#and it does makes pt want to kill them so so bad btw

[akechi-if-he-slayed]

unhinged shuake

[angelsdxmise]

ORPHIC

𓆩ᥫ᭡𓆪 when Bakugou is paired with a girl that’s not spared a glance for a project, he wants to explode. Why does his mind keep going blank when he looks at you then?

Contains: g/n reader, profanity, midoriya trying to be ur friend 😭. if I forgot anything, tell me please ❤️

a/n: oml 2.3k words. doesn’t seem like much but this is actually my longest fic and im debating a pt 2.. btw, send requests please! 💕

PART TWO

Monotone. Dead. Bored. Creepy?

When Bakugou thought of you, he thought these four words exactly. Unable to even recall the last time you smiled, laughed, or even spoke really.��

Not like he found any interest in you. He didn’t think of you on the daily, which is why he let out a groan at the announcement from Aizawa, saying you two would be paired for a research project on each other's quirks.

Which means you two are required to talk. Adding onto that, today was the only day you could work in class since there was no time or reason to put project hours into valuable class time.

“You have 10 minutes before the next bell. Go meet up with your partners, and no, I am not switching anyone.” Aizawa grumbled in his constantly tired state, slumping down in his sleeping bag and knocking himself out.

Bakugou huffed as he spotted Kirishima and Kaminari throwing a thumbs-up his way, smiling and winking at him. He was already thinking of how to kill them but set it aside as he made his way over to you.

Uninterested is an understatement. All you did was stare at your notebook with your head resting on your palm. Occasional sighs came out if anyone was lucky that day.

Bakugou took the seat in front of you and faced you in his chair. “L/n, are you dead or something?” Fury built up inside of his head as you didn’t even spare him a glance.

He slammed his palm against the desk, and you flinched at the sound, finally looking straight at him. Of course, it filled his ego in the slightest when he scared someone. “Meet me at my dorm at 5:30. Don’t be late, extra. I’ll tell Aizawa you’re slacking if you even dare giving me extra crap.” He grunted. 

“Ehh.. mkay.. I guess.” You muttered. Your eyes turned away from him and looked out the window as if you just wanted to get this over with. It wasn’t necessary to look at Bakugou anyway, you could feel the wrath coming from him. Did I just make him more mad?.. What did I say? You pondered as you avoided his hellish and terrifying gaze to say the least.

Bakugou scoffed before he could get to screaming at you for no reason. He stood with his hands in his ridiculously baggy pants and sulked away as you sighed and thanked your guardian angel.

Unfortunately, 5 came faster than you had thought. You wanted to cry as you put your face in your pillows, really not wanting to deal with someone like him.

He was unfit for you. You distanced yourself from everyone for a reason, there’s too much noise, unnecessary excitement, and a waste of your time. These were the things you thought to justify your actions.

The truth was, you wouldn’t be lonely if you chose to. The most insistent ones were Mina and Hagakure, a friendship that you believed the devil brewed up in hell just so they could annoy the absolute shit out of you.

They did seem truly disappointed when you continuously declined their advances.

I guess I do feel a little bad..

The clock hit 5:24, and you groaned as you sat up in bed to grab your laptop and notebook, stuffing it in your bag. You let out a strained sigh and made your way to his dormitory.

You hesitantly raised your fist up to the door, quickly knocking and awaiting a response.

Is he not here? you stared at the door, a bored expression on your face although you wanted to rip all your hair out at what was lying on the other side.

 

“Door’s open.” A raspy voice came from within. The handle turned and you were met with Bakugou and his materials to get the project done sprawled out on the bed. You felt like a lost puppy.

“Are you gonna stand there or work on this?”

“Sorry.” You mumbled as you took skittish steps toward his bed. You carefully moved a few things out of the way and put your back against the wall, and took your laptop and notebook out. You nearly died when you forgot your pencil and came to the conclusion that you’d have to ask for one.

It’s just a pencil.. I’m fine, right? Oh god.. I’m gonna jump out the window. You sprawled deeper into your demise. A voice snaps you out of it and you realize sweat is forming on your hairline. “I already added you to the slides. You’ll do the bottom half and I’ll do the first including the introduction. Got it, extra?” 

“Sure..” You gulped, taking a deep breath. He wouldn’t get mad at you for just a silly pencil, right? Surely that’s ridiculous.

“By the way, do you have an extra pencil? I kinda forgot mine just cause—” You felt something hit you right in the forehead, thankfully on the eraser side. “Are you kidding? Can’t even bring a pencil. I’m failing this for sure.” He growled, a hint of malice in his tone as he glared at you.

“It’s just a pencil.. relax.” You shot back at him.

“Don’t tell mE TO RELAX!!” 

“Oh my god, you’re turning red from how angry you are.” You snickered. Why are you entertaining this? “I know practically enough about your quirk, so I’m clear for my slides. No help needed.”

“Hah? How? I’ve never spoken to you a day in my life.” He asked. A bead of sweat glided across your cheek as that was one of the worst questions he could’ve asked.

What actually happened was that you had asked Midoriya for his notes on Bakugou. Truthfully, you thought you had said, “Hey Midoriya, can I see your notes on Bakugou?” but you assumed that Midoriya must have thought you were going to stab him to death if he didn’t give you what you wanted, due to how monotone and serious your tone and voice was.

You debated between saying Midoriya or no reason at all. If you went with the second option, he would probably think you're a stalker. You cared about your reputation even if you didn’t have many people around.. which made people assume things about you without anyone telling them what was true or not.

“Don’t get mad because I know he’s your absolute nemesis. Midoriya gave me his notes on your quirk and how it works.” You muttered out, a little stammer in your voice as you realized Bakugou was giving you an, “I’m going to kill you and that damn nerd” look. 

Your eyes wandered away from his as he tried to keep his cool when he realized he was staring a little and observing you.

You did have emotions and weren’t a robot. In fact, you were kind of charming. You were expressive when you spoke to someone too. He blinked out of his trance when he saw you take your notebook and open it to underline the most important details about his quirk. 

“Are you gonna explain your quirk to me or not?” He growled, trying to forget the fact he was just crushing on you for a moment.

You fought back a dramatic sigh “Right..”

You stretched your back and cracked your knuckles as you came to a realization.

What time even is it?

You look down to the corner of the screen. 7:42 PM. Good enough. I’m not surprised we haven’t talked for 2 hours despite the fact we’re sitting next to each other.. You close your laptop and it seems to bring Bakugou’s attention to yourself. 

“What’re you doing? There’s still more work to be done, extra!” He hissed, a deadly look sent your way. “I’m.. leaving? We’ve been at work for over 2 hours straight.” 

“And?” Bakugou toned down a little suddenly. Wait, why the hell am I trying to get this random to stay? He thought.

“And I just so happen to have the desire to leave, so bye.” She quickly got up and closed the door while leaving before he could protest further. 

A sigh of relief left your lips upon being free from his room. God, talk about being nervous. You walked back to your room, set your bag aside, and flopped face-first on your bed. 

You rolled over and could feel sleep creeping upon you, and you accepted it although you realized you hadn’t changed into your pajamas. Oh well, tomorrow was the weekend anyway.

The sun rose and you could hear the birds singing a familiar tune, as they did every morning. Light peeked through your drapes as you let out a tired groan. You could hear the chatter of your classmates downstairs. A yawn left your lips as you sat up to stretch your back.

Deciding between passing out again or showering and starting your somewhat lazy day, you choose to freshen up and wear pajamas for your day. You wanted to finish the project quickly so you could have the rest of the day to not worry about due dates or grades, so you decided to tinkle your slides a bit on your own time.

You also worried about Bakugou’s aggression and malice while drying your hair some more. “Wonder who put a stick up his ass.” You chuckled to yourself as you applied your skincare.

Your classmates didn’t seem to spare you much of a glance when you walked into the kitchen, as per usual. You did want it this way, right? Even if it hurts you a little when you realize they were spending time together. Even if it hurts when you realize they made breakfast for everyone.

Bakugou, Asui, and Koda weren’t downstairs but you had seen leftovers for them on the counter with their names on it.

You did not find yours, and when you realized a bit of embarrassment dared to show on your face. As you were sulking off to spend your day in your dorm, bored, you felt a tap on your shoulder.

“L/n?” 

You turned around and were met with Midoriya's face as he held a plate of food. Wonder what he needs me for. “Yeah..?”

“I saw when you were coming down since you came a little after I did, and the class left me some of the food but I wasn’t really hungry and didn’t see any out for you so.. are you uh.. hungry perhaps?” Midoriya stammered out with a small smile. You had the tiniest smile on your face. 

“Sure I am. Thank you.” You chimed. You never would’ve thought Midoriya was paying attention. But, that’s what he did right? He paid attention to every little detail. What you and Midoriya had both failed to notice was when Bakugou came down to get food and was staring directly at you from where he stood with his friends.

He felt a hint of jealousy at the sight of Midoriya being able to get you to smile. A small hint of regret at not coming down earlier and being the one to offer food. But, Bakugou doesn’t do that nice crap. It’s a waste of time.. right? So…

Why did he start to get a desperate desire and drive to make you smile like that at him? To show any sort of emotion? And why is it that he wanted the specific emotion to be happiness?

Walls of anger dissipated when he looked at you. He was staring. Again. Have you always been this enchanting? You made him question his thoughts. No way he was falling for some extra who barely even had emotions.

He didn’t know if you were opposites or similar in some ways. 

He snapped out of his trance once again, attempting to focus on the conversation his friends were practically begging for him to join. You started walking away a little while after having a little chat with Midoriya. 

And boy, did he look really happy after he spoke to you. Bakugou has never felt more.. irritated. Midoriya was getting another thing that he wants. Another accomplishment and doing something Bakugou can’t dream of doing.

God, what was he saying? Why was his mind so hyper-focused on you?

Little did he know, you’d been sweating because you could feel his eyes practically burning your flesh away. You had to admit to yourself, you were growing to enjoy Midoriya's presence after that meeting.

He sighed and dismissed his friends as they groaned and Sero barked out a “Did you really think he cared?” as he left for his room.

Finally, upon his arrival, he closed the door behind him and sat on his bed, lost in his thoughts. He thought of how you would be in fact, meeting later today. A growl left him as he denied his emotions. Of course, he could never care for some extra who just so happens to be attractive and in the same class and just so happens to be similar to him in a way.

