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chimerathewriter · 1 year ago

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Goody two shoes

Chapter 1

Summary: Our spider friend arrives in Miles earth

NEXT CHAPTER

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" Hey guys" Miles welcomed Gloria and Eniola in his house

" Hey Miles thank you for inviting us" Eniola smiled and they entered, evewrybody was there, Gwen,Ganke, Pav and Hobie they were fixing the table

" Good evening Mr and Mrs Morales" Gloria greeted them and gave them a basket

" This comes from my parents, they apologize for not coming" she whispered

" Oh well come in the food is almost ready" Rio announced they

" At least somebody brought something"

" Hey guys"

" Glo you are finally here" Pav hugged her, he noticed somebody else was with her

" Who is she?"

" Guys this is Eniola my best friend, you already know Gwen and Ganke, this is Pavitr and Hobie"

" Sup" Eniola smiled

" Is she your man in chair?" Hobie asked, the two girls looked each other

" No I'm just her best friend she doesn't need that" she answered

" Where have you been recently, we haven't see you around lately" Gwen asked, they all sat down

" Is exam season and I got a new job" she sighed exhausted the punk artist hummed

" You are slowly becoming a slave of capitalist society goody to shoes" she rolled her eyes

" I'm so sorry but where I come from I can't do whatever I want"

" That's just you babes" the tension was thickening nobody couldn't phrase something, until Rio and Jefferson came out from the kitchen with food

" Tonight we have Mofongo, Arroz y habichuela and for dessert Piragua" Rio announced putting the food on the table

They immediately took the forks and stuffed their faces with food.

" Woah y'all were really hungry huh?" Jefferson laughed

" This food is amazing" Pavitr exclaimed

" Mami you are the best as always"

" Thank you" Rio leaves a tender kiss on her son forhead

" Anyway Gloria I heared you came back at V.I.S.I.O.N.S as a IT assistant, how is everything going?" Jefferson asked

" Is going well, I just wanted to start to be indipendent a little bit"

" Indipented? your still a slave of capitalism" Hobie whispered, getting punched by Gwen, who was smiling akwardly

" And your brother Ikenna is coming back right?" her body tensed

" Uhm yeah is coming back tomorrow" she smiled softly

" Mrs Morales Mrs Oknma said you left your phone at her shop" Eniola added

" What!? How did......."

" Rio first finish eating and then we will go and get it" Jefferson tried to reassure his wife

" We can go and get it, Mrs Oknma closes at 9PM" Miles suggested

" Can you?" they nodded

" Alright" she seated back sighing in relief

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" Thank you for the amazing food Mrs Morales" Ganke waved at them before leaving the house

" Yeah it was lit" Hobie followed him back, they started walking

" So Hobie how do you find this place" Eniola asked

" This is a nightmare a colourful capitalist world"

" Well at least is colorful"

Miles shrugged his shoulders, they arrive at the shop

" Oh Miles you came for your mother's phone?" an elderly woman welcomed them with a smile

" Good afternoon Mrs Okonma" Eniola bowed down

" Eniola Gloria you are her, the phone is on the back, look around and take anything yu want is on the house " the lady left , thye staqrted to look around, Gloria's phone started to ring and left the shop

" Hobie what was that?" Gwen asked, the young man looked at her confused

" What was what Gwendie" he said taking some plantain chips

" You and Gloria at Miles home?" Pavitr

" Nothing just stated my opinion"

" You promised that you would have restrained from the comments especially with Gloria"

" So he talks like to my bestie everytime"

" Don't worry he only does that because he has a crush on her" Gwen confessed making Eniola gasp

" Fam....."

" Well let me tell you bruv that you are not gaining points from her or me" she patted his back, making the rest of the group giggle

" I don't what you people talking about?" the lady came back with the phone, she gave it to Miles

" Did you.....ah thief" she pointed out at the little bohy whop was running away,

" Imma take care of this" Spider Thorn started to chae him

" Go" Eniola pushed the punk artist

" What?" he looked at her confused

" Follow Gl- Spider Thorn" she pointed at the hero who was starts swinging on the buildings reaching the heroine

" What are you doing here?"

"I'm giving you a hand"

" I thought you don't believe in team and teamwork"

"Well I don't even believe in consistency" they finally managed to stop the kid

"Do you know that stealing is wrong?" she approached the little boy who was shaking, suddenly the bag that he had broke and packets of diapers and furmala fell

"Spider Thorn please my family has no money and my mother has just given birth" the boy burst into tears, the girl noticed that the boy was without shoes

"Okay go, I'll say I couldn't catch you"

"Really?" he

"Yes and hold" she dried his tears and gave him some money

"This should be enough for some shoes and some food" the boy hugged her and walked away

"Goodbye half my first pay" she spoke to herself, the other Spiderman was staring at her

" What do you want?"

"Nothing is just…it was really good of you to let it go"

"Do you really think I would have handed him over to the police, I know how many people starve here in New York as Spiderman I try to do everything I can"

"Every weekend M … Spiderman and I bring boxes of food to families who can't afford it and then like Gloria I tutor kids who don't have time to study" she explained proudly

" I did not know"

" Obviously you didn't know, I'm just a goody two shoes for you" they swing back at the shop.

" Sorry Mrs Okonma I didn't catch him but here is the money for the things he stole" she handed the money

" Thank Spaida Thorn" the heroine left ,After a while the shop closed

" Gloria said that she's back at her dorm, and you will see her tomorrow" Eniola read them the text message her friend sent, the group separated

Next Chapter

#hobie brown #hobie brown x reader #hobie brown x black reader #spiderman astv #miles morales #spider gwen #pavitr prabhakar #ganke lee #miguel o'hara #jessica drew #peter b parker

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m1ckeyb3rry · 27 days ago

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This wasn’t supposed to take me that long to reply to but I got mobbed by irl shit but um anyways

No because that’s what I’m saying idk why there’s a need to give everyone a backstory and make everyone relevant instead of focusing on better developing a certain set of people like realistically unless they’re really going to expand on the whole bllkverse post-Isagi protag storyline which is highly unlikely….

LMAOOOOO speaking of my comment from earlier too lowk I bet Kunigami could pop out something sassy every now and then!! Gives you an excuse to keep the non-ginger male lead streak going LOL

But FRRRRR the fact that they all acknowledge he’d treat a girl right so real and literally I’m ngl I laughed off the ln as a goofy moment like lmaooo ok no social skills bros stalking but WHAT WAS THAT PROFILE??? Literally jaw on the floor speechless I’m going to pretend I didn’t read that

Otoya would be so happy that eightbit is hyping him up sm I need more scenes of that for Karasu too I’m lowk a little sad the pose of him standing on (?) the ball just didn’t have the same vibe as the manga (don’t get me wrong still not bad but ykwim)

LMAOOO shippers will fr take whatever crumb of interaction (or even lack thereof) they can get im crying though I still can’t get over how a sukuna ship found its way to bllk

Wait I’m also still not over that how did not a single soul request nagi???? Ngl maybe I should’ve sent one in I was under the assumption that he would’ve been a no brained though so uh. But LMAOO it’s funny reading this in hindsight so I guess you’ve settled on an otoya req it seems it’s back to otoyalations everyone

BAROU???????? HIDDEN BAROU CAMEO lmao I’m crying you really said “yeah no romance for Kunigami”

OH HEAH I SAW THAT you’d be glad to know that when I saw that my first thought was hollyhock before anything else LMAOOOOO Omg but Rin being hollyhock y/n’s number one fan I can see it thatd be so funny

LMAO the next sae one you have to make should be that really…um..interestingly proportioned one…from like the first few chapters of the manga (I’m pretty certain I passed by a goofy post of yours with it somewhat recently)

Karasu flying across the field to jump on his teammates back and hype up the goals LMAOOO truly THE biggest bird on the field (I’m thinking of a very specific tiktok audio that I haven’t heard in awhile so if you know which one I’d be pretty impressed)

So real I’m also planning to watch it all in one go maybe even along with s1?? Actually maybe this calls for episode nagi then s1 then s2 bllk marathon LOL but wait you’re right I didn’t pay attention before but Rin and otoya lowk giving emo twins?? If we didn’t know otoyas personality he’d look so emo LMFAO

- Karasu anon

AHAHAA IT’S OKAY i randomly fell asleep instead of responding to this it happens i’m kinda bad abt punctual replies too sometimes so trust i will never judge 🔥

OKAY BUT LISTEN if kaneshiro wants to give us episode karasu i won’t mind /j on the fr side yeah i think ensemble casts are difficult to work with as is and the more you expand the worse that gets!! i mean people are still hoping for KIRA to come back and bro was in ONE EP 😭 so there’s rlly no need for so many characters to be given “depth” (depth which ironically makes them feel shallower at times) it’s okay for some to just be filler with surface level lore

HELP OKAY SOMEBODY COMMENTED SENDOU ON THAT POST AND IT OPENED MY THIRD EYE??? idgaf abt sendou so i didn’t even think about him but he’s literally PERFECT for the role omg like he’s so boyfailure boyfriend-in-law with silly slightly sassy advice (secondhand aikulations perhaps??) PLUS because he’s friends w aiku he def would have relevant opinions on otoya DHFSJAJ not that that’s a prerequisite because his role is rlly small like i said but it gives in verse depth to it

NO LITERALLY at first i was like oh haha cute he just wants to be friends with karasu but he doesn’t know how…now i’m like NAH GET KARASU IN WITNESS PROTECTION ASAP 😭🙏🏻 /j anyways yeah everyone acknowledging that karasu would treat a lady right YUP love to see it he absolutely would and we love him for that (i miss my handsome glorious king why’d i have to get inspired for otoya before him 😒)

YEAHH i feel like they took a bit of karasu’s smugness away almost?? he’s still cocky and analytical and talented and stuff but i feel like he’s not giving that same smug villainy vibe that he had in the manga LMAOAOA it made isagi’s infamous line not hit as much because now it just looks like he’s crashing out due to karasu being better than him and calling him out on being weak meanwhile in the manga you can def tell that karasu actively looks DOWN on isagi yk so the “he’s…a villain 😨” line makes a bit more sense there

NO LITERALLY I THOUGHT NAGI WAS A SURE SHOT I CANNOT BELIEVE NO ONE REQUESTED FOR HIM 😭 forever in shock that the wider public associates me with SAE over NAGI 😱 and yeah i used that ugly ass panel for my hbd sae post (felt obligated since i’m an honorary sae blog) DJSIHDJS HE LOOKS SO WEIRD IN IT i never ever want to see a sae fan complaining abt the anime they yassified him SO MUCH in season 1 all of them have to be on their knees thanking 8bit 🙂‍↕️ and actually nope HAHA i don’t even have any otoya reqs in my inbox surprisingly i was just inspired on my own…let’s just saw we can call this one based on true events 🙏🏻 once i post and we debrief i’ll lyk what parts have and have not actually happened to me FKFHSJAN anyways yeah this is more of a karasu bfb “i have an idea and a character and i’m just going to see where it goes” vibe than it is a specific prompt or anything!! just writing smth silly for me…it’s what i deserve after that kaiser req 😰 HOPEFULLY IT DOESN’T TAKE AS LONG/END UP AS LONG AS KARASU BFB THOUGH i feel like i’m jinxing myself now so just keep your fingers crossed for me and my sanity 🤞🏻

HIDDEN BAROU CAMEO and the boy that died at reader’s uncle’s hand was also loosely based off of niko!! we fr got the entire oaeu up in this bitch ig this is what they do when aiku’s not home 😭 NO ROMANCE FOR THE LEPRECHAUN ONG 🔥

