#and Firo being a little shit

[sammydem0n64]

IDK what AU's you have overall so i'll just place a couple in here SKJDNJSDKJ ✏️

OH GOD THE SHOE IS ON THE OTHER FOOT HDJDHDJD

Ok I’ll talk about my most OBTUSE au; the one that’s kinda based on Frankenstein (and by that I mean the musical (and by that I mean the song “Why?”)) where Melphis is Frankstein’s Monster!

Basically the idea is that Marion created Melphis but just like Victor he quickly grew to fear and abandon his creation, his child. Melphis ofc went mad and decided to ruin Marion’s life since that man ruined his before he was even given a chance to have a life. So, he kills child!Cherry (this takes place when she’s like, 8) to cause strife within the Oreo Gang and it leads to Marshe being blamed for the murder, thus being killed by Firo as vengeance for his daughter. All because Marion made a series of bad decisions

... and that’s all I got! It really has all thay thought out bc I don’t see this au as a full Frankenstein musical au or have really thought more about the plot outside of this moment. I don’t know if Creature!Melphis ends up murdering whoever Elizabeth would be and the rest of the events of the musical unfold. I’ve really only imagined this moment because of these lyrics from Why

Because. Well when you look at Marion and Melphis’ relationship... YEAHHHHHHHHH.

IDK man to me it doesn’t need more of a plot outside of that one thing. You get the idea: Melphis is getting revenge for being abandoned to rot by his creator (Father, Marion) and this version of him doesn’t draw the line at killing kids just to ruin Marion’s life, targeting his work since that’s all that matters to him. This au is just a wacky little thing. Carries the implication Melphis is probs gonna do more shit to destroy the Oreo Gang and likewise Marion’s livelihood, everything he’s worked towards destroyed because he decided to build himself an heir but chickened out at the last second.

All I got is that I imagine Donna and Gleo don’t exist here. And honestly maybe Sugao doesn’t either! My idea is that Marion decided to make workers for the gang like he does in canon, but because he doesn’t have a family and ig no one wants to bang him, he had to. Well. Make a man out of corpses! Very fun!!!!!!!!!

I wish Creature!Melphis the best of luck being unhinged and making Marion regret being born!!!!!

[c4rdsharp]

     awful general summaries of the gandor family members.

keith : the actual don of the family ; eldest brother of berga, luck, and claire. speaks minimally, about five words per month. has an absolutely piercing stare, but is ultimately in the background most times. is actually very strong, do NOT fuck with him. also has 52 joker cards up in his suit sleeves for some reason and is implied to have bought 52 separate card decks JUST to take the jokers out. married to kate. (passive) maria enabler #1.

berga : second eldest brother. is not very smart but what he lacks in brains he makes up for in muscles. so many muscles man. very, VERY loud. constantly forgotten though because he suffers middle child syndrome. does not who julius ceasar is. went to firo’s casino & just straight up ASKED if he could make the slot machines easier. getting in constant extreme fights with claire, there is so much fucking property damage. once basically revealed his cards to Luck and immediately wondered how Luck knew what his cards were literal seconds after, i’m not shitting you. a big bear. married to kalia. (active) maria enabler #2.

luck : the youngest brother, but is somehow the one doing almost all the work? smart, too smart, knows so much knowledge. can’t fight for shit though. you think he’s the most normal guy ever, but no, he’s a Little Fucked Up Actually. canonically revels in the screams of men who fuck with him & the family, i feel we as a society just gloss over that. he is kind AND a little insane. apparently very empathetic . . . which just makes him even scarier honestly. do not be fooled by his smiles he is PLOTTING your death i guarantee it. unmarried bachelor. chronic maria disabler.

claire : technically not a Gandor Mafia member, but a Gandor Family member nonetheless. adopted step - brother. has WAY too many names, you need less names dude. thinks he’s the shit, literally god. also thinks he can’t die. this is HIS world, we’re all just living in it. INSANE feats of strength & acrobatics. unfortunately, he IS just a regular fucking dude, like, there is NOTHING there, he is just that good. ran away to the circus like the clown he is. will just outright propose marriage to ANYONE he finds attractive don’t ask him for romantic advice, honestly. you will never win a fight against him ever. also he likes trains.

tick : the Gandor family’s torture technician & one of Luck’s subordinates. cheerful, but fucked up little dude. ended up being traded in to the family by his step - father when he was a child. Luck is literally the same age as him, but apparently a son figure nonetheless. FASCINATED by scissors, he’s got a whole bunch of them. looks like a florist. so many scissors dude, i can’t emphasize enough on the scissors. is actually really kind & sweet, but still just snips - snips at human intestines. wants to see how unbreakable or breakable human bonds are ‘cause he can’t see them. little weirdo, i like him. maria enabler #3 and probably her best friend.

maria : Gandor family assassin. the most energetic of them, probably. it’s kinda cute, if it weren’t for the fact she was mentally a child running around with 2 katanas at all times. oh, yeah, she has 2 katanas. they are apparently alive & full of bloodshed (debatable). she can & will slash anything in her way. even if that’s Gandor property. she is here to cause fights & property damage. everything else is secondary to that. the swords call when the swords call. most of the time it is property damage, because Luck won’t let her kill at random. c’mon, amigo, let her kill. just one little fight. just a little blood for the blood swords. begrudging daughter figure to Luck (somehow?)

nicola & edith : they’re literally just here, dude. they are the most normal people here. one’s just a capo & the other is just a waitress. please help them.

kate : wife to keith. EXCELLENT pianist. very lonely though. she plays at the Coraggioso sometimes. literally the nicest person on this list with nothing else fucked up going on for her. her only crime is marrying a mob boss. will invite you to dinner & give you food. you better accept or Else. loves her husband very much.

kalia : wife to Berga. we know absolutely nothing about her in canon except for 3 things : she’s hot, she’s the one to have proposed, and she gets into arguments with Berga a lot. i think it’s a crime we DON’T get to see her or even meet her. she sounds incredible, i am begging you, Narita, please introduce Kalia in 1935-E. i don’t even know how or why, i think she should absolutely be there. also absolutely loves her husband.

[lottovalentino]

you don't have to share them if you don't want to of course but about the huey stages you have written down, I am so intrigued

so the idea behind this is that there are three different kinds of huey stages, the first being a chronological breakdown – which i did make a tiny post about once, fairly straightforward and simple, you could definitely get more into it. the second kind of a huey stages list is a personal one (i might talk about how i felt about him once but i think i just did a very typical 360°). the list of huey stages i mentioned in tags however. is the third one. a universal one, if you will. mostly universal, i’ll assume, if you’ve read the novels in order

STAGE ONE: don’t know him literally (volume 1)

i took it upon myself to write it down on one of the empty pages of whitesmile during a rush of some late night induced insanity. so here’s a semi-identical transcript

STAGE TWO: just a name, perhaps a little shitty is what i’m getting at but elmer also says he’s pretty so like idk! don’t know the guy personally (volumes 2-5)

STAGE THREE: ohhh so he sucks. so an asshole yeah. okay (volumes 6-8)

STAGE FOUR (checkpoint number 1): volume 8. firo convo (specifically the part where he fakes being insane by holding that ridiculous speech before dropping an “i’m kidding”). he’s definitely an asshole but there’s…something there obviously and there’s no way to grasp it yet but. there’s something there

STAGE FIVE: if this is the way he was at 15 than it’s very apparent how we got from point A to point B. 50% poor kid and 50% you’re bound to grow up into a piece of shit so. sucks! :/ (volume 11)

STAGE SIX: oh my god he forced monica to have a kid with him and then he KILLED her oh my god ofcourse!! he did it to renee too!! what did i say. Irredeemable (volume 13)

STAGE SEVEN: …okay false alarm but what does. what exactly does that mean. hang on bro what do you mean Your wife. grandpa what are you saying. is this going to be a melancholic thing now. hang on….. (volumes 13-14)

STAGE EIGHT (checkpoint number 2): volume 15. oh my god. oh my god. no no no no no he’s. look at him he’s actually. he’s getting better. he’s getting so happy. he’s allowing himself to love and trust people again. he has friends!! he’s Actually healing, this was genuinely not expected i’m going to kill myself her death will ruin him. that MUST be why he becomes a supervillain yeah. yeah.

STAGE NINE (i like to call this one the plot twist, volume 17): ….............…he didn’t descend into insanity because monica died. nothing of the sort he just. made a very conscious decision to flip a switch and weighted out his options. he decided that getting her back has to be more important than anything else. he is actively training himself not to be a person anymore. THIS IS SELF PRESERVATION. AT ITS WORST!!!!!! HUEY!!!!!!

STAGE TEN: agony. this is so sad. i’m sad. (volumes 18 – ?)

[closedcoffins]

He didn't sign the note. He didn't need to ; Firo would know it was from him. After all, who else could it be from? Who else would leave behind something like this for him, all the way out here in Kansas City? As far as Luck was aware, Firo didn't know anybody outside of New York. Even if he did . . . well, the other would certainly recognize his handwriting. They weren't best friends for nothing.

I was always the better one at hide and seek. Remember?

He slapped the paper onto the inside locker's back wall, leaving behind various clues ( photos, maps, records ) next to it. He stared at the taped up message, hand on the door. He had no idea if Firo would even find it ; the fact he's managed to keep up with Luck enough to have found most of his messages was incredible, but it was only a matter of time before he couldn't. Before something would be lost in translation. Not that he couldn't stay, couldn't explain himself. They were on his trail. i can't stay a moment longer. Another heartbeat passed before Luck shut the door. Putting on his hat, he turned away and started walking. To where? He didn't know. He could just only hope Firo found his way back here in time as well. Before they did. God, before they did, he hoped . . .

for Luck Isn't Dead AU, hehe?

It’s raining, and it’s miserable.

Frankly, Firo’s list of “things that are shit” has almost doubled since starting this wild goose chase. He almost thinks---no, he definitely knows---he’d be better off if he never had. This kind of life is miserable. It comes with torrential rain and terrible food, and way less rest than Firo had ever been used to getting. Maybe he’s gotten spoiled by moving up in society, and he’s just not accustomed to being what had essentially been a street kid anymore.

Or maybe it’d just be shit either way. It’s not like it never rained in New York, but then again it’s not like this was about the rain anyway.

The thud and subtle squelch of Firo’s nearly-soaked bag hitting the tiled floor echoes throughout the empty hallway. And it’s empty---really, truly empty, the kind of thing Luck would probably have a fancy set of words to describe but the only thing that comes to Firo’s mind is that this is a place that has seen some shit. Or seen way too little shit. Either way, it’s creepy. Crime is one thing, but Firo’d never fucked with ghosts and whatever-else-out-there before he set out on this whole trip.

That’s another thing that’s shit, he thinks. This whole trip. And the ghosts, and whatever that guy in the jumpsuit was. But I guess that’s three things.

