#I’m so upset we didn’t even get a little ship bait for them

[lesbianfakir]

Hear me out: fakir n rue childhood friend au, where, crucially, he does not learn she’s related to the raven until roughly the point in the show where she reveals herself as Kraehe.

Instead of hating each other they bond over their shared devotion to mytho and miserable fucking childhoods. The raven allows it in this au because a. he thinks it’s funny and b. he knows it will all come crashing down on her and complete her despair. Fakir and Rue spend pretty much every day together and both look after Mytho, which alleviates some of fakir’s stress about being his sole protector.

However, this friendship constantly overshadowed by their roles in the story. Rue doesn’t know the specifics but she knows that Fakir hates crows, and his role as the knight makes him her enemy. If her only friend in the world found out the truth about her he’d want to kill her. Beyond that she lives with the guilt of knowing her best friend is going to be gruesomely killed by her father, or maybe even herself. She shouldn’t feel guilty she should want to hurt him—he’s the enemy after all—but she must be a bad daughter because the thought makes her sick.

At the beginning of the show rue and fakir team up to get tutu away from mytho, but it all begins to fall apart as rue suspects she may be a crow. She can’t talk to fakir about it, she knows he’d never forgive her if it were true. So she fiercely tries to crush that part of herself down. Her turning point is the same as in the show: Fakir tries to kill Kraehe and calls her an ugly crow. Through their friendship she’d built a sense of self outside of the raven, and in an instant she recognizes that other, happier self as a sad illusion. She decides she never had a friend, she was only keeping the enemy close, and she commits fully to becoming Kraehe.

Fakir, of course, fells horribly betrayed. He will not forgive himself for allowing an avatar of the raven so close to mytho for so many years, for trusting her, for caring about her. He shuts down. In this phase of the story the two hate each other, to the point where they’re less preoccupied with tutu than killing the other. Despite how hard she’s trying to be nothing but crow, Rue cries when she thinks she’s killed him.

And yeah that’s the au! Angst and drama all the way down. Duck is trying to mediate their friendship which usually only upsets the two, but I like to think it works eventually. Then they get to be real friends, with no guilt and secrets between them.

[quillquiver]

On SPN, Burying Your Gays, and Being Heard

I am shaking, I feel sick, I feel like I’m insane. And did I run a little wild with the theories? You bet. But you know what didn’t help? The botched clusterfuck that was this entire goddamn finale debacle. How was I supposed to believe anything they said in panels when M&G dialogue would leak saying the exact opposite? How was I supposed to grieve and move on when there was nothing from the cast and crew? Nobody said anything! And any info leaked just destabilized what we already knew or directly contradicted what we’d been told. In light of that, how was I supposed to trust anything anyone said? One rogue translator reciprocated the love confession and I was practically sold, because there were so many questions surrounding the English text that this was something good, something that logically fit, and something I wanted to hold onto. 

Because they hurt me. This is about so much more than one episode or a ship; for years queer fans have seen ourselves in these characters and been told that we were crazy. That we were reading too much into it. I’m not sure how people get upset and offended when a storyline that doesn’t exist... doesn’t exist! said Guy Bee (2013). And then, after all of that, they turned around and said magnanimously, you have your version, I have mine... and that’s okay. But it’s not okay. It’s not okay, because that doesn’t erase what came before - that doesn’t erase the baiting and the gaslighting, and that invalidates everything we felt in the time leading up to that episode. It gave them an open window for all the subtext that came after. It allowed them to brush us off.

And then we got Cas’s love confession. I watched that scene about 500 times. Added to the rest of the season - to the fandom avatar being presented as successful and intelligent, to arc being the death of the author - I felt seen. Really seen, by a show that made it its mission to erase me. I had been okay with Cas dying at first because I had been sure the romance arc would carry through. I had been convinced that after everything, there was no way they would give that to us and then take it away.

But they did, because this is Supernatural. To anyone saying this is not bury your gays, I implore you to read up on the Hays Code. This link is to an amazing queer history podcast and the episode that covers it. In short, the Hays Code was a legal document that came about in 20th Century Hollywood during the puritanical war on the American entertainment industry,  and it stipulated what was not allowed on screen. Not all of it was queer - there’s a whole section about kissing - but what the Code is most remembered for is that queerness was not allowed on screen. But queer people are resilient, and so they started testing the waters... and it turned out that you could in fact code queerness into a narrative, as long as it was subtextual, or as long as the queer character died/was punished, or both. The point is that the character is not allowed to live their truth openly. They are buried, either in the ground or punished in the narrative. The former is normally what we refer to these days, because the latter just doesn’t really happen anymore.

Until Supernatural. 

Castiel is immediately punished for speaking his truth - and please don’t tell me he leveraged that punishment and so he had agency. Literally the only thing that could make him happy was confessing his feelings, and so the Empty deal was directly related to this idea of queerness-as-punishment. That being said, Bobo wrote a beautiful scene. Cas’s confession was a love letter to queerness and coming out... but everything that came after buried him. Castiel may have ended the series alive but he was effectively written out of the last two episodes, and that means that he actually never really got to live his truth. He was silenced by the narrative - that is punishment. 

Dean is a whole other can of worms. Does one rogue translator confirm canon bi!Dean? Or do we have to read our own version of the text? The fact that we even have to ask these questions firmly places us in the realm of queerbaiting. Were the writers trying to get bi!Dean approved but were unable to? I have no idea, but queerbaiting requires proof that the writers encouraged a reading they had no intent of following through on, and we certainly don’t lack in evidence of that. Not from this writers room, but from those of previous eras. Did these writers try? They might have, but the funny thing about queerbaiting discourse is that there has never been a show to bait this long, and I’m making the call that even if you tried at the end, you baited me with half the ship and all the years that came before. 

Of course, the narrative leaves open the possibility of bi!Dean so if you do read the show that way, that means Dean also falls into the bury your gays category; if you read the show this way - which many of us do - the mere suggestion that Dean Winchester was bisexual was enough to punish him. And he was punished. We’ve all written extensively on this, but he was given a random death, on a case his father never finished. All that growth, all that time spent having him accept himself, love himself, that was all taken away. He died the way he always thought he would: as a tool, in service of his father, protecting his brother. He had always believed he’d been a body to throw on the sword and in the end that’s all he was. And when he gets to Heaven? He’s also silenced. He barely speaks in the episode except to monologue during his death, and that is 100% Sam-centric. He is scared. 

It was horrific to watch. I sobbed so hard my roommate was seriously concerned. 

I had been fully prepared for Supernatural to end disappointingly. I had figured everything would end with a huge heaven reunion because white, straight, cis-male S&F writers love the idea of death as a reward, but instead of being disappointed I felt like I had witnessed a slaughter. Every single one of the queer themes intrinsic to the show: found family, resilience, speaking your truth... were gone. And I know we’ve talked about this too, but it bears repeating, because in doing this, in writing the queerness out of its narrative, Supernatural effectively looked every one of us queer folx in the eye and said: you are not important. You don’t matter. All of that stuff that came before is all good and well, but what really matters at the end of all things is blood family. It’s two brothers in a car. Life sucks but at least we get to die and go to paradise - real paradise, that your angel buddy died for and then made for you and who we never hear from again.

I felt insane. I felt cheated. I felt humiliated. I felt devastated. I still feel all those things, but listen to me. You have been heard. Not by Misha Collins, who is a great guy, but doesn’t get it. Not by Jensen Ackles, who is a similarly great guy, but also just doesn’t understand. And not by anyone else who worked on this show. 

You know who heard you? Me. The people who follow me. The people who follow you. We saw each other, and heard each other, and we gave each other a leg up. We made memes. We wrote fic. We drew fanart. We made gifs. All for ourselves and all for each other. We broke Tumblr multiple times. We donated over $60,000 USD to multiple different causes. We got multiple hashtags trending at multiple different points, and today kept it up because we demanded answers and then we got them. There were at least 5 articles written about the show today. We made that happen. We made people listen. 

Supernatural didn’t deserve me, and it didn’t deserve you. It didn’t deserve Dean. It didn’t deserve Cas. It didn’t deserve Misha and Jensen. But this show ended with a bleak, awful message and we turned around and showed them that love is loud. So what about all of this is real?

We are.

[silverwashi]

Just saw a tiktok video where a girl said a way she can tell if a ship is queer bait is by thinking about if one of the characters was the opposite gender would they have ended up together/hooked up and first of all that’s a lot to unpack but second nobody in the production/cast of the shows she used as examples ever even hinted about those ships you know? So it’s like no actually SamBucky isn’t queer-baiting because no one ever hinted to that ship ever becoming canon or even took it seriously. Like I get it queer baiting is horrible but if we don’t acknowledge how scummy and gross queer baiting is then why even bother. Oh your favorite mlm ship didn’t become canon in a Disney movie, it must be queer baiting, like no what is queer baiting is having Disney’s 100th first ever lgbt+ character only to have it be a monster. Like some people need to learn the difference between queer coding and queer baiting because I swear some people keep making a fool of themselves. You want to talk about queer baiting okay yeah let’s do that but you really make us sound like nothing but bitter fans when you act like every relationship between people of the same gender is entitled to be romantic. Bring real receipts and then we can talk because it’s kinda tiring. Some examples of actual queer baiting btw include Sterek(def the most infamous one like wow they really did all that huh?) Murder Husbands(I’m kinda on the fence about this one mainly because I personally think that the show dealt with there relationship really well because nothing about them had ever been explicit why start there and i think watching Wills becoming was probably more satisfying for me than had they kissed but I understand why people would be upset.) and I can’t really think of many more because I stay in my little fandom sphere but Albus Dumbledore and Galert Grindelwald is definitely in there too(but then there’s so much wrong with jkr that I don’t even want to touch that.)

So in conclusion stop minimizing the damage of queer baiting by using it so much. Go do some research and think did I watch this under the impression that this ship was going to be canon and who gave you that impression? Was it the producers, actors etc. or was it the fans because there’s a real distinction from the 2 and y’all have to stop acting like the homophobic asshole of a producer who called the ship weird tricked you into thinking that it was gonna be canon if you just kept watching.

[jett-dawson]

okay, so i saw these on instagram

and i have some thoughts

i hope we get a jella confirmation. i really do. they’ve always been feeding into our hopes & requests for LGBT rep, even before the series started getting posted. they know we’ve been wanting this. it was only until after the first episode did jella get popular due to their closeness. it’s very obvious that they were the closest of the whole crew. so lots of shippers took it to heart & decided to refer to them as Jella. now look

regardless on whether or not you ship them, we NEED this. many of the shippers are part of the LGBT community themselves. i am part of the LGBT community myself. i love rainbow high, i think it has mad potential and it just really draws me in. i wanna see myself in these characters. and i wouldn’t care if any other ship went canon. ruby x violet, poppy x skyler, whatever. i just wanna see representation!

and they’ve obviously been teasing us with jella content. they kicked out the one character who was part of this close ship (that the staff knew was their biggest ship) and began to put #Jella in their vi life’s (a fandom made ship name) and refer to them as best friends. now look. i’m sure before this show started, they didn’t really have intentions of pairing them as a couple. there was no fandom feedback when writing all of the characters and plot, so i’m sure it wasn’t their intention to have them as a couple. if it was, i think we’d know by now. but then, when it aired, they saw fandom feedback and decided to tease us. call it “queer baiting” call it whatever you want. it’s upsetting.

but i personally didn’t get too mad because it’s all i’m used to seeing! i’m used to seeing gay couples not get representation.. and if any... very little representation. i’m used to people having to go BTS (people like directors or VAs) to confirm gay characters. take my little pony and monster high for example. take that literal queerbait moment from eah. the only reason i’ve gotten so excited over those moments is bc it’s the closest to rep i can get! so i’ve made the most of it

but representation shouldn’t be implied. i’ve said this before!! i’ll say it again! we should get just as much representation as any other couple should. it’s only fair. and it’s not harming anyone. if others decide to get offended, then that’s on them. having lgbt rep can be good bc once the news is spread that a show has some decent & proper rep, a whole bunch of others will flock on over to see themselves in the show. i wanna see gay couples hugging like other couples do. i wanna see them going on dates and getting blushy around each other. i want that end of season, end of series romantic kiss for my gay ship that other couples get to have

so forcing and begging for this representation isnt the best thing ever... but i guess it’s working? based on these responses from the official team, it seems like they’re gonna finally fall through. it reminds me of when we had to beg for more skin tones in dolls. hope they have that again with series 3. also it’ll probably be awhile until we get any confirmation. i just hope they do it right.

[damn-stark]

The Jedi Master

Chapter 2 of Unfrozen

Summary: You once were a General and Jedi Master fighting against separatists alongside the clones, the next, darkness clouded over and life passed in flash, and before you knew it you’re waking up with no memory running for your life.

A/N- next part, I hope you all like it!!

Warning- Angst, SLOWBURN.

Pairing- Since Poe and Rey were tied, what I’m going to do is let you all choose which you like more as the story continues and chemistry’s unfold!!!

————

“So this is our key? A Jedi Master?” Finn asks Rey in a horrible whisper. Your drift your gaze up to the trio and pull your hands from your head, looking to Commander Dameron as his gaze remains on you.

“Do you have a starfighter?”

Commander Dameron blinks in surprise, not expecting you to speak, he shifts in his seat and shakes his head. “Have you seen the ship we’re on? Doesn’t really fit a starfighter now does it? Plus it seems like you may have some type of amnesia, you can’t fly.”

You sit up straight to stand to your feet, looking to the end of the hall and feeling the strong urge to not do as he says and attempt your sudden made up plan. “I can fly, I need to go save my Commander. You heard what they said, they have him.”

Rey stands up and gets in your way as you attempt going out to search for some sort of escape pod. “I can’t let you do that. You can’t, you don’t know if they’re lying—”

“I do,” you remark with a cold gaze. Even if you didn’t have an idea how, you knew. “Search your feelings, citizen.”

Finn beside her looks between the both of you with his eyes peeled and Commander Dameron steps in. “We can’t go back on just a hunch.”

“And he’s my Commander, I leave no man behind.” You interject sharply. “And it’s no hunch, they said it, aren’t you paying attention?”

The Commander sighs and nods, grabbing your shoulder to attempt and assure you. “I understand that, trust me, but getting you back to our base alive is our priority. If you go back there's a possibility that you’ll get killed.”

You step back away from him and begin to pace as you think of a plan.

“Plus, if it’s you they want, they won’t kill your Commander,” Rey continues, “they’ll use him as bait. Besides don’t you want to remember your past first?”

You stop your pacing and lift your head to look at her, frowning and letting out a deep sigh. “I do.”

“Well I can help, but only if we go back to base.”

You hum and sit back down to put your head in your hands again. “At least please tell me what year it is? I,” you pause and swallow thickly at the feeling of a sharp pounding pain in your head, more memories flash, but they’re like if you were looking at someone else’s memories. It was all surreal. “I can’t remember.”

The three of them look at one another and commander Dameron answers for all of them with a sympathetic look featured on his face. “It’s thirty-four ABY. It’s been fifty four years since the fall of the Republic and jedi order.”

Your frown deepens and it seems that at the mention, at the knowledge of how many years have passed your headache heightens. You cover your whole face with your hands and tilt your head down, part of you wants to cry, but the other part doesn’t know why exactly. Your head was in thousands of pieces with only small fragments of it pieced together.

“General….Heart, is it?” You hear Finn's voice ask. You proceed to look up and meet his dark gaze, at that moment seeing another vivid flash of someone else.

“Y/N!”

You whirl around and a smile instantly widens on your face at the sight of Anakin Skywalker, your best friend; you see he mirrors your gesture and you both rush towards one another to meet each other halfway with a big, warm bear hug. “Ani! Haha. It’s so good to see you!”

Anakin pulls away and his grin widens as you two begin to pace around each other in a circle, as if it was the most unbelievable thing in the whole universe. “And it’s so good to see you! Damn, it’s been so long! Wow! Look at you! Jedi Master and all!”

You grin and just shrug, “what can I say? But look at you! Look at your hair!” Your eyes scan his shoulder length light hair and you can’t help but giggle at the memory of his previous cut. “It suits you.”

“What can I say?” He mocks you, both of you finally coming to a complete stop in front of each other, still sharing the same gleeful look. “But you, wow, I’m so proud. Turned Jedi Master at nineteen. You’re the youngest Jedi master, I’m sorry I couldn’t be there.”

“It’s no problem, it was a year ago, I’m over it.” You assure him.

Anakin rests his hands on his hips and his grin falls a bit, but not completely, his childlike joy still remains. “What is it your clones call you, General Heart is it?”

Your smile turns shy, and you nod, “yep, it’s silly, but they insist on it, so I’m letting it slide.”

“Well, General Heart not to brag, or anything, but I was the youngest Jedi knight to become a general.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Definitely,” Anakin says smugly as he crosses his arms over his chest. “So I guess we’re both making history.” He begins to approach you and wraps his arm around your shoulders to walk you to the briefing room. “We’ve definitely come far, I never imagined becoming war Generals so young.”

You wrap your arm around his shoulders and agree with his statement. “Nor I.”

Your eyes widen and tears sting your eyes, you look away from Finn and grab onto your chest as this sudden heart aching pain starts within you. Hundreds of memories flash through your mind, all having to do with that same young blue-eyed, brunette that just suddenly appeared in your mind. You suddenly remember his name and what he meant to you, you acknowledge your name from that memory but even that seemed insignificant at the time. You hear the three people before you begin to worry over your current state, but you block them out as the memories of Anakin Skywalker just resurface.

Just the memories that had to with him and nothing else.

“Anakin….” you mouth, feeling the subtle taste of salt in the corner of your lips.

“Did you just remember something?” You hear Rey ask in a concerned tone.

When you look up to her, you make sure to wipe away your tear before speaking. “Uh, yes, my name and a friend.”

“Oh...what is your name?”

“It’d be pretty ridiculous to ask if either of you had knowledge of my friend, would it not?” You ask desperately avoiding her question.

“Uh, depends what friend.” Commander Dameron answers.

“Anakin Skywalker.”

Again they look at one another and share a look you couldn’t understand, when they turn back to you, Rey suddenly has this assuring look on her face that is basked by the yellow light from the hall beyond the cockpit door. “We’re almost at base, it’s best if General Organa helps you with your questions, she’s much more reliable than any of us could be.”

You nod slowly and grip onto your knees as you reveal your name. “My name is Master Y/N L/N.” You offer them a kind smile.

“Oh well it’s very nice to meet you, Master y/n l/n,” Rey formally greets you with her hand extended out towards you.

You look at it and wrap your hand around her forearm. Which confuses her slightly, leaving her a little stunned and unable to think of what to do until a couple minutes later where she does the same. You pull away after a few seconds and stand up to take Finns arm and then Commander Dameron’s; who seems a little starstruck now. He has his lips parted and keeps his hand on your forearm longer than the rest had.

“I, I just want to say that I’m a big fan,”

“Huh?” You quirk your brow and look at him nervously.

He draws in a deep breath and then swallows thickly before releasing his breath and explaining. “You may not remember, but you’re actually a very amazing pilot, my mother used to look up to you, she would tell me so many stories of you and Anakin Skywalker.”

“Oh,” you grin, feeling a warmth begin to burn under your cheeks, “well I’m very flattered.” You use your other hand to grab his forearm with both hands and just suddenly become very flustered. “Thank you,” you pull your hands away and rest them on your hips, “I’m very honored, as well as proud and upset because I can’t rub it in my friends face.” You smirk, “regardless, thank you.”

“No wonder you seemed so familiar,” Commander Dameron added with a more confident smile.

You look to the other two who just look at the commander with a teasing look, and before they could say a thing, the same blue and white droid as before rolls before you and beeps before showing a hologram screen of a scoreboard that read, “Skywalker v L/N.”, and had a line in the middle that each side kept a score of ten tally marks. You narrow your gaze on it and can’t help but grin brightly at the memory. “Ah, yes I remember now, Ani and I had a racing competition going on, we restarted every couple of months because he couldn’t handle not being the best pilot in the galaxy or whatever he called himself.”

The droid remarks your comment and you laugh for the first time before glaring at him. “Don't make me throw you out of this ship you old fried machine, because I will. Anakin isn’t here to stop me.”

The droid goes on a burning ramble and you recall your relationship with this droid and just ignore him and sit back down to look at the three people just watching your interaction. Rey chuckles, but still looks at the droid with concern. “Wow, I’ve never heard him swear, it’s new.”

You scoff, “new is understatement.”

“Well,” Commander Dameron sighs as he turns to the control board, “enough of that, the ship should jump out of hyperspace in three, two and one.” He jumps on the pilot seat and maneuvers the ship down to a beautiful, green jungle planet that soon showed a small hidden base on the ground, hidden amongst all of the greenery. When the ship lands you can’t help but feel a tight stomach churning feeling, or as if something was going to happen. You walk out as normal as possible, you disguise your nerves and walk through the tiny base, seeing the stares and hearing the murmurs. It’s not until you walk inside a building does your gaze focus on one person, on the General they were speaking of.

Upon sight of you she dropped what she was doing and approached you and the four walking beside you. You studied her and noticed she was very small, old and pretty, yet her determination was unmistakably reconzible. Her brown eyes locked on your eyes and her eyes widened a bit as her face turned paler, as if she was seeing a ghost. Once you all finally came to a stop in front of one another, she managed a warm assuring smile that matched her greeting. “Master y/n l/n, welcome.” She grabs your hands and her gaze turns more sympathetic, “everything must be so confusing at the moment, I’m sorry, but I can assure you that we can help with any of your concerns.”

You tugs your lips into an understanding smile and nod. “Thank you, General. And as far concerns, I have plenty,” you swallow thickly and sigh, “I can’t seem to remember a lot of my past, I’ve been getting some memories back. Piece by piece, but there's still a lot I’m missing.”

The General nods and walks you further into the base. “Well to ease some confusion, I’m General Leia Organa Skywalker.”

You drop your smile and a new wave of confusion spills all over you. You blink and freeze in your spot. “Skywalker?”

“Yes,” she confirms, turning to face you as the others watched curiously, “you may have known my father, Anakin Skywalker.”

