#and there's this whole backstory I have in my head about this raid having been planned by Garrack and Shirayuki for almost a year | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

holydivers · 1 year ago

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talking about my tavs bc i can

ok so soleil is kinda boring bc my first character in an rpg always is <3 it's fine he's a circle of spores druid mephistopheles tiefling which was entirely a coincidence bc i had no clue what the plot was going in. he was very gung-ho about uniting everyone in the grove but mostly everyone hated him. oh well

soleil's a rather city-faring druid, he enjoys nature even amidst the bustle of the city and appreciates weird shit like random mold in alleyways and decay. he also likes hanging out in nature as well, and is a guild artisan cartographer. also brews a mean potion. his parents were probably merchants or something

he's the kind of guy who was sure that gale was scamming him by wanting magic items but gave him the items without any hesitation with the hope that gale would be moved by the goodness of his heart and reform his ways. he keeps letting villains go because he believes in their inherent capacity for goodness and it backfires most of the time. he KNOWS they're gonna betray him but he's ok with it. he's good but kinda chill in a weird way. like he's a little too comfortable with the whole shar-worshipping thing and his reaction to "hey let's take over this evil cult" is "dude...the logistics". it's probably fine. don't worry about it.

he tried to romance wyll but i failed the dice roll and didn't save scum. in-universe i justify this with the fact that wyll just wasn't in the party much so they didn't get super close. i also avoided romancing karlach bc i was waiting for the then-rumored new better ending for her which has since appeared. and then lae'zel completely unprompted was like "btw i will NOT fuck you" so i did not have the typical Horny Party experience with my first playthrough lmao

eventually he ended up romancing astarion. they are both incredibly annoying to everyone both together and apart.

the biggest tragedy is that i somehow completely missed the owlbear and her cub in his playthrough. rip he would've loved having an owlbear friend

xun'e, should've been seldarine drow but i fucked up and made her lolthsworn but w/e, archfey warlock

xun'e was a capable but unremarkable soldier from a lesser drow family. with little ambition, she made no moves to advance her station, only trying to keep her head down and survive. after a surface raid gone wrong, she ended as the only survivor...once she'd finished off the remainder of her wounded sisters-in-arms to prevent them from reporting her as she finally fled the underdark. she caught the attention of hyrsam, who became her patron, granting her abilities allowing her to live on the surface. mostly, she's gotten work doing odd jobs or working as a bodyguard.

xun'e is disciplined, straight-laced, and self-sufficient. she's kind but not particularly nice, with a sense of realism that keeps her from reckless feats of derring-do, and the willingness to make the hard decisions. people tend to find her intimidating, which she uses to her advantage, and most people don't realize just how much she's bluffing. has a bad tendency to overuse detect thoughts on others out of an overabundance of caution, though she's been making a point not to use the tadpole's abilities on her own party

unfortunately drow are so cartoonishly evil her backstory doesn't really have the emotional impact i want it to since drow backstabbing each other is just A Tuesday. it weighs on her though

though they helped with the goblin attack on the grove xun'e decided it was wise to avoid the grove, so the party ended up skirting around it and found karlach before wyll

before she ever came to the surface xun'e knew that people described the underdark as dark and quiet, and thought it was absurd - there was so much color, noise, light! but on the surface for the first time, she realized what a breadth of experience there was that she had no reference for, that she never could've imagined, beautiful even as it's painful and blinding. this is kind of how karlach makes her feel - like she couldn't have realized how emotionally repressed she was until she saw how utterly alive and exuberant karlach was. as soon as karlach exulted over her freedom after they defeated the false paladins, it was basically over for xun'e

wyll eventually showed up at camp hunting for karlach and nearly got his shit wrecked but things de-escalated and he ended up joining the party. between coming after karlach and the fact that he's so into the Daring Hero shtick xun'e was quite irritated with him at first, but eventually his competence spoke for itself and she grew to respect him more.

shadowheart's religious devotion reminds her of lolth worship and annoys her, as does lae'zel's, though she respects the latter more for her straightforwardness. she sees gale as pathetic and overly-emotional, but in a "well he's a man what do you expect" way. she views astarion as something like an annoying but sometimes amusing dog. honestly she respects barcus wroot more than most of her own actual party but they're growing on her. ("it's awful work. especially to me. especially if it's you. i'll fucking do it but christ alive")

karlach's fondness for everyone helps, and karlach makes her want to be a better person

sway by the heartless bastards is a song i associate with her (and witchy poo by the same band w/ karlach)

by contrast i think she's kind of an anchor for karlach - solid, patient, supportive, and adoring even if it's in a quieter way than karlach. also karlach calls her sunny :)

juniper. they/them. half-wood elf, hunter ranger, folk hero background

as a young adult, the small village where juniper lived was caught in the crossfires of a war between local lords. an upstart wizard was sent, ostensibly to enforce the extraction of taxes for the war effort, but more realistically just to get him out of the way. the wizard flexed his burgeoning enchanter abilities by terrorizing the locals, harassing people and seizing resources at his whims. juniper used their hunting skills to help provide game to feed the village, organizing the sharing of resources while avoiding the eyes of the intruding wizard. eventually they helped end the menace by being strategically "caught" smuggling torpor-poisoned wine which was seized.

juniper is reserved and analytical, but soft-hearted. they try to prepare for any contingency and hate being unprepared. they're incredibly wary of magic, especially anything that influences the mind or emotions. they enjoy helping others, but are used to their own small community and can have difficulty with crowds and strangers. they dislike the ambitious, the power-hungry, and the rich.

they were raised by their human father in a human village, with their elf mother having left when they were too young to remember, and still haven't really come to terms with their lifespan or elfiness

they immediately dislike gale and astarion, which gets worse once they find out their Big Secrets. gale eventually grows on them as they realize that he's generally good-natured, though they're quick to shut down his more grandiose wizard-talk. juniper is very wary of astarion, though he has a degree of sympathy after learning about his past.

juniper likes wyll at first, especially compared to the attitudes of the rest of his companions, as he isn't just talk and is clearly committed to helping people. they balk a bit learning that he's a warlock, and again when learning that he's the son of the duke, but see his goodness and is quickly determined to do what they can to thwart mizora.

they respect lae'zel's practicality, and hope to encourage her towards nurturing weakness rather than crushing it, but acknowledges that she's surprisingly tolerant despite all her talk. they enjoy telling her about life on faerun, and hearing about the astral plane

juniper failed their attempt to save shadowheart on the nautiloid, and it set them off on the wrong foot. juniper is really not a fan of the whole shar thing, and gives shadowheart a wide berth, though eventually they gain a camaraderie as it becomes apparent that her actions and feelings don't match her purported beliefs.

they like karlach, though she's a bit too high-energy for them.

they proooooooooobably will romance wyll. probably. we'll see!

#luke plays bg3 #bg3 ocs #oc sharing #oc: soleil #oc: xun'e #oc: juniper

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theteasetwrites · 3 years ago

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The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning

Chapter 42: Means To an End

❧ Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader ❧ Era: Season 6 ❧ Pronouns: she/her ❧ Warnings: violence, mild swearing, mentions of child abuse/neglect, character death, slightly steamy ❧ Word Count: 5.6k

❧ In This Chapter: The attack on the Saviors goes off without a hitch, for the most part, but there's trouble afoot when Daryl takes Denise on a run for medical supplies.

❧ A/N: More moral dilemmas—to kill or be killed? Of course, in this world, it's got to be kill. Reader has to come to terms with murder once again as the gang raids the Savior outpost, and Daryl has his own moral dilemma, as well. I also took the liberty of providing a bit more backstory for Daryl, which is mostly my own headcanons revolving around some bits that are canonically known about his origins. Might even do a flashback at some point if I get the chance.

Rick held a meeting at the church the day after negotiating with the Hilltop.

It was decided—Alexandria was going to lead a mission to infiltrate the Saviors’ compound and kill them all, including their leader, Negan.

There were a few dissenters, namely Morgan, who was a pacifist. He insisted that there must be some other way to deal with them that didn’t involve violence, but Rick and the majority of the people present at the meeting, including you, decided that violence was the only thing these people responded to.

If Jesus’ word was anything to go by, the Saviors didn’t listen, they just killed and plundered. To your surprise, even Aaron was on board with the plan. He said he didn’t want there to be any repeat of the incident with the Wolves, and you were inclined to agree with him

So, every able-bodied fighter who was willing to participate became involved in the plan. Even Bev was ready to help out if necessary. She had been training with you for a few weeks, and she was learning quickly, but you pulled Rick aside and asked him not to enlist her help. She was a little too confident in her fighting abilities, and this mission was going to be a challenging one.

Andy, the man whose arm Daryl injured at the Hilltop, was your main resource for mapping out the compound. He had been inside it just days earlier, so he knew his way around well enough to draw up a map. It was rudimentary, but your group could work with it. You’d worked with less.

The small group you assembled mostly consisted of the group you came to Alexandria with—Rick, Michonne, Sasha, Abraham, Rosita, Tara, Glenn, Maggie, Gabriel, Carol, Daryl, and yourself. Daryl, as usual, was not too excited about you coming with, but he didn’t stop you this time.

Jesus, Andy, Aaron, and Heath, one of Alexandria’s original supply runners, also came along. In total, there were fourteen of you taking on what Jesus had said might be about twenty at the most. The plan was to put them down in their sleep so they wouldn’t alert the others. To you, it seemed a little cowardly, but if it got your people fed, you weren’t going to complain about the strategy too much. It was the means to an end.

“This is how we eat,” Rick said to you all after he described the plan as you sat amongst the others in the middle of a deserted road not too far from the compound. It was your meeting place, and you were hoping you’d meet back there sooner rather than later.

To get in, Andy would approach the guards and present them with Gregory’s “head” (Glenn and Heath had chopped off a few walker heads that looked similar enough to Gregory’s to present to them instead). Then, they would release the Hilltop’s man, Craig. Just after that, you’d take out the guards and begin the killing inside, with the armory as your final destination. If you were going to wipe out a whole settlement, you might as well take their guns, too, Rick figured.

It was a solid plan. You didn’t like killing. In fact, you hated it, but it was like your father used to tell you—life is a series of doing things you don’t want to do, but have to. The older you got, the more that seemed to ring true. If Alexandria was going to survive, you needed the help of the Hilltop. If the Hilltop was going to survive, you needed to take out the Saviors.

It was simple. You understood it, what needed to be done and why. One thing you couldn’t quite understand, though, was why Maggie had come with you. She was almost a month pregnant by now, and it gave you major secondhand anxiety.

“Hey,” you said to her, approaching her slowly so as not to spook her as she loaded her gun. You sat next to her on the grass on the side of the road. Everyone was gearing up, and you had already done so, your automatic rifle, your handguns, your knife, and your axe weighing you down sufficiently by now. “How are you feeling?”

She looked at you curiously, then scoffed. “I’m pregnant, (Y/N),” she said, “not dying.”

You smiled. “I know, I’m just worried about you, that’s all.”

She laughed and shook her head. “You worry about everyone except yourself. Besides, I’m fine. Just gonna watch the perimeter, that’s all.”

“Alone?”

She sighed. “Yes, (Y/N). Alone.” She set her gun on her lap and rested a hand on your shoulder. “Hey, I’ll be safer than you out there. You’re the one who’s gotta be careful.”

You nodded. “You think this is a good idea?” you asked after a long pause.

She shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but it’s the one we got.”

Daryl had essentially come up with the idea, Maggie proposed it to Gregory, and Rick organized the entire plan. Others, including yourself, also helped, but those three did a lot of the heavy lifting.

“Just… doesn’t seem right to kill someone when they’re sleeping, you know? Even if they’re bad people… But I guess that’s just the way it has to be.”

Maggie nodded. “It’s like Rick said—we gotta get to them before they get to us. Besides, we’re doin’ this for the little ones, right?”

“You mean for your baby?”

She nodded. “Yeah, and the kids at home, and your baby.”

You shook your head with a laugh. “So much for having our babies at the same time.”

You and Maggie had an ongoing hypothetical conversation in which the two of you would plan on conceiving, being pregnant, and giving birth around the same time. You both presupposed that your children would be best friends with each other and would see each other almost as siblings. After all, you saw Glenn and Maggie as the younger brother and sister you never had, so it didn’t seem too far off.

“Ain’t too late,” Maggie said. “When this is over, you and Daryl can get down to business.”

You sighed. “I don’t think it’s going to happen for a while. He’s worried about it not being safe or secure enough.”

“When we kill these Saviors,” she said seriously, “and start that trade with the Hilltop, it will be safe. I promise you.”

It wasn’t something Maggie could promise, but you believed her. Maybe it was that sweet southern accent that always charmed you, or the fact that she was your best friend. Either way, you were doing this for that promise of safety and peace, for a world where you could raise a child with the man you loved.

By the time night fell and the area had been scoped out, you all had your positions.

When the two guards finished accepting Gregory’s head from Andy, Daryl slit one guard’s throat and stabbed him through the head so he wouldn’t turn.

The other guard came back out to return Craig to Andy, but he was quickly disposed of by Michonne. When his body fell to the ground, you took the distinct displeasure of axing him in the head.

In the quietest attack your group had committed to date, you all entered the building like church mice, your guns held high and ready to shoot.

It truly felt like you were some kind of soldier raiding enemy territory, considering the heavy artillery you were wielding.

“Check the doors,” Rick whispered as you all filled the hallway. “Find the arsenal. We take them out.”

You split up with Aaron and Rosita. Though Daryl preferred you to stay by his side, if there was anyone else he trusted to keep you safe, it was Aaron.

Turning down another hall, you gestured to the first door and slowly pushed the door open with an ever so slight creak. Tiptoeing into the small, dark room, you and Aaron each silently decided to take one of the two men sleeping in cots on either side of the room.

Upon further inspection, you noticed yours was actually a woman, who appeared to be about your age. You had your knife raised, and pointed down directly at the woman’s eye socket, but you just stood there shivering, the faint reflection of the light from the hallway where Rosita was keeping watch flickering softly with each jitter of your nervous body.

Peeling your eyes from her face, you looked up on the wall beside her bed to see a framed photograph of the woman and a man on their wedding day.

They were smiling, of course they were smiling. It was the happiest day of her life, you were willing to bet. Who wouldn’t be happy promising yourself to the person you loved most in the world? That was how you felt on your wedding day, so why wouldn’t she?

Looking down again, you noticed the band on her finger as she breathed softly in a deep sleep, her hand resting on her chest and moving slowly with her diaphragm.

You couldn’t even hear the squelching from Aaron’s kill before he was standing next to you again. His presence caught your attention, and you looked at him with wide eyes.

You shook your head, tears threatening to well up in your glassy eyes at any moment. Gently, Aaron pushed you aside so he could do the job himself. You turned yourself around and incidentally witnessed the body of the man in the other cot. His face was soaked in blood from the puncture wound where Aaron stabbed him, but you hoped he at least had a peaceful expression on his face.

Maybe you were a bad person. You didn’t know anymore. The line became blurrier and blurrier with every moral dilemma that bombarded you practically everyday since the beginning.

Maybe your group were the bad guys, the villains of this story. You never thought you were before, but what you were doing now… what you had to do just to stay alive… It seemed like the kind of thing only psychopaths would do.

“It’s done,” Aaron whispered to you from behind your back. He rested a hand on your shoulder. “Come on.”

It wasn’t done. You, Rosita, and Aaron took turns rotating between a few more rooms, with one of you always standing watch in the hallway. You did kill one man, and that was enough to get your mind flooded with questions that had no answers, and images that would stay with you long after the blood dried.

Just after you and Rosita finished putting down the two men in that room, a fire alarm rang out from nearby.

The three of you began running back down the corridor and through a few more winding hallways until you spotted a few Saviors. Aaron pulled you into a room, and Rosita split up from the both of you.

As footsteps approached, you and Aaron huddled together behind the door, your guns ready to fire if anyone should come in.

The danger, however, was inside.

Before you could completely turn around to face the presence you felt, a large man came barreling towards the two of you with a beer bottle in his hands.

Jumping out of the way, he smashed the bottle into the door, then swung around to clock you in the face, so hard you fell to the ground with a thud.

The man was about to turn to take out Aaron next, but he was quick to stab him in the chest.

When the man fell down dead, Aaron lunged over his body to pick you up by your arms.

“You all right?” he asked, inspecting the bloody nose and the black eye already beginning to form.

You nodded quickly, still a little out of it if you were being honest, but ready to get the hell out of there. “Let’s go.”

The place was like a warzone now. Bullets were flying off at every turn, but you and Aaron found a path through them, all the while shooting constantly at the blurred figures you didn’t recognize.

The two of you winded through the halls, taking out several Saviors and nearly losing your hearing from the sound of the automatic weapon in your hands.

After a while of breaking down doors and killing more people than you ever had at one time, you met up with your group inside the compound.

Daryl immediately was by your side and taking your bruised face in his hands, the blood from your nose now dried and crusted. Daryl looked over at Aaron. “What the hell happened?” he asked, equal parts concern and irrational anger at Aaron in his voice.

“Got decked in the face by one of ‘em,” you said. “I’m fine.”

Daryl nodded and calmed himself down a bit. “Let’s get you home.”

Your group finally emerged from the back exit of the now empty compound. It was light out now, about seven in the morning by your estimate.

The raid was a success, but no one was happy. Your group solemnly sent off Tara and Heath on a two-week supply run, and the rest of you planned on heading back home.

Before you could leave, the nearby roaring of an engine startled all of you.

From another exit of the compound, a lone Savior came barreling out on the back of a familiar motorcycle, with mismatched parts and the loud buzzing noise you only knew to be Daryl’s Frankenstein bike.

“Son of a bitch!” Daryl yelled before running the fastest you’d ever seen him towards the bike, tackling the man after he was shot off of the speeding death machine by Rosita.

He wasn’t dead, though.