There’s not really any doubt that Luck was here, based on just that. Even if Firo didn’t know, hadn’t been following him, it’d be obvious just because the place is the same distance left of normal than anywhere else Luck had stopped at. A half-built hallway with a locker-lined wall stares at him, and one of them---dimly lit by the light filtering in through the courtyard door behind him---is sitting there with a padlock that’s already been unlocked.

There’s always the chance it wasn’t Luck who did that, but Firo’s never been the type to think about the danger before doing things. He’s always jumped right into fights. Likewise, he’d probably have a habit of peeking into suspiciously open lockers if he came across more of them than the single one he’s seen, here and now.

“Oh, you really are a dick.” It comes out as a spiteful murmur the moment he’s got a good read on what the note in the locker says. Even with the other shit in there, that alone is enough to make Firo see red, and somehow the low crackling of the miraculously dry radio that’s become a constant in Firo’s life for some fucking reason sounds mocking and cruel. “Betcha think you’re real funny, Luck.”

Firo tears it down. He takes the rest of the things Luck has left him, tucking them into his coat so they’re spared from the rain---if he even goes back out into it---with a too-forceful movement. The radio keeps crackling. He leaves the note lying face-down and shuts the locker with more vigor than is really necessary. 

The sound of it echoes throughout the hallway, endless until it isn’t.

“Sometimes I wonder why I even bother,” Firo admits, imagining there’s a response somewhere in the radio silence. If not from Luck, then from someone. Anyone. That’s another thing that’s shit, the lack of tangible and real people to talk to. “I’ve been nothin’ but miserable since I started, Luck. And you---I wonder how you just do things like this an’ think it’s okay. I mean, you can do it to other people all you want, but---”

He purses his lips, trying to control himself for just a second before it becomes too difficult and the side of his fist slams into the locker like it’s a punching bag. It’s a dull ache, but not more painful than the ugly burning in his chest.

“I used to think no matter what you did I wouldn’t hate you for it, y’know? That was always how it was, for me. I’m not a great person and you know it, so I figured you could never do anything that crossed any kinda line. But I guess I just thought you’d never be doin’ those things to me. I’m not ashamed to say I was bein’ selfish when I was thinkin’ that, but I wish you’d leave one ‘a your notes an’ tell me where you got the nerve to pull somethin’ like this.” He hears hoarse laughter for a second. It’s insult to injury until he realizes that he’s the one who had laughed, full of incredulity, defeat, spite---whatever you want to call it. Full of something.

“I thought that kinda thing mattered to you. That you weren’t the type to just toy with people who care about you like this, y’know? I kept tellin’ myself at first that you had a good reason to do what you were doin’. But you really are just bein’ a dick, so I think I don’t even care why you left that note. Go fuck yourself.”

It’s not real. The emotion’s there, and Firo really does wish he could find Luck already just so he could tear him a new one properly, but the anger’s less genuine than he wants it to be. It’s strangely empty, just like this hallway. And that’s shit, too, because Firo wants to be the angriest person alive right now. He’ll be unsatisfied until he’s been able to cross that threshold, which probably means he’s never gonna be satisfied. Whatever he’s waiting for won’t come.

The radio is also empty. It’s just a mocking little sound in this dumb half-complete hallway. Every crackle is almost a voice, but not quite, and not the one he wants to hear. It’s just a goddamn radio, and no matter how much Firo yells at it it’s not gonna give him anything because it doesn’t have feelings to hurt, and that’s probably what he wants the most, is to hurt Luck’s feelings more than Luck has managed to hurt his.

He sighs, and even that seems to echo forever. Then he shuts the radio off. Very forcefully.

( It doesn’t come on again until three miserable hours of waiting out the worst of the rain later, and by then the sounds of a truck keep Firo company instead of the eerie silence that penetrated the locker-lined hallway. For a while, he doesn’t speak. Whatever he saw in there---because there’s really no doubt that there was something---he doesn’t talk about it. 

Some shitty song plays on the truck radio. Firo doesn’t know it, but he mumbles along to some of the words anyway. For a while, that’s all there is, until it isn’t.

“You know,” he says, “I think you’re stubborn, Luck, but you’re not more stubborn than me.” )

[ubercharge]

isekai recs?

this is the only ask that matters to me.. i won’t give content warnings but some of these stories contain sensitive themes. in very loose order:

Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken / That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (anime + manga)

one of the big boys last season. the MC guy dies + transported to another world but is reborn as a slime and, through this, basically becomes a god even though he mostly just wanted to build a safe city for monsters. the cast is mainly male but there are multiple major female characters.

i like plot stuff but it’s actually great fun watching rimuru develop his city and casually become super powerful. i’m still really interested in seeing where the plot goes and the less plot-centric stuff doesn’t detract from enjoyment of the story as a whole because it throws in character development too.

*The Ways of Strolling in the Demon Country is good and cute spinoff manga

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari / The Rising of the Shield Hero (anime + manga)

and here’s the other big boy of last season. the MC doesn’t die at the start (good for him), but he’s summoned to another world as one of the four legendary heroes. cool! until he’s immediately stabbed in the back by royalty and cast away. the mood of this show starts off and generally remains a lot darker than every major isekai but re:zero.

what sets this show apart besides the intriguing element of the MC’s legendary weapon being a shield, is (incoming low bar) the other 2 major characters, both ladies. raphtalia, the emotional soul of the show, wields a sword instead of being a typical female mage/archer. firo is the team’s tank and mount (in her real form, a large bird). the team goes through so much shit that when they defeat something, you feel satisfied instead of thinking ‘OP fantasy bullshit again’

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! / God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! (anime + manga)

this one uses the classic “MC dies + is transported to another world” trope but it has a big focus on comedy. humour is its biggest selling point and it is a absolutely hilarious. i particularly love the voice acting. the art is nice though the animation is lacking (budget issues?).

you really grow to love the characters through their ridiculous shenanigans and as a plus, the main cast is mostly female (the MC guy, useless goddess, mage girl who can only cast explosion, and paladin knight lady who enjoys taking damage) and they’re hardly ever put through ecchi situations! yes the bar is that low! there’s minimal romance in the show atm thank god

Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi / Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill (manga)

the OP skills this guy gets when he’s summoned to another world? infinite storage and online shopping. he cooks so well he garners the attention of legendary wolf beast fenrir, and they’re bound in a familiar contract because fenrir REALLY likes the food this guy makes. it’s great if you like cooking and fantasy - light-hearted, fun, and funny. i love the art style.

Isekai Shokudou / Restaurant to Another World (anime + manga)

the kind of thing you consume for warm fuzzy feelings when you also like food. a restaurant in our world has a door that connects to a fantasy world, and once a week, people from the fantasy world can come visit and eat. so more like reverse isekai. each chapter revolves around a different fantasy person/people, and through this, you learn about each of those characters. slice of life vibes, light, fluffy. if you like yuru camp and food shows, you’d like this.

honourable mentions:

Dungeon Meshi / Delicious in Dungeon (manga)

oh this is it. this is my most recent 10/10 rated animanga and holy fuck. it’s not an isekai, it is fantasy. one of the heroes is eaten by the dragon, the others have to retreat without their supplies, but they gotta go back for the person they lost. without rations, they end up eating the monsters in the dungeon. this sounds like a light-hearted premise (sort of), but you never forget the underlying goal of rescuing the girl, you see through flashbacks and interactions the importance of her to the others.

it gets pretty heavy and even dark later on without sacrificing its ability to be comedic. this one balances incredible art, an intriguing story, humour, emotional moments, delicious fantasy food, and characters who are evenly developed. the author is a woman and you can tell because there’s zero fanservice. it’s purely a fantastic story with beautiful art and hilarious expressions.

No Game No Life (anime + manga): game world isekai that revolves around playing games. the games are the most interesting element of this world and layers of mind games, cheating, etc. keep you guessing about the various outcomes. the colourful art style makes for a unique visual experience. more politics than even slime datta! you maybe assume the MC siblings are trying to conquer the world for the human race, but they’re actually just trying to become god. *has a prequel movie: NGNL Zero. incredible animation, it’s lore if you like the world

Re: Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu / Starting Life in Another World (anime + manga): wow the MC sure did think being in a fantasy world would be cool! labelled psychological horror and has a very dark tone throughout. most of the characters are female. the show is rife with suffering and while there is a story element to it, the first season of the anime ends with many questions and loose strings. great animation.

Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? / So I’m a Spider, So What? (manga): the MC girl is reborn as a little spider and she becomes more powerful. it’s hard not to root for her as you watch her grind through the cave. the interesting thing is that she actually becomes more like a villainous monster, partially because of how intruding humans repeatedly destroy her web home. also getting an anime soon!

Kujonin / Exterminator (manga): the MC uses his past life’s extermination skills to kill monsters and basically cheeses his way to OP ability. includes a tragic amount of one-sided love for the MC and fanservice. the characters he meets along his travels make for a more interesting story though; there are some solid moments.

whatever the opposite of recommendations/honourable mentions is:

sword art online.

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Baccano, Episodes 14-16

In which we tear through the sequel OVA, we get another fantastic character to chew the scenery, and this story about storytelling brings its story to a close.

Loose Ends

Baccano’s greatest strength has always been the way it expertly directs your attention through the looping story it tells. So much of what makes this show a blast to watch is just how tightly choreographed the entire storytelling apparatus was, jumping between discordant scenes and timelines and storylines without ever getting lost in the shuffle. Those kind of narrative acrobatics are hard as shit to pull off, and I give Baccano all the credit in the world for accomplishing that goal so successfully. Now, however, we’re in the 3-episode sequel OVA, outside the confines of that tightly wound storytelling apparatus and observing the fallout now that the mechanism has officially run its course. These episodes are mostly about tying up loose ends, giving closure to what was left unexplored by the time the show proper had run its course. We learn more about Chane and give her arc closure, the Rail Tracer is given a definitive conclusion to his story alongside her, and we get more insight into what the devil’s been doing all this time, though in that case, it’s still left unclear what, exactly, his ultimate goal has been all this time. As such, they lack the propulsive energy that made Baccano’s first thirteen episodes such a perfectly told thrill ride, but you know what? The cast is all so fantastic that just spending more time with them and seeing what form their Happily Ever Afters take is enough to keep me invested at this point. And from the very opening scene of Isaac and Maria up to their usual shenanigans, setting up a ridiculously complex domino stream with straight-faced determination (”We can be the domina and dominist!”), it’s clear that’s all that it needed to be. When you’ve got characters this superb, you earn the right to fart around for a bit.

