#WHAT'S MEANT TO BE IS MEANT TO BE ; ( THE HANDLER // IN CHARACTER )

[xxcherrycherixx]

Oh btw i have the handlers fuckass bob now

👁👁

[chammtea]

@hvbris​​ said: “I’m just… doing everything I can to keep my family together.” from Viktor, for the Handler

“Careful, darling, you’re starting to sound like that brother of yours — the cute one in the tight little shorts.” Not that she truly thinks the seventh Hargreeves sibling (Viktor, isn’t that his name?) could possibly misunderstand what she means by your brother, but this dysfunctional band of superpowered, time-traveling loose cannons has been a thorn in her side for far too long, and it looks like they’ll be her personal headache for the remainder of their natural lives. Not much satisfaction to be had in that, so she’ll gladly take any opportunity she’s given to remind them that they can’t ever get rid of her, either — even if the rest of them eventually mellow out and settle down into ordinary civilian lives, Number Five belongs to her forever, and her iron control over him will always inevitably bleed over onto all of them.

 The Handler takes a long puff off her cigar, and blows out a curling coil of silver smoke as she considers the situation from all angles before she finally commits to a definite course of action — much as she’d love to reject Viktor outright, it’s far more logical, not to mention lucrative, to capitalize upon his desperation. “Well... I don’t usually do this kind of thing, but since you’ve asked so nicely and all, I suppose it couldn’t hurt to help you and your family out. Just this once. But I’m afraid you can’t get something for nothing, Mr. Hargreeves — you’ll need to do a little something for me first.”

[obsesssedblerd]

heyyyy is there lore behind the nicknames in your smaus? 👀 love your work

kinda! they're mostly from drabbles that i'm thinking of starting or finishing up. however, you can interpret these any way you want to since you're technically the main character 🥰

here was what i had from the drabbles. [note: toji and choso mostly go by baby for now, but there will be special nicknames from them later once i figure something out.]

- when you were a transfer to jujutsu tech in tokyo as a teacher, satoru called you 'pretty girl' during arguments to fluster you. he loved your reaction, and never missed an opportunity to playfully tease you. he keeps the nickname when you two start dating, because duh, you're very pretty.

- suguru calls you 'angel' because you met him when he was at his lowest point mentally. he felt like he'd never win against the loud, horrible thoughts in his head. then you came along. you helped him with nanako and mimiko, and you listened to him when he finally, finally opened up to you. you saved him. you're his gift. his angel.

- nanami called you 'sweetheart' once to keep you awake after a mission had gone horribly wrong and you were moments away from passing out due to your injuries. a simple nickname, but you finally saw for yourself how much you meant to the serious, 7:3 sorcerer. each time he calls you it, you remember how soft his eyes were that day.

- shiu calls you 'princess' because of the way you always, always get what you want. it started as a small joke because he, your handler, takes you around so you can complete your jobs with toji. even before you two started dating, he was spoiling the hell out of you, lol. princesses get taken care of. he doesn't like you handling anything when he's around.

- sukuna calls you 'petal' after your first meeting, which was in battle. there was fire, destruction, blood, then you, standing out and looking so pretty. a strong, powerful fighter, yet so delicate, like a rare flower he just had to have. he couldn't just kill you, that would be a waste. nope, you're joining him.

[rebelumbrella46]

Let’s just be honest—The Umbrella Academy was essentially cancelled after Season 3, but given the massive fandom, Netflix gave them the chance to wrap up the story with a final season. It’s similar to what happened with Shadowhunters—it was cancelled, but after the outcry from fans, they were given two more episodes to tie things up.

For me, the first two seasons were masterpieces. They truly became my comfort show and introduced me to my comfort characters. This might sound cheesy, but it’s true—when the first season aired, I was going through a rough time in my life, and I held on to this show like my life depended on it. Season 2 arrived amidst the pandemic, and it was a light in the darkness for me as well. Even with the massive success of Season 2, I think Netflix hesitated to greenlight another season. I remember waiting for an announcement, and it felt like it took forever.

Season 3 was filmed during the pandemic, and if I recall correctly, Netflix cut the budget for visual effects. So, the season didn’t quite live up to the expectations set by Season 2. Regardless of its flaws, I enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more if the writing hadn’t been so sloppy and, at times, cheesy.

But this last season? It feels like fanservice—and not even good fanservice. For example, the Lila and Five thing? The enhanced powers? The Jennifer Incident? All of it fell flat. Klaus’s storyline this season was basically what I wanted to see in Season 3, but it was delivered too late and added nothing meaningful to the plot.

But was the main plot really supposed to be about Jennifer? Who cares about introducing a new character in the final season instead of focusing on saying goodbye to the beloved main characters?

The subplots were boring. Klaus’s storyline was fanservice, but it felt like they just threw us a bone to appease years of fans asking for Klaus to get his comic powers. And it was insulting. Ben and Jennifer in love? Unrealistic and boring. The train station? Who came up with that cheap idea? I thought it would be a place built by Reggie, but there was no explanation at all.

The apocalypse no longer feels exciting or even important. There’s no sense of urgency anymore.

The family dynamics—the strongest part of this show—felt odd and weak. Pairing Viktor with Reginald was boring. Lila and Diego’s drama? Nonsense. And what was the point of Claire? I thought she would be the main conflict of the season, with everyone banding together to save a character we’ve known since Season 1, who has emotional ties to every Umbrella.

And where were the villains? To make it as interesting as Seasons 1 and 2, you need a great antagonist. Like Hazel and Cha-Cha, The Handler, Reginald, or even an antihero like the Sparrows, Harlan, or the Commission. Why not make Abigail the greatest threat? Or bring back some of the former villains?

What about resolving old family drama, so that if the show’s end was going to be the family sacrificing themselves, they could all go in peace?

Instead, they didn’t address Allison’s betrayal at all. They created a huge rift between Five and Diego. Nothing for Klaus and Ben. No Umbrella Ben. No Sloane. Why is Lila even here anymore? Why didn’t she just ditch out like Ray and leave Diego with the kids to be a single dad? That would’ve made more sense coming from Lila than from Ray, to be honest.

For me, the writers, producers, and directors knew this show was cancelled, so they didn’t even try anymore. For me, the ending of season 3 was meant to be the ending of the show.

I watched Game of Thrones after it ended, so I didn’t experience the same level of rage, disappointment, and betrayal that fans felt. But now, I do.

[brokenpieces-72]

Birthday

Told you guys it would be happier. Trust me this had a much darker outcome but that can come later on. Thought the reader deserved a bone to be thrown their way.

The following is inspired by @bluegiragi hybrid ai and feature @diejager reader character.

“You don’t know your own birthday?” Gaz asked one morning. You were both sitting on the roof relaxing and waiting for the sun to come up.

“Nope.” You shake your head. “Never celebrated it, and I haven’t really seen my birth certificate so I don’t know when it is.”

“What about when you were at the program? Never even showed you your file?” Kyle asks. You shrug with a bit of swallowed disappointment.

“The handler never did. Tried to celebrate the other’s birthdays but no one really invited me.” You say.

“Wait here.” He says and swoops down from the roof. You sit and watch the colours paint the sky. When he comes back he has a file in hand and offers it to you, with a small grin.

“Happy birthday.” He says sitting next to you while you open it. It’s your file, which you realize Gaz probably… “temporarily misappropriated” from Price’s office. Kyle glances over your shoulder while you look through it. Your eyes widen when you see the date. Today.

“Happy birthday.” He says again, ruffling your hair. “What do you wanna do?”

“…I don’t know.” You shrug. Talk about last minute.

“Why don’t you go for a run? I can find you later.” He suggests. You smile at him before hopping down from the roof and hurrying inside to grab some extra clothes for exploring, along with your journal. Kyle does a final check in, giving you a radio just in case before you shift and take off towards the mountain range. You had something you wanted to try any ways.

Once you go some distance up the mountains you could smell some decay. You make your way towards the smell finding the source. You shifted back to you human form, and threw on a poncho to help keep yourself covered. You got a little closer to the carcass. The smell was pungent, and you could see a few maggots. With a deep breath, you shut your eyes. Another deep breath and focusing on everything around you. The body in front of you, is one that held a soul. A soul that has broken away. When you open your eyes you look around again, and notice in a small cave opening, a soft light. You approach it slowly and cautiously. It stays in place. Once you get closer it comes closer to you. You reach out and touch the ghostly soul of a deer. It presses its nose to your hand and you gently pet it.

“You can go on now.” You say to it. Its ears flick noting its own decaying mortal vessel. “It’s time to sleep…”

The deer looks back at you with white eyes. It tilts its head slightly before looking to the side. You follow the doe’s gaze and see a buck and two fawns. Her family. You look back at the deer.

“Watch over them. Until you are ready to return.” You say, stroking the doe’s neck. She walks off towards her family. You watch them with the buck staring back at you while the fawns stay close by to the father. You stand and stare back. The buck paws at the ground, bowing its head. The male was acknowledging you, while also warning you. The buck is a fighter, and will fight you off, despite him knowing how strong you are. You bow back, a sign of respect. The buck leads his young back into the trees and brush while you watch.

After you left, Kyle found Johnny, Horangi, Rudy, and König in the kitchen, still waking up.

“Johnny do you know when Spirit’s birthday is?” He asked. Johnny stopped midsip of coffee, his tail pausing. König looked at him.

“You don’t know Spirit’s birthday?” König questions.

“Shit I meant to look that up.” Johnny grumbled, finishing his sip of coffee.

“It’s today.” Kyle clarifies and is met with a spit take from Johnny. Kyle’s wing shields him before Johnny can damage his shirt.

“For fucks sake you serious?!” He asks Kyle.

“Just nabbed the file, Spirit is off on their own in the mountains with a radio. We have time.” Kyle exclaims. “No need to go overboard either.”

“You could buy that child a stick and she’d be happy.” Horangi comments, sitting up on the counter.

“Honestly I was thinking cake and Uno would do the trick.” Kyle suggested getting himself some coffee just as Hunter walked in. Rubbing the sleep out of their eyes they asked, half yawning, “what does the trick?”

“It’s Spirit’s birthday today.” Rudy chimes in offering a mug for their very tired and somewhat overworked medic.

“We only learned today didn’t we?” They asked. Rudy nods for them.

“You guys have any gifts?” They ask, sipping coffee.

“…I do.” Johnny says slowly grinning with realization. He sets down his mug and leaves the room.

“How did you sleep Hunter?” Rudy asks.

“The coffee earns you a polite response of, not the best.” Hunter replies as Johnny skids back into the room. A couple of them are surprised to see Johnny’s holding paperwork.

“I think these will work for a gift.” He says holding them up. Kyle, Rudy and Hunter clue in quickly. While Horangi and König are a little confused.

“Was ist es?” König asks.

“Custody papers.” Johnny says, looking down at them, making sure the signatures were right for the tenth time. “Ma was sayin she’d be willin to look after er when we went ‘ome. A lots been appening so I’d held off on it.”

“So you’d be her dad?” Hunter asks.

“Her brother.” Johnny corrects them. “Not ready to be ‘er da.”

“Until the program decides to be a massive ass pain.” Horangi mentions. He gets a swat on side from Rudy. Hunter ignores the two of them and hugs Johnny from the side.

“It’s a great gift.” Hunter says, patting the large wolf man on the shoulder.

“What’s a great gift?” Came the gruff voice of Captain Price walking in to get some coffee.

“Adoption papers for the corporal.” Johnny says holding them up. Price gets himself a mug of coffee from Rudolfo. He then scans the room and notices the file by Gaz.

“Find something shiny Kyle?” He asks. Gaz gave an awkward smile.

“You know it was the corporal’s birthday?” Kyle says, changing the subject.

“I did. Was about to tell you lot you had the day off for it. Where’s the corporal now?” Price asks.

“They’re in the mountains.” Kyle replies.

“Doing?” He asks.

“Didn’t say.” Kyle says.

…………..

When you returned to the base Johnny found you immediately.

“aye, pup come here. Got something for you.” He says gesturing for you to follow. You smile and go with him into his room where he has a laptop open. He has you sit down and opens a window on the screen, and you see a familiar face.

Johnny’s mom and his older brother smiling and saying hello. Your smile grows brighter upon seeing them, and receiving immediately wishes for a happy birthday.

“Yer stay in safe too?” Johnny’s mom asks.

“I’m trying.” You reply.

“Last thing I want is for Mae new child to be gettin cut up worse than er brother.” His mom says. You raise an eyebrow confused. Maybe a slip of the tongue.

“I’m keeping her safe ma.” Soap says. “And pup hasn’t said anything about it yet.” He says through tight lips. His mom raises a hand to her mouth realizing she had let it slip. The conversation continues on from there for another hour or so, with Johnny offering some translations if you’re struggling to understand. Once the laptop closes you look over at him.

“New child?” You ask. Johnny goes a little red.

“Ma has a vivid imagination?” He offers as an answer. You sit back in the chair and cross your arms. When you stare him down he sighs giving in.

“Wasn’t sure when to bring this up with ya. With the program bein all complicated and we didna know where’d ya be goin, figured giving you a proper home couldna hurt.” Johnny explains. You continue to listen waiting for more information.

“This was over the holidays. Foster system ain’t easy I don need to experience it to know it. Also didna give em to ya over the holidays cause thas a lotta pressure. If you say yes, than I have the papers, if you say no, there’s no hard feelins. I’ll still see ya as my little sister, that wone change.” Johnny offers.

“Yes please.” You say almost immediately. He smiles at you and gestures for you to follow him again. You have a fluttering in your chest, thinking about how you will have a family. A real family. One that loves you. For now though, you join your pack as Johnny takes you to the rec room where there’s a cake on a coffee table surrounded by the people who have been raising you for the longest time.

