#I just think that what happened in cannon was a waste of amazing characters.

[beuatifulbuttercup]

I so desperately want a scene where the PJO/CHB crew see Annabeth and Percy for the first time since:

Pery went missing.

Annabeth left for New Rome and joined the seven

and they went through fucking tarturus.

Like we know the camp knows they went through the worst part of literal hell, so why not milk it? I want to see Katie run up to them in tears and tackle the two in a hug since she's overjoyed that they're alive. I want to see Clarisse punch them in the shoulders for scaring her half to death. I want the Stolls to greet them with a mini-prank before breaking out into laughter and hugging them. I want this to all happen at the same time and to see them just be happy that their friends, who are basically their family, are alive. I want them to laugh, cry, and hug; I want all of it. If we get this far into the series, this is my formal request for us to see this happen. Thank you.

Or someone could write a fic about it. That would also work.

(if you write a fic about this pls send it to me or tag me I need that in my life)

[wack-ashimself]

Sorry, but the new fallout series sucks so far...

just starting episode 3, but they are doing so much backdrop/atmosphere, that real relatable characters and story are non existent.

You just don't give a fuck about anyone. They're all shitty, boring and/or 1 dimensional.

I mean, the fucking old store lady & her friend had more (at least original) personality than all the others combined.

And I know it's based on a FPS, but the violence is more over the top than accurate while zany. Difference between I killed a whole town vs my gun is a fucking cannon that no one else seems to have.

Just...here's the plot flaws SO far. Spoilers.

1-The vault just blindly accepts a previous message that the other vault they are letting in lost their leader. FINE. I guess at the end of the world, you don't question if an overthrow of leadership can happen. But how come these vault people YOU HAVE MET BEFORE (cuz clearly they have done trades in the past) are ENTIRELY NOT RECOGNIZABLE? Aka, how did you NOT think they weren't murderous thieves when you never met or heard of a SINGLE ONE? WHY WERE THEY ALL NEW TO YOU?!

2-Why did the solider get the position of his injured friend? Especially after he was accused of harming them? At minimum, the most qualified person should go, and HE IS NOT IT. Makes no sense. Also, why were they bullying him at the beginning? Just to make us have sympathy?

3-Why did the main bad guy let those other vault dwellers live? She killed ANY AND EVERYONE, but those 4 can be spared? Why? Was there a maximum of kills she would allow?

4-If I knew a man was buried alive, and unburied spasticly to be basically tortured, why would I think he would be peaceful to strangers that unburied him? Especially knowing he's a mutant?

5-The dog. OMFG, the DOG. Plot hole black hole. No one double checks the dog weights? Why did he want a dog in the first place? How was he able to sneak the dog to his private lab (and did he have 2 positions)? Clearly, STRICT rules, so WHAT was his excuse? THE PLOT NEEDED IT? How/what did he feed the dog on such extreme rations (even water)? What about the dog's waste (smell & clean up)? The dog NEVER barked EVER in the months/years growing up? Why was that guy in his lab out of no where? How did no one smell dog in such a dirty place (where you KNOW that dog did not bathe)? How did he get ALL THE WAY OUT with the alarm blaring, from HIS lab with a dead person, then an AI turret miss every god damn possible bullet, AND no one chase after him (since the turret went off, they know which was he escaped*)?

6-If she was told being a vault dweller is bad, why the FUCK did she continue to wear her bright shiny clothing with the labels? At minimum, take the dead people's clothes OR dirty yours up.

7-The dog, PART 2. Dog is stabbed, quits moving, but can still be brought back to life. FINE. But now he's AUTOMATICALLY LOYAL TO THE GUY THAT JUST THREATENED HIS OWNER AND STABBED HIM?! And then when they find the owner's body, the dog doesn't bat a fucking eye? The dog was saved by him, raised by him, loved by him, killed for him and died for him, but now, fuck the owner? FUCK THE DOG! Sell out whore.

8-This isn't a plot hole, just stupid. If you're dying, do not threaten to lie & get killed the person holding your life saving medicine. That is fucking something a child would understand! Ok...maybe a teenager. lol

*Know what I hate about these shows? They have this advanced technology, some beyond ours right now, but it's....stupid technology. Outta Idocracy or something. Like it can do amazing things, but fucks up all the time. Like the power suit; never thought to put guards around the vulnerable neckline? SUITS OF ARMOR DID THAT!

[kkusuka]

Love your writing and I adored your thick af gf head cannons. I was hoping that you could do a part two with the following characters; Ushijima, Semi, Akaashi, Oikawa, Sugawara and Futakuchi? Thank you!

<3

part one

part 3

Ushijima Wakatoshi

Just the fact that ushijima had a girlfriend set some people off

But the fact he had a girlfriend like you??

No way

No possible way

How did that even happen?

I’ll tell you

It was not the most romantic by any means

It was a totally normal day at Shiratorizawa, classes were fine, but on his way back to his last class he was in a crowded staircase

And you just happened to be wearing shoes that didn't fit and somehow were coming undone every five seconds

What i am trying to say is you fell backwards onto him and he you a hand full off ass and another hand of boob

you apologized, he was shell shocked (and kinda turned on)

And you two just moved along, until tendou got word of what happened

Which led to him getting the full story from the man himself then forcing ushijima to ask you out two days later.

You agreed, duh, and thus began the “ushijima gets everything” mantras

He's not that protective with what you wear considering either everyone knows you’re his girlfriend or he's standing next to you the entire time you're wearing it.

But, he does take notice of a lot of your clothes, uncaring or not, he’ll try to talk you out of wearing some things

like tight dresses, which is pretty much every dress

With the exception of sundresses!

If you wear a sundress he’s putty in your hands, just slip on the dress and you can literally just walk on him, and he’ll let you

Also sundresses are the reason you know his horny language

Considering he is not a man of words, he takes a more physically approach

As in he will grab you by the waist, pick you up and just walk away

Maybe uttering a “we have to go”

Or there are times that he’ll just put you on his lap or have you straddle his thigh

No words, no thoughts, just thinking about how soft you are.

Semi Eita

Semi is a cuddle bug, and you can’t tell me he isn't 

So seeing you at one of their games, specifically the one that he was playing and doing great, he knew it was you

Once he slithered his way into your life he asked you on a date!

That night was th efist day he realized that he wasn't the only one who thought you were the hottest person on the planet 

Que the beginning of protective Semi!

He's the “I trust you, but i don't trust them” linda guy

But the good way 

He lets your wear all the dresses and leggings (bc they usually don't stay on for too long) 

But when he does, he's on you, shoulder to shoulder walking, hand in hand, arm around the shoulder 

Just to let all those creeps know your his <3

(it is also not below him to buy you a choker (aka a collar) with his name on it) 

He is the handsy king 

He’s a good mix of groping you to heavan, and telling you how beautiful you are 

He’ll pry his hands into your thighs and press you into him 

He shoves his face into the crook of your neck 

He also doesn't really care if anyone sees, he’ll do it during parties, in his dorm with his roommate, during practice breaks 

Or he ruts into you in the hallway 

Everyone sees it, you know it he knows it, you guys just don't really care 

Akaashi Keiji

you knew him as Bokuto's friend and he was content with that 

but eventually you guys caught feelings and bokuto just decided to play god

Akaashi, as much as he tries, is not completely rid of emotions 

And all the pretending makes it really hard for him to see you in more than a few outfits 

The uniform, how have you not been dress coded yet? 

One time it seemed especially short and he just turned around and faced the wall until the bell rang

or when you were rushing and just wore spandex and his old jersey to one of his games 

he had to get taken out so he could catch his breath

aka just looking at you made him a mess

and that time you wore leggings and a crop top to a movie date 

and he had a hard on the entire night

(but it was below him to ask for a handjob in public even though he desperately wanted to ask) 

considering he’s turned on when you do literally anything 

He has formed a “i have to tell her i'm turned on, but i don't want to say it out loud” system

First is the staring 

He just looks at you from wherever you are and he follows you with his eyes. Hell look down your body and think out your previous bedroom activities 

Second is the touching

He’ll come up behind you and just stand there. Rest his head on your shoulder and rub up and down your sides 

Third, and finally, is the whispers 

He has his head there for a reason, if you just ignore him (which is hard) he just starts telling you all the things he wants to do to you. And he’ll remind you about how you begged for him last time and how easily you cu for him

Basically he just makes it impossible to ignore

Oikawa Tooru

Imma just say: the reason you got with this guy is because he practically begged on his knees for it 

Everyday, everytime you passed him he would tell you how amazing you looked and how you would be such a good couple

Y’know, pretty + sexiest girl on the planet = power couple! 

It's basic math! 

And eventually you gave in and he was ecstatic! 

You were his!!! Him him him his!!!!!!!!!

Honestly, i think he’s the type to match outfits

So he doesn't care what your wearing because he always looks like you belong to him anyways 

But that being said, if he doesnt have something to match, you can't wear it 

What a diva 

There is one exception to this

A royal blue, v-neck, off the shoulder, skin tight, mid-thigh dress

You didn't have that thing on for two minutes before he was ripping it off. 

You guys were a no-show to whatever event you were supposed to be at 

He’s far more vocal about when he wants to have sex 

Sometimes he’ll just yell across the room that he wants head

But you have Iwaizumi to hit him in the back of the head and put him in his place 

He will bend you over something and fake bang you

Or he’ll pull you onto his lap and have you ride him

He’s just really horny and somehow seems to get what he wants when he wants by just being a persistent bastard

Sugawara Koshi

He’s your biggest hype man! 

You could be wearing a potato sack and hes be smiling as clapping telling you how great you like 

He’s like a facebook mom, he takes pictures of you all the time and just brags about you to everyone 

He also takes the best instagram photos 

He ever so slightly makes you wear more modest stuff (not that it matters) 

But it does help with some of the rando’s who try to get with you  literally every time you go out 

You also seem to be a catcall magnet

And HE barks back at them 

Like “bark” “woof woof” kinda bark 

Every time, he has not let anyone pass

Now a horny Koishi is just like regular Koshi but every so slightly more snappy

But he mostly just attaches himself to your rear and just sits 

He’ll stand behind you and grind or he’ll rock the both of you back and forth so it looks slightly less like he’s trying to bang you

But if you’re teasing him alot he’ll just grab you and take you to your room or another room and just bang 

Either way he’s getting what he wants 

Futakuchi Kenji 

This guy shows you off!

He wanted everyone to know that you are his and his only! 

He’s a lucky guys and wants everyone to know it 

He isn’t to controlling of what you wear but that doesn't mean he doesn't get turned on

(he does, and fairly easily) 

Any kind of booty short

They frame your ass like the fuking Mona Lisa, it should be illegal. And how they accent your thighs and make them look so soft and cuddly 

Short-ish dresses

I'm talking mid-thigh, frilly, like the type that people take the panty shots from. It's just that they are always shorter in the back and sometimes he can see your panties under them. 

One time you were making something in the kitchen with one of them on and he just laid in between your legs and just started….from the floor…...up to your panities 

(like a creep)

Any many other random articles of clothing, but those two just seemed to set him off the most. 

He’s demanding horny boy 

He wastes no time in just grinding on you and telling you how much of a whore you are for getting turned on. 

He also has no shame in doing in while people watch

Waiting is such a hassle and if he could just fick you in an alley he’s going to

Let all those jerks see who you love <3

[senterya]

It's been an absolute joy reading people's takes on the OC interview that has been floating around recently.

The idea of a Pale Rose interview (read: Fyarh and Nym dragging ex-courtier Reln into this) sounded so oddly entertaining that I wrote it for myself for fun but it turned out... surprisingly okay? So I'm gonna leave it here.

OC Interview: Pale Rose edition

(Draw (or use an old drawing, don’t worry!) or take a screen of your character in an interview setting and make them answer the following questions!)

1. Can you introduce yourself?

Fyarh: Sure. I’m Fyarh, founder and – formally – leader of Pale Rose. I’m also the head of the Dreamers’ division in our guild. (turns to the other two) And they are Nymeleia and Reln, head of the Soundless and Courtiers, respectively.

Nymeleia: (with a wide smile) Glad to be here!

Reln: (remains silent – just nods a little)

2. What is your gender identity, orientation, and relationship status?

Fyarh: (after a few seconds of thinking) I’m male, maybe prefer others who identify as that too? Didn’t think too much about it before.

Nymeleia: I’m looking both ways. I’m female and taken, you could say.

Reln: Why is this even– (exhales) ...I’m male, I don’t care what my partner identifies as. And my relationships are not for the public to chew on.

3. Where and when were you born?

Nymeleia: Back in the Grove, all of us. I awoke at Dawn and the boys are both Night blooms.

4. What is your weapon of choice and fighting style?

Fyarh: I’m best at stealth and surprise – daggers work just fine with that. If it’s an open confrontation, I prefer a light sword that doesn’t hinder my agility. But I’m trained and still training in hand-to-hand combat too.

Nymeleia: I was trained at the Vigil to be the shield, not the spearhead of the attack. I stay behind and make sure nothing hits that shouldn’t. I utilize shades and magic so technically I don’t need a weapon – a staff or scepter can help, though. I also carry a dagger on me, just in case.

Reln: I’m best with a bow. Two-handed sword if it comes to that. But whatever does the job, really.

5. Lastly, are you happy?

Fyarh: (smiles and glances at the others) I am. I’m on the path my Wyld Hunt laid out to me and I got great allies and friends that are with me every step I take. I’m truly grateful for that.

Nymeleia: (with a soft smile) I feel like I found my calling here. I’m working on a cause and with people that are amazing. I’m pretty happy with that, yes.

(both look over to Reln)

Reln: (after a few seconds of silence, with a cynical smile) Are we just supposed to say yes or no to that? Like happiness is that easy to define. (he glances to the side for a second.) But it’s been better here. Take that as a yes.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

1. What’s your family like? What is your relationship with them?

Fyarh: The guild is the closest I have to a family in a sense you ask. I think? I’m on good terms with everyone – luckily, I mean... (he laughs a little nervously) ...it’s as it should be.

Nymeleia: I’m with Fyarh on this one. The sylvari in Rose are the closest people to me.

Reln: It really is pointless to ask sylvari about “family” – we’re all technically related, but are strangers at the same time.

Nymeleia: (with a smile she barely tries to hide) You are dodging the question.

Reln: I’m not dodging anything, I’m being reasonable. I have close friends, and allies – call that a family, if you want to.

2. Have you ever run away from home?

Nymeleia: We’re all sort of runaways, aren’t we? (she laughs) I’m Soundless, I left the Grove quite early, then joined the Vigil. Does that count?

Fyarh: It counts. But just so that you don’t feel left out. (Nymeleia gasps and mimics trying to kick him in the shin, they both laugh. Takes them a few more seconds to get back on track.)

Fyarh: I used to sneak away a lot when I was supposed to be in lectures. I loved discovering Caledon, I knew every corner of it so well when I was a sapling. Maybe I’d still remember if I walked around.

Reln (after everyone looks at him): ...I’m from the Court. I think that’s self-explanatory.

Fyarh: But didn’t you also wander away a lot?

Reln: You could say. I preferred being alone. Hunting was a good excuse.

3. Would you consider marriage or having children?

Fyarh: In the far future, maybe? I’m still very young though, and my hands are full with my guild and my Hunt. It’s definitely not something I think about a lot.

Nymeleia: Marriage sounds cute – I like the idea of honoring commitment with a little ceremony.

Reln: Neither of those seems to be for me.

Nymeleia: (quietly) Ah, my heart.

(Reln glances at her, but doesn’t respond.)

4. Do you secretly hate one of your friends?

Fyarh and Nymeleia: No...?

Reln: (slightly annoyed) Is it even a friend if you hate them? Next question.

5. Which friend knows everything about you?

Fyarh: Maybe Daleien? We've known each other for the longest, and he was with me through thick and thin. Nowadays I share a lot with Nym and Reln too. I used to be very secretive about myself but I’m working on it.

Nymeleia: We chat and gossip a lot with Dia – she’s another Soundless from the guild. She’s lovely and so supportive, I’m really glad I have her.

Reln: I’m not the one to share everything about myself. But my second-in-command knows the most.

Nymeleia: Oh don’t listen to him. He and Lavan technically read each other’s minds – no words, just half a gesture, and they know all they need to know.

ASKED BY FANS

1. Are you literate? Have you been to school?

Fyarh: I’m literate, and I’ve been mentored as much – well, maybe a little less – than any other sylvari.

Nymeleia: I actually struggled with reading and writing for a while – I could, just not well, as I never really had to. Paperwork has been a nightmare for the first months in Rose, but by now I got the hang of it. I’ve been reading a lot of novels recently, too.

Reln: I’m literate, and was mentored like all other saplings. The latter didn’t reach its purpose, though.

2. The eeriest prediction you made that later came true?

(They all look at each other, but neither of them seems to have an answer or anything they’d be willing to share.)

3. What is something you were embarrassingly late to realize?

Fyarh: Oh. I somehow never really talked about my Wyld Hunt in.... sufficient detail to my mentors? Not before the Wardens arrested me for hiding thorn pups in a forsaken outpost. It was a real journey talking my way out from there. One of the most embarrassingly funny things that happened to me, in retrospect.

Nymeleia: I was always too caught upon not handling the concept of pain, and death, very well. I don’t regret working on it and toughening up, I just wish I had realized sooner that I should hone my strengths instead of desperately trying to “correct” what I perceive as a weakness.

Reln: ...I guess I haven’t realized soon enough what real understanding means. (he seems mildly uncomfortable by the question, and does not elaborate)

4. Do you have mental health or physical issues?

Fyarh: Fighting takes a toll on everyone, I’d say. But nothing other than that.

Nymeleia: (nodding along – her eyes wander off to the distance)

Reln: A few scars here and there. Had a lot to deal with after coming back from the heart of the jungle, but I have worked through most of those by now.

5. What is your current main goal?

Fyarh: I’m dedicating all my time to the guild. It’s been coming along so much better than what I prepared myself for, and I’m not about to waste the opportunity.

Nymeleia: I’m not satisfied with my level of skills on the field yet – I’m spending as much time on training as I can, next to Rose. There are some other necromancers in the guild with who we share our knowledge, and I have gotten some general good advice and lectures from Firstborn Trahearne himself. It’s crazy how far Fyarh’s connections go.

Reln: I’m busy training and supervising my own division. Most of us are reliable and trusting, but there are and will always be a few loose cannons I need to keep an eye out for.

CHOICES

1. Drink or food?

Fyarh: A drink, maybe? I tend to forget to eat. It’s getting on Nym’s nerves at times.

Nymeleia: Ah don’t even mention it. I’m picking food – nothing tops a good, warm meal after a long day.

Reln: Food, if I have to pick.

2. Cats or dogs?

Fyarh: I love cats. I wouldn't mind adopting one, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to take good care of them.

Nymeleia: Can we pick both, maybe?

Reln: (glancing at the thorn wolf lying next to him) I’m more of a dog person. But cats are good too.

3. Early bird or night owl?

Fyarh: I’m a night owl. Waking up with the rest of the guild at early hours is a nightmare for me. I tend to oversleep so much, it’s almost comical.

Nymeleia: That’s not a problem for me though. I’m up before everyone else. And so is Reln.

Reln: (nodding)

4. Optimist or pessimist?

Fyarh: Optimist.

Nymeleia: Same, some will even say naive for sure.

Reln: Middle ground. I’m more of a realist than any of the two.

5. Sassy or sarcastic?

Fyarh: Maybe... sassy? With close friends. I don’t feel like either most of the time, honestly.

Nymeleia: Would you say I’m more sassy or sarcastic?

Reln: (to her) Is that really a question?

Nymeleia: Oh entertain me.

Reln: (gestures towards her; she laughs)

HAVE YOU EVER

1. Been caught sneaking out?

Fyarh: Once, when I was sneaking out of a Court camp with two stolen thorn pups. Barely got away. Didn’t dare to show myself around there for a while.

Nymeleia: Several times. Did a lot of bathroom cleaning in the Vigil for it too.

Reln: If I was, I doubt I would be here today.

2. Broken a bone?

Fyarh: Miraculously, no. I don’t even know myself how’s that possible.

Nymeleia: My left arm. Open wound, too – wasn’t a good experience.

Reln: Nothing that a field medic couldn’t fix.

3. Received flowers?

Fyarh: If you mean it like, in a romantic way? No, not yet.

Nymeleia: I received a few, but in my experience Vigil soldiers are more of the blunt than the romantic type.

Reln: No.

Nymeleia: How dare you. I gave you potted herbs a while ago!

Fyarh: (leaning forward) Potted herbs?

Nymeleia: It’s because he takes his food back to his room all the time. And then he complains about the seasoning. Go figure!

4. Ghosted someone?

Fyarh: I did... use to run away from confrontations a lot. But people say I’ve gotten better with that too.

Nymeleia: I prefer to just tell people if I’m not interested in talking to them. As kindly as possible, of course. But I think it’s ruder to leave them hanging.

Reln: I did leave from places – the Grove, the Court – suddenly, but then again, I didn’t have many connections to either in the first place.

5. Pretended to laugh at a joke you didn’t get?

Fyarh: That happens. Easier than trying to go back to it and figure it out, takes away the flow of the conversation.

Nymeleia: Everyone does that from time to time, no?

Reln: I don’t. If someone’s not funny enough, that’s not my problem.

[firehananas]

Chapter 159th to the end

Hmm ‘got much more mixed feelings about the end

I wonder if the mangaka is a huge gamer because the characters tend to always compare the situation with video games. I honestly find it a bit annoying - like, I don’t mind the gamer character to think like that, but almost everyone have a thought like this at one point. 

I have the feeling the whole Rika’s brainwashing was forced. Of course I wanted the two brothers to fight (Cain/Abel drama + Yuri setting as Seth yumyum) but it would had been better if Rika was the big villain the whole time/was really corrupted by Aikawa’s ideology.

That being said, I appreciated a little more Rika in the last half. I admit, he manages to do cool tricks.

Lowkey ship Sniper/White Feather for drama reason

Kuon’s death made me tear a bit - it was really heartbreaking </3

Too bad she doesn’t stay dead tho. It minimized the whole intensity of that scene and it feels too easy for the party afterward. Paradoxically, I liked the interactions she had with Yuri and Yuka.

Knowing there is a sequel, will they try to created a new body for her? Could be interesting. But I heard it was with new characters, so I don’t think I’ll read it. I was already reading it only mostly for Sniper Mask, so if I can’t get a shot of his riffle’s cannon, I’m not interested anymore.

I was honestly a bit nervous at the idea Kuon stayed in the head of Yuka - Ordinary quickly questioned this and pointed out very well my thoughts. It seems she doesn’t have to stay in his head and somehow body surfed with other God Candidates, but it still upset me for them all.

