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sarah-dipitous · 2 years ago

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Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 121

All Dogs Go to Heaven/The End of Time Part 2

“All Dogs Go to Heaven”

Plot Description: Sent to investigate an apparent werewolf attack, Dean and Sam follow the clues to a mother and son with an unusual dog

(FINALLY someone listed Dean first. It is his birth right as the elder sibling)

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: probably not. Guy didn’t stand a chance, and he didn’t make any horrifically stupid mistakes

Crowley is fucking ruthless

I love the boys being absolutely RUDE, downright INSULTING to the cops while posing as feds

Damn, Sam. You said DEAN was the shoot first ask questions later guy. But now you don’t even wanna INVESTIGATE this guy before definitely declaring him a werewolf??

I’m sorry…what?? I mean, sure it was the dog. You could glean that from the description but…this is…it’s disturbing

Oh god, is the DOG THIS LADY’S EX(/a werewolf)???

SAM!!! That is circumstantial evidence at BEST. (And we know it’s not her)

Sam really would sell anyone to Satan for a corn chip these days. Damn.

Oh no. It’s not a werewolf, but I’m pretty sure it’s wildly disrespectful to indigenous people if *I* say what it actually is

SAM. *SAM*!!!! It shouldn’t be funny. But Sam addressing this dude like a literal dog (because that’s the form he’s taken the whole time) and then answering the guy’s “go to hell” with “already been. Didn’t agree with me” he’s so sassy

There’s THIRTY of them?? Oh…it’s…as Dean said, a sleeper cell. He was supposed to turn the family he’s been staying with once he gets the word

Sam noooo not the whistle and trying to get him to play fetch. Stoppppp

The entire episode is just me yelling “Sam!! No!!” He wanted Dean to take the shot on the pack leader even with innocent people in the way

Oh…so you can just shoot them normally, I guess?? It’s super anticlimactic when you can just shoot them normally, though Bobby usually has whatever the boys need to kill a monster, so it’s not like that’s typically a problem

Sam telling Dean the things he’s done since losing his soul, and then saying that even though things were harder when he had one, he wants to go back to being that guy. I won’t lie, if he’s not lying, I’m proud of him.

“Been On My Mind…”: Nope. 3.

“The End of Time Part 2”

Plot Description: The Doctor faces the end of his life as the Master’s plans hurtle out of control

I DON’T WANT HIM TO GOOOOO. I literally waited til the last minute I thought I could possibly get through this before midnight arrived. My decompression time after work needed to be a lot longer than normal

God…I kinda wish I knew more about Old Who. I know precious little about the Time Lords outside the Doctor and the Master (though obviously less about him).

Is it bad that Donna’s making me wanna dye my hair again? I’ve been really good at not because I might wanna go back to my natural color…but who knows??

HE CALLED HER HIS BEST FRIENDDDDDD 😭😭😭 like I know it but…to hear him say it

These moments between the Doctor and the Master…can you imagine having one person and one person only in the entire universe who could possibly understand everything you’ve gone through? And they do, and they HATE you, and you COULD love them if they’d only back down a LITTLE (aaaaaaaaand I’ve just described Touya and Shoto again. godDAMMIT)

THIS BODY WAS BORN OUT OF DEATH, ALL IT CAN DO IS DIE?!?!?!?!?!?! When will these writers from 2009/2010 stop hurting my feelings about 2022/2023 manga things????

Yeah, this rescue could be better

Wilf is so excited (if a little scared) to be in space. Bless him

I can’t tell if the camera just moved or if the ship actually fell a little…but it’s in SPACE WITH NO GRAVITY. It shouldn’t do that

Hilarious that “night has fallen” so all 6 billion or something people/Masters HAVE to start just listening as though there aren’t ones who are potentially still asleep from….like, does he have no idea about time zones? Bit of an oversight for a TIME lord, if you ask me

OKAY. Time out. There’s allowing whatever to happen in your sci-fi and then there’s allowing JUST ANYTHING to happen. The Time Lords threw a diamond from inside the time lock into a projected image of Earth from the end of time and it showed up on real Earth in 2009?? Come on…

Oh, sweetie, your condition just keeps getting worse

I still don’t trust this woman who talked to Wilf on the TV and has now found him on the alien ship

…the Master changed not just alive humans but corpses too? Skeletons?? What the absolute fuck

“We must look like insects to you” “I think you look like giants” 💔 The Doctor and Wilf have such a special and sweet relationship. It’s gonna rip my heart out when he’s the one who will knock four times

Oh wow. There’s a lot I forgot. Hearing Wilf tell the Doctor to not put the Master ahead of making sure that every human returns to being themselves

The terror on David’s face when he hears what the diamond is

(Ok I’ve got another Touya parallel to the Master, but I might have to wait and do an edit later because we are running out of time)

Of course the Doctor can just fix the ship, all parts of it…just like that in a couple minutes

I was gonna say “this is some Star Wars shit (neutral)” but that would actually be very appropriate for today.

Yeah, bestie, that’s what happens when you jump out of a space ship, through glass, onto a marble floor with no parachute

I AM SO FUCKING INTERESTED IN EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THE TIME WAR

I sympathize with this seemingly impossible decision…but the decision to destroy the gate is so great

AND THEN THE MASTER SACRIFICING HIMSELF AND GETTING HIS REVENGE ON THE TIME LORDS WHO IMPLANTED THE DRUMS IN HIS HEAD

(I might not end in time for midnight…this is a longer episode than I thought, I’m pretty sure now)

The melodrama of the Doctor’s agony in the box with the radiation vs it just ending and he just…gets up

Oh…he’s doing his farewell tour, saving his companions and/or their family members

Man, now we’re even in a Star Wars-esque cantina…I swear I didn’t do this on purpose

Oh, the granddaughter of the woman from The family of blood

Well, midnight came and we’re at Donna’s wedding

Wilf blowing a very tiny kiss to the Doctor as he turns and leaves 😭😭😭😭😭😭

GODDDD I FORGOT HE VISITS ROSE IN 2005, TOO

“The universe will sing you to your sleep” can you IMAGINE???

My heart hurrrrrts watching this. I don’t wanna say good bye to Daviddddddd

Oh hi Matt! You strange giraffe of a man

#hellsite nostalgia tour 2023 #it’s a few minutes late because I didn’t want to go

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flashflashhundredyarddash · 4 years ago

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batkids and their relationships with their siblings headcanons. under read more because this got fucking LONGGG

dick

dick is the eldest so he doesnt want to bog down his younger siblings with his problems, but if he DOES, he tends to talk to jason about it

dick and cass start to really begin to bond when Cass shows up to dicks gymnastics class for 3rd-6th graders and then cass shows up all the sixth graders and they get frozen yogurt after lmao

dick and tim are Very much thick as thieves. tim is very much like bruce on the Emotional Suppression scale, so dick just really wants to make sure his little brother is safe and happy ALL the time

Duke and Damian are the only two really permanently at the manor anymore, so when dick drops by he tries to do something with both of them. duke frantically zoom calls dick every other week to help him with his his trig homework. dick shows up to dukes high school graduation with literally the BIGGEST SIGN

everyone insists damian is dicks favorite but he does actually genuinely love all his siblings equally, his relationship with damian is just Very different from the others because of the age gap and being dami's primary caretaker for a year. dick babies dami every chance he gets

jason

would sell Dick to satan for One corn chip

him and cass don't have the greatest start to their relationship because cass is very much Against Killing so it takes a while for jason to warm up to her and earn her trust. now, though, jason is competing with steph by showing cass all the classic American Teenager things she missed out on. steph is currently winning but jason is like 98% positive a crunch wrap from taco bell is going to push him over the edge

tim and jason are currently competing over who can solve the most cases in a month. tim is winning. that won't last long.

jason Loves to Big Brother duke its so embarrassing. duke will get out of school and go to his car and jason is SITTING IN THE FRONT SEAT FRANTICALLY WAVING TO GET DUKES ATTENTION. JASON THAT IS MY CAR. signal has one (1) mission with arsenal and arsenal goes hey did you ask that girl to homecoming yet and duke is like I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU.

Damian is proof that Actually, Little Brothers are Pests. Jason fully believes that he was brought back from the dead PURELY to torment damian and he will fulfill this mission at any cost

cassandra

it actually really upset her when Dick didn't accept her at first. she knows her other siblings really adore dick so his lack of trust was really disheartening. it takes dick a while but once he Actually Accepts that cass is going to be a permanent part of their life and oh, wow, dick you really hurt her feelings he really hyperfocuses on bonding with cass for a couple of months which definitely improves their relationship

she really likes jason!! their relationship doesn't start well but because he's close with steph and tim who are cass's top two favorite people to exist ever, cass is like well i GUESS ill hang out with him more. jason is fun to talk to because he always tries his best to explain jokes and give context to what people are talking about (also tim took her to taco bell already but she didn't tell jason she just wanted to hang out)

cass LOVES tim. they just click okay. tim always seems to know when to give her space and when to push and come closer. Tim's "guest room" is just her room lets be real. tim and cass occasionally get mistaken for twins and Cass Loves it.

duke makes cass listen to metal once and cass loses. her. damn. mind. they bond over music a lot because they both Love Music to a degree the others in their family don't.

damian!! damian is her little brother!!! dami isn't As Hostile to cass at first because he is 100% aware cass has the edge in fighting and respects her. cass likes all of his instagram posts and they have a snapchat streak going

tim

tim Loves dick, dick was his first sibling!! he had Very strong hero worship when he first met dick but it mellowed out when tim got older because wow 17 is really not that cool and mature lol. tim has an open invitation to dick's apartment which he does occasionally take advantage of. tim has more than once scared the shit out of wally when wally comes over and wally is convinced they're being robbed (HA) for half a second. i mean. he's not wrong.

listen. tim understands that forgiving the guy who tried to kill you would be a Struggle for some people and it was! definitely! but also at least he can trust jason to, uh, be open about if he doesn't like tim. which is not an assurance he has with other people. so if the guy who tried to kill him tells him tim is cool now then like. maybe tim isn't that bad or annoying a person? also jason arrested a whole gang and won the cases competition but then it created a power vacuum that the whole batfam had to clean up the rest of the month. thanks, jason.

tim LOVES cass. you know how most of the time theres this empty feeling inside you and you just kind of ignore it because you don't know what will fix it or if you do, you know you can't fix it? cass makes that empty feeling feel a little less empty. they just click. tim always tries to travel with cass whenever she leaves gotham.

tim and duke. Tim is actually the sibling who duke goes to whenever he has questions he doesn't want to ask bruce or alfred about, like, life or vigilante-ing or school or college or whatever and Tim is always like yes!! i love Giving Advice and Solving Problems!! tim and duke and jason fill out their college applications together.

tim and damian. LMAO. ROUGH START THAT'S ALL ILL SAY. at some point alfred goes like fuck it. family therapy. and tim and dami are PISSED. tim and damian get along best when they have a common enemy to work against. their relationship gets much better when damian is older and they actually talk about their feelings like emotionally stunted bats. despite how bad their relationship was, tim will ALWAYS protect damian

duke

very much intimidated by dick at first. dick is so much older and has his own job and friends and life and is very much AN ADULT. dick likes to take duke out to do lots of cool stuff (paintball, lasertag, tech exhibitions, concerts, etc). also, dick PERSONALLY introduced duke to superman and is dating THE FLASH. 10/10 awesome big brother.

