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lucid-loves · 8 months ago

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First Light ~ Simon "Ghost" Riley Part 4

Pairing: bodyguard!Ghost x princess!reader (fem!reader)

Word Count: 4.4k

CW: angst, violence, blood, strong language, scars, verbal abuse by parents, physical abuse by parents, psychological abuse by parents, opposites attract, forbidden love, slow burn, fluff, attraction and sexual tension, reader POV and ghost POV, minors DNI, smut, virgin reader, first kiss

Let me know if I missed any CWs.

Story Synopsis: After receiving death threats from a mysterious terrorist organization, your royal parents make a decision to reach out to the United States for help. Specifically, they want the US to send a bodyguard to protect their precious princess. When the 141 is called upon to investigate, Ghost is the one assigned to protect you. With your lack of experiences outside of your royal life and his experience with nothing but deadly, worldly affairs, opposites attract.

Chapter Synopsis: It’s time to head to the safehouse that Ghost set up for the both of you. Before you leave though, Ghost introduces you to some new experiences in your own country. While he takes care of you, you find yourself falling for him even more to the point where you want to test curiosity of yours.

Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5 ~ Part 6 ~ Part 7

“Has the duke spilled his guts yet?” Ghost asked Soap, making the last minute arrangements for the safehouse as quick as he could. While he would’ve liked to have been the one to interrogate the bastard in his own special way, he didn’t want to leave you alone for too long. Luckily, Soap arrived quickly to take care of the interrogation for him. He was glad that his sergeant didn’t mind talking with his fists too.

“Bits and pieces. Not much though. At least, nothing that will really bolster our investigation. He seems like he genuinely doesn’t know much about the organization he decided to trust. They just made him safety and financial promises which he took without question.” Soap revealed, wiping stray specks of blood on his arms with a warm, moist cloth provided by a maid.

Ghost hummed in annoyance. An idiot like the duke, who was so willing to sell out your life along with your country, wasn’t worth breathing the same air as you. He would kill him if he could. It would be doing the world a favor. “What about the servant?”

Soap shrugged and shook his head. “Still working on that one, Lt. He’s been asleep.”

“Asleep?” Ghost repeated, hardly believing what his sergeant just told him.

“According to the guards, when the man was taken in for custody, he just dropped dead asleep. Coma-level sleep. We can’t get him to wake up. I’ve contacted the team about it and Kate is going to send an expert to test for drugs. We think that he might’ve taken something before being taken into custody. Capsule in the teeth kind of shit.” Soap explained carefully, making sure he covered everything that he needed to cover.

“What about guest statements? Anything useful?” Ghost continues, his patience wearing thin. He needed a win. They all did. This was no longer just a concerned parental request. A whole country was truly at stake of being taken over by terrorists.

Once again, Soap shook his head. “Sorry, Lt. Everything is on record so you’re free to read through everything just in case I missed something, but the only thing we can do is continue our investigation and wait for the servant to wake up.”

Little did they know that you were just outside the doors, listening to their whole conversation. You were finished packing what you thought you needed with the help from your maid staff. So, you ended up leaving the room in search of Ghost to let him know that you were ready to go.

You didn’t mean to eavesdrop. You only meant to wait patiently for their conversation to wrap up. But you couldn’t unhear what was being discussed. It scared you that they haven’t been able to uncover much regarding these terrorists that were after your country and life. It was even scarier to know that there wasn’t much you could do except trust in Ghost and his team.

Finally, you mustered up your courage and gave the door a light knock before coming in. “Pardon me. I’m all set to go to the safehouse.”

Soap’s expression lit up at the sight of you, his lighthearted, playful side coming through immediately. You were fascinated with how different he appeared compared to Ghost. A little shorter, stylish faux mohawk, and a smile that brought life to the prim and proper room. A part of you was expecting Ghost’s teammate to be more like him. Was the 141 actually quite diverse? What was the rest of his team like?

“Well hello, Princess Y/n! I’m Sergeant Mactavish, but people call me Soap. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you after all the things Ghost has said about you.” He greeted you warmly, holding out his hand for a casual handshake. Without thinking, you took it, your own eyes brightening up along with your cheeks.

“A pleasure to meet you as well, Sergeant Mactavish. Ghost talks about me?” You couldn’t help but clarify, your eyes meeting Ghost’s who just averted his gaze. God damn it, Soap!

“He-”

“That’s enough, Sergeant! Get back to work.” Ghost shut him down swiftly, the word of the lieutenant being final. It didn’t hurt Soap though. In fact, he was used to Ghost reacting this way which he thought was hilarious.

With a chuckle, Soap took his leave out of the room. “Aw well, maybe next time! See you later, Princess.”

As he walked out, you smiled, feeling uplifted by the interaction. Meeting Soap was like meeting an old friend. You hoped that you would be able to meet him again, especially to hear the kinds of things Ghost said about you. For now, you redirected your attention back to Ghost who looked more tired than usual.

“Are you feeling alright, Lieutenant Ghost? You look like you need some rest.” You gently pointed out, your brows furrowing in concern. Ghost’s soul warmed up like a fireplace being started at your consideration.

“I’ll be alright. No need to worry about me. You said that you were all ready to go?” He switched topics quickly, not wanting you to worry too much about him. He would catch up on rest later. The most important thing was getting you to a safer place. That would be his safe space to rest too.

You gave a sheepish smile as he redirected the attention onto you. “Indeed. I would prefer to leave sooner rather than later. I hope that me being ready does not rush you.”

He wanted to shower you with praise over you being such a good girl. Ghost was incredibly grateful that you weren’t fussy whatsoever. “No, that’s perfect. We should be getting out of here now.”

An armored car was waiting right outside the palace to take you to the safehouse, already loaded up with just a few suitcases. You weren’t sure how long you were going to be at the safehouse, but you only packed necessities. No formal wear, no jewelry. Nothing that would take up too much space. As you stood on the palace steps, you took a deep breath of fresh air. Birds were chirping excitedly, a slight breeze cut through the would-be heat. It was a perfect day to finally leave your marble prison. Not without protests from your parents, though.

“Are you absolutely sure that this is necessary? I mean, how else will we know that the princess is safe if she is so far away?” Your father nervously blurted, his eyes shifting from Ghost to you to the car in an anxious cycle.

Your mother wasn’t too happy either, though for different reasons that almost had Ghost snap. “How will we know that she is keeping up with her studies?!”

Before Ghost could combat their nerves, you huffed and faced your parents for the first time in your life. This new courage was found in knowing that there was really nothing your parents could do to stop this from happening. “Mother, father, I will be perfectly safe. I will continue to study as usual. However, this will also be a great chance for me to learn what the world is really like outside of the palace. We won’t do anything unsafe, so please, just let me learn what I need to learn.”

For a moment, there was pure silence between everyone. No one was expecting you to stand up for yourself, even if it was about time that you did. Then, your father places his hands on your shoulders, his gaze softening. “Y/n, when did you become such a wonderful young woman? It was only yesterday that I was holding you in my arms for the first time.”

Your eyes widened for a second, not expecting your father to become so affectionate all of a sudden. He was certainly more affectionate than your mother, though, you couldn’t remember the last time your father told you that he loved you. You blinked back tears he pulled you in for a sweet hug as if you were leaving forever.

As Ghost watched, he felt his anger begin to melt. As much as he hated the decisions your parents made regarding your life, at least he knew that it came from a place of love. At least for the case of your father. Your mother, on the other hand, still had a sour look on her face. Thankfully, she kept her mouth shut in a tight line.

“Lieutenant, keep my daughter safe.” The king ordered to which Ghost gave a firm nod to. He would rather lose his life than have you in danger again.

After you pulled away and said your final goodbyes, you got into the armored car. Ghost got into the driver’s seat and started it up, eager to help you see the world outside of the palace walls. As you looked out the window, seeing your parents get smaller and smaller with the distance, you felt a surge of excitement run through you.

Ghost noticed how your demeanor changed. Now without the pressures of royal conformity, you were free to be yourself. More courageous. It seemed like you had some bark and bite in you as well after all. He wanted to know you even more. “You wanna choose the music for the ride?”

You perked up at his offer, eagerly nodding your head as he handed you his phone that was already connected to the car’s bluetooth system. After perusing some options, you settled on a playlist that surprised Ghost. Even under the mask, you could tell that he was questioning your choice. “I want to hear all kinds of music. I want to hear every single song that was banned for me.”

He gave a chuckle for the first time that you’ve been together. The sound had your heart skip a beat. You didn’t even know that he was capable of laughing with how serious he looked all the time. “Very well. I’ll make sure you get your chance to experience anything you want that you normally wouldn’t.”

You bit your lip, trying to contain the utter joy you felt, completely forgetting that your life was in danger just for the moment.

It was a long drive to the safehouse in the deep countryside. Your eyes were trained on the views through the window like it was television. You never knew how pretty your country looked. The architecture was classic with plenty of brick buildings and natural curvatures. There were plenty of sidewalks to cater to pedestrian travel rather than cars. Ivy vines with flowers crawled on the side of buildings, the natural beauty of nature colliding with man-made structures.

There were plenty of open-air markets as well. Produce stands, custom art pieces, coffee trucks. Everything was conveniently available, no matter if you were heading home from work or just taking a stroll. As you passed a farmer’s market, you noticed how busy it seemed with families. Kids running around, parents picking out ingredients, business owners offering samples to treat the good children.

Ghost noticed how you looked out the window, longing to join the streets to really experience what life was like. He debated if it would be safe to allow a little time for you to explore. He wasn’t keen on the idea of so many people around you. However, if he stuck close to you, then it should be fine, right? Besides, how could he deny the pretty little look you gave as you yearned for a little adventure.

Before you knew it, Ghost found somewhere to park and got out of the car. Then, he opened your door and held his hand out for you to take. “Just for a little while, okay? Stick close to me.”

The smile you gave was so big and bright that it almost hurt your cheeks. You couldn’t help it, though. Ghost was granting you one of your biggest wishes. You took his hand and stepped out of the car, taking in the sounds of the city. People conversing, bike bells ringing, dogs barking. It was unlike anything you have ever heard.

Obeying his orders, you did stick close to Ghost, your arm naturally looping around his without much thought. This was the usual hold for an escort that you have performed many times. It was a natural instinct as Ghost led the way to the farmer’s market. That wasn’t to say that you didn’t notice how strong his muscles felt underneath his shirt. You definitely felt how hard your heart pounded as he held you just as securely to his side.

When he paused to swap out his balaclava for the skeleton face mask that he wore at the party, you nearly tripped over yourself. In the natural light of the sun, his blonde hair seemed brighter like sunshine itself. His eyes seemed more open as well. Warmer. You blushed and stared down at the sidewalk for a moment, trying to catch your breath that he ended up stealing from you.

“Everything alright? Having second thoughts?” He wondered, compassion present in his voice as you all of a sudden seemed shy.

With a shake of your head and a smile, you reassured him. “I’m fine. Just eager is all.”

With that, he led you into the market that was flooding with people. Ghost kept a careful eye out on everyone that passed by. His arm also tightened just a little more firmly to ensure that you didn’t get separated from him. As you walked, your eyes scanned over all of the products up for sale. Baked goods, ripe fruit, crocheted clothes, beautiful art. Before you knew it, you were dragging Ghost from stall to stall to ensure that you could see everything that the market had to offer.

Ghost found it amusing. He noticed the way your eyes lit up when you tasted a free sample of fresh cheese or juicy apple slices. He noticed the way the corners of your mouth lifted into a grin as you admired the craftsmanship of art. He also noticed when your eyes lingered on a particular homemade hair claw clip that was decorated with pearls, thin gold chains, and delicate flowers.

“You want it.” He pointed out as more of a statement rather than a question. Your cheeks flushed pink, feeling a little embarrassed by your obvious infatuation. The truth was that most of your clothes and jewelry were chosen for you. You were allowed to mix-and-match with what you were given, but you have never really chosen out anything yourself.

“I’m just impressed with the details. It is quite a beautiful hair clip.” You danced around the topic, wanting to seem more humble. However, Ghost didn’t really buy it. With a swift motion, he fished out his wallet from his pocket and took out some bills.

Your mouth opened in shock. “Lieutenant, you don’t have to-”

“It’s fine. Consider it a souvenir for your first real outing.” Ghost dismissed you with ease, handing over the money to the seller. He picked up the hair clip and handed it to you to try on, happy to indulge in your wants.

For a moment, you separated your arm from Ghost to put your hair up, loose tendrils naturally falling to frame your face. You let them be as the rest of your hair was fashioned up with the clip. The seller handed you a small mirror to see your reflection. You almost cried when you saw yourself. You never imagined that your bodyguard would buy you such a wonderful gift. “Thank you, Lieutenant Ghost.”

Ghost found his heart skipping a beat as he took in your new appearance. The clip matched your princess personality perfectly. The delicate chains that dangled down pearl and flower beads guided his eyes to the smooth nape of your neck.

The thought that he wanted to kiss that nape crossed his mind.

Clearing his throat, he took your arm again. “It suits you. Wouldn’t look better on anybody else.”

It was hard not to fall even deeper for him when he complimented you like that. Your heart pounded as you walked beside him again, your steps feeling lighter than air. Nothing else at the market caught your eye as his compliment kept echoing in your head, turning your feelings into goo.

As the market neared closing time, the amount of people began to dwindle down. Ghost felt his shoulders fall, feeling more at ease with less people around. Circling back around, he led you back to the produce stalls, wondering what ingredients he should pick up for the safehouse.

The safehouse would be stocked with food, but not with a lot of fresh ingredients. He wanted to continue making this a good day for you with a homemade dinner rather than whatever TV dinners were waiting in the freezer. He wasn’t a chef by any means, having spent most of his life eating MREs and military canteen food. At the very least, he could make you something simple yet good.

Remembering the cheese you seemed to enjoy as a sample and how it was tomato season, Ghost picked out all the necessary ingredients to make homemade tomato soup and grilled cheeses for tonight. You watched him curiously as he picked everything out before something in the distance caught your attention.

“What kind of bread do you like?” He asked you, holding two different loaves of bread in his hands while he considered the options. When he looked to you for an answer though, he could tell that your gaze was trained far into the distance. He turned to look around, trying to find what you were staring at.

In the distance was a person with a dark hoodie and a bandana covering their face. Bright paint brought color to their sleeves and jeans. The figure was walking away, but it was obvious what they were just up to with what was close to him.

“Shit.” Ghost cursed as he pulled out his phone with Captain Price on speed dial.

The other line was picked up quickly. “Lieutenant?”

“Tagger going east on Clover Street. Black hoodie, blue jeans, red bandana, covered in paint.” He informed, his voice low as he kept an eye on the distant figure. He observed how they walked down the street, waiting for them to change directions if they were planning on it.

“Getting a hold of local cameras now. You’re with the princess?” Captain Price inquired, his hands moving fast to find this figure through the city cameras. Finally, he found the person that Ghost described.

“Affirmative.”

“Sending Gaz to pursue. I recommend that you two get to the safehouse pronto. I didn’t think they would be out in broad daylight.” Price advised, already contacting Gaz to give him his new assignment. Once Gaz accepted the orders, the captain hung up. Ghost knew that his captain needed to focus on this immediately, so he wasn’t offended by the sudden hang-up.

He bought the groceries, now in a bit more of a rush. Securing your arm around his once more, he began to lead you back to the car. “Let’s go, Princess. It’s not safe here anymore.”

Your face fell as the day seemed to be ruined by another case of danger. However, there was something that was bothering you. You noticed the paint on the person’s clothes and a strike of color against one of the brick walls he was near. Curiosity was getting the better of you.

“Wait!” You paused, your stance suddenly strong and pulling back from Ghost.

His bold brows rose as you defied him for the first time. Surely you had a good reason to. “What is it? Something wrong?”

You all of a sudden grew a little shy as his intense eyes bored into you, waiting for your explanation. Despite how bashful you grew, you persisted. “I want to see the graffiti they were making. Can we? Please?

“Oh, Princess, it wasn’t a piece of art they were making.” Ghost said knowingly, flashes of the pictures he’d seen crossing his mind. Tags of revolution. War.