A faint smile tugs on your lips and you nod, “yes, he was my best friend, he was like my brother, and,” you suddenly cut yourself off and stare blankly at the ground as the memory slams into you. “And I knew your mother too. She was a good friend too,” tears well in your eyes and your voice sounds shaky, “you-you’re their child. I knew of you, of course you were only a fetus before, but I knew of their secret. It’s such an honor to meet you.”

The general's face expresses different emotions, but she ends up smiling softly. “And it's an honor meeting you. I’m sorry for what happened, to be thrusted into such a new place, a new year, everything must feel like a crazy dream.”

“Yeah, just about,” you nod, clasping your hands behind your back.

“And I’m sorry to put you in distress, but it seems the force has brought you here for a reason. The galaxy is yet in another war and we need your help.”

You frown and keep your gaze downcasted. “Hmm.”

“And before I go into much more grave detail, I think it’s better if we ease your mind and help recover what you've lost.” Her gaze drifts to Rey beside you and she gives her a small nod, “Rey if you could, please.”

“Of course.” Said girl responds kindly, turning to you and offering a warm smile, “we’ll find more peace outside, I can take you somewhere.”

With no choice in the matter you follow after her, leaving the two men and the General behind; walking back out to the blazing sun and the humid jungle air. Even if you knew it was impossible, part of you searched for something slightly familiar, a face mainly. But nothing, you were surrounded by new unfamiliar people. All from a different generation apparently, all just purely new.

“We can stop here,” Rey spoke up, breaking you from your train of thought and stopping in a clear spot. Proceeding to turn to you with a sweet and assuring smile, “I’m just going to need you to clear your mind and meditate. I’m going to just help you remember, heal you in a way.”

“Okay,” you nod, looking down at the new change of clothes she had let you borrow before straightening your shoulders and closing your eyes to take in deep breath, breathing them out and clearing your mind, falling into a deep state of meditation. Not feeling as her fingers gently touch the side of your temple and she slowly begins to use the force to ease your confused state; to heal what was damaged and reel back everything that had been lost in the inner corner of your brain, bringing back a huge wave of emotions that used to be well put away. Causing a pain and disturbance within you.

“Something doesn’t feel right, I sense a disturbance in the force.” A new pain shoots through your head and you fall to your knees, screaming and hearing voices and other shouts, feeling a heartbreaking pain and a breakaway.

“Execute order 66.”

The order passes over your head as you’re on your knees in pain, all you could say was just. “No...Anakin.”

The heartbreaking pain finds its source and the face of your longtime friend fades through your mind and displays an unfamiliarity in his now yellow sith eyes. As hard as you try to hold on and just confuse it as some trick, the blue eyes that belonged to Anakin were gone. You were left suffering until it was too late to notice what was actually happening around you.

“General General run! Get out of here!”

“Ahhhh!” You scream out and fall to your knees, grabbing onto your chest and crying out in pain and heartbreak as everything resurfaces and you remember yourself, remember your time before it froze. Literally.

“Y/N! I’m so sorry!” Rey exclaims as she falls on her knees before you, grabbing your hands and trying to help ease your situation.

You fall on your hands and knees and cry out to the ground. You punch it and punch it as if that was going to do anything. You last in your own little secluded, painful and heartbreaking world for a while, until you could grasp what was currently happening, where you were, what time you were in. You speak up hoarsely and unintinally startle Rey. “I remember, everything,” you croak out, slowly picking up your head to look at her with your bloodshot eyes. “The force, it kept me alive when I fell in the ice,” you sniffle, “my commander pushed me to save me and I pulled him down with me. The force kept us alive.”

Rey’s eyebrows knit together and her light eyes search you for her response. She’s caught lost, unable to find the exact wording to help you. She can only seem to cup your shoulder and try to share an assuring look. “I’m sorry. I really am. I wish I could say something to ease your pain, but I feel like there's nothing I can say.”

“Don’t worry,” you assure her before you clear your throat and push yourself to your feet, “I understand. Thank you for helping me,” you express kindly, grabbing her hand and failing to smile, “I appreciate it.”

You drop her hands and then begin your mission and walk past her, hearing her quickly catch up. “Wait, Master, don’t you want to know more? I know a way you can talk to your previous master, talk to any master and...Anakin Skywalker—”

“Don’t,” you cut her off sharply, “don’t say that traitors name again.” You whirl around and glare at her, “don’t you dare.”

Rey stops in her tracks and looks at you stunned and mouth agape, gasping at the new sudden change at the mention of his name. She wants to apologize, but you walk off towards General Organa before she could.

“General.”

“Yes, Master?”

“I need a ship.”

“Wait,” she blinks, “what?”

Your gaze drifts to Commander Dameron and Finn behind her and then slides back to her. “Rey helped me remember what I had forgotten and now I need a ship to rescue my friend. My commander.”

“But, we—”

“And I understand you need me help,” you cut her off in a cold tone, “but I need to save my friend before I can help. Your fellow soldiers promised and I promised my friend I would help him. What kind of General would I be if I can’t keep my promises?”

“Master, l/n, I know you’re desperate, but there's still much you have to learn, to know before you go running off.” General Organa tries to calm you down, “I can help, you’re struggling, you’re confused and hurting. Please wait until everything makes sense.”

You fist your hands and shake your head, “no, I can’t, but I'll hear you out after.”

“You’ll hear me out?” She questioned with a pointed gaze.

“Hmm.”

General Organa looks at Rey behind you and then at the two behind her before looking back at you with a sigh. “Fine, but I can’t let you go alone.” She turns to Commander Dameron and her face softens, “Poe, I know I may be asking a lot, but I trust you to fly her to her location and bring her and her Commander back. All of you.” She turns to Finn and Rey with the same look.

“I don’t need help,” you interject, “I can fly myself.”

“You could,” General Organa says as she turns back to you, “but I need reassurance that you’ll return, I need you.”

You look to a ship parked a few feet behind you and then return your gaze to her, adding a feigned smile and a lie. “I will.”

.

.

.

.

A/N- again depending on the interactions with Rey and Poe you guys can choose which ship you like better :) Rey and him tied so I feel like choosing as the story proceeds would be fun.

[itsclydebitches]

I’m wlw. While, I’m not going to shame WLW members of the FNDM, bumblby pisses me off. V6 skipped development for both characters for the sake of “confirming” it, but I thought there scenes in V7 were cute. At first. Then it felt like RT dangling gay keys in front of my face. Now they’re attached to the hip while giving the het. ship (Renora) independence. Yang doesn’t care what Ruby thinks and only Blake was upset by her fall. What are your thoughts?

I’ve touched on their relationship quit a bit over the years, on and off, so I’ll try to summarize those big thoughts here: 

I like the ship. I’ve always liked the ship. I’ve never been a die-hard fan like some, but as soon as I entered the fandom and realized they were a thing I went, “Oh yeah, I can see that. I’m on board!” 

Which isn’t to say I’m always a fan of how people engage with them. It’s a fact that every major ship in any fandom is going to have its annoying, dramatic, and toxic elements. It’s also a fact that RWBY has developed a reputation for being particularly vitriolic. I think a lot of the hate towards Blake/Yang stems less from what we actually got in the canon and more from bad experiences from a small subset of fans. Not everyone. Not even the majority. But enough that casual fans, Blake/Sun fans, those who dislike the ship, etc. have reached a point where bmblb is a) so incredibly prominent and b) at times so heated that even a fellow shipper can grow frustrated at the state of the “RWBY” tag. This then bleeds into our reading of the canon material. After all, if you’re frustrated about seeing this pairing so often in fandom spaces and/or you’ve had a bad run-in with someone who ships them, seeing even more of them on Saturday will exacerbate those feelings. 

This is a frustration that’s increased as the show still refuses to make the relationship canon. Crafting scenes each week where something semi-romantic occurs, but isn’t enough to confirm a relationship (like the forehead touch) creates a branching number of annoyances, from “Oh my god how is this still not canon” to “Here’s another week of the whole fandom claiming it is canon.” Those “dangling gay keys” are a problem both for those desperate to see the relationship confirmed because they love it and those desperate to see the relationship confirmed so the characters can begin focusing on other aspects of their identities. “Attached at the hip” feels too close to queer baiting for comfort while simultaneously too narrow a depiction of Blake and Yang. Surely they have concerns and relationships outside of each other. 

I agree entirely that the relationship was rushed in some respects. However, there’s a post somewhere in the depths of my blog where I argue strongly that queer relationships should be allowed to be rushed, simply because so many het ships are too. I stand by that. I understand the frustration of moving from the two interacting primarily as teammates to suddenly holding hands, but that’s a gap that appears in many, many non-queer pairings. Jaune is a great example. Though we introduced Pyrrha’s interest in him from the get-go, he was running after Weiss for his whole time at Beacon, got a little closer to Pyrrha, she suddenly kissed him, and then... we’re meant to believe they were madly in love? His grief is certainly written in a way to imply as much. The cultural expectation of the guy losing the girl just fills in the rest, we didn’t actually see it on screen. So I both agree and disagree. I always want RWBY to be better written, but I also don’t want to hold our queer pairings to standards we don’t demand of the het ones. That way lies a lot of excuses for why it “can’t” ever happen. I’d rather have poorly written and rushed representation than no representation at all. 

Agree entirely about there being a problem with Yang’s fall. Blake’s reaction was fine. The lack of reaction from everyone else was not. As I said in my recap, you can’t prove their love by taking love away from these other relationships. Making Ruby seemingly care less about her sister will not convince me that Blake cares a great deal. Though this is a problem RT has across the whole cast, tying into that “attached at the hip”ness. Characters tend to have one (1) relationship and that’s it. RT really struggles to write a cohesive group, instead creating a collection of duos that happen to inhabit the same space. I can see places where they’ve been trying to correct that this volume  — Yang speaking to Ruby about Summer, Nora talking to the girls about Ren  — but moments like Blake’s talk with Ruby really struggle. In that, these characters haven’t spoken in seven seasons, so all Blake has to say is a generic, ‘I believe in you’ that comes across as stilted and unpersuasive  — we can see the writers trying to convince us that Ruby is The Best and that these girls have a relationship when they... don’t. And scenes like Yang’s fall show us that these underlying struggles are still at work. RT doesn’t know how to craft a scene where everyone reacts because Yang is a well-rounded person sporting a deep and unique relationship with three other teammates. They know how to craft a scene where the one (1) relationship takes centerstage and everyone else becomes cardboard cutouts. 

As for renora’s independence, I need to side with RWBY on this one. The entire point of this arc is that Nora realized she is also attached at the hip and wants to do something about it. That’s a good thing! Whether or not RT actually manages to write a relationship where they’re together without being entirely co-dependent remains to be seen, but splitting them in this last episode was a good start. Similarly, the show did separate Blake and Yang for the majority of this volume and now may have separated Yang from the group for a significant length of time. That’s not the same thing as the girls realizing they need space like Nora did... but then, they aren’t in an acknowledged relationship like Nora is. I don’t think it’s fair to compare them when Yang and Blake haven’t even reached the point where they’re talking about their relationship, let alone what that looks like going forward, and therein lies my real criticism. In order to see the depth RT is trying to give to renora, they have to actually make bmblb canon first. It all comes back to that. The question of queerbaiting, how they find healthy boundaries, how they compare to other relationships in the show... there’s no real groundwork to discuss any of that until we can say, 100%, that they are, in fact, a couple. 

[kitkatopinions]

Blake has nothing going on for her now or in the future except Yang and to a lesser extent her team. These are the consequences of bungling the faunus storyline and replacing it with nothing. They've cleaned their hands of Blake's personality and goals. Like you said ship bait is all that's left.

Blake is honestly the worst treated character amongst Team RWBYJNR + Oscar imo, and tbh, I think even Qrow gets a better rep than her. And that’s saying something, because Qrow has been so badly handled.

The worst thing about this for me is the wasted potential. Blake was really wrapped up in their horribly bungled racism/faunus allegory even more so than Weiss. There are obviously problems with how CRWBY continues to try to use the racism/faunus allegory in some problematic ways rather than dropping it completely, without seeming to put in any effort to actually fix it. Blake’s story being so wholly wrapped up in the faunus racism arc had made her character problematic (for instance, she looks hypocritical for being totally against reactive violence in the case of the White Fang, but is training to be a Huntress and is just fine ripping through White Fang members.) Blake has a lot of good to her character from volumes 1-5 if you can separate her from the bungled allegory however (although I totally understand when people just can’t do that.)

Removing Blake from the faunus/racism arc doesn’t have to leave her with nothing as a blank sheet that must be built from the ground up, her character should’ve stayed the same. Blake’s base character at the start of the show that remains pretty dang consistent for five seasons is cynical, stubborn, defensive, active, passionate, focused, someone who has more life experience and a bit of a darker worldview than her friends, someone who has a hard time making friends anyway, a fairly quiet, independent girl with a tendency to run when things get to be too much and tends to self-destruct and push people away, but is still brave and selfless, with a moral code she believes in (although misused, a character that believes things like ‘stealing is always wrong’ is not an uninteresting one. Blake’s moral code was just used badly.) Blake also has a more subdued way of expressing her affections. A few things about Blake - like her tendency to run, many of her insecurities, pushing people away, and self-destructing - started to get worked through and addressed in an actually meaningful way during volumes 4 and 5 (although her resolution with Yang was wonky, but I could talk more about that in a different post.) However, in good narratives, these traits don’t just go away because they start getting worked through. For instance, just because Zuko in ATLA turns to the good side and starts addressing his trauma and working through his anger issues doesn’t mean he isn’t snippy, hotheaded, and prone to outbursts anymore. And for another instance, just because Yang starts trying to control her temper doesn’t mean she’s no longer prone to anger based reactions, snapping, being defensive, and getting into fights.

While Ruby, Weiss, and Yang read as more consistent even if there characters are going in a bad direction - Ruby’s always been reckless and considered her team the end all, her character now is the incredibly frustrating result of this never getting checked or worked through - but Blake is severely lacking in many of her old traits.

Blake has become an incredibly passive character who can’t stand up for herself and tends to just go along with whatever Ruby wants, and is more than willing to steal and lie and let others steal and lie. She’s lacking in passion, even her supposed stronger moments carrying a more passive tone. She relies on others to save her, both by relying on Yang and Weiss to defend her from mean anti faunus people, and constantly relying on others in fights, not able to land hits and begging Ruby to help her when she’s left without Yang to do her fighting for her. She doesn’t make choices herself, literally in the ‘will we launch Amity or defend Mantle’ conversation, Blake is one of the only people who isn’t shown out and out picking a side. She’s no longer cynical and no longer seems to mind waiting around - telling her younger, naïve teammate who’s spent hours doing nothing that it’s okay that she’s been doing nothing and hasn’t really helped anyone because Blake knows she’ll do something eventually and admires Ruby’s optimism. Blake no longer is independent enough to even be temporarily left by Yang without reacting like she did something she has to be guilty and ashamed of.

Like, what is this? Seriously, what is it? They didn’t even fight and they have her reacting like this.

It’s like the writers decided when they dropped her faunus arc that they could now create a new character from the ground up. A passive, supportive, co-dependent, damsel in distress character who can give the other girls a leg up and fuel their more compelling arcs. You know what? May isn’t Maid Marian, Blake is. She’s Disney’s Maid Marian. She’s the encouraging love interest/friend figure who can be jokey sometimes, occasionally tries her hand at convincing other people to do things, and to prove she’s not totally helpless, gets a hit in every now and again.

Look, maybe I’m being a little over dramatic, but that’s how she feels when you compare her to the other characters. Even Ruby, sitting around drinking tea and crying on staircases until the plot falls into her lap two different times, is a much more active character than Blake.

The closest CRWBY have gotten to making Blake an active character was when they had her react in anger to Neo knocking Yang into the void, but again, it didn’t amount to anything.

The writers could have made Blake the same character she was before while still deviating from her White Fang plot. She could have continued to be an independent, somewhat snarky, brave, passionate girl with more of a cynical worldview and a tendency to overwork herself in her hurry to get real work done that would help make the world a better place, while she tried to push past her more pessimistic tendencies and her struggles to connect with others in order to be there for them, because she believes in them and their purpose and herself. And you know what? I’m just gonna say it... That version of Blake, V 1-5 Blake, is the version that works best with Yang! Like don’t get me wrong, Yang and this new character have some cute moments and it’s... Lacking, but it’s at least something. But Yang and Blake as she was could actually be a compelling ship, they could fit well together. And Blake as she used to be could’ve interacted really well with the Atlas arc and the story in season six. She could’ve related to Ozpin when they find out about their past, she could’ve been on Qrow’s side when it came to stealing the plane in Argus and have to be convinced, she could’ve been trying to talk the Ace Ops into being reasonable, she could’ve been at Robyn’s rally, ready to help out in the fight against Jacques and passing out flyers, only to get angry and upset when she hears how Robyn talks to Marrow, she could’ve been on May’s side when May told them they needed to take action, she could’ve been right there with Yang telling Salem what’s what, or if they had to split the two (which I’m more than fine with,) they could’ve had Blake with the Mantle crew, but stay behind to help civilians, or they could’ve had had leave the manor with May. And if they were going to try and make Blake guilty for a fight, there should’ve been an established conflict where Blake and Yang disagree about Ironwood, and then that leads into a wider conflict about who was wrong and who was right. I don’t know, guys, I’m not a professional.

All I know is that Blake doesn’t feel like herself anymore and the writers won’t give her anything. It’s frustrating. This was kind of a vent post, but... You know what, I can vent about it. It feels like the writers are doing this on purpose at this point.

[shirtlesssammy]

1x18: Something Wicked

Then:

After this they toss the ball around like old times

Now:

Fitchburg, WI

When I first started watching this show, I found great delight in all the locations the Winchesters visited that I recognized. I also laughed at how much these locations didn’t look a thing like the real place. 

We begin this episode with a little girl saying her prayers. Her dad tucks her in, and she asks about her mom. She’ll be staying the night at the hospital with the little girl’s sister. 

Later that night, the little girl sits up listening to the wind beat tree branches against her window. One of the branches turns into a hand that opens her window. A shadowy figure creeps across the room ---and a Deatheater scares the girl into a comatose state. 

Sam and Dean are on the hunt since John is TOO LAME AND PETTY AND MEAN to go himself. Sam swears there’s nothing on their radar, but Dean insists they check it out. 

(This episode gets pretty dark when it comes to John and Dean so we’ll try to add lots of pretty pictures to help with the pain.)

For Side Profile Science:

The boys pull into the nice rural town of Fitchberg Fitchburg, WI, not the more urban suburb of the state’s capital. 

They ask around about anything weird in town ---just the freemasons being sneaky again. (Flashes of Hot Fuzz). Sam then notices that there are no kids at the school playground at 4 in the afternoon. 

Dean heads over to talk to Hannah a mother who tells him about kids falling sick in town, and parents getting anxious over it. 

Dean and Bikini Inspector/CDC doctor Sam head to the hospital. 

For Bikini Inspector Science:

They head to the pediatric ward. Dean notices an old woman who decorates her room with an upside down cross (way to play with our ingrained bias of ageism and sexism show!) 

Dr. Hydeker explains that 6 children are sick with pneumonia so far, and their bodies are just shutting down. They won’t respond to antibiotics or anything. 

This disease works its way through families, one child after another. None of the children are conscious. They interview the father of Mary and Bethany. He mentions that they think they caught this from an open window. 

Sam and Dean wonder what opened the window and go to the house to check it out. Initially, they find nothing, but then Sam notices one WACKY handprint. “What the hell leaves a handprint like that?” Sam wonders. 

*RAGE Flashback Alert*

John’s heading out on a hunt and he’s giving young Dean instructions. Then he scolds his 9 year old son to pay attention. 

Dean recites John’s fatherly advice: “Shoot first, ask questions later.” before John takes off. I love how he bullies Dean into being an adult here, and doesn’t even acknowledge Sam at all when he leaves. 

Present day, Dean tells Sam that he knows why they’re in Fitchburg. John’s faced this monster in the past, and he wants them to finish it.

When they pull into their motel for the night, Sam asks what a shtriga is. Dean thinks it’s a witch of some sort. John faced one over 15 years ago in Wisconsin, and now it appears to be back. 

Dean heads inside to get a room for them. He’s greeted with a surly 10 year old hotel proprietor. Well, the son of the real hotel manager. Dean can’t decide to be upset with the kid questioning his sexuality or soft for the kid who clearly has a great responsibility taking care of his younger brother. The mom helps Dean get a room. 

While Dean gets checked in, he has another flashback. 

*Scabetti-os Flashback Alert*

Dean’s feeding Sam his dinner. Sam’s sick of the same old food. He wants Lucky Charms, but there’s only one bowl left, and Dean needs to eat too. Sam throws on his baby-puppy dog look and Dean throws away the spaghetti-os and let’s Sam eat the cereal. It BREAKS me that this child has to think rationally and maturely to feed his younger brother, but he’s JUST A KID so he throws the pasta away in anger instead of eating it himself. 

For One Day Sam Won’t Touch Sugar Cereal Science:

Sam does his research and discovers more about shtriga. They feed off of spiritus vitae --or breath of life. Sam says they prefer children and they’re invulnerable to everything. Dean corrects him and says that they’re vulnerable when they feed. 

Sam continues that this monster takes the form of a human when it’s not feeding --generally an old woman. Dean remembers the woman from the hospital. 

They head to the hospital, ready to do their worst to the old lady. 

A nice jump scare that gets me every time reveals that she’s just an old woman. She demands they fix the crucifix that fell on her wall --so it wasn’t supposed to be upside down. WINCHESTER BAD. 

At the motel, Michael and his little brother sleep peacefully. A shadowy hand creeps across the window and opens it.

The next morning the Winchesters return to the motel. Dean notices Michael moping outside the office. It turns out that Asher is very sick and just got shipped to the hospital. The window was unlatched, and Michael blames himself for not protecting his younger brother. Dean “Guilt Spiral” Winchester tries to help him avoid lifelong trauma by telling him that it isn’t his fault. Excuse me while I WEEP A SINGLE TEAR!

Dean gives the mom a lift to the hospital while Michael stays behind. Sam heads to the library, where I am forced ONCE AGAIN to include a picture of a Winchester rocking a microfiche machine. 

