#Justice for the Defense team I love them too much for them to be treated like this

[some-pers0n]

Never forgiving Valve for giving Engineer the most in-depth and story-relevant backstory, having him be the grandfather of the creator of the life-extender machines, the son of the TFC Engineer, and establishing a key connection between the Conaghers and Elizabeth/Helen/Mann family, only to then relegate him to a supporting character, have him appear for only 10 pages in the main comics, and then never say or do anything

[lila-lou]

✨ His only exception - Pt. 28/? ✨

Summary: 12 months ago, Butcher went above and beyond to have you join his team. You had a simple office job at Supe Affairs. The same thing every day, working from 9 to 5 and watching Butcher and his team defeat one renegade after another. One evening, however, something changed.

Pairing: Soldier Boy x Reader

Warnings: 18+ only! Smut, Language, angst, fluff, soft Ben, Ben being slightly insecure

Word Count: 6891

A/N: This is part 28 of “His only exception”.

English isn’t my first language, so please be lenient. 💙✨

As Ben drove to the Vought Tower, his hand remained on your thigh. You glanced over at him, noticing the tense set of his jaw, and decided to break the silence.

"How's everything going with the team?, you asked, your voice soft as you reached over to squeeze his hand.

Ben sighed, his grip tightening slightly. "I still don't trust those fuckers any farther than I can throw 'em".

It wasn't easy for Ben to trust others, especially not them.

You shook your head, still unable to believe the extent of the lies and betrayal that had unfolded within the team. The memory of how they had treated Ben made your blood boil, but you knew dwelling on it wouldn't change the past.

"I still can't believe what they did to you", you muttered, your voice tinged with anger and frustration.

Ben shrugged nonchalantly, a bitter smile playing on his lips. "Eh, it's enough justice to see their fucked-up and pissed faces every day", he replied, his tone laced with satisfaction. "Now they have to do exactly what I want".

"But… as much as I'd love to rip them apart", he admitted with a wry chuckle, "They're doing a pretty decent job. They're taking care of all the supes I want to get vanished, and the media seems to like them".

He paused, a hint of grudging respect in his voice. "Can't deny they're effective, I'll give them that", he added.

As the two of you stood in the elevator, Ben looked down at you, his expression serious. "After the meeting, I'm going with you to the doctor", he stated firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument. "We need to make sure everything's okay with you and the baby".

You nodded, your hand brushing softly over your stomach, a gesture of both comfort and uncertainty. "Yeah, I guess we do", you murmured softly, your voice tinged with a mixture of emotions. "It's just… all so surreal, you know?".

Ben's gaze softened as he reached out to gently squeeze your hand. "Don't worry too much about it", he reassured you, his tone surprisingly gentle.

As you stepped into the meeting room, the team was already waiting impatiently. Butcher seemed particularly annoyed, his arms crossed over his chest. The others raised eyebrows as they saw you walking slightly behind Ben, a rare sight that piqued their curiosity.

"Well, look who decided to join us. And what about you, did you crawl out from under your rock, (Y/N)?".

Before you could even respond, Ben's protective instincts kicked in, his tone sharp and defensive. "Watch your fucking mouth, Butcher", he snapped, his jaw clenched tightly. "She's here because she damn well pleases, and that's none of your business".

You shot Ben a grateful glance, appreciating his defense, but also feeling a bit annoyed at his brusque manner.

Butcher couldn't resist pushing Ben's buttons further. "Ooh, touchy, aren't we? Didn't realize you had such a soft spot for the lady".

Ben's expression darkened, his eyes narrowing dangerously as he shot Butcher a menacing glare. "Keep pushing your luck, Butcher, and you'll fucking regret it", he warned.

Ben pulled out a chair for you, gesturing for you to sit down. With crossed arms, he stood beside you, his expression stern and guarded as Butcher filled everyone in about the supes who seemed to want to stand up against the new Vought. Meanwhile, you felt some gentle movements in your belly, a sensation that both excited and unsettled you.

As Butcher spoke, Ben glanced down at you, noticing the subtle change in your demeanor. "You alright?", he murmured softly, concern flickering in his eyes.

You nodded softly, trying to concentrate on the meeting as A-Train and Annie showed some video footage. Hughie chimed in, directing his comment to Ben, "No one knows where the supes are hiding right now. They're keeping a low profile".

Ben's expression darkened as he absorbed Hughie's words, his mind already strategizing the next move. "Alright", he muttered, his voice firm. "We'll find them. Keep an eye on any leads, no matter how small".

Frenchie reminded Ben of the media conference in two hours, and Ben rolled his eyes, grumbling, "Annie should take this".

Annie raised both arms in protest, but Ben brushed her off rudely. "No, you'll fucking handle it, blondie", he insisted brusquely.

Just then, a wave of nausea hit you.

Again Ben looked down at you, noticing your pale complexion. "You´re sure you´re fucking okay?", he asked.

You shook your head slightly, feeling queasier by the moment. "I think I need some air", you mumbled, quickly stepping out of the room.

Butcher's voice followed you, gruff and concerned. "What the bloody hell is going on with her?", he demanded.

Ben waved him off dismissively, already following you out of the room. "Like i said, none of your business", he retorted sharply, his focus solely on you.

With Ben on your heels, you quickly stepped into the nearest bathroom, the urgency rising as nausea overwhelmed you. You doubled over, vomiting painfully into the toilet, your body trembling with each heave. Ben hovered nearby, concern etched into his features, but unsure of how to help in this situation.

Ben held your hair back.

"What do you need?", he asked, his voice tinged with worry. But you were unable to respond, the waves of nausea rendering you speechless.

As Ben watched you in distress, he felt a wave of helplessness wash over him. It was a rare moment of vulnerability for him, accustomed to being in control and taking charge. Seeing you in pain, and feeling powerless to alleviate it, left him feeling unusually weak and unsettled.

Annie turned to Frenchie, a curious expression on her face. "So, are Soldier Boy and (Y/N) a couple now?", she asked.

Frenchie shrugged, feigning ignorance. "Mon amie, how should I know?", he replied casually.

Annie raised an eyebrow, pointing out the fact that you seemed to like Frenchie the most.

Frenchie chuckled lightly. "Well, I don't know for sure, but it certainly seems that way", he admitted with a knowing smile.

Butcher's tone was sharp as he addressed Frenchie. "Then why's Soldier Boy still a tense asshole when he can stick one away whenever he wants?", he quipped, his words dripping with sarcasm.

Annie nudged Butcher with her elbow, shooting him a disapproving look. "Come on, Butcher, ease up", she chided, her tone firm but gentle.

"Are you fucking happy taking orders from a supe on coke with PTSD?".

Hughie mumbled, "It's better than being dead", as A-Train chimed in, "Soldier Boy's actually doing a pretty decent job, even though I hate to admit it".

"Plus he didn’t kill anyone like Homelander did, and he's actually trying to represent the supes as the good ones again", Hughie added.

Ben held you steady from behind, his grip firm yet gentle. "Are you feeling any better?", he asked.

You took a deep breath, feeling the nausea subsiding. "Yeah, a little", you replied, leaning back against him for support.

Ben helped you up, his strong arms steadying you as you made your way to the sink. After rinsing your mouth, you leaned against the sink, feeling weak and shaky. Ben stood beside you, his concern evident in his furrowed brow.

"You´re fine?", he asked softly, his hand reaching out to rub soothing circles on your back.

"Yeah, kinda", you mumbled. "This part of pregnancy is absolutely no fun at all".

With Ben's hand on your lower back, guiding you inside, you returned to the meeting. Annie eyed you suspiciously, but Ben quickly took charge, instructing everyone on what to do. Then, he stepped towards the elevator with you.

You made your way to the doctor's office for a battery of tests, with Ben steadfastly by your side, his arms crossed over his supe suit as he watched over you protectively.

The doctor reviewed your files and then turned to you. "I want to try another ultrasound", he said, his tone gentle yet determined, "Even though the last one didn't work as we hoped".

You nodded and changed into a gown, then hopped onto the examination chair. Ben stood nearby as you slowly spread your legs.

The doctor approached with the ultrasound equipment. "Take a deep breath", he instructed gently as he inserted the transducer into your vagina. You winced at the discomfort, and Ben hissed in response.

Again Ben's protective instincts flared up as he watched you wince at the discomfort. He shot a glare at the doctor, his tone laced with hostility. "Careful there", he growled, his voice low and threatening. "Don't fucking hurt her".

The doctor raised an eyebrow at Ben's hostility but remained focused on the task at hand. "I'm being as gentle as I can", he assured, trying to calm the situation.

You reached out and placed a reassuring hand on Ben's arm, silently urging him to relax.

The doctor adjusted the ultrasound machine, his eyes scanning the screen intently. But after a while, Ben got impatient.

Ben's jaw clenched as he watched the screen, his frustration mounting. "Do you fucking see anything or not?", he demanded.

"Just give me a moment", he said calmly, his tone professional despite Ben's impatience.

The doctor turned the monitor toward both of you and began to explain what he saw.

"Here", he pointed to the screen, "That's the gestational sac, and there", he moved the transducer slightly, "Is your baby".

You looked at the screen, feeling a surge of relief wash over you. Ben's grip on your hand tightened as he listened intently to the doctor's explanation.

"The heartbeat is a bit faint, but that's normal at this stage", the doctor continued. "Overall, everything looks good".

You could have sworn you saw one single tear in Ben’s eyes, but he quickly composed himself.

"I can't believe it", you whispered.

Ben actually smiled softly, his thumb brushing over the back of your hand. "Me neither", he murmured. "But I'm fucking glad it's real".

As the doctor continued to measure and check everything, you couldn't help but feel a sense of amazement at the whole process. It was new territory for all of you, and the doctor seemed just as intrigued as you were.

After a moment of silence, the doctor spoke up again, his tone filled with a mix of curiosity and wonder. "It's definitely the baby of a supe", he remarked, his eyes flicking between you and Ben. "It seems the baby has some control over whether it's visible on the ultrasound or not, like… a shield".

Ben's lips twitched into a little smirk, a proud glint in his eyes at the thought of potentially making the first natural supe on earth.

"Given the circumstances, I'll need to see you as often as possible. We need to monitor your progress closely, considering the unique nature of this pregnancy and its potential effects on your health".

After another few tests and a long talk with the doctor, Ben accompanied you to his office, where you promptly collapsed onto the couch, feeling exhausted after the barrage of tests and examinations.

Ben leaned against his desk, flashing you a smirk as he commented, "Looks like carrying my baby is taking a toll on you, huh?". You just rolled your eyes at him.

Ben pushed himself back from his desk and handed you a bottle of water. “Here, drink up”, he said. “Do you want me to drive you home?”.

You shook your head, taking a sip of water. “No, I need to work”, you replied, rubbing your temples. But Ben wasn’t having any of it.

"No way", Ben insisted. "Not while you're carrying my baby".

You sighed, knowing it was futile to argue with him when he got like this. "Ben, I'll be fine", you said, trying to reassure him. "I have work to do, and I can't just abandon it".

But Ben's expression hardened, his protective instincts kicking into overdrive once more. "I don't fucking care", he stated firmly. "Your health and the baby's health come first. Besides.. I´m your fucking boss now, so… You are hereby granted a leave of absence".

"Alright", you conceded, sighing heavily. "But only because I'm too tired to argue with you".

Ben's lips curved into a satisfied smirk as he reached for his keys. "That's what I like to hear", he said, his tone playful yet firm. "Let's get you home and make sure you rest".

With that, he led you out of the office and drove you home.

As you kicked off your shoes and headed straight to the bathroom to get changed, your phone on the kitchen counter buzzed with a message from Frenchie, asking how you were doing. Ben glanced at the message, his brows furrowing slightly.

“You got a message from.. Serge", he called out towards the bathroom, his tone laced with a hint of jealousy, not knowing that thats Frenchies real name.

You emerged from the bathroom, wearing more comfortable clothes, and raised an eyebrow at him. “It’s just Frenchie”, you replied casually. “He’s just checking in, nothing to worry about”.

Ben's expression darkened, a trace of annoyance flashing in his eyes. "Since when do you talk to the team again?", he asked.

You rolled your eyes. "Just with Frenchie", you mumbled, trying to diffuse the tension. But Ben wasn't satisfied with that answer, his suspicion lingering in the air.

His eyes lingered on your belly, a frown forming on his face. He wasn't happy, and you could sense his unease.

"You're jealous, aren't you?", you teased, a small grin playing on your lips as you observed his reaction.

Ben scoffed, trying to downplay his feelings. "Don't be fucking ridiculous", he replied, his tone defensive. "I just… don't trust them, that's all".

You mumbled a noncommittal "huh", looking at him, which made him raise an eyebrow in response.

"What the fuck are you thinking?", Ben asked, his tone a mixture of irritation and curiosity.

You grinned and shook your head. "Oh, nothing", you mumbled, but as you tried to step out of the kitchen, Ben grabbed your wrist, his gaze intense as he looked down at you.

"What's going on in that head of yours, huh?", he asked again.

You chuckled, feeling a rush of affection for Ben despite his overbearing attitude. "Just thinking about how lucky I am to have you", you replied.

Ben was taken aback by your unexpected declaration, his grip on your wrist loosening slightly. But before he could respond, you leaned in to press a quick kiss to his lips. Surprised, Ben's initial hesitation melted away, and he quickly pulled you against his chest, returning the kiss with fervor. His hands found their way to your hips, holding you close as he deepened the kiss, his passion evident in every movement.

As Ben carefully lifted you onto the kitchen counter, stepping between your legs, he gazed at you intently. His hands rested on your waist, his touch gentle yet possessive, as you bit your lip, feeling the heat rise to your cheeks. The intensity of his stare sent shivers down your spine, and you couldn't help but blush even more under his scrutiny.

His gaze fell on the necklace he had gifted you. "Thank you for coming after me", he murmured, his voice filled with sincerity. "For literally saving me". He meant more than just the physical act of freeing him a few weeks ago; it was a testament to your unwavering loyalty and love that had brought him back from the brink.

You bit your lip again, feeling the weight of his sincerity. His eyes held a depth of emotion that stirred something within you. That was the moment you knew, that despite your reservations and uncertainties, you couldn't deny him the chance to be a father.

"I'm going to keep the baby", you whispered softly, your voice filled with determination and a hint of vulnerability.

Ben's eyes shot up, a mixture of surprise and joy dancing within them. His lips twitched into a grin as he processed your words, a surge of happiness washing over him.

"Really?", he exclaimed. "I mean… of course you fucking are", he added hastily.

You shook your head in disbelief, a smile tugging at the corners of your lips as you looked up at Ben.

Ben's grin widened. "Guess that means I'm going to be a fucking father then", he exclaimed, his voice filled with genuine excitement. "A real one".

Ben heaved you up onto his hips, a smirk playing on his lips as he carried you into the bedroom.

"That screams for some extra orgasms for you", he grumbled playfully, his tone teasing as he laid you down on the bed.

You leaned back, giggling slightly as you squeezed your legs together, teasing Ben. He tried to push them apart, his hands roaming over your thighs.

"I can't, I'm on my period", you joked.

Ben raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing on his lips. "Oh, come on now", he replied, a hint of amusement in his voice. "That's not how it works".

"Well, who knows", you grinned mischievously. "Maybe our baby comes with some special perks".

"I highly doubt it", he replied. "But I guess we'll find out soon enough".

With that Ben pulled down your sweatpants and panties with a bit of roughness, parting your legs shamelessly. Your breath hitched at the sudden intensity of his actions.

"You're just full of jokes today, aren't you?", Ben grumbled.

You grinned down at him. "Always gotta keep you on your toes", you replied, but before you could say anything more, Ben silenced you by sucking harshly on your clit, sending a jolt of pleasure through your body.

You moaned loudly, your back arching as Ben's mouth and tongue worked their magic on your pussy. "Fuck, Ben", you cursed, your fingers tangling in his hair as he continued his relentless assault. The intensity of his ministrations sent waves of pleasure coursing through your body, making it difficult to form coherent thoughts as you surrendered to the ecstasy.

"Ben, ease up", you gasped, pulling on his hair gently. The sensation was overwhelming, and you needed him to dial it back just a notch. Despite the pleasure coursing through you, you were starting to shake from the intensity of his ministrations.

Ben chuckled against your sensitive skin, his eyes locking with yours as he murmured, "Are you going to stop teasing me and behave like a good girl now?". His tone was playful, but there was a hint of authority in his voice, challenging you to comply.

You blushed hard under his gaze. "Maybe", you teased, unable to resist pushing his buttons a little more.

Ben's lips curved into a smirk as he bit your thigh lightly. "Careful now", he warned. "You wouldn't want to test me, would you?", his voice low and husky as he trailed kisses back up your thigh, his lips tantalizingly close to your heated core.

As he inched over your clit, you shook your head, trying to push your hips upward so you could feel his lips again, but his grip on your hipbones held you in place.

"Patience, sweetheart", he murmured, his warm breath sending shivers down your spine. "I'll get there when I'm good and ready".

With a mischievous grin, Ben dipped his head down, teasingly grazing his lips over your sensitive skin. He reveled in the way you squirmed beneath him, your breath hitching with each tantalizing touch. "But if you keep squirming like that", he whispered huskily, "I might have to punish you for being so impatient".

You whimpered, feeling the delicious torture of his teasing. "Ben, you said you wanted to reward me", you moaned, your voice pleading. "But all you're doing is teasing the hell out of me".

Ben chuckled lowly, the sound vibrating against your sensitive skin. "I am rewarding you", he murmured huskily. "Just not in the way you expected". With that, he dipped his head back down, his tongue tracing teasing circles around your throbbing clit, sending shivers of pleasure coursing through your body.

As Ben's skilled tongue danced across your throbbing clit, a wave of pleasure surged through your body, making your breath hitch. His movements were deliberate, teasing, as if he relished every moment of your ecstasy. His lips pressed softly against your skin.

You grasped the sheets tightly, your senses overwhelmed by the intensity of his touch. Each flick of his tongue sent electric pulses of pleasure racing through you. Your hips instinctively arched towards him.

Ben's grip on your hipbones tightened, his fingers digging into your flesh as he pressed your pussy harder against his lips, his tongue delving deeper, seeking out every ounce of pleasure within you.

Amidst the overwhelming sensations, you found yourself murmuring, "The doctor said it's unusual to feel this nauseous within the first few weeks of a pregnancy". Your words were punctuated by soft moans, escaping your lips involuntarily as pleasure coursed through your body.

Ben's movements faltered for a moment, his eyes flickering with surprise and something deeper, something you couldn't quite decipher amidst the haze of pleasure. But then, he resumed his ministrations with even more fervor, as if determined to drown out any thoughts other than the ecstasy you shared in that moment.

"I don't care about the fucking doctor", he growled against your skin, his voice sending shivers down your spine. "All I care about is you, right here, right fucking now".

You cried out loud as Ben applied more pressure, his determination evident in every movement as he sought to immerse you fully in the intoxicating whirlwind of pleasure. But amidst the ecstasy, a nagging worry crept into your mind.

"Maybe it's not a good sign that it starts so early", you moaned.

Ben paused for a moment, his eyes locking with yours as he pulled back slightly, a furrow forming on his brow. "I'm trying to give you something here", he grumbled, frustration evident in his tone as he nodded towards your wet pussy just inches in front of him.

The weight of his words hung in the air, mingling with the heady scent of desire as you gazed into his eyes, searching for reassurance amidst the storm of emotions swirling within you. But then, with a determined glint in his eyes, Ben leaned forward once more, his lips capturing yours in a fierce kiss that tried to silenced any doubts, any fears.

"Just… relax, sweetheart", Ben murmured against your lips, his words a mixture of frustration and reassurance. "We'll talk about this later".

As he pushed himself down again, his movements more urgent, the tension between you palpable. But after a while, your inability to concentrate on his work scratched at his ego, gnawing at the edges of his patience until finally, a string of curses escaped his lips.

"Fucking hell", he growled, the words laced with frustration as he fought to rein in his simmering anger. "Why won't you just… come?".

Your heart sank as you sensed the frustration and self-doubt creeping into Ben's voice. The realization that he believed it was his fault only deepened your own sense of guilt.

"I'm sorry", you whispered, the words barely audible amidst the rush of emotions swirling within you. "I'm trying, Ben, I really am".

Ben struggled to make sense of the situation.

"I know you are", he grumbled, his voice softening slightly as he reached out to stroke your cheek, his touch gentle despite the frustration that simmered just beneath the surface. "But maybe my dick would get your full attention, hmm?". Yet beneath the harshness of his tone, a flicker of concern still lingered.

As Ben stood up, shedding his supe suit with practiced ease, your eyes followed his every movement, tracing the contours of his body. Despite the frustration that had simmered between you moments before, the sight of him standing before you, already hard and ready, stirred something within you.

For Ben, there was nothing better than tasting you, hearing you moan beneath his touch.

As he approached, you sat up, your movements fluid and graceful as you pulled off your shirt, leaving you completely naked before him. The air crackled with anticipation, the tension between you palpable as you met his gaze, your eyes locking in a silent promise of mutual desire and longing.

Ben closed the distance between you, his hands reaching out to cup your face as he claimed your lips in a fierce, possessive kiss.

With a firm but gentle push, Ben guided you back onto the bed, the mattress yielding beneath your weight as you settled into the soft embrace. Quickly, he shifted his position so that you straddled him, his hands finding purchase on your hips as he urged you to look at him.

"I need you to look at me, sweetheart", he murmured, his voice low and commanding. "Think about nothing but the feeling I'll give you. No more distractions".

You nodded.

