#also mostly dark mode edition apparently

[sweet-cynicalstrain]

And an alternate version:

The Untamed + @unhelpfultarot (Part 4 of Untamed x Unhelpful Tarot memes)

[llamagoddessofficial]

Idk if someone else has already asked this, but what about a Birdtale au? Like Sans, Red, and Skull are either wild birds or live in an aviary or something like that. They would probably try to preen Mc and sing her courting songs

I did a harpy au ages ago but the recent fanart by @iridescent-serpent has made my 'i love birds' brain go AWOOGA. We're doing it again, folks; zoo edition this time.

Big, clawed, dangerous and scary bird monsters living in a big aviary since they have a habit of hunting down people.

Sans: A beautiful owl harpy with steely grey, blue and black markings that help him blend into blue-toned darkness. Since he's mostly nocturnal, he has two modes: day mode, and night mode.

In day mode spends pretty much every hour napping in his aviary, enjoying whatever patches of sun he finds; he's very cat-like, and he's worked up a reputation of being lazy thanks to his constant napping. Staff can actually go in and out of his enclosure if they're quiet, which is a big deal for a species as aggressive as a harpy. It's important they keep their distance from him to avoid disturbing him, though... he's tired, but he can still lash out with deadly precision. At night, he really acts like a cat. He's hunting, he's active and terrifying, he attacks with the intent to kill. You hear nothing, you see nothing, not even his eyelights. He blends in so seamlessly with the night that nobody dares go near his enclosure, there's few things as dangerous as an owl harpy at night.

... However, Mc is the exception. Like always. When she's around in the day, he'll sleep through pretty much everything she does. She isn't food or a threat, so why get up? He'll sleep even if she goes right up to him and grabs his wings- which she sometimes has to do, when she's looking him over for injuries or signs of illness. She does all of his medical checkups, and he seems to like the touching, if his purring is anything to go by. And at night, he just uses his incredible silence and camouflage to get up close and steal her keys. He has an eye for shiny things, and a taste for her flustered attention when she looks for him to get her shiny things back.

Red: Red is a big, stunning bird of prey harpy. Something resembling a hawk or eagle; and he's got the hawk foul temper, with a habit of biting and slashing at anyone who encroaches on his territory (enclosure). But a running joke at the aviary, in the same vein as that guy who's 'married' to a crane, is that Red is Mc's husband.

Red is an aggressive harpy who likes to hunt and fight. But he's also a showoff, and apparently, a complete romantic- he's made it clear that he's decided Mc is his mate. He lets her into his enclosure, and he shows all the courtship behaviours under the sun... he displays and shakes his wings, brings her gifts, puffs his feathers up, preens her hair, nuzzles her face like they're knocking beaks. He even sings, and tries to initiate dances.

For Mc, it's a balancing act of what behaviours she does and doesn't reciprocate. She doesn't want to give him ideas, but he gets really cranky (and won't eat) if she totally ignores him. She's learned she can ignore his attempts at dances or nuzzles without him being too bothered- but she absolutely has to accept his gifts, and let him preen.

Harpies, especially hawk harpies, have one mate for life. As much as the other staff tease her for being Red's one true love, nobody can deny that his affections make everyone's lives at the aviary much easier.

Skull: A massive beast of a bird, with a wingspan tens of feet wide, he resembles one of those massive alpine vultures- thick snow-resistant plumage that's very soft to the touch. He once lived a solitary life high in the mountains, so he isn't great with people or other birds, but he has to stay at the aviary because the same incident that caused his head injury also gave him a large scar down the back of one wing that leaves him unable to fly for any longer than a few seconds.

Despite his penchant for gutting people with those giant claws of his, he's very soft and docile with Mc. He's also a highly curious beast- he follows her around his enclosure like a puppy, observing whatever she's doing... he also likes observing her, his face often only a few inches from hers as she works, always letting out a thrumming coo of delight at her presence. He's very soft, and since he used to live in a brutally cold environment he instinctively dislikes the sight of her being cold and is always trying to pull her into his arms to keep her warm.

His only issue is his 'sulking'. When he gets upset that she's leaving, or he thinks someone else is getting too close to the two of them, he likes to pick Mc up and fly/climb to the highest perch point in his enclosure. His wing might be injured but he can still flap, and his time in the mountains made him an adept climber. He'll sulk as high up as he can, squishing her close until he can be food-bribed into letting her go.

[munchboxart]

I wanna talk about my top 5 musicians that I got into this year + 2 bonuses. Not one's that released this year, just ones that I found out this year.

These will be out of order since I don't want to rank them. Oh also I'll only share 1 song that's my favorite from them.

NewJeans

Ok sorry to start with a remix (If I had to choose an original, it'd be "ETA") but this is the song that introduced me to NewJeans. Apparently, I think "Super Shy" was their big trendsetting song but I haven't heard of it till now I think. I love their style so much!!

Hakushi Hasegawa

I shared a couple of his songs earlier in the year, with Doku being a standout because it sounded like Nintendo took a lot of inspiration from them for one of their Hero Mode OSTs in Splat3 (though I didn't hear about it till this year). I had a hard time choosing between Doku, Somoku and a couple other songs from Air Ni Ni (Only You, Desert and Itsukushii Hibi are one of my favorites in there), but I think Doku is such a great song as an introduction to them (Hasegawa uses they/them pronouns by the way).

MAXIMUM THE HORMONE

I... Never heard of the name "Maximum The Hormone" until this year. In-fact, the way I officially learned their band was through a Chainsaw Man chapter titled "ChuChu Lovely MuniMuni MuraMura". AND I WATCHED THE ANIME FIRST. I HAD NO IDEA THEY WERE THE ONE WHO MADE THE 3RD ED. And if we wanna go even further, I never watched Death Note, AT MOST, I'VE HEARD A SNIPPET OF THE OP, WAY LONG AFTER IT'S RELEVANCY and I still didn't know of their name. I do like all of the songs I've mentioned, but I think F is a super solid song that's also a normal song length with a good guitar solo.

Femtanyl

So I found out about Femtanyl from their biggest song titled "KATAMARI" and of course I had to listen to it because I love Katamari!! I love the Prince!! Most of their songs are super good, I considered either this one, Katamari or Push ur t3mprr. Their newest one with Danny Brown is also really good.

Sonic Coaster Pop

Spotify actually did a good thing and suggested me a really good album for once. I LOVEEE THIS ALBUM, I LOVE THAT EACH SONG TRANSITIONS TO THE NEXT ONE!! But Super Speed Pop Star is the standout one for me. IT'S SUCH A MUNCH ALBUM. I think this counts as Neo Shibuya-Kei or Electropop (correct me if I'm wrong) and I've dipped my toes a bit into it for a long while like CAPSULE, Nagisa Cosmetic (first one I was introduced into the genre) and Plus Tech Squeeze Box.

I've been wanting to find more songs like them, but I haven't been able to much, mostly because I like finding them in the wild through suggestions from the platform I'm listening on. Also, because I like a lot more of the electro styled songs rather than traditional Shibuya-Kei (which is still good!!). I'm really happy to find a new one to get into this year.

BONUS

I'm adding 2 more because one of them is a band that just came out this year or debuted really late 2023, and the other is just 1 really standout songs that I REALLY like.

ILLIT

ILLIT popped off hard for their debut(?) with Magnetic being their trendsetting song, but I like this one a lot more in their album. The reason I'm putting this as a bonus is because they only have like... 5 songs? So I can't really say if I'll get super into them but I think they're starting off really strong!

FLASHING LIGHTS/IMAGES WARNING

Special Interest – Concerning Peace (Machine Girl Remix)

FLASHING LIGHTS/IMAGES WARNING, I couldn't even share the original video because it's much worse than this one, but that aside, I really really love this song. It helps a lot that I got into Dai Dark this year and I associate this song a lot with it. I really want to do an edit one day with either Dai Dark or Dorohedoro with this song. One day... MAYBE SOON SINCE I LEARNED A BIT MORE OF VIDEO EDITING (even though it's just the very basics).

Music is something I don't really share that often or like sharing that much, though I figured I'd talk about it this year since I'm very passionate about listening to music. I've also started sharing much more music this year and it feels nice. I know some of these aren't that niche but I just learned about them this year and wanted to talk about them.

[local-diavolo-anon]

Some doodles from an au where Sun and Moon are just roles "Eclipse" plays around children

I don't post most of the things i draw and i want to start posting them more ^^

Some things about the au for who is interested:

Edit: some of these infos are outdated, and not entirely correct, but still explain the au fairly well

Y/N is the new daycare assistant, they applied for the job after ending up leaving their old one at their local school

They like their work, a lot, and Sun as well! He is probably the best coworker they had in a long time and his energy and positive attitude is contagious

Moon a bit less because 'Moon' was a bit of a creepy ass at first, ya know, good ol'moon scaring the shit out of them on their first day

Maybe hunting them for sport

And being overall a menace for shits and giggles

The proper au story takes place during the playtime of the game

Starting the same day Y/N learns 'Sun' and 'Moon' aren't actually things

But rather, the names of two failed Ais that accidentally merged together during coding and formed Eclipse

Eclipse never actually told nor showed himself to anyone, mostly out of fear, rather he activats different protocols depending on the light conditions to maintain either personas

So in the light he was 'Sun' and in the dark he was 'Moon'

He actually took the idea from reading on his own code that his role was one of a pair of actors, and later applied the same logic to alternate between daytime and naptime modes

He could act, so why not use that to avoid being nuked out of existence after being labelled as a glitch?

So either way, Y/N finds out by accidentally walking on him as he was shifting between the two (they had forgotten their keys in the daycare and the walk of shame wasn't enough apparently)

Y/N has a bit of a heart attack and it takes a lot of explaining to calm them down and some apologizing for, in a sense, lying to them

Even if neither of you can properly call it lying, they were an actor and they were playing the corporate approved roles

And that's when everybody gets the notice of a kid lost in the pizzaplex

Eclipse offers to help Y/N find the kid and shenanigans ensue because of it, especially because when i said nobody knows Eclipse exists, i meant nobody

So when they go to help gregory, neither he or Freddy recognize him

As some more random notes: maintaining either appearences feels like forcing a smile or a frown for a long time, so not pleasant

A relaxed form would be a merging of both Sun's and Moon's appearences

He has 4 arms, the second pair is just hidden within his body and lack chasing, so he never pulls them out

He has a down-to-earth kind of personality, he is calm and positive, acrs mature and is quick at problem-solving; sometime however he can be a little shit as well (he is not immune to moonish bastard instincts)

He is also the only one, in any au i drew until now thay had the rays drawn like that, they are soft like in my other au but also flat and heavier

Touching his hat is forbidden and will get angry if you do (a kind way to say: run.)

[doubleddenden]

This took longer than I thought it would. This is a list of all the Pokemon I've used throughout my entire Insurgence run. I tried to prioritize new forms over older Pokemon, but jesus this might just be the most I've rotated over a single game. Minus Mew- but he's our buddy so I feel like he has to be included.

Sort of a mini review under the cut- I enjoyed it, but I do feel like there's places where improvements could be made.

Insurgence feels like a classic "try-hard" edgy fan game, but in reality it hasn't been out for too long, at least since XY and ORAS though. Its a bit "3 Edgy 5 me" with all the cults and stuff, but I respect it for a very passion filled story, maps to explore (including mode7 for a soaring map, WOW, that's very cool), character customization, but probably my main draw was the Delta Pokemon- which were regional variants BEFORE regional variants came out, and are basically mutated or experimented Pokemon. Lots of creativity goes into each and every design, and the fakemon quality is immense. The designs are edgy, but I LOVE edgy designs.

The gameplay is very hard, even on easy mode, and you'll probably be doing a LOT of grinding- but its kind of rewarding when you either figure out a good strategy to beat an opponent or go through an anime training arc in a secret base with a guy with a bunch of masochistic Audino to gain some serious levels and steam roll the team that gave you trouble before.

The game has some neat options, including a difficulty level setting (mind you, again, easy is still hard but closer to a traditional Pokemon game for the most part. I played Normal until the Elite 4), and surprisingly an option to keep the story dark or to cut it back a tad. There's also character customization if you're into that- personally i liked most of the beginning options best, so I just kept my guy as is.

I have a few gripes- mainly that Delta Pokemon are so few and far between in comparison to the older Pokemon, or there's a bunch that are only available AFTER you've beaten the main game. Unlike variants, Deltas are usually one encounter captures- which don't get me wrong, most of the encounters all have some pretty great stories attached, but I would have enjoyed being able to build a team with more variety earlier on.

Still, what's here is great- In particularly I LOVE my Mega Delta Charizard and my Mega Delta Typhlosion- MDTy in particular feels like it gets a mega on top of its mega due to a form change it gets in darkness or rain. I also love all of the story rich post game content and new areas to explore, and being able to fight certain characters as well.

I know Azurite has kinda gone... Ghost? I guess? But apparently it's going to be a mostly fakemon focused followup made by a similar team. I wanna play it!

Overall a 7/10 experience.

Now... For the "Cool Club" Army- or the team.

No blurb about each team member because that'd take forever, but I'll go down in order of Hall of Fame, new species, then older ones

HOF- All Deltas

Mega Charizard/Ghoulzard, Ghost/Dragon

Mega Typhlosion/Sparky, Electric/Steel

Scizor/Sickle, Ice/Fighting

Crustle/Cake c:, Fairy/Normal

Haxorus/Anchor, Water/Steel

Metagross/Aureliag, Bug/Ground

Other important Members, all Deltas

Quagsire/Jacky, Grass/Fire

Muk/Crusty, Ground (Horsea minion form)

Hydreigon/N*Sync, Ground/Poison

Gallade/Electra, Electric/Ice

Ambipom/Tricky, Ghost/Normal

Non Deltas, in no particular order

Mew/MewMew

Lucario/Kyago

Feraligatr/Dundee

Typhlosion/Tindr

Butterfree/CantBelieve

Golem/Geoffany

Persian/Pen

Shiny Hydreigon/Da'Bee'Uls (pronounced "The Beetles" in a stereotypical Bri'ish accent)

Electivire/Thundervolt

Nidoking/Buddy

Anyways, I edited my sprite using official sprites to sort of match the MC (hence the purple hair).

The rest were pulled directly from the game files. Massive kudos to each and every artist involved in the fakemon production. I'd love to see these fakemon in a future project so I can use them some more.

[ashes0909]

For ao3 wrapped [writers edition]

Favorite work you wrote this year?

What do you listen to while writing?

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Which work of yours have you reread the most

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Favorite work you wrote this year?/Which work of yours have you reread the most

Writing for different fandoms makes this so hard to choose a favorite work for me! I definitely have a favorite for each ship/fandom!

Ultimately, though, I think my Steve/Tony fic “I’m…not dating your brother?” is my favorite, because it is also the fic from the year that I keep coming back to reread the most. Something about making Natasha and Tony twins, and having Natasha push Steve along to his feelings realization is just a lot of fun!

What do you listen to while writing?

I have two writing modes primarily: sit on the couch and dither away a couple hundred words to the TV or sprint time. If it's sprint time, and I'm looking to get closer to 1k in a couple sprints, I exclusively listen to this one group, Vitamin String Quartet. I don't know why or how or when I found them, but for the last decade they are who I gravitate to.

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

According to AO3, I've written 60,000 words this year. If you subtract my True Blood Stony fic (which was written in previous years but is counted because I started posting it this year) and my compilation fic that rolled into this year but is mostly words from years past, that's still 40,000 words.

I wish I could pinpoint to a favorite line or passage but one that sticks out is this moment between Draco and Harry from my Hedonistic Holiday fic

Draco hissed back then bit Harry’s bottom lip, making it so that Harry couldn’t speak the spell but it didn’t matter, the need built in him so much that between one blink and the next they were in his hotel room, a silent, wandless spell he manifested by thought alone. Draco stayed in his arms, but broke their lips apart so he could look around at Harry’s hotel room, then back to Harry with eyes wide with awe and dark with lust. “You really wordlessly apparated us, didn’t you?” Harry shrugged. He didn’t want to talk about magic right now, he just wanted Draco’s lips back on his.  Draco’s laugh carried with it a hysterical sort of sound. “Bloody hell, Potter--” “It’s Harry,” Harry reminded him, tugging him closer by the hips. He may never let go of this man’s hips again. “I know who you are, you prat.” Draco pulled him close, so he could whisper feverishly into his ear. “You’re so annoyingly talented, it makes me want to see what else you could do without even a passing thought.” “Sorry.” Harry beamed in Draco’s arms. “All my thoughts are occupied.” Harry kissed him again. 

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Honestly, every year whatever new characters I find wiggling into my brain and heart become the ones that are most difficult to write.

Last year that was Game Changers characters Ilya and Shane, this year it's definitely Anakin and Obi-Wan. This is 100% because, as a writer, I have to grow into their voices and worlds etc. But, funnily enough, they were also my favorite to write for the same reasons!

Loved these questions. Thanks for sending these in - ao3 wrapped.

[miloscat]

[Review] The Golden Compass (PSP)

His Dark Tie-in Game.

Wayyy back in 2016 I played the DS licenced game for the Northern Lights movie. I still haven’t seen the film but the PSP game is a decent way to follow up the Arctic animal companion game Never Alone, thematically. The DS game was unique among all the released versions; every other port was made by Shiny Entertainment. Remarkably, they put out the same game on PC, Wii, PSP, PS2, PS3, and 360.

The PSP might actually be the format it’s best suited to, with its cramped level design and disjointed gameplay. Or to put it another way, every other port was hampered by game design decisions built around the limitations of the weakest platform. My experience did suffer from mid-level loading and frequent audio hitches, not to mention the less-than-ideal PSP thumbstick. But there’s some kind of charm to the relatively low-res textures that are trying to capture this detailed fantasy world.