For (This Joke Will Never Die) Library Science:

Sam fills Dean in on a string of child deaths tied to a mysterious pneumonia-like illness. The Fitchburg body count is just getting started. Sam finds a newspaper photo from the 1890’s featuring the very same doctor who is caring for the pediatric patients today. Dean, still at the hospital, puts on his murder face. Doctor Hydecker is IN THAT VERY ROOM looking over Asher. He asks Dean what the CDC has uncovered so far. Um. Nothing? Except a big ol’ liar and murderer. 

Back at the motel, Dean fills Sam in on the hospital encounter with Hydecker. He didn’t attack the doctor at the hospital because a shtriga is only vulnerable when feeding. Also - more importantly - he didn’t have his guns on him. Dean plans to catch the shtriga in action that very night...when it returns to feed on Michael.

Sam’s horrified by this plan, but Dean insists that the end justifies the means. After all, their dad sent Dean to Fitchburg to clean up the hunt he botched...WHEN HE WAS JUST A KID. 

Dean explains: years ago John Winchester left Sam and Dean alone in a motel room in Fort Douglas, Wisconsin. A few nights into John’s absence, Dean leaves the room (with Sam asleep) so he can play arcade games at a local tavern. When he returns, there’s a terrifying spectre hovering over Sam.

Dean calmly picks up the shotgun(!!!) his father left him, only for John to shout Dean out of the way. John blasts the heck out of the shtriga and then moves to cradle Sam (who is fine, don’t worry bbys). 

Dean explains that he just left for a little bit! (A few hours and not, like, THREE DAYS, AMIRITE?) John’s pissed at Dean for failing to parent Sam properly. After the failed attack, John dropped Sam and Dean off at Pastor Jim’s. “Dad never spoke about it again. I didn’t ask. But he, uh… He looked at me different. You know? Which was worse. Not that I blame him. He gave me an order and I didn’t listen.”

Sam tries to convince Dean that he was just a kid and not responsible, but Dean “Guilt is Ninety Percent of My Personality” Winchester refuses to listen. John sent them this hunt as a personal message to DEAN. (Pardon me while I step outside and kick the shit out of John Winchester.) ANYWHO, Dean’s going to kill the shtriga any way he can...so young Michael gets to be bait. They head over to talk to Michael.

Dean and Sam try to convince Michael to let them watch over him while he sleeps????? Lordy lord lord. Dean tries to convince Michael that monsters are real. Only, Michael doesn’t need much convincing. He saw the monster when it attacked his brother. (Side note: I give the person filming Jensen in this episode a Major Award.)

Michael decides to sign on for the hunt on the chance that it might save Asher. Big brother club FTW! The Winchesters set up a nanny cam, instruct Michael to hide under the bed when they burst into the room, and get ready for the shtriga’s arrival. Dean tells Michael that he doesn’t have to be bait and he “won’t be mad” if he wants out after all. (I stroke Dean’s cheek and whisper, “Still beautiful, still Dean Winchester.”) But Michael’s all in if it means helping his brother.

The shtriga arrives for its murder appointment and the window slides open. The shtriga leans down in classic dementor mode to feed on a completely wide awake Michael, when the Winchesters burst in and start firing. The shtriga goes down like a trick target at a carnival, but it isn’t dead yet! (Only mostly dead.) It attacks Dean and then, symbolically, attacks Sam. While it begins to feed on Sam, Dean fires off one perfect shot into the shtriga’s forehead, killing it. “You okay, little brother?” Dean asks, also SYMBOLICALLY. 

Tiny, life-force soul bits float out of the dying shtriga’s mouth, on their way to reinhabit all the sick children in town. 

The next day, the Winchesters prepare to leave town. All the kids are on the road to recovery, and Michael gets ready to head off to visit his brother. (YAY!) 

Sam takes a turn for the morose and mourns the fact that Michael knows monsters are real now. Dean “I’m Your Parent” Winchester tells Sam that he wishes he could have ensured that innocence for Sam as well. They drive off in a swirling cloud of Winchester angst. 

Live, from Fitchquote, Wisconsin:

I'm the oldest, which means I'm always right

I was sleeping with my peepers open

You were just a kid

Sometimes nightmares are real

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

[scaredyships]

Renegades (Din Djarin x gn!Reader) | pt. I

y’know what, it probably makes more sense to crosspost the entire chapters rather than just post links. :v So here we go! 

summary: You're used to your job as an infochant sponsored by the Bounty Hunters' Guild bringing you the occasional violent incident. But when a certain Mandalorian you've helped out before comes to you for help and accidentally brings his very dangerous problems along with him, it's all you can do to let yourself get dragged into it.

word count: 4.3k 

author’s notes: If other people are allowed to write reader-inserts where the reader character has specific qualities about them then I’m allowed to as well. :v This is going to be a big multi-part reader-insert fic following the show, starting almost immediately after Mando escapes with the Child from the Guild. With how much I’m churning out per part, it’s going to be a long fic. Slow burn, mutual pining, the works - however, no smut. No allusions to it either. I’m ace and this is my own personal indulgent work where Mando is also asexual to some degree, as is Reader. 

Reader is very mildly Force-sensitive, but doesn’t know it. The sensitivity manifests in them being able to sense the presence of people, impending danger, and being a little luckier than usual when it comes to anticipating oncoming attacks. They can also vaguely pick up on others that are Force-sensitive, but it comes off as a weird sense of familiarity. Grogu can tell what's going on, but there's no way for that to be communicated.

Part 1 (you are here) // ao3 link

---

It wasn’t every day that you’d get a Guild member coming through your doors. Granted, you’d get all sorts of customers as an informant, but Guild members tended to be the proud sort that would rather start their hunts from scratch and not bother trying to get help from anyone. Even if that help was in the form of extensive galactic maps and planetary inhabitants that held more detail than most databases - courtesy some archives from a long-established library somewhere on Coruscant - and would come in handy once they determined what direction they were going.

It was even less often that a Guild member would try to sneak in and take you by surprise, trying to keep the knowledge that they’d even been there hidden from anyone that may be watching. Or to try and intimidate information out of you for the fee of letting you live, if they were new to the bounty-hunting field and were preoccupied with maintaining the reputation of a mercenary. Those types annoyed you to no end.

Today seemed to be one of those days.

Without fail, you always got a strange niggling in the back of your mind when someone was around that shouldn’t be. You never could explain why it was that you could do that, but it came in handy and in turn took the visitors by surprise that you knew they were there. You liked to think that’s part of why you were able to maintain your reputation within the Guild as a preferred informant.

The strange sensation was there. But it was… different somehow. You stood from your desk and brought a hand to hover near your temple, focusing on it. No, this was stronger. Not just in the way that you felt when there was more than one person, either. It was stronger, and despite being so foreign, it had an almost familiar sense to it. You furrowed your brow, eyes darting aimlessly as you tried to process it.

You stepped out from behind your desk, the work you’d been doing double-checking and updating your own archives forgotten as you cautiously reached for a hold-out blaster you kept within hand’s reach. You could never be too careful with potential clientele.

There really weren’t many places in your “office building” to go from where you were. A hallway with a small set of stairs that led to your living space, and the front door. There was a back door to the living area and a few windows that would every so often have to have their grating replaced on, and if someone was feeling especially sneaky there was an air vent that dropped into the center of the hallway.

You turned your eyes towards the ceiling, where just above was the modest kitchen area. Whoever was setting off your stranger senses, was there, even though they weren’t making noise. You sighed quietly to yourself and padded your way towards the stairs and the doorframe that led to the area, blaster ready in your hand.

Rounding the corner slowly, face blank, you glanced up and watched for any shadows or other movement on the walls ahead of you. Still no sound - though you swear there was an almost sub-audial humming that wasn’t there before, the kind you’d expect from idle machinery. You hadn’t left anything on, you knew that much.

You rolled your eyes at the thought of some meathead bringing some convoluted contraption to interrogate you with. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Might as well get this over with.

“Hey, I know someone’s up there. Your sneaking isn’t going to work on me. State your business.”

You stepped up the stairs, blaster slightly raised, not trying to be silent anymore.

You barely made it to the top step when a pair of hands grabbed you, one slamming over your mouth and the other wrenching your arm just enough to make you drop your weapon, and you were bodily lifted and pinned against the wall just to the side of where you’d been entering the room. You pushed back instinctively, trying to wrench your arm free and thinking about how effective it would be to try and bite the glove-clad hand over your mouth—

“Y/N.”

The modulated hiss of your name burst through the fight-or-flight haze that had taken over, and with a jolt you registered the Beskar helmet in front of you. All your movements stopped as you stared, dumbfounded. There was no forgetting that “face”, no matter how long it had been since you last saw it.

To be truthful, even though you’d only met him a few times before, this Mandalorian was by far the most bearable of the Guild that came to you for information. To-the-point with what he needed, no awkward attempts at small-talk, and despite how blunt he was, surprisingly polite. It made those few encounters memorable and had you wishing for more in the future over other clients. Of course fate would have it be like this.

In all honesty, the physical closeness of the whole thing was throwing you for a loop and your mind was choosing now of all times to remind you of how touch-deprived you were, and bringing back to the surface those old vaguely fond feelings for this man that occasionally crossed your path. But you were still lucid enough not to let that be at the forefront of your mind.

You quirked your eyebrow at him as he carefully released your arm, motioning for you to stay quiet. You were just barely able to nod your head enough to indicate you understood. He slowly removed his hand from your face, moving as if he went too fast you’d spook like a trapped animal and lash out.

Something was very off if Mando of all people was sneaking around your place and trying to keep you quiet. He was the last person to care about what the rest of the Guild thought about what they saw him doing, he just cared about getting jobs done and doing so as efficiently as possible. You’d heard enough about his reputation to know that much.

This predicament all but confirmed the talk you’d heard around town that Mando had gone and broken some big rules, something about going back on a bounty after turning it in, and now had a price of his own on his head.

You swept your hands out to the sides in your most “what the hell” motion you could muster. You didn’t miss the very slight sag in Mando’s posture, like he had quietly sighed.

And that’s when you noticed it.

You stared at the egg-shaped pod floating in the middle of the room. The source of the humming you’d heard earlier, no doubt. What was he carting around that was so valuable he had to take it with him instead of leaving it on his ship?

The quiet noise that came from it made you start. It almost sounded like… something alive was inside.

You gave Mando a sidelong stare. The Beskar warrior tilted his head in your direction, just enough to indicate he was looking back at you.

“Mando… what did you do.”

You watched with baited breath as he approached the pod, standing close by its side as he keyed in something on his wrist panel to open it. You knew he was honorable, but some morbid part of your mind expected something viscerally upsetting to greet you.

What was actually inside, took you more by surprise than anything you could have imagined.

Sitting up amongst a pile of blankets and peering at you with curious dark eyes and perked oversized ears, was a baby unlike any you’d ever seen. You were pretty well-versed on the galaxy’s species, but this one escaped you entirely. And somehow, you still felt some kind of familiarity towards it. This was what was causing that other strange sensation earlier.

You blinked owlishly at it. It blinked back.

“...he’s just a kid.”

It was a low murmur, one you barely caught, but it struck you with the force of a thunderclap. The last two minutes alone had completely upturned any previous conceptions you may have had about the bounty hunter and what kind of person he was.

You did not understand why he was trusting you with this. At all. Yet here you were, and there he was.

You didn’t realize you’d been slowly moving towards the pod until you were arm’s length from the child and it chirped at you, reaching up with a curious hand in your direction, his eyes bright and watching you expectantly. Your hand drifted upwards and you cautiously let the little one grasp your finger, transfixed.

A familiar voice brought you back to reality.

“I need options for lying low, somewhere off the grid. You’re currently my best option for getting them.”

You turned your head to look at the Mandalorian. It was a simple enough request, but the circumstances being what they were, he was clearly pressed for time and needed to be as discreet as possible with his actions.

Glancing back at the child and carefully removing your hand from its grasp, you didn’t miss the way he seemed somewhat disappointed to no longer be the center of your attention. Sparing a glance at Mando, you motioned for him to follow you back to the office room, stopping momentarily to retrieve your blaster from the ground. He’d been there enough to know that there were no windows to be spied upon through in the lower area. With a quick tap to his wrist panel, he trudged carefully after you, the child’s pod drifting along close behind.

“How extensive are you hoping for?”

“As much as you can manage, as quickly as you can manage.”

You casually toggled on the earpiece you were never without - com link, translation device, and a handy little neural connection that let you activate and sift through your databanks hands-free. It was expensive, but very worth the investment. As soon as you entered the room, numerous holoscreens came to life around you and began pulling up planets based on various criteria - remoteness, levels of inhabitants, general hostility levels, neutrality with the New Republic, to name a few. Your eyes flitted between screens, highlighting the more promising results and using a slight swiping motion of your hand to dismiss the less promising ones.

“I’ve got a handful you can look at, if they’re good I can download more of the information about the actual planetary ongoings for you onto a data stick.”

You glance towards the bounty hunter when you see him nod his head, but notice he’s not paying as much attention to the actual selections as you anticipated. He seemed... on edge. More so than he did when you found yourself trying to fight him after he snuck into your home. The child, meanwhile, paid no attention at all to the armored man and was mesmerized by the kaleidoscope of screens and their data streams, ears swiveling and gaze darting about, the colorful reflections dancing across the black of his eyes.

You weren’t one to fawn over kids, but you had to admit, this one could be pretty cute.

On your way to pull a blank data stick from the storage space in your desk, you froze. All the hairs on your body stood on end and something at the base of the skull felt like it was writhing, yelling at you to get out, get far away, now.

“What’s wrong.”

You rounded on the Mandalorian faster than you’d done anything in your life, data stick falling from your grip and clattering to the ground so you could instead pull out your blaster for the second time that day. This actually seemed to startle him as he backed up a step. The screens around you shut down, plunging the room into darkness now that the only light source were the small lights on some of the machinery and the dim lamp on the desk. The child whimpered, shrinking down into the safety of his pod.

“We need to leave. Right now. No time. Someone’s coming and it’s not gonna be good.”

That was all he needed to hear. With a quick look at the child, he closed the pod and unholstered his own blaster, stance wary but leaving nothing to the imagination about how often he must’ve found himself in similar situations before this and come out the victor. If you weren’t so on edge and consumed with the need to get out, you might have been able to admire the sight before you of the broad-shouldered, Beskar-clad warrior.

Another time.

Noises of someone trying to force entry echoed from the upstairs area before you even made it a step past the doorway to the office. The front door was closer, and while it seemed counterintuitive to go there versus the back door, something told you you’d have more luck that way.

You snatched your outerwear and pouched belts from their hanging hook in the hall, knowing you’d have to be lying low yourself for at least a few days before you could consider coming back home. You were an infochant, you knew of all the possible places in the immediate area that would be good for that.

There was hardly any time to react when the front door was forced open, and an unruly-looking individual aimed a blaster down the hall and began firing. How you managed to twist to the side and avoid getting hit, you’ll never know. You’ll also never know how you managed to shoot off your stun blaster at the same time Mando fired his, so the man was not just stunned into unconsciousness but hit squarely in the stomach by the blaster fire. He fell to the ground with no sound other than the thunk of his weight against the floor. You blinked in slight shock at it, turning briefly to look at the equally-taken-by-surprise bounty hunter.

Hey, you’ll take it.

He nodded briskly and brushed past you to go out the door first, and he was barely through the frame before he was effortlessly dodging and striking out at two more assailants. You almost felt sorry for them as he knocked them to the ground, the Beskar armor rendering their attempts to strike back useless, and used some well-placed blaster shots to ensure they wouldn’t get back up.

Again, there was no time for you to properly be in awe. The intruders in the upper area were making their way towards where you were, and you had to keep moving. As soon as he signaled it was safe you dashed outside, slinging your belt over your shoulder and making sure the pod with the child inside was unmarked. You didn’t doubt Mando’s ability, but you felt like now that you were in this mess, if anything did happen, it would be on you.

And you just saw what he was capable of doing to anyone on his bad side.

None of you stopped until you were several buildings away, but within view of your place. You watched from your hiding place as at least three people moved from the two different entrances, some kicking at the corpses of their accomplices and motioning to the ones going back inside, their words too distant to be made out. You could see some items haphazardly being tossed through the door, mostly your equipment. Your personal databanks were heavily encrypted and couldn’t be accessed without your genetic signature, so they’d find they were useless sooner or later. At least you had backups in storage, so it wasn’t a total loss.

They had possibly realized this, as they left the equipment, and after what looked like a brief regrouping, the vandals parted to scour the streets for any sign of where you had went,

“I think I may have to follow you on your way out of the city. I can hole up somewhere  until things calm down-“

The explosion brought your thoughts to a grinding halt.

Fire, horrifically beautiful, burst through what was once your front door and upper windows as if they were made of foam and not the reinforced durasteel that all buildings in the area were required to have. Everything was simultaneously in slow motion but happening far too fast for you to truly register anything. It didn’t even feel like you were in your body anymore, it felt like you were looking through a pair of scopes from another planet. You could only stare dumbly at the smoke laced with embers as it billowed into the sky above.

“Hey, we need to move.”

A brief clap on your shoulder shocked you free of the spell. You glanced at the gloved hand, and up at its owner. There was no time to try and decipher any further meaning in Mando’s stance, if there was any sympathy expressed towards you in the hand that rested shortly on your shoulder. He motioned quickly with his head to follow him, and briskly moved to retreat from the area. With a small sigh, you hurried after him.

The three of you only stopped once you’d gone past the outskirts of the city, taking cover in an outcropping of rocks.

You didn’t need to tap into any chatter frequencies to know your name was now amongst those that you’d help bounty hunters track down.

Well… used to. That avenue was as burnt up as your home was now.

You scrubbed a hand over your face, eyes closed, now that you had a second to stop.

“If you need a ride, I can help.”

Your eyes fluttered open and you looked over your fingers at the man that just turned your life upside down. You could tell he was trying to be nonchalant about it, stance casual and visor pointed steadily in your direction, but you could feel a sense of guilt through the way he couldn’t stop shifting on his feet every so often and the way he couldn’t figure out where to settle his fingers on his belt. Must’ve been unusual for him to find himself in this kind of predicament.

“...sure. I don’t really have any other options right now.”

It was quiet on the Razor Crest. The Mandalorian sat at the helm, charting a route through hyperspace. The Child had been let out of his pod and was freely wandering the cramped cockpit, but you couldn’t be bothered to even idly watch what he may have been doing. All you could do was stare blankly at the space ahead of you.

It was gone. All of it.

Your archives you had meticulously compiled over the years. Your collection of plants from various systems that made living on the dusty rock you called home more bearable. Personal things you had held onto since your childhood, things that had been passed on to you from generations past. All that was left was what you’d managed to grab on your way out the door, thinking you’d have a chance to come back and resume life there in maybe a day or two.

And you were a fugitive now, too, for aiding Mando and fleeing rather than let yourself be captured and punished. You weren’t even able to get any of the information Mando had come to you for. You reached up and ran your fingers over your earpiece, the only thing left of your once-extensive setup. At least it was still useful.

Your brooding was interrupted by a small tug on your pant leg. Looking down, you met a pair of big, dark eyes peering up over your knees.

“Uh...hi?”

The Child cooed, tiny clawed hands gripping into the fabric, tilting his head like he expected something from you.

Kids were weird.

You hesitantly reached out, awkwardly patting his head and thinking to yourself how the combination of the grooves in his head and his thin, downy hair felt strange. His eyes crinkled at the corners in a smile. You glanced up at where Mando was sitting, to see that he had turned to watch you and the kid. You couldn’t see his eyes but his gaze still burned into you nonetheless.

You quickly turned back to the Child, letting him grab your hand and begin inspecting it thoroughly like it was an interesting toy.

This seemed like as good an opportunity as any to ask a question that had been bothering you.

“So, uh, Mando… why didn’t you try to hide the kid back at my place? You had no way to know I wouldn’t tell someone once you left.”

There really wasn’t any reason for him to trust you like that that you could come up with. The odd consult for planetary guides wasn’t nearly enough interaction for either of you to really say that you knew the other, beyond impressions. You sold information, you had no loyalty to one client over another, and knowing Mando had the kid with him at that very moment could have ended with you possibly… doing something rash, if you really wanted to. You wouldn’t. But he had no way of knowing that. Right?

There was a quiet modulated sigh from the bounty hunter. You changed looking in his direction again, and let out a small breath you’d been holding when you saw he wasn’t watching you anymore. Rather, he was watching the kid playing with your hand.

“...you’re trustworthy.”

And before you could try and get him to elaborate on what he meant, he turned back to the controls.

That wasn’t something you were expecting to hear.

You looked back at the Child, who had moved past your hand and was now pulling at the shiny silver latch tucked into your wrist piece that had your keycard attached to it. All that was left of your old residence. You pulled it out and let him take it, watching him pick at the etched grooves and writing with his claws.

You felt something akin to pain and grim amusement that something that used to be so important in your life, was now relegated to a baby toy. He could keep it, you didn’t need it anymore where you were headed.

...wait, where were you going?

“Mando, what system are we headed towards?”

“Don’t know yet. I’m getting as far as we can go first.”

Oh, good. You closed your eyes to suppress an eyeroll.

“Well, when we have some idea, let me know so I can figure out just what degree of screwed I am for starting over at everything.”

Silence from the pilot. It wasn’t his fault that he was followed, not his fault that the assailants had decided to ransack and then destroy your abode and livelihood. But you could still tell he carried the guilt as if it were. You hadn’t meant to sound like you blamed him, but your irritated tone of voice at the situation at hand could certainly be interpreted that way.

“Sorry, Mando, I just… don’t know what I’m going to do now.”

You sighed softly, absent-mindedly messing with your hands. The Child watched you, his ears drooping at your defeated tone.

“I could use an extra set of eyes around, with watching out for the kid.”

He was facing you again, this time turned in the pilot’s chair with an arm partly draped over the armrest. He was trying to look nonchalant again. The way he peered over his shoulder made you want to hide away, and you prayed he didn’t notice the flustered flush trying to creep its way onto your face.