“I still want to see. Please, Lieutenant?” You pleaded, trying to follow your instincts as closely as you could.

With the way you looked at him, it was hard to say no. He wasn’t sure if you knew that there were tags around the whole city calling for your head. Probably not since your parents didn’t tell you the truth about your life being in serious danger. But. . . he supposed that you deserved to see them just this one time. This was your country after all. “As long as we’re quick. You have to stay close to me too. Got it?”

You eagerly nodded and latched onto his arm, letting him swiftly guide you to the spots of paint on brick in the distance. As you got closer, you could make out specific shapes and color switches. Getting even closer proved Ghost wrong.

This was art.

You stared in awe at the giant mural before you. A crow with a golden crown in its ebony beak. Feathers wrapped in fire and barbed wire. The crow was about to drop the crown into a pit of hell below it, filled with skulls, demons, hellfire, and sharp blades. Ghost was surprised as well. The pictures he saw depicted small tags here and there of the crows. Here, this was a full blown work of art.

Your free hand drifted up to touch the now colorful bricks. The paint was still a little tacky, but nothing that would stain you. As you looked up, drinking in every detail, Ghost watched you. He was nervous about what you were going to say.

What you did say startled him. “Crows are a symbol of transformations, prophecies, and death.”

“Your mother said the opposite, save for death.”

“For her, death is an inescapable darkness. Evil. In reality, crows can bring fortune during bad times. Death is good fortune since it is a new beginning. This message isn’t a threat. It’s hope.” You concluded, tracing the swooping beak with your fingers. The shadows and highlights made the crow look almost three-dimensional.

Ghost wasn’t sure how to respond. He normally had an answer for any situation, yet what you said stumped him. How could he respond to something so poetically profound?

You did give him something new to look into though. He would find the time to talk to his team about it later. For now, he had to finally take you to the safe house. “Come on, we gotta get moving.”

The drive through the countryside was long and soothing. Ghost took control of the music once you began to doze off. Something light at a low volume was played so you could continue sleeping peacefully. You had a long day out. You probably burned a lot more energy than what you were used to as well.

Once the car hit the dirt road, you stirred awake. The stars were beginning to come out, having driven for hours. You were surrounded by endless fields of local wildflowers with only the occasional tree. While you did love the looks of the city, there was something to love about the countryside too. The land that felt infinite made you feel like you could do anything. You were eager to see what the land looked like during a beautiful sunrise.

Soon, the car pulled up at a rustic cottage with a large shed beside it. Ghost stepped out of the car for a second to open it up, turning it into a garage that would just barely fit the vehicle. Once the car was parked, you were led into the house.

A thin layer of dust hung in the air along with the fresh scent of nearby wildflowers. The cottage contained the essentials as far as you could tell. A living room, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and two bedrooms. Generically decorated, yet cozy compared to the sterile fanciness of the palace.

Ghost brought the luggage in, setting yours in the bedroom of your choosing. He gave you some time to unpack and settle in while he got started on dinner.

As you placed some of your clothes in one of the empty dressers, the fact that you would be living with your bodyguard for who knew how long began to hit you. Your heart picked up speed along with your breath. Not that you expected anything to happen or develop between the two of you, a part of you still had a sense of hope that your relationship would grow stronger at the very least.

Before heading back out towards the kitchen, you caught your reflection in a bedroom mirror. The hair clip was still fastened to your hair, giving you butterflies. It was still hard to believe that he had bought you a gift so easily like it costed him nothing. You could’ve sworn that he seemed a little stunned when it was in your hair too. In a good way.

Ghost was a gentleman. He was just being kind. He wouldn’t do anything that could be considered unprofessional or unfriendly.

Bodyguard protecting a princess. That’s all your relationship will ever be. Right?

Tag List: @angel-anna @ghostlythots @maiyatheprettiestprincess @cum-tea-and-towels @littleghostbride @meowzerzstuff @izziyuwh @literaturewh0r3things @bi-witch-bxtch @victoriareadsbooks

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sea-owl · 11 months ago

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Now let me preference this by saying I HATE when a characters parents or loved ones are turned into abusers just because. This, for me, includes Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno, Sakura's parents. I have said on here before that I have a preference how I wish they were brought into the story more as actual stable adult figures for team 7.

But I do think there is a potential story to be told in Naruto about assumptions vs. reality and how someone can be in pain even if it doesn't look like your's using Sakura and her parents. In general, we know very little about Sakura's parents, Kishimoto said he could never figure out how to include them, and official designs weren't released until the Road to Ninja movie. In the movie they kinda lightly touched on this idea but then people lost their shit because God forbid Sakura vents to a close friend about being doubted just because the people doubting her are her parents and Naruto, despite being one of the most empathetic characters in the series, just so happens not to have those so she should automatically being walking on eggshells around the topic. But back to the idea.

Now I probably wouldn't make her parents physically abusive but more along the lines that they are extremely nelgectful of her. Or take on the idea that Tiny_Dncr had in the fanfic Her Experience where something happened and Sakura HAD to become the adult too young but due to her young biological age , it's not reconized as that.

I would probably set this, or at least start around the genin era. Specifically after Sasuke yells at her about how she has no idea about loneliness because in his, and probably Naruto's eyes too, among all those orphans on team 7 Sakura has the perfect life. Then I would pull it back into Sakura's pov for us to slowly discover that hey, something isn't quite right with her home situation. Her basic physical needs are being met, but no one is ever home, Sakura's parents ignore her or never talk to her to critique her. Sakura could come and go as she pleased, and her parents would never notice unless she did something wrong in their eyes.

Sakura also sees this behavior as normal because it's all she's ever known. Or if she starts to feel bad about her situation, she talks herself out of it because, hey, at least she has parents it could be worse.

Kakashi once in a while catches some hints Sakura's home life is not ok but he's so preoccupied by Sasuke and Naruto, who are more similar to him and their signs he can easily more recognize, kinda brushes it off. The longer team 7 is a team, the more cracks that start to show.

Then let's say Sakura got hospitalized from a mission for a few days. Word was sent to her parents that hey, your daughter is in the hospital, but neither of them show up. Team 7 has been to visit and they notice that besides them she's been alone. Naruto and Sasuke think hey this is weird. Kakashi is on high alert now.

During one of team 7's visits, Sakura's neglect comes out when a doctor asks her point blank where her parents are because to discharge her, they need to release her into the care of an adult. This is when Sakura reveals that her parents had left for a business trip that morning. There is no adult coming. Several minds come to the realization that she's been in the hospital for days and her parents never cared enough to even make sure she was still breathing. The worst part about it is that she said it so nonchalantly, like it was just a fact of life.

This causes a double take because Sakura that isn't right, but again this is all Sakura's ever known so she thought it was normal.

Would probably go on with Sakura, eventually coming to the realization that what her parents did was not ok and her feeling hurt over it is valid. Would also have team 7 bonding and learning from one another.

#naruto #team 7 #haruno sakura #sakura haruno #uchiha sasuke #sasuke uchiha #uzumaki naruto #naruto uzumaki #hatake kakashi #kakashi hatake

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riacte · 6 months ago

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Re: reddit. Warning, lot of yapping about stats. Yh i agree the reddit does shit even in the best players and their "golden boys" (what they did to purpled last season was weird af, and they adore purpled as one of the more competitive players), although i would argue that is part of their goddamn goat debates. With "players who are praised with just existing" I was more talking about players who are seen as incredible while other ccs of similar and better stats are regarded as far worse.

For example, Owen and Krinios have better average placements than Joel, but the reddit tends to forget about both of them while Joel is often predicted top 10 (and for the record, i love Joel, one of my fav povs and ccs in general, but his reddit fanboys irk me). Kratzy and Hannah are so underrated it s almost funny atp. Martyn is inconsistent so it s difficult to explain his case, but i felt it was weird how people s reaction to his top 4 in party was "well it is non canon", while Joel is still praised for his top 1 in scuffed (where the games were, well, scuffed) and his average is only 2 spots better. Grian is also regularly overrated, and weirdly enough I have seen that Gem is as well? People assume that she is far better than Pearl and False, while in reality they are all kinda similar statistically. Pete s case is so funny, bc he s not underrated individually but people always assume his teams will do badly. The second Jojo steps down of top 6 or 7 people stop considering her s tier, while sapnap or dirt block never had that issue, and people still bring up mcc 23, when she was 18th or so, to argue she s not that good?

So yeah, as you said, the reddit shits on everyone, but there are some big biases and 2 different types of shitting: disappointment in s tiers for not doing their absolute best (which puts lots of pressure on them and is toxic af), and certain players being systematically underrated (which obv pisses them off). Sorry for the rant, I like to analyse the mcc reddit as a social experiment. I think i could write a whole ass book

Ohhhhh yeah definitely. Your last paragraph is very true. Massive shitfest. There's also again, the popularity aspect and well-intentioned overrating which could lead to underrating of other people (I was frustrated at Reddit during S2 and the whole "Grian is good at BM so every hermit must be" thing but then I stopped caring lol). And their inability to acknowledge they might be subconsciously biased against women. No one is immune to accidental / subconscious sexism. Not me, not you.

Watching everyone scramble to include Joel in the hermits' stats was originally heartwarming but then it started to feel unintentionally dismissive of the 2020 hermit cohort? Like yeah, builders in general were underrated, and Joel + 2020 hermits share that similarity. But he did Orange10, not Blue9. He was part of Pink9, but it was Grian who did the iconic move. Joel (and Pearl) can be included but it somehow feels diminishing of what the others accomplished with the hermit identity. And I mention the hermit identity specifically because they teamed together as friends and hermits, and inter-team solidarity was displayed because they were hermits (Pink9 and Blue9). Not just "haha yeah xyz hermit achieved this on their own". They were moving forward as a group under the hermit banner. False, Ren, Cub, Grian.

I feel like False is in a weird spot on the Reddit because they clearly like her, more so than HC Reddit, False Supremacy memes, calling her queen, etc. But she's not really.... discussed at length? False may be quiet, but I've watched her and I know she's good at comms and has an excellent battle sense. She notices things and reacts quickly. But that depends on how well she meshes with a team, considering People Don't Listen To Her in SkB. Which leads to fluctuating morale and inconsistency and stuff. So I get why Reddit calls her both underrated and overrated? But I am a poor judge of skills but the fact that they mention her and congratulate her is already enough to make me happy lol. The bar is ten feet underground, I'm sorry but I'm a wee bit easy to appease post Demise 2 😭

#mcc #ask box #answered

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azreactstowormtheserial · 11 months ago

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I should probably do this at more regular intervals! [5.7-6.X]

Guess how I spent my sunday afternoon! I'll try and do this every, like, 3 chapters, maybe? Because fuck, there's a lot to talk about. Let me try and do it in order. Arc 5 (.7 onwards) So, the Lung rematch honestly took me by surprise. The whole arc did, really? Going from a pretty depressing but harshly real depiction of what happens to girls like Taylor, to 'Fuck it, let's fuck shit up', to Lung is back! Already! It's Arc 5! I was so sure his escape and reappearance was going to be a big thing the characters dreaded and came back to bite them at the last moment, but-- And yeesh, was 5.9 a chapter. There's a certain passage in the introductory page for Worm: "Morality isn’t black and white, Taylor and her acquaintances aren’t invincible, the heroes aren’t winning the war between right and wrong ..." Every fight has me at the edge of my seat. Last year for me's been pretty brutal for media depicting major-character-deaths like it's no big deal-- and the moment Lung came back, I was so sure someone was dead. I thought it might've been-- and after the interlude, real glad it wasn't-- Newter. But somehow, everyone managed to get off scott-free. And after the fiasco that was Arc 6-- we'll get there!-- I just don't know how long this'll last. Even for the Undersiders. Which makes me want to predict deaths. I think because of the phrasing of the opening page, I know that Taylor is the POV character as a standard, and interludes are the exception. So unless this does some huge POV-shift, I think she's safe. From death, not from anything else. I am not entertaining the thought of Lisa's death. Brian and Alec, though? I don't know. I don't know about Alec at all, actually. He's kind of a scary guy? Horrifyingly subtle power, but really scarily applied in Arc 6. He's low-key one of the strongest, at least potential wise, in The Undersiders. I think Brian is going to have more story to him, now that his past's all been laid out? But later on, I just can't say. I really hope he doesn't, he means a lot to Taylor, and he's a good shoulder to lean on. Rachel-- 'Bitch'? I can't remember if she prefers one or the other... -- is a little harder to talk about. It was hard to like her after how she introduced herself! Mauling the POV character practically unprovoked isn't a good first impression. But, like Taylor's described, I feel, she's started to grow on me. Arc 5 touched on her character and personality in a nice way. I'd already started to sympathize with her come the end of Arc 4, rather than just view her as a begrudingly amazing tool for the team, but the dynamic between her and Taylor in Arc 5 was peak. She gave her her jacket!

Arc 5 Interlude This is really sweet! It left Arc 5 off on a high note. 'Kinda. I don't know what to make of the 5.X interlude. It was interesting. Newter was nice to see again. Flatline was intriguing to get a closer look at. Gregor is a strange person, but so-- I don't know if blunt is the right word, but 'sincere'-- almost refreshingly so given the web of deception going on in every other Arc-- that I liked him by the end. What I don't know what to make of in particular is the tattoos. Does it imply that there's a different-type of origination for parahuman powers? Is it artificial? I don't know! But I'm interested in finding out! Arc 6 Anyway, that was what, 4 chapters' thoughts? Let's talk about Arc 6. I started off my liveblog talking about how one of the most interesting plot threads was the growing inner-struggle Taylor has of working with The Undersiders and having agreed to double-cross them. Something I neglected to mention as well, was Taylor's dad, Danny. Straight from the get-go, both of these are the spotlight. They almost seem to slowly be intertwining the further the Arc goes on-- something I felt especially towards the end, and a final decision Taylor makes. If it wasn't painfully clear already, I like how this arc brings to the forefront how muddy the line between traditional 'good and evil' is. Armsmaster is blatantly not-good. He does not seem to value what is right and what is wrong, and-- while we do not see inside his mind-- Taylor does, and that his reputation is above all else is very telling. Luckily, he gets what he deserves. Cue my favorite passage of the serial so far:

Actually has me grinning while reading this chapter. It is unlikely Armsmaster is the only Hero that isn't all too much of one. I'm certainly not the most researched on the subject, but the parallels between Heroes and the Cops of today seem to be a major theme. With Coil entering the picture-- and, what a fucking reveal, by the way!-- I can't imagine this idea is going to take a backseat any time soon. I don't know much about Coil, and by his own words, he is not a good person. But as the only person striving for meaningful change-- whether his methods are morally sound or not-- I think I'd feel more comfortable with Skitter under his wing than, say, Armsmaster's. From his actions and his one-chapter-of-glory alone, he's a character I'm interesting in looking out for. Arc 6 made me cry! This will likely be a running theme, as I'm warned. 6.9 in particular is where it got me. That shit was crushing. As someone that struggles with anger, I admire Danny for keeping as collected as he did given the circumstance. He really does love her, and it's awful that Taylor's gotten so deep into things so quickly that she just can't be honest with him. Not until he knows what she is, and what she does. I thought Danny and Taylor's relationship was going in a healthy direction, after the incident in the mall, but I think that was just far too wishful thinking, with how everything was going to play out. ..Conversely, it looks like Taylor is figuring herself out. Writing that letter I think finally helped her analyse what she was doing, what she cared about, and what she wanted-- contextualized after finally learning about Coil and his intentions, and everything she and The Undersiders'd been through up until now. It was a powerful moment-- burning it especially. And maybe my favorite ending to an arc so fa-- Oh! Wait! There's an interlude! This is horrifying! It sure didn't shy down from takes about law and justice! The idea of a Rogue is interesting, and one I didn't even consider in the context of the world just yet. Apparently, the world's still working on that front, too. 'Making an example' of someone in a legal context is terrifying enough. That example being that the use of powers in any altercation, if you aren't grinning and willing to be part of the governments personal army of upholding the status quo, is LIFE IMPRISONMENT IN THE MONSTER DUNGEON-- like, fuck. If this is the system Heroes are defending, it's a little bit beyond muddied good and evils, it's a swamp.