The rest is a happy blur with a few pieces forever ingrained in your memory. Your gifts were a new journal and sketchbook. Hunter gifted you a couple of field books for plants and animals, while Price gave you a bow for missions. After your mask had broken on a previous mission König and Ghost had been working on getting you a new one.

The best gift though, the one that made you tear up with joy was a pen. A pen that Johnny offered you to sign the custody papers. You had to stop yourself a couple times, pulling away so the tears wouldn’t stain the paper. There were a few teasing comments but you got them signed.

There was an intense game of Anomia over some drinks. The team snickered seeing your face after your first taste of alcohol. You made cake go into Johnny’s face and got an equal amount in your own. More than once your stomach aches from laughing so hard.

By the end of the night you’re exhausted. While watching a movie you keep nodding off until you find yourself cuddling up to Horangi of all people. He notices but says nothing, letting you rest. After an hour though he gets Johnny’s attention silently gesturing to your sleeping state. Johnny pulls a blanket over you offering to pull you of Horangi. Horangi lets him, needing to get up anyways.

Taglist: @yourlovely-moon @kaoyamamegami @H0n3y_L3m0n @sans-chara @1mommyrose4ever29 @smitten-haematite-quartz @talia-the-gemini @yuki2129 @whitetiger846 @graystorm444 @chibiduck @reaperxxxxzz @danielle143 @sobbingnshtting @cringeycookies

[charleslee-valentine]

The Lost Boys name etymology:

As the leader of the group, we’ll start with David. The name David means ‘lover.’ His approach to vampirism is somewhat romantic. The ritual and the wine mixed with blood, takes on an erotic edge for example. Their lips touching the same bottle and the exchanging of fluids, and the haze that follows. His role as the leader could be violent given his power, or indifferent like Max’s way of running things- but he chooses to genuinely savor each member of his little pack. The tears he sheds for Marko are shed with love. The words he whispers to Michael, conscious or not, are endearing and soothing. Whether these bonds are more than platonic to him, or even approached in an acceptable way, he still has loving and sharing that love deeply in his nature, amplified by his powers.

Following him is Dwayne. Dwayne can mean ‘dark.’ Not just referring to his hair among the group obviously, his name could give a tiny glimpse into his character. Being less than a main character his screen time and thus his analytical depth is limited, but something about Dwayne is he can go from smiling with the group, to taking on a very stoic or cold expression fast. The ‘darkness’ inside Dwayne could be festering more than the other boys and making the whole -slightly irritating but mostly harmless teenager facade- a lot harder to keep up for him. Notable especially around Max is that stoniness. Part of his depth, it seems, is distrust for anyone outside of his boys, even his own sire. Dwayne’s edge (and weakness, actually) is his quickness to hold those dark and bitter feelings.

Marko involves some mythology to understand his meaning. The name itself stands for ‘dedicated to Mars,’ and Mars is the God of a few things, prominently war and feral nature. What this means for Marko is possibly strength and power. Of course, he is the smallest and that’s why he’s picked off first, but had the fight been between an awake Marko instead, his name hints at him possibly being the most brutal of the pack. It would make sense, that smaller stature equates to speed, in addition to the heightened vampire powers. Marko probably strikes like a feral animal. His tendency to drift to David and, in the words of Alex Winter himself, serve as something of a lap dog to him, is also possibly because of this nature. The idea being that he sacrificed some of his humanity to the brutality of vampirism and turns to David like a handler of sorts.

Finally is Paul. Maybe unexpectedly, the name means ‘humble.’ Where this personality trait can most prominently be seen is in Paul’s treatment of Star, Michael, and Laddie. He seems to be the only one to empathize with how unsettling vampirism can be and offers gentleness to each, at least in the novelization. There are also still distinctly human traits to him like his substance use, his more enthusiastic expressions, and turning on the radio, which he initiated out of the group. Even refraining from harassing (though affectionately, as we know from the deleted scene) Maria the video store worker. It seems that Paul uses being a vampire to intimidate humans and half vampires much less than the others. This makes him a branch towards humanity. Where he loses his humbleness is when he dies. He takes the time to brag about the stupidity of the Frogs and it costs him time. In his grief he gave up a trait that was so woven into him, and thus became reckless enough that he gets killed.

That’s the case with all of the boys really. Their rage and grief over Marko’s death meant letting those qualities either amplify or disappear to the point of losing themselves, and then losing the fight. In Dwayne’s case, he embraced the violence in himself and targeted Sam even when he knew it wasn’t safe because of Michael’s proximity. The ‘dark’ quality of him took over the common sense. As for David, he trusted in Michael so blindly that he was still trying to coerce him to their side. Even after Marko was gone and now the boys were dropping like flies, it was too hard for him to just stop loving someone. It only becomes clear too late, and then Michael has the upper hand and David’s the one dying.

[fivelasanctum]

I blame the snippets from the Commission handbook I found online but I am shipping the young man form of Founderfive + Lila together. Love her with her canon beloved in any form. A bit of a crackship but still intriguing in the scope of fanon and the fanfiction realm. Does offer many compelling storyline developments if he had survived past season three. Or a trace of himself lingered in the timelines given he created the time Commission and most likely the subway system as a possible contingency plan. Five assumed he was 100 years old given that is a normal human lifespan and he passed away in his 'can'. In the excerpt he mentioned he no long remembered his name. Yet he was still quite lucid to talk to his other self to not save the world. Not suffering from dementia at all. Been established that time was nothing when at the commission. Why we can't truly gauge lila's age given she worked for them as well. Five was suppose to only do 5 years of service for the Handler but was still with them up until he was 56 or 58 year old self. Was rescued when he was 45. Time is subjective. So the founder may be more godlike in terms of his age and abilities (thinking timelord for those familiar with the Doctor Who series)

As shown in the image above: Seems to be a somber, melancholic version of five that is filled with regrets. Horrified about what he has created. That has a life all it's own. Essentially feels the road of hell was paved with good intentions but that despite the original aim for what he wanted, "time is a finicky mistress." Cannot be molded by one person no matter how powerful the founder became. "someone I lost" could mean his youthful self that was self aware and confident in his purpose. Knowing what he wanted and needed to do. Believing he could change the world on his own. Since founder lost touch with what it meant to be a 'Five'. Yet it can also mean he lost his version of lila. The series is familiar with tragic endings with couples. Luther and sloane were sweet, married each other and looked to be endgame. Yet when the universe was reset, luther remembered and still loved her but for whatever reasons, couldn't find her. When five and her found him in the bunker she did have pity for him. Trying to calm Five's ire towards the founder since by this time he was in a more fragile state when it came to his health. He did acknowledge her with 'bingo.' A five-ism I'll call it. Confirming she was keeping up with it all. Not confused like other characters would be (Diego and luther in particular) When he did perish, she was hesitant to leave her five alone with now dead founder. Knowing it was an emotional moment for him. Confronted with his future mortality and the realization he would be alone. Not having accomplished what he sought out to do. Their was another revelation in the commission handbook that five can't use his powers if his hands are bound yet was not verified completely. Take with a grain of salt since I still need to purchase the book and this is second-third hand accounts from others that gave hints to some lore on five/founder. Still opens some doors with the information. Many ways to go with founderfive and lila within the fandom. ♥ Could be more manic with a god complex in his younger days since five revealed to Klaus he thought he could evade death in addition to time and disasters. Would make founder be more insane or at the very least more of an anti-hero type character. ♥ slow-burn beauty and the beast tale with Lila. Projects being more insane than he actually is to push her away. ♥ Possibly stalking/watching her when both were at the time commission courtesy of his own powers and the infinite switch board. ♥ Their were three chairs in the bunker with opened alcohol bottles and glasses. Showing he could have had company but with himself. Since he made the Bunker paradox psychosis proof. Most likely to bounce ideas off alternate fives for how to save the world before he threw in the towel in the end. ♥ Perhaps created paradox psychosis as a means of sticking it to his other selves. Five has always been self deprecating as we saw with his adventure with luther. Both trying to kill each other and insult one another. Founder could see what his alternate selves were doing, jealous if they had a happier life with their 'lila' compared to his situation of being stuck at the commission with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Well. More than one world infinite ones due to timelines branching off. ♥ With his mastery over time it could have served as a double edged sword. Slowing down his own time subconsciously. Lila, while able to mimic his abilities, she could have hit her limits. Having to watch her age eventually while he would remain. Maybe worked on finding a way to let his time move so he could reunite with her. In the comics, Five is frozen in time as a ten year old. Never able to grow from that point. The handler was able to freeze time for a couple minutes and she wasn't even the highest ranking person in the commission. Makes sense founder can impart a crumb of his powers. ♥ Founder serving as the battery core of the commission for everything to function. Suitcases leeching off his power, creating custom timelines.

♥ Idea of founder being annoyed with his other self. Jealous if main lila has a relationship already with main five. Might separate him in three bodies. Representing the three parts of his mind while in physical, different ages. Kid five, apocalypse five and 25 year old five at the end of the series. Yet all have the memories of lila and events leading up to what founder did on a whim. Can't stay separated forever since memories or sense of self can be distorted. Just some ideas I have had and other Fivela/live/Fila fans have had when discussing this on Discord <3 Thanks for reading~

[oliversrarebooks]

Brainwashing Chair CYOA 3- The Struggle

Masterlist Next

tw: pet whump, restraints, captivity, involuntary drugging

You chose: fake a struggle against the two men to sell the act

The two handlers are flanking either side of you, taking your arms and guiding you along. They're not really using force, as though they expect you to come with them without much resistance. 

But while you, the reporter, did sign up to do this, the character you're meant to be playing did not. It doesn't make sense for you to just go quietly, does it? You should struggle a bit to sell the act, and maybe get some juicy footage sent back to your group when you inevitably get subdued.

You take a deep breath, bracing yourself, and twist yourself out of the handlers' grasp just before they take you inside the double doors of the facility. "Let go of me!" you shout. "I don't want to be a pet! Let me go!"

Hopefully, that tiny microphone picked all that up. For a lot of people, this could be their first exposure to how pets are treated and trained, and --

You're caught off guard with how quickly the handlers grab you and press you against the wall. It's not forceful enough to hurt, but the cold concrete scrapes against your skin. "I told you to stay calm," says one of the handlers.

You see the needle out of the corner of your eye a split second before it pierces your skin. Shit! You just expected them to rough you up a bit, not go straight for drugs. You'd prefer to have your full faculties about you as you enter the facility, but it's too late now, with the cold fluid entering your neck.

They pull you away from the wall, your head already beginning to spin. What's in this stuff? Ugh, you should've known this would happen. After all, pets are always physically "perfect", so they had to be using means of control that... that...

The world blurs, and your thoughts slow down. You're too disoriented to put up any more of a fight, fake or otherwise, as they resume dragging you into the building. You're shaking your head in a futile effort to try and stave off the effects of the drug, but it's no use.

You blink, and you're standing in front of a desk. A hospital? It looks like a hospital desk. No... you blanked out for a moment. You're in the pet facility, you remember. It's a sterile, clinical place that really doesn't look much different from a medical building, though, and the receptionist behind the counter is a young woman in a green dress. You fight to keep focus. You have to keep yourself alert to...

...what was it you're doing here...? It's something... complicated, and whatever they put in your system is making complicated thoughts very, very difficult.

"New pet intake?" she says, tapping on her keyboard. "Name?"

You're not sure if she's asking you or one of the handlers.

Masterlist Next

[jaegeraether]

Sunsets and footballers (Part 73)

Lucy Bronze x Reader (60) / Alexia Putellas x Character (30) & Jordan Nobbs x Leah Williamson (15)

Masterlist (other parts here)

((**3.1k**))

LUCY POV

Lucy only had eyes for YFN. She saw them holding hands and knew it was a friendly gesture, nevertheless, she watched as her little Australian withdrew her hand and gave Lucy a smile she knew was meant to reassure her. She examined her expression which Lucy could now read like a book. She was tired, yet untroubled. That was reassuring. As she got closer, YFN raised an eyebrow and gave her a look, her eyes flickering to Ona and back. Lucy pouted, getting the hint, and turned her head to Ona who was watching her approach, her cheeks a little flushed.

“Hola Lucy,” the Spaniard greeted huskily.

“Hola Ona,” Lucy replied kindly and they shared a Spanish greeting. Lucy’s lips never met Ona’s cheeks, though she felt her lips softly on both of hers.

Lucy pulled away and grabbed a chair, dragging it between the two and sitting, her arm finding its way into YFN’s lap. Only then did she release the breath she was holding.

“And breathe, Luce.”

She met her eyes and they gave that little smile to each other. The knowing one.

“I’m breathing.”

“Mmnhmn. And you abandoned Ale.”

Lucy’s stomach dropped as she looked over at Alexia approaching. She was always the star of whatever room she walked into and her notoriety for being tough la Reina meant she didn’t have players approaching her. Instead they watched from afar, most of their heads turned as she walked through the room to join them at the table.

Ona leapt up and wrapped herself around Alexia. Chiquito abandoned ship quickly, hopping to the table and padding his way around curiously, only stopping briefly to acknowledge YFN with a nuzzle into her awaiting hand.

Lucy knew Ona well enough to know she wasn’t letting Alexia out of her sight anytime soon. She watched Alexia’s almost blank expression as she held Ona back politely, murmuring in Spanish, and she turned to share a look with YFN. Alexia’s emotions were turned off to the situation. Not good.

Alexia had to encourage Ona off of her in the end, and came around the table to greet YFN.

“Hey Ale.”

“Hola Blau.”

“Are you…okay?” Ona asked hesitantly in Spanish as Alexia found her seat.