As Ben lowered you slowly onto his dick, you felt your tightness stretching around him, a sensation that always elicited a quiet wince from you. Despite your body's familiarity with his size, the initial discomfort never fully subsided.

But tonight, as he filled you completely, the discomfort seemed to intensify, a sharp pang of pain shooting through you as you struggled to adjust to his size. Each inch of him felt like a stretch, a challenge to your body's limits, and though you tried to relax and surrender to the pleasure, the discomfort lingered like a stubborn shadow, refusing to be ignored.

"You okay?", Ben's voice broke through the haze of discomfort.

You nodded weakly, forcing a small smile as you tried to push aside the discomfort and focus on the pleasure that awaited you. But deep down, you knew that tonight would be different.

Your nails dug into Ben’s shoulder plates, seeking purchase as you sought to steady yourself against the waves of discomfort that threatened to overwhelm you. Beneath you, his hands remained firm on your hips.

With a sharp intake of breath, you sucked in your lip, trying to stifle the small gasp that escaped you as you slowly raised your hips up. The ache intensified as you lowered yourself back down, the discomfort blossoming into a sharp pain that made you wince audibly this time.

Ben’s frustration grew palpable, his jaw clenched tightly. He had always prided himself on his ability to please you, to bring you pleasure beyond measure, and yet tonight, it seemed that every effort only served to exacerbate your discomfort.

“I’m sorry”, you whispered, your voice trembling with a mixture of pain and guilt as you met his gaze.

Despite the frustration gnawing at his patience, Ben wasn't ready to give up just yet. He knew that you always struggled to take him, but tonight seemed to be on a whole new level. Yet, amidst the discomfort and the lingering doubts, he remained determined to find a solution, to ease your pain and bring you the pleasure you both craved.

"No need to apologize", he muttered softly, his voice a soothing balm against the turmoil in your mind as he reached for a bottle of lube from his bedside table. With practiced ease, he uncapped it, the familiar scent filling the air as he coated his fingers, his movements gentle and deliberate as he prepared to ease your discomfort.

With his free hand, Ben guided you up again, his touch surprisingly gentle as he positioned you just above him. But for him, gentleness was a relative term, and you could feel the underlying urgency in his movements, a silent plea for relief from the discomfort that had plagued you both.

With a soft gasp, you felt his coated finger glide over your clit, the slickness of the lube providing a welcome relief to the ache that had lingered within you. And as he pushed two fingers inside your pussy, a slow and deliberate rhythm, you couldn't help but relax into his touch.

As Ben's fingers worked their way inside you, his eyes were glued to the sight of how they pushed into your tightness, each movement deliberate and calculated. He could feel the tension in your body gradually giving way, the resistance softening as you began to relax under his touch.

"You're doing great, sweetheart," he murmured, his voice a soft whisper of encouragement as he continued to pump his fingers in and out of you. "Just relax and let me take care of you".

Even though Ben felt the urge to mutter something really inappropriate, urging you to just fucking take him, he knew that this wasn't the time. He understood that you needed him to be gentle and patient today, especially with your hormones going crazy and everything related to the pregnancy feeling overwhelming.

Suppressing his own frustrations, Ben focused on the task at hand, determined to provide you with the care and attention you needed in this moment. He kept his movements slow and steady, his touch gentle yet firm as he continued to work his fingers inside you, seeking to ease the discomfort and bring you the pleasure you deserved.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?", he asked softly. "You think you're ready to take me?", he looked up at you.

With a shaky breath, you nodded, a small smile tugging at the corners of your lips as you met his gaze. "Yeah", you whispered, your voice filled with determination and longing. "I'm good".

"Alright", Ben muttered, his voice a low rumble of anticipation.

As you carefully guided Ben’s dick inside you, lowering yourself slowly onto him, a mixture of pleasure and relief washed over you both. Ben groaned deeply, his eyes falling shut for a few seconds as he relished the sensation of being enveloped by your warmth and tightness. A low, primal growl escaped his lips. His grip tightened uncontrollably, sending a shiver down your spine as you felt the intensity of his desire coursing through him.

Your breath hitched as his grip tightened, a mixture of pleasure and pain dancing on the edge of your senses. “Ben, be careful”, you murmured, your voice laced with a hint of urgency as you reached towards your belly, a silent reminder of the life growing within you.

His eyes snapped open, meeting yours.

Instantly, Ben loosened his grip, his hands falling down to rest gently on your thighs.

“I didn’t mean to…”.

Feeling his remorse, you took Ben’s hands in yours, guiding them back towards your hips with a reassuring squeeze. You knew how difficult it was for him to hold back, especially in moments of intense passion.

“It’s okay, Ben”, you whispered, your voice filled with understanding and love. “I trust you”.

You began to move a bit faster, eager to reciprocate the pleasure he always gave you, even though he was a lot to handle today. His dick stretched you beyond your limits.

With each movement, Ben's touch grew even gentler, his guidance subtle yet firm as he encouraged you to find your own rhythm. Together, you moved in perfect harmony.

But despite your efforts, you still struggled to find release. Frustration gnawed at the edges of your mind as you desperately tried to shift your angle, to find that elusive sweet spot that would bring you to climax. But no matter how hard you tried, your mind refused to shut off, the weight of your worries and uncertainties clinging to you like a heavy shroud.

"Fuck, look at me", Ben ordered, his voice a low growl of urgency as he grasped your chin, forcing you to meet his gaze. "I need you here with me, baby".

His words cut through the fog of your thoughts, grounding you in the present moment. With a shaky breath, you nodded, your eyes locking with his as you surrendered yourself to his command.

As you gazed into his eyes, the intensity of his desire mirrored your own, igniting a spark of passion that burned bright between you.

Ben cupped your small body with one of his big arms around your waist, pressing you gently against him. With his other hand, he grabbed your buttock, pressing you down onto his cock, eliciting a sharp cry from your lips.

"I want you so fucking much", he murmured.

His words sent shivers down your spine, igniting a fire within you that burned hotter with each passing moment. As he held you close, the heat of his body enveloping you.

Ben pulled you closer, his touch and words finally grounding you in the here and now.

"You take me so damn well, baby", he muttered, his voice husky with need. "I love the way you feel around me, so tight and wet".

Each word sent a jolt of pleasure through you, heightening the intensity of your connection as you surrendered yourself to the raw passion that flowed between you. With each thrust, each whispered confession of desire, you felt yourself drawing closer to the edge of ecstasy.

Finally, you let go of your thoughts, allowing yourself to get lost in Ben´s beautiful green eyes. His dick throbbed inside you, and you began to clench around him, your body responding instinctively to the pleasure coursing through you.

Ben's gaze never wavered from yours as he felt you tighten around him, a low groan escaping his lips. "That's it, baby", he murmured, his voice thick with desire. "Feel how good you make me, how much I need you".

With each clench of your muscles, you felt the tension building within you, the pleasure reaching its peak as you surrendered yourself completely to the ecstasy of the moment.

As the climax washed over you both, you felt a sense of euphoria enveloping you, a shared release of tension and desire that left you both breathless and spent. Ben held you close, his arms wrapped around you protectively as you basked in the afterglow of your shared intimacy.

As you fell against his chest, your breath heavy and your body weak against his hard chest, Ben chuckled softly and planted a kiss on the top of your head.

“Fuck Sweetheart”, he muttered with a mix of amusement and frustration. “Your orgasm was playing hard to get tonight, huh?”.

You couldn’t help but laugh weakly at his comment, feeling a sense of relief and lightheartedness wash over you despite the lingering intensity of the moment. “Sorry about that”, you replied, your voice still tinged with the remnants of pleasure.

Still, Ben couldn’t shake the feeling of frustration and inadequacy gnawing at the edges of his mind. He may have overplayed it with his lighthearted comment, but deep down, his ego was bruised.

He prided himself on his ability to please you effortlessly, to have you ready within seconds and coming within minutes. But tonight, he felt like he had fallen short of that mark, struggling to bring you the pleasure you deserved. And for him, as the man, it was one of the worst feelings imaginable.

Despite his attempts to brush it off with humor, the nagging sense of disappointment lingered. He knew you didn’t blame him, but still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had let you down.

As he held you close, his mind raced.

As you looked up at Ben, you could see the turmoil in his eyes as he wrestled with his thoughts. Cupping his face in your hands, you gifted him a small smile, hoping to ease the weight of his worries, but he didn't respond.

"Babe", you murmured softly, your voice filled with love and reassurance. "You know it was on me, right? It's just… my mind and emotions that went crazy tonight. You were as damn awesome as always".

Your words hung in the air.

Ben shook his head slightly, his gaze drifting down to your belly as if seeking solace in the promise of new life. With a sigh, he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you closer as if to shield you both from the doubts and insecurities that lingered in the air.

As he held you, his touch gentle and reassuring, you felt a sense of calm wash over you. You nestled against his naked chest, inhaling the familiar scent of his skin. His heartbeat echoed beneath your ear, a steady rhythm that lulled you into a state of tranquility.

As Ben felt your heartbeat slow down and heard the soft rhythm of your breathing, he knew that you had drifted off into a peaceful sleep on top of him. With utmost care, he gently lowered you down onto the bed, ensuring you were comfortable and tucked in beneath the blanket.

As Ben gently brushed a stray lock of hair from your face, he couldn't help but feel a sense of peace wash over him at the sight of you, sleeping so peacefully and undisturbed. With a soft sigh, he leaned down to press a tender kiss to your forehead before quietly slipping out of the room.

Entering the kitchen, he wasted no time in indulging in a line to take the edge off, the familiar rush momentarily distracting him from the lingering echoes of frustration and doubt. But it was his favorite whiskey that truly called to him.

With the bottle in hand, Ben made his way to the living room. Settling onto the couch, he allowed himself to sink into the soft cushions.

As he took a sip of the whiskey, its smooth warmth spreading through him.

As the evening rolled on and Ben was engrossed in a movie, he suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of vomiting from the bedroom. Pausing the movie, he quickly made his way towards you, throwing on some sweatpants along the way.

His gaze softened at the sight of you, hunched over the toilet, your face pale and drawn with discomfort. Without a word, he moved to your side, offering a comforting hand on your back as you continued to retch.

"You okay?", Ben asked softly, concern evident in his voice as he rubbed your back gently.

You groaned in response, leaning back slightly with tears in your eyes. "Ugh, this is gross", you muttered, hoping that the nausea would pass soon.

As you finished vomiting and stood up, feeling a bit dizzy, Ben moved to help you steady yourself. His arm wrapped around your waist, offering support as you made your way to the sink to brush your teeth.

While you were preoccupied with rinsing your mouth, Ben retrieved your silk robe from the bedroom. With a tender touch, he draped it around your shoulders, the smooth fabric gliding over your skin as he fastened it loosely around your body. "There, all better now, princess", he said with a smirk, kissing your shoulders. "Can't have my girl feeling under the weather, now can we?", his tone teasing but affectionate.

Rolling your eyes at his comment, you spit out the toothpaste and pulled the robe on correctly, adjusting it around your body. As you brushed over your eyes with your hand, trying to shake off the dizziness, you couldn't help but mumble under your breath.

"I feel like shit", you grumbled, the discomfort evident in your voice as you leaned against the sink for support.

Ben chuckled softly, his teasing tone belying the genuine concern in his eyes as he steadied you with a reassuring hand on your shoulder.

"Aw, come on, you're tough as nails", he teased, trying to lighten the mood. "A little nausea never hurt anyone, right? Besides, you'll be back to your badass self in no time".

As he spoke, he continued to support you, his touch gentle yet firm as he guided you back towards the bedroom.

As Ben guided you back towards the bedroom, his heart aching to see you in discomfort, he couldn't help but overplay his worry with playful comments. Deep down, he hated to see you like this, but he struggled to express it in a more straightforward manner.

You mumbled softly, the weight of your words hanging heavy in the air. "I shouldn't be puking this often, not this early in the pregnancy", you lamented, your voice tinged with frustration and concern.

Ben's expression softened at your words, the playful facade slipping away as he realized the gravity of the situation. "We'll figure it out", he murmured.

———————————

A/N: Please let me know what you think.🥰

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Part 29

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Taglist: @deangirl96, @thatgirljayy, @suckitands33, @deans-spinster-witch@mimaria420@kaz11283@uncle-eggy@jackles010378@vxnilla-hxrddrugs @meowmeowyoongles@sarahgracej @zemosdarling228 @leila22rogers @mostlymarvelgirl@emily-winchester @blacknoirr @onlyangel-444@seasonofthenerd@staple-your-mouth@artemys-ackles@selfdestructionandrhum@mystic-mara @kat-nee

[kaidatheghostdragon]

This is all so perfect, how do you add to this?

Well, first thing, when batman is in the lab, before danny passes out, he gets some very overwhelming emotions over the fact that: 1) desiree must have left the bats' memories intact, 2) they rushed over to amity to rescue him literally as fast as they were able to.

Danny is gonna be very teary-eyed and quivering face when he sees batman storm into his field of view. First thing he says before passing out? "Think i could use a hug right about now, B."

Because by the ancients, bruce remembered what danny wished for, he was gonna remember what bruce wished for with his last vestiges of consciousness.

The supers are gonna be so confused until they get the full story, and soon danny's intro to the batfam is gonna be the talk of the superhero community for *months.* did bruce wish a godling meta child into existance? Did danny really play cuckoo so convincingly that the bats were smitten even after the magic wore off? The bats arent telling any more than the bare bones minimum outside of their closest circle (the supers, the flashes, and a couple others.)

And danny's powerset? They're still having arguments, and now it's a challenge. Nobody is allowed to ask danny at this point. It's the principle of the matter. Danny eggs them on, referencing events in the past that never happened (dont you remember? We did the full powerset checklist when you confronted me about being Phantom.), even contradicting himself (y'all might be detectives, but i swear i'd still be hiding my alter ego if i hadnt just straight up told you while you were all trying to train up my "civilian self defense" when i first moved in with you guys.)

Jack and maddie are rotting in justice league custody wondering how phantom managed to summon and brainwash the batfam into rescuing him. Thats some top-tier ghost bullshit from their perspective.

Sam and tucker debriefed the bats on how everything went down in AP during the two months. Im sensing space for a redemption arc for valerie that gets completely erased and negated, but i love valerie too much to do that to her. I just want her on the same team for once, dammit. Either i retcon that she keeps her memories too (maybe she was wearing fenton fones at the time the wish was undone?), or she was friendly with the team before the two months started and is *very upset* that she didnt keep her memories like sam and tuck once she's informed of what happened.

Then again, having a negated redemption arc could be interesting. If fenton fones are immune to ghost magic, the team may have figured out how to make a computer database with the same properties. If tucker checks their ghost files to find that all the security footage and giw intel he collected from the two months was still there, they just have to piece together a timeline of val's redemption arc to show to her. Might still take some convincing, but the batfam and justice league are here validating sam and tuck's story, so they cant be making it up wholesale, right?

Also, the bats are gonna want that tech for themselves. Tucker is basically a shoo in for bat/jl tech support and has just been set up for life. Sam and val arent going to allow themselves to be pushed aside either. Both will make strong cases for each being added to the superhero community. (I so badly want to give sam plant powers here, but even if she does, i think she'd make the argument and ensure her place in the community as a "normal" like the bats before dropping the, "oh btw i have powers.")

Where is jazz for all of this? She has to be out of the house or uncharacteristically oblivious to miss danny in the lab. I believe college tours are a common excuse for her. And what was she doing during the two months? Also, did desiree remove her memories?

From her perspective, she's gone for a few days and when she gets back (for maximum shock/crack value, while the bats are still there treating danny):

Danny is gravely injured

The justice league is securing the town

Fudging *batman* is in her living room, *demasked*, calling danny his son! (Is that bruce wayne?!)

The other bats are making themselves at home, cooking food, destroying the lab, and guarding her parents that are tied up unconscious in their room

Sam and tucker are halfway through a powerpoint detailing the warzone in amity park (that doesnt at all match what she saw driving back into town)

"Danny, what the hell?" She manages to deadpan through her utter bafflement.

Danny, as eloquent as ever, fighting injuries, pain, pain meds, etc, "our parents are assholes, desiree learned her lesson, and batman is our new dad now. Deets later, when im not high off my rocker."

Jazz facepalms. Red robin offers her a mug of coffee. (Is that tim drake-wayne?!)

"Congrats. Its a dad," danny, for some reason, feels the need to tack on.

"Guess im going to gotham u," jazz mutters, falling into a kitchen chair. (She was eyeing it pretty hard for its psychology program, but she thought it's be a hard sell to danny for being in gotham.)

Lastly, vlad masters. If he doesnt remember anything, then he sees the bats swoop in and rescue danny before he even realized danny was in danger. He is baffled and infuriated. Days later, danny's adoption into the wayne family enrages him. I kinda want him to attempt something to get costody, only to get smacked down by tuckers' security footage from the two months that never were, just to try to give him perspective of how royally fucked he was during those two months and an explanation why the bats knew to rescue him.

He is also very plainly informed that he's on the justice league's watchlist by danny's recommendation, so he better behave.

I think thats everything i have to add right now.

The bats have so many folks around, even if they aren't always working together. Enough that folks like to joke/write about Danny just kinda showing up acting like he already lives there. He just kinda blends in.

I'd love to see more magic motivated versions of this. Some kind of spell that affects the bat's perceptions of the past and present, making them actually miss that this boy wasn't with their family too long ago. Maybe it changes their understanding like it's a time line shift, maybe it fogs their mind just a tad and makes them glaze past something like it wasn't even there. I like the second if only because I feel like that would make it more likely for the bats to realize a spell was a foot.

Imagining this from Danny's side, hes terrified this whole time of getting found out. He knows how and when he showed up here and maybe even how flimsy whatever magic is in place is. Imagining a Desiree wish that was either very carefully worded or Not so carefully worded. Maybe he placed himself with the Wayne family with the expectation that he would quietly mooch of some rich idiot until he was ready to be on his own. Or maybe he wished himself to be a part of the batclan, taking up a mask and patroling with them as a bird that Doesn't Exist.

Ofc eventually the spell has to be broken, leaving the bats confused worried scared angry probably even amused, and a billion other things. WHY did this teenager decide to adopt himself into the Wayne/bat family? Who the hell is he and where did he come from. Someone call Zatanna, there is some magic Fuckery going on.

[multiverseofwonders]

Kitten-like tenancies

Hal Jordan x Assassin! Reader

An: Did I work on this during study hall? Yes but in my defense study hall is 90 minutes long and I had no homework to do.

Word count: 1k

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“Just let it go already okay? We’re on a mission that will decide the fate of the world, we could die with one slip up.” You growled and glared forward, unwilling to look the man in green next to you in his eyes. You hear a snicker before leans close to your ear, a Cheshire-like smile creeping onto his lips.

“No, no way. I am not letting that go anytime soon angel face.~” He teased, placing the back of his hands on his hips. You sigh and pick up the camera hanging around your neck. You stared straight, not moving a muscle before taking a few photos. You take a glance at them again before smirking. The person supplying these dangerous alien weapons wasn’t wearing a mask.

“Drop it, Jordan. We have our target and proof that it’s them. Now let’s just get the proof to your Justice League buddies so they can stop treating me with such hostility and distrust.”

“No no no we are not dropping this. You, who was trained under Ra's al Ghul, a candidate for his heir, a deadly assassin with a kill count that would make the League of Assassins look weak in comparison, someone who constantly comes back to life somehow too, a master of making poisons so strong you made superman ill-”

“That was because it was laced with stolen Kryptonite.” You hissed, cutting him off before getting up and grabbing your things. The lantern continued to float beside you, staring right through your hardened exterior.

“Oh let me add stealing Kryptonite from Batman to try and assassinate Superman to the list as well, oh and someone who has shadow teleportation powers. You, that’s all you. And yet still you-”

“Don’t.” you simply replied.

“No, I’m not letting this up” He grabbed your shoulders and turned you towards him, looking straight into your eyes as the same Cheshire-like grin stayed plastered on his face.

“You stretch like a fucking kitten.” He teased, earning a hardened glare from you. You pushed him off of you and walked away from him, though you could still see the green light from his suit and ring shine closely behind you. “A kitten-” With that you almost instantly had him pinned with a poison laced knife to his throat.

“Don’t forget that this team-up is temporary Jordan. Keep this up and there’s a chance I’ll slit your throat the moment this is over.” You growled pressing the knife dangerously close into his skin, nearly breaking it.

“I thought after you defected from Ra’s you joined a different group of assassins who only kill criminals.” He said nervously. Though he knew that you needed him alive for now, later was a whole different story. If you really wanted to you could go back to your old ways. “You… you wouldn’t seriously defect so soon would you? The reason you took up this mission was to prove to us that you had truly turned good right? And killing the only person who trusts you would be extremely counteractive.”

“I’m willing to defect from my assassin's group and earn more distrust from the league just to kill you.” You said, not breaking your glare for a single second. From the look in your eye, it seemed mostly truthful. Though the obvious darkening of your cheeks said otherwise. Instead of taking your words as a warning, he took the latter as an invitation to tease you again.

“You’re willing to defect for me? How sweet.~” he playfully jeered at you, clearly either too dumb or too brave to be afraid of the poison laced knife that still was pointed at his throat. “You know from up close you’re so beautiful, right? Maybe one day I could see you without that mask. What do you say? Just the two of us together. After all, we are on a rooftop in the middle of the night. Nobody will hear or see us”

“I know you are not as vulgar as to..!! To…!! Ugh that’s it I hope you fall off this building” You huffed, getting off of him in a hurry, your cheeks now burning with heat. You hastily made your way down the rooftop, Hal following close behind you. “You’re pushing it, Jordan. One of these days you’ll awaken to a knife at your throat. I swear I’ll make your death look like a normal break-in too!”