I thought Kuon was baby. She is. But she isn’t. Yet she is. However she isn’t. Actually- 

(She is definitely less innocent she appears to be, as I expected, but much darker than I visualized it)

Disappointed Aikawa was just sitting there while Yuka and Rika fight. Like, I was excepting he asked Volleyball Mask to bring him some popcorns at one point.

I really need someone to make an animatic of the brothers fight with “the plagues” from The Prince of Egypt. It matchs it so well 😔

Oh look, Yukio becomes super strong! Is he a Closer to God now? Oh no wait, it’s a literal deus ex-machina!

If High Rise Invasion gets a second season, it means we will be able to admire the divine butt of Yuka at the very least twice.

The codes were interesting on paper, but I wished they foreshadowed it sooner. Making Kuon said “oh yeah, I just remember it now” every times is a bit cheap.

Makoto brothers really shined in this part. It was really refreshing to see them working together.

Does anyone have an idea of what Tenma means? I couldn’t found anything about this...

I don’t think it was a good idea to introduced Juo for the last arc. He was out of place. Aikawa was to the point to succeeded to become a god, was much more threatening and it was less thrilling to follow Rika&co fighting him. If the whole scenario happened before, it would have been more smooth in my opinion.

Tbh, I didn’t even get why Yuri wanted to save Juo at the end...  

Administrator was f*cked up, but I couldn’t bring myself to hate him. His fate is just too awful and I understand he became so mad and drunk of power.

Praise Yuka for speaking the truth to the Supervisor. Wish he go further, calling him out that they succeeded thanks to their teamwork and not because they act in a "man is a wolf to man” way. Please, even bacterias understand the concept of helping the less strong to survive.

I need to pin up in my bedroom the page where Yuka said “you’re amazing” as a motivation quote.

Broke: Yuka is daddy. Woke: Yuka is a dad. Heck, he even lampshades it himself.

Did Prophet die?? He wasn’t show to be dead but he isn’t in the epilogue either...

My boy Yoshida didn’t deserved to die, especially not this way. That was dirty.

The whole betrayal of the dad is never addressed??? Where is the drama??? And the reunion of the Kusakabe didn’t move me at all. Do I am really suppose to care for a woman who tortured people with an obvious pleasure and turned my man Yuka and other countless people into puppets? Sorry but no.

Saito never becomes strong, halas. I’m not even sure if she showed up in the epilogue. It seems the author didn’t know what to do with her. She isn’t the only one in that case...

I understand why people complained the ending to be rushed. While it’s good to see Yuri alive, the whole family complete and angels stopping killing people, no god has been created (since somehow Yuri isn’t a complete god for now?), dimensions will maybe fused and insured chaos... yet the last thing the protagonist is seen doing is going to eat with her girlfriend. For a survival game genre, it’s hard to swallow — pun no intended. It’s way too cheesy after all the horrors they lived AND the threats incoming.

CONCLUSION

Yuka is definitely the best. What a husbando material.

Concept is very interesting but messy in execution at the end

Rarely boring, gorgeous art

Wished Yuka/Yuri/Rika worked more together and tried to bond as a family. It’s one of the most prominent theme of the manga, it’s too bad it mostly works as Yuri > Rika < Yuka and not all the three. (I don’t count when Yuka worked as Sniper Mask under Yuri since they didn’t know they were related.)

WISHED YURI/MAYUKO TO BE MORE OFFICIAL ARGHHHHH

Aikawa was a good villain, so was the administrator. Too bad they died so quickly. Juo could have been interesting too if he didn’t showed this late.

Wasted opportunity with Yayoi, she could have been an amazing villain.

It’s really too bad Yoshida didn’t manage to “really” meet one of the Makoto. I really think they could have influenced him positively. 

...Maybe too many characters...? It’s hard to judge since there is a need to have so much (otherwise nothing would happen) but it’s difficult to find them all flesh out. And if the reader don’t care, the whole drama and horror are much less impactful. 

I’m not sure how I feel towards Kuon now. I still like her, but I need to zoom off to understand better her character.

I’ll say it again: Yoshida didn’t deserved this fate :c

Ending rushed up, probably to prepare for the sequel but it’s still very brutal and cheesy, leaving a bitter taste as a farewell.

[catrasredemption-moved]

Sorry for the offense my ask caused however I dont necessarily understand why you don't want to write Catra as she cannonically was for 90% of the series? It's like do you really like Catra as a character or do you just want a cute cat girl design that you can treat like an oc and give her any personality you want?

*sigh* Okay, you want to do this? Let’s go.

For reference, this is the ask in question.

I dont necessarily understand why you don't want to write Catra as she cannonically was for 90% of the series?

You’re right. That is how Catra was for a lot of the series. I’ve never shied away from that fact or tried to defend it. Catra was an unhealthy, toxic, terrible person. But to simply leave it at that is a surface reading which doesn’t take several things into account:

Environment: Catra grew up in a place where literally everyone hated her. Shadow Weaver and Hordak both threatened to kill her on multiple occasions, and Hordak tried twice to do so. As early as the third episode of season one, Lonnie makes it clear that the only thing that ever protected Catra in the Horde was Adora, meaning it was basically open season on her once Adora left. If she hadn’t been given the Force Captain badge to hide behind, things probably would have been a lot worse.

Opportunities: Catra was given almost no chances to really change aside from Adora insisting that she up and abandon the only life she knows (as terrible as that life is at least it’s the devil she knows). And every time she shows weakness, life comes back to kick her. Shadow Weaver gives a minute bit of kindness? Catra gives her what she wants, and Shadow Weaver uses it to escape and abandon Catra to whatever punishment Hordak will give her. Catra opens up to Scorpia? Hordak’s demon imp reports it back to Hordak. Catra is happy in the Crimson Waste? She finds out that Shadow Weaver abandoned her to go to Adora. Catra slowly hardens herself over the course of season 1-4 because she simply can’t afford not to do so. Being even slightly soft has, over and over, proven to be her downfall.

Mental Health: Catra pretty obviously has problems that aren’t addressed because the Horde doesn’t gaf about mental illness. *C-PTSD - She was consistently abused and threatened by the person who was supposed to be her parental figure. That messes you up *Depression - I mean... yeah. That one is just kind of obvious *Borderline Personality Disorder - This is a very strong headcanon of mine (and a lot of the fandoms). BPD is a bitch of a mental illness. What are some of the symptoms? I’m glad you asked: An intense fear of abandonment, even going to extreme measures to avoid real or imagined separation or rejection || A pattern of unstable intense relationships, such as idealizing someone one moment and then suddenly believing the person doesn't care enough or is cruel || Rapid changes in self-identity and self-image that include shifting goals and values, and seeing yourself as bad or as if you don't exist at all (source). Any of that sound disturbingly familiar?

Catra’s Own Desires: As Double Trouble so eloquently put it “You try so hard to play the 'Big Bad Villain’ but your heart has never been it has it?” (Double Trouble, Destiny Part 2, 4x13). All Catra’s ever really wanted was acknowledgment that she’s worth something, to feel cared about, and Adora. That’s it. This post sums things up pretty well, imo - when asked what she wants, her focus is pulled to Adora. All of her dreams included Adora. It’s said right in the first episode: “We’re gonna see the world and conquer it.” (Catra, The Sword Part 1, 1x01). She tries to carry through with that plan on her own when Adora leaves, and we see how well that goes for her.

Catra Makes A Concentrated Effort To Change: Catra at the end of season four/beginning of season five is not the same Catra we’ve seen throughout the rest of the series. She’s down. She’s defeated. She’s seeking comfort in Glimmer’s company. And when push comes to shove, she does something she’s never done before - puts someone else’s life above her own survival. Her own life is officially forfeit. She knows what’ll happen to her when Glimmer is gone, and she doesn’t care. And she’s convinced no one else cares either. “There’s no one left in the entire universe who cares about me.” (Catra, Corridors, 5x03). She’s ready to die, but she wants to make amends with one person before she goes - Adora. She needs to apologize to Adora before she dies so maybe Adora will have a better memory of her than just the angry, bitter villain she became. And when she actually survives, she tries really hard to fall back on that angry persona, because she’s afraid of getting hurt again. But Adora almost immediately takes that down. “What do you care?! I know you all hate me!” “I never hated you!” *pause* “Then you’re even dumber than I thought.” (Catra, Adora, Taking Control, 5x06). Catra isn’t trying to be cruel or insult Adora there. Okay, maybe she's being a little insulting, but most of the hate is directed at herself. She doesn’t understand why Adora doesn’t hate her. Why Adora even bothered to go back for her. In her mind, there’s no way Adora can still care about her after everything that’s happened. She can’t let herself believe it, because she knows she’s just going to get hurt in the end (see earlier point about BPD). And when she realizes she’s actually going to live, and maybe she has another chance to set things right? She changes. She makes a very concentrated effort to be a better a person. *“I’m sorry. I got angry. It’s something I’m working on.” (Catra, Shot In The Dark, 5x08) *“I’m trying to be a better friend, that has to count for something.” (Catra, Return to the Fright Zone, 5x10) *“No. I’m not leaving. Whatever happens, I’m staying!” (Catra, The Heart Part 2, 5x13) We see Catra acknowledging and trying to work on her anger issues, making an effort to be a better friend, and refusing, for the first time, to run away when things start getting hard, even if it means watching Adora die. She also: *Makes amends with Perfuma after their earlier fight in Return to the Fright Zone, and doesn’t argue with Perfuma when she implies Catra has feelings for Adora (which is a huge thing for her to do with someone she barely knows) *Stands up to Shadow Weaver, her abuser, and then works with her to find and help Adora *Once again puts her own life in danger for the greater good (staying behind to fight the infected security bug, which she knows will kill her (notice how she doesn’t look Adora in the eye when she says she’ll catch up)), in favor of letting Shadow Weaver help Adora to the Heart.

Has Catra fully changed by the end of the series? Of course not, she had to fight an alien invasion, it’s really hard to go through full character development while fighting a war. But she lays the groundwork for herself as early as 4x13, when she steps in to save Glimmer from being killed by Horde Prime. She saves Glimmer in 5x03 with zero expectations that anyone will come back and save her. She saw what Horde Prime did to Hordak and knows that’s probably her future, but she puts the greater good above her own desire to live (which is probably pretty low at that point anyway). And when Adora does come back? She’s angry. Not because of Adora’s hero complex (although that’s pretty frustrating as well), but because she doesn’t see herself as someone worth saving. “We both know I don’t matter” (Catra, Save the Cat, 5x05). She so deeply believes she’s worthless that even Adora coming back for her can’t have been out of any sense of love - it was just Adora wanting to play the hero again. She spends the rest of season five trying to be someone worth that sacrifice. Trying to be someone worth Adora’s love.

It's like do you really like Catra as a character or do you just want a cute cat girl design that you can treat like an oc and give her any personality you want?

Catra as a character is absolutely fascinating to me, mostly for the reasons I listed above - she’s not purely good or evil, she’s hugely impacted by the environment she grew up and the abuse she suffered, and she’s not the typical abuse victim we’re used to seeing in media - the one whose abuse made her kinder. Being abused made Catra bitter and angry. Catra worked to make herself kinder, to make herself a better person. That’s a conscious choice she makes and continues to make.

And the things you asked for? They’re also conscious choices:

she finds it too easy to physically lash out at Adora when stressed and expects her to take it bc "Adora is she-ra and it doesnt really hurt her anyway"

That’s abuse. That’s physical abuse no matter which way you slice it. That’s Catra making a choice to attack Adora using stress as an excuse because “Adora can take it.” Even at her worse, Catra never physically hurt someone outside of the battle - notable exceptions being Adora in 1x02 and Entrapta in 3x04, when she hits both of them with stun batons. And look at her face after each of those moments:

That’s not exactly the face of a brutal abuser. That’s someone who is just in way over her head and has no idea what she’s doing.

(It’s up to you if you want to include her slashing at Emily after her nightmare. Personally, I don’t, because it was a fear reaction and... Emily’s a robot.)

She gets angry, absolutely. She loses her temper and breaks things and threatens (usually by hitting the wall next to someone), but outside of battles, most of her attacks are verbal. Which leads me to my next point:

she keeps trying to manipulate people casually

Catra is absolutely amazing at reading people and making snap decisions on what to say that she thinks would get through to them or hurt them. Notable examples:

-Scorpia - “ And that's exactly why you have to go! How dare they pretend they're better just because you're different! How dare they abandon people just because they don't fit into their perfect little lives!” (Catra, 1x08, Princess Prom) Entrapta - “They left you. They left you, and they’re not coming back. Isn’t that just like Adora? She left me behind, too. Like I was nothing. Adora got her precious Bow and Glimmer back. All these princesses care about is people who are just like them. But you’re not like them, are you?” (Catra, 1x10, The Beacon) Hordak, after he says he needs Entrapta - “ Who do you think let the princesses in?” (Catra, 3x04, Moment of Truth)

Hell, even Horde Prime, in a way - she tells him that he needs her and Glimmer alive to activate the Heart of Etheria. Whether or not he’s actually convinced or if he’s just playing along to get what he wants is questionable, but she still had to think on her feet and used something she had known existed for like ten minutes (the Heart of Etheria).

And again, those are all choices she makes. Her manipulation skills are undeniable, but using them for fun would be falling back on old habits, something, again, she’s trying very hard not to do.

or she strikes a saleanis civilian when confronted

Again, Catra (aside from the two stun baton incidents) does not hit first outside of battle. Not to mention Salineas is probably one of worst regrets (along with the portal). She might tell someone to fuck off, especially if they bother her while she’s working, but hitting a civilian? That’s not even Old Catra. Old Catra would have just stopped and given them a death glare until they got scared and ran away.

It's like do you really like Catra as a character or do you just want a cute cat girl design that you can treat like an oc and give her any personality you want?

Season five Catra is meant to be a Catra who’s trying to heal and be a better person. Season four shows Catra slowly breaking down, all of the things that have made her personality up to this point - her anger, her resentment, the things she thinks she wants - being ripped away and leaving her empty. And when she survives Horde Prime, she can’t return to that persona. She tries in 5x06, and breaks halfway through because she just can’t do it anymore.

Adora confronts her twice, she tries to fall back into her old way of coping with things, and she’s exhausted by the end of it. She can’t maintain that kind of anger anymore. Four seasons and three-ish years later, she’s just... not capable of it.

But none of that means she’s “magically healed.” She still has a temper. She still lashes out and runs away when things get hard. She tries, and she backslides, because that’s what recovery is. Backsliding all the way to pre-Breakdown Catra, though? She can’t do that. Consciously, she knows no one will put up with it. Emotionally, she just can’t. And most importantly, she doesn’t want to. She wants to be a better person, she wants to be someone who deserves love and friendship.

And that is the Catra I enjoy writing. She’s not cutesy or ==^uWu^== - she’s broken. She’s trying to heal. She has sharp edges and trauma and she’s not always going to handle things well. But she’s also trying to learn better coping methods. She’s finally doing what she actually wants (recovering from the past and being a better person), and she deserves better than a fandom that wants her to go to back to being the toxic person she was pre-breakdown.

So I’m sorry if you don’t like my interpretation of Catra, Anon, but to be frank, I’m not too crazy about yours, either, so... I guess we’re done here.

[honestlyawriter]

Ranting about a Character

Author’s Note:

Hello! This will be my first character analysis on this blog. Due to the character that I have decided to do this for, there WILL BE SPOILERS. Continue reading at your own discretion. Just like my previous post, this will not be edited so I apologize for any mistakes that you find.

I am also going to provide the disclaimer that this is only based on the anime because, at the time of posting this, I have not read the manga.

If you’ve made it to the end of my little note, I hope that you enjoy the character analysis and please let me know what you think!

Have an amazing day!

Title: Character Analysis – Junpei Yoshino – Jujutsu Kaisen

Summary: My thoughts on the character Junpei Yoshino from Jujutsu Kaisen.

Warnings: Spoilers. Mentions of death. Mentions of assault. Mentions of bullying.

Junpei Yoshino was a minor character in the Jujutsu Kaisen series. He was seventeen at the time of his introduction and he was seventeen at the time of his death. Junpei was emotionally lost after being assaulted and bullied at school and had developed self-destruction ideations and connections. In the anime, very little development takes place at school and Junpei appears to have dropped out within the time frame that he appears in the show. Mahito is introduced to the Junpei during that time and provides him guidance that is more the questionable and ultimately, he is killed by Mahito shortly thereafter.

Junpei is a prime example of a character being used as bait for the main character. Junpei, unfortunately, was a plot device used to lure the main character (Yuji) into a dangerous situation that furthered the plot. Not to say that Junpei wasn’t a great character, because he was, but he was a bit of a waste – in my opinion.

I don’t particularly like when characters are killed for the sake of being killed, and I especially hate lackluster deaths. Jujutsu Kaisen didn’t provide the audience with time to grieve, which is something that I really hope that this show does not repeat, because if the audience does not have time to grieve, neither does the main character and it forces the reader to see that “this character is a plot device and I should not get attached.” Which is the exact opposite of what you want to happen when you kill off a character.

A really good example of a show that kills characters while still making them relevant is Violet Evergarden. Spoilers ahead if you have not watched the show, but there is a lot of death. I don’t want to go too much into that because you should watch it when you have time. It’s a great show.

Now, I’m honestly not sure if my opinion is a hot take, but I think that the death could have been improved immensely if 1. It had been prolonged, or 2. It had happened at a later date. I know that these two points sound very similar, but here is what I mean: For the prolonged death, everything that did happened should have happened, but instead of him just falling over dead, Junpei should have either gained control again and turned against Mahito – to be killed, or another character should have killed him, possibly Nanami. This would have forced Yuji into an emotional dilemma either way. If Junpei would have tried to attack Mahito, it would have forced Yuji into action, and in his efforts to protect Junpei he would have felt much more guilty about his passing. Especially because it would have confirmed that: yes, Junpei did see the error of his ways before it was too late. He would have, had he not been transmuted, probably joined Yuji at Jujutsu Tech. It would have allowed us to dwell on the emotions for more than half a moment, and it would have made Yuji uncontrollably angry.

With the second option, if Junpei would have been kidnapped and transformed more delicately, possibly into something that was actually able to fight, I would have actually lost it. Especially if it forced Yuji to kill him after everything that Junpei had been through and after everything that Yuji had said about killing people. I don’t think that this needs to be explained in depth but I would have been destroyed if something like this would have happened. This will remain a head cannon for myself forever more.

Either way, I was disappointed in the direction that they took this character in. I understand that this story is probably about 3 years old at this point (I believe this is approximately when the manga debuted), and that the series is just following the Manga. And depending on how the next few episodes go, my opinion may change.

I’m excited to see how it goes!

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading, and please let me know your thoughts on this character. Do you agree, disagree, or did you not care for this character at all?

Let me know!

[silverthetheorist]

My problems with the current dream smp storyline

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way shape or form sending hate to any of the cc. I love the dream smp and it’s storyline. But just because you love something doesn’t mean you cannot criticize it. Furthermore, this is purely a literary analysis of the story. I have no idea of what external or personal factors might be influencing the story or decisions. I will focus on the story and ignore the real world. Finally, I do not know the complete story. My opinions might change after seeing the whole story unfold.

Ok, let’s begin:

First of all, I do not believe the current story to be bad. I think it is very good! So I want to start positively and list all the great things about this arc.

Focusing on Tubbo and Tommy’s friendship as the emotional core of this arc is genious. A relationship that used yo be the only constant in the SMP breaking up? Poetic cinema.

Making Dream the villian again was the correct move. He is a wonder to hear and look at. Whenever he shows up he us terryfying and manipulative and a complete puppet master. Dream is a great villian and I love it.

Tommy’s whole emotional arc in exile was just.... so emotionally cathardic.

The prison! Marvelous construction! Sam is a genious! It is a great plot point that I am sure will be even better when it is fully revealed

Ramboo is a great addition to the SMP and I believe he will have a great future.

Ghostbur is hilarious and emotional. A great idea executed perfectly. The Fundy and Ghostbur relationship is great (Although we only really saw them interact the first week after the war)

Comedy is not dead in the SMP. Everyone is hilarious.

Now unto the negatives. My problems with the story are not that the story is bad, but that there is a lot of wasted potential:

Many of the plot points seem... recycled. Another exile, another execution, another festival. Repeating events while giving them a new emotional backdrop is not a bad thing (See: Tommy’s exile being completly different from his last exile while still being and exile). But repeating to many event in such a short spam of time is a little bit tiring. This is why things like the prison and the red egg are so exiciting. They completly new things!

The Badlands were perfectly set up last arc (Manberg war) to have a bigger role on the story. But they kind of have done... nothing major. And bad has confirmed that the egg storyline is only a side story that will not affect the main story (At least that is what we know as of today). Which is a shame becausr there are a lot of ways you could go with the egg story and all of them are great options! Even what they have done until today ls great! Red Skeepy! So yeah. More Badlands. Maybe a DreamSMP/Badland/L’manberg three-side-war could have happened.

We did not see enough of Tubbo’s side of the story during Tommy’s exile. Tommy went on a whole emotional arc and, while Tubbo did say something regarding the exile, he mostly ignored it. (Again, no hate. Purely and analysis of the story as it was presented. I do not know of any real life reasons for anything)

Eret, Fundy and Nicki. Oh boi. Three great characters part of og L’manberg. Three great characters completely sidelined. Eret going back as king of the DreamSMP is a complete disservice to his character arc (He redeem himself last arc but now he returns as king??). Fundy had a great thing going on at the start of this arc (With his whole adoption and fights with Ghostbur which was marvelous) but nowadays he has not done much else except beign a pawn in the buther army. And nicki. One of the greatest actors of the SMP, an OG, who has done nothing since the war. These three should have more stake on the plot, more things to do, more everything! But the story is becoming the tommy-techno show instead of the L’manberh show as it should be

The DreamSMP kingdom is kind of... non existent. Like, is anyone on that side anymore? Besided Eret I guess but I have problems with that. Also King George was a great idea but... well...

Technoblade. Oh boi. I think his character is not as good as he could be. With Dream, a big part of his appeal as a villian is his mystery (Is he a human? What does he want? Etc). Mystery was never a big part of Techno’s character. With every character you can pinpoint exactly why they are doing what they are doing (See: Tommy, Tubbo or anyone really). Techno does everything because of ANARACHY! But.... why though? I think people give him a pass because the idea of anarchy is funny and cool. But when you look inside, emotionally there is not a lot of things going on with him right now. I just wish there was more motive and emotion behind his action. He is still funny, interesting and scary (Very scary!). But he lack (For now) the emotional core.