“Yes, I’m fine. You shouldn’t have come. You played yesterday.”

Ever-the-touchy Ona reached out to squeeze her hand reassuringly. “Of course I came. We have training from Wednesday, will you come to watch the game?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Not sure if you’ll stay here?”

“I’m not sure.”

When she saw that Alexia was locked hard in her shell, she pulled back, changed the subject and switched to English. “I been want to come back and visit the girls anyway. I have a lot of excited message today about this…” she leant back in her chair to get a better view of the chaos of the studio.

“Do either of you want to shoot anything?” YFN asked.

“What… we can do?”

YFN began explaining to them just as she had with Jordan and Leah, pointing to the sponsors, the lawyers, the podcast, the photos, brands, interviews and pet interviews. She couldn’t help but watch her as she did so; the excitement on her face as she spoke, breaking through the weariness. Her generosity. The way her lips moved as she spoke in that cute little Australian accen-

“Luce?”

Lucy’s eyes snapped back up to her blue ones and saw the humour dancing there as she’d been caught. “Hm?”

“Ale and Ona think a pet interview together with Chiquito and another animal will be great. What do you think?”

“In English?”

“We can do one in Spanish, and one in English. I have a Spanish staff member who can translate.” They both looked unimpressed at the idea of doing an interview in English, and YFN caught on straight away. “Aaaaand the interview in English would be fantastic to promote you both around the English-speaking world. You know that. The choice is yours, though. Ona, we have a few other pets here in the corner there with the handlers. Animals from the rescue shelter. We’ll be promoting them in the interviews to get them more recognition and hopefully find them homes… but you can choose one for the interview too if you’d like. Otherwise the popular thing has been to send in a group of pets and you can play with them while you answer.”

“Oh, I like that idea,” she grinned.

“Perfect.”

“Will Chiquito fight them?”

Alexia answered before YFN could. “No, he will stay near me and be okay.”

“Sounds like we have a plan. But before we get started, just contact your managers and chat to our staff over there,” she pointed, “so we can organise the finer details and work with your brands for the content. We don’t want to be stepping on any toes.”

Alexia and Ona left with Chiquito and the pair watched them as they left.

“Was everything okay?” Lucy asked when they were out of an ear shot.

“Everything was fine, Luce. It’s just Ona. We said hi, she said Alexia was crying on the phone to her…” Lucy frowned. “…and then we complimented each other. Oh, and she’s sympathetic towards my brokenness.”

It was a relief, though still uncomfortable for Lucy. Prior to the accident, it wouldn’t have been half the issue but ever since, she’d just wanted to wrap her in bubble wrap and keep her inside.

“Luce,” YFN’s hand found the side of her face and tilted her head to meet eyes again. “It’s okay, love. I’m okay.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. I actually feel a little relieved that I was finally able to have a bit of a conversation with her. She’s lovely.”

And from the looks Ona was giving Lucy from afar, also still very much in love with her.

“She is.” Then Lucy’s eye was caught by a blushing Kyra right behind them, playfully teasing Courtney Nevin and she grinned. “Looks like Kyra is shooting her shot.”

YFN followed her gaze, her thumb absentmindedly stroking the back of Lucy’s hand, sending shivers up her spine. “Oh, they’re so cute.”

Courtney’s hand brushed her arm and Lucy chuckled. “I’m going to make fun of her for that later.”

“Mmn. Don’t bully her too much. Now, how about this for a game plan… you kiss me and help me over there…” she pointed. “…and then I’ll interview Ale and Ona while you float around and socialise like the butterfly you are. I can see you’ve been wanting to do just that.”

Lucy didn’t realise how obvious she’d made it. If only she knew that it was more about wanting to organise her birthday than anything else.

“…and then we have caterers arriving and I’ll need your help like we discussed…”

“All over it, little one.”

“Sounds like a plan?”

“Sounds like a plan,” she replied and leant in to kiss her softly but more passionately than she had all day.

The next hour or so Lucy wandered and organised the party for YFN and Jordan’s birthdays. It was very last minute, but she hadn’t known they’d be in this situation, and it was more than difficult to organise a date. It was right in the midst of nationals, and the Lionesses needed to work hard to beat the Netherlands into the next stage for the Olympic qualifying. They’d be strict on food and alcohol and training; playing on the 1st, on the 6th, with Barca and the WSL playing again only a few days later. The horrendous schedule of women’s football. The best option was the Friday night after the Lioness game against the Netherlands at Wembley. Regardless of if they lost or won, they’d have the party to look forward to.

She looked over at her girl interviewing Alexia and Ona in a play pen, with several cats around them and smiled. Chiquito was minding his business, sitting in Alexia’s lap elegantly with his head tilted back, staring up at her and paying the other curious cats no mind as Ona gave them all attention.

JORDAN POV

When the catering arrived, Jordan helped Lucy organise where to put everything. Tables were set up by the Lumos staff and the players all found their own groups.

“All sorted?”

“Yeah,” Lucy said, pointing to a table for one of the lots of food being delivered. “This Friday night.”

“After the Netherlands game?”

“Yeah. I know it’s a week before your birthday but the games are days apart and then we’re in Scotland…”

“I get it, mate. No stress. I think it’s the perfect time. It’ll mainly be us and the England girls, yeah?”

“Basically. Everyone else will be with their national teams.”

Jordan looked over at the table where Alexia sat. “And Alexia?”

Lucy sighed. “I don’t know what’s happening there yet.”

They made their way over to join the table with Alexia, Ona, Katie, Caitlin, Mackenzie, Kirsty, Alanna, Beth, Viv, Kyra, Courtney, and a few others, all discussing random things in their pairs and groups. The Australians, Katie and Kirsty were laughing at something on Mackenzie’s phone. Beth and Viv were discussing what content to do next. Kyra and Courtney were flirting very obviously. Alexia and Ona were murmuring quietly in Spanish, Chiquito sitting on Alexia’s lap and staring across at Myle, Blu and Coopurr who seemed to want to meet him. He eventually obliged and hopped onto the floor, sitting like a statue with his tail curled around his body and over his front paws as he waited patiently for them to sniff and examine him.

And then there was Lucy who was trying to contain her hunger to eat as she stared over at Blue in her podcast with Alex, the newly arrived Jill, with Leah and Bunny as their guests.

Jordan’s eyes fell upon Leah with a feeling of excitement. She missed her. She wanted her to be sitting next to her right now in that empty seat she had saved, but knew she was spending the night with her. Finally, they had the opportunity to start again. And she was like a teenager at the thought of it.

She missed everything. Waking up next to Leah; her blonde hair splayed across the pillow and her perfume invading their bed. Her chasing Blu around the house. Watching movies together and deciding whether they should attempt to cook and not burn the house down, or order in. The frown that was a constant on her face; and the little crevice that formed between her eyebrows because she always looked so mad.

As if she knew she were thinking about her, Leah’s eyes found Jordan as she was speaking into the microphone and that little crevice disappeared as her face lit up. Jordan wondered if that’s how she looked when she’d surprised her at her game the day before.

“You can eat, you know.”

“I want to wait.”

“Lucia is a romantic,” Alexia said, which ended her conversation long enough for Jordan to say hello. She’d only met her recently in the hospital in Barca, but she’d spoken to her a little during their plane trip and she wasn’t as intimidating as her reputation made out. Alexia introduced her to Ona who was cute and polite, with a strong Spanish accent, though less so than Alexia’s.

“Did we miss anything important?” Leah asked and Jordan natural spun from Ona to where she was standing, gesturing in question to the seat Jordan had reserved for her. Jordan nodded at the seat.

“Just Lucy refusing to eat.”

LUCY POV

Lucy rolled her eyes. She knew it may seem silly to them, but she refused to eat until YFN did. It was the least she could do after putting her in that situation.

“Of course,” Leah murmured as the pair sat next to each other. The tension was palpable which made her happy knowing that they were getting close again.

Alex and Jill joined the table with their hellos, and Bunny found the Man City table.

“Where’s…” she began as she looked around them and saw YFN still on the podcast couch, on her phone.

“She’s on the phone to… Joe?” Leah said, unsure.

Joe… Catherine. But something about her expression was not right. YFN gasped and covered her mouth, her eyes finding Lucy’s in an automatic reaction to seek her comfort.

Lucy stood and moved towards her as she dropped her eyes and continued her conversation.

“Thanks for the information. Everything makes sense now.”

Joe spoke and then she hung up.

“Is everything okay? What happened?” She asked as she knelt in front of her.

“I… I…” she seemed shook, almost. “I need to understand it first, and then I’ll tell you, Luce. I promise.”

“Okay, love. Now, food?”

“Ah, yes. I’ve seen you refusing to eat over there. You’re a silly goose, Luce.”

“Well I do bite and I do like bread.”

She extended her arms in question and helped her to stand on her one good leg for a second before she scooped her up and carried her to the table. YFN blushed in her arms but she enjoyed it, and they both knew it. Lucy’s knee complained, though that most definitely was not going to stop her from taking care of the person who made her the happiest in the world.

Lucy set her down on her chair and they joined in on the food, eating hungrily.

They all chatted and bonded, staying far away from any triggering conversations until Jill spoke.

“So Alexia, are you stayin’ around town for long?”

Lucy felt YFN tense next to her.

“I… am not sure.” She looked at Ona. “I think… I think I will go.”

“I’m glad we got to meet you before you left! And here I was hoping to see you in the WSL one day.”

Alexia gave a polite smile. Lucy knew Barca was her life. She’d never move unless forced to.

Alexia stroked the soft grey fur of Chiquito cuddled in her lap and looked to YFN. “Should I bring him?”

“Home?” She asked and then paused. “I… am not sure. If there were no instructions, no one living there, and with how much I know her… I think you should take him. Look after him. He clearly loves you.”

Alexia slowly nodded and for the first time that day, she saw her smile as she looked down at the young cat.

A Lumos employee approached then. “YFN, ma’am, there’s a guy causing issue with security.”

“Who is it?”

“I’m not sure. He’s insisting he’s let in.”

YFN frowned just as they heard arguing from outside the door. Within a matter of seconds it was slammed open and in strode Mark. And he looked pissed. He scanned the room until his eyes fell on YFN and he stalked over.

YFN coughed in shock as she choked on her food and stood, putting her weight on her one good leg as Lucy stepped closer to her.

If he so much as laid a finger on her…

“Mark,” she greeted, turning as he came around the table. She stepped forwards and braced some of her weight on the back of her chair. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“You have me under investigation for the photos?”

“It’s about time,” Leah stated, angrily.

“The pub photos? Yes. It was private property. The video? Also yes. These weren’t my own decisions, but my employers…”

“You fucking cunt.”

“The fuck did you just say?” Lucy snapped, stepping forward. She rarely snapped.

“Luce, it’s okay,” she said, putting a hand on her arm. Lucy stepped back. She was shocked by the sincerity in which she said it. Almost as if she were sorry for him. “Mark, I’m going to ask you to leave…”

“And what is this?!” He asked, gesturing around. “This is not legal. Lumos can’t be filming players with contracts to other media outlets and brands.”

YFN gently gestured to where the Lumos employees sat, who were dealing with all of the legalities. “We have lawyers and employees trained to ensure that we get every permission and signature needed, and unlike your company, we’re working with the other media outlets of the players. There’s nothing illegal here.”

“The fuck there isn’t.”

He was furious, and Lucy couldn’t comprehend what would have him so mad to come after them. Was it simply because he was under investigation?

“Mark you illegally obtained footage and photos. My employer is the one who put in the complaint, not me.”

Mark scoffed. “You mean Joe? Or rather, Joanne?”

“I can’t say who my employer is, Mark. You know that. You can speculate all you want.”

“You people.. you just take and take. I’ll burn you to the fucking ground.” He stepped forward and ripped the chair from under YFN’s hands. She attempted to correct herself and stumbled backwards, hitting the table lightly but catching herself, and also caught by Lucy. Lucy turned and shoved him backwards, putting herself in front of her.

“Don’t you fucking touch her.”

“Luce,” came that soft, sympathetic voice from behind her. She felt her hand lightly touch her and reluctantly, Lucy moved aside. “Mark… none of this is what you think it is. None of us are who you think we are. Including… her.”

“Stop with the mystery act. I’ve had investigators on you all. I know exactly who you all are.”

“Mark, you’re wrong about us… and this won’t bring her back.”

Who was she talking about? Mark turned pale. Lucy had never seen someone react so immediately. He froze. He paled. “Don’t.” It was a warning.

She stepped forwards. “I’m so, so sorry. Words cannot describe how sorry I am. But we are not Joanne. I’m so sorry for what happened to Callie.”

With that, his face contorted. “Don’t you EVER SAY HER FUCKING NAME.”

In his rage, he stepped forwards and shoved her broken little Australian backwards. She smashed into the table behind her and cried out in pain for her injuries as Katie scrambled to catch her.

The girls at the table jumped up.

Lucy saw red. She reacted immediately and shoved him, hard.

Mark fell backwards and hit the wall with a brutal noise and all Lucy heard was the ‘crack’ as he slid to the ground.