HOLLYHOCK MENTION LFG yeah omg rin would actually def stan her and she would probably love him for that…omg isekai rin x hollyhock reader when?? imagine he’s hit by a soccer ball to the head (probs by shidou) instead of a bus and he ends up in yukimiya’s body on the day yuki sends otoya after the hiiragi’s so he ends up changing the timeline around so he can fall in love w reader instead of the “lukewarm ninja bastard” bonus points if she ends up with karasu due to his meddling instead because gardener swordsman karasu 😫 /hj

THAT ONE AUDIO THAT’S LIKE “i’m the biggest bird i’m the biggest bird” RIGHT?? LMAOAO I HAVE BEENNN CHRONICALLY ON TIK TOK FOR YEARS NOW OFC IKWYM!! speaking of which i have more to show you 😜 but anyways yeah it’s hilarious how he just ends up there and nobody even questions it…ig he’s rlly competitive and stuff so it makes sense that he’d consistently be getting the most hype plus he’s one of the characters that seems to get along w everyone at the same level??? like barou didn��t seem to be mad abt him doing the arm-around-the-neck thing (tbf he only rlly cared abt getting nagi off atp), isagi seems to find him chill, he was getting along with reo/aryu/tokimitsu (as well as yuki and otoya ofc) during their “economics of bllk�� meeting, and he somehow even managed to be friends with NAGI when they were all in the arcade which given how standoffish nagi can be is saying smth ☝🏻 truly he is so beloved by the fandom and the characters alike

YUP MY PLAN EXACTLY i’ll probably do epinagi -> s1 (since epinagi glosses over a lot of second selection which is the best part of s1) -> s2 rewatch…yeah otoya gives emo just as much as rin they lowkey have the same hair just diff colors HAHAHA omg wait i saw a tik tok MONTHS ago talking about how niko watches anime and wondering if he freaked out when he saw nagi because he knows that white haired characters are always insanely talented and to extrapolate on that i wonder if he felt the same at seeing otoya 😭 even though otoya doesn’t rlly give white hair energy tbh i forget most of his hair is pale because i so heavily associate him with the Green ™️

OKOK MORE TIK TOKS again you’ve probably seen a lot of them but OH WELL you will see them again 🔥:

KARASU MEME had me crying it’s too real…fr giving “shidou…isagi…stop 🥺🥺🥺 this isn’t you 🥺🥺🥺“

kaiser slander so truly refreshing to see on the fyp even if it is isagi committing it…enemy of my enemy is my friend ig

okay this edit is making me consider aikuism fr JSBXSJBS why’s he kinda…like that one panel of him catching the ball w his chest…NOPE anyways we MUST STAY STRONG 😭🙏🏻 dw he’s still in the problematic bestie zone for me but now he’s like a problematic bestie that i have weird tension with and everyone’s lowkey like yo is smth going on and we’re both like nahhh that’s my homeboy!! but like. ARE we just homeboys???

THE WAY KARASU SAYS ISAGI’S NAME DJFHSHSJS ISAGI MOVEEEE IT’S MY TURN

LORENZO MEME idk why this is just making me laugh this is def smth he would do in the oaeu though specially at aiku (and niko who literally did nothing but got involved by accident)

#answered asks

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sullustangin · 3 years ago

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Darth Marr and Satele Shan: Names and Priorities

I’ve reached the point in my Yavin fic that I’m starting to use Marr’s POV on occasion. One of the things I’ve been chewing on (likely to the annoyance of others) has been the Marr-Satele-Theron dynamic during the Yavin 4 op. It’s clear that Satele and Marr have put aside differences and have become friends (as much as a Force ghost and a self-exiled Jedi Master can be friends) by Chapter 12 of KotFE.

I give credit to @swtorpadawan for posting about Satele on Yavin 4 a few months ago and being willing to have continued discourse about the post -- thank you. In comments and reblogs, there’s been discussion about how to interpret Satele’s references to Theron during the op and her motivations for why she does this.

This is a spin-off of that post, since I’ll be focusing more on the dynamic between Marr and the Shans instead of Theron and Satele.

During the Yavin op, Theron is consistently referred to as Theron, not as Agent Shan or as Shan. The issue of his last name is avoided. A few people (including me) have the headcanon that ‘Shan’ is a common name in the galaxy, like Smith or Patel or Garcia would be on our world; two people named Shan does not a family connection make, necessarily. It would explain why Theron doesn’t have a code name (though he jokingly? complains about it on first meeting).

And yet, Satele avoids using the name in reference to Theron. So does Marr. And Theron doesn’t insist on being referred to by his last name, even though his peer, Lana Beniko, is referred to as ‘Beniko’ by Marr. (Satele never addresses Lana using her name.)

Why the dance?

Honestly, when I try to reverse-engineer dev!logic, in terms of the game design for Yavin 4, I’d guess it was done to help the player differentiate between Grand Master Shan and Agent Shan. And maybe that’s all it is: calling Theron “Theron” just keeps the player from getting confused, especially if the player isn’t a Jedi and doesn’t know Satele; and/or skipped the Forged Alliances quests and thus doesn’t know Theron.

Within the universe, however, what’s an explanation a player can come up with?

The Spies in Question

Theron’s name was broadcast across the galaxy as a wanted man for killing Colonel Darok. He was to be apprehended on sight, but Theron was a spy; spy agencies to this day rarely let any images of their active duty agents be circulated, even if they do go rogue or defect to the other side. Theron’s image in direct connection to his name and job as SIS agent would be on a need-to-know basis. This has led me to headcanon that Director Trant was well-aware of Theron going off the grid; in fact, he aided and abetted it.

Lana, on the other hand, was a known member of the Sphere of Military Offense. She commanded troops on Hoth. She had a known face, and there was an Imperial bounty contract on her head, per Theron at Manaan. If anything, Lana was in as much danger as Jakarro; someone could try to claim the bounty on her head, since the bounties weren’t lifted til the end of the Yavin op.

And yet, Theron’s name was the unspeakable one.

Satele and Theron

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I feel that the dynamic between Theron and Satele is not that of son and mother; both of them have gotten past that decision. Rather, it’s more similar to a child who was given up for adoption looking for some sort of acknowledgement from his birth family -- it’s not love. It’s not approval. It’s.... complicated. Acknowledgement of existence. Acknowledgement that the decision had impact on Theron well beyond his first year of life. Acknowledgement that Satele hurt Jace.

I’ve interpreted Theron’s bristling at the use of the term “my agent” to be more directed at the possessiveness of the word, yet how far apart they still are, despite the biological connections. Technically, Yavin 4 was the first time they worked on an op together. This was their first professional collaboration. They haven’t seen each other socially, they can’t talk about their issues/relationship/whatever.....and they have to save the galaxy together.

Giving up Theron doesn’t mean Satele felt nothing. She privately struggles with what she did and how it turned out -- still does, based on 6.2. However, she, like Jace and Theron, believe in serving the cause at great personal cost. Seeing Theron beat to hell after Rishi bothered her -- it would bother anyone with any sense of compassion (which she does have). Theron got the beatdown he did because he was taken by the Revanites. Revan attempted to convince Theron to join him on Yavin 4 by invoking the idea that they are flesh and blood -- family.

Pretty sure Revan wasn’t talking about the Malcom side. Satele knew that. Was there a sense of protectiveness for Theron because of what happened immediately before Yavin 4? I think so, yes, but it’s not motherly.

Theron’s experience on Rishi probably made Satele hyperaware that if Theron was of interest to the Revanites, then the Empire would doubly interested in Theron if they knew that he was not only an heir of Revan, but that the Grand Master of the Jedi Order was his biological mother. Referring to him as “my agent” may be Satele’s way to avoid using any part of his name on Yavin 4.

I’m willing to bet, regardless of any efforts to ignore or conceal Theron’s name, that Marr quickly figured out that the agent who managed to outfox Revan, resist torture, get Marr’s attention, and unravel an intergalactic conspiracy was something special to the Republic. Odds were that this agent had acted against the Empire.

Marr would be interested.

The History of Darth Marr and Satele Shan

Prior to Yavin 4, Marr and Satele had most recently squabbled over Makeb in the Hutt Cartel expansion through their various operatives. When Marr saw Satele on the Imp side Battle of Rishi, he bowed. He respected her and she respected him. I didn’t get any other impression from their interactions. They saw each other as equals, though on rival sides; that creates tension, since a fight between them would be a draw or mutually assured destruction. It’s highly likely they fought against each other in the previous Galactic War (which I’ll talk about below).

Marr was born in 3702 BBY, Satele in 3699 BBY. They’re about the same age, and they ascended almost equally quickly when the Sith returned in 3681 -- Satele is 18, Marr is 21. I have spoken about how Satele and Jace (who seems to be somewhere between 16 and 20 in the trailer) were essentially just kids when the conflict started. So was Marr.

The big difference, in terms of how their characters are constructed, is that we have the end product of Marr. Period. We don’t know what his name was before he took on the name ‘Darth Marr.’ We know nothing about his family, his relationships, his struggles. As Marr said later to the player in KotFE, he wanted to be a symbol to the Empire. Marr did not let himself be just a man.

Darth Marr is not the singular leader of the Sith. Marr is the head of the Sphere of Defense of the Empire for decades, and as of the Battle of Corellia and the death of Darth Decimus, he also becomes the head of the Sphere of Military Strategy. With 2 of Military Spheres in his grasp, Marr was the de facto leader of the armed forces of the Sith Empire. The Sphere of Military Offense passed from Baras to Arho and then to Arkous after Ilum. When Arkous is killed by the player’s character, there is no indication as to who was the next head; that Sphere is never spoken of again in-game. We may assume Marr took hold of that. Either way, he has become the de facto leader of the Sith Empire. His voice, his robes and mask -- immediately recognizable to the whole galaxy.

The creators of content for SWTOR took the opposite approach to Satele. We can read about how her mother Tasiele was forced into exile when Satele was still a child. We meet Satele at 18 in a SWTOR trailer during the first Sith incursion at Korriban. We see her in comics fighting against the Empire. We see her at the Battle of Alderaan against Malgus. In Annihilation,we see bits and pieces of her falling in love with Jace Malcom and hoping she doesn’t get too attached... until a pair of permanent complications occur in 3667 BBY: Jace was severely maimed in the Battle of Alderaan, and Satele got pregnant. Jace’s injuries made him a much harder person than the soldier Satele met in 3681 BBY; he scared her with his hatred of the Empire.

I’ll take a moment here to say that Satele wasn’t dumb or naive when she made the decision about Theron. Satele was at least 32 years old, possibly 33 by the time Theron was born in 3666 BBY. She wasn’t a teen having a knee-jerk “oh noes, he’s evil” moment. She had been in a constant state of war for 15 years when she got pregnant. It’s in that context that Satele was concerned that Jace’s hatred could drag their child to the Dark Side... but also, Satele’s love for her child would make it impossible for her to serve the Republic without a second thought. She couldn’t fight and die for the Republic if she was always preoccupied with coming home to her baby.

So she let Theron go. She had other adventures. She was at the Treaty of Coruscant. Satele founded Tython. She became the Grand Master of her order.

We don’t get any of that pathos or glory with Marr. Marr IS. Marr is the Empire. He is the best of them. He has been, is, and will be.

The odds are pretty good that Marr and Satele met each other in combat, directly or indirectly. The bow on Imp side Rishi is a big thing for me that points to that. Also, look at their responsibilities during the last war. Marr was responsible for not only defending Korriban and what would become the Imperial core, but also any gains the Sith made over time against the Republic. That’s the job of the Sphere of Defense of the Empire; taking planets was somebody else’s rodeo, not Marr’s. His job was to defend... something the Imperial people living on these planets would love him for. He was their protector against brutish Republic troops and their systemic corruption.