Daryl delivered a few brutal blows to the man’s face. “Where’d ya get the bike?” he yelled.

Rick pointed his handgun at the man and cocked it.

“Just do it!” the Savior yelled to him. “Like you did everyone else, right?”

You huffed as you watched the man squirm from underneath Daryl, his face bloody to a pulp from the beating.

Before you could ponder on another moral dilemma, an unfamiliar voice came from Rick’s walkie. “Lower your gun, prick.”

It was a woman, who soon revealed she had Carol and Maggie in her possession, and that she wouldn’t hesitate to kill them.

After a while of searching, you all did eventually find Carol and Maggie that day. You were relieved to see that they were all right, though they seemed frazzled by their confrontation with the Saviors. It was only further proof that they were, in fact, bad people.

Still, you couldn’t shake this feeling that they saw you as the bad guys. Who was right? There was no way of knowing. Morality, as you saw it, was subjective. One’s idea of what was right and wrong might not entirely align with another’s. This was a truth you found evident in life before the apocalypse, but it only became more accurate afterwards.

It didn’t matter now.

It was over, as far as you knew. Sure, maybe there were more Saviors. Daryl seemed to think so. That man he ran into who stole his bike, he might’ve been involved with the Saviors. How else would his bike have gotten there? Either it was stolen, or he put it there.

As far as Daryl knew, “D”, as the man was called, was still alive.

Nevertheless, the next week was spent in relative peace.

There was plenty of food thanks to the trade with the Hilltop, and everyone seemed a little less on edge knowing that the deed was done.

Still, you found yourself staying inside whenever you weren’t needed at your class or elsewhere. Daryl didn’t seem to mind since he spent a lot of his free time in the garage, and when you were home he could keep his eye on you, but it was starting to concern him.

“Hey,” he said to you as he came in from the garage. You were sitting on the sofa reading a book about cows you had picked up on a run. You figured you were going to have a cow from Hilltop as soon as the barn was built, so it made sense to read up on them. “You still readin’ about cows?”

He sat down on the couch next to you, his body weight sinking onto the cushion with a soft thud. You eyed him as he wiped his greasy hands on his red rag, and you made sure he threw it on the wood floor instead of the couch like you’d asked. He did.

You had pretty much successfully domesticated Daryl Dixon. Well, you thought, until he put his feet up on the coffee table.

“It’s important,” you sighed. “When we get some livestock going, it’ll be good to know a thing or two about them.”

Daryl nodded as he bit his lip, trying to figure out what to say to you about his concern. “You ain’t gone out much lately,” he said. “Thought you and Carol were supposed to bake cookies or somethin’.”

You looked up from your book. “I had to cancel. I just wasn’t feeling up to it.”

“You okay?”

You nodded and returned your gaze back to your book. “Mhm.”

You were okay… kind of. You couldn’t stop thinking about the people you killed in cold blood, but other than that you were peachy.

Daryl leaned closer to you until he pulled the book down and away from your face, setting it on the side table. “Known ya long enough to know when somethin’s botherin’ ya. What is it?”

You sighed and looked down at your feet. You didn’t want to tell anybody because it seemed so silly. How could you feel guilty about killing bad people you didn’t even know? It was a good question, and you didn’t know entirely why.

“It’s stupid,” you said.

Daryl scoffed. “Shut up and tell me what’s wrong.”

He wasn’t always very eloquent, but he could get to the point.

“It’s just… back at the base, where we killed the Saviors… I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.”

Daryl nodded. He had a feeling that was what was troubling you. He knew you too well to not know. “Ain’t stupid. I’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout it too. We all have.”

You closed your eyes and sighed. “There—there was this woman. I was about to… to do it, but she had this photograph. It was from her wedding day. Then I saw the ring, and I couldn’t do it. I just kept thinking… about that happening to one of us. She wasn’t any different from you or me.”

You looked down at your feet in shame. “Do… do you think I’m weak?” you asked sincerely, still not able to face him.

Daryl shook his head. “Nah, you’ve never been weak,” he said. He took a hold of your hand and squeezed it tight, then lifted your chin with his other hand so you could face him. “You ain’t weak,” he repeated, this time more sternly. “You’re strong. You… feel things. That’s your strength.”

Your lips quivered at his words. “That’s just a nice way of saying I’m a crybaby, right?”

Daryl smirked, but quickly shook his head and turned serious again. He wasn’t going to let you kid your way out of this one. “It’s true. Takes a lotta balls to be like that nowadays. Just can’t let it keep you from doin’ what you need to do. Those saviors, they needed to be taken out. You know what they can do—you heard Jesus, and Carol and Maggie… Negan wanted Gregory’s head for Christ’s sake. They ain’t worth feelin’ guilty over.”

You sniffled a little and nodded your head. “I know… and now we have more food, and we’ll have a cow soon.”

Daryl moved his hand from your chin to your cheek and caressed it delicately with his calloused thumb. “Yeah,” he said. “Just gotta get my crossbow back from that prick and then we’re set.”

You laughed. “Hey, at least you got your bike back.”

Daryl scoffed. “Yeah, douchebag didn’t even know how to ride it right.”

You rolled your eyes. “There’s a proper way to ride a motorcycle?”

“Course,” he replied. “Least, my motorcycle.”

You tossed your arms around his neck. “We’ll find you a new crossbow, honeybear.”

Daryl raised an eyebrow. “Honeybear?” He repeated the sickly sweet word with his usual gruffness.

“I’m workshopping new pet names,” you said. “How do you feel about cupcake… or stud muffin?”

Daryl shook his head rapidly. “No, no way. I’m drawin’ the line.”

You pulled him in closer to you and gave him your big doe eyes he couldn’t ever resist. “Oh, come on, snuggle bug.”

You knew you were teasing him, probably annoying him, but you just couldn’t help it. You loved the look on his face when you called him such obnoxious things. It was somewhere between rage and utter adoration.

You couldn’t admire his face for too long after the last nickname, though. Before you knew it, he was pinning you down on the couch and tickling you senseless. “Ah!” you yelled, your voice cracking with laughter. “Daryl, no! No, please, mercy!”

“You were askin’ for it,” he said, continuing to trail his fingers all over your ticklish areas, including your stomach and your underarms. Soon he was even lifting your shirt to blow a raspberry on your belly button.

“Ah!” you cried in shock at the feeling. “You’re crazy!” You laughed until you started hiccuping, but Daryl stopped you short when he plunged his lips onto yours and sucked on your mouth passionately.

His tickling died down and soon he had one hand tangled in your hair and the other massaging your breast. You moaned into his kiss at the feeling, the tingling of his deft hands plucking at your clothed nipple like it was a violin string.

He growled when you delicately trailed your hand down his back to land on his ass, where you squeezed it demandingly. You put so much pressure onto it that you began to feel his hip bones digging into yours. “You want somethin’, baby girl?”

You nodded, your nose nudging against his all the while. “You.”

If there was one thing that could get you to forget about your worries, at least for a while, it was Daryl… and especially sex with Daryl.

By morning, the evening was a blur. As usual, Daryl woke up before you. In a haze, you felt him kiss your cheek before heading downstairs to the garage to work on his bike. He’d been doting on it like it was his own child for the past week.

When you woke, you remembered that you promised to train Bev in self-defense that morning. Though you still weren’t feeling terribly social, you couldn’t bring yourself to cancel on yet another friend.

You met her by the lake as usual. She also attended Rosita’s self-defense classes, but she took your personal lessons as, in her own words, a “supplemental course.”

“Hey,” she said, waving to you enthusiastically. “I was almost worried you weren’t going to make it. Carol said you weren’t feeling good yesterday.”

“Yeah,” you sighed. “I feel okay today, though. Plus I gotta teach you how to get out of a choke hold.”

After stretching and a few rounds of gossiping, you did just that. You showed her a few different techniques for different situations. Starting with a side choke hold, you showed her how to stun the attacker by punching him in the gut or the groin (you preferred the latter technique). Then, you instructed her to pull the attacker’s head back and expose his stomach to begin punching him there until the wind was knocked out of him and push him away, allowing time to escape.

“How the hell did you learn how to do that?” Bev asked you, out of breath from the demonstration.

You panted as you held your hands on your hips. “Daryl taught me a while back,” you said. “He taught me everything I’ve shown you, actually.”

Bev’s eyes widened. You had taught her a lot, and a lot of it were very niche fighting techniques one would only have to know in very specific situations. “How’d he learn them?”

You shrugged. You knew how. He often told you stories from his past which illuminated his fighting experience. In his childhood and teenage years, he had gotten into schoolyard fights and confrontations with bullies. In his twenties, he was involved in several bar fights and drunken brawls at concerts. In his thirties, he often had to defend his brother when his drug deals went awry, and he gained even more skill when the world turned.

At some point, he even had to fight his own father. That was when he was older and knew he could fight back. He left him beaten and battered, a drunken, pathetic mess cowering on the floor of his childhood home in rural North Georgia. The man absolutely deserved it—he almost hit Daryl over the head with a beer bottle, not to mention everything he had done to him before that day.

Will Dixon was his name. You hadn’t even met him, but you hated him for how he hurt Daryl. From what you gathered, the abuse began when Daryl was a very young child, just after his mother, Sally Dixon, passed away. Merle was abused, too, but he benefitted on account of being older and able to escape the home sooner than Daryl.

In any case, self-defense and survival instincts were ingrained in the Dixon bloodline, albeit under rather unfortunate circumstances.

You couldn’t tell all that to Bev, though. It took Daryl long enough to open up to you about his past, and you were the person he trusted most in the world.

“He used to take self-defense classes,” you lied. It wasn’t a particularly creative lie, but it was a lie nonetheless. You considered Bev a friend, and you hated lying to friends, but it was better than revealing something to her that Daryl didn’t want most people to know. “Mixed martial arts and things like that too.”

Bev nodded. “Smart. My dad always wanted me to take those, never got around to it though. What did Daryl do before all this, anyway?”

Oh no.

This was why you hardly ever brought up Daryl around the Alexandrians—they were always so curious about him. He had been trying hard lately to be more friendly to them, but Daryl’s definition of “friendly” was making eye contact and engaging in idle small talk, which he wasn’t the most skilled at.

“He… was a mechanic.” Another lie. Though he did work on cars freelance, he never held the actual title of mechanic. “Worked on cars and stuff.”

“Oh, that makes sense. He’s always fiddling with that bike and fixing up the cars.”

You nodded. “Yep, that’s Daryl.”

“What about me?” Daryl’s guttural voice came out from behind you, nearly making you jump as he appeared simply out of nowhere. Even Bev, who was already facing him, didn’t see or hear him. He was the sneakiest son of a bitch you ever met.

You turned around to face him. “Oh, um… I was just telling Bev about how you know how to work with bikes and things like that.”

Perfect medium.

You were getting better at this whole lying thing. You preferred to call it “enhancing the truth,” though.

Daryl nodded awkwardly, trying to give Bev eye contact all the while. She smiled at him, though you could tell he kind of terrified her. “I can’t even change a tire,” she joked awkwardly.

You laughed nervously. “Me neither,” you said.

Daryl scoffed. It was his attempt at laughter. “Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Hey, can I talk to ya, (Y/N)?”

Bev quickly took the hint. “I’m gonna go get some water from my house. I’ll be right back.”

You nodded in acknowledgement before she jogged across the street to her brownstone. You turned your attention back to Daryl. “What’s up?”

“Denise’s got me doin’ a run to this pharmacy,” he said.

You sighed. You hated when he went out. “You’re going with someone, right?”

Daryl nodded. “Rosita… and Denise.”

You raised an eyebrow. “Does she know how to fight?”

“No,” he said. “But she refuses to stay here. Said she’d go on her own if we didn’t agree to go with her.”

“Well, how long will you be gone?”

Daryl shrugged. “Not long. It’s pretty close and we got a truck. Be back before dark.”

You nodded, a little relieved that he wouldn’t spend a night outside the walls. “Okay, just be safe, all right?”

Daryl nodded. “I know,” he said. “You always tell me.”

You cupped his face in your hands and pressed a short kiss to his lips. “Because I don’t want you to forget.”

An exchange of “I love you’s” and Daryl was gone. Bev came back a few minutes after he left, being sure to give the two of you ample time to talk.

“Everything good?” she asked.

“Mhm,” you responded. “He’s just going out on a quick run with Rosita and Denise. Medical supplies.”

Bev could hear the worry in your voice. She rested a hand on your shoulder. “He’ll be fine,” she said. “He’s a tough cookie.” You laughed at the phrase. “Tougher than Eugene, that’s for sure.”

That was right—Eugene had gone out with Abraham earlier, too.

It didn’t take you long after meeting Bev to figure out that she had a thing for Eugene. It was surprising; Eugene seemed to have a thing for every other woman, namely Rosita.

“Eugene will be fine, too,” you assured her. “I mean, he’s with Abraham.” Eugene wasn’t a fighter, not in the slightest, but Abraham was. “You tell him how you feel yet?”

Bev sighed. “No, not yet. I’m too nervous. I’ve barely even spoken to him, anyway.”

“It’s like ripping off a bandaid,” you said. “Just gotta get it over with. You can’t keep fawning over him. Who knows, maybe he feels the same. But if you're looking for advice, I'd say getting a little drunk is your best bet. Gets you a little more... confident.”

She sighed. “I don’t know…”

“Tell you what,” you began, “when he comes back, you are going to tell him the minute you next see him.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Or what?”

You smiled. “Or I’ll put you in a choke hold myself.”

Eugene did come back later that day, along with Abraham, Rosita, and Daryl.

However, Bev didn’t get the chance to reveal her crush to him as he had been grazed with a bullet and was immediately rushed to the infirmary by Daryl and Abraham.

As he waited outside the infirmary, you ran up to him and hugged him as you usually did when he came back. “Thank God you’re okay,” you said, resting your chin on his shoulder.

When you noticed he wasn’t hugging you back, you pulled away. Immediately, you saw the shame in his face. “What happened?”

He lowered his head and you swore you heard him sniffle. He didn’t have to say anything as you put two and two together. Denise didn’t come in through the gates with them.

She was gone.

Dead, to be precise.

“The arrow,” Daryl said in a low voice as he sat on your sofa looking down at the steaming cup of chamomile tea you had made for him, “just… went right through her eye. That son of a bitch, the one who took my bow, he did it.” He looked at you seriously. “Think he’s one of ‘em.”

You knew what he meant, but you didn’t want to believe it. “Who?”

“The Saviors,” he said. “They tried to take our shit, tried to get us to take them back here and take more.”

That was, indeed, the M.O. of the Saviors.

You swallowed hard. “They won’t find us,” you said, trying to convince yourself just as much as Daryl.

He shook his head. “Shoulda killed that prick when I had the chance. I let him go… felt bad for him.” Daryl scoffed at the idea. “I was weak.”

“It’s like you said—feeling is a strength. Just because you felt bad for him doesn’t mean you’re weak. There was no way you could have known what he was.”

Daryl nodded, though you knew he still blamed himself. No matter how many times you told him not to look back at what he could’ve or should’ve done, he always did.

“I’m gonna find him,” he said. “Gonna kill him for what he did.”

You stroked your hair with the hand that wasn’t holding your own cup of tea. “You will,” you said. “But don’t kill yourself trying to do it.”

Things were becoming complicated.

If Daryl was right about Dwight, as D was also known as, there were more Saviors than you all had initially thought.

In any case, everyone in Alexandria was beginning to gear up to fight if need be. Word traveled fast about Daryl’s run-in with Dwight and his men. Weapons were distributed that day, and more and more people were signing up for Rosita’s training.

Whoever Dwight was, he was a threat. It was pretty clear that he was most likely working with the Saviors, but they hadn’t found Alexandria yet, and that was a relief to you all.

The means, it seemed, hadn’t reached an end at all.

There was fear in the air, and a quiet that seemed all too quiet, as if something imminent was threatening to break it.

Thanks for reading! Likes, comments, and reblogs of any kind are always appreciated!

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the-fiction-witch · 2 years ago

Text

Mrs Watts P3

Media: The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix 2020) Character: Benny Watts (Thomas Brodie Sangster) Couple: Benny Watts X Reader Rating: Flirty Concept: ‘Future Mrs Watts’

I sat in my little beetle driving along through the various grey highways nothing but the grey sky above us, the radio on so low I couldn't even tell what it was playing. The odd scent in the air of pine from the tree's outside the car, the smell of the engine working hard behind us, as well as the strange chemical scent from the open bottle of cutex on the dashboard the bottle's lid and bush in her hand as she painted her nails with this pearly purple colour that matched her lipstick. All this going on as we plaid chess together telling each other our moves.

She was winning.

four to two.

But I think she was purposely putting me off at times.

"What got you into chess?" I asked her

"Hum?" she asks as I broke her concentration

"How did you ever get into it?"

"Ohhh what would you like my tragic backstory?"

"Yeah go on then."

"Alright, Well One unbearably hot day in New Mexico I made my grandeous entrance into this world, loudly or so I'm told. Life wasn't easy on the ranch learnt all the important stuff young had to or the horse would kick your head in. We didn't have a lot No radio, paper rarely got delivered but one of the little things we had was my granddad's old chess board, so on evenings we'd all sit in the house or the barn and play chess and I got good at it." she explained "Then I lost my mum so I was left with the boys and I just... worked and plaid. After a few years, I decided to get off the ranch every now and again so I signed up for chess tournaments to make a little cash and get to see some places more than just backwater New Mexico"

"That.... explains more about you than I assumed it would."

"It does?"

"Kinda. yeah."

"your turn" she smiled finishing up with her nails putting the brush back into the bottle and throwing both into her handbag

"What?"

"Tell the tragic backstory of benny watts"

"It's not that tragic."