was intimidated by jason for 0.5 seconds before jason actually opened his mouth and started speaking. jason is literally. So Embarrassing. which is weird because nobody else really seems to feel that way about jason but duke knows he's 100% in the right here. like yeah jason is also An Adult and does Adult Stuff but he's also at the manor like every other weekend???? and he always complains about bruce but always seems to be in the same room bruce is in????? like okay jason. they bond over literature!! jason and duke and alfred will spend literal hours talking about books and duke loves it. duke is the only one who doesn't think jason is funny and jason gets so upset about it lmao.

cass has this one week where she gets really into photography and by virtue of being nearby (and also not nocturnal), duke becomes her victim subject. duke prints out all the pictures and hangs them up in his room (his favorite is one he took when he stole the camera and took a really bad selfie of them together).

tim is closest in age to duke so duke tends to hang around with him a lot. tim introduced duke to his young justice friends and duke is like yes!!! meta-friends!!!! tim really helps duke out with his powers because tim is always like wow i wonder if your powers would work if we did This? can you see farther than other people? is your visible spectrum of light different than other humans? Bruce does the same thing but bruce is boring about it lol.

damian and duke live in the same house and will be in the same room and just send each other social media posts back and forth. they follow each other on instagram and will, OCCASIONALLY, make tik toks together because they're tik tok fiends. each of his siblings have visited his parents once or twice but damian routinely comes with him.

damian

damian gets a special bullet point to say that it took him. forever to come around to the idea of having siblings. he very much believed that he was Bruce's Blood Son and everyone else were just tagalongs or allies. it took him ages to acknowledge that dick, jason, tim, and cass were his siblings, so when duke came and like a week later damian was like Ah, Yes, this is my brother Thomas everyone else was like dude wtf

listen. LISTEN. Obviously. Richard is very highly skilled. and also Father values him highly. and also Richard will listen to Damian complain about his schoolmates. and also Richard is much more patient with Damian than other members of his family. listen....,,, (all this to say damian kind of fucking adores dick lmaooooo this kid).

Todd is kind of unbearable but damian has been informed this is both a normal feeling when it comes to Todd and also big brothers. damian was an only child for ten years so yes, Father, if Todd attempts to tickle me I WILL break his fucking nose. yes i WILL put money in the swear jar but I want you to know i don't regret it. they always try to sneak up on each other but mostly fail.

DRAKE!!! but no lol once damian grows up and is like I Apologize for attempting to murder you it was wrong and you are just as much a son to Father as I am tim is like UGH i guess its cool since ur being so emotionally mature and all. also im 2 for 5 on siblings trying to murder me so im definitely going to win trauma bingo and damian is like i take it back you are insufferable. When Will My Older Siblings Stop Joking About Their Trauma.

CASS!!! listen. cass is cool. Cass Gets It. They have a special Bond. also damian really likes it whenever cass is home because 1) he gets to hang out and do something cool with cass and 2) he feels significantly safer with cass in the house because Nobody will be able to hurt any of their family if Cass is there. ALSO he tries to call her cain but everyone is like DONT DO THAT and he doesn't want to call her wayne bcus theyre ALL wayne (dick adds it on as a middle name but also Richard John Wayne West-Grayson is just. the lamest name ever so dick needs to reconsider it before his upcoming nuptials)((dick will not reconsider it except maybe whether grayson-west would work better)) and so he tries cassandra but cass is like :) call me cass and damian is like cassandra is more formal and respectful and cass is like :) and finally damian just has to give in.

Duke! him and duke actually live together so they get the Most Bonding Time and have a bunch of inside jokes as a result. (is it bad i wanted to laugh because inside jokes... joker... i'll see myself out). they're eating breakfast together (and also alfred sits with them IM NOT A MONSTER ALFIE'S LIKE 70 NOW OKAY) and duke laughs and bruce is like what are you laughing at, son? and duke is like oh damian just showed me this funny meme and then he shows the phone to bruce and bruce grabs it (both the boys groan) and after WAY TOO LONG is like "i don't get it" and so now duke and damian have to try and explain the comedic intricacy of bob's burgers

#this took. two fucking hours #batfam #batman #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #cassandra cain #cassandra wayne #not sure which one to commit to yet #tim drake #duke thomas #damian wayne #dc #the burd squawks #birdflash #birdflash was like. one of my first ships lmao

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destroyscythe-heck · 3 years ago

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An incomplete list of cursed things that happened in a dream I had about a live action Gundam Wing movie when I took a nap yesterday

1. There was an orchestral cover of “Everybody” by the Backstreet Boys playing during like the boys setting up for the big final showdown

2. The dialogue I remember was mostly MCU style quips and snarky stuff

3. Duo’s character basically got completely gutted and replaced with him being the standard stock action movie comic relief

4. Hilde, Dorothy, Mike Howard,and the Manganac corps all got completely cut

5. Wufei got done realizing dirty “because nobody liked Wufei anyway so it’s fine if he’s just an unsympathetic dick who gets bullied the whole time”, it was very mean spirited and probably also really really racist with how he was handled

6. Relena also got completely gutted to to just make her “Heero’s love interest who is a girl who sometimes also talks about how pacifism is neat” probably to make her seem less “annoying” or “pushy” or “preachy” or “SJW-ish” because people would mock the movie on YouTube

7. Quatre was being played by a white actor but it was justified in the story by none of the Winner kids being the same race or even looking related at all because their parents got a bit creative during the Gattaca-ing of their army of test tube babies

Also out of the script the people making the movie said they were justified in doing that because they added more new diversity by casting Trowa as black and a “plus size” actress to be Sally (Both of which I am ok with but we went through this with the live action Winx Club show, you can’t erase some pre existing diversity and then pretend it’s okay by adding something new, you definitely could have had kept Flora in the show and cast a plus size Latina actress) Also (Yes I’m still mad about that because Flora and Tecna were my favorite Winx Club characters, and erasing her to have Terra be there was complete BS because again, plus size Latina actresses exist)

(Winx Club rant tangent over)

8. Noin was the cookie cutter generic type of “stronk female character ™️” that hasn’t really been anything groundbreaking since the 80’s and also showed that you completely missed the point of why people like Ripley from Alien

9. Treize actually had a motivation this time! But it seemed like it was written by somebody who still thinks that “Illuminati Confirmed” is the cutting edge of the hip cool meme culture for the youths

10. Kathrine and Trowa kissed and then later had a completely out of character-ly dramatic freak out when they found out that they are actually siblings in a cheap attempt to make fun of Luke and Leia Skywalker

11. Une was a complete caricature of herself, like she was so Sat A.M. cartoon villain obviously evil that you’d really wonder why anyone is comfortable having her as an underling because it’s so obvious that she’s that evil and would sell you to satan for one corn chip, but it seemed like if you snatched her glasses off her face she could go from skinning adorable puppies alive with one hand while pressing the big red button with the other to wanting to go bake cookies with Relena or whatever

12. I know that Heero already wasn’t the most emotional character ever but you could have literally replaced him with a mannequin wearing a wig, a green tank top, bike shorts, and a pair of Timbs (for product placement reasons) in his scenes and nobody would notice

13. The already incredibly shallow criticism of drone warfare that was done with the mobile dolls was somehow watered down even more

14. Sally’s rebel group became a stand in for the US army who were obviously supposed to be the good guys

15. The old scientist dudes who started Operation Meteor were also evil because they were also in the Illuminati who are playing both sides with earth and space and the original Operation Meteor was a false flag attack meant to cause total chaos on earth for reasons

16. But everyone ended up okay because the boys got found by Sally and the thinly veiled stand in for the US Army

17. Zechs had a complete mental breakdown when he left OZ and him forming White Fang himself from the remains of the colony rebels was him having a Joker arc

18. … because Relena said she didn’t love him anymore and was mad at him for becoming a war criminal even though he actually could remember what the Sanc Kingdom was like and how their dad was Mr. Pacifist Mc Pacifismface, but she didn’t say all that aloud. Just only that she didn’t love her brother anymore and only that

19. But he ended up okay and perfectly good because during the climactic Libra fight Noin was there and she kissed him and made him not the Joker anymore through the power of redemption arc love

20. And finally, there was a really prominent fart joke featuring Duo Maxwell in like the first 5 minutes

#from the ashes #phoenix speaks #Gundam #gundam wing #heero yuy #duo maxwell #trowa barton #quatre raberba winner #wufei chang #zechs merquise #relena peacecraft #relena darlian #lucrezia noin #lady une #treize khushrenada #completely and totally cursed #I’m amazed that I didn’t wake up in a cold sweat screaming

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five-rivers · 3 years ago

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Danger First

Chapter 2

Heya @pocketramblr. I have no self-control.

Izuku expected his anxiety to subside, one way or another, once the exam was over.

As always, the universe set out to prove him wrong.

Home was more or less okay. But, for some reason, minor household repair issues started to bother him so much he spent the rest of weekend working on them

Then there was school, which was even more hellish than usual, despite being exactly the same as it had been since the sludge incident. Izuku was way too aware of how much of a threat everyone there was to him, specifically. Especially the teachers.

His hypervigilante state did keep him from getting poked (smacked) quite so much by the teachers, or cornered by 'fellow' students quite as much as usual, but it also led him to hide in the library storage room. He'd never be able to look at the librarian the same way again. Not knowing she kept multiple copies of books by anti-quirkless hate groups on hand.

And all through the week, he got nothing but silence from All Might.

But the end of the week came, and with it a letter from UA, which told him-

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, FIRST PLACE?"

"I don't know, Nana, Banjo makes a good point."

"Don't take his side just because he was your predecessor. You all know a One for All holder would never resort to such devious- Yoichi, why are you making that face?"

"In an unjust world, bribery can be a tool for justice. I'm sure Eighth didn't have to, though."

"That's it, I'm not talking to any of you anymore."

"Anyway," said All Might, wiping blood from his mouth and glancing nervously at the other beachgoers. "Congratulations, young Midoriya."

Izuku felt his lip wobble. "You're not mad that I couldn't use One for All?"

"Not at all! Actually, in some ways this might be better. We'll have some time to experiment privately. And if you're in school when it finally turns on... well, we'll just say you're a late bloomer, alright?"

"Okay," sniffed Izuku, rubbing his eyes. "I just... I couldn't use it. What if-"

"Hey, hey, it's alright, my boy. No need to cry. You passed the entrance exam without using a quirk at all! You should be proud. Even with a quirk, it's an incredible accomplishment. Also, just so you know, I had nothing to do with the selection process. Just in case you were worried about favoritism."

Izuku sniffed and nodded.

"What a strangely specific denial."

"Uh, Banjo, usually I'd be reveling in the chaos, but I think Nana is seriously considering ghost murder right now. Maybe you shouldn't insult her kid anymore?"

"You and Hikage would protect me, right?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'd sell you to Satan for one corn chip."

"So would I; it's been way too long since I've eaten. As long as it is Satan and not All for One, you've got my blessing."

"You certainly proved this old man wrong."

"You aren't old," protested Izuku.

"We'll have to agree to disagree on that," said All Might. "Here, sit down with me," he said, settling on the sand.

Izuku hurried to follow suit, and for a while, they both just watched the ocean. It was nice, today.

"I owe you an apology, young Midoriya."

"H-huh?"

"For what I said on that roof," said All Might, "and for what I... implied later."

"You already apologized for the roof, though?" said Izuku, confused. "I mean, that day..."

"That's what I'm talking about," said All Might. "I shouldn't have- The way I apologized, when I offered you One for All... It was like saying that you couldn't do it without a quirk, that you needed a quirk to 'fix' yourself and... well, obviously I was wrong. Quirk or not, you're going to be an amazing hero."

"Oh," said Banjo, "I can already tell this is going to be a problem once he finds out about Danger Sense. Gonna blow a hole right through his confidence."