The Child made a noise of agreement to Mando’s suggestion, looking enthusiastically from the armored man back to you, eyes bright and ears angled high in anticipation of you answering. Why this kid seemed to be so interested in you, you had no idea. You’d only just met him, why was he so excited? The only thing you could think of was that strange, familiar vibe he gave you, maybe it was a two-way thing?

Mando suggesting you stay around to help with the kid at all took you by surprise as well. You slowly turned your head to stare at him head-on. He didn’t exactly state he wanted a babysitter, but with your understanding of his profession you would probably be saddled with a lot of doing just that. You knew if anyone decided to try and come after you for information, if you were traveling with the Mandalorian you’d be safer than anywhere you might settle down. But at the same time, a nomadic lifestyle such as his relying on hunting down troublesome quarry was equally dangerous. But it wouldn’t just be you by your lonesome, and, hell, it could make for some interesting experiences.

“Are you being serious?”

All he had to do was incline his head. You looked back down at the kid, who seemed to be holding his breath waiting for an answer.

“...I don’t know the first thing about kids. But I’ll help out where I can, with him or anywhere else.”

The Child squealed, clutching the keycard he was still holding close. That earned a small chuckle from you.

You looked back up at the Mandalorian watching you both, not needing to see his face under his helmet to know he was also being affected by the small green child’s charm. He finally turned away, back to his controls, looking through the ship’s navigation to plot the next leg of whatever journey you were on.

This was going to be one hell of a ride.

[justasparkwritings]

Peace: Wasting Your Honor

Previous: Coming of Age

Pairing: Jungkook X Reader

Genre: Angst / Slice of Life

Rating: PG15

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: Swearing, Everyone’s a villain, Hyung line out of line, Intentions, Accusations

Summary: The Leader & Hyung Line have a terse conversation with Jungkook’s girlfriend. 

Listening: peace by Taylor Swift 

Peace Master List

                “So, we just wanted to talk,” Namjoon said, sitting across from you at their long dining table. 

            “Okay, about what?” You asked, a smile on your lips. Jungkook had asked you to meet him at the dorm. You were visiting Korea for the first time and he wanted to show you every important place in Seoul. The dorms being one of them. There had been discussion of sex in his room, a fantasy he’d had but never fulfilled. You were cautious, unsure how his six roommates would react to you spending more time around them than they deemed necessary. 

            “About you and Jungkook,” Namjoon replied. As the words came out of his mouth, Jin and Suga came to sit on his right and left sides. You glanced at the three men, all dressed in sweats, and wondered if this sinking feeling in your gut was to be trusted. 

            “What about us?” You asked hesitantly. 

            “We wanted to talk about the longevity of your relationship, and why the fuck you are dating him,” Yoongi said. 

            Your interactions with Namjoon, Yoongi and Jin had been polite so far. You’d gone out to dinner with them and had spent a day following them through rehearsals and work. They’d been cordial to you. They hadn’t sought you out or tried to get to know you but watched from the periphery. You took notice that Ho-Seok, Taehyung and Jimin weren’t to be found. While the three hyungs were cool to you, the maknae took to you like snow to the mountains. They had made it their mission to befriend you, to learn all they could, to practice their English with you and ask you silly questions. A text change had already started and was filled with gifs and broken English. The feelings were mutual: you were already obsessed with them. 

            You looked around the dining room, wondering why Jungkook wasn’t here for this. Where was he? 

            “So, why Jungkook?” Jin asked, eyes unmoving. 

            “What do you mean why?” You countered. 

            “Why are you dating him?” Seokjin answered. 

            “I’m dating him because I care about him, and I really like him,” You responded, arms instinctively crossing over your chest. 

            “Do you really like him?” Namjoon pushed. 

            “Why is that your business?” You countered. 

            The three men exchanged a glance. They were negotiating, who was going to come down the hardest, and were they going to abandon ship, telling management it was ridiculous? You watched them, eyebrows knitting together, trying to piece together what was transpiring. 

            “Have you ever dated a pop star before?” Jin asked. 

            “No,” You said. Your mind was racing to fill in the blanks before they asked for them. Could you brace yourself for whatever impact was coming? 

            “Why do you think you’re cut out to date Jungkook?” Yoongi asked. 

            “Why is this your business?” You asked again. 

            “Have you ever dated someone of Asian heritage?” 

            Your eyes went wide. 

            “Are you implying what I think you are?” You whispered. 

            “Depends, what do you think I’m implying?” Yoongi replied. 

            “That I’m dating Jungkook because he’s Asian and I have a fetish for Asian men.” You spat the words out. Their lingering taste threatening to make you vomit on the table. 

            “Then yes, that is what we’re asking.” Yoongi was calculated, he measured his words, gauging what would make you more upset. You were more likely to forgive him if the assumption came out of your own mouth. 

            “You came out of nowhere, you aren’t wealthy, you aren’t famous, and yet you’ve captured Jungkook’s heart and attention. You take up his time, he’s flying out to see you, calling you at all hours. You are taking over his life, a life he has worked hard to build and rebuild,” Namjoon felt like he was a Principal, scolding a wayward student. He used Managements language as much as he could, an attempt to separate himself from this entire situation, though he knew this was equally his fault. But if he could separate himself, stay true to the promise he’d made Jungkook, then he could absolve himself. 

            “We met at a restaurant. I haven’t asked him to visit me. He calls me when he can, I’m sorry that it interrupts your life but how is that my fault?” 

            “It’s your problem because he is spending too much time on you,” Namjoon countered. 

            “Why aren’t you talking to Jungkook about this? He’s the one you’re having a problem with.” You said. You inhaled slowly, unwilling to show the deep hurt you were feeling. 

            “But the problem stems from you,” Jin said. You could tell from the glint in his eyes that Jin didn’t want to be there; he didn’t want to have this conversation with you. 

             In fact, none of them did. They didn’t want to do this; they didn’t want to be the brass coming down on you and Jungkook. They couldn’t let on that they had fought with management about this. They had many meetings with Big Hit, all of which lasted hours longer than was needed. They opposed this conversation, this bait and switch to get you to either sign an NDA or dump Jungkook. As the three of them sat, two and three drinks in, they had discussed what would happen to their relationship to Jungkook, and how he would handle learning of their conversation with you. 

            “He’s never going to forgive us,” Yoongi said. 

            “How will she ever befriend us, if we’ve started out as enemies?” Seokjin asked. 

            “Maybe management will come through and say something,” Namjoon offered. They found little solace in this. 

            “She’s really cool,” Yoongi said. 

            “Taehyung and Jimin can’t stop talking about how funny she is, it’s hurting my ego,” Jin added. 

            “She’s good for Jungkook… I think he loves her,” Namjoon said. His head was clouded with alcohol and anger. He had raised Jungkook. After the months of reconciliation Namjoon and Jungkook had endured, this tactic was broaching a level of deceit and betrayal that he was positive they would ever recover from. They tried to tell Big Hit this, that they shouldn’t be put in this place, not after what had happened, but management had wanted them to try and make a connection, to make it seem like the proverbial man wasn’t guiding their every decision. 

            But it was the opposite, and you all knew it. 

             “Why should we trust you?” Yoongi asked. 

            “How do we know you won’t destroy Jungkook?” Jin inquired. “Use your texts and photos against him?” 

            Your mind racked through what you could say to dissuade their fears. You waited a minute too long. 

            “Those aren’t rhetorical questions,” Namjoon urged you. He recognized Jungkook would be coming back soon, and he was more embarrassed to be caught having this conversation than having to relay it to JK later.  

            “I’m dating Jungkook because I care deeply for him,” Your eyes were pleading, “I don’t care about the money or the status or the fame. I care about him.” 

            “Say this continues, how will it look to have you on JK’s arm?” Yoongi asked. 

            “Stop circumventing your point. Say it, or move on,” Your ability to hide your emotions was waning and you spoke through pursed lips. It was taking everything in you not to storm out or break down in sobs. There was no way you would give them the satisfaction of seeing how many pieces they’d broken you into. 

            “You’re not Korean, you’re heavy, you’re mixed race, you don’t speak the language, you don’t fit.” Yoongi laid out each point like a nail in your crucifixion. Yoongi was repeating what management had written. They had these views, not him, could you tell from his eyes that he was trying to apologize? 

            “We’re saying that we don’t know how this is going to work,” Namjoon said. 

            “You’re saying that I’m some fat, old, American who is dating Jungkook for his money and fame,” You looked each of them in the eye. “You don’t even know me.” 

            “Well, from what we can see, your fetishizing of Jungkook is disgusting, and frankly, that and your age is enough to show us that he shouldn’t be dating you.” Yoongi said coolly. 

            “Why are you doing this?” You whispered. You couldn’t hold it in, the crack of your resolve had sprung a leak and the tears began to fall. You watched as they fell delicately on your sweater. 

            “Jungkook is honest, he is shy and kind. He wears his heart on his sleeve and breaks easily. He pushes himself too hard, and he’s always scared he’s not living up to his potential. He is the most honorable of us, and who are you to be wasting his honor?” Seokjin asked. 

            “We have to protect Jungkook,” Namjoon said, though he was positive no one believed him. 

            “There are a hundred ways you and management could’ve done this, ways that would’ve been kinder,” You looked up, each of them blurry as you blinked down your tears. You grasped onto the last shred of your dignity and stared each of them in the eyes. “You chose the most malicious, repulsive, heartbreaking way to – 

            “See if you’re a gold digger?” Yoongi asked.  

           “Fuck you, Yoongi,” You said, standing up. “Jungkook always says that you are the sweetest guys. You are loving and take care of one another. You raised him. I know you fucked him over one too many times, and I know he is still hurt from the wounds you inflicted,” You stare pointedly at Namjoon, “But, I don’t know, maybe in controlling him, in raising him, you gave him all the love and decency you had, so that he could be the thoughtful, sensitive person he is. Or maybe you’re just blinded by pride and a false sense of security, but I’m not a fucking threat to you, and I’m not a fucking threat to Jungkook. If management has a problem with me, they can fucking call me.” You turned on your heels sharply and marched out of the room. 

           Jungkook stood at the door, eyes wide. Your shoulder brushed against his as you made your way down the hallway, trying to hold in your sobs until you were out of their sight. 

           “Kookie, wait,” Namjoon stood. 

           “What did you do?” He asked, looking at the three men. Anger was spewing from his lips. He’d never felt this level of hate and betrayal. “Why did you do that?” 

           “Management,” Jin said as he took the notes Big Hit had given them out of his pocket and pushed it against the table towards Jungkook. He stared, eyes glossing over the words. 

           “I can’t believe you did it,” He said to them. His eyes had gone dark. Namjoon was right, it would’ve been better to tell him after the fact than be caught failing to complete the hit. Jungkook turned sharply and began to run after you. 

      Next: Loves for Show

[spookyboogie3]

The trope Last Minute Hookup shouldn’t be used for LGBTQ+ relationships.

AND DEFENDING MY LAST POST ABOUT THIS.

I DO NOT hate any of these pairings. A good many of them could have been handled differently by the creators, writers, and networks. But this isnt me hating the relationships or characters or shows. Just going off about how they shouldnt have been tacked on at the end of their respective series. 

As of writing this all of these shows have ended their original runs. Except for Supernatural which is on its last few episodes. And Supergirl, which announced its coming to end with season 6.

LGBTQ characters and relationships aren’t as common in the media as straight-cis characters and relationships. Sure things are improving but a lot of networks and writers still don’t fully understand why representation is important why they can’t keep using the same throwaway tropes they’ve been using for the straight-cis relationships.

You could name any piece of media and find and name one character that isn’t LGBTQ+, but you can’t do this with LGBTQ+ characters. We haven’t gotten to the point where they are as common as non-LGBTQ characters.

I have a whole paper I wrote on why asexual representation is important to have in the media and the same logic applies to any part of the LGBTQ+ or anything that falls under minority.

Back to the topic on hand. The trope of “Last Minute Hookup.”

Its exactly what it sounds like. Characters get to together at the very end of the story. These characters could have a on and off again relationship, lots of ship teasing, the classic “Will They or Wont They?” trope. What makes it different for non-LGBT characters in relationships to do this, we know what these relationships look like. Not to say the that both Non and LGBT relationship cant have similar struggles, however members of the LGBTQ+ community know how hard it is to feel like your identity and self matters and is normal.

I know that the whole “will they, wont they” thing is done for drama and networks and showrunners think if they give the fans what they want that they’ll start losing viewers and they have nothing to look forward to. Which is true to some degree. But most of this comes from the writers not knowing how to fucking write relationships.

Let’s just focus on whats it like to be in a non-straight relationship.

Heres an example: you have an action series, with 2 male leads and halfway through the show, they get together. Cool. Now you have a Battle Couple.

By making LGBTQ relationships happen at the end of a series that’s already had plenty of other non-LGBTQ relationships happen before it, it makes it look like the people in charge don’t care for it or were afraid of backlash. But it’s the end of the series so its not like they can get the show cancelled or anything. (The only people who are going to lash out at LGBT couple or characters are homophobic people, we don’t want them around any way so just make stuff super gay, so they’ll leave)

This is especially a problem when the writer and network have spent the whole series queerbaiting the audience with these characters.

 Side note for anyone is doesn’t actually know what queerbaiting is:

It’s a marketing technique used in entertainment, which the writer or creators hint at but then don’t actually depict sex-same romance or LGBTQ representation. They do this to attract (bait) the LGBT/queer or straight ally audience into the show with the suggestion of representation but at the same time avoiding this as not alienate other audience members *cough* (homophobes) *cough*

Definition is from Wikipedia, not a reliable source says my highschool teachers and college professors but fuck em

The Legend of Korra is a great example of Last-Minute Hookup. Korra and Asami had VERY little ship teasing, and that was in the last 2 books/seasons. Any thing that was perceived as romantic came from the fans wearing shipping goggles. So to a lot of people just casually watching, yes this looked like it came out of nowhere. Nickelodeon had some serious balls to say how brave they were for putting 2 girls into a romantic relationship.

Theres a few problems with this.

A. It never actually aired on TV (to my knowledge). The last 2 seasons of Korra were put on Nicks website.

B. The confirmation that this Korrasami was canon had to come from the creators on twitter because of how unclear it was.

C. The show did the bare minimum when it came to hooking them up in the series. They walk off holding hands (very cute btw). They didn’t even get a kiss. Aang and Katara had a Last Minute Hookup at the end of ATLA after 3 seasons of ship tease and THEY GOT A KISS. Hell the original end of LoK*, has Korra and Mako kissing. *(the first season, they didn’t know they were getting more seasons at the time, no matter what you hear the writers say, they’re full of shit)

D. Anything continuation of Korra has come in the form of comics, which her and Asami are in a fairly well written relationship. Yes, they do kiss. Yes it would’ve been great to see this stuff happen in series.

A show that handles this a little bit better is Adventure Time. Not by much though. It implied several times that Princess Bubblegum and Marceline have history together and its shown more and more in its last few seasons that there is some ship tease happening. However its not until the finale where they kiss, and they are shown in the last minute of the show cuddling together in Marcy’s house. HBO has picked up Adventure Time and has a miniseries called Adventure Time: Distant Lands, where Bubblegum and Marceline’s past relationship is shown.  

I had brought up in my original post about being upset with networks making LGBTQ+ relationships canon in the last season/episode. I originally had Catradora tagged. While Catra and Adora have history together, they did not become official couple until the end of the series.

Yes, I was wrong about the network making things canon in the last episode as they’ve always had ship tease with each other, and it probably was the writers’ intent to put them together by the end. They do technically fall under the Last-Minute Hookup, however.

I wanna talk about Once Upon a Time really quick. Fans of the show were hoping and wishing for an LGBTQ couple for the show as a lot of characters, especially Regina and Emma, have alot Ho Yay moments. The showrunners weren’t going to put those two together, for whatever reasons they may have for that (im indifferent on all the shipping going on with this show). The showrunners thought to put two characters together, and hoo boy did it not make people happy. The characters they put together are Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Ruby the red riding hood, which would be fine if they had properly been developed.

The entire episode they did this in was a mess. They stopped the current arc during the season 5 episode ‘Ruby Slippers,’ to go over the characters that haven’t been seen in years, Dorothy was introduced and last seen in season 3, and Ruby was introduced in season 1 and was last seen in season 5 before ‘Ruby Slippers’. The characters get together in the same episode the meet in and are never seen again. The characters barely interacted, barely got along, and showed little to no ship tease or interest in each other and BOOM they are in love and together aaaaaannnnndd they’re gone. Other than having One Million Moms, a Christian fundamentalist organization, protest against the show and want it taken off the air (yes this really happened). The fans weren’t please with this development of the characters either.  

(also Mulan was right there and already knew Ruby from a previous episode, and Mulan already is established to like girls as shown by her being in love with Aurora. Don’t know why the writers didn’t just put these 2 together but whatever I guess)

So they tried again in season 7 with MadArcher. The characters of Alice, a version of Alice in Wonderland from another realm (its complicated) and Robin, the daughter of Robin Hood and the Wicked Witch (it’s also complicated). And the writers did a lot better here. Both characters were allowed to have time together and have a history together too and it was done over the whole season. Not just one episode.

Now even though the writers decided to do something different with the last season and it could be detached from the previous 6 seasons, MadArcher is not really a Last Minute Hookup per say but still falls under my thing about it being the last season so who gives a fuck if One Million Moms gets mad us and tries to get us cancelled again.

 I would like to say I have never watched a single episode of Supernatural in my life. I may one day. But as of right now my knowledge of it is coming primary from what ive seen on tumblr. You know a great source for doing research and looking for reliable information among the piles of shitposting.

From what I know from fans, the writers of Supernatural have been queer baiting for years. I mean it’s the CW, I’m not that surprised. What also wouldn’t surprise me, that by the end of the series Castiel is back and he and Dean actually start and relationship or strongly hint at starting one. I actually fear for the writer lives if they threw out a confession scene after years of queerbaiting and potential ship tease (debatable) and they don’t put them together. Fans are going to be angrier than they probably ever have been with this show and the showrunners and writers really would be known for queer baiting.

From what I know about how previous shows have done and if anyone that has ever worked on this show wants to continue living, Castiel will be back from Super Hell (is that what yall are calling it?) and he will get together with Dean. And they will fall under the Last-Minute Hookup trope and my networks make LGBTQ relationships canon last season.

 One last show I want to talk about is Supergirl, which in has been recently announced that the 6th season will be the last. The show started on CBS but moved to the CW after the end of season 1. So more CW bullshit. There is no confirmation about whether the CW or any of the Supergirl writers are planning to do this, its all speculation. Supergirl is more LGBTQ friendly than some other shows on the Network. One of the main characters came out a few years ago and had a girlfriend a season and has had plenty of hookups with other ladies around the Arrowverse. They even introduced a trans-woman superhero in the form of Dreamer.

Let’s talk SuperCorp. Lena Luthor was introduced in the 2nd season and has been a major character in Kara’s life ever since her introduction. Even if she isn’t involved in the plot, Kara always goes to her to talk and check in on her and worry about her. They are best friends. Since the 2 have met, there has been plenty of Les Yay going on. The writers seem to be aware of the fans wanting SuperCorp to be canon and they keep throwing in moments like Kara and Lena struggling together or Kara carrying Lena bridal style.

Why I bring this up after the announcement of Supergirl’s final season to start next year. We may get SuperCorp. Kara has a relationship with William in the show and not a single person likes this relationship. The writers may scrap it and get put Kara and Lena together for the final season. This is a big maybe though. The Supergirl writers and crew get called out a lot for queerbaiting.

   Let me know if you guys have any other examples of last season/last episode LGBTQ+ hookup.

And please let me know if you see any mistakes. This was all done in one sitting so I may have some things wrong.

Also check out the video by @aretheygayvideos on this topic too.

[agrestebug]

Marichat May 2020

Hey everyone! I’m so glad that you guys have been enjoying these one shots from my Marichat 2020 collection, so here’s another one! If you like the ones I've posted so far, you can always find the full collection on FFN. I’m still cross-posting other stories to Ao3, so it’s not there just yet. I’m still AgresteBug on FFN so it shouldn’t be too hard to find! And please, don’t repost my stories without permission! Other than that, I hope you enjoy!

Day 27 - Secrets

Marinette let out yet another annoyed sigh, and Chat couldn’t help but ask as he wrapped his arms around her from behind, "All right, that's the third one. What's wrong purrincess?"

A softer sigh escaped her, "It's just," she turned around to face him, "I'm sick of Lila, Kitty. It's been nearly a month since you let everyone know you were dating someone, and Lila has been dropping hints for days that it's her."

He tried to smile, "Ignore her mon coeur."

"I can't!" She said frustratedly, "She is driving me crazy! I swear she is purposely doing it when I'm around, like she KNOWS something."

"Hey," he whispered lovingly, putting his hands on either side of her face, "we have been nothing but careful. There is no way she knows the truth. We went five months without saying anything, and no one was the wiser. Let her spout her lies,"

"But everyone believes her." She said, pulling his hands from her face, "You can see it in everyone's faces that they know what she is implying, and you should hear the things she says about you."

He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking back to all the things he had heard Lila saying. If truth be told, he was getting sick of it too. He wanted to try and be the bigger person, and just leave Lila to her lies, but seeing how upset his purrincess was, maybe it wasn't the right route to take anymore.

"I can only imagine." He relented, pulling her back into his arms and staring down into her beautiful bluebell eyes, "So, what do you want to do? I'm game for a little of this, or a little of that." He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she giggled, "Oh I'm sure if I set my Kitty after the rat, you'd have far too much fun."

"I do quite enjoy a game of chat and mouse." He said with a smirk, "but you're my favorite mouse to catch." He squeezed her closer and a light blush dusted her cheeks much to his delight.

She completely ignored the comment and told him, "Unless we flat out reveal our relationship, I really don't know what to do. She is a master manipulator, and she'll turn anything I say in her favor. I say anything, and by the time she's done, she'll even have ME convinced that you are dating her."

"Hmm," Chat mused, his eyes suddenly sparkling in mischief that instantly made her suspicious. She stared at him hard as a wide grin spread on his face, "I think I have an idea. It might be a bit risky, but we won't have to tell anyone anything."

She knew this probably wasn't a good idea, but asked anyways, "What's your plan?"