Satele was responsible for winning those territories back; we see her on counter-strikes against the Sith. Satele is cast as the liberator of people imperiled by the spreading Sith Empire, not a conqueror taking new territory. Marr probably had to defend against Satele at least once in their careers, possibly multiple times. If she was absent from the front lines for any period of time, Marr would have noticed; he had to anticipate the next move of Republic counterstrikes as part of his job.

And indeed, Satele was absent for an extended period. How long Satele was absent from the battlefield due to her pregnancy, we don’t know. Satele did continue her battlefield duties for “months” after she found out. The only information we have about post-partum Satele is that she stopped visiting Baby Theron at 6 months old, according to Lost Suns. I don’t think she could just skip off at random while in command, so I think she probably was off the battlefield at least 10 months (last 4 months of her pregnancy, 6 months post-partum), possibly as long as 18 months, since Gnost-Dural reports she was assigned to duty with the Republic Navy at some point in 3665 BBY. She did give birth on a random planet in a cave, so she didn’t exactly have the best medical care immediately. Maybe there were complications. Maybe she did show early. We don’t know.

Regardless of the timeline, Marr would have been paying attention. Marr would have noticed when Satele Shan stopped fighting for the Republic. Where was she? What was she doing? Was this part of a greater plot by the Republic? What were they planning? And when Satele did return, he may well have wondered what she had been up to. But no matter; she had returned. Marr had to be ready.

There’s no obvious indication in the game as to when Marr figures out Satele and Theron are mother and son. He makes no comment to indicate that he knew before Rishi. Based on Marr’s dialogue in game on the Imperial side, he heavily suggests that he knows who Theron is by the time Iven, the former commandant of the Imperial Guard, is taken into custody and it’s time to interrogate him. Satele objects to Marr’s plans to torture Iven. “And what do you think your agent has done in the Republic’s name?” is Marr’s response.

The delivery of ‘your agent’ is indicative that Marr knows.

Theron himself stated at the end of the Imp side romance that if he was indeed recruited by the player to join the Empire, people would be suspicious that he’d be working for his mother. That would have to include Darth Marr.

Personally, I would guess that the after-action reports from Lana and Theron would have some clues for Marr. However, once Theron had healed up from the Rishi events, Marr may well have taken one look at Theron standing next to Satele, and then had an epiphany so immense it gave him a headache that Lana felt across the compound. There’s the answer. That’s why she disappeared for almost two years, twenty-nine years ago. Theron Shan.

(According to Jace in Annihilation, Theron has some similar features to his mother. He doesn’t specify which ones.)

The Lie of Omission

A lie of omission is permitting an inaccuracy or a falsehood to continue to circulate without correction, even though the person knows the truth. (In contrast, a lie of commission is when you actively make something up or contribute to the lie -- you commit the act lying.) Marr signals he knows who Theron is by the time Iven is retrieved from the Imperial Guard training facility on Yavin, but he never says the name Theron Shan out loud. It’s simply “the agent” “your agent” or “Theron.” But not Agent Shan.

The use of “Theron” in the Pubside story is most eyebrow-raising.

Marr calls people by their titles. Marr always keeps professional distance. Underlings are uniformly referred to by their titles. Lana doesn’t like titles, so Marr doesn’t refer to her as Lord Beniko or Darth whatever; it’s just Beniko.

Calling someone by their first name is highly irregular. He does not refer to Satele as such until 6.2 (and that might be the Socratic Problem of Marr in the player’s memory rather than the real Marr). It’s always Grand Master or Grand Master Shan. In a unique instance in the game, Marr calls Theron by his given name when he finds the Imperial Guard’s buildings in ruins during the Pubside story: “But given the destruction Theron describes, it’s mostly likely a distress call.” This is before the Pub operative annoys Marr by going to the Imperial Guard facility by themselves; it’s not said in anger or in irritation. It’s said under ‘normal’ circumstances (if circumstances on Yavin are normal at all).

But why? Why not “Agent Shan”? That would differentiate him from Grand Master Shan. Just referring to the pair as Grand Master and Agent would work too; how many Grand Masters and SIS Agents are running around on Yavin 4? Why is Marr avoiding attention to the man’s last name?

And why doesn’t Marr hop on this and use it to the Empire’s advantage?

Pragmatism and Prioritization

Marr is not a Jedi. Marr doesn’t do things for the greater good. He does things for the Sith Empire and for the people of the Sith Empire. Offing Theron Shan? Definitely on the agenda. So is killing Satele, eventually.

But not now. Not on Yavin 4.

Marr is probably the person closest to knowing what Revan is going to try to do in order to make the Emperor take physical form again so he can kill him. It’s going to involve a lot of dead people. That can easily happen; up until this tiny fragile cease fire between Marr and Satele, the Empire and the Republic have been engaged in a hot war. When they first make camp on Yavin, there is a real possibility they’ll frag each other regularly. This is why players have to do daily quests, in theory -- to build good will between the factions.

My partner is a military nerd and a Star Wars nerd. He watched both version of the Battle of Rishi. His conclusion: based on the ships we see, Marr had more than twice the number of troops that Satele did (I put the numbers in my Yavin 4 fic). The Imperial troops, at Marr’s word, probably could wipe out the Republic forces on Yavin 4, pack up, and head back to Dromund Kaas in time for tea.

But they won’t. Marr wouldn’t permit it.

He knows how dangerous the Emperor is, and if he does let his troops kill the Pubs, they feed him. There also appears to be some sort of weird mystical thing going on with Revan’s bloodline. Revan knew highly personal information about Theron (and Theron says so when the player opens the temple later on); somehow, Theron was able to use that connection to get Revan to give up Yavin 4 and secure an invite there at the end of the Rishi op.

Marr knows about this. Marr doesn’t know what Revan would do if Marr did kill Theron or Satele, plus there’s the more predictable possibility that the Republic would respond to the death of Satele Shan thanks to the Jedi feeling it through the Force. Chancellor Saresh would not let that opportunity pass by, even if it did feed the Emperor; we saw that at Ziost.

Grand Master Shan is a public figure. Her name and her power is obvious to everyone in the Yavin camp. Theron, however, is everything his mother is not. He is a spy. His face is not known to the general public. His work is secret, his exact abilities unknown.

Sure, the last name is common enough....

But Theron and Satele have never worked together before. They’ve never operated in such close proximity before. Yavin 4 would be the first time all the pieces could fall into place to someone observant. Marr is many things, but one of the things he really gets annoyed about in regard to the Sith is their arrogance. They get such fat heads that they can’t see obvious danger or they overlook aliens and non-Force Sensitives to their own detriment.

Marr isn’t arrogant.

He doesn’t think he’s the only one who can see a family similarity or sense some connection between them. Saying someone’s name is a powerful thing; we get upset when someone screws up our name. It’s how our attention is attracted. Shared last names of interesting people attract attention. Attention leads to distraction away from the primary goal of stopping Revan and the Emperor.

That’s something Marr doesn’t want to deal with right now. Revan and Emperor now. The Shans later. He avoids referring to Theron as “Shan” so as to reduce any chance that some young Sith will attempt to make their bones killing Theron, since that would spell doom for the Empire, whether through Revan’s anger or the Republic’s revenge. It would also help empower the Sith Emperor to retake physical form, which is the last thing Marr wants him to do.

Exposing the Grand Master as having a secret son would remove an ally from the field for Marr; Marr doesn’t want to destroy his assets before he’s used them to their full ability. There’s no point in burning Satele Shan on Yavin 4 before Revan is dealt with.

...And Marr respects her. It’s a cheap way to win against a rival he knows to be his equal.

Marr wants to end Revan and the Emperor now, in that order, to defend the people of the Empire. He’ll worry about the Shans later. Marr will let Theron’s last name be overlooked and unmentioned, if only because it makes his job as Defender of the Empire less complicated for a few months.

Thanks again to @swtorpadawan and also @inyri @shabre-legacy @theniveanlegacy for discussing the original post about Satele and Theron and making me think about this.

Headcanon Postface:

This last bit is purely my headcanon ideas about Marr, so you can leave here if you so desire. I’m placing them here rather than making a separate post and having to link back to this one.

As I’ve described previously, we have the finished product of Darth Marr, with none of the personal insight that was provided for Satele Shan. Who’s under the mask? Nobody knows, really. His first comic book adventure takes place in 3678, when he’s about 24 years old. There’s nothing about his life beforehand that would let the player wonder how his past life affected his current decisions. Marr ultimately would do the best he could for the Empire, regardless, but knowing if he ever hesitated, ever had second thought, had a regret -- that would make him mortal.

And Marr is an icon, not a man, in the grander SWTOR universe, per the writers. That’s the point driven home to the player. So that leaves it to fan fic to take off the mask or not.

In “The Planter of Trees and Other Tales from Yavin 4,” Marr comes to this conclusion about the Shans’ relationship after observing two Shan chins. He then alludes to understanding Satele’s decision to conceal Theron’s existence.

After Marr had gained his seat on the Dark Council (late 3680s, early 3670s), a lot of Sith families wanted him to add to their prestige. The man needed a legacy; he needed heirs. Marr had already set himself on his path, however; he understood that it was better to be an icon. If Marr was a normal man, he would be weakened by family connections, love, protectiveness, concern for his personal future. Instead, Marr’s devotion to the Empire was unmatched and pure. In the public’s eye, he was the great defender. He was the perfect Sith.

Marr never did have a public wife or a political marriage. His private life -- better secured than Imperial state secrets -- produced a daughter that did not inherit her talents from her Force-Using parent. Marr had been relieved that his daughter was not like him. It meant she would never be pressured to come into public life. It meant she was free of the burden of his legacy.

Lately, I’ve considered that, regardless of having access to the Force or not, a child of Marr was always in danger of becoming a pawn. She was something Marr’s enemies could use against him, if they ever found out about her; being Force-Null simply meant that others could not detect her as easily. That may have also have been a concern of Satele in regard to Theron, especially as she rose through the ranks of the Jedi Order. As soon as Marr could let his daughter fly away from Dromund Kaas, he did. She was free.

She died shortly before the Sack of Coruscant. Marr did not go to her. The Empire had to matter more. That doesn’t mean he didn’t love her. He just never could prioritize her over the Empire.

In my fic universe, Marr understands Satele’s choices. He can keep his mouth shut. For now.

Theron is far more dangerous to the rival faction than Marr’s daughter ever was, however; he is an active player in the war, while she... just got caught in the middle, in the end....

Revan and Emperor now. Shans later.

#swtor #shadow of revan #darth marr #satele shan #revan #theron shan #lana beniko #swtor fan fiction #headcanon #pragmatic sith

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blackcherrykiss · 4 years ago

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BLOOD BOUNDARIES - Enhypen OT7 Fanfic (ch.4)

[CH.1] [CH.2] [CH.3] previous chapters

[CH.5] next chapter (NOW AVAILABLE!)

genre: vampire au, romance, drama, mystery, thriller

note: written inspired by enhypen's storyline, given-taken lyrics & teasers. please keep in mind all members are apart of this fanfic and the main theme is mystery/drama!

...

"Y/N?" Jungwon blinks between wide stares.

You immediately move off of Jaeyun, pushing him aside in a race toward Jungwon, "I was just about to head to the dining hall... I just happened to stumble into Jaeyun..." You lie to upsell the situation. You were actually relieved to see Jungwon, feeling somewhat safer now that he was around

"Are you alright?" He tilted your head in every direction, scanning every angle of your profile up and down.

"Why wouldn't I be...?" You grab ahold of his ice-cold hands and pull them away from your face, "It's not like I got in some fistfight with him. I'm just really hungry right now so don't stop me unless you're coming with me." You whine, glancing back to where Jaeyun stood, seeing nothing but an empty space.

