#RAI YOU EVIL

[nowherelaney]

I will defend danger days til the day I die

[gentlebeard]

If I could hold you for a minute, Darling, I’d go through it again

For @edsbacktattoo & @stedesearring 💕 Show: Our Flag Means Death - Season 1 & 2 Music: Francesca by Hozier YouTube

[thevillainsfangirl]

This is gonna ruffle a lot of feathers, I’m sure, but...

If you're going to love a fictional villain, LOVE THEM AS A VILLAIN! Stop trying to make them into some Good Person™ that they’re not. What is it that you even like about them? You think they're hot?

Quit being a pussy! THEY'RE FICTIONAL. It's not some moral dilemma if you love a villain AS A VILLAIN.

(Remade this old post because I had some characters to add.)

[ashxketchum]

❄︎ ♡ HAPPY HOLIDAYS ♡ ❄︎

[tacticaldiary]

Unsteady

Pairing: Leon Kennedy x Reader

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

Little could throw Leon off, especially when he’s laser-focused on his objective, but the moment he hears that cry of pain all thoughts of acting rationally are out the window. 

Masterlist

He’s a steady man. 

Everything Leon does is meaningful. The way he moves, striding with purpose, the way he talks, to the point, those remarks rolling off his tongue naturally, the steady motions of his fingers as he smoothly reloads his gun with one hand, tossing a grenade with the other. 

Deployed to investigate an outbreak in the middle of the ruins of a city, Leon hadn’t liked being paired with her at first. 

Love and duty didn’t mix after all. 

“Watch your six.” She yells out, ducking to parry an incoming knife from the particularly agile species of zombies they found themselves in the middle of. Leon turns just in time to dodge a zombie lunging for his neck. A bullet through the head sends it down. 

Together the both of them move as a deadly, well-oiled machine. Wordless communication glances that silently request support or warn, a punch there, a chamber of bullets lost here.

“There’s too many of them, we’re overpowered!” He calls out, holding his position. 

“Retreat back to base for now!” She yells back, yanking her knife back out of a creature’s head with a sickening squelch. She scowls as the blade comes out half broken, tosses it aside, and extracts another one. “We’ll regroup and come up with any strategy. Charging forwards isn’t working-”

A creak cuts through the air, halting all conversation. Even the mangled corpses go quiet. 

“Move!” She shouts and before Leon knows it, he’s shoved roughly away as an old oil tanker collapses mere inches from where he stood. The massive barrel explodes on contact with the ground, engulfing the world in flames, bright red and hot. She lets out a strangled yelp as it burns right through her shoulder and chars her skin. A surface burn but still stinging and painful. 

“Are you alright?” Comes a yell from the other side of the wall of flames. “Shit, are you hurt?” He sounds...panicked? No, that wasn’t right. Leon Kennedy didn’t panic. He fought, thought, and charged his way through any problem. 

“I’m fine!” She tries to find a way to him, but the wall of flames produces so much heat it makes her eyes burn from the smoke. Pulling the collar of her shirt to cover her mouth and nose, she gives up finding a path back to their original position. 

She curses under her breath, “I’ll meet you there! Go back to base, I’ll find another way!” His protests come through, but she ignores his demands for her to stop and find another way. If she stayed she’d be charred to toast. The fire spreads onto the old creaky building, columns of flames mounting higher and hire. The creatures at least seem to have just as strong a dislike for the heat as she does because they’re nowhere to be seen. 

“Go!” She yells one last time before taking off into the nearest alley, clutching her burning arm. 

Getting separated was never ideal, but it couldn’t be helped. She knows he’ll be alright. Leon was anything but stupid. He was deadly, he’d be fine she tried to convince herself. 

As she starts to think she might have gotten her bearings back, a crack sounds from above her. She whirls around, gun aimed to the ceiling of the wooden beams she’s passing under, thinking it’s a zombie. 

It’s not. 

The beam creaks under the weight of the fire eating away at it, and before she can dive out of the way, it cracks and falls straight into her, trapping her in rubble and splinters, pinned to the ground. 

She screams, hot wood pressing against her skin as the fire around her seems to close it. “Fuck,” she gasps in a breath, trying to think. Prying the beams off of her does little but burn and embed splinters into her palms. 

