her,” he finally grumbled. The anger seemed to be dissipating as he saw the way Killer protected you, like his best friend had genuinely thought he would hurt a woman with child, let alone his best friend's child. He was pissed, he really fucking was, but that didn't change the fact that Killer meant everything to him, and it stung to think Killer thought he was going to hurt you, especially after how hard it'd been to get you to feel safe with him in the first place.

Killer looked Kid in the eye, using his haki to determine if Kid had any ill intent towards the mother of his child. He looked at Kid with careful scrutiny, before finally conceding and stepping to your side, a protective hand pressed to your belly as he stood tall beside you. Kid looked at the way Killer held you, his fingers splayed over his future child, guarding against Kid. It stung the captain a little to feel so untrusted, but he realised that given his reaction it was probably warranted. You looked absolutely terrified, your lips quivering as you tried to keep a brave face.

Kid let out a heavy breath and took a step towards you, mentally flinching when he saw you take a step back in fear, Killer following you closely, never once letting his hand leave your stomach. “I'm not going to hurt you,” Kid said uncharacteristically softly, “I just need to know that you understand what this means. We can't protect you just because you're knocked up, we can't guarantee your baby's safety. The sea is dangerous, I need to know you understand how risky this is”

You intertwined your fingers with Killer's over your belly and looked at his mask for reassurance, seeing his blue eyes watching you closely through the holes. There was fear in his eyes, scared that Kid's words would finally sway you against keeping his baby. With fresh determination you turned back to Kid.

“I can take down entire ships with a single attack, destroy armies of strong men, melt a man's heart without ever touching him,” you said proudly, “I don't need you to protect this baby, I can do it my damn self”

Kid gave you an accepting nod, glad that you'd found your spine. There was real strength in your words, and he had no doubt now that you would do whatever it took to protect your child. He thought back on his own mother, he couldn't even remember her face. He thought of what Killer had told him of his mother, who hadn't had the strength to protect Killer. This baby would be blessed, he thought, to have such strong, capable parents, so ready to burn the word for them when they hadn't even come into it yet. He ran his hand through his hair as he stood tall again and returned his goggles to their rightful place.

“And you want this?” He asked quietly. “Regardless of what Killer wants, do you want this?”

“I do,” you replied confidently. Killer rested his mask on your shoulder, he felt like he was about to break, and the only thing holding him together right now was you. He hated making his friend angry, he hated going against his captain's wishes, but he just so badly wanted this one selfish thing for himself. The one thing he always wanted and never thought he could have, always so far out of reach, but now resting mere centimetres under his hand.

“I'm guessing you want to stay on this ship then,” Kid asked.

“She's not going anywhere,” Killer growled as her raised his head again, his grip on you tightening possessively. Kid sighed and nodded.

“Okay then,” he resigned, “but don't come crying to me when this goes wrong.” He frowned at the other commanders and stomped away, returning to his workshop and slamming the door behind him.

Your legs gave out underneath you, unaware of just how much stress you'd been under, but Killer was quick to steady you. He was mindful of the other commander's eyes still on him.

“What the fuck are you all looking at?” He shouted at them. His tone quickly changed as Wire stepped forward, placing a hand on Killer's shoulder and squeezing.

“Just wanted to say congratulations,” Wire said gently. Killer's posture relaxed as he realised he meant no harm, “I know how much you've sacrificed for Kid, even if he's too stubborn to admit it. You're allowed to be selfish sometimes. And I know you'll be a good father, you had no resources when you raised Kid but you still managed to make a good man. This one will be different, and you have all of us this time. Kid will come around, you know what he's like”

Wire pat the shoulder his hand had been resting on, giving you a nod of recognition before walking away. The other's quickly cleared out as well, except for Heat who was still up in the crow's nest, still unsure of what to say but happy for the two of you anyway. It was unexpected, but to him it made sense. He was just glad you'd cried before he got a chance to finish with you, a thought he never thought he'd have, but that was too close of a call for his liking. He made a mental note to buy more rubbers, he didn't feel like spinning that roulette wheel again any time soon.

“Kil, can we just hide in my room till dinner?” You near whispered, holding his arm tight for support.

“Yeah, absolutely, fuck,” Killer let out a deep, relieved breath, before taking your hand and leading you to his room. He didn't even think twice about it, you'd said your room, and he'd just gone auto pilot and led you to his. You giggled as he closed the door behind you both, and he took of his mask, running his hand through his hair to loosen his bangs before looking at you questioningly.

“What?” He asked.

“Kil, I said my room,” you smiled as you removed your own mask, “and you brought me here”

Killer looked around the room then back at you, registering what you were saying. “Oh… sorry, I didn't mean to assume,” he scratched the back of his neck as a cute blush spread over his face, “we can go to your room if you want”

“Kil,” you slid up beside him and wrapped your arms around his waist, “if you want me to move in with you, I have no problem with that. Your kid already moved in without asking, this seems like a fair exchange”

Killer snorted and wrapped his arms around you, pressing a kiss to the top of your head. “I apologize on behalf of my child,” he half laughed.

“Mmm, I'm gonna need a better apology than that,” you hummed, slinking out of his hold and stalking your way to the bed, climbing on top of the covers and beckoning him with a come hither motion. You squealed as he charged at you impossibly fast, pouncing on top of you and pressing kisses all over your face between playful sorrys. You were having a full on giggle fit as the kisses made their way to your neck and chest, and he made little growls as he nipped at you, which only served to make you laugh harder. The laughter quickly changed to moans as he sucked on your neck, running his hands up your thighs and pressing his straining clothed erection against your center.

“Kil~” you moaned, as he ground against you, “want you~ please~”

“Needy today are we mama?” He smirked, licking over your neck where he'd been marking you. “Are you up for the whole way or do you want me to avoid that?”

“Mmm,” you pondered, running your hand through his hair and watching the golden locks fall around his face. You'd fooled around plenty at the inn over the last five days, but he'd been anxious to go the whole way with you when he knew you were still healing. Not to mention the unfounded anxiety he had about somehow hurting the baby if he were to fuck you too hard, despite how much you explained that the baby would be perfectly fine. You were surprised he'd even asked, but he was feeling possessive today, he wanted to claim as much of you as he could right now. “I want you inside me, but I'm not sure if it's gonna be too much. I was so hyped up on adrenaline last time”

“I'll be gentle,” he kissed your tummy lovingly as he lifted your dress away and you moved with him to pull it over your head, “just tell me if you want me to stop, I'll go slowly”

“Okay,” you whispered as he kissed your inner thighs, working his way up them till he reached your panties, hooking his fingers under the waistband and pulling them down. You arched off the bed for him to do so, and he kissed from your ankle all the way up your leg as he settled back between them. Your fingers threaded through his hair and scratched his scalp pleasantly as he nuzzled his nose against your folds, before finally running his tongue between them, finding you wet and sweet. He moaned into you as he ran his tongue over your pussy, lapping up your silk before focusing on your clit. He eased you into it slowly, his hand running over your stomach and chest to caress you, and once you were moaning and writhing he brought a single finger to your entrance, circling it before slowly pushing in. It hurt a little, but nowhere near as much as it had the first night he'd taken you to his bed after treasure island.

He looked up at you for assurance and you nodded eagerly before throwing back your head in pleasure as he added a second finger. He pumped them slowly, letting you stretch comfortably around him before moving them any faster. He could feel the way you fluttered around him as your orgasm drew close, a slow buildup from his painstaking efforts as he devoted his whole self to making you feel good. He added a third finger and curled them, hitting that spot inside you that felt so damn good and sucking on your clit till you finally screamed his name and came on his fingers.

He continued to pump you till he was sure he'd worked you through it, lapping up your release and groaning against you. He swore you tasted sweeter now, maybe it was just his imagination, or a placebo at knowing you carried his child inside you. You pulled at his hair as you came down from your high, beckoning him to climb up your body, clamping your thighs around him and pulling him down to kiss you as soon as he was close enough. You could taste yourself on his tongue, intermingled with his saliva, moaning into his mouth as aftershocks of your orgasm rocked through you.

“Want you, now,” you panted, pulling at his shirt to try and get it off. He sat up and quickly removed the offending fabric, and you watched hungrily as he stripped his sash and unbuckled his belt, kicking off his shoes at the same time. You bit your lip as he finally pushed down his pants, his large, needy erection springing from his underwear. He smirked proudly as he watched you biting your lip, pumping himself slowly as he kicked his pants the rest of the way off.

“This what you want princess?” He purred. You nodded as you laid back against the bed, spreading your legs and biting a finger as you waited impatiently for him to fill you. He ran his thumb up your slit, rubbing circles on your over-sensitive clit, and you cried out and reached for him. He let you pull him back to you, and he looked deep in your eyes as he hovered over you and pressed his tip to your entrance. You stared back with a half lidded gaze, your fingers finding purchase in his hair again. You whimpered as he slid inside you, the stretch slightly painful but not unbearable. He could see the sting of pain in your expression and he stilled, letting you adjust until the expression melted back to pleasure before daring to move again. He was patient and gentle, only entering an inch at a time, letting you adjust before moving again, when he was sure you were okay. He let out a grunt as his hips finally met your thighs. One of your hands had fallen back against the pillow, and he threaded his fingers through it, holding your hand as he began to move slowly. It was just like the dreams you'd had during your fever, after the crew had rescued you, with just as much love and adoration in his eyes as he watched you carefully. Your breath hitched as you waited for the inevitable drop of the hat, waiting for the dream to turn to a nightmare, but instead he just continued to make love to you, slowly and carefully till you were both moaning and panting and needy for more.

Your legs were hooked over his thighs and you used them to beg him wordlessly to move faster, and he was eager to give you what you wanted, craving it as much as you were. He held your hand tighter, his forehead resting against yours, his bangs sticking to your sweat as he thrust into you at a new desperate pace. Your body rocked against the mattress and the bed made strained noises as he penetrated you hard and fast, and all you could let out was half baked whimpers as you panted hard, entirely lost to the pleasure while he groaned in your ear. You opened your eyes that had long since closed from the overwhelming sensations and saw his deep blues staring down at you intensely, and it was enough to make the coil snap. He felt you tighten and quickly kissed you, hot and messy, swallowing your moans as he released inside you, filling you with his thick load that dripped out of you as he kept up the hard pace until he was sure you were sated.

He collapsed on top of you, careful to keep his weight off your delicate stomach, panting hard into the crook of your neck. His hand was still in yours, his thumb running over your thumb as you both tried to catch your breaths. His other arm shook from holding his weight, so with a groan he pulled out of you and rolled to your side, pulling you close and burying his head in your shoulder again. You scratched his scalp and pressed your face against whatever you could reach of him, your chests flush to each other and your legs tangled together as you both still breathed fast and hard.

At some point you both fell asleep like that, content in each other's warmth on top of the blankets, till the dinner bell rang and woke you from your pleasant dreams.

[NEXT CHAPTER]

#one piece fanfiction #one piece smut #killer one piece #killer x reader #massacre soldier killer #heat one piece #heat x reader #kid pirates

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tacky-optic · 2 months

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Had a question about who our favorite Zenigata partner is in a server I'm in and now I can't stop thinking about them. Tis the zaza sickness.

anyway here's literally all of the characters Zenigata's been partnered with that i could find (within reason). if anyone wants to elaborate on any of these guys (cough yata cough) please feel free to go absolutely ham. *(obligatory spoiler warning for a whole lotta lupin specials, waow-- notably zenigata keibu since that's probably the most unwatched of everything i cover. but if youre here im guessing youre as unfortunately well-versed as i am so LETS FRIGGIN GET INTO IT)

Starting off nice n' mellow. I'm pretty neutral on Yata, tbh. I just think he's neat and it's easy enough to write him and not much else. I've rambled about him being a stand-in for the viewer before, but overall i just don't have all that many thoughts on the guy (seriously someone please do yata). ironic considering he's hands-down the most prevalent sidekick to date, but alas. head remains empty.