This version of the game certainly does a better job adapting the film than the DS game did (although apparently the structure of the game is based on a version of the film prior to a last-minute edit that rearranged the third act), with a richer 3D world and a mix of in-engine cutscenes and FMV movie clips. There’s spoken dialogue throughout with Lyra and Pan’s actors reprising their roles and everyone else with decent soundalikes, while the gameplay has a try at representing different tones and scenes with its various states and modes.

The problem is that none of these modes is well executed, at all. When it’s Lyra 3D platforming it’s clumsy, with a bad camera and no drop shadow. When Iorek is brawling it’s shallow and repetitive. Lyra and Pan are sometimes called upon to do “evasion” sequences of boring QTEs, while Lyra’s silver-tongued conversations are presented as gauntlets of tedious (and difficult!) minigames. These latter two also have a set of consumable items to make them easier, although you get totally loaded up with more than you’d ever need.

I do like how Pan has different forms that let him buddy-up with Lyra for different abilities: the ermine takes on precision actions and can scan your surrounds for interactables and lore, with the cat you can dash and climb, the hawk lets you glide Pathless-style, and the sloth(!) can grab and swing on poles. They’ve also added bits to the story which I always love to see in a tie-in game, although it’s mostly in the form of new boss characters for Iorek to fight, like an electro-tank, a magic shaman, a super-hunter with a wolverine dæmon, the witch-queen, and a heavily armoured flamethrower guy. But the strongest sections of the game are when it slows down and Lyra can explore an area, take in the detail they’ve packed in to make it feel real. These “adventure game” feeling parts also spotlight the alethiometer feature.

The eponymous device has a complex series of symbols, which Lyra gradually learns more about. This is often represented by picking up a big glowing collectible in the world, but there’s cleverer occasions where an object in the world will grant you the understanding of one of the three meanings of an icon, representing how Lyra’s life experiences are giving her deeper wisdom which leads to more accomplished use of the oracular object. You can then ask it prebaked questions, whether for plot or fleshing out the lore, using the meanings you’ve discovered and filling in gaps as a player by induction or intuition. Sadly this does then lead to another boring minigame, but there’s the core of a really interesting dynamic here.

Due to the nature of the story the back half is very action-heavy when Iorek becomes playable, although they move a section of this to the start of the game, I guess for a more exciting cold open. But it’s rarely engaging enough to not become frustrating or dull, even with how varied the gameplay styles are. Every individual part is stilted and ends up dragging, so ultimately the game feels like it both skips around and plods along. The sprinkling of good ideas, occasional cheesiness, and the strength of the source material can sometimes shine through, but on the whole... what a mess.

[red-talisman]

An unbetaed snippet of post-CQL canon Yunmeng reconciliation, which is mostly extremely morbid and blunt conversation after beating each other hard enough that they’re too tired for their usual conflicting modes of emotional avoidance.

EDIT: now edited and posted on AO3. :D

CW for past suicidal ideation. Part of my “let WWX express some of his cynical humor and creepiness more often” and “let WWX find out about JC’s own sacrifice goddamnit” agendas.

___________________

Jiang Cheng stares blankly into the trees, their trunks slowly disappearing in the deepening darkness of twilight. Wei Wuxian’s back is warm against his and heaving for breath just as heavily. He thinks his ankle might be broken, but Wei Wuxian is probably worse off.

“You’re an asshole,” Wei Wuxian says thickly.

“Hypocrite,” Jiang Cheng mutters without heat, and Wei Wuxian manages a snort between his gasps.

“Yeah.” After a moment, he adds, with an echo of the old Yiling Laozu in his voice, “You know that if you ever do something like that again, I’ll probably find a way to do something worse than I did before.”

“If I do what, save your life by pulling the same fucking sacrificial shit that you do?”

“I swear to every god out there that I will bring you back as a fierce corpse and kill you myself,” Wei Wuxian says in a pleasant, albeit still somewhat breathless, tone. “I will dismember your carcass and make Jin Guangyao look like a fucking amateur.”

“Good thing Mo Xuanyu’s core isn’t worth shit, then,” Jiang Cheng replies. All of his attention is focused on the feeling of his brother’s bones and muscles moving against his own spine.

“You’re an asshole.”

“Yeah.”

There’s a pause. Somewhere distant Jiang Cheng hears the panicked yells of what’s probably the juniors they left behind a few li back. Then Wei Wuxian sighs. “We’re really fucked up.”

Jiang Cheng takes his time considering and discarding several possible responses. His ankle hurts like a bitch; Mo Xuanyu’s core may not be worth shit, but damn if his asshole genius brother hasn’t figured out how to make the most of it anyway. He finally settles on a tired, “Yeah.”

The silence stretches on long enough that Wei Wuxian goes on, more quietly, “You and Shijie are the only reason I didn’t die in the Burial Mounds. The Wens grabbed me before I knew whether or not you’d even survived the core transfer.”

Jiang Cheng tilts his head just enough to glance briefly over his shoulder. “How did you survive the Burial Mounds?”

“Nope, no, I’m not putting that on you. Not even Lan Zhan knows. I can’t...I can’t do that.”

“Fine. Then tell me, is any of it going to come back and bite us in the ass at the worst possible moment?” he asks dryly.

Wei Wuxian snorts, humorless. “Nah. It’s all mine.”

“Would you tell me if it wasn’t?”

When Wei Wuxian hesitates for a few telling seconds, Jiang Cheng mutters, “You fucking asshole.”

“Yeah.” Wei Wuxian sighs again.

“You left me.”

“You didn’t need me.”

“Who the fuck said that?”

The knobs of Wei Wuxian’s spine are starting to press painfully into Jiang Cheng’s. Wei Wuxian snorts. “I was practically a fierce corpse myself when I dragged myself out of the Burial Mounds. Your position as sect leader was too precarious,” he says bluntly. “You were seventeen years old with no real family, a sister who was getting married off anyway, and an adopted brother who’d been controversial years before the war even happened and who was clearly half-mad and getting worse. And I...my mind never really left the Mounds, honestly.” He coughs, makes a wet sound, and spits. “If I stayed much longer I was going to end up dragging you back into Hell with me. I was a risk you couldn’t afford and I wasn’t going to destroy Yunmeng Jiang a second time.”

"Don’t pull that bullshit, Wei Wuxian.” Jiang Cheng is so, so tired. “Mother was wrong. You know Wen Chao was looking for any excuse. You’re as responsible for that as our shidi was for using a round kite.”

Wei Wuxian doesn’t respond. Jiang Cheng makes a mental note to beat that nonsense out of him in the future, when he can lift his arms again and his ankle isn’t most likely broken.

But Jiang Cheng remembers what it was like to try turning weapons, human and sword alike, into tools of peace. There are still whole weeks of the Sunshot Campaign that are just smears of sense-memory: the cacophony of screams and curses; the reek of mass funeral pyres and the soft ash drifting through the air like black, silent snow; the startling warmth of being suddenly drenched in blood after Sandu sliced open another living human. Half the time he’d come back to himself laughing hysterically, unable to see anything through the tears on his face, and as the war dragged on, the tears eventually dried up. It had taken months afterwards to settle into the mindset of rebuilding for Lotus Pier. (If he’s honest with himself, he never really did settle there. There's always a part of him still dragging itself through mud made by blood spilled on battlefields and churned up by soldiers' boots.)

“Jin Ling’s the only reason I never actually killed myself after you died,” Jiang Cheng says. “...Don’t you ever tell him that.”

“Wait, what?” Wei Wuxian snaps.

“You saying I would’ve died without a core - it was never about not having a core, you idiot, not really.” Not to say that hadn’t hurt, and Jiang Cheng really doesn’t know how he would’ve managed life as a commoner. But there were still worse things to lose than a core, which had also just lost and was about to lose yet again. “I had a few ideas on how to do it, depending on where I was and what was available when I decided I might as well get it over with.” He huffs a brief laugh and idly rubs his thumb over Sandu’s hilt. “I thought poison might be a good option, if a little heavy-handed on the metaphor.”

“I’d be laughing,” Wei Wuxian says flatly, “if you weren’t talking about killing my little brother.”

“Am I?”

“You never stopped.”

The silhouettes of the trees start to blur in Jiang Cheng’s eyes. “You left. You left, and everyone died, and somehow I was responsible for keeping our sister’s baby alive while the wolves tried to eat what remained of our sect from every direction. You left.”

“I never wanted to.”

“But you did.”

“Because I didn’t see any other way to keep you safe.”

“Because you chose strangers over family.”

“Because I didn’t see any other way to keep you safe,” Wei Wuxian hisses. Apparently they’re not so exhausted that they can’t get pissed after all. “I was hardly human anymore, Jiang Cheng. If I was going to die, then at least I’d die actually managing to save innocent people this time around and you would be safe from me.”

“I never wanted you to do that for me!”

“And I never wanted you to do that for me!”

The tension that had them both struggling to sit up straight suddenly breaks, and their backs collide again. Jiang Cheng grits his teeth against the urge to groan over the pain that ricochets through his chest and down his limbs. He hears a muffled yelp from behind him.

“You’re a damned fucking asshole and you’re my fucking brother and I hate you and don’t you ever assume you know what I need again, do you understand me,” snarls Jiang Cheng.

“You’re the damned fucking asshole and if you ever do that again then I will brand a reminder into your flesh right over the scar from the discipline whip,” Wei Wuxian snaps back, because he's never held back from fighting dirty if he thought it necessary.

“Fine!”

“Fine.”

They both stare into the dark forest, in opposite directions. It sounds like the juniors have finally picked up their tracks. Useless, the whole lot - Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian hadn't exactly been subtle in stepping aside for a private conversation that inevitably escalated, how could it take the kids this long?

"Those dumbasses had better not forget that we're on a night-hunt," he says.

"Like we did?" Wei Wuxian replies.

"You started it."

"Did not."

"No, I'm not doing this with you."

"Hey, you started this one."

"Shut the fuck up."

They fall silent again. A cold breeze picks up and Jiang Cheng feels Wei Wuxian shiver, pressing back just a little more firmly against Jiang Cheng for warmth, and he...leans back too. Just a little.

"I'm still fucking pissed at you," says Wei Wuxian.

"And I've got years' worth to pay you back for," says Jiang Cheng.

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Sect Leader Jiang!" they hear. "Senior Wei!"

"If you don't show up for the mid-autumn festival," Jiang Cheng suddenly says, "I'll come drag you out of the Cloud Recesses by the heels."

"But the dogs - "

"Don't be an idiot. Jin Ling's dog is the only one allowed in Lotus Pier, you know that."

Well, come to think of it, Wei Wuxian probably doesn't know that, but whatever, now he does. Wei Wuxian is terrifyingly silent, but before Jiang Cheng can say something that will inevitably bring them back to throwing fists, he hears a quiet, "Yeah, okay."

"Do you think they killed each other?" they hear Lan Jingyi asking loudly. "I mean, Sandu Shengshou versus the Yiling Patriarch - who would win?"

"Don't be an idiot," retorts Jin Ling, and Wei Wuxian's body briefly shakes with a laugh. "My uncle, obviously."

"They're both your uncle, idiot!"

Jiang Cheng just sighs and lets his head fall back against Wei Wuxian’s shoulder.

[zaph1337]

Monster Hunter Rating 21: Khezu, the Blank Stare

When I reviewed Basarios, I made a joke about how the devs likely gave it human teeth over sharp teeth because the latter might not give children nightmares, but I don’t actually think that the devs ever intended Basarios to be more terrifying than any other monster in the game. This monster, however, is literally the stuff of nightmares, and I’m not misusing “literally” here. This may be the longest review I’ve written yet, so buckle up. Time to get spooky with Khezu!

(How it appears in Monster Hunter 1)

(How it appears in Monster Hunter Rise)

Appearance: I think there’s been a mistake here; last I checked, Capcom wasn’t making Silent Hill games. Seriously, this thing would fit right into that series, and not just ‘cause its phallic neck lends itself well to metaphors. The pale, veiny skin, the leech-like mouth, the complete lack of eyes...Khezu’s unlike any other monster in the series because it’s the only monster that’s meant to be horrifying to look at. It’s got flabby, tattered wings and gecko-like feet, but its main characteristic (other than the head) is its tail, the tip of which can open up into a suction cup that allows Khezu to stick to ceilings.

Obviously, Khezu’s an abomination that came from a really dark place in someone’s mind, but that’s just it: Khezu is a monster that appeared in an MH developer’s nightmare either before or during the production of the first Monster Hunter game, and said developer (I don’t actually remember who) decided to put it in the game. I learned of this from the Twitch streams of a streamer called DuncanCan’tDie, who’s a huge MH fan that’s on great terms with Capcom. Unfortunately, I can’t find any other sources for this claim, but I don’t think he’s lying for a few reasons; firstly, like I said, he’s on great terms with Capcom. He’s friends with some people who work there, and he even has a tattoo designed by someone on the MH team he called “Kaname-san” (who didn’t actually give him the tattoo, but drew the design that a tattoo artist used) and the only person who could go by that name is Kaname Fujioka, the man who literally directed several MH games, including the first one, and who was the art director for Monster Hunter World. So yeah. Duncan and Capcom get along great, and if he was spreading false rumors, they’d probably know about it.

The second reason I believe Duncan about Khezu’s origin is that someone once came into one of his streams (and I was there at the time) and started spouting “lore” about two monsters that looked like they could be related, but actually weren’t. Duncan flat out told this person that what they were claiming wasn’t mentioned anywhere and asked for sources...which the loregiver did not provide. In fact, after Duncan started getting on their case, I don’t think they said a word for the rest of the stream. Duncan believes that this person was just making stuff up to sound like they knew a lot about MH and weren’t aware that he was an MH expert, and I doubt that someone who would call someone out on that would do the same thing, especially if he had a reputation to uphold.

I apologize if I spent a lot of time talking about that, but I didn’t want people getting on my case because they couldn’t find anything to support my claims. But in conclusion, I believe that Khezu truly was born of a nightmare, and that’s awesome. It makes the Silent Hill comparison even more fitting since the enemies in those games are basically projections of the protagonists’ psyches. Disturbing enemies are much more effective if they scare(d) the people who created them, and Khezu is certainly disturbing. Because of that, as well as its ominous origin, I’m giving it a 9/10.

Behavior: Khezu mostly inhabit caves, jungles, and swamps due to the need for their skin to be moisturized, though they usually only leave caves to hunt, which they don’t have to do very often due to the plentiful fat beneath their skin, which also keeps them warm. Their favorite hunting strategy is to ambush their prey from a location usually concealed by darkness, which is made easier by their extendable necks. However, their reliance on darkness, as well as their preference to dwell in caves, has made them completely blind and reliant on their other senses; despite not having visible nostrils or ears, Khezu have great hearing and a very good sense of smell. Back to hunting, while they need to subdue larger prey, smaller ones, like Kelbi, are slowly swallowed whole...which is apparently something you can actually witness in the games, according to TV Tropes (I normally stick to the wiki and what I already know for resources, but I went to the “Monster Hunter / Nightmare Fuel” page while searching for another source for Khezu’s origin as a nightmare). As if this thing needed to be more disturbing, it doesn’t always kill its prey before it tries to swallow it, so the Kelbi you can see it eat is constantly struggling as the Khezu swallows it bottom-first. That’s...that’s messed up. But it gets worse.

Practically every monster in this series isn’t any more intelligent than what we consider a normal animal to be. Aside from Lynians, which are people, the smartest monster I’ve talked about is the Velociprey, which might not be as smart as, say, an irl crow, which is very intelligent by the standards of nonhuman animals. What I’m getting at here is that most of the monsters in this series don’t really take any sadistic pleasure in killing and eating prey; they just do it to survive. But Khezu is different. In several MH games, including Rise, the first time you go on a quest to kill a specific monster, the gameplay is preceded by a cutscene that shows off how powerful or intimidating that monster is (and in Rise’s case, you also get a poem). Here’s Khezu’s intro, and I want you to pay attention to what Khezu does from 0:24-0:30:

That’s right: this thing “looked” right at the monster it was going to eat, and smiled. That isn’t just me anthropomorphizing it, either; I’ve seen what Khezu looks like outside of that cutscene, and even with its mouth closed it has a neutral expression, so it smiling actually means something, and considering the context, it’s obvious what the devs wanted us to take from it: Khezu likes killing. It enjoyed the prospect of swallowing that monster whole while it was still alive and struggling, which means that this is the first monster I’ve talked about that we can definitively say is evil rather than just an animal. Rather fitting for a living nightmare, I would say. And if you thought all that was disturbing, I have some...unfortunate news. I hope you aren’t eating anything right now, ‘cause this next part is just gross.

Y’know how some wasps lay their eggs inside other bugs so the eggs have incubation they can eat when they hatch? Well, uh...Khezu do that, too. And they’re hermaphrodites that, from what I can gather, don’t need to mate, so any adult Khezu is capable of injecting another monster with its “whelps” (not saying that Khezu are always “pregnant,” just saying that any of them can be). And you know the really crazy part? After everything I said about Khezu, there are still people in the MH world that tame them and keep them as pets. Why would you want to have a slimy, flabby, sadistic, parasitoid, 14-to-40-foot abomination as a pet!? God, people are so freaking weird.