"Maybe he won't find out?" suggested Nana, who'd wrestled her murderous impulses into submission. Temporarily. "Danger Sense is pretty low key."

"I feel like I should be offended..." said Hikage. "But if I got offended, that would be offensive to people who don't have quirks..."

"I don't know," said En. "If someone insulted your legs by saying they were so skinny it was like they weren't even there, would you being offended be offensive to people who don't have legs? Or would the original statement be the offensive one?"

"Somehow, I feel more offended after that."

"Oh," said Izuku. He felt himself crying again. "Are you, um. You're not going to- Are you- Do you want it back?" he whispered. "One for All?"

"No, no, of course not. You... There's no one I'd rather have it. I'm just... even if you didn't, you could be a hero. But I'm hoping... I'm hoping you'll keep it."

Izuku swallowed and nodded. All Might awkwardly raised his arm.

"Do you mind if I...?"

"Sure?" said Izuku, not entirely sure what he was asking.

All Might put his arm around Izuku and gave him a sort of sideways hug. Izuku leaned into it. It was the safest he'd felt since the entrance exam.

Because, surprise, surprise, that anxiety hadn't gone away.

"What did you say?"

"Oh! Uh... it isn't important, it's nothing."

"It didn't sound like nothing," said All Might, concerned.

"I, well, I, ever since the entrance exam... maybe even a little bit before? I've been really... jumpy? About everything. I think it's just because I'm a wreck, but..."

"Huh. Well, you know, that could be a facet of One for All."

"R-really?"

"After I got One for All, it seemed like it was easier for me to tell when people were in danger and needed help," said All Might. "S- A friend who knew about One for All used to joke it was my original quirk. But it was subtle and intermittent, not constant."

"Huh," said Izuku. "So... it might have been One for All all along? Trying to get me to help people?" He picked at his lower lip. "Maybe... I noticed a bunch of stuff I usually don't... I'm not sure I would have seen all the people in trouble during the exam."

"So much for not noticing-"

"His confidence... let him have it for at least a little while..."

"He seems to be taking it alright," said Yoichi, hopefully.

"I'm sure you would have helped them if you did notice, regardless," said All Might, "and that's what was really being measured, so my earlier point still stands."

Izuku nodded. "It would be really strange for a quirk to have two completely different applications like that."

"Yes, but One for All is a rather strange quirk, and I've seen odder split quirks." He fell silent for a moment. "I can't think of a way to test for it, though. Speaking of which, we should find some time to try and work on One for All before the school year starts. How do you feel about coming to UA after school?"

"Th-thank you for helping us with this, Recovery Girl!"

"It's no trouble, dear," said Recovery Girl. "I'd be here at this time, anyway. You wouldn't believe the amount of paperwork I have to go through. Just try not to break too many bones."

Izuku nodded vigorously, still somewhat in awe of being in the presence of not one but two incredible pro heroes. And at UA.

It was like living in a dream.

Except for the highly suspicious mostly-hidden wall panels and the very intense feeling of being watched through camera by an incredibly threatening being. It was fine.

"Alright, young Midoriya! Are you ready?"

"Y-yeah!"

"Then come at me, you zygote!"

Nana stared at her (former) student in despair. "Toshi... why... out of all the people..."

"So, you admit he can make bad decisions-"

"Bad and immoral are two different things."

"I think calling people zygotes is pretty immoral, actually..."

Silently, Nana agreed.

Izuku blinked at All Might- not because of the zygote thing!

... Okay, partially because of the zygote thing.

But mostly because he was still in his skinny, prone-to-coughing-up-blood form.

"Are you sure?" Izuku asked. "What if I..." he trailed off, blushing. What he was about to say sounded so stupid, and more than a little conceited, but...

"Hey, even like this, I'm much tougher than I look, young Midori- Ahem, I mean, zygote!"

"Toshinori, don't you think role-playing as Gran Torino is a little much?" asked Recovery Girl.

"Ah, do you think so?"

Recovery Girl shot All Might a truly terrifying look, but Izuku's mind was on something completely different.

"Is- is Toshinori your name?" he asked, awed.

Blood drained out of All Might's face, making him look more skeletal than usual. Should Izuku not have asked? Was it supposed to be secret? Oh no...

"Please tell me you haven't been training this boy for most of a year without him even knowing your name."

"Oops?" said All Might, faintly.

"He did do that, didn't he?" asked Yoichi, his eyebrows almost touching his hairline. "Nana, your boy is a disaster."

"All of us were disasters. We're still disasters."

"I'm not."

"Hikage, you spent most of your adult life living in the woods, completely isolated from humanity."

"I know, it was great."

"Unbelievable."

"Back to what we were talking about before," said Mr. Yagi (Mr. Yagi! Izuku knew All Might's name! And had permission to use it!) after Recovery Girl was done scolding him. "Focus on actually hitting me before worrying about accidentally hurting me. Today, I just want to get a baseline. Next time, we can work on basic punches and throws."

"So, do I just-?"

"Yep, just come right at me!"

The next hour consisted mainly of Izuku being thrown bodily into various padded surfaces. Despits this, according to Mr. Yagi, he was much better at dodging than expected. As a bonus, although he certainly felt sore and bruised, he didn't break any bones.

He also didn't manage to activate One for All. Not even a little bit.

Nor did he on any of the other days leading up to his first day as a student at UA.

Aizawa Shouta, down two nights of sleep and dreading the new batch of bright eyed hero hopefuls he'd be teaching- and crushing the dreams of- next week, glared blearily at a computer screen. Currently, it displayed a student's name, a quirk name, and the single least helpful quirk description he'd ever seen. Which was saying something, because he'd seen Hizashi's original quirk description.

Midoriya Izuku

Quirk: undetermined

Description: None.

I am either too tired or too sober to deal with this, decided Shouta. However, sleep simply wasn't on the table, and getting drunk was illogical. In that case, simply not dealing with it was the only option.

Nevertheless, he picked up his phone and called Nezu.

"Good evening, Aizawa!" said the internally chipper maybe-rodent. "Or should I say good morning?"

"Midoriya Izuku."

"Ah, you're browsing your class list, I see. Any thoughts about their potential?"

"Illogical." It would be, to make a call about a student's potential without meeting them first.

"Quite so!"

"Midoriya. Quirk," grunted Shouta, reminding him why he was calling.

"Ah, yes, he is a strange case. He's listed as quirkless in the registry."

That woke Shouta up, just a little. He'd seen a handful of documents for the quirkless over the years. If Midoriya was quirkless, his file should read N/A, not undetermined.

"What?"

"I have reason to believe that he might have been diagnosed in error," said Nezu. "I am still investigating. In the meantime, I would appreciate it if you kept an eye on him. Assuming, of course, that he isn't expelled!"

Shouta grunted and hung up. He minimized the window on his computer and pawed through his files until he found the entrance exam video for Midoriya.

A kid who passed the UA hero course practical entrance exam either entirely quirkless or with a subtle, stubborn, or invisible quirk on rescue points alone. A kid who seemed to run straight for danger on purpose (mostly on purpose, Shouta amended after seeing him collide with the invisible girl, coincidentally pushing her out of the way of some sort of water pressure quirk. There was just no way he could have known she was there). A kid who had almost certainly faced brutal quirk harassment since the time he was four and most likely possessed the self-confidence and trauma to match.

"Least he's good at dodging..." muttered Shouta. He rubbed at one grainy-feeling eye and pulled his sleeping bag closer around his shoulders. Kid wasn't all that bad at falling, either. Some light martial arts instruction, maybe?

He paused the video and reopened Midoriya's file, flipping to school and admission records and exam results. He usually didn't look closely at this part of the file, it was enough for him that the students passed, but, exceptions...

Speaking of exceptions, Midoriya's file was a mass of contradictions. Unusually high written test score that didn't correspond with middle school grades. Dozens of citations and black marks on his disciplinary record that should have kept him from even being invited to take the exam, but a letter of recommendation from All Might.

He frowned at the last one. There was no way...

He shook his head, and clicked on the link at the bottom of the file. It brought him to a herotube video about a year old. A hostage situation with a vaguely familiar middle schooler and slime-like villain. Also, a bunch of heroes, but none of them seemed to be addressing the suffocating child. Shouta felt his lips curl. Even if this was in the past...

Then Midoriya Izuku ran into the frame and tried to pull the other boy free, just seconds before All Might arrived and punched the villain so hard it started to rain. Then the video ended.

Alright, then.

Shouta's admittedly currently-less-than-razor-sharp mind presented him with two possibilities. One, Midoriya was All Might's secret child and All Might had bribed Nezu into letting him take the exams despite his less-than-stellar records. Two, this child had, with bloody fingernails, managed to claw a single spark of luck out of an otherwise bleak existence by impressing All Might enough that he got Nezu to ignore the otherwise damning records.

If the first, well, he had still passed the practical without use of any obvious quirk. He probably had some potential.

If the second... Shouta had been a hero long enough to recognize the circumstances that drove people to desperate, and sometimes unforgivable, acts. Dangling a single hope in front of someone only to snatch it away at the last minute...

Forget the maybe-quirk. This was the real conundrum of Midoriya Izuku.

The rat knew he wouldn't expel Midoriya with these stakes. It would be the height of irrationality.

(Even if he did turn out to be All Might's kid.)

What a pain.

He flipped through a few more profiles, quickly reviewing 1-B as well, before hitting redial on his phone.

"Calling again so soon?" asked Nezu with a squeaky chuckle.

"I want Monoma." He paused. "In my class," he elaborated.

"Oh? Whatever for?"

"If I'm going to have to figure out Midoriya's mystery quirk, I want to make it as easy for myself as possible."

There was silence on the other end of the like, and Shouta checked to see whether or not he'd hung up accidentally. He hadn't.

"I must say," said Nezu, finally, "I had not considered that solution. Depending on the mechanics of Monoma's quirk... I cannot think of any reason to deny your request."

That was a strange way of phrasing it.

"We'll exchange him with Bakugo, in that case."

"Not that I'm complaining," said Shouta, "but why him? Why not..." He racked his memory. "Mineta. He's got one of those body part quirks Kan likes."

Nezu chuckled again. "Normally, I would pick Mineta, but, by my calculations, a classroom that contained both Monoma and Bakugo would be demolished within thirty minutes of their arrival."

Shouta groaned. Why did they even let people like that in?

No, wait, he had an answer to that, actually.

"Forget a mouse, a dog, or a bear," said Shouta. "You're a sadist."

"Some certainly think so! But one thing's for sure! I'm the principal!"

The door to class 1-A sure was big... and intimidating... and radiating a faint sense of malaise. But, then, Izuku's middle school classroom had done far worse, so...

He opened the door. No Kacchan. Thank goodness. He must be in the class B, then, because there was no way he'd let Izuku beat him to school.

The strict boy from the entrance exam was there, though, and, oh, dear, he'd noticed Izuku and was coming right for him.

(Oh, gosh, and the invisible girl was here, too. He felt himself blushing furiously.)

Still better than Kacchan.

"Hello!" he said, rather loudly. "I'm from Somei Private Academy! My name is Iida Tenya!"

"Oh, uh, I- I'm from Aldera Middle School..." said Izuku. Was stating the name of your middle school a normal thing? He hadn't read about this in any manga... "I'm Midoriya Izuku."

"Pleased to meet you!" He moved his arm in a rather robotic fashion, taking a deep breath.

Oh, no, was he about to yell at Izuku again?

"Danger Sense isn't even going off right now, Izuku," said Yoichi, despairingly. "Why are you still so nervous?"