And if nothing else, these episodes continue to prove just how goddamn excellent this show is at what it does. From the biggest moments to the smallest touches, Baccano is so deeply in touch with itself that it’s able to be a near-constant delight to experience. There’s a brief little scene with the information brokers where a guy named Sugar Cube is allowed behind the hidden boss’ wall of papers to see him, and there are so many little touches that make this incidental moment the best it can possibly be. The casual way Sugar Cube breaches this barrier, indicating visually what a normal occurrence this is for him. The other brokers’ stupefied faces as they silently take in just how outclassed they are by him. The fact that he’s named Sugar Cube, because he just chews on sugar cubes all the time. None of those details had to exist, but they did, and they make this tiny, insignificant comedic moment incredible. And that attention to detail, fleshing out incidental moments with nuance and wit, is what makes this show incredible. Whether it’s finding out that Jacuzzi tattooed his face to make Nice feel better after being scarred by an explosion gone wrong, Ladd’s quiet terror in custody that contrasts with his usual exuberance chillingly, or how Firo gets into the dominoes against his better judgement, this entire show is always on, always engaging, and always worthwhile. That’s an achievement worth celebrating.

The Mute and the Maniac

Still, I wouldn’t be true to my brand if I didn’t find at least something to complain about before all was said and done, and lo and behold, this set of episodes finally gave be a significant flaw to be mildly cross over: I don’t think Chane is a very interesting character. Again, Baccano’s ensemble cast is legitimately one of the best ensemble casts I’ve seen in anime, so maybe this is by virtue of just not stacking up against the rest of the titans she shares the screen with, but considering how her story really is the main focus here, there’s no real getting around how much less interested I was in here in comparison to everyone else. Part of the problem is that I very much do not understand why the Rail Tracer ended up falling for her (which even he admits: ”As perplexing as it is, it seems I’ve fallen in love with you!”), and poorly justified romance has long been a sticking point of mine. But I think the real issue here is kind of inherent to the character: she’s silent. Baccano’s cast is composed of big personalities who let out big speeches and make big impressions on the rest of the world around them. The magic of this show’s day-to-day busywork comes from watching all these expressive, highly engaged people bounce up against each other and watching what sparks fly and how their trajectories are affected. Chane, in contrast, literally gave her voice up in pursuit of her goals. She’s reserved and quiet, no less intense in action but far less well-realized in that intensity. She’s the least expressive member of a cast that thrives of expressivity, and her inner monologue is too bland to make up the difference. It’s a shame, because her story of overcoming her father’s lack of love could’ve been really powerful, but she just ends up falling short.

Thankfully, what Baccano taketh away it always giveth back even stronger, and as compensation for a kinda lackluster character arc, this OVA also grants us Graham Spector, one the story’s most deliriously entertaining lunatic behind Isaac and Maria. Good. Fucking. GOD. Even in just three episodes, Ladd’s devotee makes such a strong impression that he’s already climbed his way close to the top of my favorite characters list. His barely coherent string-of-conscious rambling ends up making so much sense in spite of itself that the spectacle of watching this manic double back on his words and recontextualize the crazy directions his speech takes him in never ceased to leave me cackling in glee. You get the sense that for as insane as he is, he’s well aware of his own insanity, and he’s in a constant state of self-examination as he merrily takes apart the world in his wake. He can launch into overwrought moral diatribes on the nature of morality (”But although I can’t accept it, it is the truth, which is something that I can’t tolerate.”), then stop himself mid-stream to consider the mental path he took to get where he ended up (”Sorry, I just wanted to use the world ‘ingenious’ right then.”) before leaping right back into the fray just as animated as before (”I’ve gotten past the sadness and as of now I’ve evolving to a hiGHER STAGE!”). He’s insane, to be sure, but it’s a very self-aware insanity, one that isn’t above calling itself out for its own shortcomings (”Aw, dammit, now I feel really guilty!”) or poking fun at its self-important, narcissistic desires (”Oh hey, I went and said a thing of actual intelligence there. Time to show me some love, boys!”). And the push and pull between those extremes leads to some of the biggest laughs in the entire show. Upon his enemies being overly literal about his directions to get around not actually following them: ”I can’t argue with that logic.” Jesus wept, that one slew me. Spector feels like he’s having so much fun putting on this persona that I can’t help but enjoy how sincerely he commits to it. This show has the most consistently entertaining psychopaths in all of fiction, start to finish.

The Stories We Tell

And, at last, we come right back to where we started: Carol and her guardian mulling over the nature of the story they’re telling and the way they’re telling it. While Baccano hasn’t had much in the way of thematic depth, this undercurrent of putting storytelling itself under the microscope has always been hovering in the background since these two characters first framed this show as such back in the first episode. That entire opening set up this show as an exploration of storytelling itself, how the techniques and methods used can drastically change the way we interpret events or understand intention. And the show followed through on that promise by essentially just being an exercise in showcasing how telling a story from so many different angles can enhance and evolve our understanding of it. As the vice-president says at the end here, this story’s really been all about the way everyone else’s stories influence each other, colliding and rebounding in unpredictable but exciting ways. It’s been about the delight of watching a good story unfold, and as we reach the show’s final moments, the characters who set that premise up in the first place  bring it to a close with a single, simple statement of why it was necessary to tell this story this way:

“Because it’s more enjoyable.”

Outrageously meta self-commentary aside, that statement really is Baccano in a nutshell. Whatever meaning it has behind the surface-level thrills of its narrative contraption is all about the importance of that contraption itself. It’s been about the joy of storytelling for storytelling’s sake, dodging and weaving and blowing shit up for the sole purpose of showcasing just how goddamn fun this stuff can be in the hands of the right storyteller. And considering how fucking enjoyable this show has been, it proved its thesis with flying colors. And now, because all the best stories must come to an end, Baccano allows us to imagine the future for ourselves, bringing its story to a close in the only way it ever could: Isaac and Maria being complete dumbasses and loving every second of it. Because at the end of the day, when you’ve got a story this well-told, that kind of enjoyment is worth everything.

Odds and Ends

-Back in the days when Ladd’s uncle still had fun ordering him to kill people, huh?

-You know, this fight scene feels a little too shonen battle for Baccano. Guy’s smashing holes in the concrete with nothing but a wrench and Ladd just punched him across an entire room. I’m half-expected Goku to show up.

-”I’ve learned it takes a little more than this to spoil mankind.” pfft

-”Oh you know me, I’d do anything for a smile!” Oh, they’re in love, aren’t they?

-”I’ve learned that happiness is like unhappiness: either one can strike without warning.” He’s not wrong.

-”Oh, nothing. Just thinking about stuff.” Big mood.

-”Tedium is a crime! Death to tedium!” This guy gets it.

-I really do love Jacuzzi’s VA. He strikes such a great balance between determination and fear.

-”However, I would appreciate it if you didn’t interrupt me when I’m speaking.” Yeah, god, Chane, you don’t cockblock a good villain monologue like that.

-”Catch!” I LOVE HIM

-”Nice, the place was already open, why’d you blow it up?” “Donny, why would you ask a boneheaded question like that?” aksdhaskdadsd

-Hm. I wonder what the point was to the senator supposedly being behind this disaster?

-Now that Rachel’s got more than a few lines at a time, it is very hard not to hear Makise Kurisu in her performance.

-”I don’t necessarily think that necessarily means that she isn’t in love with me!” I cannot get over how goddamn amazing this dub script is. Almost every single line is gold.

Bon voyage, Baccano. See you later tonight for my series reflection, as well as what show will take its place!

[hermankopusortizorsumshite]

Ronon Fanfiction 3

Ya’ll. In the midst of moving and trying to pack, I’ve been so busy and haven’t been good about posting. Actually I’ve been shit at posting. So here’s chapter 3 of the Ronon fic. Much love

Chapter 1:  https://phillipkopusimagines-and-stuff.tumblr.com/post/182952713169/ronon-dex-fanfiction

Chapter 2: https://phillipkopusimagines-and-stuff.tumblr.com/post/183119088810/ronon-dex-fanfiction

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“Tell me, where she is.” He gnashes through clenched teeth, his heart thundering and legs quaking.

“Ronon, just listen for her. If you found her that day, you’ll find her now.” She assures, voice still calm and cool. He closes his eyes, listening to everything around him and blocking it all out. A few moments pass in silence, no heartbeat, no sign of life. He takes another breath, his fingers tracing his own scar for encouragement. And in that moment, he hears it.

The faintest sound, a little tiny ‘ghud ghud’. A steady beating heart, one that didn’t belong to anyone but her. He sprints in the direction as it gets louder, his heart beginning to soar with happiness. The moment he sees the Daedulus, he swings open the door to find Caldwell sitting in a chair adjacent to her, and she sits, nervously twiddling her thumbs and tapping her toes on the metal floor.

Her eyes meet his and they spring together like opposite ends of magnets. Flinging her arms around his neck, she hooks her legs around his waist as he grips her tightly in a hug. Colonel Caldwell can’t help the small smile that graces his lips as they collide, the air whooshing from their lungs.

“I was so worried.” He whispers in Satedan, nuzzling his nose into the curve where her neck meets her shoulder, pressing his face into the soft skin.

“I know, I’m sorry. That damn Weir wanted me to come here. They said you’d be fine. I knew you would panic. I’m sorry.” She whispers, nuzzling her nose into his cheek. Her breathes ghosts over his ear, sending a chill spiralling through his whole body. Placing her on her feet, he hooks a soft, bronze toned arm around her neck and leads her back to his room.

“Don’t ever do that again.” He growls at Weir as they walk by, Weir’s jaw slack in shock that Ronon had actually found her, dispite being so far away and quiet.

“I’m sorry Ro,” Thalia whispers as they shut his door and sit on the floor on pillows.

“It’s okay. I know she’s wanted to see how it works. I was just really worried.”

“You were scared?” She asks, eyeing him with a playful twinkle in her green eyes.

“I wasn’t scared. Just worried.”

“I’m sorry, Ro. I shouldn’t have agreed. I promise I won’t do it again.” She assures, patting his knee. He reaches over her for his drawer, pulling out a small wooden box, with their five stones in it. They would play this game all the time. She takes her two rocks, and he takes three. Silence overcomes them as they close their eyes, shutting out all sounds except each other’s heartbeats. Pressing her first rock to her chest, the second she holds in her open palm. He does the same, only one stone of his is put on his head. Stones in places, he starts to lift the rock in his palm with his mind and starts to send it to her, and she does the same with her stone to his open palm. The two rocks flow in a steady circle, as if on a track, never touching their hands. He is the first to peek at her, seeing her so concentrated makes him smile, though he never loses focus.

The objective is to keep the stones floating until they can both stand up, raise their hands above their heads and grab their stone. The stones cannot touch the floor, the one on his head cannot fall from its spot. If he wins, she gets the stone placed on her head, if he loses he keeps the stone. He reaches for her hand to encourage her to open her eyes when Sheppard knocks at the door, breaking Ronon’s concentration. With a low groan, the stones hit the floor and Ronon answers the door.