“Great plan and all but you do know that I’m wearing a communication device in my ear right? Surely you must’ve known that mister world’s greatest detective is listening right?” You turn your head to face him utterly flabbergasted for a few seconds before regaining your composure. “What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”

“No, I just- You were willing to do that in front of Batman?!” You shouted, unable to stay coldhearted and distant any longer.

“Well, it’s you then absolutely~”

“You’re the most vulgar person I have ever met!”

“Oh come on you were considering it too” He laughed.

“Only because I didn’t know he was listening, you, idiot!” You hissed in a moment of impulse. Hal stayed still for a moment taking time to process what had just been said before catching up to you, the same Cheshire-like grin creeping back onto his face once more.

“Ah, so you were considering it!” He teased once more, making you realize your amateur mistake.

You struggled to formulate a sentence after that. Instead, you just stomped away, thinking it was too much trouble to continue talking to him. In a matter of minutes, this man had worn you down to just base emotions. He was annoying, to say the least. Annoying and persistent.

“Oh come on, after this how bout I treat you to dinner?”

“Hmph. Sure I’ll humor you, but only because I’m certain I’ll die before that happens.” You said not willing to continue living with this embarrassment because knowing Jordan he’d never let you live this down, not even after you too were old and gray.

“I wouldn’t bet on it, love.”

[deexchanel]

New York

Word Count: 2,655

Pairing: Avengers x BlackFem!Reader. Justice League x BlackFem!Reader but more specifically Clark Kent x BlackFem!Reader.

Warning: Arguing, mention of miscarriage, angst.

Summary: After not being in contact for so long, someone decides to make a visit.

A/N: The title has nothing to do with the one short. Oops. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy!😁 below is Y/N’s outfit for the first half.

A long day after helping the team on their mission, Y/N wanted some pizza. It was around 10 p.m. when she decided to leave the tower. Tony was asleep in the chair, Steve was asleep on the couch. Natasha and Bucky were on the floor watching a movie. Thor was rummaging through the refrigerator, he was watching the movie as well but stopped to get some snacks.

Loki was in the library reading a book. Peter was on patrol so that’s why she felt safe with being out so late. “Loki I’m leaving to get some pizza okay?” He closed his book, preparing to stand up.

“Alright, I’m going with you.”

Y/N placed a hand on his chest so he could stay sitting. “ I want to go by myself Loki. I’m going to be perfectly fine, Peter’s patrolling right now.”

Loki sigh trying to push down his overprotective feeling. “Alright, just be careful. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Y/N hummed kissing his forehead, she then walked to the living. Everyone in their same position except Thor was now back on the floor.

Y/N kissed each of their foreheads, “I’m going to go get some pizza. Anyone wants anything?”

Natasha shook her head,“ No, be careful though. I really want to pause this good movie to save your ass.” Y/N rolled her eyes playfully, grabbing her purse from the hook.

“Bring me back some pizza? I’m rather hungry.” Thor said with his eyes glued to the tv.

“You’re always hungry Thor. Bring me some too. Better yet, why don’t I just come.” Y/N heard shuffling from behind her. She wanted to take a peaceful by herself to get pizza, is that too hard to ask? “No Bucky, I want to go by myself. I can handle it.”

She turns around to see him looking at her hesitantly. “You sure Y/N? I don’t mind coming-”

“I got it, really. Go enjoy the movie Bucky. I’ll be right back.” Y/N cut him off, walking out of the door. Bucky stood there dumbfounded, “Is she acting weird or it’s just me?” He pointed to the door, looking at Natasha and Thor.

“She seems alright with me.” Natasha shrugged and Thor didn’t reply.

Y/N took a deep breath hearing the new york life sparkle in her ears. Taxis coming and going. The roar of the subway beneath Y/N’s feet. Everyone talking but still being able to hear your own conversation.

Lights flashing brightly, babies crying, the homeless constantly asking for money. The smell of 1,000 vendors, many selling gyros. Broadway fans going insane when their favorite cast member walks out of the stage door. People of every race, color, and religion.

“Finally,” Y/N mumbled after a good minute of walking, she arrived at the pizza store on the corner. She ordered and stood in line for 15 minutes then left with 5 boxes of pizza. Stopping at the park, Y/N sat on a bench eating pizza enjoying the night air.

Y/N was happy with life but sometimes a person just wants to be alone. A little part of her misses the old lifestyle she had. Bruce, Barry, Diane, Victor, and Arthur. She missed them so much, especially Clark but he was the last person she wanted to see.

They were old lovers, at one time there wasn't a thing Clark wouldn't do for Y/N. Time skip, Y/N found out she was pregnant but due to stress from Clark, she miscarried. No one knew because of the genuine smile she held on her face. He was probably so caught up with Lois to not notice that she'd been gone for a year now.

She loved Clark, Y/N was his best friend. Lois came into the picture and he dropped everything just for her. Heartbroken, Y/N came to new york searching for happiness. She found it in the avengers who she now calls family.

Today was the anniversary of her baby and she just wanted to be alone. She was alone when it happened so she rather be alone now. Y/N stared off into space not even hearing someone land beside her. You read right, land.

"Y/N?"

The deep voice took her out of her gaze. Y/N turned to see Clark in his superman attire. Shocked, she could barely get anything out. "...Clark??"

Clark's face held worry," Y/N..." Y/N furrow her eyebrow confused cutting him off.

"What are you doing here Clark?"

"I can't come to see you now? Y/N I haven't seen you in months."

"Clark I don't wanna talk about that right now. I want to know how did you know I was here??" Y/N stood up, placing her unfinished pizza in the box. She couldn't even enjoy alone time without being bothered.

"Bruce's been track you this whole time Y/N. Come home, we miss you. I miss you." He reached out for her hands. Surprisingly Y/N let him grab her hands. She shook her head.

"Clark I can't just leave. I have a life and family here. You have Lois now, that's who you need. Not me."

Clark looked down," She left me Y/N. Lois said me being superman was too much."Y/N sigh knowing how to hurt he was. Yes, she was mad at him but sometimes not everything needs a reaction. Keeping it calm, she gave him a hug.

"I'm so sorry Clark, I should've been there for you."

Clark held her close smelling her wonderful smell of lavender. "It's okay Y/N. I know this life is treating you well."

Y/N could feel that it was getting late. "Clark I have to go, but I do have to ask you something." He pulled back glazing into her brown eyes.

"What is it Y/N?"

"Tomorrow evening bring the team to the tower. I want everyone to meet each other. I'll cook! It'll be so much fun."

Clark looked at her with hesitation, "I don't know Y/N.."

Y/N gave him the puppy dog eyes, "Please Clark? You get to see me in a nice outfit." He smiled giving in.

"Oh alright."

-------

"A little bit of this," Y/N murmured pouring grated cheese on top of the macaroni. She placed it in the oven, closing the door with her butt. Dinner consisted of steak with tarragon mushrooms with a side of macaroni. Y/N had been in the kitchen all day while the team did their overview with Fury for missions they have done.

"Smells amazing in here Y/N! What you make?" Steve's voice came from behind while she grabbed plates out of the cabinet. "Food Steve. You'll see when it's dinner time and if you don't mind, can you help me set the table?"

Steve nodded his head with a smile, "Sure I don't mind Y/N." The two joked around while they set the table. Clark and everyone were to be here in about 20 minutes. When she got home from the park last night, Y/N told the avengers about this evening dinner, and boy it was some weird faces.

She didn't know who was harder to convince, Tony or Steve. Maybe because they had been on the team longer. Once finished Y/N ushered Steve to go get dressed. She was so caught up with finishing the meal, that she didn't check the time. "Fuck!"

It was 10 minutes until Clark and the rest got there. She was nowhere near ready. "Y/N why aren't you ready?" Tony asked in disbelief when he walked into the kitchen. Y/N pulled at her hair.

"I know, I know! I was too caught up in finishing the steaks. Can you watch the food so it won't burn? please?"

Tony sigh,"If that makes you get dressed faster then I'll watch it." He opened the lid, the food smelled amazing. "Yeah hurry up, this smells good. I'm ready to eat."

"Thank you!" She kissed his cheek, rushing past so can get dressed.

---------

"Y/N they're here!" Steve called up the stairs. Y/N hopped around on one foot trying to put on the other boot. When it finally slid on her foot, she stood in front of a mirror taking a deep breath. She wanted all her favorite people to come together and be her support. To make her forget about the pain she went through a year ago yesterday.

Y/N walked downstairs with all eyes on her. Clark's mouth was agape from how good she looked. "Arthur! Diana! I've missed you guys!" Y/N hugged her with passion.

"Me too. You look beautiful." Diana hugged her back. Y/N moved towards Arthur giving him a hug. "Thank you."

"Yeah you look too good, don't make me have to beat anyone up from looking too hard." Thor snorted which made Arthur glance at him for a second. Y/N moved to Bruce.

"I hope you're doing good Bruce other than Barry getting on your nerves."

"Hey!" Barry said in defense.

"I'm good, just missed having you around."Bruce expressed which kinda shocked Y/N because he wasn't so open. She then gave Victor and Barry a hug. "I've missed you, two knuckleheads, together."

"We've missed you too." Victor smiled.

"What are we eating, it smells so good in here," Barry said excitedly. Y/N laughing gesturing towards the dining table. "We're about to find out, let's eat!"

Everyone cheered a bit sitting at the table, you know they didn't mingle but sat on the opposite side. Y/N walked over to the stove trying to bring the food to the table but Natasha stopped her.

"I got it Y/N, go sit down. You've been on your feet all day, I can bring the food to the table." Natasha grabbed the glass casserole dish out of her hand. She wasn't lying about her feet hurting but Y/N wasn't going to admit it.

Y/N sigh, "Fine, I'm bringing the champagne to the table though." She hurriedly grabbed two bottles of champagne before Natasha could protest. She definitely needed a sip before dealing with two rival heroes.

----------

There were conversations here and there but most of Y/N. She had all her favorite people in one room. Dinner was running smoothly until...

"So Y/N, Clark told us that you were coming back to stay permanently. I'm excited to have you back." Barry used his knife to cut the steak. Y/N didn't know who to look at crazy him or Clark. She could feel the hard glaze from Bucky.

"What's speedy boy talking about Y/N?" Tony asked tilting his head. Steve sat down his knife.

"Yes please do explain."

"I uh haven't said anything like that. I had planned on visiting, it wasn't official." Y/N scratched her arm out of nervousness from all eyes on her.

"I knew I wasn't going insane. Y/N wasn't going to go back permanently, she's not that crazy." Thor chuckled drinking his champagne.

Victor glanced at him sideways."What's that supposed to mean? Y/N wouldn't be crazy if she came back permanently. That's honestly the perfect decision if she does."

"Guys.." Y/N trailed off but was ignored by everyone. "Y/N is right where she belongs. Do I need to say more?" Loki wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"If she wants to come back permanently then she can. Y/N's only been with you guys for what ? a year? She's been with us forever so you know who she's going to choose." Arthur leaned back in the seat.

"Sure fish boy." Tony let his smart mouth get the best of him. Y/N took a sip of her champagne to calm her nerves.

"Guys..."

She was ignored again. "Y/N is coming with us and that's final. That's the only reason why I came to this wretched place was for her." Clark crossed his arm and Bucky narrowed his eyes at him.

"She's not going anywhere with you. I stand on that."

"Barnes right, you think I was going to let her leave with you after what you did? That's really funny." Natasha chugged the rest of her champagne down. Y/N winced at what she said.

"Guys please."

"Does that matter? Y/N is coming whether you like it or not." Bruce said setting his fork down. Diana nodded in agreement.

"I don't have to anything. Just know I'm not going down without a fight?"

"You people are so petty and tiny." Thor laughed using his fingers to indicate how small they were.

"If Y/N doesn't want to leave she isn't going to leave. it's her decision." Steve sat forward in his seat. They were getting louder by the minute.

"She isn't going, you weaklings," Loki growled sitting forward in his seat as well, not taking eyes off Arthur. Both Clark and Bucky held an intense stare.

"We should go few rounds." Tony stood up and so did Bruce.

"Let's do it then Stark."

Y/N chugged down the rest of the champagne. "Stop." The argument between them grew louder. "Stop!" Y/N stood up placing her hands on the table, no one noticed.

She slammed her hands against the table. "STOP! JUST STOP IT!" Everyone stared at her in shock.

"ENOUGH WITH THIS! I brought you altogether because I wanted support. I needed support."Y/N gritted through her teeth, tears welling in her eyes. "The one time I step out, you all can't even put your petty egos aside. I don't care who I'm staying with and I don't fucking know why it's an argument. I just wanted it to be a normal night."

Y/N lips trembled as she cried, "I can't hold on to this no longer. I was pregnant before I left Clark. I lost the baby. I lost it the day I went to find out the gender." Clark squeezed his eyes closed, his heart broke hearing the news. "And I hate myself so much for even letting myself stress so much that I lost it. When it happened I was alone. I didn't have you, Bruce, or Diana. I didn't have no one. I came to New York heartbroken."

She looked at the Avengers, they held a sad face. Natasha's cheeks were coated with tears."You guys mended my broken heart. You made me feel welcome and I don't know how I could ever repay you." Y/N wiped her tears.

"But I can't deal with this between all of you. I'm leaving so you can have your big ego contest."

She slid the chair back, walking to the elevator. "Y/N!" Bucky called for her but she ignored him. "Shit!" Clark curses under his breath getting up from the chair. Tony shook his head at him.

"Leave her be Clark. She probably went up to the roof or to the park for fresh air."

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

Y/N sat in the chair at the airport. She was only going out of the country for a couple of days just to clear her mind. Bruce and Tony have been blowing up her phone none stop. She was tired and waiting on her flight to be called. "Ugh, I'm so tired." She mumbled rubbing her temple. She got up going to the bathroom.

It was oddly quiet until she heard panicked screams. "What?" She murmured looking over her shoulder. Parademons were everywhere. Y/N scrambled to grab her phone trying to be quiet. She slid down the wall, covering her mouth trying to contain her breathing so she wouldn't be heard. The vibration from her phone caught one of their attention and she didn't know.

Still scrambling, Y/N declined the call somehow. She knew she was fucked, tears raced down her melanin cheeks as she held her breath. The parademons appeared beside Y/N, one inspected making sure she was the right one. It snatched Y/N up and she screamed.

"CLARK!"

--------

The two teams were either sitting around or cleaning up. Clark stood in front of the wet dishes drying them off while Bucky cleaned them. He froze hearing Y/N scream in his ears. Diana noticed and instantly spoke up.

"What is Clark? What's wrong?"

"Y/N's been kidnapped."

-------

Omg, I feel like this is so weird😂😂😂. I am going to make a part 2 I just gotta think about how it's going to go. I have a busy weekend ahead so I won't update until Monday.

Yk i had to make Y/N damsel in distress 😉. Clark is her lover but Bucky does like her. This is kinda a part 2 of Vacation. I love Marvel and DC so why not put them together 😁!

I hope you guys enjoyed this weird post even though the title has nothing to do with the plot of the story, I just couldn't think of anything 😂😂.

Stay slutty my friends 💜

[elysiadjarin]

Sword and Shield 5

Tags: Bad Batch x reader (you), fem!coded, poly!relationship, multi-part series, nonhuman!reader, Echo later on

Part 4: https://elysiadjarin.tumblr.com/post/654625612928008192/sword-and-shield-4

Warnings: mentions of rough past, abuse, slavery, brief harassment.

5: Revelations

It had been months and several missions of varying success before you finally circled your way back to Coruscant and the GAR. Hunter had said that you’d needed to check back in with Commander Rex, hence the beeline he’d made for the GAR.

You’d wanted to ask if you could go say hi to the 501st, but you’d bit your tongue against the request. You didn’t know, after all, whether he had some other plan. You didn’t want to seem like you didn’t enjoy working with the Bad Batch. You did. A lot, in fact.

Your mind wandered a little as you fiddled with the strap of your bag, waiting to land and meet the Commander. You’d probably have to report to him about your integration into the team. Commander Rex had recommended it, after all, and you’d been trying your best to live up to the honor of his recommendation and try to work hard to integrate and be useful to the team.

You’d hoped, after so many missions, that you’d at least done his recommendation some justice. Commander Rex had been very kind to you, considering your past. Kind, and generous. Everyone in the 501st had. Especially after Lola Sayu.

“Shiv. Shiv.”

Your head snapped up. “Sorry!” you squeaked, shaken out of your train of thought.

Hunter raised an eyebrow. “No problem, just wanted to make sure you were ready.”

You nodded. “Yes, of course.” Slinging the bag around yourself, you gave him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, just... got distracted.”

“Bout what, Shiv?” Wrecker blundered into the cockpit, catching your last sentence. “We almost there?”

“Keep it in your bucket, we’re about to land.” Hunter rolled his eyes.

“Fine fine.” Wrecker squinted at you. “What’s up, Shiv?”

You gave him an uncertain smile. “Well... I know I’ll have to report to Commander Rex, is all. I mean, I’m not scared of him or anything,” you hurried to add, “I’m just- I’m a little nervous because I mean, you know, he was the one who recommended me to Force 99 and I- I just hope that... I mean...” You winced, chewing your lip and wishing you hadn’t blurted so much.

“Hope what?” Wrecker gave you a slight frown, eyebrows furrowed. “He won’t be mad at you, will he?”

You shook your head. “Oh- no, I don’t- I don’t think so. I just...” You glanced past his shoulder, catching sight of Crosshair standing in the doorway. “I just hope that I’ve... I’ve lived up to his recommendation,” you admitted in a small voice. “I know I’ve been- it’s been a bit of work to- to adjust, and I- I did do the kinda stupid thing on our first mission. I just- I want him to not regret recommending me, is all.”

Tech turned from his seat in front of you. “Why would he, Shiv?” he asked, voice lilting as he blinked under his goggles. “If you didn’t manage to integrate with us, that would be our fault, not yours. After all, you’ve been doing the bulk of the work. If all of your work isn’t succeeding, then it must be something we haven’t been doing to properly acclimate to you.” His statement, while clinical, made you smile despite yourself.

“Thank you, Tech,” you said shyly. “I do really, really like working with all of you. I... I don’t want to let you all down after you’ve taken a risk in welcoming me.”

Wrecker let out a bellowing laugh. “Don’t be stupid, Shiv!”

You couldn’t even be offended if you wanted to at the cheerful, utterly ingenious statement. A smile would cross your lips as you watched his animated face, his arms waving as he plowed on.

“We’re not letting you go now, not even if Rex tried! You’re one of the Bad Batch. I mean, you even got hurt for the Sarge and Tech. That’s proof right there for us.”

“Wrecker’s right,” Hunter spoke up, glancing at you briefly. “As long as you’re comfortable staying with us, then we consider you one of ours.”

You nodded, happiness lighting your chest with warmth. “Thank you. I- I really do want to continue to do my best.”

The ship landed, and you followed the others as they started to walk to the ramp. You trailed a little behind, the nervousness a little alleviated thanks to the others’ words, but still trying to mull over what you’d say to the Commander. Used to being the last one in line, it surprised you a little when Tech dropped back to walk beside you.

“Are you feeling alright?” he asked, voice pitched a little lower.

You nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“I noticed you were walking a little behind, so...”

Your mouth opened a little. “O-oh... I mean, I’m just used to being at the back,” you explained haltingly. “As a weapon, it’s convenient for me to- to watch the back... I mean, normally. It’s sort of- it’s become habit.” You flicked your eyes down, not wanting to go further back to the days when slaves were taught to keep behind your master, don’t ever make eye contact with anyone above you, protect your owner.

“You don’t have to do that with us, you know, Shiv. I mean,” Tech said, adjusting his glasses, “If we need to fight you should probably be in the middle of us anyway.”

You smiled at him, grateful for his thought. “Thanks, Tech.” So you kept in time with his steps, approaching Commander Rex who was waiting.

“Welcome back, Force 99,” he greeted calmly, nodding to everyone. “Looks like you came back without injuries.”

Hunter saluted. “Well, not quite, Commander, but I think we’re in pretty good shape.”

“Not quite?” Rex raised an eyebrow, eyes scanning you all. They lingered on you for a moment. “You seem fine.”

“Healed now, Commander,” Hunter confirmed. “Shiv took the worst hit our first mission, though.”

You winced, lifting your hands and waving them awkwardly. “It’s f-fine, Sergeant, C-Commander!” you squeaked loudly, voice pitching higher. “I’m fine, just- just a usual battle occurrence, you know-“

But Rex approached you with a frown. “Shiv, we all know you usually don’t get normal injuries,” he said severely. “Did you try too hard and get distracted again?”

You ducked your head, feet shuffling as he called you out. “It was my fault, Commander-“

“Bantha poodoo,” Hunter muttered, rolling his eyes. “It was my fault, Commander. I distracted her unintentionally and got her hurt.”

You looked up at Rex, eyes wide. “It’s not his fault. And I’m fine, really-“

He sighed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “If you’re really so fine, I suppose you wouldn’t mind going to let Kix take a look at you, then,” he said dryly.

You glanced at Hunter. “Um...”

Hunter just nodded. “You have our comms if you need us.”

You gave him a skittish smile. “Th-thank you, Sergeant. Um- Commander Rex, about a report-“

Rex waved you off. “Don’t worry about it, Shiv, I’ll get it from you later.” He dismissed you.

You reached out and brushed a hand against Tech’s arm. “I’m gonna go...”

He nodded. “Comm if you need anything.”