"Maybe we never really gave him Danger Sense after all, and it was his natural anxiety the whole time."

"Please stop denigrating my quirk."

"Midoriya... you... you perceived the true nature of the practical exam. Meanwhile, I was blind! I misjudged you! I hate to admit it, but you were the superior candidate."

Oh, that was nice, but... "I didn't perceive anything, though. I had no idea rescue points were a thing. I was mostly just trying not to die."

"Ah! That curly hair! It's Midoriya!"

"Oh! Um, Uraraka?" Please, please, let him have remembered her name right.

"Yeah!" said Uraraka, smiling brightly.

Augh! Too cute!

"I'm so glad you're in my class! I was so worried I wouldn't know anyone here."

"Y-yeah. T-this is Iida, by the way," said Izuku, trying to get attention off of himself.

"Nice to meet you, Iida."

"It's nice to meet you as well, Uraraka!"

"Yeah! So, we've got the entrance ceremony and guidance sessions today, right? I wonder who our teacher will be- They're all supposed to be pro heroes, right?"

"Um," started Izuku, "that-"

"If you're here to socialize, then get out."

"That's a teacher, huh," said Yoichi.

"Why are you saying that like you've never seen one before?" asked Banjo.

"I've seen teachers before," said Yoichi. "I've seen all of your teachers. The ones you've had while you had One for All."

"Okay, now you're saying that like you've never had teachers."

"Yeah, that is kind of strange, Yoichi," said Nana.

"I had professors," said Yoichi.

"Still weird."

"I went to college. And med school."

"Did you graduate?" asked En, interested.

"No."

"Why not?"

"My brother kidnapped me, kept me in a vault for a while, and then I died."

"I didn't know what I expected," said En, shaking his head.

"Wait, weren't there several years between the vault and the whole dying thing."

"Yeah, but I'm ignoring them."

"Because?" Banjo hooked his thumb over his shoulder at Second and Third.

"Yep," said Yoichi.

"Todoroki. You were the highest scorer on the Recommendation Exam. See how far you can throw this ball with your quirk. Stay in the circle. Anything else goes."

A boy with white and red hair stepped forward, scowling faintly. He took the ball and stared at it.

"Time is valuable, Todoroki."

And then there was a glacier.

Izuku felt his jaw drop. How was he supposed to compete with that?

"My name is Monoma," said a blonde boy, offering his hand.

Izuku stared at it a moment before remembering handshakes were a thing.

"Midoriya," he said.

Monoma then offered his hand to Uraraka and Iida as well. "I look forward to experiencing UA's superior brand of education with you," he said.

Izuku laughed nervously. "You're confident," he said, glancing at the track where two others students were doing sprints. It would be their turn soon.

"But of course!" Monoma struck a sort of pose, fingers splayed out on his chest. "I welcome this sort of challenge, this opportunity to prove myself! It just goes to show, UA only accepts the best of the best!"

Monoma was called away to the starting line a moment later. "Two good, one dud," he mumbled under his breath.

What did that mean?

Then Monoma was at the starting line, and he was using Iida's quirk. Did he have a copy quirk? That was so cool!

... Is that what he meant by good and dud? Did he... did he see that Izuku didn't have a quirk? Oh, no... What if he told everyone? Even if people were being nice to him now...

"What's wrong?" asked Uraraka.

"U-um," said Izuku. "Nothing?"

"Oh, gosh," said Yoichi, crying. "I just want to wrap him up in a warm blanket. You deserve friends."

"Yeah, kid, it'll be okay," said Banjo. "Bakugo's just a freak. And so was your whole school. Place gave me MLA flashbacks."

"Sure glad they aren't around anymore," agreed En.

All in all... Izuku didn't do terribly. Especially given that he didn't actually have a quirk, and this was a quirk assessment. At least, he didn't think he did. At least, he hadn't tripped or hurt himself.

It had, in fact, been a rather good day. No Kacchan. No bullies. The teacher had clear standards and requirements, and he stated them up front.

He had been getting... bad vibes... from the short, purple-haired kid, and he'd noticed other people frowning at him, especially the girls. But he hadn't been able to put his finger on why, even though he had been watching him carefully during his turns.

Other than that...

UA really was the best.

"By the way, no one's getting expelled. It was a logical ruse."

Monoma raised his hand.

"What is it?"

"I must object!" said Monoma.

"You... want someone to be expelled?"

"In fact, I insist! To allow this to continue would blemish the reputation of the school."

"Well said, Monoma!" exclaimed Iida. "Living up to the reputation of UA and all the alumni who have come before us is a duty of us students! But what blemish are you talking about? Surely, as Mr. Aizawa said, we all went plus ultra!"

"Maybe so, but my concern has more to do with moral standards!"

"If you kids keep going like this, I'm just going to go to sleep. You're giving me a headache."

Izuku caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and a wave of unease went through him. He turned to see-

"Hey! What are you doing?" he demanded, shocked and more than a little horrified.

Once again, he was mortally embarrassed on behalf of the invisible girl.

"I wasn't doing anything!" said the small purple boy.

"You were looking up her skirt!"

"It isn't like there's anything to see!"

The invisible girl gasped and quickly moved away. "Gross!" she said. "That's terrible!"

"See? See?" said Monoma, wildly. "This is what I'm talking about!"

"Next time," said Aizawa, "get to the point faster. Time is valuable. Mineta."

"What?"

"You're expelled."

"What? You can't do that!"

"Go complain to Nezu."

UA really was the best.

"Midoriya."

Okay, never mind. He was doomed. Completely doomed.

"Monoma. I want to talk to you after class. The rest of you are dismissed."

Midoriya stood nervously as Uraraka and Iida bid him goodbye. Was this it? Was Aizawa going to expel him after all? At least it wasn't in front of absolutely everyone... But what was Monoma doing here?

Speaking of which, Monoma looked nervous, too... Was he okay? Surely, Aizawa wasn't going to expel him, too.

"Is this about me using other people's quirks?" demanded Monoma. "Because you said anything goes! I wasn't cheating. You can't expel me!"

Oh. There was some trauma there. Izuku could tell. Did people make fun of him for his quirk?

"I'm not going to expel you," said Aizawa, looking up at them from where he laid in his sleeping bag in the grass. He almost looked like he was praying for patience. "I need to ask you some questions about your quirk. For future reference and to better serve your needs as a student. I know how tricky meta quirks can be."

"Oh," said Monoma, slightly deflating. Then he sent a curious glance at Midoriya. "Is he-?"

"His matter is slightly more sensitive. If you would like me to send him away while we talk, I can do that."

"No, no, it's fine." Monoma sniffed, his eyes suspiciously wet. "What's the question?"

"You copy quirks through DNA contact. Do you decide when to activate passive quirks you copy, or can you choose?"

"I can choose, as long as it's within my time limit."

"When you first make contact, can you tell what quirk a person has?"

Monoma shook his head. "No, sir, I have to activate it to do that, so I can get duds- oh, that is to say, quirks I can't use because I don't have the proper activation conditions, like Midoriya's. He's got some kind of stockpile. I can get duds without realizing it. But I can tell whether or not someone has a quirk."

"Were you able to test all your classmates' quirks today?"

"Not everyone, yet," said Monoma. "I usually try to avoid more extreme mutation quirks outside of controlled conditions."

Aizawa's head bobbed up and down minutely. "Great. That should be enough for now. You're dismissed."

"Yes, sir! I look forward to seeing your superior lesson plans tomorrow!" He paused. "Midoriya."

"H-have a good day, Monoma."

Monoma had felt One for All! What a relief. Izuku had been half worried he'd lost it somehow.

But why did Aizawa want him?

"Um, sir?" he asked. Sort of asked. 'Sir' alone wasn't a question, even if it was said in an inquisitive tone.

Aizawa's eyes turned red, and his hair started floating. Izuku felt... Huh. Calmer, somehow? He was no longer vaguely aware of how the light post over there could fall on him, or any of the other many minor dangers surround him and oh, gosh, he was no longer aware of the dangers! How was he supposed to stay safe like this, when he felt like he'd been blindfolded?

Aizawa blinked. Everything came back.

"Wow," said Izuku. "That was so cool! Was that your quirk? Is it an emotional quirk? It made me feel calmer at first, but then I was, I don't know, too calm, and it made me anxious, but then-"

"Problem child," said Aizawa, and Izuku froze at the reprimand. "What I just did was erase your quirk."

Erase?

His quirk?

"Oh my gosh! You're Eraserhead! I'm a huge fan!"

Aizawa closed his eyes. Was he counting? No? Did he fall asleep?

"You do know you're listed as quirkless, right?"

"Yes?"

"But you just had a reaction to my quirk that a quirkless person definitely should not have."

"O-oh?"

"Combined with Monoma's ability to sense your quirk, I'd say you are not, in fact, quirkless."

"But I have the toe joint?" Izuku wasn't sure why he'd said that. He shouldn't be arguing against this, because, as Aizawa had said, he did have a quirk. It just wasn't exactly his.

"Yeah, that's an old wives' tale."

"Really?"

"As real as my quirk counselor license. Whoever diagnosed you was a quack."

"O-oh."

"My initial impression from your entrance exam video is that you might have a sensory quirk of some kind. On the other hand, we should take Monoma's assessment into account, and consider stockpiles. Either way, I would like to schedule some time to test things out with you."

"You- You'd do that? For me? I mean, I don't want to be a bother-"

"This is literally my job."

"It... yeah, I guess so." His previous teachers would have considered it a bother. Except Mr. Yagi, but Mr. Yagi wasn't really a teacher. He was more of a... a mentor.

(Or a dad.)

(Oh, no, he did not just think that. Bad. Bad brain. Bad brain that read too much All Might RPF as a pre-teen.)

"Besides, even if your quirk doesn't have many applications in hero work, it will be useful for you to know what it is and how it affects you." Aizawa yawned. "Also, don't tell your class that I'm Eraserhead."

"O-okay," said Izuku. "Of course, sir, but... why?"

"I have two full time jobs. I get my entertainment where I can. You can go now. We'll schedule tomorrow."

Izuku nodded, and Aizawa just... zipped his sleeping bag the rest of the way closed and rolled over.

Was... was he just going to go to sleep here? In the middle of the field.

"Um? Mr. Aizawa?"

A grunt came from the sleeping bag.

"This is... isn't this kind of a dangerous place to sleep?"

"Go home, problem child."

"... okay."

#bnha #boku no hero academia #fic #fanfic #danger first au #danger first

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wiltingdecay · 2 years ago

Note

I humbly request you share the demon rowan thoughts >;3c

[rubs my evil little hands together] hehehe >:)

above the cut is random trivia, below the cut is all the backstory i have planned so far with regards to how i think rowan would end up going down the path to becoming a demon in vesuvia's court. cw for some body horror, descriptions of violence and manipulation of a child ahead.

rowan keeps their birthname in this au (still drops their surname though), so i'll be referring to them as ruadhán throughout the rest of the post!

they have their first audience with the devil on their thirteenth birthday, as a gift from lucio and the courtiers. it's here where they end up making their very first deal.

the deal is that ruadhán will have complete and total control over his magic, and never destroy anything or hurt anybody without meaning to ever again, in exchange for a piece of his soul.