EDIT (05/07/2021): My older brother reminded me that I forgot about one of the odder aspects of Khezu; when you enter a fight with a Main Monster, its battle theme plays (don’t know if every monster has a unique theme, but several do, to my knowledge), but Khezu has no theme to speak of. I don’t know if this is true in every game, or even if it was intentional at first, but it’s still both funny and eerie at the same time. There’s no background music until you get in a fight, so if you somehow tick off a Khezu without seeing it, then it can sneak up on you. “But Zaph, the moment a monster enters ‘fight mode,’ it roars! So the Khezu will give away its position!” See, you’d be right about that if it wasn’t for the fact that, according to TV Tropes at least, Khezu’s roar sounds just like wind--howling wind, yes, but wind all the same. I don’t know if there’s any howling wind SFX in the areas where Khezu live, so for all I know you’ll still be able to identify it in a hurry, but just imagine what that’s like in-universe! Imagine that you’re walking around in the Frost Islands or something and hear a chilling wind from out of nowhere. Unless you’re an experienced hunter, you’d likely have no idea if that was a Khezu or not, so you wouldn’t know if it’s too late to run or not, or even if you should run at all. Going back out of universe, the details I just described are very nice touches to a monster that was already horrifying in behavior, so I’m bumping the score here up from the 7 I initially gave it to 8/10.

Abilities: All of the “Flying Wyverns” I’ve talked about so far have had a lot of trouble with the whole “flying” part, and Khezu are no exception; they’re better at it than Diablos and Gravios, but they still need to flap really frantically to stay in the air. They’re great at jumping, though, and their gecko-like feet allow them to scale walls and stick to ceilings, something that their tails also allow them to do. Khezu are Thunder-element monsters capable of discharging electricity in a manner of ways, including shooting balls of it from their mouths and emitting it all around their bodies. Since Khezu like to spend time around water, their attacks are even more dangerous, as everything near them will likely be wet and therefore more conductive. This also applies to Khezu themselves, which may be why they stick their tails onto the ground before discharging electricity; they ground themselves so that they don’t shock themselves. Finally, Khezu saliva is very dangerous; we don’t know if it’s electric or acidic, but anything that gives off smoke when it touches something probably isn’t good for your health, which is why owning a pet Khezu is so dangerous; their drool can literally kill you. 7/10.

Equipment: Most Khezu weapons are as interesting as you’d expect them to be, considering the monster they’re made from. Most of them have a horror aesthetic, like this Great Sword called the Khezu Shock Sword:

I just noticed that the skin is actually stretched over the blade, rather than being what the blade’s attached to. Gross, but I never expected Khezu weapons to look pretty. There are also weapons which emphasize the monster’s electric aspect, like this Gunlance called the Full Voltage:

It still has Silent Hill vibes due to its “rusty hospital” aesthetic, and looking at it long enough reveals little details it inherited from Khezu. Speaking of hospitals, there are a couple of weapons based off of syringes, such as the Khezu Syringe, which is a Light Bowgun, and a Lance from MHFG that’s literally a giant hypodermic needle, but I didn’t want to show those off in case they triggered anyone with needle phobia. The last weapon I’m gonna show will be very familiar to those of us who’ve played the Rise demo a lot: the Insect Glaive known as the Bolt Chamber!

I like the green tube running from the sac between the blade and the shaft of the glaive; according to the Bolt Chamber’s in-game description, it uses that “pulsating device” to steal energy from its targets. If you mentioned that to me before I grabbed its image for this review, I probably would have asked how it did that. If you then pointed out the mouth at the glaive’s end, I would have thanked you for cursing me with the knowledge of its existence. Seriously, I’ve used this thing probably more than 20 times, and until I saw this render, I never noticed that. As for the armor, here’s the Blademaster Khezu Armor from MHGU:

The male armor here is almost identical to the one from Rise--which sadly doesn’t have any pictures on the wiki yet--and yes, it does look like the main character from Assassin’s Creed. The female armor, on the other hand, looks almost like a nurse’s outfit, especially with that metal thing on the woman’s head with the cross. The more I look at this equipment, the more I feel like they wanted people to think of Silent Hill, and if so, that’s pretty cool. I’ve got another armor set to show you; the Gunner version of the Khezu R Armor from MHGU:

Jesus, is this an armor set or a medical emergency? I can’t imagine bandages are very effective at protecting your body from physical damage, but thankfully it looks like most of them are just covering actual armor...meaning that the people who designed this stuff in-universe wanted the people wearing it to look like they were in an accident. Not sure I get why, but I’m not here to--actually, I am here to judge, so never mind; it’s gross. Also the female set has Khezu mouths as arm coverings, which is someone’s fetish, I’m sure. The equipment as a whole is macabrely interesting (TIL that macabrely is a real word) and calls to mind a fascinating horror game franchise, so 8/10.

Final Thoughts and Tally: I figured that Khezu was gonna be interesting, but I didn’t know how far the devs would take the horror theming. Everything about this monster is creepy; it looks disturbing, it acts even worse, and its equipment makes me feel like I need a tetanus shot just from looking at it. But that’s not at all a bad thing...unless you’re really squeamish, in which case you were likely cringing this whole review. I’d apologize, but you made the choice to stick through ‘till the end. 8/10.

[hawkland]

Destiel fic recs #3 - the (mostly) longfic edition!

It’s been a while since my last rec post - mostly because I’ve been wallowing in a number of longer fics (50-350k!) so it’s taken me a while to have enough to talk about in one post (and boy do I talk a lot, here!)

With these longer fics, I do sometimes have some caveats with my recs - or at least reasons why they might not appeal to every Dean/Cas reader. But note that if I didn’t overall strongly recommend reading the fic I wouldn’t include it in my recs here at all, so any quibbles I bring up are minor compared to my overall enjoyment of the stories. Just, I don’t want someone to commit to a long read without knowing what they’re getting into and why it might not be their thing.

I’m still not into reading complete setting AUs at this time, but a lot/most of these are canon-divergence AUs, often written/set at the end of a season and giving an alternative take on what happened next. I love those kind of stories, as it’s often so interesting to see how fans thought of what might happen in the next season (especially when it’s better than what we actually got.)

Onto the recs & discussion behind the cut!

The Sinking Ship by UnfortunatelyObsessed (114k). This is a story that ripped my heart to pieces (in a good way!). I stayed up all night to finish reading because I simply couldn’t stop once I started on it and it gave me a massive fic hanger from all my emotions. Season 14 divergence, imagine if Dean did go into the Ma’lak box to trap Michael under the ocean with him forever...and once there, he discovers that Cas has stowed away with him. Because of course Cas would never leave Dean to such a fate on his own.

I loved literally. Every. Damn. Thing. About this fic. Cas telling Dean stories to pass the (endless) time. Their small intimate moments while realizing they can never consummate physically while trapped in the box but finding every other way to express their love. The absolute heartbreak that had me SOBBING when Michael fights for control of Dean and destroys everything they’ve built together and Cas thinks he’s lost Dean forever. Sam & Gabriel & Rowena & Claire & Jack doing everything they can to devise a plan back home to try to save them both while keeping Michael trapped. Also even just the wonderfully sensitive portrayal of aroace Jack still closely bonded with Claire and Maggie and just. And just. This is a story I’ve already re-read just to savor how much I loved it and its portrayal of everyone in TFW 2.0 and their extended family, it just hit my id in all the most incredible ways and I have nothing but absolute love for this one.

Beautiful Chaos by anyrei, mugglerock (141k). Season 9 canon-divergence, in which Dean doesn’t simply abandon Cas to fend for himself post 09x03. Instead he sets Cas up in a kind of squatter’s nest in an abandoned building near the bunker so he can keep tabs on him and help him out. 

This fic definitely gets the award for FILTHIEST, HOTTEST, SMUTTIEST Dean/Cas (and Cas/other) I’ve read in, like, ever, for human!Cas turns out to be a rather insatiable sex fiend/cock slut and Dean is too up his own repressed ass to easily give Cas what he wants/needs. It is dark at times, Cas ends up in some very unsavory/non-con situations, and the authors do mention that they tried to hone in on endverse!Cas’s characterization more than what we saw in Season 9...so you might roll with it, you might not. I adored their original character Jerry the tattoo artist in this, and like I said it was seriously hot (if you are good with total bottom!Cas and Cas with others, I know those are not everyone’s cuppa). I did have a few minor issues. For one, the last chapter felt a bit rushed and hand-wavey, but clearly the authors weren’t fond of the canon conflicts of season 9 & 10 (Abbadon, Mark of Cain) and just wanted to be done with them. Can’t say I really blame them. And I did have to laugh a bit at Lebanon, Kansas apparently having such a bustling gay bar/tattoo artist/etc scene being someone from a butt-fuck nowhere American small town myself. But, SPN was never all that realistic in how Lebanon was shown (and yes I’ve spent too much time roaming around it on Google maps), so if you can suspend some disbelief this is an awesome hot/angsty/occasionally heartbreaking read.

These Forsaken Lands by destielpasta (53k). I came upon this story when looking for fics that dealt in some way with the aftermath of Godstiel. This is a wonderfully atmospheric late Season 9 “fill-in” case fic (post Meta-fiction) where Cas ends up in a small town that had been visited by Godstiel...and while initially residents have reaped much good fortune, there has suddenly been a wave of deaths/bad events and he is determined to find out what happened and set things right. He calls upon Dean for help, but Dean is fighting the Mark of Cain and it’s going to take a lot to get past its control and find a way out for both of them. Together they work on repairing an old church while trying to repair each other and their damaged relationship.

I loved this story for how well written it was, really invoking a gothic small-town/Americana atmosphere. The original characters blend in very well with the case-fic at the center of it, and the author deals really well with Cas at a very fragile point when he’s running on borrowed grace and trying to navigate Dean’s MoC-enhanced anger. It’s Dean/Cas but actually much more of a Cas character study, so I highly recommend it to my fellow/compatriot Cas-girls who love a good wallow in his head.

Mixed Emotions by Tierra469 (50k). Canon 12 “parallel” fic that then goes canon-divergent with the season finale. I actually stumbled on this while in the mood to read some Cas/ or & Mary fic after enjoying their interactions in Season 12 (don’t hate me). This is sort of two fics in one. The first half focuses mostly on filling in the gaps with some critical S12 Cas episodes, especially Cas & Mary’s developing friendship (and one night of something more). But of course Cas’s feelings for Dean (and vice-versa) are always there, and when Cas figures out a way to get his powers fully back, the question is if Dean can open himself up to be vulnerable - and express love - the way Cas needs for this to work.

This was an interesting fic in a lot of ways. I loved the author’s take on angels’ connections to their vessels and grace, it was very consistent in a way the show sometimes/often wasn’t. Cas is very Cas in not understanding privacy and personal boundaries (so he does some questionable things, admittedly, which might squick some readers). The smut is fucking HOT - though I will caution at one point it involves Cas temporarily in a younger (NOT underage) female vessel (and the story does point out Dean’s discomfort with this and some of the consent issues involved, I don’t want to spoil too much). I wanted the Mary plot resolved more than it was, but I still recommend this story strongly for the quality of the writing and unique/well-developed take on angel lore and mechanics that was quite different from what I’m used to reading.

We Are Either Here Or Not Here by petramacneary (54k) A post-season 12 fic that goes on a different tangent to how Cas returns, and what happens in the meantime. Particularly, it offers a different take on what apocalypseverse!Cas would be like—as Mary makes her own way back from that world with AU!Cas as her prisoner.

What I loved about this story: first off, BAMF!Mary is awesome here. Dean is so heartbreaking, not quite knowing what the fuck to do with this different Cas who at times is just a painful reminder of who/what Dean’s lost...but then becomes a chance for Dean to say and express some of the things he always was afraid to in the past. And when (real/our) Cas finally returns, there’s some very interesting stuff that happens with both Cas & AU!Cas and Cas & Dean that I don’t want to spoil. (And let’s also just say that when real!Cas and Dean finally get together it’s AMAZINGLY awesome. Like, hot Impala!sex. So is the artwork that goes with this story.)

You Can Keep Holding On by NorthernSparrow (353k) The longest fic I read this time around and probably the one I have the most mixed feelings about, but a while on I do keep thinking about parts of it so I do rec it with some caveats. This is a canon-divergence after the end of Season 11. Dean & Sam find Cas after he’s been blasted out of the bunker...to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Mary isn’t in this one except for a brief appearance/visit, which Dean thinks is Amara’s gift to him. Life seems good for a while, they’re enjoying dealing with mundane problems for a change, but then Cas seems to be pulling away from the brothers, spending less and less time with them at the bunker, taking a mundane job at another Gas ‘n Sip, and clearly preoccupied by something else. Or is it someone else? Dean is worried yet finally ready to accept that Cas maybe has a girlfriend, or a boyfried, but then it turns out that is not at all what Cas has going on. It’s something far more serious than that.

Honestly I almost stopped reading when the reveal happened - it’s a subject that’s very sensitive to me from personal/family experience and not something I usually like reading in fic (especially if there is a sad ending.) So I admit I jumped ahead to read how it would end first before committing to finishing it. And I am glad I did, because the author handles the subject matter with a realism and obvious knowledge of experience as well, not how I often see it in fanfic. There are a lot of emotional ups and downs but it’s nice seeing Dean in his momma-hen/mode, and Sam is so so good in this one! I think I enjoyed Sam’s characterization here most of all! And the author has a really cool/well developed angel/wing lore that hit my wing-kink pretty hard. I do think it could have all been edited down a bit - I found myself skimming parts, especially in the last third, just to get on with things. But it’s definitely a story you can disappear into for a good long time and I’ve bookmarked the author’s other works to read later, so again, I do rec it even with a few caveats.

A few shorter fics, too, just because I don’t want to forget about them...

Eleven Erogenous Zones of a Fallen Angel by almaasi (15k) Pure gratuitous wing!kink for me :) Cas uses the last of his grace to manifest his wings...but then is stuck with them in his human form and not even able to use them to fly as he used to. This presents a lot of awkward problems to deal with but also the excuse for Dean to help him keep them clean :) I did say wing kink, right? :D :D I loved how Cas seemed confused about the pleasure signals he got from bathing vs. sex vs. grooming and all of that. It’s sweet and hot and has my favorite kind of caretaking Dean in it.

Fossil Tracks by SegaBarrett  (3k). Dean & Sam & Cas and dinosaurs. How can you go wrong with that? One of the SPN stories from the Id Pro Quo collection I really enjoyed reading (and didn’t write myself, lol).

[spideeysense]

Fallin’ (Peter Parker x Reader)

A/N: This one is a bit sad, but I won’t give away the ending! It was loosely inspired by the song Falling by Harry Styles. I apologize for any spelling mistakes I wrote this late at night and lightly edited it! Enjoy :) 

Word Count: 1714

Warnings: mentions of cheating, harassment, alcohol consumption (Not heavy), sadness

Peter stares at the other side of his bed. The sheets are barely wrinkled, left untouched. Every so often he gets a scent of your perfume that clings onto the pillow. He’ll reach out in his sleep, and stroke his hand in the empty spot, searching for you. Yearning for your warmth. As his eyes focus on the ceiling, his mind wanders back to when he screwed things up. 

The drinks were flowing that night. You and Peter decided to join your friends at a new club that had opened down the street. Apparently, it was quite coveted. When you entered you had seen Peter disappear to get you and your group of gals some drinks. Then you moved towards shots of vodka. Shot after shot. His throat stung from the strong liquor. He had lost you in the crowd, no doubt you were gushing to your friends about all the secret details of you and Peter’s relationship, including the grittier parts. He was dancing out on the floor, mostly just moving along with the beat, keeping an eye out for you. His thoughts were swimming and felt mushy. His vision was blurred and the lights of the club created a painting in front of him. Suddenly he felt a body against him. Through his drunken haze he saw your haircolor. The body grabbed his hand and he simply followed. “Y/N” he murmured. “Where are we going?” He said cheekily. When the body tugged him into a quiet, dimly lit hallway. The body (your body?) pressed against him and pushed him onto the wall. “Whoa, whoa.” He said and braced himself by placing his hands on the body’s waist (your waist? He couldn’t tell now). “I know you want me.” The body spoke. It was not your voice. Peter realized it was your longtime friend, Madelynn. Peter shook his head. “No, no, let’s go find Y/N” He said, starting to pull away. “Come on, she doesn’t have to know.” Madelynn uttered her voice laced with lust. “No thank you.” He could feel his body go into panic mode, trying to sober up. “Maddie?” Peter could hear your voice. And then the next part broke him. “Peter?” You had said with so much emotion, he could hear the newly built distrust, and the sound of hurt. Peter realized how this situation must look. Dimly lit hallway. His hands on his girlfriend’s best friend's waist. 

“Y/N” He muttered. “What are you guys doing?” You whispered, he could tell that you were trying not to jump to conclusions. But he could tell you were on the verge of tears. 

Madelynn spun her head around, her hair whipping Peter’s face lightly in the process. “Peter just took me down this hallway..” Peter gave Madelynn an incredulous look. “What?” He said and pushed her off. “No no, you took me here.” 

Madelynn shook her head. “No Peter, don’t lie to your girlfriend like that.” She said, fake hurt in her voice. Peter turned to stare at you. Your eyes traveled between the both of him, and he suddenly felt the world around him crumble away. Who were you going to believe the most? Your best friend since diapers, or your boyfriend whom you’ve been with for three years. You bite your bottom lip in concern and turn to leave. That’s when Madelynn turns around, winks, and then runs after you. The rest of the night passes in a blur. You didn’t come home with him. Instead you left with Madelynn. He ubered home, and tried to call your cell but to no avail. The only way he knew you were safe was when you sent a text with only “Im at Maddie’s”.  After that Peter would only hear from you every other day. Avoiding his apologies, his explanation. No doubt you were confused beyond belief. 

He decided to get out of bed that day and speak with you. He spent his time getting ready, practicing what he was going to say in the shower. Letting the hot water drill into his skin, soaking away his melancholy. He got dressed slowly, pulling on a pair of trousers, a grey turtleneck, and a long black coat. Peter slipped on the watch you gave him on your first anniversary. One of your friends had spilled the beans on your whereabouts, you mom’s . He knew you would be there, it was a Sunday. Sunday was your cleaning day. You (and Peter) would spend the day cleaning the apartment you shared, every room, every corner. 