You nodded and turned to flee, hurrying through the door. You wanted to go see the 501st, especially Kix and Fives, your best friends. By the time you made it to their quarters, your anxiety had started to gnaw at your stomach again. You wanted to see them, but.... what if they were busy, or-?

The door burst open, and you staggered backwards at the unexpected motion. A gasp wrenching from your mouth, you flailed just as a hand caught your arm and kept you from falling. Hands grasping at the sleeves of whoever had caught you, you looked up through mussed hair.

Surprised eyes stared back at you, before a wide grin split the familiar face. “SHIV!” he hollered, grabbing you and pulling you into a tight hug that felt comforting despite crushing the air out of you. “Yo guys, Shiv is back!” Jesse, Kix, and a couple of others grinned and greeted you, while you waved back sheepishly. Fives dragged you over to the bunk, sitting you down.

“How did it go? Haven’t heard from you in a while, are you good, Shiv? Did you go on any good missions? How’s the Bad Batch coming along? Did everything work out?”

You defensively put up your hands, smiling. “I’ve missed you too, Fives, but uh- technically Commander Rex told me to come get a checkup from Kix-“

Kix was at your side in a heartbeat, frowning. “What? Did you get injured? Where?” he demanded, grabbing at you.

You held out your arm. “It’s fine, it’s healed, but he wouldn’t let me finish the story,” you said with a bit of a sulk. “It was just me being stupid and getting distracted-“

“You mean, you getting worried and trying too hard.” Kix rolled his eyes at you as he observed your arm. “Looks fine to me, did you get it patched quickly?”

You tried to look away, not wanting to admit to the severity of the damage. Kix’s eyes narrowed. “Shiv,” he said, voice warning.

You came clean, crumbling. “I had to cover it!” you yelped.

Fives hissed. “You what? Shiv, you never have to do that unless it was bad-“

You explained the mission, letting Kix double-check you over just for peace of mind. By the time you’d finished, Fives was groaning as Kix shook his head at you.

“Seriously, Shiv. You’re kriffing amazing, but you keep forgetting that you’re at home with us. We’re your Vod’ika.” Fives frowned at you. “Remember? Echo reminded you all the time.”

You flinched, turning your head away at the reminder. “I know,” you muttered, curling in on yourself. And he was right: the 501st had really been your brothers in the time you’d been with them. They’d really patched you up, taught you to think better of yourself, put more worth on your existence, gave you love and care and a home of protective brothers.

“Sounds like at least the Bad Batch know better than to let you take all the blame,” Kix tutted. “Have they treated you well?”

You looked up and nodded at that, eyes wide. “Yeah! They’ve... they’ve been really good to me, like you guys,” you said, stumbling over your words in your rush to assure them. “I- I’ve really been enjoying working with them. It’s a bit hard because of their differences, but it’s really...” you tilted your head, “rewarding?”

Fives nodded. “That’s good, Shiv. Glad to hear it.” He stretched. “Hey, we’re going to the 79s tonight, come along? Please? I’ll buy you anything you want.”

You smiled at him, deciding that you’d go, just for the company. You didn’t really like the bars, but... for Fives. And Kix. “Only if you promise you won’t make me dance, you’ll let me sit close to you guys, and only if you get me a mocktail,” you bargained.

Fives whooped. “Deal! Let’s go!”

You laughed a bit, shaking your head. “Let me at least go say hi to the others,” you protested. “Besides, I should get changed-“

“Oh yeah, wear a dress, Shiv.” Fives turned to you excitedly.

You blinked. “A... dress?” you asked uncertainly. You hadn’t worn one in a long time.

Fives tilted his head at you. “Do you have one?” His eyebrows furrowed. “Cause if you don’t, we should go get you one!”

You swallowed, glancing at Kix. “Uh- I mean, I don’t- I haven’t had to wear one in a long time so- uh-“

A grin spread across Fives’ face. “Let’s go.”

Kix just shook his head at you, his eyes telling you that you should just give up the attempt to protest. You swallowed and decided he was right.

~

“Fives-“ You stood in the dressing room, hands covering your face.

“C’mon, Shiv, lemme see!” Fives called from behind the curtain.

Taking a breath, you took one last self-conscious glance in the mirror before hesitantly walking out of the changing booth. Fives had insisted on taking you out, and after getting you a bit of a makeup makeover, dragged you to get a dress. And while you didn’t really mind, per se, this felt a little... unusual. Fives grinned at you, twirling his finger. You did a bit of a spin with the combat boots you’d refused to give up. The mid-thigh high dress flared a little as you squeaked and pushed it back down, feeling heat bloom in your face. The black dress had a bit of a ruffled skirt and was off-the-shoulder, but still comfortable and not overly revealing. “Do you like it, Shiv? It looks really good,” Fives encouraged, nodding.

You gave him an uncertain look. “Um- I guess? Does it look okay? I mean, for... going out with you all?”

He snorted. “Shiv, if anything we’re going to have to keep you under close watch so some idiot doesn’t decide that he’s good enough to put his hands all over the art.” He rolled his eyes.

You laughed a little, appreciating the way Fives always tried to make sure you weren’t pressured into anything. “If you’re sure this looks ok, I’m fine with it. It’s comfortable.”

He nodded, pleased. “C’mon then! Let’s go get it. We should be just in time to catch the others on the way over.”

You grabbed your bag, slinging it over your shoulder again as you followed after Fives. He paid for the dress, which you’d tried and failed to protest, and hailed a cab to take you to the 79s. Turning, you pressed your hand against the window and watched the traffic spin by with dizzying colors in neat lines of air lanes.

“Just stick close to us if you’re uncomfortable, Shiv,” Fives was saying from his seat. “If you need to leave that’s fine. Just wanted to have a good time with you after you’ve been away, y’know?”

You turned to give him a grateful smile, reaching out to grab his hand. “Thanks, Fives. I’m glad to see you guys again.”

He grinned, squeezing your hand. “Oh, we’re here.” Paying the fare and still holding your hand, he pulled you out of the cab and headed toward the doors of the club. You swallowed a little at the noise you could already hear coming from inside the building. Still, you held onto his hand tightly as he pulled you in, leading you through the crowds to a booth over by the other side of the dance floor.

“There you are, Fives,” Jesse called, waving from the booth. Several of the 501st were crammed into the booth, some of them already nursing drinks even though it had barely gotten dark outside. You tried to reorient yourself, out of breath from the quick walk through the mass of people. Your hair had fallen over your face.

“Who did you bring?” Hardcase asked, voice a little confused.

You looked up with a blink, confused. Surely he hadn’t forgotten you-?

But Fives was cackling. “Hardcase you idiot, it’s Shiv.”

Even Dogma gave you a double-take, making your cheeks heat. “U-um, h-hi,” you said, not knowing what to do other than give a little wave.

“Whoa, Shiv, you look really good,” Tup said with a friendly grin. “Never seen you all done up like that.”

You smiled, sliding into the booth and ending up squished between Fives and Hawk. “Oh... well, I haven’t needed to wear a dress in a while, and... I mean, Fives made me.” You shrugged.

Hawks reached over and smacked Fives’ shoulder. “Idiot. Now you’ve done it.”

Fives whined exaggeratedly and rubbed his shoulder. “Look, I made sure she liked it before I bought it! And she looks really good!”

“This is the 79s.” Hawk rolled his eyes. “You know Shiv doesn’t like attention from people she doesn’t know.”

You smiled, grabbing Hawk’s hand. He was always the quiet, stoic older Vod of the group, and he’d always kept an eye out for you from afar. “I’m ok, Hawk. Fives promised he wouldn’t make me dance or anything. I just haven’t seen all of you in a while, so...” You bit your lip, letting go as soon as you remembered the red lipstick. “I mean- I’ve sort of missed being with my... with my Vod’ika.” You tried out the word for the first time, hesitant and a little worried you’d misspeak it. But if the way everyone’s heads whipped to you the moment you said it, you didn’t think that was the issue. Not when their eyes were practically glittering.

Tup grinned, leaning over the table. “Say it again, Shiv?”

You shied into Hawk’s side. “Uh-um-“

But Hawk wasn’t much help either, chuckling as he poked your side teasingly. “Say it again, Shiv.”

You glanced around, then swallowed. “Vod’ika,” you managed to say, albeit quietly.

But Fives let out a whoop. “I’m gonna go get you your favorite drink, just for that, Shiv!” He leapt off to go towards the bar, leaving you blushing but laughing a little.

“Glad to see you doing well, Shiv. I take it the Bad Batch has been treating you fine?” Dogma decided to ask, taking sympathy on you.

You nodded, fiddling with the edge of your skirt unconsciously. “Yeah, they’ve been really nice. I like working with them. It’s hard work but it’s... it feels really, um, rewarding, and good.”

Fives came back with your drink, tossing a hand around your shoulder. “Here you go, Shiv.”

You reached forwards, eyes lighting up at the sight of the drink. It was your favorite fruity mocktail with a dash of soda, a rare treat. Pulling it toward you, you took a little sip and let out a happy hum, smiling around the straw. You didn’t notice the fond smiles the others sent you as you wiggled a little in your seat, enjoying the drink.

Fives left after a minute to go find someone to dance with, and Jesse decided to go to the bar after a moment. Hawks slid to the other side of you, keeping himself as a buffer between you and the rest of the club. You continued to just enjoy your drink, feeling safe as long as the others were watching over you. You didn’t necessarily enjoy the club atmosphere, but it was worth it to hang out with your Vod’ika.

But still, even as you enjoyed the company and catching up with the 501st, you began to realize that you kinda wished that the Bad Batch were there. That you could listen to Tech chatter on about whatever he was working on, or what he had read recently. You wished you could hear Wrecker’s loud, boisterous laughter echo throughout the room. Hear Crosshair’s grunts as he listened, probably polishing his weapons. Or even just feel Hunter’s presence around. Despite his hypersensitive senses, he’d allowed you to quietly sit in the cockpit with him sometimes, remarking that your presence and heartbeat were tranquil and calming. He’d even told you that you smelled like the ozone of plasma and the faint undertones of gunmetal, familiar and grounding.

“Hey Shiv, you alright?” Hardcase’s voice made you look up.

“Oh- I’m fine, thanks.” You smiled. “Just got a little lost in thought.” You glanced over at the bar, noting that Kix had joined Jesse. “I’m gonna go talk to Kix for a minute,” you told Hawks.

He nodded, letting you past him. You walked towards the bar, ignoring everyone else around you. Kix turned to see you as soon as you hopped up into the chair next to him, smiling.

“You okay, Shiv?”

You just nodded, legs swinging above the floor. “I’m good. Are you and Jesse ok?” You peered around him at Jesse.

He just nodded. “I’m fine,” he reassured, lifting his drink. “Just talking with Kix.”

You nodded. “Oh, where’s Fives?”

Kix pointed towards the dance floor, so you swiveled the chair to peer into the crowd. You caught sight of Fives and smiled, watching as he danced away and occasionally bumped into a few people. Fives, of all of them, never really seemed to have a problem getting a girl or two to fawn over him. You didn’t really mind watching him, though, amused by his antics and his reckless abandon in everything he did, including dancing and flirting.

After a moment, though, you turned and tugged at Kix’s sleeve. “I’ll be back. Fresher,” you said, sliding off of the chair.

“You know where it is?” he asked immediately,.

You nodded. “Around that corner. I’ll be back.”

He frowned but nodded. “Be safe.”

You went and found the fresher without any problems, and after washing your hands, glanced in the mirror. You blinked, almost startled at the makeup. You’d forgotten it was on, really. Shaking your head, you decided to just ignore it and walk back out. You were starting to feel a bit... peopled-out, but you wanted to stay a bit more just to hang out with the 501st. You could always go back to the Marauder whenever and get some sleep afterwards.

You’d just headed back out when you bumped into someone. With a gasp, you stumbled back. “S-Sorry,” you blurted. “I wasn’t paying attention-“

“Well what do we have here?” A guy smirked at you, his reddened cheeks giving away his state. “You’re pretty, aren’t ya?”

You gave him an uncomfortable smile. “Thank you. If you’ll excuse me-“

“What, leaving so soon?” He glanced up and down, eyes lingering in ways that made you want to shrink. “How about a dance, huh?”

You glanced around, hoping to catch sight of Fives. “Um- no thanks, I don’t-“

“C’mon, just a dance, call it even for catching you from falling.” He reached out to grab your arm as you started to scrabble away, breath shortening. No- no, if you panicked here-

But all you could see was leering faces, staring at you as though you were nothing more than a simple object, a ware to be bought and sold. Hands grabbing at you, reaching for you, using and abusing you to force you to kill and kill and kill-

“Oi, there you are Shiv!” A booming voice cut through your clouding, panicking mind.

Close to tears, you looked up to see a familiar face grinning down at you. Hyperventilating, you opened your mouth only for nothing to come out, your lips trembling. You could only mouth for help, please.

“Was lookin’ for you, y’know,” Wrecker said with a hearty laugh, stepping in front of you. “You just disappeared.”

Reaching out, you grasped his sleeve with shaking fingers and tried to breathe through the waves of panic.

“Hey, but I-“

Wrecker turned to look at the guy, staring down at him. He laughed, fairly towering over the guy. “What, didn’t Shiv already tell you she didn’t want to dance?”

The guy took one look up and decided to mutter something before slinking away.

Wrecker turned to you. “Hey, Shiv, you ok?”

You clutched his sleeve so tightly that you swore you could squeeze the dye out of it. “I’m sorry,” you gasped out. “I just- it took me off-guard and I-“

“Hey, it’s ok, Shiv.” Wrecker reached out, then hesitated. “Can I- uh- so we can go somewhere quieter?”

You nodded, feeling jittery. “P-please.”

He nodded and gently grabbed you, lifting you up and starting to wade through the crowd. He set you down, and you looked up to see that you were in a smaller booth, further into the corner of the room. The Bad Batch were all sitting there, looking at you with concerned frowns.

“Shiv, you okay? Didn’t know you’d be here,” Hunter said cautiously.

You shook your head, beginning to explain shakily how you’d ended up at the 79s. “I- I just- something about him re-reminded me of my past and I- I was trying not to panic because there’s too many people,” you gasped out, shaking your head.

“Wrecker, go find one of the 501st and tell them Shiv’s with us,” Hunter said.

You closed your eyes, breathing in slowly and evenly as you tried to calm down. Your heart was still pounding, and you were sure Hunter could hear it, maybe even the way your blood seemed to rush through your veins in an adrenaline-laced frenzy.

“Hey, you’re fine, now. No one’s gonna hurt you while we’re around,” Hunter said carefully.

Wrecker lumbered back, Kix trailing behind him.

“Shiv, are you alright? I’m sorry, I should have gone with you-“

You shook your head at him. “It’s ok, Kix. I didn’t think anything would happen in two minutes,” you sighed. “Besides, I accidentally bumped into him anyway.”

“He ran off like a coward,” Wrecker said staunchly, sitting next to you in the booth.

“Do you want to stay here, or come back to our booth?” Kix asked you.

“I’ll stay, I should go back to the ship soon anyway,” you said, brushing hair out of your face. “I’ll see you later, Commander Rex said he’d get my report later anyway.” You gave him a small smile.

Kix nodded. “Stay safe and get some rest, Shiv.” With a wave to you and the others, he returned to the bar.

You still felt a little shaky, even though your heart rate had slowed a little and you felt less dizzy. In a way, you almost wished you could Shift, just to physically hide away in a place of comfort.

“Wrecker?” you asked quietly.

He turned to look at you quizzically.

“Could I- um, can I hold your hand? I’m feeling a little...”

With a ready grin, he held out his hand without hesitation.

You took it with a grateful smile, wrapping your fingers around his broad hand. The warmth and strength in his hand soothed and grounded you, reminding you that this was your team, and they had protected you so far. Welcomed you, even. You noticed that a few scars littered his hand, white slashing across his fingers and the back of his hand.

Running your fingers over the scars, you vaguely wondered how he’d gotten some of them. They puckered slightly, your fingers feeling the ridges and valleys of the scar tissue as they ran across his bronzed hand. His fingers flexed slightly, as though holding back a gesture as he spoke, and the controlled strength in the movement as he lightly squeezed your fingers reminded you of how he could effortlessly heft your weapon form in his hands.

Holding onto his fingers, you closed your eyes and took a few steadying breaths. The noise of the bar had turned into a murmur of white noise in the back of your awareness, your attention focusing inward. You could feel the strength of the Bonds you’d formed with the Bad Batch, lingering on the fringes of your awareness.

While you couldn’t read any thoughts, you could still feel, if you focused, a baseline flow of emotion if they were projecting or feeling strongly. Crosshair was silent, as always, a sort of fuzzy darkness in your mind that still somehow felt comforting in its mere presence. Hunter had a slight spike of irritation, but not directed towards anyone in particular. Most likely from the loud noises and smells, you guessed. Tech had a flow of thoughts, like the babble of a creek in the faint distance, occasionally getting a bit louder before quieting. It was grounding in its constancy. Wrecker, of course, always projected, so if you focused you could always feel something from him. Like now-

A spark of pure, undiluted joy. A flutter of nervousness? Overwhelming protectiveness, and a vague desire to feel gunmetal against skin, pushed away.

Your eyes fluttered open, a little surprised at the mixture of his strong emotions. You’d never really felt that combination before, besides the underlying want for a weapon that always underscored his thoughts. Still, the way his thoughts kept gravitating towards those made you wonder what he was thinking about to make him feel them so strongly.

You realized that you’d laced your fingers unconsciously in Wrecker’s, physically tethering yourself to his presence as you focused inward for a moment. Letting out a soft breath, you shook yourself a little and started to uncurl your fingers from his, unsure if he was uncomfortable with the rather intimate touch.

Instead, he immediately looked down at you, interrupting himself mid-sentence. “You okay, Shiv?” He glanced down at your hand, eyebrows furrowing.

You blinked, a little surprised. “Y-yeah, thank you. Sorry, I just didn’t know if I, um, made you uncomfortable. I was trying to- uh- focus on the- the Bonds and sort of zoned- zoned out.”

He squeezed your hand, smiling again. “No problem! As long as you feel okay.”

You ducked your head a little, sending him a shyly grateful smile. Wrecker had been, in all honesty, the most effusively kind to you despite his brash ways. His volume never really bothered you, knowing that it was simply who he was, his personality. He was strong and tended to barge into things, of course, but he wasn’t stupid. No one knew that better than you, after being in his head so many times. He was protective of those he considered family and friends, and attentive to their moods and needs. He’d been one of the most open and accommodating to you ever since you first joined and completed Transference.

As you let yourself twine fingers with Wrecker’s broad hand again, you began to realize how much you felt for the Bad Batch. How quickly they’d crawled into your head, wormed into your heart. How much you thought about them, worried about them. Though at first you’d simply wanted to be a useful part of the team and help out, you now realized that you cared about them, as clones, as humans, as friends, as teammates, as family.

You’d been wishing earlier that they had been there to share the experience with you. When you’d been panicking, all you could think about beyond the fear was that you wanted to be back on the Marauder, back with the Bad Batch, surrounded by familiarity and comfort. You’d looked immediately to your teammates for grounding. You’d instantly wanted to focus inward on the Bonds for comfort and stability.

You’d actively sought out Wrecker’s physical presence to calm yourself, reaching back out to ask for the affection he so readily offered and gave. The realization hit you with more force than you’d really anticipated. How fast had the Bad Batch integrated themselves into your heart and mind? How far did they reach into your very being? How much had they claimed of your normally-reserved trust and affection? Why did Wrecker’s grin under crinkled eyes and his firm grasp make you feel so warm and safe?

Since when had your heart felt so achingly full when you were just with them?

You stared blankly at the table for a moment, mind practically screaming. Oh, Maker, you couldn’t possibly have— could you? Had you really- You’d thought that, after Echo, you’d never have the capacity or even desire to feel that way again toward anyone, but- really? Had you really started to crush on Wrecker?

You desperately hoped your palms hadn’t gotten any sweatier after the incident and the new revelation. You wished for a moment that you could just... leave. You needed distance, needed just- just a moment away, to think.

A hand landed on your arm lightly, making you look up. Tech gave you a cautious look. “I’m going back to the ship, the others are planning to stay a little longer. Do you want to go back with me?”

You instantly nodded jerkily, swallowing past the lump in your throat. “Yes, please.” You turned to look up at Wrecker, trying desperately not to show any of your roiling feelings on your face. “Wrecker, I’m going back to the ship with Tech.”

He blinked, then nodded. “Oh, sure. You okay?”

You nodded, giving him a small, reassuring smile. “I’m fine, just a little... over the crowds.”

His face eased. “Right, you’ve been here a while.” He grinned, then squeezed your hand before letting go. “Stick with Tech till you get back to the ship, alright?” he advised, placing his hands on your hips and lifting you up and over him in the booth to set you on your feet on the floor.

You blinked, mouth a little parted. “Oh- of course,” you said belatedly, feeling heat start to creep up your face at the effortless gesture. “Thanks, Wrecker. For everything.” Before you really thought about it, you bent over and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “I owe you a snack,” you called over your shoulder as you turned to catch up to Tech.

You didn’t hear a reply, too busy reaching out to grab Tech’s sleeve as you followed him through the crowd. He glanced back at you, then grasped your hand more securely. You kept your head down and instead noted how his thin, lithe fingers wrapped around your hand with a wiry strength. His fingers were long and tapered, callouses scraping against your skin, but his hand was warm and still gentle. As soon as you walked outside into the cool air, you sucked in a deep breath and sighed in relief. Tech glanced back at you as he hailed a cab.

“Are you alright, Shiv?” he asked.

You nodded. “Yeah, just... it was really loud and warm in there, and... I don’t usually go there because crowds make me uncomfortable,” you said, shaking your head.