SBI is very inconsistant. Techno says it is not cannon. Wilbur has said it was in the past. Everyone (In the SMP) just forgets Tubbo was adopted by Phil. I just wished it was more consistent.

The Dream-Sapnap-George fight was great. But it did not go anywhere. It has not been brought up in a long time. That is basically my main point. Nothing I point out as a problem is bad. It’s just that it has plenty of wasted potential

Cedar Rapids is a good idea executed poorly. Maybe it was just a joke but it had potential. Still, not a big deal. Could have played a big role but I am not bothered or annoyed or angry that they did nothing else with it.

And those are my opinions. Again, I still love the SMP and support every single one of the cc. The story is still great but has some problems. Overall not as solid as the other arcs. Nowadays I truly appreciate Wilbur. He was an amazing writer. He said in the past that he had to shoot down many ideas, maybe that has something to do with my problems with the current storyline. Having one major writer is completly different from having many major writers.

I truly hope that these problems are fixed in the future. Maybe I’ll be blown away by future events. Who knows? I still love the characters, the story and the cc. I am not sendinh hate to anyone, just sharing my opinion.

PS: English is not my first language. Sorry for any mistakes.

[justheretobreakthings]

Okay, we’re starting off Bad Things Happen Bingo with a bit of a throwback to the Voltron Bingo event from back in 2018. Way back then, I got a request from @familyofpaladins for my ‘Taking the Fall for Someone’ square, for Keith taking the fall for Hunk, and then the bingo ended and the prompt has just been sitting there for an eternity. But now, my BTHB card has just the square for me to finally get this prompt filled. Hope it was worth the very, very long wait!

Got Your Back

Written for @badthingshappenbingo Prompt: Taking the Blame Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Word Count: 13,198 Characters: Hunk & Keith Read on AO3

Summary:

While defending the planet of Crelxatain from attacking drones, Hunk causes what he believes to be some minor collateral damage, but what turns out to be much, much worse. And when the Crelxats needed something to blame, Keith steps in to take the fall.

I don’t even drink coffee.

It was fortunate that Hunk had gotten better with flying during the battles and flight practices he’d been through with Yellow. It might have been the Lions’ magic helping to keep their pilots stable, or the more mundane gyroscopic design of the cockpit helping with his equilibrium. Or, of course, it might just be a matter of him getting used to it. Whatever the case, he had come a long way since his Garrison days, when even a fifteen-minute run in a simulator would be more enough to empty the contents of his stomach.

It was fortunate, because if he hadn’t gotten better about keeping the nausea at bay, his cockpit would be a revolting mess right about now.

He and Keith had only been tasked with coming here to Crelxatain to negotiate for supplies, its geography home to mineral ore that Coran assured them could be top-grade fuel when Altean alchemy was in use, but just as they had approached the planet’s atmosphere, Yellow and Red both picked up a distress signal from the same city they were nearing. It seemed they had coincidentally arrived just in time for an air strike on the city from a nearby Empire ally, and the Crelxat had little in terms of defensive weaponry. So of course, that duty landed on the paladins.

If Yellow’s failed attempts to detect life in any of the little attacking cruisers was correct, they were only dealing with drones, not manned vehicles, but the maneuverability of the drones was downright amazing. They were constantly dodging strikes and blasts from Yellow, skimming near the tops of buildings and sometimes slipping between them, making sharp turns and speedy dives that left Hunk reeling.

The drones’ weapon of choice appeared to be some sort of energy pulse, and well-aimed blasts had elements of the infrastructure and sections of buildings toppling inward. These pulses were also being aimed at the Lions, and although they were made of strong enough material to resist being damaged by the force, the pulses would still send them jerking off course and blown aside.

Hunk groaned into his comm as Yellow tumbled in the air from one such blast, rolling rapidly enough that the gyroscopic cockpit couldn’t stop the blood from rushing to his head and then down again. “I swear,” he grunted, “When we’re finished with these things and back on the ground, I’m just going to spend like three days just lying on the floor, perfectly still, not moving. I’ve had enough movement.”

“You know we’re going to have to head back to the Castle eventually,” Keith replied through the comm. “That counts as movement.”

“So? Allura and Coran said we could take a few quintants.”

“Because it could take time for them to gather and refine the stuff we need, not because they expect us to conk out for days at a time.”

“I don’t care, I’m going for it. Day one, we place our order. Day whatever, we head back. Everything in between, we go comatose.” He squinted into the viewscreen and tried to get his vision to stop swirling before directing a blast toward an oncoming drone. The shot went wide, and the drone responded with a pulse that shoved Yellow backward and threatened to give Hunk whiplash.

“You hanging in there?” Keith asked.

“Yeah,” Hunk replied. At the corner of his viewscreen he spotted a beam of flame, the Red Lion’s fireblast, reducing a drone to ash. “Not as well as you are, though. Aren’t you getting dizzy too?”

“I was on the pilot track at the Garrison, I’ve been flying longer.”

“Still.” He righted Yellow as best he could and caught a drone in his sights. He sent off a cannon fire, and although he didn’t hit it head on, he managed to wing it just enough to send it spiraling. “Seems you’re taking down three of these things for every one I get.”

“We’re not keeping score, Hunk.”

“Just wish I was being a little more useful right now, is all.”

“You’ll be plenty more useful than me when we actually get around to talking to the Crelxats and making deals. You know that’s not exactly my strong suit.”

“Hmm, fair point,” Hunk said. “Your people skills are pretty abysmal, aren’t they.”

“Don’t hold back, Hunk, tell me how you really feel.”

“I’m just agreeing with you.” Yellow lurched upward, and Hunk narrowed his eyes at a drone zipping by from the bottom of his viewscreen while his stomach tried to right itself. He took aim with Yellow’s laser cannon, but just before he fired, another pulse threw the Lion to the side. The laser shot off, and he winced as it blasted through what appeared to be an enormous sculpture in a plaza below. “Crap,” he grunted.

“What is it?” asked Keith.

“I think I just took out some public art,” Hunk replied. “You don’t think that’ll come across as some weird anti-art statement, do you?”

“Let’s hope not. If the pulse things are giving you trouble, why don’t you focus on the drones that are flying higher up for now? I’ll work on the ones nearer to the buildings. Red’s got quicker reflexes, it’s easier to avoid collateral damage with her.”

“Yeah, sure,” Hunk sighed, managing to hold back a self-deprecating remark about how it was probably more to do with the pilot than the lion. For now, he set his sights on a drone careening toward the city's outskirts, and directed Yellow to go barrelling after it.

The pulses continued to give him no end of frustration, but he eventually managed to take down another three drones, and a scan informed him that the sky seemed to be clear around this elevation. He sighed with relief at the scan’s results, and reminded himself that he was this close to finally getting to touch down on flat ground and relax. His stomach was still churning, and his face was soaked in salty sweat, but it was over.

Well, almost over. The skies were clear at this elevation, but there had been more drones closer to the ground, and he wasn’t sure whether Keith had finished them all off yet. Odds were, of course, that he had, and might even be waiting impatiently on the ground wondering why it was taking Hunk such a long time to finish off his own batch. And now he was wasting more time catching his breath instead of actually finding out.

Heaving a deep breath, he grabbed the controls again and started downward, eyes peeled for signs of Keith. It didn’t take long to find him, as Red and her fire were making quite a scene above the city square, currently whipping around in a complicated air ballet while facing off against five drones at once, all focused on sending their pulses into Red from every direction.

Red was able to wing one of the drones before pulses from two of the others sent her flying back, and the Lion let out a growl that was echoed in Hunk’s comm as Keith let out one of his own. She dove back into the fray, expertly wheeling around between the drones and the building tops to send an arc of fire their way.

Hunk hovered on the outer edge of the ongoing fight, feeling the urge to help but not wanting to risk hitting Red by accident. “Uh, Keith?” he said. “There anything I can do right now?”

“Um, keep an eye out if any of these try to make a break for it,” Keith answered. “Other than that, think I got this under control.” As if to emphasize the point, a blast of Red’s fire hit one of the drone’s dead on, blasting it to ash.

“Okay…” Hunk said. He chewed at his bottom lip as he watched the drones, eyes straining as they flitted amongst their flight paths, trying to catch any sign that one of them was liable to break from the pack so he could go after it, but they all seemed to have their sights completely honed in on Red. It felt a little wrong to simply be waiting around while Keith managed the whole firefight on his own, even if Keith had sounded pretty certain of what he could handle and what he needed. He tentatively spoke up as Keith shot down another drone, “You know, um, maybe I could get a shield up and you can sort of feint toward it, see if we can draw them into - ”

He was cut off by a loud blast and a flash engulfing his viewscreen, and Yellow reeled back, sending him slamming his head into his dashboard. It seemed Red had sent out a powerful arcing blast from all to send the remaining drones careening out of the air, at the same time that the remaining drones surrounding her had all pulsed at once. Resulting in a shockwave that pushed Yellow back and, as was apparent when Hunk managed to blink his vision back into focus, leave many of the surrounding buildings with caved-in roofs. Hopefully any Crelxats inside them had had the sense to hunker down in the lower floors.

As he made sure Yellow was steady again, he glanced around for Red, and grimaced when he spotted her. She was still airborne, but the lights on her face and the tip of her tail were stuttering, while bolts of light crackled beneath her flank. “Um, Keith?” Hunk said. “Red’s not looking too hot.”

“I know, I’ve got it under - shit, hang on,” Keith grunted. Red turned around in the air, her movements jerkier than Hunk ever would have expected from Red, and starting soaring away from surrounding buildings. He followed in Yellow, and together the Lions made it to an open stretch of land. Red glided toward the ground, and as she was lowering, her lights went completely dark. She hit the ground with audible force, collapsing in a heap where she landed.

Hunk winced at the sight of the downed Lion before scanning his eyes over ground, making sure the terrain was clear for his own landing. He managed to maneuver Yellow close to the other Lion before lowering her to the ground and disembarking from her mouth. Keith was already outside of Red, standing with his arms folded and staring up at her face.

“You okay?” Hunk asked as he approached. “Looked like kind of a rough landing.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Keith said. “Managed to get nearly to the ground before she went offline. So, little abrupt, but nothing I couldn’t handle. We’re gonna have to see about getting her powered up again before we can head back to the Castle. Think it was one of those pulses throwing off the propellant tank that downed her.”

“Hmm. If that’s the case, I can probably do the repairs myself in a day or two, but we’ll need to replenish the fuel.”

“Hopefully the Crelxats will be willing to help us out for that.” Keith looked around. “Speaking of whom, see any of them coming this way yet? Battle’s over.”

Hunk frowned and joined Keith in peering about at the surrounding buildings. He had only seen a few sparse Crelxats on the ground while they had been in battle, the pale shocks of hair against skin shades of red and orange making them easy to spot, but most of them had likely fled indoors when the drones had arrived.

He felt a tap against his shoulder, and when he turned, Keith pointed; it seemed he’d been first to spot movement, and without a word between them they started off to follow the pair of Crelxats heading away from the Lions’ landing site and deeper into the city.

It didn’t take long for them to see where the many Crelxats had ended up, since after only a couple of turns they could see a crowd gathering in a wide plaza ahead, a murmur from the assembled onlooker reaching the paladins even at this distance. Hunk glanced to Keith, eyebrows raised, and Keith only shrugged, just as unsure as to what had the crowd so enthralled.

As they moved closer, heads began to turn in their direction, some of the onlookers nudging others beside them and pointing, the chatter gradually dying down as they stepped aside to let the paladins through. No face wore the joy or relief that Hunk was used to seeing from aliens after Voltron fought off invading forces for them. Instead, they were eyeing him and Keith with apprehension and suspicion.

This, Hunk decided, was not a good sign.

The Crelxats were quick to step aside for them, so they were able to reach the front of the crowd fairly easily. And Hunk’s stomach knotted itself tightly as he realized what they were all staring at.

The sculpture. The sculpture that he had blasted with Yellow’s cannon. Or, at least, what remained of it.

From above, it had been hard to see what the sculpture had actually depicted, and here from the ground, seeing only the bottom half, it wasn’t any easier to discern. The shape seemed to be fairly complex, a tangle of angles and loops, but nothing that resembled anything Hunk had ever seen before. His best guess was that it was an abstract piece; a lot of the public sculptures that could be found in plazas like this back on Earth were abstract. There was rubble, he noticed, bits of the same material as the sculpture scattered along the ground behind it, some of it smoldered black like the top of what remained of the standing sculpture, burnt up by the cannon’s heat.

The Crelxats standing nearest to the statue turned as Keith and Hunk approached, and one stepped toward them. She was half a head shorter than most of the others gathered nearby, although she made up for it with a piece of headwear that to Hunk just looked to be a tangled pile of wires. She appeared to be unarmed, although the other Crelxats just behind her all wielded either halberds in their hands or daggers at their hips; the weapons combined with the helmets on their head and matching sashes indicated that they were security of some sort, although Hunk wasn’t sure if they were guards for the city as a whole or just the Crelxat with the wires on her head.

Allura had briefed him and Keith a bit on who they would be interacting with on Crelxatain, and she had mentioned one of the Crelxats was both the governmental and religious leader for the city. Malvet, he was pretty sure her name was.

And right now, despite her being smaller than the other Crelxats and unarmed, he was feeling much more frightened of her than of the surrounding guards. Because he had never seen that much icy fury on a person’s face before. Her narrow silver eyes fixed him and Keith with a wrathful glare that he could almost physically feel, her hands clasped together in front of her were shaking from how tightly the fingers were intertwined, and dark veins pulsed visibly beneath the skin on her forehead.

“What,” she bit out, her voice low and dark and heavy, “happened?”

Hunk gulped, though it did little to alleviate the feeling of daggers in his throat or the clawing in his stomach. He had anticipated that people may be upset about the damaged sculpture - people always had a fondness for public art, especially pieces that had been around for quite a while and been accepted as an inherent part of the landscape - but the irate looks on the faces of Malvet and her guards and the horrified silence of the surrounding crowds was far worse than he expected.

Beside him, Keith cleared his throat, making Hunk jump. “Look,” Keith said, “I understand if you’re upset. But collateral damage is basically unavoidable against a weaponized enemy like the one that was attacking just now. We’re both here representing Voltron, and we were expected today, and we’d be willing to assist with repairs to your art while we’re here if you - ”

“Our art?!” Malvet spat, her face going an even deeper shade of maroon. “You believe this monument to be simply art?!”

“Um… isn’t it?” said Keith.

Her hand shook as she pointed a clawed finger toward the sculpture’s remains. “This monument is the vessel for the Twenty Gods of Crelxatain, the channel through which they grant life and fortune. It was built as a cenotaph to the spiritual leaders who have dedicated their lives to guiding Crelxatain to the will of the Gods, and as such is the one site wherein their connection to the citizenry is most powerful. It has stood for centuries, and now… it has been destroyed.”

“...Oh,” said Keith, as a murmur began rumbling through the crowd. He had paled somewhat, and seemed to be at something of a loss for words.

Hunk was faring no better; he didn’t think he’d be able to string two coherent words together right now with his nerves the way they were. This was much worse than he could have predicted. Why the hell would something this important to them be out here in the middle of the town with no additional protection? Why wasn’t it in some sort of ultra-enforced temple and under constant watch? He could only hazard wild guesses - maybe they wanted it to be more exposed to the people, maybe they had assumed that faith in those twenty gods of theirs would keep it safe or something. Now didn’t really seem like the correct time to ask about it.

Keith was the first to speak again, keeping his voice surprisingly level. “I - I appreciate the seriousness of the damage, then. Know that we did what we could to prevent it. The drones were - ”

“No,” Malvet cut him off. “We witnessed these drones. They used force, yes, their weapons have done damage enough. But they burned nothing. The monument - it has been burned.” She swept her arm out to gesture again toward the remains, the singeing and ashes seeming somehow darker now. “We witnessed your ships too. You had cannons and flame. So tell me,  representative of Voltron. What. Did. You. Do?”

“I - ”

“Which of you did it?!” Her voice rose abruptly in volume, crackling with despair. “It had to have been one of you! This callous destruction - which of you is to blame?!” She rounded on Hunk, who stepped back, swallowing down a whimper. “You’ve not spoken, have you, yellow one? And why is that? Have you nothing to say?! No words in your defense?!”

Hunk could feel an icy sweat breaking out on the back of his neck. “I - I - I, uh - ”

“Is it guilt that stays your tongue?!” Malvet continued, jabbing a gnarled finger toward him. “Is the sight of the damage you’ve done before you too much to - ”

“I’m sorry,” Keith suddenly spoke up beside him. Hunk and Malvet both turned to him, incredulous, as Keith stepped forward, arms crossed over his chest and eyes on the ground.

“You’re sorry,” Malvet repeated tonelessly.

“Yeah,” Keith said. “It was my doing. Red - you know, you saw her out there, she’s awfully fast, and, um, gets real heated in battle and stuff, so it can be easy to kinda - to lose control, see, and I wasn’t really paying attention to the, um - ” He waved his hand in the direction of the destroyed sculpture. “The scenery, and stuff, so, yeah. It’s my fault, and I’m sorry.”

Hunk bit his lip as he turned his attention back to the Malvet, who was examining Keith with narrowed, probing eyes. If she knew Keith at all, it would be obvious that he was lying. He had rambled and stumbled and refused to look even remotely in her direction and his voice had kept getting lower as he spoke. All tells of his. Not to mention that Keith was the least likely of any of the paladins to ever focus during a battle or be unable to handle his Lion’s agility and fire.

But the Crelxats didn’t know Keith, so after several ticks of silent examination, Malvet hissed out, “I see.”

She stepped back, and Keith’s eyes darted upward, looking apprehensive. Malvet let silence ring throughout the square for a couple seconds more, but just as Keith opened his mouth to speak again, she nodded.

Instantly there was an eruption of activity, and Hunk was nearly knocked to the ground by the guards rushing past him toward Keith. Half a dozen fully armored guards descended on Keith, and though Hunk saw Keith’s hand fly instinctively to his hip where his bayard was holstered, he either was too caught off guard to grab it in time or thought better of whipping it out right now, since it was still holstered when his arms were wrenched behind his back and he was brought forcefully to his knees.

“Hey!” Hunk yelped. “What are you - ?” His attempt to rush forward to help Keith was stymied by halberds crossed in front of him, and a guard took his arm to hold him back, although he was handling Hunk more gently than his fellow guards were handling Keith, whose ankles were being pinned to the ground by heavy boots on top of them and whose hair was in the tight grip of gauntlet-covered hands. “Stop it!” Hunk cried. “You’re gonna hurt him!”

“After what he has done to us, hurt only seems fair as recompense,” Malvet said, stalking over to glower down at Keith. Around him, Hunk could hear others in the crowd murmuring their agreement. “He must be made to pay penance.”

“He didn’t do anything to you!” Hunk shouted.

“He just confessed to being responsible for the destruction of our monument.”

“But it wasn’t his fault! He only - ”

“Not his fault?” Malvet finally turned to Hunk. “Are you saying that his confession was inaccurate?”

Keith shook his head, or at least gave a little twitch in the guards’ grasp that may have been meant as a head shake, but Hunk nodded at the Crelxat, relieved. “Yes, yes, that’s what I’m saying! It was my - ”

But Malvet was already turning away before Hunk could finish, making a gesture to one of the guards. “You heard him; remove it.”

“Oh thank God,” Hunk sighed. “I’m sure we can all - um - ” He faltered as he watched the guards. When Malvet had told them to ‘remove it’, he had assumed she meant removing their feet from on top of Keith’s legs or removing the weapons from where they were pointed at him, sharp tips far too close to Keith for Hunk’s liking. But they weren’t. Instead, they still held him in place despite his struggling, and one of them had moved in front of Keith and was grabbing his jaw. “Wait, what are you doing?”

“If his tongue is to be used to spew false witness before the eyes of the twenty gods,” Malvet said, “Then it is of no good to us nor to him. It shall be removed.”

Hunk’s eyes blew wide, every drop of blood in his veins turning to ice as the guard managed to force Keith’s mouth open and a dagger’s blade approached. “No! No, no, no, you can’t do that! He - he wasn’t lying, you misunderstood!”

“And pray tell, what did I misunderstand?” Malvet said.

“Just - I meant - he - it was an accident,” Hunk fumbled weakly. “He did but - but he didn’t mean to, you know? It was, like, unavoidable. So - so - so it’s not his fault.” He glanced toward Keith, trying to figure out whether that had been the right thing to say, but with the way the guards were still holding his jaw and gripping his hair, Keith couldn’t exactly make an expression to indicate one way or the other.

Malvet let out a derisive sniff. “Unavoidable? The people of Crelxatain have avoided damaging it for centuries. This one could easily have done the same.” She turned away from Hunk again, back to the guard. “How soon can we have him perform his penance.”

The guard let out a pensive hum before replying, “We’d need until overmorrow’s nightfall to prepare and deliver an oblation to the twenty gods. The penance can take place the morning after.”

“Begin preparations, then,” Malvet said with a nod.

Keith was hauled to his feet, meeting Hunk’s gaze as one of the guards behind him drew a set of shackles from somewhere within their armor to cuff his hands behind him. “Hunk,” he said, a slight rasp to his voice, no doubt from the way his mouth had been manhandled a moment ago, “It’s gonna be fine, okay?”

Hunk almost let out a laugh of sheer disbelief. Keith should be the one being reassured right now, not Hunk. “Are you insane?” Hunk said.

“Look, just get the supply stuff taken care of, I’ll figure this out, and we can - ”

“Get moving,” one of the guards said, shoving him away from Hunk as two others began wheeling him around by the arms.

“Just a sec,” said Keith. “See if you can get Red up and - ”

He grunted, his words cut off by the hilt of one of the guards’ daggers being slammed into his face. When he scowled back up at the offending guard, his nose was bleeding. “I said get moving,” the guard growled.

“Hey!” Hunk cried. He tried moving toward the retreating guards, but the ones who had held him back before intercepted him again. “Hey, you can’t treat him like that!”

It was useless. The guards ignored him, and as the crowd began surging and milling around him, they disappeared, along with Keith.

This was so, so, so bad.

For a long moment he simply stood there on shaking knees, uncertain what to do, until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He whipped around, coming face to face with a tall, narrow-faced Crelxat. “What?” he snapped.

“Your companion said you were here as a representative of Voltron,” the Crelxat said. His expression was stoic, unfazed by Hunk’s tone and by the scene that had just gone down before him.

“Yeah,” Hunk said. “And?”

“I am Kalgex? Of the Crelxatain Geological Survey Bureau and Mine Repository. I was contacted about overseeing a trade deal between your organization and our department?”