As he walked on the streets, his eyes glued to the ground. He thought about buying you a coffee and bagel at the coffee shop you first met each other at. Peter’s heart was gripped with heartache when he saw that it had been boarded up. A “For Lease” sign was taped onto the plywood. He continued on his walk until he found himself in front of your mother’s townhome. He rushed up the steps with great agility and paused in front of the door.

Memories flooded his mind. Christmas dinner. Halloween Parties. Valentines day. Your family had accepted and welcomed him with open arms. He thought about turning around, he didn’t want to cause anymore pain. Before Peter could retreat the door opened. There stood your mother, car keys in one hand, an empty grocery bag in the other.

“Peter” she muttered, a sad smile on her face. 

“Mrs L/N.” Peter said in a half whisper. “Can I come in?” 

Your mother nodded, when Peter passed her, she gave his shoulder a soft squeeze. “She’s in the kitchen.” 

The door closed behind him with a soft click. He could hear you humming an unrecognizable tune. The floorboards creaked under his shoes. “Mom?” You called out. The home smelled of cleaning products but also had a vanilla undertone. When he saw you, you were hunched over the sink. Bright orange rubber gloves on your hands, and you were gripping a sponge. 

 “Erm. No it’s me.” The kitchen fell quiet. You froze, and placed the sponge gently in the sink. 

“What do you want Peter?” You questioned him, leaning against the counter. “I just wanted to talk.” He said lamely. You rolled your eyes and returned to your cleaning, rubbing the ceramic of the sink way harder than you would've. 

“Our coffee shop closed. I passed it on the way here, and they put it up for sale.” Peter started, he nervously tapped his fingers on the counter. 

“Almost like a metaphor for us huh.” You whispered. The kitchen was quiet. Peter’s scent, his cologne, was overpowering and you almost broke down there. 

“Baby you have to believe me when I say that Madelynn came onto me. In the dark I thought she was you!” Peter had a hard time holding back. You didn’t face him. “Baby please.” He reached for your elbow, but you pulled away.  He heard you sniffle. 

“Peter I-” That’s when the waterworks opened. Salty tears started streaming down your face. 

“I believe you.” You whispered, this time, turning around to face him. You stared at his distress stricken face. His eyebags had deepened. His hair was coiffed, but a couple curls stood out. 

 Shock crossed his expression. “You what?” He muttered in disbelief.

“Look, a longtime ago, before I met you. I was dating this guy. His name was Henry.” You paused, taking off your gloves and twiddling your thumbs. “He was kind, and at the time, I thought of him as my whole world.” You met Peter’s dark brown eyes, they were filled with kindness. Always so kind and gentle to you. 

“Then I introduced him to Madelynn, and they totally hit it off.” You murmured sadly. You approached him taking both his hands in yours. “Maddie was always the hotter one, the prettier one, the one that the boys wanted to date.” You explained. “Henry cheated on me with her. She brushed it off as an accident, but I could tell it had been going on for some time.” You choked out. 

“Why did you keep her as a friend?” Peter muttered softly. 

You shrugged, you really had no concrete reason to be her friend. You had met your friend group through her, so maybe that’s why.

“And then, when I saw you together in that hallway-” Your voice wavered again, and Peter cupped your face. He pressed a soft kiss to your forehead. “I thought the worst.” He pulled you in for a hug, which you gladly accepted. You felt yourself melt into him. 

“I know you would never, ever cheat on me. But Maddie...It just all came back.” You muttered against the soft fabric of his turtleneck. You thumbed the material. 

“Lindsey gave me screenshots of Maddie bragging about how she could break us up, because I’m so fragile.” You continued, your voice breaking at the last word. “Then she could get with you.” You whispered against his sweater. You looked up at Peter with teary eyes. He stared at you with such love that it almost broke your heart that you hurt him. He bent down and kissed your lips.

“I’m so sorry I ran away.” You muttered and started to cry softly. Peter caressed the top of your head. “Shh it’s okay darling.” Relief flooded through Peter’s system. He held you there, against his chest for a long moment before you pulled away. You reached up and  held his face in both hands before pressing a soft kiss to his forehead, nose, and then his lips. 

“How about you take a small break, and we go out to get something to eat, that diner you like around the corner?” Peter suggested gently. 

 “Sounds perfect. Let me go get changed.” You said and left the kitchen. Peter eyed you, as you disappeared down the hallway. When you came back, changed in a simple set of clothes. You started pulling on your coat.

“How did I get so lucky.” He murmured to himself. 

“I don’t know, I’m quite the catch.” You giggled, and you both started to laugh as you left the townhome. 

Peter put his arm around your shoulders and pulled you close. 

“I love you,” he muttered into your hair.

“I love you too.”  

[cmiray-archived]

&&. is that ( simay barlas )?? no, it’s just ( esmeray “miray” nazeli osmanoğlu ). she is the ( princess ) of ( turkey ). she is ( twenty-one ) years old and her birthday is the ( nineteenth ) of ( april ) which makes her a ( aries ).  she is ( pragmatic & resourceful ) and ( rebellious & organized ) but, unfortunately, also ( stubborn & self-centered insecure). those traits just make her a ( gryffindor ) and in scientific terms an ( infj ). she is ( closeted bisexual ) and the plaza’s ( hoyden ).  her theme song is ( Senses Working Overtime ) by ( XTC ). her interests include ( gardening & puzzles ). she practices ( Sunni Islam ) and a supporter of ( turkish workers party ). her quirk is ( eating raw pasta as a snack ) and favorite quote is ( i can be flexible, as long as everything is exactly the way i want it ) by ( lorelai gilmore ) because ( she uses gilmore girls for motherly advice ). last but not least she ( doesn’t very much does ) believe in true love.

I’m a weak hoe and I shouldn’t be allowed to look at pretty gifs - also idk i’m in EXTRA SMALL text mood so here we are Miray is a small text type of muse. watch this last two days tops.

Esmeray or Miray for short - they both mean moon ( Esmeray being the dark moon and Miray being one who shines like the moon)

she’s Aslan’s lil sister and she’s an exited little thing who really wants to change the world for the better and all those good things

EDIT: she also has 0 self-confidence apparently. 

EDIT 2: that being said goes full (ง'̀-'́)ง mode if you hurt her family or friends lmao. all 150cm of her are coming to get you.

she would love for this energy to be used on her father and more “legitimate” ways of invoking change but her father thinks a girls role is as far away from politics as possible

so she found other ways to do things - protests, youth groups, supporting causes either with money or with her name and all that fun stuff 

basically, anyway she can get to talk to the press she takes it cause once its out there her father can’t really go “uhm actually-” and has to let her do it

she’s been officially forbidden to talk to journalists since she was like 7

she also used to sneak out of the palace a lot with Aslan’s help but then he had to go and MOVE AWAY so she’s been having a lot harder time lately.

she tried to come along forever ago cause WORLD LEADERS? POLITICS 24/7? REPRESENTING TURKEY TO THE WORLD? that’s the dream right there but dad said no

she tried everything and like a year ago she became a meme by posting various pictures online recreating scenes from Aladdin of Jasmin at the beginning of the movie when she’s trapped in the palace and the disguise she uses when she meets Aladdin.

her dad and his advisors still haven’t found out HOW she managed to do it

as not been married off yet but mostly cause dad still thinks of her as a little girl it will happen at the worst of times I’m sure - engaged to Salvatore who she kinda hates lmao

she’s not even allowed to be alone with a boy yet imagine what he would say if he knew she kissed a girl before this girl never kissed anyone i can’t believe i thought she was smooth enough to have had a kiss with a girl before lmao.

she just finished her Bachelor’s in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Istambul. 

her dad wasn’t super happy for her to even study that but it looked really bad if the princess didn’t go to uni so that was the one battle he allowed her to win without much fight.

finally here because of her latest scheme: she finally convinced one of the high noble sons (friend of Aslan's from his wcs???) to be caught kissing her in the palace and her father sent her away at once expecting Aslan to look after her. (EDIT 3: ok maybe she kissed one person but like lowkey doesn’t count.)

gif is the actual representation of her after being caught by her dad

personality-wise she’s not happy 24/7 type of person but she will come across that way when talking to people here cause she’s just really excited to finally be included in the conversation. 

she can be a bit too much at times, come on too strong with her ideas or be a bit too blunt/critical/ect and that mostly comes from her overtly sheltered life. 

possible connections:

friends! 

no, really I need friends pls 👏

ex-maybes, the girl was never in a relationship but would love some:

“we look at each other at every royal party and we’ve never talked but i definitely think this is something” maybe one-sided maybe not. 

maybe a “we kissed once as teens? I didn’t even remember that ha!” meanwhile Miray thinks about it has the most romantic moment of her life. her bar is really low ok

enemies ???? 

I feel like she is capable of hating someone but it would be so one-sided like a lil fly buzzing around a dragon or something 

also, people who find her annoying can see that 100%

[snarkandsarcasmftw]

tag games, ftw

I was tagged by both @rampagewriting and @heelsamizayn to answer this and it seems like a fun time and my brain’s being a bag of dicks rn, so whhhhy not... Here we go.

0) Name/Nickname? If ya wanna share it.

Ashley, AA, Snark - mostly on here. Oh and lil bit, but... family only.

1) If you could bring any two fictional characters (from books or film/tv) into the same world who would they be, what world would you put them in, and what would their relationship to each other be?

Uhhh... Uhhh... Okay, alright, hm... This is going to be an unconventional answer but.. I’d take Bucky and Cap and I’d drop them right into the middle of The Walking Dead. Hear me out.. They’re both military trained / enhanced superheroes and they can walk that line of having compassion and being totally ruthless if they must. I think it’d be neat. They’d be friends / psuedo brothers, of course.

2) If you could drop yourself into any fictional world from books or film/tv, which would it be?

Oh god, oh noooo.. Every part of the fifteen year old trapped within my old woman body is screaming at me to answer Harry Potter -cos magic.. But.. I’m going with The Walking Dead. Just for the simple fact that I could smack both Lori and Dale Horvath in the back of the fuckin head.

Alternately.. I’d really wanna hunt vampires with Edgar and Allen Frog, and the eighties were my shit, so.. That too.

3) What’s your spirit animal?

A cat or a raccoon. I have under eye circles, stay up late, eat only junk and I’ll bite if you take my food plus kinda chonky ( raccoon) and I like to take naps, I’m... adamant about cleaning / grooming plus, I like to sit around and give people side eye when they’re doing dumb shit. ( cat.)

4) What is the most unpopular opinion you hold?

NO. NOPE. NOT ANSWERING. ISSA TRAP.

Okay, since I obviously have to put something here, I’ll say it. And I’ll start with wrestling:

Seth Rollins is vastly overrated and I don’t get the whole.. Attraction to him. And the same goes for Cody Rhodes. Also, is it just me or are his fucking intros too long? Idk, maybe that’s me and my lack of patience. If you like either of these, sorry, continue to do you, but.. I’m not a fan and I honestly don’t particularly care about either and this is my own personal opinion. I’m allowed to have one. I’m not saying bad shit about either guy here, if you take it that way, it’s your own damn problem? I’m not telling you not to like them. I’m simply saying I do not.

As far as media goes : Fifty Shades of Gray is fucking dumb. I mean.. 10 page contract.. to get what has to be mediocre dick, at best? And it’s not even written with any regards to true BDSM concepts for the most part? Nah. I’ll pass. 

And now, for one about our current situation: I think the idiots who hoarded TP at the beginning of this should be allowed to return things.. Provided it’s unopened, they have a receipt, and they don’t see a fucking dime of the money they spent and that the money from the returns goes to masks / other methods of protection for front line workers or straight into the unemployment packages and the stimulus thing. Like literally, the hoarder gets nothing, people who need TP / sanitizer / etc get UNOPENED NEW PRODUCTS and the front line workers get the proceeds of the voided returns. We all win here. (I realize this probably cannot happen, but. It’s one way to kind of... help this current shit show we’re all trapped in.) 

5) How do you like to style your hair most often?

Uhh.. Down. I’m too goddamn lazy to be bothered.

6) I always love this overdone question - you’re allowed three books on a desert island, what do you bring? (Note: Survival Guides don’t count).

The Shining, The Dark Towers series - Stephen King, The Client - John Grisham and The Outsiders - S.E Hinton

7) Something new you’ve learned in quarantine/lockdown/corona times?

That no matter how hard I try, I cannot apply false lashes. That more than two noisy things going in the background is TOO MUCH. Oh and I’m pretty damn good at baking when I bother to try / don’t toss out the directions.

8) Favorite alcohol? (Or non-alcoholic beverage if you don’t drink!)

Haven’t drank in... a while-ish. But my favorite thing to drink when I do is vodka or tequila. Occasionally White Claw ( i know, i know.). Favorite non-alcoholic beverage is water lately.

9) Music you can’t stand? Music you love?

I’m gonna get torn the fuck apart for this but yolo.. I can’t get into K-Pop. I’ve tried. It’s just.. It’s up there with new pop for me. Older boy bands / pop stars? Not a problem. I just don’t like a lot of pop music and I can’t get into K-pop. If you like it, awesome. It’s just not for me personally. Beyond that? I love literally any other kind of music. I have a veeeery varied eclectic listening preference but my all time favorite? 80′s glam / pop or country.

10) Have a favorite herb?

FIRST OF ALL.. GARLIC.. yeah, it’s not a herb buuuut... yeah.. Anyway, for actual herbs..Basil, Rosemary and Sage.. Oh and cilantro. Cilantro will save your ass in a pinch. 

11) What kinds of cups/glasses/bottles do you prefer to drink out of?

My big tol cold cup. Or.. my stemless plastic wine glasses, of which I have apparently lost.

12) Preferred mode of communication: texts, phone calls, emails, letters?

Text or email. I’m not... fond of making calls, but I will if I have to. I prefer texts or email. Oh, I do enjoy writing letters now and then.

13) What is your favorite weather?

Not too hot, not too cold. Not too sunny but not overcast and gray either. A light breeze. NO POLLEN.

14) What kind of lighting do you like?

Softer lights, for the aesthetic.. Overhead lighting, so my blind ass can... yannow... see. If I had my way, I’d have candles and string lights every where though.

15) What is the best thing you cook?

Honestly, I feel like it’s my chili or my stew. Alternately, husband seems to ask for chicken / bacon / ranch pasta casserole a lot, so... Idk.. I guess pretty much anything (except fucking hamburger helper, i can NEVER get this shit right, despite directions, sacrifices to the culinary gods and pleas/promises of my first born. It always turns out icky so I never cook it.) 

16)  Do you have a favorite font to write in?

Handwriting or typewriter fonts for the most part. Roboto when I’m writing / editing my own fics and such.

17) What is something you’ve always wanted to write in a fic, but you’ve been too afraid to? Or, what is something that you were afraid to write, but then you did and it ended awesome?

Honestly, I’m scared to death to write smut. Which is why I’ve been trying to write more of it lately. I won’t say it’s going awesome ( I’m pretty sure some of you sit and read it when I post and are like what the fuck... this isn’t realistic and this is so bad.) but it’s going.

I’ve wanted to dip my toes into writing for more obscure fandoms too. Like ones that I personally enjoy. As far as something I’ve always wanted to write? Horror. But I’m scared to death I’d fuck it up.

18) If you were in your favorite fantasy world, what would your weapon of choice be?

A sword or a knife. Machete, maybe?

19) Is there a commonly used expression/saying that you can’t stand?

While I agree with the answers J and K put to this “It’s in God’s hands, etc” - sometimes things are GOD AWFUL. The last thing I want to hear is what the reason God had for doing it is. So don’t tell me. 

Triggered is a useful term.. if it’s used right. And I’m starting to realize that 95 percent of people DO NOT know the proper use. They think that being triggered =‘s a reason to bitch and tear someone apart over some miniature thing they’ve done. So now, when I hear it being misused, it fucking annoys me.

20) What is something that you would like people to know about you?

I’m a grumpy ball of rage. I’m petty as fuck and saltier than all the oceans combined in the right circumstances. But.. I can be a nice person and I love getting to know people and helping people or talking to them. Even if it’s hard for me to start it off bc I’m fucking awkward as fuck also - hence the reason it takes a while for me to actually... attempt... conversing with new people both IRL and on here.

I’m gonna leave this open to anyone who wants to do it bc Idk who has or hasn’t already and I don’t want to annoy people. 

This was a blast!

[shewhodoesnotexist]

Okay, so The Rise of Skywalker. Saw it two weeks ago but it’s hard to do anything when you have so much free time ;) Two weeks ago I wrote the following: I’m a little dumbfounded… It felt like a string of fan theories put together, with a video game mode of running after stuff from one place to another xD they put in so much stuff but somehow not enough… Feeling? And I think this still sums up my impression the best. Nevertheless:

So we begin with some Sith artefacts none-one’s ever heard of… This is so reminiscent of some fan videos and theories I got into after TFA, many of them based on Legends/the old EU, things that never appeared in the movies. I’m fond of fan theories, but this just didn’t fit in at all here, and seemed so… artificial, video game-like: suddenly there’s a thing we need to find and then it’ll be fine! But first we need to find this thing and go somewhere else and do another thing and then we’ll reach the place!

Like… The Last Jedi was built around characters with personalities, their interactions and conflicts, and for all its faults that made it engaging. This felt completely flat. It was just going from place to place, maybe except for some of the Kylo & Rey scenes, there was barely any feeling in it.