Of course not. A waste of time is all it is. He doesn’t have time for you. 

Right?

7/4/24 ~ Thank you for reading, please consider reblogging/liking/following, or if you want a pt. 2. 🫶🏽

[heliads]

this city reeks of driving myself crazy

Jack Hughes misses his captain. Nico Hischier isn't acting like he misses Jack. Obviously, there are going to be problems.

masterlist

Nico is coming back from the mens’ world championships. Jack is trying not to act as if he has been waiting for this since the moment Nico left. 

The thought occurs to him halfway through physical therapy. Jack is in the middle of fifteen reps of some bullshit exercise involving resistance bands and a great deal of relief that no one can see him like this when he realizes that, soon, a plane will touch down and a man will get off, and that man will be Nico, and maybe everything will be okay again after all. 

Not everything, obviously. Nico coming back does not remove Jack’s shoulder surgery from this plane of existence, though, trusting his captain, it’ll probably make him feel a little better about it. Jack has already heard far too many whispers taking great delight in his absence— all it takes is one injury, and people are throwing words out there like career-ending and out for good. Nico would never say that. He would look at Jack thoughtfully, carefully, and tell him he expects to see Jack out on the ice again as soon as he can. Jack would do it, too. Anything if asked. He is a dog left at home too long, scratching at the door, waiting for the footsteps approaching down the hall to tell him he is not alone anymore. Someone will come for him, and then he will be alright. 

Jack will not tolerate the idea of a career-ending anything. The idea makes him sick to his stomach. He could never do anything but play. Being a spectator just might make Jack lose it once and for all. Imagining his team, his Devils, shooting back and forth across the ice, hearing the clash of the puck against their sticks, and then being separated from it all on the other side of the plastic dividers— it would drive him mad. Watching them win or lose and being unable to do a thing. Knowing he was no better than any of the other fans in the audience. He could wear a cheap copy of Nico’s jersey and jump up in his seat whenever the Devils scored and it would kill him more decisively than a gun to the head. 

So Jack does the stupid PT and he takes his pain meds and he goes to bed early, doesn’t drink, watches himself and his temper. And the door, mainly. Wondering if Nico will take him up on the offer he made a few days before the plane takes off:  Congrats man! U can come by my place to catch up if u want btw. 

He’d sent the text, bit back a scream, hurled his phone across the room to land on the sofa, immediately scurried over to check if Nico had responded (he had not), screamed for real this time, then taken more pills and stared at the ceiling for a while. All in a day’s work. 

And, when he checked back in the next morning, there was no return message. Nor the next day, either. It pisses Jack off to no end. Everyone’s always on their phones. There’s no way Nico hasn’t seen the text, so he simply isn’t responding because he doesn’t feel like it, which is just mean to such a good team player as Jack Hughes.

Stewing in his own self-righteous irritation, Jack intentionally ignores Nico’s text when it comes three days late. He glares at the notification bitterly, hoping that Nico can somehow sense it on the other end. Jack goes on Instagram in the hopes of distracting himself, but ends up seeing a post on how Nico’s plane has landed back in the States.

He’s back, then. Against his best intentions, Jack checks the text. Nico, 3 AM, Yeah, for sure. No date, no time for a meet-up. A pacifying answer that has absolutely no pacifying effect. Jack rages and rambles for two hours before he caves and texts back, was the flight good?

Twenty minutes later, the phone dings. Jack dives for it, immediately cursing his bad shoulder when it starts to twinge, and holds up the phone in trembling fingers only to register that Nico has replied with a thumbs up.

He’s going to slaughter the captain. He’s going to slaughter the captain and become the new captain and never do this to anyone ever again, ever. This is so stupid. Nico is capable of texting. Jack is capable of responding normally to a friendship disrupted by frequent flights and international games and only one of them having a fucked up shoulder. Right now, though, neither of them are acting like it.

He is proud of Nico, of course. Glad for him to have that opportunity and all that. But the ice seems extra cold when it’s quiet, and Jack hasn’t been able to feel his fingers in weeks, too many days below zero. He wants Nico back. Of course he does. He just hadn’t expected the wanting to take over him like this, wrapping brittle bones and surgery scars in a dense web of hurt that not even the painkillers can dull. 

Jack tries not to let the silence bother him, but, of course, it does. He goes to PT again. He calls his brothers one by one and hears them talk. He cleans up his apartment in case he gets a visitor, and maybe karma truly is real, because after several days of being a Good Person, Nico finally texts back and says, I can drop by Thurs evening if that’s cool?

Immediately, a jealous demon in his chest tells Jack that he should ignore Nico, just to get him back. Let Nico be the one waiting on the other line, wondering what he did to deserve the silence. Jack’s super good at being bitter if he wants it, and he feels mistreated enough to lash out.

Yeah. Sounds good.

He sends the text with his eyes closed, as if that makes it better. Like it isn’t Jack who caves but someone else, a doppelganger in Devils sweatpants slumped on the sofa in his apartment. Not his fault. Another thumbs up in response, which brings the anger back in force. Nico, of course, has the time to be casual in his responses. He’s the one who gets to swing by out of the blue. He can do anything he wants to, and Jack simply has to respect that.

When Thursday comes around, Jack finds himself mad enough to bite. It isn’t a good way to greet his captain. It isn’t a good way to meet with his friend. But Jack has been ignored for so long– calls unanswered, texts left on read– and he’s always devoured Nico’s attention far more greedily than anyone else. It’s not his fault that the crushing isolation left him sharp and smarting.

A knock on the door echoes around the problem, temporarily startling Jack out of the acidic monotony of his thoughts. He doesn’t need to check the door to know who it is. Only Nico would drop by like this, unannounced. Only Nico would assume Jack would be there to meet him with the bare minimum of text messages.

He could make Nico wait, and Jack certainly takes his time getting to the door, but then he’s hovering in front of the peephole and he can see a silhouette idling there for him, and it’s been so long since he saw Nico at all that Jack knows he doesn’t have it in him to keep Nico lingering any longer. Whatever happens, happens. But at least he’ll have a good face to look at in the meantime.

Jack’s hand jerks out, heavy on the knob, and then he swings the door open to reveal Nico standing there, hanging back from the threshold. His dark hair has crept out over his eyes, and it hides his face even more than the shadows of the poor high lighting. The contrast from the gasping fluorescents overhead paints dark hollows under his eyes, dramatic on his cheekbones. 

It reminds Jack of the Baroque portraits from the art museum the Devils had visited a while back. The PR agents wanted the players to seem more well-rounded or something. Bullshit. Jack had hated the trip, bored almost to tears with the slow pace of their guide, and he hates it now. Jack doesn’t want perfect art. He wants something real for the first time in months, and seeing his flawlessly posed captain makes him want to dirty that good bone structure with blood or his knuckles. Or both.

Nico raises his tragically beautiful eyes to Jack, waiting for something. Still brimming with bitterness, Jack says roughly, “Good to see you again,” and jerks his chin towards the inside of his apartment.

Nico takes the hint and slides past Jack, somehow able to go without touching him even though Jack had barely left him a few inches of room. Smooth on and off the ice. It’s so fucking unfair.

“Nice place,” Nico says, tugging off his coat and depositing it on a nearby kitchen chair.

“You’ve been here before,” Jack mutters.

Nico glances back towards him, arching a thick brow. “Does that mean I should say it looks like shit, then? It’s still nice even if this isn’t my first time seeing it.”

Jack laughs before he can choke it out. Although Nico hadn’t given any indication of being worried, his face relaxes microscopically. There’s no change Jack can name, nothing obvious like falling brows or slackening cheeks, but he knows the shift in feeling like it happened to himself.

“How’s the injury?” Nico asks, walking back to him.

“How do you think?” Jack spits, looking at the ground.

Nico tsks under his breath. “That bad, huh?”

“It’s fine,” Jack says out of impulse. “The guys at PT say I’ll be back on ice soon. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not just worried about what happens to you on the ice,” Nico says, voice low. “Off the ice matters too.”

Jack wants to laugh. He doesn’t, this time. Nothing’s funny. “You have some way of showing it.”

Nico does manage to look distinctly embarrassed this time. “I was busy,” he says simply.

It’s a bullshit excuse and Nico knows it too, so he covers for it by tugging impatiently at the thick material of Jack’s shirt. “Show me.”

“What?” Jack asks, tough demeanor seriously slipping for the first time all night.

“The shoulder,” Nico says, as if this is a normal thing to ask after being alone in Jack’s apartment with no one except Jack to ask what the fuck is going on. “Show me. I want to see how bad it looks.”

“It’s a shoulder,” Jack mumbles. “Imagine it.”

Nico fixes him with a look, one brow half cocked. Jack knows this look from practices, from games. It means, do you really want to fight me on this one? Jack usually does, but even this is too stupid a battle for him to pick, so he shuts up long enough to bat Nico’s hand off his shirt like a fleck of dust and do as told. He had meant to pull the top off in one smooth movement, but his shoulder disagrees midway through and the motion ends up being a little more awkward than he’d hoped.

Then he’s standing in front of Nico, shirt off, and under the overhead light of his kitchen, he feels far more on display than he likes. Jack has shown far more bruised and battered skin than this, of course, years’ worth of locker rooms have long since stripped him of any shame around teammates, but it’s different like this. Like this– with no other eyes than Nico’s, which swoop over him with such obvious care that hot embarrassment starts to churn deep in Jack’s stomach. He doesn’t like the feeling, but he doesn’t put the shirt back on, either. Or tell Nico to stop looking.

Nico’s hand darts out again, like he can’t stop himself. The fingers rise to Jack’s shoulder, ghosting over the skin. At first, Nico’s touch is gentle, and then he finds a slow-blossoming bruise and presses, not sharply enough to hurt but enough to make the dull ache bloom again in the precise shape of Nico’s thumb. Caught in the force of it, the air leaves Jack’s lungs in a low groan that seems to catch in his chest, deep in his throat.

He expects Nico to snatch his hand away and start making apologies like everyone else when they find out what a broken little thing he really is, but instead, Nico leans forward, into the sound. He doesn’t press any harder, but he looks like he wants to. And Jack– Jack might want that, too.

Nico’s tongue appears at the corner of his mouth, licking his lips before he continues. Jack watches with the hunger of a famine. “You should be careful,” Nico says huskily.

“Why?” Jack asks, fighting to keep his voice casual. “Going to bench me, cap?”