"Go on then"

"Alright" I rolled my eyes. "On what I think was a very terrible night for most involved. My mother was living in kent over in England helping with extended family out there due to the whole... goings on. and she ended up pregnant by a fellow American who was over there some sort of intelligence worker I don't know what. and one very dark rainy night in 1940 during an air raid I decided to arrive. I use to get told the story of how my mother, In labour! ran from the shelter at the family home two miles to the shelter where the midwife was in order to give birth through the rain, the sirens, and explosions from afar. and after a year she decided it wasn't safe for me there so sent me over to new york to live with my great uncle. but that didn't last long, He had a heart attack when I was three. my mother couldn't come over to get me and I couldn't get over there on my own so I got stopped up into the system with a bunch of the other kids. not like it mattered anyway she got sick and died just a year later. They couldn't find anything about who my dad was so I never met him. I hated the system and everyone in it. I just spent all my days reading the old chess books they had and playing with the little plastic board in the game room of the house. Once they saw how good I was they started putting me into tournaments paying the fees for me and taking my winnings to fund the orphanage. Once I got old enough to know what they were doing I started signing up on my own and keeping the money for myself by the time I was sixteen I got out of there got an apartment and... here we are."

"Hummm fascinating" she smiled

"How so?"

"Explains a lot about you"

"does it?"

"Yeah,"

"Like what?"

"That'd be telling" she smiled

It wasn't long before we arrived at my apartment I packed up and headed down letting her follow me down, I unlocked the door having to give it a push and a shove as it had been sticking for months now clicking the light on setting my hat and jacket beside the door, heading in and clicking the rest of the lights on seeing everything much how I left it. She came down and had a little look around.

"It ain't much-" I began

"I like it"

"What?"

"It's nice. I like it" she smiled "I like a cool little basement"

"Really?"

"Its cosy" she smiled

"Uhhhhh okay, well make yourself at home"

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drabbles-of-writing · 3 years ago

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Stitched Back Together

AO3

first Owl Fight attack, woo! The prompt for this one was “Luz and Raine hanging out”

Summary: Free of Kikimora's control, with scars carved into their skin, Raine is taken back to the Owl House. Awake in the middle of the night, unable to sleep after their whole ordeal, they officially meet Luz. Talking to one of Eda's kids really shouldn't be as intimidating as it feels.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

When Raine first saw the kids, truly and consciously, there were thorns retreating from their eyes and scars etched onto their skin as Eda held them tightly.

Eda’s sclera had turned black, hands hooked into talons with wings arched over their heads, and was at least two feet taller than when they had last seen her. And there had been a lot to ask about there, and possibly some gawking, but this isn’t about that.

Because as soon as Raine could stand, Eda holding their hands tightly and almost brought to tears at how relieved she was to see them alright, to know there would be no more harm done to them, Raine noticed the two figures far across from them, holding back the few guards trying to intervene.

They recognized them quickly, from the photo that had twisted a hole into their chest, because Eda had kids and she had spoken of them with such desperation and love--

The girl had turned, and Raine knew then they hadn’t been imagining the round ears when they first saw the photo. She had the young demon they recognized earlier clinging to her back, and they both looked at Raine with confusion. The demon’s had been accusatory, but the humans, she had to be a human, looked nothing but curious.

It had all passed by in a blur, the escape from the guards and Eda bundling them into the Owl House, frantic as she continued to check them over, never slowing in her talking as the wings and sharp edges retreated back into her body, which Raine may have quietly mourned the loss of. They suited her.

The human and demon had watched from the background, occasionally offering assistance towards or around the two, but more or less giving them space as Eda fretted and explained all she could to Raine, clinging like she was afraid if she didn’t, Raine would vanish again.

They heard of what Kikimora had done to them, of what Belos had done to them, of what they had done. Of Eda’s acceptance of the curse, of the rest of the BATs being in the Conformatorium (something they both agreed on fixing as soon as they could), of everything that Eda could think to catch them up on.

There would be time to unpack all of that, to formulate plans, to talk about everything beyond what Raine had missed out on. But that could wait until another day, could wait until Raine had gotten rest, and a moment to reorient themselves.

And yet, they still found themself in Eda’s kitchen, nearing midnight, with a cup of tea that looked suspiciously like the one Lilith had liked in their hands.

They knew they should be asleep, it was late, and knowing Eda, there would be far more to fret about in the morning. Eda had offered her nest, but Raine had taken the couch, not exactly willing to voice their opinion on how Eda’s nest did not look comfortable.

They were thankful for it later, too, when they awoke after barely an hour of sleep with the feeling of vines wrapped around their throat and muffled, begging cries as their hands moved of their own accord.

They sighed and slumped against the counter, setting down the cup for a moment to rub at their wrist, where scars from the reaching thorns still lay. They faded the further the scars stretched up their body, but they figured the ones along their wrist and arm would last for the rest of their life.

It wasn’t too bad, a scar was really the best thing they could’ve asked for. They stared down at their tea, thoughts swirling and not even bothering to try and sort any of them out. Later, when their wrist didn’t have a phantom ache.

“Oh, hey.”

Raine startled, almost knocking their cup over as they whirled their head around.

The human stood in the doorway, looking a bit surprised at Raine’s reaction. She had clearly just woken up, hair a frizzy mess and eyes still blinking with sleep.

“Oh, um, hello.” Raine said, forcing themself to relax. “Sorry, is there something you need?” They asked, wrapping a hand around their tea.

“I just came here for a snack,” The human shrugged, breezing right by the counter and towards the cabinets.

Raine nodded, mostly just to themself, and went back to staring into space, trying to pretend the awkward tension hadn’t suddenly arisen.

They realized after a moment that the girl had paused in what she was doing, hand still in the cabinet door, but taking nothing out. They looked up for a moment, and caught the girl watching them with a contemplative look on her face until she realized she had been staring and jerked back to shuffling through the cabinets.

“So,” Raine said, in some attempt to break the tension, leaning their arms across the counter. “You’re Eda’s kid?” They said, grimacing slightly at how off that had come off sounding.

“Er, yeah,” The human said, frowning at the cabinet before shutting it again and opening a different one. “And you’re...Raine.”

“You’ve heard of me, then?” Raine guessed, taking a sip of their tea.

“Vaguely,” The human admitted, opening another cabinet door. “I know you’re--er, were, the head of the Bard Coven. I know Eda mentioned some group called the BATs you lead. I know that...Eda knows you.” She said, voice becoming more mumbly as she spoke.

“Ah, Eda didn’t speak of me much, then?” Raine inquired, telling themself that they shouldn't really be surprised.

“Not until you, uh, had the whole...thing happening.” The girl nodded. “Then Eda got really worried and me and King asked why she was so worked up, and then she told us you were an old friend, which I maybe halfway trust, and that you had this group with the BATs...and I still don’t think I understand it completely.” She admitted with a sheepish look.

“Sounds like Eda.” Raine chuckled, shaking their head slightly as they smiled down at their tea. “Wait, halfway trust?” They added right after, back straightening.

“I mean, I trust you mean a lot to Eda,” The human said, her raiding of the cabinets forgotten. “And I trust Eda means a lot to you,” Raine did not flush at that, thank you. “But pretty much everyone Eda knows she has a very complicated relationship with, and I’d be surprised if you were the one exception.”

“Ah,” Raine said, rubbing the back of their neck. Is this what it felt like to be interrogated by a kid? “You got me there. We haven’t...seen each other in a while.” They admitted.

“How long?” The human asked, interest sparking in her eyes as she leaned next to the cabinets.

“Erm, two...maybe two and half decades?” Raine said, lifting a hand and tilting it. “Titan, it sounds much longer than it feels when I say it out loud.” They murmured.

“Oooh, another piece of the mysterious backstory!” The human grinned, perking up, all the hesitation from earlier melting away at a probably concerning speed. “Why’d ya stop talking?”

“Ah, well, you know,” Raine said, flushing again as their ears pressed back. “Just...a split, really. Seeing other people. Eda had some things she still needed to work out, and I suppose I had to reflect a bit, too.” They mumbled.

“Wait,” The girl narrowed her eyes, and when Raine focused on where she was again, they pulled back when they realized Luz was on the other side of the counter. “Are you one of her exes?” She gasped, eyes wide.

“Oh dear,” Raine sighed, face falling in their hands.

“You are!” The girl exclaimed, and they sincerely hoped it didn’t wake anyone else up. “Man, and I thought all her exes hated her from how she talked about some of them.” She whistled. “Explains a bit, though.”

“Is that so?” Raine mumbled, knowing that they were blushing up to their ears.

“Yeah, I mean, explains why she seemed so freaked out. She's gotta know you pretty well.” The human said casually. “She goes all out when she gets attached, as I’m sure you know.” She added with a light tease.

“Oh, I know.” Raine sighed, memories of holding back a feral Eda back in Hexside from mauling Odalia still vivid in their mind. “And, since we’re talking, I apologize, but,” They said, raising their head from their hands when they were sure they didn’t look like they’d had a nasty sunburn across their face. “I don’t believe I...caught your name.”

“Eda didn’t mention it?” The human blinked, graciously taking the change in conversation.

“She might’ve, but I’ll be honest, I caught maybe two of every five words she said.” Raine admitted, flicking an ear. “I’m sorry, but I figure I should ask now before it turns into something where I ask at a much worse moment.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” The human waved her hand. “You went through a lot. My name’s Luz.” She said cheerfully, offering a hand. “The other little guy is King.”

Raine blinked at it for a moment before reaching out and taking it, giving a single shake until Luz pulled back. She was practically rocking on her heels from how excited she seemed, and Raine may have allowed a small half-smile in return.

“Have you lived with Eda long?” Raine asked, because they could still remember Eda’s pained explanation that the kids weren’t hers hers, and found themself wondering where in the world she had picked up a human.

“Few months,” Luz said. “Four, maybe? I dunno, the calendars here are different from the human realm.”

“Four months?” Raine blinked, surprised. “I would’ve thought you’d known her longer.”

“Nah, I’m just a recent addition.” Luz shrugged, looking away with a hint of nervousness. “King’s been here for years, though.”

“Huh, odd.” Raine said with a shrug as they went back to drinking their tea. “You act a lot like her, I would’ve thought you’d have picked up those habits from her.”

“I do?” Luz repeated, straightening.

“Yes?” Raine lowered their cup. “When she was younger, at least. Very curious, couldn’t leave any questions unanswered. And stubborn. And maybe a little too attentive for her own good.” They added with a lighthearted tone.

“Oh, yeah, that-that sounds familiar.” Luz coughed into her fist, and Raine smiled at her embarrassment. “You knew her when you were younger, then?” She asked, and Raine chose not to comment on the slight diversion in conversation.

“Since Hexside,” Raine nodded. “I want to say we were eleven or so? Maybe twelve. Never had a moment of peace since.”

“Aw, Eda’s backstory just keeps getting more and more convoluted. At least yours isn’t as crazy as Lilith or her moms. Even after the whole mind-control thing.” Luz said with a fiery curiosity in her eyes, and Raine was impressed at their lack of visible reaction to how casually Luz brought up the mind-control. Another thing like Eda, Raine thought. No amount of answers would be satisfactory, and treated every odd thing like it was just another day.

“Well, I’m glad I got her daughter's approval. Wouldn’t want to fight my way in now, would I?” Raine chuckled, tilting their cup back and finishing the last of it.

When they lowered their cup again, Luz was staring at them like a spooked rabbit, hands gripping the counter. They blinked slowly, brow raised in confusion.

“I-I’m not,” Luz stuttered, coughing to clear her throat and forcibly releasing the counter. “I’m not her daughter, you thought I was her daughter?”

“You aren’t?” Raine frowned, ears perking up. “But you said you were her kid.”

“That’s--I thought you meant--like when Eda just casually calls me and and King kids, or when I’m out with my friends and she’s watching us we’re just ‘her kids,’ you know?” Luz said, looking a little frantic as she did so, wildly waving her hands around. “Not--no I’m not, related to her or anything--”

“Oh, I knew that.” Raine brushed it off. “But Eda told me you and King were her kids?”

“I--when did that happen?” Luz asked, near sounding like a demand.

Raine hesitated, for a brief moment. They doubted someone like Eda would so casually tell a teenager and young demon about that time she, you know, almost died, and it really wasn’t their place to tell them as such if she hadn’t.

“The last time we spoke.” They settled on. “Before the...thing.” They said, mimicking Luz’s words from earlier. “I learned she had kids, and I told her that if she had something to lose, she had to get back to them.”

“I...oh.” Luz said quietly, slowly relaxing and turning her head down to stare at the counter.

“I’m…” Raine hesitated. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep, I didn’t know it was a touchy subject--”

“No, no! It’s not, you’re fine.” Luz waved them off. “I just...didn’t know Eda had said it like that.”

Raine would’ve thought something along the lines of ‘Eda didn’t tell you she thought of you as her kid?’ if they didn’t know that Eda was the same person who hadn’t even truly thought of them as dating until Raine had introduced her as their girlfriend with earshot. She’d been so touched over the whole ordeal that Raine had to remind her, repeatedly, that they had been dating for over a month. Apparently knowing, and having a title for it, were two very different things.

They wouldn’t be surprised if this kid was the same.

“She cares about you, you know that, right?” Raine asked softly, and Luz looked up to meet their eyes.

“Yeah,” She said, cracking a small smile. “I know.”

Raine nodded in satisfaction, stepping around the counter to set their cup in the sink. It was late, they could wash it in the morning. How Eda could've ever thought about leaving a kid like her, they don't think they'd want to know.

“She cares about you, too.”

Raine paused, going still as one hand lightly gripped the edge of the sink.

“I know,” They said, almost surprised that they believed it so easily, inhaling as they set their shoulders back. “It’s almost scary how little that seems to have changed.” They mumbled.

“For the both of you, huh?” Luz teased.

Raine whirled around, ears pressed back as their face lit up again, being greeted with the girl's smug face that she had to have picked up from Eda, it was almost uncanny.

“I--you--she just--there was--shouldn’t you be asleep at this hour?” Raine managed to strangle out, getting a gleeful giggle out of Luz as they did so.

“I got hungry,” Luz shrugged simply, her smug expression never falling.

“Then grab a snack and go to bed.” Raine huffed, crossing their arms, as if that would hide the embarrassment as they stepped aside.

“I will, once I find where Eda put the cookies. She keeps hiding them from King and doesn’t tell me where she put them.” Luz muttered, stepping up to the cabinets again and opening a new one.

“I think that means she’s hiding them from both of you.” Raine raised a brow.

“She should find better hiding spots, then.” Luz said, retracting a hand from the cabinet with a container full of cookies in her hand, shaking them. “Cover for me if she asks why some went missing?” She asked, a pleading look on her face.

“I’ll cover you if one goes missing.” Raine bargained, and Luz gave them a disgruntled look before sighing and taking a single cookie from the container.

“Can’t believe you.” Luz huffed good-naturedly, putting the cookies away.

“Just because you're Eda’s kid doesn’t mean I’m going to let you get away with everything, Titan knows how Eda would’ve ended up if that happened.” They muttered, shaking their head. “I fear the day you and Amber meet.”

“Who?” Luz tilted her head, taking a large bite of her cookie.

“One of my crew, she’s about your age.” Raine said simply. “I think you’ll get along. Now go, shoo, I’m willing to bet tomorrow will be quite hectic, and you need your sleep.” They said, herding Luz out of the kitchen.

“I’m going, I’m going!” Luz said, smiling as she lightly batted at Raine’s hands, darting out of the kitchen. “Remember, you saw nothing.” She warned, walking backwards as she narrowed her eyes on Raine.

“Lips are sealed, I was fast asleep the whole night.” Raine said, leaning against the doorway to the kitchen. “Though I figure she’ll find out, anyway.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got backup now.” Luz said, shoving the last half of the cookie in her mouth before slipping away through the doorway that led to the staircase.

Raine chuckled, shaking their head as they pushed themself off of the doorway. They should probably hit the couch again, too. Eda would only fret more if they were falling asleep all day tomorrow.

“Oh, almost forgot!” Luz said, head suddenly poking through the doorway and causing Raine to pause. “Welcome to the Owl House,” She said cheerily. “Since I take it you’ll be staying a while.”

Raine’s ears flicked back and they mumbled under their breath as Luz’s smile only widened, and Raine couldn’t help but mirror it.

“Night!” She chirped, vanishing around the corner yet again.

Raine watched the place where she’d vanished again, rubbing their wrist and noting it didn’t ache as much as before.

“Goodnight,” They said to the empty air.

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foryoumyheroes · 4 years ago

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Otaku

[Bakugou + Todoroki] are in love with the anime character [Name].

A/N: Gender-neutral reader Crackish??

Bakugou Katsuki:

He’s sort of picky with the genre, be it fantasy, horror, shonen, but his favorite character has to be a super cool, super powerful one. No excuses.

You know, the type of anime character that’s probably introduced through a silhouette of them posing dramatically with their notorious group whose image is teased throughout the first few episodes/seasons.

He goes pretty hard for All Might, and he’s definitely the same for your character.

Reads the manga (but he buys it super secretly, like in a hoodie at night and the cashier probably thinks that they’re being robbed until he brings the entire [Series] collection to the register). Watches the anime the moment it’s broadcasted, reads metas and watches youtube videos that talk about conspiracies/analyses of your character.

NO ONE CAN KNOW THOUGH.

He’s taking his anime phase to the grave.

For some reason gets super aggressive when you’re being flirty or being shipped with another character?? He hates all the scenes that tease any potential romance between you and other characters. asdfgj He’s like, “No one is good enough for [Name]!!! Except for me.”

He even tries to think up ways he can legitimately square up with them LMAO. Like he wonders how he could defeat your potential S/Os in a fight but y’all are like ,,, anime characters SO WHY DOES IT EVEN MATTER LOL

“Three-sword style?? Tch, I’d fucking blow that bastard to bits.”

“Who’s this Gaara of the Sand looking ass and why is the author getting so bold.”