Hunk stared. “Um,” he said, “Look, I’ve kind of got other things on my mind at the moment. Keith - I - I don’t know where they’re - I have to figure this out, I have to see - ”

“I am certain a member of the security force will be in contact with you once your friend has been duly processed,” Kalgex said. “They are quite efficient in matters of communication.” He pulled something out of his pocket, a small cylinder with a screen across it that lit up like a cell phone. “Those attackers put us behind schedule. We really oughtn’t postpone negotiations any longer than necessary.”

A part of Hunk, a small but strong part, wanted to punch Kalgex in the face right then and there. He was talking about Keith being arrested and hurt and forced to pay ‘penance’ - Hunk wasn’t sure what that entailed exactly, but it didn’t sound like fun - as if it were a minor inconvenience in a normal workday. As if Hunk were being somehow unreasonable for wanting to go after him rather than worry about the stupid ore.

“No,” he said. “No, I have to go.” He turned away, scanning the crowd and spotting the array of wires that had decorated Malvet’s head. Immediately he began shoving his way through the crowd, ignoring Kalgex calling after him, and didn’t stop until he had reached her, right on the edge of the plaza with a guard at each side. “Hey!” he shouted. “Where did you people take Keith?!”

She turned, eyeing him up and down with pursed lips, like he was a stain on her floor that she was deciding how to get rid of. “To the holding cells to await penance, of course,” she answered.

“And where’s that, huh?”

Malvet’s eyes narrowed. “He will not be allowed visitors until his case has been fully processed according to our laws. Respect our criminal proceedings should be the least we could ask of Voltron, considering the disrespect your friend has shown toward our - ”

“Yeah, I know,” Hunk said, frustration turning his voice to a growl. “Fine. When will that be done so I can visit him?”

“I will see to it you are contacted when proceedings are completed,” Malvet said. It wasn’t exactly an answer, but at least it was an assurance that he would get to visit Keith before the penance took place. “And of course,” Malvet continued, “Your companion will be duly returned to you once penance has been completed.”

“Right,” Hunk sighed. “So, what is this ‘penance’ anyw- ”

But Malvet had already turned away, leaving Hunk standing uselessly, grinding his teeth and dreading what the answer would have been.

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

He tried and failed to come up with a plan.

His first thought once he finally accepted that the whole situation with Keith was out of his hands was, naturally, to contact the other paladins for help. But the reason it had only been himself and Keith coming to Crelxatain in the first place was that the others were on missions of their own. They had docked the Castle, shields in place, on a moon in a neutral zone the next star system over, and Shiro and Allura were off on Heliuruta to negotiate allowance through their blockade into the quadrant, while Coran had recruited Lance and Pidge to help him on a medical supply-gathering expedition. So Hunk couldn’t reach any of them at the Castle, didn’t know where on the planets the groups had gone and wouldn’t have time to track them down, and couldn’t contact them through just the Lions’ communications system at such a range.

Which meant that whatever happened to Keith, he was going to be the only one around to deal with it.

It also meant that he was stuck doing the negotiations for the Crelxat ores alone. Between himself and Keith, Hunk was better with numbers, but Keith was more stubborn and better at steamrolling attempts to mislead. By the time he wrapped up his meeting with Kalgex and his board, they had wound up settling on a price nearly twice as high as what Coran had told them to aim for.

Hunk couldn’t bring himself to be that put out about it, though. The main reason he’d done such a lackluster job of negotiating, after all, was that his mind was more occupied with the much more pressing matter of what the hell was happening with Keith.

He managed a grand total of less than a varga of sleep the first night on Crelxatain, despite the comfortable accommodations that had been prepared for him at a lodging house not far from the plaza where the monument had stood. He had made sure every single member of the staff there knew that they were to come get him immediately the instant anyone contacted him about getting to visit Keith, but no message came.

The Crelxats had predicted it would take them about two days to refine the ore he’d requested and prepare it for transport, so he tried to occupy his time by working on repairs for Red. He dried up nearly all the GAC they’d been given for this trip gathering tools and supplies for it - apparently the ability to fix vehicles must have been considered something of a luxury in Crelxatain, and was priced as such - and as he set to work on her dark and still form, wondered what she would be doing right now if she were up and running. If she was calm, then he’d know Keith was okay. If she was angry and trying to reach Keith by force… well, then he’d be even more worried than he was now, but at least Red would be helping to take care of the problem.

He worked on her throughout the day, still with no word about Keith, and the longer he went without answers the more nauseous he felt. He managed to eat some lunch between getting supplies and starting on Red’s repairs, and it sat like rocks in his stomach for the rest of the day. He didn’t bother with dinner.

He managed to fall asleep at some point that night, and woke tangled in his bedding after tossing and turning in his sleep, not feeling refreshed at all.

It wasn’t until later that day, when he returned from Red’s landing site back to the lodging house, promising himself that he would at least try to eat something because starving himself wasn’t going to help Keith, that he discovered a member of the security force was there waiting for him, had told the staff that he was there to escort Hunk to visit ‘the prisoner’ as requested.

Finally.

The walk to where Keith was being held wasn’t far from the plaza that had housed the monument, and the building he was led into looked from the outside a bit like a country church, long and narrow and with a vaulted roof. Hunk was led into a dim anteroom as the guard who escorted him had a muttered conversation with another who was standing watch inside, then, another door was opened, and he was ushered through and into a hall lined on each side with cells. The guard didn’t accompany him any further past the door, just told him, “You have fifteen doboshes,” before taking his leave, slamming the door shut behind him.

The hall was just as dim as the anteroom, the walls and floors a shale-like shade and narrow windows in the walls of the cells lining only one side of the hall casting sharp shadows, so it took a moment for Hunk to spot the cells’ only occupant, seated on the floor against the wall at the end of the hall. When he did, he let out an enormous breath of relief and rushed toward him, yelling out, “Keith!”

Keith looked up at the sound of his name, and Hunk grimaced at the sight of him as he got to his feet. He’d been stripped of his armor and left only in his dark undersuit, and was shackled hand and foot, maybe a foot and a half of chain between each metal cuff on his wrist, and the same around his ankles. A red and purple bruise spread from his cheek to his nose, swelling enough to make one eye squint; this was likely the result of that guard who had struck him with the dagger hilt the other day. Besides that, Keith appeared to be uninjured, just tired, a fact that the dark rings beneath his eyes could attest.

“Hunk,” he said. “So, um. So, how are you do- ?”

“Are you out of your mind?!” Hunk cried. Honestly, he had been intending to ease into that a bit more, give Keith a friendly greeting and see how he’d been being treated before moving onto the topic of what the actual quiznak Keith had been thinking, but it seemed his brain had forgotten to relay that plan to his mouth.

“Hunk,” Keith repeated, lifting his shackled hands placatingly. “You have to be calm, all right?”

“How can I - you can’t expect - what were you thinking?!” Hunk demanded. “You know as well as I do that Red didn’t - ”

“Hunk, I’m serious. They’ll hear you.”

Hunk shut his mouth, teeth coming together with a click, and looked back toward the door. Right. Apparently the Crelxats really didn’t like being lied to. As much as he hated it, their story was that Keith had been the one to ruin the monument, and that’s the story they were going to have to stick with if they wanted to get out with their tongues still intact. “Sorry,” Hunk said. His eyes roved over the rest of the hall, stopping at the sight of a lens near the ceiling in the center. “Crap, will they be able to hear - ?”

“That one’s just video, no audio,” Keith said. “They can’t hear us.”

“How do you know for sure?”

“The guards told me.”

Hunk raised a brow. “And you’re just taking their word for it?”

“Course not,” Keith replied, shaking his head. “I tested it. They didn’t care one lick about me slinging insults at them through that camera for about an hour straight. Moment I said the same while they were actually here, they got pretty thin-skinned.” He tapped lightly at the dark bruise on his face. “This, uh, this was smaller yesterday.”

Hunk winced. “Dang it, Keith,” he said. “Why did you have to go and do that, huh?”

“... You mean, why’d I have to insult them?”

“You know that’s not what I’m talking about.”

There was a long moment’s pause between them, and then Keith sighed. “I was trying to help, Hunk,” he said. “That’s all. That Malvet, she was so mad, and the guards were at the ready, and you - well, you were - ” He took a deep breath. “I dunno. Maybe if you were able to see how you looked in that plaza, you’d get why I needed to step in.”

Well, Hunk could certainly recall feeling terrified to his core, but he didn’t know how much of it had actually shown on his face. If it was enough to get Keith to take the fall for him like that, though, it was too much. “I mean, you did a heck of a lot more than ‘step in’,” he said. “Look, Keith, don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful, but I - God, man, I really wish you hadn’t done that.”

The shadow of a sad smile played on Keith’s lips before vanishing again. “Yeah,” he sighed. “Wasn’t really expecting you to be overjoyed about it. But it’s not like they were giving us a whole lot of time to come up with a better plan to get you out of that mess than just… getting in myself.”

“Why did you decide you needed to get me out of it in the first place?”

Keith frowned at him, appearing genuinely surprised. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because - because I’m the one who caused the mess? Yeah, it was an accident, but it still was mine to own.”

Keith shrugged. “We’re teammates, right? Your mess is my mess.”

“I - ” Hunk took a long breath and blew it out slowly. “You really picked a horrible time to embrace team spirit.”

“I guess. Can’t exactly go back now, though.”

“Right, suppose not.” He let the silence linger a little longer, half-hoping that Keith would suddenly pipe up with an, ‘Unless…’ and a brilliant idea to make everything right, but of course he didn’t. “So we’re just supposed to see this out to the end, huh? Endure whatever they throw at you?”

“Don’t exactly have much choice,” Keith answered. “But, I mean - it’s just a waiting game until tomorrow morning. They’ll dole out their punishment and then it’s over. Just have to get it over with. Did you get the ore stuff taken care of?”

“Yeah,” Hunk said. “And don’t say ‘just get it over with’ like it’s just a hard test at school or something, man. They’re gonna - I don’t even know what, but they were awful mad. What are they planning to do tomorrow anyhow?” Keith didn’t answer, and Hunk’s gaze grew more intense, newly ignited worry crackling in his gut. “Keith? Do you know what’s gonna happen?”

Keith hesitated, dropping his gaze. “Okay, um, they, uh, they haven’t really given me much to go on, so I don’t know for sure.”

“But you have some idea?” Hunk prodded.

“Well, so, you know they said that I’ve got to face ‘penance’ for the monument.”

“Yeah.” Hunk fought down the anxiety that bubbled up at the mere mention of the word. “Still don’t quite know what that means, though.”

“Right.” Keith took a deep breath. “Well, uh, no one’s said anything to me directly, but I’ve overheard some chatter. From the guards here, see. They don’t seem to have any specifics either, but they’ve got a better idea of what ‘penance’ usually refers to, so they were talking, and, um…” He trailed off and began to chew at his lip.

“And what?”

Keith lifted his eyes back up to Hunk, and they were wide, brow pinched, almost appearing apologetic. “You have to promise not to freak out.”

Immediately Hunk was fully prepared to freak out. “What do you mean? What’s there to freak out about?! Keith, what’s gonna happen?!”

“Okay, look, it’s probably not as bad as - ”

“Keith, if you have to warn me not to freak out, it’s probably pretty bad!”

“That’s not what - it’s not the penance part, I just didn’t want you to feel guilty about what happens, all right? I promise, Hunk, I’m gonna be able to handle it. Okay? Whatever happens, you’ve got to keep a cool head. The last thing we need is for them to decide to detain you too. And, well - ” He let out a little cough and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I’m probably, um, gonna need you to help me out afterward…”

Hunk gulped. As much as he dreaded the answer, he had to know. “Keith,” he said, “What’s the penance?”

There was another second’s hesitation before Keith quietly answered, “If what those guards were saying was true, Crelxatain seems to be fond of, um… corporal punishment. A public display of it. Apparently it’s, um, they seem to think it’s an effective way to, uh, deter repeat crimes, and, like - ”

Hunk’s voice, which had frozen in his throat at some point while Keith had been talking, managed to find just enough strength for him to repeat in a squeak, “Corporal punishment?!”

Keith winced. “Yeah. Um, best as I could tell from what they were saying, flogging’s pretty common, so that’s probably the most likely, but, um, yeah… Hunk? Please don’t freak out.”

“How can I not freak out?! Keith, they’re going to - !”

“I know,” Keith snapped. “I - yeah, I know.” He huffed out a sigh and crossed his arms over his chest. “Look, it’s not like I’m looking forward to it, but it’s not exactly like we can opt out. The place is under heavy guard, Red is still down… Only thing for us is to ride this out, let them take their anger out on me if they have to, then get back to the Castle as soon as we’re able so we can, um, you know.” He tightened his arms where they were crossed. “Fix anything that needs fixing.”

With a frustrated sigh, Hunk leaned against the wall, letting his shoulder rest up where the hard wall met the narrow bars of Keith’s cell. His legs were feeling leaden, like they would give out on him if he spent much longer standing on his own two feet, so he let himself slide down toward the floor. Once he was seated, Keith joined him, sitting down cross-legged on the other side of the bars, although it took some maneuvering to get settled with those chains on his ankles. “You okay?” Keith asked.

“Don’t ask me that,” said Hunk. “I’m the one who’s supposed to be in that cell right now, not you.”

“Hunk,” said Keith, “You didn’t do anything wrong. It was an accident.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t do anything wrong either! You know as well as I do that Yellow was the one who took down that monument. You’re too good a pilot, you’d never let something like that happen with Red.”

“It has nothing to do with who’s a better pilot. Yellow’s bigger than Red, it’s harder to avoid collateral damage with her.”

“Doesn’t matter. The damage was still mine. And you - ” His lip began to tremble, and Keith seemed to tense at the catch in Hunk’s voice. “You shouldn’t have lied to the Crelxats like that. You should’ve just let me take responsibility. What good does it do for you to have to do this stupid ‘penance’ thing instead of me?”

“Hunk, I - ”

“Either way, we’re ending up with one paladin who’s gonna wind up really, really hurt, so why did you get to decide it should be you instead of me, huh? Why would you go and complicate things like that? What the hell were you thinking?!”

Keith sighed, bringing his hands up and combing his fingers into his hair as he grabbed his head. “I was thinking, you were scared. And I just… I dunno. I wanted to fix that.”

Hunk set his jaw, hoping that that would help keep the tremor out of his voice. “And you just decided the best way to do it would be to take on all the consequences for yourself? That’s not fair to you, Keith.”

Slowly lowered his hands from his hair to cross his arms over his chest instead, and he muttered something under his breath that Hunk couldn’t quite make out. “What was that?” Hunk asked.

“I said, nothing’s ever ‘fair’,” Keith replied. “This isn’t about fairness. If things were gonna be ‘fair’, the Crelxats wouldn’t be upset with us over that monument in the first place, they’d be too busy being grateful to us for saving their asses and they’d realize that that should be much higher priority than a stupid statue. But as is, we can’t leave, we can’t get help from the others, and the Crelxats want blood. It’s not fair, but it’s happening, so all we can do now is get it over with.”

“I know, but - but - ” Hunk sighed and rested his chin on his hand. “I still say you shouldn’t have done it.”

“I know.”

“And I wasn’t that scared.”

“Okay.”

“Are you scared?”

There was a pause before Keith answered, “No.”

Hunk sighed. “You’re a really awful liar, Keith.”

“I know.”

They sat in silence for a long while before Hunk slowly reached through the bars of the cell and took hold of Keith’s hands, twining his fingers into Keith’s and trying not to think about how cold they were. “I’m sorry, man,” he said softly.

“You don’t have to be sorry,” Keith mumbled.

“Sure. I’m just gonna go ahead and be sorry anyway, kay?” He gave his hand a squeeze. “Besides the face, have they hurt you?”

“Nah. Bit of shoving around, but that’s all.”

“They been giving you water? Food?”

“Enough, yeah.”

Hunk frowned, making a mental note to set aside some food from the lodging house to fill Keith up the moment he was released. He was just opening his mouth to ask if Keith had any requests - none of the Crelxat food was an exact match to any from Earth or any they’d encountered in space so far, but he could at least do some taste testing and see if he could find something similar to whatever Keith wanted - but he was interrupted by the door at the end of the hall slamming open.

“Time is up,” the guard grunted. “Make your leave.”

Hunk scowled at the guard, but after giving Keith’s hand one final squeeze, he rose to his feet. “I’ll be right there waiting once the penance is done,” he said. “The ore delivery should be finished early tomorrow morning, so once Red’s back up and running we can go straight back to the Castle. Get off this planet for good.”

“That’ll be nice,” Keith said, and he grimaced when the guard knocked his halberd into the doorframe, ordering Hunk to get moving. “I’ll - I’ll see you then. Better get going.”

Reluctantly Hunk complied, shuffling back down the hall of empty cells and giving Keith one last wave goodbye before the door was slammed shut again with a sickening finality.

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

Time moved at a crawl as Hunk waited. He kept himself occupied as best he could, working on Red’s repairs throughout the day, and he managed to convince a guard to let him take Keith’s confiscated armor and bayard off their hands (with the understanding that if he tried any funny business with the weaponry he would be tossed into his own cell before he could so much as blink) to have them ready for Keith when the penance was finished, and he polished the helmet three times over just for something mindless to do.

He stared at the ceiling in his room that night, trying to convince his exhausted body to sleep, but it wasn’t easy. Every time he closed his eyes all he could see was Keith, standing before that same crowd that had been in the plaza, and he was facing his penance, Malvet raising a whip with sadistic glee in her smile.

He always opened his eyes again before it actually made contact.

It took vargas of pacing around the room that night - ignoring the irritated knocking from whoever was staying in the room below his - to finally wear him out enough to get any amount of sleep, and then he was up again, getting the ore loaded onto Yellow in the earliest hours of morning and anxiously watching the planet’s sun creep upward into the sky, the whorling dread in his stomach growing stronger with every inch it rose.

No one came to fetch him or let him know when the penance was starting, but they didn’t have to. He could see for himself when Crelxats started to eagerly emerge from their homes and head off all in the same direction, and he overheard bits and pieces of discussion about whether they thought the twenty gods would be appeased and what they thought of the offering that had been made by the city the night before; Hunk didn’t know what that offering had been, and honestly he could not have cared less, but apparently it had been act one of this show, and Keith’s penance was the finale.

For visibility’s sake Hunk donned his full paladin armor before leaving the lodging house, hopefully for good, and he followed the flow of Crelxats past the building that housed Keith’s cell and even past the plaza featuring the statue, which, judging by the scaffolding that had been set up around the plaza, was currently under repairs. The Crelxats moved down a road veering off to the side and sloping down toward a long, solid wall, where they congregated toward a large arched entryway flanked by two guards.

He started toward the entry, but was stopped by a hand on his arm. He jumped and whipped around to find a stony-faced Crelxat guard, dressed in the same garb as the guards had been in the jail where Keith had been kept. Two other guards were hovering nearby, watching with the same stoic expression.

“If you are intending to view the penance,” the guard said, “You must remain under our watch.”

“What?” said Hunk. “Why?”

“You have made known that you hold close personal connection to the transgressor.” Ire scratched at Hunk’s throat at Keith being referred to as ‘the transgressor’, but he held his tongue and let the guard continue: “It is standard, then, to ensure that you are kept under supervision to prevent attempts at interfering with the penance.”

“Oh. Um, right,” Hunk relented. It made sense, he supposed. Any decent person witnessing their friend being publicly tortured would want to try to put a stop to it. It seemed that even if he hadn’t already promised Keith that he would let the Crelxats go through with their punishment, there wasn’t much he would be able to do under the eye of their guards.

The one who had stopped him nudged him forward as one of the others began leading the way toward the entrance, while the other approached and held out his hand. “No weapons are allowed at the viewing. Hand it over.”

Reluctantly Hunk removed his bayard from where it was holstered at his hip and dropped it into the guard’s hand. The guard nodded curtly and turned to follow the other, turning the bayard in his hand to inspect it as he went, and Hunk was nudged again, a cue to follow.

He trailed behind them, and as they passed through the entryway, he got his first view of where this penance was being held. The space seemed to be some sort of amphitheater, with rows of seats curving in a semicircle, getting lower and lower as they reached the center, where there stood a completely bare platform, high enough that the spectators sitting in the front row would probably have to crane their necks to see what happened on top of it.

Hunk wanted to go toward the front, to be as visible as possible when Keith was brought out, so he would be able to see him in the crowd, know he was there to support him and rush to his side the moment this whole mess was finally over, but the guards instead led him into a row toward the back. As they filed in, Hunk scowled at the Crelxats who were milling around the amphitheater, filling up the rows of seats in front of them. All these people, taking the time out of their lives to come and watch Keith suffer. As though this was some sort of entertainment to them. They wanted blood, they wanted it from Keith, and there was nothing about this whole situation that wasn’t disgusting.

He had to take care to clench his jaw so he wouldn’t wind up just shouting at everyone in the crowd, since that would probably only end with him being forcibly escorted out by the guards, and took his seat obediently. The other Crelxats in the crowd were gradually sitting down as well, taking their time far too casually, and every dobash of waiting felt agonizingly long.

After that wait, though, the crowd finally hushed at the sight of the guards coming through the entrance at the front of the amphitheater behind the stage, and as they did, Hunk wished they could go back to the waiting. Harrowing though it was, it was still better than watching Keith being escorted onto the stage.

His wrists and ankles were still shackled, so his gait was only a shuffle, and the guards at either side of him pushing him forward didn’t seem to be making walking any easier; he tripped on the steps leading onto the stage and, rather than pause to let him regain his balance, the guards grabbed him under the arms and began dragging him before Keith managed to find his footing again. He still wore the leg portion of his underarmor, but he’d been stripped of the top, and his bare torso looked deathly pale in the too-bright sunlight.

He also, as Hunk realized with a surge of fury as Keith shook his hair out of his face, been gagged, a strap of what looked like leather cinched tightly over his mouth and digging into the skin at the corners. Hunk wondered vaguely what he had said to the guards to warrant that addition. Or who he had bitten.

The Crelxats in the amphitheater around him had begun to jeer as Keith was escorted onto the stage, and only stopped when another figure stepped out: Malvet, the wiring of her head blindingly reflecting glints of the sunlight as she raised her hands for quiet.

“We are gathered here,” she began, her voice booming despite Hunk not seeing any sort of microphone or other audio equipment anywhere, “To offer the Twenty Gods of Crelxatain a display of our respect, our reverence, and our compunction. The offender who stands before you now has, in an act of brash disregard for our planet and its citizens - ”

She continued, but Hunk tuned her out, and not just out of anger toward the way she was talking about Keith. His focus had instead been drawn to the guards who had come forward along the stage. Where he had thought there had just been flat floorboards, they opened a hatch, and from beneath the stage they unfolded a bundle of beams that clicked into place as a solitary and stationary pole, with a hooped hook sticking out of it a good six feet up. Keith was pulled forward, and the chain between his wrists was lifted and latched onto the hook, leaving Keith standing with his arms stretched above him, back stretched out and exposed.