Shit, Leon. She had to meet Leon back at the base, had to let him know she was alright, had to know that he was alright. 

 After a couple of minutes of struggling, it dawns on her that she’s not going anywhere. Her lower half and left arm are trapped. There’s no way she can lift the beam on her own, not with her injured shoulder at least. 

Was this it? She squeezes her eyes shut, chasing the thoughts away as she sweats and burns. Was this how she was going to go out? Smoke threatens to choke her, acrid and bitter in her throat, in her lungs. 

She imagined she’d go down protecting someone, maybe even her boyfriend, or that she’d be torn apart by some sort of bioweapon, but no.

She’d burn and suffocate under a goddamn beam. 

Feeling tears prick her eyes at the thought, her head feels too heavy to keep lifted, her forehead dropping to press against the dirty pavement below.

Leon...God, she hoped he wouldn’t blame her too much. 

They’d just started to make a life together. Years of dancing around, subtle flirting, and lingering glances finally led to them dating a year ago. She loved him. She really did love him and now she was never going to see him again. 

Two beady eyes glare at her from the far end of the alley.

Cold and dead. 

A zombie staggers towards her, snarling unfazed by the fire around them. It stumbles and drags itself closer and closer.

A dry sob rips itself out of her throat, the heat unbearable, panic clawing at her. Breathing short and shallowly, she wishes she could reach for something to end her pain a little quicker, but she can’t reach any of her for any of her weapons. 

Helplessness threatens to drag her under until her eyes catch on a sharp splinter of wood the size of her palm just within reach. With a shaking arm, she reaches towards it, crying out when her movements put more of the wood’s pressure on her. The splinter of about the size of her palm, is wickedly sharp. 

Glancing up again is almost too much effort to handle in between her hacking coughs. It’s halfway down the alley already.

She’d rather kill herself than end up like them.

Trembling, she presses the sharp point of the wood right onto her jugular, swallowing nausea and hesitation. 

She couldn’t let herself turn. What if she was the one who found Leon? What if she hurt him? No, she couldn’t bear it. 

Another sob wracks her body as the living corpse staggers closer. Steeling herself, she closes her eyes and tries to think about anything else. 

Don’t be too mad at me, Leon, she thinks to herself, before-

The sharp bang of a gunshot startles her, her hand jerking and digging painfully into her throat. Before she can blink away the blurriness in her eyes, her wrist is yanked away from her neck forcefully, the grip on it like iron as the wood is ripped out of her hands. 

“Not yet, baby.” She could cry at the voice, low and determined. “You’re not done yet.” 

“Le-Leon.” She coughs, “You won’t- the fire.“ A gasp rips out of her when he tries to tug her free. “Stop!” She cries out. “Can’t-you can’t. I’m stuck. Go before it’s too late.” Is all she manages to choke out. 

The look Leon gives her is one that she might have laughed at if she were in the laughing mood. 

“Like hell.” He says roughly, “We’re staying together.” She knows that tone of voice, the one that’s immovable and molded out of iron. Too tired to argue, she nods. He moves out of her field of vision behind her. 

“I’m going to lift the beam.” He says calmly but quickly. “I need you to drag yourself out from under when I do. Can you do that for me, sweetheart?”

When she doesn’t respond, he calls out her name, repeating himself more urgently. 

The most she can offer him is a weak nod. Her throat feels like it’s on fire.

Suddenly the crushing weight is gone, and all she wants to do is sob in relief and curl up right there and then, but Leon’s voice filters in and out of her mind. With the meagre remaining strength she has left, she claws her way out of the rubble, collapsing a bit away onto her stomach. 

Leon doesn’t waste any time asking questions when he runs over to her and picks her up, ducking through a gap in the brick wall a couple of feet away. 

“You’re going to be okay.” He says aloud, glancing down at her as he moves. Steady. Always so steady and calm. She takes comfort in it, but it’s only when she sinks farther into his grip that she notices. 

The tremor in his hands. 

The slight shake of his voice.

The poorly hidden panic in his eyes whenever he glances down at her. 

He’s panicking. Leon Kennedy is panicking. 