“Hey Ronon, Weir is asking to see you two. Cool trick.” He points to the stones on the floor before disappearing away from the room.

“I guess. We better go see what she needs.” He gives a reluctant sigh. Even after so long, their connection is as strong as ever. This game they played was to keep their connection strong. They played as kids, and Ronon found this to be his favorite game; as they could play it in the woods away from everyone or they could play it in the middle of town to challenge themselves.

The two stand, Ronon’s hands tentatively hovering her as they start down the stairs. Her eyes connect with the leiutenent’s and sends involuntary chills racing down her body. Ronon’s eyes catch what hers are avoiding and makes a mental reminder to question about that. As he realizes that man is the same one from the Daedulus, his eyes narrow on the man. When their eyes meet the lieutenant looks to the floor and starts to walk away. Caldwell watches with a smirk as he sees the connection happen. Lieutenant Tanden breaks into a jog but Ronon throws a small knife, sticking him in the fatty part of his thigh and knocking him to the ground with a cry.

“What did you do?” He asks. His eyes fall on Thalia. “What did he do? Did he hurt you?” He demands, resting a hand on his shoulder.

“No, RoRo, I’m fine.” She looks to the floor, toeing at a little piece of grey paper on the floor. With a grunt, he pulls the knife from Tanden’s leg and with a his of pain, the man skitters away from the hulking dreaded man.

“did you learn your lesson, Tanden?” Caldwell calls out with a chuckle as Tanden limps towards Beckett’s medical lab.

“Ronon, Thalia, we’d like to meet and discuss adding you to the team.” Weir calls, ignoring the little incident that just happened. Caldwell had told Weir, and they’d decided to let Ronon deal with it.

“Thalia, with your permission, we’d like to add you to the team.” Weir says as they all sit around a circular table Ronon to her left and John Sheppard to her right. Teyla and Ronon were giggling about something and she couldn’t help but laugh with him, a little smile on his face and laughter in his eyes. “Anyone that disagrees, state any reasoning you may have.”

“I say no. Our team is already big enough. We already have Teyla and Rodney, one more would be too many to take care of.” Ronon states, avoiding her icy stare.

“I call that invalid. You just don’t want me to go. Find a real reason or shut up.” She barks in Satedan to him. Everyone watches his reaction, eyes wide.

“I don’t see why you even need to go! Any reason to follow me! Any reason to put yourself in danger, even when you could just be here and safe.” He calls back in their native language, everyone watching the intense exchange of words they couldn’t understand.

“Well FINE! Dial Sateda! Send me home!” She shrieks back, still speaking in tongues. He opens his mouth but shuts it, unsure of what to say.

“Why would you wanna go back?” He asks, dropping the Satedan.

“Because if I can’t spend time with you I’d rather go back. I’m your Kalýteros Firos. I’m not Merena.” She gives back, her voice soft, speaking English once more.

“I know. But I-” He stops.

“RoRo, I love you. I’m your friend. I believe in you, I’m just asking you to do the same for me.” She pleads, but she’s a dark storm brewing in his eyes.

“You’re right. You’re not Merena.” He hisses, eyes narrowing on her in disbelief. She shouldn’t have brought up his lost love.

“I’m so sorry, Ro. I just don’t understand why you won’t let me go!” She shrieks, tears filling her eyes. A switch flips for a moment.

“Because you don’t need to. I can’t let you go. If Sateda is the only way, fine. Go back to that wasteland, I don’t care.” He growls. Once the words are out of his mouth he realizes what he’s said. Teyla touches his arm.

“Ronon, you shouldn’t say things like that to her, she’s your best friend. As far as you know she’s the only Satedan alive. Your best friend.” Teyla’s sweet gentle voice reasons, and it flips the switch back off.

“I won’t sit here and let you go on explorations with us. I won’t discuss it.” He growls, standing and stomping out of the room.

“I’d like to go back to Sateda. I was doing fine there before he came and ruined it.” She barks, walking to the Stargate and awaiting them to open the wormhole.

“I know Ronon seems angry now, but it’s because he cares. He wouldn’t want you going to Sateda alone, especially with the Wraith so attuned to that planet.” Teyla croons as she stands in front of the stargate , ready to leave.

“Teyla, take care of Ronon. Okay? Keep him safe, don’t let him do dumb stuff.” She requests, patting Teyla’s arm before the Satedan stargate opens and she steps through. Once the stargate is closed down, they get word there are Wraith hive ships headed to Sateda.

Ronon spends the rest of the night in his room, angry at her for being so strong. She didn’t understand what he’d do to keep her safe. A knock comes late that night, and he gets worried about her. Teyla’s sweet face appears at his door, expression broken.

“What?” He asks. He closes his eyes and listens carefully. He can hear the Daedulus’ engines, two jumpers. He blocks out all the extra noise to find empty. Silent. He starts to wonder what she’d done. Maybe I can’t hear her over the engines. He thinks as he starts towards the Daedulus, ignoring Teyla’s soft footsteps following.

“Ronon?” She asks as he steps into the huge fighter ship and once again closes his eyes to listen for her. Panic starts to set in when he hears the unrully silence on the other end. “Ronon!” She shouts, grabbing his arm and making him look at her.

“No.” He mutters quietly at first, but Teyla nods, a sullen look on her face. “No!” He shouts, racing through the entire Atlantis base in search of her. He stops in a hall on the east wing. Eyes closed, ears begging to hear her. Anything. Hear anything.

“Ronon.” John Sheppard shouts from the stairs above him, never breaking his concetration.

“You let her go, didn’t you?” He asks monotonously, lifting his worried eyes to John. John tries to find a good way to say something. “You let her go!” He shouts, feeling the anger and fear well inside him like an angry monster.

“You told her to go back!” He retorts, but Ronon’s too angry. He told her to go back, he said it.

“I know! Dial Sateda! I have to go.” He worries his lips into his mouth to nibble the skin from anxiously.

“We can’t.” Sheppard gives a look of sadness.

“You can! Dial it now!” He shouts, putting on his weapons belt and standing in front of the gate.

“We can’t. There’s a couple hive ships using a time layover right near there. It’s too risky. She’ll be fine. It doesn’t look like they’re landing on Sateda.” Sheppard informs, giving Ronon’s heart more pain.

“Wraith hive ships. Wraith. Hive. Ships.” He states out loud, his heart beating off rhythm and poorly.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. We can’t dial a gate anywhere near that.”

“You just did! You let her go into that wormhole!” He thunders, reaching the main room.

“I’m sorry Ronon! You can’t go!” Weir shouts, speed walknig to get to him before he broke something on the dial.

“She’s gonna die!” He gives a desperate cry, Teyla rushing to his side for support.

“She’ll survive. She’s survived this long, she’ll continue.” Teyla assures, patting his shoulder. Tears fall down his face and his sea legs carry him to his room, where he falls onto his bed, feeling the anguish rush over him like a crushing wave.

“She’s gonna survive. She has too.” He lets the tears fall down his face for only a moment before listening to the voices muffled outside the door.

“We can tell him, but we can’t take it anywhere. Not yet. If we dial the gate with enough power, we could send a weapons belt and possibly a jumper through. Ronon’s gonna wanna go.”

“He can drive the jumper I guess.” Ronon stands and hooks on his belt and steps out into the hall, ready to go.

“I’m ready.” He barks as he heads to the jumper port with a key ready to leave.

“Ronon, you understand you may not come back?”Weir asks as they make their way to the port.

“And?” He asks, waiting for a real reason.

“Well I just think we should talk about--”

“About nothing. You let her go through that gate. You let her leave, so unless you plan on going in there, let me go. Now.” He growls as he climbs into the jumper. John does a quick check to make sure everything is in order before giving the go ahead, sending Ronon to what could possibly be his doom.

“I’m going with him. I can’t send a soldier in alone.” Sheppard jumps into another jumper and takes off after him.

 Ronon lands the jumper and drives it behind a couple huge trees to block it in the case of the Wraith stopping on this planet. Disengaging the engine, he closes his eyes and hears her heart beating very close by. Trekking over to the lake where they used to play the rock game, he finds her sitting under a tree looking across the lake.

“Hey.” He calls, stamping down the underbrush beneath his feet. Yanking her knife from her side holster, she throws it and sticks it in a tree behind him.

“What are you doing here?” She asks, eyes never meeting his own.

“Just wanted to see you. I was worried.” He shrugs, sitting beside her in the thick, green grass.

“You told me to go. You know I have to listen to you.” She mutters, looking up at him for only a second.

“I know, I shouldn’t have said that. I just never though you’d choose Sateda over being in Atlantis with me. I’m sorry.” He pulls her into a hug and leans his heavy head onto hers.

“I know, Ro. But I can be useful! I can be an asset in most of the explorations if you give me the chance. I wanna help, Ro.” She exclaims as she leans against him.

“Guys! I hate to break up this happy reunion! But Wraith are incoming and we need to jump the hell out of here!” Ronon first jumps before realizing its Sheppard calling to them. He grabs her hand and pulls her to his jumper.

“Tell me I can go on the trips.” She orders, digging in her heels to stop herself from being pulled.

“What?” He asks, grabbing both her arms and attempting to lift her.

“I said, tell me I can go on the trips.” She snarls, putting all her weight against him to keep her position.

“Can’t we talk about this when the Wraith aren’t trying to kill us?” He shouts over the whirring of the incoming ships and the loud air tunnel the landing blades made as it got closer.

“No! Tell me I can go!” She shouts, leaning away from him. Sheppard grabs her shoulders and shakes her.

“I’ll tell you you’re a god if you get in that jumper! You can go on the trips! Now get in that damn jumper before we become the next meal!” Sheppard shouts, pointing angrily to Ronon’s jumper.

[fenixfoxtrot510]

RULES: Chose any three fandoms (in any order) and answer the questions and tag ten people you want  to get to know better.

Tagged by the ever lovely @sinenceq

My three chosen fandoms:

Hetalia Baccano! Bungo Stray Dogs

The first character you  loved:

Northern Italy!!!!!!!! Jacuzzi   Dazai

The character you never  expected to love so much:

Lithuania!

Czeslaw, darn immortal kid had to win my heart.

Kunikida! I knew I would like him but I didn’t expect to love him THIS MUCH!!!

The character you relate to  the most:

Canada probably. I often feel like people over look, ignore or straight up don’t notice me when I’m in a group of people.

Jacuzzi! I don’t cry as much but I am still a scaredy cat. But when I get determined I’ll get shit done regardless of how much my knees shake.

Kunikida. Nothing drives me up the wall more than lazy coworkers. I relate to him so much for all the shit Dazai puts him through while on the job.

The character you’d slap:

France. I really shouldn’t need to explain why.

Dallas. He is such a freaking punk and his sister adores him. I want to smack him silly for ignoring her in favor of being a complete shit head.