Nico’s hand spasms slightly, thumb curling further into the dark flower of the bruise before he stops himself. Jack can’t remember if he’s ever seen Nico react to the title like that, but Nico hasn’t had his hands on Jack like this before, either.

“I could do anything,” Nico whispers. Jack isn’t sure if they’re talking about hockey anymore. He isn’t sure that they ever were.

He snickers. “You can’t keep me off forever.”

Nico drags his gaze from the bruise to Jack’s eyes. “You always were the troublemaker, weren’t you? Not even Dawson’s as bad. Not even Luke. Always mouthing off.”

Something shifts indignantly in the pit of Jack’s stomach at the mention of his brother. He’d do anything to get Nico’s focus off Luke and back on him, where it belongs, so he says, “What’re you going to do? Shut me up?”

“Maybe,” Nico hesitates over the word, drawing out the syllables as he trails his hand away from the bruise and onto the thin, puckered line of a scar along Jack’s shoulder. He grazes his nails over the hardened skin, making Jack hiss, not from hurt but something else, something worse and better at the same time.

With Nico focused on the scar and not Jack anymore, he’s free to say something stupid again, no longer pinned under the weight of two dark eyes. So he grins, wide and bold and goddamn brainless, and says, “Make me.”

Nico’s eyes snap up to his again. There is an unwritten rule in hockey, practically a mandate, that the captain is the captain for a reason, and if anyone tries to fight that, it is the captain’s moral obligation to prove why he’s wearing the C and not anyone else. Even if the one causing trouble is an alternate. Even if it’s Jack.

Nico’s mouth is hot and assertive when it collides with Jack’s. Jack was ready for something but not for this, and he stumbles back from the force of the kiss. Nico’s arm whips behind him, catching Jack by the hip and bringing him back in, stopping him from a fall. Jack is reminded vividly of all the times they’re on the ice, one of them crashing into the other; the natural, instinctive urge to latch on and never let go. 

Nico’s eyes are closed and then Jack’s are, too. He lets the kiss swallow him whole, blocking out the shoulder and the games and everything else. Jack thinks he could stay there forever, hooked on Nico like his first drink, but then the older boy breaks away, even when Jack tries to chase his lips, needy as ever. Nico leans his forehead on Jack’s, both of them breathing hard like they’ve run a mile. 

“See? I like you quiet,” Nico says, breath gusting onto Jack’s face with every word.

“Shut up,” Jack says, and kisses him again, biting Nico’s lip petulantly to get him back.

Nico just chuckles, curling his free hand into the back of Jack’s head. Jack actually gasps when Nico tugs his hair, giving Nico more of his mouth, letting the kiss take him apart again and again. 

This time, Jack is the one to pull away first, and in the sliver of space between their lips Nico whispers, “I missed you.”

“You haven’t been acting like it,” Jack mutters, and squirms when Nico knots his fingers in Jack’s hair again.

“That’s what the attitude is about? I forgot to respond to a few texts and you get all stubborn?” Nico asks incredulously.

“It wasn’t just a few texts,” Jack pouts, “You keep ditching me. Thought you didn’t want to talk to me at all.”

Nico pulls away for real this time, leans back far enough that Jack can see his entire face instead of snatches of lips and eyes and red cheeks. The look on his face, it isn’t angry or annoyed– it’s fond. Satisfied. “I always want to talk to you, Jack. Don’t you know that?”

“I didn’t when you were ignoring me,” Jack murmurs.

The hand in his hair relaxes, combing gently through the locks instead of twisting them. “Alright,” Nico says, still painfully enamored, “That’s my mistake, then. Let me apologize.”

Jack lets him. Happily. The offseason is long. If he tries, he can drag this out for a long time, make Nico make it up to him for months. Jack isn’t ashamed to admit that he’ll do it as long as he can. Better yet, Nico will let him, and know what he’s up to the whole time anyway.

That’s the best part about them, Jack supposes. They know each other. On and off the ice. On and off each other. Maybe it’ll be a long summer, but God, it’s going to be a good one.

hockey tag list: empty for now!

talked about this to @faerieroyal ily

all tags list: @wordsarelife

[aanoia]

Crazy

Kaz Brekker x reader

Summary; the enemy of your enemy is your friend... unless they are also your enemy

Warnings; blood?, knives, uhhhh violence lmfao, enemies to lovers

Words; 2,000+

This didn't end the way I wanted it to but that's okay

The inspo was from the song Trouble by Valerie Broussard

I'm prolly gonna make a pt. 2 bc im cool

Btw,, when introducing the Night Scarlets, each member will have their code name like this, name (code name)

We wear red so they don’t see us bleed

Kaz Brekker hated many, many people. However, there was one group, in particular their leader, that he hated most. The Night Scarlets. Or the Cardinal, their leader. She has been after Kaz since he joined the business. She and her girls have stolen countless of missions right from under his nose, always having his Crows do the work then swooping in and taking over. She infuriated her.

Hundred dollar bills under our sleeve

We intend not to sleep ‘til we’re dead

The thing Kaz never understood was how. How did she know everything he had planned? He had thought it was spies at first, possibly he had a rat in his nest. But no. Even when he went on solo missions. The Cardinal would always know. 

Drink our problems right out of our heads

Singing oh, oh-oh-oh, oh

Trouble

(Trouble)

Singing oh, oh-oh-oh, oh

Here comes trouble

(Trouble)

“Now, not a word to a single soul about this mission. Hear me?” Kaz asked lowly to his Crows. “If the Night Scarlets find out about this and ambush us I will take each of your hands and shove them down your throats. Am I understood?” The Crows nodded nervously.

“Kaz.” Inej started. “You do know we’ve never said anything before, right? I don’t know how but they always find out, whether we talk or not. She always knows.”

Kaz sighed, “I know.” He answered shortly, turning to look out the window.

Dangerously havin’ the time of our lives

These boys are just poisonous thorns in our sides

“So what do we do about them? I mean, I love the ladies, don’t get me wrong. But these ones gotta go.” Jesper said, toying with his new gun he had just stolen.

“I don’t know if there’s anything we can do, Jesper. They’re practically non existent when they aren’t in action.” Nina responded.

“I mean, there has to be a way to catch them. No one can be completely invisible forever.” Wylan said, his brain running through thousands of possibilities. “Maybe we can set a trap for them?”

Matthias snorted, “They’ll turn that into a trap against us. Bad idea.”

“Well, we need to do something. I need money!” Jesper argued.

“You don’t need it, you’re just going to gamble it all!” Wylan said, raising his voice slightly.

Starting fires wherever we go

Watching ‘em gamble everything they own

The group stopped arguing as the sound of glass breaking filled the room. KAz swung his cane one more time and a strangled bird cry came out. He stuck his hand out the broken window and grabbed the bird. Throwing it onto the table in anger.

“A cardinal.” Inej whispered.

Kaz slammed his hand down on the table, “She knows! She knows! How does she always know!” He yelled, picking up a glass and throwing it all the wall, causing Nina to flinch and Jesper instinctively step closer to Wylan. Kaz looked up with death in his eyes. “Change of plans. We’re killing the Cardinal. No matter the cost.

Singing oh, oh-oh-oh, oh

Trouble

(Trouble)

“Ready girls?” Y/n whispered into the small, barely workable communication device that her Fabrikator, Aisha (Raven), had been working on for months. 

“Yeah.” Luna (Eagle) whispered back.

“Ready, C.” Patty (Hawk) responded.

“Steph?” Y/n asked as she pulled her dark red hood over her head.

A few grunts were heard before Stephanie's ( voice filled their ears, “Yep, ready boss.”

Y/n smiled as she began to climb down the walls of the building to the top window, careful to stay out of the Wraiths' sight. “Great. Let’s commit some crimes. Shall we?”

Stephanie giggles, the clicking of her guns being prominent. “Oh, we shall. Ooo, my fellow sharpshooter, my favorite.” 

The line went quiet as Y/n carefully crawled through the opened window, landing silently in the office. She walked briskly to the desk, quietly rummaging through the drawers. She let out a gasp as her arm was pulled back and a familiar cane wrapped around her neck, causing her back to be flush against someone's chest.

Trouble coming in the dead of night

Trouble making everything alright

“Looking for something?” Kaz said quietly into her ear, proud as to finally catch the Cardinal. 

Y/n sighed with a smirk, “Yes. I am.” She said before kicking out his leg, being sure to not hit his bad one. He grunted and took a step back, keeping the cane around her throat. She took the chance to duck out of the way and push him back against the wall, raising her dagger in between the two.

“Y’know, I was very offended to find out you killed my bird.” Y/n said, her hood shielding her eyes.

“Should’ve told it to stay away. The Crow is stronger than the Cardinal after all.”

Y/n laughed, “Oh, Kaz. You should know by now strength is not the most valuable trait of this lifestyle. It’s intelligence-” Kaz’s eyes widened.

“In which I’d have the upperhand on both of you.” A new voice said as two arms knocked the dagger from Y/n’s hands, bringing them behind her back and ripping the hood from her head. Kaz stared at her as people grabbed him as well. He had never truly seen the Cardinal without her hood, and he hated to admit how her face made his heart stutter,

It’s in your blood

It’s in your bones

You cannot sleep for

You cannot sleep for

The two hostages were dragged down the stairs to see their fellow partners bound in ropes. They pushed the two down on their knees next to each other, causing Kaz to let out a grunt as his leg bent weird. Y/n sighed, disappointed in her lack to see the real trap behind Kaz’s. 

“Well, well, well. Look what I have found.” Pekka said with a disgusting smile, looking at each of the criminals tied up. “A bunch of little thieves who think they are so smart.” Pekka continued on his speech as Y/n struggled with her binds. If only she could reach her ear.

“Kaz.” She whispered quietly, careful to not let the boasting man hear.

“What?” He hissed angrily.

She sighed again, “I need you to kiss my ear.”

Kaz almost looked like he was going to hurl, causing the girl to roll her eyes. 

“What the fuck? No way.” He whispered back.

Whoa, oh

Whoa, oh

Tro-tro-trouble, trouble

“Do you want to get out of this?”

“How will kissing your ear help?”

“Just do it, for Saint’s sake!”

“Hey! Quiet, little bird.” Pekka said, walking over and caressing the girl's face with her own blade. She looked at him in disgust and spit in his face, causing everyone's eyes to widen. Pekka calmly wiped the spit from his face before angrily sliding the dagger against her cheek, slicing her skin.