MARIYA. Mariya my girlie oh how i love thee. finally, someone with a Gimmick on par with Mr. my-sword-can-cut-anything. Plus she's super sweet and smart and sharp and just an all-around endearing character. AND SHE'S DIFFERENT!! she's tagging along with Zenigata of her OWN FREE WILL like gurl what are you THINKING. there isn't a shred of coherent interview material to draw from this man, especially about Lupin. The dynamic they end up developing is on point, though!! Zenigata's initial total miscall of it aside, It's just plain ol' wholesome. If Yata's his surrogate son than Mariya's obviously his daughter. No shot in hell they don't at least keep in contact after the special's done. plus her snapping a pic of him every time he eats shit is peak comedy journalism

MOTHAFUCKIN' MELON COP!! an absolutely magical reefer-smokin' shitbag, especially in the edgy Tokyopop translation. He's a great foil to our otherwise serious(ly neurotic) manga Zenigata. Not to mention the combative potential with a down the line Melon.... ough. A more toned-down "newer part"-esque Zeni getting slapped with an extremely smug and insistent reminder of his angstlord past is such a delicious concept to me. i will be using this guy extensively in that exact way one of these days-- he's too fun not to.

a bit of a sidenote but i've gotta point fingers at gray jacket again (can't recommend it enough) for having my favorite melon depiction in fic; walther recently had him show up in their fic secondhand vanity as well (which i also can't recommend enough), so needless to say i think he has some fun potential.

Sakuraba and Kunikida from the live-action show get honorable mentions, obviously. They're both so different yet learn so much from Zenigata all the same. As far as reacting to the inspector goes, they're the ideal Yatas (again i am so so sorry yata-- surely someone will do you justice). Even though they aren't technically "new" to the force they're new to the Zenigata Shenanigans, and that is where the entertainment factor is. Sakuraba's the traditionalist keibu method-doubter whereas Kunikida's this mousey blue around the gills fella, and over their respective case file appearances, they both gain faith in/learn confidence from Zenigata, respectively. It really is a great bit of development to watch play out.

I'm gonna count The Guys™️ as a collective group/formless mass with maybe one of the Guyest of Guys as Zenigata's right hand Guy, like that one dude in Cagliostro. Apparently the name he's given in one of the dubs is Sam?? That's neat. Sam's neat. for anyone interested in some homework, here's the link to the highly informative lupin forum thread i found that out from: [x]

But yeah the Guys! Right from the start, Zenigata having this army of inexplicably and absurdly loyal cops was always a fun trope and i love to see 'em whenever they show up. I had this idea ages ago for this fake documentary-style miniseries based around them-- all the usual Lupin nonsense goes on in the background while we get a peek at the typically unseen shenanigans happening on the law-bearing side. Getting assigned to the lupin taskforce is probably seen as some kind of punishment, but that just makes the camaraderie all the more tight-knit. There'd be some behind-the-scenes Zenigata/how he interacts with them, what they get up to on their own whack case assignments when they're in a Lupin sighting lull.... hell maybe we even learn why they're all so damn loyal to this one supposedly hyper-independent guy. I think it'd be fun but maybe that's just the Zenigata hopeful in me. Surely he's capable of building some semblance of rapport with the fine group of folks he drags around the world with him....

Let's just rip the band-aid off-- I dislike Oscar with a burning passion. which is weird, right? because i like Melon Cop, the dude who's totally cool with straight-up cold-blooded judge/jury/executioner-style murder. I dunno dude the obsessive daddy kink simping's just too feckin' weird for me. i checked the hell out so fast. If the goal was to make Oscar extremely disquieting, they friggin' did it. Granted he was written to be a bit whack from the start, and getting raised(?)/mentored by THAT Zenigata would irreversibly mess anyone up. I get that the fucked up-ness is part of the appeal, but man. How anyone can gravitate towards Oscar without heavily modifying his whole deal escapes me.

I've seen him written tolerably in fic maybe... twice? He's in gray jacket (there it is again!) and SMRO (needs no introduction nor explanation), so obligatory kudos to anyone who can wrangle [gestures vaguely at all of that].

Vicky though. Vicky Flannigan from Island of Assassins is so goddamn funny. Still can't believe they took one of the most badass Zenigata character designs and actively went out of their way to make him bedridden. I've seen folks call him "Proto-Yata" and. Yeah. Can't argue. He's a glorified babysitter, if anything, and the only reason he's even remotely effective is because he (accidentally) broke both of Zenigata's legs. Funniest shit istg

ICPO LADIES!!! They're cute. Designs could be better but it's Babylon yknow. Despite being an admittedly fun romp, the special has its obvious.... uh. issues. product of its time and all that. iykyk. anyway LADIES. They're competent. They take No Shit from Zenigata. The random little crush that comes out of nowhere between Chinjao and Goemon is cute as hell. Plus, I've seen some pretty rockin' fandom redesigns floating around.... wouldn't mind in the slightest if they made a comeback.

I'm gonna lump all of the Betrayers into one category: Emily O'Brien from Angel Tactics, Kazami from Fuma Conspiracy, and Terry Crown from Alcatraz Connection. Never expected the "Zenigata's partner is the bad guy!!1" trope would be so prevalent, but it tracks in retrospect. It's a neat enough idea-- bummer they never seemed to nail it down, though.

The only reason O'Brien is so predictable is because she's so goddamn unlikable. There's hardly any screentime of them working together and in every single scene, the incompetency just feels so blatantly intentional its almost offensive lmao. Zero surprise in the slightest when she showed her true colors-- just mild annoyance, which tracks for the whole special tbh. Only worthwhile parts are the beginning and the end, and absolutely none of that has anything to to with O'Brien.

Kazami just has that chump secondary villain face y'know. Again, a bit on the nose how obnoxiously dorkish he is-- but them playing up him putting on his glasses so Fujiko can recognize him got a little laugh outta me, ngl. He served his purpose, plain and simple.

I'll never know whether Crown was predictable or not because I stumbled across ""Evil Columbo"" before I watched Alcatraz, but despite the spoiler I can at least say he isn't lame as shit. Pre-reveal, he's probably the closest we'll get to a taste of what Melon might be like in modern Lupin media. He's your run-of-the-mill corrupt sleazebag detective-- steals evidence, generally doesn't give a fuck, takes cheap jabs at Zenigata-- but their final standoff is what puts him above Kazami for me. Just a real melodramatic overdramatic moment of Zenigata Zenigata-ing his heart out.

Welcome to the ELDERLY MEN CATEGORY, OORAH. The old guy from Twilight Gemini, Kogoro Akechi from the pilot, and George McFly from First Contact. I could track down Gemini old guy's name, but I hand-to-god couldn't care less. The only worth a damn thing Gemini's given me is that one jigzeni screenshot, so we're just gonna move on to the next two.

Not much of Akechi, huh. He only shows up in the pilot and doesn't do anything of note besides be someone for Lupin to disguise himself as. Dare i say Goemon was a more effective ally to Zenigata than Akechi...? yeah sure, why not. Goemon's a zeni sidekick. i'll die on that hill. anyway I believe he's also a reference to a pre-existing character...? like Lupin, Goemon, and Zenigata are. All in all its probably for the best that he didn't make it to part 1.

Finally, the only old guy that actually has aspects to talk about. I actually really like McFly and the role he plays in First Contact; it isn't Zenigata learning from whoever his partner may be, but McFly learning from Zenigata. He's a jaded, on-the-verge-of-retirement type that thinks he's seen all the force has to offer, but here comes this young (is he considered "young" in this?? early, maybe) freak-ass foreigner cop with a vendetta he's practically frothing at the mouth to rectify. Neither of them are exactly enthused to be working together, but McFly sticks around anyway and learns to see past a lot of Zenigata's first impression baggage; the tenacity, the passion, the genuineness of it all. Not only does he want to make real change, but the crazy bastard can actually friggin' do it. ...Or at the very least make a sizable dent.

Zenigata sincerely adheres to the idea of what a cop's supposed to be, fundamentally, and not what a "cop" actually is, as a vague collective occupational concept. Zenigata has a genuine effect on McFly-- enough to make him just the slightest bit less soured by the end of it all. It's a nice sentiment; that no matter where you are in life, ideas can still change. It's a small arc that flies beneath the radar of everything else, but i noticed it. I FRIGGIN' NOTICED IT, MAN

tl;dr Zenigata's a lonely guy, sure, but he doesn't have to be.

That should cover all of the significant parts/specials/movies, but if i missed anyone (any notable episodes? manga?) lemme know. Either way, it's nice finally having 'em all in one place.

#wym 'partner' isnt plural??#lupin iii #z #y #mariya #m #sakuraba #kunikida #the guys #just needed a nice even three for the old guy category ykno #jigen's exes is an obvious continuation of this “oddly specific category of character" sorta thing #but that's waaaay down the line #or i might just smack some images/names/where they're from stuff up instead of rant about 'em.... idk

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randomstranger24 · 5 months

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I'm late catching up on all of this...

First of all, I thought I had some profound questions inside of me like, "Are you Dan Fingerman?" Then I realized what a stupid fucking question that really is. Second, I can't believe you revealed yourself! I know it's probably weird to hear this, but what a fucking gift! Nobody does that!

I originally wanted to know who you were because I felt like you truly belonged amongst a bunch of us BoC fans who were starting to feel like we were on the periphery of the actual fanbase, which had, in my opinion, become very discouraging and very cynical toward BoC, and music in general. Call it snobbery or call it entitlement, but it didn't feel good.

Then came your music...

Do you have any idea how amazing it is? I hope you do, and I hope you see that you've built a fan base of your own.

On a personal level, your music ended up becoming a nonstop soundtrack to life for me. There was an intro song, Tilt-A-Whirl, that truly fucking blew my mind. I played that thing so much that I convinced myself that I knew the song from my youth. So many other songs had creative elements that made me think, "This person gets it. We need to hang out!"

I don't want to ramble too long and take away from what you've got going but I do want to let you know that there is no reason to apologize to anyone, no reason to feel bad, and for the anxiety caused by BoC fans, I truly apologize. The core group of Random Stranger fans celebrate your work. Keep it up if you can!

So, if I need to ask a question, it's this:

Would you be open to an in-depth interview about your music and art? (I know this site serves as such but...)

Yes, I'd love to provide as much insight to anyone who wants to know and if doing an interview is one method of doing just that, then I'm happy to . Of course, without revealing too much that it blows my cover of my identity.

I am very anxious and scared that I'm goin to be sued for my shenanigans. Sued for what? I have no idea. Is it a rational fear? I don't know lol.

It makes me happy and warms my heart you enjoyed the music that much. I always knew the music belonged somewhere and I'm glad it found a home.

I realize BoC "new music releases" are very rare (probably what makes them so special) We've all been waiting so patiently. I too can be cynical at times. As it's been over 10 years since their last release, One thing I didn't want to do is to hurt any integrity of any future releases by them and I have a feeling they may release something in June. I could be totally wrong, but I didn't want the ARG from my latest shenanigans to ruin anything they might be brewing up if that makes any sense?

Well, Skyandtrails, I hope you keep in touch and I can share any future music with you and we can do an interview. Thank you so much for listening!

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lonelywretchjervistetch · 1 year

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My DC Cinematic Universe: Superman (Epilogue)

Epilogue: My Adventures with Superman

...Well, holy shit. Just when I was getting worried that nobody would get Superman, along comes one of the best comic-book related products we've seen in years, which delivers me so much of the stuff I wanted in a cinematic version of Superman...and is almost perfect. Yeah, it's definitely not perfect, but goddamn if this isn't one of my ideal versions of Superman.