Here is a bisexual Newter as a treat for making it this far among my ramblings. (thank you, mischievious magpie.) I'm sorry that they're so -rambly-! I had a lot of thoughts, and couldn't even get all of them down! Like, here's a few more bonus-thoughts: -The way Taylor via Newter-poison fucking owned Lung was rad as hell! - This!

But, yeah. I just wanted to get this out so I could keep going this evening, and on my walk. I'll stop again at 7.4-ish, and write my thoughts so this doesn't happen again. I certainly won't do more than an arc at a time. Az out!

#worm liveblog #wormblr #liveblog #liveblogging #worm web serial #worm spoilers #ramblings

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susie-dreemurr · 2 years ago

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Willow, Luz and Hunter for the character asks

(Edit: fuck it read more time)

Willow Park

1) First impression:

(Episode 3?) She seems a bit like the stereotypical sweet bullied best friend, but that’s okay. She’s nice and has some mischievous moments. Not much to say about her.

2) Impression now:

She’s still not a favorite, but I like her more now. I enjoy the parts where the girl subverts some of the tropes she was assigned (being allowed to being angry at her bully, not immediately forgiving, still a gremlin) and how just because Willow got more self-confidence, it doesn’t mean the teen won’t struggle with negative thoughts after getting put down for being “half a witch” for so long.

3) Favorite moment:

The monster in her mind being revealed to be Inner Willow after it was pushed into the water. Plus, the iconic: “I remember what you did, too. I can’t say we’re friends, but…it’s a start.”

4) Idea for a story:

We’ve seen Willow’s complicated feelings on Amity, now it’s time to explore what she and Skara got going on. Although I remember S1E17 hinting that Skara would be nicer to her and didn’t hate her, unlike Boscha, it’s still a bit weird to see one of Willow’s former bullies in her team when they’ve had zero on-screen development. Especially because, unlike with Amity, they don’t have any history to build on.

In other words. Fanfics of Willow & Skara friendship slow burn when.

5) Unpopular opinion:

Willow should have gotten more screen time, yes, but I think the girl’s current time explores her enough. She’s one of those characters who already feel complete since season one. (With that said, gimme some a Willow POV reason to ship Huntlow, bc if this is gonna happen, I need mutual content—)

You can argue that the girl hasn’t completed her arc yet, but, while that’s fair, I think the fact that we’re being shown that she’s in a better state than she ever was in her life, plus that she will keep growing, makes up for it.

6) Favorite relationship:

Willow and Amity. It’s not even a competition. Understand Willow, my best friend…

7) Favorite head cannon:

She’s somewhere in the AroAce spectrum! Maybe she can have crushes still, but they’ll be either very small and short, or they’re less “blushing, can’t function, etc” and more her normal attitude them + a mushy feeling in her chest and the desire to cuddle. Thought people were exaggerating about how intense their romantic urges were until Luminity happened. I’m not projecting.

Gus Porter

1) First impression:

Funny little man. Definitely not neurotypical. That’s it.

2) Impression now:

Labyrinth Runners changed me as a person, so listen. His whole character is about autism and the ND experience. His struggle of feeling guilty for not being able to read people as well as the others around him, therefore leading into being taken advantage of, mostly for his smarts, is a mood. Still a funny little man, but now is a character I love. This explains it better than I possibly could, but the point is: He Gets It!

3) Favorite moment:

His last on-screen Illusion Nightmare, when Hunter goes into the sphere to snap him out of his mind. Specifically the “I let myself get tricked…again” part because the slightly creepy and symbolic visual is my kind of shit. Aside of that, probably the whole scene where he calms Hunter down from a panic attack and then gives his speech.

4) Idea for a story:

Something exploring his post-King’s Tide feelings, because…imagine having to deal with being a 12 year old unable to go home to your only family member, who’s current status is unknown, going to your dream location in the worst way possible, and. As if that wasn’t enough, having to stay silent about his knowledge of Belos’s backstory, including the creation of grimwalkers, which his friend is. I am but a humble angst enjoyer and I need my crumbs.

5) Unpopular opinion:

Okay idk tbh. Although he was criminally underdeveloped in season one, TTGLR and LR came in clutch, so I don’t mind his lack of exploration as much as other fans. My main complaint is that I wish he got more focus on King’s Tide. Let him into the Angst Train in the next specials, Dana. You know you want to.

6) Favorite relationship:

As the Labyrinth Runners stan that I am, I’d have to be lying to say it’s anything but Hunter & Gus. It’s just an equally positive thing for both of them. They are nerdy sillies together me thinks

7) Favorite head cannon:

Augustus Porter has the autism swag (real)

Luz Noceda

1) First impression:

Luz looks like a regular “quirky child” kid’s show protagonist, but just because she’s not anything special right now doesn’t mean I won’t like her. She’s fun. I like her neurodivergent swag and…girlie made me cry in S1E02 😔 why would you hurt me like this. It’s not even a sad episode. It’s just… her being tricked by that self-indulgent illusion hit me in my weak spot 😭😭😭

2) Impression now:

ONE OF MY FAVORITES, JUST LIKE ME FOR REAL! Watch this video, it’s the best. Seriously, I still like her kid’s show protag vibes, yeah, but what really draws me in is her insecurities. It’s the alienation Luz faced due to being neurodivergent and never really fitting in anywhere until the Boiling Isles. It’s about the people pleasing and hiding away any signs that she needs help due to not wanting to be a bother, because being too much of a burden means losing your only friends. It’s about loving your parents but feeling as if they will never really get it.

The urge to self-sacrifice and put the blame on yourself in case anything goes wrong. It’s about reaching one of your lowest mental health points and thinking you’re a horrible person who ruins everything when you’re just a kid with some Issues and anger. When, at some point, you start only confiding on your sibling figure because they’re the only one who understands and you think won’t run away. Pushing away your friends and, after apologizing, being surprised at how instantly kind and forgiving they are. It’s about Reaching Out and Thanks To Them.

3) Favorite moment:

Camila watching her computer diary in Thanks To Them. Literally everything about it, but especially the reveal of her hyperfixation being a connection to her late father. Aside of that, moments like her bitter speeches in S2E02 (to Eda) and in S3E01 (to her class) are very cool…I relate to her so much 😔

4) Idea for a story:

I’m not very creative when it comes to these types of questions, so this is hard. You know what they say, when in doubt, go for a PMMM AU! She gets a Sayaka-like role! (it’s about the heroism complex and ideals, the destruction of the fantasy, the angst. And the gay, too. Amity, get in the Kyoko cosplay right NEOWWW—)

5) Unpopular opinion:

I mostly stick to my fandom bubble, so I always see similar takes, but. “She got some trauma and issues from the Boiling Isles, as no kid should bear the burden of the world’s fate in the way Luz does, Belos worsened her ‘I gotta do this by myself’ shtick” and “She already had trauma before the Boiling Isles, that island is essential to her healing atp, and her Owl Family + friends helped her get some coping mechanisms and actually rely on her loved ones” are all statements that can and do coexist!

6) Favorite relationship:

The Owl Family, aka Luz, Eda & King. It’s the heart of the show! Three outcasts, who grew to unconditionally accept and love each other, even when others don’t have their back. Three traumatized people with awful coping mechanisms who do their best teach each other how to be better. Found family that may not be perfect, but is essential in all its members in a growth and healing journey. Plus they’re really funny. Can best be described as “they’re a set, do not separate them.”

7) Favorite head cannon:

No “favorite” comes up right now, so regular ones it is. HC that Luz has not only ADHD, but autism and (for a while) depression as well! And undiagnosed eye problems, because she refused to ask for glasses and is deeply regretting it! I’m projecting! Also, when she stays in The Boiling Isles, she’s going to cut her hair to fit the Clawthorne Women Hair Style(TM) like how Eda looks in the EOTP flashback, but mixing it with her own style at the same time. The girl needs a cool leather jacket, too! Give her some more drip.

#Willow park #Luz noceda #augustus porter #toh #owl house #the owl house #gus porter #Toh analysis #technically #long post #mine #asks

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tharizdun-03 · 2 years ago

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Kyousougiga Watchthrough

Episode 1: A Family's Circumstances and its Background

uhm... holy shit

Obviously, the first thing here is that the show feels very FLCL. Same kind of sporadic style of storytelling, with Gainax (like) visuals, lots of hints for stuff to be explored later that have few explanations now, and awesome music (tho obviously not the same type of music).

I'll admit, it was a bit difficult to keep track of everything that was going on, cause a lot happened very fast, but I think I followed along pretty well.

Visually, it is just gorgeous. Narratively; super fun concepts, already got some solid emotional hooks, and all around just felt like a fairy-tale come to life. I'm not sure what I'm getting into here, but I'm here for it.

Episode 2: What Came Was a Little Sister

Kyousougiga continues to be one of the most stunningly directed series I've ever seen with its second episode. Watching this show is like magic.

Narratively, it's still a bit difficult to keep up with, but I think it's more of an experience rather than keeping up with the plot specifics.

It seems like the show is structuring this with each episode centering around one character's PoV and then we'll pull it together in the second half.

I think it did a good job of tying us into Koto's backstory and motivation, but it's really just the gorgeous art direction, Shiina Gou's orchestral score, etc, which makes it so special. I can't tell if the story yet will come to match, but I'm here for it.

Also, great opening. Awesome visuals, but I really love the song too.

Episode 3: The Eldest and his Happy Science Team

Not much to say about EP 3. It continues to be a beautifully directed show, and while I'm not blown away by the story or anything yet, I am interested in seeing where it'll go, as it's obviously still laying out the groundwork, establishing our character motivations.

Episode 4: The Second Daughter and her Wonderful Monsters

EP 4 is Yase's episode, who doesn't care as much about going to the outside world, but just wants her Mother back. Like all the siblings really, it's about their love for their parents and the desire to be with them again. It's a very emotionally warm theme.

Episode 5: The Worries, Beginning, and Ending of the Young Third Son

I'm not resonating overtly with Kyousougiga or anything, but presentation-wise, it is just the best anime has to offer. Solid, emotionally based themes as well, so might pull something together for me a bit later on. Had a good time with EP 5 as well either way.

Got Penguindrum vibes from the cardboard cutout-like people.

Episode 6: A Story Where Two Plan and One Worries

EP 6 confirms that Myoue is suicidal because he never got over it the first time. He loves his "parents", but at the same time, they brought him back and made him unable to die, without his consent. I'm expecting their reunion to not just be a jolly good time.

A lot of previously unspoken resentment rising to the surface all at once between the siblings here.

Episode 7: Mom's Back, and Oh, Dad's Back, Too

EP 7 has their mother returning, and the siblings react perfectly in character. Yase is overjoyed, Kurama is a bit distant as he's suspicious, and Myoe is distant as well but because of his personal resentment. Good stuff.

Episode 8: Troublesome Talks Here and There

EP 8 introduced a bunch of world-building drama with all the planes at the risk of being destroyed, which I don't really care about as much as the family stuff, but still some good stuff there and I'm not too worried about it or anything. Looks nice as usual.

Episode 9: Let's All Think about What We Can Do

It's sweet how the fake siblings Inari created to keep Myoue company were the ones that ended up helping him more than their dad ever did. They might've been created to comfort you, but that doesn't mean their feelings aren't true.

Episode 10: A Manga Movie About People Who Have a Fun, Busy Life!

Kyousougiga's finale wrapped everything up pretty much perfectly.

Overall Thoughts:

What a directorial debut Kyousougiga was for Matsumoto Rie. Can't say the narrative resonated with me especially, but it's still a good story about family love. Its gorgeous aesthetics, rich direction, and spectacular soundtrack make it that much of an experience either way.

#kyousougiga #anime #watchthrough

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nelliebachesneg · 1 year ago

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@ghostenluvs OK so.

Brief context: Agent Washington is a character from Red vs. Blue, a halo parody series from 2005. It centers around a group of idiots "fighting" each other in a box canyon, though they are eventually forced into an alliance and eventually friendship to deal with crazy shit caused 9 times out of 10 by a secret government organization called Project Freelancer.

Agent Washington (Wash) is an agent of Project Freelancer, and he doesn't show up until season 6 - or more accurately, the miniseries right before season 6. Now, season 6 is arguably the best season of the entire show, because it combines the silly-craziness of the previous seasons with the new, angstier plot of Project Freelancer in a way that make you think they've been planning this since the beginning. The two plot twists at the end of the season are a masterclass in storytelling, particularly foreshadowing and recontextualization.

And I firmly believe that none of it would have worked without Wash, because of who and what his character is on a fundamental level.

We only learn this in later seasons, and some of the details are only available as extra, dubiously-canon content, but Wash joined Project Freelancer because it was either that or a dishonorable discharge from the military because he refused to follow his commander's orders to go on a suicide mission. He was part of the squad of top ten agents, but was universally considered to be the rookie of the team.

Exhibit A, s10: "You really think I'm the squad's second-worst fighter?" "No, I was being polite. You're easily the worst."

Exhibit B, s11: "Everyone in Project Freelancer was known for being the best at something. ... I was known for getting a grappling hook stuck to my balls."

This puts him in the unique position of being simultaneously the worst of the handpicked best, and the best of the handpicked worst - those being the titular Reds and Blues. Wash walks the line between truama-powered badassery and crazy on the border of stupidity. He is the perfect character, therfore, to be the main POV character of a season that is meant to be a bridge between the those two vibes.

And tbh I'd love him for that alone, but then there's the trauma. Did I mention the trauma? Because holy shit, Wash's *trauma*.

Wash's trauma is that an artificial intelligence tried to kill itself while inside of his head.

As it did so, it revealed the horrible truth about Project Freelancer (that I won't recount here because both spoilers and because we'd be here all day). Long story short, he has a head full of memories that aren't his but that undeniably prove that the organization he gave his life to is evil.

But he doesn't leave.

Some of his teammates also learned the truth through other means and rebelled, but by the time Wash got up to speed it was too late for him to join them.

So, naturally, he became a double agent.

He did terrible things to his former friends to gain the trust of the higher ups and never said a word about the memories, but all the while he was biding his time and waiting for an opportunity to burn it all to the ground. Season 6 is that opportunity for him - and he gets arrested for his efforts, while his new friends go free.

Feeling once again betrayed and presented with an opportunity to get out of it, seasons 7 and 8 see him turn on the Reds and Blues and team up with their enemies for his own gain. However, by the end of season 8 - and after one of the best action set pieces ever put on the internet, rip Monty Oum - the Reds and Blues, for lack of a better way to put it, show him the power of friendship and forgiveness. He joins them, and in season 10, he makes a definitive choice to defend his new friends against an old one from Project Freelancer, showing that he's finally found people worth trusting and being loyal to after the trauma of... well, everything.

At the same time though, he knows not to follow anyone blindly - and that's what makes him a good foil for the villain Locus in seasons 11-13, but that's really more about Locus than Wash so I'm not gonna go into it. I'm also not gonna go into his role as a mentor for Tucker in those seasons, because while it's great, that's more about Tucker. But what gets me about all that is that Wash is *able* to be in a supportive role in these seasons because, thanks to everything hes been through since season 6, he's *ok*.

Do you have any idea what it's like to be able to see your favorite character living his best life in the midst of crazy chaos, because despite *everything* he's in a place and with people that make him *happy*?

Wash is a truama-recovery success story, and it's not even fanfic. This is 100% canon. Is it also wish-fulfillment? Absolutely, but I don't care. Wash's story, more than any other character's I have ever seen, gives me *hope*. He gives me hope that I can overcome my own trauma and become the mentor I've always wanted to be. He gives me hope that I can be an adult and skilled at my job and still retain a sense of humor and a willingness to do crazy things. In a lot of ways, I want to be like him.

And that's why he's my icon.

the rule of fandoms is that if someone has a character in their url or bio they either understand that character well enough to give a 3 hour unscripted lecture on the subject OR they're really obsessed with their version of that character thats an entirely different made up guy. and theres literally never an in between

#prev #you asked for this #hope you enjoy #thanks for reading

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redrydersrequiem · 2 years ago

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Reunited ch 3

Previous chapter. Next chapter

Thank you for everyone who’s read this. I’m trying my best to write I’m still a baby writer. Bold is Navi

Updated 7/10/23

Miles pov

After checking in on Spider and seeing he got a clean bill of health I took him with me to get some proper clothes. Just looking at him was making me cold.