Y/n smiled at him, “Red is my favorite color, you know?”

Pekka glared at her in anger, “Useless slut.” He said before walking back to his men, pulling them into a circle and talking quietly.

“Now!” She whispered to Kaz who reluctantly brought his lips to her ear, ignoring the water pooling around his knees. His lips met a piece of cold metal and he pulled back, actually looking into her ear to see a weird device.

“What is that?” He questioned, eyebrows raised.

Y/n ignored him, “Raven, are you there?” She whispered to nothing, before a relieved smile came across her face. “Emergency. Help. Now.”

Woah, oh

Woah, oh

Here comes trouble, trouble

After a few moments the door of the house burst open, letting in birds of all different kinds, all flocking around and clawing at anything they could get their claws on, Pekka and his men included and targeted.

“Hey, Cardinal.” A voice whispered from behind the girl as she cut her restraints.

“Raven, good timing.” Y/n responded with a smile, taking the dagger Aisha handed her. “Free the other Scarlets. Leave the Crows for now.”

“No, you let us go. I helped you.” Kaz protested as a few of Pekkas men ran out of the house.

“No can do, Brekker.” Y/n said before pulling her hood back up and going to fight off the men that weren’t scared by the birds.

After a few moments a disgruntled, furious yell broke out, “I will get you and kill you all!” Pekka screamed as he ran from the house, scratches littering his skin.

Y/n whistled to the birds, causing them all to stop and fly out the door, their duty finally fulfilled. Her Scarlets stood beside her as she studied the Crows, still tied up and on the floor, a few adorning bird scratches.

“Free them.” She demanded her girls, who broke out in protest. She raised her hand and they silenced. “They will not kill us. They need us, as we need them.” She addressed their concerns and they reluctantly cut the ropes binding their hands. Immediately Inej stood and got into a fighting stance. Her fellow Crows followed after, other than Kaz, who simply lifted his hand to tell them to be calm.

“We need you, do we?” He asked, taking a step towards the Cardinal.

“Yes, as do we, you. Pekka Rollins is, obviously, after us both. We are small groups. Six in yours, five in mine. Rollins has dozens of Dime Lions. It is simply impossible for one of us alone to take him down. You know that, hence why you didn’t let your Crows attack. Isn’t that correct?”

“Unfortunately it is. We shall work together.” Every bird in the room protested. “Until Pekka is down.”

Y/n smiled and held out her hand, “And then you can go back to getting bested by the Night Scarlets. 

“I’m not planning on it.” He said, not raising his hand, and Y/n, ever so observant, had noticed his touch aversion ages ago.

“Air shake.” 

“No.”

“Come on.”

“No.”

“It’s not a deal unless we shake on it.”

“No.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“No.”

“You don’t have weapons.”

“No.”

“I’m smarter than you.”

“No.”

“I’m cooler than you.” Everyone laughed, even Kaz had let a small, smug smirk fall upon his lips.

“You aren’t.” He said, pretending to shake the girl's hand without touching it.

There are dogs on the loose, there are snakes in the desert (in the desert)

I’m that knife in your boot, girl, I got ya (Girl, I got ya)

I’m your number two man in a fight (In a fight)

“And then, we win. Easy peasy.” Y/n said, finishing explaining the plan to the now group of nine.

“Easy peasy my ass.” Jesper mumbled.

“Language, Jes. A kruge.” Y/n smiled triumphantly as Jesper rolled his eyes and handed the girl a kruge. In the three months the two groups had been working together they had become quite close.

“Oh, yeah. I’m so ready for this. We’re so gonna win.” Patty said with a large smile, her arm linked with Nina’s who nodded along.

Y/n laughed slightly, “We will. Now go. Get rest. You’ll need it. We have a big day tomorrow.”

We are revolutionaries tonight

Singing oh, oh-oh-oh, oh

Trouble

(Trouble)

The office emptied, leaving the Crow and Cardinal. Kaz stared at the map, thinking hard.

“Kaz, what’s on your mind?” Y/n asked, placing her hand next to his to provide comfort without actually touching him.

“We can’t do it. We aren’t strong enough.” He muttered and Y/n laughed. Kaz looked at her in annoyance.

“Kaz. We are just about the strongest lot Kerch has seen. We’ve got this. We’re the coolest bunch in Ketterdam.”

Kaz shook his head with a smile he only let out around her. A genuine, happy smile. “Yes, we’re so cool. Do cool people always talk about how cool they are, though?”

Y/n nodded, “Obviously. Have you met me?” She asked with a teasing smile.

“Unfortunately, I have.” 

Trouble coming in the dead of night

Trouble making everythin’ alright

Y/n put her hand over her heart with a gasp. “I’m hurt. You, Kaz R. Brekker, have wounded me right in the heart.” He smiled at the use of his real last names initial, something she had always done once she learned his last name was truly Rietveld. 

It’s in your blood

It’s in your bones

You cannot sleep for

You cannot sleep for

“Oh no, Kaz, I'm Feeling light headed.” Y/n said, stumbling back towards the bed. She fell once the back of her calves hit the bed frame. “I see the light!” She said, reaching her arm up towards the sky. “Oh, it’s getting brighter! Kaz! It’s getting brighter!” She portrayed blood spurting from her chest, before spasming and falling limp, her tongue hanging from her mouth.

She failed to hide her smile as Kaz’s oh so beautiful laugh filled the air. It was like music to her ears. Compared to most people, Y/n got through Kaz’s walls rather quickly, which surprised everyone, including Kaz himself. She had provided him a safe space, free from the water and cold skin and lifeless eyes.

Y/n continued to play dead even after the laughter stopped, not failing to hear the footsteps nearing the bed, causing her heart to speed up. In just a moment, a soft hand gripped hers and pulled her body up as Kaz pulled her into a hug.

“Thank you.” He whispered, before quickly pulling away before the water rose above his head.

Heat creeped up Y/n’s neck, “For?”

“Making me look cooler by your loserness.” He simply said before walking out, pretending nothing happened.

Y/n smiled to herself, falling back onto the bed, a dreamy sigh falling from her lips. She kicked the air while giggling in excitement. Oh, how whipped the Cardinal was for the Crow.

Crazy.

Woah, oh

Woah, oh

Here comes trouble, trouble

[linaselandbasil]

You Too, Ezarel? Pt.2

(Pt.1)

Here's a crisp and crunchy ao3 link for you ao3 besties~

...

He crawled towards Lance and knelt down between his knees, looking at him. He wasn't begging for attention. he was demanding it.

Lance smiled and gently kissed him. Ezarel was a little bit offended that the man ordered him to be naked but was still fully dressed, so he took initiative and began looking for the near invisible seam of his armor.

"The audacity." Lance said, pressing a kiss to the other man's temple. It's adorable, he's so focused on looking for the damn opening that he doesn't react.

"-of you to stay clothed, you mean? Help me." Lance had to tell him the bad news.

"No, I don't feel safe in HQ. I'd rather not get naked. Besides, the armor is part of my charm!" Ezarel rolled his eyes.

"If you had any to speak of, it would definitely add to it.... Alright, I'll allow it. I swear, the disrespect you show me! In my own study of all places!" They both chuckled. Ezarel has a certain talent for acting normal with a boner, it's still just chilling in his underwear.

Lance grinned, pulling the elf closer. "I do have a charm, why else would you have invited me?" He began kissing Ezarels neck as he caressed his sides. It didn't tickle, but it still sent the tingles all over his body.

"Because.... I don't know, honestly. I just like you." He tilted his head back and held Lance's head so he wouldn't even think about stopping. Ezarel is stange. He wants to be hit and degraded but he also wants to be in complete control, as if consenting to anything implies giving up any control. You'd think the submissive is the one without power, but if you really think about it, they often just stay put and enjoy themselves while their lover pleases them. Seems like some boss ass behavior.

"Thanks, I guess." He mumbled into the delicate skin on his shoulder. He smells like soap and a little bit like hand sanitizer. He's been making supplies for Ewelein. "Btw, does Ewe know?"

"We're in an open relationship, we don't get into each other's affairs." He felt the ends of his hair tickling his back, it's a nice feeling. "But she would definitely be furious if she knew I said nothing about you."

"If worst comes, you'll tell them I threatened to kill you. They'll believe it, you have the bruises to back it up." Ezarel looked out of his head with a very serious expression.

"Why have you done this."

"It wasn't on purpose, I just happened to have dissapeared and by the time I got to come back I've conveniently been declared deceased. I took advantage of the hand I've been dealt." Ezarel pushed himself away and looked at him.

"You bastard."

"Don't call me that."

"What, does it hit the nail on the head?"

"..... Yeah."

"Bastard."

Lance shoved him off and got on top of him. This is exactly what this little shit wants, let him have it. He shoved a knee between his thighs and held his long arms down on the cold hardwood floor. "You play a dangerous game, one day I might just hurt you for real." He looked down at Ezarel, who was completely silent and had his pretty green eyes open wide.

"I'm sorry." He's not sorry, he just wants what he never had.

Forgiveness, perhaps? His father never forgave him for anything, even if it wasn't something he could change.

"Lance.... I really need...."

"No you don't need. You want. You won't die if you had to wait." He held his wrists firmly while pushing his knee up against the elf's crotch. Ezarel's back arched and he whimpered. "You should see yourself, you're pathetic."

"Please."

"I thought you don't like to beg."

"I'm trying to be polite. Pity me you asshole!" Lance smiled smugly and pressed his knee up harder. "Please!"

"Please, what?"

"Please me, idiot!"

Lance thought about it. "Why would I."

Ezarel turned away and huffed. He's beyond frustrated, he's outraged! "You're mean."

"I am, aren't I?" He let go of Eza's hands and lightly caressed him, tracing his soft skin all the way to his shoulders and down to his hips. It's tickling the elf enough that he can't hide his reaction. "Oh c'mon, you can laugh."

"I won't!"

Lance shrugged. "Then don't." He slid his palm down to the edge of his underwear. "Hopefully you're not as prudent about moaning."

"You know fully well that I'm not. You ought to stop pretending we don't fuck biweekly." Lance chuckled as he pulled the waistband down.

"Doesn't match the drapes."

"Shut up!" Lance raised his hand, as if he was about to backhand this little shit, but he slowly lowered it. He really only wanted to scare the elf. It worked in silencing him, he was hiding behind his arms.