Y'know, I've considered doing sort of a sum-up of the different major adaptations of the Superman mythos by bringing together all the points made in my essays, but I felt it was too much. For this, however, I think that makes sense. And yes, I'm doing this after only 4 episodes have aired, and yes, I realize that what just happened in the most recent episode is fucking insane and something I desperately want in a Superman story...but I'll at least cover my personal approach, since this show's kinda hot right now. And rarely do I have the chance to jump on a burgeoning fandom, so FUCK IT!

If you'd like to see my previous and insane essays on my preferred version of the Man of Steel, here's the link! Always. Be. Plugging. But if you'd rather hear my opinion of My Adventures with Superman, then check out the section after the jump. But just know that I like it, with a couple of caveats that you've probably already heard about this show.

Clark Kent: Abnormal Superman

Um...did somebody read my essays before I even thought about them, because this is pretty goddamn close to my ideal Clark Kent. He's a big ol' dork with a heart of god who wants to do the right thing, but is also nowhere near perfect in his everyday life and methods. He's a teensy bit clumsy, but still very well-put together. He wants to help when and how he can, and is willing to go along with shenanigans to do so. He has an actual personality, and most importantly, he feels human.

Yeah, this is a dude from Kansas who also happens to be an alien. And good goddamn, is scaling down his powers and knowledge of his past a great idea. Smallville, of course, did this, but that version of Clark was often too serious and rough around the edges. And maybe most importantly, Tom Welling's Clark never seemed like an outcast. I mean, the dude was handsome as all fuck, and built like a linebacker. And yet, I'm supposed to buy that the guy is a loser and outcast? Yeah, no, not buying it. But this Clark? Yeah, the guy's a massive dork. Handsome and built like a fucking freight train, yeah, but still a dork. And maybe most importantly...I don't buy this dude as Superman.

Yeah. Really. I mean, dude is OBVIOUSLY Superman, because he's built like a tank and super nice, but I get not fully seeing this guy as Superman. Somehow, FUCKING SOMEHOW, they pull this off better than literally any other version I've seen since the Christopher Reeves version. And yeah, that's insanely high praise, because Reeves has some of the best dichotomous acting I've ever seen. But this Superman and this Clark both seem like the same person and separate people at the same time somehow. It's an impressive feat that I can barely explain.

And yet...they're still definitely the same person. Any sane person would be able to figure it out eventually, with enough personal interaction. It's one of the reasons why the glasses joke exists, because it really shouldn't make much sense. But in this series, the glasses actually change the shape of his pace, and slight changes in his posture and voice (by the pretty great Jack Quaid) actually do work as a subtle mask for the character. But will that last forever? Well...more on that later.

I also said this before, but I love the fact that we're learning about Clark and his powers as he's learning about himself. This series is obviously anime-inspired, and it really leans into the shonen angle thematically and visually. When the first art for this show came out, I was intrigued but cautious. Now, though, I'm into it. We'll see how the more anime-esque electrical powers work out, but it actually seems like a reference to the sporadically used bioelectric field manipulation ability that Superman has in the comics. Yeah, he has a field of bioelectricity around his body that provides him (and his costume) with invulnerability, and also occasionally gives him plot-convenience powers. Don't ask questions, OK? It's a comic book thing.

Speaking of that, though, the creators are definitely playing fast and loose with the Superman mythos, and I'm interested to see exactly how that plays out as the series continues. I'm a little cautious for reasons to be addressed later, but I'm still quite interested. So, now that we've covered Superman, whom I think is fantastic in his characterization...let's get to the character who I think is excellently represented in this series.

Lois Lane: Intrepid (Intern) Reporter

Jesus Christ, this is a great Lois. There are a lot of ways you can do a good Lois, and there are a number of great Loises, but MAWS' Lois ranks extremely high on that list. Dogged to the point of recklessness, determined to get the truth at all costs, and desperate to be a great reporter, she has the stuff that makes any great Lois. But what really puts her over the edge for me is her characterization. Alice Lee does a fantastic job as Lois' voice, and gives her a mix of naivete, determination, and...oddly, hope. I dunno, there's something about Lee's portrayal that really works for me.

And a lot of people have pointed out two things. One, she's basically Lux from The Owl House. Yeah. And? Fucking and? Luz is a fantastic character in her own right, and very Lois Lane-esque. Personally, I think that's a great and worthy comparison for any version of Luz. Secondly, she's a tomboy. And I think most people on Tumblr are fine with that, but I also see some criticism for that choice. And for those who don't like that...fuck off a little bit. Not a lot, but a little bit. There's nothing wrong with a slightly more tomboyish Lois, and I actually adore a Lois who isn't a damsel in distress all the time. She literally fights some of the bad guys in this series, and we're only four episodes in! Seriously, I love that. And she is occasionally in distress, but she gets into that shit herself, which is exactly what Lois Lane is supposed to do. Look, I love this Lois. Oh, and another thing!

Is Lois Korean? Holy shit, that's fantastic! I said in my second essay that Lois is one of those characters who isn't racially bound in any way. There, I suggested that she could be played by a Latina, which has been hinted at before in some comics. But honestly, this is a great choice! And I only say Korean because, in the most recent episode, she appears to be wearing the top half of a hanbok, which is a traditionally Korean dress. And yeah, I'm fully here for it. Don't know if she's mixed or not (we'll probably see Sam Lane at a later date), but this is great all on its own.

And then, there's the other thing: Lois' position as Superman's Inevitable Love Interest. The ILE is, of course, a tradition in all things superhero comic, and Lois is arguably the first and most famous of all ILEs. Like Thanos before her, she is truly inevitable, and that seems to be at the center of this series. Oh, and at this point...sort of SPOILERS AHEAD??? I mean, come on, this was obviously gonna happen.

By the end of episode 4, these two are clearly romantically interested in each other. Hell, by the end of episode 1, these two are interested in each other. And can I just say that's they're hands fucking down the most adorable Clark and Lois I've ever fucking seen? I mean it, they're the best version of this couple in live-action media, and I can actually see them becoming the comic book versions of that couple.

As a quick compare and contrast of the most notable versions:

Reeves and Kidder were great, but the movies never actually committed in having them be a couple. They actively made sure it wouldn't happen a couple of times, to much irritation, and their relationship never truly blossomed, which was based on the comics at the time.

Fuck Dean Cain...but Cain and Hatcher were pretty good as a couple, pre-and-post-marriage. Which, again, was a part of comics at the time, so it makes sense. Even then, I wouldn't call them particularly cute, just more of a relatively normal couple.

Don't get me wrong, I love Daly and Durance's animated versions of the two...but they never actually became a couple until the very end of Superman: The Animated Series. And we only saw them as Lois and Superman, not Lois and Clark. So, sadly, they don't rank.

Welling and Durance were...off-and-on. Funnily enough, their appearance as this version of the couple in the Arrowverse crossovers was probably better than any other appearance they had, and their appearances in the 10th season were genuinely quite nice. High up there as the best version, and one of my favorites.

Hoechlin and Tulloch are, in my opinion, the best married version of the characters. They honestly nail it, and their chemistry is pretty much perfect. Their versions of the characters still rank pretty high as some of the best, and they're even better as a couple.

Routh and Bosworth...moving on...

Cavill and Adams...well...I mean...they have some chemistry, and...they've definitely had sex. Um. Yeah. That's it. Whoooooo.

O'Connell and Romjin are a little-remembered animated version of the two, and not the only animated version of the two, either. But honestly, they're really good in The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen, and were my favorite animated version of them as a couple...prior to MAWS.

And OK, sure, we've barely seen these two as a couple at this point, but I really like them. They're adorable, they're adorkable, they're supportive of each other, and their chemistry is basically immediate. They're just really cute and fun to watch, and I can't wait to see them progress. Especially because...

OK, I can't stress this enough, but skip the next GIF if you don't want spoilers, and scroll down until you get to Jimmy Olsen. Please. This is a biggie. OK? Got it? Read at your own peril.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT ARE YOU SERIOUS THEY ACTUALLY DID IT

If you've read my Superman essays, you know that I want movie Lois Lane to have found out Clark is Superman on her own, and before the movie starts. And holy shit, they actually did it in MAWS! FUCK YES! Lois is smart and sharp, so she should pick up on the fact that Clark is Superman! I love that they did this, even if her way of finding out was somewhat by accident. She still put the clues together on her own, so I'm satisfied with this ending! And I'm pretty sure they're not going to reverse this! If they do, I'd be pissed off, but I don't think they will. Just...HELL YEAH, BABEEEEEEEEEE

OK...I think the spoiler-free have scrolled past this by know, so...let's move on with the essay, shall we?

Supporting Cast: Jimmy and the Rest

OK, let's talk Jimmy Olsen (played by Ishmael Sahid). Honestly, I love the fact that he's a conspiracy nut with his own YouTube channel, and that he's literal bunkmates with Clark in this series. This is also pretty close to my perfect version of Jimmy Olsen, not gonna lie. His streaming name is even Flamebird, a deepcut comics reference that shows the creators not only know their stuff, but also actively care about Superman comics and history. That's one of the things that one me over in the first episode, for the record. But more on that later.

Jimmy is the third wheel, but one who's usually welcome. We'll see the fallout of the Lois-Clark romance soon, I'm sure, but Jimmy's role has been pretty much perfect. However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that a black Jimmy Olsen, while welcomed by me...is a little weird when you look at the legion of ginger characters in media that have been replaced by black characters in adaptations. While, again, I don't think Jimmy is racially bound to being ginger, it is a fairly iconic part of his identity. And...yeah, a lot of ginger characters have been translated into black people in recent years, and that's...really weird, not gonna lie. Makes me think even more about my Legion of Super-Heroes essay, honestly. Still, solid-ass Jimmy, and I can't wait for more.

I actually adore Perry White (voiced by Darrell Brown) in this series, and his grumpy boss persona is...well, quintessential Perry White. I'd actually say this is a perfect version of the character, although that's not as difficult to nail as some other versions. Looking forward to seeing more of Perry's life as he supports our bumbling interns.

I was tickled pink to see Cat Grant (Melanie Minichino), Steve Lombard (Vincent Tong), and a genderbent Ronnie Troupe (Kenna Ramsey) in this show, because it once again signals to me that the show creators really care about Superman mythos. And honestly, these guys were transplanted essentially unchanged from the comics, as far as we can see so far. This may change in the future, but I'm very excited to see the rivalry between our three and these reports build and develop during the series. Great job with these guys.

The Kents only make an appearance in one episode thus far, but I think they're pretty good! We see them in the past and in the present, and they're a couple of farmers who love their son. They're also some of the youngest versions of the characters we've seen in adaptations, save for Smallville, and it works well! They also make it apparent that these are Clark's parents, even in the short time we see them. Again, good job so far, and I want to see more!

So, with all of that, I adore this series, and it's perfect! Right? Right?

The Villains: Literal and Figurative Cons

If you've heard anything about this series from Superman fans, then you've probably heard that the villains are...not amazing so far. And that's mostly because the villains are where this series takes the most liberties, while also downsizing most of them pretty severely. I'll go through them briefly here, but just know that the changes made so far are...not my favorite. And if you've read my essays, you know my opinion on villains in superhero media: you gotta nail them.

So, let's start with Livewire, AKA Leslie Willis (voiced by Zehra Fazal). I really love this character (and actually positioned her as a major villain in the second Superman movie of my cinematic universe), so I'm quite invested in Livewire. And this version is a tech-powered villain who kicks off the conflict for the first part of the series. She's a completely different version of the character...and she works? Kinda? Look, as the first villain to face Superman, she's fine, but she's barely Livewire. The end of the second episode hints that she may become more like the original down the line, but she's missing that sass of the original. And yeah, she works without that, but it doesn't feel like Livewire to me. That's nitpicking, though, because we have a much worse set of adaptations to cover.