(but what they didn't know was that compromising their soul would in turn compromise their morality. as promised by the devil, ruadhán will never hurt anyone they don't want to hurt ever again... but once they've made the deal, once part of their soul is gone, they find that wanting to hurt people comes much, much easier to them than it used to).

the chain that represents this first deal is wrapped around his neck.

out of all the courtiers, he's probably closest with vulgora and valdemar. vulgora is the one who deals with the vast majority of ruadhán's training, and they end up becoming very fond of him. they're legitimately proud at how powerful a demon he becomes when he grows up. very much a "my little baby, off to destroy people" kind of relationship. valdemar is less obvious with their fondness towards ruadhán, and they would still sell him to satan for a single corn chip, but they do care for him in their own unique way. as the oldest demon of the bunch, they end up sort of taking him under their wing to teach him all they know, and about how powerful he could become if and when he sacrifices all of his humanity as they did.

less close with volta and vlastomil because he doesn't see them as often and they're frankly just less interested in him, but they take him hunting a lot once he starts developing his demon form.

his relationship with lucio is... complicated. at no point have they ever liked him as a person, but they care for him and see him as a kindred spirit of sorts, and vice-versa. they're loyal to him out of gratitude and, particularly after they start making deals, will do mostly anything he asks.

on his twenty-first birthday, he's presented with his red beetle brooch and formally introduced into vesuvia's court. his official title is court mage, and he does perform these duties well, but it's mostly just a cover. his true job is similar to that of an assassin, if assassins dealt in arson and violent storms and blowing people up or turning their bodies inside out, rather than poison and suffocation and slitting their throats while they sleep.

as a relatively young demon, his human form/disguise doesn't yet look all that out of the ordinary, or different from how he looks in all other universes. he's noticeably taller (somewhere around 6'7 or 6'8), with greyish and somewhat sickly-looking skin and sharper facial features. his eyes are a bright gold instead of green and appear to be glowing, and bear slit pupils like all the other courtiers. his teeth and fingers are also noticeably pointy. similar to how the other courtiers wear headgear to cover (presumably) their horns/animal ears, ruadhán always wears high collars to hide the seam on their neck.

their true form is that of a headless centaur with the lower body of a red deer. they "reveal" it by ripping their own head off and allowing their human skin to fall away. despite their head not being connected to their body, ruadhán can still speak through it. they also have extremely enhanced vision in this form, from being able to see clear across the country/in pitch darkness to having eyes that can see through solid objects. they also use the spine of their human form as a weapon. they are at their most powerful in this form, being able to effortlessly destroy anything and anyone in their path.

the jumping-off point for this au is that ruadhán was not raised by their aunt gráinne after being exiled to vesuvia; their entire maternal family had already left, sometime after spada died and lucio rose to power. ruadhán was alone in the city and, with returning home not an option, became one of the many orphans living on the streets.

they spent about a year being a street child, probably falling in with asra and muriel like in all the regular timelines. but due to the trauma of being exiled and forced into homelessness in such a strange and hostile new city, ruadhán's magic continued to be unstable and destructive to an even greater extent than previously. as embittered as they were with how absolutely shit their life had turned out, ruadhán barely cared anymore, and had no qualms about lashing out, causing damage and hurting people in their own defence. this would eventually lead to them gaining notoriety as, well, "that crazy street urchin girl who lights people on fire".

(ruadhán never killed anyone here, though!)

(that comes later :))

so one day everyone's favourite horrible bastard man lucio catches wind of this notorious street urchin girl who lights people on fire, and goes "hey that sounds sick, i LOVE the idea of lighting people on fire, i would get along great with her"

it helps (or doesn't help, depending on your perspective) that the devil is lurking about and is very, very interested in ruadhán's potential as a servant due to not only the power they already possess but their connection to the tower, and he's sure to make this fact known to lucio and the courtiers.

ruadhán is eventually tracked down by lucio and vulgora to be brought back to the palace. completely NOT on board with this, they put up a valiant fight; but magic or no magic, they're still only eleven years old and no match for their opponents. they're knocked unconscious and taken away. asra, muriel and the other street kids presume them dead.

after waking up in the palace, ruadhán is initially terrified that they're about to be locked away or executed; they've heard plenty of stories about what lucio does to people who cross him (they were, after all, a friend of asra's; they know all too well how he ended up on the streets). so needless to say they're not expecting lucio to tell them that he's very interested in the power they possess and how much stronger he thinks they could become in the right hands.

his hands.

he offers them a deal; ruadhán will work for him from now on, and study and train to improve their abilities for both his and their own benefit. in exchange, he assures ruadhán that they will never be deprived of food, clothing, shelter, attention; they will never want for anything ever again.

ruadhán is... suspicious, to say the least! they know lucio is a bad person. they don't trust him as far as they can throw him. but they're all too aware of the fact that a refusal will most likely not be accepted... and, well, free food is free food. they ask for some time to think about it.

lucio, though irritated that they didn't immediately jump to say yes, accepts, and insists that ruadhán stays in the palace as his guest until they agree come to a decision.

as distrustful as they are, ruadhán is still an eleven-year-old child who has been abandoned and left to rot by the rest of the world; who has been starved of any kind of positive attention, or affection, or even just validation that they can be helpful and useful and that they don't inherently ruin and destroy everything that they touch. they are vulnerable, and with these vulnerabilities so raw and exposed, they are easy to manipulate.

and if there's anything outside of his combat skills that lucio excels at, it's manipulation.

(i sort of have a very rough plan for everything that happens next, but i haven't yet figured out How it's all going to happen, so that's it for now! hope you found things interesting so far <3)

#asks #anonymous #demon rowan au #dullahan ruadhán #rowan aisling

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mermaidsirennikita · 3 years ago

Note

Thoughts, theories and ideas for season 3?

Hmmmm

I think that we’ll probably deal with more of the uprisings of the peasants and how Catherine struggles with that. Both in terms of what George referenced regarding France, and in terms of what the Swedish royals are dealing with. Catherine will be working through her issues regarding the impulse to be a “good” monarch and the fact that she is for better or worse a despot. I imagine that some of this will cross over with what is probably going to be an unpopular war with the Ottoman Empire. In that same vein, I would foresee some characters from the empire maybe making an appearance?

Again, I don’t think Hugo and Agnes were brought back for nothing. I wouldn’t be shocked if my joke about marriage counseling does kind of happen in the form of them advising Catherine and Peter (along with Elizabeth, perhaps).

George will continue to be irritating and I will continue to wonder why she’s here.

Marial and Catherine are going to have damage. Like you could make an argument for Marial being a “good friend” by telling Catherine about what happened with Peter, but I don’t necessarily buy that argument. Ignorance is bliss sometimes, and I think UNDOUBTEDLY everyone, including Marial herself, would be better off if she hadn’t said anything. There’s some weird shit in that friendship that this season didn’t address, going back to Marial stabbing Catherine in the back in s1. She’s been arrested now, though I’m not fully certain why, so we’ll be dealing with that, as well as Peter trying to bail Grigor out I imagine.

I would hope that they off Velementov, but idk that they will. His purpose is…. So not clear to me. He’s just this gross old man who’s honestly not entertaining, and I don’t buy that he has this bond with Peter or Catherine. Maybe he’ll die in the war? Fingers crossed.

Maybe someday Orlo will have an interesting storyline, but I imagine that unless the actor gets another job (which he honestly should as he does fuck all on this show, and it’s not his fault, the writers just aren’t that invested in the character but want him to play a role without writing the depth it requires) he will probably continue to dither next season. What I would love is if Catherine actually did pull a Peter and just offed Velementov or Orlo in what we’re probably going to be expected to interpret as a really intense move. Like I won’t care if Orlo dies, I’d sell him to Satan for one corn chip, but other people will care. So it would be really impactful if Orlo actually did piss Catherine off enough for her to impulsively kill him. Or Velementov. And it’s this moment of crossing a line for her.

I think we’ll see Peter continue to flourish with fatherhood and Catherine will likely be a less than ideal mother. I imagine those two will fuck again at some point, but Peter is going to feel really insecure about where he is because he KNOWS Catherine would kill him under certain circumstances. So maybe he will fully turn against her while loving her? I’m really not sure about where the show is taking them. Because at this point, I don’t see a show without Nick Hoult. He and Elle are a double act. I see the death of Peter as the death of the show, and the final transition from Catherine the girl to Catherine the Great.

#the great

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legendary-alliance-stance · 3 years ago

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have 🍒💛💧 for whoever you most feel like talking about! :D @kerra-and-company

i remember i Meant to send you an ask but i can't remember if i Did or not, so if this is a duplicate please ignore it asldjkf, but if it's not, have some free space asks! :D 🧡📙📀 for whoever you'd like! @kerra-and-company

DOUBLE THE ASKS, DOUBLE THE ANSWERS :D

Gonna talk about Myrr, because I’m predictable I love him

🍒 What kind of things do they expect from their relationships? Does this differ between platonic relationships and romantic ones? Is your OC “demanding” or a door mat? What kinds of things do people expect from them in a relationship?

Myrr... Doesn’t really expect much, he just. Hopes for things, I guess you could say. He’s not a doormat, or necessarily demanding... He just. Wants to be cared for, genuinely. He doesn’t expect it though, and honestly it’s more surprising to him that people do care about him!

I’m not entirely sure what other people would expect from him, though. A loyal friend/partner, probably? It’s the best he’s got to offer.

💛 In general, how in control of their emotions is your OC? Do they have a good hold on them or do their emotions control them, not the other way around? What do you think is the reason behind this and is your OC ever concerned about their lack of or good control?

Oh he definitely is more controlled by his emotions. Anger comes easily to him, especially after his fall to the Nightmare, and it’s difficult for him to control. He hates this fact, and is trying desperately to get a better handle on it.

He’s also not good at hiding or controlling even more positive emotions! He claims to hates this as well, but it’s pretty obvious that he’s just more embarrassed than anything else.

💧 What is the earliest memory your OC can recall? Do they know what their first words were or remember where they took their first steps? Do they have any mementos of their childhood they’ve kept such as a stuffed toy or tiny baby clothes?

He doesn’t remember much of the Dream, but he does remember waking from his Pod! It was nighttime, late in the year, and dark. Lonely, too, at least at first. It wasn’t long before he was found by some of the pod caretakers, but those few minutes of feeling all alone in this huge world that he only knew bits and pieces of, stuck with him.

Myrr doesn’t like feeling lost and alone like that.

🧡 Who is your OC’s favourite person? Why is this person the top of their list and have they actually met them (an idol or rolemodel or celeb can be someone’s favourite after all!).

Who does your OC absolutely hate, the one person who they’d sell to Satan for one corn chip? Why do they loathe this person so?

Myrr’s favourite is his Dearheart, Bryokbrann. They met after Myrr was brought into the Nightmare Court, and in Myrr’s mind, Bryok is the only reason he managed to get away from the Court alive.

Carys too, being his and Bryok’s adopted daughter. Her and Bryok are Myrr’s entire world, and he would do anything to keep them safe.

And the person he hates the most? Cerise. The Nightmare Duchess that seduced him into the Court. She is dead, now, but Myrr wishes he could kill her over and over again, for all the torment and abuse she put him and Bryok through.

📙 What kind of subjects (of conversation, of discussion, in school or whatever) does your OC find interesting or engaging or that they can talk for hours about? What kind of stuff do they just find fun?

What things bore your OC to tears and they couldn’t care less about? Why?

COOKING. Myrr goes absolutely HAM over the topic of cooking. It’s become his favourite hobby after escaping the Court, and he will talk your ear off about it.

As for things that bore him... It highly depends on who he’s engaging with at the time! He doesn’t have an interest in art or engineering, but if he’s listening to Bryok or Carys talk about those things? He can listen for hours on end, just happy to see his Dearheart or daughter excited about something.