Dazai. No, bad Dazai. You don’t physically and mentally abuse children you found in the gutter. You don’t needlessly put a tiger child in danger without any kind of heads up, or smack them when they have an internal crisis. No more putting Kuni’s blood pressure through the roof either! It’s not good for is health! And don’t drink so much! Stop trying to- (continues to nag for 3 hours)

Three favorite characters:  (in order of preference)

N. Italy, Finland, Lithuania

Isaac & Miria, Nice & Jacuzzi. You really can’t expect to leave out one character from these two amazing couples!

Kunikda! Atsushi. Dazai.

A character you did not  like a first but do now:

Austria. I didn’t like him at first but he grew on me. Claire. I don’t typically enjoy character that runs around trains pretending to be a monster soaked in blood, especially not when they hurt kids, but the OVA kinda made him enjoyable. Akutagawa. HE SLAPPED HIGUCHI!!! I have no clue how I even began to like him after that. Probably his later interactions with Atsushi. But even though I like him now I still do not approve of kohai slapping.

Three otps:

AHEM! Lithuania x Poland, Finland x Sweden, Prussia x His ego. As a multi-shipper I’m all for a little Germany x Italy fanfic here and there but I head cannon Italy as mostly straight so it’s not a big OTP for me. Isaac & Miria, Nice & Jacuzzi and I really don’t have a third for this show? I don’t know; Chane x Clair is a nice pair but they really don’t click with me. And as popular as Firo x Ennis is their interactions seem completely aromantic to me.   Ranpo x Poe, Shin Soukoku, Dazai x Kunikida. I know Dazai stresses Kunikida out but the *Car horn* would be so hot!

Tagging

@pizzapopolis, @chuuyabelongswithhappiness, @running-frxm-lixns, @bandagedthings

[alansparkshark]

Best as in gameplay-wise or one's which we're the most proud of?

Well, I'll just be safe and do both.

Gameplay-wise, my best character was the Variant Human Paladin named Firo Raphtalia. He was a former Oath of Conquest Paladin, but due to events in his backstory (his sister committing suicide after shit happened in the Guild castle while he was away) he turned into a Treachery Paladin by betraying the whole guild and poisoning the higher officers (who were directly responsible for his sister ending her life). But that's enough lore, Gameplay wise I like him more. With the free Feat from Variant Human I got Dual Wielder, gave him +1 to Dexterity and Charisma, 18 Dexterity (DM's custom point-buy system), and with the permission of my DM I took studded leather instead of chainmail, two rapiers and Two-Weapon Fighting. My final AC score was 17 at level 5 (where we started), which was still somehow the best in the party. The Dual Weapon and Two-weapon Fighting ensured I hit often and HARD even if I only had the option of attacking with the rapiers, they themselves did relatively good damage and my high Dexterity instead of Strength fit thematically and made me good at stealth, good at ranged and good at all manners of things. But the reason I didn't play Fighter/Rogue with this build is simple - Divine SMITE! and various spells for that extra utility. Also before this I played an Arcane Trickster, wanted something differently flavoured.

In the end, the damage output I had was MASSIVE. Or if I felt like I needed utility, I had spells. Healing? LAY ON FUCKING HANDS. I wasn't the most useful player on that table (not too many games under my belt), but thus was definitely my favorite build to do gameplay-wise.

Now as for role play, the title has to go to Alnswick Alaska, the (once again) Variant Human Drunken Master Monk. At first, I just wanted to play a Drunken Master because of the Jacky Chan movie. But I wanted a good RP experience there. Now, officially, the Drunken Master only pretends to be drunk.

I said "fuck that" and instead made mine a Noble, and here's a shortened version of his story I wrote out.

A spoiled-rich young drunkard, son of the biggest alcohol distillers and distributors of the continent, Alnswick Alaska had not seen an evening without a bar from the moment he hit drinking age. He felt little care for what he drank, wanting to taste everything the world offered him and have a great time in the meantime. People loved him simply because he always paid drinks for the whole tavern when he entered and changed taverns each night. You never knew when he'd come in, but when he did, the happy became happier, the miserable forgot their woes, and the gods themselves could be swayed to sing along with him. His antics, which brought more customers and bought more drinks, ended up being the greatest advertisement campaign his family's company has seen, the fame of the Alaska-brand alcohol spreads like a forest fire caused by a pyromaniac wizard.

However, he still lived in a world where business was power. And amongst the distillery circles, he was a power of successful sales known not to any man, a danger to any other brand with how he promoted the Alaska brand. To cut that power and save their business, a rival family decided to off him with a faked drinking contest. His opponent, Johnny Brookstone, who was known well for making poor-man's alcohol, challenged him to a rigged drinking contest - in cahoots with the bartender, he had non-alcoholic drinks that looked and, with Prestidigitation, smelled like the real deal, and Alnswick had lightly-poisoned drinks, so that he would never notice the poison is there when drinking it in shot glasses and it would take many bottles to kill him, making it look like alcohol poisoning.

Of course, he doesn't know this. So he agrees and doesn't want to lose. He drinks rapidly for two hours straight, consuming amounts that would have killed a normal person three times over. But he doesn't give up. His opponent looks completely unfazed by his drinks, while Alnswick gets progressively more drunk and sick.

On the eight bottle, he starts hacking out.

On the ninth, he almost throws up, but manages to swallow it and go on. He still hasn't lost.

At the last drop of his tenth bottle, he stays still for a second, then suddenly starts coughing. He covers the white tablecloth in blood, then finally throws up. Blood is most of what can be seen in the puddle, and he finally topples off his chair.

Everyone thinks he's actually kicked the bucket. He has no pulse when checked. He doesn't respond to anything. Hell, a Paladin who was in the room tried reviving him and failed, he's that dead.

Just as people have started mourning him and Brookstone has started internally rubbing his hands together, Alnswick just, gets up. He's making no sound, not even from his clothes or any sounds of breathing. He moves sneakily, in jerking motions as he grabs the bottle his opponent was drinking, the one with the non-alcoholic drink. He dries it, bottoms up, then grabs a bottle of real alcohol and dries that up too. He looks at one bottle, then the other, takes a few seconds in which it seems like he's contemplating something. He finally looks at Brookstone with a wicked little grin. His eyes are glowing an emerald green and he honestly looks like an undead with his movements and all the blood covering him.

Only the Paladin in the room realises he isn't.

Brookstone, in fear, thinks this might be penance for the murder. He exclaims that Alnswick should be dead. He tries attacking him with his heavy, fully-steel walking cane before the Paladin, or anyone really, can stop him.

Alnswick casually dodges the strike, then proceeds to smash the bottles into his head. A vicious crack resounds in the room as the bottles shatter and cause Brookstone to bleed out of his wounds. Alnswick grabs his head and proceeds to smash his forehead into the older man's nose once, twice, three times, quite literally changing his mug in the process.

Then he just goes, in the calmest, least drunken voice anyone has thought possible out of the young man: ""Should be dead", Brookstone? Now why is that? Because you added poison in his ale, while you drank nothing but flavored and scented water? Because you had a murder plot against him? Yeah, Alnswick should probably be dead. He isn't though. And lemme tell ya, that won't be so true for you once I'm done."

It's at this point the Paladin interferes, trying to stop what was obviously not Alnswick. The young man turned towards the holy knight.

"Instead of attacking me, just cast Zone of Truth. See that I'm not lying about the poison in my drink and that he knows about this assassination attempt. Maybe I'll let him live if he admits his guilt."

The rest happened quickly. The Paladin, not detecting demonic or fey powers within Alnswick, casts the spell, and Brookstone can do nothing but admit that yes, he had tried to kill Alnswick. The not-Alnswick presence within the heir-apparent of the company is pleased, and takes the fully-steel cane as compensation.

Then the glow disappears, and the young man topples over once more,

Who is YOUR best character?

I haven't worked on character creation in forever and I love doing that. So I thought I could ask y'all to see what you've got.

So tell me...

What are some of your best player characters?

[severalbakuras]

time

to

finish

s3

im not prepared

(apologies to mobile users for the long post)

episode 5:

intro is a pink screen. it’s established pink is a mourning colour. hrmmm.

oh its an eyeball SHIRO

that’s not a good looking room to be in

that HAIR

hallucinating already, this is Not Good.

so he’s like totally alone in that room that is just bad practice right there. supervisor’s gonna get fucked if they get caught.

and. another shiro. one who’s kept clean-shaven. oh ok i know where this is going i think.

operation kuron is so unsubtle that i think we’re in for several layers of bait-n-switch until it turns out shiro never actually existed. schrodinger’s Shiro. shirodinger. 

he escaped waaaaaay too easily - yeah. called it.

‘stage 3′ so stage one is ??? and stage two is this guy.

ok so shiro obvs remembers some things but i find it interesting that we’ve had no internal thoughts beyond memories of the tube/surgery. like he’s not thought about voltron or the paladins or allura and coran like he has no idea if they survived or not. nothing at all by the five minute mark.

HAGGAR FINALLY I’VE MISSED YOU SO

yeah you keep an eye on that boy. im sure absolutely nothing will happen to this guy.

self-cauterization holy shit.

“what killed you?” is the first spoken line of dialogue from shiro i think. everything else is just vague confusion noises and/or battle grunts iirc. we haven’t even had an internal line of thought yet (which i know don’t rly happen in this series like everyone tends to speak aloud but still he’s ALL alone). i think that’s significant, somehow.

how the fuck has he not frozen to death in that skinny suit.

SHIRO NO THAT COULD BE AN ACID LAKE

“subject Y0XT39″ i will eat a raw garlic clove if this turns out to be the real shiro.

wow that’s rly bad for blood circulation like way to make him lose his hands jackasses.

so these two are space cannibals. neat.

if you’re trying to convince people of who you are why would you just say your first name? he WANTS these guys to know who he is, there’s no point being cagey. say your surname shiro go ahead.

knowledge of who the paladins are rly is being kept tight under wraps. so long as nobody ever thinks to check out any planet where galra were known to have integrated into local alien communities to the point of children.

i :) wonder :) who :) might :) do :) that :)

(i wonder how earth’s doing. everyone has family down there who misses them (besides keith since he’s living in a shack in the desert and nobody from the MILITARY-ish training academy told his dad to come pick him up apparently))

lotor i swear to fuck don’t you dare pull a dreamworks smirk DONT DO YOU DARE

so galra channels are hackable

that big guy’s totally having a SUPPRESSING FIIIIIRE moment

i rly like this winter backdrop i love being able to see the brushstrokes on the snow (like digital ones but they count).

he’s starving but he doesn’t take a single bite of the food onscreen can’t tell if suspicious or #mood bc i don’t like people watching me eat either lol

so operation kuron isn’t something widely known then or Hold up those robo-soldiers have no reaction whatsoever to a unit falling down until the hangar doors close.

ok those two guys in the cave HAVE to be in on it or shiro would’ve died on that planet. why keep the ship above a Death Planet for him to be permitted to escape to unless they had someone down on the Death Planet who could send him back to the right ship to deliver to voltron without him knowing he was being played?

like this is ALL phase 3.