Intergang is so much of a non-entity in this show, they have no GIFS on Tumblr. Understand, this community has made GIFs of every other character except these guys. In total, they are Silver Banshee AKA Siobhan MacDougal (played by Catherine Taber), Mist AKA Kyle Nimbus (played by Lucas Grabeel), and Rough House AKA Albert (played by Vincent Tong). And they've been changed from:

A cursed Scottish-Irish woman, empowered by magic and a major threat to the Man of Steel, having nearly killed him multiple times...and is currently dating Jimmy Olsen, which I kinda love?

A scientist who invented a process to turn himself into gaseous form, and used his powers to fight the hero Starman; this rivalry was passed on to the next generation, on the side of both hero and villain.

And the clone of a gangster endowed with super-strength, serving beneath Boss Moxie of Intergang, and the forces of the dark world of Apokolips above him.

...into a group of loser who got technology they couldn't handle. Yeah, it's a major downgrade, and two of those guys weren't even that notable in the first place. Siobhan gets completely fucking shafted here, and I think it's a genuine failure of this series. Harsh, I know, but seeing Silver Banshee get fucked over that hard really sucked for me.

Oh, and yeah, Intergang was a major villainous group for the Superman film in my cinematic universe, so removing their Apokoliptian ties...bums me the fuck out, too. Also, it looks like Flash villain Heat Wave is an upcoming member, which is...weird as fuck, honestly. We'll see how this pans out, but I'm not terribly enthusiastic about it.

And then there's Anthony Ivo (played by Jake Green), who's been repurposed into a tech bro entrepeneur in the vein of Elon Musk, in charge of AmazoTech, which is obviously a reference to the comic book version. And this was an...interesting set of choices, honestly. Some spoilers here, but Ivo's version of AMAZO is an armor that drains the power of Superman and redirects it against him. And yes, that makes Ivo also this universe's version of...Parasite. ANOTHER villain that I put in the second movie of my cinematic universe, and one of my absolute favorite Superman villains.

I don't hate the reinvention, but that's only because of what happens to Ivo at the end of the episode. I won't spoil it here, but he definitely turns into a more proper version of the character, so we'll see what happens there. As for his assistant, Alex (played by...somebody), well, he's interesting, isn't he? At first, I thought he was Alex Allston, one of the Parasite twins from the 2000s. But a number of people seem to think he might be another familiar red-headed Superman villain named Alexander, if you know what I mean. Let's just say, there's a possibility that he'll steal forty cakes at some point. And that's terrible.

And finally, there's...wait, is that Deathstroke AKA Slade WIlson (played by Chris Parnell)? Why is he young...and hot? Why is Slade young and hot? And two-eyed? I mean, yeah, sure, that's not the worst thing in the world, but...goddamn, that's some whiplash. Interestingly, he appears to be affiliated with Task Force X, which is name dropped in episode 2. Plus, Amanda Waller is clearly in the background, so a much wider plan is in play. And yeah, while it's weird to see young hot Deathstroke, I'll give it a chance.

Other villains have been hinted at, and allegedly radically reinvented, such as Mr. Mxyzptlk and Brainiac, but we've yet to see what will become of them. Still, this is a divisive start. As long as we get some actual supernatural threats, and not just people in armor, I'll be happy. Time will tell.

Story: Just Getting Started

At this point, it's pretty much impossible to judge the story of this series, since we've only just started. But, with the technology obtained by Livewire from a mysterious source, and then leaked into the criminal underworld, we at least have enough threats to supply tension throughout this first portion of the series. The relationship of our trio is progressing nicely, with Jimmy realizing his third-wheel status, and with the Lois and Clark relationship moving along interestingly and unexpectedly.

There's also a number of hanging plots that look promising, including Clark discovering his powers and origins; Task Force X and Deathstroke, as well as their interest in Superman; the missing Parasite technology after Ivo's fall; the rivalry between the interns and their reporter rivals; and even Lois' relationship with her father (who...might be the guy standing next to Waller in Task Force X? No clue, that's just a guess). So, we have some stuff to look forward to! And maybe, just maybe, the villains will also steadily improve. I think Silver Banshee's a lost cause at this point, but I have hope for Livewire and Parasite, at least. But again, time will tell.

I also can't wait to see what the creators have up their sleeves. They're obviously ans of Superman and his mythos. I didn't even mention what won me over on this show in the first place! Other than Clark and Lois themselves, of course. In the first episode, Lois introduces Jimmy and Clark to her information gatherers: the Newskid Legion. And for those of you who don't know, that's a reference to the Golden Age of Comics, and a group of street-wise kids that would become supporting characters of Superman's during the '90s (through the trendy magic of cloning)! The kids have an adaptation in this series, and that attention to lore alone made me an instant fan of this show. Sounds like nothing, I know, but it meant a hell of a lot to a Superfan like me. Now GIVE ME MY EVERYMAN BIBBO BIBBOWSKI!

Conclusion: A Hopeful Tomorrow

I'm...scared about Gunn's Superman film. I won't write a whole essay about it, but it sounds ambitious to the point of being bloated. A lot of recent casting news makes me feel like this is more of a set-up to the wider DCU, as less of a Superman film in and of itself. Plus, with rumors that Luthor is being cast, and no sign of a villain announcement yet...I dunno. It has me worried. So thank God for My Adventures with Superman.

This series is a blessing so far. Sure, it could blow for the rest of the season, but call me hopeful. I think this show is fantastic so far, and I'm really thinking it'll stick the landing with the first season. Alongside that, honestly, is the fact that it's trying something new for any Superman adaptation, and there's a bravery in that. I don't know if it'll go down as my preferred Superman adaptation (Superman: The Animated Series is a hard one to beat for me), but it's got a good start. And a brave series that inspires hope in the face of fear and impossible odds? Man, that's what Superman is all about.

And now that that's said and done (for now, anyway)...

I believe I have another essay series to finally finish.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Part I: Why I Love Superman

Part II: On Lois Lane

Part III: The Kents

Part IV: The 'Rents

Part V: The...Frendts?

Part VI: Lex Luthor

Part VII: The Real Villains

Part VIII: Superman's Rogues Gallery

Part IX: The Story - Act One

Part X: The Story (Acts Two and Three)

Part XI: The Story - Climax

Part XII: Epilogue (Part One)

Part XIII: Epilogue (Part Two)

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beanghostprincess · 10 months

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My thoughts on Sanuso's children!!

I recently got a Tumblr ask (I'll edit this later and write the link) that talked about Sanuso adopting a child, and it has opened my eyes to make this whole post about the three children I think they'd have!! (Also shout out to @latinokokonoi for the idea of Zolu's daughter).

The Strawhats are still together after finding the One Piece, being together still and enjoying their own dreams for a while without separating yet (honestly, with how fast this story is going they're gonna find the One Piece quickly af, just pretend they've already found it). Sanji and Usopp are 25/23 when they have their two twin daughters (accidentally. Because they are idiots and did NOT listen to Chopper's talk about protection). Even if they weren't planned they're still extremely excited to form a family together! They're a bit worried about what will happen from now on, but they've taken care of children before on their adventures, so how hard can it be? The answer is pretty fucking hard but, you know, it's not like they don't have other children in the crew (Zoro and Luffy found a 2 y/o in a treasure chest when they were 23/21 and they've been taking care of her for two years now. Called her Kuina!). They believe they'll be just fine.

The girls are named after their moms, Sora and Banchina, and they're Usopp and Sanji's little princesses. They instantly get along with Kuina, by the way, as they grow up together. She kind of acts like an older sister to them, being 4 years older and all. If anybody asks, they're cousins! I won't go into much detail about Kuina here because this is about Sanuso's children, but I love the idea I have of her already.

The thing is, the girls grow up to be brilliant and also a menace. They're twins but you can easily tell who's who when they're not together!

Sora: Oldest sister for, like, two seconds and she's always reminding everyone about that (in a good way. She takes pride in protecting her sister). She has Sanji's morals and ambition. She's passionate and pretty intense when it comes to protecting the ones she loves. But also she's an adventurer like Usopp! She loves getting into trouble, too, and she's strategic enough to know how to come out of them (most of the time. Well- Sometimes. Most of the time Kuina is the one saving her ass. But, you know, at the end of the day Kuina gets lost and Sora is the one to find her... They make a pretty good team). She dreams of being a pirate and having her own crew someday with Banchina. She's a natural dreamer. A bit idealistic. She has Sanji's smile and Usopp's skills. She wants to learn how to fight in every damn way. She asks Sanji to teach her how to fight with her legs and Usopp to use the slingshot (prefers Sanji's method, tho). She often trains with Kuina, too! She reminds people of Nami (that's, like, her favorite crew member if you ask her. That's her auntie!) because of her mischievous personality and ability to steal. She's also very impulsive because she has Usopp's sense of adventure but Sanji's inability to back down. So... Yeah. Luffy fucking loves her. But at least she's good at strategies! She would do anything for her sister and has been by her side forever. Often asks her to join her shenanigans and schemes and that's when Banchina is a bit more playful! Loves Sanji's cooking and eats almost just as much as Luffy. She talks about Usopp's stories, being so so proud of being his daughter! Her favorite aunt is Nami and her favorite uncles are Luffy and Zoro.

Banchina: The sweetest of the two sisters. She's pretty much like their mothers, personality wise. She's a cutie pie. She loves cooking and drawing because she grew up watching her fathers doing these mundane, more domestic and calm activities. If Sora is the clumsy more adventurous one, Banchina is the caretaker who's just done with her sister's bullshit but loves her a lot. She has Sanji's need to help and Usopp's anxiety (but not in a really nervous way. More in a careful, thoughtful way). It's not that she doesn't know how to defend herself, but she uses her slingshot only when needed and to back up her sister. She's more of a support person! She loves to cook but prefers to draw. Spends the day drawing. Kuina and Sora are very protective of her but she's usually the one who ends up rolling her eyes and taking care of them when they get injured somehow. However, she can be very playful too when Sora manages to get her in her schemes and shenanigans. She's a sweetheart but she protects her family when she needs to do so. She prefers more calm spaces but she appreciates the company of her sister and Kuina, finds them amusing. Basically, calm and helpful, very done with the chaos but secretly loves it, and ends up playing around when she finds it funny. Her favorite aunt is Robin (they spend time together reading and drawing) and her favorite uncles are Jinbe and Brook.

They grow up together and somehow they're not only the crew's most precious treasure, but also they're very helpful when they fight. I mean, they don't usually let them fight, but they always end up helping without being asked.

They're 10 and 14 when they find Takumi (Sanuso is 35/33, if you're curious) on a boat, fainted, and very very injured. The kid appears to be around 7 and he has chains on his arms and a metal collar around his neck. That doesn't sit right with any of them, so the kids call Luffy and the others and they instantly help him to get into the ship.

Long story short, they take care of him for a day or so, extremely worried about his well-being. Sanji and Chopper look after him until he wakes up. The thing is, the kid wakes up when he's alone with Sanji, and he's instantly frightened. Sanji promises they're not going to do anything to him, but the kid is only begging him to not bring him back to where he was. Anything but that. Sanji is- Well, saying he's worried would be an understatement. When everyone goes to see him, he doesn't want to tell them anything. For some reason he grows attached to Sanji and won't let go of him, apparently, and he refuses to tell anybody what happened to him. However, Luffy offers him to break his chains and Takumi hesitates but obviously says yes. When Luffy does so, he just smiles widely at the sight of Takumi's relief and says: "See? Much better now, isn't it?" And Takumi stares at him and whispers "You look..." Luffy only tilts his head, confused, and Takumi blushes shyly. "I just- You look like someone I know." And he tightens his grip inside the pockets of his hoodie, holding something they can't see but don't ask about either.