So Keith had been right about the flogging, and Hunk pressed his lips together, feeling nausea bubble up in his throat and wondering if he were going to start blowing chunks onto the row of Crelxats in front of him.

He kept his eyes on Keith, trying to meet his gaze, and Keith was looking out to the crowd too. It was hard to be absolutely sure from this distance, but Hunk was pretty sure that Keith spotted him, because his gaze was definitely aimed Hunk’s way, his pale face and wide eyes directed right toward him.

And no matter what Keith said, he was definitely scared.

Unlike in Hunk’s nightmarish visions from the night before, Malvet wasn’t the one to bring out a whip. Instead it was one of the guards, unfurling a length of cord from behind him as Malvet stepped toward the pole, fixing Keith with a withering glower before turning back to address the crowd once more. “To each of the twenty gods he has chosen to desecrate, he shall pay blood in penitence. Firstly, to Taelxot.”

That was all the fanfare given before the crack of the whip rang through the amphitheater, making Hunk jump at its suddenness. It seemed too soon to be starting, he needed more time, more time to emotionally ready himself and for Keith to say his own piece, but here they were. It was happening. Now.

The first lash seemed to have taken Keith off guard too, since he let out a yelp at the contact that was muffled by his gag. The crowd of Crelxats let out applause as the whip struck, and the sound seemed distant to Hunk as he watched Keith, trying to see if he was okay.

“Secondly,” Malvet continued, “To Vokrin.”

Another crack of the whip, another cheer. These names Malvet was saying, Hunk surmised, must have been the names of some of those twenty gods she kept talking about, and they must have been giving Keith one lash for each god that had been disrespected.

Which meant there were going to be twenty lashes in total. Hunk’s eyes widened as the whip dragged on the floor as the guard reeled it back, leaving a red streak on the wooden planks that Hunk could just barely see from where he was sitting.

There was no way he was going to be able to stomach eighteen more of these.

At the third lash, Keith squeezed his eyes shut against the pain, and at the fourth, the whip struck deep enough that Hunk could see blood droplets flying directly from Keith’s back. The crowd was eating it up, getting to their feet as they applauded, and at the fifth lash, Hunk stood too, because that was the only way he could still see over the heads of the cheering Crelxats in front of him.

The lashes kept coming.

Hunk’s hands hovered over the lower half of his face, threatening to move up and cover his eyes, but he resisted the admittedly powerful temptation. He owed Keith this much, at the very, very least. He owed it to Keith to be there and watch, to meet his eyes whenever Keith opened them so that the red paladin would have a face to look toward for support, for a silent message to hang on, just hang on, it will all be over soon.

Besides, closing his eyes now wouldn’t get rid of the image of those blood droplets Hunk had already seen spraying from Keith’s back, so there really was no point. That image would probably stay burned in his mind forever.

Another lash - Malvet was still counting them, but Hunk couldn’t hear her. All the sounds in the amphitheater were starting to blur together in his ears, muddling into loud and angry static as he focused only on Keith. The pain of the flogging must have been getting to be too much even for him, because an agonized shout escaped into his gag this time, much to the delight of the assembled Crelxats. At the next lash, he screamed again, and his eyes flew open, meeting Hunk’s almost immediately.

Hunk’s heart stopped at the sight of the tears gathering there, the sun sparkling off of them, and it started up again, pounding like a drum, when the whip came down again and the tears broke free and began to fall.

The specks of blood staining the platform were growing thicker with every lash. They couldn’t possibly keep this up. They were going to kill him.

On the next lash, the whip’s aim was off, and it landed over Keith’s shoulder. The barb on the tip must have caught on his skin, because it ripped a line of flesh off with it as the guard pulled it back, sending a splash of blood across his chest.

Hunk finally threw up, then, and the cries of delight coming from the Crelxat in front of him turned to ones of disgust as the sick splattered onto his back. Which did nothing to relieve Keith’s pain, but it did give Hunk just the tiniest glimmer of satisfaction before he straightened up again to watch the last of the lashes.

“And to the twentieth God of Crelxat, Skovok!”

The whipped cracked for the final time, the crowd cheered, and Keith was motionless on the stage, all his weight dangling from his wrists, his head bowed and hair covering his eyes so Hunk couldn’t tell whether they were open or closed. The floor at his feet far, far too red.

Hunk could only spot the tiniest bit of movement, just catch the way Keith’s chest shook as he breathed, and he tried to focus only on that as he waited for Malvet to give her stupid closing speech and Hunk could finally take Keith back to the Lions and try to find some way to patch up his back, which had to be a grotesque mess at this points.

“To each of the gods, a due has been paid,” Malvet was saying grandly. “So all that remains is our assurance that the transgressor can never again bring harm to the gods, or to Crelxatain itself. To that end, we offer the last of his life, that they may find solace in its removal and a better purpose for it in the world beyond our own.”

… What?

With great difficulty Hunk pulled his eyes away from Keith to see what was happening on the rest of the stage. All but one guard had moved to the other side, and another hatch, like the one from which they’d pulled the pole, had been opened, something else being unfolded from this one. They locked the pole into place, but this one kept unfolding, into a bracket that projected over the hole the open hatch left in the floor. The hatch was pulled back into place, and one of the guards hooked a loop of wire over the projection.

It took a long moment for Hunk’s brain to catch up to his eyes, for him to realize what he was looking at.

Gallows.

His heart racing, blood pounding he whipped around to face the guard next to him. “What - what is that?!” He jabbed a shaking finger toward the stage, and oh god, the guard who had stayed by Keith was taking him down and starting to drag him across the stage.

“It is a device that will allow penance to be completed,” the guard said, explaining it like he was a teacher giving a classroom lecture. “The wire is placed around the neck of the criminal, and the hatch - ”

“I know what it is!” Hunk yelled. “Why is it here?! Keith paid his penance! He got his punishment already!”

“He paid a blood penance, yes,” the guard said. “Now, they are ensuring that he can never again cause harm to the sacred - ”

“We were never gonna even come to this stupid planet again!” Hunk shouted. He ignored the surrounding Crelxats who were turning to glare at him, a couple snapping at him to be quiet. “They don’t need to ensure it! They - they - they said he’d be returned to me once the penance was done! What happened to that?!”

“He will. To be preserved or memorialized as you and your culture see fit.”

Disbelief had Hunk lost for words for a few seconds, while on the stage, he could see Keith, even in the state he was in, starting to struggle in the guards’ hold. “I don’t want his corpse!” he finally squeaked out. “I - I - oh god, I’ve got to - ” His eyes roved toward the guard holding his bayard.

A hand thumped onto his arm, holding him in place. “Consider this your only warning,” the guard said. “Any attempt to derail the proceedings will result in you joining him.”

Hunk swallowed, his legs feeling close to giving out under him as the loop of wire was wrestled over Keith’s head and around his neck. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening. “Please,” he begged, tears pricking at his eyes. “There - there has to be something I can…”

Keith was shouting into his gag, and Malvet was saying something again, raising her voice to drown Keith out. The guard’s grip on Hunk tightened, and he felt dizzy. Keith was going to be hanged right in front of him. Keith shouldn’t even be the one going through this, it should have been Hunk.

Keith was going to die, and it was going to be Hunk’s fault.

There had to be something he could do. He owed it to Keith. Keith had saved him from the Crelxats’ wrath, hadn’t even thought twice about him, and Hunk needed to repay him. He couldn’t let things end this way.

If he were up on the stage right now, in that noose, and Keith were the one having to watch, what would Keith do?

Lance would probably say Keith would ‘punch his problems until they go away’.

It wasn’t much of a plan -

A thunk sounded as the hatch below Keith’s feet was dropped and the wire went taut.

- but it was all he had.

All the fury that had built in him since the moment he had been ushered into the amphitheater flooded into his fist as he whirled on the guard holding him, and it connected with the chin of his helmet. His knuckles immediately throbbed with pain, but there was a satisfying crunch of bone as the guard’s head reeled back, his grip going slack.

Hunk dove for the guard holding his bayard. The guard let out a shout and tried to jump back, but Hunk was not to be deterred, and he bodily tackled him into the next row, the Crelxats there shrieking and scampering out of the way. He clawed his way up the guard’s arm, fighting to pry his fingers off of the bayard, and when he wouldn’t give, he decided he didn’t have the time to fight clean. He hauled himself forward and bit down as hard as he could on the guard’s hand.

The bayard was dropped immediately, and Hunk snatched it up and clambered to his feet. It expanded into its miniturret launcher form as he hefted it up and aimed it toward the stage. Several Crelxats screamed, and his vision swam as he saw Keith through the optic. He was still moving, still jerking in his bonds even as the wire tightened around his neck and his face began turning blue. That meant his neck hadn’t broken when he dropped. He was still alive. There was still a chance.

Although, that chance was getting exponentially smaller with every tick that passed, and Hunk didn’t have time to reach the stage. With his vision hazy and his body shaking and his stomach doing somersaults, it would be insane to try to shoot from here. There was too much chance of hitting Keith. He was going to survive being hanged only to be killed by cannon fire instead.

But it was the only thing he could do.

He fired, praying to anything that was out there and that might be listening that the shot would hit its mark.

It didn’t. It went too high. Hunk’s heart sank, despair flooding him -

Until another shot came from behind him, the projectile this time much larger. This one took out the projection of the gallows that Hunk had been aiming for, dropping Keith’s struggling form to the ground, and burned through half the stage along with it.

He turned around.

Never in his life had he ever been so happy to see the Yellow Lion, hovering just over the amphitheater’s entrance. The buildings behind her were darkened by her enormous shadow, and her eyes blazed down on the crowd that was practically trampling itself to get out of her way.

Yellow had come. She had sensed Keith in danger and -

No, that wasn’t quite it, Hunk realized as he finally noticed Yellow’s presence in his mind, the weight trying to ground Hunk like a heavy blanket, the low rumble of her growl asking if he was okay.

She had sensed Hunk’s distress. That’s why she had come. That’s why she had flown here on her own.

Huh. It seemed Keith wasn’t the only one with an overprotective Lion.

And speaking of…

Hunk’s bayard shrank back down into its dormant form as he raced down the amphitheater steps, shoving panicking Crelxats out of the way and sliding onto his knees as he reached Keith’s crumpled form. The smell of iron from his bloodied back was so strong Hunk could taste it, and he gagged as he rolled him over. Keith’s eyes were closed, his lips gray from lack of air, and Hunk immediately set to fumbling at the wire noose, mumbling reassurances to Keith’s unconscious form as he loosened it.

Right as he pulled it up over Keith’s head, grimacing at the dark bruises it had left on the skin of his neck, the body was yanked aside by the arm, and Hunk looked up to see Malvet, both her hands locked around Keith’s forearm as she tugged at him.

“Get away!” Hunk snarled. “Haven’t you hurt him enough?!”

“He has not completed his penance!” Malvet cried. She swiveled her gaze onto Hunk, and the angry gleam in her eyes was almost manic. “The destruction he caused must be paid in kind! The twenty gods require his life, and we must - ”

Hunk let out a frustrated growl, just about at his wit’s end with Malvet’s gods. In a show of rashness that would make Keith proud, he brought his bayard back up, and it morphed into its energy minigun form as he pointed it right between Malvet’s eyes. “If you even think about hurting Keith one more time, then my gods are gonna need your life in exchange.”

Malvet narrowed her eyes. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Sure I would. I already took out your monument. I’m on a rampage. I can’t be stopped.”

Her jaw dropped, and her hands shook as her grip on Keith’s arm loosened. “You - it was you who - ”

Hunk was already hauling Keith onto his back and taking off before she could finish the thought, and he raced up the amphitheater steps in leaps to meet Yellow at the top, where she scooped the paladins into her mouth and took flight.

The sound of screams below them was cut off as her jaw shut and Hunk collapsed onto the cockpit floor, rolling Keith off of him as gently as he could before rushing to the controls, taking Yellow around in a wide arc and scanning the city below before he spotted where Red lay, still not quite fixed up to working condition. He dove toward her, and Yellow grabbed the smaller Lion up from the ground around the middle like a mother carrying her cub before rocketing upward, gaining speed until she broke the atmosphere. Then he set her autopilot to the coordinates of the Castle’s landing site and…

It was over. After all that, it was finally over. They were off Crelxatain. They were safe.

They were alive.

Well, Hunk reminded himself as he left the pilot’s seat and made his way back toward Keith’s prone form on the cockpit floor, the worst part was over, at least, but they weren’t in the clear yet. He reached to the overhead storage unit to pull out the emergency medical kit and got onto his knees next to Keith to get a closer look.

It wasn’t a pretty sight. Keith’s back had been slashed to ribbons, the gashes in varying depths with a couple cutting so deep Hunk could swear he could see vertebrae. Some of them had stopped bleeding, most had not, and the sounds of the slowly seeping blood dripping onto the floor of the cockpit rang in Hunk’s head. He’d be able to clean the wounds and get some gauze onto them for now, but the cryopods in the Castle would have to do the bulk of the work.

And his back wasn’t the only spot injured. His ankle was bent in the middle in a way it shouldn’t have been able to bend and was starting to swell; he’d probably landed on it at a bad angle when Yellow had shot down the scaffolding. A trickle of blood dripped from the edge of his mouth where the tight gag was cutting into the skin, and Hunk reached up to start working it free, relieved to hear Keith breathing when he pulled it away, even if the breaths were raspy and strained. Small wonder, considering the purpling bruises covering his neck where the noose had strangled him.

He opened the medical kit, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the extent of Keith’s injuries, and decided to pull out the bottle of disinfectant first. His back was definitely going to need it. He unscrewed the lid and held his breath against the sharp smell before lowering it toward the gashes and pouring the disinfectant in.

It let out a sizzling sound as it spread over the wounds, and Keith’s back arched as he let out a strangled yell, his swollen neck leaving his voice as nothing but a dry rasp. Hunk immediately set the disinfectant down and hurried up toward Keith’s head. “I’m sorry, man,” he said. “I know, I know, it’s gotta hurt like hell, but I have to clean it up, I’m sorry. Hang in there, bud.”

Keith let out another rasping groan, and slowly his eyelids began to peel apart. “Keith?” Hunk whispered. “You awake?”

His back rose and fell in a couple of slow, deep breaths before he finally grunted out, “Sh’ro?”

Wow. Keith may as well have just rammed his fist through Hunk’s chest, grabbed his heart, and wrung it dry. “Uh, no. No, it’s not Shiro. It’s me, it’s Hunk.”

Keith blinked slowly, his eyes working to focus on Hunk’s face, and then: “Hunk? We’re alive?”

Hunk let out a breath. “Yeah, man,” he said, giving Keith a wobbly grin. “We’re alive. We made it out of there. You did great, buddy. Just need to hang in there a little longer before we get back to the Castle.”

“I thought they - ” Keith took a rattling breath, but his voice didn’t sound any less gravelly when he continued, “They decided t’ kill me, di’n’t they.”

Hunk grimaced. “Yeah. They did. But that was a pretty stupid decision, wasn’t it?”

“You stopped th’m,” Keith said. “I saw you. In th’ crowd. You had - y’ had your bay’rd. Before I couldn’t see ‘nymore…”

“Well, I - I tried,” Hunk said. “But it was really Yellow who saved the day, you know. She’s the one who started blasting. All I did was get a little chaos going in the stands and grab you. It was nothing.”

“Nah,” Keith sighed. “It wasn’t noth’ng.”

He let his eyes drift closed, and Hunk pushed his bangs out of his face before scooting back toward the medical kit. “Once we’re in close enough range of the Castle, I’ll radio in and see if anyone’s there to get a pod ready for you. If we’re the first there, well, I’ll do it myself. Coran showed me the basics of how those things work, I can at least get you stabilized before he or Allura comes back and can get it started for the deep healing stuff. But, um, for now I’ve got to get this stuff disinfected and wrapped up. It’s definitely gonna sting.”

“‘S’okay,” Keith grunted. “Go ahead.”

“And Keith?”

“Mm.”

Hunk leaned in close. “Don’t you ever, ever scare me like that again, you got it? You’re no longer allowed to come that close to dying, I forbid it. And if you ever try to jump in and take the blame for my screw-up again, I swear to the Twenty Gods of Crelxatain I’ll bring all the wrath of the Yellow Lion raining down upon you. You hear me? Never again.”

Eyes still closed, Keith gave him a weak attempt at a smile. “We’ll see,” he rasped out.

Hunk sighed. Shiro really should have warned them right from the start how stressful it was to have Keith around. “Good enough,” he said, moving back to focus on the gashes. Keith tensed and let out a couple of whimpers as Hunk dabbed disinfectant into the wounds, but they got through it.

It wasn’t until Hunk was halfway through wrapping Keith’s torso in bandages that he opened his eyes and spoke again. “Hunk?” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Remember, when I said t’ just let them get th’ penance over with? ‘nd not to interfere?”

“Yeah…”

“Thanks for not list’ning to me.”

Hunk let out a loud laugh, more out of the hysteria still left in his system than any humor in Keith’s weak joke, but he still broke out a wide smile as he said, “Any time, buddy.”

“And for… ev’rything else.”

“Hey. You had my back from the start, right? Of course I’m gonna have yours too. That’s what teammates are for, you said it yourself.”

“So now… we’re even?”

“Not even close,” Hunk said, shaking his head. “Not until you get out of that cryopod and eat every bite of the feast I’m going to make for you the moment we get back to the Castle. I’m talking twenty dessert courses and live entertainment by the mice. Then we’ll be even.”

Keith let out a breath of laughter and let his eyes slide closed again. “Deal.”

[bktynes-writes]

So, Im sure everyone has at least one episode of Supernatural that they just CANT watch. I've heard a lot of people say 1x08 "Bugs" or 1x06 "Skin" really get to them, same with 9x03 "I'm No Angel", but I wanted to share what my epiaode is and try and explain WHY because I've had a couple of people give me shit for it...

I cant watch 5x04 "The End"

Its an amazing episode. Cinematically, its stunning. Acting-wise, it's flawless. Misha's portrayal of a fallen angel struggling to come to grips with his failures in the face of a humanity that he couldnt save, and his loss of his sense of self is heartbreaking. The fact that he has turned to all manner of vices in order to dull the pain of his mistakes, and yet he STILL maintains this unwavering loyalty to his humans in spite of their own descent into chaos pulls at my emotions.

And Jensen. Fucking Jensen. His acting abilities are so far beyond anything I think ANYONE would have expected from a baby soap opera star, and that is really shown in this episode. He creates two distinctly separate versions of the same character that are so obviously NOT the same, and yet so fundamentally DEAN that its hard to know where he ends and they begin. The knowledge he would have to have of his character; how he responds to trauma, how he reacts to situations, how he would lead, how he would act when faced with monumental struggle...and then to translate that into a character who is IDENTIFIABLY the same guy as who he normally plays, but yet is still so DIFFERENT....fuck, I cant talk about about how incredible he is, especially in this episode.

But I still can't watch it.

I dont know how the episode ends because every time I've tried to rewatch in after the first time, I end up wasted drunk and passed out before it's over. And here is why:

I've spent a lot of my life being a protector for other people. For my mom, for my little brother, for my friends, for my coworkers, for everyone I meet. If I can take the brunt of their pain, or if I can put myself in a sucky scenario so that they won't suffer, I will. If I can hurt so someone else doesn't have to, why wouldn't I? Because I dont matter. I'm not important, all I'm good for is to follow orders and be a shield, cannon fodder, a crutch to hold and build other people up so that they can live. That's my purpose, and if I can save just one person, then goddammit that makes it worth it. And so I identify STRONGLY with Dean.

So, when present Dean sees his future self remorselessly shoot a comrade in cold blood, and then the confrontation he has to have with himself about that happens, something inside me starts to break. By the time he realizes that his future self, the man he will become, is sending his friends, the people who look up to him as a leader, the people he is supposed to protect, willingly into a battle they cannot hope to win, knowing they're going to die and using them as a distraction, I am broken. Because Dean is a protector. Dean makes sure other people are safe first. Dean throws himself into the line of fire to prevent others from coming to harm. And future Dean is doing the opposite of that. So to see him change that much into something nearly unrecognizable, a shell of his former self, forsaking all his values and humanity which he holds so dear, is terrifying and not something I can handle. To see him so broken down by trauma that he is willing to lose the trust, the faith, of the people he is supposed to protect, who trust him, it ruins me.

Because when I was recovering from addiction, the first thing I remember seeing the day I decided to be sober, was the scene in 4x01 "Lazarus Rising" where Dean drags himself out of his coffin in the ground, and I remember thinking that if Dean Winchester, the man who I align my moral compass with, the one who I identify with on such a profound level that sometimes I can say his lines in a new episode before he does (because its EXACTLY how I would respond), can drag himself out of hell after being subjected to years and years of torture, I can drag myself out of my own pit. And I did. I got sober, I cleaned my life up, and I'm not perfect, I'm still fucked up, I'm still broken, I'm still a self-sacrificing protector, but I'm better than I was, and it's because whenever I have a problem, I think "What would Dean do?" and I get through it. Because I know that if he can carry on so can I...

But watching that episode...I dunno man. Something about the idea of him breaking, of losing himself and the core values of family and friendship that he holds above almost everything else, it scares the crap out of me. Because if the world can break Dean Winchester, it can sure break me, and I have worked too damn hard to be broken like that.

Anyway, I hope this makes sense and that some of you can maybe relate and understand, and not give me shit when I dont join in your season 5 watch parties during this episode...

[etherealwaifgoddess]

Maybe I Am? - Chpt.6

Characters: Steve Rogers x Bucky Barnes

Summary: Steve realizes the extent of his screw up and devises a plan to win his man back, even if that means coming out to everyone in his life. Master list HERE.

Content Warning: a really sad Bucky and an even more sad Steve. But (cue Monty Python voice) it gets better! 

Word Count: 3.2k

Author’s Note: Hello lovelies! This is it, last chapter!! I know some of you have been waiting with baited breath since last night's cliffhanger. At least I don't make ya'll wait very long for new chapters! Thank you to every single one of you who has taken the time to like, comment, and reblog. Ya'll make writing such a rewarding experience. I don’t have an epilogue for this fic, but if anyone would like mini head cannons set after the fic shoot me an ask with what you’re looking for and I can write something up just for you. XOXO - Ash

Chapter Six

“Dude, you look like a ghost.” Sam commented when Steve entered the gym the next day. 