If it’s someone he doesn’t care much about, and it’s not one of his favourite topics (cooking, guns, and more recently gardening), it will go in one ear and right out the other lmao

📀 How easy is it to shock your OC? To confuse them? To lie to them, to manipulate them? How are they with feelings of trust? Can your OC be trusted?

Due to his trauma involving his time among the Nightmare Court, Myrr is both extremely wary of the intentions of people, but also very susceptible to high amounts of distress if something triggers said trauma.

(There was a time, in the past, where Myrr was extremely easy to manipulate. It’s what got him so deep into the Nightmare in the first place.)

Trust is rough for him, as a result of the above. He has a small network of people that he trusts, and that’s it. He is not likely to trust anyone outside of those people, and can be waspish towards strangers because of this.

If you can get him to trust you though, Myrr is extremely loyal. While he would definitely answer “no” to the question of whether or not he can be trusted, anyone who does trust him would insist “yes”.

#Anonymous #kerra-and-company #OC: Myrr

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albatris · 3 years ago

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@polyacery

:D!! yes!! ok!! yes!! please forgive the much-much-much-lengthier-than-intended ramble sorry thank you love you <3

first off, two facts about Noa and Kai:

they care about each other a lot

they cannot fucking STAND each other 90% of the time

they struggle a lot when it comes to teamwork, their personalities don't mesh well under pressure and their approaches to problem-solving differ wildly, so they often end up getting on each other’s nerves and being quite tense when they have to work together :P nothing, like, dramatic though, and nothing that escalates beyond general bickering and annoyance

that being said, on a personal and social level they do view each other as close friends and (can) get along well, though you’d be hard-pressed to get either of them to admit it. they share a lot of similarities (some of which I’ll go into) and both value the other as someone they can be open and honest with and drop their guard around, which is sayin somethin ‘cause openness and honesty are notoriously difficult for both of them lmao

in general I would say hmmmm

Noa views Kai (fondly) as a bastard and a swindler and possibly the most infuriating person she’s ever met, an opinion which does not change even as she grows to consider them a friend. like, genuinely? she fuckin hates their guts. and their ridiculously charming smile. and the way they can sweet talk their way into or out of any situation. she’s a little bitter about the way people just seem to hand over whatever Kai wants just ‘cause they’re a smooth-talker and good at pulling strings, ‘cause that level of uhhhhh sneaky interpersonal finesse is not something she’s ever really been able to access and it strikes her as cheating ahaha

that being said, though she finds their personality grating and their face punchable, they’re a person who cares intensely about people, not in an abstract theoretical all-talk-no-action kind of way, but in a concrete, physical, motivated “hey let me help you with that right now” kind of way, which Noa will never have any beef with. too many people sit around talking about what it means to do the right thing. not enough people get out there in a van full of interdimensional crime and pull off elaborate heists for the greater good

Kai has a similar take on Noa in that regard, as in, like. she’s kind of hardcore, yes. but. there are too many people sitting around talking about what it means to do the right thing, not enough people getting rightfully fucking unhinged and charging headfirst into injustice and cruelty and punching the shit out of it. her methods are a little too impulsive and headstrong for Kai’s tastes but it works for her n they’re cheering from the sidelines lol

but ye, Kai views Noa as. hm. a very very very intense person who is a lot of fun to mess with. pretty much as soon as Kai realises Noa isn’t going to be a threat in any capacity they’re like “sick now I have free reign to be the most annoying person in the universe” and they absolutely follow through. they find her passion and intensity amusing but admirable, and they were sold on the fact that she’s a good, kind person no matter her prickly exterior the second they saw how much she adores her mum c:

so, arguably, half of the next part is just,,,, me elaborating to an excessive extent,,,,, but this info used to be at the start of the ramble so I’d already written it before being like “hey wait a minute” so to hell with it I’m including it anyway

these two don’t get a lot of screentime together till the second half of the book and they have a pretty rocky start imo

like, Noa’s first impressions of Kai on two separate occasions are “that bastard who robbed me while I was on the clock” and “that random weirdo who somehow charmed my best friend into thinking they’re cool even though they sound like the shadiest motherfucker on the entire planet and I’m pretty sure they’re a serial killer”, which then culminate into “oh shit these are in fact the same person and they’re definitely bad news”

Kai never dislikes Noa the same way Noa dislikes them, but they are wary of her and have a healthy degree of fear regarding the threat she could pose to them.......... Kai and Noa’s different career choices put them at odds with each other right off the bat, what with Noa working for the Department of Interdimensional Instabilities and Kai operating a significantly less legal business that’s essentially the antithesis of the DII

plus Noa in general has a reputation for being Kind Of Fucking Terrifying

initially I would say they both view the other as “potentially a legitimate threat” and “not to be underestimated”, but post-mid-story-heist they get to spend some proper time together and form more grounded opinions of each other :P though arguably still for a considerable while the only reason they put up with each other is because Tris is like “:D” at them both and they’re like........ aw no I don’t wanna make him sad

Kai warms to Noa a lot faster than Noa warms to Kai, ‘cause Kai warms to most people pretty quick provided they’re not literal axe murderers. Noa starts to warm to Kai only after careful observation and assessment leads her to conclude the following two facts with reasonable certainty:

Kai does appear to be in possession of a solid moral compass

Kai has no ill intent towards Tris whatsoever

which tips the scale in their favour enough for her to be like “okay fine”

there's a level of distance and awkwardness between them for ages 'cause like, yeah, they're friends they guess but not like, friends-friends, there just seems to be something that's not clicking, n the main reason for that is just like

(handshake meme)

a deep-seated terror of being emotionally open and vulnerable resulting in a pathological need to project a loud outgoing persona that masks every ounce of insecurity and fear and prevents anyone from getting close enough to Know You: Noa 🤝 Kai

as soon as THAT realisation clicks for both of them n they're like "oh shit you're just like me and I know exactly how you feel" it instils a sense of connection and camaraderie between them and solidifies a kinship based on Something rather than simply "mutual friends" and "sometimes we're in the same place"

n like, obviously the others Know about the whole. situation. with Kai’s backstory but Kai’s still pretty cagey about it emotionally speaking.... I’m pretty sure Noa is?? the only person they manage to completely drop their guard around over the course of the story? in terms of like.... having a genuine heart-to-heart about the emotions involved and the fear n guilt

and like. yeah. yeah. Noa hasn’t made a friend besides Tris in like ten years n she’s also notoriously cagey with her emotions and her being genuine and vulnerable is just....... not a thing that happens very often or very easily.... and even less through a lot of the story

idk man. they’ve just got good vibes together

they offer each other a Safe Place and a level of understanding that maybe the others don’t quite grasp. even though the others r still empathetic and care for them a lot n have equally important things they bring to the friendship. Noa and Kai just have a vibe yeah

even though they’d sell each other to satan for one corn chip

#I'M SO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG I'm mortified #djhgkdjfhgjdfsg #i'm incapable of being concise i know i say this all the time it truly is a problem for me lmao #i feel like any of the main four paired with each other is just going to be an absolute behemoth of a ramble i don't know if there was #any escaping this tbh lmao #anyway hello goodnight hope you're having a nice day #thx for letting me ramble ur the best #atdao

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mahvaladara · 3 years ago

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For Apollo

🧡 Who is your OC’s favourite person? Why is this person the top of their list and have they actually met them (an idol or rolemodel or celeb can be someone’s favourite after all!).

Who does your OC absolutely hate, the one person who they’d sell to Satan for one corn chip? Why do they loathe this person so?

💚 Talk about some of the traumatic events in your OC’s life. These events can be ones that have happened to them or a loved one. These events can be minor or major.

💙 What did your OC want to be when they grew up and why? Did they have any lifelong dreams or ambitions they never got to work on or are they currently working to achieve this dream? Has their life taken a very unexpected turn and put all these plans on hold for a while or have they given up on any dreams?

Above all trust and truth. Apollo hates lies and he has to live with the biggest lie of all, a lie he hates, a lie that would change everything about his relationship. It's because of this lie that he hates his dad, because he was forced to carry this lie by his dad.

Apollo isn't demanding, but he's not a doormat either. He's very hotheaded, but he's never violent or aggressive, usually choosing to go kick a ball around when angry or after a fight. He's also stubborn and because he's so smart he has this "I am right" position.

Most people expect him to be your ideal boyfriend. And he'd be, if he wasn't so stubborn and unflexible.

🧡 Who is your OC’s favourite person? Why is this person the top of their list and have they actually met them (an idol or rolemodel or celeb can be someone’s favourite after all!).Who does your OC absolutely hate, the one person who they’d sell to Satan for one corn chip? Why do they loathe this person so?

Apollo curiously has no favourite person. He does look up to his mother as the model of companion he’d like to have, ambitious, a fighter and understanding, but other than that, due to the less moral professional actions of his mother, he does not see her as a rolemodel.

The person he’d sell to the devil for one corn chip would be Mal. He hates Mal. He knows something about Mal that is very bad, a person Mal killed for no reason whatsoever that would change a lot of things about everything. And he has to carry that lie.

Nonetheless he respects and still sees Mal as his father, he just hates him. He also feels abandoned by Mal, as after the accident, Mal dedicates much of his attention to Arlo and the younger kids.

Apollo is not in control of his emotions. He is very hot-headed and has no emotional control. He is very intelligent and exactly for that is very intransigent and stubborn. He gets angry easily and tends to yell.

He is aware he is hot-headed and tries to calm himself and reel his emotions but it isn’t easy. He feels like he isn’t heard as a teenager, especially when as a kid he was often at the center of the attention, and this resulted on him becoming increasingly more verbally aggressive.

💚 Talk about some of the traumatic events in your OC’s life. These events can be ones that have happened to them or a loved one. These events can be minor or major.

The most traumatic event in his life was what happened to his brother and Anika, something Apollo feels personally responsible for. This was a major event in his life, and it affected him deeply.

Apollo wanted to be astraunaut or scientist growing up. As a teenager however, and after the traumatic events he went through, Apollo feels the need to aid people, so he is studying to enroll in med school and become a doctor. He also didn’t aim, dream or expect to become a spellcaster or even aim to become a sage, but currently he has the objective of becoming a sage, but unlike Anika and Arlo, he’s not as powerful or as skilled with magic and that rather annoys him, as he is used at being good at everything.

#dandylion240 #ask me anything #apollo

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purple-phantoms · 4 years ago

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Nighttime

Luke Patterson x Female!Reader

Based off of: #21, “Sleepover with friends”

A/N: So, I modified this one a bit. I just made it so that with friends, it would be a romantic kind, not a friendly kind lol. This was requested by @gia-kerks ! Feel free to send in more requests with prompts from my bucket list!! I had to make it a bit shorter (literally just removed 4 things lol) because I realized I had put a couple things on there twice. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Masterlist

There’s nothing like the winter in California. It wasn’t cold enough to need full-on winter gear, but cold enough to put on the fireplace. Friday nights with her boyfriend, Luke, were always her favorite. Friday night was always date night for the two. They’d end up at one of their homes and end up being “too tired” to leave.

Belgian hot chocolate steamed in red mugs as they prepared to watch Mean Girls for what felt like the 30th time for Luke. Luke wanted to watch Grease because John Travolta. Yes, that was his only reason to watch it. Neither of them could decide on which one to watch, so they did rock-paper-scissors to decide. And she won like the champion she is. Luke couldn’t deny that there were some pretty iconic moments from the movie. Glenn Coco always has and always will be an icon, and the apology scene after the release of the burn book never failed to make him laugh. He’d never admit it to her, but he didn’t hate the movie. Everytime he saw her smile while talking about it, he hated it a bit less.