He held the door open and let you slide in before him, closing the door and telling the cabbie where to go. Then he turned back to you.

“I understand. I only go for a few drinks and then usually head back to the ship. I don’t really see a point in wasting time around so many people when I’m not really interested in most of the reasons others go there for in the first place.”

“Yeah.” You shrugged. “Fives wanted me to go, and I hadn’t seen them in a while so I decided to. Usually I’m fine, they do keep me at the booth with them. I just... you know, no one expects to have an anxiety attack just trying to come back from the fresher.” You rolled your eyes in annoyance.

Tech nodded. “I’m glad Wrecker found you when he did.”

You sighed. “I can usually defend myself, I just...” you glanced out the window with a hint of bitterness. “Something about him... just brought back old memories. And the crowd was just so much that I guess I wasn’t prepared for it.”

“Nothing wrong with that, Shiv,” Tech said, observing you. “You’ve mentioned to us enough things about your past to know that you’ve been through a lot. I mean, I’m surprised you even allow yourself to be a weapon anymore as it is.”

You gave him a startled look. “What else would I do? I mean, I know, I could learn another trade.” You rolled your eyes. “But I mean... a weapon is just what I am, literally. It only makes sense that I be myself, especially in a time when I can be most useful. I was just... not used in the way I chose to be used before. Now that I’m being used by those who are fighting for a cause I believe in, it’s...” You scrunched your nose, unsure how to exactly explain yourself.

You decided a different tack. “I mean, you like working with your gadgets, right?”

He nodded, eyes focused on you intently.

You motioned to his goggles. “You could do other things, but it makes the most sense to do what you find fulfillment in doing. If you were, say, captured and forced to make things or do work for the Separatists, you’d feel miserable, right?”

“I should think so,” he agreed.

“But you’re using what you enjoy as a tool to also help the cause you believe in. So it’s rewarding in the right context.” You sighed, folding your hands on your lap. “I am a weapon. Being used as a weapon is... is what I am good at, it gives me a sense of fulfillment because it is what I am. It’s just... before, I wasn’t given a choice of how or why I was used. Now it’s... it’s different. I chose to accept Commander Rex’s suggestion, and I chose to learn to work with you. This...” you took in a steadying breath. “Being with you is- is where I feel most at home, now. Where I feel happy.”

Tech gave you his little, signature smile, his thin lips curling up. “Glad to hear it, Shiv. I personally think your addition to the group has been a good one.”

You gave him a smile, the warmth lighting in your chest again.

Tech opened the door for you once you arrived, paying the cabbie. He offered his hand, which you took, and started back towards the ship at the GAR.

“I’m going to be in the common room doing things, in case you want to join,” Tech offered, letting go of your hand once you climbed the ramp.

You nodded. “Oh, um, Tech- do you have footage from our missions?”

He nodded. “All of them so far, yeah. Do you want them?”

You gave him a sheepish nod. “Yeah... I mean, they’d probably be nice to have to give to Commander Rex as part of my report tomorrow,” you admitted.

He nodded. “Bring your datapad and I’ll upload them.”

“Thanks, Tech. I’ll be there in a minute.” You went back to your room to change, deciding to also wipe off your makeup while you were at it. Dressed in a comfortable oversized shirt that used to belong to Echo and a pair of comfortable shorts, you grabbed your datapad and headed back to the common area to get the video from Tech.

He readily uploaded the footage, and you both fell into your usual habit of doing your own thing in companionable silence. You went through and compiled a report based on the logs you’d written and the footage that Tech had provided, and after proofreading it, sent it to Rex in advance of your report. Glancing at the time, you noted that it had been about a chron and a half since you’d started. Still, it wasn’t too late, and you weren’t quite tired enough to consider bed yet.

You stood and grabbed your datapad. “I’m going to the galley, Tech,” you said.

He gave you an absentminded nod, refocusing on his work and mumbling under his breath.

Hiding a small smile, you went to the galley and paused a moment to put on some soft music from a channel you liked on the datapad. Setting it on the counter, you rummaged through the cupboards. Luckily, the delivery you’d ordered had arrived earlier that day, so you had the ingredients you needed for your baking needs. Pulling out the ingredients, you began the familiar, calming process of baking.

But as you hummed absently to the music and continued to whisk ingredients in the stainless steel bowls, you found your mind wandering to process the thoughts that had been hovering in the back of your mind. More specifically, the revelation you’d had about your feelings towards your team.

After finally calling the 501st your Vod’ika out loud to them, you’d realized that you really did consider them your brothers, your family. They had all been the ones to pull you out of your darkest moments, rescue you from your slavery to a Separatist highbrow, and give you a reason to live and a sense of worth to your tattered name. They’d all been your protective older brothers who had taken care of you and nurtured you back to health and functioning mental capacity. They’d been the ones to show you what healthy Transference should really be like.

And Fives and Echo had been your firsts in many ways. Fives had been your first confidante, first close brother and friend, first to bring you out of your shell, first fight that hadn’t ended in violence or danger. Echo... Echo had been your first in other ways. Your first voluntary physical contact that hadn’t been frightening or forced, your first genuine laugh-until-you-cried, first requested hug, first bunkmate you fully trusted— and first crush. At least, you considered him to be your first crush. Not that you’d ever told him or even really thought about telling him, sure that he simply saw you as a sister of sorts or just friend at the very least.

When the Battle had happened... you, Fives, and Kix had all grown undeniably closer as the ones closest to Echo and ones who took the loss the hardest. Not that the others didn’t, but everyone knew that the four of you had really been a package deal in most situations, not to mention the way the incident had happened...

A little part of you still screamed that you shouldn’t have listened to him, should have just stayed with him, should have done anything, something-

But you knew that Echo would have hated hearing you say anything of the sort. Knew he would have told you fiercely that he’d made his own choice, had gone the way he chose to.

Still. The pain still gnawed at you whenever you thought of him. And after him, you thought you’d probably lose any capacity to even consider romantic feelings toward anyone. After all, you were right now simply a weapon in the middle of a galactic War. What soldier would want to have a relationship with a weapon? Not to mention all the baggage you’d come with? Whether you deserved love or not was moot point: you ran the risk of losing anyone. Echo had only driven that point home.

But somehow, without your realizing, you’d already possibly formed feelings for Wrecker. And that being said, you thought desperately as you poured batter into the cupcake tins, that wasn’t the only problem. Your feelings, while certainly more predominant towards Wrecker, also extended to your other teammates. Wrecker was simply the one who had drawn your attention to your own reactions to him. But if you were being brutally honest with yourself, those same feelings of affection, trust, contentment, and safety extended towards all of them through your Bonds.

What were you going to do?

Tag list:

@subbing-for-clones

Please message me if you want to be added to the tag list!

[thebigqueer]

Ok, here we go. Dark!Bianca idea. Shortly after the events in the desert, a severely injured Bianca is found by agents of the Titans who were shadowing the quest party off-page. She is brought back to Titan HQ and is convinced to join their crusade against the gods while her friends and family think she's dead. Jump ahead to BotL, instead of Kelli the Empousa, it is a mysterious masked assassin who attacks Percy and Rachel at Goode. The events mostly play out unchanged until Geryon's (1/8)

ranch, where instead of Bianca, it is the ghost of Maria di Angelo who is revealed to be sending Iris messages to Percy about Nico, while also strongly hinting that Bianca's still alive. Jump ahead to Mt St. Helens, Percy fights the assassin again, and during his stint on Ogygia, Percy begins to put two and two together after the assassin demonstrated skills similar to the Hunters. At Antaeus' Arena, the assassin is finally unmasked to reveal a still-alive but scarred Bianca, replacing (2/8)

Ethan Nakamura as the demigod enforcer. Percy is convinced that Bianca is being mind-controlled and goes to Mt Tam to rescue her as well as stop Kronos. However, when he confronts her, Bianca reveals that she's operating of her own free will, feeling vengeful against the gods for robbing her of her life and having pledged her loyalty to her new Titan master. Kronos intends to make Bianca the prophesy kid, promising her the free will she craves so badly as well as promising not to hurt (3/8)

Nico. Going into the Last Olympian, Percy and Nico are both determined to convince Bianca that she's making a mistake, and this time Nico's duplicity is not to simply learn about his mother but to try and summon her spirit to get through to Bianca. At the same time, Kronos gradually starts treating Bianca as less of an ally and more of a tool, and the Titans' actions cause her to have doubts even though she dosen't know what else to do. It all comes to a head in the final battle.(4/8)

Nico returns from the Underworld by himself early, giving Hades an ultimatum to come and fight or hide. Just before the final attack, Kronos sends Bianca to infiltrate Olympus to disable the magic defenses, but Nico arrives to intercept her and make one last bid to save her. They fight, with both begging the other to stand down even as they slug it out. Finally, just as Percy arrives to chase Kronos, the battered siblings' duel ends when Nico gives another ultimatum. He throws down his (5/8)

sword and gives Bianca, now reduced to fear and frustration-induced tears, the choice between perusing her grudge and allowing herself to continue being Kronos’s slave or doing the right thing. Finally able to make a legitimate choice of her own, Bianca chooses to turn her back on the Titans. She still ends up wounded, but unlike Ethan in canon, Nico manages to save his sister while Percy and Kronos have their final battle. After everything ends, Percy petitions for Bianca’s pardon along (6/8)

with the rest of his list, though Bianca turns it down, realizing the harm she almost caused to the person she loved more than anybody else. She is given a reduced sentence in service to her father, and though she does not properly forgive any of the gods that hurt her, she does recognize that the spite and anger she felt would only lead to more death. Nico gets to visit her occasionally, and she starts a road to redemption that Luke never got the chance to take. In HoO, Bianca is (7/8)

more of a background character, but it is she that finds Hazel in Asphodel and alerts Nico to her. Overall, dark!Bianca is an anti-villain who’s affiliation with Kronos is clearly drawn from her pain and grief over the gods’ interference in her life, but her saving grace is her brother. Nico manages to pull her out of the darkness and save her from becoming the same monster Luke became. What do you think? (bear in mind, this is my rough draft) (8/8)

Okay, WOW. Anon, I am actually going to start a petition to make you the new Percy Jackson author because that was such an interesting plot to read.

First of all, I love that you replaced Bianca with Ethan. As interesting as he was in the series, and as much as I loved his character, after reading through your rough draft, I feel like Bianca would have been a much better character to use throughout PJO. Her arc could have been expanded upon and completed thoroughly, and it could have made a lot of sense. Ethan felt more like a representation of "demigods turned to the other side," which I get is the point, but I loved the way you used Bianca because with your plot, her character could have been used so well to properly show how easily the Titan army manipulated kids.

Furthermore, I feel like your plot with Bianca could have been a much better way to use her character throughout the series. From my interpretation, in canon she seemed more like a stand-in tool just to enhance Nico's own character arc and his motives, but your plot for her would have actually given her some kind of foundation and an actual arc for her to go through. You've given her such an interesting character and I think it really provides more justice to what she could have been.

I also love the way that not only did you give her a better arc, but you also enhanced Nico's own arc and the plot, too. Her death in the books seemed more symbolic to him and a turning point in his character, but with her character in your AU, it's both important to Nico and Bianca. You've given her an actual character, and you've set up such an interesting conflict between Nico and Bianca.

Additionally, I love the divide you've created between them. I think that - based on what we know about her in the books - as much as she loves her brother, Bianca also feels very limited with him because of how she's been forced to grow up and be his savior. She understands that he's only a child, though, which I think could also play into her own hatred for the gods - they've not only destroyed her family, but now they're forcing her to take the role of an adult when she's a mere child, too? She was never angry at Nico - she was only ever mad with the gods.

Maybe that's something that Nico also feels bad about, and maybe he tells her about it when they're standing each other down. Maybe she lets him know that she never hated him or felt that he was bringing her down.

Also, I want to add that I adore the way you put them on opposite sides. It sets up such an interesting dynamic to their relationship because here you have two people who love each other so much, but they're on two different sides of a large war. They're both too stubborn to go onto each other's sides, and Nico knows Bianca's only going to get herself into more danger. I just love the potential that has for both of their characters.

I know Percy had a large fear about Nico being another kid to join Kronos' army, so I bet Bianca being on his team would have left Percy incredibly terrified for Nico, too, because he knew how much Nico loved Bianca. Would he have been nervous for Nico's ability to change his mind? Nico knows he'd never join Kronos, but would Percy have known?

And, knowing that Bianca's now on the Kronos side, how would Percy react? Because he felt pretty guilty about her death in TTC, right? Would he feel guilty that she's on the other side now, too? Would he try to reason with her, only to push her further away? I'd love to see how Percy would deal with knowing that Bianca - an important child of the Big Three - would react to her being there. He was already nervous about Nico joining sides, but having Bianca there would have really scared him.

And the part about Bianca finding Hazel instead of Nico? That was mind-blowing. I love everything about that situation because now that introduces Hazel into the narrative of Nico and Bianca's story. My question for you would be how does Hazel's character change now? How does she fit in with Nico and Bianca? Because in Heroes of Olympus she's clearly very insecure about her relationship with Nico and how he views her, but if she actually knew Bianca, how would she feel? Would she feel more left out (knowing that Bianca and Nico have known each other much longer and have a stronger connection with each other)? Would she be distrustful? And how would the three of them adapt to this additional family member? I have high hopes that by the end they would all love each other very much, but I'm just really curious into how Hazel's addition would influence the dynamic of all three.

And, essentially, it all ends into a somewhat win-win situation. Bianca's still living; Nico's got two new sisters; Hazel now has a new family.

I think this is such an interesting concept, and I'd love to read it. If you ever post it anywhere, please do share the link! This was such an intriguing plot to go through and, again, I think this could have been a much better use of Bianca's character.

Thank you so much for sharing it with me.

[psychokangaroo]

I love how Wu Xie and Bai Haotian's relationship kind of mirrors Wu Xie and Zhang Qiling's. One is the less experienced, while the more experienced stashes them in a corner, and then disappears off to do crazy-ass human-defying shit. The way he tumbled off that cliff is so similar to when Xiao Ge fell off that giant plant into a horde of shibie's. At the same time, it's so nice to see him walk around with such confidence, leading a younger team as the guide disabling all those traps and pointing things out. He has become his uncle to the younger folks who are raiding for the first time.

At the same time, there's something so intrinsically tragic about Wu Xie so comfortable with disarming people holding guns and beating the crap out of people. There's something so disarming about him threatening to poison people with nicotine. There's something so sad about the way he is able make schemes and lay traps. He's older now, grittier, rougher around the edges. He's not afraid to grow a few razor blades to protect himself and those he loves.

But the quintessential Wu Xie has always been the Neo Hou's version of him. He can use weapons pretty well and fight a bit, but there's always stars in his eyes and a mouth ready to quip some historical. The Wu Xie who is evidently intelligent and responds well to emergencies/stress full situation, but the one who is unfailingly kind and loyal and ready to believe the best in every one.

Zhu Yilong's Wu Xie in his late 30s is the one who is gritty and dark, weathered and beaten by life and fate. He keeps cigarettes, if only to poison people. He can set games himself now, outplaying many very good players. It would almost be easier if we see him change more, even darker, but the stars are still in his eyes, only more dimmed. Instead of historical facts, there's cold hard deductions and counter-measures. When he hugs Panzi and treats Xiao Bai like a little sister/niece, that's still the old Wu Xie. Yet at the same time he's a wilier character, more like how his uncle had been in the beginning.

When I think about the way he has changed, it's a really rough reminder of how much life has beaten him. Unlike stones smoothed by the wind and the sea, there are pock-marks and protrusions. He looks tired.

Sometimes I wonder what Xiao Ge sees in Wu Xie when he comes back. I haven't read 10 years later yet, but it must have been jarring for him too, because the Wu Xie in his memories, whatever he can remember, was the starry-eyed and idealistic young man. Yet when he left the bronze door, he found the same man there. Wu Xie tries to look like the same man he was 10 years ago, but it's hard to escape the trained eyes of Zhang Qiling. Wu Xie may still look fresh faced and wide-eyed, but there are crease-marks between his eyebrows. Just faint ones, but an evidence of long-time with brows furrowed. He still flails and sometimes go off into historical explanations, but there was something strategic in the ways his hands are placed, and there is an unmistakable sense of lightness steadiness that spoke of years of defense training, unlike the uneven steps before. When he talked, there are still that same sense of justice and uprighteousness, but there are edges in there now, and calculating sentences almost sunconsciously designed to conceal. He's not the same man he used to be, yet he's still the young man from 10 years ago. And I wonder if Zhang Qiling would wonder whether the decision he made 10 years ago, to go back through the door instead of letting Wu Xie go, was truly the right choice for him. Whatever can cause these changes in Wu Xie, was it truly better than what's behind the door?

[newswcanonprompts]

prompt #37 - Jedi are like Magpies and love their clones

sorry we haven’t posted in forever! to make up for it, i’m posting one of our longest and detailed prompts (maybe even the longest)- this came from a LONG discussion a few weeks back, and it was a lot of fun. this idea morphed a ton, and it became this huge thing. this is personally my favorite one, so hope you enjoy!

Jedi collect trinkets and wear them!!! Hand them to others as a very important gift

The Clones dont really get it, but they are happy

The jedi make them things like jewelry, keychains, little beaded things, colored strings, they’ll give them feathers, you name it 

Its another way to show that they are individuals, and that the jedi know them specifically 

The veteran clones have long keychain type things and the shiny clones want them very much and it’s something they look forward to 

The padawans hand the commanders things and being sad when the CC’s tell them they can’t take them into battle 

Krell gets found out earlier.

“Okay, look, i know krell is… well, he is *something* and i don’t want to accuse a master of the order but have you looked at his men?! where the hell are their keychains?!”

The padawans stage a protest at the senate because how else are they going to make sure that their troops know they are loved and get their trinkets 

This idea can get angsty really quickly (finding trinkets after battles, in ship crashes, or post-order 66), but we won’t do that because of how angsty this server already is, we need some fluff sometimes

Palaptine can commit self delete 

Clones will paint armor for padawans cause that is how they show honor and stuff 

The clones, upon figuring out what they mean, give their jedi trinkets also

Mirialan padawan holding armor they got: “ITS GREEN LIKE ME!” 

There are little figurines, some painted rocks, some little shiny things found on the battlefield

The clones who aren’t as good with their hands singing songs or telling stories

The jedi record them and keep them on little datachips that they keep on them at all times

Barriss doesn’t go bad because this is happy time

The jedi padawans start a riot / protest outside the senate building because some clones got their trinkets taken away by asshole civilians because they’re “not human”, just copies

The (now very pissed off) jedi sprung into action

If a snooty senator(s) takes away a clone’s trinket, the jedi just sit back and grind to a halt. Because if the clones, the PEOPLE WHO PROTECT THE REPUBLIC, are gonna get treated like that, the war can wait 

The jedi knights and masters just meditate wherever the padawans are protesting

This is done to ‘keep the peace’

If anakin hears a snooty senator degrade the clones, he starts ranting and shouting about their individuality and accomplishments, while pointing at each trinket.

Someone live streams this

Luminara joins in (barriss is right behind) 

Aayla too 

Luminara, anakin, aayla, tag teamed shouted speech 

Ahsoka and barriss are being held back by the CC’s (ahsoka is making some very crude hand gestures and barriss is like “i can name every bone in your body as i break it” - cause barriss has all that healer knowledge) 

Once these three are done, mace windu comes along with the council. They think mace is going to scold the three of them until mace starts shouting at the senators too. The council just lets mace do all the talking. 

This is the most watched live stream this year. It’s very funny and starts a ton of memes (obi wans face, yoda meditating, the look of “oh shit” on the original snooty senator’s face, the look of surprise on everyone when mace starts shouting too - there is also a gif made of the council looking at the situation, looking at themselves (mostly mace) and then they all step back to let mace do the talking, the clones faces when they see that three jedi and then the jedi high council are defending them)

Mace, rolling up his sleeves: “okay let’s do this” 

The senators: backing away in fear 

Obi wan might commit a war crime right now because no way people can talk about his troops like that

Obi wan: “am i allowed to kill a senator?”

Cody: “General, do not-”

This whole thing leads to a massive debate and overwhelmingly good PR for the jedi and clones

Shady sheev doesn’t like that. Good PR for the jedi? No thank you. But since this is a fixit he gets his ass kicked later on so everything’s fine (skeevy sheev has to scramble to try to fix his plans though) 

All the padawans from that one lightsaber episode (the one on ilum where the younglings got their kyber crystals) are there and SHIT’S GOING DOWN

Petro in particular is very close to kicking someone’s ass 

Caleb dume is there also.

“Master depa said we should never raise our blades in revenge or anger. But this is not revenge.” this is war, this is justice, this is defense of a defenseless group 

Padme also joins in all of this (but much more calmly)

She also might make some passive aggressive comments about the snooty senators trash outfit 

She and all her senator friends are gonna blacklist the original culprit 

Padme and bail organa (they also got help from many jedi) put in the clone rights bill the next day

In the halls outside the debate chamber, padme threatens to gut people with her hair pins if they don’t vote in her favor

sure, it’s *technically* extortion, but come on, who’s gonna stop her? those pins are pointy y’all

Anakin tried to help draft / present the bill but he spent most of his time ranting about the injustices the clones have to face (leia had to get it from someone)

Anakin, out of breath: “AND ALL YOU SENATORS JUST SIT HERE, DOING NOTHING, WHEN THEY’RE OUT THERE DYING FOR YOU-” 

Padme: “okay ani i got this, drink some water please” 

Ahsoka also jumps in 

Plo, who’s watching the debate: “little ‘soka, please don’t hurt anyone” (but he’s not about to stop her, after all these are his sons we’re talking about) 

If someone said “well they’re not slaves?” anakin would go OFF. if you thought he was angry before… you got another thing coming.