"Those bruises are not from me." He said when he noticed the underside of the elfs wrist.

"It's hair dye."

"No way, you never fuck up."

"Well this time I did. The glove ripped."

"....At least you're not a father." Ezarel shoved his arm on account of the bad jest and earned the wrath of the dragon. Lance got a hold of his arm and gripped it so hard it hurt. "Behave."

"Okay..." He tried to pull away, but he can't. He's not exactly the most athletic guy out there.

"Good." Lance loosened his hold and kissed his knuckles. "You're shaking."

"I wonder why."

He smiled, leaning over the elf. "A mystery we may never solve." He said before going down and kissing Ezarel's navel.

He trailed further down, making his partner pray and hope that he's not just teasing. Lance was, of course, teasing. He stood up and pulled Ezarel along with him. He staggered, not just from his weak knees but also because Lance pushed him. So mean.

"You said desk?"

"Yes." Lance shoves him forward and grabbed his hair. The cold lacquered wood nipped at his skin. His back was used to the floor, but his belly? Not so much.

"You cleared the desk! How thoughtful!"

"Might as well. It's not the only thing I cleared though."

"Nasty." Lance said, pulling the underwear all the way down. "Same drawer?"

"Yes." He went to the other side of the table and opened the lowest drawer. He picked a condom of his liking and an unlabeled tube that looked like toothpaste but it was absolutely lube. I'm not telling you what else is there, let your imagination run wild.

He walked back, taking slow steps. Ezarel tensed up when the man dissapeared from his field of vision, but he didn't turn to look. He jumped a little when his back was softly caressed. "Relax."

"Easy for you to say, you've been terrorizing me this whole time."

"You don't like it?"

"....I do."

"Then shut up." Lance nudged his legs apart with his own while keeping a firm hand on his upper back. He doesn't know how he's keeping it together. He felt a cold blob fall on him, Lance sure isn't beating around the bush. A finger trailed up and down over his hole and he could barely keep the moan in. "Remember your word, blueberry."

"Heh?"

"You said you'd moan, did you not?" He slowly pushed at the sphincter with his fingertip. "I wouldn't want to disappoint me if I were you." He pushed further in.

"Sorry." The elf whispered. He heard a pleased hum. Whew.

"C'mere." Lance grabbed his neck and pulled him towards his chest. He pushed his nose into his hair and gave him smooch. "You're adorable, you know that?" The man took his arms and held them behind his back.

"I'd appreciate it if you took me seriously." He sounded like he was out of breath when he spoke, the constant reminders if his powerlessness really did it for him.

"Who said I don't?" He reached down and wrapped his hand around the base of the elf's cock. "I take you very seriously." Ezarel shuddered as the hand just staid there, unmoving.

"Nobody..." Lance chuckled, he must like the answer. He began moving up, so slowly that he could barely see it, but he could feel it just fine.

"Oh, hold on." He opened his hand and left him without any pleasure. "On second thought, that's not true."

"What??"

"Yeah! You said that!" He gently bit the tip of his ear, he flicked it to get away from it. "That's rude, don't speak to people like that." He yelped from an unexpected slap to his thigh. "I swear, the youth these days!"

"You're like five years older than me."

"Six, bitch." He pushed Ezarel down, once again bending him over his desk. His hands were now free, but he didn't know what to do to them so he used them to put his forehead on. The desk is hard.... Lance slapped his left cheek, making him flinch.

Before he could even process that, he felt the finger working his hole. He moaned.

"There it is." He slowly added another finger and pushed both in. "...This is suspiciously easy."

"You can thank me later, did most of the work before you arrived."

"How thoughtful." He added another finger and spread them wide. The sound the elf let out made his breath hitch. He wants to hear it again, louder. He pulled his fingers out and put more lube on them. He went in and spread them just as wide and the sound filled his ears again. He smirked, feasting his senses in the fruits of his labor.

"Please. Lance."

"What's that?"

"Please!!"

"Please WHAT?"

"..."

"It's okay buddy." He ruffled the top of his head. "I know exactly what you want." The elf heard some ruffling of fabrics and the opening of a wrapper behind him.

"Thank you." He said when he felt strong hands grab his hips and the tip of a certain something being lined up. He grabbed the edge of his desk as it slowly stretched him out.

He stopped mid journey. "You good?" Ezarel only moaned. Lance had a smug grin on his face. Honestly, I don't remember the last time he went without one for twenty minutes. He stopped for a few seconds, feeling the elf clench. "Good boy." He began thrusting. The first one was hard, just to make Ezarel get a little loud, but he settled on a slower pace. Ezarel groaned and leaned back into his hips, that was enough prompting to make Lance speed up.

In his frustration, Ezarel raked at the wood with his dull nails, he whined and groaned as the blue eyed beauty pounded into him. The scent of the man's hair gel and the smell of his sweat mixed together, he might just get high from it.

There's just no words to describe this, it's so good that he's on his toes, arching his back. Meanwhile, Lance is low key dissociating, looking at his little soldier dissapear and reappear again and again. He caresses the elf's sides, making sure his little stickbug feels loved and supported.

The cycle of Lance slowing down and speeding up to keep the elf guessing went on for a few minutes. He pulled on his long hair and scratched st his delicate skin, pulling pained gasps out among pleasured moans. Ezarel felt brave enough to take the initiative and pull one of Lance's hands towards his dick. The pounding slowed down and he was pulled up into a warm embrace of intimate unison. The rough palm of a warrior grazed his sensitive skin as it carefully wrapped around the shaft. He put his own pale hands around it and guided it to finally move, holy fucking shit Lance stop torturing this poor man he's going to die of blueballs!!

He leaned into the armored chest of his date to not fall over. He let go of Lance's hand and reached for the other hand that was now gently gripping his throat.

Amongst all the loving touches and the steady thrusting, he found the release he was begging his paramour for. He moaned and shot all over his dark oak desk.

"Good thing there was nothing there." Lance said, letting his throat go and turning him around. Ezarel nodded and put his chin on Lance's shoulder. "Tired?"

"Mmhm."

"Adorable." He lifted the elf up and carried him over to his chair. "Satisfied?"

"Yes."

"I'm glad." He ruffled that blue head of hair again before he cleaned himself up and buttoned his pants up. He pulled a little box out of his backpack and lit a cigarerte on the flame of a candle he just noticed. He took a hit and offered it to Eza. "Want some?"

The took it. "Thanks." Lance watched him suck the smoke in, he's so proud of his friend for not coughing like he was dying of consumption. "Smells strange. Not the usual?"

"It's a different variety, I had to switch to a more resilient one because the weather is worse at my new base. Hey, remember the first time I gave you a smoke?"

"That was the first time I ever had one, I thought I was going to die!" Lance chuckled. He hit it again before giving it back. "It was traumatizing."

"Let's call it a formative experience." Ezarel laughed, rubbing his eyes.

"Should clean that up before it dries. I don't want to scrape cum." Lance snorted with the cigarette still in his mouth but it quickly became obvious that this was the elf's way to indirecty ask him to do it, because that bitch didn't move an inch from his ass.

"So get up and do it!"

"I don't know which way is up anymore, it's the least you can do!" He looked at Lance with his beautiful green eyes. That's the bestest color in the entire world.

"You asked for this!" He tapped the ash into the soil of a potted plant.

Ezarel gasped with exaggeration. "You come into my study, fuck my ass and call me gay??" Lance was already halfway done reaching for a tissue but changed his mind and threw the cardboard box at the man. "And you dare harm my pristine elven likeness???" They both laughed really hard, but really quietly at the same time. Ought not attract too much attention.

"And what are you going to do about it? Hmm?" He went over and pulled him out of the chair.

"Not fair! You're too strong!" He yelped and fell back as Lance released him. He looked at the cigarette poking out of the man's lips. "Gimme."

Lance sighed and gave it to him. "As much as I enjoy being here, I gotta go soon. I have villainous plans scheduled."

"Aw..." He gave the cigarette back after he took his fill. "Well, I think you just don't want to help clean." Lance, hit the cigarette and gave it right back before going to fetch his gloves.

"I openly and sincerely admit that I don't want to help clean, but you sayin' it out loud won't make me suddenly become a gentleman and stay to help. Bye!" He put his mask on and jumped out the window.

What a gentleman.

...

[hamliet]

Hi! Hope you're doing well!

How would the Kurtas killing Sheila fit into Kurapika's and Chrollo's arcs? This whole side B thing is a bit confusing for me and though I trust Togashi, I'm scared it will come off as excusing the Troupe for their violence

@aspoonofsugar wrote a whole meta about this. The main idea is that there is a cycle of revenge and violence and more innocent victims leading to revenge which leads to violence which leads to move innocent victims who the want revenge and pursue violence and create even more innocent victims.

This isn't new. It's been clear that this is the point of Kurapika's arc for decades now, and with Chrollo as his shadow, well, it only makes sense that Chrollo has similar motivations to Kurapika, much like Hisoka does with Gon and Illumi with Killua.

As for excusing the Troupe... I don't think we run this risk. Literally nothing you can do excuses torturing kids. But someone, way back in 2018, wrote to me to point out all the inconsistencies between the Phantom Troupe's characterization and their supposed treatment of the Kurtas.

I'll say what I said to them years ago: seeking to understand is not the same as excusing.

This blogger also was clear that they didn't want to excuse the Troupe, but noted moments that hinted something else was going on. In other words, Togashi's been dropping hints about this pretty much from the start:

The PT's requiem for Uvogin, which was extremely violent, was stated by one of the most violent troupe members (Feitan) to be out of the ordinary for them. But the Kurta massacre was even more violent and disturbing so... there's hint here in Yorknew that there's a gap that needs to be filled in.

Members like Paku and Machi show a kind of empathy in Yorknew and beyond that makes torturing little kids seem exceedingly unusual for them. Furthermore, Paku in particular notes that she can understand Kurapika because he was on the verge of killing Chrollo to make himself feel better for his losses. Paku then sacrifices herself to save Chrollo, so this wasn't out of a coldness towards Chrollo, but instead clearly just, empathy. Empathy and cold-blooded child torture don't usually go hand in hand.

The strange note left behind after the Kurtas died seems to cement that something was "taken" from the Phantom Troupe by the Kurta Clan:

The "child murder" motif seems to, well, be a Thing with the Phantom Troupe if we consider Sarasa's manner of death. Sheila wasn't a child by the time she met Kurapika and Pairo, but a childhood friend still.