Together they prepared popcorn, hot chocolate, oreo ice cream, and strawberries. Y/n slapped Luke’s hand away as he reached for a strawberry. “You’re not supposed to eat before the movie starts!” This happened every time. She really didn’t mind though. His lips always ended up being stained red, which made for perfect pictures that she could later use to bother him.

“Can you imagine if this ever happened in our school,” she smiled. High school wasn’t as fun as most movies made it seem. Sure there were fights every once in a while but never anything like the plastics. Y/n didn’t like being a part of drama, but that never meant she didn’t like seeing it unfold.

“Honestly, no,” Luke shook his head. “But who do you think the ‘Regina’ of our school would be?” The problem with that question was that there wasn’t even anybody in school as bad as Regina. Sure, y/n and Luke had people they disliked, but they weren’t on Regina’s level. Well... maybe one person was.

“I feel like Bobby would,” she laughed. Bobby had a complicated personality. He could crack hilarious jokes and tease you endlessly, but he also gave off the kind of vibe that would make someone think that he’d sell them to Satan for one corn chip. Luke hummed in agreement.

As the movie progressed on, her and Luke came up with who the characters were in their friend group. Reggie was Karen, and Luke and Alex were Gretchen. They were all a bunch of himbos, Reggie a bit more than Luke and Alex. But then that left out who she was. “I feel like I’m Aaron Samuels,” she said.

“What, why?” Luke asked. Aaron Samuels was the guy who was relevant, yet irrelevant.

“Because I’m like the middle person in your friend group,” she explained. “Obviously, I’m not involved in your drama, but I like hanging around you guys.”

For the rest of the movie was mostly quiet, except for a few laughs here and there. Neither one of them were awake by the time the movie ended. They hadn’t even realized they left the television on overnight until Luke’s parents came home.

Taglist:

@flashoe @carnationcreation @badwolf00593

Add yourself to my taglist!

#luke patterson x reader #luke patterson #luke jatp #julie and the phantoms #reggie nolastname #reggie jatp #reggie julie and the phantoms #alex nolastname #alex jatp #bobby nolastname #bobby jatp #purple phantoms #bucket list #reggie peters #alex mercer

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songofclarity · 4 years ago

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For a character who was the catalyst for all the events of the novel WRH got way too little attention and show time in the novel heck we don't even get a face off between him and the protagonists. To me if JGS was a pig in a golden pigsty, JGY a sneaky fox, and XY a rabid dog, then WRH was a mighty dragon. He had all the makings of an amazing villain but that potential was wasted and imo that is one of mdzs' greatest flaws

Mighty dragon Wen RuoHan is so true, Anon!

The spoiled pig in the golden pigsty came out on top after the Sunshot Campaign. He had all the money, a beautiful family, and an intact sect, and yet he wanted all the power left in Wen RuoHan’s wake--as if the world hadn’t fought for three years to get rid of the original.

The treacherous snake who cuddled up to others to steal their warmth and yet bit to kill at the first sign of movement. He acted like that warmth was his due and he had no choice but to bite. Surely the actions of others would either do him harm or leave him cold! He tricked Wen RuoHan into believing their scales meant they were similar, but he only ever dreamed of being a pig in that golden pigsty. (There is a connotation of mischief and charm with “sneaky fox” that does not fit Jin GuangYao in my mind lol)

The rabid dog who was used to being beaten and yet would accept a warm bed and a dish of food from any kind hand. He won’t bite the hand that feeds him but he will absolutely maul anyone who threatens that warm bed and new home he found--or anyone who looks like an easy target for some fun and games.

And then there is the mighty dragon!

I've been trying to respond to this ask for a few days because I agree and yet I also kind of disagree on that last point. I find it hard to say Wen RuoHan’s potential was wasted because it’s his potential to do harm that kept the Sunshot Campaign alive but also his lesser-discussed potential to be influenced towards doing good that could have prevented a lot of grief. Although he didn’t get a lot of page time, his importance to the story is practically on par with Wei WuXian himself and he continues to exist as a specter of evil even after he is dead.

This quote comes to mind during empathy:

On Koi Tower, people came and went. Before Nie MingJue's high viewpoint, the crowd parted again and again, with both sides nodding at him in respect, calling him "ChiFeng-Zun." Wei WuXian thought, Such a show of extravagance is going to reach even the heavens. All these people both fear and respect Nie MingJue. There's quite a few people who fear me, though not a lot who respect me. (Ch. 49 ERS)

One of the major conflicts in MDZS is based on one question: who gets to be the next Wen RuoHan after the Sunshot Campaign? And the sane answer is that it should be nobody. The Sects are independent entities who should take care of themselves and work in cooperation without controlling each other. The Wen Sect was never actually in charge of the other sects so it’s quite twisted for the Chief Cultivator position to be created in the wake of Wen RuoHan’s death. Wen RuoHan is still a catalyst for events even after he is murdered!

More so, when people were saying they hoped Wen Qing would one day take over as Sect Leader Wen because she had a normal way of doing things, it’s because Wen RuoHan calling the former Sect Leader Nie over to passive-aggressively slap his saber a few times and tell him it is a good saber is just bizarre. Of course Wen Qing’s ways of doing things are normal!

Compare Wen Qing being angry:

"If you really are grateful then put in some effort! What [the] hell kind of medicine did you just make? Brew it again!" (Ch. 60 ERS)

To Wen RuoHan:

And, thus, Wen RuoHan wasn't pleased anymore...

Wen RuoHan laughed after he heard. “Are you sure about that? Well, I want to see.” (Ch. 49, ERS)

But back to the scene at Koi Tower, it’s funny that the one closest to becoming Wen RuoHan is quite possibly Nie MingJue, the one now respected and feared, the one who fought the most against Jin GuangShan creating the Chief Cultivator seat. Why did Jin GuangShan create the Chief Cultivator seat? Because no one was ever going to respect him or to listen to him, much less respect him and fear his power to let him do whatever he pleased. But even then, Nie MingJue had to travel to Koi Tower to point Baxia while he made his demands. Jin GuangShan and Jin GuangYao had to murder and lie and scheme to get what they wanted. Wei WuXian had to figuratively set himself on fire. Wen RuoHan simply had to call his target of his ire over and he came, and then he let fate run its course.

Wei WuXian, Nie MingJue, Jin GuangShan, Jin GuangYao--none of them ever held even a fraction of the power wielded by Wen RuoHan. A power shown when Lan XiChen and a bunch of other juniors looked at the waterborne abyss and didn’t even dare to speak the name of the Qishan Wen aloud. Our spoiled pig and even rabid dog look to demonic cultivation to gain that fear element since they lack the wow factors of a powerful cultivator. Wei WuXian and Nie MingJue end up dead because a spoiled pig and a treacherous snake want their golden pigsty to go uncontested.

So it’s hard to speak of Wen RuoHan not meeting his potential when all the Sects left in his wake never achieve a fraction of what Wen RuoHan had. And even then, at no point in the story does Wen RuoHan ever wake up in the morning and pick murder, although the same cannot be said for the likes of Wen Chao, Jin GuangYao, Xue Yang, and even Wei WuXian.

So what I’m getting at here is that despite Wen RuoHan’s lack of appearances, we learn a lot about him through other characters trying to either work for or against him or emulate him. And he does face off against one of our protagonists: Nie MingJue! Although that we don’t get to see their first fight in Yangquan when Nie MingJue was fresh is truly frustrating!

Because even though we do get a Wen RuoHan face-off with a protagonist, it’s his assassination that gets all the attention--and it’s because Nie MingJue avoids talking about traumatic experiences and Jin GuangYao already got what he wanted from that event. The mural at Koi Tower immortalizing the assassination of Wen RuoHan is a snapshot of the heroic Jin GuangYao taking out the Big Bad in a glorious moment. It was also, however, a huge red flag that Jin GuangYao is willing to murder someone who gave him respect, protection, and empowerment so long as he could use their blood to pave his road ahead.

I do have to wonder on the degree of Wen RuoHan’s villainy when he didn’t even bother to take the life of his son’s killer and he passed on the opportunity to torture him, too. But no one in the story talks about Wen RuoHan as a person. They talk about Sect Leader Wen as a symbol, and he becomes a symbol of evil.

Everyone becomes so focused on Wen RuoHan as the Big Bad that for all the crimes the spoiled pig and the treacherous snake perpetrate, the majority of the cultivation world responds with, “If this [evil act and/or abuse of power] was done by the Wen Sect, we would be really concerned. Since the people doing it are not-Wens, it can’t be evil and thus we can allow it to happen.”

And thus the Jin get away with doing a lot of evil. Lan XiChen can look at Jin GuangYao and say, “he has his reasons,” because Lan XiChen has been victimized by the Wens and Jin GuangYao murdered Wen RuoHan so surely there is a divide there between good and evil, right and wrong. This is a very convenient way for letting the Jin get away with doing a lot of bad things! Wei WuXian rescuing the Wen Remants, meanwhile, places him conveniently within the Wen-Sect-Is-Bad camp, and we all know how that goes.

So I do agree that Wen RuoHan had all the potential to become a great villain, not just because he has all the power and followers that let him do whatever he wanted but also because the cultivation world sold us the story of him being a monstrous villain who loved blood and torture. But when the other sects create an uprising against the Wen Sect and label it the Sunshot Campaign, not once does Wen RuoHan try to subdue them. Not once does Wen RuoHan ever turn to violence and punishment or slaughter. He had the potential to be a great villain and stomp on all of them! But he doesn’t.

And I don’t think that’s because his potential went unmet. That’s just his character. He is an antagonist with the potential to become a great villain and yet he stays his hand. His power instead draws villains to him like flies to honey. There’s a reason people wear their time spent as a guest cultivator of the Wen Sect with pride! Wen RuoHan is good to his Sect. The perks and benefits cannot be matched.

But it’s not only the dregs of society that come to the Wen Sect and abuse its power. Wen RuoHan has three morally distinct people closest to him that reveal that he has the potential to be well-rounded:

Wen Qing: speaks her mind, a doctor, refuses to kill, intelligent, talented in the liberal arts, accompanies Wen RuoHan to discussion conferences, pays her debts, won’t die for the main branch which is just an alternative of her don’t-kill policy which is don’t-die-for-stupid-shit-customs policy

Wen ZhuLiu: loyal to a fault, dedicated, obedient, was told to protect Wen Chao and does his job incredibly well because this is how he pays his debt to Wen RuoHan for saving him, doesn’t do anything unnecessary, doesn’t speak unnecessary words

Meng Yao: loyal only to himself at the end of the day, prideful, hardworking, scheming, ambitious, supports petty revenge, pro-murder, stabs as a warning, will sell you to satan for one corn chip, does not acknowledge owing debts to anyone but has the receipts on what others owe him

All three characters are respected for their talents and effectively do as Wen RuoHan tells them. Wen Qing leaves for the Yiling Supervisory Office and takes her rational mind with her. Wen ZhuLiu leaves to protect Wen Chao and leaves Wen RuoHan undefended. Meng Yao makes himself useful in Nightless City and thus stays closest to Wen RuoHan’s side. So who is the one speaking in Wen RuoHan’s ear the most? The one saying murder is OK so take revenge.

And even then Wen RuoHan still doesn’t take his revenge, I’m just saying.

But what I’m trying to get at on this scenic route is that Wen RuoHan is left with all this wonderful potential for a reason. Not only do we see his potential but other characters see it, too. His potential is turned into someone else’s profit. Nie MingJue claims that Wen Qing should have spoken up more, which implies Wen RuoHan has the potential for change or even to do good. The majority, however, persist on not just his potential but his status as a great evil. The characters in the story make Wen RuoHan into the penultimate evil by a post-war consensuses. With that, the ceiling is pushed so high that other evils are able to bloom in the glass house they’ve made.