((**Any theories on who Callie is - send them through! :)**))

[kaybreezy3000]

This one is a little season 4 short story I dreamed up before the real season came out. It gives us an alternate ending and a look inside Five's world both before he jumped to the apocalypse and post season 3.

~~~~~~~~It all begins and ends with Five....

(Rated Teen and Up or General. 10,409 words)(alt season 4 story with ending, reader insert style that allows anyone to be the 'you' character,-as a potential friend to Five or whatever you want to imagine, meant to be sad and sweet.)

warnings: mild description/mention of child abuse, and signs of panic attack, potential trigger by mention of bombing a building

tags: anarchist Number Five, Hero Number Five, ideas from the Gene and Jean script release but not based on what really happened, whump, fluff, trauma, heartbreak, love, revenge, forgiveness, Mr. Pennycrumb, all the Hargreeves and some of our new character mentions from season 4 but not as the show had them because this was written before it came out, Five deserves better, Klaus is awesome, You x Five, Five is amazing and with this one you get to imagine yourself a part of his story/future 👍

He Who Holds The Power

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From across the table, the couple staring back at Five took a drink from their coffees at the same time.

Five’s lips turned up ever so slightly as he swallowed down the warmth from his own caffeinated beverage. “Jean was it?” he questioned, already knowing the answer.

“Yes, I’m Jean and this is my husband Gene,” the woman replied while the man next to her intently watched him with bright blue eyes that filled his otherwise aged face with youthful looking excitement.

They were nervous, and rightly so. They were finally meeting the mysterious person who had hired them five years ago to hunt down things that shouldn’t exist but did. 

Shifting forward, Five set his empty cup down between them, then casually pulled up the cuff of his dress shirt and glanced at his wrist, noting the time before he raised a brow. “Do you have it?”

“We do,” the man said, passing him a folder.

Five opened the manila file. 

His breath caught in his throat.

Staring back at him were six masked children, all decked out in matching academy uniforms as they proudly stood there with the Eiffel Tower behind them.

Five had seen plenty of evidence already, but this was the nail in the coffin. This was all the proof he needed to verify he was right and he was justified in what he was about to do.

The date on the newspaper clipping was from early April of 2001. 

It was only five months after The Umbrella Academy’s infamous bank job.

They were only twelve years old.

He had lived a lifetime since then, but the memories of that day, and what happened to him after it, hit Five in waves of near crippling anxiety. As if the world was out to get him, it was all made worse by the hateful looking woman who had just walked by with the little yelping dog that she just zapped into submission through the shock collar that looked like it was choking the life out of him.

She looked too much like The Handler, with her fancy dress and spiked heels, and those blood red lips forming a wicked grin. Her sick satisfaction over the animal’s paralyzing fear was exactly how Five’s ex-boss looked at him as she heartlessly manipulated him into doing her bidding.

His fingers curled as his body tensed.

He forced his eyes back to the article with the faded image of his family.

He had looked about as smug as a kid could at the press conference that cold day, and he was, but not long after that, Five would find out how foolish he was to think that by merely doing his best and putting on a show for the press that he could trick his father and himself that he was good enough.

“How is this stuff possible,” Jean questioned with her eyes darting from the stained article Five had just laid down, to his hand retreating under the table where they couldn’t see it trembling.

Pushing aside all that, Five flatly said, “It doesn’t matter.”

Gene didn’t like that. 

“What?” he angrily barked. “We have been searching high and low for this stuff and we have given you tons of proof that this shit is real. That kid in front looks a lot like you,” he pointed at Five in the picture, “and that girl looks like the actress from the VHS tapes we gave you! Something is not right here!”

“It never was,” Five stoically replied while promptly pushing out his chair.

Not waiting for them to argue with him further, he left them and the paper on the table that showed evidence of his past that wasn’t supposed to exist anymore. The envelope full of money he’d dropped next to the file should be enough to quiet them. Not that it would matter.

Time was up.

Five was done sitting around playing Reginald’s victim. 

Five’s fingers gently cradled the detonator in his pants pocket as he walked down the busy sidewalk with his eyes aimed at the tallest building on the horizon-the one that was adorned with huge letters spelling out the last name he had once called his own.

Reginald had erased Number Five Hargreeves and left him with almost nothing. Five had tried to move on and take his second chance for what it was, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t escape his thoughts of retribution.

In trying to reclaim something he’d lost and couldn’t figure out how to repair, Five was finally going to erase the father that had never loved him.

~~~

Not long before this, across town, with a heaviness tugging at what was left of his cold heart, the heavy door thumped closed behind Reginald at what was once The Umbrella Academy. Though parts of the exterior were in horrible states of disrepair, burnt and bashed by the spray of angry graffiti, the main stones holding together the building stood as they always had, but the home of the once famous children that were born with superhuman powers was now nothing more than another one of his many derelict properties.

Reginald had left it to rot and had taken the world for himself, and he’d done so by using them in the worst way, stripping them of the gifts inside them to fuel his machine that rebooted life on his terms.

He should have been happy with the result. He had gotten everything back that he’d always wanted, but inside, behind those walls that no one was allowed, a life from another time sat silently covered in dust and it told another story nobody else knew.

Ironically, all Reginald cared about always turned out empty.

The Umbrella Academy may not have existed in this timeline but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still there, just like his regret.

Those around him didn’t realize it, but many things were hiding just beneath the surface.

His expensive dress shoes left ghosts of his presence across the once sparkling black and white marble checkering of the foyer at the old manor. His cane tapped along, its echo hollow.

Reginald tiredly climbed the grand staircase, then slowly walked the quiet upper hall, past his children’s closed bedroom doors, heading towards the viewing room.

At a darkly paneled wooden wall, he stopped.

He glanced behind him at the settee where Grace had once sat to recharge. He could almost see her sitting a few feet away, staring off into space, blissfully incapable of truly understanding the dire situation at hand.

Flickers of another face, the same as hers, only animated with life and love, begged him for the truth he wouldn’t give. She was just another mistake haunting him.

He could have found some semblance of peace and maybe even true happiness in those he’d hurt, but like so many times Reginald couldn’t see what was in front of him, he hadn’t realized that until it was too late.

Despairingly, Reginald looked away, opening the hidden paneled door he’d felt drawn to that morning, then he shut himself inside its secret darkness.

The dimly yellowed light from the small desk lamp turned on, the chain slipping from Reginald’s fingers as his weight fell into the familiarity of his old chair. Stuck somewhere in the memories of his past, he clicked on the monitor in front of him.

His eyes fell from the surveillance screen that was playing the live news, moving across the small workspace. The pages of his detailed notes, files filled with medical records, and all the numerous journals about his children from the years he had spent with them all lay there before him.

More than ever, he wondered if he could have done things another way.

Reginald Hargreeves knew all too well the power of love and relationships of the heart, but he also knew that they could be wiped out of existence in the blink of an eye by an ugly twist of fate.

By what he could see, in this case, that ugly twist was the world’s end, again.

He’d seen the signs. Clues of his charade were all around them, buried in boxes of seemingly useless junk put in the trash as someone emptied a musty basement or sold as seemingly worthless treasures on the streets for a small fortune to those who knew.

Yes, there were those that had formed conspiracy theories about him and who claimed they were living in a false existence. They were anarchist radicals, but they weren’t wrong.

Reginald also knew his machine that had been holding this all together was failing.

The end had always loomed, and he’d thought he’d finally beaten it even though he’d done so by failing the ones he himself created and had once dared to call his own. He stole away their chance at a normal life with parents that loved them, then he made them nothing more than his adopted wards. They were his dream of a future, but he was no father to them.

“It has been said that a man who has been through bitter experiences and traveled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time.” Reginald laughed bitterly. “Sadly, not true,” he said, mocking the line he’d just quoted from The Odyssey.

The faraway sound of a determined voice calling out to him, then perfectly reciting Homer in ancient Greek suddenly caused his chest to ache.

Thinking of his wayward son that had rightly lost faith in him and then tragically became lost in time, only to suffer so much more horribly because of it, Reginald looked up at the screen again, looking at the backdrop of Paris with the glitching pulsation of reality starting to reveal the truth. A thick cloud of digitized blackness began to descend over the Eiffel tower and all around it.

He’d prevented nothing and he had caused all of this in his inability to let go of a past that was no more.

Abigail…

He’d done it all for her when really, what they’d had was gone a long time ago, he just couldn’t accept it.

A broken heart was a powerful thing. It could alter everything, and he did. He’d destroyed his children's trust in him and in each other. In his blindness, he was the one that set off this chain of catastrophic events.

It was the biggest mistake he’d ever made. He wished he could turn back time. That was why he’d come to the place where he’d messed things up so badly. This was where it happened.

Reginald clicked off the channel filled with blaring sirens and blurred pixelations from the distortion of time as it crashed.

No one was safe.

It would be happening outside his doors soon enough.

Once again, he stared blankly at the black screen.

He pushed himself up from his chair, ready to return to his tower and wait for the end, but then his weary eyes came back to the tall shelf next to him. It held dozens and dozens of videos from experiments performed on his children. His index finger slowly ran over the titles and the dates, stopping on one.

In bold black ink it read:

April 3rd, 2001 Corrective Training-Post Paris Incident (Subject: Number Five) Speed and Precision Exercise

He pulled the tape away from the many others and stuck it in, making the monitor light up with an old video that showed a day he'd rather not remember.