“I AM A FREED SLAVE! I KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE! THESE MEN HAVE LESS RIGHTS THAN I DID AS A SLAVE!” 

If the public doesn’t know about his childhood before, they do now

Imagine the shock 

Padme: “Ani, deep breaths, it’s gonna be okay.” 

Also padme, to the other senators: “well i mean he’s not wrong you assholes”

Padme is also making very well timed comments and suggestions. It’s the most successful day she’s had since she became senator

She’s also revealing all the senators’ dirty secrets

Padme: “oh, senator so-and-so, i released all your finances and your voting history on the holonet. I’m sure your supporters will love that you’re embezzling funds. Oh, you lost your support? Tragic.” 

The jedi also have dirt on everyone and they just casually let everything slip like they weren’t secrets 

Shady sheev Palpacreep is in his little podium thing during the debate, and he is very pissed, because his plan is getting ruined, but he can’t let it show or else people will discover the truth about him

Anakin: “isn’t it great that we’re finally doing something about it?” 

Sheev, pained: “Of course-” 

This whole debate is still live streamed - and it’s very popular

The senate who made the original comment and started all of this is #cancelled 

This is the greatest thing the galaxy has ever seen / watched because drama 

If a jedi dies, and they aren’t brought back to the temple, they are burned with the other dead on the battlefield. Young padawans take their master’s trinkets in remembrance, wanting to follow their path and have tangible proof that the master passed into the force but that they left their mark in the world

You do not burn the trinkets. Krell tried once. It almost started a jedi civil war (maybe that’s how he gets found out) 

Or maybe krell was found out because he gives zero trinkets to his men, and everyone caught on and were like “hey wtf man” 

But if you wanna make it angsty ( cough cough umbara ) then krell tells the 501st to remove / burn / throw out their trinkets or he’d do it for them 

He gives them an example by slicing a very special one that anakin and ahsoka both gave to rex 

Krell also slices one of dogma’s. It was the only one dogma had because  he was newish to the battalion at the time and wasn’t sure if accepting the trinkets was against regs or not. Krell slashes it and dogma doesn’t say anything but there were tears in his eyes 

All the jedi who find out what happened replace all the trinkets so fast. They also give krell’s men a shit ton of presents.

Krell’s men have no idea what to do with them, but they are so touched a few shed tears when they get them 

The clones get small tattoos of patterns that the little padawans drew for the men

The tattoos are small because some of them *might* just be random squiggles but the padawans looked so happy the clones just had to get them tattooed

Anakin orders japor wood with padme's bank account to make snippets for the clones because it’s not only a jedi thing, it’s from anakin's homeworld - and that’s like the highest praise you can get from him

The clones might not know exactly what it means but they know its super special 

Padme figures out a way to buy japor wood in bulk. Anakin is very touched by this 

When snooty senators start badmouthing clones, yoda just sits there and meditates to drive the senators nuts

“Sitting, i am, because stand you bitches, i cannot” 

Padme gets many trinkets from the 501st because they all *know* about her and anakin

Any trinkets that she gets she likes to incorporate into her outfits (like the warrior fashionista that she is) 

She embroiders some of them into her dresses and hairpieces 

They both get a TON of trinkets when the twins are born

Padme also gives trinkets to the 501st, some of the 212th, and all of the coruscant guard. Especially fox cause she sees all the work he does and the senators he has to deal with 

She’s besties with the coruscant guard. Like yeah, she knows the 501st and they know about her and anakin (and she’s one of them because of it) but the guard is who she’s always with

She probably wore red on debate day to represent them

[curechocolattymilk]

TES V OC Thingie

[Got tagged by @jessaryss​ ! ]

Pause your game! Wherever your OC is in their game currently, tell me about their story so far.

✧✧✧ General

Current Level: 56

Name: Jeer-Tei Perdes

Name Meaning: Literally got it from a name generator lol. But lore wise it was a name gifted to them in honor of an Argonian who served beside Tei’s mother during the Great War

Pronouns: They/Them

Age: Early 30s where they are story wise???

Race(s): Argonian

Place of Origin: Hammerfell

Pick A Theme Song For Them: oof that's tough... From a Crowded Wound or maybe even Firstwake? If you really played around w personal interpretation/the lyrics that is haha

✧✧✧ Locations

Where Did You Begin Their Game?: Argonian Assemblage, Windhelm (Alternative Start)

Where Are They Currently In Your Game?: Whiterun

What Are They Doing There?: Just finished attending a party held in their honor (Post Blood of Kings)

Homes?: Breezehome, Proudspire, Lakeview & Autmnwatch

# of Locations Discovered?: 274

Dungeons Cleared: 104

Misc. Quests Completed: 87

Favorite Areas and/or Locations: Falkreath / Lakewview Manor. Both areas are where Tei heads off to in order to collect their thoughts/feel some sense of calm.

✧✧✧ Main Quest

Are They Dragonborn / Do They Know It At This Point?: Yes & yes

How Do They Feel About Being Dragonborn: It's...complicated, being thrust into the role of savior by gods of the Cult, which in turn are followed by the folk who see you lesser than them. Tei already has a dislike towards the Divines, this doesn't really help lol

Main Quests Completed: 21

Where Are They In The Main Story Line: Alduin's dead, currently trying to ignore the Civil War as long as they can before the Empire forces its hand into forcing them to join their ranks

Dragon Souls Absorbed: In total overall? 147. The amount currently stored in Tei? 45

Words of Power Learned: 64

Shouts Mastered: 21

Favorite Shout: Firebreath / Dragonrend

✧✧✧ Combat

Most Used Weapon(s): Daedric war axe OR Dragonbone battle axe. Tei technically has both on them at all times during adventuring, alongside a shield, so which they used depends on the situation/which they grab fastest.

Combat Style: Two/One-handed tank. Main tactic is to rush in, cause as much damage/chaos as possible to shake up the opponent, & clean up what the ranged attackers of the party (usually Rumarin, Inigo and/or Lucien) weren't able to deal with.

Armor Type / Level In It: HEAVY ARMOR BABYYYYY (Level 100 + 35 extra points via enchantments)

# of Training Sessions: 99 in-game, lore wise its a lot of self-teaching/keeping their skills learned from Hammerfell sharp. Some of these are magic but lore-wise this doesn't happen cus Tei is not a magic user, save for shouts. I just did those in-game for exp OR so I can help Lucien raise his magic skills :'D

Who Taught Them?: In-game?? Fuuuck so many npcs. Lore-wise? They learned this from their schooling in Hammerfell, going off the canon-lore that it's p much expected for everyone to have a grasp on combat & weaponry! Though they did learn a few things from Kaidan & Anum-La.

Favorite Enemy Type: Dragons! Despite the fact Tei does not have the best magic resistance, it's one hell of a challenge they love to meet.

Least Favorite Enemy Type: Automatons, because of a bad experience with them as a child. Also Undead, because they were raised not to disturb them & it just feels so wrong having to fight them/go into tombs.

People Killed: 945

Animals Killed: 749 (Hunterborn makes hunting fun lol)

Undead Killed: 766

Automatons Killed: 105

Daedra Killed: 136

✧✧✧ Magic

Favorite School(s): None, actually. Destruction is okay though....they guess

Most Used Spell(s): Firebreath or Dragon Aspect. Tei doesn't consider shouts spells though. It's totally different guys shut up they ain't no smelly mage gods

Spells Learned: 9 in-game, mainly due to the spells you're kinda forced to learn for some quests/the ones you automatically know

Items Enchanted: 19 (Tei technically doesn't enchant, and wont next playthrough for sure I wont give in this time >:[ )

College of Winterhold Quests Completed: 8

Where Are They At In The Questline?: Main quest is done bcus i dont like seeing unfinished quests in my journal lmao. Tei's involvement is completely different from canon though in my take. Moreso was hired as a guard for the expedition & was, unwillingly, dragged into the rest of the mess. Is not offered the Archmage position, that went straight to Tolfdir.

Opinions on Magical Guilds (Arcane University, Winterhold, Psijics, Synod, Radiant Dark, etc.): As they get older, they tolerate the guild & magic users more n more, BUT, Tei grew up in an environment that frowns upon the practice of magic, & it shows. They mainly mistrust necromancers/illusionists & still hold onto that belief that reliance on magic, especially for combat, is a weakness.

Bold words for someone with shit magic resistance.

✧✧✧ Crime

Current Gold: 10,640

How Did They Acquire Their Gold?: Odd jobs, selling a lot of the items they made/harvested from smithing & hunting (jewelers are their go-to hirers bcus Tei is great at getting things like ivory), Dwemer ruin diving (they refuse to loot the tombs), also yknow....being part of the Dark Brotherhood helps

Largest Bounty On Their Head: 11,240

For...?: Unfortunately they did not stand down when they were being falsely accused of murder in Markarth. First time Tei called down dragons (Sahrotaar, specifically, Tei managed to get command of Miraak's dragons post-Dragonborn) to absolutely smite some fools.

Current Bounty: None! They're good at not getting caught/threatening and/or bribing guards. :)

Locks Picked: 15 i think?

Jail Time: 1, Cidhna Mine

Jail Escapes: 1, teamed up w the Forsworn lol

Murders: 28

Assaults: 307....In their defense people keep getting in their way during dragon attacks

Items Stolen: 37, most of them from the nobles of Windhelm

Thieves Guild Quests Completed: N/A (wont be doing this storyline unless i cant find a mod that'll let me get the shouts locked behind it)

Dark Brotherhood Quests Completed: 20

Where Are They At In Those Questlines?: DB is completed main arc wise!

✧✧✧ Relationships

Relationship Status: Married to two lovely fellas

Current Companions: atm? none

Housecarls: Lydia & Rayya

Friends (outside of party): Zora Fair-Child, Inigo, Lucien, Anum-La, Morndas, Aela the Huntress, Nazir, Babette, Scouts-Many-Marshes, Isobel, Madesi

Children: Khash, Chases-Starlight, Ram-Ku. (going of where Tei is now - Otero & Mei come around later on in Tei's story!)

Romantic Interest(s): Kaidan & Rumarin.

Sexual Orientation:

GAY

✧✧✧ Religion

Pantheon: Yokudan, with a hint of Hircine worship in there

Patron Deity(ies): From the Yokudan pantheon: Tei mainly views HoonDing as their main patron, but also prays to/pays respect to Satakal.

They are also Hircine's champion.

Daedric Quests Completed: 3 (Hircine, Vile, Dagon - the last Tei didn't really help, moreso pissed off)

Aedric Quests Completed: 1 if you count the whole Alduin thing I guess?

How Devout Are They?: Tei is rather devout, esp to their Yokudan patrons, praying or making offerings daily. They aren't the type to really push it in your face though, but have no issues answering questions one might have.

How Do They Feel About Talos Worship?: Deep down they acknowledge & admit trying to ban worship is terrible, but....Tei also lets their bias/experience with Windhelm, the Stormcloaks & especially Ulfric kinda cloud over this. If the Nords want their old ways so damn much, why fight for a divine from the Imperial Cult? Why not go back to the actual old ways? No, this isn't about worship, not to the men leading this so-called rebellion, they just needed something other than their racist bullshit to fool the common man into throwing their lives away for the nobles sitting comfortable in their thrones.

Also during their whole thing of getting into their role of dragonborn, they get a bonus 'fuck this dude actually' towards Talos, Ysmir, whatever the fuck he calls himself. (tldr; it sucks but good luck hearing Tei say that fully)

✧✧✧ Politics

Gray-Mane or Battle-Born?: Neither, ask them again they will punch you for the love of Ruptga they get asked that every time they enter Whiterun.

Stormcloaks or Imperials?: Also neither, Tei hates em both n think they can all choke. Unfortunately they were forced to join the latter due to, yknow, calling dragons & causing massive damage in Imperial territories during isolated fits of rage and the group being more aggressive in wanting something in return for "letting it slide"....oops

Opinion on the Thalmor?: Oh absolutely despises them, they loudly complained having to work with them during the CW & would go out their way to disrupt their plans/piss them off. Sneaking was an option they did not take during the Embassy quest, if it helps paint the picture.

Opinion Of Ulfric Stormcloak?: Tei doens't say they hate people often...but they sure as hell hate Ulfric. Again, their experience in Windhelm added to this heavily, how both the Dunmer & Argonians were treated like shit, with no help whatsoever from the Jarl or guards when the local Nords targeted them. It's still up in the air if I keep this for Tei's story, but I have it where they knew Chases-Starlight's parents, who were killed. When Tei went up & demanded justice/an investigation, only to be brushed off because it "wasn't a priority," it completely destroyed what little empathy or hope they had left for Windhelm as a whole.

Opinion of The Empire?: Cowards too weak to continue fighting back against the Thalmor, in their opinion, & holds these views they grew up with even when being strong-armed into aiding them. If anything they're at least attempting to use their influence to hint towards a rebellion against the Thalmor, but the Empire could also full-on dissolve & they could give less of a shit.

Civil War Quests Completed: 0

✧✧✧ Personal

How Are They Doing? Need Some Juice? A Nap? A Hug?: The whole event of Blood of Kings has fucked with their head, to say the least. It's the starting point of Tei's eventual spiral. So uh...yeah they're not sure how they're doing everything they knew about reality was kinda challenged & they don't rlly have anyone to talk to about it so its cool, its fine, its all good.

A nap is probably needed, not sure about a hug theough they're super flinchy rn

Days Past In Game: 196

Hours of Sleep: 846

Food Items Consumed: 1833

How Many Playthroughs Have You Done With This Character: Tei actually is an older character from the 360 days so uh...maybe 5 at most? This playthrough & their S:EC one coming up when the mod releases being the main ones focusing on their story

Overall How's Your Level Of Fun: Alright I would say! I just been stepping away from Skyrim more often lately to avoid burning out from it

Must Have Mods To Play This Character (for story or other reasons): Ordinator, Wintersun Faiths, Immersive Armors, Sarcastic Player Dialogue, 3DNPC, Inigo, Lucien Flavius, Kaidan 2, Khash the Argonian, Alternative Start, Leviathan Animations, Beast Race Body Paints, Beast HHBB, Apocalypse Magic, Deadly Dragons, Growl: Werewolf Overhaul, Pronouns, uhhh....idk what else without actually listing my current modlist lmao

----

And that's it for Tei! Anyone who wants to do this go on ahead!

[rivalsforlife]

What're your exact thoughts on AA5?

ooh anon are you sure you want me to get into this?

It’s... complicated? Like, as a game on it’s own, it... still has MAJOR flaws but it’s not too bad. As a sequel to AA4? Pretty terrible. 

I guess let’s start with that angle. What makes me angriest about AA5 is that it kind of... completely erased any chance of proper closure to some of the story arcs and themes that AA4 opened up. Like, people will try to claim 456 as a “trilogy”, but it’s nowhere near cohesive enough to pass as one. AA5 pretty much pushed Apollo (who was supposed to “succeed” Phoenix as the protagonist, being kinda the point of the case literally called Turnabout Succession) to a secondary character role. It shoved Trucy completely out of the spotlight so her only role was to hang around the office and then get kidnapped once (which has such little role in the story it’s completely forgettable). It completely abandoned Klavier and had him come back as a kind of bland “ja achtung herr forehead I’m a rockstar ;)” character who only shows up to play a minor role in a minor case. In contrast with, say, how JFA treats the major cast from the first game (consistent protagonist, Maya having a bigger role and more of her history and family drama explored, Miles getting huge amounts of character development and being a major part of the emotional arc) it is an extreme letdown. It also just automatically brings back Phoenix as the protagonist and... doesn’t even touch on the lasting consequences of his disbarment? Not even just the “he became a lawyer again right away and doesn’t really bring up the effect disbarment had on him” kind of thing, but the story itself kind of forgets about him being disbarred. For a game entirely about the public’s perception of the legal system being in the dumpster, not one person ever questions Phoenix’s eligibility as a lawyer or whether he forged the evidence. Like, sure, he was cleared of all charges, but that doesn’t mean that the public would automatically see him as innocent, especially considering his massive influence over the trial that essentially proved his innocence! Like, “oh, you practically ran this trial that said you didn’t forge evidence? Okay, we love you, you’re a hero.”

And I do love Athena, and I like her overall story with Simon, I like them both as characters and I like their general plotline. I just think it came in at a veeeery bad time. Adding Athena as a protagonist in the same game you add Phoenix back as a protagonist means that not only do none of the protagonists end up with the sole focus of the game for their development, but also her major role in the plot pushes back any chance for exploring the story of AA4. Athena gets a joint protagonist-assistant type role, so Trucy isn’t necessary anymore, since the only assistant role is filled by one of the other lawyers. So, no Trucy development. And as a protagonist she is immediately overshadowed by Phoenix in the very first case.

I... like to think the first case is a very good example of DD, because it starts with Athena being immediately overshadowed by Phoenix who is back to his normal trilogy self, and Apollo ends up bleeding on the ground.

I mean, in some ways, I get it, because this is a game that was written six years after Apollo Justice and had a completely new writing team, not to mention being on a completely different console, so already making a direct sequel to AJ would be complicated considering that a decent amount of the people buying the game possibly would have never played an AA game before (considering the 3DS ports weren’t there at the time.) And apparently Phoenix’s characterization in AJ, and AJ in general, was poorly received, so from a marketing standpoint they did kinda need to abandon as much as they could. But from a story standpoint, it’s really bad.

There’s also the issues with the plot in general, namely the “Dark Age of the Law”. Because... the law has been TERRIBLE in this series for as long as the series was around. If there’s a Dark Age, it’s been going on for a looooong time. And, of course, there’s no real way that Phoenix’s disbarment and Simon’s arrest were what initiated this Dark Age, because the people who have ALREADY been arrested should have been much, much worse. Like we’re talking about an undefeated prosecutor known for forging evidence, the Chief of Police, another prosecutor being accused of murder, not to mention the investigations games tackling down an ambassador and the former Chief Prosecutor/ head of the committee that’s SUPPOSED to stop corruption. After all that, the breaking point is a defense attorney and some rookie prosecutor?

(One good explanation is what Saturation’s take on this all happening is, but considering the games haven’t said it was like this...)

Also again with the issue of Phoenix’s disbarment. The game assumes that once Simon is cleared (in an unofficial trial) and Phoenix’s name is cleared (again in an unconventional trial) the public is magically going to start trusting in the legal system again. ... Good luck with that. There’s no way that’s going to happen.

And there’s also a lot of wasted opportunities with the whole “the ends justifies the means” nonsense in general. Like, I think I’ve talked before about how the first case of Apollo Justice pretty much embodies the “the ends justifies the means” approach. The evidence has been destroyed by the true culprit, and the only way to have them safely convicted is to present forged evidence: what then? Or even RFTA’s “there isn’t any evidence that this person is the culprit, but we KNOW they are, and if they continue to get away then they could hurt people, so isn’t forging evidence the right thing to do?” It’s a complicated morally grey thing they can dig into, but instead, DD goes for the “but I want to present forged evidence to win!!” which everyone can agree is wrong. 

(It’s also incredibly ironic that Athena talks about “Mr. Wright is going to bring us out of this dark age!” right in the middle of the third case when confronting Means, when, you know, Phoenix used the EXACT “ends justifies the means” approach just a year later. but you know, no one’s going to say anything about that, because Phoenix Wright is perfect and can do no wrong.)

Plus thematically the game is all over the place. Unlike say the second investigations game which had a solid theme about “bonds between people” with a focus on “bonds between parent and child”, I... can’t really figure out what the overall theme of DD is. When I replayed the game prior to UR-1 incident, I could come up with about like five things that they maybe focused on in the last case but none of them were concrete enough to be called the overall theme. Incredible that the game was written two years after the one with one of the most solid overall themes! 

Also, the villain was weak overall; they were TOO unpredictable and the fact that absolutely no one noticed something was off with him (particularly not the girl who can literally read emotions) was rough. Everyone immediately turning on him despite the exact same case talking about believing in your friends even if there is evidence against them is a little weird. And their motives, whatever organization they worked for, it’s all unknown (and completely abandoned in the next game, of course, so we’ll never know.) Which may be the point, not everything NEEDS to be solved, but the fact that none of the characters ever express concern about this (like why an international spy who killed someone to impersonate them has a realistic mask of Phoenix’s face) is also weird.

... This is a lot of negativity. Uh, there are things I do like, I swear. I like Athena and Simon, I like uhh... the soundtrack... ... ... you know I do like the game a lot more when I am in the process of playing it. Despite the undoubtable fanservice that was Miles’ appearance (OH THAT’S ANOTHER NEGATIVE THING, I didn’t like how Athena didn’t have a major role in the Phantom’s takedown despite that being the guy who killed her mom) I like being able to see Miles and I like seeing what comfortable terms he’s on with Phoenix now. Some elements of the individual cases were lots of fun (the father-daughter relationship in the second case, the focus on the friendship in the third case, and I enjoyed the DLC case overall.) ... This has gone on long enough, so I’ll leave it at that!

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Soooooooo... because I’ve completely lost my mind: “Light and L in Hogwarts during the year that Harry Potter was” AU ideas (and I know a lot of people have already written them into Hogwarts, so I’m probably just unknowingly copying people’s ideas. But shh).

Light is a Gryffindor and L is a Slytherin (same year). Really, Light should also be a Slytherin, of course. But this helps them to be rivals better. He probably asked the Sorting Hat to put him in Gryffindor--ala Harry--and the Sorting Hat took his choice into consideration.