“Whatever we do can never be as bad as what Wen RuoHan and the Wen Sect did,” the cultivation world says as they let a mass murderer run rampant, as people are used for demonic cultivation test subjects, as prisoners of war are beaten and killed, as a dozen women are raped and murdered for petty revenge, as brother betrays brother, as a father murders his innocent son for political gain, as juniors are kidnapped and used as bait...

So absolutely Wen RuoHan was a catalyst for many events because people either wanted to be him, have him in their fighting corner, or kill him. He perpetuated events by wanting to correct the cultivation world as he saw fit by indoctrinating juniors in the Wen Sect ways or by setting up supervisory offices to prevent rebellious behavior. He delegated these tasks which put people in positions of power that they only saw fit to abuse.

But Wen RuoHan’s potential to be a great villain competes with his inherent lack of interest in causing death and destruction. I think that makes him not just a compelling antagonist compared to all the others but a fascinating character in general. Considering MDZS gets praised for all its morally grey characters, I don’t think Wen RuoHan should be left out of the conversation.

#this is so long and it probably doesn't make any sense lol #but since anon sent the ask again i shall give you this~!#how does one talk about wrh idk idk idk!#i just think he's neat #wrh is responsible for everything that happened while he was sect leader #just stating that here in case it didn't come across well enough in the post #but i do think wrh delegated a lot and he trusted a lot #and the fact his sect had many incompetent ppl and meng yao #means there is a disconnect between what wrh wanted and implementation #wen ruohan #asked from above #anon #mdzs thoughts

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panharmonium · 5 years ago

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okay.

i realize this might be a kind of a weird thing for me to devote time to when i’m one episode from the end but honestly? i just have to. i have to. i have a longer piece of meta in this vein that i’ll deal with some other time when i’m less focused on the end of season 5, but given the content of the last couple episodes i just - cannot restrain myself. the stunning level of deliberate, unnecessary cruelty i witnessed in that one moment yesterday (guess i was WRONG omg i STILL can’t believe i heard that with my own two ears...i probably have the lowest expectations of arthur pendragon out of anybody in this fandom but even i was shocked) - it tipped me right over the edge. it threw me for an entire loop.

so, what i have to do right now is take a second to acknowledge the one character who a) predicted this bullshit a long time ago, and b) could have been relied upon to react to it appropriately, that is to say by punching arthur pendragon in the mouth.

fig. A: my Son, ‘I Would Sell Arthur Pendragon to Satan for One Corn Chip’

i love him.

i know we only saw him once. i don’t care. he’s the only non-villain across five entire seasons of this show who ever told arthur pendragon to get fucked, and that makes him an absolute hero.

this kid snuck up on me and became my most beloved minor character. when i first met him, i liked him a normal amount, but i wasn’t as deeply invested in him as i am now. it wasn’t until i got a little further along in the show and started to see how truly painful merlin’s situation becomes without a friend who knows him that i started thinking about him again, and realized how much i actually appreciated him.

so. will.

will occupies a...fairly unique position in merlin’s circle. all of merlin’s other friends eventually become knights, or become queen, and they all hop aboard the arthur pendragon train as they get deeper entwined in camelot’s renaissance. even gwaine, who is a little iffy about arthur in the very beginning, becomes as loyal a knight as camelot has ever seen, and he’s just as invested in camelot’s flourishing as anyone. and i don’t say this to throw shade at him, or at lancelot, or anybody; those two in particular have absolutely always been true friends to merlin, regardless of the vows they took to camelot. but there is just something to be said for like - merlin does not have a single person in his life right now who cares about him without also being beholden to arthur. gwen and gaius and all of the knights are sworn to serve and protect the king. they are all fully aboard the arthur pendragon train, and on board with merlin’s mission to aid arthur and keep him safe. gwen, gwaine, gaius, lancelot - even merlin’s own mother is on that train, when she tells merlin he has to go back to camelot at the end of 1.10, saying “you belong at arthur’s side. i’ve seen how much he needs you.”

these people would not argue with merlin over the merits of sacrificing things for arthur, because they, too, would do anything for their king. they wouldn’t necessarily challenge merlin on statements like “his life is worth a hundred of mine,” because they understand what merlin means. they’re on that same page.

and that’s nice and all, but given recent events (and forthcoming events, i suspect) i suppose i just am feeling. a little tired of that.

i’m tired of the arthur pendragon train. i want to get off. i want MERLIN to get off. and the only other person in the world who ever believed that merlin deserved to get off the arthur pendragon train was will.

all the most recent episodes i’m watching are highlighting for me once again how little merlin settles for in his life. he can’t be known. he can’t be seen. he can’t be accepted. he can’t be listened to. he can’t be believed. he can’t be respected. he can’t be safe. he can’t be loved. he can’t say ‘i am sorry that i can’t go with you to this place’ (for the first time in HOW many years?) without receiving a deliberately nasty, cutting slap across the face.

and we try to rationalize this away; we try to look at the good parts (and yes, there are good parts, of course there are good parts; of course arthur and merlin care about each other) but the ultimate truth is that arthur isn’t merlin’s real friend, not yet. he thinks he is. but he isn’t. a real friend isn’t someone who might kill you if they knew who you were. a real friend isn’t someone who makes you feel like you have to pretend to be someone you’re not.

you cannot be loved if you aren’t safe.

the only person who ever acknowledges this dynamic is will. will sees the parts of arthur that merlin tries not to look at, and will loves merlin enough to say ‘this situation you are in is messed up.’ he’s the only one, across five seasons of this show, who ever comes right out and says that merlin is fooling himself when it comes to this ‘friendship.’ merlin might have other people who care about him, later, but all of them are as wrapped up in arthur’s well-being as merlin is. they don’t tell merlin he deserves better. they don’t tell merlin ‘this is shitty. this is a shitty situation you’re settling for. you deserve more than this.’

five seasons, and will is the only person who ever says this. merlin’s own mother won’t tell him this.

i’ve been thinking about will kind of a lot as i watch these episodes.

i think...i think will would lose his mind if he could see merlin at the end of this show. at ANY point in this show, practically. he would be so devastatingly angry. if he ever heard “his life is worth a hundred of mine” come out of merlin’s mouth - i mean. he’d kill somebody. he'd thump merlin upside the head and then go kill somebody.

will was only ever in this for merlin. he didn’t save arthur’s life because he’d started to like the guy; he did it because that’s just who he is. he saw someone about to get shot and his first instinct was to get in the way. he’s not riding the arthur pendragon train, and he’s certainly not riding the camelot train, but he still makes sure merlin can go safely back to the citadel, because for some unfathomable reason, merlin seems to feel that it’s important.

because - and this is so important here - will doesn’t even know anything about merlin’s ‘destiny.’ they didn’t have time to talk about dragons or destinies or any of that. all will knows is that it’s important to merlin, for whatever reason, and that’s enough to make it important to will. even though he doesn’t understand it. even though he doesn’t agree with it. even though he personally thinks arthur’s a loser. he does what he does so that merlin can have what he wants, so that merlin can be safe and happy in the city of his choice.

SAFE and HAPPY. and merlin isn’t either of those things. merlin has never been less safe than he is now. and merlin hasn’t been happy for a very long time.

will would be rolling over in his grave if he could see merlin now. he would have fought against the sort of...slow self-immolation we see merlin surrendering himself to here every step of the way. will told a prince to fuck off in front of the entire population of ealdor; he wouldn’t have any qualms about telling ‘destiny’ to get stuffed, either. and i find myself missing that single-minded devotion, that uncompromising affirmation of merlin’s intrinsic worth, as opposed to merlin’s importance as a prophesied figure out of myth, as the skies darken over merlin’s head and i see him getting ready to (i think) do something that would send will into an absolute rage.

none of merlin’s friends or family have ever wanted him to suffer, but will was the only one who saw where this was going, a long, long time ago. he knew from the beginning that it wasn’t right. and like...people can complain about him refusing to jump on board the arthur+merlin ship all they want, but the reason he doesn’t get on that boat is because he’s always been captain and sole passenger of the HMS Merlin, and he is the only one who has ever understood that these two boats, with the way the world works right now, just can’t sail together. so much would have to change first.

so like...i miss this kid. i really do. and i think merlin misses him, too, but not in a way that he can afford to let himself think about. how can a person in merlin’s position afford to remember someone who always thought that merlin’s happiness and safety were more important than anything, when merlin has, by necessity, spent all these years forcing himself to finally accept that his own happiness and safety will always have to be his last priority? how can he handle being reminded of a time when someone unconditionally believed that merlin deserved to live in this world and be happy, not because of what merlin could do or what great purpose he would serve, but simply because he is. just because he exists. because he’s enough as he is. he matters just as he is. he deserves to be safe and happy just because he is, not because of what he can do for his majesty the prince.

i don’t think someone in merlin’s position can afford to think like that, especially now. i think it’s like - when you’re overwhelmed or stressed or upset and you’re holding it together but then somebody does one simple nice thing for you or gives you a hug and that’s when you lose it and start bawling - it feels like that. i don’t think merlin could handle being gentled in that way. i think it would be similar to when gwaine tells him “not arthur” - that inability to conceive of somebody who only cares about him, who puts him first. i think if merlin allowed himself to remember that there was in fact a time in his life when he was someone’s first priority, if he remembered what that felt like - he would crack right down the middle.

i think if someone were to really remind him of what he deserves from this life, to remind him of what he used to hope he would one day have, he would never be able to do what he thinks he needs to do.

anyway.

the point of all this is just that as i enter the very end of this show and see merlin still - still - being deliberately gutted by someone who is supposed to love him, someone for whom merlin has been totally willing to give up his life a hundred times over, despite never being recognized and never being accepted and never being free - it is making me appreciate even more keenly the very few people in merlin’s life who chose not to treat him that way. the very, very few people who knew him and loved him just the way he was. and in particular it makes me appreciate will, who never had eyes for anybody but merlin, and who, uniquely among merlin’s friends, could not care less about arthur pendragon if you paid him.

after the last episode, i’m just really feeling his energy.

#the once and future slowburn #no kings no masters #meta #anyway i love this boy #more and more every day #esp. now that i've become suspicious that he and lancelot might end up being the only ones whose honest friendship merlin ever gets to enjoy #i used to think (back when i first started this show and assumed it would someday have a happy ending)#that people like will were the 'first' people who gave merlin the gift of honest friendship #and that eventually things would change and everyone would find out and merlin would be able to live openly #now i am starting to worry that they may not be 'first'#i am starting to worry that they might in fact be 'only'#the only ones #in twenty-something years #not that i'm saying no one will ever know #but i'm not sure merlin will be able to benefit from it if you know what i mean #it would be nice to be wrong #because this would be criminal #but whether i'm wrong or not #the one thing you can be sure of is that i will never stop singing these people's praises #they've earned it #they've earned it in a way that arthur pendragon hasn't #they've given merlin something arthur pendragon never could #and to be 100% honest they've treated merlin better than arthur pendragon ever did #their absence is felt - severely - in how merlin's life starts disintegrating once lancelot dies and all of them are gone #merlin has been alone for a long long time #i hate to think he's going to die or be otherwise taken out of the game before that changes #but i suppose i'll just have to see #either way i'm gonna be channeling will's energy of 'i am here for merlin and the rest of you can go jump in a lake'#(ACTUALLY UHHHH poor choice of words omg; they really might lol)#GUESS WE'LL SEE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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