He even tries to think of how well your abilities match up with his own Quirk, this dork.

THE LENGTHS HE WOULD GO FOR YOU.

If you were a real life person and your dislikes are lets say spicy food or loud, overbearing people, Bakugou would be like, “Tch I’m right, they’re wrong. Shut the fuck up!!!” But if his ultimate wifu/husbando has those dislikes he would be like, “Omg...😳😳 opposites attract...👉👈”

He honestly tries to be a low-key fan (as in, not be a fan at all to outsiders), but if one day during class Kaminari ends up saying that in [Series], you’re the weakest character in your group/squad, Bakugou would get super angry.

“Hey, Dunceface!! It’s so fucking obvious that you’re an anime-only fake fan, so don’t talk as if you know shit!”

Bakugou is those “um actually” ;; fans

Bakugou is a manga reader, so by the time your introduction scene or Ultimate Attack scene is being aired he becomes super OOC. He’s hyped for it for days, incredibly nervous at how the animators handle the scene.

By the time he watches it??

THE ANIMATION!! THE VOICE ACTING!! YOUR COOLNESS!!! PLS ORA ORA HIM IN THE CHEST!! HE’S BEGGING YOU! IF YOU’RE GOING TO UNISON RAID WITH ANYONE PLS LET IT BE HIM!!

He’s legitimately sweating buckets by the time the episode is over. A whole-ass fire hazard.

Probably knows how to play your character theme on the drums.

Omg but if your character dies/is hinted toward dying/or the most recent chapters ends with a cliffhanger where you’re fatally injured he will become legitimately depressed.

Like holes himself in his dorm room for a whole day without contacting anyone and with the blinds drawn type of depressed.

When he comes to class the next day with eye-bags and is slouching and his classmates think that something horrible has happened, it’s probably only Izuku who knows what’s going on.

He’ll say, “You’re upset about the most recent chapter of [Series], right? I know it must be hard for you right now.” He’ll give Bakugou an officially licensed rubber strap of your character and Bakugou will just ;; cradle it in his hands softly.

In complete seriousness, your character is probably someone who is strong physically, but publicly rallies for things like, “Failure is fine.” Your character arc would probably explore what it’s like being not good enough or feeling constantly disappointed, so he feels comfort in your character.

Todoroki Shoto:

In comparison to Bakugou, he’s probably a more low-key fan unintentionally, but goes just as hard.

Buys all of the merch, limited-edition or not, has your picture set as his phone lockscreen and homescreen, has a little acrylic charm of you on his phone, follows several fanartists that draw your character on social media. He buys enough merch that his room looks like a glorified shrine.

It’s canon that he reads manga, but I headcanon that he’s even less picky with his genres and willingly reads things like slice-of-life or shojo all the way to shonen or adult fantasy, so your anime could come from any possible story.

Your character is probably someone who is sweet and kind but has a traumatic character backstory.

He probably ends up thinking stuff like, “If [Name] was with me, I would never let them get treated like that.” asdhj he’s a dork too.

Unironically dramatically quotes you during battle and thinks that it’s still badass because he’s a teenage boy in his anime phase.

Doesn’t get into debates with people who don’t like your character. He’s like, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion :)) even though they’re wrong. >:(.”

If you’re from a sports/competition anime he’ll try to learn all of the rules, and even try it out for himself (if it’s not fighting) but he finds out that he’s... not very good at it. That doesn’t make him any less amazed though!

If your character is from a different culture with different customs and traditions, he’ll even learn more about them outside of your anime!

Forces his siblings to watch the anime with him. They don’t necessarily have to, but the Todoroki household has one big TV and he hogs it all the time watching your anime over and over.

Natsuo is begging him to watch something else and Shoto will just pout angrily from the other side of the couch.( ￣＾￣)

It’s so jarring because he doesn't look or appear like a hardcore anime fan, but sometimes he’ll just butt into conversations randomly and talk about you.

Like you know those tumblr Naruto posts that talk about it as if it’s some sort of Renaissance literature. That’s Todoroki.

[”Man, they’re so hot--!”

“You want to see someone hot?” Todoroki asks with a perfectly straight face, and he’ll just... turn his phone around and show them a picture of an anime character.]

When his dad tries to set him up with someone else: “You think they’re my type? Do they watch [Series]? Do they know what true friendship is?? Do they understand pining and love the way [Name] does?”

Endeavor: who the FUCK is [Name].

Gets into fanfiction because of your character and series. He’ll just be reading on his phone during break times at school and everyone thinks that he’s being so well-read but he’s just reading pure smut with a straight face.

Doesn’t mind when you’re shipped with other characters necessarily but he is super picky. If your character is hinted toward a potential romance with another character that’s pretty crass and doesn’t necessarily treat you well but you’re sticking together through the power of friendship, he won’t ship it.

He’s just like “[Name] would be so much happier with someone else like me.” :////

And if your character goes through something traumatic or terrible during the series he’ll be so sad, like soooo sad. :((( Deku would probably be comforting him on the couch in the common room and everyone is concerned because he looks like he’s mourning a lost pet, but it turns out to be over some anime character pshhhsdfh.

Deku would just be patting his shoulder trying to console him and Todoroki’s just sitting there with a big frown on his face going, [“But they’ve been through so much throughout the anime already...”

“I know, Todoroki-kun, I know...”

“The author can’t do that to them... It’s just not fair.”

“I get it,” Midoriya says mournfully.]

Plot twist: They like the same anime character

They’ll probably find out when they have to retake the license exam together.

Todoroki will just take his phone out during off times and Bakugou’s eyes looks over because it’s drawn by the noise but then his head just snaps to the side when he realizes its a little charm of you, like, he’s going to get whiplash from that.

“What the -- is that [Surname] [Name]?!”

Like they have never really hung out together before this, so when they both first realize that their favorite character of all time is [Name] they’re left ,, just standing there ,,, pointing at each other like the spiderman meme.

At first they’re both inwardly excited because FINALLY someone cultured and with taste. They spend the entire time talking about your stats, your attacks, your post-timeskip character design, and your personality, and then they delve a little bit deeper and then they realize ,,, oh.

Bakugou says that you don’t belong with the dumb protagonist, you should be shipped with someone strong, confident and loud, but Todoroki is like noooooo they deserve to be with someone that treats them gently.

They connect the dots.

[“Bakugou, you aren’t compatible with [Name]. It says so in their trivia page.”

“Says you! They won’t want some bland-ass pretty boy! They would want a real man!”]

They’re such fanboys ;;; they do realize that you aren’t real, right asdfghj?

One day Kaminari and Sero separately invite them to an anime convention, but they both say no and that they have plans or “something better to do” that day.

Then Bakugou and Todoroki both turn up to the convention at the same place because they both reach for the last limited edition [Name] figure and they just stare at each other wide-eyed (ʘoʘ╬) like that.

They start verbally fighting each other over the last figure and then physically fighting each other andddd then they get kicked out of the convention.

Izuku ends up swooping in and getting the last box.

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transhawks · 3 years ago

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So I try avoiding Twitter comments because the fandom their is 😬 when it comes to takes. However, I’m just peeping to see the reaction of the ep, and some people like “missing Spinner’s speech is fine because people don’t care about him anyway.” “No one even cares about Spinner, why are they making a bug deal?”

I swear, I want to bang my head into a wall. Just because he isn’t popular doesn’t mean he’s liked? And they took a lot out of manga already, ridding of their interaction in the little abandoned house. I used to live the anime since I watched it first before manga, but it’s getting frustrating along with the a majority of the fans :/

Honestly, I feel like making a 'defense of the importance of spinner' meta now, but I'm also in a zine devoted to him and making meta so that's just going to be what I make for them, I guess, because it's so frustrating that people don't get that the League are genuinely important characters? Compared to other side villains, the League are there to provide parallels and deepen the narrative of why someone becomes a villain. I'll give you the cliff notes.

Without Spinner's comments, small moments like Shouto calling the cop a dog, the way Shinsou called Ojiro a monkey, the big fox lady being forced out seen as a villain, or the fact that Nagant was taking out groups that seemed to made out of mutants don't have context. Spinner, therefore, is an exposition fairy for concepts like mutant discrimination. An exposition fairy tells us something about the story.

Actually, a lot of the 'side' League tends to play this role at times. Twice did in the first chapter we got a spotlight on him, describing what society had turned into Kamino (also explained why Endeavor wasn't trusted as much). Spinner, by being relatively 'normal' compared to everyone, was the best person to really explain to us how the League was changing - because he had no set purpose or ideology at that point. It's not like Toga, wishing to live and love freely, or Twice, at that point incredibly tied to the League due to his need for acceptance and guilt over Magne. Compress and Dabi have their own agendas. Spinner was /lost/, and thus the best person in MVA to explain things.

And, again, this is short-sighted. One can 'ignore' Compress, but his sacrifice allowed the League to get away. Spinner's devotion towards Tomura might have set the course for AFO to take over fully, but we're not sure what he might do next. He's been consistently the one trying to keep the League together since the beginning of the Raid arc. We have lots of panels foreshadowing his discomfort with AFO and his strong feelings of friendship with Tomura.

Do lay readers genuinely not realize this might go anywhere? When we are missing whole chunks of context - HECK THE CRC MANSION EVEN RETURNED 80 CHAPTERS LATER - how does stuff later down in the timeline make sense? Do they just assume Spinner won't play any role in the future that knowing his backstory and thoughts won't help?

I know it's not just Spinner. There was important things for each character, interactions that were meaningful. But selling Spinner short is indicative of an issue of not understanding they're reading a work in progress, and that there's moving parts. I'm not saying Horikoshi is a genius writer, and I've been vocal about shoddier writing on his part, but the idea he made Spinner to throw him away when we have gotten so much content is bizarre. Spinner has more development than a large majority of the children in this manga, and it's just so strange to see this sort of shallowness. Is it because he's less conventionally attractive? I didn't even like Spinner until MVA, and that's the really sad thing here - one of the things that changed my mind on him (and likely could change other people as well) is now just...gone.

#asks #shuichi iguchi #bnha spinner #characters are tools meant to serve purposes and it's weird people don't get that Spinner's inner thoughts had those

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bigmeandragonlady · 2 years ago

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I was never able to summarize her story or finish her journal so meet my main Skyrim character: Selene Rousseau. Specifics like names and ages have been lost since it's been years since I really talked about her.

Race: Classified as a Breton for ease. Has mixed elven, breton, and imperial heritage.

Age: 60+

Religion: Devout of Dibella and trained at the temple in Anvil

Specialty: Thievery, persuasion, bow and arrow. Secondary in fire magic, illusion magic, and daggers.

Family: Father was ex-Thalmor and hiding in Anvil via the thieves guild. Mother was descended from the Hero of Kavatch and primarily mix of breton, bosmer, and imperial. She was also a high ranking member of the guild and helped run their people smuggling business. 5 Siblings in total, three older, two younger. All but one of her immediate family were killed in a Thalmor raid of Anvil and Thieves Guild chapter that resided there.

Backstory: Born and raised in Anvil, Cyrodiil, Selene was meant from an early age to become part of the thieves guild like most of her family.

She loved to sing and play music and perform. This was something she was able to do even with the guild, usually as a distraction or a way to draw a crowd.

Her thieves guild had a big business in hiding and smuggling people, particularly from the Altmeri Dominion.

Eventually, met and fell in love with an Altmer named Caius. After a time they married and seemed happy together, they even spoke of starting a family. However, Caius was eventually revealed to be a Thalmor agent who became instrumental in the downfall of the Anvil Thieves Guild and the raid on the city.

During the raid Selene and a small group of thieves we're able to escape the city and headed north, anywhere the Thalmor weren't in control. Selene was separated from her companions while crossing the rolling hills of the Gold Coast and decided to head to Skyrim- where her brother, Felix, has supposedly settled. She knew it was in the midst of a civil war but it was better then a country completely controlled by the Thalmor.

Crossing the Pale Pass was not a positive experience; as someone who was born and raised in a warm environment at sea level, the cold and altitude were not kind to her. Between altitude sickness, bitter cold, and hostile wildlife it's a wonder she made it to Skyrim at all. Her half-dead body was found by a group of Stormcloaks who decided, despite the great risks, to take her into their camp. Of course, not long after she wakes half-delirious, all of them are captured by Imperials. They don't believe her when she tries to tell them who her family is in a desperate attempt to save her own life.

Once out of Helgen, Selene has a short list of goals:

Find her brother

Contact the thieves guild here in Skyrim to get their help finding any remaining members of her chapter

Kill her husband

Game Events: Selene is Dragonborn. She does not accept this with any grace whatsoever and ignores the call to the mountain until the words in her head become too much to bear.

Finding Felix is easier then she thought: he's a companion so everyone in Whiterun knows him. She robs the companion hall as a fun message. Even so, they start building a relationship from the broken foundation of learning their whole family is dead. By extension, Selene ends up with the semi-protection of The Companions. This comes in handy when the Thalmor later burn down her house (again) and try to frame her for murder.

Ends up forming a friends with benefits relationship with Farkas, which down the road turns into a romantic relationship. Vilkas is not please with this.

Is at odds with Mercer as he seems to have no interest in her plight or any other part of the guild but his own. Happily tracks him down to kill him but is greatly distressed by her pact with Nocturnal that she felt forced into. While generally she has a good relationship with Brynwolf, it becomes very strained after Mercer dies since Bryn wants her to take up the mantle of guild leader: she has no interest in leading the Skyrim guild.

Spends a great deal of time with the guild waiting for answers to her letters. Eventually, she receives people instead of letters. An old Dunmer mentor is waiting for her at the guild one day and rumors spread of a Crow and her flock (which consists of twin children the guild had plucked off the docks.) They all do reunite but it's tense: everyone knows how the raid was so successful.

Selene also ends up joining the Mages College up in Winterhold. Partly because she's always wanted to learn more magic but also because it's a safe place from the Thalmor: deep in Stormcloak territory and the college itself stands unaligned. She takes refuge here a few times.

Selene only follows the MSQ until the Thalmor party where she means to gather information for her own goals rather then whatever Delphine wants. However, part way through her investigation she's discovered and while she escapes the house, she does not make it far from the cliffs she exited from. Struck by several lightning bolts Selene is captured and sent to an island prison where many other Thalmor captives are held.

Caius himself leads the interrogation to find where the other missing Anvil members are. He is cruel and makes it clear that he was hiding his hate for her very well. It takes weeks but her brother, Farkas, Sapphire, and Jenassa find the prison with the help of the Battle-borns.

While the rescue is a success, Selene is badly wounded and unconscious until they arrive in Winterhold. Sapphire leaves to inform the guild of Selene's safety while the other three stay in winterhold. Jenessa wants to stay 'just in case something happens' and Farkas is stubborn and refuses to leave even though Felix insists that he return and share news. The Mages is hesitant to let anyone else into the college but Felix refuses to let her go unless at least one of them go with. So, they send Collete out to the inn to do healing. Farkas, more often then not, sleeps with her: he's very warm and she's always had trouble with the cold and he was genuinely afraid she was lost. By the party the two of them have formed something of a relationship- he doesn't care about labels and she tries not to think about how close they're getting. Once Selene wakes and is coherent, Jenessa leaves. She figures having two companions at her beck and call made her plenty safe. She does promise to keep an ear out for Caius.

During this, Selene is wracked with nightmares and sometimes has trouble telling whats real and whats not. She hates looking at herself with the new scars and short cropped hair.

Once she is healed physically and well enough to travel, the three of them depart of Whiterun. She does not stay in Whiterun long.

At this point Felix takes over the MSQ. He's known he's dragonborn for sometime and Selene is in no state (nor have the desire) to continue to work with Delphine or the Greybeards.

Selene, once well enough, works on tracking down Caius. He wasn't at the prison when she was rescued: Felix and the others killed every Thalmor there and he was not amongst them. It takes time and single minded focus that worries some of her friends but she tracks him down to a cave in the mountains to the east of Windhelm. Farkas insists on accompanying her and it takes less convincing then he expects. Of course, the morning before they arrive at the cave, Selene sneaks out early.

They're almost equally matched in skill and after a difficult battle, Selene wins; proudly becoming a widow as their marriage was never annulled. Badly wounded she makes it to the mouth of the cave and collapses. Vengeance sated under the setting sun and clear sky, she figures this isn't such a bad place to die.

Farkas manages to find her before the cold and blood loss take her but he's pissed that she took off w/o him. Bundling her up in a cloak and extra blanket he brings her to the temple in Windhelm and while they manage to heal the worst of it, they aren't the best healers- Riften or Whiterun would be better.

His pull to Whiterun is strong but the route to Riften is warmer and safer, they're even able to stop at the hot springs.

Selene often aids her brother while he carries out his dragonborn duties but spends most of her time working with Skyrim's guild and pulling together the remnants of her own guild as its new guild master.

Other characters in the story:

Mouse: Bosmer thief who does her best to follow the green pact even outside of Valenwood. Painfully anxious and shy, barely speaks. Really fucking good with a bow, very sneaky. (also the closest to a self-insert)

Felix: Selene's older brother who left home to explore, eventually finding a place with the companions. He begins the game as a werewolf, being part of the circle, and becomes harbinger. Complicated entanglement with Vilkas.

Oletta: Older redguard woman who, while not part of the companions, is close with them and has a romantic entanglement with Kodlak. Wanders in and out of skyrim often. Sword and shield user.

Caius: Selene's husband. He hates her. Responsible for the downfall of the Anvil thieves guild chapter (dead)

Meala: Dunmer who follows the college of winterhold story. friends with Selene

#skyrim #selenethesecond #dfsdflku it long

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robotlesbianjavert · 3 years ago

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MVA is a Matryoshka Doll of Character Development & Framing: Yes This is About How the Anime Failed. Whatever.

Breaking it down, the My Villain Academia arc serves two (2) main purposes in the overall narrative.