And they are rivals. Because like in canon, they’re very much the same and Foils to each other. They both definitely become prefects and Head Boy of their year (sorry, Ron. I guess I’m stealing prefect from you for this AU. I’m so sorry, baby!). And everyone is constantly comparing the two, so they hate each other at first. They’re also both on their respective Quidditch teams, because of course they’d be. I’m imagining they’re Beaters, because “he who attacks first, wins”, and since Harry’s still got to be Gryffindor Seeker.

And getting the obvious out of the way: L loves Honeydukes, of course.

But I imagine the reason these two start to become friends is this: Light realizes there’s something wrong with Snape jumps down Harry’s throat on his first day. Like, he reads fear and humiliation on Harry’s face or something--or knows that even the most basic wizard should have known the answers Snape was asking about--he questions him about it... To which Harry admits that he didn’t even know he was a wizard--or about the wizarding world--until a few days ago. Though I doubt Harry would be this open about it to a stranger, but shh. And this ticks Light off--to know that Harry’s aunt and uncle treated him so dirty, and that Professor Snape just made this poor, defenseless kid look like an idiot--and he plans to go to Snape about it. But anyway, L had secretly been listening this whole time--but hiding like a cat--and he makes his appearance known now. He’d come to the same conclusions and also wants to help Harry out, because he’s “justice” too, after all. And it’s here that Light and L develop a grudging respect for each other. And they probably do go to Snape. But Snape being Snape doesn’t listen to them, and he takes points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin for their “insolence”... At which point, they might decide to make Snape’s life a living Hell, and thus a friendship begins.

The two of them totally become aurors when they graduate, and enjoy seeing Harry and Ron at work.

Light and L may think that Ron isn’t the smartest wizard in the world--and somewhat un-deserving to hang out with Harry and Hermione--at first, but their opinion of him changes pretty quickly. And even when they did think this of him, they didn’t dislike Ron. They liked the dude pretty well, since Ron’s pretty sociable, but just didn’t think he would ever be a rival to them. Let’s put it that way. But when they learn about all that Ron does in his, Harry, and Hermione’s adventures, they give him mass respect.

Light and L are the biggest supporters of Neville Longbottom that you’ll ever see, as they both saw his potential and realized pretty soon that it was abuse keeping him from unlocking his full potential. 

Light and L are “fans” of Harry at first--though not starstruck--and then just flat-out respect the Boy Who Lived once he just becomes one of their peers. Granted, they don’t think baby Harry really did anything to earn all his fame... but you’ve still got to give it to the infant that somehow tripped up Lord Voldermort and stopped his reign of terror.

Light and Hermione... get on pretty well. I’d maybe go as far as to say they’re acquaintances. And, naturally, everyone thinks they should date: since they’re the two smartest Gryffindors and prefects. But this would never happen. They probably even laugh at the idea together. Hermione has just never had any interest in Light, for whatever reason (maybe because she had a crush on Ron pretty early on). And Light is most definitely gay.

I forgot to mention that L in this is probably a clue to the Golden Trio earlier on that Slytherins aren’t all bad.

Speaking of: L and Draco are friends (but only because Draco’s pretty much the best person he can find in Slytherin house). And this maaaaaaaaaybe convinces Draco to switch sides earlier than in canon.

As he would, Light definitely loves to use avada kedavra against evil people... Though no one really has a problem with this, because most people use that spell during a war (in fact, even our heroes in Harry Potter often don’t understand why he won’t use the killing curse). L maaaaaaaaaaybe tells Light that he thinks this is a bad thing. But it isn’t something they’re going to turn into enemies before. And L’s certainly used the spell himself in dire situations. But similarly to Death Note canon, Light thinks that all criminals should be avada kedavrad. L questions that one time, though, in asking Light, “You want them to suffer for what they’ve done, yes? So wouldn’t it be worse for them to live out their years in Azkaban? Or have their souls sucked out by the Dementors?”

But back to Light and L still being rivals... There’s one time where they’re both in the halls after curfew--probably because Light and L sometimes get roped into the Golden Trio’s adventures, or their own adventures, because they’re too smart not to be--and L leans over to Light and says, “Know that I love you,” before kissing him on the lips... He then gets on his broom, or something, and quickly flies away so he won’t get caught, but Light is and Gryffindor loses points. So the game is on.

I feel like Light and L would probably hate and dislike Dumbledore, after they realize some of the shady stuff he does. L might somewhat respect his cleverness, but ehh.

Also, Light and L are brilliant... So they never once doubt that Voldermort is back when Harry says he is. And they do, in fact, join Dumbledore’s Army and help Harry teach... Even though they probably hate the name. They also help bring it back with Neville, Luna, and Ginny, when the Golden Trio are away in year seven.

They fight in the Battle of Hogwarts, of course. And in the battle in Hogwarts at the end of book six.

L is probably the first Gryffindor to stand up to his house, like “Uhh, no. We’re not going to sacrifice Harry to Voldermort to save ourselves.” And speaking of... there’s a chance that a good portion of L’s house hates him for clearly siding with Harry over Voldermort when the war begins.

I had some ideas about Misa, but I’m sort of forgetting them now. She’s definitely a Hufflepuff... But I want to do something different with her, than most people usually do. Yes, Light is kind of annoyed by her because he thinks she thinks they’re dating or is trying to force it? (She probably does something to help him? And then Light thinks she’s insinuating he owes her. IDK?) But what if in reality, she’s ace or something and just wants a friend? And Light is just assuming the worst--and for once, being dumb--by just not talking to her? But eventually he does, and then they’re sort of cool with each other. And she then sometimes helps Light and L, because this is the happy Death Note AU (in Hogwarts), everybody.

...I feel like I had so many ideas, but now I think I’ve forgotten them all. Oops. I’ll add to this if I remember them, I guess. 

Also... there’s a good chance that Light and L figure out the Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew thing before anyone else--near instantly, when they learn about it--but I also don’t know if I want to commit to that? Because I don’t want to steal the Golden Trio’s thunder too much here? But at the same time, if I’m not going to have the Death Note characters slightly change things, what’s even the point?

Edit: The two geniuses probably do create some new spell or potion or something together. 

Edit 2: Harry and L totes bond over being orphans.

Edit 3: All the students in Hogwarts know that Light and L are gay for each other. And are constantly like, “Where’s your boyfriend at?” to their annoyance, probably because even in this universe Light and L are in denial about their feelings for each other for the longest time for some reason.

Edit 4: Light and L have the same patrous (to their annoyance. And at first, it’s not because they love each other--though maybe later it partly is--but because they’re that much alike). And it’s probably a cheetah or something.

Edit 5: Back to the whole Light and Misa thing, L actually realizes she doesn’t want to be Light’s girlfriend and is cool with her before even Light is. Since, oddly enough, it seems that Slytherin and Hufflepuff are close, and Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Later, when Light asks how he figured it out first, L sites his deductive reasoning schools and this as the reason.

Edit 6: I just thought of how this gets dark, and how Light and L maybe turn against each other... Light being tempted to create horcruxes by using the kills he makes in self-defense. L tells him not to do it: to not be like Voldermort. And Light perhaps listens to that... or doesn’t, in being so arrogant that he thinks he won’t become a dark wizard if he’s tasted immortality. On one hand, I feel like Light wouldn’t want to rip his soul apart. But if he thought it was for the greater good--so he could continue fighting crime as an auror--then he might do it...

Edit 7: Light and L do probably resent their professors some, in thinking that they’re more capable than they are.

Edit 8: Light and Hermione might actually go on one “date” together. To “The Slub Club”, because they want to make Ron and L jealous.

[uswnt-owns-this-homo]

Let a Bitch Hit You- Julie Ertz x Reader

     AN:  Here’s my attempt at a protective JJ, hope I did it justice!

TW: Homophobia, mentions of drugs/alcohol, cursing of course, homophobic slurs and language

You take a deep breath as the ref blows the starting whistle, the Courage kicking the ball back to their defense, signalling the start of the game. You try to follow the ball as much as possible, taking care to stay in position and wait for opportunities and passes to come your way. You can’t help but to think of the circumstances as your teammate, and long term girlfriend, Julie Johnson, gets the ball, and passes it quickly, opening up space and helping the Red Star’s attack. 

      The significance of the game is not lost on you, your first one against your prior team. Jaelene Hinkle, one of the most openly homophobic people in the league, had pushed you towards your transfer, though you and Julie were already discussing a request at a later time. After her and Ashlyn’s epic twitter battle, Jaelene had lashed out slightly, demanding that you, as the “resident queer on the team’’, get dressed for games and practices in a different area, so that she “could change without being leered at”. 

      The rest of the team, minus your national teammates, had just let her go along with it, not defending you or telling her she was wrong. This, along with direct statements to you about your sexuality, including, but not limited to: constantly telling you you’re going to hell and sinning, pelting balls at you during practice, and, during team bonding events, conveniently forgetting to invite you, leaving you disconnected with the rest of the team, had led to the situation at hand.

      Your former teammates, bar the national team members, attack you mercilessly. They go for cheap moves, like holding your jersey during corner kicks, and performing late slide tackles, obviously targeting your notoriously weak ankles and knees. Throughout the game, Julie’s frown has become more prominent, her play more sharp, focused on getting the win over the people, or more accurately, the person, who contributed to her girlfriend's small fall down the rabbit hole.

       Instead of discussing the transfer, and the events behind it, with a professional, you had turned to alcohol, and over the counter medications, drinking booze and then taking benadryl, or cough syrup, and sleeping for days. You had kept up your facade of your usual happy, energized, rival to Sonnett in memes personality, up until you had moved in with Julie in Chicago. She had quickly noticed your actions, taking count of the vodka and medicine bottles, and had pushed you to see a therapist, resulting in your sobriety of now 4 months. 

      Hinkle makes the mistake of going in for a late slide tackle, clipping your already sore ankle. You turn to her and she sneers, winking at you. You slowly get up, rolling your eyes as the ref allows play to continue.

      Julie has been slightly more aggressive when facing Hinkle, and some people have noticed, mainly you, and of course the target herself, especially after a particularly hard run in was made for the ball.

“Hey, Johnson, how about you clean up your play? This is the third time you’ve shoved me, getting sloppy there, homo?”

      The look on your girlfriend’s face says it all, and all you can do is run to put a hand on her shoulder, trying to keep her from retaliating.

“Aw, look, dyke is trying to stop big bad Julie from starting something she can’t finish. How’s the cough syrup binge going, Y/N? Still sober, or have you fucked that up as well?”

      You just blankly stare at her, feeling old urges resurface, trying to stay in the present, as well as keep Julie from getting carded.

“You know, I think you transferred because you know I’m right, and you can’t face the fact that you sin everyday, and don’t like that your sickness is brought to light, isn’t that right, Y/N?”

      Julie shakes you off, stomping forward and shoving Hinkle, causing you to follow, holding her back slightly, your team, and the opposition coming together in a large huddle, Alyssa grabbing Julie and holding her back..

“Alyssa, please. No, Y/N, she can’t talk to you like that! I mean, the league has done jack shit to her for harassing you, or for poor sportsmanship, or any of the other numerous things she’s done. Jesus, you tried to kill yourself! And what does she get? Absolutely nothing!”

Jaelene seems to falter for a moment, before her face turns in a sneer.

“Poor Y/N, can’t take any criticism, what’d you do, try to get away from it?”

      Julie finally breaks out of your and Alyasa’s grip, lunging at Hinkle, landing a solid punch to her jaw. The ref comes running, putting her hands on both players. Julie is still attempting to reach Hinkle, and laughs at the red card she’s shown.

“Oh yeah, fucking let the one who’s caused severe emotional and mental harm to my girlfriend get off scott free!”

Coach calls her over and she rolls her eyes, giving you a quick kiss on the forehead, glaring at Hinkle when she fake gags. 

You’ve had enough, officially snapped, gone off the metaphorical rails of tolerance of douchbaggery.

“You know, you can insult me, make me want to cease living, but you have no right to be disgusted. Any god I know would be appalled at how you’ve treated my community, and I know you don’t go to heaven just on the merit of being a homophobic christian. Ash was right, you have no place on the national team… You wouldn’t fit,”

      You shove her backwards, taking your yellow card with a grin. Play resumes relatively quickly, and your whole team goes forward into the second half with a renewed passion, compensating for Julie’s red. You lose yourself in the game, giving it your absolute all, and laying yourself out on every possible play.  You manage to score 3 goals, one which could have been defended by Hinkle. 

      The whistle blows and your team rushes you, picking you up, hugging you, and cheering. You all head back to the locker room and you spot Julie, staring at her phone, a blank stare on her face. You sit beside her, putting your arm around her shoulders and pulling her into a hug.

“Thank you, so much. For defending me, for fighting for me, even though I really missed my favorite ball feeder,”

Julie cracks a smile and shrugs.

      You pull her in for a short kiss, trying to  convey all of your love for her. You all walk out of the locker room, bags and bus buddies in tow. Julie holds your hand as you walk to the bus, rubbing a thumb over it as you stare blankly ahead of you, thinking back on your whole experience with Jaelene. Julie wraps her arms around you as you both get onto the bus, finding your usual seat beside Alyssa, who smiles worriedly at you. You take a deep breath and look at Julie.

“I just, I thought transferring would give me peace, but she’s still there, the thoughts, they’re still there. Just. Why is it such a big deal to her? I’m just living my life, trying to be happy, and she constantly made me feel, hell, sometimes still makes me feel, worthless, and I know therapy helped, but still, sometimes, like tonight’s game, brings it all back,”

      Julie gets a look on her face, as does Uncle Naeher. They look at each other and nod slightly, brows furrowed.

“Come on Alyssa, Y/N, sit here, we’ll be back in a second,”

You curl up in the seat, listening to Julie talk to Alyssa’s seat mate, and one of your friends on the team, Sam Kerr.

“Look, me and Alyssa have to go do something, we’ll catch an Uber to our place afterwards, could you do me a huge solid, look after Y/N for me? Make sure she stays talking, doesn’t zone out too much?”

Sam nods and Julie sighs, turns to you, and kisses you on the forehead.

Okay, love, I’m gonna go, sort things out.  I’ll be back in a bit, before you go to bed, okay?”

You numbly nod, heart racing.

      She quickly turns to Sam, nods, and goes to get off the not yet started bus. Coach looks at her and Alyssa, and they talk for a few seconds before he waves them on, glancing back at you. Sam moves to sit beside you, and you curl up to her side, silently wishing it was Julie.

      You’ve made it back to the hotel, eyes red from your crying on the way back. You carry your bag to your room, Sam walking you to it and giving you a hug as you walk inside. You put your things down, taking care to organize it so you don’t have to deal with it later. You turn the coffee maker on, set it to hot water, and start to run it, putting a tea bag in and leaving it to brew while you shower. You get your sweats and long sleeve t-shirt, taking out your toiletries and turning the water on cold, hoping the chill will help pull you out of your funk. You hop in and sit under the water, shivering slightly, but unwilling to turn it warmer. 

      You must sit there for an hour, slowly numbing even more from the cold water. You vaguely hear the room’s door open, Julie setting down her bag and putting her keys on the desk.

“Y/N? Babe?”

      You want to turn your head, say something, go lay and curl up in your girlfriend’s arms, let her reassure you, but the motivation doesn’t come. So, you sit and numbly watch, shivering and lips turning blue, as Julie comes in the bathroom, looks to you, and immediately rushes into the shower, clothes on and forehead cut, eye black.

“I’m so sorry. I should’ve been here, stayed with you, I just. She did this to you, without really trying, I couldn’t just let that happen,”

      You just shrug and hug her, trying to get warm, regretting your tactic for pulling yourself out of your mind.

“Okay, we need to get you warm. I saw your tea, you can have that, and then we can lay down and watch that documentary you heard about from Rose?”

      You nod, watching her turn water to warm, and strip, leaving her soaked clothes on the bathroom floor. Julie slowly washes your hair, conditions it, and takes a cloth to your slowly warming body, every touch and prod gentle and full of love. She keeps you under the warm spray for a while, holding you and rocking slightly.

“Okay, now which one of my hoodies do you want? We have the Santa Clara U or the Red Stars one, and some sweats, and some fuzzy socks are in your near future,”

You smile.

“You wore the Red Stars one more recently, so that one,”

A small blush runs across her cheeks, her usual confident demeanour gone.

“I’ll see what I can do, charmer. Ready to get out, get bundled, and get cuddled?”

She goes about shutting off the water, looking down to nod at you, and then stands up, you still cradled to her chest. You have a moment of realization.

“If I ask nicely, will you avoid putting clothing on?”

She sputters and turns tomato red.

“I- what? No, clothes are going on so I can properly warm you up, no more sly passes! I’m trying to take care of you, short stuff,”

You glower, sigh, and wrap your arms around her neck, waiting for her to put you down.

“Okay, look, tonight may have gotten to me, just a bit, but even all wacked out, I know somethings wrong. What happened to your face, and where’s Uncle?”

She sighs and starts to towel you off.

“Fine, The Giant and I went to have a chat with Hinkle, and I had her record it. I simply started talking with Hinkle, trying to reason and help her to understand things a little better, and then she hit me, and I didn’t hit back, and then she hit me some more,so now we’re hoping that we can send this to the big people in charge and maybe she’ll get suspended or in trouble or something. Alyssa is back with Sammy trying to stay away from conflict for the rest of her life. She did tell me to tell you to come down tomorrow if you needed some tips for dealing with the whole situation. Honestly think it’s the most she’s spoken this season,”

      You hug her and wrap the towel around her shoulders before smacking her gently in the leg.

“No more inciting violence in the hopes that you fuck with people who have ‘wronged me’ or whatever it is you said that one time, got it? Also, you need ice, but I will say I love a girl with a black eye,”

      You walk off into the main part of the room, ruffling through Julie’s bag to find her sweatshirt, lifting it over your head with a triumphant croon.

“Aw yeah, the epic girlfriend hoodie, let’s go!”

      Julie chuckles and walks out, coming up behind you and grabbing her SCU hoodie, pulling it on and winking.

“So that next time you want a sweatshirt, you can have a freshly me scented one,”

      You roll your eyes and grab a pair of training shorts, pulling them on and grabbing your tea, laying back carefully on the bed.

“Okay, coral documentary, snuggles, and then sleep,”

      Julie nods and gets in bed, pulling you close and grabbing the laptop beside the bed and opening up Netflix.

“Sounds like a pretty amazing night to me, shorty, let’s watch us some ocean stuff,”

     Needless to say you’re crying by the end of the documentary. Julie jerks awake, her soft snoring abruptly ceasing.

“What? What happened, who hurt you, I’ll let em’ punch me, get their ass suuspeendedd,”

      You chuckle, still crying slightly.

“Nobody, babe, just, he loves coral! And it’s disappearing, and he’s sad and all emotional and now I’m all emotional!”

      You sniff a few times and shut the computer, quickly putting it on the bedside table.

“Please don’t let anyone hit you again, Juls, pretty please,”

      She sleepily grunts and mumbles.

“Man, sometimes you just let a bitch hit you, ya’ know. Gotta get the w somehow, cause I sure didn’t get it during the game,”

      You laugh and wrap her arms tighter around you, knowing it’s going to be a bit of a long road ahead, but certain that the whole situation will pan out, and that you have Julie by your side through all of it.

[prorevenge]

Bully me for months? I'll hit you where it hurts the most, literally.

I want to preface this by saying I'm not proud of what I've done here. To the casual observer, what I did might seem like justice, but, really, I wish it didn't have to go as far as it did. I want my story to be a cautionary tale of what happens when bullying isn't taken seriously. I don't want this story to inspire you to do what I did, but as to what happens when people don't make the right choices the first time. Also, TL;DR at the bottom, the quotes aren't exact, and apologies if this seems a little all over the place. It's not easy for me to bring up stories like this, but I felt maybe I'd do some good by sharing it.

For as long as I can remember, I had a habit of bottling up my emotions. My single father is a staunch believer in traditional masculinity, including the idea that men and boys shouldn't cry. By my early to mid teens, I succumbed to this outdated idea, and accepted my fate as a quiet, stoic drone that just took orders, respected authority, and did hard work (especially manual labor.)

Enter my high school, which had a huge problem with bullying. The worst kids by far were the trashy "gangsta" kids (their words, not mine) from the inner city who targeted anybody they considered weaker than them. I was a pretty muscular 15 year old, but that didn't stop them from saying things like "Dude, you're so fat," or "Wassamatta, fattie? Lose your Twinkies on the way over?" In class, it was mostly petty annoyance: taking my pencil, sticking gum in my hair, insults. They got physical when the teachers weren't looking. Tripping me in the hall and pretending it was an accident; slamming my head against the locker, hitting me with footballs or soccer balls and saying a fake "whoops, sorry!" By themselves, it didn't seem that bad, but enough grains of sand add up to a huge pile, and, at that point, I was up to my waist in it.

Of course, the school didn't do anything about it. Teachers would either tell me "I'll take care of it," and then nothing ever changed, or I'd get something stupid like "I didn't see it. There's nothing I can do" or "You know, if I stopped class every time a kid was acting up, we'd never get anything done." Sure, and if a tree falls in the forest, it didn't make a sound because you didn't hear it. My father wasn't any help either. He'd tell me things like "there's gonna be people like that everywhere you go," or "if you're crying about this, you'll never make it in life," basically telling me to go suck it up because there are worse things out there. As a kid, I was hurt by this, but I was 15, so my self-esteem had been run over by a Combine a few times by now. For months, I just kept ignoring and waiting, hoping my teachers would keep their word about dealing with this problem. Sadly, it seemed they'd rather prioritize pep rallies and Career Aptitude Tests than do their job in keeping kids safe.