"My class isn't even over, I just went to go to the bathroom." He stretched a hand up to hook onto the nape of his neck, "Just go eat, I'll catch up to you later."

You're checking every other person who enters the dining hall, impatient to see Jungwon as you eat quietly. You only see your roommates enter the hall, approaching your table after picking up some food along the way.

"Y/N! Where did you eat this morning? We saw you go off to some boy. Do you have some secret relationship?" Your roommate Dahee gushes, interrupting your bird watching.

"No? I didn't even get to eat breakfast. I had some business with Jungwon." You say, hoping to clean up the painted picture she must've had. You turn to look at her, seeing your two other roommates in the distance; Hyesun and Nana.

"Oh, that was Jungwon? We couldn't see his face from where we were." She tapped on the bottom of her chin to think, "Jungwon huh? You should be careful with him, he's getting really popular amongst the lower classman." She said as both Hyesun and Nana sat down with their steel trays that clung against the table.

"Yeah, I noticed that too... Wonder why." You tilted your head from side to side, trying to come up with any logical explanation. It's obvious Jungwon was visually attractive but if that was the reason, wouldn't he have been popular a long time ago?

"Probably because he's recently been seen with those guys." Nana side-eyed to her left, signalling all of you to turn your heads and focus on exactly who you were expecting; Jaeyun, Heeseung and Kim Sunoo.

Immediately you looked away from the table full of boys, trying to make zero eye contact with any of them. "But Jungwon has always been associated with them? Right?" You second guess yourself.

"Has he? I've only seen him hang around with them recently..." Nana looks at you with a funny remark.

"But Jungwon told me they're roommates, so I'm sure they were close from long ago." You chuckle in confusion.

"Wait what? Jungwon is roommates with Heeseung? But you can only be roommates with people in the same year as you." Nana pinches at the bottom of her lips, "That's very interesting," She scoffed in amusement as she pieced the puzzle pieces together for you. "I don't know what kind of person Jungwon is but he must be lying to you. Heeseung is a senior, Jungwon is a freshman."

You could only ask yourself how and why Jungwon was truly associated with those boys, was it that complicated that he needed to lie about it? Combing your fingers through the roots of your hair, you bury your head tightly into your arms in an attempt to shut your thoughts off.

Nana sighed in pity while wrapping her arm around you, "I never trusted those pretty boys and the people involved with them anyways. They've got some dirty secret, I just know it."

You think about what Nana had just said, trying to comprehend the scenario in your head full of mush. "I think I need to ask Jungwon about this... He's been keeping so many things from me, I'm gonna go look for him and sort things out. I'll explain what's going on later with you guys." You excuse yourself from the table, straightening out your skirt as you stood.

You strut across the dim corridors towards the hushed library at the very end of the passage. You usually found Jungwon in the library if he wasn't with friends, reading all alone at the same table between the shelves where he wasn't visible to the naked eye. You stand tall as you peer through the glass window and into the seemingly soulless library. Creeping through the wide-open doors, you squeeze yourself along the narrow shelves in search of Jungwon before you hear a quarrel.

"Not right now Sunghoon! I have a volleyball practice meet right now!" You recognize the voice that shouts in a whisper. You instantly duck your head down, peaking through the crevices of the thick wood bookshelves, letting your eyes adjust to see through the thin space.

"But I need it. I need you." You see Sunghoon tug Kyungeun closer. You began to blush a bit at the cheesy line. So this is the guy who gave her a hickey? Could this be her boyfriend?

Whatever you had walked into, it was dramatic and probably something you should have been listening to. Your thoughts continue to switch between whether or not to turn back around to leave the two "lovebirds" alone or stay until they left.

"Sunghoon, was yesterday not enough?" Kyungeun huffed, shaking off his grip. "I thought we agreed this can't be happening during school." Kyungeun controlled her volume.

"But I'm telling you that I'm impatient right now!" Sunghoon rubbed his forehead in annoyance as you reverse your steps back out of the entrance of the library. Trying your very best not a single step or trace of you was seen.

"Sunghoon I have a practice in a few minutes! What if you get caught?!" She repeated this time louder, making you feel awful for listening to their argument.

Running out the last few steps away from the door, you finally breathe normally, exhaling properly after sneaking out so quietly. Still amazed by the fact Kyungeun was seeing Sunghoon you look up to see Jaeyun leaned up against the wall right beside the window of the library. Before you gasp, you cover your mouth in terror. You blink in disbelief as you pull Jaeyun to a safer spot in the hallway, away from the crime scene so that Sunghoon and Kyungeun couldn't suspect what you both had heard.

"Spying on somebody?" Jaeyun smirks while sucking on the side of his lower lip.

"No? I was just looking for Jungwon! What are you doing here?!" You snap defensively out of the great startlement he had just caused you.

"Saw you leave the dining hall and followed you here." He admits casually, "It's funny how you keep running into this kind of stuff, isn't it?"

"Hm? Kyungeun and Sunghoon?" You question his choice of wording, "I just happened to bump into a couple arguing so I felt bad." You say a little unconfident about what you had just heard.

"Couple? Mmmm... Wouldn't call it that," He said in the midst of choking up on laughter, "You just don't get it, do you?"

"So they're just friends? Or are their feelings just mutual?" You don't even bother to look into Jaeyun's eyes when you say that, embarrassed at your second assumption. You were paranoid that Kyungeun and Sunghoon could've heard you both even from such a far distance.

"It'll all make sense once you connect the dots. Do you want to know our secret that bad?"

"Look, you accused me of spying but you're the one spying on me. Are you worried that I'll find out?" You spit, hiding how flustered you actually were. "Let's just get out of here before one of them exits the library." You cut him off before he can even begin a sentence. "Whatever you say, darling." He spins his head around, already making a move back to the route you both came. You follow him shortly, contemplating whether or not to ask Kyungeun about her relationship with Sunghoon.

Was it too personal to ask? Or perhaps Kyungeun wasn't telling you for a reason.

"You're still thinking about them?" Jaeyun interrupts your thoughts, breaking the silence created from deep concentration. His steps slowed down a bit, giving you time to catch up and walk beside him.

"Yes! I'm still thinking of them... I'm close with Kyungeun and she never mentioned she had something going on with Sunghoon, that's all."

"Secrets are secrets for a reason." He commented mysteriously as you both reached the entrance doors of the dining hall, the journey coming to a quick end.

"Hey, I'm going to continue to look for Jungwon, you should go." You insisted. "I really don't want people to see us together, don't take it personally..." You say in a mellow manner. Although Jaeyun had been cocky and nosy toward you, in a way you were drawn to his subtle company. You weren't going to keep up the rude act, you wanted a decent relationship with Jungwon's friends. Maybe if you befriended him, you could get more information.

...

You decide to check the courtyard for Jungwon, forgetting what exactly you needed to ask him along the way. You step out into the quiet outside, searching for Jungwon under the ash sky. The smell of an oncoming storm fills the passing breeze in the humid air as you scanned the surface-level of ground.

"Jungwon?" You whisper unsure of the black-haired boy who sits on the stairs peacefully admiring the soft forest in the distance.

Jungwon turns toward your direction, the blazer of his uniform off to the side while his charcoal bangs and collar sway in the gentle wind. You're relieved to see the familiar pair of cat eyes that could only belong to him glimmer like pearls under the reflections of the clouds.

"I've been looking all over for you..." You laugh at yourself while taking a seat on the step-up stair from his. "It seems you didn't eat at all today, you okay?" You adjust yourself and fix your eyes forward to where he was looking before.

"I'm just not hungry. Sorry I didn't go to you at lunch as I said I would." Jungwon leaned his broad shoulders back until they rested against the step you sat on.

"You always say you're not hungry." You stretch out your legs, tucking your cold hands under your thighs while the bright periwinkle sky slowly disappeared.

"The sky is pretty, isn't it?" Jungwon whispers while looking over his shoulder to look at you, the corners of lifting just a millimetre upwards.

"Really pretty." You reply looking at his face that lit up into a creamy lilac colour under the sky. His eyelids relaxed lazily along with the rest of his features. His delicate blush face bringing you a small bit of joy. "I-I think we should go inside before it rains." You suggest, jarring your fluttering heart from his sweet face.

"We still have a few minutes." Jungwon closed his eyes, sinking himself into a position comfortable enough to sleep in, "Why'd you come looking for me?"

You finally remembered what you were going to ask but you felt it would ruin the mood. You knew too well if you spoke of the roommate situation with Heeseung or what you had witnessed with Sunghoon, it would only take away from the calm moment Jungwon was living in. "It's not that important, I'll ask another day."

Jungwon changed the subject after a short pause, not questioning you any further, "Are you going home for the long weekend?" In your boarding school, you frequently got long weekends to go home and see your family although some kids would stay on campus and hang around.

"Oh, the one in 2 weeks? Yeah, I'm thinking of going home. I miss my family a bit... You?"

"That's great, you should really go home." You took his answer as a way of him trying to avoid talking about himself. "I'm kind of tired... Sorry if I'm dozing off." He admitted in a sad lazy tone with his eyelids pressed together.

"Need a pillow?" You say while moving down so you were now sitting on the same step as him.

Jungwon lazily winked an eye open, "Pillow?"

"Y-you can rest your head on my lap for a few minutes..." You removed your bag, not daring to look him in the eyes when you said that, "Not sure if it'll be any more comfortable..." You felt embarrassed offering the gesture, but you could tell he was down by the way he spoke. He was less energetic than usual so it was clear to you that something was upsetting him.

He let out a lazy chuckle without opening his mouth, sitting up straight to look at you.

Before you could even catch being face to face, you took his laughter as a rejection toward the offer, burning with embarrassment, "Nevermind... I think I'll go to my next class early, don't be late for yours.." You quickly slung back on your bag, ready to take off that moment.

"Don't go... Just stay..." Jungwon held onto the side of your bag, moving his hand until it pinched at your fingers.

You felt a certain sickness eat at the bottom of your stomach as you hesitated to sit back down, but it wasn't sick with awkwardness or embarrassment.

"I was just surprised you offered." Jungwon covered his face with the back of his hand shyly as you turned toward him.

"Well, I'm about to take my offer back." You sat back down slowly, shaking off the random feelings that were flying between the two of you.

Jungwon instantly scooted over to you, shifting all his stuff with him. He spent no time stalling as he laid his head onto your lap, his dark chocolate hair tickling your knees.

"You must be really tired." You mutter. Your eyes watching as strands of his hair dance across his forehead from the soft breeze. You were tempted to brush the hairs away but felt you would be overstepping the line you had as friends. Instead, you reached over to his scrunched up blazer and draped it over him as a blanket.

A few minutes passed as you started to feel a wave of tiredness wash over you. You starting to become tired enough to fall asleep as you existed in the ambient noises of the courtyard. It seemed he nice sounds of the olive trees brushing against one another or the dandelion coloured birds that flew between them were a lullaby. Time had just felt too easy on you at that given moment.

A cold droplet of the sky's tears hit the back of your hand, a clear indication of what was to come next. "Jungwon it's beginning to rain, we should head inside... You know how fast it takes for the rain to fall harder." You shook him a bit, knowing he most definitely could not be in the REM stage of sleep.

He groaned, still not batting an eye open until a droplet hit his upper cheek near the side of his temple. He began to sit up in a haze, the back of his head in shambles and his blazer half covering him. "Let's go?" He said stretching his arms up, still settled on the staircase while you stood on both feet.

The rain started to slowly intensify into a shower, the droplets still thin. "I'm not trying to get soaked here..." You sigh, lifting your bag above your head as a shield from the rain as Jungwon finally stood up properly, putting on his blazer instead of using it to cover his head. "What are you doing? Use your coat to protect yourself from the rain." You nagged like a mother as you could feel the rain hit your bare legs.