…

'They should be on their way to the bakery from Alya's any minute now. Have fun Kitty ;)' Marinette's text read, making him grin.

He stretched out of his comfortable position on the rooftop, getting to his feet and checking to make sure the small package was securely in his pocket. With the bait in hand, he started vaulting quickly across the rooftops.

Most people were going about their day, but he was glad that a few people noticed him. This was the one time he wanted eyes on him. This way, there were a few witnesses at least.

He found Alya's cinnamon scent, along with Nino's musky herb scent. They were close. He smiled wider, spotting them just across the street. He couldn't have asked for a better set up. He vaulted straight across their path, letting the small package drop directly in front of them.

Alya let out a small gasp in shock, instantly looking around. He jumped down instantly, feigning relief, "Oh thank god it didn't fall far." He picked up the small box and saw Alya's eyes widen in joy, "Chat Noir! This is yours?"

"Yeah, sorry about that." He said sheepishly.

Alya was already pulling her phone out of her pocket, Nino shaking his head, "No sweat man. It must be important."

Chat nodded, smiling down at the little box, "It is."

Alya had her phone pointed right at him, "What is it? A gift for your mystery girl?"

He smiles into the camera, "We can't hide anything from the great Ladyblogger, can we? Yes, it's an anniversary gift for my girlfriend. I would have hated to have lost it."

Alya's face lit up with the joy of the scoop, "Anniversary huh? One month? Three, a year?"

Chat smirked, "Now, now Ladyblogger, you know the rules. You don't get any details. I told you the truth about having a girlfriend, but that's all you get."

Nino chuckled at Alya's obvious disappointment, "You did promise you wouldn't pry Als."

"What's the harm in knowing how long they've been together?" Alya tried, but Chat shook a finger at her, "Tisk, tisk, fur shame Ladyblogger. No details means no details," he added it for good measure, "or Ladybug would have my tail."

Alya asked again the same thing she had the first time, "And, Ladybug is NOT your girlfriend?"

He sighed, "No, m'lady is the best, dearest friend I could ever ask for. I do love her, that will never, ever change, but she is NOT my girlfriend."

Alya looked just as disappointed as she had the first time, "Right. Ruin my LadyNoir ship why don't you."

He saw the smirk on her face and knew what was coming, "Since you won't give me details about her, maybe you'll give us a peek of her gift? I'm dying to know what it is."

Jackpot.

He held the small box protectively, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"What are the odds that I know her Chat Noir? There are thousands of people, of girls, in this city. Odds are, I'll never see, whatever it is, ever again." Alya tried, knowing that she would actually see whatever it was on Lila at school soon enough. Lila would be tickled to know that she had run into Chat Noir and knew what the gift was before her.

Chat looked at the box with a frown before looking up at her, "No recording."

Alya beamed, putting her phone away. He told them the second the phone is in her pocket, "You have to swear you won't say anything about this to anyone, at least until Monday morning. I want it to be a surprise."

Nino and Alya instantly agree to keep their silence, and he reluctantly opened the small box.

It's a ring, a white gold band that looks like a tiara. The middle of the tiara is heart shaped, and the small diamonds lining it don't overcrowd it. It was a simple design, but absolutely beautiful.

"Wow, that's legit dude." Nino told him, impressed, seeing the usually suave and confident black cat looking nervous, "You think so? You think she'll like it?"

"Without a doubt man." Nino said without a hint of hesitation.

Alya nodded, thinking that it was a little simple for Lila's usual style, but knew it was true anyways, "It's absolutely adorable. She is going to love it."

Chat gave them a bright smile, "Thanks." He lifted the ring out of the box, showing them the inside, "I even had it engraved for her."

There, etched into the white gold, was an elegant script that read 'My Purrincess'.

"Do you really call her that?" Alya asked, teasing.

Chat put the ring back in the box and nodded not the least bit embarrassed, "Every opurr-tunity I get." He told them again, "And you won't say anything right?"

They nodded again, "Not a word." "We'll keep your secret dude."

Chat gave them a quick, two-fingered salute before vaulting back up to the rooftops and disappearing as he headed for home. He landed in his room and pulled out his baton, texting her happily, 'The secret's been planted purrincess.'

It didn’t take long for her response to come through, 'Good job Kitty, now will you PLEASE tell me what the secret is?'

He laughed to himself, proud of all the secrets he was juggling at the moment, 'Tomorrow mon coeur. I promise.'

…

Monday morning, Adrien walked into school with a pep in his step. Not only had he managed to surprise his purrincess with the ring for their sixth month anniversary, but she had finally relented and asked to know who he was under the mask.

She had cried when she saw that it was him, which he'd panicked about initially before she explained that they were happy tears. They knew it was going to be a dangerous road going forward, but it was working out for the best. Adrien wasn't allowed to have a girlfriend at the moment, but there was nothing stopping Chat Noir from continuing to date her.

Marinette hadn't batted an eye when he told her that as Adrien, his father didn't want him to date anyone right now because of the brand. To his mild surprise, she actually thought their dating in secret would be for the better anyways. This way, they could date out of the spotlight, and not paint a bigger target on their backs for being together.

Lila’s too sweet voice immediately broke through his thoughts, "You sure you are okay Alya?"

He only looked around for a few seconds before seeing Lila walking towards the stairs with Alya who was frowning, "Yeah, everything is fine. You are sure you didn't see anyone special this weekend?"

Lila giggled, making him roll his eyes, "You know I can't tell you if I did or didn't."

He followed behind them at a safe distance, keeping his smirk to himself. He knew what Alya's problem was. There was no ring on Lila's finger.

"H-Hey Adrien. Good morning."

He turned instantly, smiling brightly as she walked up to him slowly, "Good morning Marinette."

They smiled secret smiles at each other before Marinette held out a small box to him, "Oh, I brought these for you."

He took the box as he told her softly, a slight blush on his cheeks, "You didn't have to do that." He opened the box and saw the small array of goodies. There were chocolate covered croissants, a couple of cheese danishes that he was sure weren't going to make it past the first hour if a certain kwami got a hold of them, and his favorite passionfruit macarons.

She said it somewhat teasing, "Well if you don't want them, I'm sure someone else,"

"NO!" He told her, holding the box to his chest, "I want them."

She giggled and leaned up, pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek before whispering it, "I thought so Kitty."

He whispered back with a grin, "Careful purrincess, or someone might see."

She tapped his nose with a wink, "I know how to keep a secret. Trust me."

They laugh before heading upstairs together to class. As they took their seats, with Lila nowhere in sight, Alya told Marinette instantly, "Someone looks extremely happy this morning."

Nino snickered as Adrien pulled out a chocolate croissant, "Here too."

Adrien took a bite and melted against his seat, "Don't judge me Nino." Nino laughed anyways and turned to Marinette, "Where's the treats for everyone else?"

Marinette's response was instant, "You ate them all this weekend when you and Alya came over. Adrien didn't get any since he had that photoshoot."

Adrien nodded instantly, "Exactly! I missed out and deserve these."

The girls giggled, Marinette's right hand going to cover her mouth. The tiara ring twinkled beautifully in the light, and Adrien made his move as he saw Alya eyeing it in shock, "Hey, that's new, isn't it?"

Marinette blushed instantly, looking at the ring on her middle finger, "Oh, uh, yeah."

"Can I see?" He asked innocently. She held her hand out to him, Alya and Nino both leaning closer to get a better look. Adrien thumbed the ring lightly, the shocked exchange of looks between Nino and Alya didn't go unnoticed.

"Wh-Where'd you get that dudette?" Nino asked, trying not to sound nervous.

Lila walked into the room at that exact moment as Marinette answered, "Oh, someone special gave it to me last night as a surprise. It's pretty, don't you think?"

All three of them nodded, and Lila of course, stopped to add her opinion, "Wow, that is such a cute ring Marinette. It's simple, but perfect for you." She said it with a slight flair in her tone, "MY special kitten gave me a ring when we first started dating. I can't wear it out of course, it's so big I'm sure someone would try to steal it."

Adrien saw the slight scowls on Nino and Alya's faces, knowing that they knew now that Lila was lying. He asked them concerned, "Are you guys okay?"

They both instantly smiled, trying to act like nothing was wrong. He smiled at them, before turning back to Marinette, "Do you mind if I take a closer look at the ring?"

Marinette pulled it off and held it out to him. He started commenting on it out loud, making sure to keep Lila's face in his peripheral, "The band is white gold, not silver or a gold-plated overlay either. You can see the Maker's mark for 20 karat gold, which is the highest quality of white gold out there."

He smiled to himself, seeing Lila's face harden, "And the design is simple, sure, but elegant. The tiara is beautifully crafted and the way the heart is integrated into the design is genius."

He held it up to the light, the diamonds catching and sending small prisms everywhere, "The diamonds themselves are flawless and colorless, easily D quality, not one has a bit of cloud or yellow tinge. Based on how many there are, despite them being smaller, there is at least a carat and a half worth of diamonds here."

Lila looked like she was practically seething in jealousy now, and he brought the ring closer, adding it innocently, "Whoever gave this to you must love you immensely. Even the inside engraving of 'My Purrincess' is flawlessly done."

She took the ring back from him, putting it back on her finger quickly as she said it hushed, "You weren't supposed to see that."

He glanced at the others, seeing the surprise on their faces before he faked it himself, lowering his voice, "Purr-incess, that sounds a lot like, are you the one dating Chat Noir Marinette?"

Marinette blushed heavily but didn't say anything to confirm or deny it. Lila stormed off towards her seat without another word, Alya asking her again, "Are you?"

Marinette smiled at her, saying it calmly, "My boyfriend just has a thing for cat puns, that's all."

Adrien grinned at her comment, giving her a small wink as Nino and Alya held knowing stares.

Marinette grinned happily, knowing that his plan had worked, and glad that their secrets were working out after all.

[razorblade180]

Ok I gotta ask this now since I just saw your post. How would you have written ddd and kh3 to make it a tighter more impactful plot? (Also would love to know how you would write narusaku or any other naruto ship

[please comment below. This took so much time and it would suck if no one read this😭💀]

I can already tell this will go beyond the line limit so buckle up everyone. We’re only focusing on KH right now. Let’s start with DDD

Dream Drop Distance

Let’s get the major change out of the way, Kairi is on this adventure. Why? Because there’s two previous games where they express how she wants to actively help and KH2 has lines of her saying she refused to be left behind anymore. This works out just fine for Yen Sid, since this test is supposed to be a relatively safe. Sora and Riku are officially taking their mark of mastery exam but for Kairi, this serves as a hands on learning course. Going the sleeping worlds together for them to learn proper keyblade wielding sounds perfectly fine. All three get out on the island, fight Ursula in the tutorial, and then Xehanort starts his shenanigans just like in the game. Here’s the difference! Sora and Kairi are still together, while Riku still accidentally dives into Sora’s dreams.

Immediately the trio would know something isn’t quite right but the only option is press on start figuring things out while completing their task from Yen Sid. This is where gameplay is now a bit different. You play as Sora with one dream eater and Kairi as your support characters while Riku plays the same. The drop system is still the same everything. Sora and Kairi go through worlds together and get to interact. At the beginning Kairi doesn’t know much but gains abilities/confidence as you progress. Sora ends up serving as a mentor for her and guides her through the troubles of going on your first adventure. It’s a good way to put Sora in a more mature role. He’s forced to keep his wits about in order to keep Kairi safe because he doesn’t know the organization is actually after him.

We get a couple of scenes of Kairi getting better and helping Sora through the worlds which still play out the same basically. Bad guys show up and say mysterious things before leaving and the two deal with Disney problems. Riku’s doesn’t change at all because. Things only start to get really different after Symphony of Sorcery. Young Xehanort shows up at the very end of it and goes after Kairi to bait Sora into rushing to save her. Sora ends up getting hurt in the process and Young Xehanort kidnaps him here and immediately leaves before Kairi can do anything. She’s now angry at herself for not being able to apply what Sora had taught her when it truly mattered. She couldn’t protect him or herself. Kairi almost wants to give up but meow-wow lifts her spirits and she finds the resolve to fight before. Sora would never give up, especially when it came to saving his loved ones. Kairi is now a playable character and able to do all the commands that aren’t character exclusive. His dream eaters stick around and become her party members.

You go through The World That Never Was as her back in KH2 attire, fighting her way through it and she’s the one that gets told how the organization has been tracking them and all the other plot things; including why they want Sora. Kairi ends up being the one to have to fight Xemnas and even though she’s outclassed, she’s gonna give him all she’s got. On Riku’s side he sees all the weird dream imagery in Sora’s head since he’s in Sora’s dreams with the added glimpse of Kairi trying her best against Xemnas; motivating him even further to hurry up and make it to her. He still confronts Ansem and makes peace with himself. Riku finally makes it out of Sora’s dreams but retains his dream eater powers like in the game and rushes to help Kairi. He makes it half way through the fight and Kairi tells Riku to back her up. The two of them fight together with you still playing as Kairi and manage to push him back. Riku is extremely surprised by her progress and both of them go together to save Sora because he knows telling her to stay back is not an option. Riku and Kairi both fight Young Xehanort together.

Everything is mostly the same after that in terms of plot and everything that happens in the cutscenes. Including Axel showing up. Riku convinces Kairi to stay when he jumps back into Sora’s dreams, telling her someone has to make sure everything goes fine in the real world and that person has to be her. Riku comes back out after is boss fight and those cutscenes and he sees those two slackers having a tea party. Yen Sid commends all three for their bravery, especially Kairi. He also apologizes. Riku gets named a master, Sora doesn’t. Sora thankd his friends and told Kairi he was proud of her before he left to go thank the dream eaters. Even though she did well, Kairi knew without Riku, the dream eaters, or Sora, she wouldn’t have lasted as long as she did. She wanted to be strong enough to protect herself and others. So Kairi asked Yen Sid if she could have further training. Yen Sid told her and Lea about the dimension where they could train and they both accepted. Riku asked what he should do now and then the 0.2 conversation happens off screen. Boom, DDD rolls it’s credits.

Kingdom Hearts 3 [internal screaming]

Okay! So I gotta tackle this one a little different. First of all, let’s live in a world where ReMind came apart of KH3 (as it should’ve) now let’s put the cutscene between Luxord and Xigbar where it belongs at the beginning of the game, and then let’s put the cutscenes of MoM/ the organization discussing the members somewhere in in middle of the game. Like after Monsters Inc. Because that information had no reason to be hidden. It reveals nothing, but explains how people are back which is important. This knowledge doesn’t even spoil the Luxu reveal!

Second, I have to explain my two major problems that really hurt this game for me. Plot pacing and only setting things up halfway or not at all. So I’m going to tell you what changes narritive and gameplay wise I would’ve changed. Then I’ll go through the game including those changes.

Sora getting his power robbed consequence will be in every world and weigh on him.

The time characters get rescued/revealed

Ventus and Roxas’s heart influence

Isa’s plan

Aqua’s trauma

Xion, Vexen, and Demyx appearances.

Multiple playable characters.

Kairi and Lea contributions.

Also if I don’t mention something then assume it happened just like in the game.

Okay, let’s get started at Olympus. Everything is the same except one thing that I will continue to do for the other worlds. Sora will try to be proactive in stopping an Organization member, triggering a 1v1 boss fight. He’ll fight Xigbar and lose so bad that his friends have to save him. This puts in perspective that Sora really has lost his powers and is frustrated about it. This will do two things. One of them is make him slowly get more upset when someone brings up him failing the exam, being a half pint, or not being able to do things on his own. I’ll come back to the second thing later. Sora is order to continue to gain the power of waking while leaving finding Aqua to Mickey and Riku.

Twilight Town is also basically the same. However, the Demon Tide really roughs him up. Ansem and Xemnas bring up how they hope Roxas didn’t get this weak as well just to anger him. Sora wants to put them in their place but is convinced not to by Donald and Goofy. Now he’s doubting himself internally a little. Also Merlin shows up now instead of later. The trio bump into him and He tells Sora that Lea and Kairi actually are almost done training because they trained in a place where time didn’t matter. The moment they went in should’ve technically they came out but I’m being generous. Sora is shocked to realize his short time at Olympus might’ve equaled months of training for Kairi or even longer.

Toy Box is the same with the addition of fighting Young Xehanort and losing to him before a gigas piloted by his friends intervene. We still get the comment about putting hearts into vessels of their pleasing. When the world is over Kairi calls to tell him she’s finishing training and wants to see him back at Yen Sid’s tower.

Kairi and Lea are both really jazzed about how strong they’ve gotten and ready to help. Before they do, Kairi asks for a friendly spar against Sora. While he does win, he is amazed by how strong she’s gotten. Kairi comments on how she’s still lacking the real battle experience and skill he’s gain over time and he actually starts to feel better, until she asks if she could go to a world with him to get it. He wouldn’t mind it if wasn’t for one thing, he’s worried he might not be enough to save her if she needs help. Not with all his strength gone. He keeps this to himself and Kairi and Lea end up tagging along to Kingdom of Corona. On this world you get the option to be Sora with Rapunzel Flynn has mandatory party members and the choice to choose Kairi and Lea or Donald and Goofy; Or you can play as Kairi which automatically makes the party during gameplay Flynn, Rapunzel, Sora, and Lea. This works out fine because half this world has Rapunzel and Flynn leave your party so the other two characters can fill in during those sections.

So the Disney plot in this world doesn’t have to change one bit. The changes that happen all occur with all the Kingdom hearts characters. For example, Marluxia now meets Sora, Lea, Kairi, Donald and Goofy when he first reveals himself. We get sassy and rude dialogue between Marluxia and Lea about being alive and who’s actually the traitor this time around. Lea can also fill Sora in on CoM since no one does it. What makes this scene important is the moment Marluxia directs his attention towards Kairi, she starts getting really nervous and Namine’s voice comes out unexpectedly, telling him to stay back. It’s Namine who’s actually nervous, terrified even. Sora might not have the memories, but the entire exchange is enough for his heart to remember the intense desire to protect Namine from Marluxia. Sora and Lea get in between the two. Marluxia only looks at everyone and can’t help but get a little nostalgic. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. Except for one...” he says that vague response referring to how Lea and Rikuplica switching sides, then he leaves.

The next major change is Soar and Kairi spend time at the festival together and share a moment during the lantern scene. It’s at this time Sora expresses the doubt he has to protect her and the others with his current strength. Kairi tells Sora that he can do anything he puts his mind to and to never lose that smile of his. She tells him how they will protect each other and that his heart will never steer him wrong. This touching moment is ruined when Donald screams off camera. The Nobodies shown up. Everyone quickly jumps into action when another hooded figure appears. Sora goes off to pursue them triggering Lea to follow him. Sora is evenly matched with the figure back and then hood falls off. It’s Xion. Immediately seeing her causes an intense reaction from Roxas’s heart that screws up Sora in the fight and he his taken out by her. Xion planned to take him but Lea intervenes, causing both of them to get a painful reaction to each other. Marluxia shows up to retrieve Xion, who was sent there for a test run and leaves Axel in pain because Kairi caught up to protect both of them despite the fear from earlier. All he can see is Namine finally taking a real stand against him before finally going. Sora wakes up that morning on the outskirts of the kingdom where he sees Flynn riding Maximus with Lea still out of commission. Donald and Goofy looked after him while Kairi helped resuce Flynn. He tells Sora about what’s happened to Rapunzel and they all go rushing to the tower, except for Kairi who’s understandably tired, and chooses to look after Lea since he’s also still recovering. The rest of the world stays the same.

Sora and the gang try collecting their thoughts and info while in the gummi ship. So many things were happening so fast. Sora tried to apologize to Lea and Kairi but they told him there was no need. They end up going to Yen Sid again for answers to things like the new seven princesses. While there, Donald ends up taking another jab at Sora for still not having the power of waking. Sora actually gets fed up this time around, frustrated with himself mainly. He yells how he’s doing the best he can and it’s not like Donald is being of any real help either. Sora claims that he can do this on his own and takes off to the Gummi Ship before anyone could really get a word in.

Monster Inc ends up being the next world he finds himself in but not by choice. Sora had been so worked up he had forgotten the ship ran on smiles and crash landed to the nearest world. That’s not all, Kairi had actually manage to sneak aboard by surprise. Now he felt bad about endangering her but didn’t get to apologize before Kairi bonked him on the head. She reminded Sora about their conversation on the pier and expressed how determined she was to knock Sora out of his funk. They’d be stranded here otherwise. Through all of that it slipped their minds that they were monsters now and decide to look around. One thing that immediately stirred something within Kairi’s memories was the unversed which convinced them that this place was now definitely worth looking around. The plot points of this world are pretty much the same. As you go through the factory making Boo laugh. Sora is also gaining his cheerfulness back and opening up more to Kairi about how down this situation had gotten him. He was happy she was here to cheer him up. Vanitas shows up and still gets thrown through doors. Sora wonders about his desire to save Aqua so quickly stems from the possibility of Ventus’s heart sleeping in his. Kairi tells Sora about how Namine’s heart reacted to Marluxia which only made his thought more valid. He tells Kairi how he really thinks he can save her and Kairi agrees, but tells Sora it would be easier with more people. He needed to make up with Donald and to some extent, Goofy. As if on que the gummi phone rings with Chip and Dale telling Sora that they’ve lost trace of Riku and Mickey in the Realm of Darkness. What’s worse is Donald and Goofy acted rashly at the news and took Yen Sid’s star shard, sending them to who knows where. It was possible that they actually got sent to the Realm of Darkness! Sora calls Ienzo to ask if he knows a way there but he only knows about the corridors of darkness.

Kairi tells Sora that he really is connected to Ventus then maybe he can open a gate. Even if he can’t, Sora’s connection with his friends might do something. He just has to do what he did to get to Olympus. Sora opened a gate that brought him and Kairi back to Destiny Islands where they found Donald and Goofy. More importantly, an unfimiliar keyblade. Sora uses it to create a door and heads off. The others try to follow him but he tells them that they need to stay behind just in case. He also apologizes for his outburst which prompts Donald and Goofy to apologize for not seeing how much the teasing was getting to him. Kairi tells him to be safe and Sora smiles truthfully. He just has to believe in himself like she said. He can do this. Sora goes through the door.