By around Spring, I'd had enough. By now, my sadness and annoyance had transmuted into boiling rage that I'd been keeping in me for far too long. If nobody was going to fight for me, I'd do it for myself, literally. I devoted the majority of my weekend to prepping for a showdown on Monday.

One of the few good things about my father is that how knowledgeable he is in self-defense. He believed it was important for a man to learn to fight, so he had me take several different kinds of martial art classes. If I was gonna fight a bully, I had to make it a proper fight. I then researched about Krav Maga, a branch of martial arts that's basically a military-style form of self defense, meant to train you how to fight if you were ever in danger "outside the arena." No rules, no balanced teams, no referees; just you and your need for survival. One of the components of Krav Maga is knowing the body's biggest "weak spots," ones that maximize the most amount of pain when hurt. Things like the groin, toes, and eyes were obvious, but you could also hit the knees, solar plexus, and even the spine. Since my classes didn't teach Krav Maga (you had to be 16 at the time,) I watched many online videos, making mental notes of the techniques used. It was almost always the same kid or group of kids that bullied me, so I already knew what they looked like, and, more importantly, where to strike.

On Monday, I waited for the next chance to come for the bullies to attack. To my surprise, they kept quiet for the most part. Maybe this was one of my lucky days where I'd actually get some work done. Then, while I was crunching for an exam during lunch, one of the bullies, a regular, spilled my water all over my textbook, and saying, "Whoops, sorry!" As he and his pals started walking away laughing, I got a good look at the back of the guy's neck. I raised my fist, aiming for the middle where I'd likely hit his spinal column.

WHAM! I knocked the guy over to the ground. That's when all Hell broke lose. His friends tried tackling me away, and I tried remembering to hit all their weak points: eyes, throat, groin, and jaw. It was fairly sloppy attempt at Krav Maga given my inexperience, and the other kids trying to fight back, but it got the effect I wanted. Of course, I didn't come out unscathed. I got punched in the jaw, a bloody nose, a bruise to the forehead, and more than a few kicks in the family jewels. The other kids noticed us fighting, with some going to get a teacher while others watched in a mix of shock and excitement. Eventually, the principal and a few other teachers pulled us apart, and sent us to the office, after our injuries were treated.

The principal talked with us individually while the assistant principal called all our parents. When it was my turn, I explained what happened. At some point, the principal said, "Why didn't you tell the teacher?" At that moment, I just snapped, somehow managing to sound even angrier than when I was fighting a few minutes ago. "I ALREADY TOLD THE DAMNED TEACHERS, LIKE A MILLION FUCKING TIMES, BUT NOBODY WAS DOING SHIT ABOUT IT! NOBODY! YOU TELL ME OVER AND OVER 'I'LL TAKE CARE OF IT, I'LL TAKE CARE OF IT,' BUT NOBODY EVER FUCKING DOES! I WOULDN'T HAVE FELT LIKE I HAD TO DO THIS OF SOMEBODY HERE ACTUALLY DID THEIR DAMNED JOB FOR ONCE!" I got an extra week of suspension for yelling.

Much to my surprise, my father was rather quiet about the whole thing. Normally, my father had the temperament of a dragon, but maybe this whole fight touched his inner "macho man" that made him go easier on me.

On the car ride home, he said calmly, but firmly, "What happened? And tell me the truth." I told him, "They wouldn't stop picking on me, so I defended myself." I waited to hear my father make some snide remark about hurt feelings, but he just said, "Were you in danger?" I paused for a moment, and said, "...Yes." I knew I was exaggerating, but maybe this could open my father's eyes to see how much I was hurting. He was quiet for a minute, and then said, "I can't judge on your situation 'cause I wasn't there, but it's in a boy's nature to be aggressive sometimes, and it sounds like those bullies were just using it for harm. I also know you well enough t'know you wouldn't lay a finger on somebody unless you felt like you had to." I nodded, holding back tears. "Next time you're ever in that kinda danger, call me. Don't wait for the teachers to fail you again. I'll give 'em Hell." I was stunned, and, once I realized what'd just happened, I smiled. That's one of the few redeeming qualities about my father. As toxic and narcissistic as he was, he was an expert on bringing vengeance to those who deserved it.

During my suspension, one of the bullies' parents wanted to press assault charges on me, but my father threatened to counter-sue the school AND the parents for letting the bullying go on for so long. Thankfully, nobody had to go to court as the bullies' credibility sank faster than the Titanic. Once word got around that I fought back to stop the bullying (rather than the strong, quiet guy going psycho,) more kids decided to come forward to the principal about their experience being bullied, too, and how they also went to the teachers for help. This included a few girls who were being sexually harassed by these kids. This was a PR nightmare for the school that left a permanent stain on their reputation among the locals. In the end, the bullies got expelled, some faced charges for sexual harassment, and I got transferred to a different high school. I guess I'm a little proud that I inspired some other troubled kids to come forward, but I really didn't like violence. I'm built for self-defense, but I don't like hurting anybody unless it's to protect those I love. I would've much preferred if teachers actually did their job, and "took care of it" before I had to.

I did get a gift certificate for summer classes in Krav Maga for my Sweet 16. Thankfully, I've never had to use it yet.

TL;DR: Bullies spend months torturing me, and teachers won't do anything, so I researched and imitated an advanced martial arts to bring maximum physical pain to my bullies.

(source) story by (/u/aitacrybaby)

[praphit]

JL - The Snyder Cut: A Quarter Pounder With Cheese

Was it 2017 when The Regular Ass Justice League came to the big screen? Idk. I can't remember anything before COVID.

I thought that movie was... decent. It was somewhere between "ok" and "good"; that's not a knock against it. It's like a quarter pounder with cheese. You know??

- it's about 1pm at work, and you ain't had lunch yet. You'll annihilate

a QPWC, but you also can't say it's a gourmet burger from some fancy spot; they put love and time into their burgers. If you compare a QPWC to THAT... then you might call it somewhere between "shit" and "almost ok"; movie snobs said things like that.

I wasn't like the snobs. I was like - "QPWC". But, in the defense of the snobs, it's hard not to compare the reg ass JC to a gourmet burger like The Avengers:

A team is assembled, there's a destroyer of worlds lurking about, there are magical alien objects to collect, there's a part in this new version that has a similar battle axe scene to Thor/Thanos, there's a character who at times can be a bit sexualized - and I'm not talking about Wonder Woman. I'm talking about

Aquadude.

"Wait, are we about to eat? I better pop this shirt off. I don't wanna get food on it."

"Wait, are we about to watch Tv? I better pop this shirt off, so the couch doesn't wrinkle it."

Zack Snyder came along and said "Quarter Pounder With Cheese?! Well, yeah, but that wasn't on me at all. Y'all need to see MY vision! MY burger would have been glorious!"

So, here we are... kinda like a second date, when the first one was 'ok', but not quite "the one". DC was like "That date, we were rushing things and may have gotten a lil handsy. We were copying moves we saw in other films and it was awkward. And something was up with our face that night.

BUT, this time, will be different!"

Let's talk about what's different:

#1 - The Flash

We get a lil more back story with him, but in the process an awesome scene where he saves some black woman with his lightning speed (so fast that everything is slow). I loved this!

The black woman whom he saves, I can only assume is Iris. I'm not a super comic geek, but I've seen the Tv Series (hence my assumption).

Flash is apparently all about black women. Maybe I should go back and read some of his comics. Perhaps he ONLY saves black women; pretty, young, single black women :)

He had better be careful with his hands as he saves them, with things all slow. I was watching him when he saved Iris.

Sometimes, you might have to feel some one up in the process f saving their life, you know?? I don't know, but Flash does :)

I'm just saying... my man might get hashtagged, if he's not careful.

#2 - Darkseid

He is the thing of nightmares and it's perfect! He is everything that I wanted Apocalypse in that awful X-Men movie to be.

A villain as powerful as Darkseid should look menacing.

Not like this -

But, like THIS.

YES!

He looks like he has been possessed by several spirits, and all of these spirits are high on meth and voodoo.

#3 (now this was unfortunate) Lex and The Joker make an appearance.

(Joker here lookin like he just got finished eating ribs. What the hell is going on with his mouth?)

Ugh.

We told y'all that these two were bad. Real, real BAD! It's like me saying that the cologne you were on our last date smelled like expired sauerkraut juice, please don't wear that on this next date. YET, here it is... stankin up the joint!

Some may say, but Joker revealed some things that could be interesting for Batman, moving forward... Spoiler Alert - in the future, Batman bleeps up! That's not much of a revelation. Batman is always screwing up. Just look at Arkham - full of his screw ups.

But, that's a story for another day (a day that hopefully, will NOT include actors Jared and Jesse).

#4 - Martian Manhunter.

He looks smoove. I don't know much about him. I've seen him in some cartoons. I imagine that someone who knows nothing at all about this universe would have been totally confused. But, regardless, he looked great! I hope we'll see him in the future. Why is the second part of his name "manhunter" though? First order of business, if he joins the team, is to change his name. Though perhaps all martians have names like that:

"Martian Boozehound", "Martian Cock Blocker", "Martian Narcissist". Maybe they'll all join one day.

The Martian didn't really move the plot though. He was just there to be kinda "look-at-me".

Think being on this second date, and at dinner, the person randomly starts juggling. You're like "That's really cool, but can we get back to the meal."

#5 - Steppenwolf!

YES! YES! and more YES! There's no way anyone can hate on his new look.

We also get some backstory as to why he's doing what he's doing. Before I thought he was simply being mean because his name is "Steppenwolf" A name like that demands that he be bullied. But, here, we find that he has pretty much been canceled.   I don't know what he did or tweeted, but Darkseid wasn't having it. Now, he's gotta do everything he can to get back into the fold; popping up random places and doing what he must to be redeemed - kinda like Louis C.K.

#6 - A lil more attention to the characters

a) Alfred being a gadget wiz.

b) Wonder Woman reminding us how amazing she is. Where was this woman in her sequel? THIS WW, I’d follow to hell and back.

c) Aquadude had some more scenes for build up as well.

Unfortunately, this woman was a part of it. 

She's not bad at acting, she's just a bad person (look her up if you don't know what I'm talking about).

d) Batman though --- it's not that I don't like Affleck in there. His Batman just looks so old, slow, and tired. There are some more chemistry/slightly flirtatious scenes with him and WW, and I'm like "Dude, there's no way that you have the energy for that action." :)

e) Cyborg though (Ray Fisher)-

He's the star of this cut! Before he was just the angry black guy. In this one... next to Superman, I'd say he was the most key to their victory.

As far as this second date:

It looks way better. There's a lil more story added. It's dark and depressing, but that's just how DC and Snyder roll.. This is probably why we don't see Shazam; he's way too peppy for the group.

Seriously wowed by the effects. I couldn't sit through 4 hours straight, but when I broke it up, I really enjoyed it!

However, it's still the same movie. You know?? The same failings are there from the first. It makes me think more of what could have been.

What if they had treated Ray Fisher better (look it up, if you don't know)?

What if they had taken their time to build up to this movie like Marvel did with The Avengers?

What if Batman and The Joker didn’t go through a identity crisis every few years?

Amy Adams is in this movie! She's one of the best actors around, today! I keep forgetting that she's in it, because they wasted her talents.

It's like our date got buff, dressed up this time, took us out for a nicer LONGER time, but they still rushed and were handsy, they were still a lil too dark 

(dating tips, kids: save your stories about your messed up childhoods for at least date #3), and they were still wearing that damned sauerkraut cologne.

Once again, good stuff, when not compared to a gourmet meal. More like a fancy McDonalds, serving us a quarter pound STEAK with cheese.

Grade: B-

[aros001]

Read through light novel vol. 15. Random thoughts.

Well, I just found one of my favorite volumes of this series. For all the right and wrong reasons.

There is a certain trope or term I've heard of for comedy. Where a joke or skit can be really funny but can also go a little too far with the performance to where it can be a little annoying. But there are also plenty of times where the joke/skit takes it even FURTHER than that and it circles back around to being funny again. Naofumi with Raph-chan is a little like that. His love for the little furball was cute and funny at first, then it became a little odd and maybe a little cringey, and now it's gone to such an extreme that it's circled back to funny again, with the Shield hero now commanding a legion of Raph-chans. Also, Naofumi and Ruft bonding over Raph-chan is genuinely really sweet. Between that, how much he clings to Naofumi (or Raph-chan) when he's scared, and just the liking he's taken to the kid, I think Naofumi has definitely found his son figure. Honestly their relationship feels a little more parent and child than even Naofumi and child Raphtalia's was and it took me a bit before I figured out why that was, at least for me.

Naofumi was very parental to Raphtalia and does still somewhat think of her as his daughter. However, when they first met it was also a situation where Raphtalia had to grow up very quickly, and not just physically through leveling. She was bought as a slave and didn't want to go back to the trader. She wanted to fight back against the things that took her family and village from her. She wanted to be Naofumi's sword. She was the sole reason he could gain any significant experience and level up into the Shield Hero he needed to be. The romantic feelings she gained for him were almost certainly a factor but overall, for her sake and his, staying a child, staying as someone's daughter, was not an option. What Naofumi needed wasn't a daughter but a partner. Someone he could lean on and trust.

With Ruft, there is no need for him to grow up quite yet. Yes, Naofumi took him to the village so he could get some experience with the real world and he does plan on toughening him up, but Naofumi is not dependent on Ruft like he was Raphtalia. There's no pressure for Ruft to grow up because Naofumi and everyone else will be fine regardless, so he has more freedom to be a kid. And unlike Filo and the village kids, he doesn't have the added complication of also being Naofumi's slave. Naofumi can treat him and care for him like a kid.

Side note, but is it weird that, even though I know he's related to Raphtalia, before I finally was given an image of him I kept on imagining Ruft looking like Gohan from the very beginning of Dragon Ball Z? Chinese Emperor clothes and all. It feels a little unintentionally racist of me given that Q'ten Lo is meant to resemble isolationist period Japan.

“The Bow Hero mentioned that he has a skill which allows him to scout out the surrounding area from a higher vantage point,” Raphtalia recalled. Itsuki said that? I mean, he was the Bow Hero. It wouldn’t be strange for him to have a skill that allowed him to search for distant targets. That sounded like quite a convenient skill too.

I'm glad about this little detail. I was just saying in the last volume that it felt like the other three heroes didn't seem to have any abilities that weren't directly attack-based. And then later with the hero conference we get even more added to their arsenals beyond just "attack, big attack, and bigger attack" like they'd been showing up until now. Before it felt like the other three could be a bit interchangeable in battle with Naofumi, as it's three attackers and one defender, with range being the only difference. But now, between the four of them, it's a good mix of attack, defense, support, healing, and debuffs. The Four Holy Heroes actually work as a party together.

“R-Raphtalia. Brother. I just want to go and see Master Naofumi! Move aside,” Atla stated.

“No,” Raphtalia replied.

“Never,” replied her brother.

“Raph!” barked a horde of Raphs.

I can hear the freaking echo! I'm dying!

“To be more accurate, they are filolials who act like mountain bandits, attacking wagons carrying off goods and stuff like that,” Melty continued.

...

“Hold on a moment. What the hell is going on then? And—” I finished my thought in my head. If this was the issue that Fitoria wanted help with, then . . . “You’re telling me filolials fight over wagons?”

“Yes. That’s what I’ve been told,” Melty confirmed. Uwah! So she wanted me to resolve some kind of turf war? If these were wild filolials, they weren’t going to go down without a fight.

“The loser has to give their wagon to the winner,” Melty explained. “Also, if it’s the season of love, they can only find love by defeating their opponent.” What were they, hermit crabs?

This is going exactly where I think it's going, isn't it?

[Two chapters later]

“It’s been a while, father-in-law. It’s me, I say, Motoyasu the street racer!”

F******************************************K!

I get Motoyasu is under the effect of his curse series but...it's just so hard to like this guy. It was even before Witch betrayed him and his curse activated. Especially when he uses his Temptation ability to "show Filo his love", basically trying to force her into loving him. Thank goodness it didn't work and that Raph-chan can clear away the effects it did have. Naofumi could stand to be more considerate of Raphtalia when it comes to the Raphs but Motoyasu has been straight up harassing Filo. He tried to keep her trapped in her "angel" form when rescuing her from Naofumi's "brainwashing" and probably was going to keep her that way forever if Witch didn't have her "accidentally" killed along with Melty when removing the brainwashing. I'm pretty sure she was the main person he wanted to peep on in the baths at Cal Mira. He stole her favorite wagon and transformed it into...that. And then there's the shape of...

No...

No!

I'd heard a rumor but...

NO!

I thought it was a web novel thing!

WHY DOES MOTOYASU HAVE A DILDO SPEAR?!?!

Or...god, what if it's not a dildo?!

“I’m taking your daughter. Using my Lust Envy Spear IV,” Motoyasu exclaimed. God. This was all depressing me intently.

“Filo-tan! I will stop you and take your purity!” Motoyasu thrust his spear at Filo.

“Boo!” She wasn’t interested. Then I noticed what he was pointing at. Below the waist, shall we say.

....................Kill him. Kill him. F**king kill him. I don't care about the consequences to the world. Kill him. Kill him now. Have Aura and Mare come over from Overlord and Iris come over from Konosuba. They'll all team up with Filo so that the lolis he loves so much can snap his f**king neck.

I get he's under the effects of a curse (two curses even; lust and envy) but he's almost everything he and Witch accused Naofumi of being. He's brainwashing people and an attempted rapist. All he's missing is abusing his slaves and kidnapping Melty.

...F**k. Okay, back to reality.

So Quirks exist in Itsuki's universe? Last volume I made a comparison between Motoyasu #2 and Bakugo from My Hero Academia because they fit similar tropes for me, but in terms of actual backstory and character, Itsuki is definitely the better comparison. Thought he was special in elementary school because of his powers but got slapped with a bit of reality upon entering the special school for powers. For both of them, this fed into an inferiority complex. It does also add more to Itsuki's hero complex. Bakugo's Quirk and natural talents had him overpraised from youth, leading him to fear the failure of living up to expectations of him. For Itsuki, it goes a little the other way, where his expectations for himself were high, got shattered because the powers above his level were much greater and thus nothing was expected to become of him in comparison, and so he fell into console games where he could be important and the main character for once.

None of this forgives how he treated Rishia but I'd still rather have this understanding and explanation of his character than not. He and Trash have a slightly similar problem for me, and it's not the story's fault. Itsuki's curse has left him pretty fried and emotionless, though it's slowly coming back to him. He hasn't really had a chance to redeem himself. He's working to better himself, yes, but he's also in a state where he'll do everything he's told. He had a nice, split-second apology to Rishia he managed to get out but that's about it. Similarly with Trash, he and Itsuki have sympathetic backstories but he is so lost in his hatred the Shield Hero, Siltvelt, and a few other things that he has not taken responsibility or shown remorse for any of the things that had happened because of him, including his youngest daughter nearly being killed multiple times. Before he was half-crazy and now after meeting Alta and Fohl he just seems withered away and beaten. Trash and Itsuki's situations are sympathetic but they've yet to do anything that puts me on their side beyond basic human empathy and pity.

Compare that to Ren, whom I'm glad I quite like now. He never did anything as bad as Trash or Itsuki, nor does he have as tragic a backstory as either (that's been told to us yet anyway), but he still felt remorse for the bad things he did do and has actively worked to try and make up for them or make certain they don't happen again, because he knows he screwed up. I'm not just supposed to pity him. Like with Naofumi, I'm supposed to see him rise and he does, at several points in this volume being very helpful to very heroic. And I like how he and Naofumi contrast with each other without completely butting heads like stubborn bulls, like over the bandits for justice. They're both heroes but Ren is working hard to be a real hero to make up for the lack of one he was before, while Naofumi outright sees himself as a bad person, that all his good deeds are for selfish motivations and that he's not deserving of being hailed as a hero to begin with.

Well, I think that was all I was going to talk about. Yes sir.

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..............................Alta on the cover. Alta on the inner art and quote page. Most of this book being about Fohl's fear over Alta's safety. There were so many red flags you'd think the Phoenix's explosion broke the fourth wall and set fire to the pages themselves.

Yeah, this death was better than Ost's. Ost's death still worked despite her short time with Naofumi's party because there was still emotion during that time and she still is often referenced, remembered, and mourned for even in volumes well after her death, so it feels less cheap and manipulative and more like it actually meant something. With Alta though, it's not just better just because we knew her longer (though that's certainly a factor) but because of the effect on the main characters, especially Naofumi. The raw pain, the denial, the begging, the self-blame, the sheer seething anger, the emptiness. Even the way it's written when she first jumps in the way and after the attack finally ends, it feels like the aftermath of a grenade. Everything is blurred and shaky, everything is silenced except for the ringing in his ears and its not entirely clear what's going on, only that something bad just happened. Naofumi runs through every emotion you'd want from someone like him and it has an even more personal meaning than that. Alta sacrificing herself for him gave Naofumi a bit of a hard slap in the face as to what everyone he cares about would feel if he sacrificed himself for them, which he's tried doing a few time already. It was a very good send-off for Alta.

This was also both the best and worst time for Naofumi to finally be told outright that Raphtalia loves him. Looking forward to either loving or being very frustrated with where this goes. Though regardless, that final art of them just hugging and crying it out is going to hold a special place in my heart.

Trash was apparently the Seven Star Staff Hero. I’d never seen him holding the staff and honestly wondered if the original king was dead and this was just a doppelganger.

Just where was he hiding the Seven Star Staff?

After the dildo spear, please don't ask me to imagine where Trash hides his staff.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/shieldbro/comments/fndipx/read_through_light_novel_vol_15_random_thoughts/