"No, it's too late. It will dry." He slid on his backpack as you patiently waited for him. "But if I'm going to get rained on, shouldn't you as well?" He said while trying to pull your bag off from its placement over your head. "HEY! No! Let's not do that?" You held tighter onto the bag, sprinting off toward doors.

"I was just joking!" He yelled from the distance as you took cover under the entrance roof. ... "Did you not know it was going to rain?" Your teacher poked her head from behind an unfamiliar student.

"I sort of did, I just stayed a little too long outdoors," You mentioned while you sat down at your respective seats.

"Well now that everyone is here, I'd like to announce we have a new student who just transferred here."

#enhypen fanfic #yang jungwon fanfic #lee heeseung fanfic #enhypen jay fanfic #sunghoon fanfic #enhypen jake fanfic #sunoo fanfic #enhypen niki fanfic #enhypen imagines #enhypen imagine #enhypen au #jungwon #heeseung #park jongseong #park sunghoon #sim jaeyun #kim sunoo

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everythingsinred · 3 years ago

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Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: Natsume (pt.7)

Well, Natsume's really in it now! Today we'll be talking about what lengths Natsume will go to in order to protect the people he loves. He's not a normal boy with a normal first crush, after all. He has no intention of wooing her or flirting. In fact, his instinct is to distance himself, and going forward we'll see that instinct is motivated by more than just a low self-esteem.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Natsume has some major character flaws. He’s kinda a jerk in general and is rude and abrasive. He’s chronically selfless and seems to be drawn to situations where he can sacrifice himself for others, which is a very unhealthy way to be. He’s also terrible at keeping his word.

Natsume only made this decision on his own, but he’s pretty bad at carrying through with it. He’s the one who told her to stay away, but Natsume will have more and more trouble staying true to such an agreement.

At first, he makes an effort: Mikan is being bullied for her stupidity and sees Natsume. He glares at her, another discouragement from coming any closer. He doesn’t argue with her or join in on the bullying.

But in no time at all, the whole class is riled up in study mode because of Mikan’s example, and for many kids in Class B, the best person to turn to for tutoring help is Natsume, who is actually quite smart when he actually does the work--though he’d prefer not to. And he does help, though not with any kind or supportive words. He’ll leave that to Mikan. Maybe to him it feels a bit like a cheat, like he can afford to give in a little bit. He later walks alongside her after an exam, like he’s part of her circle, and although he’s not really engaging with her like the rest of the kids are, it’s enough that he’s near her.

And it’s enough for the ESP and Persona to notice.

We can see the ESP looking down on them from his headquarters room, still covered in shadows to maintain his mystery, but his figure is familiar enough for a reread. Natsume has been caught and he will have to face the consequences.

Persona subs in for Makihara-sensei (and we must wonder if Makihara was really unable to proctor his exam or if he was ordered to stay away so that a point could be made to Natsume), and despite his disguise, Natsume can tell it’s him instantly. After all, he was supposed to recognize him. Natsume looks horrified.

So far, Natsume has had to more or less balance two very different parts of his life: a more light-hearted life in Class B and his life as a spy and black ops agent. They’ve been difficult to juggle because of how different they are, but they’ve been pretty separated. Here, the lines are blurring. Was there really any divide at all or was that just an illusion? Persona can invade on his happiness any time he wants, on a whim, and nobody else will notice that anything is amiss. Only Natsume will be bothered, and that’s enough.

Natsume later catches up to Persona, asking him what the hell all that was about.

Permy and his fans aren’t the only ones to notice that Natsume has been softer lately--he and the ESP have noticed as well, and he’s been ordered to put a stop to it. He mentions a “kitten of a different color” who has been of interest to the ESP too, and Natsume plays dumb, his last-ditch attempt to protect Mikan from being drawn into this.

Persona comments on the strangeness of seeing the infamous Black Cat that he trained himself, who he’s supposedly only ever seen in action, sitting and taking a test like a normal kid. He reminds him that he’s not a normal kid. There’s no point in trying so hard. He won’t make it to ever see his family again, so why even bother?

And then Persona makes a point to discourage Natsume from getting close to that “kitten of a different color”. Natsume argues that they’re the ones who made them partners in the first place! And he might as well be giving himself away. Again, Natsume seems convinced that the partners thing was a decision from pretty high up, but I don’t think it was. Here, it seems like Persona is trying to clean up the mess Narumi made before it gets too out of hand. Natsume is a perfect tool and anything messing with that is inconvenient. They can’t unmake them partners (yet) so the most they can do is threaten Natsume.

And now we can see what kind of alice Persona has. It's a real threat, killing that plant. It's a reminder to Natsume what he's capable of, that his friends and loved ones could end up just like that plant.

And so Persona does.

Natsume is anguished here, because he’s been trying his very best to avoid this situation, but he should have known that Mikan was already in the academy spotlight and his feelings would be quickly caught. It was too late from the start and he was doomed all along to add Mikan to the list of people he will do anything to protect.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The next chapter opens with Mikan being confused and hurt by Natsume’s sudden new coldness. She has no idea what’s brought this all on, but we do. Natsume has no choice now but to completely try and cut her off. It’s for her own good, after all. If he’s not careful, she could get hurt. Protecting her is worth it, even if it means he has to be even more of a villain than usual.

We don’t see a lot of Natsume in this chapter, actually, because he’s trying really hard to stick by his word this time. We see him trip up a little, staring at her in class. When she catches him, he turns away coldly, but from this we can see that Natsume really doesn’t want to be leaving her alone like this. If he had it his way, in an ideal world, he’d be much nicer to her. Unfortunately, Natsume doesn’t waste his time thinking about his ideals, so he keeps at it, pushing her away.

The next time we see Natsume, it’s after we’ve been thoroughly introduced to the concept of the life-shortening alice. This is one hint of many that he has such an alice, several chapters before we get a real confirmation.

The scene where Natsume struggles on a bed full of pills is perhaps more dramatic in the anime, but it’s no less potent here. It’s like a sucker punch. You don’t want it to be true. He’s ten years old, for heaven’s sake! TEN YEARS OLD! And he’s suffering, hunched over, face red, gasping for air, clutching his chest, next to the biggest bag of medicine I’ve ever seen. It’s the biggest hint we’ve gotten so far, especially in the context of Kaname’s illness.

It's heart-breaking to imagine that most of the time, Natsume is simply pretending like he's not in absolute physical agony.

Kaname stays at the hospital for long stretches of time, staying for weeks and sometimes months at a time. He’s hospitalized more than he’s able to walk around free. There’s a lot to consider when that treatment is compared to Natsume’s. Natsume is the DA favorite and is sent on many missions. His trips to the hospital are never for weeks or months at a time, not because he doesn’t need the rest, but because the school can’t stand to go so long without their prize fighter. Natsume might be in even worse condition than Kaname, but there’d be no real way to tell unless we got it from him, because he has no choice but to put up with it and pretend like he’s not living in constant agony. And on top of being terribly and terminally ill, he gets physically beaten somewhat regularly… this school beats sick children and then threatens them when they find any inkling of happiness.

There is a bittersweet tone about Kaname’s story. He’s already sick anyway but he will probably die if he keeps using his alice, but he wants to, because he wants to bring people the same happiness that making Bear brought him. It’s tragic and heart-breaking, but it’s touching too. That sweetness is missing from Natsume’s appearance. His situation feels miserable and helpless in comparison, because not only does he have no way out, but nobody even knows the extent of his struggles.

He only lets himself feel this level of pain when he’s all alone in his bedroom. He’s been having a horrible past few days, having to ignore Mikan when she’s all that’s made him happy in recent memory. All that together, and we know that this night was a rough one for him.

The next day, we see everyone saying good-bye to Kaname. Once again, Natsume is completely separated from the rest of them, all alone in the classroom, sitting and looking as miserable as one can expect. It’s strange seeing him now after we’ve seen what his nights look like and just how painful they can get.

I just want him to be okay. Why is that too much to ask?

There’s some text on his panel: “I want the future I spend with the ones I love to last just a little longer.” Yet another hint that maybe his illness is more than just that. He has very little time left, and very little time to spend with his loved ones, but even worse: he can’t even spend time with Mikan because doing so would put her in danger. Even with Youichi and Ruka the amount of time he can spend with them is limited. They have their own lives and he doesn’t want to hold them back or hint in the slightest that there’s something up with him. He doesn’t want to worry or burden them. And so he sits alone in the classroom, looking despondent and lonely.

And now we know more than ever that this was never his choice: he has to be like this.

No, he’s not the asshole he makes himself out to be, somebody who doesn’t care about others and cuts others off because he thinks himself above them. All he wants is to protect people from getting too entrenched in his dark life. Natsume being this level of a jerk is a method to protect people, a method an adult would have to take.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I’m quite relieved to have finally passed the point where the anime adapts the manga. From now on, I can focus entirely on the manga. I passed 22k words on this essay too! This whole thing will be sooooo long. I hope it’s an enjoyable read so far. It’s quite fun for me to write.

This chapter is the beginning of a long and dramatic arc. There’s been incidents of people losing their alices. The academy is withholding information about the gravity of the situation, lying that the students have not been affected so far.

But even with the little information the kids have, Class B is full of concern. Everyone is discussing these incidents, debating whether losing one’s alice would even be a bad thing. After all, they’d be able to go back home and see their families. Nonoko brings up a great point, that her alice is a part of her identity, something she loves about herself. It’s not something she’d ever willingly part with. Furthermore, she doesn’t want to leave all her friends at the academy either. Ultimately, the kids all agree that they wouldn’t want to lose their alices.

At this, Natsume stands up and leaves the room. He’s heard enough.

Natsume doesn’t just have complicated feelings about his alice--he feels hatred for it. After all, if it weren’t for his alice, he could live to a ripe old age. He could still be with his family. He could be happy, not used as a weapon by the academy to fight until he dies. He can’t relate much to the conversations about fondness for an alice. From what we can see, he’d be over the moon to be rid of it for good. This is a concept brought up now, because it will be incredibly important later on.

Not to spill about my personal life or anything, but I’m an English major (in an anglophone country so my focus is literary analysis and writing). Writing literature papers in school was a love of mine that I translated to my other interests. I’m writing what I can here about general themes and even visual parallels. I want to write as thorough an analysis as I can. Unfortunately, I can’t effectively pick apart word choices and phrases when they’re translated from another language and when so many conflicting translations may exist.

I’m saying all this as a disclaimer because I want to analyze word choice now and I am aware that this might not carry to the original Japanese or even to other versions of the English translation. (For reference, I’m using the TokyoPop versions for my analysis for the first 15 volumes and then I’ll be using whatever I get my hands on for the rest. The pics I use are from scans, but the main source I use for now is TokyoPop.)

"Nowhere!".... hmm let me read way too much into this.

Natsume leaves the room and Ruka chases after him, asking where he’s headed. Natsume responds, “Nowhere.” This might be a nothing point to make, but it stands out to me whenever I read this part. It’s a reassurance to Ruka, sure, but there seems to be more to it. On the surface, we can tell that Natsume doesn’t have a destination in mind; he just doesn’t want to be in the classroom anymore, listening to all that upsetting talk. Deeper than that, he really is heading nowhere. He’s stuck there, at the academy, unlike the rest of them who will eventually leave to go back home once they’ve graduated. Natsume will probably die at the school, trapped within its gates. He will probably never see his family again. He is, in that sense as well, going nowhere.