‘stop spying on me’

‘do your fucking job’

HA. IDEAS. IN ZARKON’S HEAD. AHHAHAA

i think this is the first time i’ve seen lotor angry like haggar gets under his skin so easily i hope they talk again soon. ‘I AM THE LEADER’ his VOICE damn.

ok so like i already know lotor is half-galran and he’s probably half-altean too like in the original series with the hair and all. but i don’t think haggar is his mother even though she’s also altean. he’s hyper-focused on not being like his father in that scene but he also seems the type that he’d leave a snarky comment about his mother too if she were. and she doesn’t ever refer to him as her son, only zarkon’s. she’d surely say ‘our’ son, unless she officially disowned him as part of his banishment and hates his guts but then surely he’d have at least SOME reaction to seeing her unless he was, like, literally banished at birth and doesn’t know who she is and that he’s half-altean. bc if he knew he was he’d connect the dots between ‘only altean on the ship’ and his dad v quickly.

like i do know the story behind exactly how original lotor (aka sincline) is half altean and it’s Unpleasant and makes zarkon a fucking monster and i doubt this series would even imply that that was the case here but if it did and our lotor knew this was the truth behind his parentage that could explain his lack of reaction to haggar AND his deeply intrinsic rejection of his father.

oh come ON the ship is stocked with oxygen!!!!!! why would a ship that’s intended for a robot pilot need oxygen!!!!!!!!

seven days, when he’s already in a bad way re blood loss/injury (like a healing serious wound burns calories and fluid by the truckload) and didn’t have much water to go on beforehand. if i didn’t think something was up before man.

finally, almost 20 minutes in, we finally see him think of his teammates. took long enough.

black lion notices. hrm.

episode six:

nice shooting lancFCUKING KILL THEM ALLURA

SAME LANCE

HUG YOUR SON SHIRO actually no you’re not shiro stay the fuck away from him

‘weird headache’ since this isn’t a dramatic romance show, he’s not got Invisible Anime Disease #5 so there’s absolutely a tracker in his brain.

A HUNK MOMENT THAT ISN’T ABOUT FOOD I’M CRY (like it intersects with pidge but i don’t mind it’s nice that he gets to show his own brains in what feels like forever)

shiro automatically stepping back in ‘this is what we do mode’ is SHRHCHCH. NO. even if he WASN’T a clone he’s still recovering and is missing out on potentially months of their relationships changing and being redefined. he can’t just step back in like that.

ok so like???? if there’d been more scenes like this early on??? i’d probably be totally into klance?? like keith doesn’t really grasp the depths of the issue with lance judging by how the shot holds on lance leaving and his facial expressions and all but keith tries and lance tries and there’s no cheap joke thrown in there’s no rejecting that there was any emotional connection. it’s not solved the problem lance has by any means but it’s lance opening up to keith about his vulnerabilities and worries and it’s keith doing his best to help him both as a leader and a friend and the narrative doesn’t turn either of them into a joke for it. THAT IS MY SHIT RIGHT THERE.

like i’m obvs lowkey into enemies-friends-lovers (bc otherwise i wouldn’t consider keitor or any of my other ships which i won’t name bc i’ve made it this far without comparing anything to warcraft so i won’t start now) but i guess i much prefer the friends-lovers stage. (especially when only one half of the pair considers the other as ‘enemy’ in the first place).

‘just whack it’ is a universal law that will last forever

SHIRO ARE YOU IN THE LEADER CHAIR. NO? SHUT UP.

fucking fake ass shiro he doesn’t even acknowledge keith stepping up to make a plan as leader like he always fucking wanted him to do he just sails on into his own plan without so much as a ‘sorry’. fuck you fake shiro. firo.

and keith just stands there like a lemon like this is ok ahrhfhg. firo i swear to god if you drag keith back down into the place he was on the gas planet before lance intervened i’m gonna be so mad.

interesting that we don’t get a reaction shot of lance when keith offers to stay behind instead of taking back red. considering how that was literally what the last scene between him and keith was about is all.

so clones are genetically identical so the black lion picking up on firo’s ~spark of life~ fading or whatever to rescue him isn’t odd. but the black lion knows your soul and it’s not happy.

(could be an issue when the real shiro returns tho but eh that’s a problem for futuretron)

I LOVE THIS LOYAL PETTY BASTARD

“Victory or death!” OH COME ON YOU’RE MAKING THE WARCRAFT REFERENCES FOR ME. LOKTAR OGAR

so perhaps lotor squad isn’t in on operation kuron?

i wonder what’s being whispered during the mind control scenes.

that ship looks like a space fox... or maybe a star fox.

in two minds about this part like right now firo IS right but they DO need to actually try and confront lotor at some point. it’s ALWAYS going to be a bad time bc lotor has figured out how to use plot armor to protect himself so sometimes you just need to attack that face down trap card and face the consequences or you’ll be stuck forever yknow?

OH IT’S HER. FROM THE SHIP. COOL i was wondering if that’d come up again.

oops he’s ambidextrous.

also i think ezor might be a little crueler than she lets on, she’s got some v. vicious expressions going on in this grapple.

ZETHRID THINKS ALLURA’S A WORTHY OPPONENT ZELLURA YOU ARE CLEARED FOR LAUNCH (in other news i am a terrible person)

honestly those are both equally high priority targets, either one WILL fuck things up in the future no matter if they follow firo or keith.

now lotor how do you know they were about to attack, unless you perhaps had a direct link into the lions communication lines, which have been kinda previously established as being impossible to hack?

(so that’s one point in them also knowing about project kuron)

YES KEITH THIS IS WHAT YOU DO BEST ON THE FLY INSTINCTIVE GOOD MOVE

hooooly shit lotor’s maaaad

get your hand off him firo.

“i’m sorry i had to step in back there” step in. STEP IN. LIKE YOU WEREN’T IN CONTROL OF THE ENTIRE MISSION START TO FINISH. he sets up ‘you were the leader and you weren’t good enough’ almost on purpose..

the former isn’t true because keith still stepped down and firo commanded all their movements from the ship and the latter isn’t true because no plan survives contact with the enemy keith basically had it as under control as shiro always did. considering the circumstances he did damn well AND he scored a ‘fuck you’ point against lotor by using lotor’s own new ship to wreck the teledove.

“i thought i had it under control” ;A;

HE’S BEEN THERE SINCE THEY ALL FORMED VOLTRON YOU FUCK. HE WAS GOOD AT THIS UNTIL YOU GOT HERE.

FUCK YOU FIRO.

damn that’s cold haggar.

episode seven:

i’m. um. huh. those certainly were memories i’ll need to pause on later.

this dramatic scene is being ruined by all the cute little triforces floating around.

my civil war theory is officially dead now i guess. goodbye, civil war theory. it was nice to have you as a handy aversion of the whole ‘X race is like this while Y race is like this’ trope that always shows up in sci fi and fantasy and sci-fantasy~

this music is giving me jack sparrow IN SPACE vibes.

oooh the dust particle effect in the light shafts in the air is pretty and a good attention to detail.

now see like why wasn’t his spirit projection thing back in season 1 more like this??? he has a character he’s got personality he’s just like his daughter i’d actually MISS this guy if that spirit projection thing had been like his true self and not a bland whatever he was he’s so forgettable i can’t even remember what he was like.

ZARKON WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED. YOUR VOICE. YOUR EYES.

so like galra culture has a class/caste system and is kinda militaristic. explains a lot in the future i guess.

“WHAT IS THAT” is that the same cat narti has? and oh god no he’s a dork.

OH NO HE’S A REALLY BIG DORK AAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAA BABY ALLURA. SHE’S SO CUTE.

oh so he married honerva? oh no. OH NO SHE BETTER NOT BE HAGGAR. DON’T DO THIS.

“it was a customary gesture” tf is that all about.

“by willow!” is that the first canon mention of a deity? cool.

so the red paladin was technically the first paladin.

this thing is eldritch as fuck.

“Am I a leg?!” god i am so sad that you’re going to die horribly i love you.

now it’s REALLY eldritch.

god she really is haggar.

so alteans definitely age then (which proves empress allura was definitely dead a long LONG time before alt-eans went all mind-controlly).

honergar’s giving me major ‘that bloodbender who’s name i’ve forgotten’ vibes.

I KNEW QUINTESSENCE WAS BAD SHIT

he loves her so much im gonna cry.

so the lions cannot pick up on deceit then. they accept the will of their paladin over the safety of voltron as a whole and the other lions. they cast no moral judgement.

so there could easily be an evil voltron somewhere.

ZARKON NO HE’S HOLDING HER HAND ARGH.

so those weird purple cloud creatures from another dimension are puppeteering the corpse of the first black paladin, taking his basic desire for power and extending it into a galaxy spanning genocidal crusade because???

their home dimension must be a fucking hell dimension if things like that are trying to escape.

that guard made it seem like they sorta knew and accepted why their planet was destroyed so i guess zarkon returning from death was such a massive cultural shock that they all fell into line. bc otherwise i find it hard to believe that every single galra would join the battle (like yeah the blades exist but they’re a tiny movement) and not question what the fuck happened to his eyes or voice or how he came back from the fucking dead or why they’re meant to suddenly hate everyone.

ok so why do most of the galra have similar glowing eyes iirc? surely the vast majority should have the normal eyes that old zarkon and lotor have but they don’t. unless like successful generals are permitted to ‘live’ forever by taking the creatures into their bodies but then like they have far too much personality for that. the loktar ogar guy for example. what gives.

that’s kind of a leap at lotor’s motives but an understandable one, they don’t know how much lotor detests being like his father so i doubt he’d do the same damn thing his father was trying to do.

he’s baaaaack and he’s got no new tricks, zombieman zarkon’s still just as thick as the last time~

lotor’s gonna be so mad. and also this doesn’t actually explain why haggar lets zarkon run roughshod all over her much better plans prior to this because she doesn’t remember being his husband until this episode.

and also also imo this means haggar definitely can’t be lotor’s mother bc when we’re seeing things coran can’t possibly know like honerva on her death bed we’re probably seeing haggar’s vision of events and he doesn’t appear to be a factor in either of their lives but she remembers their wedding perfectly.

(unless he’s a zombaby but he can’t be because his eyes don’t glow).

hrm.

season four when.