Steve shrugged noncommittally. “Didn’t sleep great.” And that was the truth. Sleep had eluded him except for a few brief hours here and there. He hadn’t had the heart to change his sheets, as disgusting as he knew that was. He laid in his bed, trying to catch the faint scent of Bucky on his pillow and sheets. Steve was torturing himself over the break up that he’d known was inevitable. And it wasn’t even a break up, not really. And wasn’t that the bitch of it? He was hurting more now than he had when Peggy had left him and they had been together for over a year, had lived together even. Bucky was a fling, a curiosity that he couldn’t let go. Deep down Steve knew it had been more than that though. It had been everything. 

Sam let Steve throw himself into work, not pushing him to talk until he was ready. But when they were wrapping things up for the day Sam’s patience had run thin. His best friend was in worse shape than he’d ever seen him and he didn’t have a clue as to why. “Get your shit.” Sam ordered gruffly, “We’re gonna go get a beer.” he looked at Steve’s devastated expression, “Or five.” 

Two beers later Steve was peeling the label off of his drink, still avoiding the subject. Sam had been filling the silence with superficial work talk but when Steve lowered his head to his hands with a groan Sam caved. “Was it Peggy?” he ventured a guess. That was the last time he’d seen Steve even close to this rough of shape.

Steve let out a bitter laugh. “Nope. It definitely wasn’t Peggy.”

“Well then what, man? You look like someone’s ripped the life out of you. We used to talk about everything. What’s so bad you can’t even tell me?”

“Bucky.” Steve murmured quietly.

Sam wrinkled his nose trying to make sense of Steve’s answer. “Bucky who?” he said a second before it dawned on him. “Oh shit. Bucky as in WinterBae Bucky?” 

Steve nodded. 

“I didn’t even know you were still talking to him. What the hell happened?” 

“I fucked up, Sam.” Steve choked out as the tears came, fresh and hot down his cheeks. 

The story spilled out of him in fits and sobs as they nursed two more rounds of beers in the dimly lit quietness of the bar. Sam listened patiently, not commenting except for the occasional interjection of a hmph or ah ha to show he was listening. Steve felt raw and empty by the time he was done, finishing with Bucky’s departure the day before.  

Sam sat quietly for a moment, thinking over everything Steve had just dropped on him. When it was clear Steve was done Sam spoke up. “You know you could have told me, right? I was probably a bit of an ass when you told me about Bucky the day you met him, but I just didn’t want you getting yourself worked up over nothing. But this, man, this is something.” 

“I think I loved him.” 

“I think you still do or you wouldn’t be sitting here crying in your beer. So what now?” 

“What do you mean, what now?” 

“How are you going to fix this? No offense, but you definitely were the one who fucked up. So how are you going to go get your boy back?” 

“I don’t even know if he’d take me back. I hurt him Sam. He’s the most amazing, special person I’ve ever met and I made him feel like I was ashamed of him. What kind of person does that?” 

Sam rubbed Steve’s shoulder. “The kind of person who’s scared. You went thirty years thinking of yourself one way only to find out you maybe didn’t have the whole picture. That can be disorienting, but it’s not an excuse to hurt someone you love. You gotta make this right if you still want him in your life.” 

“I don’t know how.” Steve looked utterly defeated. 

“You gotta figure that one out on your own. But regardless if things work out with him or not, you still have to figure your shit out. Otherwise you’ll never have a real chance with any girl, or guy, again.” 

“I don’t want anyone else. I just want him” 

“Then ask yourself the hard questions, man. Are you willing to be honest with him? To really apologize and accept whatever he has to say back? Are you willing to really be with him, out in the open? Because if you couldn’t bring him into the gym and proudly introduce him to all of your friends, then don’t waste your time or his.” 

“I guess I have a lot of thinking to do.” 

“Take a few days off, get your head on straight. And call me if you need to talk.” 

“Thanks, Sammy.” Steve pulled his friend in for a bone crushing hug. It was going to be a long couple of days. 

xxXxx

Bucky knew it was foolish expecting Steve to text or call. But part of him had hoped that Steve had cared enough to at least try to reach out. Bucky chalked it up to one more time he’d had too much faith in Steve. It would be the last time though.

Natasha came over on Wednesday after Bucky had dodged her calls for three days straight. She slipped in with assassin-like stealth, using the spare key he’d given her years ago. Bucky was slumped on the sofa in his fluffiest lavender robe, hair laying stringy and limp around his shoulders, and a bag of gummy bears resting on his stomach. An episode of The Office was playing but he wasn’t really paying attention to it. He glanced over, unsurprised by her presence, and mutely handed her a clear gummy bear - her favorite flavor. She accepted the bear with a nod and settled in next to him. 

The episode ended and Bucky popped the last few pieces of candy in his mouth. “Are you here to yell at me for wallowing?” he asked, breaking the silence.

Natasha raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow at him. “Do you want me to?” 

Bucky shook his head, his composure breaking. “I miss him, ladybug.” he sobbed, turning to cling to his oldest, dearest, friend.

“I’m sorry, Bucky-bear.” Natasha held him tightly while he cried. She fired a quick text off and her phone chirped almost immediately. “Becca will be here by dinner.” 

“Nat, no.” he grumbled pathetically.

“Nat, yes.” she quipped. “Now come on, let’s get you cleaned up before she gets here and thinks I haven’t been looking after you.” 

Bucky grumbled more but complied. The last thing he needed was a Becca lecture. 

Becca arrived with bags of take out and several bottles of wine a little after six o’clock. She and Nat sat and listened while Bucky poured his heart out over the next few hours. They curled up around him on the sofa, letting him mourn and trying to just be there for him. He passed out eventually and Becca looked over his sleeping head at Natasha once his gentle snuffle-snores started. “I want a name and address.” she demanded with a low tone that left no room for disagreement. 

“I’ll text it to you. You go do what you have to do and I’ll keep an eye on our boy.” 

Becca was fuming the entire ride across town. She had been there for the fallout out from Brock, who had been the worst type of prick imaginable, but who Bucky had genuinely loved. And this was a hundred times worse. Becca knew it was stupid and ill advised but she needed to confront the asshole who thought he could just toy with her brother’s emotions like that. She still regretted not punching Brock when she’d had the chance, and she was not going to have that regret this time. 

Steve heard the sharp knock on his door and groaned. He’d already been in bed despite it only being nine thirty and he felt completely exhausted dragging himself to the door. Three days of beating yourself up will do that to a guy. Steve opened the door and his heart stopped. Standing in front of him was a petite woman who reminded him so much of Bucky he thought he was hallucinating. 

“Are you Steve Rogers?” the woman demanded. The grey-blue eyes, so much like Bucky’s, flared with anger.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, clearing his throat, “Who are you?” 

“The woman who’s brother is a fucking wreck right now because of you, you fucking prick.” Becca shoved at him as hard as she could but he barely moved, the damn mountain of a man.

“Bucky?” Steve choked out, his eyes welling up at the name.

“Yeah, Bucky. Or do you do this with all the guys? Poor gorgeous confused guy who just wants to get his rocks off and use people?” Becca was almost shouting, anger radiating off of her in waves. 

“What?!” Steve barked out, shocked, “No! God, no. Bucky was the only guy I ever… I didn’t mean to-” a sob slipped out and he fought for composure, “Is he okay? I… I miss him so much.” Steve broke down, wrapping his arms around himself tightly for the small bit of comfort it gave him.

Becca just stood there speechless for a moment. She had been so ready to deck this guy and chew him out for hurting her brother, but she hadn’t expected Steve to be a mess too. Clearly, things were more complicated than she’d thought. “He’s not, you ass.” she informed him, “And neither are you apparently. Now invite me in and let’s see if we can fix this, yeah?” 

Steve sniffled, nodding and backing out of the doorway so she could come in. Becca followed him to the sofa where he told her how badly he’d fucked up, which she already knew but felt reassured hearing how much it tore Steve up. It was satisfying knowing Steve was beating himself over what had happened and saving her the trouble. She let him finish and get himself under wraps again before she finally spoke up. “I’m not going to help you.” 

Steve visibly deflated. 

“But,” she added, causing him to perk up briefly, “I will get him where he needs to be for you to fix this mess. God knows he’ll be avoiding you like the plague right now. So figure out to make this right and let me know when and where. I’ll make sure he’s there.” Becca stood up, satisfied she was keeping her meddling to a minimum. 

“Thank you.” Steve said right as she reached the door.

She gave him a sharp nod, “But Steve.” she added, her tone like ice, “If you ever hurt my brother again? I’m gonna punch you in the dick so hard it won’t matter what your sexuality is because you won’t have anything left to use.”  And with that warning, she closed the door loudly behind her. 

Steve groaned. He’d spent three days wallowing, now it was time to plan.

xxXxx

The next morning Becca’s phone buzzed in her pocket while she flipped a chocolate chip pancake, adding to the stack she was making for Bucky. 

1pm @ Los Aztecas; the text read, followed by an address. 

She sent back a thumbs up emoji, hoping she wasn’t betraying her brother. Natasha had seemed encouraging when she’d reported back to her the night before and that gave her some reassurance she was doing the right thing. 

Bucky slept late, cuddled up with Natasha in his rumpled bed. The three of them had curled up like they had when they were kids and Becca was happy to rejoin the warmth to wake up her brother and best friend. Bucky was reluctant to get out of bed but after some coaxing, they got him up and dressed. Becca filled Natasha in while Bucky showered and they planned on how they’d get Bucky out of the apartment later. 

It turned out to be easier than either woman expected. Becca claimed to have found a ‘cute little taco’ place online and gave him her best sad face when begging him to go out for lunch. Bucky was weak when Becca begged and they were in a cab on their way across time fifteen minutes earlier than they needed to be. Becca fired off a text to Steve of their ETA and gave Natasha a knowing nod when Bucky wasn’t looking. 

“Becs, no.” Bucky whined when they were dropped off outside the restaurant. 

“What?” Becca played dumb, mentally priding herself on her performance. “Why not?” 

“This is Steve’s taco place.” he swallowed roughly, refusing to cry in public. 

“That asshole doesn’t get to deprive you of tasty tacos.” Natasha interjected, “Besides, what are the odds you’ll even run into him? Come on,” she gave him a push towards the door, “Mama needs tacos.” 

Bucky grumbled but ducked into the little restaurant with them. His eyes adjusted to the low lighting and he missed Steve with an intensity that made him physically ache. He wondered how long it would be until everything stopped making him think of Steve. Hell, even the sound of a guy laughing in the other room reminded him of Steve. As a matter of fact, that laugh really did sound familiar. Too familiar. Shit.

“Hey, Buck.” 

Bucky cringed, glaring daggers at his sister and best friend before turning around. Well, at least he’d put on real clothes before going out. “Hi Steve.” he said as normally as he could. 

Steve was standing in the doorway to the private dining room looking devastatingly handsome in his white and blue checked shirt and khakis. Bucky wished he had been overly generous in remembering how damned attractive Steve was. If it weren’t for the faint bruises of purple under Steve’s bright blue eyes, he would have thought nothing was wrong. 

“Can we talk for a minute?” Steve asked, wringing his hands nervously. 

Bucky turned around to Becca and Natasha, “I hate you both.” he growled. But he nodded to Steve and followed him into the empty dining room.

“What’s this about Steve?” he asked, his voice betraying his exhaustion. 

“You.” Steve said simply, “It’s always gonna be about you.” he cleared his throat, taking a moment to collect his thoughts. “I wanted to say I’m sorry I hurt you. I never meant to but I know I absolutely did. I was a coward and I’m ashamed of how I acted. But I’m not ashamed of us. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I want everyone to know it. I needed to sort my shit out, not just for you but for me too. I’m sorry it took me so long to do that. I don’t want to hide you away like some secret. I want to be able to walk down the street holding your hand, kiss you on the corner and not give a shit who sees us. I want you to meet my friends, my coworkers, my family. I want us to take all those silly trips we were planning together. I want you in my life, completely, not just when it’s convenient. Because I love you. I love you so much it terrifies me. And whether you want to give me, us, another try, or if you want to kick me in the balls and never see me again, I just needed to tell you that.” 

Bucky sniffed back the tears that were gathering in the corners of his eyes and took a long breath. “You hurt me.” his voice was steadier than he felt and Bucky was grateful for that. “And you’re never going to do that again. Do you hear me? Never again, Steve. I love you too much to go through this again.” Bucky gave him a soft smile, letting his words sink in.

“You still love me?” Steve whispered hopefully.

“Of course I do, you punk.” 

Steve laughed wetly, pulling Bucky in for a hug. They were still holding each other when Sam popped his head in a few minutes later. “You two ready for the party yet?” Sam called out, startling them both. This time though, Steve took Bucky’s hand in his tightly. 

“Come on in.” Steve waved his hand to his friend. “Sam, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Bucky. Bucky, this is my best friend Sam.” 

Bucky was beaming as he extended a hand to shake Sam’s. “Nice to meet you Sam. I’ve heard a lot about you.” 

Sam gave Bucky his brightest gap toothed smile, immensely happy for both of them. “Likewise.” 

Thor was the next to pop his head in, accompanied by his wife Jane and their baby. Becca and Natasha sauntered in with margaritas in hand, twin expressions of smug happiness on their faces. Sam and Steve had closed the gym for the afternoon, enabling everyone to join them for a late lunch. Steve figured funding for an impromptu party for all of his nearest and dearest was a small price to pay to get the love of his life back. 

Bucky stayed glued to Steve’s side for the entire party. Likewise, Steve kept a hand on him at all times, whether it was wrapped around Bucky’s or resting around the other man’s waist, it was like a lifeline tethering them together. There was some gentle ribbing from Pietro and Scott about Steve finally manning up but overall everyone treated Steve’s unofficial coming out party as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Steve was both relieved and a little ashamed he had been so concerned. He loved these guys like family, he should have known they would accept him no matter what. 

As the party died down their assortment of friends trailed off to get about their days. Natasha and Sam had been sitting together at the bar for the better part of an hour, much to Steve and Bucky’s amusement. They were just a hair too close for it to be casual and the faint smile on Natasha’s face cemented Bucky’s assumption that she was smitten. 

“I’ll see you at the apartment later. Or tomorrow.” Becca teased, giving her brother a hug goodbye. “Don’t hurry home for me.” 

“I won’t.” Bucky assured her. He watched her go, leaving just him and Steve left in the room. “You ready to head back to your place?” he asked. 

“Yeah,” Steve looked down at him with a fond smile, “I think I am.” 

Bucky snorted a laugh, “You think so? You really should be more certain about things, Steve. Would’ve saved us a lot of trouble.” 

Steve bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. “Well, I know one thing for sure.”

“Oh really? And what’s that?” Bucky grinned, playing along.

“That I love you.” Steve leaned down to kiss Bucky sweetly. 

“Well then.” Bucky smiled widely against Steve’s mouth, “That’s a really good start.” 

~  The End ~

[ikenbar]

Mr. Love: Ike’s Choice

Author’s note:

This story is one of my own OC for the game Mr. Love: A Queen’s Choice. Except for Ike and her family, all the characters belong to the creators of Mr. Love: A Queen’s Choice. This fan fiction will contain spoilers for the game so, if you haven’t played it yet or are not caught up to Chapter 18 in the game, this is your warning. (Though it will take me quite a while to get to any sort of spoiler and I will mark it as such when it comes to it so you have time :P) This is merely a fan fiction of the game containing my own character and her story. None of this is cannon. All that said, Mr. Love is such an amazing game. It’s so much more than just some Otome mobile game. Its story is intriguing, and the gameplay is addicting in the best possible way. The development team are so respondent and understanding and honestly just want you to enjoy their game. I have! And I will! And I plan to show how much I do through this Fan fiction! I’m honestly just here for a good time so let’s have fun! Right? I plan on posting on Wednesday/Thursdays so stay tuned!! I want to show you guys the world I have been making for so long and my love for this game. So, let's get started, shall we? :D

  Warnings: Talk of death (it’s just talk. There’s no real death. More like existential dread), Talk of abuse (this is just character development. It’s not an angst I swear), Grammar mistakes (I tried cleaning this the best I can but I may have missed somethings. I’m sorry ^^;), fluff, and cliffhangers. A lot of them. Prepare for one heck of a story

Chapter one:

Part one:

There is no such thing as a good way to die. Death is death. There is absolutely no way death could be justified. But that is the last thing you are thinking when it is your life that is at risk. The first thing of course being, “I hope he doesn’t miss me.”

 >>>

It was hard to believe that I had been working as a producer for Ike ’n Bar Production Company for nearly two years now. I founded this company alongside my foster father, Bartholomew Schmidt. Bart had an opportunity to create something. Something that would bring love and entertainment to children and adults alike. Something that would bless the world with its presence.... He couldn’t make it past week one, so he called me in.

I am not one that wavers from the facts. There is a place for everything in this world and I do my best to put everything in that place. I didn’t spend four years of my life studying the answers of the world to be creative. So, when Bart turned to me for help with his new show idea, I was more than reluctant to help.

“Come on.” He begged wrapping his hands around each other, “They won’t let me pitch the idea until the plot holes are fixed. You’re the only person I know who will tell me exactly what is wrong without sparing my feelings!”

“Your TV show idea is a waste of my time.” I deadpanned.

“See?!” Bart stared at me with pleading eyes, “Just read the pitch... please?” After a couple minutes of awkward silence to finally cave. I read it over once. Then twice. Then a third time. I still had no idea what the show was about.

“So, let me get this straight.” I sighed, “It is a sitcom about a teenage girl, who happens to be an alien, living her life as a normal teenager.” Bart nodded excitedly. “But her family and friends have no idea what she is. And she has to keep the powers secret because… reasons.”

“See?!” Bart laughed, “You get it! For some reason the network thought it was confusing.”

“...I’m going to say this, and I want you to keep an open mind.” I handed the pitch back to Bart, “The show stinks. We are scrapping this idea and coming up with a new one.”

“Oh come-...we?”

“There is no way you are going to make it through this business alive without me. So, let’s talk about an idea that isn’t overused and unoriginal and actually has some taste.”

“.... Did you just hire yourself on my team?”

“Yes. Do you have a pen and paper on you? Someone should be taking notes.”

 The new show we had pitched to the network was a hit. A sitcom about a family of robbers evading the police. They are trying to have a normal life as they live on the lamb. We called it, Show Me the Honey. Sending our average amount of views over fifty thousand. We worked on that show as we pitched others and made a name for ourselves and the company. Since I wasn’t one for limelight, Bart took care of the field work as I worked as the co-head of Ike ’n Bar Productions from behind a screen and in my office.

Things were just the way they should be. With me out of the way. Maybe if things stayed that way, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I could be at that desk right now. Working on the next show. Calling on my assistant for a coffee. Telling off the latest intern for screwing up the order of the files. I could even hear my father’s voice again as he calls me with updates from the field. But sadly, all good things must come to an end. This end started with one name. Victor.

 “Victor?”

 I repeated to Bart over the phone, stalling my note taking on the pad next to me. I was at my office that Monday afternoon. The sun was shining through the window behind me and onto my large, glass, desk. The sunlight reflected off my screen and into my eyes, causing my already rotten mood to worsen.

“Yes!” He excitedly sang, “You have an interview with him today at three!”

“That’s in two hours.”

“Right!”

“...Bart. This man is the CEO of LFG.”

“Correct!”

“Loveland Financial Group.”

“Wow, Ike! You’ve sure got this down!”

“...OK hold on, you want me to go to the head of the largest leading investor in all of Loveland and ask him for funding on a TV show that hasn’t even been green lighted yet?! And you want me to prepare for it in under two hours.”

“Oh, come on. Saying it that way makes it sound bad.” Bart pouted. “Miracle Writer is going to be a hit! And we are a well-known company! It's not like we are asking too much from them! Just a little something to start us off. Besides I already told him that my amazing co-head, Ike, was going to be meeting him so there is no backing out now.”

“Bart, why aren’t you going? Aren’t interviews your thing?”

“They are but… I’ve heard some ghost stories about Victor.”

“Ghost stories?” I skeptically muttered as I held my throbbing head in my hands.

“I hear he tends to be… stubborn when it comes to funding companies.” Bart said this in a low voice as if Victor would appear behind him to overhear his words.

“Oh, and you’re informing me about this now instead of a few days prior so I could prepare for such an important interview with him. Makes sense.”

“Ike, I know it’s a little out of nowhere-”

“A little?!” I scoffed lifting my head back up and pulling my bushy brown hair out of my eyes as I arched my eyebrows uselessly to the receiver.

“But just hear me out, ok?” Bart pleaded helplessly. I stayed silent. Bart continued, “Victor is known to be brash. He rarely, if ever, smiles. In fact, his poker face is known to strike fear into even the strongest of soldiers. He yells more often then he praises. His stance towers over most people and it sends a level of power that is like none you have ever seen. But most importantly, he is extremely close minded when it comes to lending his money. So, it would need to take a strong headed and strong-minded person to get through to him. To make him see that they are worth every dollar of his-”

“And you want me to do the interview because he reminds you of me.”

“Man, I can’t get anything past you.”

Bart had a point. I have a tough time with my emotions. Let alone other people’s. I am known to be inscrutable in the office and outside of it. In my defense, my tactless rule over the office is why everything runs smoothly. No one second guesses my commands and, if they do, it would result in an outcome that could only ignite more fear towards me. Besides, showing no emotions trains the mind to adapt and overcome the words of others. Which helps suggesting the amount of words the office has to say about me narrows down to about four letters.

The main reason I don’t mind it all though is because Bart is loved in the office. His bright and fun-loving attitude is a refreshment for everyone there. They all welcome him in with open arms and follow his every word with preciseness. He is so soft with them and normally brings free lunches for the office when he visits. Of course, all that sweet talk makes him a doormat when it comes to asking for things from him, but no one would take advantage of that. And get away with it that is.

Bart can barely talk to me without cowering under my intensity when we are face to face. I can’t imagine what Victor would do to him. He’d probably chew him up and eat him alive.

“Fine.” I caved, “If I’m doing this, I need to start working now. So, I have to go.”

“Ikamara Bikira, you are a lifesaver!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!”

I groaned slightly as I hung up the phone. Interviews made me uncomfortable. How do you start it off? Do you need to make small talk? Would it be rude to just jump into the subject at hand? Should you address people by their first name or something a little more formal? Do I need to smile the whole time? Or should I be serious from beginning to end? I rubbed my temples to soothe my growing headache.