“Shit, don’t close your eyes.” He urges, squeezing her closer to his chest. “Stay awake. Stay awake for me, okay?” He talks, getting increasingly shaky when she can’t find the will to respond to any of it. 

In and out of darkness she drifts. Every time she feels herself swim too deep, his voice always pulls her back, like an anchor she couldn’t lose even if she tried.

When she comes back to this time, clinging onto his voice to drag her back she finds they’re back in the bunker they’d chosen as their temporary base for the mission. She’s laying on her bedroll, Leon’s roll draped over her to keep her warm. 

The man in question is wrapping her shoulder with a bandage. The numb coolness suggests he’s treated the worst of her burns

Trying to speak, nothing but a hoarse noise comes out. 

“Don’t talk.” He instructs, immediately reaching for his canteen. Gently he props her up in his arms and brings the vessel to her lips, guiding her to drink. “That’s it, sweetheart.” He praises her as she drinks. “Slowly.” 

Swallowing a few times, she tries again. “Are you...are we?” 

“You’re alright.” He assures her. “I got you out in time.” Still, in his arms, he feels her physically relax at the assurance. 

It’s not enough. Seeing her accept her demise, laying there half-trapped with a weapon to her jugular ready to end it all before his eyes...

He feels sick thinking about what would have happened if he’d been a mere second late. Seeing her slit her throat in front of him...he may have just pulled the trigger on himself there and then. 

The thought washes over him, overwhelming. He can’t stop himself from clutching her tighter, drawing her into his chest and tucking his chin over her head. “Thought I lose you for a second.” He admits hoarsely.

“I...I thought I did too.” She whispers, feeling him draw his arms around her tighter. “Thank you.” 

“I wasn’t going to leave you there.” 

“How did you know?” She asks, shifting to meet his eyes, taking solace in the deep blue. 

“I heard you scream.” 

It had stopped him in his tracks, all thoughts of anything regarding his own safety and the mission dissipating with the single sound. The only thing on his mind was to find her, to help her, to make sure she was alive and that she never made such a sound ever again while he was alive. 

“I’m glad I did, then.” It’s a weak joke that doesn’t pull a smile or a chuckle out of either of them. 

“Scream or stay silent, I’ll always find you, sweetheart.” He mutters into her hair. The trembling in his body seems to have subsided now that they were out of the fire. 

Her heart warms at his words, and even as their world is quite literally burning down outside their little safe haven, she finds that there wasn’t a place she’d rather be right now than in his arms like this, comfortable and safe. 

“Rest. I’ll take watch.” He presses his lips to her forehead, lingering there for a couple of seconds. 

Her last mumbled thanks barely makes it past her lips before she’s out cold, trusting him to keep her safe while she recovers. 

Requests Are Open!

(22/06/2023)

[silver-horse]

Leon and Ada

[ultimatefartwizard]

EARTHSPARK MESSAGES AND SUBTEXT THATS NOT EVEN SUBTEXT

It's been a while since I have posted as I've been busy with finals, but I saw a post that absolutely made me spur a headache with just how utterly fatuous of a take I saw on Transformers Earthspark and the messages it sends.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT USE THIS POST TO ATTACK OR HARASS ANYONE, THIS IS ONLINE DISCUSSION OF A WORK OF MEDIA.

THIS ALSO COVERS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1 OF EARTHSPARK, IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SUCH A TOPIC PLEASE REDIRECT YOURSELF.

@monocle-teacup Won't repost your post as the way tumblr reposts works would have everything funnel onto your account, but I'll be pinging you and I did screenshot your post for viewer's context:

I have ALOT to talk about here, while also being completely in shock and disbelief how you end up BELEIVING THE SIDE THAT IS A GENOCIDAL LUNATIC WHO SEES THE TRANSFORMERS AS SUBHUMAN AND A DISEASE ON THE EARTH??? AND IS WILLING TO FULL ASS MURDER AND MUTILATE PEOPLE? From here any * you may see is likely a footnote mark to check details I put at the end for clarity. If I miss something, let me know and I will clarify.