The rest of their conversation is just as packed with meaning. Ruka can tell something is up and he wants Natsume to talk to him, to let him in, but Natsume knows that Ruka has made a pact not to smile if he’s not smiling. So even though Ruka is asking and wants to know what’s wrong, Natsume won’t give anything away. Being miserable is one thing, but letting Ruka know that something is worse than usual would only make Ruka miserable too, and he can’t have that. The bottom of one page has him frowning, maybe steeling himself, and then at the top of the next page, he turns around with a grin to tousle Ruka’s hair.

Don't mind me. I am simply crying.

“It’s nothing,” he says with his smile, looking so gentle, and Ruka still looks concerned, but he can’t argue anymore.

In reality there’s a lot going on with Natsume. Later, when we are introduced to Tono, he mentions being concerned about Natsume’s health, having heard that he was making frequent visits to the hospital. We already know he’s sick and going on ceaseless missions, and on top of all that he has to ignore and be cruel to the girl he likes. It’s a terrible situation. But Natsume can’t tell Ruka any of this without worrying him, so instead he will keep it to himself. After all, it’s nothing that can be helped or changed. It’s something he feels he has to cope with on his own. To him, spilling his secrets would be selfish and only cause suffering.

Chapter Thirty

Iinchou has finally returned from his visit to his hometown. He’s brought gifts and anecdotes and everyone is quite happy to see him, until Iinchou attempts to use his alice and finds himself unable to.

It’s a shock to the whole class that a kid at their school has lost his alice. They had been so relieved that at least it wouldn’t affect kids like them, but now one of them is a victim too. It makes the fear much more real. If it could happen to Iinchou, it could happen to any of them.

Things get tense when Iinchou returns to class and says that this might have been the fault of a woman he encountered outside of the school, someone who was probably affiliated with Z. Everyone who was involved with saving Natsume when he was kidnapped is shocked to hear about Z again, but none more than Natsume himself. He gets up and leaves, just like he did last chapter.

He’s thinking about the proposal Reo gave, that Natsume should join Z and fight against the academy he despises. But he’s not alone with his thoughts, because Ruka followed him again, and so did Mikan this time.

She tries to ask him about Z, see if he has any more idea about what’s going on. She’s confused and he knows more than anyone what happened during that incident, but he’s refusing to acknowledge her presence, let alone answer any of her questions. He’s keeping up his charade of cruelty to keep her safe, but it’s driving Mikan crazy. She finally breaks, screaming at him that he should pay attention when people are talking to him, and further that if he has any issues with her he should just say it to her face.

Just like last chapter, we see a panel of Natsume steeling himself, ready to do the selfless thing to protect the other person. Only this time the next panel has him glaring at her, saying he doesn’t like anything about her. He hates everything about her.

Natsume has no choice but to lie all the time about how he's feeling, because everyone else must always come first.

It feels different, but in reality this is the same thing he did to Ruka last chapter. He can’t be honest about his feelings when he’s feeling upset, and he can’t be honest about his feelings when he’s actually starting to fall for a girl. He always has to hide his true feelings, repress and bury them, lie about them in order to protect everyone around him. It’s hard for him to do, but he thinks it hurts him more than it could hurt her, so he manages it.

What adds even more layers to this is that Ruka is observing the whole thing. He sees Natsume’s actions as selfless but misfires on the motive a little--but only a little.

He recalls eating strawberries with Natsume and Aoi, with Aoi cheerfully discussing her newfound love for the fruits. And so Natsume gives his to her. Aoi is surprised, because strawberries are his favorites. He responds easily, “I hate them now.”

"For you," Natsume says.

Ruka knows what kind of person Natsume is, that Natsume would reject something he loves so that his loved ones can be happy. They’re both aware that they like the same girl, and Ruka can’t help but put the math together and assume that perhaps Natsume is doing this for him, hurting himself and bringing himself pain so that Ruka can be happy and pursue a girl he has a crush on guilt-free.

He’s even more convinced of the theory with the tiny panel that reminds us of when Natsume shoved Ruka into Mikan so they could dance. Natsume loves Mikan too, but he wants Ruka to be happy, so he will give up and even ruin his own chances to help out his best friend over himself.

When I say it’s a misfire, I mean that Natsume has a lot of other things going on, including Persona and his imminent death. It’s not that he definitely isn’t doing this for Ruka, it’s just that it’s not as major a factor as other things. He’s mainly doing it because of the threats from Persona. If Ruka is involved in his thought process, it’s mainly a bonus. Ruka’s theory is definitely not unfounded; just not completely accurate.

In any case, it does add extra substance to the dynamic between the three of them, where they all walk away from the moment with completely different kinds of misery.

Before any of them can sit with their sadness, though, they receive word that an intruder from Z is at the school.

Conclusion

In this section, we explored how Natsume has no choice but to distance himself from everybody, and even how the methods he uses to distance himself look different depending on the person. Ultimately, despite the fact that he isn't the sweetest kid you'll ever meet, Natsume being cruel to this extent isn't a quirk of his personality: it's what he has to do. If he didn't have so many things being held against him, he might be much kinder to Mikan, or more honest with Ruka, but he has no choice in the matter.

In the next edition, we're getting more involved in the Z Arc and going into how come Natsume goes from telling Mikan he hates her to backing her cause and going on a dangerous mission with her.

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unknown-writing · 4 years ago

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Summary:

You’ve felt Sad before. But lately, it’s been getting worse these days. Nothing has helped you pull yourself out of this slump. You tried doing anything that your fellow crewmates recommended, but nothing worked. Not even the most basic of tasks helped get you out of this slump.

So….You turned to Other Stuff. You didn’t care whether or not drugs or alcohol wouldn’t actually help you. You just wanted to forget about your Sadness for a while...Even if it was just for five minutes.

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Warning(s): Drug Use[Future chapter(s)], Alcohol consumption[Future chapter(s)], Depression, angst, mentions of suicide attempts[Future chapter(s)], mentions of self-starvation, eventual smut[Future chapter(s).]

Word count: 1k+

Author’s Note: Been feeling really down lately...So, I’m using my crush with Law to my advantage to fight against my intrusive thoughts. Sorry if this starts becoming too much for you to read. Feel free to block my tag “a helping hand” to avoid triggers~!

You counted the amount of days you’ve been feeling Sad like this. And you counted 32 days straight...32 days of constant sadness, some days were bad, other days where so bad that you never even got up unless somebody came to fetch you for Law. Today was no exception to those extremely bad days. By the time you had woken up, it was already past Noon, and everybody had gone to the Island that they'd reached to stock up on supplies for their next voyage. Groggy as all hell, you slowly woke up, your body felt extremely heavy and Hot...Too hot almost, you just ignored the heat though and went to change into your usual casual but nice looking attire for the day, slapping on a baggy, unclean tank-top, your baggy sweatpants that you’ve been wearing for the past month, and then your running shoes.

You lazily pulled yourself together before heading out to the main dining room area in the hopes of grabbing some food, only to pause and remember that the main reason why the ship wasn’t moving was because they went to stock up on food. “No food huh?....Guess I’ll starve.” You mumbled to yourself, grabbing at least a bottle of water before heading out so it made it look like you’ve eaten.

Gulping down half of the bottle already, you reached the main lobby area of the ship, seeing the same crew members that followed Law, they were just muttering amongst themselves quietly, they sounded more excited than usual to you, “Too Loud...” You thought to yourself as you decided to head outside for some fresh air rather than mingle with the crew today. Despite the fact that you barely know any of them aside from Bepo and Penguin for the most part, as they’re the ones that tend to stick to Law’s hip like lost kittens.

Once you were outside of the ship, you noticed a lot of boxes that started showing up out of the blue, you then noticed that you had walked into a Room created by Law. “....Right, I forgot we were gathering more supplies….” You thought as you took a look at what he’d gotten for his crew, and possible extra’s in case they ran into the Straw Hat’s as they’re still in an Alliance of sorts from what you can recall. You yawned before going forward while crawling down from the top of the Submarine, placing your water bottle down on a closed box nearby so you could at the very least, help put the stuff back.

Before you could move anything though, Bepo noticed you were awake, “Oh!? Y/n san’s finally awake!” he shouted while pointing towards you lifting a box to give it to another, much more stronger crew member to carry it down into the ship for you. Law noticed that you were trying to help despite how late you’ve slept in recently. “Morning.” he says as he patted your head gently while climbing up into his ship for the day to get stuff organized. You didn’t do much, you were just helping lifting boxes but even so, that got you a “Morning” from your captain, usually he would just glare at you then turn to finish whatever he was doing. Shrugging it off, you continued to help out until your arms felt like jelly, being the weaker one out of the group, you were better off at organizing stuff rather than carrying it.

As the crew gathered in the main hallway, Law looked around to see that stuff wasn’t organized like he thought it was, “Tch...Dammit. Everything seems to be mis-matched and out of order. That’ll be a pain in the ass to deal with.” He looked as he opened the boxes, to find that the only things that were separated was Produce and Weaponry (Guns, Gun Ammo etc.) You looked at his irritated face and then spoke up, “I can organize things for you, Law.” You offered, bending down to be at his height level to look at the current box of mis-matched random items..Some of them seemed to be medicine and bandages, while others looked like paperwork stuff. “You know how to organize Y/n? I highly doubt it seeing your room is a mess.” He bounty states, commenting on your messy room. You chose to ignore that though and stood up, “I can organize shit! I may need help though.” You asked him, hoping he’d order the crew to help you organize this stuff better for him while he did other stuff that needed his attention. “....Fine….You can take charge in organizing this Mess...Bepo will come with me to navigate us to the next Island….” He pauses then glares at the crew that didn’t seem to accept the fact that the weakest member of the ship was the one bossing them around, “And the lot of you...Listen to y/n! The faster this shit gets organized, the faster we set sail got it? I don’t want to be bothered by random bullshit complaints because a chick’s bossin’ you around.” he bluntly comments again, making the crew stiffen in slight fear of his booming voice that echoed the room.

After three straight hours of organizing, replacing, and relabeling items, you sat down on the nearest surface your body could reach. That was a daunting task to do considering you’re not in the best mindset right now. Ikkaku helped out with part of the relabeling the items that seemed to either have a missing label, or have the wrong one altogether. “Well, that went by fairly swiftly..�� Penguin commented while placing the final box with the rest of them before flopping on the floor, completely drained from helping out with the heavy lifting. You sat there, now regretting not at least grabbing a small thing to eat before starting this heavy workload, your stomach growled softly, which made you flustered. “Hungry huh?” Ikkaku commented while standing up again to get back to work, “Yeah….Maybe just a little bit.” You admit, but didn’t mention that you didn’t eat anything for breakfast or lunch either.

Part of the crew split off after organizing stuff for you to get started on dinner as it was already close to 7pm. You decided to go back to your room until dinner was ready. The comment about how messy your room was started to repeat in your head until you had flopped onto your bed, groaning in annoyance, “Why does he have to be so right.”

You then fell asleep through dinner. Your mental state was getting even worse than what it already was.

--------------------------------------

You didn’t mean to sleep right through dinner. You even had set up an alarm to wake you at least 25 minutes before so you had time to wake up, get dressed quickly, then head out to the dinning hall...But, by the time you had woken up, it was 7:30am the next morning, at least from what your clock had told you. You couldn’t tell since the ship was under water again, having set sail for the next Island which would take them a while to get too. You groaned, cursing as you slowly got up again and then sighed. Your eyes weren’t even fully open yet but you still got up regardless to go eat something for today.

You paused before standing up from the bed, hearing muffled whispers against your door, you thought you were hallucinating and just shrugged it off. But, the whispers kept happening, they started to get louder and from what you can tell, the whispered voices seemed to be arguing about something. “--No! You wake her up! The last time I woke her up, she threw her pillow at my face in irritation!” A male voice echoed, you instantly recognized who it was...Groaning, you yawned as you stood up to head outside to see why Bepo and whoever else was there, was arguing right in front of your door so early in the morning. They /know/ your not a morning person, so why the fuck are they here?