Basically, they take care of the kid but he isn't quite ready to socialize yet and his injuries are still bad. The only ones allowed to spend a long time with him are Chopper (he's looking after his wounds) and Sanji (brings him food and, well, he's apparently the only one Takumi is comfortable with enough to talk. Besides, Takumi apparently won't eat any meat or fish and he doesn't explain why, but Sanji makes new dishes for him gladly). The three girls want to know him better, but they're forbidden from bothering him (although they definitely sneak out to talk to him for a few seconds when the adults are busy).

Sanji sees a lot of himself in him. The scared eyes. The trembling voice. He's even blond, for God's sake. He spends a lot of time with the kid, and Takumi even asks him to sleep next to him most of the time. Usopp sees this and he just knows they're keeping him because now there's no way they can say goodbye to him. One day, Takumi has a very nasty panic attack and Sanji has to help him through it. When the kid asks how he knows to deal with this, Sanji thinks it's only fair to open up to him about some stuff about his own past. This makes Takumi open up too, finally explaining what happened to him:

Takumi's mom is a celestial dragon that cheated on her husband with a slave. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed and she died in an "accident" while the slave was brutally murdered (when you think Celestial Dragons can be worse, they- They just get worse). The man didn't even give Takumi a name, he just took the kid and made him a slave the second he could start working. That's all he's ever known. Long story short, he's locked in a cell for a while as a punishment along with some other slaves, thinking there's no hope. But there's always hope, because the revolutionary army suddenly shows up! Sabo frees all of the slaves from that cell, Koala leading them to their respective boats. But... There's a kid who won't move. Chained. Injured. It shatters Sabo's heart into a million pieces. Sabo tries to help him with reassuring words but the kid is visibly shaking. Sabo asks him his name, but the kid won't answer, to which Sabo just smiles and says: "Well! Isn't that just great? Now you can choose your own name!" and the little guy is all confused, but it's the first time there's true excitement in his eyes. "Really?" / "Really! Is there something you like a ton? A name you want to make yours?" The kid seems to think about it, a bit shy about his answer. "I want- I want to go to the sea." / "Oh! I come from there, actually. Is there something you want to do there?" / "It's dumb-" / "No dreams are dumb. Now tell me." / "I want to build things. Things that can help people! Like- Like machines but- But good ones. I dunno how to explain it..." / "Umm. Well. How about Takumi? You can write it however you want it can mean both sea and craftsman. Also an outstanding person. The person you'll become once you get out of here. How does that sound?" Takumi nods and takes the name as his, as long with Sabo's glasses. He says Takumi will use them way more than him one day.

However, there's a lot of chaos and Takumi gets lost in his boat. All alone. And ends up fainting in the middle of the sea until the Straw hats find him.

Sanji knows it will be too much for the little guy to tell him all he knows about this story, so he just comforts him and lets him rest for a few days until he's ready to come out of the room. He has dinner with the rest of them, finally, one day. And even though the three girls are curious about him they have a very calm dinner, respecting his space. That's when the crew does their presentations, Luffy being the last one... And of course, he says: "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! Captain of this ship and the king of the pirates!". Something inside of Takumi switches, a huge surprised smile decorating his face. "You are Sabo's brother! That's why you reminded me of him!" / "You know Sabo?". Takumi tells them about his story and shows them the glasses, saying he's worried about Sabo because he promised to take care of him and he's sure the blond blames himself for this. He tells them, also, about Sabo talking about Luffy ("The world is scary out there, but pirates aren't all so bad, all right? Monkey D. Luffy is my brother! The king of the pirates! And he's the best man I've ever met.") and Takumi couldn't be happier to have found him.

Basically, Takumi stays with them for a long time and grows closer and closer with everyone. The girls and he get along, even if he's still very overwhelmed by everything and has to take things slow. They protect him when there's a fight and they spend time with him, playing and teaching him everything there's to know. He also sleeps with Sanji and Usopp most of the time, also growing very fond of the sniper and his stories late at night when he has nightmares and refuses to wake up Sanji. Usopp is always there to distract him from bad thoughts and Sanji is always there to hug the anxiousness away. Sora and Banchina love him like a brother, so much that they even start calling him that. Sanji and Usopp don't say a word about it, but it hurts to know that there's a possibility of him not staying with them. Sanji says it's fine. That the kid deserves a better life. But Usopp knows Sanji wants the kid to stay with them.

Sabo appears one day with the intention to see Takumi again. They catch up and have a fun day together until Sabo offers Takumi the option of going away with him. However, Takumi says he prefers to stay here. With his new family, if they accept him. And so Takumi stays with them!

That's when his personality starts to form a little bit more with the passage of time. He loves spending time with Franky and Usopp, building things. Little machines and inventions. Turns out Sabo's glasses do end up being useful to him! He's still a bit shy. A very anxious kid. But he's so, so smart... A brilliant, outstanding kid who wants to make the world a better place with his inventions. He keeps being reserved and he isn't very fond of fighting, but he supports the whole crew with his inventions! Usopp couldn't be more proud. He also likes the revolutionary's ideology and lets Robin talk to him about it for hours and hours. Cooking is just like science, in his opinion, and once he says it Sanji's heart melts because that's exactly what Usopp told him once.

They end up figuring out that he ate a devil fruit, one that helps him talk to animals. That's why he refuses to eat them. Sanji tells him that it's amazing. One of the best powers in the world. Fascinating, even. He's his special boy and Sanji's just so jealous he has a power like that but he's glad Takumi is the one to have it and not some horrible pirate out there. Usopp and he grow closer talking about bugs and different types of beetles and arachnids! Sanji loves to see it, but can only talk about Takumi about it when it comes to regular animals.

They're so, so similar in a lot of things... Even if they are not his real parents. Yet. He hasn't called them that yet.

Until one morning Takumi calls Sanji dad and he has a whole crisis about it, the kid thinks he has killed his father but Usopp calms both of them down. Sanji asks the kid if he truly wants to be part of his family. Because if he does, he'd be glad to call him his son. And Takumi couldn't be happier. Do you know who's even happier? Sora and Banchina. They are THRILLED to have a little brother.

I've made these picrews based on the idea I have of them (if you like the idea I'll post more information about them):

Sora

Age: 10 (Older twin for literally seconds of difference)

MBTI: ENTP

-> She's an adventurer, hence the bandages and band-aids. Prefers long hair because she refuses to cut it, mostly. Uses Usopp's overalls and Sanji's shirts because they're comfortable and they don't fit her dads anymore, so she gets to keep them!!! She likes nature (the bees and her leaf earring) and loves stealing Zoro's money at poker (Nami taught her).

Banchina

Age: 10

MBTI: INFP

-> Usually has a ponytail or buns to keep them from bothering her while she draws. Lil' toad on her head (Wano Usopp reference, he kept that toad). She likes butterflies and bugs, too!! Big comfy clothes and a calmer, comfier energy.

Takumi

Age: 7

MBTI: INFJ

-> Lil' crown of leaves his sisters gift him. Animals around him all the time. He likes big clothes but usually just wears a synthetic leather jacket Usopp gave him and never takes off Sabo's goggles. Big sweaters, too. He's very tiny even for his age.

Kuina

Age: 14

MBTI: ESTP

-> Long hair for the same reason as Sora: Refuses to cut it. Bold of you to assume she showers, honestly. Lil' ponytail to see better. She has one of Zoro's earrings and a necklace with a sun (iykyk). She also has a bandana around her neck (Zoro moment). Have you seen her clothes? She wants to go to Wano so fucking bad.

Picrew

#THEY'RE MY BELOVEDS #i just grew attached to my own ocs i want to die #i'm sooo posting more about them #takumi is so tiny i heart him #sora and banchina my cuties #kuina is a menace to society #again if you want more info PLEASE give feedback bc i'm excited abt this #one piece #black leg sanji #usopp #sanuso #zolu #sanuso parents au

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nat-1-whump · 1 year

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🌈 Pride fantasy prompts

Pride writing ideas no. 1

(Little to no angst or whump here, I wanted to focus on happier stories this time around.)

Mages use transformation spells as a magical method of gender-affirming surgery. One mage who specializes in such magic travels across the land, helping anyone from tiny fairies to gigantic dragons be their true selves. Nothing brings them more joy than giving their client a mirror after the spell is done and watching their face light up. And when someone needs that spell, the mage will find a way to do it, no matter who or what they have to challenge in order to do so.

Asexual succubi and incubi find non-sexual ways to seduce their targets. A character hears a noise in the middle of the night and goes to the kitchen to find a demon-like creature baking them a cake that reads, "Come to the darkest pits of the underworld, please? 🥺" With the layers upon layers of chocolate fudge, how could anyone resist?

A gay mage learns a teleportation spell to bring their crush on a date without anyone else seeing, because they are worried about what people will think. However, the spell backfires and ends up teleporting them to the wrong place. As they work together to find their way home, the two overcome challenges for each other and realize that their love really does conquer all.

A trans character finds out that they're trans by accessing some sort of magic that only another gender is supposed to be able to access. For example, a transfem sailor thinks she's a cis guy until she is the only one on the ship who can see an island that is magically hidden from everyone except women. She had always felt a bit "off" but kind of pushed it to the side, attributing it to literally anything except being trans. The island beckons to her and confirms the feelings she had ignored for years. (I thought there was an island like that in the Odyssey but I can't find anything about it so I may be wrong.)

When a gay couple adopts a child, they weren't expecting to bring home a dragon egg. But, that won't stop them from being the best adoptive parents anyone could have. They spend nights deep in the library, set on learning everything they need to raise their dragon child. (Or, alternatively, a dragon couple ends up adopting a human or otherwise non-dragon child.)

Due to their association with rainbows, magic, and self-expression, unicorn derbies become widely celebrated events during pride festivals. A particularly clever unicorn escapes right before the derby, and magical shenanigans ensue.

While others their age are asking their crushes to dances and peeking at raunchy magazines, an aroace teen is busy training swordfighting with a dragon that they keep hidden a little bit away from their house. Their parents find some evidence of their teen sneaking out and assume it's with some romantic partner. When their teen reluctantly agrees to introduce them, they weren't expecting to come face to face with a gigantic reptile. They said they wanted their teen to be with whoever makes them happy... But this is awkward.

Immortal characters who've been around for centuries don't necessarily understand the newer labels and identities, but they're excited that their children are able to express themselves in ways they weren't able to a few hundred years ago. They do their best to support their kid's identity... Possibly to the point of embarrassing their kid with their enthusiasm. They mean well though.

A genderfluid character who can shapeshift uses their ability to transition on the spot whenever and however they feel like it. They kind of take this ability for granted, until their non-shapeshifter friend wants to transition and can't just do so by snapping their fingers. This shapeshifter does their best to help their friend find clothes and hairstyles that might have the same effect. They end up having to be a bit creative with what they have, but it's a lot more fun than either expected.

To represent the strength of their relationship, a gay swordsmith forges a sword as a surprise present (or proposal, like a ring but cooler) for their beloved. They decide to gather gemstones from the place they first met (or some other place that is significant to them), but getting the gemstone proves to be a difficult quest. They end up asking for their partner's help, all while keeping it a secret why they need it. When they finally get the gemstone and forge the sword, the colorful pieces in the hilt tell a story of their journey together.

Elves and other androgynous creatures completely demolish outdated standards of what each gender is "supposed to" look like. Some people are frustrated with how hard it is to assume an elf's gender, but lots of trans and nonbinary people are inspired by the magical genderfuckery. (I know I am, lol. Legolas was my first gender envy.)

(Feel free to add on!)

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frostycatblr-fandom-files · 1 year

Text

Sorry, Wrong Comms! : Hunter x Medic!Reader [Chapter 5]

Warnings and Information: Intended audience is 13+ (18 if you squint). We cry like men in this house because we’ve learned (slightly) better coping mechanisms almost a year after Order 66 in this AU!! Mentions of medical stitches and paraphernalia. Writing love letters is tricky business. Fluff. Angst. Pining/Hunter having a slight panic attack if you squint. Mostly Star Wars swearing. Use of Mando'a. Occasionally jumping character-focus with no show of Medic!Reader since she’s gone home for the night, so it’s “Oops! All Batchers” Hours with passing mentions of Medic!Reader.