→ Put the League of Villains back in a position where they can be a credible threat to the heroes after losing All for One and their potential partnership with Overhaul falling through. Obviously accomplished by upgrading Shigaraki / Twice / Toga, giving Shigaraki the Meta Liberation Army, Ujiko’s assistance, Gigantomachia’s loyalty, etc.

Of course the anime undercuts all of this by letting the heroes know what the League is planning before the League can take advantage of their new position (ergo narratively giving heroes the advantage, as seen in the manga’s war arc) before we even get to see HOW they got all these cool new toys. So why bother. That’s a different sin that the anime has committed, we can put this on the backburner.

→ Pseudo-reboot the direction of the story so that villains are characters on equal standing with the heroes, rather than being obstacles to beat up. This involves a lot more factors, but it’s all rooted in how the arc and characters are framed, and how the characters are developed.

I talked a bit about my concern about the sympathetic framing of the League in MVA way back when we first learned about the anime arcs being shuffle here (my triumph of objectivity). The gist of it is that the arc switch undermines the way the League are portrayed as underdogs—broke, aimless, and relatively weak compared to the heroes and the army coming for their heads—and I was right! Worse, they didn’t just undermine that underdog framing, they straight up didn’t bother. There is zero context for the League’s situation post-Overhaul, pre-Gigantomachia. No explanation for how they have to rob other villain groups to get by, that their equipment is breaking down, that they have no solid end goal or means to achieve anything of note. Just a challenge from Ujiko and Gigantomachia that loses a lot of pressure without understanding the sorry situation the League is in.

Tellingly, they don’t even let the League kill the fantasy racists. Who doesn’t want to see the fantasy racists get murdered! Outside of the existence of the CRC being an interesting bit of worldbuilding that confirmed the existence of heteromorphic discrimination, which is likely to continue playing a role in the manga, it’s an easy way to let the villains be villains while allowing the readers to go with the flow into this villain-focused arc, without having to be outraged by their actions.

From the get go, we’ve lost the framing that made MVA an arc worth paying attention to when it was first released, which indicates a) that the anime doesn’t care about the actual purpose of this arc outside of setting up a flashy hero vs. villain fight for season six and b) that we shouldn’t expect much from the rest of the anime arc. Even if they get the technical aspects of it right, we’ve already lost the weight of the narrative.

MVA is also obviously known as being the big push to develop the villains as characters. We’ve gotten some character development for them before (Twice and Toga’s adventures with Overhaul, Shigaraki’s consistent growth from “brat” to a capable villain and leader in his own right), but MVA is the first arc solely dedicated to their stories and humanization. However, there are “tiers” of character development and focus here, nested within each other, that are tied into the arc’s narrative structure.

Getting them out of the way: Dabi and Compress didn’t get to do much, though we do get to see their relationships with the League in action, plus stuff like Dabi’s quirk limits which come up later. Otherwise, their actual storylines only come into fruition or start with the PLF Raid arc (which in itself is dependent on MVA but that’s another argument).

More memorable and meaty is the development for Toga and Twice. We learn more about their backstories, we get to see them push themselves to the breaking point for the sake of survival, Toga gets to evolve her quirk while Twice finally uses his to its full potential. We also get to understand their personal philosophies, relationships with society, how they view the world around them, and their loyalty to Shigaraki and the League. And with the manga’s underdog framing and the life-threatening situations they were thrust into (plus at the time they didn’t have guaranteed plot armour the way the students and heroes did), the audience wants to root for them, even if they’re the bad guys!

Toga and Twice’s development are undeniable highlights of the arc, contribute strongly to the story as a whole, and justifiably receive a lot of attention. However, they are also primarily moments nested within the arc, tying into their personal ongoing storylines (Twice’s starting with the Overhaul arc and ending tragically with the PLF Raid; Toga’s storyline carries on into the PLF Raid with the loss of Twice and her confrontation with Uraraka). But they aren’t the primary storylines of the arc.

A primary storyline of MVA is in Shigaraki being able to identify the direction he wants to take the League in and make that a reality, as well as answering the questions of his past. MVA starts with the League’s aimlessness and with him revealing how little he remembers of his origins; the arc climaxes with him regaining his memories and having the confidence and strength to earn the Ujiko, Gigantomachia, and Redestro’s loyalty and resources, giving him the means to finally enact his dreams of destroying hero society. Toga and Twice’s development is encased within Shigaraki’s storyline, and that storyline provides a concisive beginning and endpoint structure of My Villain Academia—

Except Shigaraki’s narrative structure is encompassed by a layer even beyond that: Spinner’s story. When the arc begins, before Shigaraki can discuss his dream of a destroyed horizon, Spinner is the one challenging him about the League’s lack of direction and purpose. When the arc ends and Shigaraki stands victorious, Spinner is the witness who now understands that the destroyed horizon can be their reality. Spinner is the one watching Shigaraki throughout the arc, Spinner’s gaze is emphasized at the beginning and end of Shigaraki’s MVA storyline, and Spinner is the one who undergoes the most radical change from frustrated Stain flunky to Shigaraki’s devoted follower.

To paraphrase from @stillness-in-green, My Villain Academia is “about what Shigaraki coming into his own looks like to the people watching him”. To Re-Destro, to Ujiko and Machia, and most importantly to Spinner.

It’s been frustrating enough over the past two years to see people who have read the manga discard Spinner’s role in the arc just because he isn’t a basic easy pretty boy didn’t get an elaborate flashback sequence the same way that Toga, Twice, and Shigaraki did. Seeing the anime not even bother emphasizes that lack of comprehension. But why does it specifically matter that the anime screwed over the Spinner & Shigaraki premise of MVA?

Aside from the anime’s decisions taking all the weight out of the story: In the current manga, Spinner is the only one left at Shigaraki’s side who is specifically loyal to and cares for him.

Barring executive meddling, Horikoshi changing his mind on plot points that he set up, and straight up bad writing (which can all very well happen): You don’t go through the effort of developing a character like Spinner, explicitly in conjunction with your main villain, as the framing perspective of an arc that is so vital to your story, without having a plan for that character. With the way Spinner is positioned right now, there’s a lot that can be done with him! And if that potential does get utilized, then the anime lost out their chance to give that potential its due.

Between the immediate loss of set up and context, tossing the pseudo-protagonist framing of the League, and gutting the emotional core of Spinner’s developing regard for Shigaraki, the anime adaptation has already lost. The rest of the episodes could be perfectly competent, but without the actual base of the arc it all falls flat. Hell, they could stick Spinner’s confrontation with Shigaraki in as a flashback in his fight against Trumpet and it won’t matter; that just nests Spinner’s story within Shigaraki’s the same way Toga and Twice’s is, when it should be the other way around.

Of course there are other reasons why MVA anime arc is set up to fail without reany spect for the source material (I know that the MLA got screwed over in the PLF Raid arc but that’s no reason to not even TRY with introducing them into the show properly just LET Rikiya be his fun, threatening, and engaging self!), but the fact of the matter is that I’m not going to get my Spinaraki AMVs and I want to fucking die about it.

#a lot of this has been said but people are still JUST off the mark of why exactly losing spinner's scenes is Bad #bnha #bnha bloggin #bnha spoilers ?#spinner #shuichi iguchi #mva wank

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pequenosol · 2 years ago

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Alright, I don’t know how many days late exactly this is X”D But yeah here’s what I’ve been up to!

After beating the third gym, I headed over in the direction of the Dark Team Star Base, because Giacomo’s Pokemon were MUCH lower leveled than mine at the time totally not for any other reason, like my love of Team Star as a whole. Nope, not at all >>’

Along the way, I found a Ghost Tera den and somehow caught Osaimhthus (he/they) a Makuhita! He’s…level 35. Higher than any of my other Pokémon at this point X”D So, with the level and the fact that Giacomo’s base is Dark type, I added them to the team!

I traveled up the long path to base, along the way catching Gyokuro the Mankey (They/Xey), Tulsi the Misdreavus (He/Fae), and Nettle the Gastly(they/them)!

(Also, not as important, but when I first walked up to the base, the grunts guarding the entrance called me sassy >:] Hehe! In-character-ness achieved~) But yeah Giacomo was super easy! Cinnamon, Lemon, and Osaimhthus were awesome and then I got more backstory on Team Star that was fun! Penny/Cassiopeia gave me my LP and materials afterwards.

Then I caught Thistle (she/her) the Bramblin, who I added to the team because the next gym is Water and I would like to have more than one Pokémon that’s good against them. I spent. THREE. WHOLE DAYS TRAINING HER UP AND WALKING AROUND TO GET HER TO EVOLVE…Don’t make the mistake I did, thinking it would just evolve when it got the 1000 steps…turns out ya gotta level it up as well….so YEAH! DON’T WASTE 2 DAYS WORTH OF GRINDING LIKE I DID.

After that, I traveled to the city with the gym and a lady runs out and tells me that the gym leader forgot his wallet. And gives it to me.

Oh.

Ohohoho

OHOHOHOHOHO C:<

(unfortunately you can’t take money out of it but IMAGINE IF YOU COULD LMAO)

So yeah she says that if I can return it to Kofu then it’ll count for my Gym Challenge, which I agree to because I’ve heard that the gym challenge for this city is BRUTAL. Then I head off into the desert. Accidentally go the wrong way and end up at a cliff overlooking the next route that happens to be next to the city Kofu went. Any person with any sense would’ve gone around. But. Not me.

I jumped off a cliff and lived >:]

And then got attacked by a group of Maschief :[

But then after that I caught Sugar (She/He) the Sableye! :D

Then I caught up to Kofu, fought the guy who was with him because he was like ‘shoo shoo smol child’, and then Kofu forced me to buy some seaweed for him at an auction for some reason (? Why can’t you buy it youself-)

BUT HEY I got 15,000 dollars out of it so in a way I did rob the old man ✨ ùvú

At this point, I was very nervous about fighting Kofu, because the description of his gym said it was meant for more experienced battlers, and this lady I met (I forgot her name but she’s the Elite four member who uses ground types and has a super gender design) did NOT make me feel any better about doing so because she said that this is the place where most challengers give up the gyms. So. Thanks for that >:( I hoped maybe Kofu would go easy on me because I didn’t rob him, but he said no…..

Thankfully my Pokémon were great and all OHKO’d all out his :D

After that I added Sugar to the team in place of Thistle and set out to fight in a bunch of Tera Raids to train up to level 35! Along the way, both Cinnamon and Fennel evolved! <3 Yay!!

Oh yeah and I’m WAYYYY behind on the refs X”D But here’s what I got done right now!

The Tera hats are stupid so I’m doing type-swap like designs! :D the ones shown here are an Electric Silicobra and a Psychic Grevard

#my art #pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet spoilers #greavard #silicobra #type swap #fennel silicobra #yerba mate greavard #story post

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morporkian-cryptid · 3 years ago

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Today in "Elliott's Niche AF AUs": one (1) person asked me about this, sooooo...

Lupin III Discworld AU crossover headcanon pile thingy!!!

For those who don't know: Discworld is a flat world held on the back of four giant elephants on top of a giant turtle, floating through space. That world has magic, as well as trolls, dwarves, goblins etc... but in a way that's meant to subvert typical fantasy tropes.

Ankh-Morpork, the biggest city on the Disc, is a hotbed of crime, innovations, and innovations in crime. It is run by a council of guilds, and by a Patrician (a lifelong tyrant; he's elected by the guilds but he has the final say in everything). Notorious for having an Assassins', Thieves', Beggars', and Seamstresses' (sex workers) Guilds. Also notorious for its Watch (the police), which is actually surprisingly good at solving crimes. It's also the biggest immigration destination on the Disc.

Character backstories/situations:

Lupin : half-quirmian-half-agatean (Quirm being the DW equivalent of France), grew up in the Agatean Empire (DW equivalent of China/East Asia). He moved to Ankh-Morpork to follow Fujiko, and/or to escape Zenigata. He’s an illegal thief (meaning he's not registered with the Thieves' Guild), and his favourite hobby (besides just stealing in general) is screwing with the Guild. Commander Vimes, the head of the Watch, is supposed to catch him (or at least help Zenigata catch him), but he's secretly rooting for him because he dislikes the Guild slightly more than he dislikes Lupin.

Jigen : son of a couple of Agatean immigrants in Ankh-Morpork, grew up as a street urchin in the Shades (the most crime-ridden neighborhood of the notoriously crime-ridden Ankh-Morpork). He joined the Assassins’ Guild later in his life as a (mostly self-taught) sharpshooter, with a talent that outshone that of the Guild's best students. He later quit the Guild after he met Lupin (possibly had a contract to kill Lupin, and decided “screw this I’m going with him”). He can use any kind of shooting weapons, but favors crossbows. He’s tried stealing and using the gonne (DW's first and only firearm); it didn't go well. He somehow managed to learn one single spell from the wizards, the fireball, by becoming pals with Arcchancelor Ridcully (wizard, head of the Unseen University, and famous for his unfortunate passion for crossbow shooting).

Goemon : agatean immigrant/fugitive, master swordsman. He left Agatea because Fujiko stole his Zantetsuken and fled to Ankh-Morpork, so Goemon had to follow her to retrieve his sword. He then met Lupin and Jigen and decided to stick around. The Zantetsuken is a talking sword, and its personality is basically the embodiment of Bushido. It's extremely annoying (like all talking swords), but Goemon loves it. (it was probably his only friend back in Agatea)

Fujiko : agatean immigrant/fugitive. Ran away from the Agatean Empire chased by Goemon. She joined the Thieves’ Guild, but everyone confuses her for a seamstress because her technique usually involves seduction. She tried it on Vetinari once. It failed spectacularly.

Zenigata : agatean immigrant, part of the Empire’s police force, who came to Ankh-Morpork chasing Lupin. He only brought his assistant Yata with him, and has to cooperate with the Watch to have resources to catch Lupin. Vimes doesn’t particularly like him, but he’s good at his work so he can’t say anything (they're both too stubborn to get along).

Bonus:

Yata: Zenigata’s assistant, came to Ankh-Morpork with him, rapidly became great friends with Rufus Drumknott (the Head Secretary of the Patrician, Lord Vetinari). He has a bad influence on Drumknott. He also befriended Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson, but then again Carrot befriends everyone.

Ami: She's a clacks operator. Clacks are basically the DW equivalent of telegraph. There's a group of clacks hackers called the GNU, so she might have joined them.

Albert: He's part of the Patrician's Dark Clerks (they're the secret services of Ankh-Morpork)

Rebecca: She's from Quirm. That’s all I have about her for now. (Quirm's the equivalent of France, but in the french translation it was made into an equivalent of Italy)

Random-Ass Headcanons

Lupin gets along like a house on fire with Moist von Lipwig (former conman and current postmaster, notorious adrenaline junkie), both figuratively and literally. Lupin and Lipwig sometimes team up on heists and rely on each other’s help, when they’re not busy competing against each other because Lupin keeps daring Lipwig to thieving competitions.

One of the contests’ goal is to steal Vetinari’s manuscript, The Servant. Fujiko wins. She wasn’t even in the race.

///

Fujiko quickly became friends with Adora-Belle Dearheart (Moist von Lipwig's rather explosive girlfriend), they get together every now and then to trash-talk their respective boyfriends.

///

For some reason everyone thinks Lupin is a werewolf. (it’s actually Jigen)

(maybe. I haven't yet decided whether or not he is. That would be a very good source of angst, considering what most werewolves are like, and also a very good source of domestic fluff if the whole gang has to adapt to the moon cycle and Jigen's transformations. Idk. Might be fun.)

///

Fujiko owns a horse golem (a gift from Adora-Belle or something she stole, we may never know). The Gang also owns a carriage, modified with a spell so it will drive faster, and they drive it completely carelessly. It has been destroyed and rebuilt countless times. (actually a bunch of spells, Lupin probably found a way to blackmail Ridcully so he could mod the shit out of his carriage. Or they rely on Jigen’s friendship with Ridcully)

///

Lupin uses swamp dragons as firearms (dialogue courtesy of @marquise-de-clarabas: Jigen: You stole a dragon??? Lupin: I didn’t steal him! He’s his own person and can make decisions himself! Dragon: I wanna steal). He has an alias and disguise entirely dedicated to visiting the Sunshine Sanctuary For Sick Dragons, and somehow became friends with Lady Sybil Ramkin-Vimes (Commander Vimes' wife, and the greatest expert on swamp dragons in the city, probably on the Disc). Vimes doesn't know about it, and Lupin finds the whole situation hilarious. He constantly makes jokes about how he’s playing with fire.

///

The Thieves’ Guild and the Watch are competing to catch the Gang, but secretly Vimes is rooting for the Gang (the Guild just hates them). That said, Vimes also hates Lupin (only slightly less than he dislikes the Guild), because he's always a little shit whenever he gets put in jail, and then he immediately breaks out.

///

Rincewind (famously bad wizard with a shit luck and a tendency to run from problems) once got arrested by Zenigata, because he got startled by him yelling LUPAAAAAAAAAN! and started running for the hills, making Zenigata believe he was Lupin in disguise. Rincewind is terrified of Zenigata.

///

Zenigata is actively trying to stop the Thieves' Guild from catching Lupin and Co, both because he wants to catch them himself, and because he knows what the Guild does to illegal thieves and he doesn’t want it to happen to Lupin.

///

Lupin stole Ridcully’s hat (custom wizard hat with a bunch of pockets, drawers, a crossbow, and a tiny flask of alcohol) as a gift for Jigen’s birthday. He also stole Lipwig’s hat (golden cap with dove wings), after which Adora claimed she didn’t recognize Moist (dialogue courtesy of @marquise-de-clarabas: Moist: C’mon babe, it’s me, your boyfriend! Adora, knowing full well who he is: I have never met this man in my entire life). He also raided the Assassins' Guild's armory/museum to get a birthday gift for Goemon.