Sora drops right in the middle of the Riku vs Aqua fight and things play out normally until the halfway point where the darkness in her becomes almost too much for Sora. Just like with Vanitas, Ventus’s heart starts to react to seeing Aqua in such a state. Suddenly Sora summons Master’s Defender again and holds it back handed. Aqua is left shocked, she can only see the friend she promised to wake up. With a heavy heart she manages to ask for help and Sora nods. You play the remainder of the fight with attacks and even a command style used by Ventus. He’s calling the shots now. You beat Aqua and she gets saved. Everyone’s happy, everyone’s crying.

Aqua takes Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi to go wake up Ven while Riku and Mickey rest up. Sora gets more strange feelings at the sight of Castle Oblivion. He can’t help but think of Namine, as well as fuzzy memories of Marluxia and a few other people but he keeps it to himself. Aqua remakes the Land of Departure and they make their way to Ven. Vanitas shows up and Aqua challenges him alone. Instead of her loosing because she blocked a fireball with her body, We get Aqua losing because she’s still very tired and the PTSD she has from the realm of darkness. Everyone panics. Sora activates the power of waking to wake Ventus (I’ll cry when he thanks Sora) and he saves Aqua. Vanitas leaves.

Everyone regroups at Yen Sid’s tomorrow again. Finally, progress is being made in collecting guardians. Ventus and Aqua need more time to recover and choose to rest. Kairi keeps them company to learn more about them, her past, skills, and also take a break. All this adventure has gotten her really exhausted. Mickey goes looking for Ansem the Wise and Sora manages to convince Riku to tag along with him. Maybe they’ll find Terra? Onward to frozen!

Sora and the gang meet else Elsa and Riku empathizes with not being able to control power and being scared of hurting people close to him. Sora emphasizes with Anna when it comes wanting to help someone important to you but they keep running away and create things that make it harder to reach them. It’s one big moment of reflection and growth in this world. Larxene still shows up and Sora knows her by name surprisingly. The feelings of anger he gives her is all he needs to know that she cannot be allowed to do whatever she pleases. He tries stopping her but fails. He’s not too upset though. His previous accomplishments and encouraging words from Kairi push him forward. Unknowingly, Vexen shows up and has an argument with Larxene. She complains about why he’s heat and he tells her that he heard memories are extremely malleable here (trolls) and he’s come to look into it before leaving Larxene to her own devices. Elsa starts really thinking her powers are nothing but darkness but Riku convinces her otherwise. Elsa thanks him but that moment of weakness creates the boss of this world. Sora and Riku fight it with Snowball while Elsa goes to save Anna. Things work themselves out the same from there. Riku and Sora feel closer than ever and Riku tells Sora he’s a master in his own right which makes Sora’s day. Vexen got valuable data.

Ventus finally felt like his body was used to moving again and was ready to start getting back in the swing of things, but Aqua was still feeling down. The guilt of taking so long and trauma was weighing on her heart. Kairi tried everything to cheer her up but nothing helped. Kairi has no choice but to pull out the big guns. She called Sora. Through lot of persuading, he convinced her to tag along with him and Ventus to go traveling with him to get them up to speed. Part of the agreement was Riku and Kairi go finding more clues about Terra’s whereabouts so they stayed behind. Checking Radiant Garden again seemed like a good idea. Kairi hadn’t been so it would kill two birds with one stone.

Pirates world was next on the list. This time we there’s four organization members! Luxord goes looking for the box and Demyx is forced to help because Isa wants him to prove his worth or why even be around? They’re on the water so he should be decent muscle. Vexen is intrigued by Davy Jones but also dropped Xion off with Luxord to see if his recent research on memory would have her perform better than earlier. Aqua and Ventus marvel at the stars, thinking of Terra. Sora told the two of them about the first adventure he went on to look for his friends. Sora praises both of them by telling him that he was at least half as skilled as they were back then, telling them that they’ll find Terra way faster than he took finding Riku and Kairi. They came across the waterfall fell. Aqua nearly panicked at the thought of being trapped when they woke up in Davy Jones’s locker but Ventus calmed her down. Sora needed to find a way to build her back up. The plot of this world doesn’t change but gameplay does a little. Ven and Aqua will grant the pirates ship most of its abilities by controlling the wind and sea while Sora navigates. More fights by boat grant them more abilities and gets them back into the swing of things. Ventus and Sora team up during the air skirmish against the flying heartless. This invigorates Aqua not just because she wants to protect them, but they looked like they were having some fun. Yeah they were fighting a heartless but they were doing it together and trusted that they had each other’s back. Aqua had missed that feeling, it had been so long since it wasn’t her vs everything. She quickly got her chance to be apart of a team again in the underwater fight. Her nerves weren’t completely calm but Sora taking her hand and being excited about getting the treasure pushed those feelings away. She had friends again, friends that wanted treasure and to sail the seas with her. How could that not be fun. Sora happily let Aqua take the lead and supported her alongside Ventus.

The crew bumps into Luxord and the black box conversation happens that leads into the race but with the added wager of Luxord willing to tell them about Terra if they win. The race has still has the heartless boats but as well as the water nobodies to personally attack your crew and hinder your abilities. After you win, Luxord still cheats and you have that boss fight. Things change when you board the boat. He still leaves but Demyx and Xion stay behind with some Nobodies to by time. Halfway through the fight, Xion starts clenching her head again and Sora does the same with his chest. Seeing Ventus’s face and feeling Roxas’s presences is just too much. Luxord takes the opportunity of the chaos to nab is companions and attack the ship. Fortunately Aqua was able to protect everyone. Vexen orders Demyx to take Xion back and that he might as well not come back either. Demyx really doesn’t want to face Isa since he was basically told not to comeback without anything useful. So he drops Xion off and plans to avoid him altogether.

After the ship is repaired and Phantom Jack leaves, Aqua takes a minute to think. They were about to head into what sounded like a war. Their fun treasure adventure had turned a serious matter. She confessed that she might not be up to the task. This one, or even the keyblade war. Ventus pulled out his wayfinder and told her even if she decides not to go, she’ll always be fighting beside him as long as he had this. He believed Terra was still fighting and got his strength from them. Aqua pulled out her wayfinder and simply held it to her chest. He wasn’t wrong. All that time in the darkness and a piece of her never felt truly alone as long as she held this. Their unbreakable connection to her friends was something Aqua would never doubt. To top it all off, Sora had remembered he still had Kairi’s good luck charm from before the exams. He said he couldn’t count how many times this simple thing had driven him to keep going. Aqua joined them on the boat. It was only after seeing the other pirates did her resolve really hit its peak. All of them were ready to face staggering odds to fight for what mattered most to them, despite the fear. Aqua was sure of it now, she’d stand with her friends when the fated day came. Aqua raised her keyblade a creates the whirlpool for the Kraken fight. For the first time since she arrived, she looked at Sora and completely immersed herself in the moment. She calls him captain, and says she’s ready whenever he is. He couldn’t be more thrilled and Ventus was happy to see Aqua ready to go. The rest of the world plays out the same all the way until the very end. I would personally add a scene though of three sailing alone for just a little longer. Sora can’t help but think about how this was his dream with Riku and Kairi once. He wondered if is the only one who even rememberers or cares about a thing like this. Suddenly another ship Sails by them. They get ready to fight until they sea a papou fruit flag. Riku and Kairi unexpectedly reveal themselves on it with smiles on their faces. Apparently the gummi phone had really included all of information Jimmy had written. Riku explained that he just knew without question Sora would come here of all places to try and cheer someone up. Riku and Kairi told Aqua they hadn’t found much info on Terra but they did find her armor and keyblade thanks to Kairi’s foggy memory of certain places and Ienzo’s participantion in those lab areas. They all were about to continue their journey but since they were here, something had to be settled. Sora wanted another race to decide who would be captain. Riku laughed and told him they both have ships and that didn’t matter. However, he vaguely mentioned another reason to race, the real reason Sora tried so hard that day on the island. Riku pointed at the symbol on his flag and Sora immediately pouted. He grabbed the wheel of the ship and told Kairi to countdown for the race. No one knew what they were racing for except them and a giggling Kairi, who had a pretty good idea on what it was about. She says go and then the cutscene ends.

Big Hero Six is exactly the same except Sora sees Riku Replica and is pretty sure he’s from castle oblivion. Vexen uses the knowledge Rikuplica favs him about making Baymax filled with suffering so he can fix Xion to her absolute peak. When he’s done, Isa informs him that a Demyx has ran off and orders Vexen to go bring him back. Which is actually code for “good job, now escape while you still can.” Vexen informs him that it would take an extremely strong connection for Xion to have any “unfortunate” memories of the past to resurface. Things play out normally until Zexion meets Ansem the wise. What happens this time? He tells Sora and friends that he’s back with Vexen. (That’s kinda important.)

Everyone rests up for the final battle. The Sora and Kair scene on destiny islands is now longer. Kairi asks if Sora is feeling like his old self again. Sora tells her that he is thanks to her never giving up on her. Both of them get quiet for a moment before Sora speaks again. He does confess that he’s still worried a bit. Every word he went to had one thing or another that ended up being too much for him alone, and couldn’t help but feel like it would’ve been different if he truly regained all of his power. Kairi tells him that he isn’t alone but he shakes his head because she’s missing the point. Sora wasn’t scared of the organization overwhelming him, but he was terrified of that he’d try protecting someone and fail. He admitted he was scared of losing her. Kairi admitted that tomorrow scared her too. Every adventure they went on together was filled with so many enemies and left her exhausted by the end of it. Now she was joining the war. Kairi felt more than a little unprepared despite all the prep she tried squeezing in. Sora tried asking if by any chance at all that she could wait here one more time and she refused outright. No matter how nervous she was about the whole thing, Kairi told Sora that she would never wait again. That they will protect each other no matter what. And for added luck, she hands him a papou fruit. Sora was shocked. Kairi simply smiled and placed it in his hand before grabbing another one. Sora pulled out her good luck charm to give it back but she said it’s basically his at this point. The two smiled gently and finally shared the fruit. You get OathKeeper

Keyblade war time! Woo! This is by far the easiest to put into words. Riku and Kairi are your party members for the 10,000 enemy battle because it’s a literal crime that the Destiny trio didn’t work together. You get past that and Terranort still bodies half the team. Aqua’s resolve starts the crumble as she races to Ven, he isn’t moving at all. Sora is left in a state of disbelief as Goofy and Mickey try getting Donald up, and Kairi checking on Axel. In no time at all, his fear seams to be coming true. They need to regroup. Unfortunately the demon tide appears and blocks the exit. Riku gathers the remaining forces to try and fend it off but seeing Ven taken out by Terra really shook Aqua. We see the shadows turn into Anti-Aquas as the real Aqua starts to slowy panic. She doesn’t even hear the others screaming her name, telling her to look out before Mickey and Goofy try saving her, but they’re all swept up. Now it’s the Destiny Trio vs the Demon Tide in a fight the player is forced to fight, but can’t win. No music plays, just the sound of the fight and the sight of the organization watching from above. Eventually Kairi slips up due to the overwhelming odds. Sora quickly tries to outrun the Demon Tide coming towards her but can’t. Sora screams for Riku’s help but turns to see nothing but his friends hand reaching for him before being swept away. He can’t hold it in anymore, Sora drops to his knees and screams. He wouldn’t have made it this far without all of them, but now they’re gone. Sora drops his keyblade, then is swept away.

He arrives in the final world and gets his task from chirithy. In the beginning he feels so defeated, then encounters Namine. Instead of her telling him that Kairi is keeping him together, Namine says that she can feel everyone connected to him doing their part. Sora has done so much to try and keep everybody safe and spent all this time with them during their adventure that it’s only natural that they would believe in him. Now Sora feels a twinge of guilt, he gave up way too soon. No way he can let that slide. He was going to make it up to them for this second chance. Sora tells Namine about all of these flooding emotions he’s had involving her and everyone else in castle oblivion. Namine is genuinely shocked. Despite the chains being broken, Sora retained the key events. He didn’t look at her like he did back in The World That Never Was. Sora had been talking to her like an old friend he hadn’t seen in years. Sora told Namine that he was going to save everyone, including her. He promised that they were going to get her a body and she had to wait just a bit longer. Namine believed him and said she will try to get in contact with Terra. For a moment it felt like Sora could actually see Namine smile at him instead of just being a star. Sora smiled back and told her thank you, for everything. He ran off to do his job. Namine simply watched and tried not to cry. Their promise really found a way for them to meet again in a way she would’ve never dreamed of. Instead of it fading away. You get oblivion.

Before Sora really starts piecing himself together, he encounters the mystery star, and then an extra star. This extra star follows him around and surprises Sora when it reveals himself to be Roxas. He tells Sora he should’ve expected this since Sora was barely hanging on himself! Sora sheepishly apologizes but Roxas isn’t too bothered by it because he knows it’s temporary. What bothers him is Xion. He tells Sora who she is and the reason he feels hurt when they’re around each other is because of Xion’s connection to himself. Roxas asks Sora to face Xion and embrace that hurt so they can save her. Sora agrees but wonders if he can handle it. So far all fights against her didn’t go well. Roxas tells him not to worry. All he needs Sora to do his try his hardest and Roxas will make up the difference. Sora has no doubt Roxas will and thanks him before heading off. Roxas continues to follow you just so you have someone to talk to. Sora puts himself together and opens a gate to go find the others. Chirihy tells Sora that for future reference not to use the power of waking like he’s about to and explains how incredibly dangerous it is. Sora nods and leaves.

Sora beats up The Lich like usual and Young Xehanort calls him dumb. Everyone gets rescued from the cusp of death, now thoroughly frustrated by how sloppy they were. They’re going full throttle this time.(Oblivion obtained!) The team runs towards the fight again. Aqua and Ven are ready for Terranort but Lingering Will beats them to the punch, taking Terranort away as they fight. The Demon Tide arrives again with heartless and you fight it with the Destiny Trio. The fight has custom team attacks and even a trinity limit. You win and it turns into the hurricane again. Union X keyblades show up. (It’s so cool.) Ventus puts his hand on his heart. He feels oddly happy. All the scenes leading up to the boss rush are the same.

Sora and Riku vs Xigbar and Dark Riku goes off without a hitch. Nothing changes with Xigbar but Dark Riku is different. The original Riku Replica takes over the vessel. It’s clear the other’s could use the help and Vexen is on the good guy’s side so they can make more, is his reasoning. The original Riku goes off to chase Ansem while Rikuplica stays with Sora. He tells Sora it’s nice to see him again and Sora couldn’t agree more. The two of them don’t even have to speak to know exactly where to go next. They rush over to help Mickey, swiftly beating Luxord and freeing him so he can go after Xemnas. Suddenly the war feels like an old grudge match. Sora and Rikuplica vs Larxene and Marluxia. The heroes point their weapons at their foes and tell them this one is for Namine. Marluxia is actually happy Sora finally remembers him. It makes this fight all the sweeter. The fight ends with the heroes win, but at a price. Larxene and Rikuplica had struck each other down at the same time. Sora rushes to his friend who was starting to fade. Rikuplica told him not to feel bad about it. He planned on giving up this vessel after the fight anyway. The only reason he took it was to make sure those two wouldn’t hurt Namine and to fight by Sora’s side again at least once. Rikuplica tells Sora to take care of her before fading away, leaving the vessel. Sora finally remembers Castle Oblivion in its entirety. He simply clenches his fist and accepts the hurt before pressing on.

Ventus and Aqua catch up to Vanitas and Terranort. Aqua demands to know what happened to the armor that appeared earlier and Terranort simply laughs. Enraged, Aqua summons Master’s defender and rushes in to fight. Ventus follows her lead and Sora joins in a few minutes later. While that’s happening, Riku rushes through the maze towards Ansem until he hears a familiar voice. It leads him to dark chains that suspend and crush Lingering Will until he cuts them. The armor is cracked but still functioning. He thanks Riku and starts heading off before Riku stops him. Riku hadn’t told Ven and Aqua but he found something else at Radiant Garden. He pulls out Terra’s wayfinder and gives it to the armor. Riku tells him to go protect what matters and heads off. Things aren’t going to well back at the battle. Terranort manages to break Ven’s keyblade and Vanitas rushes in after Aqua as she tries to save Ven. Sora is quick enough to try and take the hit for both of them but Lingering Will swoops in again to save them. They’re all stunned to see him. Terra thanks Sora for looking after his friends but he can take it from here. Sora nods and manages to escape the battle. Terra tries to convince Ven and Aqua to leave too but they flat out ignore him. They pull out their wayfinders and each one starts to glow. Aqua tells Terra from this point forward they fight as a team. She tosses Ven Master’s Defender and summons her original keyblade. Her and Ventus bring out their armor and stand beside Terra. Now the real fight begins. The fight gives you the same team attacks from the Mirage Arena and each character gets their original command style that transforms into their character exclusive one from bbs. Wingblade, Ghost Drive, and Rockbreaker; while Terranort uses Dark impulse and Vanitas loses his mask and fights like he does in the final phase against Ventus. Vanitas is the first to fall. He nearly beat a Ventus until the boy gained a boost of strength from seemingly nowhere, his swords of light turning into starlight keyblades and striking down Vanitas. He simply laughs, giving Ventus no answer to his many questions about Vanitas. The entire wayfinder trio is know souly focused on Terranort. Refusing to give up, the man summons the chains again and captures them. He goes after Aqua first who almost managed to break free. The others scream her and The Guardian rises from the shadows to save her. It breaks the chains and rips off the bandages. Ven quickly uses the keyblade to wrap Terranort in chains while Lingering Will holds his body down for The Gaurdian to fire his heart out. A massive beam of light shoots up before fading and only leaving the armor. Ven and Aqua are speechless until the armor lifts its helmet to reveal Terra underneath in tears. Ven and Aqua throw their helmets off too and ran into their friends arms. All three of them hugging and crying.

Sora runs right into the middle of Saix and Xion fighting Axel and Kairi. Instinctively he screams out Xion’s name and everything goes quiet. Axel is confused by the name until she finally takes off the hood to reveal the white hair and yellow eyes. His memory starts to reform bit by bit and he grabs his head. Sora and Kairi’s chest both feel heavy but for the first time, Xion doesn’t react. Because of all the experiments, the only thing she has is broken memories and the suffering from them. You begin fighting her alone but to no effect. Sora rememberers Roxas’s words and lets in the pain. Xion comes at him again but stops at the sound of her name, this time with Roxas’s voice coming out of Sora. Xion’s head gets a little fuzzy but it doesn’t break the rampage. Kairi and Axel manage to endure the pain as well and stand with Roxas/Sora. If one voice isn’t enough then they’ll all try calling to her as they knock some sense in into her. Sora/Roxas summons Two Become One. The three are ready. It’s now or never. After an intense 3v2 fight, Xion starts to mentally down in the middle of combat. Then the standard cutscene happens where Xemnas shows up. The only difference being Axel’s keyblade doesn’t break. Xemnas grabs Kairi with his lightning instead of her wrist and leaves. Sora tries running after her best Saix gets in the way until the Seasalt trio pushes him back. Roxas tells Sora to go after Kairi and leave this fight to them. Sora runs off and you basically play the Remind fight but with no Xemnas. It ends the same though.

The battle against the Nort court is the same. Kairi getting shattered is the same, as well as getting into Scala. Xion tells Sora she can still feel Kairi and for him to remember her words. The thirteen armors and Xehanort boss are all the same as well. The only difference I added was a clash that sent both Sora and Xehanort flying backwards. Sora gets up first and has the chance to end it but realizes the good luck charm had fallen to the ground in front of him. Sora picks it up and all the pent up anger frustration he has from Xehanort ruining his and his and friends lives gets put on a leash. Sora remembers Kairi’s words about never losing his smile. He can’t help but get emotional and once again asks Xehanort what was the point of any of this. Xehanort gives his speech about balance and the entire scene and plays out like normal. Next major change is the end. Riku and Mickey convince Sora to not use the Power of Waking right off the bat, fearing the consequences. Sora listens to their idea to see Yen Sid but even he isn’t sure how to get Kairi back but they’ll do their best to find her. Sora leaves to get some air outside. Riku can’t help but follow him outside minutes later and finds Sora looking at his keyblade. He calls out Sora’s name and the boy turns around and does a smile similar to when he released his heart in Hollow Bastion. Riku knows Sora better than he knows himself. He doesn’t even try to stop Sora, but tells him to be careful. Sora puffs out his chest and says he’ll be back with Kairi in no time at all. Sora asks Riku to tell the others thanks and not to worry before opening up a gate and walking through. The ending sequence plays out the same and then the credits roll.

ReMind is a bonus episode after getting the secret reports and nothing in it changes because it’s perfectly fine. The only added thing we get is Sora giving back the lucky charm before he fades away, telling Kairi to be sure and bring it back to him. Limit cut and secret episodes are DLC or more extra stuff but yeah, I’m done.

In Summary:Kingdom Hearts 3, but the characters interact with each other and are allowed to feel multiple emotions at a time for extended periods of time. I know I sound like I’m punching down on this game but I genuinely do love this franchise since forever and I have strong feelings about almost everything to do with it. Which is why I’m bummed that KH3 is like my least favorite kingdom hearts game. It has good things in it but falls short on so many scenes and opportunities. This soft rewrite was literally me taking 92% of what the game already had in it and rearranging it to create various new situations that inevitably end the same way it does in the actual game. So yeah I give this game a 7/13 I’m still buying every game though 💀 (I’m not getting into any of my ideas of how kh3 could’ve gone before we knew too much about it. Now that’s a rewrite!)

[did-he-just-hiss-at-me]

"They'll forget."

warnings: implied suicide attempt(non-specific about who), long with no cut cuz mobile, angst, hurt/comfort

summary: "Remus cackled. 'Don't say that! They're definitely going to try to rescue you, and they'll fall for our trap!' Logan sighed, and his head drooped. 'No.' he said in a hollowed tone. 'They'll forget.'" (not an excerpt)

ships: implied dukeceit(beginning), implied intruloceit(end)

au: super au(my au)

notes: based off this post. sorry if you guys didn't want an au tied to it hgdjfjs. lmk if you want a sequel

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(Logan's POV)

Day 1

I woke up with a massive headache, and lacking the ability to see. I couldn't move any part of my body except my head. Where am I? What happened? I questioned internally. I didn't want to alert whoever put me here to the fact that I am awake.