Also, some scenes were so artificial and obvious set-ups, like the woman with the necklace demanding Rey’s full name – maybe she’s from a planet with different naming conventions, how do you know, lady? – just so she can say she’s nobody and then have the necklace taken by Kylo, and the woman at the end, so that Rey can say she’s Rey Skywalker, and Luke giving Rey two lightsabers so that she can give one to Ben (the scene itself was awesome, yes, but the set-up was painfully transparent). Devices, yes, but don’t be so blatant about it.

What was the point of that Threepio stunt? It’s introduced as a heartbreaking sacrifice, then it turns out nobody cares, then it’s played for laughs, and then it’s reversed. Really?

The Palpatine thing is such a clumsily done retcon, honestly. Yes, he was the ultimate Big Bad in the previous trilogies, so in that aspect it kind of makes sense, but in regards to Rey... They made themselves nobodies? Yeah, no, Kylo’s vision and words from TLJ don’t fit this, you can’t square that one. And so Rey’s arc from The Last Jedi is neatly undone and she matters because of her family and very nearly (see below) is defined by her ancestry. Honestly, whichever version you prefer, it would be better to stick to one. That’s not getting into the problems of selling your children.

And really… Rey suddenly and accidentally bursting out some Force lighting supposedly shows “who she really is”? When has the Force ever worked that way? And of course it only happens when it’s convenient. And suddenly “no-one knows me”. Great, now you can be emo together.

And why would Palpatine even want to have descendants? As a backup plan?

And that’s not getting into the fact that apparently Palpatine had a son, who was alive during OT, who somehow rebelled against him, and that’s a story potentially more interesting than this movie, which is ignored. Actually… all right, possibly Rey’s father was not Force-sensitive, which was why Palpatine wanted Rey specifically, but the wording (“to protect you”) makes it sound as if all that rebellion happened only after Rey was born and he realised Palpatine’s intentions towards her, which raises further questions. But enough on that.

It is also incidentally implied that Stormtroopers who defected are Force-sensitive, and that, too, is ignored. What Finn wanted to tell Rey could be that he loved her or that he was Force-sensitive, but, of course, it is never revealed. (Wait wait, apparently it was confirmed it was about the Force. He does talk about how he understands her several times, so that makes sense.)

Speaking of which, once again there is an effort to humanise the Stormtroopers… which is then once again ignored.

Also speaking of which, for someone raised to be mindless soldier, Finn has had quite a love life – like, approximately four possible love interests?

Remember when there was a sandworm in one of The Hobbit movies and people were joking that Legolas’ blue eyes were due to Spice? Now we can do that with SW, too!

Remember when I said I didn’t believe the Knights of Ren even existed? You probably don’t. But they might as well not. For all the mystery and speculation they turn out to be slightly more elite mooks and are killed in approximately their second scene. Even the Praetorian Guards were more impressive.

Hux being the spy is… silly. Wasn´t he super into the First Order? Now he´s undermining it just to spite Kylo. But it is rather funny.

I feel that having Leia start a Jedi training and then quit due to visions takes away from her character. What’s wrong with preferring a political/military career while being Force-sensitive? But no, she needs to have run through the woods with a lightsaber and bested Luke, of course.

Plus, Leia of all people attacking Kylo… This is upsetting. At least have her appear to him as she dies, too. I mean, like so much in this movie, the idea itself was interesting, but the execution undermined it.

I liked Rey healing Kylo’s wound, but it is true that the sudden introduction of Force healing (no matter its earlier introduction in The Mandalorian) raises some questions about why it’s never appeared before.

I am amazed at Adam Driver’s acting. The moment Ben comes back to the Light, you can see it in his face. It’s unbelievable how much he manages to convey. That man is a gift and I am happy it was not Eddie Redmayne, sorry

The ship in the desert, maybe, but you can’t tell me Luke’s X-Wing is readily functional after having been who-knows-how-many years underwater. That’s just ridiculous.

What was that football stadium. Who were these people. What was going on.

What was even Palpatine’s plan? Was it that because Rey was related to him, he could body surf into her and continue ruling, as some people are interpreting it? Or was it the old “strike me with your hate/anger and complete your turn to the dark side”, in which case it wasn’t even all that relevant that they were related, as he had another Force-sensitive family to prey upon already? And then it turns to “I can just suck power out of you two and it’s good enough”.

How was Ben able to get that planet unnoticed? That’s not to mention another falling-apart ship. Oh, but his entrance, with a blaster, and then passing the lightsabre between them, that was incredibly cool :D

A fleet of planet-killing ships, fine, we needed to up the stakes yet again, but they still have a single weak point… I guess there’s not point complaining about that.

We saw Ben smile :) It was so beautiful :) And they kissed :)

...aaand then of course he had to die *sigh*

I haven’t heard the word “dyad” in that context before, but I have read a bit about Force bonds, and aren’t you supposed to completely devastated after the other one dies, as if something is torn out of your soul? Even leaving that aside, wasn’t Rey rather fond of him? Show some grief, maybe? No?

We get to the end, and we are remembering that we are watching a movie called “The Rise of Skywalker”. All the Skywalkers and their descendants are dead. Solution: have Rey tell a conveniently placed rando she is a Skywalker and leave her to continue the Jedi and Skywalker legacy (the latter of which may not be so stellar, come to think of it). She is once again alone on a desert planet, but now she is different, and ready to set out and do… something. But on the other hand, she’s alone on a desert planet again, so she ended up where she had begun (still alone!)… and so did the story of the Skywalker bloodline, on the planet both Anakin and Luke disliked so much and Leia had nothing to do with. All that to have a repeat shot. I’m not all that impressed.

On the whole this movie gives the impression that the filmmakers were trying to play it safe and pander to the fans, mostly to the fans who disliked TLJ and those who craved nostalgia, and distance themselves from TLJ as much as possible, while cramming a lot of material into the movie at the expense of emotional depth. There’s no time to explore this significant moment, we need to rush elsewhere! Many of the concepts could have worked much better if the had been given more time and focus, but the end result is a mess. Not to mention the ST as a whole feels inconsistent. And yes, I’m upset that Ben died! But that’s part of playing it safe, I’m afraid.

I’m not going to go into the last-minute editing controversy.

I watched the SCB review and they said it was a combination of Harry Potter, Avengers and GoT finales – very accurate ;)

Eh.

[moonfireflight]

“sweet and pure asks”

I was tagged by @flowersofsakura

Original one made by @bwabies

🐰- do you believe in soul mates?

Yes!

💌- diary or journal?

I sometimes journal on another site but it’s all private. 

✨- which fictional character (book, show, or movie) do you relate to most?

Before the Homestuck epilogues I would have said Jane Crocker but fuck that. Uuuhhh I haven’t really found a character that makes me go “it’s me!” I probably shouldn’t say Toko Fukawa huh? 

💕- are you crushing on someone?

No one 3D. 

💋- kissing in the dark or kissing in the rain?

Kissing in the rain. 

🐝- describe your aesthetic in emojis

Oh I’ll edit and do this later on mobile. If I forget it’s autumn stuff, cats, and books. 

(Leaving that because it was amusing)

📚😻👀🐉🌿🍁🍂🍃🌠🍵🍯

🍼- what is your favorite memory?

My first kiss with my guy. We had been crushing on each other for 2 years and not realizing it was mutual. 

🌸- what is your favorite flower?

Night Sky Petunias. 

💖- have you ever been in love?

Yes!

🍰- strawberry or vanilla?

Strawberry!

🍯- describe your favorite smell

Rainy evenings here in the desert with a hint of sage or pine on the wind. 

🎂- if you had 3 wishes, what would they be?

Enough money to take care of my friends who are in abusive situations. A magical car that can never break down. -mumble mumble Saeyoung mumble-

🍪- cookie dough or cookies?

Cookies. I like the cronch. 

☕- coffee or tea?

Tea. I love tea so much. My cabinet is a deathtrap of tea boxes. 

🍃- would you rather live in a sea with mermaids or a forest with fairies?

Forest. My therapy calm place is a forest with faeries. 

🍂- what’s your middle name?

Beth

💫- what is your sun, moon, and rising sign?

Sun : Gemini, Moon : Leo, Rising sign : Sagittarius 

🌧️- favorite thing to do on rainy days?

Curl up in bed with tea and my phone, listening to rain on the skylight. 

🍭- how tall are you?

5′6″ 

💒- which show would you want to live in?

Uuuh huurr I can’t think of a good one but some show’s world where I can learn magic and there’s monsters. Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Lol. God, I don’t watch much TV.  Maybe FMA because I’m also moderately obsessed with alchemy. 

🎄- what is your favorite holiday?

Halloween, no doubt. 

🍦- what scented candle is your favorite?

I had some kind of musky vanilla thing with a hint of spice that I loved. Also I have one with a wooden wick and it smells like a campfire 

🎶- favorite song right now?

Hmm I’ve been wanting to finally check out all the hype on Kpop and Spotify gave me “Gotta Go” by CHUNG HA and it’s so damn good??? 

💘- 3 ways to win your heart?

Being kind to animals (especially if my pets instantly love/trust you). Making me laugh. Food and/or headpats. 

🍩- current mood?

Glad my weekend started. 

❄️- what is your favorite season?

Autumn! I feel so much more alive then and the air feels like it crackles with magic. 

💍- your current relationship status?

Taken. I’ve been with my guy for 15 years. 

📷- a photo of yourself

Nope. Just imagine I’m a chunky curvy girl with dyed red hair and glasses kinda like Saeyoung’s (same shape/color but more of a tortoise shell pattern than stripes). 

🎀- any question you want

I like cake more than pie. 

💅🏻- do you like being spoiled?

That would be so nice. 

🕊️- 3 habits you have?

Obsessively checking social media for no real reason. I guess I don’t want to miss out on nice art and randomness. As soon as I get home I ditch my shoes and change to PJ pants. I have some minor OCD issues like picking at chin hairs. 

🦄- how do you perceive yourself?

An anxious bean, creative-minded, pretty smart. 

🦋- how do you think others perceive you?

A normal person, and a lot softer than I am. Literal “don’t say that in front of her virgin ears” jokes have been made about me as an adult. Helpful. Smarter than I really am because I’m good at researching, though I will admit that is a valid skill. 

🌈- things I find attractive in girls /guys

Sense of humor, intelligence, somewhat philosophical, glasses, nice hands. 

🍓- one secret about yourself

I mean, writing smut is my “big secret”. How about... I believe in magic and spirits and such and have spent a lot of time in my life studying topics like this. 

🍒- how do you act when you have a crush?

Blushing and giddy. Everything makes me blush even when I’m not crushing so I’m a freaking disaster. I do have some minor tsundere tendencies when crushing, mostly out of defense to cover the embarrassed dolt mode. 

💔- the reason behind your last breakup?

He was taking me for granted and hurting my self esteem, and I found out that my crush of two years was crushing back. 

💬- what your last text message says?

"Condensed princesses xD”  (wow, lucked into a really weird one there, huh?)

🎥- what show are you currently binging on?

Just finished BNHA. Gave up on “You” (I thought it was going to be good yandere content but I hate everyone in it). Gotta finish either RWBY or Voltron with @turbopuppy (CONSIDER YOURSELF TAGGED ON THIS MEME). Kinda half watching The Dragon Prince. So, technically, nothing. 

⛅- what is your morning routine?

Stay in bed until the last possible second. Feed my cat and give her insulin. Dress and brush hair and grab a Belvita breakfast cookie on the way out the door. I recently decided to try out bangs so now I have to wrangle those bastards into cooperation somewhere in there. 

💗- who do you miss?

The friend who got made my guy and I realized our mutual affection. She did an awesome job of meddling. She moved away and we drifted apart. 

🥀- last time you cried?

Sometime last week when writing fanfic or reading it  - I don’t remember which. Saeyoung feels happened. 

🎁- when is your birthday?

Early June (soon!!!). 

🔪- scariest/creepiest experience?

My boyfriend and I were driving back home from a vacation and decided to take a shortcut through a place called “Devil’s Pass” at night because we are idiots, apparently. It passed by a few ghost towns, but was mostly a forested road. We both saw some very odd things, like a skinned bunny with a round mouth of sawblade-like teeth, and humanoid shapes. Not cool. Also about a decade ago I had a coworker find out my friend and I believed in ghosts and such. He was renovating a building to become a B&B and had a feeling the place was haunted. We went together and picked up recordings of voices with our phones, and felt some really odd stuff there. I found this one patch of normal looking flat ground that made me feel like I was being sucked into a bottomless pit. The guy who bought the place pulled up some old info and it turned out there was a well buried in that spot.  

💤- date someone younger, older, or same age as you?

No preference. 

I don’t like tagging people because I have a bad memory and get anxious picking people over others. I love you all. If you do this, tag me :3

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Their Hero Academia, Chapters 5-8

Presented raw and unedited.   Edited versions will eventually be added to Ao3, where chapters 0-4 can be found here

Their Hero Academia – Chapter Five: Toshi Midoriya and the First Heroics Class

The next morning found Toshi rising early, as he usually did.  It was a habit he’d picked up from his dad years ago.  They’d go for a jog or another workout and then make it back home in time for breakfast.  He always looked forward to it and intended to keep up his exercise program while he was at U.A.  It was good for the mind and the body.

It was nearly seven by the time he returned to the dorms and most of the Class was already assembled in the common room, eating various combinations of breakfasts.  They were still in the process of developing a chore wheel for the dorms, which would end up including some light cooking. Sitting at one of the tables with Asuka and Izumi, Shinso gave him a sleepy wave, then beckoned Haimawari over to join them.   Good. That meant his efforts yesterday were being rewarded.  Not that he’d have expected anything less of his friends.

He returned the wave and headed to the small kitchen, where Takiyo Aoyama was preparing complicated looking omelet with the help of Akaya Koda.  He gave both of them a polite nod, while he searched the cupboard for his power bars.  “Smells good, guys,” he told them.

“Of course it does,” Aoyama said.  “I’m the one making it.”  

The blonde boy’s illumination was barely noticeable, but definitely growing as he spent more time in the light of both the lamps and the sunlight filtering in through the windows. Toshi understood that he kept his room totally blacked out while he slept, so that some of the light he absorbed throughout the day could bleed off.  By the end of the day, he’d be nearly too dazzling to look at, unless he burned off some of the power.  

He also understood that, like his adopted father, Aoyama’s Quirk was not entirely under his control, requiring multiple support items to use the light he absorbed for much more than glowing brightly.  Toshi couldn’t imagine what that was like.  Sure, he’d accidentally launched himself into the air when he was surprised, but to have that much trouble with a part of yourself…

Koda gave him a gentle nudge.  Despite her size (both the tallest and widest in the class), she was possessed of one of the gentlest demeanors of anyone Toshi had ever met.  “Arrogance ill becomes anyone, Aoyama,” she told him.  Her voice was especially incongruous with her build and size, soft, like the wind whispering through the grass.  “Especially after I convinced these peppers to grow, that they might season our meals.  Do not dishonor their sacrifice with your pride.”

The large girl had an… interesting perspective on things sometimes.  But to each their own.

The point seemed to be made with Aoyama, though, even if he didn’t seem to completely buy the idea of dishonoring the peppers’ sacrifice.  “As you say, Mademoiselle Koda,” he said, reluctantly.  “I...appreciate your help in these culinary matters.”

Not exactly a thank you, not exactly an admission of fault.   Of all the children of Class 1-A, Toshi knew Aoyama the least well. He hated to think badly of anyone, but he couldn’t exactly say he liked what he had seen.  Maybe he’d grow out of it?  Especially once they all really started working together?   Toshi could only hope.

Koda held Aoyama’s gaze for a moment, then decided that was probably the best she was going to get.  She helped him begin to plate the omelets.  “Would you care for any, Midoriya?” she asked.  There was clearly only enough for two, but he appreciated the gesture all the same, especially since Aoyama was making a rather unpleasant face behind her.

He shook his head, already biting off a piece of one of his power bars.  “I’m good,” he said.  “You two enjoy.”

Toshi  walked out of the kitchen, taking in the rest of the room.  The Iida twins were absent, probably at spending their pre-class hours in one of the workshops in the Support building.  Sero was busy filming Sato with his phone, no doubt streaming his friend’s eating of a cactus for all the internet to see.  Ojiro was pointing out something in a magazine to Shoji, who appeared to be doing his best to feign polite interest in whatever celebrity gossip the invisible girl was sharing and to Mineta, who was mostly drooling over the models on the cover.  Chihiro absently munched on a breakfast sandwich, lost in whatever music she had streaming through her phone.

That only left Katsumi unaccounted for and she was likely still up in her room, getting in her morning workout.  Where Toshi’s leaned more towards running, Katsumi’s involved more weight lifting and punching.   Probably nothing to be worried about.

His phone buzzed, letting him know he had a text.  

Dad: Hey, champ!  Ready for your first real Heroics Class today?

I sure hope so!  I can’t imagine what Grandpa Might has planned!

Dad: Just so long as he doesn’t have you fight Katsumi.  I don’t need to hear from Bakugo about that!

He wouldn’t really do that, would he?

Dad: Probably not on purpose.  But you know Grandpa Might!

Do I ever!   He keeps following me around!  They had to kick him out of the classroom four times yesterday!

Dad: I’ll talk to him.  And if that doesn’t work, we’ll get Grandma.

***

Their table of four looked like it was going to become a permanent table of five.  When they’d gone to the cafeteria, he’d made sure Haimawari knew he was welcome to join them.  It was good having someone else around who clearly had the same kind of appreciation for Heroes that he and Shota did.  Granted, it made more sense for someone like Haimawari to be into them, since he wasn’t from a heroic family.  Katsumi had frequently pointed out that being such fanboys when their families were already Heroes didn’t make that much sense. But neither of them cared.

“Anything interesting in Pro Hero news, Shinso?” Izumi asked.  Like Toshi, she had seen that their friend was practically vibrating with something to share.  Izumi was polite enough to offer him an avenue to let it out.