“Here kid” I say , throwing a bundle at him.

“What! I'm not wearing this.”

“Kid, I ain't asking, I need these people to see you as an asset and right now you smell horrible so you're going to go get cleaned up and changed while I try and find your momma.”

“Wait find her, what happened, is she ok? Did you do something to her for helping me?’ He says throwing the bundle to the ground and trying to advance on me. The kids ready to fight read to scour the ship to try to find the women he's met once really. I know it's wrong, this feeling of knowing what I said to the general would work. But I can’t help but feel proud of him. Proud he's willing to protect his mom. However the nagging feeling in the back of my mind to stay on track won't go away.

“Just give me a break kid ok, now go get cleaned up, i have other things to do.” I finish my sentence by taking the co mask and breathing out of it for a while. I almost miss being outside, being able to breathe normally.

Spider picks the bundle back up and goes off to the bathroom after some time he comes back now clean of the paint and mud that was all over him now in some board shorts and a regular tshirt, no shoes though well whatever i'll count this as a win for now. Grabbing Spider , a new mask and pack we set off to find y/n. I have a pretty good feeling the others took her back to our area.

We cross the threshold and switch masks, Spider putting his on and me finally being able to take mine off. The doors open and I see my team. Lopes prager, brown and ja are all playing cards. Walker and Fike are arm wrestling while Warren and Zhang cheer them on.

Spider just looks around in awe at all the giant stuff around him. We continue on into thee training area where i see Lyle and z-dog standing watching something

“Wainfleet, Zdinarsk where’s y/n” Getting closer i see the answer to my question currently pummelling a poor punching bag

“Shit she's pissed.”

“Yeah it was everything we could do not to be on the receiving end of that”. Z states as she continues to watch your rage on

“Yeah colonel we left that for you to deal with.”

“Well thanks for that lady’s. Shit well, good thing I came bearing gifts. Stay here for a second kid don't need you getting in the middle of this.”

“Yeah, let's not let him see mommy and daddy fight.” Z says sarcastically to me

“It won't be much of a fight, more a show of the Colonel getting beat up” Lyle adds with a laugh as he fist bumps Z . I was definitely going to get back at those two insubordinates, I swear.

I keep walking over to y/n. She’s sweating and clearly riled up with how fast her tail is swinging behind her. I hear z and Lyle making bets on who's going to win with Spider chirping up that she'll win great, at least I know he's not scared.

“Y/n”.

At her name she stills , catching the bag with both arms so it stops swaying in front of her.

“Y/n?”

She turns quickly, leveling me with a hard gase. Her ears are twitching back and forth, her tail standing at aleart.

“Now darlin just hear me out” is all i get out before she starts taking swipes at me.

I dodge to the best of my ability not really wanting to fight her since i know im wrong this time. Not that i would admit it.

I go to bring my right arm up blocking her punches but she just grabs onto me kicking at my ankle to pull me off balance, now on the ground she straddles me all i can do is put up my arms to protect my face as she keeps raining punches

“You let them take our son.”

“Darlin, look over there the kids fine, he's safe and sound and he wont leave your side again, i swear.”

“He's our son Miles, our son, not just some kid.

Finally having enough of her punches I grab both her wrists tightly holding them to her side

“I know, I know darlin, it’ll be fine just ease up on me mamas you're gripping a little hard” All I can focus on is her toned legs around my waist bringing up fond memories. Of us being in this same position about 17 years prior

Y/n pov

I just shake my head at his stupid sly grin and ungrapple him, letting him up I walk over to Lyle, Z-dog and spider, the latter of the group exchanging candys, I'm guessing they bet on who would win.

Coming to a standstill in front of the boy. All i can get out is just “Hi”

It takes everything in me not to grab him and hold him to me. Wanting the reassurance he's actually Here, and I didn't just make it all up. I dropped to my knees so we’re somewhat the same height

“How do you feel, has everyone taken care of you? I unconsciously lifted my hand wanting to grab and look him over. He just grabbed my finger in his hand and smiled at me.

“Yeah um quartich got me looked at “

“He did?” I say turning back to level my gaze at the marine behind me. He just steps back raising his hands in defense, not wanting to get another lashing.

“Good. I see you got some fresh clothes too.

“Yeah.”

“Well is there anything else you need are you hungry or anything

“I'm fine,uhh thank you.”

I feel the tears welling up and everyone can see it

“I know this may be a lot but can I hug you…..please”

I can see the decisiveness pass through his eyes before he bounds up to me wrapping his small arms around my neck. I just breathe him in. Enjoying the feeling of my child finally back in my arms. He looks much cleaner than the last time I saw him but he definitely needs a haircut. I can still see stuff stuck in the dreads at the ends

“I do have to ask, sweetie, when was the last time you clean, cleaned your hair?”

“Uhhhhhhhh”

“It’s fine sweetie it's just I know the colonel got you to clean up a little but you still have some stuff stuck in here.” I take my hands to his hair and pull out a full twig. Spider blushes but I just smile and laugh holding him still by my side.”

“I guess i do need to get it cleaned.”

“Id be more than happy to help you if you’d like “

“Uh yeah that would be nice”

I smile at my baby taking in his face for the millionth time

“Ok well why don't you go with aunty z and uncle Lyle and hang out with the others while i go get cleaned up ok.”

“Ok “

I stand staring at the two recoms in front of me `Take care of him please”, is all I say but they can definitely hear the underlying threat that if anything happened to him they would get worse treatment than their colonel just did. So they both just vigorously shake their heads yes and take spider over towards the others. I walk away going towards the showers hearing miles heavy footsteps following behind. I don’t even bother looking his way or feeling shy as I take off all my gear to finally wash off. Running through a jungle and then finding my now grown son, the pounding headaches I’ve had since and the hatred im feeling for the rda right now are just the tip of the iceberg

“Darlin you gonna talk to me.” Miles asks from behind me. Sitting on one of the benches just staring at the wall beyond me

“I don’t really know what to say to you.”

“Darlin you understand why we're here right”

“Yes I do but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with it especially if it enrolled my son”

“Our son”

“No no you don’t get to say that after letting them take him you don’t get to…to.” I feel strong arms wrap around me holding me as I finally cry, finally let out the emotional frustration that has been building since waking up in this new body.

Miles held me close, the hot water pouring over both of us. I feel his remorse through his body. Even just him letting me beat on him earlier showed how guilty he felt. My tears have dried as I feel miles kissing my shoulder and neck. I just pull away from him. Staring up at his handsome blue face. His eyes say thousands. All his emotions are betrayed by his eyes. I don't have it in me to be upset with him anymore and smile back at him. His cute tail stands up as he pulls me close again, kissing my lips before continuing to kiss up and down my neck.

“Your all wet now.” is all i can get out as i feel my body start to heat up and it’s not from the water

“I don’t care”. He just continues to kiss me leaving marks as he goes. I just drag my hands to the front of his shirt, grasping the hem to drag it up and over his head.

(Insert smut here. I don't know how to write smut yet sooo yeah sorry use your imaginations if i learn how to write it i'll come back and change this)

Once we’re both clean and changed into new clothes that I had to go get since Miles didn’t bring any of his own.

We both make our way back over to the others; they're all now at the poker table. Everyone’s trying to keep on their poker faces but Spider's face makes me smile, the comically large cards in his hands and his concentrated face. I go up behind him and see that he actually has a good hand. But I can tell he has no idea as he just looks up at me with a huge smile on his face before going back to look serious. Patting the top of his head I just take some cards and show him how he should play his hand when it comes his turn.

Lyle smirks as he sets his cards down the others all groaning as they lose, as he goes to scoop up the pot towards him, i just smile and stop him. He playfully glares back in challenge as i nudge Spider to show his hand. Everyone cheers as Lyle falls over dramatically in defeat.

Miles pov

Everyone’s goofing off and laughing, and it warms my heart. I can feel the old colonel in my mind telling me to get back on task but the longer I stare at y/n and spider, the more I hear the others' joy the less prominent that voice becomes.

Spider now stands on the table as everyone fake bows to his card prowess. Y/n just stand behind them all laughing with a beautiful smile on her face. I wish i could capture the moment. This is what should’ve been, and ill be damned if it gets taken away from me again.

Your pov

Now that the game is over i pick spider off the table and set him back on the ground.

“Ok kid did you decide what you want to do with your hair.”

“Uhh yeah i guess cutting it would be the best option but not too short ok i don't want to look like Wainfleet.

Lyle just gaps at spider while everyone else laughs, poking fun at the bald soldier

“I can’t blame him, Corporal, I'd hate to look like you ugly blue ass to thank god the kids at least got taste,” Miles says poking fun at his oldest friend.

“Just so you know I can grow hair, this is just a choice ok.”

“Yeah sure whatever you say.”

“Hey, I'm better than you, old man.”

I just laugh as the two grown men go on to fight like kids. It’s nice to see them so playful but it also reminds me how old we are now, all of us back to being in our twenties. Spider just laughs at the two mens antics while i search the cupboards for a pair of clippers, finding some i walk back over to spider and decide it would be easier to go to room that spider can take his mask off in

“Anyone else need a touch up while I do Spiders hair?”. I ask the room. Everyone declines so it's just me, Spider and miles. We all moved to another room. There's no one really in the halls so it's a quick journey. Me and Miles make small talk with Spider occasionally taking sips from our masks. Ok this room should work. It’s an empty apartment so everything is spider-sized except the ceiling. Thank god they were tall. I found a chair for Spider and put it on top of the table so he could sit and I wouldn’t have to kneel the whole time. Miles goes over and takes up the entire couch with his lanky body. Both arms stretched out the length of the back of the couch. He looks damn comfortable, and damn sexy, its not until his eyes flicker back to me and that sly grin spreads across his face that I quickly turn my blushing face away. He just chuckles from his spot reaching over to turn the room's tv on.

“So Spider, do you mind telling me more about yourself.”

I can see Spider wants to say something but then goes to clam up as he now stares at his father.

“Hey hey it's ok You don't have to say anything you don't want.” Miles reassures the kid i can tell it's not really working

“Yeah it's fine sweety we don't have to talk about anyone in particular i just want to know how you’ve been raised, if you got enough love.”

“Um ok well i was mostly raised at the lab by Norm, Max and Abby. The others also helped raise me but its not really like they where my parents.”

Listening to spider talks as i pick through his hair carefully, it brings a sad smile to my face. I know that my baby was taken care of and i dont doubt that the others tried theirs best but he wasn’t loved like i would have. He wasn’t held close during the night just so I could hear him sleep. I never got to give him a birthday, or teach him how to tie his shoes (not that he wears them) . I never got to hold him and love on him if he got hurt running around. Just all the things i've missed brings me into a somber mood.

“You ok darlin” miles asks as he noticed my silence

“Hmmm oh yeah sorry. Sorry sweety I was listening, i just got lost in thinking how much i would have loved to watch you grow.”

“It’s ok. Umm it wasn’t bad. I mean Jake and Neytiri took care of me too and I'm really close with their kids.”

“Jake has kids?

“Yeah he has three kids, you actually saw some of them in the forest if you remember”

“I'm sorry I don't really i was, focused on other things, but Wow I did not think Jake would ever be a dad when I knew him, that's crazy.”

“What was jake like before.?

“Welllllll”

“He was a cheeky little bastard that liked to get into trouble.”Miles states from the couch.

“Hey now, he was a good soldier, he was fun. I liked him. He was definitely a flirt. I remember the first time he saw me he called me an angel sent to Pandora to bless the rest of us.

“Ewww that’s so cringy”

“Hahah I still remember the others shaking their heads at him from behind me to stop, while your father over there was just staring him down from behind. Oh god the look on his face when he turned and saw miles was hysterical.”

Miles chuckles from his spot remembering the scene as well.

“Can I ask if he's a boy dad or a girl dad?”

“Oh definitely a girl dad kiri and tuk have it made me, loak and neteyam are always in trouble.”

“Wait, that's five people. I thought Jake only had three.”

“Yeah ummmm.”

“Hey its ok you dont have to tell us,

“No its just…. It’s fine um yeah they have another daughter she's the same age as Lo’ak, her names kiri”

“Kiri?”

“Yeah she's graces daughter” Now that got me and miles attention

“Grace has a daughter, Grace got pregnant, oh my god who's the Lucky guy that would have.”

“Uhhh we don’t really know, grace could never tell anyone

“What do you mean?”

“Uh grace was hurt during the war and didn’t make the transfer with her avatar.

“Wait grace died but then how

“No one really knows Grace's avatar, just was pregnant one day is all I know.”

“Wow”…….. the news really sinks in and i know spider is somewhat distraught having told Miles and i this information.

“Ok well I have to say im glad you’ve had people to watch out for you. But right now why don't we come back to the issue at hand your very knotted hair” i say trying to easy the tension in the air

“Hey its not that bad”

“Honey please its that bad, im guessing you didn’t care what the others said”

“Welll”

“That’s a yes. Ok so really the only option would be to cut the hair so it grow nicely, would that be ok.”

I can see spider try and decided before he finally agrees

“You can cut it but please not to short and also you can cut this. Spider points to the line of beads and gems that are in his hair”

“What is it”

“It’s my song chord their really important to the Navi and i wanted to have my own so”

“Ok i won't come anywhere near it ok i'll just have to rebraid it later would that be ok “

“Uh yeah.”

“Ok sweety here look forward and ill start back here.. I go around Spiders head once, cutting off some length. I'm able to get the strand untangled so I don't have to cut it so short.”

“You know i've seen you before.”

“Really”

“Yeah it was a video kiri was watching of grace.

(Flashback)

Spider pov

“Hey kiri what you watching

“Video logs from my mom. I was actually about to come find you monkey boy

“Oh yeah why

“While watching the logs i think i found your mother

“What, really show me, show me

“Ok calm down let me find it…..ah here it is

The log starts playing and we see Grace greeting the camera and starting the date like always, she goes on to talk about some of the samples she's recently studied when they hear a knocking on the shed door. Grace moves the camera to check what was going on. We see her smile slightly at the entrance waiting for the seal to start and the air to switch over.

Opening the door grace greets a woman, she's (your skin tone) with (your hair color) and is very visibly pregnant.

“Y/n what are you doing back here Parker send you toy check up on all of us

Cause you just missed norm and jake they just linked up’

“No i'm not here to check on you, Parker's weasley ass can bite me, but i do have a favor to ask.”

“Ohh and what's that.”

“Wellllllllll……”

“Out with it”

“Do yall have any more of those blue fruits? Ever since tasting them, the baby’s been craving them.”

“Grace just laughs at the women in front of her causing y/n to slightly pout”

“You came all the way up here for some fruit.”

“Well yeah and to kind of get away, i know im pregnant but everyone keeps treating me like im glass, it gets suffocating sometimes”

“What, you don't like the big bad Quaritch being your little puppy dog.”

“Hey now, lets not start,i know yall dont see eye to eye but hes my baby’s father and my fiancé, i love him, and i don't let him or the rest of the squad talk bad about yall, so let's do the same ok.”

“Grace just waves her hand brushing y/n off as she looks briefly back into the microscope.

“Well fine since your here can you man the station for a little i want to go get another sample,”

“Yes I can, if you bring me some fruit.”

“Yeah yeah i'll get Norm to bring you a bag full.”

“Yaaaaa thank you grace” y/n says jumping up to hug grace much to her jargon judging by the look on her face

“Yeah yeah you sure you’ll be fine alone in here”

“Well technically I'm not alone and I do have to wait for Trudy and Wainfleet to come back anyway. But it's fine, just put your com and camera on and i'll be entertained. I love watching yall go through the forest anyway.”

“Ok well you know what to do in case of emergency”

“Ma’am, yes ma’am.” Y/n says false saluting to grace who just rolls her eyes in response. Grace comes back over to the camera and signs off and that's where it end

End flashback.

“I think I remember that, I was definitely craving those fruits god they were so good. I probably devoured my weight in them”

“Yeah you did cause i had to cut them up all day for you.” Miles say grumpily

“Oh dont be a baby, it wasn’t that bad,”

“Whatever you say mamas”

“Wow, that must’ve been the last time I saw grace.”