My memory is a foggy mess. I can't remember much. There was... yelling. Or rather, fighting. I wasn't participating in said fight. I don't even think I was allowed to.

Then I was walking home. I remember having my hands in my pockets, staring at the ground. Not caring about the world ahead of me, just below. Maybe a tear or two slipped out, it's hard to remember.

Then I remember someone grabbing me. Pulling me into an alley, and kicking me to the ground. I saw two familiar faces. I got a baseball bat to the face, then darkness.

I coughed, loud. It wasn't intentional, my throat was really dry. How long was I unconscious? It felt like a whole day. Not good for my sleep schedule. Speaking of schedules, I'm worried that my boss has fired me from work by now. He has no patience.

"Hey, L's awake!" a familiar voice called out to another, the sound echoing down the hall. A chill went down my spine, trouble was coming. Footsteps came after the echoing voice. They got louder and louder, fast.

"Heh, You sure that wasn't the other guy?" another voice appeared. It sounded sinister. "Dee, what other guy...? Did you proceed with a kidnapping without me?!" The first voice again. "No no, I'm kidding, Logan's the only one we got right now."

I tried my hardest to appear unconscious, but hearing what was supposedly my name caught me off guard. Logan. That's who I am, right.

It comes back to me now. I am Logan Everton. Natural-born Super with technologic-based abilities. I go by the codename Digit. I am a Super with good intentions.

I remember what happened before I got here. My common allies(though they would refer to us as "friends"), Patton 'Heartbeat' Harper, Roman 'Magma' Aveyard, & Virgil 'Specter' Deckett, were at Roman's place, having a fight. Our team ethic was going awry and it was making everything harder, our successful missions being smaller than our unsuccessful ones.

I had remained quiet most of the conversation, but that's because nobody would let me speak. I'd try to pitch in, steer everyone to a positive outcome, but they'd either yell over me or tell me to stop.

11. I counted. That's how many times I had been shut down. After that, I had enough. I grabbed my backpack, and left without a sound. Nobody called out for me, telling me not to leave, that they would listen to me now. Not at all.

As I shut Roman's front door, I had let out a big sigh. Hands in my pockets, I walked down the sidewalk to my house. It was just a couple blocks away, I would've made it. But back then I didn't care. I started to cry, but I didn't care.

But suddenly I was pulled into an alleyway. I was so caught off guard that I was unable to resist being kicked to the ground and knocked out with a baseball bat. I remember seeing the faces of the two men who grabbed me; Roman's ostracized brother, Remus 'Psycho' Aveyard, and Ethan 'Deceit' Helquist. A common enemy of ours. I now was able to match the voices I just heard to the faces. They got me, and now I'm doomed.

Somebody pulled whatever was over my eyes off my face. Regardless I still tried to look unconscious, but they weren't having it. "Open your eyes Logan, that's not going to work on us." Ethan sneered. I opened my eyes and glared at Ethan. "What do you want from me." I wanted answers.

"Ooh, straightforward now, aren't we nerd? You usually want to know details first, haha!" cackled Remus. "Shut it Rem, this is my turn." snapped Ethan. "We don't want anything from you... yet. For now, you have one, simple purpose... heh..." he chuckled. This could not be good. This guy is a expert manipulator; which is boosted by his powers of deception, hypnosis, and "glamour"(which according to Lo's research, meant you can disguise yourself). Ethan's powers didn't last long, but they were effective.

"I said it once. And I'll say it again." I started to demand. "What. Do. You. Want. What is your plan." I needed to contact the others and let them know what is happening. They wouldn't know otherwise.

Ethan put his hands down on the arms of the chair I was strapped to, his hands just barely touching mine. His face was 1/2 of a foot from mine. "I know your tricks, Lo~. I confiscated your technology, you cannot contact your little 'pals'. Anyways, until your teammates get here, you're just bait. You will lure them here. After all, what will your team be without their smart team member?" Ethan explained with an evil smirk. Right, how did I not realize that? My head still hurts, it's making it hard to think clearly.

"And yet, your plan is still flawed." I dead-panned. "What. Did you. Say?" Ethan growled back, moving his head back a little and grabbing me by my shirt.

"I told you, your plan has a loophole, and it's being exploited right now whether my friends know it or not." "What are you talking about, dork? Our plan is perfect!" Remus cackled once more.

"They're not coming."

Silence settled upon the room. A stunned Ethan gently let go of my shirt, & took a couple steps back. He let out a laugh of disbelief. "You must be joking! Seriously?! Why wouldn't they come for YOU?!"

"Because they don't know I'm missing. And they never will, because they don't want to know." I paused for a moment, tearing up a little. Not enough for them to notice, but it's there. "They don't care about me."

Remus started laughing, killing the sad moment. "HAH, I don't believe that for a second, four-eyes!" His face was filled with disbelief and mania. "You...Your friends need you, why wouldn't they come for you! You're so valuable to them, which is why we chose you in the first place!" he cackled once more.

"Well, you made a poor choice then. Anyone would have been better than me..."

Ethan snapped out of his stunned state. "Don't think that you can fool us so easily, Digit." he glared, putting emphasis on my nickname. "Remus?" he called for the male's attention.

"Yes, Double Dee~?" he responded with a wink.

"I told you, stop calling me that. Now, go get our prisoner food. Probably McDonalds or something."

"Will do, ya snake-charmer!" Remus winked again. Remus ran out.

"Oh, and one more thing, dear prisoner." The words felt like acid on Logan's skin. "They have 7 days to get here. Whether you say they'll come or not, they have a time limit before there's... consequences" Ethan warned, with a hiss at the end. He presented an evil smile before leaving Logan alone in the dark.

---

(No POV)

Day 2

Ethan & Remus returned to their prisoner early that morning, and hung around. Eventually they transferred Logan from being tied to a chair to a window-less bedroom with a locked door. It was actually a nice room to be in. The bed was super comfy, there was a TV with a DVD player(plus many dvds), a table and chair, and a bookshelf. On the table, Remus left him a notepad and pencil to write on if Logan needed anything, as there was enough room under the door to slip paper through. Logan never used it that day though, he just sat around in his room and sulked, knowing how this wasn't going to turn out for his enemies. The only time he got up was for food, which was always fast food. At least they were generous enough to give him nice(ish) things. They could've just gave him a burger and left, But Logan didn't care either way.

Ethan & Remus never stuck around in the room, just checked up on him. But seeing Logan just laying there on the bed filled the two with an emotion they could not identify yet.

---

Day 3

Almost the same as yesterday. Today was a Monday, so surely someone from his job would wonder where Logan went, right? Nope. Ethan kept Logan's phone with him at all times and there were no texts, no calls, not even a message on any social media.

Logan hesitantly got out of bed to do stuff aside from eating meals. None of the movies available were ones he was interested in, so he got Remus to bring him some documentaries, as well as Logan's personal notebook from his bag.

In fact, the little maniac decided to hang around Logan a bit. Some of the documentaries Remus grabbed were unintentionally ones he liked, so he decided to watch them with his prisoner.

Ethan still didn't like Logan. That's what he says, at least.

---

Day 4

Not much happened, just the usual. Except Remus had brought Logan a cookie with his dinner, a nice change.

---

(Ethan's POV)

I was sitting at my kitchen table, just staring out the window. I had my arm supporting my head while I thought about things.

Logan's proving himself right and I don't like it. But I don't get why. I should be upset because my plans are going wrong, but... I'm not.

Suddenly I felt hands covering my eyes. "Guess who~?" a voice asked in a sing-songy tone. I chuckled. "Obviously it's Remus. There's nobody else it could be."

Remus uncovered my eyes and pulled me into a hug, causing me to yelp. "You got me, babe!" he confessed, kissing me on the cheek. "Sorry for the hug, I forgot you don't like large, sudden moments of physical contact." Remus pulled away slowly and apologized, looking a bit embarrassed. Overstepping my boundaries is the only time he ever seems embarrassed.

"It's ok, Rem." I unintentionally sighed. Logan's still on my mind. My expression became a but more sad as I continued to think about the situation.

"Something wrong, Double Dee~?" Remus flirtatiously chuckled. He then noticed my facial expression and his smile fell. "...Seriously. Is everything ok? You usually let this kind of thing slide, Ethan." he queried worriedly. You could see the concern in his eyes. He only uses my full name when he's genuinely troubled.

"No no, it's not that." I reassured with a smile, as I grabbed his hand and held it with both of mine. Then the frown of mine returned right after. "It's Logan."

"Oh... is it because of you-know-what?" he questioned again.

"If "you-know-what" is the fact that his "friends" still haven't come for him? Yeah. It is..." I responded once again. Remus's face said everything. He recognized that Logan had told the truth.

"What's more, they haven't even shown a sign that they're planning to come get him. I tracked their movements across the city, not even a little bit of time was spent doing any sort of planning." I added on. Remus & I looked into each other's eyes. We saw the pain within ourselves. A familar feeling. An experience we remember all too well.

Seconds that felt like hours passed by. We wanted to cry. We were abandoned by those we trusted so dearly. Cast aside, all because of mistakes. Look what it did to us. We know the feelings experience during that time of loneliness. I don't want Logan to feel what we did, and I know Remus agrees.

"He... Logan's just like how we once were."

"Indeed, he is. And we're not going to let it remain like that."

---

(No POV)

Day 5

Remus & Deceit, to Logan's suspicion, made an effort to slowly welcome him. Remus was already doing so but only out of "sheer pity for the nerd". At first, Logan was hesitant. He had a bias against them due to them being villains.

Day 6

But by mid-day Wednesday, Logan had opened up more. He didn't understand it, but he just let it happen. He didn't care anymore. They're probably earning his trust so they can manipulate him against the others later.

Logan just wanted it to be over. During this past week, he had a lot of time to think. Enough time to lose hope in humanity. Nobody was going to rescue him. He was going to be forced to kill those he once loved.

He didn't want to admit it, but Logan was actually looking forward to his revenge. Not towards his kidnappers, no. They've actually shown him more acceptance than he's felt in a long time.

He wanted revenge on his former team.

---

(Logan's POV)

Day 7 - The last day.

Remus returned to check on me right on schedule. We talked a bit, watched a movie, he even brought a few puzzles for us to do.

Ethan, however, did not return until the evening. I had forgotten today was the "deadline" until the sinister man entered the room and dropped his backpack beside the now closed door with a glare towards Remus.

"It's time." he snapped. "Do you want to leave the room, Remus? I do not want to upset you, after all."

Remus gulped. "No... I want to stay. This is important for the three of us." he shook his head.

Important for the three of us? My body stiffened up and I squeezed my lower right arm. That cannot be good. Remus & I were previously sitting on my bed, angled right across from the door. The now terrified man got up and stepped beside his partner, who was now in the middle of the room, a few feet away from me.

"Should I hold him back, to make sure he cooperates...?" Remus questioned worriedly.

"No. You'll scare him." said Ethan as he stared into my eyes, never moving his attention. "But you already are, look at him." Ethan's previously tense stance had instantly loosened, realization dawning on him. Remus was right, I had now realized I was shaking, sweat was dripping down my back.

"Oh... Oh! I-i'm so sorry, Logan. It wasn't my intention." He bent down to my level and apologized. I was still stiffened up, though, and I turned my head away. "I'll let it pass." I finally let out as he waited for my response. His expression became sad.

"Logan, look at me. You need to listen." I hesitated for a second, but then turned to look him in his heterochromatic eyes. He seemed genuine.

"Today marks almost exactly a whole week of your friends not coming to save you. I originally had one plan, which you had no choice." I glared at him, moving back slightly. "But now that it hasn't worked, you have three choices." My eyebrows raised at the sudden proposal. I still remained like a statue, but now i'm truly listening.

"Number one. We let you go free, but... under one condition." Ethan paused for a moment. "You either give up all your technology-period-or, you let us keep track of what you do with any technology you use. We know your powers rely on having a gadget with you, Logan. We can't let you continue being a threat, but we also no longer want to see you hurt. You're a good man, you know." he confessed solemnly.

My expression softened. In the end, I didn't want to give up being a hero. The world needs me. But if this ends up being my best option, then I will agree.

"Option two, our backup plan in case you refuse option 1 & 3. In the situation where you refuse the before mentioned options, we will proceed with our original intentions. We hypnotize you with the intention to use you against your friends. We no longer want to do this to you, but if you refuse to cooperate we will do this." once more, his offer came solemnly.

I tightened up again, prepared to defend myself. I didn't want to know option 3, I just wanted to be as free as I can get. But before I could open my mouth, Remus spoke up.

"Why didn't you save that for last? I thought that would've made a better ending."

"Trust me, this one is a better closer in my opinion, Remus." he sighed.

"Finally, option 3." Ethan took a deep breath. This sounded like nerve wrecking answer for him to say. I wasn't sure whether to care or not. I just remained defensive.

At last, he let it out. "You join us. Leave your troubling life as a hero behind. Get payback for what the world has done to you. Or if you want to remain 'heroic', the three of us can become anti-heroes. Whatever it takes to make you happy." Ethan sounded serious.

Remus chimed in again, to Ethan's frustration. "Don't you want to show those losers how you feel about them now?! Smash their heads in?! Make them regret even wronging you once?!"

"No!" I lied, curling up into a ball on the bed. I didn't know what I want one bit. My morals are split in front of me, forcing me to choose one half and discard the other permanently.

The more serious of the two grabbed me by the shoulders, remaining at my eye level. "Look. I know you're hesitant to leave it all behind. You're used to one path in life. But we want what's best for you in the end. I know that anger is going to fester within you until you can no longer handle it, and end it all because there's nothing you can do about it." In that moment. Remus started shaking, crossing his arms and trying to calm himself. Ethan didn't notice, he was too focused on reassuring me.

"We were exactly like you once. Abandoned, by those we trusted most!" Ethan too, was now breaking down. "Cast away, all because of some mistakes! We had never known better! The problems built up within us, and corrupted us! And all the painful emotions of loneliness and betrayal along the way..." he choked out that last bit with a sob. "We want to help you avoid that part. We've turned out to want to care for you... W-we want-" the manipulator was now crying. Remus came up to him and slowly pulled him into a hug to comfort him, crying too.

"Shh, it's ok, Eth. It's ok, deep breaths." the maniacal one said in a way that seemed out of character for him. As Remus cried too, he rubbed Ethan's back.

I, Logan, have now come to a realization. They're serious. They genuinely care about me. Unlike anyone currently alive and in my life. I decided in that moment that my heart is right. I want what will satisfy my fury.

I got down to the ground with them and grabbed Ethan's hand, squeezing it periodically. "Ethan, listen. I'm here. Do as I say. Breathe in for 4 seconds..." As I began to help calm him down, he followed along. "Hold it for 7 seconds... And now let go for 8, and repeat." After about a minute Ethan was calm.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that side of me. You didn't deserve to know all that." he tried to confess. "Eth-..." Remus began to reassure, but cut himself off.

"I'll do it." I agreed, catching their attention. "I'm going to join you. You're right." I said as I stood up. I was going to say more, but I was stopped by the both of them getting up, and Remus pulling me into a tight hug.

"Don't worry, you'll fit right in with us. Everything will be just fine. We will never forget about you."

And in that moment, I knew they were right.

[swatato]

One reason why I love blacksun so much is that it doesn't rely on the weakening or destruction of other characters to move forward. Blake and Sun brought the best out of each other and Blake was happiest around her sunshine monkey. This isn't the case for its rival ship. No one can dispute that Sun suddenly being forced into irrelevancy and Adam's pathetic character are catalysts for the ship. Executing a romance off the corpse of someone who Blake once loved and trusted stinks to high heaven.😒

Yeah, I like how Blake and Sun can be their own characters while still being a ship. They’re definitely not perfectly written, but unlike bb, bs don’t need to be glued at the hip and fuse into one being while losing all individuality to be good for each other romantically; They’re allowed to have their own goals and adventures away from each other. They don’t need a third party to comment on how they *clearly* have smth going on and fake development for their relationship, and they don’t need to *parallel* other established couples for their romance to be believable. They actually TALK and COMMUNICATE their issues. The ship stands on its own legs because the screen time they shared with eachother was meaningful.

Thats pretty much why I didn’t like bb at all in volume 6/7. Despite the writers deliberately stationing them side by side throughout the volumes, all the blatant opportunities for blake and yang to share some actually meaningful screentime to show how they’re progressing from a broken friendship to romantic lovers is completely wasted. We only got one scene in the barn (that had WEAK payoff) and a hug at the end of 6 (Blake damaged and sobbing that she wont break promises after getting gaslit by adam for that....how ✨romantic✨) The rest were just fuffy, filler moments that eventually bordered on obnoxious just to bait the fans with. The world around them (rwby rewind, the merch descriptions, the VAs, other RT employees, the DC comics, the fans) has to convince us that these two are in love rather than the merit of the screentime they share with each other. For volumes, they have so little to show that they are distinct from the friendships around them (jnpr/rw) but I’m supposed to believe their eye/aura colours and one line in one song is supposed to mean something (even tho yang has z e r o to do with beauty and the beast). Tbh, its not that there’s NOTHING here, but it seems so very one-sided with yang putting in all the emotions and work, and thats upsetting. To make up for it, Adam has to say things like “WhAt DoEs She EvEn SEe In YoU”, Marrow has to rightfully criticise how its not good for bb to ONLY EVER work with each other (cuz yano?? Its team rwby not team bees??) But he just has to be shown how wrong he is for daring to impose upon bb’s Sacred Air Space when Yang goes red-eyed to Shut Him Up 💅🏽✨, and Nora has to project her own feelings for Ren onto Blake and Yang. The more I think about how and why these two are getting together I’m just left confused. Sure, they rep bisexuals, but that can only carry a ship so far. It still needs to have the juice. Bb could have been great if it was actually planned and fleshed out properly (while not accidentally fleshing out blacksun decently all the while). There is even an arguement that bb kinda has some really toxic tendencies about it. Their “romance” is just too spotty and composed of too much trauma after trauma and negative emotions (THAT THEY DON’T HELP EACH OTHER GET THROUGH........HELLO....) before they pull a thicc 180 and start exchanging bedroom eyes. Its odd stuff, anon.

[femmereddie]

strong as the steel we carry (we rise like the sun) [3/6]

pairing: adora/catra fandom: she-ra and the princesses of power rating: general summary: A collection of drabbles from canon moments over the course of She-Ra, Catra/Adora related. This post contains all my drabbles from season four. read on ao3

S04E03 Flutterina

What did you do to me?

Why did you do it?

Catra woke up from her nightmare, startled and drenched in sweat. She didn’t even have time to process her dream before she heard a noise. She turned her head and found Emily, Entrapta’s robot, hovering over her.

Catra leaped out of bed, completely freaked out. It was almost like Emily knew what she dreamt about. “Stay away from me!” Catra screamed, scratching the robot with her claws.

Catra watched Emily hobble away. When she was finally alone, she sighed in relief and slumped back in her bed. Catra knew she would have to get up eventually, especially since she had to introduce Hordak to Double Trouble. She needed to initiate the next part of her plan, but Catra needed a few extra minutes to herself to process her dream.

Catra couldn’t unsee Entrapta and Adora’s angry faces, staring her down. Catra remembered how vulnerable and terrified she felt, and those emotions lingered once she woke up. No matter how much time passes, Catra still has trouble pushing her feelings away. They somehow come barreling back all because of a stupid dream. A dream that painfully reminded her of her reality.

First, there was Adora, and that was definitely her fault. She didn’t have to go. She could have stayed by Catra’s side, and they could have ruled Etheria together, the way that they had always planned.

It was harder to blame Entrapta, but Catra soothed herself by saying that Entrapta only made bigger messes that Catra always had to clean up. They didn’t need Entrapta. Setting off the portal was the best thing Catra ever did, even if it didn’t work in their favor. Horde Prime would arrive any day now, and Catra was now a leader of the Horde.

Catra had become a master manipulator, skilled at deceiving everyone, including herself. She was so good at it that even Catra believed that she was more vengeful than she was hurt or lonely. But she couldn’t give up now, not when things were going in her favor. So far, anyway.

God, Catra was furious. She was mad at Entrapta and even angrier at Adora. It was easier for Catra to be upset; it always has been. And truthfully, at least on the surface, Catra didn’t feel guilty. She remembered the fight she had with Adora in the alternate reality, and what she had said to her.

Don’t you get it?! I am never going to go with you.

You always have to go and ruin it. Don’t you?

I won’t let you win. I’d rather see the whole world end than let that happen.

It was all true, every last word. If Catra and Adora had to have the same argument all over again, she would just repeat everything she said. Catra would burn everything down to ensure that she got what she wanted, and Adora got nothing. That’s what Adora deserved after leaving Catra with nothing. Let Adora see the losing side for a change. It wasn’t fair that Adora was the one who betrayed Catra, and Catra was the one who stayed faithfully with the Horde. Catra was loyal, yet she was the one who always got stabbed in the back.

Why did her friends keep betraying her? They either left her or stood in her way. They screwed things up to the point of no return. Catra would have lost if she hadn’t sent Entrapta to Beast Island. Sure, everyone came back from the alternate reality, but The Rebellion was in shambles. Catra and Hordak were planning a successful takeover. The prissy princesses didn’t know what was coming, not with the tricks the Horde had up their sleeves.

Catra, look what’s happening! You’re going to destroy everything!

It infuriated Catra that Adora thought that was all she was good for. Destruction. If Adora wanted to know why Catra opened the portal, Catra wouldn’t hesitate. Catra needed everything to go well. If Hordak could successfully bring in the rest of his armies, Catra would finally taste victory. Even if she knew deep down, the only person she was fighting was herself.

Catra’s dream reminded her of one crucial thing. She remembered what it felt like to lose her balance and slip through the blazing red portal. She remembered why it happened—it was because of her so-called friends. Trusting people and putting her faith in them—that’s what always brought Catra down. Her dream was a harsh but necessary wakeup call. She couldn’t afford to have any friends, no matter how much they claimed to be loyal to her and the Horde.