“Only the coolest!” Shota bubbled.  “Red Riot and Real Steel fought Diamondhead!”  He pulled out his phone, showing them video of the two Heroes fighting against a Villain who could turn his skin to diamond in a very similar way to how their Quirks worked.  As they watched, they saw the two Heroes land a punch against Diamonhead that caused a shockwave big enough to shatter all the nearby glass and knock loose objects over.

“The news report said you could feel the impact for miles away!” Shota added

“Oh, man,” Haimawari said, “that was one hell of a punch!”

“Yeah,” Shota said. “They’re both so manly!”

“Shinso,” Asuka began, “that was a lot of property damage…  Maybe we shouldn’t be cheering that.”

“But it looked so awesome!”

Toshi shook his head. “Red Riot and Real Steel are good at what they do.  They wouldn’t have done that if they had another choice.  Judging by his Quirk, I don’t think anything else would have knocked Diamondhead out.”

“Think Kirishima-Bakugo’s seen it yet?” Shota asked. “Bet she’d love to see her dad in action!  He’s all, like, “Pow!  Bam! Take that, evil doer, for my manly heart is pure!’”

Toshi had to laugh at that, catching Izumi politely chuckling and even Asuka trying to hide a laugh behind her hand.  “Okay, yeah, Uncle Eijiro does kind of talk like that.”

Haimawari frowned for a moment.  “Keep forgetting you guys are all pretty much family.  I can’t imagine what it must have been like growing up around that many heroes.”

“They’re just people,” he told him.  “If you’re only seeing them when they’re being Heroes, you’re not getting the full picture.  That’s part of who they are, sure.  Some more than others.  But that’s not all of who they are either.”

There were all kinds of things the public didn’t get to see.  Like the way Dad could cry at the drop of a hat or the way he still geeked out when he talked about working with other Pro Heroes (not that Toshi didn’t join him in the geeking out, mind you) or the way Mom obsessively checked their bank account or had their shopping cart total figured out to the penny before they got to the check out, even though financial insecurity was a thing she’d long put behind her.

“Trust me,” Asuka said, “my father’s “Darkness” speeches don’t work nearly as well when he’s telling you to pick up your room.”

Toshi knew from experience that Asuka’s mother could be far scarier with as single look of disappointment than her father could in full “warrior of the night” mode.

“What do your parents do, Haimawari?” Izumi asked.

Toshi could swear there’s the tiniest moment of hesitation before Haimawari answers, but he has to be imagining it.  

“Nothing as cool as yours,” he says.  “Dad owns a convenience store in Naruhata.  Mom’s a writer for a Pop!-Weekly.”

“The music magazine?” Toshi asked.  He’d seen Chihiro reading it from time to time.  When Haimawari nodded, he added, “That’s pretty cool!”

That got the skinny boy laughing a little.  “Guess it all depends on your perspective.  They’re just my parents to me.”

“Seriously though,” Toshi said.  “It is pretty cool.   You should tell Chihiro.  She’d big into music.”

“Sorry,” Haimawari replied, “still learning everybody’s names.  Chihiro is…?”

“The blonde girl with the ear-Quirk,” Izumi told him.  “Chihiro Kaminari.”

“Mineta’s friend,” Asuka elaborated.

“Ooooh,” Haimawari said.  “Her.   She’s got, ah, interesting taste in friends.”

“She’s not as bad as Mineta,” Toshi assured him.  “Try and talk to her.  Couldn’t hurt.”

“Yeah, maybe I will.”

***

For their Heroics Class, Mr. Aizawa and his grandfather had taken them to Training Ground Epsilon.  Unlike most of the Training Grounds, which were designed to replicate specific kinds of environments, Epsilon was essentially a long open field, with an observation bunker at one end.  It was a warm day, the sun shining, and the sky clear, though their gym uniforms were comfortable enough in it (apparently, the costume department was significantly behind this year).   Toshi was a little bit surprised that Mr. Aizawa could stand that much direct sunlight.

“Normally,” Grandpa Might said, “we’d start Heroics off with the Battle Trials, pitting Hero against Villain in a death-defying race for control of a bomb which might very well destroy the entire world!”

He waited a moment for a reaction from the class.  When no one other than Shinso (who cheered, of course) responded, he looked a little deflated, but he went on.  “Unfortunately, due to a… ah, Quirk misfire with Class 1-B, the Training Grounds for that is currently unavailable and undergoing repairs.   So we have prepared an alternative exercise.”

Okay, Toshi was definitely going to have to pay more attention the other Hero Classes.  If someone in 1-B had a Quirk powerful enough to do that kind of damage…!

Grandpa Might went on, “We’ll be splitting you into teams of four.  Your job will be to defend the Observation Bunker, where the rest of us will be.  Your job will be to defend the bunker from waves of robots that will be attacking!”

“However,” Mr. Aizawa said, “if even one robot makes it to the Bunker, then your team loses, no questions asked.  Because it means everyone inside is dead.”

Ojiro shot her hand up.   “Do we get to pick teams?”

“No.”

“As Heroes,” Grandpa Might explained, “you’ll often find yourself working with other Heroes you’ve never met before.  You’ll need to improvise working with a wide variety of Quirks on the fly.  This will help with that and help you get acquainted with your classmates’ Quirks!”

“And,” Aizawa added, “I don’t trust any of you to make good decisions about teams.  The teams will be as follows.   Team One: Midoriya, Aoyama, Sero, and Tensei Iida.  Team Two: Kirishima-Bakugo, Shinso, Ojiro, and Mineta. Team Three: Todoroki, Haimawari, Sato, and Sora Iida.   And Team Four: Tokoami, Koda, Shoji, and Kaminari.”

Okay, he could work with that…  Pretty good Quirk spread on his team.  Pretty good spread on all four teams, actually.  At least Aizawa and Grandpa Might were giving them a fighting chance.

“The hell?  You losers better not make me lose!”

…He honestly hadn’t expected anything else from Katsumi.

***

In general, Toshi thought he was pretty good with his Quirk.  He could lower his personal gravity until he could bounce off the walls. And with split second timing, he could increase it until he turned into a cannon ball and then bounce back away. He’d sparred with his dad and trained more than a lot of people his age probably had.  Being all second generation heroes, they definitely had some advantages going in, though they hadn’t all worked together much.  This would still be a real test.

He slowly adjusted his gravity, bringing himself back down to the ground.

“What did you see, Toshi?” Tensei asked.  While he could actually fly rather than float like Toshi, he was more like a rocket, needing to keep moving, which was not always as ideal for observation.

“Three one-pointers and two two-pointers,” he said.  “About 50 meters out, coming quick.”

Aoyama was glowing in the afternoon son, difficult to even look at directly.  Reflective wristbands likewise glittered in the sun. “Should go out after them?  Show them what we’re made of?”

“No,” Toshi said. “Our mission is to protect the Bunker. We need to stay close to it, but not let them get too close.  You and Sero need to hang back.  You’ve both got long range Quirks.”

“Aye, aye, Captain Midoriya!” Sero said, tossing off a little salute.

“Are you sure you and Iida don’t just want to grab all the glory for yourselves?” Aoyama sneered. “Keeping me on the bench while you get to be the heroes?”

“I don’t like your tone, Aoyama,” Tensei said.  “Toshi is no glory hog!”

“And perhaps I don’t like yours!”

Toshi’s bad feelings about Aoyama returned.  But now was not the place to get into it.  “Uh, maybe we should just…”

“They’re here!” Sero shouted, interrupting any further argument.

And indeed they were, three one-pointers rolling along on their treads, and a pair of floating two-pointers.  According to the further explanation Grandpa Might and Mr. Aizawa had provided, the waves would only get stronger.  They ten minutes.   Either they held the line that long, or one of the ‘bots got through and they lost.

He didn’t want to lose.  Especially not with his grandfather watching.  He didn’t want it to be this haphazard, he’d wanted some kind of plan. Dad had drilled into him how important having a plan was.  Now…

“Let’s get ‘em, guys!”

Toshi concentrated, bringing his gravity to near zero and took a jump, bouncing up like he had springs under his shoes.  It carried him up and over and then at the right moment he increased it three fold. He immediately fell like a stone, crashing into one of the one-pointers, smashing in its head.  Quickly, he switched back to low gravity again, bouncing off and landing on the sand.

Already, the blood was rushing in his head.   He couldn’t do that kind of rapid switching for too long, not without getting a killer headache.  Not to mention the effects of all that gravity on him.  He was tougher when he amped his gravity up, but it put its strains on him.

Around him, the others were tearing into the rest.  Tensei had flown through one of the other one pointers like a battering ram, propelled by his jet engines.  “As suspected!  They still have not fixed the structural flaw!  Quite disappointing, but good for our Team!”

Sero was quickly wrapping up the remaining one-pointer in his Acid Tape, this time making it as acidic as possible.  It was a good combination of his parents’ Quirks, really, the ability to create tape like his dad, but with all the different and variable properties of his mom’s acid.  “Die, evil robot, die!  Hey, with a dry, cool wit like that, I could be an action hero!”

And Aoyama… was staring down both two-pointers.  His glow intensified until it was blinding.  “Let’s see how these ruffians fair against my Dazzling Beam Blaster!”   Both of his arms snapped up and his wrist bands flared, each unleashing a powerful golden beam of light that punched holes right through the two-pointers. His overall glow was diminished after that, still lending him a bit of a sparkle and getting brighter by the moment, but it was clear he had spent a lot of energy.

He gave himself a small clap.  “That’s how you do it, boys.”

Okay, so Aoyama was powerful.  But that didn’t mean Toshi had to like working with him.

And then, just like that, a buzzer split the air, signaling failure.

“What? How?  We got all of them!” Sero said.

“Probably something you lot did,” Aoyama snapped.

“An unseen variable, perhaps?” Tensei mused.  “Some x factor I did not anticipate?”

“Uh, guys?” Toshi said, pointing behind them.  A one-pointer was already at the bunker, and others were moving in from the sides.

Mr. Aizawa’s voice came over the loudspeaker.  “Perhaps next time you’ll know to watch for all directions.  I expect all the rest of you to have learned something from their failure.”

“DO NOT WORRY, YOUNG GRANDSON!  FAILURE IS BUT THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS VICTORY!  I MEAN, AH, DO NOT WORRY, YOUNG HEROES!  YES, I WAS TALKING TO ALL OF YOU!”

…Maybe he’d be better off just floating away.  He could get a job as a parade balloon.  Anything sounded better than being here right now.

Their Hero Academia – Chapter 6: Isamu Haimawari and the First Big Mistake

He wasn’t hurting.  In fact, he felt like he was past the point of pain.  But he could hear people yelling, screaming.  Strange, he could swear he smelled something burning…

“Go!” he heard Aizawa yelling.  “Get them to Doc Clock!”

And it had been going so well…

***

Well, if the son of the Number One Hero could mess up on their very first real Heroics exercise, maybe Isamu didn’t have to feel so bad about how he was probably going to fail too. All four of the first team had had impressive powers, but they hadn’t been watching their backs.  Plus there was the whole thing where they’d been too busy arguing to pay attention to anything.  Still, he’d done his best to congratulate Midoriya on at least getting to smash one of them.  The green haired boy looked pretty down from his failure.  He would be too.

After the first group had returned, the second group had set out.  The absolutely terrifying Kirishima-Bakugo took the lead, with the other three following her.

She looked around. “Loud Kid,” she told Shinso, “you’re on lookout.  You two, you’re with me.  And for fuck’s sake, look around you!”

There wasn’t any arguing this time like there had been with Midoriya’s group.  Kirishima-Bakugo was simply too frightening for the rest. Ojiro looked the most like she was going to say something (Maybe.  You could only read so much body language on a floating gym uniform), but chose otherwise.

The robots were quickly upon them.   Kirishima-Bakugo raced out to meet the first one, letting out a scream of “DIE!” as she did so.  When she got close enough, she gave it an open-palmed slap on the two-pointer’s side and seconds later, a massive explosion rocked the robot, destroying it.

“That’s how you do it!” she screamed.

“Whoa!” Isamu yelled. He remembered how she’d made the spoons explode like firecrackers in the cafeteria yesterday, but he hadn’t know she could do anything like that.  

“Yeah,” Midoriya agreed. “her Quirk is pretty powerful.  She can release this liquid from her hands that does… something to whatever it touches and makes it explode.  The more she lets out, the bigger the boom.”

“…Remind me never to make her angry.”

“Trust me, Haimawari, when I say ‘good luck with that.’”

Kirishima-Bakugo had already destroyed another two-pointer, while the rest of her team were making short work of the rest.  Ojiro stopped in front of the one of the one-pointers and then simply… disappeared.

“Wait,” Isamu asked. “She can get more invisible?”

“Uh-huh,” Midoriya explained.  “What she’s really doing is bending light.  Her skin’s always doing it, but she can extend it to anything she’s touching, like her clothes.”

The one-pointer suddenly jerked and bucked, like something was trying to climb it, and then its head suddenly disappeared!  It stopped completely, staying still on the sand.  With the one-pointer distracted, Mineta gave it a powerful kick with one of her hooves, knocking it down.  The robot’s head reappeared as Ojiro returned to view, jumping off of it.  

“Oh, that’s good,” Midoriya said.  “She made its head invisible so its camera couldn’t detect anything!”

Mineta was doing a decent job of her own as well, even without team work.  She lowered her head, aiming her horns at one of the remaining one-pointers.  From the tip of teach horn, a stream of purple spheres fired forth, starting the size of a pea, but rapidly growing to the size of a baseball.   They stuck wherever they hit the robot, jamming its joints and obscuring its vision until it could neither move nor see, at which point she rammed it, knocking out its control panel.

“Hey!” she called out, “if I do well enough, do I get a kiss?”

“I thought I told you to stop hitting on me, horse-legs!”

“Sheesh!  You’ve really got no sense of humor!  Besides, maybe I was talking to Ojiro!”

“In your dreams, Mineta!”

The remaining one-pointer was demolished by a shrieking Kirishima-Bakugo, blowing its treads off with a pair of powerful explosions.  “More!  Bring ‘em on!” she yelled.  “Keep fighting, all of you!”

And the second wave was on them.   More two-pointers this time, but still a few one-pointers.  Like last time, some of these started coming in from the sides.

“From the left!” Shinso called out.   As one drew close, he took in a deep breath and then let out a long, low tone.  Isamu could see the air between him and the robot ripple and the ripple slammed into the robot, knocking it over as though it had been punched.  Shinso kept up the tone until the rippling wave punched a hole in the robot’s chest.

That was… that had definitely been a thing.  Isamu remembered how Shinso’d made the ground flow like a wave yesterday.

“What,” he asked, “what exactly is his Quirk?”

“Beats me,” Midoriya said. “They call it Vocal Harmonics.  He does a sustained pitch and stuff happens. Different things for different pitches. Nobody’s really figured out any logic behind it.  Trust me, they’ve tried.”

The others leapt into action too.  Kirishima-Bakugo exploding them, with Mineta and Ojiro slowing them down for her and Shinso.

It was in the fourth wave that things started to go south for them.  The one-pointers were gone, two-pointers making up the majority of the wave, along with a single giant three-pointer.

It started when the two-pointer had Ojiro down, one of its massive arms pinning her to the ground. Her clothes flickered in and out of visibility as she tried to squirm away, but to no avail.  “Argh!   No fair!”

“I’m coming, Ojiro!” Shinso called out.  He took in a breath again and started coughing.  All the explosions Kirishima-Bakugo had been setting off had stirred up a massive amount of smoke, smoke he sucked into his lungs.  Another two-pointer pinned him, face down on the ground.

Kirishima-Bakugo lashed out, heading for the three-pointer, causing explosions along every two-pointer between her and it.  Mineta fired off more sticky balls from her horns, but panic was throwing her air off, not to mention that the smoke was also interfering with her ability to aim.

Kirishima-Bakugo reached the three-pointer, sliding under its reach and tapping its arm.  But she was also clearly running out of whatever liquid she generated to make things explode, because the explosion she created was clearly much less powerful than she had expected.  She stared at her hands like they had betrayed her.

And then the failure buzzer sounded, as the three-pointer had reached the bunker.

“Well, you lasted longer than the first team,” Aizawa said, his voice ringing from the loudspeakers. “We’ll review everything tomorrow. For now, get back to the Bunker. We’ll let the smoke clear out before Team Three goes.”

“Good job, Team!” All Might said.  “Though you might want to learn to take it easy, Young Kirishima-Bakugo!  There’s a time for going all out and a time for caution!”

The robots released Shinso and Ojiro, the former of whom offered Kirishima-Bakugo a hand up, but she batted it away, getting up on her own and stomping towards the Bunker, her face set in a deep scowl.

Isamu finally remembered to close his jaw.  If his team lasted any time at all… it was going to get intense out there.  He was pretty sure his Quirk wasn’t going to be any good for smashing robots, but maybe he could be a distraction for some of the others?  Or get a couple of the robots to smash each other?

Midoriya gave him an encouraging grin.  “Hey, you’re up next!  You’re gonna do great, I know it.”

He returned the grin, maybe a little sheepishly.  “Maybe. Gotta try, anyway.”

Okay, deep breaths. He could do this.

***

When the smoke had cleared, Team Three was finally able to step outside the Bunker.   “So,” Isamu said, “how do we want to do this?”

They’d already seen the first two teams.  They definitely wouldn’t devolve into in-fighting like the first group, but hopefully they wouldn’t mess up the battlefield like the second either.  

“I’ll guard the rear,” Sato volunteered.  “My Quirk’s no good unless they get real close.”   Isamu remembered catching sight of him a few times during the Entrance Exam, tearing into a robot with his teeth.  It wasn’t something he was going to forget anytime soon.  