Before I get into the meat of dissecting your clearly ill-informed and definitely not thoroughly thought out post, I need to get something out of the way because I believe you'll use this as a means of shielding yourself from incoming critique: It's okay to like and enjoy characters who are clearly bad people. There is a CLEAR difference between enjoying a fictional character and agreeing with whatever they might do or say. I enjoy many bad and morally reprehensible characters, including Mandroid/Doctor Meridian, but that doesn't mean I agree with them or don't find their actions and ideas deplorable. If you find yourself agreeing with someone who sees another group of people* as being subhuman or a danger to society you need to reconsider your ideologies and thought processes. Like ASAP.

Okay onto the actual deconstruction of your statements, why they are blatantly lacking a thorough reading of the messages in Earthspark, or even lead into uncomfortably ignorant territories both with Transformers and very real-life, human related things.

As a first point, you state that you hope this show re-examines the fact that hatred towards another group of people (even if they are fictional) automatically makes them a terrible person, and bring up the statement that the show makes GHOST's detainment of transformers look "cartoonishly evil" but does absolutely nothing to address Dr.Meridian's statements of transformers being dangerous.

Yes. Yes it ABSOLUTELY DOES address that throughout the entire show. In fact, the whole season is literally about deconstructing the notion that BOTH Dr.Meridian's and GHOST's ideals and methods are harmful if not downright discriminatory towards transformers as a whole.

GHOST's method of control is a guise under the US government by detaining any transformer they deem as "a threat", this can even mean autobots or non-aligned transformers who don't want to join their organization or are just doing their own thing. They will willingly classify them all as "Decepticons" to justify their inhumane treatment of them. This is paralleling how humans will stereotype and conflate other groups of people, as being all associated with one singular event or organization of people that is seen as bad or a danger to society* and use that stereotyped ideal to weaponize it against them and justify harming them in multiple ways; which is what Dr.Meridian ALSO DOES THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SHOW. Dr.Meridian is a scientist that literally works with and is a huge provider of technology to GHOST, he literally works with them and experiments on the detained transformers. You can't say "oh GHOST bad Dr.Mer not so bad" when he's LITERALLY PART OF GHOST AND YOU CANNOT SEPARATE THEM. HE IS EXTREME AND OUTSPOKEN ABOUT HIS HATRED THROUGHOUT THE SHOW AND ACTIVELY IS SHOWN TO BE ENTIRLEY IN THE WRONG BOTH IDEOLOGICALLY AND ACTION WISE. You clearly have not watched with a critical eye if you think they never address his points or somehow he is right about something. He never is and it shows just how harmful his mentality is. You don't even need words spoken out loud to know he's ALREADY HEINOUSLY WRONG AND BIGOTED.

Why should the show, one that shows transformers having to battle against racist and xenophobic hatred towards them from humans, re-examine that relationship? People are being discriminatory to people they don't like, and to them it doesn't matter if they are decepticon or not; they're all the same and dangerous in their eyes. Yes, there was a war brought onto earth's soil from pure happenstance of where the Ark and members of the two named groups had landed, and yes it was bloody and many lives were lost like any war is. Should the war, as well as atrocious acts of violence by a few and the circumstance that which the birth and type of being transformers are deem all transformers as dangerous? OBVIOUSLY FUCKING NOT. That's literally stereotyping. That's what Dr.Meridian is doing. He's literally grouped them all into one conglomerate in his head and sees them all as pests to be exterminated.