///

About Jigen and the gonne (spoilers for Men at Arms) : basically, the gonne being such a dangerous and destructive weapon compared to crossbows, it has a nigh-magical attraction on people, and awakens and strengthens whatever lust for power, vengeance, blood etc they have. It basically controls its user and feeds on their convictions, addictions, wants, etc. The only person known to have resisted it is Vimes (because he's a stubborn mofo with a sense of morals you could bend iron on), and even he came damn near to losing his mind. (And Carrot, because... he's Carrot.)

Assuming the gonne didn't get destroyed in this AU: after they steal it, Lupin tries to use it, gets completely possessed/cursed (again) and accidentally tries to murder his friends (again), prompting Jigen to take it from him. Jigen then gets possessed as well, and they start fighting for the gonne, until Goemon just walks in, takes it out of their hands and takes it away. Goemon's completely unaffected by the gonne because 1) of his ascetic training and 2) "it is a filthy morporkian artifact and cannot compare to the noble art of the sword."

///

Zenigata often teams up with Angua (resident werewolf of the Watch), they get along very well. The Gang is very easy to track, they smell like a tobacco factory that has caught on fire.

///

Yata and Drumknott (Patrician's head secretary, and confidante, sort of) get together after office hours, and argue about whose boss is the best (because as we all know they both have a crush on respective bosses). One day Drumknott accidentally calls Vetinari “Sempai” after he heard Yata call Zenigata that all the time.

///

Lupin follows Lipwig’s example and steals all of Yata’s pencils every time he visits the Pseudopolis Yard (the Watch's HQ). Drumknott is fuming when Yata tells him about it.

///

Leonardo Da Quirm is butt-naked, because Part 4.

///

Something with vampires, probably.

///

tagging @carriagelamp and @mad-whoman-with-a-book00 because I know you may be potentially interested in this AU ^^

#lupin iii #lupin the third #discworld #ankh-morpork #terry pratchett #lupin iii discworld au #already making a tag in case i make more posts; you never know #the hobbit's headcanons

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askfacultystaff · 3 years ago

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Rama Raid’s backstory Pt.6.

Rama: *Narrates* my sisters all cheer and i popped my head through the doggy door.

Lincoln: We're going to the beach tomorrow?

Lynn Sr.: Ooh, gosh. Sorry, son. Not you. Someone could get attacked by a shark.

Lynn: Or caught in a riptide.

Luna: Or stung by a jellyfish.

Lana: *gasps* If that happens, I call peeing on the wound!

Lincoln: *dejected* Come on, you guys! Be reasonable!

Lola: You're bad luck, Lincoln! You! Can't! Come! *closes the doggy door on him*

Lincoln: I guess I brought this on myself.

Rama: *Narrates* Later, i approached the front yard with a megaphone*

Lincoln: *into megaphone* ATTENTION, LOUD FAMILY! *hears the feedback hiss and fixes it; back into it* I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE!

Rama: *Narrates* My family pop up to a window to hear my confession*

Lincoln: CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, I AM NOT BAD LUCK. I JUST LET YOU GUYS BELIEVE THAT SO I COULD GET OUT OF GOING TO YOUR STUFF. IT WAS A REALLY SELFISH THING TO DO. WE ALL NEED TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER. I'M REALLY SORRY.

Mr. Grouse: Nice confession, Loud!

Lynn: If you're not bad luck, then how come after I banned you, my team won our doubleheader, and now, we're going to the playoffs? Huh?

Mr. Grouse: She's got you there, Loud!

Lincoln: COULD YOU PLEASE JUST GO BACK INSIDE?

*Everyone clamors in agreement with Lynn*

Lynn Sr.: Sorry, buddy!

Rita: Sorry, honey!

Lynn Sr.: We'll write!

Leni: Lynn's right, you're bad luck!

Lynn Sr.: Step farther away from the house! Rama: *Narrates* My family closes the curtains thus ending the conversation*

Lincoln: Ugh! Lynn and her superstitions! As long as she thinks I'm bad luck, I'm doomed. I have to find a way to prove her wrong *shakes some more acorns out of his pants* Dang squirrel! *realizes* Wait.... 😨

FLASHBACK

Lynn: Yeah-huh, you are! Which is why I’m banning you from all future games.

END FLASHBACK

Rama: *Narrates* As i can remember about what she said, i became massive angry, so i shouted them for everything they did to me.

Lincoln: YOU KNOW WHAT???? JUST BECAUSE YOU KICKED ME OUT OF THIS HOUSE, WHICH MEANS YOU WISHED I NEVER BORN???? THINK ABOUT IT!!! YOU GAVE ALL TEN SISTERS, EXCEPT ME, BECAUSE IT NOW CALLS "FAMILY AND SISTERS" AND "NON-BROTHER"!!!! *Groans with full of anger* YOU ALL HAVE BAD LUCK TOO IF YOU BAN FROM YOUR ACTIVITIES JUST TO KICK ME OUT????

Lincoln: I'M LINCOLN AND LOUD NO MORE!!!! I'M NEVER GOING TO SEE YOU EVER AGAIN, ESPECIALLY YOU, LYNN!!! YOU BEATED ME UP TOO MUCH TO DEATH!!!! *Tears up* YOU... ALL... GROUNDED FOR BAD LUCKS YOU HAVE!!!! I'LL NEVER RETURN TO YOU!!! *Runs away while bursting his tears of grief*

Rama: *Narrates* I ran away.... After i shouted them.... I never returned to Loud House.... Forever.

Rama: *Narrates* The Next Day, the softball playoffs. So-called family and Bobby are there to support Lynn. The squirrel mascot is dancing a little less energetic than usual.

Lola: What's with that squirrel today? His choreography is so dated.

Mascot: Hey, man! You try dancing in this heat!

FIVE MINUTES LATER

Baseball Announcer: Talk about bad luck. Everything is going wrong with the Squirrels today. What do you think, Pep?

Pep: *downright bored* I think I've wasted my life.

Baseball Announcer: Just look at our poor squirrels!

Rama: *Narrates* Margo takes a swing and flings herself into the umpire and the bat hits her helmet. Two more squirrels collide into each other and miss the catch. One Squirrel tosses the bat right at Squirrel Mascot by accident. Lynn pitches and the opposing batter hits the ball right back her, knocking her socks, shoes, and hat off and making her spin in mid-air before landing on the ground.

Baseball Announcer: Yowza. *shows the score: Hazeltuck Lions: 3, Royal Woods Squirrels: nothing* Two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and the bases are loaded. Lynn Loud steps up to the plate, but with the luck she's been having today, the Squirrels are looking a whole lot like roadkill.

Luna: Way harsh, dude!

Baseball Announcer: I think you're rubbing off on me, Pep.

Pep: *dully* Oh, I have that effect on people.

Baseball Announcer: The windup, the pitch.

*Lynn swings and misses*

Umpire: Strike one!

*Lynn swings and misses again*

Umpire: Strike two! Baseball Announcer: And the pitch! Rama: *Narrates* The sound of the ball getting hit by the bat is heard and the rest of Lynn's team runs the remaining bases.

Baseball Announcer: It's going...it's going...IT'S GONE!!! LYNN LOUD HITS A GRAND SLAM!!! SQUIRRELS WIN! SQUIRRELS WIN!

Rama: *Narrates* So-called family and Bobby cheer for Lynn as she makes her run around the field. Baseball Announcer: *clinging to Pep* SQUIRRELS WIN! SQUIRRELS WIN! *knocks Pep down*

Rama: *Narrates* Lynn finishes her run and gets picked up by her family in celebration of her victory.

Family: CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ROCKED IT, LYNN-SANITY!

Rama: *Narrates* So yeah... That's why i'm no longer part of my so-called family -_-

Next Part_Pt.7.

Reblogs are appreciated to enjoy backstory

#the loud house #lynn loud sr #lynn loud #rita loud #lori loud #leni loud #luna loud #luan loud #lucy loud #lana loud #lola loud #lisa loud #lily loud #no such luck #based on true story #backstories au #alternate story

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tenthgrove · 3 years ago

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yess thank you for letting me ask you about the lore >:3c so I have to get my absolute favorites outta the way first— what kinda lore and thoughts do you have for sorbet or gelato ( <- before they get together and the earlier years of them getting together if you need a specific period ) I have to also ask are you ok if I go down the “line” and get your thoughts in other asks about the rest of the la squadra babes? Thank you sm 💖💖 I hope you’re having a wonderf day/evening

Ah! Now this is one of my absolute favourites! Apologies to anyone who has already heard me ramble about my Sorbet and Gelato backstory ad nauseam on multiple occasions, but this is really an area where I can't help myself. Besides, this is my opportunity to go more in depth where I haven't before:

(Note after writing this: It's stupidly long. I'm sorry I just can't help myself with these backstories. I couldn't decide what to leave out so I decided nothing.)

(Also please feel free to ask me more lore questions because I love doing this)

We'll begin with Sorbet, born in Naples in February 1967 if you follow the canon timeline (although by default I write in modern AU so move the dates 20 years later). His situation at birth was absolutely dire, the eldest child of an incredibly vulnerable woman and one of her clients as a sex worker. Sorbet's mother was by all means a decent woman but her severe mental illness and drug addiction made it impossible for her to be a good mother, which of course had a bad effect on Sorbet growing up. After Sorbet, she had 5 more children, all through clients, and Sorbet was saddled with much of their care.

Though he loved his siblings, Sorbet was pretty much done with this life by age 12 and was easily swept up by older boys from the local street gang, who paid him well to peddle drugs when he should have been in school. This was a very underfunded neighbourhood so nobody questioned his truancy, and within the next couple of years he had stopped going to school entirely. Shortly after this, having acquired sufficient money through his crime involvement, Sorbet left his family to stay with his new friends, moving between them on a regular basis. He also discovered his sexuality around this time and dated a few male friends, though none of these relationships got very far.

By age 16, Sorbet had earned a reputation in the street gang for skilled and passionate violence, and was selected by the ringleader to commit the group's first planned murder, in exchange of course for a lucrative reward. Sorbet accepted, succeeded, and became the group's de-facto assassin whenever needed. He continued to hoard considerable money for the remainder of his adolescence, though continued to be functionally homeless since he didn't see it necessary when sofa-surfing was suiting him fine.

Before resuming with Sorbet, let's explain the life that Gelato came from. Gelato was born in October 1967 in St. Petersburg, Russia, (Note- I previously used the city of Minsk, unaware that this is in fact, in Belarus) to an upper-middle class businessman and his Italian wife, a distant relative of French Monarchy. Gelato's relationship with his parents was rocky from the start due to the fact they would have preferred a girl after three successive sons, but any parental love they had for their youngest child broke down entirely after he was diagnosed with both Autism and ADHD at age 5, in an evaluation intending to find the cause of some behavioural issues that were really, just a response to emotional neglect.

When Gelato was 13 he, his parents, and two of his three brothers (the eldest was already an adult by this time and elected to stay behind) moved to Italy to escape some allegations of corruption in the father's business. They moved to a rural village in North-West Italy where the community was very middle-class and quite stifling for Gelato, who had enough social rules to remember in the familiar, economically-diverse city he grew up in. His behavioural issues got worse and began to include things he would later regret, such as attacking and stealing from younger children, and things he would absolutely not, like attacking and stealing from teachers. By this point the family had largely written him off as a failure, revering instead their academically successful, well-behaved older children, which absolutely contributed to the spiralling cycle of behaviour issues Gelato faced.

Then, at age 17, Gelato failed a crucial exam and was expelled from high-school. His parents kicked him out on the spot, and with no other family in Italy Gelato had very few options on what to do next. He recalled, however, one older friend having links to a street gang in Naples, and decided to see if this boy might have a route out of destitution for him. Indeed, the friend did know of a man in Naples needing assistance within the gang, but could offer no help in getting Gelato there. Seeing no other way, Gelato walked the whole journey.

Arriving in Naples, the friend's associate announced that the position Gelato was after had been taken, but taking pity on his distress, informed him of another friend who needed someone to look after an unlicensed bar that served as one of the group's main meeting points. He agreed to arrange for the small apartment above the bar to be given as payment.

Gelato accepted, but although he had now solved the problem of homelessness his life was still incredibly miserable. For one, with his pay being the apartment he had to rely on measly tips to get by, which rarely left him with enough to eat let alone anything else. Additionally, as an outsider with little understanding of the way gangs work Gelato was an easy target for abuse, and was treated like absolute shit by the bar's patrons.

By this point in time, Sorbet had just turned 18. He was, incidentally, in the same gang Gelato had joined, and a regular at the bar he worked in. For a good couple of months they took no notice of each other, until Sorbet came to be in a coincidental feud with one of the men who was violent to Gelato at the bar. When Gelato witnessed the two of them in a fight, he made the spur-of-the-moment decision to join in on Sorbet's side, knocking the patron unconscious and leaving him too afraid to visit again. For his trouble, Sorbet gave Gelato a portion of the money he looted from the fight's loser, and flirted with him lightly before going about with his evening. Unknown to Sorbet, he had just sent Gelato falling head over hills in love.

Gelato found out about Sorbet's sexuality from other patrons and, delighted, attempted to flirt with him the next time they saw each other, but his attempts came off very poorly and Sorbet actually thought he was being insulted. Angered, he dragged Gelato into the cellar to demand what was going on. Gelato, terrified, admitted having a crush, which Sorbet found to be the sweetest and most genuine thing he'd ever heard. While he couldn't promise a relationship, he did agree to show Gelato more attention in the future. But, it was only a matter of days until Sorbet found himself loving Gelato back.

This whirlwind relationship continued happily for three weeks, Sorbet greatly improving Gelato's situation through his saved money and helping him fend off the abusive patrons. Gelato, in turn, offered Sorbet a permanent place to stay in the apartment, which he accepted. Sorbet was in the process of moving his things, and they had plans to refurbish the place to make it actually habitable.

But then, everything came crashing down. One night the bar was subject to a surprise raid by the police, operating by the false assumption it was empty. Sorbet and Gelato attempted to flee but were caught, and in a panic, Gelato shot a policeman dead. Rushing to his defence Sorbet killed two more, but a fourth escaped to tell the tale. The couple knew they were screwed. Running to the headquarters of their gang they begged for protection but were informed the small group simply could not save them from a charge this serious, and gave them only a single night of shelter to plan their next move. Gelato, who remember had never committed anything more serious than minor ABH before, had an absolute breakdown over this predicament that night, and whilst comforting him, Sorbet devised a blood pact with him to stick together no matter what came.

Over the next few days, Sorbet and Gelato fled north, avoiding the police through Sorbet's skills as a criminal and Gelato's very convincing Russian tourist impression. They were almost at the French border when Sorbet awoke one night to find Gelato missing behind him. He chased his tracks to the driveway of a rural house, a tearful Gelato clutching a knife at the shut door and trembling. He informed Sorbet that he had intentionally led him to the village where his family lived, with the intention to break in and kill them as revenge for the years of abuse. Sorbet warned Gelato that this would not be good for their attempts to flee, but said he understood fully and would help him if this is truly what he wanted. Gelato agreed, and together they broke into the house and slaughtered Gelato's mother and father, additionally killing one of his brothers after he woke from the noise. The other brother, the youngest other than Gelato, was spared, as Gelato felt his role in the abuse had been comparatively more minor and he did not deserve to die. This of course, left another witness.

The massacre in the village was quickly linked to the one at the bar and Gelato was promptly identified from a comparison of DNA found at the scene to his surviving brother's. Sorbet, a known criminal, was identified soon after. Not only were the pair now known but the police figured out what their plan was and informed the French police as well, making things exponentially harder for the couple.

They made do for a while by hanging low and keeping on the move, living off money stolen from the parents' house. Eventually however, they needed more, and began making deals with local crime organisations to carry out assassinations in exchange for money or temporary shelter. While Sorbet was already a pro at this, Gelato found himself a fast learner, and soon realised he shared Sorbet's adoration for the act of killing. He felt as though he was finally coming to meet his true self.

Though the assassination deals were lucrative, they did not help the couple keep a low profile and the attacks from police were relentless. Several times, they barely escaped capture. All this was not good on their mental states, and after two years, Sorbet knew it needed to end. He and Gelato returned to Naples in the hope their old gang might reconsider protecting them, but they were met with a surprise as their old gang had been completely overtaken by Passione. Even still, the new mobsters had heard a lot about Sorbet and Gelato's exploits and agreed to get them an audience with a local Capo, Pericolo, who was impressed by the men's skills and moved by the sense of honour suggested by their love for each other. He agreed to initiate them into the gang.

Soon after this, Sorbet and Gelato recieved stands which, although not very powerful, assisted them greatly in the art of assassination. Soon, they were natural choices for Passione whenever a hit needed carrying out in the Naples area. At some point a few years in, they befriended a man named Prosciutto who had been recently forced into Passione due to his heritage. Prosciutto was also funnelled into assassination jobs and, with less of a reputation for impulsivity than Sorbet and Gelato, was the one given the order to form a new assassination squad when the need arose, around 1993 if we're following canon.

(Note, I hc La Squadra was created by Passione in response to a real life government crackdown on the Italian mafia around 1992-93, in response to an incredibly scandalous series of assassinations. In such a climate, it would make sense for Passione to want to consolidate an elite squad of its best hitmen, do avoid future problems.)

Due to personal commitments Prosciutto did not want to be the captain, so attempted to give this responsibility to Sorbet, a request the boss promptly denied. Prosciutto was, however, allowed to add Sorbet and Gelato to the team's ranks, cementing the three of them as the first members of the team.

Prosciutto would, soon enough, find another person to give the title of captain to, but that's a story for another time.