“Good,” Todoroki said. “Sora, Haimawari, you both have mobility-based Quirks.  Do you think you can control the left and right edges?”

“I’ll give it my best,” he assured her.  Hopefully that would be enough.

“Just leave the driving to me!” Iida said.

Todoroki nodded. “Then I will do my best to hold the middle.   Remember to support each other when you can, and try not to make too much of a mess.”   Her lips twitched slightly when she said the last part.  A smile, maybe?  Isamu didn’t know her well enough to know.

Really, Todoroki was quite the puzzle.  There was the strange power she seemed to have over the ginormously scary Kirishima-Bakugo.  And Torodoki herself was so reserved, quiet, but firm.  It was hard to know what to think of her.

And then the first wave of robots was upon them, the same mix as the other two times.  Two two-pointers, three one-pointers.  Iida went right, so he dropped to the ground and went left, his Quirk pushing him along like a bullet shot from a gun.   Maybe a little too fast, as he was coming up on the one-pointer faster than he expected.

He didn’t have nearly the power to go with his speed to ram his way through it like he’d seen Tensei Iida do in the first round… but maybe he had some skills they didn’t!  Instead of trying to dodge, he kept going and when he got close to the one-pointer jumped on the robot and kept going, sliding over it as easily as he had over the ground.  The nearest other one-pointer took a swing at him and he added an extra burst of speed, carrying him over the robot’s shoulder and down his back.  The second one-pointer’s blow hammered home on the first, smashing a hole in it and bring it down, giving him just enough time to hit the dirt and slide away.

He skidded to a stop. “I…  I did it!”  He’d managed it a couple times during the Entrance Exam, but he really hadn’t been sure he could do it again.

“Good job, Haimawari!” Todoroki cheered.  “But keep alert!’  

A two-pointer was nearly upon her, but she pointed a pale hand at it and frost began to appear along its surface, until its skin was frozen solid and it started to crack under its own weight.  Todoroki grimaced with the exertion of it, her pale features flushing.  She pointed at one of the one-pointers, this time unleashing a blast of flames that quickly took it down.  As she stopped the flames, her condition improved.

Weird, actually. Every time he’d seen her make ice, she made fire right after.  He didn’t know what that meant.

But he needed his head back in the game.  He saw Iida taking down the last one pointer, her jet engines giving her more than enough power to knock its head clean off.

“One more two-pointer,” he said.  “Heading towards Sato!”    The thick-lipped boy took up a defensive stance, but he wouldn’t last long against that.

Isamu threw himself forward and saw Iida keeping pace with him.  “There’s a design flaw,” she told him.  “Lots of them, actually.  But the leg joints are especially weak.  If we both hit it at the same time in a different leg, we should be able to take it down.”

“Got it!” he said, squinting against the dust their speed was kicking up.  He was definitely going to need goggles and a mask if he was going to keep doing this kind of thing.

He concentrated, pouring on the speed, kicking himself into a higher gear.  Iida kept pace, both of them racing to towards the robot.  Sato, to his credit, held his ground, bearing his teeth at the machine.  He and Iida reached the robot at the same time, both of them striking a leg joint. The joints buckled and the robot toppled over.  Sato pounced on it, opening his jaw wider than Isamu would have thought possible, taking a huge bite out of its head.  

“Blegh,” Sato said. “It’s stale!”

Yeah, he wasn’t going to ask any follow up question about that.

And there wasn’t any time. The next wave was already starting.

***

By the fourth wave, they were running out of steam.  Iida was down, having run out of fuel from overusing her Jetpack.  Sato was curled up on a ball, his belly bloated, moaning.

Todoroki looked dead on her feet, and even Isamu was exhausted.  This was the longest and hardest he’d ever pushed his Quirk continuously.  At least during the Entrance Exam, he’d had spurts where he could rest, catch his breath for a moment.

“You… okay?” he asked Todoroki, as the next wave came towards them.

“No,” she said.  “I do not think I can keep fighting much longer.” A hard, determined look set itself on her face.  “But I will go down fighting.”

She brought up both hands and Isamu could feel the temperature dropping.  A massive block of ice incased every last robot in the fourth wave, two and three-pointers both.

“Whoa,” he breathed.

Quickly, however, he noticed that Todoroki had gone even paler.  Her knees buckled and she began to fall.

He found himself moving before he could even think.  Even as he heard someone yelling, telling him no…

Too late, he remembered about the flames.  As he caught Todoroki before she could fall, her body erupted in flames and his world turned to pain.

***

He sprung up with a gasp, only to find he was no longer on the battlefield.  Instead, he seemed to be in… a hospital bed?  He had to be in the medical building. How was that possible? He’d taken a blast of fire that could melt steel to the face.  Isamu was pretty sure that he should be dead, or at the very least, severely burned. But his hands were unblemished and as he felt his face, he realized that was too.

“What?”

“You’re awake,” a voice said, as he heard the curtain around the bed part.  “Good.  You gave us all quite a fright when you were brought in.”

At the foot of the bed, he saw a woman in thirties, wearing a white doctor’s coat over a black and purple costume with a clock insignia on her chest.  She had blue-white hair down to her shoulders, but what was most noticeable was the horn growing from her head.  

“How…?” he began.

“Are you not dead?  Or at least not more severely injured?  That would be my doing.”

“I thought I heard someone say something about a… Doc Clock?  Is that you?”

The woman smiled.  “I never did like that name very much.  A friend of mine called me that when I was a student here and it stuck.  I am Doctor Eri Izumi.”

“Ah, nice to meet you, Doc. So do you have a healing Quirk or… Because I didn’t think there were any like that that were that strong.”

She shook her head. “Nothing like that. I can rewind living matter back in time.  It’s best if I have an idea of exactly how long.  But on the plus side, you’re now about twenty minutes younger than you used to be.”

Well, that was a new one.

“Are you feeling up to visitors?  A few of your friends are waiting on you.”

He nodded and she turned to a very elderly woman that he now noticed was napping in an electronic wheelchair at a nearby desk.  “Recovery Girl!”

The old woman’s eyes snapped open.  “Just resting my eyes!”

“Of course you were,” Doctor Izumi assured her.  “Do you think you could go get Haimawari’s friends?”

The old woman smiled. “Of course, dearie.  Just leave it to me!”  She threw the wheelchair into motion, nearly clipping a wall on her way.

Realization hit him. “Todoroki!  Is she okay?!”

Doctor Izumi nodded. “She’s fine, just resting like you. It was a brave thing you did.  Or as my father called it, “A damn fool heroic stunt.”  That’s practically high praise from him.  I’ve told him to have you take it easy for a few days though.  Rewinding can be stressful on the body.”

Wait.   What?  She couldn’t have been talking about All Might, so she had to mean…

He was going to file that under things he wasn’t going to think about.

“What do you mean I can’t see Izzy, you shriveled old crone!”

“Who’re you calling shriveled, you whipper-snapper!  Why, when I was your age, I knew how to talk to my elders!”

“That was my foot you just ran over, you senile old fool!”

“Young Kirishima-Bakugo…!”

“Katsumi, please…!”

Eventually, the noise died down and Recovery Girl brought Midoriya, Shinso, and Tokoyami, along with All Might.   The former Number One Hero, here to see him.  His heart was suddenly pounding in his chest.

“Young Haimawari!” All Might beamed.  “Quite the display of heroics out there!  Though I really would ask that you not do anything like that again!  This old heart of mine isn’t as good as it used to be.”

“Oh, really?” Doctor Izumi asked him.  “Did I not do a good enough job the first time?”

“What?  I, Eri!  You see…”

“Relax,” she told him. “I’m just teasing you.”

“Oh, of course…”

Doctor Izumi chuckled and shook her head.  “Just a few minutes, now, all of you.  Haimawari needs his rest.”

As his new friends gathered around his bed, Isamu thought he might actually be doing all right after all.

Their Hero Academia -- Chapter Seven: Izumi Todoroki and Trying to Make Amends

“Mama!  Daddy! Look!  Ice!  Ice!” She had been so happy the day her Quirk had come in, showing off her power to her parents by making ice cubes.

“Oh, wonderful, darling,” her mother had said.

“That’s good,” her father had said, smiling.  He smiled so rarely, always seemed so lost in thought, but he always smiled for her and her mother.

And then she had started feeling warm.  Too warm.  “Ow! Hot!  Hot!”  And little flames danced from her hand…

***

Under normal circumstances, Izumu would have been glad to see her parents.  But these were hardly normal circumstances.  Not when she was lying in a bed in U.A.’s medical building. Not after what had happened on the Training Ground. She had pushed herself too hard and had collapsed during training.  That too, would be cause for concern, but not as much as she was facing now.  If she’d had more endurance… maybe she wouldn’t have collapsed.  

Maybe she wouldn’t have injured Haimawari.  Her memory of the event was fuzzy, but she knew she had seen him racing towards her as she had collapsed.  He would have been at ground zero when she had ignited.

Mr. Aizawa had been direct, but not unkind, when he had told her what had happened.  She had badly injured the young man, burns over most of his body.  If it had not been for Doctor Izumi (He was injured by one Izumi, saved by another. The irony was not lost on her), he very likely would have died.  And only the doctor’s unique Quirk had saved him from a lifetime of permanent injuries.

He had told her, had not tried to tell her that she should not feel guilty.  Instead, he had told her to use that guilt to motivate herself, to make sure it never happened again.   She would.

She should never have tried to absorb that much heat at once.   Unlike her father, she couldn’t just lower the temperature to make ice. She absorbed the heat into herself. And that had to go somewhere, manifesting as flames.  She could hold it in for a little while, but the amount of heat she’d absorbed, coupled with having already reached the limits of her endurance during the training exercise, had overwhelmed her.  And when she had passed out, all of it had come racing out at once.  

“We’ll just bring you home for a few days,” her mother said, “so you can recuperate properly.  You’ll be feeling fine in no time.”

She hadn’t wanted her parents called in at all.  Students got hurt all the time during training at U.A.  It was to be expected.  They had a fine medical staff, even beyond Doctor Izumi.  And students pushing themselves too hard were nothing new either.  

But it had been a fight to even allow her parents to let her attend.  Her mother in particular had been extremely against it, worried over her health.  They had settled on a compromise, one suggested by her father.  She would be allowed to attend, but they were to be called if anything disastrous went wrong with her health.  And pushing herself to exhaustion definitely counted for that.

“I do not wish to return home,” she said, looking to her father for support.

“You collapsed, Izumi,” he said.  He looked over to her mother, then back to her.  “We need to look out for your health.  If you push yourself too hard…”

She could make her already fragile state even worse.   “But if I do not push myself,” she said, “I will not improve.  The only way to surpass my limitations is to push them.”

“We’re not asking you to drop out,” her mother said.  “Just to take a few days off from more intensive training.  You can keep up on your regular studies still.”

It sounded perfectly reasonable.  But she understood her parents, understood their caution and worry.  It would be a very short journey from coming home for a few days to staying longer to not returning to U.A. at all.  The arguments would be logical and well-reasoned.  And if she was forced to endure them, she could see her resistance wearing down.  

Which was why it could not be allowed to happen.

“Doctor Izumi already recommended the same to Mr. Aizawa,” Izumi said firmly.  “So I am already excused from active Heroics training for the next week.  Here or home changes nothing about it.  So I would prefer to stay here.”

In spite of the seriousness of the situation, her father let out a small laugh.  “Such a stubborn girl,” he said.

Her parents exchanged a glance and as one, both said to the other, “She gets that from you.”  This, in turn, prompted them both to laugh. Her father’s short and sharp, her mother’s longer, fuller.

“My health is always my concern,” Izumi went on.  “I am aware I cannot last as long, run as fast, or work as hard as some of the others. But I am where I want to be.  I want to be as good a hero as either of you. And I cannot do that if you treat me like a fragile flower.”

Her life had revolved around her health for as long as she could remember.  Long doctor visits, the best specialists an absurdly considerable fortune could buy, enough medications to fill a large truck.  Constant reminders that she just couldn’t keep up with her friends.  And even the bullying that Katsumi had protected her from.  But she truly was getting better.  Getting stronger.  Even months ago, she wouldn’t have been able to absorb that much heat fully rested, let alone exhausted.  That had to be proof of something.

She took in a breath.   “Please.”

Her mother looked like she was going to disagree, but finally managed a nod.  “All right,” she said.  “But I want you to have a visit with your regular doctor.  Doctor Izumi has my utmost respect, but her primary training is emergency medicine.”

“Probably as good a deal as you’re going to get, Izumi,” her father said.  

That was… better than she could have hoped.   She unclenched a hand she didn’t realize she’d been clenching.

“I can agree to that,” she said finally.  “Thank you.”

“Get back here, you hooligan!”

“Screw you, old woman!”

There was the sound of running in the hallway, until Katsumi appeared where the curtains parted, frantically looking behind her.  “Crazy old lady didn’t think I could jump over her, but I showed her.  Got halfway down the hall before she could even get turned around!”

She seemed to realize that it wasn’t just Izumi in the room and had the self-awareness to look slightly sheepish.

“Ah, hello, Mr. Todoroki. Mrs. Yaoyorozu.”

Her eyes widened, then narrowed with anger as she drew her own conclusions.  She dropped into a fighting stance.  “You’re not taking Izzy!  You can’t!  I’ll… I’ll fight you!  You’ll have to go through me first!”

She really didn’t mean to—Katsumi looked so serious—but Izumi actually burst out laughing.  Her parents just looked confused, looking back and forth between the two girls.

“Katsumi,” she said. “That was never an option under serious consideration.”  Not the whole truth, but it would prevent Katsumi from getting angrier.  “And we have reached a further agreement to allow me to stay.

“But thank you for your support.”

“Oh,” Katsumi said, deflating slightly.  “Well… good.”

A shriveled hand suddenly gripped Katsumi’s wrist.  “Got you!” Recovery Girl said.  “And I told you, no more visitors!”

The ancient Hero used her free hand to put her wheelchair into reverse, dragging Katsumi with her.

“Hey!  Let go of me, you crone!  You can’t do this!  I’ve got rights!”

When they were both gone, her parents both looked over to her, incredulous.  Izumi just shrugged.   “Katsumi is always watching out for me,” she explained.

There was another shared glance between the two of them, the meaning of which she did not fully grasp. In point of fact, her father’s expression was quite confused, while her mother seemed to be trying to communicate something she couldn’t even guess at.

“I see Bakugo and Kirishima’s daughter is the same as ever,” her father said.

“Your… friend is quite devoted,” her mother observed.

“She is,” Izumi agreed. “I am quite lucky.”

***

Once she was back at the dorms, Izumi sought out Asuka Tokoyami.  She could have gone to any of her closest circle of friends about this, but what she needed right now was the kind of bluntness only the bird-headed girl could provide.  Toshi would try to soften the blow and Shota would inevitably get derailed into telling her how awesome she’d been prior to that fateful moment.  So she needed someone who would tell her like it was. She just counted herself fortunate enough to have made her way back without having run into Haimawari.  That was another good reason to avoid Toshi or Shota as sources of advice.  They shared a floor with Haimawari.

She found Asuka in her room, the door open.  Her friend’s room was tastefully decorated, with bright, floral prints on the walls. Asuka was at her desk, where she was typing on a green computer, the monitor of which was shaped like a frog’s head. “Asuka?” she asked.  “May I come in?  I need to talk to you.”

Her friend stopped typing and looked to the doorway.  “Sure,” she said.  “Come on in.”

“Thank you,” Izumi said as she stepped inside.  Asuka gave a slight nod to the spare chair in the room and she took a seat.

“How’re you feeling?” Asuka asked.

“Well enough,” she replied. “I am on several restrictions as far as Heroics go for a time, and I must see my doctor, but I am being allowed to stay.  How is Haimawari?”

“Physically fine.  Doc Clock fixed him up.  We brought him back as soon as she cleared him to leave.  Toshi and Shota got him to bed.”

“And mentally?”

“Harder to say.  He was more concerned about how you were. But he did almost die.  Who knows how he’ll handle it when he gets time to process it.”

Not exactly what she had wanted to hear, but also exactly why she had come to Asuka in the first place. Bad enough that she had potentially damaged her own career, but if she had waylaid someone else’s as well…

“I would not know how to begin to apologize to him,” Izumi said.  “A simple “I’m sorry” does not seem sufficient for setting someone on fire.”

“Probably not,” Asuka agreed.  She placed a finger on her face, near her beak.  “But you should still try.  I’m sure he knows you didn’t mean to do it.”

“Would… would some kind of apology gift be appropriate?” Perhaps that was it?  Certainly, money was no object in that regard.  

Asuka shook her head. “Definitely not.  Don’t make it look like you’re trying to buy his forgiveness.”

There was a brief flash as Frog Shadow appeared, manifesting over Asuka’s shoulder.  “But if you’re throwing money around, we could use a new phone.”

“Really?” Asuka asked her familiar.

Frog-Shadow just shrugged. “Your phone’s boring.  No games!”

Green-feathers ruffled with irritation.  “I can’t take you anywhere.”

“You never go anywhere fun, anyway!”

Izumi got the feeling she was now intruding on something rather personal.  “I, ah, I shall leave you to your discussion, Asuka.  Thank you for your honesty.”

***

Izumi stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind her to give Asuka and Frog Shadow their privacy. She had known the bird-headed girl nearly all her life and considered her one of her closest friends, but she still could not even begin to understand the relationship between the girl and her Quirk.  Granted, there was much about most of her classmates and friends she did not understand.

Kaminari was outside her dorm room, sitting on the floor, occasionally looking down at a text book or scribbling something on a piece of paper.  She looked up.   “Get the advice you’re looking for?” she asked.

Izumi raised an eyebrow at that.  “How did you…?”