The transformers are both immigrants and refugees of war that had lasted thousands of millions of years and a desperate attempt to find any source of energon because they would STARVE TO DEATH IF THEY DIDN'T AND RESOURCES WERE DANGEROUSLY SCARCE ON CYBERTRON. They are thousands of lightyears away from home in a place that doesn't have the cultures they are familiar with and structures built for them which accommodates their needs. And to add onto it, most were never originally outfitted with guns and shit. They had to ARM THEMSELVES TO PROTECT AGAINST ATTACKS. JUST BECAUSE YOU SEE A GUN POP OUT OF THEIR BODY DOESN'T MEAN THEY ARE BUILT LIKE THAT NOR DOES IT MEAN THEY ARE AUTOMATICALLY ALL DANGEROUS. The only ones who are theoretically "built for war/violence" are war-frames like seekers, but they didn't even CHOOSE THAT LIFE OR WANT IT! THEY ARE COLD CONSTRUCTED* AND LITERALLY ENSLAVED INTO BEING CANON FODDER FOR WHATEVER SKERMISH THEY ARE DEEMED NEEDED FOR. Starscream wasn't even a warrior before this, he was just some nerd ass scientist. Cold constructed bots and War-frames are already deemed subhuman by other transformers. The entire war that you see is a continual millions of years struggle which the origins are in a fight against their own horrible systematic oppressions to try and bring freedom and put an end to the horrible reign back on Cybertron. How does them being robot organisms displaced by ongoing war, a continual brutal and bloody struggle for freedom back at home, and dangerous resource scarcity make them any more dangerous than your average person? And the "they are robots/walking death machines" argument doesn't count because you're only seeing them from a nonhuman lense in that case. Take off those nuts and bolts covered glasses and think of how this would be if they were all humans instead. The visuals of only seeing them for their robotics are blocking your ability to view this group as simply a mirroring of humans in nonhuman bodies. Humans are just as dangerous and ostracizing as them. Literally humans slaughter other humans frequently; bring upon hatred and obscene actions onto one another with or without robotic attachments and aid of machines. Just because the transformers are robotic extraterrestrials who are "different biologically/mechanically" makes it no different from the dehumanization and other forms of racism and xenophobia. Transformers are literally just... humans in a robot shell. You can't argue against this at all because most if not all have human forms, ALL of them have human minds, and just happen to come from a planet they need to be insanely large sized on, as well as already pre-armed due to conflict that they have escaped from.

The whole story of Earthspark is LITERALLY about the experiences of the Terrans; first generation descendants of immigrant refugees navigating the struggles that come with being just that. They make whole episodes surrounding their feelings of alienation and their struggle to have a place in the world, their culture and history and who they are. They want to feel they belong and feel they have a place in this world and be seen just as human and belonging as their human family. Their government and the world around them alienates them and treats them sub-humanly despite them being just as human, flaws and all, as us. Since I'm praddling on about this topic, did you even ABSORB ANY OF THE EPISODES HOME PART 1 AND 2???? IT'S ABOUT THIS TOPIC AND TEACHES HOW THIS MENTALITY OF TREATING THE TRANSFORMERS AS SUBHUMAN ALIENS THAT NEED TO GO AWAY OR NEED TO BE CLASSIFIED AS DANGEROUS/A INVASIVE "SPECIES" THAT NEEDS TO BE REMOVED IS BAD. IT SHOWS THE RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA THAT ESPECIALLY COMES WITH BEING CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS AND THE ISOLATION THEY FACE.

Please, I heavily implore you to go back and watch them. You somehow miss the entire point of the show and ESPECIALLY this episode. Many episodes cover different points of their existence as first gen children and the reality that the transformers have to face in general while being refugees on a planet with others being hostile and degrading to them but this particular episode is the one that tackles the points I make in this post the most. It may not go super deep into it due to forced time constraints and other executive nonsense that makes it harder to go into more detail but it still covers the topic very well.

Humans getting nipped at the heels for being bigoted towards transformers isn't some "ouugh you can't think the decepticons did bad things" type of nonsense and I absolutely hate the "oh because you can't be bigoted towards a group of people it means you suddenly can't criticize the actions of someone who happens to be someone of that group" mentality you seem to be concocting out of thin air. It's them associating the entire race of transformers as all bad, unbelonging or worthy of being seen as dangerous and to be wary around them or like they need to not be on earth and "go back where they came from". You go between "decepticons" and "transformers" interchangeably and seem to do exactly as the show heeds against heavily; conglomerating the actions of a FEW to encompass the overall worthiness of a WHOLE POPULATION OF PEOPLE.

Doctor Meridian is wrong and genuinely evil and disturbing with how he treats them and him seeing them as dangerous and a pest needing to be eradicated nor should any of his views be agreed upon, no matter how much you may try to defend him. There's more I could add but for simplicity's sake but that's what I mainly will state. The rest of clarity can be discussed in the comments.

I'm not sure whether your lack of understanding of the show and its messaging you are discussing or your love for one of the major villains is clouding your judgement, but please read EVERYTHING here to its fullest extent. Nothing here is intended as an attack on your character (if you're somehow seeing it that way) but as a heavy critique of your views on this show and how you are analyzing things. I might sound like I'm yapping to yap or "it's not that deep", but it literally is. The show and it's writing make it a big point and I will refuse to accept any iteration of "you're making a mountain out of a molehill" type statements. If you have any questions or comments you're free to bring them up.