It fits really, really well with the characterizations we have, too. To quote Sugar's essay again:

Knowing Chrollo's coping mechanism I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to avenge Sheila hiding his grief behind an utilitarian objective, like... let's take the Kurtas' eyes and sell them at the black market.

And with the thematic points (again, read Sugar's essay!):

Sheila being necessarily malicious towards the Kurta to the point she would help the Spiders to kill them would mean 1) that the Elders were right and the outside world is bad... hence Kurapika's childhood dream (which btw it is Gon and Killua's childhood dream) is worthless and 2) that Kurapika is indirectly responsible for his people's death, which really doesn't work for his arc and his survivor's guilt.

Sheila being an unknown catalyst to violence and tragedy instead works better on multiple levels. First of all, it would make Kurapika's idealism the right thematic choice over the Elders' cynicism and fear of the other. Secondly, it would fit with the exploration of the cycle of revenge as fundamentally wrong and damaging to all sides. Thirdly, it would be sweet tragedy for both Chrollo and Kurapika... after all, Kurapika's dream comes from a person close to Chrollo, while Chrollo's act of violence hurt 2 friends of Sheila, who had helped her.

The cycle of violence and innocent victims are both major themes this arc. We have Morena, an innocent child rejected cruelly by her father, now wreaking havoc. We have Hisoka targeting the Spiders, knowing Chrollo's refusal to be a human being who loves is all subterfuge. But, the Spiders are willing participants rather than helpless victims of Hisoka--they literally chose to enter the Whale knowing that they were being hunted. It's kill or be killed, so they're perpetuating the cycle.

And of course, we have Woble, Oito, and Kurapika, and the whole Succession War. Only one can be left standing to win the war. Except... the innocents are dying. Kachou. Momoza. As a baby, Woble has no chance except escaping (which I do believe will happen). Like, the Black Whale is pretty much an entire society of warfare at different levels.

Lastly, and this is something Sugar and I spoke about, the idea of breaking the cycle of vengeance is what the entire theme of the Succession War Arc is about. Kurapika literally states from the start that they have to escape.

Now, I know for the princes, leaving=death (as seen in Kacho and Fugetsu's story) but... I wouldn't be surprised if one of Chrollo's nen abilities can bypass the parasitic nen being used to magically trap the princes in this violence.

Someone needs to step out and say "no more" and the violence stops. YouTuber Aleczandxr noted that Woble is in some ways a symbol of innocence lost for Kurapika. Woble surviving is key to Kurapika surviving as well.

I don't doubt Kurapika will do this in multiple ways: helping Woble escape and ending his quest for vengeance against Chrollo by, probably, working together to get the hell off the Whale with what they have left.

The ally theory is because, well, you integrate with your Jungian shadow and Kurapika kind of says it here, again at the start of the arc. The way to get out of this war will involve allies:

[immortalityismymiddlename]

Radiant!Agents(F!) Reacting to a Non!Radiant Reader! (Who's ridiculously good.) (Yes this is a xgn!reader)

Includes : Jett, Fade, Reyna, Neon and Sage!!

(might make a pt. 2 i made this half asleep btw so sorry bout that)

Sorry for not posting for a while, having trouble with the rime route..

~

Jett!:

"Okay- I'm not saying people who aren't radiants aren't capable- but it's just- how the hell?! How are they so good?! I mean- have you seen how fast they reacted??? They've barely even used their bullets and they've already killed everyone! I mean- that's just- crazy good! I gotta admit i MAAAY be a BIT. a bit, jealous of them..."

(Or in love with them..)

I'm not even gonna lie, she just WON'T shut up about you, to the point it gets annoying.

She would be very competitive and would probably make bets with you to see who's better.

Would definitely lose a lot (because she stares at you way too much in missions, even gets herself shot a lot.)

Probably confessed by accident after you kill five agents. "Damn, I think i just fell in love all over again."

Reassures you a lot, might even bring herself down just so she can prove a point to you. "Dude- you- you literally carried us all on your backs! Surprised you're not even tired! You barely broke a sweat! even if i couldn't do my job you still managed to get us all back! Without you, we probably wouldn't even be here thanks to you.."

Fade:

"I knew their potential from the start, but even so, they still manage to impress me time and time again. I couldn't even believe what was happening before my eyes,, And for someone like me,, I'd say that's a huge compliment. Job well done, (Y/N). You did good."

Like she said, she already knew a lot about you. I don't think she'd study you like the rest of the agents although i can see her trying to learn more about you so I'm assuming she already knows your potential. But it really doesn't matter whether or not she does. You still impress her.

You'll often see fade staring at you before a mission. Of course, when you look back she looks away. She wonders how good you can be even without abilities, i mean, don't get me wrong, she doesn't underestimate you because of that, she knows how hard it already is with radiant powers. How much harder can it be without it?

You'll often find her at the end of missions, waiting for you somewhere where she knows you'll walk by. Giving a compliment or two before fleeing. As if she was never there.

She loves admiring you from a far. If you're insecure about it, she'd be even more shocked. She might try to give you quick compliments whenever you feel that way. She just knows it from the look in your eyes.

Reyna:

From what i know, she wants to create a world full of radiants. (Correct me if I'm wrong!) She, of course is shocked. More than the others. She probably underestimates you. She knows there are agents without radiant abilities, but she still doesn't think someone without said abilities can be so.. good.

"Who knew (Y/N) could be so good, Quite the impressive play. Say, have you any experience before joining the protocol? Why am i asking?,, Let's just say,, you've intrigued me, in ways i never expected you to. So, are you just going to stare at me or are you going to answer me?"

She would definitely talk to you, try and know more about you. It's not every day she finds someone so,, intriguing as she says. You can often see her being in places you usually wouldn't see her at. Places where you normally go to.

Sometimes you can never tell if she wants to be friends with you or if she just wants your soul, maybe she thinks yours tastes better than the rest.

If she likes you enough, she might even start flirting with you. Might even shoot her shot with you, not that you mind. She is gorgeous.

Neon:

"Grabe ka naman (Y/N)! (Practically saying you're good/You're too much! I'm bad at translating sorry HAHA) You're killing it! Literally. Or.. yk, them. HAHA! you're amazing!"

Dude, she looks up to you and wants to be like you. It doesn't matter to her that you don't have abilities. She thinks you're amazing and she is REALLY vocal about it

"you don't need radiant powers, you're amazing with or without it! Hell, you'd be too overpowered if you had them! You could probably beat almost anyone with radiant powers!"

Loves practicing with you, more like watching you practice but nevermind that.

Might even ask you to teach her a bit.

(sorry I couldn't think much for neon)

Sage:

"Wonderful! You did amazing, Good job, (Y/N). I told you, you would. Now, would you like to join me? I made something for you in the kitchen. I think you'll enjoy it. Think of it as a,, celebratory gift."

I see her being friends with you even before she saw you in battle. Maybe even helped you feel a little confident in your abilities. I can see her helping you practice and teaching you everything you know.

She loves cooking and baking with you, for sure. She loves giving you baked goods as gifts after missions. Always telling you to relax and take a breather after a long mission.

You two would make such a good duo! She always has your back and if she had to choose only one person to revive over someone else in the protocol she'd choose you. (If she could.)

She loves you, abilities or not. You two probably get along really well and she knows that she can always count on you if she needs anything, and vice versa.

And she would always reassure you that no matter how different you are from the other agents that you are just as useful to the protocol as they are.

[haitaniplug]

Hello there! I really love your works! The one Ran Haitani angst with a pregnant reader , actually was filled with emotions to be honest... You can feel stab on Ran's chest all throughout the whole story.. Keep up the good work! Also if ever you feel comfortable or if you want to do it, can you please make a Part two of the Baby Trapping fic with Kakucho? Like, what if she was actually Izana's cousin all along who came from the Philippine and while she started working in Japan, she also tried to find Izana, unknown to her about her cousins death. As the two stayed longer on being "together", Kakucho began to realize how much the reader and Izana are alike appearance wise. Kakucho then asked one day, "You don't look like you are a local here" Then reader so happened to have hope that maybe Kakucho would let her go if ever she explains her situation, and that she is finding her beloved cousin that might be in Japan explaining her Aunt's (Izana's mom) situation with Mr. Kurokawa. Realizing she MIGHT really be Izana's relative... Maybe then he should really keep her, this time he really is sure now that he REALLY does need to keep you ALL to himself :))) You don't have to do it... If you can't or you don't want to.

I LOVE THIS OMG!!!!!!!

btw guys don't hesitate to leave any requests as long as you want, i don't mind <3, feel free to be anon too.

baby trapping pt 2 || kakucho

cw: 18+ mdni , slow burn , angst , sort of fluff near the end , prostitution ,

you winced as kakucho pulled out, his cock head hitting your thigh as small beads of pre cum drip out from the tip staining your thighs and the bedsheets. it's been like this almost every day. you've been trapped here for a month. maybe 2? you've lost count after the first few days.

you were just exhausted at this point. you'd also given up all hope of leaving here alive. this was your life now, just a cum dump for this man.

you shifted onto your side as you engulfed your body in the blanket. kakucho watched as you completely hidden yourself from him under the covers. he knows it will take a while for you to adjust to him, but he still can't help feeling a little bit sadd y'know. he's taken you in, treats you well, buys you shit. but you refuse it all. whenever he wants to cuddle with you after sex, you refuse and shake your head, rather cry in the sheets alone than allow yourself to be cared for.

whenever he bought you something, you'd ask for him to put it in the corner. inside that corner was filled with the other shit he bought you. you didn't even touch it.

he did feel like you were being ungrateful. the way sanzu treats his women is straight up awful, even kakucho feels bad for them sometimes. kakucho and kokonoi are probably the only 2 who care for their women.

ran haitani just kicks them ouut after he's fdone with em. rindou doesn't even care about women, he doesn't want one, says he doesn't need one. same with mikey. sanzu is ruthless. he's a killing machine. the amount of gunsshots heard from his end is crazy.

treats them like toys. that's why kakucho thinks you're being ungrateful. you better be grateful that you ended up with kakucho rather than sanzu. you'd probably have been dead a long time ago.

a part of you was grateful at first— which sounds sick in itself. but as time went on, you think you’d rather be dead since your entire sole purpose on earth right now is to satisfy this man.

you wiped a tear from your face as you cowered under the sheets. body still slightly twitching from the orgasm he gave you not long ago. you heard shuffling and movements come from next to you, then your body was exposed with the cold air as kakucho lifted the sheets from your body and slid into bed next to you.

he wrapped his arm around your waist, and dipped his head in your shoulder before he drifted off the sleep. you couldn’t even bring yourself to acknowledge him. you hated him so so so much.