[sammydem0n64]

TIME to reverse the roles HAHA /j, but how would the mafia people in crumbled react to cinve?? (i know a lot of them will hate her but i just wanna hear it, i wanna SEE them throw hands with her KDSNSDDKS) /LH

HEJSHSJSJ ok I’ll break it down piece by piece

Melphis: He wants nothing to do with her but since you said she’d flirt with him he’s out of luck. Honestly he’d listen to her flirt with him and shit talk others for like five minutes, he’d play into her whole role, pretending to flirt back until he ends his little thing with “You Wanna know how you can me happy?~ ... jump off a bridge.” And hope thay gets her to stop touching him and everything because despite her whole attitude he DOES NOT want to get physical

Cherry: Finds her laughable. She’s nothing but an immature brat (surprising for her age) who thinks she’s so tough by trying to bring others down when she can hardly fend for herself. She sits pretty knowing that if she ever enters the city, she’s free to kill, and boy will she make her suffer since she wants to act like she can handle anything!

Ket: so fucking tired of her 😭

Picoda: He’d just laugh at her if she tries to say that he should’ve been killed and join Marshe and all that. Like babygirl he KNOWSSS you can’t use this against him. He just laughs at everything she does bc DAMN she’s a bitch AND Bitchless??? Get outta here! Why does Krae even have her around!

Guo: hates her with a passion, especially when finding out devoted she is to Krae and how she treats others that he’s attached to (Aka Kravee, Shani, Caramele and Hershees :(( ), he’d just threaten her a ton and honestly won’t hesitate to smack her if she touches him without consent or if he catches her being a bitch. He’s convinced Krae’s gang won’t even look for her if she goes missing so it’s free game <3

Phoenix: does not care about her as a person and will make out with Picoda in front of her if she tries hitting on him/touching him

George: he’d annoy the fuck outta her since she considers him “weird” and all. He’d just be like “awww am I freaking you out?? Are you scared??? Am I a little weirdo 🥺🥺🥺 cry me a river and get your parents to PayPal me 20k and I’ll stop 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺”

Donna: She’d also just laugh at her because she finds her funny in a pathetic way! She knows her end in near.

Gleo: Just thinks she’s desperate and is gonna shoot her on sight. She doesn’t even care if this happens outside of Oreo Gang territory this bitch reminds her of Zeo and she’s not letting that slide 😭

Cheon: is just so tired. The second she hits on him he just goes “Do you NOT notice the earrings?? I’m gay. I’m a homosexual. I love men. Wooo men. Also you’re just a pathetic bitch GET OUT of my way before I have to put my hands on you-“ ... honestly he’d recommend she and Saff could be friends but we know that’d result in a cat fight

Hershey: he wonders how she’s alive.

Cinot: is waiting for Cheon to let them at her. They will get her ass.

Candie and Satch: Grouped together because they both think they can take her in a fight and WILL. The second they see her it’s on sight. Candie would flex the fact she has a boyfriend while Cinve probably hasn’t even felt the touch of a man and resorts to sexual harassment and that if she ever touches Hershey and Cheon like that she will cut off her tits

Missy: Just stares at her blankly. She doesn’t react to anything she says. She just stares. She has played this game before and she’s not giving into it.

And as a bonus since she’d Firo’s hot,,,

Firo: if this man was alive OHHH MAN. Dude Cinve wouldn’t even be Alive. He’d just laugh at her the second she hits on him and call her all sorts of names, just like “Why are you as an ugly ass pathetic bitch trying to talk to me? Fuck off back to your mommy.” And lord if she tries touching him..? [GUN SHOTS]

[c4rdsharp]

[ FIVE GLANCES ]  send for five times the receiver watched the sender and the one time the receiver does something about it. 

1.

     Luck didn't think anything of it. He's always had a habit for people - watching, and Firo - watching in particular. He couldn't help himself ; Firo had a natural magnetism that made him the center of the room at any given moment. It was something Luck sort of envied. It took a considerable amount of acting & willpower on his behalf to even remotely take center stage and, even then, he was incredibly uncomfortable by all the pair of eyes looking at him. It was far easier to read one person's face than that of a whole crowd. Besides, he always liked spectating rather being spectated, as it were.      So, to find himself in a position of watching Firo -- and so closely at that -- wasn't something unusual for him. Really, he didn't even realize he was staring until Firo had said something, dragging him back from the depths of his own mind. Actually . . . was he even thinking of anything? Luck suddenly became aware of how truly silent his mind was at this moment.      " ah, sorry. i was lost in thought. you were saying? " Luck proffered what he could of a polite, but sheepish, smile. It wasn't as if he was lying. After all, he was lost in the thought of how handsome the color of his eyes were when lit up by excitement. He just didn't need to know that was the thought, is all.

2.

     Luck told himself it wasn't going to happen again, but it did. It always did, and he was always so mad at himself when it happened.      Thankfully, it seemed Firo didn't notice this time. Either because he was too far away or he just didn't think there was anything strange in Luck's expression. Of course, his attention was probably on other matters. Luck wasn't at all upset to watch Firo while at work, having their conversation interrupted by a typical brawl in the casino. It wasn't a particularly noteworthy event, and it wasn't as if this was Luck's first time seeing him behave as a casino manager should. Hell, Firo went about it as any average person running a casino would -- deescalating the situation, providing compensation to the offended party, calming the onlookers, such and such. Yet . . .      Luck bit his lip as Firo started to walk back towards him, his face a mix of relief & agitation. It looked so completely different from the charming smile he had on just earlier, invigorating the crowd. Though, it certainly wasn't any less pleasant.      He held back a sigh, and told himself to keep it together. If his own thoughts weren't going to return back to normal, he can at least pretend that they were. For Firo's sake, but mostly, for his own.

3.

     Shit, shit shit shit, shit!      Luck didn't turn his face away fast enough. For sure, Firo caught that, but the real person to blame was Luck himself. He should've known better than to keep staring. He should've known he was playing with fire. And, yet . . .      Maybe there was a part of him that wanted to get caught. A part of him that would find some relief in no longer having to keep this facade up. Not that he was delusional enough to assume the best. At most, he could hope for a polite decline and an awkward laugh, but --      don't get too ahead of yourself. he hasn't said anything to you yet.      Maybe there was a chance to salvage this situation, before Firo could even think to come up with questions.      Luck laughed a little, using his embarrassment as its own mask. He pointed to the side of his own face, indicating the corner of his mouth. " my apologies, i didn't mean to stare, but you have . . . i was a little distracted. you have a little bit of -- yes, there you go. that's it. i was going to tell you, but i didn't wish to interrupt. i figured it could wait until you were done . . . what? me, laughing at you? since when have i ever done such a thing, mr. prochainezo? " Grinning, Luck laughed again at his best friend's exasperation. Ah, so long as it remained like this . . . he could live on a few glimpses here and there.

4.

     At this point, Luck was getting good at the game. The number of stories & excuses he's made up have become insurmountable. The fact Firo has yet to notice anything strange was mind - boggling, but it was what Luck would've preferred. It's not as if he had any reason to think otherwise, after all. Still . . .      It hasn't entirely left Luck's mind of how much he wanted Firo to know. Perhaps that was selfish of him, in a way, wanting to push his own sense of ego onto his friend, in the hopes of having to lessen its crushing weight. But, that would simply mean his friend was bearing the brunt of responsibility Luck refused to bear. This was his own issue to deal with, not Firo's. It'd be unfair to have his friend assume any sort of responsibility that was perfectly in Luck's control. Besides, as much as he wanted Firo to have some understanding of him, he wanted to keep their friendship intact even more. Not that this was any less selfish. After all, Luck was willing to forgo honesty & truth for keeping Firo around as long as he could. Until he either couldn't keep on performing, or he was dead.      well, the latter is simply not going to happen, is it?      Luck kept his bitter laugh to himself, watching Firo out the corner of his eye. The other was deep in a conversation with Claire, having been left alone by Luck to settle his own thoughts and come back refreshed. Still, he hesitated to step forward. He wanted to watch for a few seconds more ; it seemed whatever conversation Claire dragged Firo into, it was one the latter had a hard time keeping up. Luck could see the look of frustration on his face, and it was surprisingly cute. Not that it ever wasn't, it just always caught him off guard how much he liked it.      However, standing around and staring at Firo like a maniac wasn't going to help his cause and, besides, Claire was probably going to drive him insane at this rate. The least Luck could do, as a friend, was be a mercy for Firo in these trying times. Chuckling, he stepped forward and continued on -- like nothing ever happened. Like there was no other thoughts or wants in his mind, save for this moment, here and now.

5.

     This drive was hell.      It was already hard enough, being in someone else's proximity for an indeterminate length of time with no hope for privacy, but for that person to be Firo, of all people?      Luck glanced over to the passenger seat. His companion had fallen asleep several miles back, head against the glass and his hat covering his face. For some reason ( he knew the reason ), Luck was slightly disappointed.      It wasn't as if he didn't enjoy Firo's company. On the contrary, he did. Firo's company was his favorite company to have, but that's where the issue lies therein. He enjoyed Firo's company too much. And nothing is worse than having to deal with those revelations every couple of hours. Back home, he could at least convince himself time and time again that it was only some latent platonic affection. That, it was natural to have the feelings he had, because they were close. Certainly, everyone who shared some level of intimacy with a friend could understand that, could they? But, being here on the road, with Firo barely ever more than 5 feet away at all times, it's becoming more and more apparent to Luck that this was just wishful thinking. And, he hated it. He hated every bit of it.      Not Firo, no. He could never hate Firo. As much as he kind of wanted to, to feel some sort of vindication in the fact this wasn't his own damn fault, he doubt he ever could. No, what he hated more than anything about this was himself. If it was any other person, Luck might've been able to let it go. Hell, he probably would've been okay with it if it was some random man he barely even knew. At least then, there'd be nothing on the line save for his own momentary embarrassment. But, Firo? Why him? Of all the men in New York City, why him?      The sound of cracking dirt reached his ears, and he swiveled his head back to the sight of them going off the road. Thankfully, there weren't any trees, but this only came as an afterthought as Luck turned the wheel sharply, lurching the car back onto the road. In doing so, he lost control of the car momentarily, swiveling it back & forth before managing to level it. Firo shouted in surprise and shock as his body followed suit, almost hitting the dashboard. Luck chuckled awkwardly as the chaos died down, his eyes now fixated on the road ahead of them.      " hah, sorry, i . . . a deer just jumped out onto the road when i was least expecting it. i was trying to avoid hitting it, but . . . it seems i overestimated my ability to control the car. i overcorrected. thankfully, we didn't crash . . . my apologies, you were having a sound sleep, weren't you? "      Guilt ate away at him. Not just for having poor control of the car & too little attention, but for the fact he still managed to get distracted staring at Firo. If he didn't get a handle on himself soon, Firo was going to find him out one way or another.