-With confusion and annoyance, Wizard.

-Footnotes- *By group of people, I refer to sapient (human minded) beings who are grouped by either race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, etc. By this classification, Transformers are considered a group of people; even if they are "nonhuman" *If you are somehow seriously confused or appalled by me pointing out real world racism and xenophobia as parallels to what is being done by GHOST, Dr. Meridian, and your average run of the mill civilian, you need to reread absolutely everything. Racism and xenophobia are a huge talking point in the show and I refuse to retract this statement. *Cold Constructed means the transformer was made in a factory, more often than not to be a worker slave for whoever is demanding they be produced. Two characters off the top of my head who are cold constructed is Starscream and Megatron.

[caravanlurker]

outfit swap from twitter plus a whatever

[thatswhatsushesaid]

haha

it is SO rich for the jgy critical crowd to insist that it's the jgy stans who are being weird and defensive given /gestures @ all of this. like what's the opposite of defensive 🧐 because that's what this is.

as i said to someone else earlier tonight, i'm manifesting the capability to climb through these anons' phone screens so i can chase them through their houses with a nerf gun. every little foam projectile will include a relevant printed out page from the EXR translation. probably with highlights and notes in the margins. maybe some frowny faces for emphasis.

anyway this is why i'm insane

[syn4k]

[caeslxys]

What didn't gel for you with the ritual? Was it how Delilah is still... kinda around? Or how the characters reacted?

The Delilah thing has me concerned but I felt it was an overall positive for Laudna, and I'm just curious of your thoughts!

oh I'm actually elated delilah is still around, if she were perma-gone I would've honestly had more problems with it 💀

not because it isn't a wonderful thing for laudna! it is! I'm so happy she has more control over her life and choices!! she deserves it so much!!

but. as someone deeply invested in that narrative. that its been built up for about 100 episodes (I believe it was 4, when delilah was first officially revealed?) and was (semi-)concluded in a ritual that took less than an hour to complete, that they discovered less than a full game ago, and that they proceeded to then not talk about at all in any significant way was deeply disappointing. a culmination that should have been this massive emotional upheaval fell overall flat to me bc of how rushed it felt.

But that's just me! and some of it was my own expectations and my own distaste for the pinion as a solution since well before they realized that's what it could be. but at least she's still there! so it's not truly over yet!

[dudethatsmyundeaduncle]

NGL feel like the Batfam would have a much better go at it if they weren't majority white.

[arthurmorganson]

Does anyone care about my medieval OCs

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[beth-likes-cherry-cola]

Watching criminal minds with my dad when derek says “you’re on speaker, behave.” And Garcia goes “or what you’ll spank me” and my dad looks at me like I DIRECTED THE SHOW?

[tacticaldiary]

It Was Never Supposed to Be You

Pairing: Ethan Winters x Reader

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

They’re both strung up under the eye of Lady Dimitrescu, and Ethan’s forced to watch the love of his life endure a taste of what he’s used to going through. It ignites a rage in him he didn’t know was possible. 

A/N: A reimagining of the scene where Ethan gets strung up with sickles. 

Masterlist

She doesn’t see it coming. Neither of them do. 

Screams tear out of both their throats as the three woman cackle at them, dragging them along the floor. Panicked, she struggles to get out of the grasp the blonde one has around her ankle, looking over at Ethan to get a sense of the situation. 

Her blood runs cold when she notes that he’s not being dragged by his limbs. 

There are sickles pierced through his ankles, dragging him along the floor. Blood trails on the marble floors of the castle and urgency slams into her. She had to stop this, to save them, to get them out of here and check if he was okay and find Rose and-

They’re thrown into a room, weak and gasping for breath when the towering figure arrives, looming over them with bloodstained lips and a deathly complexation. 

Ethan’s ragged breath reaches her ears as he immediately shuffle his way in front of her, extending out an arm to shield her from the new hostiles. 

She gets a closer look at him, his legs bleeding, a pool of crimson puddling beneath him. It makes her sick, seeing her boyfriend’s physical indication of such hurt. 