#small asks #haha small #btw if you've already read my backstory for them this doesn't really add much except add a few new bits of trivia #la squadra #la squadra x reader

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sarahjtv · 3 years ago

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BNHA Chapter 323 Spoiler Analysis: It’s About The Details

Another 2 week break has come and gone! I hope you all and Horikoshi-sensei had a nice break. I feel like we needed it after that game-changing apology from Bakugo last time. This chapter focuses on our Zero Gravity Hero: Ochako Uraraka. She’s awesome and she played her part well, but I’m not going to go over her entire speech because it’s the smaller details this chapter that grabbed me the most and I want to talk about those more. So, this might not be too long this week:

Imma start with the Ochako stuff first. She does what most of us thought she was going to do last time which is stand up for Deku. She floats herself up to UA’s rooftop to yell at the civilians using Present Mic’s megaphone. It’s basically about how important Deku is and how he doesn’t deserve all this undeserved anger thrown at him; how he sacrificed his wellbeing to protect everyone. It’s really stuff that we know as the audience, but that the civilians are still trying to understand. Ochako’s speech actually seems to be working, though I still suspect that there’ll be people stubbornly opposed to Deku in general. There always is. But it’s a step in the right direction.

I’m also really liking the artwork on Ochako. She gets a lot of panels, so of course Horikoshi needs to draw her as pretty as he can. The paneling is well done too this chapter as well as the smaller details which I’ll mention soon. There’s also a little comedy this chapter with Kaminari, Bakugo, and Shoto to help relieve some stress which is always appreciated. Also, Bakugo and Shoto are besties at this point, I will not argue this 🧡💙

One more thing before I get into the smaller details: The first 1/3 of this chapter is a flashback to after Class 1-A decides to rescue Deku back in Principle Nezu’s office. Nezu describes what the UA Barrier can do and it’s A LOT! Like, I’m not going to describe it to you, but basically it’s a lot more sturdier than last time and it has a fail-safe where the school will move into shelters and those shelters will be transported somewhere else underground. I need to read it again to make sense of it, but it’s basically and underground transportation system. Like Kaminari says, it’s like something out of a Mecha anime. Very complicated stuff.

Now onto those small details I talked about. Most of them are told via panel and panel art rather than words, so I’ll interpret them as best as I can:

We do see a few of the kid’s parents this chapter! Bakugo’s mom is trying to hold Deku’s mom, Inko, back from rushing into the angry crowd (she’s crying btw and I don’t blame her), Jiro’s dad is there, and Ochako’s parents are present of course. I wonder if we’ll see the other parents too. Same with some of their sibling if they have any like Shoto does.

There is one panel showing that Eri is staying with the 1-B kids. Monama is helping care for her. It’s a sweet panel that shows that Monama is more than the madman we’re used to. Dude has a good heart, we just don’t see it often. Maybe Eri sees him in a better light now too. But, it’s clear that Eri’s worried, so I think she knows something’s wrong. God, what will she say to Deku if they reunite 😭. Oh, and Tetsutetsu and Komori (the mushroom girl) are looking out the window, so it’s safe to say that Class 1-B have an idea of what’s going on.

Kota and Ragdool are in the crowd too. It’s been so long since we’ve seen them. I feel so bad for Kota who’s watching his hero get yelled at like this. Give this child a break pls 😭. Also, I don’t think we got confirmation on what happened to the other Pussycats, so I hope they’re alive. Especially Mandalay for Kota’s sake.

There’s a panel of someone’s smartphone showing articles/videos of people theorizing and talking about Deku, AFO, and OFA. So, the word’s out and everyone knows. There’s no hiding OFA anymore. Pandora’s box is open and there’s no way to close it.

While Best Jeanist is saying his piece on why Deku needs to stay at UA, there’s a panel of Shoto, Endeavor (wearing a trench coat and hat; you undercover, my dude?), and Hawks. They’re listening to Jeanist too, but Shoto in particular looks frustrated. His eyes are scrunched (or closed?) and his teeth are clenched. It’s hard to tell. I don’t think he’s frustrated at Best Jeanist. I think he may be frustrated at himself for not doing more to protect Deku, his best friend. Maybe... I honestly don’t know with Shoto. Based on his face in the last chapter and this panel, I have a feeling Shoto’s got something to say himself. I always thought he probably had more to say back when they were rescuing Deku. I bet he’s got a lot on his mind now. Whatever it is, I hope he says it soon 💙.

There’s this one page in particular where the crowd is expressing their fear and anger towards Deku and the heroes. Deku in particular has his Danger Sense going off like crazy! Even the panel lines are in the shape of those Danger Sense lightning bolts. Deku mentioned that Danger Sense felt like a sharp pain in his head akin to a bad headache. I wonder if he ever got used to that feeling. Regardless, his head must be spinning right now. It also shows how hostile the civilians are now... ALSO INKO IS THERE WATCHING EVERYONE GO AFTER HER SON WHO IS IN AREADY TERRIBLE SHAPE AND SHE’S CRYING I CAN’T DO THIS LET THIS WOMAN HAVE SOME PEACE 😭💚

For the first time since probably the beginning of the series, Ochako calls Deku by his full name, Izuku Midoriya, during her speech. That’s how serious this whole thing is. The two people who called Izuku by his nickname, Deku, are now using his real name. He’s not just Deku the hero, he’s Izuku Midoriya a student at UA.

The large animal woman from before shows up again and recognize Deku as the hero who saved her. Maybe other civilians will see Deku as the boy who saved them instead of the danger they see him as they do now.

And I think that’s it! A good chapter for Ochako especially 💖! Cool to see her have another moment like this. I know Ochako gets a lot of controversy, especially with her feelings for Deku, but I think she’s a good character. I do agree that I wish Horikoshi gave her more to do in regards to herself as a character, though. Like, this is great, but I would like more of this. Kinda like Kirishima’s arc back in the Yakuza Raid: Mina was a big factor of his backstory, but it didn’t revolve around her. Kirishima found his drive on his own and used the words from Crimson Riot as the reason he should become a Hero with no regrets. I’m not going to argue with this further. We do have that upcoming battle between her and Toga, so maybe that’ll help her character development more. I hope so.

But regardless, this was a good chapter that sets up things for the future. I’d like to know what’s going on with the kids’ parents and/or siblings, Ragdoll and Kota (and the other Pussycats), Class 1-B, Eri, Aizawa (where the hell is he anyway???), Shoto, Inko, etc. I gotta feeling might be coming to a new arc soon.

Me defending Deku from the angry mob:

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megashadowdragon · 3 years ago

Link

Warning: this theory contains HEAVY SPOILERS! If you’re not fully caught up with the manga, read at your own risk.

Since English isn’t my first language, I apologize in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes. Also, this is my first time posting.

It’s practically obvious to everyone that we will get a Kaido flashback in this arc, whether he dies or not: of course, there will be a part about his time in the Rocks Pirates, but we will also get to know possibly one of the most important people for him: his wife.

Because, let’s face it, Oda hasn’t done much yet to give his personality some depth and not being just an arrogant, cruel, child-beating antagonist with a penchant for alcohol and an obsession for death, and a figure such a woman he loved could be a great opportunity for doing so.

Some might speculate that she’s actually dead and that’s why Kaido started drinking.

It could be true but, knowing Oda, he would never introduce a deceased character of that importance out of the blue, without some sort of foreshadowing: a well-kept grave located in a secret place where an important character stumbles upon in the Onigashima raid (on screen, obviously), a framed portrait on a desk or a wall, a name seemingly being thrown offhandedly in a conversation… but there is nothing in Wano which even remotely resembles one of those things.

Therefore, she must be alive.

(Also, there are already too much fundamental figures in various characters’ history who ended up dead in flashbacks, such as Bellemere, Rocinante, Russian and so on. Come on, Oda.)

Is she going to be someone new, at least?

Well, that’s a possibility, however in next arc(s) new characters will be introduced and One Piece has got more than a thousand of them already… quite a lot, aren’t they? Consequently, there is a very good chance for her to be someone who has been already introduced into the story.

Of course, there must have been some sort of foreshadowing when she had been introduced, too: she was the lover of a Yonko, after all. Has there been a woman with an unknown lover in the past arcs?

Yes, actually.

It was her:

And I believe that the mysterious man she fell in love with was none other than Kaido himself. But wait, there’s more: Gloriosa has also eaten a Devil Fruit. An extremely powerful one.

Don’t worry, I will explain everything on the way. Now, hold onto your seat, because this will be quite the long ride.

Kaido and Gloriosa comparison

Kaido of the Beasts, Governor General of the Beasts Pirates, one of the Four Emperors, the Strongest Being in the world and Gloriosa, a former Kuja ruler. These two may have little to nothing in common... or have they?

Probably the most striking difference between them is their respective height: while Kaido easily dwarfs normal humans, Gloriosa is shorter than Luffy; however, both of their heights are currently not canonically stated.

Unstated as both of their ages are, although it’s clear that both of them are past their younger days: in Gloriosa this is highlighted by her grey hair and wrinkled face, but it’s clear that Kaido is not that young any more, too, having crow’s feet under his eyes and forehead lines. It is likely that these two are quite close in age, actually.

A notably interesting fact is, canon heights and ages of the various characters, along with things such as their favourite food, are revealed in the SBS corner in manga volumes. And yet, not even one of these little pieces of information has been revealed for both Kaido and Gloriosa.

It’s very unlikely that nobody has ever sent these question to Oda, or that the latter forgot to answer them; given the importance of the two characters in the arc where they have appeared, there must be a very specific reason why Oda didn’t tell us a thing. More than that, when Gloriosa talked about her Love Sickness in chapter 522, there was no flashback; not even silhouettes.

With these things and questions on mind, let’s move on to their position. Kaido is now an Emperor of the Sea, and Gloriosa was an Empress of the Kuja. Also, while Gloriosa was an Empress Kaido held no particular position, except by maybe being a pirate captain; and now the tables have turned, Kaido being an Emperor and Gloriosa being a nobody. A neat little parallel, isn’t it?

Now, let’s get to their Haki usage and knowledge: Gloriosa seems to have some knowledge about how it works and the characteristics of the people who are able to use the various Colours: in fact, in chapter 521 she comments about Luffy’s Haki, surprised by how he willingly bowed his head to Hancock to help those who saved him instead of a boat to leave the island without a second thought. She is not a confirmed user of any form of Haki; however, in a place where pretty much every powerful warrior can use at least Observation and Armament, it is hinted she is a wielder of these two colours at least and, since she used to be an Empress, there is also a chance she can use Conqueror’s, too. Kaido is a confirmed Observation, Armament and Conqueror user, and also one of the very few people, as he himself stated in chapter 1010, who can make the latter colour flowing through their body and coat their weapon(s). In the very same chapter, he also recognized Zoro’s illusions while performing Ashura as a manifestation of Conqueror’s Haki, revealing his in-depth knowledge about the subject.

Last but certainly not least... their strength. Kaido one-shot Luffy in Gear Fourth despite the Emperor being so drunk he could not stand on his feet properly; also, he was able to clash against a fellow Yonko for days and tanked pretty much both all the Scabbard’s hits and the majority of the Supernova’s attacks on the rooftop. Moreover, how can his absolutely epic introduction not be taken into account? He fell from a Sky Island literally 10000 metres above the sea level and he ended up with... a strong headache. I’ll tell you what: Gloriosa fell from a great height, too! In addiction to it, she landed without suffering any serious consequences, as shown in chapter 517, where she landed on her feet seemingly undamaged after Hancock quite literally threw her out of the Kuja Castle. As Gloriosa herself said, she might have grown old, but she is still a Kuja warrior. Also, being a former ruler where strength is beauty, she undoubtedly was a force to be reckoned with in her prime.

That being said*... Maybe they’re not so different, after all, huh?*

Mythology references

One Piece has loads of references to Japanese myths and folklore, however Wano is especially loaded with these; and how could it not be? It is inspired by Japan, after all.

Moreover, since Kaido can transform into a dragon, there must be some kind of reference to Japanese myths and legends regarding these legendary creatures.

There’s one in particular, which might be the key to Kaido’s backstory: the story of the Enoshima Dragon.

According to this myth, in the mountains near the Koshigoe village lived a five-headed dragon, called Gozuryu, who terrorized the inhabitants over a period of some-thousand years by provoking countless natural disasters such as huge storms, floods and earthquakes, as well as eating their children. The villagers kept praying and praying, until something happened: in 31st May, 552 AD, during a bigger and more violent storm than the usual, the clouds split in two and a rock began to emerge from the sea. A beautiful woman descended from a ray of light where the clouds slit and sat foot on the island just created, making it her home. The dragon, who assisted to the whole thing, immediately fell in love with her and asked her to marry him.

The woman, who was perfectly aware of the dragon’s evil actions, was none other than the goddess Benzaiten herself.

Benzaiten on a white dragon

Now, there are two versions of how the story ends: in one, the goddess turned him down at first, and told the dragon she would have considered his proposal only if he helped the people he used to terrorise. Gozuryu accepted and the village prospered thanks to their dual protection; in the end, the goddess agreed to marry him and the couple lived happily until the dragon met his demise. In the other version, Benzaiten straight up refused Gozuryu’s proposal due to his evil actions; ashamed for his wrongdoings, the dragon promised the goddess he would have never disturbed the village again, and retired in the mountains where he died of guilt.

Anyway, regardless of how the story goes, when the dragon died he fused with the land of Kamakura, creating the Dragon’s Mouth hill (Japanese: Tatsu no kuchi yama) facing south, the direction of the island where his beloved lived. Needless to say, the island of the myth is Enoshima.

The comparison between Kaido and Gozuryu is immediate: both are extremely cruel towards children, with the former having no qualms beating them, even his own, and the latter eating them. Moreover, the Emperor, much like the five-headed dragon, terrorizes the inhabitants of the place near where he lives (Wano Country and Koshigoe Village respectively) turning the land into completely inhabitable wasteland in the process, and is capable of causing huge storms; his apparition in chapter 921 is also being accompanied by a thunderstorm. Note that, in Chapter 1003, Zoro states that fighting Kaido was like “facing a natural disaster”, much like the natural catastrophes Gozuryu caused.

Now, let’s talk about Benzaiten.

Goddess of water (especially rivers), eloquence, and good fortune, Benzaiten is considered one of the protector deities of Japan, where she’s one of the most beloved and revered gods: every major city has at least one place for her worship and countless temples and shrines dedicated to her cult are present in many other areas across the country, all located near water sources such as rivers, ponds, lakes or even in the sea. She is part of Japan’s Seven Lucky Gods, and she’s the only woman among them.

Benzaiten, however, is not originally Japanese: she is in fact a syncretic deity derived from the Hindu goddess Saraswati whose cult was brought to Japan by Buddhist monks who arrived in the VII century from China.

Due to her extreme complexity, only the most relevant facts to this theory will be reported.

She wasn’t very popular until the XI century, when her cult was fused with Ugajin’s, an obscure Japanese Kami of water, agriculture and good fortune, often represented as an old man with a snake body. Once this happened, her popularity skyrocketed as a goddess of water and by assonance ‘of everything that flows’: rivers, eloquence, knowledge, music, art and Haki. Even nowadays, Uga Benzaiten, the goddess with Ugajin on her head, is one of the most common Benzaiten representations.

Both lived in an island inhabited only by women: Gloriosa in Amazon Lily, and Benzaiten in Enoshima, since she was the sole inhabitant of said island and also a woman;

Benzaiten originated from an Indian goddess and Gloriosas, the flowers which Gloriosa was named after, grow in India too! Gloriosa superba is even Tamil Nadu’s national flower.

Due to being goddess of water, Benzaiten was naturally associated with animals connected with said element: snakes, turtles… and dragons. Especially the white ones, since this colour is linked with water in Japanese culture.

Snakes are a big part of Amazon Lily’s culture: almost every warrior on the island has her own Snake Weapon which can be used as a bow, the island’s dome is sculpted with snake motifs, the Perfume Yuda, Kuja Pirates’ flagship, is carried by two Yuda snakes, even Kuja, the name of the tribe, means ‘Nine snakes’

White snakes were considered to be Benzaiten’s main messengers and avatars and Gloriosa in Share the World opening appeared with a blue top and*...* a white snake.

Also, the traditional representation of the Black Warrior is a turtle intertwined with a snake, much like Kujas with their Snake Weapon. Due to these facts, I believe that Gloriosa has eaten the Mythical Zoan Kame Kame no Mi model: Genbu.

Timeline and character analysis – a PERSONAL take on what could have happened and when (and why)

For this section, other than time markings scattered throughout the story, Momonosuke’s (biological 8 – actual 28), Yamato’s (28), and Hancock’s (31) ages will also be taken into account for comparison.

It is known that the Rocks Pirates were defeated and subsequently disbanded 38 years before the current time. Also, Kaido was captured, and presumably sentenced to jail, eighteen times; given his reputation and danger, it’s pretty safe to assume that at least one of those nine prison ships he sunk was directed to Impel Down.

Impel Down is actually not that far from Amazon Lily: the journey takes one sailing week with an average ship, while Marine ones can make it in just four days, about half the time, because of the reserved currents. In my opinion, it makes sense thinking that Kaido has sunk a prison ship in the Paradise and somehow ended up in Amazon Lily.

Now, everyone here knows the supreme rule of the Island of Women:

NO. MEN. ALLOWED.

For any reasons.

So, by the laws of the island, he was imprisoned and, just like Luffy, was sentenced to death. But, like the latter pirate did, Kaido defeated/broke/knocked unconscious all the animal/things commonly used for executions on the island, therefore the Empress finally decided to take the matter into her own hands.

I believe the Kuja Empress at the time was Gloriosa. Why?

Well, it was stated that 33 years ago the remnants of the Rocks Pirates sent off to found their own crews, and probably Kaido arrived in Amazon Lily even earlier, between 38 and 33 years ago. As Hancock stated, Gloriosa is actually the former-former-former empress of Amazon Lily: this means that there were two Empresses between her and Hancock; since the latter is stated to have become Empress at the age of 18, 13 years ago, and given that the other two unnamed Empresses died of Love Sickness which probably is more likely to strike the unlucky rulers at a fairly young age, 20-25 years are more than enough for two Empresses to have reigned.