“I’m not that dumb, Todoroki.  I was there and I saw what happened to Haimawari.  And you’re probably one of the kindest people any of us knows.  So yeah, you’re probably worried about what to do next.  And everybody knows Tokoyami won’t sugarcoat anything.”

“I hurt him, Kaminari. I am not sure how you walk back from that.”

Kaminari shrugged, but it wasn’t a dismissive one, as far as Izumi could determine.  She brought up both of her Extension Cords, sparks dancing from the tips, then pressed the double-prongs of each together, setting off a spark that set her twitching for a moment, before she pulled them apart.

“You and me, we’re not that different,” Kaminari said.  “Your flames got out of hand, I can electrocute somebody or fry my own brain if I’m not paying attention.  See, I did that on purpose just now, but it doesn’t take much to set off a spark if I’m not careful.  All our Quirks can be dangerous if we’re not careful.  Yours, mine, even Shoji’s.”

Her right Cord pointed at Izumi.  “The real important thing is learning and not letting it happen again.  We all came here knowing it was going to be a rough road and we might get hurt.  Just gotta make sure it’s never the same way twice.”

Izumi nodded. “I…  Thank you, Kaminari.  I shall keep that in mind.”

The sound of hooves cut off any further discussion, as Mineta ran down the hall and into her room.   The door reopened for a moment and she stuck her head out.  “If anyone asked, I was here all night!”  The door closed again.

Yes, she was never going to completely understand all of her classmates.  But she especially was never going to understand Mineta.

***

It was not until the next morning that she was able to speak to Haimawari.  Though exhausted by the day, she had slept poorly, replaying the events of the previous day over and over in her mind, trying to figure out what she should have done differently and what she could say now.

She let him eat breakfast with Shota and Asuka, eating hers instead with the Iida twins.  They were too distracted with sketching something to bring up the events of yesterday.  It brought her a little respite, at least.

Finally, though, she had to approach Haimawari and the others.  “May I,” she began, finding her voice faltering.   He did not flinch from her, but seemed slightly uneasy in her presence.  That… that had to be something.  Something she could hold onto, build up from.  “May I speak to you, Haimawari, privately?”

“Come on, Shota,” Asuka said, rising. “I’ll help you with that homework problem before class.”

“What homework….” Shota began, until comprehension dawned on his face.  “Right.  Homework. Gotta go.  See you in class!”

It left the two of the alone.  Everyone else in the Common Room was busy enough.  Everyone had seen what had happened.  They would likely not be disturbed.  Even if Haimawari looked like he would rather be anywhere else.   “Ah… sure,” he said.  “We can talk.”

She took the seat opposite him and took a deep breath.  “I’m told you tried to save me yesterday.  Thank you.”

At this, he did smile. “Just doing what heroes do.  Felt like I was moving before I could think.”

Izumi nodded.  “I’m told many of us have had a moment like that.”

The silence hung before them like an uncomfortable cloud.  

“I hurt you,” she said when she could bear the silence no more.  “Badly.  You could have died because I pushed myself beyond my limits.  Because I was not strong enough to control or contain my Quirk.”

He looked down at the table and folded his hands in front of him.  “I definitely didn’t think I’d come that close to dying on my second day,” Haimawari said after a moment.  “But I’d do it again.  Even when I caught on fire, all I could think was “at least I went out doing the right thing.’”

“I am sorry,” Izumi said. “You should never have been put in that position.  Never should have had to face that.”

“Isn’t that why we’re all here?” he asked.  “Because we can’t help racing into danger?  You don’t have to apologize to me, Todoroki.”

“I must,” she said, now looking down herself.  She realized she was crying.  “If anything more sever had happened…  If Doctor Izumi had not been able to…   I do not know what I could have done.”

He reached across the table and took her hand.  “P—p—please,” he said.  “Don’t cry. I said you don’t have to apologize to me, and I meant it.  But if it means that much to you, I accept your apology.  And I forgive you.”

She looked up.  He was smiling and there was not a hint of malice or fear in his eyes.  “I was afraid you would hate me,” she said.  “Or fear that I might hurt you again.”

“Don’t really have it in me to hate people,” he said.  “Got plenty of room for friends, more than I’d like for fear, but no fear for my friends. I’ve got plenty of doubts all on my own. Like what I’ll do when my back’s to the wall.”

“I would guess you’ll probably rush in and try to do the right thing again.”

He laughed.  “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“So,” she ventured. “We are… all right?  Things are “good” between us?”   Why did people have to be so complicated?

“We’re good, Todoroki,” he said.

“After everything,” she said, “I must insist that you call me Izumi.  It only seems right.”

“Only if you call me Isamu.”

“It is a deal.”

***

“See, Izumi?” her father said.  “You just have to make sure you let the fire out.  Careful where you put it though.”

“I know, Daddy!  I know!”

“Just keep it balanced,” her mother had told her.  “And you’ll do just fine.”

“We know you’ll make us proud.”

Their Hero Academia – Chapter Eight: Katsumi Kirishima-Bakugo and the Need To Woman Up

Katsumi’s fists pounded into the heavy bag hanging from her ceiling, letting her vent her anger and frustration.  At least, that was the theory.   As of right now, it didn’t seem to be doing her much good.  The events of the previous day kept playing over in her mind.

It had been one shit show after another.  First, her team had fallen in the fourth round.  She’d exhausted her reserves and run out of explosive power and the rest of her team had let her down to boot.  Some people might have said that lasting four rounds was good.  But not her.  She was aiming for the finish line.

And then Izzy…  She’d always known Izzy was powerful.  But she hadn’t realized just how powerful she was. That girl truly was silk hiding steel. Even if she’d pushed herself too far. But Katsumi did the same thing. She could hardly blame Izzy for that. Even if her heart had seized up in her chest when Izzy went down.

In some dumb way, she was grateful to the Newb.  If he hadn’t caught Izzy…   Dumb Newb had damn near gotten himself killed for it though.   Maybe she really could ease up on him.   A little.  She had a reputation to uphold.

But her thoughts lingered longest on what she’d said in front of Izzy’s parents.  She’d threatened to fight two Pro Heroes, one of them the Number Three Hero.  She’d threatened to fight them for Izzy, to keep them from taking her away.  Who knows what she would have done if that withered old crone hadn’t dragged her off?

Well, Dad probably would have laughed and encouraged her.  So that was something.  Papa on the other hand…

“You are a mess, girl,” she told herself, pausing to catch her breath.  “And you’ve got it bad.”

There was a series of knocks at her door.  Three short taps, one hard tap, a pause, then two more hard taps.  Go Beyond!  Plus…ULTRA!

Katsumi shook her head. “What do you want, Toshi?”

“Can I come in?”

“Before I answer that, do you have Loud Kid with you?  Because I cannot deal with him before I’ve had coffee.”

“Shota’s having breakfast with Asuka and Haimawari.”

“Then you can come in.”

Toshi slid the door open awkwardly, as he was carrying a pair of coffees and a pair of those Pro Hero branded power bars he liked so much.  “Thought you might like some breakfast,” he said, offering her one of each.

She eyed the coffee mug suspiciously.  “What kind of coffee is that?”

“It’s coffee-flavored coffee.  Black, no sugar.”   Toshi made what she was guessing he thought was an imitation of her scowl.  “Like my heart.”

She gave him a blank look. “Was that supposed to be me?”

His eyes went wide. “Ah… that depends on whether or not you liked it?”

Toshi could be annoying sometimes, but he did know how to make her laugh.  And whether she liked it or not, he was always looking out for her. For all of them.  Even if they didn’t want or need it.  She took the coffee mug and gave him an affectionate punch in the arm, nearly causing him to spill his own coffee.   “You’re all right, Toshi,” she said.  “Thanks.”

She accepted the offered power bar and took a bite out of it.   “So what’re you really doing here?”

“Why do you assume I have an ulterior motive?”

“Because you only bring me food and coffee when you wanna talk.”

“Well, you do get kind of hangry…”

She rolled her eyes. “Out with it, Toshi.”

“Just checking up on you,” he said.  “After everything that happened yesterday, I was worried about you.”

Her pride flared.  Who did he think she was?  Some kid who needed a babysitter?  She wasn’t somebody who needed looking out for, like Loud Kid.  “I’m a big girl,” she said.  

“I know that,” he said. “But yesterday… yesterday as rough.”

Sometimes, Toshi had a real talent for understatement.

“I mean, you and me, we know the risks.  Our parents are Pro Heroes.  We’ve seen them get hurt sometimes.  Sometimes badly.”

That was true.   Dad got hurt all the time, mostly minor scrapes, cuts, and bruises.  But she was still haunted sometimes by a memory from years ago, when Papa had been badly beaten by a Villain named Strongarm. She remembered seeing him broken and bandaged in that hospital bed, she remembered hanging onto Dad.  It was one of the only times she could remember seeing him cry…

“You don’t have to remind me,” she said.  “I know getting hurt’s a possibility.”

“You know you getting hurt is a possibility.”

She paused, coffee cup halfway to her mouth.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I saw you, when we were watching Izumi’s group…”   He trailed off, as she began to glare at him.  “I didn’t mean to!  But you were getting kind of loud and everything! But, every time Izumi nearly got hit or had to dodge or when she collapsed…  I saw your face.”

“Probably the same kind of face you were making,” she snapped.  “It’s Izzy.  We all care about her.”

“Yeah, we do,” Toshi agreed. “And maybe I’m not a really great judge about this… but maybe you care about her as more than just a friend.”

She had him pressed up against the wall, one hand on his neck, before she knew what she was doing. Both coffee cups had clattered to the floor, spilling their contents on the carpet.  “The hell did you just say, Toshi?!”

His eyes were widening as he struggled against her grip.  “Can’t…  can’t… breathe…  Katsumi…”

With a growl, she let him go.   “I’m sorry,” he said.  “I shouldn’t have said…”

“Is it that obvious?” she asked.  Did the whole freaking school know?  How the hell was she supposed to make people quake in fear of her if everyone knew she was soft over somebody?  …Did Izzy know?

Toshi shook his head. “I don’t think so.  I mean, I haven’t talked to everybody about it, but Asuka noticed it even earlier than I did.  But I don’t think most of them know.  Shota definitely doesn’t.  And we’re not going to tell him.”

Okay, that all added up. And she could definitely cross Ojiro off the list of people who maybe knew.  If the invisible teen knew, the entire school would have known.   People in America would have known.  Theoretical evil twins from an alternate universe would have known.  No gossip was safe from invisible lips.

She jabbed a finger in Toshi’s direction.  “You tell no one about this.”

Toshi backed away from her finger, up against the wall.  “Is this… is this because you like girls?” he asked.  “Because we’re all okay with that.  Sero’s gay too, you know…”

“It’s not that, you idiot!”  She threw her hands up in frustration.  “First off, I like guys and I like girls!  And that’s still not the point!  It’s… it’s an Izzy thing.  I don’t know if she’d feel that way about me.  I don’t know what a girl like her would even want with a girl like me.”

Toshi held up his hands. “I don’t know what to tell you, Katsumi. I really don’t.  But I think you’re going to have to do something. You can’t just keep circling like that.”

He offered her a smile. “What I do know is you’re a pretty amazing person.  And you and Izumi have been friends a long time.  That’s not going to change, no matter what else happens.  And I’m your friend too.”

“…I really hate it when you make sense.”

The silence hung over the room for a moment.  “This isn’t the part where we hug, Toshi.   Get outta here.”

He laughed as he exited her room.  “Okay, Katsumi.  I’m… I’m rooting for you.”

***

When she stepped into the Common Room, Katsumi was a woman on a mission.  She was going to find Izzy and she was going to talk to her.  An actual talk, with words and everything. The kind of mushy, touch-feely talk Dad derided and tried to substitute grunts for and the kind that Papa was so good at.

Step One: locate Izzy.

Actually, Step One turned about to be: Dodge the Chaos.

“You take that back, Frenchie!” Mineta snapped at Aoyama.

“I just call them like I see them, Chéri.”the blonde snapped back.  “You prance around here, trying to seduce everything with a pulse.  You know what that makes you.”

“Okay, that’s it!”

“Bring it!”

What happened next… couldn’t exactly be called a fight.  Not with both of them just standing at arms’ length, flailing their arms and slapping them hands against each other.

And then some of the others started cheering them on.  Sero was recording the whole thing on his phone, Ojiro was cheering on Aoyama, Kaminari was cheering on Mineta, and the Iida Twins were yelling at everyone that fighting would not be tolerated…

Yep, she just sidestepped that whole thing, passing by Koda, who was watching the whole thing rather helplessly.

There.  Izzy was at one of the tables… with the Newb.

Great.  Just great.

Maybe she could try the whole “being nicer” thing?

Yep.  She was going to walk over there and ask to talk to Izzy. She wasn’t even going to threaten the Newb into moving.  She was going to put on her friendliest face, go over there, and talk to Izzy.

So why weren’t her legs working?

She was Katsumi Kirishima-Bakugo, the wo-manliest Hero-in-Training in the whole school, daughter of two of manliest and most awesome heroes on the planet.  She didn’t back down from anything.  Not from a fight, not from a challenge, and definitely not from a girl she’d had a crush on since she was eight.

One foot in front of the other.  She could do this.

So why… was the Newb… holding her hand?  And grinning like an idiot?  And Izzy was smiling too…

She ran.

***

Izzy was back in school finally, having been gone for a long time because she’d been so sick.  She’d ended up in the same class as Katsumi.

There’d been three of them.  She didn’t remember their names.  She just remembered what they’d done.  

She’d fallen on the playground, while they were running, playing tag.  She wasn’t as fast as anyone else, panting and out of breath.

“Why don’t you just stay down?” one girl had sneered, all three of her eyes cold and cruel.

“Nobody wants to play with a sick kid like you!” another had taunted, her spiked tail swinging behind her.

“Can’t believe somebody like her has Hero parents!” a third had said.  “They must be so embarrassed!”

“All of you, shut up! Leave her alone!”  She’d picked up a handful of rocks, letting her explosive power seep into them.  She wasn’t supposed to use her Quirk while at school or on the playground, but they just made her so mad…!   She threw the rocks, where they exploded at the mean girls’ feet, all bang and no flame, but more than enough to scare them off.

“Fine!” the three-eyed girl had snapped.  “You want her, you can have her!”

She offered Izzy a hand-up.  “It’s okay,” Katsumi had said.  “I’m here.

Slowly, Izzy’s sobs stopped.  “Thank you,” she’d said.  “I didn’t… I didn’t know they’d be so mean.”

“Don’t worry, Izzy,” she’d said.  “Anything happens, I’ll exploderize them!”

Izzy had pressed her hands to her face.  “I… I wouldn’t want anybody to get hurt…”

“Aaaw, maybe I can just exploderize them a little?”

“Maybe just a little, Katsumi.”

“Don’t worry,” she told Izzy again.  “I’ll take care of you.”

And Izzy was hugging her and she had never felt more like a Hero than she had right then.

***

Katsumi hadn’t gotten far, just under one of the trees in the courtyard.  She wasn’t going to cry.  She was not going to cry.  She was Katsumi Kirishima-Bakugo, and she definitely did not just go crying over anything.  

She was… she was happy for Izzy.  Yes. Izzy absolutely deserved all the happiness in the world.  She couldn’t be mad at her for finding happiness…

“ARGH!”  She let out a scream, releasing some of the rage she felt burning up inside her.  Katsumi was well aware that she had what some might call “anger issues.”  And sometimes, yeah, she let it out at the wrong times.  Usually when someone pissed her off or did something stupid.   But she had rarely been as angry as she was right now. Angry at the unfairness of it all, angry at missed chances, angry at herself for waiting so long.

She needed something to punch, something to explode.  But no targets presented themselves.  And she was smart enough not to just unleash random property damage.  She didn’t need the headache or the detention that would come with that.

Problems she could punch were so much easier to solve.

“Katsumi.”

She looked up and blinked rapidly, because she had to be dreaming.  It was Izzy.  But why would Izzy be out here?

“Katsumi,” Izzy repeated. “In all the time I have known you, I have never seen you run like that. What’s wrong?”

Words left her mouth before she had the chance to stop them.  “You came running after me?  You break up with your new boyfriend already?”

Confusion worked its way across Izzy’s face.  “My… what?”

She struggled to remember the Newb’s actual name.  “Haimawari. I saw the two of you.   I’m…  I’m happy for you.  Much as I hate to admit it… he seems like the Hero-type.  And you deserve the best, Izzy.”

“Katsumi,” Izzy said, still looking very confused, “Haimawari is my friend.  That is all. I don’t know what would lead you to believe otherwise.”

“I saw the two of you!  Smiling, holding hands…”

“Ah.”  Izumi nodded.  “We were just speaking to each other.  I apologized for setting him on fire.”

Only Izzy could have delivered a statement like that.

“He forgave me,” she went on.  “I was… grateful for that.  I was so ashamed of what I had done to him… I feared he might hate me.”

No one could hate Izzy, that much, Katsumi was certain of.

“So you don’t… like him, like that?” Katsumi prompted.  “You’re just friends?’

“Just friends,” Izzy assured her.

Relief washed over Katsumi like a wave, quieting some of the flames of rage within her.  Those flames were quickly replaced by icy, cold dread gripping its way around her heart.   Izzy might not have been involved with the Newb… but she still seemed blind to how she felt about her.

“I am sorry if I upset you somehow,” Izzy told her.  “I know… I am not always good at knowing how other people will react.  But I truly do not understand why it would upset you so.”

Katsumi looked away, the words dying in her throat for once, instead of escaping before she could consider them.  How could she tell Izzy how she felt?  What if she didn’t feel the same way?

“Katsumi.   Please.  Talk to me.”

It was now or never. Time to Woman Up.

“I’m in love with you, Izzy. Been in love with you for a long time.”

And then the dormitory exploded.