They had come here to find Rose after Mia had come over to visit Rose. Ethan and her had separated a year after the Louisiana incident, and he’d found happiness in somebody else, in her. Mia came over to visit Rose, but their dinner was rudely interuppted by Chris Redfield shooting her dead in the middle of dinner. She’d never get the ringing of the bullets out of her head. They were taking her away, they were taking Ethan away, and when she’d tried to defend Rose, to shield her and run, she’d been knocked out and taken as well. 

It was a horrible chain of events. Rose was gone, the village was overrun, and most importantly, four women looked down at them like they wanted to devour them. 

“Mother,” One of the women says gleefully. “We bring you fresh pray.”

“You are so very kind to me, daughters.” The tall one grins, cocking her head as if to size them up. 

“Stay behind me.” Ethan breathes, staring up at them in turn, frantically trying ot click together a plan of action. She clutches onto the back of his jacket, a small sense of comfort.

She’s fully ready to shove him out of the way and take the brunt of whatever was to be thrown at them, that much she knows. She loves this man just as much as he loves her, and it was only logical that if it came down to her life or his, she’d choose Ethan’s every time. 

Rose deserved to have a father, after all. 

She would not let that bundle of sunshine become an orphan. Not of her watch.

“Let’s have a closer look at them, shall we?” She taunts, striding closer. “Ethan Winters.” She drawls, then her eyes flick over to her. “And his lovely companion. I see you’ve escaped my foolish little brother’s games.”

“What do you want?” She spits out, feeling Ethan stiffen under her grasp. “Where’s Rose?” 

Fearless. It was one of the qualities that had drawn Ethan to her in the first place. Ready to take on anything thrown at her, she did not mind in the slightest that he had his demons. Rather, she did her best to fight them alongside him, soothing him during the rough night in a way Mia never could do, helping him through the tests and the demands of the BSAA. 

But right now that bravery instills in him a fear so potent it stuns him.

She is ignored, almost as if she had never spoken in the first place. The woman seems far too taken with Ethan, approaching him. “Let’s see how special you really are.” She sneers, clicking her fingers. 

The both of them struggle and yell in protest as two of the younger women rip her away from Ethan, off to the side, their grips cold and unrelenting as they hold her down. 

“Get the fuck away from him!” She snarls, struggling as the tall woman approaches a pale Ethan with a knife. He looks unwell, and she knows that he’s already rather weak to begin with. Always one to push forward, always insisting he take the lead and the brunt of the damage during all of their encounters. She never lets him, but he manages to protect her anyway, sustaining injuries that would have made her collapse and still pushing through anyway.

Ethan chokes out a gasp as the knife slices through his bandaged palm. She watches in horror as the woman...licks? Licks the blood off of his hand, drinking it in greedily. Sick. These people were sick. 

“Hmm. Going a little stale. I’d assume the same for the other one.” She hums thoughtfully. It makes her stomach turn. 

They go on about devouring them, who gets the first taste, but all she can focus on is Ethan, kneeling there exceptionally pale and panting, trying and failing to get himself to move, to act. 

“...later there will be enough for everyone.” The woman chuckles. “Put them up!” She orders, and before she can make sense of what the woman means, two of the girls approach Ethan with the sickles from before. 

He screams as they hook through both his hands, right through flesh and bone, lets out another choked cry as he’s yanked up by chains and strung there, gasping heavily. “Let me...Let me down!” He chokes out.

“Ethan!” She screams, voice cracking, her struggle intensifying. Shit. Shit. 

“Don’t think we forgot about you.” A voice whispers in her ear. The two women approach her, another set of sickles in hand. 

“No...no!” She yells, struggling to no avail, adrenaline pumping through her veins. 

“Get-...” Ethan coughs, voice shaky. “Stay the fuck away...away f-from her.” He spits out weakly. 

It’s not enough. 

White hot pain cuts through her hands as two sickles impale themselves through her palms. She shouts her pain and doubles over, screaming again when she’s yanked up off of her feet just like Ethan. 

It hurts. It hurts in a way she never thought any kind of pain could. Taking off of her weight, her hands feel like they’re on fire, agony coursing through her muscles. The pained sob tears out of her throat without permission as she squeezes her eyes shut. 