+

not long after, you had fallen asleep and kakucho woke up and kissed your forehead gently. you looked so beautiful. he’s so addicted to you. he wants you to be his forever. he just wishes that you didn’t meet him like this.

he knows you still can’t stand him and a part of him can’t really blame you. what he was doing is sick, disgusting and beyond humane. but what’s done is done and he’s too addicted to you to let you go.

something about you, just seems so familiar. it’s been killing him. he’s been studying your sleeping face almost everyday. trying to figure out what it is. the more he stares at you, the more he’s determined to find out.

you slowly lifted one eye open and saw kakucho staring directly at you. he looked away quickly but he’s already been caught. “why are you looking at me?” you asked, sort of scared but kakucho sensed your panic and placed his hand on your waist to still you and sort of calm you.

“relax, you just looked familiar. which is strange cause i’ve never met you before.” he paused for a moment before speaking again. “tell me about yourself.”

you paused and looked down. “do i have to?”

“no. i’m just curious. i’d like for you to tell me, but you don’t have to.”

you stayed silent again before turning over. “i want to go back to bed.”

she still hates me. kakucho thought and sighed. it’ll take a lot longer than he thought. he could however just ask koko to find out info about you, but he genuinely wants to get to know you better and he wants to do it the right way.

he’s going to get you to warm up to him. it’s not impossible, after all guilt is already rising in his chest the more he keeps you with him.

+

you notice kakucho is acting strange. the past few weeks, he hasn’t been sleeping with you. which in itself is a relief to you, you hated being him cum dump. he always kept cumming inside you which made you anxious that you’d get pregnant with this man’s baby— which would be your biggest fears.

so when kakucho was out. you would sneak out and go into one of sanzus girls rooms asking if they had any Plan B pills, and they handed them to you. they had loads in deck because sanzu didn’t want them to get pregnant. it would ruin the fun one of the girls said as they mocked his voice.

ever since then, whenever kakucho came inside you, you always had the pill on hand that you hid secretly. as time went on, you were worried that kakucho thought that you weren’t getting pregnant yet and you were scared that he would do something to fix that issue, or find out about the pills.

but he didn’t do anything. he didn’t even sleep with you. you were so confused. he had to be planning something didn’t he? he gave you more freedom, letting you leave his part of the house but you were not allowed to go outside.

not like you could anyways. everything in this place was coded with keycards and finger prints to open up certain doors. it was all too confusing for you, so you never attempted to run away.

with your new found freedom, you left his side of the penthouse and went over to where the other girls were at. you all became friends almost instantly since they all understood what the other was going through.

it was sort of wholesome.

and the more the girls praised you for getting kakucho, made you be more grateful that you were stuck in this predicament with someone like him. if you had sanzu or ran, you should be fearing for your life.

one day, kakucho came back home and you stood up and greeted him. which made him blink a bit in confusion since you never not even once since you came here initiated conversation.

“how was your day kaku?” you sent him a small smile and he was even more confused. you gave him a nickname now? “it was okay…” he responded awkwardly… unsure what to take of your new behaviour.

“when you were out, i um, made you some dinner, just in case you came home late and was hungry.” you pointed to the stove, the food was on the cooker, boiling at low heat.

“oh thank you,” he placed his arm around your waist and kissed your forehead and instead you leaned into the kiss???? kakuchos mind was going haywire. this wasn’t right. but he didn’t question it.

“i’ll plate the food out, just take a seat.” you walked back over to the kitchen and started to dish out the food onto two plates. kakucho followed your orders and sat down at the table. not long after, you came back with two sets of food.

“i didn’t poison you if that’s what you’re thinking. i see the look on your face.” you stated, “here you choose a plate.”

the look on kakuchos face wasn’t because he thought you’d poison him, in fact that thought never even crossed his mind. it was because you’re being nice to him so suddenly.

kakucho picked a plate and you sat on the opposite end of the table. it was silent as the two of you are eating and you kept on looking at him from the corner of you eye.

you put your fork down and took a deep breath. “you wanted to know more about me right ?”

kakucho nodded, “yeah because the more i stared at you, i realised you didn’t look like you was from here. so i just became interested.”

“i’m actually not from here.” you gave him a small smile, “guess where.”

kakucho put on his thinking face, “is it abroad?”

you shook your head, “nope.”

kakucho studied your face even more, trying to make out your features because he could’ve sworn to God that you looked so familiar.

“i’m from the philippines. i moved here quite recently because i got a job offer here.”

philiphines? kakucho let out an exasperated chuckle hearing that word which made you raise your brow a bit. “what’s so funny?”

“no it’s not funny. it’s just that, i had a friend who was from there.” he explained and your eyes widened. “no way. where are they now? i’d like to meet them.”

“he’s, um. dead.”

your words died in your throat. “oh i’m so sorry.”

“it’s alright. i’m sure he would’ve liked to meet you too.” he reassured you and the smile was back on your face. “i had a cousin here actually. he moved here when we were quite young so i haven’t seen him in over,” you paused to count the last time you’d seen izana. “in like 24 years maybe?”

“holy shit.” kakucho responded, “would you like to see him? i can find out where he is for you.”

your eyes widened, “can you really?” kakucho saw the look of hope in your eyes and nodded, “yes i can.”

“oh my god, oh my god,” you repeated over and over.

“what’s his name? i’ll ask koko and he can find him for you.”

“izana kurokawa.”

….

….

all mirth on kakuchos face faded away. he was frozen almost which made you confused but never questioned it. “i-i gotta go.” kakucho stood up abruptly which made you jolt a bit. you watched as he stormed out of the house.

he didn’t return for another few hours, but when he approached you, he said, “come with me.”

you nodded, standing up from the bed and following him as he led you outside and to the elevator. for the first time in months, you’ve been outside this shitty place.

“kakucho— where are we going?” you asked as he led you inside his drivers car. “to meet your cousin.”

you weren’t ready for what you were about to see.

you were confused when they suddenly pulled up near an alley way. “kakucho?”

“just trust me.” he responded and opened the car door. you stepped outside and followed him as he led you further into the alley. your stomach was churning the more you walked.

kakucho suddenly stopped walking and you looked around. “kakucho..? where’s izana?”

kakucho took a deep breath before pointing to the floor. you saw a pile of ash with an earring on top. “what?” you took a moment before realisation hit. “he’s dea-,” you couldn’t even finish your sentence. bile forming in the pit of your stomach, threatening to fall out.

you gagged for a second before holding your hand over your mouth, “please tell me this is a sick joke..” you grabbed onto kakuchos blazer and gripped it tight, “kakucho, tell me.”

kakucho looked down, you watched as his adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he swallowed. “unfortunately it’s not. he died 12 years ago.”

the verbal confirmation is what did it for you. you dropped to the floor, tears already falling from your eyes as you sobbed near his grave. “how— why— who?” the tears just kept on falling as you asked these questions.

you noticed kakucho was more silent than usual. he took a deep breath before dropping down next to you, cradling you in his arms. “cry it out, it’s okay. i did the same 12 years ago.”

you felt weak as your body drained all energy from you as you cried into your hands. your sleeves were soaked.

“he got shot 3 times because he protected me. it was a man called kisaki. he’s dead now though.” kakuchos voice was breaking, “it was all my fault- he died to save me. i should’ve been the one to—,” he cut himself off and took a deep breath.

you didn’t know much of the situation but you knew that kakucho had been blaming himself for years on end for this. you knew he needed comfort, but never got it. just looking at the way his lip was twitching made you realise he’s never gotten over this traumatic incident.

you wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him in for a hug. “it wasn’t your fault kakucho.” his breath was shaky by your ear as he held back his tears. “izana was so strong, the last time i saw him, he may have been only 5 years old, but i knew he was a strong willed person. he never did things without a reason,” you pulled back from the hug, cupping both of kakuchos cheeks, “this isn’t your fault. izana knew your life was worth more— he did this for a reason.”

you watched as more tears started to spill from kakuchos cheeks and you brought your thumb up to wipe them away. “i know this has been eating you alive for years, but not anymore. i’m here for you kakucho. it’s what izana would’ve wanted.”

kakucho nodded silently before crying into your shoulder. you held him close as he sobbed away, doing your best to reassure him. you knew his death affected kakucho more than it did you.

you had every right to be sad, but kakuchos pain was on a different level. you could tell by the way kakuchos crying right now that izana was his bestest friend. years of friendship thrown away so quickly.

kakucho pulled out of your grip and wiped his eyes. “thank you yn.” he smiled at you before standing up. “i brought you here because i wanted you to mourn his death but i couldn’t control myself i’m sorry.”

“don’t ever apologise for this. you needed this more than i did.” you grabbed onto his hand. “never hold your feelings inside, it’ll just bottle up and explode one day. promise me that you’ll come to me whenever you feel sad.”

“i promise. thank you so much yn.”

[damn-stark]

La vie en rose pt.2

Pietro Maximoff x reader

Requested by anon “I think this is a good idea. So Pietro didn’t die in Age Of Ultron but dies in endgame so afterwards reader has same powers as wanda btw makes her own reality sorta like wandavision and they live in the town together and it’s basically just wandavision plot and jimmy woo and darcy are trying to get in meanwhile. I really hope this isn’t to long for you! Maybe you could do 2 parts if you’d like that? I just had this idea for a while thanks! 🤍”

Warning- Angst, sadness and fluff

———-

“We can get married.”

“Huh?”

Pietro turns his head to meet your bewildered expression and he smirks and leans closer to talk in a softer voice so others around wouldn’t hear. “Think about it, we’ve known each other ever since we got our powers and we’ve been together since we joined the Avengers, it’s been long a time and we’ve gone through a lot. We should just get married.”

You narrow your gaze on him and try to hold back from getting lost in those deep blue eyes of his as you try to comprehend what he was proposing, as you tried to figure out if this was some joke, because the way he just said it out of the blue seemed like it.