“Ok all done”

I can see out of the corner of my eye miles stiffened slightly but I choose to ignore him and go back to the task at hand. After rinsing him off and brushing through his now wavy golden locks. He's truly a handsome kid. It kills me to say it but he looks more like his father.

“What’s wrong?” Spider asks as i continue to stare at him i can tell he's starting to get self conscious

“It’s nothing baby i was just thinking how much like your father you look

“What.?” He says quickly, turning his head to look miles up and down.

“Yeah you do, which is not fair because I'm the one who carried you for nine and half months.”

Miles just laughs from the couch, full on belly laughing

“Oh you hush this is your fault.”

“How is it my fault darlin,”

“You and your stupid genetics”, I say walking over in front of him. He just grabs me and sets me in his laugh as he hugs me to him.

“I don’t remember you complaining about my genetics when we,,,,,

“Ewwww can you guys not, gross, Now i know how the others felt with their parents”

“Hey wait till you find someone, squirt, you’ll know.”

(Think something like this but i don't want him to be sad and the thing hes holding is his songcord it would still be in his hair like behind his ear or something.

I can see spider blushes at the thought, I'll have to quiz him on that later. I hop off miles lap and back towards spider

“Well it's getting late, why don't we get you some food and then figure out sleeping arrangements ok”.

“Ok mom”….. it's quick, Spider himself doesn’t even realize he's said it to me until he freezes looking up at me with worry and uncertainty. I just kneel and bring him into another hug, “oh my little baby…. You can call me whatever you would like spider, I know this whole situation is very confusing but I love you, and have loved you since I found out I was pregnant.”

I feel Spider wrap his arms around my neck and hug me tight. I don't comment on the feeling of wet drops on my shoulder. I just pull away and kiss the top of his head and motion him to the door, Miles comes up behind me and hangs his arms over me, both us watching our beautiful child walk away.

The next morning miles gathers us and the team. We all meet in the group room as Miles tells us we have to start our mission. He knows i don't agree with what's happening but until we can find a better and safer way for our family to exist we have to play the part. Miles had talked up the general that for the team to catch sully we had to think like him. Go full native in the jungles and Forests of Pandora, that's where Spider came in. He would be our teacher, this gave him a purpose and a shield, so now the scientist couldn't do anything to him again. After the gear is all packed and everyone is situated we make our way out to the helos the team will be using to get out into the forest.

Miles pov

Spider is at my side as we walk onto the tar mat. I hoist him up into the hull before turning to help y/n in as well

“Hey get off that.” I say grabbing Spider by the collar and dragging him away from the big gun.

“Listen up hotshot Just to let you know your mask here has a tracker in it, you think of running off. I'll have you back here in two minutes and give you an old school ass whooping you understand me.”

“Yeah yeah. Spider goes and sits next to y/n who thankfully was talking to z and didn’t hear our conversation.”

“I bang on the side to let the pilot know we're all ready as we embark into the Forrest.”

We all get set in a clearing, i wait for everyone attention before getting started

“Listen up, jake sully has gone underground so to catch him we’re going to have to think like him full tilt all the way,We eat Navi we ride Navi we speak Navi”

I hear spider let out is scoff

“You got something to say kid?”

“You call that Navi you sound like a three year old.”

Smart ass kid, i can make out some words hes saying but i know hes making fun of me

“Ok smart ass you just went from being our monkey mascot to our interpreter.

“Miles” i hear y/n scoldingly say my name but can’t find it in me to answer

“To start were going to need transportation we can’t be walking all over this damn jungle so your going to show us how to get those banshees “

“Banshees you mean the ikran

“Yeah whatever show us how.

Spider looks back over to y/n and i see her smile and give him a nod.

“Fine i hope all of you can climb.”

Y/n pov

When the boy said we had to climb he meant it. Scaling the floating mountains always sounded amazing while i was human but now, its just tiring. Spider is jumping between rocks and yelling at us to keep up. Everyone to there credit does fairly well but I can tell all regret all the gear we have to carry with us. We finally make it to the top. I see z looking over the edge kicking a rock down, and whistling at the fall. I hear spider call after us again and disappear behind the corner. I quickly catch up not really wanting to let him out of my sight. The sun blinds me for a moment while I listen to all the shrinks and yells now echoing through the air from the dozens upon dozens of colorful banshees that occupy almost every surface of the clearing. Everyone is star struck as we stare at the animals that have only ever gotten close enough to kill them. We all group up on a rock a fallen tree really being our only cover if the animals decided to charge at us. I remember grace telling me about the ikrans about how sacred they where to the omaticaya clan and how this was a right of passage to be considered an adult really.

Spider give us a brief run down of the ikran and what they are used for

“Ikran will only have one rider their whole lives thats why it’s do important to chose the Right one”

Miles pov

I huff at the kids words and take the tranq gun from Lyle When i hear spider laugh at me. I turn my head and fix him with a stare

“Something amusing kid”

“Yeah Navi kids younger than me do this with their bare hands.” That’s an interesting thought hmmmm bare handed huh

I turn and look at y/n shes still just fascinated with the scenery around us,

“Sully do this with his bare hands”

“What do you think”

‘Hmmmm ok then”. I hand the gun back to Lyle and stand up. Crossing over the tree

“Miles what are you doing?” I Hear y/n ask me

“Doing this the Navi way sweetheart, just cheer me on ok.”

Your Pov

I see miles start advancing into the clearing,

“When you choose one you got to connect your ques together.” I hear spider yell at his father.

“And how will he know it chooses him” i ask

“It’ll try to kill him “

“SPIDER!” I just watch worriedly as miles continues to advance on the saphira blue ikran infornt of him

Im holding my breath as i hear the animal hisss and bite at miles. Bobbying its head towards him like it’ll bite which it probably would. I hear miles hiss back and the fight starts. Miles goes and punches the thing in the face before trying to jump on its back.

“Did I mention your supposed to tie their mouths shut first”

“Spider,!” i want to scold the child but im focused on miles, especially the fact that him and the ikran are getting closer and closer to the edge

“MIlLES WATCH OUT” I scream but its to late hes fallen over the side

“Nooo” i cry and rush to the side to see where miles has gone but the clouds hid everything. Kid why would you do that i hear Lyle yell at spider

“I didn’t know he would fall off the side like i said kids younger than me does this I didn’t think he would” The others all stare in shock as Lyle grabs me and pushes us all to start heading back towards the drop location. Before i could say anything else a whoosh sound fills my ears as the wind rushes up in front of me and victorious yell shouts out

Miles pov

“Woooh hooo thats right”

I feel a thousand miles tall. Everything is amazing, the air rushing around me as I spin on my new ikran flying over the others as they all cheer me on. I make they ikran land jumping off to reunite with my team before a body comes barreling into me. It’s y/n now hugging the life out of me

“You stupid stupid man,”

“He its ok darlin.”

“If it's not spider i have to worry about its you will you both stop trying to give me a heart attack”

“Yes mamas, I say soothing her and walking over to the others.”

“Now that we know you need to tie their mouths thank you very much kid, everyone go get yours”

Y/n pov

Everyone went all having different levels of success but all succeeding

So It was my turn now.

“Go on darlin i've got your back”. Miles whispers lovingly in my ear before pushing me into the clearing. I swing the rope around in my hand as I survey the clearing and all of the remaining ikrans jump away, I just walk around its not till i almost give up when an ikran comes out of the shadows. I didn’t see it at first but as it steps into the light the beauty of the creature strikes me. A mirage of colors almost like a rainbow has kissed it. Actually the more I stare its almost like the beast has been tie dyed.

The ikran hisses at me and lunges forward i quickly side step him trying is jaw closed. Well there one less thing to worry about.

I hear my team cheering me on as i did them. Side stepping the animals head i throw myself on top of him grabbing on to it like a rodeo bull, Locking my thighs waiting for the timer to start. The ikran starts bucking away moving this way and that to try and throw me off him but i stay locked tight, its not till the animal still for a moment to catch its breath that i make my move. I grab his antenna and my que and all but smash the two together.

Then there was peace. Breathes intertwined and hearts synchronized. I can hear the other in the background all cheering, climbing on board their ikrans as they encourage me to fly. I reach down tuggin the rope off the ikrans mouth as i command it to fly. Flying was amazing it, was exhilarating and, heart stooping and every emotion in between. I see miles and his ikran zoom in to the space on my left. Spider sits infornt of him as they both have cheeky smiles on. Yelling at me to catch them if i can. Those boys i swear. I just shake my heads at them and start the game of cat and mouse

We’ve decide to use the ikrans to go back towards the base. The sun is still shinying and i can brefiely make out spider teaching his father some Navi words like hello and the traditional greeting. I bet he wishes he would have learned with me when we where human but sucks to suck.

We finally make it back to bridgehead, landing the ikrans just outside of the area not wanting them to really be locked down on the tar Matt not knowing how they’ll act. We take the mesurments for the scentest to make armor for them then the majority of us let them go. Everyone’s gushing about the experience all comparing them and what they named them. I walk over to miles and spider.

“So how was bonding time boys”

“Oh we had a great time with cupcake here”

“Cupcake? Seriously you named you ikran cupcake. Why?”

“Cause she was sweet enough to try and kill me. I was going to name her darlin cause she reminded me of you but I didn’t want you to be jealous.”

I just stare at him and lightly shove him and his smart ass self.

“What did you name yours ma,?” spider ask as he makes his way over to mine.

“Hmmmmm well at first i thought rainbow or something cause of the color but then it reminded me of tie dye clothes so his name shall be ty.

“Ty?”

“Yeah look he likes it” I say as Ty purrs while I'm brushing my hand down his head’.

“You both are so weird”

“Hey this isn’t horrible you should watch how to train your dragons thosewehre some names”

“What’s that ?”

“It’s a movie, i can pull it up on my halo pad well watch it tonight sweety, i promise” I say ruffling spider's short hair.

“Ok ok “

Miles comes up behind us

“Come on yall its time to eat.”

The first day of Navi training was definetly a into the fire situation but as long as it keeps my family together ill keep it up.

Tag list : love yall

@myh3artt @ducks118 @dyingofcookies @navs-bhat

#avatar fanfiction #avatar oc #avatar way of water #miles quaritch x reader #spider x reader #blue team x reader

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reimagine7 · 3 years ago

Text

Adopted by whom?

Warnings: lighty mentions of physical abuse

This was my third camp, I was really excited. Even though I knew these womens for only a year, they became like family to me, a few of them were even closer, like Mal and Rose, probably because we are closer to age, so we have a lot of fun together. Tobin and Christen are like moms for me, since the first day of camp they took me under their wings and were super protective, they were worried about my school work and if I ate well or if I drank enough water, even after camp they kept talking and asking how I am, and I talk about them so much that my moms got jealous, and said they are my team moms.

I told this to Tobin and Christen, they laughed at it and began to call me their daughter, so I started to call them mom. They wanted to meet my parents but that didn’t happen yet. Why? Because I didn’t tell them that I am adopted, or that I have two mothers, let alone that one of them is none other than Shannon MacMillan. I know I should but it is a sensitive topic for me and I'm scared that they will treat me differently after they find out about it. That’s why I haven't told anyone on the team about it yet, but I'm thinking about doing so after this camp.

“Kid!! I miss you so much” Tobin ran towards me and gave me a big hug. “Mom, we talked yesterday.” “I know, but I can't hug you on facetime.” “Okay, I miss you too.” “I don’t get a hug?” Christen asked and opened her arms for me to hug her, so I did. “Mama I miss you too.” “Hi sweetie. Excited for camp? How is school?” “The same, boring but my grades are good. And I can't wait for everyone to get here.”

“Siisss!!!” Rose and Mal scream as soon as they spot me in the looby and come running. “Rose!! Mal!! How are you guys?”. We jumped on each other and ended up in the ground on a group hug. “Hey, you weren’t as excited when you saw us. I feel betrayed.” Tobin complained pouting while watching our interaction. “Kids get up before you hurt each other.” Christen separated us and pulled us up. “Sorry mom, but I love you too.” I said to Tobin who still had a pout on her face, so I went and hugged her again.

The rest of the team were finally arriving in the lobby of the hotel, we were talking when Jill spoke up and designated our roommates for this camp, and I was with Tobin. We went up and went to our room. We had lunch soon so we chilled and talked for a bit in our room, until it was time for lunch. So here we are, everyone eating and having fun talking about everything.

On the table was Sonnett, Rose, Linds, Sam, Mal and myself. Sonnett was telling everyone a funny story about her family.

“I’m serious, we were at this party and I kept annoying this girl, who was a douchebag. I forgot about it and started to dance and have some fun, but then suddenly a boy cornered my sister and I heard the girl saying she was the girl who annoyed her and he was about to push her when the parents stepped in. Long story, but in short my sister ended up two days grounded because of that.” “You never told them the truth?” I asked her. “A few years later. They grounded me as well, that was not fun.” “I wish I could have a twin sister, so we could switch places all the time.” Rose commented. “I wish I could have a sister.” Mal complained.

“At least you have your parents all to yourself. You are the favorite.” Sam complained only to be mocked by Linds “Someone is grumpy because it’s not the favorite child.” “And you are?” “Of course.” “Alright, this is not what your brother says.” Sonnett interfered with a smirk. “But I'm for sure not the favorite, my parents don’t hide it.” “Me neither, I’m sure they love me but I have my doubts about who their favorite is. It’s probably Wilma, I don’t blame them.” Everyone laughed at Rose's statement.

Until Mal asked me a question. “What about you Y/n? I’m sure you are your parents favorite.” “Yeah, I don't know. My brother is 10 so... pretty tough competition.” “Wait! You have a brother?” Sonnett asked incredulously. “Yeah.” “Why have we never heard about it? We actually never heard much about your family Y/n.” One of them asked me. Shit, why do I have to open my mouth. “I don’t want to talk about it.” I tried to avoid their eyes so they would know that I didn’t want to talk about it. But Sonnett didn't get it. “Why not? Your parents can’t be that bad?” “Sonnett!! Shut up. Y/n/n, that’s okay, if you don’t want to tell us you don’t have to.” Lindsey said, trying to make me look at them. “But you know that you can tell us everything right?”

I didn’t want to talk about it, and if I stayed one more minute here I would cry, so I decided to leave for my room. “Yeah… I...I think I’m going back to my room. Bye.” “Y/n. Wait! We are not talking about it again. Come back.” Rose tried to stop me, but I stood up so fast that I didn’t even register my surroundings. So as soon as I turned around, I bumped into Ashlyn and her juice spread all over my shirt. Fuck! Ash began to apologise, but now I could feel everyone's eyes on me and all I wanted was to get out of here. “Sorry Speedy, you turn so fast. I…” “That’s okay.” I interrupted her, got free of her hands and walked as fast as I could out of the dinner room.

No one's pov

Meanwhile at the youngies table.

“That was odd.” Sam broke the silence. “I didn’t do it on purpose.” “We know Sonnett. Should we follow her? Or talk to Tobin?” Lindsey asked, trying to comfort Sonnett who was blaming herself for her teammate's outburst.

“Too late for that. Tobin is already coming on her momma bear mode. I’m always scared when she is like this.” Mal spoke looking at Tobin with wide eyes.

“Girls, what happened to Y/n? Why did she get out?” The girls looked at each other until Rose decided to answer Tobin’s question. “We don’t know exactly. We were talking about our families and when we asked about hers she got weird and said she would go to her room.” Tobin sighed and nodded. “Thanks, I will go check on her.”

Tobin pov

I knocked on the door and opened it, when I entered the room I saw Y/n laying on the bed looking at the ceiling.

“Hey, kid. What’s going on?” “Not now Tobin, I just want to be alone for a minute. I’m fine.” “Yeah, you’re not.” Y/n shakes her head and asks. “And how do you know that?” “For starters, you get out of the dinner earlier than usual and without saying goodbye. Then you call me Tobin, you never do that only when you’re not okay.”

With that Y/n sighed and sat on the bed. “It’s just a hard topic for me.” “Your family?” I asked, trying to understand, she just nodded her head.