"It's always Number Five. He was always the key to everything, and I broke him," he whispered with his eyes glued to the small boy who was angrily staring back at him from the screen.

~~~

Using the skills he’d learned in his years as an indentured assassin, Five had done it. The explosives were all set and placed precisely where they needed to be to take Reginald’s Tower of infinite power to the ground. It was just a matter of time, and he would get his confirmation that the building had been cleared due to the fire alarms he’d hacked into and programmed to go off.

Potential casualties were a thing Five would need to add to the blood already drenching his hands. His conscience was unbearably heavy, that was nothing new, but he justified delivering even more death with the knowledge that most of the occupants of the building would be cleared of the tower, as well as the area around it due to simultaneous warnings going off in all the nearby buildings.

Quick enough, what Five had done was easily going to be seen as a false alarm, and that was intentional. Due to safety compliance rules and insurance reasons, people would still be forced to evacuate, but it was well known that Reginald and his wife rarely left the protection of his imposing skyscraper.

They would be right where Five wanted them to be.

As Five sat on a park bench in the spot he had chosen to view the glory of his efforts, he thought again of that article and his family.

He hadn’t seen any of his family members in years, but just as it was in the apocalypse, he could almost hear Diego’s voice as if he was right there, saying something dumb or bitching about the reporters that headlined Five and Luther and not him. His knife throwing brother’s heroics that day were worthy of note, but like so often in their life, the things they did right did not get them the recognition they had so badly craved.

As annoyed as Five was by Diego at times, he never felt that he deserved the punishments he received. None of them did.

Five wanted to protect them. But the truth was, he couldn’t protect them. He couldn’t even protect himself and that was never more apparent than after Paris.

On that a chilly Monday morning in April of 2001, Five and his siblings were all up before sunrise, scrambling to make it downstairs for inspection before their dad got there.

Only the night before, they had just got back from France, having completed their most recent mission. They were all a bit jet lagged and worked up still, bickering and carrying on the way only a pack of twelve years could at 5:30 am. As they thundered down the stairs, Luther and Diego were going on about who stopped the terrorists, both sure that they were the hero in the story.

The truth was nobody had individually done it, but that never stopped them from each trying to take all the credit. As a team, albeit a not very coordinated one, they took down a group that had threatened to bomb several famous landmarks, one being the Eiffel Tower.

Prior to the Umbrella Academy’s arrival in the city of light, these terrorists had been carrying out these types of attacks all over Europe for months, and it was all over the news. The agencies in place trying to stop them were no closer to doing so, and it was gaining more and more worldwide attention by the day.

When Reginald heard about the imminent threat going on overseas, he immediately loaded his academy on his private jet and set off to save the day. At first, the authorities were against sharing information with him or letting a group of superpowered kids near that kind of trouble. But when the first bombs went off outside at the Place Dauphine, injuring dozens, and killing eight, they were more interested in what he and his infamous Umbrella Academy had to offer.

As Reginald worked with the local law enforcement to pinpoint where the terrorist group was based, another bombing happened. That time it was on a sightseeing boat floating down the Seine. The Hargreeves were nearby, so Reginald was able to quickly get his team there. They did what they could to help get survivors to safety and even managed to gather some evidence that ultimately helped track down who built the bomb. Things were coming together, and it was just a matter of time before they were caught. A day later, before they could set off the next round of bombs, Reginald received intel that allowed him to intercept them before they got to their target.

As a vehicle full of explosives tore towards the Arc De Triomphe, the six extraordinary children were positioned and ready with their dad on the mics watching from above. They spotted the van trying to pull out from a side street. Luther immediately moved in and blocked its path, using his enormous strength to shift parked cars across their exit. Unfortunately, this caused them to deviate onto the narrow sidewalk to get around it.

Allison and Klaus were already trying to clear the area of civilians when the van came speeding in their direction. Five had seen it coming and managed to teleport from his position in time to move them, just missing getting plowed over.

Reginald’s screaming rattled their ears. It was nearly deafening and completely garbled. Diego improvised by hitting the driver in the neck with one of his knives as the van tore past him. All at once the vehicle started to lose control, swerving at a breakneck speed across the lanes as the driver bled out.

Reginald barked at Five to get in there and stop the van, so he jumped again, with his goal to land inside the moving target and take the wheel.

He missed.

Five had never been able to blink on or into a moving target and he shouldn’t have been surprised that he failed, and neither should the alien who had ordered him to do it.

The young boy landed on the road right in front of the van. He saw his life pass before his eyes just as Luther slammed into him, knocking him down to the cement before blocking the van from splattering his small body across the pavement. The vehicle smashed into his brother’s shoulder, coming to a metal bending screeched halt.

Five rolled back away from the wreckage, staggering to his bloodied knees as he watched in shock as Luther tried to untangle himself from the bent hood. That was when they heard Reginald ordering Ben to move in.

From Five’s vantage point, he could still see movement inside the van. There was someone else inside other than the dead driver. He blinked, landing next to the man inside who appeared to be desperately trying to set a bomb off even while he was still inside with it.

He looked over at the dark-haired boy in disbelief, his hand reaching for the gun strapped to his vest. With little to work with, Five charged at him before he could shoot, knocking him back against the side of the van. Thankfully, the gun sprang loose from his hand, clattering across the floor. The guy had at least a hundred and fifty or more pounds on Five, and was clearly trained in combat, so his effort, though carried out skillfully, didn’t take him out, it only pissed him off. He quickly turned the tables on the dazed teleporter, throwing him back like he was nothing.

Five went airborne, then landed and tripped backwards right over the bomb. The next thing he knew, the man had the gun pointed at his head. Before he could pull the trigger, using the same trick he’d done with the stapler during the bank job, Five teleported the deadly weapon away.

Just then the back doors of the van flew off. Luther had torn them off, and the moment Five saw Ben set up beside him, he got the hell out of there, blinking himself back out onto the road behind them.

Their dad yelled orders for Ben to unleash The Horror.

Seconds passed…

The terrorist, though taken completely off guard by all this, pounced for the bomb again.

Ben hadn’t moved; it was like he was paralyzed.

Completely out of breath, Diego suddenly rounded the corner, skidding to a stop alongside Five. He had a knife at the ready and instantly sent it sailing towards the persistent and apparently suicidal criminal, landing it deep in the center of his chest. The guy fell to his knees, gasping as he clutched at the blade as his blood quickly drenched his shirt.

That pretty much ended that.

Fortunately, before he died, Allison was able to rumor him into giving up where his accomplices were hiding. After that, the authorities were able to take them down before they could carry out another attack.

It was a success. No one else was killed or hurt.

After, Reginald had his children carry out interviews and partake in the usual media events that followed any mission they were ordered to take. They did as was expected of them, smiled for the cameras, and answered the questions carefully, just the way he would have wanted them to.

On the flight home, Reginald didn’t say a word.

Now, as they stood behind their chairs and his coldly calculating eyes fell over them, Five couldn’t escape the sinking feeling growing in his gut.

After a silent breakfast, before he could leave with the others to attend classes, Reginald abruptly pulled him aside. Five was quickly informed that he was of the opinion their mission was hardly a success, and each of them required aggressive corrective training to make sure it never happened again. As such, he would not be joining the others.

In his naively young mind, Five mused that his father must have liked him the most because he was the lucky one who got to be ‘corrected’ first.

Wide eyed, his siblings all watched him go. Five squared his shoulders as he dutifully walked behind his father, not willing to show his growing unease.

The Monocle had a specific exercise area for Five back in one of the old factory buildings that made up his city block. It was made up of three mostly empty floors that were exposed by a large open galley in the middle. To Five, it was clear what he intended to do with him. That place, and the things that happened there, were nothing new. He used to do bad things to him there all the time. It had just been a while since they’d played that game, so the timing of it seemed suspect.

The boy couldn’t escape the thought that maybe this time he should simply say no, no more, but he didn’t. Refusing to do what his dad wanted or even arguing would send Reginald into a fit of rage, so that was out of the question unless he wanted to start a war with him, which he didn’t. That was far from what Five really wanted from him.

Once Reginald had led his son to the secluded end of his property, well away from the others, the boy resentfully stood there with his wrists willingly exposed because he knew the drill. Reginald unkindly looked down at Five before wordlessly slapping on the two cuffs specifically made for him that acted as a sort of shock collar like a dog would wear. If Five missed a mark by even an inch, he would be punished for it. The targets were wired, and only landing on top of them perfectly stopped the cuffs from zapping him less than a second later.

To Five, this whole song and dance had always felt like a sick game of Operation, or maybe Battleship, only instead of a silly little rubber band or a marked ill-fated ship, he was the one destined to snap or sink to the depths of his own personal hell. That type of training could have been done without the cuffs, but the Hargreeves children’s award-winning dad of the Year always felt that without them, there was nothing at stake, nothing driving this most defiant son to do better.

The truth was it only drove Five to hate him. Over time, he had gotten better. Reginald’s Number Five grew more apt at wielding his power and then he wasn’t subject to that particular form of punishment; not so often anyway.

Reginald set his tea down and made himself comfortable at a small desk in the center of the lower level. He took a moment to look over his notes as his son obediently stood there waiting for him to start.

Five’s thoughts moved at the speed of light, but it felt like he was always waiting. Waiting for something to change, waiting for him to be good enough. Waiting for his father to see him.

It never came.

Once again, he was stuck, waiting for his mercy, for Reginald to see him as something other than a tool to achieve his ends. Five may have been a genius but that didn’t matter. He was so alone and powerless, which in his brilliant mind seemed counterintuitive to what his father was trying to achieve which only made him even more confused.

“It’s time to begin,” Reginald announced without so much as looking at his son as he stared at him down, wondering the reason for his cold indifference and why he didn’t care about them.

Five wanted to stop feeling this; he wanted it not to matter, but it did, it always had, and that was the problem. He needed to stop caring, but he just couldn’t, so he waited, and as always, he tried harder to prove him wrong.

‘I am worth something,’ the boy kept mentally repeating. All he had to do to make things better was to make Reginald see it! Then everything would be okay-he’d finally be able to know what it meant to be happy.

Reginald hit the timer, activating the system while at the same time barking out a slew of coordinates to specific locations. Five blinked as fast as possible to each, and of course, none of them were easy and most he couldn’t see ahead of time, which made landing them harder.

Sometimes it would be three floors up above, or on top of a narrow ledge or precariously placed on some other obstacle Reginald had created for him, with nothing more than a few measly inches to land. Five quickly noticed there were marks everywhere. He couldn’t begin to count them because there were so many. That was out of the ordinary, even for The Monocle, so he knew this was going to be bad.

Five’s mind played games with him, singing imaginary taunts in his father’s cruel voice. ‘Welcome back home, son. I am going to sip tea while I enjoy watching your mind shatter.’

At least Five was on it that day. He completed each order without a single shock until nearing over an hour of jumps, which was a new record. Unfortunately for him, at that point he was drained, sweat drenched, and dizzy, having lost count of how many times he had blinked. He knew he couldn’t get the precision required for what he was doing anymore. That was evident by his shaking hands and the stars at the edges of his vision.

Even though he started to protest, Reginald kept him at it, saying he needed to get better, figure out how to land on moving targets, and learn to go past his limits, because someday he would have no other choice and it would be a matter of life and death for everyone.

Five fought back.

He started to make more and more errors, and the shocks became more and more frequent and stronger each time. Normally, that type of exercise was an hour max, but that time was different for a reason. Reginald wanted to see him fail. It was becoming more and more apparent that his collapse was the point all along. His father wanted to prove to him that he wasn’t as strong as he pretended to be.

Five’s anger and desire to prove Reginald wrong were the only things fueling him in their sick game. That was until he finally crumpled to the ground nearing the end of the second hour.

The boy crashed to the floor after an especially bad jump, missing the precariously placed mark completely. He helplessly fell from an open ledge down to the unforgiving tiles over twenty feet below. He landed hard, the whole left side of his body taking the brunt of it. His head bounced once with an excruciating thwack. Then his dad proceeded to let the cuffs shock him back into consciousness until he was folding in on himself, unable to do anything other than tremor violently as his entire body spasmed.

When Reginald finally turned it off manually, Five could hardly make a sound or move. The mad man that owned him didn’t so much as bother to tap him with his shoe as he laid helplessly in his own drool at his feet, with blood-stained tears streaming down his face. Reginald simply announced, ‘We are done.”

Then he left his son there, broken and alone.

When Five finally made it to his knees, he lost what little contents his stomach still had in it, and then he ended up back on the tiled floor with another thwack of his head against the hard surface.

He lay there too exhausted and dizzy to move or save himself, that was until Grace came to his rescue. Then, when she tried to move him, the sudden disorienting movement and sheer searing pain of it caused Five to pass out. When he woke up an undetermined amount of time later, he was in the infirmary, and it was with his dad standing over him as he lay on one of Grace’s operating tables.

Five was unable to move, but he didn’t know why.

His eyes wildly darted around him as he fell into an all-out panic. He was attached to an IV and it was administering fluids into his right arm. Some type of bandage was on his head, concealing what felt like had to be a hole the size of the Grand Canyon based on how horrible it felt. His current mental state was not good, and he was having a hard time remembering what had happened. He vaguely remembered hitting his head.

‘Was I training?’ he innocently wondered. ‘Did I pass out and fall down the stairs again because I wasn’t eating enough to power my jumps, or was it...’

Five was visibly confused and terrified, but his father only looked down at him hatefully.

Five had to look away from him because it was only adding to how much he hurt everywhere. He looked to his right instead. The sun was low, indicated by how little light was entering through the small stained-glass window above the tall storage cabinets where his mom kept her supplies. Grace was standing there in her operating gown, a heartbreaking look on her normally comforting face.

When Five heard the main doors open and close, he reluctantly turned back. To add to his confusion, his sister was there, standing next to their dad. Before he could so much as ask what was going on, Reginald played his next card, one he wouldn’t have guessed the old monster had in him, and that was saying a lot since the boy already knew that Reginald was the devil incarnate.

“Do it,” he ordered, not taking his eyes off his questioning eyes.

Allison looked like she had been crying. Five’s heart began racing faster as she looked back at their dad, looking completely horrified by whatever Reginald was asking her to do. Then she looked right at him.

“I heard a rumor you couldn’t speak,” she said, her voice trembling as new tears ran down her face. Automatically, Five’s eyes locked on hers in that familiar memorizing trance only her powers could induce on her victims.

It was done; he couldn’t speak a word, not until she said he could.

After that, Five spent the next three days in the infirmary, unable to speak about what had happened or make one word of complaint, not that anyone came to visit him anyway. He had suffered a severe concussion and he had broken his left clavicle. He had also fractured the tibia in his left leg.

On the fourth day, just before dinner, Grace helped him get vertical and assisted him as he dressed. Then, he was told to go straight to dinner. He managed to stumble in on crutches, though it hurt like hell because of shoulder, and he was late, a fact immediately pointed out by Reginald.

Five all but fell into his chair next to Klaus and Luther, looking as bad as he felt, and unable to respond to their questioning stares other than to glare at their father with his hate filled eyes. Reginald merely looked back impassively for a moment before going back to his papers in front of him.

The second Five entered the room, he could tell they all wanted to say something, but one very clear look at the imposing man that owned them, and they didn’t make a peep. Instead, they looked down at their food. Allison kept her head down the entire time, unable to meet his eyes at all.

Everyone else, for the most part, looked stunned and very scared. Even though their dad had done that type of training with Five more times than he could count, none of them knew exactly what they did in their private time. Five never told them what Reginald did to him, and it had never gone that far before. Even without an explanation, they knew something bad had happened because it was written all over his broken body, not just all over his pitifully pale face.

That night, Klaus and Ben came to Five’s room, long after they should have been asleep. He was able to write down what happened to him even though he was hardly strong enough to do so without visibly shaking. They already knew what Allison had done because she had told Luther before she hysterically locked herself in her room. He then told Ben. Allison also warned them they were not to intervene, or Reginald would make her do worse.

Sitting on his park bench, looking back on all of it, Five figured that, all and all that particular training session wasn’t one of his best. Worse, the others didn’t get away unscathed.

When Reginald was done with him, Five learned later that he had moved on to each of them. His taste for suffering must not have been quenched, because he spent the rest of his days that week tormenting the rest of his children, and each was treated to Allison’s special kind of gag order, either before or after, depending on which made the most sense.

Reginald was trying to make the point that real soldiers were not to be heard but to listen, to take orders and comply. He was tired of their complaining and their arguing and their many mistakes. He made it clear he felt that they had it too easy, and it was getting in the way of their development. These sessions were meant to throw their individual deficiencies in their faces but as young and emotionally stunted as Five still was, he saw that all it had done was make them more isolated from each other, feeding the numbness growing inside.

In comparison to his experience with Reginald, Klause’s time in his company was pretty tame compared to his usual in that he was merely forced to take a field trip for a day to the city’s busiest morgue. There, Klaus was put front and center with untold amounts of corpses, both fresh in and refrigerated. Five never heard how many ghosts were there, because by the time Klaus was allowed to leave and come home, he looked horrified and exhausted. His nerves were a complete mess, and being rumored into quiet submission after entering the house did nothing to hide how he really felt.

The idea of that venture was that Klaus may be able to relay information about the deaths of homicide victims or even important messages to loved ones from people who’d passed unexpectedly. Five had mused at the time that Reginald maybe did have a soul because that was actually not a horrible way for Klaus to use his power. But Klaus wanted nothing to do with it, even if it was for a good cause.

Later, Five learned that Klaus did have several success stories from the day, but the price he’d paid for it was evident the moment he walked in the door. He looked more disturbed than they had ever seen him. After that day, Klaus turned to things heavier than alcohol to dull the voices that followed him home and ceaselessly tormented him.

Later that week, the Hargreeves children were all called out to the courtyard after lunch to witness Diego and Luther fight. They were forced to battle it out until both were beyond bloody and bruised. Diego took it like his father knew he would, but Reginald was using his son’s desire for approval and acknowledgement against him in the lowest way.

The sheer force of Luther’s hits, even when he was holding back, were something no one could take for hours and hours on end without excessive damage. Luther wasn’t allowed to use all his strength on Diego, or it would have killed him, but it was during this fight that Diego received the long scar along his temple that he would always bear.

Luther, though built like shit-house ton of bricks, was not impenetrable either. Diego, being allowed to use any projectile he could see, inflicted his fair share of damage. Neither did anything life-threatening to the other, as that was explicitly prohibited, but Luther had to have stitches in numerous places, and he would have several hidden scars to show for it on his otherwise perfect poster boy skin.

Diego’s nose was broken as well as several of his fingers on both hands. He had numerous broken ribs, a minor hip fracture that gave him a limp for a long time after, and his throwing arm was in a sling, fractured in three places.

Afterwards, though they were both rumored not to speak, just like he and Klaus had been, Five didn’t think they would have, not to each other anyway.

The sad thing was, before that, they actually had gotten along ok-not great, but ok.

When it was Ben’s turn on Saturday, he spent a beautiful spring morning riding upstate to a farm, listening to their dad berate him for his inability to handle The Horror’s rath. He was continually reminded how weak he was and that the only way he would become stronger was to take control of the darkness within him and own it.

“You are the killer. You are the one in control,” Reginald had told him.

“Our Ben was not a killer,” Five sadly whispered as he looked down at the pigeons gathering in the grass in front of him.

Ben may have killed more people than any of them at that point, but it wasn’t really him, it was the thing they called ‘The Horror,’ hence why he was so messed up. He never wanted any part of that life and the last thing he wanted was to take ownership of it.

Unfortunately, his field trip to the farm wasn’t to learn about the dairy industry. It was to learn how to be a one man, or better put, one eldritch tentacle baring slaughter machine. He was forced to unleash the monster inside him, over and over, letting it decimate anything alive in its path, which In that case was several head of cattle destined for the meat market anyway, but still awful to say the least.

Ben was still a mess when he got home that night. He had been carelessly hosed off and left with traces of blood on his otherwise caulk white skin. He was put on a piece of plastic in the backseat of the car on the way home, like he was some kind of filth not good enough to touch the smooth leather of Reginald’s Rolls. When his siblings saw him, his jet-black hair was clumped in a gore of sticky redness and his clothing still bore the evidence of how gruesome his day had been. Once he was stripped, Grace threw his academy uniform away.

Too bad the memories weren’t as easy to dispose of.

Ben was speechless after that, even before Allison needlessly rumored him. The only reason they all knew the details of what happened to Ben was because Vanya overheard Reginald talking to Pogo and Grace about it. The whole thing left him in an almost catatonic state. Seeing that he was unable to function normally, Ben was put under watch by Grace and excused temporarily from daily activities, spending the next two days alone in his room.

Though Allison usually got away with almost anything and she was rarely on their father’s radar when it came to anything, that time proved she was not immune to his madness. Though she may have felt she had Reginald wrapped around her pretty painted fingernails, she quickly realized she was not the one calling the shots.

It was obvious she was devastated about having to rumor them into silent submission. None of the traumatized children blamed her, but it hurt anyway. Five was bitter but he had understood. It was no wonder she normally refused to use her power unless Reginald forced her to. Taking someone’s will away from them was not a good feeling from either side of the situation and it was hard not to feel some anger at her about it.

For a long time after, Five couldn’t be in the same room with Allison without hearing her voice stripping him of the right to use his own mind the way he wanted, and that resulted in fear and mistrust that couldn’t be fixed while they were under that roof.

To him, it felt like the man that called himself their father wanted them to loathe each other as much as they hated him, because that was basically what he’d caused. They could scarcely look at one another when it was all done.

Even without words, it was clear everyone was in shock over what had happened. They were looking for someone to blame and not just their dad. To add insult to injury, quite literally, they couldn’t talk to each other about it when they were each in their worst time of need.

They went through the next week without one word of complaint because they couldn’t. Until then, Five wasn’t sure if Reginald could get Allison to rumor them like that permanently, but if he could have, he knew that he would, so at least he had that to cling to but it did little to ease how heartbroken and hateful he felt.

How they felt and what they needed did not matter to their father.

They had seen the truth. They were nothing to him and never were.