To estimate her actual force at the time, let’s analyse her name a bit.

Like all Kujas, Gloriosa is named after a flower (or a genus of those): Gloriosa is a genus of 12 flower species, widely spread in areas of the world such as Africa, the Arabic Peninsula and tropical parts of Asia. It can reach 3 metres in height and they display showy, vibrant-colored flowers with distinctively shaped petals, earning them the nickname of fire lily.

So, the question arises spontaneously: why is this short, wrinkly old woman named after one of the most beautiful (and tallest) flowers in the world? Given Oda’s attention even for the tiniest details, I highly doubt he chose this name randomly; at least, not for her.

Either she’s a grotesque parody of her own name… or it could be a foreshadow.

Gloriosa is also the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan word meaning ‘glorious’, if the subject it’s related to is feminine and singular. A truly fitting name for a ruler and the wife of a Yonko, isn’t it? And Kaido want his death to be… glorious.

Maybe Gloriosa in her prime was actually even more beautiful and stronger than the current Hancock, to the point where nobody had ever beaten her in combat.

Anyway, you know how the saying goes: if it’s one on one, always bet on Kaido.

Therefore, Gloriosa was defeated for the first time. By a man.

Hancock’s case probably gives us how Empresses fall ill with Love Sickness: it happens when a man catches them off guard by behaving in a totally and positively unexpected way, defying all the previous experiences the rulers have. Hancock fell in love with Luffy because he showed her kindness and didn’t judge her when she told him about her past; Gloriosa got Love Sickness because she fell in love with Kaido for his strength.

Because love… is always like a Dragon Twister hurricane!

How about Kaido?

It is common knowledge that he respects physical strength, even in his enemies.

That’s probably why he joined the Rocks Pirates in the first place: out of respect for Rocks D. Xebec, because he was actually the first person ever to defeat him in combat.

Just like Zoro with Kuina, or Douglas Bullet with Gol D. Roger (in the Stampede movie).

Gloriosa may have not defeated him in combat, but she surely gave him a very good run for his money, maybe she almost won. And he respected her for that, to the point where he actually accepted to leave Amazon Lily, even if he won. He stayed there for a little more, while a ship for him to sail the sea was being prepared, and lived peacefully (meaning: extensively touched and examined) with the Kujas.; what are the chances that one of his favourite (or least) foods is actually penne with Gorgonzola and Sea King’s meat, the island’s culinary speciality?

When he sat sail, he probably found out that the Empress snuck aboard his ship when he was far away from the island already. He thought of bringing her back, but, after listening to her reasons, he decided to let her stay with him because, let’s face it, Kaido is not Luffy, he actually appreciates the company of women.

The most beautiful woman in the world fell in love with him and contracted a mysterious illness which would have killed her if she didn’t go with him and follow him anywhere?

Oh no! /s

I’ll tell you what, I don’t think that Kaido was actually in love with her at first that much. He surely enjoyed spending passionate nights with her, and was amused by her curiosity due to Gloriosa knowing little to nothing about the external world.

There was a specific moment when he actually fell in love with her.

Have you noticed that, despite being often shirtless, Kaido's back is never fully uncovered even in his dragon form? He always wears a coat, a shirt, or both.

That hints that Kaido has some kind of mark on his back he wants to hide from public view, just like the Gorgon Sisters. Something must have happened that made him show her said mark, maybe Gloriosa caught a glimpse and asked him to see it. Anyway, Kaido was reclutant at first, but she had the right to know, she was his wife after all.

So he showed it to her, in a way that, when it will be shown in the flashback, might be a callback to when Hancock showed Luffy the Celestial Dragon hoof.

That mark meant that for the world he had and would always have been something inhuman, a failed experiment, a monster; even Big Mom, who has the best spy network in the world, calls him a 'thing'. But Gloriosa didn’t judge him for said mark, nor she believed he was a monster. For Gloriosa, he was just Kaido, the man who she had fallen in love with.

That's when Kaido fell for her. And he fell hard, probably to the point of no return.

At some point, the two conceived a child, and that's when Kaido decided that it was time to move to Wano instead of travelling the world: the pirate life is dangerous for grown people let alone for a child, plus he was one of the most wanted men by the World Government, meaning the child was in danger simply by existing.

But how did Kaido know about Wano?

He probably heard something about the Continent Puller and the ‘country’ he formed about 600 years before but, since it was a closed nation, he probably didn’t know much more until he met someone who escaped from said island: Kurozumi Higurashi.

41 years ago, she told Orochi that she fled the country because of the persecutions against the Kurozumi clan, and because she knew nothing about the outside world, joining pirates was the easier choice. Also, in that way she could have found allies and power for the Kurozumi cause easier.

The Mane Mane no Mi allows the user to create a perfect copy of a person whose face has been touched. She transformed in a woman, who, judging by the color scheme in the anime, is heavily hinted to be Bakkin and a young Shiki, both known members of the Rocks Pirates, so Higurashi may have traveled with said crew for a while. There she met Kaido, who she sensed he could have been a great help for the Kurozumis: big, powerful, and stupid, easy to manipulate.

A closed off country not part of the World Government: a perfect nation for Kaido to reside to ensure the safety of his family (mainly his child, because Gloriosa was more than capable of defending herself) and to use as a base for his operations.

When Oden went with Whitebeard 29 years ago, there were no factories in Wano, but they were there when Toki arrived in Wano with Momonosuke, who was 3 at the time, and Hiyori; so Kaido must have arrived in Wano three years earlier at last.

Gloriosa may not have been the Kuja Empress anymore, but had everything a woman like her could ask for: she was one of the heads of a soon to be powerful army, plus a devoted, loving husband and a child.

Why did she leave it all behind?

I have already talked about the parallels between Gloriosa and turtles in the mythology section, but here’s another one: in Chinese culture, turtle (especially turtle egg) is a very serious insult regarding the morality of one’s mother; that’s why Genbu is called Black Warrior instead of Black Tortoise.

This also expands one of Wano’s most prominent themes: betrayal.

Gloriosa was forced to leave Wano and Yamato behind because she cheated on Kaido. But with who?

Well, the Beast Pirates follow a card games and decks naming theme, and currently there is none named Ace; also, when Oden faced Kaido, Jack was only 8, so my hypothesis is that the third Calamity before him was called Ace. He probably had a crush on Gloriosa and when she went to him for comfort while Kaido was away, probably out to recruit subordinates or captured, he couldn’t resist.

But Kaido caught the two in the act, and was absolutely furious.

He killed Ace, and his position remained vacant for quite some time, until Jack finally took his place in the Calamities; that's why, in Episode 972, there were only King and Queen along with the fodder.

However, Kaido couldn't bring himself to kill his wife personally, so he offered her a choice: be dispatched by the hands of King or Queen, or leave and never return.

Gloriosa chose the second option.

She packed her things and left, only to realize she had nowhere to go: Wano obviously was not an option, but she couldn't just go back to Amazon Lily, not after she betrayed Kujas by abandoning them while she was an Empress. Plus, as a pirate, she was wanted by the Marine. So she lived on the run, continuously assuming new identities and never staying in the same place for too long.

Also, Love Sickness certainly has played its role in weakening her, making her age faster and dramatically decreasing her height in the process.

Taking a look at Hancock’s bed, it’s decisiverly oversized for her: said bed could comfortably fit a laid Boa Hancock together with her Snake Weapon, which is way larger than the others, her sisters, the doctor and Gloriosa, and still have room left for someone else to stand on it.

It is very likely that this bed was the Empress’s for a long time, and, since that position is not inherited, it had to fit Kujas of all sizes. So Gloriosa could have been taller in her youth, maybe a little shorter than Kaido, but still enough to handle him.

Anyway, Gloriosa managed to survive through sheer willpower, the same that allows her to snap out of Hancock’s charm much faster than the others, until her feelings for Kaido eventually faded away, thus healing from said illness.

When she finally arrived to Sabaody Archipelago, at least fifteen years ago, she was unrecognisable. Coincidentally, Shakky's Rip-Off bar was searching for new waiters, and Gloriosa applied because she needed money. The former pirate immediately recognised her.

How is that possible? Feminine intuition!

In chapter 591, she correctly predicted that Hancock would became smitten with Luffy despite not seeing her for thirteen years and every evidence in Hancock's behaviour pointing out the contrary. (Also in the very same chapter Hancock asks Gloriosa how to have a proper marriage while surrounded by monkeys wearing Wano's typical hat. Let that sink in).

Shakky understood that Kaido had no interest in her anymore and let her stay with her and Rayleigh, until the Boa sisters arrived and Gloriosa could finally return to Amazon Lily with the excuse of bringing them back home.

On the other hand, Kaido was devastated, to say the least.

Can you blame him? His beloved wife was cheating on him with one of his most trusted subordinates. He needed to forget, to get rid of all those negative feelings overwhelming him: that's why he started drinking.

However, Kaido isn't stupid. Okay, he may not be as smart as Benn Beckman, the most intelligent person introduced in the East Blue arc, but he surely has some brains: you don't reach and mantain high positions within a crew without some smarts, let alone being an Emperor of the Sea. Kaido soon realised that he caught the two relatively easily. Too easily.

Almost if they wanted to get caught in the act.

While Kaido was drinking his sorrow away, someone else was toasting to a risky plan gone smoothly.

The Kurozumi clan.

Higurashi may have lured Kaido into Wano and the alliance with the Kurozumi, but she didn’t predict that he would have arrived with a wife and a child. Gloriosa probably had a great influence on Kaido, who was (and maybe is still) regarded as little more than a muscle head; and the Kurozumis were actually afraid that she may have been plotting something. This impression was confirmed by the Onibanshu who spied the two pirates: probably Gloriosa wasn't happy about the shogun and suggested her husband some ways to dethronate him.

She was a threat, and they needed to get rid of her as soon as possible.

They sensed that one of Kaido’s top subordinates had feelings for Gloriosa, and they decided to use this fact to their advantage. So Higurashi transformed using her Devil Fruit powers and seduced the crew’s Ace, in a time and a place where she was sure Kaido could see them, while someone else distracted Gloriosa. In the end, everything went according to plan.

However, when Kaido saw the old hag using her powers some time after, he understood everything. But he had no concrete proofs, and certainly wasn't in the position to kill someone so important to his pawn based only on simple suspects; so he waited, until the perfect moment arrived.

Meanwhile, Kaido kept drinking, to forget his actions and to numb his guilt. At first, a little quantity of alcohol did the trick, but eventually he needed more and more, slowly falling into addiction.

You know, Gloriosas’ beauty is only matched by their toxicity: as proud members of the Colchicaceae family, they contain colchicine, a powerful metabolic toxin; all parts of these plants can be fatal if eaten, even a simple touch can cause skin irritation. Due to this, Gloriosa superba has been used for centuries to commit suicide.

Just like colchicine corrodes the body, alcohol, together with shame, guilt and anger, slowly eroded Kaido’s soul, corrupting him from within.

While Kaido's original plan for Wano was simply to make the island his operational base, after all that happened he decided to destroy and utterly annihililate it, just like Orochi destroyed his happiness. The shogun was fine with his ally’s devastations and never suspected that Kaido knew. The latter made Orochi believe he wouldn’t touch the Flower Capital, just to completely erase it from the face of Earth once his army would have been powerful enough to fight an all-out war. Revenge is a dish best served cold and then smashed on the forehead.

The rest is history.

Surely Kaido will be defeated, but he will not be completely dealt with in this arc.

Yamato probably got their kind, selfless nature from Gloriosa. The latter would have never approved of the terms of Kaido’s promise to Oden, let alone all the hostages and atrocities done by her husband; since Oden began to dance naked in the streets 25 years ago, probably Gloriosa was already gone at that time.

Because of this, Yamato has little to no memories of their mother, so they will likely ask Kaido about her at the end of the battle. However, Kaido himself doesn’t know her whereabouts because he didn’t send spies after her; at first, because he didn’t care about her anymore. When he realised his mistake, he still didn’t search for her because otherwise it would have shown that she was still important to him. He is not naive, he knows there are spies in his ranks, even at high levels; therefore he wants to avoid attracting unwanted attentions to her.

Plus, Kaido doesn’t even want to know, because Gloriosa probably is dead or has found another person to be with; and he deep down knows that those news would definitely break him.

However, there’s one little detail: Gloriosa’s speech quirk-nyon. Even if her appearance has changed quite a bit, she surely did nyot change her way of talking. Luffy would probably understand Kaido is talking about her because of this, and will tell them that she’s alive and well in Amazon Lily.

It is a known fact that our protagonist either kills the villains’ dreams or changes them: Kaido will change his goal too. He wouldn’t want to die yet, he will probably want to meet Gloriosa again to apologize properly for what he had done to her.

Thus, he will survive the battle and somehow, after almost thirty years, Kaido and Gloriosa will meet again.

Will Gloriosa forgive him? Will she not?

Only Oda will tell.

Other references

Black Maria Many people actually believe she’s a Kuja, and I admit, they have pretty good reasons for thinking so. Let’s start by her name: other than being a card game, Black Maria is also a variety of bougainvillea, a clear reference to Kuja’s floral naming theme; there is also a flower named Spider Lily (Lycoris radiata) referencing her Devil Fruit powers and Amazon Lily alike. Black Maria has also flowers in her hair; the most prominent ones, colored in red, have also five petals, much like the one Gloriosa wears in her hair! She is also the owner of a brothel in Onigashima and, also due to her size, it’s heavily implied that she and Kaido have a… passionate relationship, as Oda would put it (However, Kaido probably views her as nothing more than a distraction). Of course, Kaido and his wife must have had their passionate moments, since they have a child. Moreover, Benzaiten is almost always represented playing a biwa, and, as shown in chapter 992, Black Maria can play it very well. She also has a remarkable singing voice, a feature which was one of the basic requisites to become a geisha. Geishas also were protected by Benzaiten. All in all, Black Maria is actually the biggest reference to Gloriosa... in a literal and figurative sense! Oh, one last thing: the men tied to her webs in Chapter 1005 can be a symbol for Kaido’s soul, unable to move on and perpetually being trapped in the memories and regrets of his relationship with Gloriosa together with his alcohol addiction.

Kaido’s flagship Currently, Kaido’s flagship is the only one among the four Emperors’ which has yet to be seen or named. Some speculate that it’s actually Onigashima, but, in my opinion, that’s not the case: why would he travel with his entire home, with the concrete risk of it being destroyed every time he faces an opponent? Also, Yamato is in there: they have explosive handcuffs which doesn’t allow them to leave the island, but what if someone with internal destruction haki actually removes them thus freeing Yamato and letting them escape? Also, what if Yamato actually gets severely wounded, or worse, killed by invaders? Kaido actually strikes me as an overprotective dad, thus he will never directly expose his child to external danger. The handcuffs will explode if and only if Yamato actually tries to leave Onigashima: if they stay there, nothing will happen. Plus, in chapter 997, when Kaido started lifting Onigashima someone said that the island had never trembled like that before. Kaido actually has his flagship, and the reason why it hasn’t been shown is its name. I’ve said before that Gloriosa means glorious in some languages, therefore there’s a big chance that the ship will have in its name also the Japanese word of the same meaning. Maybe it’s called ‘Glorious Dragon’ in Japanese, or something like that.

Yamato Now, this will touch one of the most controversial topics within the community right now, which is Yamato’s gender; I wish not to discuss about it under this post, because this isn’t the time nor the place (IMO it’s better to delay the discussion at the end of this arc, when Yamato will hopefully detach from the Kozuki Oden persona and find their own identity). Regardless of all this, Yamato was born as a female: and Kujas give birth to female babies only.

Kaido and Big Mom comparison: Although they were part of the same pirate crew for some time and both of them being now Emperors, there are a lot of things about their characters which mark these two as counterparts: first of all, Kaido is male and Big Mom is female. Big Mom belongs to the older generations of pirates, while Kaido belongs to the new one (together with Shanks). Kaido drinks a lot while Big Mom eats a lot. Big Mom has more than 80 children, while Kaido just one*. Lastly, Big Mom has had many unknown husbands, who she married and treated as equals only to discard them when their children are born, revealing she had zero feelings towards them. With the previous comparisons in mind, it would make perfect sense for Kaido to have had only one wife who has already appeared in the story and who he has loved dearly and maybe still does.

*In my opinion, Katakuri, Oven and Daifuku aren’t Kaido’s sons. Even if the physical resemblance is uncanny, there are two major arguments against this supposed paternity: first, the triplets don’t display any type of horns, which Yamato, the known child of Kaido, has. Secondly, the Yonko’s age: he is surely younger than 68, since this is Big Mom’s age and she considers him like a little brother; however, being heavily implied that Shakuyaku was part of the Rocks Pirates as well and she was considered a pirate, while Kaido was only an apprentice, it’s implicitly stated that he must be younger than her, too. She’s now 64, and this puts his maximum age at 63; given the triplet’s age, 48, Kaido may have had them when he was 15, which is an age when men usually have reached their sexual maturity, but he may be even younger than that, so draw your conclusion.

I admit, this turned out a lot longer than I actually expected. My sincerest kudos to you, dear reader, for reading all this time-consuming post – I hope you enjoyed it as much as I had fun writing it.

Please, let me know your thoughts, they are more than welcome!

TL;DR: Gloriosa is Kaido’s wife and Yamato’s mother, she has eaten the mythical variant of the Kame Kame fruit, Katakuri is not Kaido’s son and Gin will become Pirate King.

comments on reddit :

kaido has been revealed to be 59

I really want to know who yamatos mother was and I am willing to accept any theory for now

#one piece #op theory #one piece theory #one piece theories #kaido of the beasts #kaido one piece #op kaido #one piece kaido

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