As this bantha has been beaten to death by now, “RIFE with my headcanons” really applies here in this chapter: Lots of my headcanons about unofficial “Clone Culture” on Kamino are gonna show up briefly (one line is suggestive of masturbation and another is suggestive of toxic masculinity standards). Tryin’ real hard to avoid certain fanon characterizations of the Batchers. Intentional and unintentional trickery; only 50% of these siblings are getting any decent sleep tonight. Maybe grab some tissues?

Word-count: 5,022

Echo's told me that Wrecker's told you that I-

No, this was just going to get messy and long-winded if he dragged his vode into it on how he found out into his fifth draft... Erase.

Guess I should cut the chatter: I've been made aware that you now have an idea of how I feel about you when I was under medical observa-

On second thought, that wasn't necessary to bring up, the medic would know the "when". Erase.

-of how I feel about you. Echo encouraged me to tell you the full truth myself. So that's what this letter is meant to do, [____]. It'll be easier to lay down a foundation for a later conversation in a letter first… if that's what you want.

He gingerly eased his back up higher along the headboard of the bed with a tray of salted crackers in his lap and tried thinking back to the results from the Holonet while everyone else had dinner at the time, earlier in the evening. Something about removing the pressure being asked to have a verbal conversation with someone by proposing the option to find an alternative method of communication if desired… Tech had been pretty thorough in finding several wordy, but helpful articles. Pretty quick to find them as well, come to think of it.

If not, then maybe we can communicate this way for the time being. I'll leave that up to you. But it's important that-

Crosshair or Tech had interrupted his train of thought as he deliberately typed out each word. "Hunter; I don't hear you eating."

"Not hungry, vod."

"You're going to remain in a state of nausea even with the anti-emetic tablets if you do not eat anything while you are taking the medicine that was prescribed to you as per the warnings on the label." Crosshair didn't talk like that. Only one brother it could possibly be.

"Just come in, Tech…" The goggled Clone entered the room quickly, an assortment of items in a crate under one arm. Things [____] left with them from her medbag to pad out the Batch's medical arsenal until the shops opened in the morning. Snap-activated cold packs. A new temp reader. Gauze and bacta. "I brought a few nutrient paste tubes with me to leave them by your bedside in case you woke up in the middle of the night; no mess and nothing to chew. Well come to think of it, perhaps the reason you haven't and don't feel like eating is a sore jaw after all the… No matter. Here."

Tech offered Hunter one of the more palatable flavors of nutrient paste, and he quickly realized that as Tech held this one out to him (the way he'd seen several Regs pass back General Skywalker's lightsaber to him after another of his infamous shenanigans), all of the tubes were the most palatable flavors to Hunter.

Hunter's exclusive line of nutrient products! Omega joked once. Tech had been teaching her what he knew of the various manufacturers that produced these types of rations while they were deep in hyperspace to keep her occupied. Crosshair, who had been a royal grouch after lying in the mud banks for hours in wait for their quarry to acquire some credits, could be heard chuckling in his rack at Omega's joke (and didn't deny doing so when Echo dared to tease him). That'd been the mission that made the Marauder's exterior hull muddy and the eventual reason they'd hosed it down with [____]'s help after being splashed with the hose when Wrecker had become distracted by the rare bird.

"Thanks, Tech…"

"You're welcome. I'll put these away." Tech swept up the tray with untouched crackers after Hunter moved it to his bedside, and was ready to slip out of the room before he was stopped. "Uh, wait. I'd like your help with something because I trust you won't tell anyone."

"Except, if it was your stitching, I would tell [____]. That was a promise earlier, if you recall; not a threat." Tech reminded him, careful to keep his cadence neutral and gentle. Hunter reluctantly, hesitantly gave his word that he would reach out to the good doctor, or Tech so he could, if anything happened to his stitches before she stepped out into the street and went home for the night, one of Crosshair's many pistols tucked into her waistband as a compromise when she insisted she'd get home just fine without an escort. (She'd first have to stop by her clinic and finally close down the building, anyways; she didn't think it would take long enough to warrant the company and insisted that everyone stay home.) "And since you do not appear to have torn any, I would hypothesize it has to do with more research." Tech concluded, eyes darting over every un-inked inch of the gauze on Hunter's shoulder longest.

Together, before the grown woman went home, Omega and [____] had added one doodle each to the medical wrap with the fabric marker. Omega's was a big butterfly to sit on top of an exotic flower from Kashyyyk drawn by the medic. A perfect, complementing addition, even if the species wasn't native to the homeworld of the Wookies; a fact his sister realized too late, but decided that she'd ignore the matter of accuracy in the end. It mattered far more than Hunter had sat still as stone with his eyes closed so sister and friend could surprise him with the collaboration, and had warned both they'd have to wave off the nearest art exhibits soon enough with a teasing tone but sincere smile. That he was honored to wear the artwork.

Tech had already taken several pictures of the joint-effort "doodle" for the days to come that someone inevitably dreamed of the day's dreadful "what if we lost Hunter?" experience as a happier reminder.

We didn't lose him, and here's the proof.

Hunter sighed after the long silence between them, rousing from his thoughts at last. "Partly. Do you have your datapad?" Of course Tech would, they both knew that. Hunter gestured to his own equipment, sighing. "It would make this go a lot faster if I had some help figuring out how to write this karking thing. I've tried writing about five different versions and I swear each one sucks more than the last. I don't know what to say."

Tech blinked, quietly puzzling out some thoughts before speaking. "You're writing a romantic confession."

Got it in one, as usual. It was hardly surprising to Hunter anymore, just a comfort to know that Tech often had him figured out so well in times like these. "Yes… But," he paused, considering, "I may want a proof-reader, secondary to the company and help." Maybe if Tech was simply just there with him for the most part, Hunter could stall less if he had someone to find the right answers for the best possible outcome. He would tell [____] the truth about how he felt, and how he could be rather avoidant at times when he was uncomfortable, and just hope for the best. There was a chance she may not return the same feelings or the desire to remain friends should she not after such a serious declaration was laid bare to her.

Hunter didn't believe she would cut their friendship over that, but it was a real possibility he had to keep in mind. Something like that wouldn't be enough to stop her just because she got along with all of the Batch fairly equally. She was personable and nurturing, she had found the perfect profession for her out in the galaxy. She would always have some place to help, someone who needed her, somewhere to go and do the grisly work that came with the occupation…

She… would always make new friends if a confession was not reciprocated and he made her so uncomfortable she... She…

"Stars, Hunter… you're in quite deep for her, aren't you." The half-question hung heavy on his shoulders, feeling the weight of it around his neck, and the warmth of his brother's hand as it carefully clasped his upper arm once he'd joined Hunter on the bed. His eyes burned with the threat of tears in the anxious silence before Tech's tender gesture of comfort. "K'uur… take a deep breath, now. I'll just take the nutrient paste and set it here for the time being so it doesn't burst open. You're going to be alright, brother."

A promise, a reassurance, a mantra. The "analytical babbling" would be inappropriate to offer Hunter right now when he just needed the silence, but not the solace, to take as long as he needed to cry for perhaps the first in a very long time since they were… cadets. Tech just silently sucked in his teeth and surmised his brother was still so overwhelmed and out of sorts after the ordeal of raiding a prisoner transport ship with Captain Rex went terribly wrong. The bomb that had gone off when Hunter got in-range was not one of their own, and the injuries… Tech didn't want to make mental comparisons to the gory detonation injuries he witnessed in other soldiers of the GAR, when there had been such a thing. Now it was the Imperial-something.

Stop. Run a mental checklist.

Modified Omicron-class attack shuttle. The Havoc Marauder. He needs to pay for the docking fee in the morning. More urgent than that, make sure that Hunter gets sleep tonight using one and a half of the sleep inducers at minimum. More urgent than that still, by the time Hunter was settled, help him with the fifth draft to give him some peace of mind. Just a few minutes would probably suffice as Hunter would have been thoroughly spent… using energy he didn't have. Oh he'd be an exhausted shell in the morning, strictly prohibited from using adrenaline stims by [_____]. Smart woman. It would force him to rest.

Let's have a peek at his datapad.

The first draft had strong undercurrents of typical Clone psychobabble that standard, nat-born citizens of the galaxy found… concerning. But there was a good snippet in there about a quarter of the way in about explaining his enhancements (and Tech paused to memorize his brother's words regarding him) before copying this selection into the bottom of the fifth draft that would probably prove helpful to their friend. The second and third were almost nothing but poetry and half-formed thoughts. With some careful sentence surgery, Tech could tell Hunter was now watching as he forged his brother's style of wordsmithy impeccably.

"I've been practicing." Tech admitted softly, mindful of how close the shell of Hunter's ear was to his face. "It's a long story for another time. Here," He reached out beside him to the bedside furniture and plucked the tube of nutrient paste off the immaculate surface before carefully tearing away the perforated edge with his teeth to open it for his brother.

Hunter was tiring fast, curling in on himself, into Tech's side, with the fatigue, but he should have at least half of the tube before he succumbed to the inevitable crash. "Just half of this will be enough for now. Stop me if at any time you want me to splice the sentence differently." Hunter's head was now planted under Tech's chin, cheek resting on his chest as he nurses the ration.

Tech could work through however initially uncomfortable this was for him for however long it took. With obvious exception of Wrecker among their tight knit squad, he didn't typically consider himself or his brothers to be especially strong in the love language of touch like this. Like children. Not anymore. With acceleration in age and growth and the desired obedience for an army of their scale, they don't exactly get the childhood a nat-born has. Growth jars, training, blasterfire. That was their "childhood". He was grateful for his ability to stay calm when faced with these emotions, otherwise a rocketing heartbeat would have tipped off Hunter and interrupted his peace. To soothe himself, Tech habitually resituated his goggles, and for good measure, adjusted the crisp new bandana Hunter had donned since losing the other with a feather-light touch. Hunter bristled, uninjured shoulder curling to his ears.

"K'uur… easy, Hunter." It sounded like a mumbled apology under Hunter's breath before another stripe of nutri-paste was applied to his tongue and the gradual droop of his good shoulder. "Don't be: I should have warned you. My apologies. Now… let's see what this fourth draft holds." Stars, it was rife with material. Perhaps even some of his best, in the sense of great emotional appeal. Why Hunter loved [____]. The trust, the respect, and… the guilt. Shame. Guilty of fearing the clinic and the shattered cross that indicated healers. Feeling shameful for not being explicit in his words and using those 'I trust you, burc'ya' or 'I have a great amount of respect for you despite my discomfort with the profession' phrases; or the other ways he'd thought of thanking her for helping him and his family at every odd hour they came to her and never did and felt guilty for it phrases.

He'd read it over later, realizing that when he had used the hand previously around Hunter's shoulder to adjust his goggles and brother's bandana, he'd never removed that hand from the top of Hunter's head and had mindlessly been stroking the first two fingers through richly textured hair. (If he drifted his middle finger just a bit lower than it was now, he'd find the soft ridge of the scar from the process of removing their inhibitor chips.) He'd sent Hunter to sleep without the drugs, feeling the start of the sleeping 14-breath cycle typical to him against Tech's own body.

Tech supposed he'd be kept in place with a sleep-adhered brother for some time now, and picked up his own datapad once Hunter's tube of nutrient paste (seventy-five percent consumed, he noted) was plucked from sleeping fingers and his drafts backed up and individually saved. He wanted to look over the schematics of the transport ship he'd nabbed in the meantime until he felt it was the right time to wiggle out of this arrangement and leave his brother to sleep. Might as well. Leave too early, before he reached deep sleep, and he may inadvertently wake Hunter.