~~~

Feeling slightly off from thinking about the tragedy of that week, Five looked up, finally noticing that there was a little boy coming along the shady path he was sitting along. As if energized even more by Five’s eyes landing on him, the excited puppy the child was trying to hold back suddenly broke free of his hold, sprinting for the park bench.

“Woah there, buddy,” Five laughed as the golden ball of fur aggressively leapt up with its fuzzy paws landing on his knees so it could lick his face. Within seconds, Five’s once pristine wool pants were covered in slobber and dirt.

“Mr. Pennycrumb likes you,” the boy laughed, while scrambling around on the ground, trying to get his hands on the leash.

Just as Five was going to stand up to escape his new friend’s overly affectionate greeting, you came running up to them. “I am so sorry!” you cried as you jumped in to help get a handle on the wild pup.

Once you got the small dog pulled in tight at your heel, Five got to his feet. “It’s okay,” he assured while brushing himself off.

When he looked at the boy, the child staring up at him said, “This is my babysitter. We get to hangout while my mommy is at work. She has to work three jobs ever since the mean monster she called cancer took my daddy away.”

“I am sorry,” Five quietly replied, not sure how to respond to someone so young or to something so awful.

You looked even more embarrassed as you quickly tried to change the subject, “Really. I’m so sorry about your suit. It looks like I owe you a new pair of pants.” Your eyes flickered downwards, taking in the damage. When you looked back up, you added, “Obviously my little guy is very social. Having a four-legged beast is great, but a bit much sometimes. He's up for adoption if you're interested?” you laughed.

You reached down, petting your foster dog, then did the same to the giggling kid, ruffling his fluff of hair. Your smile faded just a little as your eyes returned to the serious looking young man who was curiously studying you.

“Not my nephew here. He is social too, but I didn’t mean to say that he’s a four-legged beast,” you corrected, followed by another laugh that touched something inside Five, making his face animate with a spark of life.

His dimple deepened.

“This kiddo is bit much too, but I love him so, so much and we’d be out here doing this together even if I wasn’t his mom’s go to babysitter,” you rambled, flustered by the way Five was looking at you through the curtain of hair that had fallen over his kind but calculating eyes.

“Don’t worry. I get it, and you don’t owe me new pants. I don’t mind getting a little dirty every now and then. Sometimes I quite enjoy it, and this is turning into one of those times since it meant that I got to meet this little guy, and his very nice companions," Five smoothly replied, and your cheeks glowed even brighter.

Just as you were about to say something, your nephew interrupted.

“You looked lonely. That’s why Mr. Pennycrumb came over to say hi,” he cutely pointed out, then surprised Five even more when he added, “Want to go for a walk with us?”

Five’s mouth opened but nothing came out at first.

Suddenly feeling like he needed to do something with his hands, he tucked them in his pockets and rocked back in his shiny shoes. Of course, that did not help him feel like he was successfully playing off his normal guy act, especially considering his left hand was sitting right next to a button that was about to destroy the city’s largest building.

“I…uhmmm. I would love to, but I have a prior engagement I need to attend to,” he finally replied with his cool green eyes moving between the expectant little boy and you.

Five almost never engaged in conversations that weren’t required of him. When he did, they were never like this. This felt different. All this from a chance encounter and a conversation with real people that were nothing but kind to him.

It felt…good.

Five hadn’t felt the glimmer of hope, or met anyone that didn't have an ulterior motive, or experienced the surprise of something that wasn’t catastrophic in…

He couldn’t remember.

Clearing your throat, you looked back at him while putting a hand on your nephew’s shoulder. Five knew that meant you were leaving, but he found that he desperately didn’t want you to.

He wanted to go on that walk, if only to have a taste of something positive and not so isolating for once.

Five’s brows furrowed as he glanced at the skyline where Reginald’s building stood as if taunting him. When he looked back at you standing between him and what he felt was preventing him from moving on, something in him fractured, but it was the exact opposite of feeling like something inside of him was broken.   

“Well…” you started. “If you change your mind about those pants or the walk in the park, we’ll be strolling by here about the same time tomorrow.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Five said, dropping his head to the side while giving you another small smile.

As you turned and left him standing there, Five was unable to stop smiling.

He took his hand from his pocket, looking down at his palm where the electronic device lay waiting.

Killing Reginald would only prove that he was right.

Five was not weak and never was and he wasn't broken.

He pried the casing open and pulled at the wires under the button that could have activated the bombs.  

The switch was dead, but Five wasn’t. Somehow, while lost in his crushing hatred and near debilitating loneliness he’d forgotten that. In his fight to end his father, he’d accidentally given up on himself.

But Five Hargreeves was not a quitter.

Chucking the broken trigger in the bushes, he started to head back the way he’d entered the park.

That was the moment when the sapphire canvas above him started to falter.

The many colors of blue and white and gray in the clouds suddenly scattered into millions of floating dots, rapidly separating in a way that was not at all natural. The phenomenon of pixelating pulsations quickly swallowed the long needle piercing the sky above the massive glass covered pillar bearing Reginald’s name.

As the top of the building where he and his reclusive wife resided was obliterated, a glittering dust of marigold colored rain began to fall over the park, blowing in the rush of wind before dusting Five’s hair in its otherworldly magic.

The site was almost just like when Reginald had drained them, only happening in reverse. The sensation of first bone chilling ice, then scorching heat began crawling under Five’s skin.

Reacting to the intense pain that felt like it was tearing him apart, Five dropped to his knees, his hands clawing at his body as he screamed.

A fire of blue light engulfed him as his powers violently reclaimed him. Within seconds, Five was filled with an ethereal glow that radiated from his eyes and his fingertips, making him look like a wingless archangel in a tailored business suit.

Then, the world as Five had come to know it evaporated, the ground bearing his weight, slipped away into the bottomless depths of time and space as he fell.

~~~

In the beginning, there was nothing. That was the way it always was. Just emptiness and possibilities, and the one who could not only manipulate time and space but could also create it.

It all started with a boy, only that boy didn’t know it until just now, when life and all material things were gone and his consciousness was all that was left.

Like Reginald had said, it was always Five.

Suspended in a vast swirl of everything that ever was and ever would be, grasping at the fibers of light flashing past him, Five began pulling with invisible hands, starting the unimaginable task of piecing together something better for all of them.

~~~

Much, much later, or six years later, but actually the exact same day it was, but back in their original timeline, but also not, depending on how you wanted to look at things and wrap your head around the fact that time only seems to be linear, Number Five Hargreeves set his coffee cup down on the table between him and his ghost whispering brother.

He was at the same coffee shop he’d been at that fateful morning in another timeline and in another time that he’d filed away among many others that were left behind closed doors inside the vast hallways of his mind.

“Oh, come on Five,” Klaus moaned. “I just got here. I thought we were hanging out today. I even told the rest of the family that we’d meet up with them later. Diego and Lila’s little brat rat is dying to see her favorite uncle Fivey.”

After looking down at his wrist bearing his Umbrella Academy tattoo, taking stock of the time, Five rolled his eyes heavenward and sighed. “Klaus, we were supposed to hangout and have breakfast, but you showed up an hour later. I have already eaten. I bought you your favorite smoothie and a bagel, so that’s going to have to be good enough because I have somewhere I need to be.”

“Where?”

“None of your business.”

“I know you. You’re up to something,” he accused.

Musing over what Klaus would say if he told him where he was going, Five got up, his hand coming to his throat to straighten his tie.

Five knew that he painted an odd picture. One of a just turned nineteen-year-old, dressed like he wanted to take on the wolves of Wall Street, but as silly as his choice of attire may have been being he had no intention of doing that, this was him and always would be. A nice suit meant you weren’t messing around, and he wasn’t anymore. Besides, it wasn’t like the world didn’t know about his crazy life story, or the fact that he wasn’t exactly the young man he appeared to be.

Thanks to having the rug pulled out from under him, or better put, reality as he had known it, Five was seeing things from a much different perspective.

Looking back on it, he still couldn’t stop kicking himself for not putting it together when he saw the other ancient version of himself laying in a diaper in that hyperbaric chamber in The Commission’s paradox proof bunker.

Now it all made sense how he had become the founder.

“Whatever,” Klaus muttered, pretending to grumble when Five didn’t take the bait and tell him what he was up to. “At least you’re finally an official grown up again and you sometimes get out of your apartment and mingle with the rest of the world every now and then. But still, buddy. Reading is fun and Dolores is great and all, but you need to spread those cute little wings of yours and fly. There are tons of other real flesh and blood birdies out there looking to strike up titillating conversations with the right dove, and you sir are all sorts of ripe with things you can use to bore people. Things like how you mastered traversing the bend in the time helix or other confusing stuff like that you like to go on and on about.”

“Shut up, Klaus,” Five dryly retorted as his fingers threaded back through his strands of hair that were hanging every which way, making him look every bit his outwardly young age.

“Go. Off with you then, young man,” Klaus teased. “Next time, it’s my plan for our date day and you are meeting me to get our nails done and then we are going out salsa dancing with Diego and Lila and Sloane and Luther. We need to show them how the better Hargreeves do their damn thing.”

“I don’t dance,” Five huffed as his fingers curled around the bready treat hidden in his pocket.

“Yes, you do,” Klaus laughed, to which Five gave him a quick scowl that just as quickly turned into a smirk because they had gotten exceptionally plastered at Klaus’s apartment only a week ago, and he’d made a total ass of himself dancing in a hula skirt and sombrero on the coffee table. When Klaus and Viktor and then Luther joined him, it was too much and the flimsy piece of Ikea furniture exploded, leaving them in a heap on the shag carpet.

Yes, things were different this time around, just as Five had hoped they’d be after he’d brought them all back to the day of Reginald’s funeral, and then proceeded to avoid all the mistakes he and they had made after it.

It didn’t mean that all the bad things didn’t happen in the years before this. It meant they got a second chance while all knowing everything that they had known about the original run through when they’d been brought back together and then messed it all up.

Miraculously, Five wasn’t just a time traveler with trigger finger you didn’t want pointed at you. He could create time, and that is how he saved the world and brought everyone back, but he did not rewrite like Reginald had tried to do.

He was smarter than that. 