We stayed in bed for a minute. I waited to see if she was giving me anything else, but that didn’t happen. “Fine, if you don’t want to talk about it, I get it. But let's at least take this shirt off.”

I helped her get up to take the dirty shirt off, but then I looked at her back and saw some scars on it. I was about to take a better look but she quickly pulled back down, trying to hide it. But it was too late, I had already seen it.

“Y/n, what are those marks on your back?” “Are from soccer.” She told me, not looking at me. “I’m not buying it. Tell me the truth.” “It’s nothing Tobin. Give up on this.” “Nope. Right there, you call me Tobin again. Come on kid, you know I won’t give up so soon. So buy us some time and tell me what’s going on.” “It’s hard, Tobs.” “And I’m here by your side, you can tell me everything. But I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on.” “Everything is fine now, it’s already in the past. But I'm still learning to trust people, so I normally don’t talk about it with others. I want to, but when I do I cry and I don't want to cry in front of the team.” “Kid, we will never judge you for crying.” “I know but I never had this, not until three years ago. So it is hard to let people in.” “What do you mean? You wanna tell me about it? “

She hesitated for a minute but nodded. She was about to say something when my phone rang. I looked at it and turned off the call, it was Christen but I couldn’t talk right now.

“It’s okay if you need to go. I’ll be fine.” Y/n told me in a low voice. “I’m here for you kid, you can trust me, after all i’m your mom isn’t I?” “Yeah. You are. It’s not actually complicated. It’s just that, my dad abandoned my family when I was 7, a month later my mom found out she was pregnant. Things were already tough, but my mom did everything she could for us to be happy, but a year later she died in a car crash.”

Tears began to fall from her face, so I put my hand on her back trying to comfort her.

“I’m sorry for that Y/n/n. You don’t need to keep going if you don’t want to.” “I want to tell you everything.” After a minute she stopped sobbing and spoke again. “Well, after that my father didn’t want us so we ended up in foster care and that’s why I don’t like to talk about my family. Is not because I don't trust you, but is because for most part of my life I didn't quite have one. I have just a few memories from my biological mother and I had to take care of my little brother during seven years of my life. Is not simple to talk about it. I was abused from the age of 8 until I turned 14 years old. That's where my marks are from, they hit on me just because they wanted to.”

I hugged her, but didn’t say a thing, I knew that’s what she needed right now. After a few minutes I spoke up. “Kid, I had no idea that you passed through this all. But I want to tell you that this doesn't change our relationship, I still love you and will fight everyone who messes with you, and you know Christen will as well.” “Thank you Tobs.”

After a minute of silence, I decided to ask her what I was scared to ask. “This is still happening? I want to do something about it. I won’t let any of this happen to you again.” “No, three years ago me and my brother got adopted. I told you the truth when I told you that everything is good now. They are amazing and are helping me to get better.” “That’s good. That’s why we never meet them? You didn’t want us to know your story?” “Yeah, that’s one of the reasons.” “One?” “Yeah, well the other one you will understand when you see my moms.” “Your moms?” I asked, still not sure I had heard it right. “Yeah, I got adopted by two moms.” “Oh, Megan will love this.” “I know.” “You want to come back for lunch or do you want to stay here?” “Stay here. Can we just watch a movie?” “Fine, but I choose.”

I jumped on top of her and got the remote so I could choose the movie. “No way, we are on my bed, so I choose.” She got the remote from my hands. “No no, I'm your mother so I choose.” “There’s nothing to do with it. I won’t give it to you.” “Yes you are.”

With that I began to tickle her, trying to get the remote back. Then there was a knock on the door and it opened, but we were too occupied to see who it was. “Okay kids, let's stop the fight.” Oh, that’s Chris. “Tell that to Tobs, she is the one attacking me.” “I see.” Christen separated us. “How are my girls? I’ve been told that I should come here to check on you both, but by the look of things I guess that is all sorted out now.” I looked at Y/n and she had a smile on her face. “I think we are better now right?” “Yeah, much better. Thank you Tobs.” “Of course, I'll always be here for you.” She hugged me and I gave a kiss on her head.

“Oh, I feel left out now.” “Sorry Chris, but Tobs will tell you everything later. But I know I can count on you as well. I’m going to change my shirt now and wash my red face.”

Y/n stood up and left the remote on the bed. “Yes, I got the remote.” I could see Y/n shaking her head and then closing the bathroom door, Chris came to me, gave me a quick peck and asked me what happened.

Your pov

I went to the bathroom to change my shirt and clean myself, and I could hear Tobin telling Christen a little bit of what I told her. “‘What was that about?’ ‘The girls were talking about family stuff on the table and the topic is a little complicated for her. She lost her mom really young and lived in foster care most part of her life, and just recently got adopted. I tell you more later, don’t worry about it.’” I’m glad I finally got to share my story with someone else, and it is no surprise that the two of them were the first to know, I like them a lot.

While I was in the bathroom my phone started to ring.

“Kid, your phone is ringing and is your mom. She wants to facetime.” Tobin yelled from the bed. “Which one?” I yelled back. “Humm… mom Mac?!” Oh, maybe that is a great time to introduce them.

“Could you answer for me? I’m almost finishing.” “Me?” “Yeah, you didn’t want to meet her? That’s the time. She wants to talk to you both as well.” There was a silence in the room, until Chris spoke. “I don’t think that is a good idea.” “You’ll like to talk with her. Don’t you trust me?” “Fine.” Tobin answered me and accepted the call, ready to talk to my mom.

“Hi hon… Oh, hi Tobin!” I could hear my mom speaking. I was already changed, but I wanted to see their reactions while meeting my mom. “Hi… wait your Shannon MacMillan.” Toby speaks and stays with an open mouth. “Yes, and I was told that you are my daughter’s roommate. Oh, hi Christen I didn't see you before. How are you doing?” “Your daughter?” Now was Christen's time to stay in shock. “Yeah Y/n. Is she alright?” “Yeah, but… what?” Tobin was speechless, so I decided to intervene.

“Oh hi mom, sorry I was in the bathroom.” “Hi honey and taking by Tobin and Christen's faces I believe you hadn’t told them about me, am I right?” “Maybe? I actually didn’t tell anyone on the team, I dodged their questions about my family. You know how I am, I wanted them to get to know me first.” “I know.” “But I had told Tobin almost everything, I just kept your name out of it. She saw my scars and made me explain it.” I lightly elbowed Tobin, trying to take her off her transe. “Made you?” I think it worked. “Y/n!!”

“I’m kidding, kind of. She just got overprotective and wanted to punch the person who made me those, so I had to explain the story to her.” “Yeah, I was right she is definitely your team mom. And don’t worry Tobin, they are already taken care of.” Tobin laughed and poked me in my sides “I told you, now even your mom agrees with me. But I gotta say this is kind of crazy.” “Whatever, that doesn't mean you can choose the movie.” “Movie?” Mom asked, not quite understanding what we were talking about. So Chris came to the rescue. “When I got here they were in a tickle fight, because Tobin wanted to choose the Netflix movie and Y/n had the remote.” I completed it. “Christen saves me, but then Tobin got the remote, so it looks like we will be seeing her movie.”

“Seems like you’re having fun. I just called to tell you that the thing you buy on the internet has arrived, I hid it in the garage. I'm sure your mama won’t find it there.” Great, my mama birthday present has arrived. “Cool, and is everything ok?” “Yes, as we expected. We’ll call you later to talk more, I just took that I was alone now so I could warn you.” “Thanks mom.” “Bye honey. Bye Tobin and Christen.” “Bye Shannon.” They say in unison.

So I turned off the call and looked at them, they had a surprised look on their face so I got ready for the questions. Mainly the questions were about why I didn't tell them or the team about it, how I ended up with them and I had to explain my whole story again for Christen. In the end, it was already time for team meeting and we were getting ready to go.

As we waited for the elevator, I remembered to ask them something. “Guys, please don’t tell the team nothing about it.” “Why not? Speedy, I already told you that they won’t treat you any different.” Tobin scolded me. “I just... I will tell them when I feel comfortable, but for now just keep this secret for me. Please mom!!” “You can’t pull the mom card like this.” “Why not? You told yourself that you’re my team mom.” Tobin kept staring at me until she gave up. “Fine. But I think you should at least tell them about your mom, because if they find out about it from another person they're gonna be mad.” Christen punches Tobin in the arm. “Tobin! They are not gonna be mad at you Y/n. Just at the moment, and then they will just fill you with questions. But the last part is going to happen either way.” “Oh, so different from what I said.” Tobin said with sarcasm, but Christen sent her a killer look. “Sorry! But if by any chance, someone annoys you because of who your mother is, tell me and I will kick their ass.” Tobin told me with a serious look.

“You mean if they mocked me because Tobin Heath is my mom?” I tried to contain my laugh. “Oh, shut up!!” She got my head and began to rub it. “Mom stop!!” “Kids stop with it. Let’s go or we are gonna be late.”

With that we entered the elevator and I could see that Chris had a worried face on. My story must have affected her, she has a sad expression, so I decided to lighten her mood a little bit. “Oh Christen, you don’t need to be mad. You and mom are a couple, so that means you are my mom as well.” I hugged her and she kissed my head. She tightened the hug, and I knew some tears were rolling down her face. “Thank you Y/n, you for sure can come for me anytime you need. I’ll always be here for you.” “I know. You’re the mom I listen to but also the mom who grounds me, and Tobin is the mom who takes me out of the ground, and also the one who tries to cover my mess.” Christen rolled her eyes, understanding what I was trying to do. She cleaned the tears that had fallen out and shook her head, but now with a smile on her face. Tobin on the other hand protested. “I would never do that Christen!” “Why can't I believe that?”

With that the elevator door opened and Christen got out first, then Tobin raised her hand for me to hit it. I love these two. We got to team meeting and discussed our training sessions, how our week is going to be and other things. The meeting took about an hour. After it, the whole team went to dinner, me and Tobin were talking about the conversation we had early about my past soccer teams and how my mom is a crazy fan, so we got our food and sat at some table don’t even looking to see who was on the other ones. But as we were talking Christen, Megan, Ash, Julie, Ali, Alyssa and Carli sat at our table as well.

“I’m telling you Tobs, once she got so mad about a bad call that she almost got inside the field to yell at the referee, luckily my 9 years old brother stopped her.” Tobin was laughing her ass out. “I would die to see that.” “Who did that?” Megan asked, breaking the bubble we were on. I then noticed everyone else that was on the table with us.

“What?” I asked, not quite sure what she was talking about. “Who almost got in the field?” “My mom.” “Oh…” “She seems cool.” Ash responded. “She is, when she is not mad. Despite that, she is awesome, my family is really supportive.” “Your brother plays soccer as well?” Alis asked. “No, he hates sports. But he loves to cheer for me, so he goes for all the games he can.” “Oh, this is so cute, I would love to meet him.” JJ awed with my answer. “He for sure will love to go to the mall with you and Chris, I can guarantee that he would be a better company then Tobs.” “Hey kid! You are just as bad as I am.” Tobin protested. “Ok you're right. But I’m telling the truth, he and my mom go on walks for hours.” “I’m certainly taking him out when we meet him.” Chris gave me a wink, letting me know that this was for sure happening some time soon.

“And who encouraged you to play soccer? Your mom or your dad?” Alyssa asked, wanting to know more about my family. I took a big breath and answered her. “Oh, it’s a little more complicated than that. But I can for sure tell you that it was not my father.” “Why is that? He doesn't like sports?”

I take a look at Tobin and Christen and them both nod their heads encouraging me to tell them. “No, it’s because… I don't have a father, at least not one that I care about.” “Sorry I didn’t want to put you through that.” Alyssa told me with a worried expression. “That’s fine, I'm ok with that now.” “So is it just you, your brother and your mom?” Ali asked. “Well, my moms.” “Excuse me?” Megan almost spilled all the water she was drinking with the new information. “My moms. Me, my brother and my two moms.” “Oh, that is awesome. I already liked you before, now I like you even more.” Megan cheered and high five me. “Because of my parents?” “Yeah, you were already cool, now that I know that you for sure support my community you got points with me. Tell me about them!” “They are awesome, I've only been with them for three years, but they changed my life when they adopted me.” Ops! Shouldn’t have said the last part. “Wait, you are adopted?” Ali asked. “Yep.”

“Who is adopted?” Emily asked while getting close to the table. “Y/n” Alyssa answered. “What? You never told us.” Mal and the other youngies were all surrounding us now. “That’s why you run away during lunch?” I looked around and by now the whole team was at the table listening to the conversation.

“So about that…” I look at Tobin and send her a ‘help me’ look, she quickly understands me and steps up. “Guys, less questions okay? If she hasn't told us about it yet it’s because she is not comfortable with it, so let’s give her time.”

Everyone nodded, but Megan was still interested in my family. “Fine, but I want to know more about your moms okay?” “That I can do, but I think you already know at least one of them.”

I took my phone and showed her a picture of my family. Her mouth drops and she passes the phone for Ash, who passes to Ali, who passes to Carli, who finally says something.

“Wait a minute, your mom is Shannon MacMillan?” “Yeah.”

Everybody's jaw drops, except for Christen and Tobin because they already knew, and the questions started again. I finally told them my story and Tobin was right, they were really supportive and of course asked a lot of questions, but I'm fine with it. They are my family now.

#uswnt x reader #uswnt imagine #tobin heath x reader #christen press x reader #woso x reader #preath x reader #woso imagine

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arcane-ish · 3 years ago

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Book of Silco: Chapter 7

Enforcer : Hey. Stop right there! Benzo: What the devil... Vander: No. Benzo: Silco? You animal. Go crawl back into whatever hole you came out of. Vander: Benzo, stay back. Silco: You never did know when to walk away. Vander:Wait. No! Silco: Hmm. Stubborn to the end.

1.) I have to admit, I’m kind of confused by the logistics of this scene how Deckard alone can kill so many people so quickly. As we pan away there seems to be at least 3 or 4 enforcers, including Grayson. (in the scene preceding this we only say Marcus and Grayson enter Benzo’s shop and the scene right before it I would say we see about 3 enforcer shadows. But it certainly would make sense for Grayson to have brought a larger team for this arrest.)

2.) The world devil is used. There’s definitely demons in the League of Legends world, but devil and particularly “the devil” seems a bit weird. And of course they speak of the devil and Silco shows up from the mists. Benzo picks up a weapon from the flood in this shot.

3.) I’m not sure whether Vander’s no is supposed to be a general “omg everything is going to shit” or specifically about Grayson? Not sure whether the angle of the body in the front really fits with what we see of her dead body? Seems to me that Grayson would be lying left of the show we see and of course with her front towards the camera.

4.) Shallowly, this scene of them staring into the mist as if it is very hard to see will never not be funny to me, because it doesn’t look that misty to me. Yeah I guess it’s misty, but I dunno, just how many short there are or how “overacted” they kind of feel is just funny to me.

5.) Getting Vander’s expression as it goes from squinting to wide eyed was a bitch to catch, it’s really super split second. I guess what is noteworthy is that it is Vander’s expression that is important, even though both Benzo and Marcus could also recognize Silco in this situation.

6.) Cool cinematography of Silco’s eye glowing out of the mist. From his position it seems Silco was pretty away from the actual Grayson killing action. Deckard seems like he’s going from side to side in front of Benzo’s while Silco comes fro the far bar.

7.) So what’s noteworthy here is that (i) Benzo knows Silco and recognizes him immediately (II) He immediately sees Silco as the threat and starts storming towards him (III) He has some harsh words for Silco. And crawl beck into the hole you came from would kind of be extra saucy if the backstory about Silco having been a child laborer in the mines is true.

Vander meanwhile seems to be mostly stunned/dumbfounded.

8.) So personally, when I watched this scene first, my only read was that Vander is scared for Benzo, he knows that Silco is dangerous and that attacking him is a bad idea and so he wants Benzo to stay back. I guess you could also read it as he doesn’t want Benzo to attack Silco, that he wants to resolve this peacefully? Seems kind of hard to buy with bodies littered around? Seems more plausible that the bodies littered around would give Vander the idea that Benzo shouldn’t be walking out there.