Tell Hunter now while he was largely undistracted and turning on the amber-toned screen setting so he could study those schematics. "Sleep well, ner vod."

May he stay asleep…

Tech had gone to check on Hunter nearly two hours ago. Crosshair had no illusions that after fifteen minutes, Tech was not likely coming back to finish their game of Sabacc, so he'd grabbed his weapons kit and taken to tending to his 773 Firepuncher. There wasn't much to clean, as usual, but it killed some time just in the event Tech might be coming back and excused himself for being a while and rejoined him.

Maybe he'd just forgotten and gone to bed after he'd tended to Hunter, off in his own galaxy. It was known to happen, no matter. Crosshair would say something in the morning once he was back from paying the docking fees and making a run for more blue milk, once Crosshair scribbled down a note on Tech's notice board.

'Easy to keep track of our necessary supplies and goods as they deplete if we have a centralized location in our housing for writing these things down. It can also serve as our chore rota.' Tech religiously checked it every morning and every night, even when no one had added anything of importance beyond a silly doodle or removal of an item from the running list.

Nerd: Two blue milk along with the med supplies, don't forget. Credits: counter under my helmet. Took care of laundry. - C

That would do it. He'd go check on Hunter, then turn in for the night. Echo turned in earliest of the Batch with his strict early-fall-early-rise sleep regimen, and Omega and Wrecker were bunking together in Omega's room so she could hopefully get distracted enough with Wrecker's help to make falling asleep far easier… so she wouldn't dream about hearing that explosive going off around the corner of the ship and-

Taking care to soften his footsteps down the hall, he gingerly eased the door to Hunter's room open and peered in. Well, looks like he found Tech. And just under the crook of his arm, curled tight like a sick child in a parent's bed, was Hunter, his head planted on Tech's chest. Fast asleep. He'd probably had Tech trapped long enough that he'd fallen asleep upright in Hunter's bed while keeping him company.

Two 'odd-vod' just… cuddling, dare he say.

It was an endearing sight, honestly, if he had to give it a word. Two of his brothers huddled together like groups of worn out cadets in the halls of Kamino after hours spent in the training centers, too tired to make it back to their pod rooms or the mess halls or wherever they had to be yet. Vod looked out for vod. Youngest cadets were always afforded a little more time to do things and older batches of Clones stalled the long-necks as necessary. Creative, believable excuses for the cadet team's tardiness by their "Den Brothers". Encouragement during battle sims. Mock espionage or stealth missions to distract from especially violent surges in the perpetual storm outside the cloning facility. Secret rounds of group trivia during lights-out. Older brothers finding ways to show the mischievous youngsters how to be more subtle, more sneaky, if they were going to view prohibited material for natural urges. A series of rota across the whole of the cloning facility for who would be 'Feeling a little blaster-happy, boys… Think I'll log another hour or two at the artillery range to get it out of my system. Someone buff up my helmet for me, yeah?' and not easily missed or suspect in order to help the cadets refine their skills. Captains and Commanders holding unofficial lessons on the down-low.

Manage your credits smartly.

Listen to me, little brothers… The reason the medics keep taking down your fitness posters in the training centers is because they're trying to look out for you. Those models are dehydrated and on crash diets. Unhealthy. Don't aspire to be like them. They're not taking them down to be cruel, your brothers are just trying to make sure you're healthy. A bit of fat on those bones is good; you shouldn't look a vac-sealed ration.

Yes, the Force really does work in mysterious ways, but sometimes General Skywalker is full of bantha fodder. "A disturbance in the Force" my left ass cheek… sometimes the place just has a bad vibe that has nothing to do with the Force!

Here's what I think we should have done differently to capture the Seppy's outpost in the xxxx system. … Yes I admit I complained about this to General xxxx already but what's done is done.

Vod looked out for vod. Deactivating the bedside lamp bathed the room in total darkness, and with his sharpened sense of sight, the jarring lighting shift was quickly adjusted to with a couple of measured blinks. Crosshair scooped the light blanket Hunter had flung across the room from his bed in an episode of overheating (it had hit the wall he shared with Crosshair) just last week, and draped it over slumbering siblings with a feather-light movement. He picked up Tech's personal datapad and captured an image of the two of them using night vision, being sure to hear that muted klic! of a successful capture before carefully navigating it back to the main HUD and laying it beside Hunter's on the bedside.

Vod looked out for vod. Crosshair, careful to hold his breath as he hinged at the waist, bent forward and loosened the strap of the goggles to lessen the friction of removing them from around Tech's eyes. Setting those neatly on the proper datapad, Cross next straightened up the bandana and tucked away more unruly sections of hair before he would feel the first tugging, instinctual urges to breathe from his lungs.

These two were typically light sleepers after the really bad missions; today was certainly one of 'em. It didn't look like Hunter had needed to take the short-term prescription to induce a night's sleep, so perhaps he was truly that exhausted, and that unwell, still. When [____] would come to return his DC-17 in the morning before she opened her clinic for the day, Cross would decide if he'd tell her not to be surprised about the 'extra' capsule in the canisters when it came time to return them then, or later.

Smart thinking to sign them up to use the clinic's durasteel use-and-return canisters, Tech. No canisters to be found by those snooping around trash collection units in this dodgy spaceport that might use them to make the Imperial Army aware of their location for a large sum of credits.

Vod looked after vod, after all… a mantra he'd eventually come to be grateful for since Kaller. The ordeal of nearly losing Hunter today put a lot into perspective for Crosshair suddenly. Things he'd buried away and compartmentalized for a very vague idea of "another time" that more meant "never. ever."...

No time like the present, he supposed. Cross bid his brothers a whispered goodnight and ducked from Hunter's room, stepping into his own for a moment with the intention to shed half the mock-civvies, change into his nightshirt and plant himself at the foot of his bed to begin contemplating, but he was struck with another thought as his eyes skimmed the calendar tacked to the wall above his tidy desk.

Uh oh. The end of the week may not be the best time in case Hunter's little assignment went sour…

"Echo… Echo!" The ARC was slow to turn over in his bed, trying to figure out what had woken him. Maybe he was just imagining the monolithic, but paradoxically gentle aquatic beast with a gaping maw calling his name as some falsely-concocted feeling it was one of his brothers waking him for… something from his subconscious. "Echo!!" Nope. Not the water creature he was just swimming with in the undertow of an ocean planet. It was Crosshair.

"Oh, stars. What is it now…?" he moaned. He was in the middle of a damn good dream for once in a long time, and all of the Domino Squad had been there, swimming alongside him and this giant of the deep seas. Feeling so fluid and free and… Fives. He'd been dreaming of Fives. Fives wanted to tail this creature with oar-like fins and bioluminescent spots and Echo had yearned to follow Fives. Follow his brother. The other half of the Domino Twins since they lost Droidbait, Cutup and Hevy at the Rishi Moon station when they were all just Shinies.

And the white-hot fury flared and burned in those pale eyes beneath squeezed brows for a moment, a sharp look the sharp-eyed brother wouldn't have missed even in the dim light of the room. Clone Force 99 had long ago learned that they did not wake Echo without good reason when they had downtime and shore leave. Before Crosshair made a carefully calculated statement he was waved to stand down, and against all his impulses, Echo swallowed down that venom and the weary sigh took its place.

"What's wrong with Hunter?" Something had to be wrong. The others had probably tasked Crosshair with waking him so he could get up and either stay with Hunter or go retrieve help. A torn stitch? Was he refusing to take the medicine again? Was he even supposed to take any at this time? "Wh-what time is it?"

Whatever time Crosshair gave him didn't completely register with Echo, but what did was the reassurance that Hunter was fine. "Tech's got Hunter handled; fell asleep on the bed with him- real cute and all, but listen: I'm sorry to wake you, but I need your help with something. About what you said earlier to Hunter."

Echo bit back a yawn and propped himself up on his good elbow just slightly. "What about it…?"

"Why does he need to tell [____] by the end of the week?"

That did nothing to abate the worry or answer his question. What was the marksman getting at? "Look, if I didn't give him a hard deadline, he'll stall-"

Cross balked, interrupting him. "You don't know?"

"Know what?" Echo snapped, sitting up now and carefully peeling back the weighted blanket [____] had gifted him several months ago. (Every bad night he looked at it, he would recall the way Wrecker boomed "It's like a permanent hug?! Tha's awesome!! That'll help Echo so much!" as she explained why she thought the way-too-kind gift would benefit Echo's insomnia and myriad of other nocturnal troubles after a week of bruise-like dark circles under his eyes. He'd been dreaming of Domino Squad: horrible, dark dreams that time that led him to be afraid to sleep, something his immune system could not afford like it once did…)

"That's her birth-day!" came out in a whispered hiss, "So I'm not sure giving him until the end of the week is a good idea!"

[____]'s birth- Oh, no. Kriff kriff kriff! He'd forgotten that!

Seeing that Echo now had the same violent realization he did, Cross gave a jerky, nodding gesture in a silent 'see?!' to his brother. "I think we need to consider another time. Or, you need to help me find a way to scope out how she feels about him before then. If she doesn't feel the same way he painfully does if he's putting what I think he's putting in that little letter of his I saw him writing while he sat out on the game after dinner… it would make for a very uncomfortable rest of the day. We can't do that to the kid on her birth-day, Echo."

They needed to come up with a plan. "No… no we shouldn't, that wouldn't be right." Echo agreed. "Just… give me a minute to collect myself before we start talking, please."

"... Right. Right of course." The younger man with tight gray curls of hair looked so guilty; often interrupted eye contact, curling and uncurling fingers, the tight, shallow inhales.

"I know you're sorry, it's o-"

What was interpreted as an excuse was cut down with a clipped voice. "Don't give me that shit, Echo. You're right to be angry at me. Allowed."

Well, he certainly still was, but the reasoning was different now. "Don't worry, I don't need your permission to be angry, Crosshair. But as I was going to say it's okay, you don't need to let your guilt get the best of you and treat me like kriffing glass." He was a damn ARC, made of sterner stuff that made the little brothers on Kamino look like they met a celebrity from their favorite pieces of holo-media they'd managed to get their hands on. That starstruck glimmer in a cadet's eyes seeing older brothers, decorated and painted war heroes, coming back for a taste of home before their next assignments and campaigns.

Did Crosshair ever look at an older brother, a seasoned soldier, like that when he was a cadet? Or did he regard those men with envy because he didn't think the likes of him would ever get to be like them? Like him, Echo?

A regular Clone cut from the largest damn bolt of cloth the galaxy had ever seen; up until the Citadel, at least.

He knew Crosshair was still looking at him with a lot of guilt as Echo mentally braced himself to get up out of his bed he wasn't terribly fond of, and he wanted to do something about it. Maybe, if he could be convincing enough… he could find a believable excuse to give Crosshair the embrace he felt the brother needed. "Awh! Kriffing hells…" when he was "ready" to get up, he faked the seizing grind in one of the bolts of his right hip. A bolt he knew needed lubricant soon. He grumbled darkly for good measure, playing up the unsteady hobble as he pretended to fail at finding his feet flat underneath him. "Dammit not now!"

Steady hands and strong fingers caught Echo as he anticipated, an arm of the marksman flung around his chest to keep the cybernetic soldier from falling forward and a firm grip on the residual limb of his right arm came around from behind so his scomplink wouldn't smack into anything in the panicked flail. "I've got you, brother." Crosshair was allowed to believe he helped Echo find his footing before Echo slung his good arm around his younger brother and held him close, feigning the pause to gather his nerves. If he was too bold, too impatient, Crosshair would catch on and Echo would lose the opportunity. "Th-thanks."

"Don't mention it." There was no dismissal or downplaying undercurrents to the coolly given reply. It was just Crosshair for of course I'd help, you're welcome that the Bad Batch came to know and understand and move on from without a second thought.