“That man is going to be the death of me.” I muttered under my breath. Though this isn’t the first time he has thrown me under the bus, I owed him my life. He and his wife, Maria, were the first foster family to take me in and want to keep me. I had been through five foster homes before theirs and I had the scars to prove it. I rubbed my arm as I recalled the memories. The first home sent me to a sort of bootcamp. The second home neglected me. Third home gave me too much of the wrong kind of attention. Fourth home made me lose parts of myself. Including feeling in my left arm and my voice. And the fifth home... Snapping back to reality, I smoothed out the sleeves to my shirt and saved the sad excuse of a report on my computer. I can’t let Bart down. It’s just an interview. I can do this. I reached into the cabinet next to my desk for papers on out new show “Miracle Writer” and a couple pods of Advil.

 Stuck in traffic, I impatiently tapped at the handles of my motorbike. Normally traffic at that time wasn’t too bad but for some reason, we were at a standstill. Unable to rub away my ever-increasing headache, I looked impatiently down the line of cars ahead of me. They were stalled at one stoplight. Even though the light was green on our side, the road was blocked by another line of cars ahead of them. Keeping the car in front of me in my peripherals, I unzipped my leather jacket and pulled my phone from inside my blazer. I opened my moments and checked trending. “Super Star, Kiro, Signs New Albums at The New Light Mall.” So that’s why traffic is so horrible. The line of cars blocking the road must be the line of fans heading to the New Light Mall. I looked enviously at the line. Though immensely irritating, I would kill to be a part of that line if it meant I got to meet Kiro.

Kiro was an inordinately talented superstar. The spunky blond-haired, teal eyed man was very popular among teens and adults alike. He was an idol among millions for his talents. Which varied from acting to singing to dancing to even fashion. It seems like this young boy was too good to be real. Many believed he had the superpower to woo people with one glance. I, of course, found this difficult to believe…. Though even I found it hard not to enjoy his presence.

In fact. I was a very big fan of his. He just so happened to be my idol. His music was the main thing that got me through so many things. Moving from foster parent to foster parent, when I had become selectively mute, moving to a new school, the events of the fifth foster house. Kiro meant more to me than most things in my life. But you’d never catch me screaming his name or crying at the sheer thought of him. I had self-control. I had to have it. If any mention of me being a fan of Kiro in the office and my tough manager cred would be flushed down the drain. I had to keep my obsession closeted at all costs.

The cars ahead of me started slowly moving again so I put away my phone and slowly followed. The cars stopped soon after. I moaned and checked the time on my watch. 2:30. Maybe walking to LFG would be faster than this.

Finally, my bike slowly rolled up to the stoplight. Past this light, the traffic was much more free-flowing. I was the second vehicle in line. I could almost smell the freedom. My eyes lazily drifted to the sidewalk next to the stoplight pole. There stood a young man staring intently at his phone. He wore a black baseball hat, a red and white hooded t-shirt, and black jeans. He also wore accessories containing a pair of bulky headphones around his neck and a pair of sunglasses. I looked up at the sky. Dark clouds covered most of it. Why was he so heavily protected from the sun?

The APS from the other side of the street started beeping, signaling to a group of pedestrians that it was time for them to cross. The man started impulsively making his way to the street, not paying any attention to the fact that it was not his turn to walk. I watched as a yellow sports car started making its way down to the light and straight towards the man. I looked up at mine helplessly. Still red. I checked my watch. 2:45. I didn’t have time for this.

I cursed to myself and pulled my bike to the side of the road. I quickly pulled out my keys and dashed down the crosswalk and to the man. The car drove closer to the light. The car’s horn finally started blasting which finally pulled the man’s attention off his phone and to the road. He froze in place as the car came speeding towards him. I jumped off the ground and dove into the man, shoving him off the crosswalk and back onto the sidewalk. Safe from the sports car that now had zoomed past the light and down the highway. I lay on him protectively as I caught my breath. I pushed myself onto my hands and caught the last glimpse of the car before it sped out of sight.

 I cursed at it uselessly. I sighed and finally looked down at the man. “You O-” I held my breath. The fall had knocked the hat off the man, revealing wild, bright, blond hair. The sun shone onto his sunglasses just enough to show his teal eyes sparkling as he made eye contact with me. My eyes went wide. It couldn’t have been him. There was no way it was him.

“You- you saved my life!”

It was him. There was no way you could mistake that mesmerizing voice of his. Especially if you listened to him as often as I did. It was a higher-pitched voice but there was a sense of joy with every word he spoke. As if merely speaking was a gift to him. As hearing it was a gift to me.

“Thank you!” Kiro smiled at me.

(Next)

[zoe-oneesama]

I was wondering if you ever thought that lukkanette would be a healthier realtionship that adrienette marrinette has idolised Adrien for so long and placed him on a pedestal but Luka isn't he's shown to imdidatly care for marrinette and prioritise her and they are given a less idol and more friend based realtionship I love all the ships in ml but even then lukkanette is a not ever gonna happen but almost purely based in cannon ship

At the current place that the series is at, I do find it healthier, but it has nothing to do with Marinette or idolization. It’s because of Adrien. Plus you can read about my absolute deep contempt for the concept of “pedestals” that this fandom has invented 

Adrien is the unhealthy one who isn’t changing, imo. Just look at their reactions to rejection. When Marinette finds out that Adrien likes Kagami, she puts her feelings aside to help him because it’s what he wants, it’ll make him happy, and she respects his choice even if it hurts. She lets a few snarky comments slide out but she’s trying to put his feelings before hers because she loves him and wants him to be happy.

When Ladybug doesn’t show up to a date she didn’t even agree to, he throws a fit mid akuma attack and is cold to Ladybug. Ladybug is the one to apologize and in return gets a weak “me too” kind of sorry. She explains she’s in love with someone else, and it SEEMS like he accepts her friendship and respects her decision. Until Frozer. Where he has amnesia and does the exact same thing. Hits on her, gets rejected, and blames Ladybug for him being hurt. He puts his feelings before hers despite the fact he’s supposed to be in love with her and should respect her decision.

But Adrien is never meant to feel bad about how he acts, the focus is on how bad he feels because he isn’t loved in return. So they give him a sympathy girlfriend and set him up with Kagami.

Yet even this ended up showing how bad Adrien is with relationships. Here he is with a girl who made no secret she’s interested in him and whom he believes he is also interested in, and yet he invites others on his date without asking her, lies about why his female friend is date crashing, ignores Kagami multiple times for his female friend, and then ditches her at the rink when an akuma attacks (I’ll admit he can’t help that last one since he’s a hero but Kagami doesn’t know that). And then to round it all off he tells his date Thanks that was fun but I think I’m still in love with that other girl so basically you have no shot.

Honestly Kagami should’ve shut her car door on his hand for wasting her goddamn time.

Adrien isn’t ready for a relationship with ANYONE until he learns to be more intuitive. Some of that is him not understanding social norms, but most of it comes from him being impulsive and not thinking about how he effects others. He’s too wrapped up in his own drama to consider how Kagami would feel about being surprised with two strangers on their date or how Ladybug would feel when her partner would abandon her mid battle because she couldn’t accept his rose, even after she explained she was in love with someone else.

It’s such a confusing concept for me because when it comes to people taking advantage of him, like Gabriel or Chloe or Lila, he’s a doormat who not only won’t speak up for himself but also won’t speak up for others and he needs to be more selfish. But when it comes to the people that care about him and actually like him, like Marinette or Kagami or Plagg, he walks all over their feelings because he’s TOO selfish. So until he figures out a way to balance this out, I don’t think he’s ready for a relationship with anyone, and I don’t like the idea that he should be rewarded for his crummy behavior with a girlfriend.

Luka is not fleshed out. He’s like 1/3 of a character. But he’s the only one in the entirety of the show that has never come down on Marinette or criticized her having feelings or tried to shame her in anyway. He’s intuitive to her feelings, he immediately noticed when Marinette was upset when he teased her for stuttering and tried to cheer her up again. Some of him thinking she’s amazing is off (she can’t actually pick locks but you know…secret identities) but he sees how brave she is and appreciates her. There’s a lot of potential and I don’t see the flags I see with Adrien or even Kagami.

And I’m sorry but after Chameleon and how little credit even her own best friend gives her, I am dehydrated for Marinette Support and if Mr. Guitar Man is the only source of water that’s not laced with SALT I’mma go for that Oasis right thar. 

[thanksjro]

Eugenesis Part Two, Scene Six: A Very Large Friend Wakes Up From His Nap

The Autobots are getting slaughtered. Ultra Magnus makes the call for Metroplex to be woken up.

See, Springer’s a classy addict- he only gets high on the name-brand stuff.

Back on Cybertron, Nightbeat’s just as appalled as I am that High Command wants him to bring back Optimus Prime. Prowl’s made this choice because he doesn’t think he has the metaphorical balls to lead in this large of an impending crisis, and that’s not me trying to be funny about it.

You’ve had this job for an hour and you’ve already given up. Have a little self respect, Prowl.

So, here’s the plan: Nightbeat goes back in time to when the Ark was buried under Mt. Hilary on Earth, grabs Optimus, has him lead the cause for a bit, then hits him over the head with a shovel and stuffs him back into the proper time and place once they’re done with him, that way the fabric of reality- which at this point is more of a fishing net with how many holes it’s got punched through it- doesn’t tear. Sounds simple, right?

But Nightbeat brings up a good point:

Optimus needs better friends.

This is where Perceptor brings out the memory-wipe device, which they’re planning to use on Optimus once this whole thing is over. This is an integral part of the plan. Wiping their leader’s memory with an experimental device. Has it been tested? Is this a cruelty-free mind-wiper? We just don’t know.

Nightbeat brings up some very good points, both within the story, and in reference to the meta here. He’s very genre-savvy like that. He isn’t on-board with this at all, especially because with how dangerous things are about to get. Perceptor spits out some science to try and ease his mind, but Nightbeat is having none of it. Prowl attempts to appeal to his more empathetic nature.

You read that right. Prowl.

"Yeah, he’d want to live, but fuck his personal agency in any of this!”

                                                          -Prowl Transformers, Eugenesis

They eventually get Nightbeat to agree to the plan, if only to move the plot along. He pulls together a team, and they’ll be heading for the Acid Wastes to use the time-travel rift very soon.

Meanwhile, on the Quintesson warship, Lord Xenon is taking a gander at the teleport, specifically the bodies of a couple of folks who just got back via said teleport and the armor they were wearing to keep from getting torn apart by the process.

I hope that womb-juice is pulp-free. This is just planting the seed, we’ll get back to this plot point later, I suppose.

Back on the ground, Mindwipe’s busy with waking up the big guy, plugging in all the codes and passwords needed to get things rolling.

Mindwipe, sweetie, you’re doing amazing.

Everything’s going to hell- the Autobots are losing ground rapidly, the ground won’t stop quaking, the lower levels of the city are flooding, and there’s still another two-and-a-half minutes to go before Metroplex is up.

He finishes plugging in the codes and BAMFs on out of there, alongside every single other citizen of Autobot City. You don’t want to stick around when the big boy wakes up to kick some tail, it would seem.

Roberts, stop trying to make me want to fuck a city; it isn’t gonna happen, regardless of how good a tan it has.

Metroplex wakes up, pissed. The city explodes, repeatedly, all over, and standing in its wake is the giantest of giant robots.

And General Rodern couldn’t be more pleased.

---

Brief aside, while we’re on this topic:

The Titans are a weird part of the lore for me. They’re sentient, living beings, with the same level of intelligence and individuality as all the other Transformers… and yet they never seem to have any agency. Others are always telling them how to live, how to exist, what they’ll do and how they’ll look. Not just short-term, either- Autobot City’s been established for at least a year in this story. What would the Autobots- hell, what would anyone- do if a Titan just said “no thanks, I’m good”? It’s not like they could really stop them.

I’ve yet to see any of the Transformers media touch on this as a concept. Maybe I’ve missed something, but an entire city just going rogue seems like it’d be a fun story. You could get some mileage out of exploring the moral issues with locking a sentient being within their own body for years while tinier people live inside them. Talk about body horror.

Okay, aside over!

---

Rodern orders for the transformation to begin- what exactly this means hasn’t been established, but I imagine it’s going to be something positively wild. Outside, the troops start dive bombing Metroplex.

That’s friggin’ poetry right there.

Rodern fires everything he’s got at Metroplex, who reacts as if he’s been swarmed by bees. Metroplex, of course, retaliates, and nearly rips the plating off the warship. Rodern tells them to keep going. Rodern may not fully understand just what he’s up against.

While this is going on, we take a look inward, into the depths of Metroplex, to find Wheeljack passed out in his lab. He wakes up to find Centurion and Mainframe hard at work to get the space bridge up and running.

Back outside, the Enslaver transforms into a giant cannon, still floating in the air. It fires and takes Metroplex’s arm off. Good for the Quintessons. Now they just have to not die while the damn thing recharges for nearly a minute.

Wheeljack’s joined in on the space bridge work, and getting generally furious that things aren’t working out perfectly. The bridge eventually gets its act together and shows us a spot on Cybertron. The intent here is to get Prowl’s attention by way of the power surge this whole thing is going to cause, so he can send reinforcements. That’s Wheeljack’s whole plan. Sure hope Prowl isn’t too distracted to notice.

Hey, cannon’s recharged! They shoot Metroplex in the gut. He definitely feels that one. Rodern may actually fully understand just what he’s up against after all. 

Wheeljack instructs Metroplex to head for the space bridge. The moment the Titan’s foot touches the portal, another shot is fired and Metroplex snaps in two, his upper half landing on Cybertron. The space bridge cuts off. Metroplex is frickin’ dead. Wheeljack, you plan sucks.

Add him to the tally, I suppose. That’s three characters who have died on-screen, so to speak. Man, now I feel bad. Poor Metroplex.

[afterspark-podcast]

G1 Episode 30: Transcript

Episode Show Notes

[This can also be found on AO3!]

[Stinger]

S: Black, like it’s-

O: Yes, it's completely black. Like straight fucking coffee. It is the sludge from hell.

[Intro Music]

O: Hello, welcome to the Afterspark Podcast, an episode by episode recap of the Generation 1 Transformers cartoon.  I'm Owls!

S: And I'm Specs.

O: And today we're gonna be talking about episode number 30: Day of the Machines! Let's talk about giant robots today, shall we?

S: Yeah.

O: [Laughter] We start with, of course: Midnight, Quantum Laboratories, home of America's most  secret  inventions.

S: A security guard finds some um, “misplaced” items- ah, some very familiar misplaced items. [Laughter] Oh-

O: Hi, Soundwave! So the guard picks up- a picks up Soundwave along with a box and a guitar case and takes them to the Lost and Found.

S: It looked like it was in someone's office. Sooooo, why does the security guard uh, take it to Lost and Found? Why does he even do that? I mean, he says something about the absent-minded professor being at it again. Um, does this mean he just does this with anything that's left in people's offices? 

O: He is like the most passive-aggressive security guard ever. [Laughter] (Or whatever he is.) Because, like, oh that would be super annoying every time you come in it's like, where- where's my office plant? I guess, you know, Roger took it back to the lost and found cuz Roger is a jerk.

S: Yeah.

O: [Laughter]

S: Laserbeak and Soundwave transform and uh, Soundwave tosses a key to Laserbeak, telling him to release Megatron.

O: And, oh my god, Megatron’s in the frickin’ guitar case. Why didn't he just transform instead of them unlocking it? Why do they care about the structural integrity of this random guitar case?

S: Maybe it would be uncomfortable to transform and burst out of it? It’s- I don't know. 

O: Okay, so Megatron doesn't like being uncomfortable. Is that why he was in a plush guitar case?

S: Obviously. 

O: [Laughter] He’s gotta ride in comfort!

S: Once Megatron's free Soundwave grabs the box and Megatron blasts the Lost and Found, uh, door?-

O: Gate.

S: Gate-

O: They were like in a kind of gated, like, a clear fence area if that makes sense.

S: Yeah. 

O: Chain-link fence, that’s the word I’m looking for, sorry.

S: Yeah- Megatron blasts the a- chain-link entrance to the Lost and Found with his fusion cannon.

O: And yet the guitar case will survive this! It just gets left behind.

S: That's a lot of attention to detail for something that does not matter at all.

O: [Laughter] Right?! Megatron and Soundwave then subvert some tanks by flying over them undetected.

S: You know, in the gentle glow of the moonlight.

O: I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on the whole “Megatron being somewhat subtle” here thing.

S: It's Megatron, what can you do? 

O: [Snicker] 

S: So Megatron, uh, blasts a hole in the roof of the building that they land on. 

O: Well, okay, subtle for  him. [Laughter] We are then introduced to the most powerful computer on earth, TORQ III.

S: This implies the existence of TORQs I and II, so what happened to them? For that matter, why is it Decepticon-scaled?

O: No one knows, although I do love the image of TORQ I and II being shoved into, like, a broom closet somewhere. Probably rather glad they're in that broom closet, considering what happens to TORQ III after this.

S: Yeah. 

O: So, Megatron then... reprograms TORQ III to serve only  him  by using this really phallic looking thing that comes out of his helm. 

S: It's a literal mind fuck, guys. 

O: Literally! That looks like that is what is happening! 

S: Yes! 

O: Very, very much! [Laughter]

S: Yes, like you weren’t watching that bit when we scripted this and then I threw it out and then when we rewatched it and you were like, “Eeeaaaurgh!” 

O: Yeah, I was like, “Okay sure, mind fuck,” cuz I'm like looking down and typing and then I look up, when I had to rewind for some reason and I was like, “Oh my god!” [Laughter] And she’s like, “Yeah, that’s why I said it!” I’m like, I wasn’t looking. [Laughter] Well, that image will never leave my head. Great! 

S: And now it's in yours! 

O: [Laughter] Or it will be! We have screenshots. Anyway, TORQ begins blaring, “Illegal access! Illegal access!” 

S: Oh, that brings to mind so many bad things.

O: Yeah, it does! Yikes!

S: “It certainly is,” Megatron replies.

O: It's amazing. I love it.  [dissolves into laughter]

S: Oh god, the computers’ screen-face-thing is purple, so what were these people thinking? This is like Decepticon catnip. Did they hear it was purple and decided they needed to have it, in addition to it being the most powerful computer?

O: No,  Megatron  heard it was purple and decided they needed- needed to have it. [Laughter]

S: He would. So, Megatron, being himself, procedes to program it with his personality because what could be better? More of him! 

O: Okay, bu- but why does sticking his head-dick into the computer make it into a copy of him? I have so many questions right now, the first of which is, why would this be a good idea?! Did Megatron just forget he's a complete total bastard who doesn't like authority? 

S: Obviously, there's no one better than him so…

O: That's fine and dandy until the thing tries to rebel against you and, I'm like, it’s you, of course it's going to. 

S: It's a blind spot he has.

O: Obviously. Soundwave and Megatron, then open the box they had brought in with them, and put the microchips inside onto these really strange looking robots around the lab TORQ is in. 

S: Yeah, yeah, I mean what possible applications these robots have? How do they function? One’s got noodly arms that don't even- that they don't nearly seem like they should be able to lift anything. And they're all just sort of scattered around the lab higgledy-piggledy. 

O: Yeah.

S: In a line?  Or something, I don’t know.

O: It's weird. 

S: Once the microchips, apparently called ‘circuit linkers’, touch the other robots TORQ can control them.

O: He then uses Soundwave for target practice. Another lovely character for my shit list, apparently.

S: Owls is developing quite a shit list.

O: I am! I've got my hit list. The funny thing is there will be several that will die. Foreshadowing for the movie.

S: [Laughter]

Unfortunately, characters I actually like will die so I don't really think that gets me, you know, anything, honestly.

S: [Laughter] There's no net gains there.

O: There’s no net gains here.

S: And so, elsewhere, two scientists are working super late, wondering if they made TORQ- TORQ III even though it's not specified here- you know, too smart.

O: And TORQ could control the whole world, uh, whatever would we do if the wrong person got ahold of him, uh, you know, so, you mean, like right now, this very second! 

S: Ah, one of the scientists notices that it's, you know, fucking after midnight and says they should go home and get some sleep.

O: He says “we.” Are the scientists  lovers? 

S: It's possible. Maybe they're married? 

O: It’s getting spicy tonight, baby. Welcome to Dr. Love’s laboratory! And so as he turns to leave- or as one of the scientists turns to leave, the robot controlled door closes and locks them in. When they go to call maintenance, TORQ tells them that maintenance can't help them. 

S: This is why robot doors are bad, guys. 

O: Or, not having a secondary method in which to exit, at least, is very bad.

S: Yeah, the other scientist um, starts for rebuild- rebuilding his, ah, little TV phone into something that can call long distance in order to call for help because, I guess, TORQ does not control the phone lines. 

O: Or won't, if he rebuilds it? 

S: I guess? I don’t know. Elsewhere, by dawn's morning light, Megatron, Rumble, and Frenzy are flying around, putting more of the control chips onto some oil tankers because that's how that works, I guess?

O: Di- did you know oil tankers come in fleets, Specs? 

S: It seems like so much wasted effort went into the shot. They clearly drew all of these ships individually. 

O: Ah, the days before digital animation and coloring, I think.

S: But they could have just Xeroxed one of them and been done-

O: [Laughter] Or even traced! Maybe, I guess.

S: I mean, look at 101 Dalmatians, they did fuckin Xerox-

O: That’s true-

S: So many Xeroxed dalmatians-

O: Shit, that's right, there are a ton of Xeroxed dogs. [Laughter] Elsewhere, at the Ark, Teletraan warns Optimus that there's skullduggery afoot!

S: A bunch of oil tankers are converging near the Decepticon base which- is in the middle of the ocean? 

O: In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, according to this map. To which I have to ask, how the hell did Carly get in there a few episodes back? 

S: She chartered a plane, a train, and an automobile, and then teeny-weeny little boat.

O: Well, while I do certainly think Carly is capable of that, considering she's badass. I refuse to believe this map is accurate and they have to be in the Pacific Ocean. It just seems too close to the Autobot base in other episodes not to be. If, regardless, if they drove all the way to Washington DC no problem in that one episode. Either that or the platform isn't built on top of their base as the dialogue seems to imply and it's just, you know, one of their bases of the week. 

S: Which they do seem to have so many of those.

O: They do have a lot of those. 

S: Yeah and so, well, Optimus smells a rat named Megatron.

O: I mean, he's not wrong.

S: He really isn't and, uh, so Quantum Labs is finally able to get a hold of Optimus, I think, through Teletraan. I don't remember. 

O: Yeah, I mean, Teletraan 1 basically operates as their phone so-

S: Yeah.

O: -Yes.

S: Yeah. So, the scientists at Quantum Labs warns them about TORQ's sudden case of the evils.

O: And Optimus is ready to head towards the Lab. Hound offers to investigate the oil tankers all converging in the middle of the goddamn Atlantic Ocean.

S: You're not a boat, Hound. You're really not. 

O: It's ok, Skyfire’s gonna come. Skyfire and Spike. [Laughter] You know, the dream team! 