9.) The other side of the coin. We know Benzo dislikes Silco. We now also know that Silco has a low opinion on Benzo (his reaction would probably be closest to irritated). It should be noted that Silco stays calm and indifferent at the prospect of Benzo coming in and he doesn’t give an explicit order to Deckard.

10.) Vander tries to get Benzo to stop. Beno gets tackled from the side. Vander very much not happy. It should be noted that Benzo is decidedly not an enforcer as we keep track of Silco’s crimes (that said within in his moral code, he was in the process of attacking Silco and from Silco’s POV they are cooperating with enforcers)

11:) Vander falls to his knees and slumps. Silco is being pithy, again, apparently referencing some sort of shared history with Benzo. (In case that isn’t obvious, this is a pretty cold reaction to somebody’s death) Also, Silco kind of eye-sexes the camera here.

12.) In general this is supposed to be the first time after at least a while that Benzo and Vander have seen Silco. Is this the first time they see his face injury? Or have they been in contact since his post drowning transformation? One of the many things we don’t know.

#arcane #book of silco #silco #vander #grayson #benzo

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igniteourminds · 3 years ago

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Alright, ima say it, yall need to cut Hunter some slack as well

Listen, listen, I understand Crosshair's POV, being left behind, hurt and betrayed, and for him it seems they never even spared him a thought, and that's an absolute horrible feeling and everything he told hunter is absolutely necessary and he should say it! That's exactly how he felt and lived things, but remember he speaks FROM HIS POV

Thing is, I only see people undertsanding and defending Crosshair's side, and I always see this, and in most things, people always ignore the leader's side SO HERE I GO

Let's hop to Hunter's POV, literally everything he knows of Cross is that he's trying to kill them. That the Empire wants to take Omega, and get rid of the rest of the batch. And yes, he did risk everything to go back for her, but this was when his whole squad was together, and the whole context of the galaxy's situation hadn't sinked in, they didn't even know. But THEN one of his brothers completely turned on them, and actively tried to kill them. And so they are forced to leave (or they'd quite literally die). So now imagine Hunter when

1.-He has ALSO been betrayed by a brother (he doesnt know of the chips yet) and he just saw him try to KILL THEM (that leaves a scar i mean come on)

2.- On future missions, this same person that's hunting them KNOWS how they plan, move, act and even THINK. And on every encounter all they see is that he wants them dead, NOT ONLY THAT but it's not just Crosshair who's there every time, BUT A BUNCH OF OTHER SOLDIERS AND SHIPS AND PEOPLE TRYING TO KILL THEM TOO NO QUESTIONS ASKED AND WHO DON'T LEAVE THE SNIPER MAN'S SIDE FOR A MOMENT

3.- His squad is broken now! Everything he knew were his brothers, his team and how to move with them, and now that's been completely broken, which comes with the next one

3.1.- He has no superiors, his orders and decisions are HIS and ONLY HIS and literally EVERYONE is counting on him to make the right choice, every time, and keeping them all safe, alive and well, and LITERALLY ANY CONSEQUENCE IS ON HIM. Even if it's a team effort or something, if anything happens its on HIM. AND THAT'S REALLY FREAKIN EXHAUSTING AND A SHIT TON OF PRESSURE ON SOMEONE and many say like "uh sure, no ones blaming only him, they are a team blah blah" but take a look at literally EVERY piece of media reactions, or history even and ALL the responsibility ALWAYS comes down on the leaders

3.2.- HAVE YOU SEEN ALL THE RESENTMENT HE HAS FOR LEAVING CROSS?? He carries all the guilt with him! And even all across the fandom it's all about HUNTERS FAULT ON EVERYTHING! So imagine the weight of knowing your brothers do what you say and it's still all on you!

4.-So NOW he has to make sure they leave safely, and thing number one someone NEEDS to survive?? THATS RIGHT: FOOD AND SUSTENANCE, AND HOW DO WE GET THAT? MONEY YES so that's why they need a JOB

5.- They go out to find out that the galaxy is all incredibly messed up, that everyone's being controlled, that they as clones and as soldiers have LITERALLY LOST THEIR PURPOSE. Everything they've fought for is GONE. AND SO they try to find WHO THEY ARE, sometimes on jobs, and sometimes doing the morally right thing because ITS ALL A MESS RN AND THEY ARE TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHERE THEY ARE AND THEIR ROLE THAT HAS BEEN BLASTED OUT OF THEM. THERES NOTHING LEFT THEY STAND FOR? SO WHO ARE THEY??

6.- He has 4 other people to take care now! And to look out for them ALL THE TIME! So while YES he left Crosshair behind, he has to try to juggle all and find a way to survive without leaving behind the ones he's with RN! And he has to, not choose or decide but BEGIN TO FIGURE OUT what's best for them! He has no context or experience or base as to what to do or what they need! Leave with Rex? Join another cause? Drift even farther apart from the possibility of saving Crosshair? Are they soldiers? Of what?

6.1.- He has to figure things out DAY BY DAY, because at any moment the Empire or Bounty Hunters or ANYONE COMES FOR THEIR NECK! SO PLANNING IS A BIT TOUGH IN THAT CASE! SPECIALLY WHEN RESCUING SOMEONE WHOS AFTER YOU

7.-As far as he's concerned Cross is "safe" with the Empire and HUNTER'S REMAINING SQUAD ISNT SO HE HAS TO KEEP FOCUS, also as far as he knows Crosshair doesn't WANT or NEED, or even CARES for them, so chances of taking him back willingly are SO SLIM, EVEN MORE WHEN HUNTER DOESNT KNOW WHERE CROSS IS HALF THE TIME, IF CROSS ISNT TRYING TO KILL THEM, FORCE KNOWS WHERE HE IS THE REST OF THE TIME, so sure try to go save him???

8.- He's now taking care of a child as well I mean please

So imagine juggling all this at the same time, fully knowing they should not leave anyone behind, but still seeing ALL OF THIS and knowing whatever happens is on YOU, without even understanding WHO YOU ARE???

And I know there are a lot who'll still say "well he should find a way" or whatever, and that's what always happens with leaders, but really, decision making related to you and four other people's LIVES, and all that responsability and inner conflict isnt goddamn easy

And again, I'm NOT saying Crosshair's POV is 100% WRONG, that's how he felt and lived it and IT REALLY HURTS

Just... cut Hunter some slack man, leading isn't easy, and far less in a situation like that

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk

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theravennest · 3 years ago

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Let’s Talk About Shang Chi...

I just got back from seeing Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. I had a great time with it. Just a lovely experience.

The fights were dope. The music was rocking. The actors’ performances really sold me on everything. I loved all the Xianxia elements. Y’all know fantasy worlds are my JAM!

But it was the characters that really drew me in. Every one of them were pitch perfect for me. The final act got a little jumbled, imo, but the characters and their dynamics were so good that it was enough for me to completely forgive and overlook the somewhat messy final battle.

The story had a lot of heart. It was so personal and so anchored in real emotions. I highkey fell in love with all the main characters. I love their journeys and their complex and grounded relationships with each other. I really liked the movie’s examination of grief, loss, and pain and the lengths people will go to in the wake of being overwhelmed by those feelings.

Let’s dig into it! This is gonna be a whole discombobulated mess, I just know it. lmao

***Spoilers below the cut!***

I really felt for Shang Chi, Xialing, and Wenwu struggling to figure out how to be a family again after they were all broken in different ways by the loss of Mama Ying Li. And each one of them trying in their own way to heal from it, some to extremely destructive degrees.

How Wenwu treated his kids after being consumed by grief and violence was so utterly messed up but in two completely different ways.

He treated Xialing like she was anathema, like she was literally nothing. Even when they were older and she had grown into an adult, he barely spoke to her in the entirety of the movie, could hardly even look at her. Partially because she looked like her mom and he retreated utterly from the pain of that, and partially because he constantly underestimated her in favor of her brother. This, of course, seeded the resentful tension between Xialing and Shang Chi from the start.

I’m a real sucker for sibling dynamics, as you all know. They’re my favorite types of family-oriented stories. (Side note, I really love the way the MCU has dedicated several stories to sibling relationships. It’s like my favorite thing in the MCU as a whole.)

I completely ate up the harsh and tricky relationship between Xialing and Shang Chi. Shang Chi completely let her down when they were kids, for her POV. (Not really his fault, he was a scared and traumatized 15 year old. Totally understandable.) But there is something to be said about the fact that she was also a child. A child dealing with her mom’s death too AND her dad’s aloofness. Then she was utterly abandoned by her brother. It’s no wonder she never quite forgives him, even though they mostly team up in the movie. They still have a lot to work out between them.

I really loved that she took on leadership of the Ten Rings at the end. The moment Shang Chi said she was “dismantling” their dad’s empire, I knew what was up. Though, the softy in me does hope that eventually they can find true reconciliation between them. I’m excited to see what we’ll see from her in future movies as a potential enemy of Shang Chi. It’ll be really interesting to see how Shang Chi tackles having to go up against his little sister.

And Shang Chi!!! OMG! Let’s talk Shang Chi and Wenwu now. When Wenwu drop kicked him into the ground and started the blame game for Mama Ying Li’s death like bro!!! I was so heated. He was 7 years old. A whole baby! She died because your thousand years of violence and conquering shit finally came home to roost.

But that one line when Wenwu said Shang Chi’s 7 year old self “just stood there and watched” while his mom was killed actually revealed so much about Wenwu’s character. (The cutting way Tony Leung, a literal legend, delivered that was masterful, btw.)

I actually think that it was the first time Wenwu has ever verbalized that he blamed Shang Chi for Ying Li’s death. Like maybe he’s always felt that way and all this time he was partially punishing Shang Chi for what he thinks of as a failure to protect or help the woman who meant so much to them.

Like, yes, he was training Shang Chi to take his place with him in the Ten Rings as an assassin but maybe he also wanted Shang Chi to kill his mom’s murderer as penance for letting her die in the first place.

Of course, it’s clear to see that Wenwu was absolutely shifting his own feelings of conflicting guilt onto his kids. Guilt that his past as a warlord is what got her killed. But also guilt that he put down the Ten Rings in the first place when if he had stayed a warlord, this never would have happened. But also the bone deep knowledge that if he hadn’t put down the Rings, Ying Li might never have stayed with him and loved him in the first place.

When Shang Chi threw it back at him that Ying Li probably wouldn’t love the person Wenwu had returned to, Wenwu looked so shook up. Phew! Perfect emoting from Tony Leung in that moment.

Honestly, Wenwu was having a very tragic and confusing time of it in this movie. Which is probably how that creature from beyond was able to find a crack in his psychic defenses and lure him to the gate. I had a lot of empathy for him even though I disagree so much with what he did to his kids, emotionally.

I really respect the fact that the movie never lost that sense of compassion for all of their feelings including Wenwu. I also respect that the movie really gave them space to grieve not just the loss of Ying Li but also the resulting dissolution of their happy family.

It’s just too bad that Wenwu’s grief made him push his kids away instead of pulling them closer. He completely emotionally abandoned them. A thousand years of power and supremacy yet he was broken because he never in that time fully learned how to process his emotions in a healthier way and his kids paid the price. They could’ve leaned on each other and on the love they found with Ying Li to help them get through but alas that’s the tragedy of the movie.

I really wanted somehow for Shang Chi to make it through to his dad before he went too far to come back again. I genuinely did not want to see Wenwu die at the end. I wanted him to live and see Shang Chi’s changing dynamic with his father continue. I wanted to see him finally acknowledge his daughter as his true heir and see her accomplishments (dark though they will likely become considering the “softer” version of her is the one that ran an illegal fight club in Macao lmao).

Though I am happy Shang Chi got through to him enough at the end for Wenwu to save Shang Chi’s life, willingly pass the rings onto his son, and somewhat accept his own death after a thousand years of life. That was such a poignant moment between them. And I wonder if in that instant, Wenwu had the thought that in dying he’d at least see Ying Li again.

(Side note: I really hope his soul and the souls of everyone that got eaten were freed when Shang Chi killed the monster. I really want them to be able to move on to the next phase of existence. I really hope they weren’t destroyed after being eaten. I want Wenwu to reunite with Ying Li even in the afterlife, gotdamnit! Sue me, I’m a romantic.)

Let’s talk Simu Liu’s performance here for one second. He was incredible throughout. I completely bought into this strange but so real feeling that while he has a lot of anger towards his father, so much hurt, he also felt a lot of heartache and love for who Shang Chi wanted him to be. And the strange desire to want to help a man who emotionally scarred him so badly.

Simu really brought both sides of Shang Chi’s journey to life. Like, he was tying to find his own path, reconcile with the mistakes he’s made in the past (his sister, killing his mom’s murderer), and facing up against his father’s ideals and expectations. But there was also a side of Shang Chi’s journey that was about finally understand both his sister and his father’s point of views, and of learning/embracing his mother’s history.

That moment by the lake when he revealed to Katy that he had actually killed the man who killed his mother. Whew boy! The emotions were so poignant. Simu Liu played it like *chef’s kiss* beautiful.

Speaking of character choices, I really rate this decision to have him actually go through with the assassination. It puts Shang Chi in an interesting position emotionally and somewhat morally. Instead of having his breaking point be him unable to kill as his father wishes, it’s instead the feeling of guilt and shame that he actually did kill the man.

I wonder if he felt a sense of satisfaction before the disgust and shame settled in. Because Shang Chi literally watched his mom die, he probably initially wanted to help his father hunt down the man because of that bit of dark need for vengeance. Until he got it, and felt ashamed to fully face his mother’s memory afterwards.

I’m interested to see how future Shang Chi movies and Simu will dig into and unpack that little bit of darkness these events instilled in the character.

Let’s talk Ying Li for a second here. This woman was incredible. An incredible martial artist, for sure, a mystical guardian and warrior...but she was also just an incredible person in general. Mama Ying Li was so self-assured, so steadfast in her convictions. She struck me as someone who knows exactly what she wants and is never afraid to reach for it.

Fala Chen portrayed her with such grace, warmth, and strength of character. It was extremely easy to see why Wenwu fell in love with her. She met Wenwu, a literal thousand year old warlord, and through shear strength of character led him to put down his weapons and his empire to make a home with her.

This man threw away his entire shadow army of assassins, threw away his whole plan to literally demolish her village in the pursuit of power...in order to play Dance Dance Revolution with her and their kids. (The highlight of their romance and the family flashbacks, for me, tbh.)

And I know it’s not necessarily...positive BUT there is something...hmmmm, crunchy in the fact that Ying Li so completely altered Wenwu’s life by simply loving him that when she died he was willing to raze the whole world to get her back, damn the consequences.

Trying to properly explore toxic and negative turns in previously loving family dynamics is such a difficult task to take on. I really liked the complexity of the Xu family. All the actors really sold the family side of things. It was an almost tangible thing how much you could see how the love they felt had turned bitter and painful over the years.

The final battle was epic and mind blowing (There was a fucking DRAGON flying around for gods’ sake!) but I do wish it had stayed a little more grounded for longer in the beginning of it when the Ten Rings were fighting the Ta Lo warriors. I wanted to see more of that fight before they had the turn to becoming temporary allies against the soul suckers. It became a little too much of a CGI mash, for me, in some parts of it.

Still, the emotional beats held and the core of the story of this grieving family trying to hold on to the tatters of their world stayed consistent even through the final battle. I can forgive a lot because of the strong sense of character and connection there.

Plus, it’s a comic book movie. Spectacle is the name of the game and at least this one had cool fantasy beasts and dope fight choreo.

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough. Let’s wrap it up here. Suffice it to say, I had a wonderful time with this movie. I’m ready for the next one!

#shang chi #shang chi and the legend of the ten rings #mcu #xu shang-chi #simu liu #tony leung #xu wenwu #meng'er zhang #xu xialing #ying li #fala chen #mcu spoilers #shang chi spoilers #liveblogging

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aerialflight · 4 years ago

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Fic Recs (mostly Naruto cause I read too many good fics in the fandom and now I'm in hell)

[Naruto]

Spirit-Touched by phooykazooi

Once upon a time, the Haruno clan were priests. It was said that they were spirit-touched, and that they walked among the downtrodden and the poor, and did not bow to royalty.

Or, an AU in which Sakura can see spirits.