There’s cackling, footsteps, mumbled conversations amongst themselves, and then the click of the door shutting. 

Silence. Just two sets of labored breathing mixed with the occasional whimpers. 

“Are-are you okay?” Ethan grits out. He’s trembling, in agony, but his first thought is of whether she’s okay.

“F-fine.” She gasps out. “Have to- have to get out.” The words cut themselves off with another involuntary sob. It hurts. It really fucking hurts.

“Shit.” She hears him curse under his breath. He shakily looks up at his hands, the gears in his head turning. He swallows, seemingly coming to a decision. She can’t catch what his intentions are quick enough, because before she can protest, he draws in a long, shaky breath-

And yanks until the sickle tears right through his palm. 

His pained scream echoes out through the hall, and it makes her eyes sting with tears. “Ethan...” She gasps. “St-stop that. You’re hurting yourself.” She whimpers and squeezes her eyes shut as he ignores her, and does the same to his other hand, another sound cracking through the room. 

His body hits the floor with a sickening thump, and she can hear him trying to calm himself down, to steady his breathing while he stumbles over to her. 

“I’ve-I’ve got you.” He pants, trying to steady his voice for her. “I’ve got you, sweetheart.” 

Hands bleeding, he stumbles over to the chains spiked into the wall, holding her up. Gritting his teeth at the sharp pain that clutching his knife brings him, he wedges the blade into the mechanism and pushes down until it breaks. 

She’s weightless for a moment, and then she hits the ground. The pressure off of her hands is a relief, but the sight of them right in front of her, impaled makes her sick and dizzy. 

Hands on her shoulder, bloody and shaky, but warm and familiar. “You’re alright.” He assures her. “I’ve got you, you’re okay.” 

“There’s still in my hands.” She breathes out slowly, trying to calm herself. 

Ethan clenches his jaw and nods. “I’m gonna get them out, okay? It’ll-It’ll hurt like a bitch but we have to do it.”

She nods. There’s no way around this. She has to get them out. “Shit, okay just-just do it.” Squeezing her eyes shut, she bares her hands at him. 

Ethan guides her head to his shoulder, telling her to brace herself. Pressing her forehead to him, she nods, readying herself. 

The first sickle out makes black dots float around her vision. 

The second one out brings up the bile that’s been churning in her stomach. Leaning to the side, she vomits up the small rations they’ve eaten hours and hours ago, coughing and heaving. Ethan holds her hair out of her face, shaking just as much as she is, whispering that they were alright. 

Once she’s finished, she coughs and straightens up sluggishly, trying to catch her breath. She finds Ethan looking at her intently, watching her for a moment and she thinks she might have caught something like guilt in his soft eyes. 

Unable to stomach that, she looks away, catching sight of a green bottle propped onto the dresser. “Ethan.” She gestures to it, pulling herself to her feet with great difficulty and stumbling over to it. 

She brings the bottle to him and uncorks it, grabbing his hands to pour the miracle liquid over them, when it’s plucked straight out of her hands. 

“You first,” Ethan says shakily, not giving her a chance to protest. He pours the liquid over both of her hands in turn, making sure the wounds stitch close before letting her tug the bottle away. 

The cool liquid over his hands tears a relieved sigh out of him, the pain ebbing away and subsiding. 

For a moment, they both flex their hands, testing the function of their fingers in mutual silence, checking themselves over for how they feel. 

Then she launches herself onto him, Ethan’s arms wrapping around her waist instinctively. She kisses him urgently, quick but meaningful. 

“I thought we were going to die.” She mumbles against his lips. “Scared me to death.”

“Me too.” He admits when she pulls away. His eyes roam over her body as if scared he’d suddenly find another massive stab wound or puncture. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

“Me too.” She chuckles nervously. “We’re alright.” He nods in agreement.

“We’re fine.” He confirms, trying to convince both her and himself. He stands and offers her a hand, pulling her to her feet. “We have to keep going.” He says, looking around the room but keeping her hand in a firm grip, lacing their fingers together.

“Let’s go find Rose.” She agrees. “I’m setting those bitches on fire the next time I see them.”

“Agreed.” 

Requests Are Open!

(16/06/2023)