S: Optimus transforms and, um, Wheeljack, Prowl, Sideswipe, and Ironhide are suddenly right there! Right there! Where the hell did those guys come from? 

O: Through the power of camera angles they were there the whole time. 

S: Prime's group arrives at the Labs and Optimus rips the crossing barrier off so they can enter before, you know, being shot at by, you know, the robots. Or tanks?

O: They are attacked by all the tanks from before, that apparently don't have any humans controlling them.

S: Oh, oh so that's why they were so useless earlier.

O: Oh, yeah, probably. 

S: The Autobots are surrounded by this plethora of vehicles as Optimus channels Charlie Brown, “Good grief!”

O: Or Jotaro from JoJo's Strange Adv- Bizarre Adventure.

S: Yeah, Being cars themselves, they got the brilliant idea to, um, shoot out the tires on the attacking vehicles.

O: This only gets them so far, so Optimus Prime speed dials the Dinobots by pressing his abs.

S: Ah, ab cell-phone service. 

O: I mean, it was the 80’s. I mean, why not make the cell phone your entire ab if it's got to be huge? Might as well, right? I mean, at least, you save a little space, but that being said you would think it’s in his helmet considering the little antenna a few episodes back. But continuity? What's that?

S: And I’m just imagining someone going up and knocking on your grill while in truck mode.

O: [Laughter] “Optimus Prime call Dinobots! Dinobots smash gas station!” [Laughter] “Wait, no!”

S: So Peter Cullen talks to himself for a few lines and the Dinobots arrived with Grimlock in the lead.

O: Good thing Peter Cullen only does Prime and Ironhide because if we had to say that- if we said that joke for every time Welker talked to himself it would be absurd.

S: We'd be here all day.

O: We would be here all day! 

S: Optimus orders the Dinobots to smash here-

O: Which, obviously, being Dinobots they comply, there is much mayhem and explosions.

S: Yep. So, apparently, the doors are controlled by a computer but not the windows because the two scientists are able to shout to the Autobots from their open window.

O: I also am laughing because a lot of like ah, multi-story buildings that are, like, work places you can't even open the windows.

S: Especially now. You might have been able to in the ‘80’s.

O: Yeah. 

S: But, uh- but, uh-

O: Definitely be a question because probably not every place had AC either. 

S: Yeah.

O: So I imagine it would have been more common. Sludge gives Optimus a lift to the window and he helps the two scientists escape.

S: Optimus asks a question and then um, answers it himself with, you know, the answer, of course, being Megatron.

O: He's basically, like, a machine rebellion!

S: The scientists are confused as TORQ shouldn't be able to control things that aren't, you know, specifically designed for it. Then Sparkplug shows up to explain about the chips the Decepticons have been using them. Um.

O: Where did he come from? Why are characters poofing into existence so much in this episode? 

S: The power of convenience. 

O: The power of convenience. Optimus then takes the chip from Sparkplug and sticks it into his arm. 

S: Optimus, why would you do that? It's controlled everything else it's touched just by touching it.

O: But not him, apparently. The Autobots are led to TORQ’s hangar but the door is locked.

S: To quote Optimus, “Thankfully, I have a delicate lock-picking technique.”

O: That technique is blasting the door- [Laughter] 

S: And- 

O: Let it never be said that Optimus doesn't have a sense of humor.

S: Oh, oh god, he definitely has a sense of humor. 

O: It's just dad humor. 

S: Yeah, and so the Autobots are attacked by those funky looking machines that we saw earlier before we jet on over to Skyfire and company.

O: Apparently the Decepticons plan is to collect all the oil from the tankers and pump it down to their base but, oh no, the oil platform is protected by an unbreakable shield.

S: We've seen that one before. 

O: How the heck didn’t the Autobots see the Cons building this giant freaking platform in the middle of the fucking ocean!

S: They're just not paying attention to the goddamn oceans, I don't know.

O: The Sky Spy, you have Sky Spies! 

S: Yep, they land on one of the tankers. Hound and Spike exiting from Skyfire’s crotch hatch.

O: Of course.

S: They ask the captain to hide them so they can get, you know, through the shield and surprise the Decepticons. 

O: Hide him how? Skyfire is  huge!  How are they going to hide him? 

S: Mass-shifting? I don't know, somehow it works.

O: And at the boat docks, Megatron's supervising personally, for some reason, along with an incorrectly coloured Hook.

S: As the ship approaches, Hound and Skyfire jump out of a conveniently sized hole that was just on the ship's deck. I guess it's um, a hold or something? I don't know.

O: Yeah, but it was really large. Like, large enough for Skyfire to get into. I have no idea how realistic that is. And then a fight breaks out! Soundwave and some of his cassettes joining the fray as well and our dead-weight- I mean, Spike, is captured by Laserbeak pretty much immediately.

S: Yep. Megatron tells them to surrender or he'll have Laserbeak drop- drop Spike. 

O: [Sarcasm] Oh no.

S: Soundwave is standing off in the background like the strong, independent tape deck he is.

O: And, back at the lab, more of those crazy machines come out of the hole Prime blasted and attack.

S: Again, what were these made for? They seem, um, perfect for hunting Autobots. Optimus, were your friends planning on doing bad things to you?

O: Quite possibly. About those bad things, Optimus is captured by the kink machine- I mean, the bondage machine- oh, I mean, the one with the tentacles. [Laughter]

S: [Laughter] 

O: I’m serious, what else is that thing supposed to be for? Like, maybe that's what they were doing? Were they making a giant bondage machine for the Autobots? [Laughter] 

S: [Silent laughter]

O: I broke Specs, yay! [Laughter] I’m sorry!

S: Prowl can lift as he struggles to hold one of the robot’s mouths open, so it doesn't, like, crush him.

O: But then Ironhide just walks up to his opponent, plugs a hole with his finger and then it explodes. Welcome to the Looney Tunes, starring the Autobots. 

S: [Laughter] Sideswipe just makes his clap and that kills it.

O: [Laughter] Of course. So after, you know, um, all of that, they finally enter the hangar to find a maze.

S: Who designed this place?

O: I think TORQ’s done some redecorating overnight. He has had an army of, like, robo slaves at his disposal.

S: The funky-ass robots.

O: [Laughter] Kinkmatron. 

S: [Laughter] 

O: That’s it’s name now, no one can stop me! Optimus enters alone, uh, before we cut back to Skyfire, Hound, and Spike, who are in the Decepticon brig. 

S: When the Decepticons catch naughty Autobots, they go in the naughty Autobot hole. 

O: Dare I ask what that means for Spike? [Laughter]

S: [Laughter] God, there is a really terrible pun there. 

O: [Laughter] Yeah, there probably is!

S: God, I am not going into that. 

O: [Laughter] Nope, nope, we’ve talked about kink machines multiple times, I don’t want to get into anything else tonight!

S: Spike and his compatriots are trapped and waiting for rescue but, don't worry, Spike has a plan!

O: I feel like it's only fair, they're stuck there because of Spike in the first place. He should have a plan. 

S: Well, considering what his plan is, he was the only damn one who can carry out.

O: True. 

S: TORQ- Well, back with Optimus, TORQ continues to bait Optimus as, you know, our dad-bot makes his way through the maze and evil robots.

O: Optimus gets another circuit breaker- that wasn’t what it was called. 

S: Circuit linker-

O: -Circuit linker put on him and this controls him. [Laughter] You know, “controls him.”

S: I guess we should assume Sparkplug or Wheeljack disabled the other one, um…?

O: That makes sense. Although I- hmmm. So through this entire section, right, I was comparing TORQ’s dialogue to Megatron. You know, since Megs programmed his personality into this computer. You know, everything seems spot-on, I can hear Megatron saying all of this but then when TORQ captures Optimus he says, “Come to me, my pet,” and I have to admit it sounds like what Megatron would say in this situation, and I basically fucking lost it while we were watching it. But to make this even better! He says, “You're mine now,” two seconds later. Apparently, Megatron's thirst for Optimus transferred over, too! 

S: Yeah. Surprise! Optimus has been pretending to be controlled the entire time.

O: Of course! 

S: And that broken- broken circuit linker he had earlier was, in fact, there for a reason. He swapped it with the active one.

O: How he managed to do that without touching the live one is debatable but alright.

S: I don't have the time or energy to debate it so-

O: [Laughter] Fair.

S: Let's not. TORQ orders his robots to destroy Optimus but one well-placed punch by, you know, the Dad-bot makes TORQ explode.

O: Ding-dong, the TORQ is dead. 

S: TORQ I and II are probably very grateful.

O: [Laughter] I mean, TORQ III seems like a bastard. Certainly was a bastard there at the end.  Soundwave warns Megatron that TORQ is no longer in control of the tankers but Megs’ will control them with his radio transmitter he's conveniently holding.

S: Does it come with a funky hat?

O: We could only hope but, sadly, no.

S: Yeah. The scientists send Optimus and company off on, like, a super-fast boat. I think it's a hydrofoil, I don't know, as they head towards the Decepticons location. So, apparently, they were close to the coast.

O: Apparently. With Sparkplug driving, by the way. 

S: Oh, Sparkplug, most interesting man in the world. He knows how to do everything! He's been a ruby miner, an oil driller, a mechanic, boat captain, everything! 

O: Autobot liaison?

S: Yeah.

O: And back into the brig, uh, Spike has conveniently found an electromagnet just lying around.

S: I'm starting to think this isn't so much their brig, as it is their trash-pile room. 

O: Not to mention what the fuck they were using an electromagnet for or how.

S: I don't know. God, ygm Spike uses the electromagnet to magnetize the cassettes standing by the door to the walls- magnetize their guards.

O: Yes, essentially.  With the cassettes incapacitated, Skyfire burst the door down- bust the door down. I know what I'm saying. 

S: And through a five-second interlude we are told the Autobots in the boat are within sight, as Soundwave spots them.

O: But Megatron's not worried, they'll never get that shield, right? 

S: Jetfire, Hound, and Spike find the shield generator uh, so helpfully being guarded by Frenzy. 

O: Skyfire lures Frenzy away as Hound shoots the generator with one of his missiles. 

S: How did Hound get his ammo back? Because I'm pretty sure they were disarmed.

O: Shhh! They don't want you to think about it, they didn't, either. 

S: Well, that's true. The shield goes down just as the other Autobots arrive and, ah, you'll never guess how they do! The boat yeets itself out of the water and onto the platform and it’s horrifyingly entertaining cuz I keep imagining that the boat is gonna break.

O: Right? Another fight breaks out with Starscream, Laserbeak, and Frenzy joining Megatron and Soundwave.

S: And Megatron runs away and Optimus follows to destroy the radio transmitter.

O: Once destroyed, Optimus tells the tankers they're free to go. 

S: Megatron, you know, being a sore loser sets the whole platform to explode. 

O: The other Bots make it back to the boat but Prime runs to go find Skyfire and the others who who they presumably know are on there, for some reason? 

S: I mean, I think-

O: I mean, it's not the worst assumption to make but, I'm like, did they see them? I don't think they did.

S: I mean, they talked to one of the tanker captains? I don't know. 

O: I don’t know if they… They wouldn’t have had time. I- I'm gonna go with maybe they've all got GPS on them or something and roll with that, probably.

S: Yeah. So they all make it out on Skyfire once he's able to get, you know, out of the platform. 

O: And take off.

S: Yeah.

O: One of the scientists thanks the bots for their help and makes a rather unfortunate comment about unreliable machines.

S: [Sigh] 

O: You know, eating that entire foot.

S: Yeah, and he attempts to make a recovery but it's not really successful.

O: It isn’t very good.

S: And that's it! That's the end of the episode. Oh, but they brought the boat back to where it was from originally.

O: I mean, good for them for not exploding the boat, that was helpfully lent into them, I suppose. 

S: Yeah.

O: But join us next time for everyone's favorite holiday: Autobot Day! Wait... wait... no? Do we mean: Decepticon Day?

S: [Sigh] Parades.

O: [Laughter]

S: There are parades. 

O: Parades and I think this is a multi-parter, if I’m remembering properly?

S: Yep.

O: Cause, I think it's like Megatron’s Master Plan?

S: Yeah, I’m pretty sure that's what it is. 

O: It's a multi-parts-

S: It’s two parts, I’m pretty sure. And we have fanfiction recommendations. Due to the fact that I've been swamped, I didn't come up with any so Owls has supplied our fanfiction recommendations for today.

O: Wild-card fics yet again. These had nothing to do with the episode. All right, um, so I have picked two for today. The first one is “Cuck Rung” by… I think this is said, Evedawalrus.

S: Yeah, I think that’s what it is.

O: I think that’s accurate. I can’t remember what her username is on Tumblr but, um, it is IDW continuity, it is rated T. It's technically slash but let me tell you all the slash is relatively background, for the most part, and where it's really not the main focus but it has, um, Minimus Ambus/Megatron and uh, Drift/Ratchet. Our main characters, there are more than this that have popped up since, but our main characters are Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, Drift, Ratchet, Swerve, Megatron, and Ravage. 

O: Our description is: Rodimus creates a shipwide group chat. This proves to be a horrible decision. It is ongoing, it's not complete, it is multi-chapter and, let me tell you, it is hilarious. I laugh my ass off every time I read this. Um, because it is literally just a group chat with all of these characters and think of it very much like a discord where you have certain people who can, like, rename others and all this other shit. It's amazing, I highly recommend it. [Laughter]

And our second one is a “Shimmer of Hope” by NiCad? [Pronounced ny-cad]

S: Ny-cad? Nee-cad?

O: One of those.

S: The pronunciation’s debatable. 

O: Thank you, Internet! It is IDW, it's rated T, it’s Gen, uh, there are no pairings, and our characters are Verity and Springer. The summary is, “What did Verity write in that thank you card to Springer, anyway?” It's a one shot. I believe this is after- it's the last of the Wreckers trilogy from the IDW comics.

S: Requiem for the Wreckers, maybe?

O: I think that one. Uh, this is right after that. It's pretty short but, um, I really like Verity so I'm like Verity needs to be in more things, so those are our recommendations for today.

S:  And that just about wraps it up for us today, remember to check us out on Tumblr or Pillowfort as Afterspark-Podcast for any additional information, show notes, or links, we may have mentioned.  You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at AftersparkPod (all one word).  And various other locations by searching for Afterspark…. Podcast- [Laughter]

O: [Laughter]

S: You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at AftersparkPod (all one word).  And various other locations by searching for Afterspark Podcast, such as AO3, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Youtube, just to name a few.  

O: Ah, feel free to send us questions on Tumblr, too. We actually, you know, have to do a mic check before we do any recording so, ah, it’s helpful for us. I have a list of questions but we're gonna run out eventually and I don't think I should be left to think of questions by myself. If you have a question about Transformers or whatever, feel free to send it to us on Tumblr and we'll probably use it for a warm-up and I'll try to answer it on Tumblr, too. 

S: Yeah or, I guess, in the comments on AO3, Youtube.

O: Yep, that also works comments on AO3, Youtube  Basically anywhere we respond back to which is mostly Youtube and AO3.

S: Yeah, uh, so till next time, guys! I'm Specs!

O: And I’m Owls!

S: Toodles!

 [Outro Music]

[animmania]

HOMESTUCK EPILOGUE MEAT THOUGHTS **SPOILERS**

So i want to make some things clear before i get started. I have only read the meat option. I wanted

to also read candy so I could make this with all possible information. But meat left such a bad taste

in my mouth. And after a friend of mine told me somethings about candy i just couldnt bring my

self to read more of it.

So yes i did not like the epilogue. And this is mainly just going to be talking about some of the main

reasons why i didnt like it. And if you did like it or disagree with anything i say. Thats perfectly fine

In fact im honestly happy you could like it. I really really wanted to like it but i just. Couldnt.

So what about it gave me so much issues. The first one is the style and format and feel of it. You will

notice its very different looking from homestuck. Being all text and having 2 routes to choose from.

And alot of it feels very differnt then homestuck and to be fair. Thats the point. I had to have it

explianed to me but it seems to be mostly going for the style and taking common tropes in fan

fiction. The look of it is apprently based on a fan fiction site and the meat route is meant to be the

darker fan fiction while the candy is meant to be happier one where every ship comes true. (altho

from what ive heard it seems more depressing then the darker route so i dont get how that works but

oh well) but that is the point. So it would and should make sense that it dosnt feel like homestuck

right? Well. no. Because no matter what. This is still the offical epilogue to the story. You can make

it look unoffical as much you want. You can try to explain that its both in cannon but not in cannon

but at the end of the day it dosnt matter. Its still the epilogue. It was written in part by the actual

creator. Its on the offical site. In fact if you go on the site right now. Its the very first thing you see.

With right below it homestuck. If they really wanted to drive this fan fiction thing all the way

though. Then i think it both shouldnt have been on the offical site. And hussie shouldnt have

written it. They could have made its own lil site or heck maybe even put it up on the fanfiction site

they had been mimicking. But by putting it up on the offical site it defeats the idea that this is meant

to be fanfiction.

While im on the looks of the epilogue i also got to say i was really expecting it to do more with it.

I was expecting them to do some really intersesting things with it being in this new format. For

example something many people thought including my self was that once john went back into the

cannon the formating would change back into homestucks as it normally is. That would have been

really intersting and would have helped cement that that world being not in the cannon. But. no.

That never happens. It stays in the fan fiction form though out and thats just kinda it. It felt like a

waste. Even the meta narrtive i thought was really wasted. When dirk takes over its noting that

homestuck its self hasnt done in the past. If anything its less. Like remember when doc scratch

took over in homestuck. And the whole site it self changed. That was really cool and interesting.

But here....its just changes the black text to yellow. Thats it. And now the narration is coming from

him. I couldnt help but feel really let down by it. It just seemed like....such a waste.

Ok lets talk about the characters and story and my main issues with them. Now apprently alot of

people didnt like that it was getting much darker in areas but i didnt mind. Homestuck was never

one to shy away from dark or mature subjects and now that the characters are older them dealing

with more mature things makes sense. My issue with the story is actually that its trying to be a story

when its meant to be an epilogue. An epilogue. To me at least. Should be about just the characters.

Seeing how they are doing after the events of the main story and seeing maybe new struggles after

the credits. And while there is some of that here. Its not the focus and more of the focus is one this

new story starting. John having to go fight lord english. Dirk becoming evil. Jane wanting to

become president. I couldnt get into any of it and it never gave me a reason to. This is just an

epilogue.not homestuck 2. not a spin off of any sort. Its just meant to be a short thing on what

happened after the ending. The main story is already over. And its so fruasting becuase it had stuff

in it that i loved but they dont focus on it enough. Like theres a side thing where roxy mentions

that they and calli had been talking about gender idenity and how they had came to the conclsuion

that roxy is trans and uses he him/they them pronuons. That part. Made me so happy. I thought it

was amazing that they were doing this with their character and it was really interesting. But at the

same time i couldnt help but think how much if this had more of a focus on. Like they say calli and

roxy talked about this. And i cant help but think how much i would have loved to see that  

conversation

there was also this one throw away line about how rose and her wife had been talking about

adopting. And i cant even to begin to say how much id love to read a story of just them talking

about if they should have a kid. And john discovering he has depression i thought was really good

and i wish it had more focus and had him just talking more to people about it. This epilogue left me

with just wanting so much it didnt give. Now  i will give credit the roxy being trans thing didnt

just get dropped they did have it devople as time went on and it was cool but again i just wanted

more of it. The stuff with dirk and lord english just felt. Pointless. And gave me an impression that

maybe they were afraid people wouldnt be interested in the epilogue if there wasnt some kind of

stake at risk and i cant help but wonder what it would have been like if they werent in it.

My other main issue with the story is how they did  sorten characters. Some i liked for example

where johnn,roxy,dave,karkat,rose and a few others.they were good and i felt they for the most part

showed how they had grown over the years and that this would be how they would naturally be

older. But others i couldnt get behind. For examples i didnt really care how they did jade. She really

didnt add anything and most of what she was doing was hitting on dave and karkat. It felt kinda like

a waste to have her just for that. Granted they do have her get possed but by then you dont really get

any more real interaction out of her so your mostly left with how she first shows up and its just ..

weak i think i would describe it as weak. Then theres characters like jane and dirk . Jane  now being

just stright up a jerk letrally shamming jake  to hundereds of people and dirk letrally being  super

evil and doing really really fucked up things. Im not asking for characters to be perfect angels. But

this seems just to much. To go from homestuck where they had grown alot as characters and had

bettered them selfs as people. To just going to this. Its. Its very unsatisfying.

I think i would use that word to sum up meat alot. Its very . Unsatisfying.  They mention in the

choice just before you pick meat or candy. That meat would be much harder to get though. But it

would be over all better for you and more satisfying to eat. For me. That never happened. Though  

out it all i never get that satisying feeling. I never got that (oh ok this made it worth it) it never

 never happened for me and its so fruastrating because i wanted to have that feeling so badly. I

wanted to love this but so many things about it kept making it impossible for me.

And this brings me to the final thing i want to say. Maybe my perosnal biggest issue with this and

why i cant enjoy it.

But first i want to talk about homestucks ending.  To me. Homestuck ended perfectly. One could

agrue that it could have had more problems going on but to me it was what i wanted. The characters

after years of struggles. After death,pain,saddness and so many hardships. Pulled though. They

made it to the other side. They grew as people.   They bettered them selfs. And  got a happy ending

that they desvered and worked hard to get. And with the credits giving us insight to how it was

going over there. I couldnt help but be so happy at it. When i got to it i was very emtional and i just

felt it was so right . And a great   note to end homestuck on .  

But thats no longer the case. It isnt the end now. It isnt the last thing from homestuck

This is . This is the end of homestuck. This is the last note it will go out on . The epilogue. An

epilogue that. To me. Felt so unsatisfying. And put the characterss though more shit and left things

on a sad un happy note that might not get any real conlsuion. This is it. It turned an ending that

i loved. Into a  bitter sweet momment. And you could say im being over dramatic. And i would

agree. I think i am. I want to just shut up and just  enjoy this or ignore it. But i cant. My brain wont

shut up and let it go. That this last part of homestuck. Something i love so much. Had its final

momment be this. I just feel. So .  Dissapointed by all this.

Now i want to just say some quick things here. These are just my thoughts. If you liked the epilogue

or even loved it. Im so happy for you. Honestly i mean this with all my heart. Im glad people can

and have enjoyed it. And you could also make the argument that by not reading both routes that

could be why i didnt enjoy it and maybe reading both would do so. And hey. Maybe your right. But

i cant really bring my self to do. But at the very least  i got my thoughts out. And as i am wrighting

this i am already feeling so much better  and im glad i could get my thoughts out there.