So, that evening, when Scorpia came to check on her like she usually did, Catra was sure to put Scorpia in her place. After all, Catra already had everything she needed. Her plan was in motion, and she was finally going to win.

She didn’t need anybody to lean on. She had herself, and that was always enough.

—

S04E04 Pulse

“And don’t worry, darling, I’ll keep a better eye on Glimmer. Who knew she was so powerful?”

Catra scoffed at Double Trouble’s observation. “Whatever. If she hadn’t used Adora as bait—”

“Oh, yes! How devious. I’d assumed she was all glitter, no grit.”

“Yeah. That… was unexpected. And then she showed up alone. Huh.” The wheels in Catra’s mind began turning faster and faster. “Looks like that friendship might have a few cracks, huh? Would be a shame if someone were there to take advantage of them…”

Double Trouble grinned sinisterly at Catra, and they quickly left after that. Catra watched them go, the excitement of their new strategy thrumming in her veins. She knew that Adora’s friendship with Glimmer wasn’t as perfect as the girls made it out to be. Of course, you could say that Catra was just green with envy. But even when Adora was still with the Horde, she and Catra still had their fair share of problems. Nothing was ever peachy perfect, as it always seemed to be with Adora and Glimmer.

Smiling to herself, Catra walked back inside. New energies took over her body. Confidence. Sureness. Certainty. Now, Glimmer would finally learn the price of being friends with Adora. Their friendship would fall apart, proving that Catra’s failed relationship with Adora was not her fault. Adora and Glimmer would finally know what it’s like to lose trust in the one person you thought you could always count on. And little did they know that it was Flutterina, the Horde’s spy, snipping the thread that held Adora and Glimmer together.

Catra couldn’t wait to watch them fall apart.

—

S04E06 Princess Scorpia

I’m so close. If I can pull this off, everything, everything, will have been worth it.

As Catra stormed away from Scorpia, her own words played in her mind on repeat. Usually, she wouldn’t say something that revealing to anyone, but Catra was in a bigger frenzy than usual. She couldn’t help but think out loud.

It wasn’t like Scorpia would say anything about it. Once Catra made it clear that they were not friends, Scorpia didn’t question her as much. It was a massive relief to Catra, who couldn’t focus on anything but taking down The Rebellion once and for all.

But Catra couldn’t help but ponder on what “everything” meant. Now that she was alone, in a safe spot where people were unlikely to reach her, she could think about it for a few minutes.

“Everything” started with the decisions Catra made since Adora left, starting with choosing to stay with the Horde in the first place. But soon, “everything” spiraled out of control. Catra stopped making excuses for her actions. After all, what was the point? Every time she told herself that this would be the last time she did something awful, another opportunity would come around. Next thing Catra knew, she was electrocuting Entrapta and shipping her off to Beast Island.

Not that Catra regretted that choice. She didn’t. She couldn’t, because regretting her actions meant acknowledging that they were mistakes. However, if Catra managed to succeed, then nothing would matter. Enabling Shadow Weaver’s torture of Glimmer, destroying civilian villages, abusing Scorpia, Entrapta, even Hordak, for heaven’s sake. It would have all been worth it.

Sure, Catra was emotionally reckless—she set off an entire alternate reality, and their world almost collapsed so that she could win. But no one else understood—winning was everything to Catra. It was all she had left. Everyone had left her in one form another.

Catra stopped reasoning with herself after everyone returned from the portal. She did whatever she felt was necessary to get what she wanted. No more justification, no more excuses. Catra was done being a pathetic excuse for a person. So, she secretly infiltrated The Rebellion, thanks to Double Trouble. She treated everyone worse than dirt, an incredible feat for her considering she already wasn’t treating her peers very well. Catra would cause ample destruction, and everything would blow up in The Rebellion’s face—in Adora’s face.

As usual, it all came back to Adora. Every choice Catra made since Adora left the Horde was to prove to her former best friend that she made the wrong decision when she chose the princesses over their relationship. It was the ultimate payback. Once the Horde finally succeeded in taking over Etheria, Adora would see that her fatal mistake was leaving and underestimating Catra.

Everything would be worth it, Catra reassured herself. All the pain, destruction, manipulation—everything Catra had caused would be worth it. It had to be because if it wasn’t, Catra lost everything she ever loved for nothing.

* * *

“You’re a bad friend.”

Catra stared in shock as Scorpia walked away. For the first time ever, Scorpia didn’t even hesitate to look back. She kept walking, becoming smaller and smaller until she turned the corner and disappeared completely. Catra didn’t know what to expect from Scorpia after yelling at her, but it certainly wasn’t that.

It was a few hours after Catra sent Scorpia to find Entrapta’s recordings, and while Scorpia did find them, she “accidentally” broke them. Now, Catra didn’t have a choice but to take whatever contraption Scorpia gave her and bring it to Hordak. But Catra swore to herself that no matter what his reaction would be, this wouldn’t get in the way of the plan’s execution. The Horde would conquer Etheria, the Rebellion would fall, and when Horde Prime finally showed up, Catra would be praised and placed in high rank among the Horde’s soldiers. Maybe she’ll even earn a position higher than Hordak.

So, maybe Scorpia’s words made Catra’s heart twinge just a little bit, but it was probably out of surprise, more than anything. Besides, Catra wasn’t heartbroken. She didn’t care if Scorpia thought she was a lousy friend. Scorpia would get over Catra’s outburst like she always did, and then everything would go back to normal. And how could Catra be a bad friend if she didn’t have any, to begin with?

Catra picked up the recording she threw a few minutes before. She stared at it for a few moments, collecting herself before going to meet with Hordak. Screw Scorpia. Catra never needed anyone, and certainly not some clumsy, happy-go-lucky scorpion who just sat around singing cheesy campfire songs. Catra was always better off alone; she knew that by now. Besides, Scorpia was still a princess. She would always be one, even if her parents swore loyalty to the Horde. Of course, Scorpia was useless; it was in her blood. So, Catra smoothed out her hair and went to see Hordak in his lab.

When Catra walked in, Hordak immediately perked up. “The recordings!” He desperately cried.

Catra had a split second to make a decision, and she did. She hid the tech behind her back. “Entrapta must have taken them with her before leaving.” She turned to look at Hordak. “There’s nothing.”

Hordak screamed in frustration, throwing pieces of debris in the air. “I gave you an order,” he grunted.

“Get. Over. It. You don’t need Entrapta, you never did. You don’t need a princess in your life telling you what to do. Look at what you’ve done without her! You built an army. An empire. You and me… we don’t need anyone. Forget them all! No one matters; nothing matters but this mission! You want to prove yourself? Prove your worth? Then do it. You and I are going to conquer Etheria and then, and then, they’ll all see!” Catra finished her rant, breathing heavily, rage bubbling under her skin.

“Oh, of course! Yes. We will prevail. Give me another day, and I will be ready.”

“Does that mean… I can give the command?” Catra asked, cautiously.

“It is time.”

Catra grinned at Hordak, satisfied with their conversation. They were on the brink of victory. By this time next week, Catra would be sitting on Bright Moon’s throne, ruling Etheria. Maybe even Horde Prime will have landed on their planet by then. And she’ll have done it all, without Entrapta, without Scorpia, and definitely without Adora.

So, just like every heartache before, Scorpia faded to background music in her mind.

—

S04E08 Boys Night Out

Catra needed a break from winning.

That’s something she never thought she’d say, but everything changed once the tide started turning toward the Horde. Catra knew there was only one person who she wanted to talk to at that moment.

“Force Captain Scorpia, come in. Aw man, even when he’s winning, Hordak is annoying. Now, he suddenly loves fighting, and I’m getting stuck with whatever he deems necessary. Ugh. Never thought I’d miss shut-in Hordak. Meet me at the sea gate; I wanna take a break anyway.”

Catra turned off her radio and began making her way towards the sea gate. Now that Etheria finally belonged to the Horde, maybe she’d use the sea gate as her comfort zone, a place where she could feel safe.

Once Catra reached the gate, she climbed its walls until she was reasonably close to the top and sat down. She waited a bit, but after several minutes of radio silence, Catra reached out to Scorpia again. “Hey, Scorpia, where are you? It’s not like you to be late.”

Again, a few beats of silence passed. Catra curled herself into a sitting fetal position. Maybe, for once in her life, she should try being honest. “Listen, I’ll kill you if you tell anyone this, but… I thought winning would be… different. Or at least, more… I don’t know, fun?”

Catra heard nothing but static coming through her communication piece. She was starting to get annoyed. “Come on; you’re not still mad about before, are you? Stop being so sensitive, get over it, and talk to me, Scorpia! Scorpia?  Scorpia?!”

Okay, now, Catra was officially worried. It was so unlike Scorpia to ignore her, especially considering that Catra was her commander. Didn’t Scorpia have any respect?! Catra didn’t have to tell her anything she just said, but she did, anyway.

Catra leaped from the top of the sea gate and hurried back to Horde headquarters, desperately praying that Scorpia had just turned off her means of communication and was alone in her room.

Catra was out of breath by the time she made it back to Scorpia’s room in the Fright Zone. “Scorpia!” She exclaimed but was shocked to see a painstakingly neat place. Almost like… nobody was there. “Scorpia?” Catra asked, more hesitantly, afraid of what she would find.

Suddenly, she heard her own voice talking back to her. Catra looked down to find Scorpia’s ripped armor with her radio signal going off. Catra also noticed a folded piece of paper that sat on top of the machinery. She picked up the paper and unfolded it, finding a letter from Scorpia.

As Catra read, she gasped, not daring to believe Scorpia… left. It never occurred to Catra that Scorpia would ever do something like that, especially behind her back. How dare she?! Especially after Scorpia knew how much Adora’s desertion hurt Catra. It wasn’t like Scorpia to pull something like this.

Just then, it occurred to Catra that when she said that winning wasn’t what she thought it would be, she was talking to the empty air. She admitted a piece of information she refused to acknowledge—ruling Etheria meant nothing to her if she had nobody to share it with. Catra always imagined it would be Adora, and she knew that Scorpia would never be Adora, but Catra wouldn’t be alone, at least.

And that’s when it hit Catra—she always claimed she didn’t want friends, didn’t need friends, and that she was just better off without anyone. But now that Catra finally won, all she wanted was a friend. Adora was long gone, but Scorpia was always there for her, no matter how mean Catra could be.

Well, even Scorpia had her limits.

Now everyone was gone. Scorpia left, just like Adora did, just like anyone Catra ever cared about did. And as usual, Catra was alone, vulnerable, and in the hands of the Horde. Everything she held clutter to the floor as she stared at the ground, feeling utterly numb inside.

—

S04E10 Fractures

Shift screen. Shift screen.

That was all Catra has been doing for the last few days, desperately searching for Scorpia through the Horde’s camera system, hoping to spot her so Catra could bring her back. But so far, it proved to be useless.

Suddenly, she heard a laugh in the distance. Catra didn’t think and knocked down a layer of the defense walls she built around her heart. “Scorpia? I knew you’d come.”

Once she realized that she was just talking to open space, Catra groaned in frustration. She approached the window and looked down to find scattered Horde soldiers talking amongst themselves. In another lifetime, she probably would have been down there with Adora. Possibly with Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio, too. But Catra wasn’t because she was their commander, so all of these soldiers were probably just standing around and laughing at her soul chipping away, turning into debris.

Just then, the Horde trio re-entered the outpost. Catra immediately went to confront them. She hissed her way past random soldiers, determined to make her presence known.

“Okay, no. There’s no way we’re working a fourth—”

But Catra wasn’t interested. She grabbed Lonnie’s arm and yanked her away from the group, dragging her to the communications room.

Catra finally released her grip on Lonnie, throwing her against a panel. “What are they saying?!”

“What? Who?”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know. Are they laughing at me?!”

Lonnie gave Catra a curious look, and Catra was sure Lonnie thought that she had officially lost her mind. Well, maybe she had. “Mostly, people are just tired. I think if you let them sleep, everything will be fine.”

Catra had begun walking away from Lonnie but stopped once Lonnie suggested that things could turn around and be okay. “Everything isn’t fine! Scorpia would be here if everything was fine!”

As soon as she said that, Catra realized she had just put herself in a vulnerable position. She immediately turned back to face Lonnie and growled at her. Lonnie gasped in fear, which made Catra realize how utterly ridiculous this all was. Confessing how much she missed Scorpia to Lonnie of all people? Was Lonnie all Catra had left? Did everything come down to this? Catra couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Everything about this situation was just so bizarre, and she was so worn down and so broken that she couldn’t react in any other way. “Just leave. Like everybody else.”

Lonnie stared at Catra, bewildered by her behavior. Catra couldn’t take being around anyone else, for the time being, so she screamed. “GO!”

Once Lonnie was gone, she picked up a communication tablet and tried to reach Double Trouble. However, Catra was in an extremely volatile state, so before Double Trouble could even answer the signal, Catra accidentally crushed the communicator. She threw the tablet to the ground, watching it shatter to pieces.

Double Trouble was Catra’s absolute last resort. With them not answering, Catra was truly alone now.

* * *

Later that evening, Catra’s erratic condition hadn’t changed. She hadn’t slept in days. Scorpia was nowhere to be found. The Horde kept gaining ground in Etheria. Life continued to move, but Catra was unable to.

Eventually, it was time to check in with Hordak. Once she got on the line with him, he immediately began updating her on the newly gained territory. “I’ve taken the last of the coastal towns. What is the status in the Woods?”

Without missing a beat, Catra replied. “Our raiding parties have crushed the villages near our current outpost. Tomorrow, we move farther inland. Everything is under control.” God, she sounded so rehearsed, it was as if she had practiced for hours for some petty recital. But Catra was already used to it. Pretending wasn’t hard anymore; it was second nature for her. Truthfully, Catra died the day Adora left, and whoever was left was simply a shadow of the person she used to be.

“Excellent. Etheria will be ours yet.”

Hordak hung up, and Catra let her headpiece clatter to the ground. Any moment now, the dam inside her would break. She was alone in her surroundings. Nobody was communicating with her. If Catra needed a good cry, just to see if it would make her feel even a little better, now was the time.

So that’s what she did. Catra slid to her knees and burst into tears, opening the emotional floodgates inside of her. There was so much she was crying for by that point; it was practically a week’s worth laundry list. Adora. Scorpia. Entrapta. Adora. Shadow Weaver. Sparkles, Glimmer, whatever her name was. And Adora, Adora, Adora.

Catra had finally won; she had gotten everything she wanted. And yet, she had never felt emptier than she did at that moment. How could she feel anything inside when she was still alone, despite being at the top? Here Catra was, having reached the peak of the mountain she’s been climbing for the last couple of years, but it was nothing like she imagined it would be. Truthfully, a part of her knew that it could never measure up to what she wanted—ruling Etheria with Adora. But if she were given a chance to love Adora, and to be loved in return, could she give it all up?

Catra knew the answer to that question. And so, she continued to sob, finally letting her most vulnerable emotions slip through the cracks of her hollow soul.

—

S04E12 Destiny Part 1

Catra splashed water on her face and took a few moments to collect herself. Today was a brand new day. Scorpia was gone, and Double Trouble wasn’t around, but everything was fine. Okay, maybe she had a hysterical breakdown the other day, but so far, pretending like it never happened was working for her. Today was going to be a good day; she’d make sure of that.

Catra looked in the mirror and smoothed down her hair. She turned and began walking away from the sink, but stopped when she saw Scorpia’s abandoned locker.

Catra gasped. She forgot that almost everywhere she went, there were traces of Scorpia. Of course, Catra had stopped looking for Scorpia, but seeing her locker entirely intact, with doodles of the Super Pal Trio, just really hurt. Catra bowed her head, darkness overwhelming her once again.

Just then, Catra heard laughter, and the Horde Trio walked in the locker room. “Sorry, we didn’t know you were in here. We’ll just come back later.”

“Wait!” Catra exclaimed. Now that she had their attention, she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t have anything to say to people she’s known her whole life but seemed like strangers to her. So instead, she asked, “What’s the report from the field?”

“We just got back from conquering another rebel town. The third one this week! So, you’re welcome.”

“Aw, you should have seen us! I was all…” Kyle began animatedly explaining what happened, so Catra tuned out his voice. She wasn’t interested. But then, Kyle kicked Scorpia’s locker, ripping the corner from one of Scorpia’s doodles.

“Watch it!”

Kyle ran in fear behind Lonnie and Rogelio. Lonnie spoke up. “Calm down, Catra! It’s not like Scorpia needs it anymore.”

“You… don’t get to talk to me like that. I’m your commander! Got it?”

“What is wrong with you? We’re winning! Even you should be happy.”

How dare Lonnie speak to her like that! Catra may have been on the brink of insanity, but nobody had the right to imply that she wasn’t okay. “Happy?” Catra slammed Lonnie into the locker, seething with hot rage. “I’ll be happy when The Rebellion and She-Ra are gone for good. But that’s never going to happen with the three of you goofing off all the time. You are pathetic!”

In a way, Catra didn’t lie. She didn’t want Adora to die, but Adora discovering her She-Ra persona only jeopardized their friendship, effectively putting an end to it. Without She-Ra, Adora and Catra might still be best friends, taking on the world together. Like it was always meant to be.

Lonnie pushed Catra away, refusing to take any more of her bullshit. Catra only responded with the threat of her claws. She was ready to strike, but suddenly, Kyle jumped in the way.

“Stay away from her! We used to be your friends. Why are you treating us like this?”

Catra didn’t know what to say to that. Sure, they were friends once, a long time ago, but things have changed now. The last time they were friends, Adora was there. The last time they were friends, Catra undoubtedly loved Adora. But Catra didn’t have any friends for a long time. Scorpia was there, but Catra didn’t consider her a friend until it was too late.

For a moment, Catra let her guard down, as the only thing she could think of was the fact that the last time she was friends with Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio was when Adora was there, too. When Catra and Adora were on the same side. But those days were long gone, and despite what she had realized when she sobbed her guts out the other day, Catra was still desperate to pretend like it never happened.

Catra’s face hardened. “Get out!” She panted heavily, refusing to move from her spot until the Horde Trio were safely gone. Then, she turned back to Scorpia’s old locker, ripping the drawings away and leaning her head against it. After acknowledging everything she had in the last few days, and after almost blowing her cover in front of Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio, she was too exhausted to do anything else.

—

S04E13 Destiny Part 2

“You know, it took me a while, but I finally figured out your character.”

Catra was still reeling from Double Trouble pretending to be Adora. She couldn’t register what they were saying, so she remained frozen, allowing Double Trouble to continue talking.

“You try so hard to play the big, bad villain. But your heart’s never been in it, has it?”

Catra couldn’t believe what they were saying. For Double Trouble to decode Catra was one thing, but to do it while pretending to be her? Catra was pretty sure her brain had just stopped working altogether. “What…? What are you? Stop! Stop it!”

Catra tried to scratch at Double Trouble, but it was no use. Both of them were in the same body. Double Trouble ducked out of the way and grabbed Catra’s arm, forcing her to look at them. “People have hurt you, haven’t they? They didn’t believe in you. They didn’t trust you. Didn’t need you. Left you.”

Double Trouble shapeshifted into Adora and used Catra’s hand to cradle their face. Catra was so stunned by everything that was happening. It was all too much for her, and she felt so helpless in their grip.

Double Trouble pushed Catra to the ground. “But did you ever stop to think, maybe they’re not the problem? It’s you. You drive them away, wildcat.”

Double Trouble shifted into Scorpia, and Catra had never felt so small in her life. She looked up at them, wishing more than anything that she was looking at Scorpia, but Catra knew it wasn’t her.  “Why are you doing this?”

“It’s for your own good, darling. We both know this was never what you really wanted. But, it was also a good distraction. Your army was ambushed on their way to defenseless Bright Moon. Your face right now is almost better than applause. Almost.”

Each new reveal hit Catra more personally than the last one did. She never expected Double Trouble of all people to leave her for The Rebellion. “You… betrayed me.”

“It’s not personal, darling, you knew how this worked. The best way to survive is always choose the winning side. The Rebels have some kind of ancient superweapon. Any minute now they’re going to use it, and when they do… everything you’ve worked for will be destroyed.”

Catra stared in disbelief. Double Trouble just didn’t stop talking. They kept hitting Catra, where it hurt the most. “I’d really better be going before that happens! And… scene.”

Double Trouble finally left Catra among the wreckage of the Fright Zone. She stared at their receding figure, completely shattered. Everything was for nothing. The only thing that happened was Double Trouble betrayed her for the princesses, and they exposed the deepest, darkest parts of herself that she had barely acknowledged. Even thinking of Double Trouble’s words managed to crush her heart even more.

The worst part was, it was all true. That’s why Catra felt the way she did. Everything led up to this moment—the inevitability that she was always the problem. No wonder they all left. Double Trouble, Scorpia, Shadow Weaver. Even Adora left, and how could she not?

We both know this was never what you really wanted. Double Trouble’s words echoed in Catra’s mind as she fully accepted them. Catra knew what she really wanted, but it was always impossible. How could anybody even love Catra? Even if Adora hadn’t left, it was ridiculous of Catra to even think for a split second that her former best friend would ever love her back. And now, Catra was far beyond redemption. She was too broken to be fixed. Her plan with Hordak completely backfired, so there was nothing left for her now.

She lost. And as always, she was alone.

Catra sat there for ages, waiting for something to happen. Whether this ancient superweapon would destroy her, or maybe Adora would do it herself, Catra didn’t know. She just knew it was inevitable.

Suddenly, Glimmer teleported into the destroyed Fright Zone. Catra had been quietly crying for the last several minutes, but once Glimmer arrived, the princess immediately heard her. Glimmer turned to Catra and pointed a magical weapon. “Guess you wanted all my attention for yourself. Your troops are gone. You’re all alone, you’ve lost.”

Please, tell Catra something that she didn’t know for once. “What are you waiting for? Do it.”

Glimmer was wholly taken aback by Catra’s reaction. It was so unlike her to just give up and not fight back, but Glimmer didn’t know that Catra had already fought back as hard as possible. You could only fight for so long before you’re bruised and beaten down to the point of paralyzation. And now, Catra sat there, unable to move.

We both know this was never what you really wanted. Catra heard Double Trouble’s words once more.

“Looks like we’re both alone, Sparkles.”