Unlocking the door, the two crewmates flinched to see you after being asleep for so long. “O-Oh! Hello y/n san! Good morning!” Bepo stuttered out, nervous on why you look so deadly. It worried him that you looked like this. “.....Morning……” You weakly responded, noticing that Ikkaku was holding a tray of food for you..A lot of it too, it looked like they were some of your favorite meals they had prepared. “Sorry to bother you y/n san but, we thought you were sick, so we brought you some food! We made sure to bring a lot of it because you missed out on food yesterday.” She said, pointing out that she noticed you were hungry yesterday. You internally smacked yourself, forgetting that you never ate a single thing yesterday. Reaching out for the tray of piled on food, you took it to place it on the small desk you had then turned to face them, “Thanks for the food.” You said weakly, as you closed the door to your bedroom.

“Don’t thank us.” Ikkaku said before turning to head the other way, “Thank Law. Since he was the one that noticed you weren’t at dinner last night.” She said before leaving with Bepo following her….Haring that line, just made you feel more guilty. You had worried your captain to the point of him making enough food for you to eat for the day, despite the fact that you’re just not Hungry. Sighing, you still decided to eat some of the food in front of you, even if it was just in small bites here and there. Even so, you couldn’t finish that much. Setting aside, you flopped back on the bed.

The next few hours had passed. You woke up to loud banging against your door, startled awake, you groaned as you got up, “Alright already, I’m awake! Sheesh!” You yelled, then started to mutter to yourself, “Don’t start snapping back y/n-ya.” Law replied, which made you freeze up. You should’ve expected that he was the one that would start banging on the door next, considering he’s your captain, and a doctor. Opening the door to see that he was scowling, he looked down at you, a sting of guilt punched your throat, which made you start to stutter out a weak response to his glare. He didn’t respond back however, all he did was walk into your room and started turning on the bedroom lights for you, seeing that you’ve done nothing but stay in the dark for the last 72 hours.

“Three days.” he starts off after he clicks on your nightstand lamp before turning back to glare down at you, “it’s been three days since you’ve been cooped up in here by yourself.” A low growl of irritation leaked his throat, which caused you to flinch again. A brief moment of silence filled the room before you could respond, “....I’m Sorry.” You simply said while staring at the floor, feeling both guilty and nervous on what he was going to do next. Before you could respond, all he did was lift you with one arm over his shoulder, and then bring you to his office for a small Chat about your Mental State.

#tw// drug use #tw// alcohol #tw// angst #tw// depression #tw// self starvation #tw// suicide attempts #not a request #long fic #trafalgar law #law x reader #law x y/n #one piece x reader #a helping hand

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violetsinviolence · 3 years ago

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ao3 year in review

original format by @athina-blaine

Top Fandom: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (16 works)

Date of first fic posted: 17 Sept, 2020 (let’s get married, 3,898 words) - happy anniversary me!

Top multi-chapter fic: ‘til i’m with you then, i’m with you there (69,086 words) my most recent finished fic, the one with the most words, and the one i’ve put the most effort into! it grew so much over the 11 weeks i posted it and i’ve already got more ideas in the works- i love this little universe i’ve created and all the people that have helped me cultivate it into something beautiful! ironic how my top two works in word count are both royalty related- i think i have a calling.

Top one-shot: nothing’s perfect, i’m hoping i’ll do (1, 379 words) this one got super popular out of nowhere- like i know everyone loves a good teacher au for tma but holy COW did this one go off the charts with its popularity- it’s almost my most kudos’d fic, just under 160 rn! absolutely incredible tbh, i didn’t even think it was that good when i posted it but HELL i’m proud of it now and i’m glad so many others like it too :)

Fic you’re most proud of: you’ll leave me lonely at best (4, 358 words) god this one is so good to me? idk what it is about the angst in this one but god fucking damn i’ll go back and read it whenever i need just a good solid cry like- damn what did i drink that day to make my angst charts off the shit? fuck!

Fic you wish got more attention: the water’s sweet but blood is thicker (3,305 words) i love love LOVE taako and lup’s relationship and i wanted to capture just like a little… a little bit of their sibling love — and maybe i projected hardcore with me and my sister, ya know — and i was super proud of that! i thought it was super sweet and i wish it’d gotten more love

Fic that Challenged You the Most: h2o, what a feeling! (8,351 words - unfinished) this one- idk what it is with this one, i posted the first chapter and then realized that i had no clue where i wanted to go from there. just getting the second chapter out was a beast on its own but fear not i’ve got a general plot line i want enact! i just need the motivation to start writing it again lmao

Favorite Quote/Passage:

“How could Juno not believe it? When Peter said it so easily like it was the easiest thing in the world to love Juno Steel.”

- when he calls me pretty, i feel like somebody (2,154 words)

“For now, though, he begins to walk, returning to his own world. Where the woman wearing his mother's face rules the land. Back to the birdcage. But, at the very least, Juno gets to keep this all to himself.”

- ‘til i’m with you then, i’m with you there, chapter one: you’ll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream (69,086 words)

“There are two things different, though: The Heliz is gone and in its place sits a neatly folded piece of paper. Duke trembles as he unfolds it.

Rosie,

Thanks for the ride. Sorry, I had to take off so quickly, but I'm expected elsewhere. I'm not sorry about having to take the Heliz from you, but I expect you enjoy a challenge. Come find me if you want it that badly, will ya?

Dahlia

The handwriting is sloppy and rushed, but the words fill Duke's senses with excitement. If he hurries, he could probably stop Dahlia from leaving the hotel, hell he could probably track him down from going off-planet need be. But where's the fun in that? There's a game in store for the two of them, and Duke for one loves games. He laughs, loud and open and so very happy as he holds the note to his chest, thinking of the lovely sharpshooter who's stolen the gem from right under his nose-- twice now!

Duke thinks he's stolen something else too, but he's more than happy to let Dahlia keep that.”

- so start me up and watch me go (5,848 words)

Total Words Posted: 285,405!

this year has been super duper big for me in terms of self discovery! i started ao3 honestly just so i could bookmark stories i liked and stuff, i never thought i’d ever start writing for real- and here i am now! honestly the person i have to thank most is @lmaowhateven sammy darling you’ve been my #1 fan through this entire process and you’ve been nothing but supportive and sweet- if nobody else got me i know he got me 🥺🥰

some other people i’d like to thank: @the-official-account @seratlantisite @scarlettrust @anonomouslyabanana @argentumauream

i go back and reread y’all’s comments all the time because they mean so much to me, literally my favorite people of all time i’m giving you all of my money currently rn actually! 💖

thank you all for making this year wonderful and i hope next year will be just as great! thank you!

#writerversary #my stories #tma #tpp #roseverse #taz #jjba #the magnus archives #the penumbra podcast #the adventure zone #jojo’s bizarre adventure

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lavendersb · 4 years ago

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Our Ultimatum

Chapter 3: Sandstone

Boba Fett x Fem!Reader

Summary: As Boba prepares for his trip to Jagba, you start to find your feet in the palace.

Warnings: Nothing too bad right now, some mild threats to the reader, blaster firing

That night you struggled to sleep.

After the incident in the throne room you had eaten with Raab in the communal dining hall, where he had explained that you would need to work without him for a few days. He had been asked by Boba and Fennec to help them prepare for their journey to Jagba, and this took priority over the weapons log. You were flattered that Raab thought you capable enough to run the armoury by yourself, but you couldn’t help but ask the questions that the day had left you with.

“What actually is the Kostah deal?” you had asked tentatively, hoping you hadn’t overstepped.

“It’s a deal with the Kostah brothers,” Raab responded flatly.

“I gathered that, but why’s it so important?”

Raab finally looked up from his plate of food. He sent you an unimpressed look before sitting up in his chair and letting out a steady sigh.

“The Kostah brothers dominate the spice trade in the outer rim-” He relented “it’s been their industry for years. We’ve been able to co-exist with them for a while now, but recently they’ve gotten… ballsy”

“Ballsy how?”

“They’ve been aggravating certain crime syndicates, being lenient with others. Boba thinks they’re trying to generate allies so they can overthrow him,” Raab explained.

“But then why would he want to form a deal with them, if he thinks they’re plotting against him?” You leant across the table to talk, not wanting anyone else to overhear what you assumed was sensitive information.

“You sure do like your questions, huh?” Raab huffed “Well what is it they say… keep your friends close and your enemies closer? That’s all it is. Don’t worry yourself about it”

You had sat back up, sensing that was all you were going to get from Raab for now and chose instead to mull over your food.

Now you lay in your bed sleeplessly whilst trying to process the events of the day. You were still interested in the Kostah deal, what Raab had told you so far was enough to fuel your interest in the business of Boba’s empire.

You flip the pillow to the cold side and pull your blankets higher, trying for the umpteenth time to get comfortable enough to sleep. You wanted to be well rested tomorrow, keen to make sure you did your best on your first day working alone.

You woke up late the next morning.

Frantically you had leapt out of your bed, swearing and berating yourself as you dressed in a hurry. You couldn’t remember when you had eventually drifted off, but considering how groggy you still felt, you assumed it was much later than you had intended.

You didn’t have time to run to the dining hall, instead you grabbed a few stray ration packs you had lying around your room and promptly exited for the armoury. You hoped desperately that you wouldn’t bump into Raab before you arrived, not wanting him to think you were rushing.

The journey to the armoury didn’t take long. Rounding one last corner you come to the brassy metal doors of your workplace. You stop when you reach it, sighing and silently thanking the maker that you got here in good time.

Just as soon as your heart rate starts to settle, it suddenly spikes again. You notice the keypad, usually when you arrive the light above it is red, indicating the doors are sealed. Now, however, the light is gleaming green. The doors are unlocked.

You feel yourself begin to panic, perhaps Raab had decided to swing by before he leaves you alone for the day? Somehow you’re not convinced, Raab wasn’t one to baby you, he had given you a job and hadn’t told you to expect him, besides, he was busy helping Boba and Fennec prepare for their journey.

You quietly slipped through the door, not wanting to alert any potential intruder until you found out who they were. As you emerge into the large maze of weapon crates stacked high you wonder if you should go and find help.

You still. Somewhere in the armoury you could hear movement, the sound of somebody pushing the crates and boxes around. Your heart rate spiked; There was no way it could be Raab, but who else could have gained access?

You weren’t entirely sure what to do. Raab had assured you that nobody was allowed into the armoury without his permission, and he certainly would have told you if you should be expecting somebody whilst he was gone. Instinctively you reach for one of the smaller cases, as quietly as you could you flicked it open and pulled out the simple blaster it housed.

Feeling somewhat better protected, you continue to weave your way through the stacks of crates, getting closer to the source of the noises. As you round a corner you come upon the back of a person. They’re hunched over a crate, rummaging through it’s contents.

“Hey!” You snap, raising your blaster. The figure stilled but didn’t turn to face you.

“You’re not supposed to be in here,” you add, hoping to get more of a response.

The figure straightens up and you adjust your grip on the blaster rifle, keeping it trained on their back. You hope desperately that you won’t have to use it. Even at this close proximity you don’t have much faith that you’ll hit your target.

“You should watch your tongue when you speak to me.” The intruder turns to face you. It’s Yovu, the temperamental zabrak from Boba’s clique and despite the fact he’s a familiar face, you don’t feel at all comforted by his presence.

“You don’t have permission to be in here,” you insist, refusing to acknowledge his comment to you “I think you should leave”

Yovu curls his lip at you, pushing himself away from the crate and stalking slowly towards you.