+1

     That's it. This had to end. If he didn't do or say anything now, there was simply no way Luck could keep going like nothing ever happened. Yes, Firo seemed to have little reason to doubt him, but Luck himself knew there was going to be a breaking point. It was better to rip the plaster off now than to wait for it all to blow up in his face.      They were back on the road again, this time returning. They've settled all their matters in Mexico, and had spent the last couple of days hurrying back to New York City. To their normal lives. As normal they could be, anyway.      It's not as if Luck needed to say anything. Firo was none - the - wiser, and it's not as if Luck was so dead caught in his thoughts that he hadn't realized this would be the case. At some point, he realized he could probably keep up the charade forever, and Firo would never question it. That was the only reason he could come up for the way Firo reacted the way he did, to catching Luck staring each and every time.      He caught him again, in the theater. It was significantly worse, because Luck was so . . . shameless, in it. Firo didn't know, but Luck didn't care. Once upon a time, he would've been eating himself up for the mistake, but he's been at it for so long, caught so many times, it didn't even register as something he shouldn't have been doing. And, it was in that, that Luck realized he couldn't keep the lie going. Not entirely, anyway.      Firo had a right to know . . . something. If not Luck's feelings, then something adjacent. Something private, something was both a confession and was not. Luck didn't think he was brave enough to be all out truthful ; after all, the first realization that Luck was attracted to men was going to be hard enough to swallow on its own. He didn't need to add on to the fact he was attracted to Firo in particular. It could be read in the lines, if Firo chose to read them, and he knew Firo wouldn't. There was safety in a certain kind of deception, but it was enough. It wasn't everything, but enough to save him, he felt.      " firo, " he began, uncertain where to start. Luck had thought about the best way to approach this for . . . awhile now, but he suddenly found himself at a loss for words. His mouth turned dry. " i . . . there's something . . . i think you should know about . . . "

five times / @c4rdshark

[fuurin-senpai]

long and not-well-organised notes about a twins!Eggsy&Teddy AU

So my hc for Teddy is that he’s attracted to violence – the more uninhibited, the more it appeals to him. But Eggsy is attracted to power – controlled power, exerted with reason. It doesn’t need to be the best of reasons (cough Harry beating up a bunch of thugs coz he felt like it) but there has to be some form of reason, unlike Dean’s unreasonable anger.

Teddy likes unrestrained, unleashed power.

Eggsy likes channeled, controlled power.

Teddy really doesn’t put up with Dean’s shit very well, keeps getting into fights but is terribly outnumbered, etc. Eggsy has been worried about Teddy for a long time, because what people don’t realise is that Teddy is a lot more dangerous than he seems. His moral compass is skewed in a different way, and he isn’t afraid of the same things other people are.

Violence doesn’t faze him. killing doesn’t faze him.

For Eggsy, violence without reason is something he deeply hates, and killing is only fine for people who are against his moral code or in the way of a greater objective (eg. Chester King, Gazelle, Valentine, other people who got headsploded).

Teddy wouldn’t hurt someone he cares about (eg. Eggsy, Ron, Reg, Michelle). But other people… he doesn’t care much. 

I think Eggsy wants his violence to be rationalised because he doesn’t want to become what he hates/fears – and also because someone needs to be able to keep a logical head between himself and his twin, because otherwise Teddy would’ve gotten himself killed a loooong time ago, probably, or locked up.

Eggsy is probably relieved when he finds out Teddy ran into the Kray twins, and that Teddy was very taken with them, because he knows it’s just a matter of time before something big happens and Teddy gets caught up in it and/or Teddy gets sent to prison or something.

And since Teddy can’t change who he is, especially not with their current home life, it’s for the best if he can at least find people who can help him, maybe protect him, and let him be free (or at least more free than he currently is).

If Teddy gets sent to prison Eggsy would just call the number on the medal, so I suppose he is successful in keeping Teddy out of too much trouble until Teddy runs off with the Krays.

OKAY NOW WE CAN MOVE ON TO THE (rough ideas about) THE STORYLINE.

There’s a lot of shit going down post-Vday, and it looks like it mainly has to do with the Krays. Kingsman investigates, bla bla bla wtf Eggsy has a twin, bla bla bla conflicted loyalties, doubt, angst, etc. 

Eggsy is very determined to be involved with the investigation into the Krays and Kingsman kind of has to let him, because he’s their best shot at getting close. But they also keep a close eye on things.

Thing is, Kingsman doesn’t intervene unless it’s a huuuuge threat, or unless nobody else is up to the job. I mean, MI6 and Scotland Yard etc also exist, and have jobs to do. And maybe Harry isn’t back yet, but even if he is, Eggsy’s position in Kingsman is still a little shaky so Harry and Merlin can’t afford to have it look like they doubt his allegiance.

I mean, the biggest problem with undying loyalty is when you’re loyal to two sides that may come into conflict. Eggsy’s never grassed anyone up. But he is also a Kingsman agent now. What to do?

And Eggsy has a gut feeling, maybe, that there’s more to things than what appears on the surface. He did ask Teddy to promise not to get into trouble unless he can get himself out, after all, when they separated. 

Teddy wouldn’t break a promise, not to him.

Even if he is mad and sometimes capricious and he doesn’t see the world the way most people do, his brother is still his brother. 

I think there’s actually bigger fish hiding behind the Krays, making it look like the Krays are the biggest fish. (CRAYFISH HAHA)

Scotland Yard has been keeping the Krays in check for some time (not very well, but just well enough that nothing too big happens)

And like, with modern meds, maybe Ron’s doing a liiiiiiiiiiiiiittle bit better. m a y b e. He can still refuse to take them, so there’s no magical solution to any of that. It’s always going to be something they have to deal with.

So like. Eggsy contacts Teddy. maybe gets a meeting with the Krays, Hangs out for some days? 

And like. Idk. I have this idea, that instead of going as “chav”!Eggsy he goes as gentleman!Eggsy

Maybe because he knows Teddy, and Teddy knows him, and it’d be extra suspicious if he shows up in his former state.

Like – Eggsy as Teddy knew him, wouldn’t go randomly seeking out the Krays. By making it obvious that he has an agenda, but not telling the truth on what the agenda is, people are actually less suspicious, or at least not suspicious in the right directions.

I had this idea for what Eggsy’s cover story could be, and it’s basically a bunch of partial truths. I’m guessing Kingsman probably has several different aliases for the organisation itself, so Eggsy pretends he’s working for a… mercenary organisation? Which isn’t entirely untrue, since Kingsman is independent and all. He basically says killed their former leader for being a traitor so right now the organisation isn’t sure what to do with him – which is also technically kind of true.

On one hand, he did them a huge favour by exposing the treachery. On the other hand, he did that while he wasn’t a formal member or anything so he’s still an unknown in a sense, possibly a threat, but also a great asset and they don’t want to lose that (or worse, have him turn against them).

When asked about how he got recruited, Eggsy would probably give a cheeky as hell answer like… he slept with one of their members, or something along those lines.

(Harry was rather unwisely drinking tea while watching the video feed of this conversation)

Or, he says he must’ve made an ~*~impression~*~ but insinuates - quite blatantly, too - that there was sex involved. and he does it so convincingly that even Merlin looks at Harry for a moment and tries to figure out the probability of that.

And Harry is just. coughing very loudly.

ANYWAY, MOVING ON.

The Krays obviously want to test Eggsy, see what he’s made of and all that. Maybe they arrange an encounter with Dean (and thugs?). And Teddy’s all ready to go, to beat up the scum who made his earlier years unpleasant and indirectly forced him to be separated from his brother. But Eggsy steps forward, places a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Teddy looks at him for a moment, then smiles and steps back. 

Teddy steps back, Eggsy steps forward, smiling his murder smile. And Teddy’s eyes are alight, eager, almost feverish, because the first time he fell in love wasn’t with Ron, but with Eggsy. The furious, violent, ruthless Eggsy he saw during their teenage years, after Teddy nearly got killed by a large group of thugs.

But that part of Eggsy is always so deeply concealed, dormant, that he knows Eggsy can’t and won’t give him the violence he craves to watch and partake in.

Which is why he loves Eggsy, but he later went with Ron.

Okay so. Eggsy does some terrifying violence, to Dean and goons, like Vino and Ladd Russo from Baccano. Quite possibly torture too? Things that make even Merlin and Harry wince.Teddy is ecstatic, Ron is pleased and intrigued.

Teddy, watching it, feels like this is as good as / way better than sex (huehuehue)

Also, I headcanon that Eggsy, when he’s murderous AND violent, fights just like Vino - acrobatic, ruthless, graceful, vicious… because yes please. And Teddy’s usually more inclined towards Ladd Russo’s style - straight out brutality. 

Eggsy, in a non-murderous setting, fights more like Firo Prochainezo - still very agile and all, but more playful, more about having fun and using his skills than about blood and gore and violence

Eggsy, in full gentleman spy mode, is more like Luck Gandor - smiling enigmatically, calm and composed, speaking in a sophisticated manner, but far more ruthless.

He heavily emulates Harry in his gentleman spy mode, although his irreverence is more towards cheekiness and Harry’s is towards, idk, being a little shit ayyy.

Harry likes to give unpleasant surprises (aka dreadful shocks) to people he doesn’t like (cough cough “Hail Satan”).

Also uhmmmm…

After Eggsy finishes going full Vino on Dean&co, he turns and gives that same smile + head tilt he gave Gazelle after she realised she got hit by the shoe blade. Teddy’s probably going to jump on him at this point and, idk, do whatever it is that Teddy does when he’s very pleased >:3

Idk how much twincest Ron is okay with regarding Eggsy and Teddy, but… 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(But I think ultimately the twins (Eggsy and Teddy) will still split, but it will be on amiable terms, and they’ll go with their respective boyfriends. Eggsy and Harry aren’t together yet so Harry feels conflicted but not betrayed or anything, just… wishing Eggsy could be back and with him.)

Okay so, Eggsy shows off and lets off some steam, everyone is suitably impressed, Teddy is overly impressed…….. plot stuff happens but in the end Eggsy confirms his suspicions that there’s bigger fish for Kingsman to fry and they’re using the Krays as a front because the Krays are far from squeaky-clean anyway.

And idk, maybe the real opponent is similar to Moriarty. It’ll probably end up being a situation where Kingsman has bigger fish to fry and kind of needs some help (or at least no interference) from the Krays due to still being short-handed after vday, and in the end they establish a sort of truce. if the Krays don’t go too far and maybe occasionally help Kingsman, Kingsman will leave them be?

And like. Eggsy and Teddy meet up for tea or something, on a semi-regular basis.

Also I think Eggsy will have a moment of understanding with Reg, because they’re very much in the same boat. Eggsy has been his brother’s keeper for so many years, and in a sense he still is. Reg is much the same. 

I liked how the bond between Reg and Ron was shown in the movie. like, even though Ron has done a lot of things that are driving Reg crazy, Reg still cares a lot about him, and would rather see the Firm fail than let Ron be locked up or “dealt with”.