No one can erase the past. It will always be there one way or another. The only thing you can do is learn from it and he did.

“I’ll see you all later?” Five softly offered, before turning to head out the door.

“You better,” Klaus said, calling after him with an outpouring of brotherly love.

The bell on the door chimed as Five walked out into the bright morning sun.

The sidewalk was packed like it always was that time of day and that was why Five almost didn’t see him. 

Reginald wasn’t dressed in his usual fine wool suit of tightly woven tweeds and righteousness. The familiar posture and weakened step aided by his cane appeared in Five’s periphery and the next thing he knew, he was looking into the eyes of someone that wasn’t supposed to be there but was.

To all the others, the eccentric inventor Sir Reginald Hargreeves had died, just as he originally did. But that ruse was a necessary end, just like it was originally intended to be the first time and Five didn’t alter that on purpose.

He knew their adoptive father was more than just the monster he appeared to be. Reginald had been wrong for what he’d done to them, but like him, he’d been desperate and he’d paid for his mistakes, over and over. 

Now, as time had intended it, Five was in a place to do something about that.

Having real power had nothing to do with ruling others or having superpowers. It was in not succumbing to the demons inside you.

Real power happens in making the right choices.

Knowing that he had made the right choice, Five nodded ever so slightly, and in doing so, he received a silent bow in return from the lonely creature passing him by.

It wasn’t over for Reginald yet, and it was far from over for Five. With his excitement building and aware that he needed to move faster, Five pulled at the power simmering just beneath his skin, throwing open a portal.

Less than a second later, he reappeared, stepping out onto a shady pathway in the park.

Eyeing his favorite bench, with sweaty hands hidden in his pockets, he sat down.

As he was looking out, his eyes seeing a ghostly mixture of realities twisting through his memories, he heard the small voice of a boy, calling out to the dog that had just broken off its leash.

It was happening almost the same as the first time.

Mr. Pennycrumb raced across the grass, kicking up the pigeons that were nibbling on the bread Five had thrown down for them.

Reaching the young man on the bench that he’d chosen as his newest friend, the puppy jumped up, paws digging into Five’s thighs as he assaulted his face with his wet tongue.

“Hey, buddy,” Five whispered as the little boy came running over with you behind him.

After slipping the yellow lab a doggie biscuit that he’d purchased that morning at the doggie bakery, Five looked up.

“I am so sorry!” you breathed as you frantically kneeled down to get your hands on the dog’s collar. “Oh my gosh, your pants!” you gasped while also trying to brush off the mud covering Five’s knees.

Realizing what you were doing after it was too late, you pulled your hand back. Your face got even redder when Five merely raised a brow at you and smiled.

“Oh my God, I shouldn’t have done tha- I just- Well, shit,” you moaned, giving into your embarrassment.

“It’s okay,” Five calmly assured. “I don’t mind getting pawed at by the wild animals roaming the park.”

You burst out laughing, your hands flying up to cover your mouth.

“Mr. Pennycrumb and my babysitter seem to really like you, Mister,” the little boy said while giggling. “Do you want to come for a walk with us since you are just sitting here all alone now that your bird friends are gone?”

“My schedule is open so I suppose I could do that,” Five returned. “But only if your babysitter wants me to…”

“Absolutely, you should totally come with us,” you quickly replied. “Please, let me pay for some new pants. I know a decent men’s store off 48th street and we are heading that way. This little fluff head just ruined your pants, so it’s the least I can do,” you added while looking only slightly less mortified.

“How about I let you buy me a coffee and I buy you and the kid a treat and we skip the new pants,” Five countered. “If after our walk, you aren't sick of me and still want to get me out of these dirty things, I can probably find a way to accommodate that while also coming up with something else fun for us to do together."

You had no clue what to say to that, your baffled expression only made Five look all the more thrilled.

"I mean, maybe we can take this kid and the pup swimming. I have two nieces that I know would love to join us and I don't need a suit for that," he clarified followed by a chuckle.

The look in your wide eyes said it all. You were as amused by Five’s odd but funny comments as he was by your kindhearted smile and fidgety ways.

Just then, the little boy’s mom and dad came strolling along, their faces showing humorously shocked levels of concern when they saw all the mud staining the lap of Five’s three-piece suit.

The boy’s father glanced at his wife just before they reached them, mouthing, “Is that who I think it is?”

It was the time of truth.

Hoping for the best, Five extended his hand to you as you stood there stunned, all of a sudden realizing who he was.

 “Five Hargreeves, and you are?”

Visibly shaking your head as you looked him up and down, you reached out, lacing your fingers between his. Giving Five your name, you then introduced your family.

From there, the walk Five had been waiting for finally happened. He finally had people in his life who wanted nothing from him other his friendship.

With a world that wasn’t on the verge of falling apart, Five was about to get what he deserved all along.

Happiness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for reading this. ❤️ I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have read my original Five Centric 3-part series, and the parts of this one that were describing what happened to Five and his family after the Paris mission seemed familiar, you are not wrong. 😂👍 I have been wasting my time going back to re-edit my older works and I came across a chapter in 'Number Five and the Girl' that covered that sad memory for him. I love anything whumpy and I felt that part had it in a way that touched on something for all of them. I enjoyed revisiting it, and I hoped you would find something of value in it too.  That story goes down much different than this one, but I couldn't help borrowing some of that to turn into something new that tickled our brains with some of the stuff the show has been putting out there lately to get us excited.

Long live TUA and the people who keep the fandom fun. 🤗

Link to my A03 home page

Link to my other art and story posts on Tumblr

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[astheworldgoesonitswickedway]

I've been thinking about ASoUE again so this is gonna be a long one. Kit accused Olaf of hurting people and he responded with a tiny scoffing laugh and the line that "people hurt him" and this, this just so perfectly captures both Olaf's character and one of the main points I think Daniel Handler was trying to make throughout the series. Olaf never wants to take responsibility for his actions right, but he never tries to say his actions aren't wicked. His distinction is that he believes his wickedness is justified. He believes because others wronged him, he is justified to wrong others. It comes down to what I like to call "the circle of cruelty" We are told that Olaf's "mentors" basically took him and twisted him when he was young and vulnerable. (And of course, we can’t not mention his father’s death. Sure it was an accident but he wasn’t necessarily incorrect in perceiving this as a wrong against him. And anyways, the dart may not have been meant to hit his father, but it was meant for someone.) They didn't just teach him to be cruel, they taught him by being cruel. In The Slippery Slope, we see for once Olaf is the scared, submissive, and ingratiating one. His mentors constantly berate him, mock his attempts to please them, and they tell him "they weren't emotionally distant, he just wasn't worthy of praise." We are given indications Olaf felt manipulated by them through the entirety of their relationship and even considered it to be akin to Stockholm's Syndrome. We see as the show progresses and Olaf grows increasingly unhinged, he is more and more cruel to his own hench people. Who in turn are cruel to the circus recruits, who are cruel to the Baudelaires. Which means, the mentors to Olaf-Olaf to the hench people-the hench people to the circus recruits-the circus recruits to literally anyone they think they might be capable of bullying. So, in essence, one cruel and wicked person makes other cruel and wicked people who continue to do the same. Now here me out, this is one of the ways Daniel Handler is telling us "Look, after all you've seen you've come to hate Olaf. But he is the way he is for a reason. Horrible things happened to him and horrible people turned him inside out. But its no excuse." See, Olaf refuses to take responsibility by saying, its fine because others did it to him too. He doesn't try to say he was manipulated into doing it, he just sees it as "the way of the world". And at the end he talks about man handing on misery to man and how it deepens and you shouldn't have kids that you hand that misery on too. He handed his misery on to the Baudelaires but he warns them not to do the same, and make no mistake, the way he abruptly turned to look at them was a warning. He recognized that those who came before him had a lot to do with shaping his life, and even though he misplaced all the blame, he was right in a way. But Daniel Handler never for a moment justifies Olaf. He shocks us by unexpectedly delivering emotion and even sympathy for this brutal man we came to hate, but he never makes us say "poor Olaf" What happened to him was horrible, but the way he handled it was horrible. Its all about how you handle it, and whether or not you choose to pass on the cruelty. And its so beautiful to see that despite everything the Baudelaires endured, they broke the cycle. They didn't let Olaf drive them into becoming him. And let's be honest, isn't that part of the reason he hates them so much? Because he sees himself in them, but they made the right choice he couldn't make? After all, we get an entire scene during which he recounts V.F.D.’s injustices against the Baudelaires. But that's a different rant. The Baudelaires maintained their morals despite the hard choices they had to make, and they raised Beatrice without letting all that cruelty reach her. Its such a great way of showing us cruelty and abuse and the way it shapes people and grows, but also how every individual is responsible for their own actions. The cycle should be broken and it can be.

[iambicpentameterhamster]

Every umbrella academy character ranked

Prior to Season 4 coming this year, thought I'd share my character rank with you for the first 3 seasons all together. (Spoilers ahead)

#33- Marcus, Jayme, Alphonso and Fei

Painfully insignificant and underdeveloped. Their only character traits being "spoiled and a bit evil" made them EXTREMELY captivating villians...

#32- Christopher

Only higher because I find the idea of someone carrying around a cube on a stick onset really funny.

#31- Sparrow Ben

Hard to watch honestly, especially in comparison to his lovely counterpart Umbrella Ben.

In general, the Sparrows were terrible and pointless characters, and clearly the writers knew this because most were killed off pretty quickly. All except for Sparrow Ben, which just meant we had to suffer watching him for even longer.

#30- Viktor

This is a controversial choice. He is tolerable in season 1, but then just becomes a moochy emo sod who is boring to watch. I don't know if it's the acting, script or both, but he’s just such a meek and flavourless character who is PARTICULARLY bad in season 3 when he jeopardises his whole family and is repeatedly selfish and has a victim complex.

#29- Luther

He caused the apocalypse in season one and you can't convince me otherwise. Got some alamaba shit going on with Allison...

There are so many reasons I hate Luther. He's a self-centred man child who couldn't care less about his siblings and their feelings, showing zero empathy to Klaus or Vanya, for example. He only shows respect and kindness when he is attracted to the person (As shown when seasons 1 and 2 he is only nice to Allison, then completely ignores her when he moves on to Sloane) or when they pose as an authority figure to him. All he does is whine and feel sorry for himself.

What's that? You lived in the apocalypse all alone for 40 years? You are addicted to drugs and lost the love of your life in a war? You have a power you can't control and a lifetime of rejection? WELL LUTHER WENT TO THE MOON

#28- Carl Cooper

Hated him as a character but he was a menacing villian which I can respect

#27- Harlan

Couldn't care less about him, only there for plot convenience and Victor's arc pretty much

#26- Sloane

An improvement from Luther's literal sibling. Further evidence that Luther will simply fall for any woman who gives a flying fuck about the moon.

Personality: attracted to Luther

#25- Pogo

Basil exposition of the first series

#24- Detective Patch

Barely remember her

#23- The Swedes

They were kind of goofy as villians but there was some good acting and they posed a real threat. Cute moments with the cats. In general, alright, but they could have easily been replaced plot wise with something more interesting.

#22- Cha Cha

Lack of character development for me. I think she deserved to be fleshed out more, I don't think it's fair that only her partner got to be a three-dimensional being. What are her motivations? Who is she underneath it all?

But overall i liked the acting and she was a good villian.

#21- That hotel worker from season 3

He's barely a character but I liked his sass so he's on the list.

#20- Reggie (Reginald Hargreeves)

He is supposed to be the main antagonist/villian of the show, yet The Handler stole his spotlight. He's a bit too stereotypically evil and asshole-ish for me, basically twiddling his moustache and stroking a cat in a dark corner the entire show. The delivery is too blunt and that doesn't help to build the tension and mystery surrounding him as much, but if he were more complicated and cryptic in his personality it would be more effective.

This is very nit picky and overall Reggie is fine. He has some hilarious moments with Klaus in season 3 and I am genuinely intrigued about the unanswered questions surrounding him.

#19- Elliott

He wasn't a particularly important or central character but I enjoyed it when he was on screen and he played his role convincingly. He was a good comic relief in some scenes, and when he died (spoiler alert) the reactions from other characters were realistic and quite impactful. I felt for him throughout, which is impressive for less significant characters and he had a lot of depth relative to the size of his role.

#18- Destiny's children

Not a singular character, but I LOVED Destiny's children. It fit Klaus's character perfectly to have a cult and led to some of the funnies moments in the series.

#17- Dave

From the very limited moments we see with this character, a lot of personality and emotion was communicated, and I feel like we got a big sense of the character. That is down to the brilliant acting from both of Dave's actors and from Robert Sheehan that really sold this character with so little screen time.

Anyway please come back to life Dave! Death doesn't look good on you!

#16- Agnes (Donut woman)

Very sweet and I wish her all the best in life.

#15- Sissy

BRILLIANTLY acted and impactful. Stole every scene between her and Vanya.

Also, she looks EXACTLY like Sheldon's mum in young sheldon...

#14- Herb and Dot

I want to put them both in my pocket and protect them from harm.

#13- Kenny's mum

Again, barely present but I love her. She's a queen. I would go to a rave with Kenny's Mum.

#12- Stan

I love Stan, and he's a big part of Diego and Lila's character development and motivations. I hope they adopt Stan and live happily ever after.

But yeah, great one-liners from Stan.

#11- Grace

Very well acted and haunting.

Top 10 *drumroll please*

#10- Harold Jenkins (Lenoard Peabody)

Again, quite a controversial placement, but I stand by my decision. The acting and delivery of Harold Jenkins as a villain is possibly the best in the whole show. I was totally convinced Lenoard was a nice guy and I was rooting for him and Vanya, until he started dropping hints and slowly revealing his true self and losing the facade and its... it's chefs kiss. So realistic. The actor deserves an award and a standing ovation.