“I’d be careful with that blaster little one,” he mocks “you might hurt yourself”

You bristle at that. From Boba that pet name feels like a gentle caress, both soothing and exciting your soul in the same way his gentle touch does, however from Yovu it’s the most disgusting thing you’ve ever been called. You elect to ignore his comment, you will not be threatened in your own workplace, especially not on your first day working alone.

“I said you need to leave. Now” you say, in what you hope is a decently assertive tone.

Yovu just scoffs at you. He continues to walk towards you, stopping briefly when his chest hits the barrel of your blaster before stepping closer to you, pushing the weapon towards your body.

“Boba may have picked you to be his little plaything, but that doesn’t make you special kid. You’re nothing, and you don’t get to make demands of people like me” He’s gotten so close to you that you can see every scar and line on his leathery, orange face. You refuse to back down despite the nerves you feel, instead you opt for pressing the blaster harder against his chest in warning.

As soon as he feels the pressure Yovu’s hand snaps up, grabbing roughly onto your upper arm and yanking you viciously. You cry out instinctively as pain erupts through your arm, crumpling slightly into his grip.

“What’s happening here?” A low voice calls from behind you. Relief rushes through you as you can tell without seeing him that it’s Boba.

Yovu looks slowly from Boba back to your face. He doesn’t release you straight away, opting instead to give you one last warning squeeze.

“I just came to see how our newest addition is settling in, that’s all” He says with false sincerity before quickly releasing you. You stumble back, trying to put as much space between you and the zabrak as possible.

Yovu stalks away, acknowledging his employer with a tight-lipped “Fett” and slinking from the armoury. When you’re both sure that Yovu has left, Boba turns to you. Between the blaster in your hand and the look of distress you’re sure is still plastered on your face you reckon Boba easily figures out that there’d been a little bit more than a pleasant chat between you and Yovu.

“Are you alright?” He asks, coming closer to you and offering to take the blaster from you. He moves in a similar way one would act around a spooked animal, but you can’t find it in you to mind all that much. You offer the blaster to him which he takes with one hand and reaches out to you with the other. You’re all too happy to let him rub away the residual pain Yovu left on your arm, and the gentle way he touches you has you practically melting into him.

“Yes, thank you,” You say, truly grateful for his intervention.

“What did he want?” Boba asks, you can tell that behind his visor he’s looking at the opened crate that Yovu had been searching through.

“I’m not sure. He was searching for something I think, and didn’t appreciate me telling him to leave”

Boba hums at your answer. He takes a deep breath, moving his hand from your arm and rest on your lower back to give it a comforting rub. Much to your embarrassment you can’t help but press against him, enjoying the protective stance he’s taken.

“What about you?” You pipe up, breaking Boba’s gaze away from the weapons crate and bringing it down to you. “What did you come here for? I thought you’d be busy preparing to fly to Jagba”

Boba huffs a laugh and breaks away from you. You’re embarrassed at how your body attempts to follow him without thinking but you hold your ground, watching instead as Boba crosses to the open crate and peering inside.

“I came here to see you,” Boba says casually.

“Me?” you parrot, your heartrate spiking suddenly.

“Yes you, little one. I wanted to apologise for cutting our conversation short yesterday.” He closes the crate’s lid and turns back around to you, leaning slightly against the now closed box.

He studies you with measured amusement, you’re sure he can tell how flustered he’s got you right now. You swallow, determined to not make a fool of yourself.

“That’s alright. I saw how important that deal was, you needed to go” you manage.

“But we were also having an important discussion,” He says, but you honestly can’t think about much that was said yesterday other than the way he had touched your leg “and you never answered my question.”

His voice was laced with humour, teasing in a way that seems much too tender for this hardened warrior.

“What question?” You ask through a slight laugh.

“About if you wanted me to teach you to shoot,” He answers, raising the blaster he had taken from you in his hand.

“Oh.” The conversation comes flooding back to you, and you find yourself blushing furiously.

Boba waits for your answer expectantly, but inside your head there’s a conflict of interests gathering momentum. On the one hand the possibility of spending more time with Boba is almost too intoxicating to deny. On the other, the thought of him seeing how pitiful you are with a blaster is more embarrassing than you’d ever care to admit.

“It might take a while to teach me, I’m really not that good” You joke instead of answering.

That doesn’t seem to perturb Boba. With one hand he reaches up and removes his helmet, turning to place it on the closed crate behind him.

“You can’t be that bad”

You huff out a nervous laugh because you absolutely can be that bad and watch as Boba crosses over to you, offering the blaster back. You shoot him an unconvinced look, but the almost tenderly amused way he’s looking back convinces you to accept. You tentatively take the blaster from him.

“Shoot my helmet” He instructs, stepping back to give you a good view of the green beskar.

It’s not that far. Realistically you should be able to hit it, but the nervousness caused by having an audience you so desperately want to impress has your vision practically swimming.

“You could start by lifting your blaster”

You jump a little as Boba’s voice snaps you out of your internal monologue, only to find that he’s come to stand behind you. His arms wrap around you to gently grip your forearms, raising the blaster for you. Your back is pressed firmly against beskar chest, and you’re convinced that even through all that metal he can probably still feel the tremor that runs down your spine.

You readjust your grip on the blaster, aim it as best you can, and pull the trigger.

You shut your eyes to the bright red charge emitted and the force with which the blaster goes off rocks you further back into Boba’s chest. His arm wraps around your waist to steady you and stays there as he lets you come back to yourself. You eventually open your eyes, only to be faced with the sight of Boba’s visor staring back at you, unmoving from its spot atop the crate.

“Huh” Boba says beside your ear “Well, good thing I’ve got time to spare”

You blush wildly with embarrassment at his words. You’d been fighting since the first time you met him not to make a fool of yourself, but despite your best efforts that hasn’t been going according to plan. Now you have to deal with the fact that the best warrior this side of the galaxy knows you are his exact opposite, the single worst shooter in existence.

“When I get back from Jagba I’ll arrange a proper training session. I’ll have you shooting like a pro in no time,” He says, giving your hip a firm squeeze before going to retrieve his helmet.

“Don’t set your standards too high” you say lightly, attempting to joke away your embarrassment “I think I might be a lost cause with a blaster”

Boba pauses at that, huffing out a tiny, amused laugh before fixing his helmet back over his head. He turns to you, swaggering back over and stopping dangerously close to you. You refuse to step back, even as his hand comes up to gently hold your jaw in place.

“I could turn the dullest gungan into the best marksman this galaxy has ever seen if I wanted to. I’ll make you a good shot, Princess. Don’t worry.” His voice is low, dangerous and full of exciting promises that have you utterly intoxicated, if he wasn’t holding your chin so firmly you reckon you would have melted into the floor.

Boba lets you go, and you watch unmovingly as he disappears towards the exit of the armoury leaving you entirely transfixed and far too distracted to think about your work.

So much for knocking this silly infatuation.

#boba fett #boba fett x reader #boba fett imagine #boba fett imagines #the mandalorian #star wars #star wars x reader #star wars imagines #my writing #our ultimatum

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letterstomilen · 4 years ago

Text

i discuss the classification of igneous petrology as you fall asleep during my lecture (PART 1) (ASMR)

Childe/Zhongli, Alternate Universe (read part 2 here) When Childe's younger sister tells him about the volunteer at the library, he does not make the connection between that and his new favorite ASMR YouTuber, Rex Lapis.

Childe has a very effective method of getting through college. His little sister, who’s caught him making coffee at three in the morning on more than one occasion the past week alone, would beg to differ.

“You’re the best older brother,” she starts off, and he’s sure she’s trying to convince herself more than him at this point, “but you need to fix your sleeping habits.” Then, because she’s his little sister, she’d flash him a smile and pat his shoulder reassuringly.

(The comment is not lost on him though. He understands his sleeping situation will eventually wear him down if it hadn’t already, but he believes if he’ll drink a coffee every morning and a Monster every night, he’ll get through three days. By the third day, he’ll hardly be coherent but that doesn’t matter because he’ll conk out for the next twelve hours and then repeat.)

“Don’t worry, Tonia,” he says, trying to sound as reassuring as possible as he contemplates whether it’s worth it or not to swallow a pill of 5-hour energy with his morning coffee. “Once break ends, I’ll get back to normal.”

“You said that six seasons ago.”

Childe frowns, trying to remember if his sleeping schedule was this dysfunctional last year. “Huh?”

“The Walking Dead seasons,” Tonia clarifies, as if she’s not twelve years old and the show is for grown adults. He thinks. He hasn’t checked Commonsensemedia ever since La Signora labeled him as a “helicopter parent” and his Netflix tab has been playing How to Get Away with Murder as background noise for the past few weeks.

Isn’t it a show about zombies though? Tonia’s sheepish smile tells it all, because it’s the same exact guilty look he had when he got caught red-handed as a kid.

(Once he remembers later, Childe promises himself, he’ll check out The Walking Dead.)

“Oh. Well. I have a lot of shows to catch up on, you know. Not to mention a ton of my professors gave me reading for over the break.”

A half lie. They did give him a lot of reading because each professor assumed that their classes were his only one, and with seven days left, he still has a textbook worth of reading to go through. But there are no shows that Childe would sacrifice his precious sleep for. As a matter of fact, he would love to sleep. He’s spent the majority of his classes back in high school sleeping and faking attention, saving his grade at the last minute — it was quite the extreme sport really, if he says so himself.

Whenever he tries to sleep recently, his thoughts run at several hundred miles per hour, and he spends several hours staring at the ceiling before succumbing to the computer at his desk and watching trashy movies. At this point, he must have gone through the entire romance comedy list on Netflix. (Not a proud point in his life but if anybody ever wanted him to give a list of best to worst romance comedy movies, he now has one.)

Tonia, on the other hand, isn’t incredibly convinced.

Admittedly, the excuse was lame. Also, he can’t easily lie to his little sister, who’s far shrewder than he takes her for at times.

“You never start your reading in advance. You like to speed read it right before your class or watch a five-minute video on the chapters while your teachers take attendance. But that’s… uh, ‘a bad work ethic.’” Tonia looks immensely proud of herself as she says this, finishing it off with, “Zhongli told me that.”

“Zhongli?” he repeats, trying to remember if that’s one of her classmates or some stranger that’s hoping to kidnap his sister.

“The guy that volunteers at the library sometimes. He recommended me a loot of good books to read, but he talks like an old man.”

“How old?” Childe can tell she’s enjoying this — talking about her new friend at the library that he’ll probably have to run a background check on.

“Like he’s in his sixties or something. But he looks… actually, he looks your age! And he’s a student too. I told him all about you.”

Well, that doesn’t sound very reassuring coming from the mouth of a twelve-year-old. He’s not sure if that translates to his social security number, his current dilemma, or just that he’s her older brother.

“Like all of the stories you told me when I was a kid. And then when Lumine came to pick me up, she stayed to show him pictures of you too.”

“Of course she did,” he mumbles, ruffling her hair. One of these days he’s going to move without telling his classmates and the twins won’t enter his apartment unannounced. (But Tonia adores their company and the stories they tell her far too much for him to actually do it. But that doesn’t mean he’s above making threats when they tell his little sister about the bet he made about white-out and how it could dye hair. The jury is still out on this one.) “She’s just mad because I get away with it and she doesn’t. But don’t do it yourself. It’s a bad habit,” he adds, remembering that he should at least try to be a good influence on his younger sister when he can.

“Okaaay,” she says unconvincingly, before shaking her hair and running off to her room with lunch he prepared for her.

Watching her close the door and no doubt continue her binge of The Walking Dead, he takes out his phone and texts Lumine.

Childe