Part 1 of The Realms Between

(Really, and I mean REALLY fantastic Shikamaru & Sakura friendship! Fantastic, beautiful writing, and such good worldbuilding, god, and the Haruno family is so badass!! Sakura and everything she does makes me want to scream!! Please read!)

Final Evaluation by Do_the_Cool_Whip

Progress evaluations are one-on-one consultation meetings between academy students and their teacher. Their purpose is to inform academy students of their strengths and weaknesses and guide them down their ideal path to becoming a strong shinobi. Upon graduating the academy and passing their jounin-sensei test, new genin return to the academy for one final consultation. (Or: The story of what happens when Umino Iruka uses his final meetings with his students as way to send them off to become the best shinobi they can possibly be.)

(Iruka! Is! The! Best! Teacher! Ever! End of story!!! Great interpretation of all the characters and their capabilities and I am so so excited for the sequel that will undoubtedly come! XD)

Celestial Bodies by Oceanbreeze7

Sasuke looked at the fire, eyes glowing red as the mutated corrupted seal on his throat. "Amaterasu blessed me. I see things. Like you with two normal eyes and the Hokage. And Sakura with a seal on her forehead. And I run Chidori through Naruto's heart. I keep trying to kill him. Over and over. And that knuckleheaded idiot never gives up.”

(Don't you get it? I saw it. The moon will bleed, the nations will die. The world is going to end.)

Part 1 of Celestial Bodies and Anomalies

(I swear, this fic freaking elevated my expectations on Sasuke-centric fics in general holy hell. Also, read the fucking sequel after this cause EVERYTHING GOES NUTS AND THE PLOT GOES OFF AND I'M HERE FOR THIS SHIT. Fucking Uchihas man. Also, you wouldn't think this series is funny, but it is, and it's amazing.)

A step to the left (and right off the cliff) by weavingBlue

Team Seven starts off on a different foot and Sasuke's canonical journey to get stronger goes off the rails a bit. It all works out though. Probably.

(This fic went in a direction I didn't expect and it's GLORIOUS. SO FUNNY, I honestly was dying while I was reading this. Please give this a chance!!)

promises by BombsAreForBabies

It's her first kiss and Naruto's last. She promises him that she will bring Sasuke home. It's his dying wish, after all.

(Naruto bleeds out faster than the kyuubi can heal him.

Sakura learns that being a ninja is more than fancy jutsu and fun.

Sasuke does not know that he just killed his best friend and turned his most loyal comrade into his worst enemy.)

(Listen LISTEN I know this sounds depressing but the relationship developments and slow healing is EVERYTHING and I think it's absolutely worth it to read this. Sakura's characterization is so good and Kakashi makes me want to hug him. A lot.)

Fang Under Fang by Vroomian

"Are we sure he's really an Inuzuka?"

(The answer is no.)

Someone reborn as Inuzuka Kiba not only has to deal with bullshit ninja magic, but soulmates being A Thing.

(Really good self-insert fic and its platonic soulmates, not romantic! I am always here for a good Kiba-centric fic and I won't say who the soulmate is. It's unexpected but so, so good! Trust me!)

Haunt The Lonely by Tht0neGal666

(Series where Sakura can see ghosts and the Things she gets up to due to this ability. The fics are short but man, you can already see the shifting differences in Team 7's dynamics, it's great!)

Perception by Ellie_Enchanted

Naruto can sense auras, which throws everything off it's balance. Because really, with someone as open as Naruto running around and peering into the depths of people's souls, something is bound to change. In other words, sometimes all that's needed is a push. Also, Sasuke apparently glows.

(Naruto the empath changing the plot and making it Better and I am loving it!)

Crossfire by DejaVu22

Following the events of Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke never makes it to Orochimaru's hideout. Instead, he is waylaid by a one-eyed man named Tobi, a man possessing a Sharingan, a terrifying dual personality, a penchant for always being late, and a single-minded mission to stop the Akatsuki in their tracks. When Sasuke runs into Naruto again years later, he must ally with his old teammate in order to protect him from the Akatsuki, while keeping him out of the two man war Tobi and Sasuke have started against the dangerous organization.

(I honest to god can't stop cackling when I read this, the Sasuke & Obito dynamic is so freaking chaotic and Sasuke's characterization is the best thing I've ever read. This boi is a mEsS and I'm fucking rooting for him. He cares so much! There's secret identity shenanigans happening on sasuke's end and it's HILARIOUS! This is the duo I never thought I needed but here it is! *cackles insanely*)

[Diamond no Ace]

Echo in His Hands by SportRayne (rayningnight)

Ship: Miyuki/Sawamura

What does it mean, when you remember snapshots of your own future?

Is it your future at all, if you change it?

Would you even want to change it?

(Look I am WEAK for BAMF Eijun and time travel fics and Miyuki being a tanuki bastard, okay? Time travel fic where Eijun gets feelings of people he knew before in the future. Really good so far and am so excited over this fic!)

The path we walk by WindsOfTime

Ship: Miyuki/Sawamura

Eijun goggles at the magazine she just shoved into his hands. "W-Wakana!" "I know!" she says, beaming. "That's my soulmate!!" "I know!!" "My soulmate plays baseball!!"

(Became such an instant fave so fast it's unbelievable. I LOVE THESE IDIOTS SO MUCH! Best soulmate fic in this fandom, hands down!)

[One Piece]

switching places by fireflywitch

Zoro is 21 and wakes up in a desert they already saved, on a ship that they burned two years ago, and standing next to a man who is supposed to be dead. Except, that can’t be right, can it?

Zoro is 19 and wakes up on a ship that’s too big, next to a robot wearing a swimsuit, and he’s supposed to fight something called a Kaido. Also, he’s missing an eye, and no one’s even a little worried about it?

(or)

Time travel is a shitshow, and Zoro didn't sign up for this.

(FUCKING HILARIOUS ZORO IS THE BEST PERSON TO SEND BACK IN TIME CAUSE HE'D BE TERRIBLE YET FANTASTIC AT IT I CAN'T MAN FIEWNOPFEW)

No Time To Crank The Sun by VIKAN

He’s surrounded by strangers, but they’re all trying to convince him otherwise. Or, Zoro faces a mysterious and relentless challenge that he just can’t wrap his head around.

(This ripped my heart open, I cried reading this my god. Please read this, the pain is so worth it and Zoro and his relationship with his crew is so good here. This reminded me why I love the Straw Hats so much!)

[Fairy Tail]

to learn about a lucy (with a look into the future.) by るる凪 - nagi (arurun)

A watching the future fanfic.

It's currently X781, three years before canon. A group of Fairy Tail mages find themselves in a large building, with no known way out.

They sit down, and they watch the future.

(This is so much more fun than I thought it would be and I'm so happy I found this fic. This fic reignited my old love for this fandom and I hope it does for you too!)

[Harry Potter]

sunflowers by Marnie27

One day, a young girl sits on the edge of a well. On this day, she falls in. Then the next, she’s not even a ‘she’ anymore. He’s Peter Pettigrew — doomed to die at the hands of his (betrayed) friend’s son.

Peter is selfish, bitter and brash. He’s not some fairy tale hero, he doesn’t care if everyone around him dies, as long as he lives. The marauders are annoying and childish. Survival is his priority, and he can’t afford to face distractions.

This just makes the fact that soulmates are now apparently a thing all the more godawful.

(And then another day years later he falls into an entirely new impossibility, Remus Lupin in tow, right into the third book of Harry Potter. Smack bang on the other Peter Pettigrew’s grave).

It’s confusing and graceless, and entirely something that would happen to him of all people.

(Self-insert fic where a girl reincarnates into Peter Pettigrew! And there are soulmates! And it's angsty and hilarious and Peter is an Asshole (somewhat unintentionally lol). Always a fan of biased pov fics and characters slowly improving themselves and their mental health! Cause dying! Is! Traumatic! *smiley face* Please read!)

[Crossovers]

he's a killer queen, sunflower, guillotine by hoye

Fandoms: Fullmetal Alchemist, Harry Potter

He has to be the weirdest Hufflepuff Harry’s ever seen. Scratch that, he’s the weirdest Hufflepuff Hogwarts has ever seen.

(One thing everyone could agree on: NEVER call Edward Elric short.)

(This is peak Edward Elric and all the best things about him and I'm just having a Good Time. Friendships! Logical solutions! Marauder screentime! And so much More! *bright grin* It's a fun place here!)

#Fanfiction #AO3 #Fic Rec #Fic Rec List #Naruto #Diamond no Ace #One Piece #Fairy Tail #Harry Potter #Crossover #Fullmetal Alchemist

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stoney-siren · 4 years ago

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May I Have This Dance? PART 1 (Sal Fisher x Gender Nuetral!Reader)

I decided to stray a bit from my usual AOT content and give some attention to the other fandoms I’m in, like Sally Face! :)

Summary: Senior year at Nockfell High is coming to an end, which means prom night it coming up soon. Although usually Sal Fisher is not one for high school get-togethers, he’s been wanting to ask (Y/N) to the dance, though it’s not as easy as most people make it seem. He just doesn’t know how to ask them.

This is the first part, I plan on there being two parts to this fanfic, possibly three.

TW: Swearing, possible mentions of drug use, slight angst?

“Bullshit!” Larry burst into laughter, throwing his head back as he held his stomach. His rather embarrassed friend tensed up at his reaction. “You wanna ask (Y/N) to prom?” He continued to giggle, as his fit of laughter died down.

“Can you try and be quiet? What if your mom hears.. She’s gonna never let it down!” Sal tugged at his pigtails out of nervousness, pacing around the room.

“Come on, who cares? You should ask them!” The taller boy encouraged as he shut the door to his bedroom, turning his attention back to his blue haired buddy.

If only it was that easy, Sal wanted to say, but he just knew Larry would shoot back with something irritating and snarky. So instead, Sal fell back onto one of Larrys beanbags and let out a loud and irritated sigh. His friend soon followed persuit, jumping onto the beanbag that sat beside Sals.

“I just.. Cant. Who would wanna spend prom night with somebody like me anyways?” His self deprication captured Larrys attention faster than the reaction of a mouse on a mouse trap.

“Oh don’t give me that shit Sally dude! Anybody would be lucky to have you, everyone knows it too! You’re caring and funny, quick witted and honestly just somebody everyone wants to have by their side!” Larry exlaimed, though his words fell upon deaf ears.

Sal was too busy just day dreaming about (Y/N), he admired everything about them, the way they laughed, the color of their beautiful eyes, and the pure look of joy that washes over their face whenever he lets them paint his nails or put stickers on his prosthetic.

“Sal? Sally Face! You listening?” Larry called out, finally getting Sals attention.

“Oh, shit, sorry.. No, I’m not.” Sal shook his head and grabbed ahold of his pigtails again, glancing down at the floor and sighing.

Larry hated seeing his friend like this, he was aware of how low Sals confidence could be sometimes, but he’d never dare to point it out in fear of upsetting him or making things worse. He wished he could show Sal what all their friends and himself thought of him, then maybe he’d see himself in a brighter light.

“I think you should head back upstairs and get some rest now, I’ll see you at school tomorrow, alright?” Larry gave Sal a light punch on the shoulder before standing up and walking to the door with him.

“Yeah, alright. See you tomorrow Larry Face.” With that, he shut the door behind himself and headed to the elevator, pausing at the second floor button, thinking of (Y/N) before hitting the fourth floor button.

Your POV

You laid in your bed peacefully, staring up at the ceiling as the light from your lava lamp illuminated the room. The light was your favorite color, lighting up the side of your face as your thoughts raced for the future. Usually on a Sunday night, you’d play your music so loud that Todd would come over from his apartment and tell you to keep it down, but so many things were on your mind that you just didn’t have the energy to start a little fight with Todd.

“Maybe I’ll talk to Ash about it, she always has good advice.” You mumbled as you turned and killed your lava lamps energy. You have had a crush on Sal Fisher since Sophomore year, but you never got the chance to talk about it with him or anyone for that matter.

Letting out a final sigh, you shut your eyes and melted into a world of memories and dreams.

“(Y/N)! Get up dear! You’re gonna be late for school if you don’t!” Your mother called from outside your room, this was how you usually woke up before school. She would always pretend to be in a panic, and tell you that you’re late to try and get you out of bed sooner, though sometimes her act would be real. That’s why you always check the clock in your room to see if she was lying or not.

“It’s 7:30, mom.” You mumbled as you pushed the blankets off yourself, Todd probably wasn’t even here yet to walk with you to school. Since you two both lived on the second floor, you guys have walked to school together since the first day of Freshmen year, then Larry, Ash, and Sal came into the picture and you guys became a team.

“Still, get up!” She called, her voice sounded more further away this time. You knew she wasn’t gonna stop pestering you until you got up. So while pushing the covers off your body, you got to your feet and picked out and outfit for today.

After breakfast, you brushed your teeth just as you heard a knock at the door, and your mom open the door to greet Todd.

“Hi Mrs. (L/N), is (Y/N) ready?” His voice grew louder as you stepped closer to the door and stopped next to your mom.

“Hey Todd, I’m ready!” Giving him a smile, he returned it as he lead you down the hallway and to the elevator. He hit the button as he attempted to make conversation with you.

“So how have your grades been? Excited for the end of the year?” He turned his head to make eye contact with you.

“Yeah I guess, I’m still not completely sure what I want to do once I graduate, but I know I’ll have you and everybody else to go to for support.” You responded in a tired tone, still a bit dazed from just waking up only 10 minutes ago. Todd nodded at your response as the elevator chimed.

The two metal doors slid open to reveal Sal and Larry standing on the other side, they looked ready for school just as much as you and Todd.

“Oh hey!” Larry called, “You two look like shit!” He laughed, Todd grimaced in annoyance while you just rubbed one of your eyes, trying to wake up.

“Yeah well your eyebags got eyebags and I’m sure Sals looking more than tired under that prosthetic.” Todd shot back as he stepped into the elevator, you supposed everyone was up late studying, since Mrs. Packerton always has extremely hard ‘end of the year’ tests. The fact that she’s a cultist makes trying to focus more difficult.

You stepped into the elevator and stood between Todd and Sal, taking notice in how quiet Sal was. It wasn’t unusual for him to not say anything, but a small hello could always be heard from him whenever we saw each other.

“You okay Sally Face? You seem a bit quiet.” Larry seemed to get a kick out of comment since he snickered and nudged Sal with his elbow.

“Yeah, what’s up bud?” Larry questioned in an almost teasing tone, it confused you, but you also knew that Sal and Larry always had their own little inside jokes. Maybe something happened last night while they were studying together, probably something involving Larry’s terrible toilet humor, or maybe they just got high again and completely blew off studying.

“Nothing, just tired.” Thats when you noticed how red Sals ears were, though you didn’t think much of it since you just wanted to get to school and get these seven hours of hell over with.

School never failed to be the same as always, with Travis and his homophobic and just down right ignorant remarks, the lunch food always smelling strange (especially the bologna), and of course messing around in the hallways and during lunch time with some of your favorite people. This time at lunch though you asked to speak with Ashley in private, she and Todd were the best advice givers you knew, but you just didn’t have as much faith in Todd in keeping a secret as you did with Ash.

“Whats up, (Y/N)?” The two of you stood behind the school as you anxiously looked around for any people who could overhear you.

“I, um, I needed some advice. It’s about the prom coming up this week..” You mumbled as Ashley burst into squeals of excitement, smiling widely to you.

“Oh I’m so excited you came to me for help! So you want to ask somebody, right? Who is it? Is it Larry?” She giggled and nudged you, trying her best to get the name out.

“No! It’s Sal!” Not even sure where that little outburst came from, you lifted a hand over your mouth in shock, as Ashley’s face only stretched further into happiness as she grabbed your shoulders.

“Oh I just knew you had a crush on him! You always laugh at all his jokes, and compliment him whenever you get the chance! And if you ask me, I think he might like you too!” That suggestion made your face burn, the thought of Sal actually returning such feelings made your heart warm.

“C- Come on, don’t say that!.. But do you really think that?” Ash nodded in response as she took your hand.

“You have to ask him out! And I know just who can help us.”

#sally face #sal fisher #sal fisher x reader #larry johnson #ashley campbell #todd morrison #x reader

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