The writers also deserve a pat on the back for this one because he has a convincing motivation and backstory, and the dialogue is DELICIOUS when it comes to Lenoard. He is a truly menacing villain without being overtly scary and powerful and dangerous.

#9- Ray

Charismatic, gentlemanly, empathetic, loving, trusting, supportive... Ray is THE IDEAL MAN. I'm a little bit in love with Ray so I don't blame Allison.

HUGE step up from Luther, for sure.

#8- Umbrella Ben

I would have liked to see more of his character, but I liked what I did see. He loves his siblings and shows it. He is selfless and sacrifices his own existence for Vanya, he is blunt with Klaus because he cares and wants him to improve. Of course, he and Klaus are also a hilarious duo.

#7- Hazel

One of the most touching arcs that offers an insightful message about what life is for, and about Love. Beautifully acted, a very real and lovable character who probably resonates with many in some ways. Hazel is adorable and i miss him in later seasons.

#6- The Handler

I LOVE THE HANDLER MORE THAN WORDS CAN EXPLAIN!!! Funny, playful, entertaining, uexpected and whimsical and yet simultaneously dark and menacing, AMAZING villian that stole EVERY SINGLE SCENE she was in. Kate Walsh was the perfect choice for the role and she played it to perfection.

A bit of trivia about the role, The Handler was originally written for a man, and when Kate Walsh got the role she insisted they didn't change the script (which, let's be honest, they would have.) She put a wonderful spin on it and it's just perfect, I wouldn't change a thing. I would 100% watch a spinoff all about the handler. Season 3 was worse than the previous two thanks to them killing her off (amongst other questionable plot choices)

#5- Allison

Allison was the only character who knew what they were doing, and honestly, if everyone just listened to Allison, there would be no apocalypse. Her storyline losing both Claire and Ray and her powers driving her crazy with power breaks my heart but is well portrayed and impactful.

She's charismatic, clever, strong, and kind. I love Allison and I think most of us do.

#4- Diego

He's stupid but in an endearing way, I find him to be so entertaining and funny, and the actor's face is like an open book. He's not show-stopping but his consistent presence just sets the mood and allows others to act off of him, while he really sells it with his expressions. He's like the rock of the show.

#3- Lila

Lila. Mi amor. Mon amour. Amore mio. Meine Leibe.

#2- Five

For several reasons:

A) He is the daddy here, Luther!!

B) That should be the only reason you need

Seriously, though, I was SUPER impressed with Aidan Gallagher and his incredible screen presence, especially at such a young age. He really embodies the character. Five is the face of the Umbrella Acadamy, and is undoubtedly the most iconic character. 10/10, two thumbs up, absolutely BRILLIANT.

#1- Klaus

No justification necessary.

[chainsawcorazon]

my favorite thing about about the 90's young justice solos is that they catered towards three distinct audiences, and yet after all these years, the one that would have been LEAST likely to be projected into nowadays is now the MOST woobified out of the three.

tim: a story for white kids, by a white guy who hates poor people, and didn't really take itself OUT of that white-male-projective-state even after all these years. bonus note, now the gays can project into tim cuz timbo's finally out the closet, and chuck dixon wants to kill himself over it, but it's ok bc we like tim even tho we don't like chuck.

bart: a story initially about a time-displaced refugee whose narrative heavily mirrored a refugee's forced assimilation into a new culture WHILE also appealing to the adhd/autism crowd, which the writer was absolutely OK with because bart's story can be accepted by BOTH the refugee narrative enjoyers and the adhd/autism crowds without impinging on his narrative poignancy, plus mark waid actually loved bart and he loves that WE love bart. inshallah he will write his boy again.

kon: a story about teenagers who are being neglected, and so he's acting out every which way and partying it up because he was meant to appeal to the 90's teenage rage and show how easy it is for kids to get caught up with predators like knockout and tana because of the lack of structure and discipline in their lives, but when geoff decided to ignore nearly ten years of creator-run canon, we had to deal with his timkonnie dreams, and now geoff's leaving, so now we gotta deal with the yja nonsense and some lady's self-insert dreams going into a character whose writer is not only still alive, but actively on the bi!kon train but from the 90's crackhead era perspective. and HE'S the one most woobified.

it's absolutely facinating cuz you'd think kon would be the most hated out of the three bc of his issues with consent and the unhealthy ways he frames relationships, but instead it's BART who people hate the most! bart's being infantalized and discounted and used at a third-man-ship-prop, while tim's being rewarded for being an emotionally strugglesome white man who just came out of the closet, and it's not nearly as bad as how bart's getting his ass beat in the fandumb, but poor tim can't even date his high school homie in peace without someone crying about how he 'deserved' kon instead.

to think that the character with that many issues would be the MOST woobified character in the yj cast is insane, bc what are you even woobifying? his depersonalization? his lack of boundaries with women? his inability to read a room? the fact that nobody loves nor cares about him enough to protect him from the horrors of the world? the fact that he was a stellar example of a CSA survivor who didn't even KNOW he was a victim of CSA, and thus wasn't really able to understand the ramifications of his inappropriate behavior until years later when he forced himself into a masculine fold so he didn't fall into the trap of being like 'the old him' again?

kon's story was a story of self-hatred come to life in the most fantastical ways. he thinks it's ok to publicly date a grown woman other people are judging for dating a dumbass minor. he didn't know what a mother's love was, and had to witness it first hand with nanaue's mother. he thinks an emotionally unavailable and distant clone handler is his dad bc he doesn't KNOW anyone else who can fit into that mold. he thinks roxy's his sister but still has no problem sexualizing her in his head bc he thinks it's ok to find your older sister hot.

kon was the DEFINITION of the kids are not alright, nope, not at all, hell to the fuck no. geoff was the single biggest driver in stripping all the nuance from his character post-graduation day, but he not even here no more... what's the excuse in continuing to strip away at what makes kon, kon? i know dc's afraid to admit lois and clark looked the other way when a teenaged clone was dating an adult woman, but you woulda thought he woulda been a turnoff to the fandumb as well. he aint tho, so he suffers for it accordingly.

i can only hope karl kesel lands another contract after these new movies flop, so we can finally get a REAL follow-up to the 1994 solo. you could never make me hate that man's insane writing. justice for 1994 kon. if dc still had good writers, we coulda had a multi-year healing arc exposing how horrifying superheroing really is for people, and why clones deserve something to the equivalent of human rights. instead, he's doin fuckall and kissin m'gann. no shade to m'gann, she absolutely deserves more than the current caricature.

[wandering-lane]

I think something that not enough people get into when it comes to Simon's character is the symbology and metaphors you can pull from Falconry. Everybody loves Taka, because who wouldn't! But I've only seen a few pieces of art that actually, say, make use of falconry equipment. And even then, it wasn't really in an "Imagery and symbology" metaphor type way.

A hawk is hooded so that it won't scream. So that it won't panic. Hooding a hawk removes external stimuli. But how does that change, if we substitute Simon for the hawk? Or what about jesses, the straps of leather that keep a hawk from flying off the fist? Yes, they may be safety, but they are also a removal of freedom. The hawk could fly away at any time, but first the handler must let go of the jesses.

Or delve into the relationship between Falconer and Hawk. They are both one and separate. At any time, the hawk could leave. To hunt with a hawk is to know that it may leave you, but to put your trust in it anyways. They are your partner, but not necessarily your friend. Now, Simon's had Taka for a while. All this time, even though he can't truly take care of her. She hasn't left. The creature that is meant to leave him has not.

Anyways I just think people are missing out on a lot of potential with this.

[theflyindutchwoman]

Wait, is she touching you? She's touching you, isn't she? Hey, you know what? If she offers you money for sex, I'm gonna win this bet. Look, I am down to do whatever you want. Yeah, you are.

| ANATOMY OF A SCENE - CHENFORD EDITION 4.07 - Fire Fight

What I love about this scene is how unassuming it appears to be : for all intents and purposes, this moment is meant to offset the more serious and dramatic part of the episode. Nothing else. And yet, it hides so many layers… One of them is how it actually gives us an aperçu of Tim and Lucy going undercover together at the end of the season. With the way they flirt here, it makes their practice kiss and all their display even more inevitable. And this is the perfect continuation of Lucy's last UC op, where she flirted with him to pass him the informations she had (and save his life). That their default mode while undercover is to flirt says everything… Those mission really gives them the cover and freedom they need to explore their feelings without revealing their hand. Having Tim go undercover, with Lucy as his handler, is also a perfect role reversal, where the student has become the master. He doesn't once question her expertise : he might protest but it's more out of habit than anything else. It's certainly never out of malice. Now add Tim's baggage when it comes to that line of work… And it brings out another layer. Interestingly though, this side is not explored. The aim here is to ease him into this, without triggering any bad memories the way Lucy's very first op did. This is a short stint, with no high stakes. And this explains why he doesn't protest much when Lucy suggests he goes undercover as Jake in the first place : the fun they have here might have played a part.

Lucy is definitely enjoying this way too much, instantly ragging on Tim's choice of clothes when he shows up at the rendezvous. They haven't even started yet and he looks done already. This is such a good reminder of their first dynamic : grumpy/sunshine. He just can't hide his smile, even in front of her, anymore - like when she recites the UC rules. The walls are down. Also, the fact that she had a jacket ready for him, clearly having expected this to happen, just shows how well she knows him.

But aside from all this fun, there's this undercurrent of tension that rises to the surface when Tim puts the jacket on… or when he lifts his shirt off, showing off his abs… The atmosphere here is so different than when she caught him wearing only a towel at Rachel's place. There is an awareness now that wasn't there yet. And it's even more intense with their close proximity. Or with Lucy having to touch him. It's just so intimate. The looks they exchange… It's electric. It's close to how it felt for a moment at Tim's place… Until he realises that she's placing the mic too high on his chest… Is it distraction? Is it on purpose? Either way, the way she rips off the tape, looking so smug, and his high-pitched scream are hilarious. Her sorry doesn't even sound sorry at all. #sorrynotsorry

And from there, it goes completely unhinged. Only these two would openly flirt and riling the other up while one of them is undercover. Now, to be fair, it started normally, with Lucy coaching Tim. But the second Aston began flirting with him, professionalism went out of the window. Then again, these are the same idiots who were making out 'for work', so maybe it is their definition of professionalism. Tim is trying to remain in-character but Lucy is having the time of her life, listening to their conversation. His smirk when Aston caresses his hand and Lucy comments on it, reminding him of their bet and how he might unwittingly help her win it if their mark keeps this up… They are so flirty here, openly, taking advantage of the situation… And that really lays the groundwork for Vegas. The fact that Lucy is basically whispering in his ear, that he can't see her, brings a certain level of intimacy… And while he is talking to Aston, his reactions are for Lucy. Like his big smile : sure, he is amused by their suspect's behavior, but I have a hard time believing that this isn't Lucy's comments that provoked it. There's such a double meaning to their dialogue… Like when he tells their suspect he is 'down to do whatever [she wants]', with Lucy instantly answering him with her iconic 'yeah you are'… She couldn't have said it in a more lusty tone.

This is all ambiguous, giving them plausible deniability. It allows them to act in a less than professional way, but without any repercussion. Almost as if they're testing the water. And it makes sense that Tim tries to take a step back after this mission, to reclaim some boundaries… Well, for a short while. All of this just comes back in full force when they have to go undercover as a couple… with no going back.

[dearinglovebot]

my nonverbal person's guide to respectfully handling the handler

disclaimer: we aren't a monolith, we have different nonverbal experiences, etc. this is mostly meant to give basic information for non-mute fic writers or other creatives

is the handler nonverbal/mute? as far as we know, yes. she is a nonverbal character ergo canonically "mute". it would be disrespectful to erase this.

but she whispers. some mute people can do that. particularly elective mutes (those who can speak, but generally do not) and selective mutes (an anxiety disorder which prevents speech in certain cases). though, even those with one of the physical causes (brain injury, nerve damage, etc.) might be able to. it's deeply personal.

but if she can speak, how is she mute? mutism is defined by abnormally limited speech in daily life, not complete inability. someone who is silent 90% of the time is still mute. total mutism and partial mutism are part of the same nonverbal spectrum. however, we do have different lived experiences because of this. just like how two autistic people may have different support needs.

what causes mutism? in short, it is either a physical impairment like a TBI, stroke, neruological disorder, etc or it is psychological. often, psychological mutism is comorbid with other mental disorders. a large portion of elective mutes are autistic! it can also be a PTSD trauma response where you feel "blocked" from speaking. there's lots of ways mutism can occur.

what kind of mutism does she have? we don't know! we'll need her backstory to really know this. all we know is that she is primarily nonverbal with the ability to whisper short sentences/single words. this implies she doesn't speak often, though, as strained speech is a symptom of vocal disuse.

how do i respectfully portray her limited speech? my general rule is, what canon says goes. don't make a mute character speak more than they would in canon. does this character not speak at all? do that. does this character only speak in dire circumstances? do that. does this character occasionally whisper? do that. making a character speak less is alright, but an absolute no no is making a mute character speak more. this is ableist thinking. for example, part of ABA therapy for autistic elective mutes is making them "learn" to speak against their will. mutism is a disorder which will often be "cured" in media. like many other disabilities, we don't want magic cures. we want accommodations and acceptance.

how can i portray her communicating? look at canon! she uses facial cues, physical cues, and her whistle. those are all ways she canonically communicates with others nonverbally. maybe she and her raptors communicate different things by how long she blows the whistle or by making multiple whistle noises at once. maybe there's more than one whistle and that's simply her attack whistle. get creative!