But not after today, and not before they would set a plan in motion together in the dead of night, like old times in the Clone Wars. So the trap was sprung; with both flesh and cybernetic arm, Echo carefully fit his limbs against the warmth of the brother of another squad and only rumbled in a fond and careful voice the words similar to ones he had once spoken to the brother he had been closest to so many times it was forever etched into the fleshy tables of his heart and tongue.

"Heh. Don't think I will. Just doing what any good brother does, Crosshair. Vod looks after vod."

Taglist: @dragonrider9905 @ladytano420

Note from Frost: If you would like to be added to the taglist that is currently just specific for Sorry, Wrong Comms!, (I may start a taglist for all Star Wars related fanfiction projects that will be marked accordingly with #frostfics in the near future if there is interest) don’t hesitate to shoot me an ask or a comment loves. 🩷

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happy-tori-friends · 4 months

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For fanfic prompts, maybe a sort of 5+1 things thingie about five times Fliqpy was fronting instead of Flippy and didn't say anything about it, and one time where Splendid mentions the subtle ways that he knows Fliqpy is fronting?

sure thing! i thought about doing this in the magical warrior au bc theres no Wacky Glamour Shenanigans (best way to describe it) that give it away, but its probably a bit easier to just say it is in the same setting as oblivion, but in this particular case the teeth and eye changes aren't applicable. very very sorry for the delay i have Severe Awful Procrastination Disease.

War-related PTSD and fireworks mixed horribly. Explosions brought back memories of the war - and they were usually not good ones. While Flippy took care to prepare himself on days where fireworks were to be expected, sometimes there were assholes that thought that it was cool to shoot fireworks willy-nilly and whenever the fuck they wanted. They both could agree they were cool looking, but the sounds usually triggered them to switch and Flippy to retreat. Plus, Fliqpy himself wasn't fond of the noise either.

Slow blinking, gaining his barings, he looked around the room, grabbing onto something nearby to anchor himself to reality. One breath in, one breath out.

Right, Splendid's house. He was at Splendid's house, sitting on the couch. He looked to his left, and Splendid was sitting there. Beyond him was Splendont, who held the remote and gave him a concerned look.

“You okay?” the redhead asked, and Fliqpy gave a quick nod in response.

“I'm fine,” he muttered, folding his arms and looking away. Splendont was okay enough, but he wasn't here for him. He was here for his brother. A goody-two-shoes hero that Flippy had fallen in love with, and the sentiment was also held by him.

“Do you think whoever shot those had a license?” Splendid turned to his brother, a questioning look in his eye. “Should I go try and find them and make sure they do? I don't want Fliq to get startled again.”

…Hm. While Fliqpy was grateful for the concern, he was also a bit curious. He hadn't said anything about switching. Was it that obvious when they did so? Had Splendid not been watching the movie, or did he simply infer based off of the fact fireworks are commonly associated with triggering PTSD?

Fliqpy was no scientist, and he cared little for the art of it at all. But he was curious… could he actually pass off as Flippy if he didn't say anything? He'd have to do some testing… and hope that both Flippy and Splendid didn't get too irritated when things came out.

–––––

Science usually involved variables, and Fliqpy figured that his variable would be how much he tried to act like Flippy. It was basically the same thing as acting or playing pretend- things he hadn't really done but were probably easy nonetheless. The only other factor was Splendid not being around when he switched, which was easier said than done.

Well, it would have been if Flippy wasn't the tiniest bit intrigued by the idea.

‘It's at least something for you to do, and I will admit that I'm interested in what it takes for him to not notice,’ he'd responded when he was told. ‘It might be good for you.’

There were consensual switches on occasion, mostly when Flippy was having a bad day or when Fliqpy wanted to spend time with Splendid, but this was for a different purpose - science. Maybe. Honestly, he didn't care if it was actually science or not.

“Let's start with a phone call,” Fliqpy smirked, navigating through the phone to contacts and then clicking to call Splendid. Certainly, he could get away with it since Splendid hadn't seen him switch and only had his voice to go off of.

“Hello?”

“Heeey, uh…” Crap, was he at work? In public? Which name was he supposed to use? Flippy usually used Shiver just to be safe, and then Splendid would either continue with that or tell him his real name was okay. So why was he hesitating?! Actually, was Flippy's method alright? What if he was doing hero work and someone overheard his alter ego's name? Would he even answer the phone if he was doing that? Ah, fuck it! “...Shiver.”

There was a chuckle from the other line after the agonizingly long pause between greeting him and saying his name. “Hello to you too, Fliqpy. I'm at home right now, so Splendid is fine.”

Damn, he'd hesitated and that had cost him. He suppressed the growl of frustration from coming out of his throat, though Flippy's giggling from inside his head made him want to let it out even more. ‘If you wanna switch and pretend to be me, I'll let you talk to him.’

’Hey, it's your experiment, not mine. I'm just observing,’ Flippy replied, humor still evident in his tone.

…Well, he was right, but…

“Is everything okay?” Splendid asked, worry evident in his voice. “Did something happen?”

Shit, someone needed to say something. “Uh. No. Just called to say hi. Because I, uh, like talking to my boyfriend and I get bored sometimes.” God, he needed to get better at making excuses quickly when it came to Splendid. Did love really make him that nervous? Fliqpy, usually so good at improvising and coming up with plans on the fly, rendered unable to do so because Splendid made his heart flutter and skip a few beats.

“Oh,” Splendid let out a breath, a slight hint of nervous laughter in his voice. “Really? That's… I miss you too sometimes.”

Well, even if he didn't get the expected result, he did get a pretty good one instead.

–––––

The next time he met with Splendid, the switch hadn't been consensual, and Flippy had retreated into the headspace. Splendid was expecting to visit and see Flippy today, so it was definitely a good time to test his acting skills.

He knocked on the door, waiting for the cyan haired man to answer. His hands rested on his hips, and he tapped his foot impatiently. Would Flippy act like this? Probably not, but it was all part of his experiment.

Of course, all of his hopes were dashed the instant Splendid opened the door.

“Fliqpy?” he asked, tilting his head. “...Have people been shooting fireworks near your house like what happened the other night? Or was this a nightmare? Wait, this must've been a nightmare - who would shoot fireworks when it's still light outside?”

Fliqpy suppressed the urge to show a frustrated scowl on his face as the other rambled on. He was glad to spend time with Splendid but his experiment hadn't gone well again. Was he really that obvious?

“...Ah. Sorry. I went off on a tangent there, didn't I?” Splendid let out a nervous chuckle as he moved to let him inside. “I suppose it doesn't matter why you switched, so come inside. Let's spend some time together.”

“Right,” Fliqpy muttered softly, following after his boyfriend. Next time, he'd have to try really hard.

–––––

“Maybe try a phone call again? Or try and surprise him?” Fliqpy muttered to himself, arms folded across his chest. “Either way, I need to practice my Flippy impression…”

Flippy was patient, calmer, friendlier… He just had to be those three things in order to fool him, right? Maybe he just… wasn't a good actor?

“Haha,” Flippy laughed slightly, “I'm surprised you haven't given up yet. You're prone to rage quitting when you get frustrated.”

“Shut up,” Fliqpy snarled. “Don't patronize me, I'll make Splendid hate you.”

Flippy let out another laugh. “How do you plan to do that? He's always picked up on it being you right away.” Damn! Was he this irritating when he spoke while Flippy was fronting?

The doorbell rang, and he scoffed. Great. It was probably Lumpy coming to ask for something like sugar. Now he probably had to explain himself - or maybe he could pretend… If he fooled Lumpy, that'd make him feel better about all this.

Fliqpy lightly smacked his cheeks and smiled, hoping it didn't seem too forced, before he made a beeline for the door. The doorbell rang again and he held back his annoyance. “I'm coming!” he said, making extra sure he used the same tone that Flippy usually used.

When he opened it, he was surprised not to find Lumpy, but instead Splendid. He stiffened in surprise, especially so when Splendid wrapped his arms around him.

“Hi, Fliqpy. I was in the area, so I thought I'd stop by.”

‘Hi, Fliqpy.’ ‘Hi, Fliqpy.’ ‘Fliqpy.’

What. The. Fuck.

“Heeeey,” Fliqpy managed to get out, only half returning the hug. He was happy to see him, but he noticed immediately. Again!

‘This is hilarious,’ Flippy teased, and the only reason Fliqpy didn't punch him is because they shared the same body and he didn't really want to hit himself.

‘Straighten up, soldier,’ he told himself, not wanting to be a shitty boyfriend and upset Splendid. “Nice to see you. Uh, come inside.” He took a deep breath and accepted that it wouldn't be this time. But it would definitely be next time.

––––––

This time, he was going to fool Splendid for sure. And if not… well, maybe he'd concede it was impossible.

Fliqpy took a deep breath, waiting outside the cafe they planned to meet at and checking his phone. Just act natural, normal, but like Flippy. No need to try and force anything. That was the key.

He heard footsteps and he looked up to see his boyfriend - wearing the dorky glasses that he used as a disguise. “Oh, hey Shiver,” he greeted, offering a wave.

Splendid's mouth made a slight ‘o’ shape, and Fliqpy raised an eyebrow. “What? Something wrong?”

The cyan haired man shook his head. “No, nothing's wrong. It's just… I feel that I should be asking you that. You've been fronting a lot more, Fliqpy.”

“What?!” Fliqpy exclaimed. “But-! But-!”

‘Seems you were just a bit too obvious,’ Flippy teased, but Fliqpy was not in the mood for it.

Enough was enough. Fliqpy was giving up. It was not often he fully retreated, but he just didn't want to be right now. Flippy could have his date, and he could have his time to seethe.

–––––

The anger dissipated with time, though he still remained frustrated - more with himself. Was he truly that obvious? He liked to think he could be a good actor if he really tried, and he had been trying!

…It didn't matter anymore, and though he loathed doing so, he had admitted defeat. But he had to know what he did wrong.

And so that was what led Fliqpy to begrudgingly admit everything just for answers. And to… force a switch without permission, but he was sure that Flippy wouldn't be too mad about it.

“Splendid,” he murmured upon gaining his bearings, “...I got a question. How… do you know it's me? Like, when I don't tell you. I was trying to see if I could fool you, to see what it would take but every single time, you knew. And it pissed me off, because I was really trying my fucking best!”

“Oh,” Splendid let out a breathy chuckle, “so that's why I was seeing so much of you.”

Fliqpy nodded, staring at his lap and cracking his knuckles. Splendid placed an arm around him and pulled him closer, making him let out a disgruntled noise.

“For starters, you speak in a lower tone of voice than Flippy does, and you react a lot differently when I show you affection,” Splendid chuckled, stroking his shoulder. “Your body language is different too, and you tend to speak more bluntly, less formally than Flippy. Maybe it's because I know both of you very well, but it's easy for me to tell.”

His green eyes blinked and he frowned. “Oh. Huh. So, you think that someone who didn't know us would get fooled?”

“Maybe. Someone perceptive might be able to tell, but if it were someone you've interacted with only a few times, then I imagine they might not realize.”

So, the only reason he'd failed was because Splendid knew him way too well. It made a lot of sense, though Fliqpy was still a bit irritated that he hadn't managed to fool him at all. At least he knew why though and-

His face suddenly heated up as he realized it was because Splendid loved him. It was because he was loved that Splendid took care to make note of those distinctions and store them in his memory.

“Ha,” he muttered, relaxing into the touch. “You're so into us, it's not even funny.”

“Hm?” Splendid turned to look at him, a knowing smile on his face. Of course he'd heard it - he had super hearing, but he probably wanted to see if Fliqpy would repeat it and own up to it.

Instead, he looked away, face flushed. “Nothin’.”

Maybe his experiment had failed, but he'd learned something from it, and he was going to take it to heart.

#tori talks #asks #requests #supertroopers ☄️🏅🔪#fliqpy 🔪#splendid ☄️#flip n dont r there too but this isnt about them

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