“And,” Pietro continues nonchalantly as he looks at the horizon ahead, “we can get married in Las Vegas, just like this couple did in one of Wandas sitcoms. It seems like a lot of fun.”

“Hmm,” you nod slowly and tear your gaze away from him, feeling your mind spin with many different thoughts; one of the main ones being that this man couldn’t be serious. “And you want to do this while we’re on the run?”

“Yes,” Pietro nods as he pops a grape into his mouth, “I mean do you have a better idea? I don’t see ourselves being free people anytime soon.”

Yeah, right. You look down at your hands and delicately begin to twist the silver bracelet around your wrist, feeling a wave of sadness wash over you.

Was this really going to be your life? Running away and hiding? Not being able to have a stable home, or a taste of a normal life anymore? All because you didn’t want people controlling what you can’t, or can do with your own abilities?

It was stupid and unfair.

“Do you really think we’ll always be on the run?”

Pietro looks at you again and puts the fruit cup that he had in his hand down, turning more serious than he was expressing himself before. “Not always, there will come a time when we’ll be free again, where we won’t have to hide. The world—or should I say universe is a messed up place, the people will need our help again and we’ll be there to save them, that’s when we’ll be free.” Pietro wraps his arm around your shoulders and pulls you closer to him. “So don’t worry your pretty head about that.”

You lift your gaze to meet his and you can’t contain the soft smile that spreads on your lips, he kisses the side of your head and his smile turns into a mischievous smirk again. “So about my plan, what do you say?”

Once again you narrow your gaze on him and drop your smile, pushing him aside and twisting your body to land on the pier and begin to walk back to the others, hearing Pietro follow quickly behind you and continue insisting on his “plan”. Which you just turned down, “no.”

“No, what? You won’t get married to me? Why? Do you not love me?”

You shove your hands in your (his) hoodie pocket and watch the perplexity in his eyes as he tried to solve what you had said.

It was an amusing sight, seeing him so lost, it made you want to let him figure it out on his own, but you couldn’t stand it. Instead you did a little jog to get in front of him and continue to walk backwards as you explain yourself in a relatively joking manner, perfectly copying his accent and his expression. “We can get married. Just like those people on tv. I won’t give my girlfriend that I love with all my heart a good proposal, I’ll just throw it at her all nonchalantly and not have a hint of romance behind it.”

“What are you talking about? It was romantic.” He plays along, mocking your own accent. “You're wearing my sweater and we’re on this pier that overlooks the ocean. It’s plenty romantic.”

You grin and go back to using your normal voice before shrugging and commenting, “no ring?”

Pietro narrows his gaze on you and his smirk widens as he digs his hand in his pants pocket to pull out a small simple, yet beautiful ring. “Oh this? I didn’t think you’d want it, so I didn’t offer it to you.”

“Aha, I see what you’re doing.”

Pietro shoots you a flashy smile and expresses a cocky expression, “you thought I forgot didn’t you, my little witch? Like I could ever. Plus Wanda and Natasha would’ve killed me if I did.”

You turn around and fall back to his side, grinning like a love struck idiot and hooking your arm around his while he continued. “So what do you say? Yes?”

——

“What do you two want?” You ask in a threatening voice as you block their path and stay glued at the entrance of your home.

“We just want to talk,” Agent Woo explained, “to you about what you’re doing here—”

“I’m not doing anything,” you defend yourself. “I’m not causing anyone any trouble, I’m here living my life in peace.”

“That’s what you want to believe, but what you’re doing here is wrong, y/n. You’re holding people hostage—”

“No,” you cut him off sharply as you tighten your grip around the doorknob and feel faint sparks of your magic emerging from your hands. “These people here are fine, they’re in peace, they’re living the lives they want. I am not causing them any type of pain. So if you both may please leave my property that will be great.” You narrow your gaze on them and feel the doorknob under your hand bend as your grip around it tightens when you try to push the door forward to close it. Finding that before you could shut it, Doctor Darcy stopped it and shoved it back to continue with this talk and look at you with a more serious look.

“You know after knowing what you went through, after finding out your history with Pietro, I understand why you’re doing this, keeping up with this facade. But it’s not right, all the people you’re keeping here are in pain—”

“I’m warning you,” you spat out, “stop before I actually try to hurt someone.”

“What’s going on here?”

You look over your shoulder at the sound of a new voice and see Wanda with an upset look already painted on her face. Pietro not understanding what was happening comes up behind you and begins to investigate for his sister. “What do you two want?”

“We just need to talk to your wife and sister,” Agent Woo answers, lifting the badge on his chest and showing it to Pietro. “I’m FBI. We just have a couple things we need to go over.”

Pietros hand on your shoulder tightens and the curiosity that he contained was gone, he doesn’t ask for an explanation from you, nor his sister and just instantly gets on your defense. “Well she has no right to talk to you if she doesn’t want to, neither of them have done anything wrong.”

“You may not see it, but they are. This, you it’s all—”

“That’s enough,” Wanda cuts him off while she joins Pietro and you by the front door, “I’ll tell you two this just once. Leave before I force you to leave.”

Agent Woo scoffs, “I came here to do my job, and I won’t leave until I see it through.”

“Fine,” you deadpan while you let the doorknob go and open the door wider. “I’ve had enough. I’m giving you five minutes to talk.”

Doctor Darcy blinks and raises her eyebrows in surprise. “Wow, okay, unexpected.”

They try to come in, but you step up and block their path. “No. Not here. Outside.”

From the corner of your eye you see Wanda take a step after you, but before she could take another one, you look back and offer her an assuring look. “It’s okay, I’ve got this, wait for me here.”

“Are you sure?” She probes with concern.

You nod and smile, “I’m sure.” You look to Pietro and share a short lingering gaze that contains unspoken words. You knew he was itching to follow, but he trusted you more than anything and stayed behind with his sister while you walked with the two unexpected and unwelcome visitors.

“How did you get here? Inside?” You ask them once you’re at a good distance from your home.

“It’s a long story so we won’t bother.” Doctor Darcy replies, “all we will explain is that we know you’re not a bad person, y/n, we know you don’t want to hurt these people, moving on and accepting what happened is normal—”

“I’m not hurting them,” you repeat in a grumble, “they’re at peace, Wanda assured that.”

“You may think that but they feel your pain, your grief,” Agent Woo explains making you grow stiff and stop dead in your tracks to look at them with a narrowed and puzzled gaze. Something sparks in your brain, but you can’t and won’t comprehend what he really meant, you look down at your ring around your finger and sigh, clenching your fist and turning cold.

“Have either of you ever had a dream?” You interject as you look up at them with that same cold glare.

“I mean yes,” Doctor Darcy chuckles, “everyone does. But I don’t understand why you’re saying this because it doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re talking about.”

You tilt your head slightly and feel your lips tug into a mischievous smile, “I can help achieve those dreams, you could live here and live the life you’ve always wanted, you’ll be happy, at peace. Just like these people, Wanda and I.”

“No. It’s not right.” Agent Woo protested as he took one cautious step towards you. “Understand before someone else forces you to understand.”

You sigh and clench your fists tighter. “Is that a threat?”

“No. But if you don’t stop this it might as well will be. You don’t understand what we’re going through so they don’t see you as the villain, so they don’t come attack you, or throw you in jail. And you wouldn’t want to share a cell with your father now would you?”

You scoff, “I’m not the villain of this story, I was never the villain of this story! But people don’t understand that! For as long as I had my powers I’ve fought against people like Hayward, people who try to keep me under lock and key, who try to cast me out and kill me!” You exclaim, feeling your power re-emerge from your hand and engulf your whole hand, causing a yellow hue to bask your face and your eyes. “You don’t understand, none of you have ever understood! All I’m trying to do is save the people I love and keep them safe, just like my father was before people like you took him away because he was a “threat”.”

“Your father killed—”

“No!” You growl sharply, “my father didn’t kill anyone, his actions were a by-product of what Stark weapons did, our family died because of his inventions. My father was never the villain, just like I’m not.” You raise both of your hands and elegantly wave your hand to change back to your suit, lifting yourself off the ground and looking down at them this time seeing the fear in their eyes and ignoring it. “I gave you a chance, now I’m giving you a warning, leave and don’t come again because if any of you do, I’ll become the villain you want me to be.”

Using your powers, you lift them both off the ground with ease and swiftly throw them out of town with no remorse, watching them fly out until you couldn’t see the hue of your powers anymore to gently land back on the ground, changing back to the same dress Pietro gave you with a flick of your wrist and quietly returning home. Stopping however at the entrance of your front door to look down at your silver bracelet and stroking the design engraved on it gently with the pad of your thumb. You let out a shaky sigh and feel your eyesight blur with the tears that were quick to emerge.

You swallow back the thick lump that formed in your throat though and kept yourself from giving in to such actions. Instead you draw in a deep breath and slowly exhale it out to open the door and greet Pietro with an assuring smile. When he saw you, he rushed to you and instantly as you predicted began to ask about the mysterious visitors. “What wrong, what did they want?”

“Just questions about my father,” you reassure him, discreetly using your powers to freeze him and join Wanda in the dining room with a gloomier expression set on your face.

“Let me guess, they want to get to you to make me stop this? To threaten you?” Wanda suggests in a bitter tone, whilst she takes a seat on the couch and rests her head in her hands. “This is not the first time they’ve tried to stop us, tried to kill us; first that woman and then they shot that missile.”

Slowly you join her on the couch and express a deep sigh. “We don’t want anything from them, we’re not threatening them, I don’t understand why they can’t leave us alone.”

“Because they’re afraid,” Wanda points out what you already knew but didn’t want to admit. “But this is our home, y/n, we can’t let them scare us, or let them take advantage of us. We have to protect our home.”

You meet her gaze and smile, “you’re right, they can’t take this from us. Not this.”

Wanda stands up and you don’t falter behind, standing up a couple seconds later and feeling more confident than before, feeling inspired and strong. Even more so with her words. “We’re going to fight for our home and our families.”

A smirk tugs on your lips and you offer her a nod, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. Goodnight, y/n,” Wanda smiles at you before she heads to the door, looking back at you and smiling wider, “you look beautiful by the way.”

“Thank you.”

With one last smile, Wanda finally heads back to her own home and you’re left in the center of your living room, alone, watching Pietro's frozen figure, for some reason not instantly letting him go. Instead just taking in the silence and recalling what those two from before had told you.

Were they really in pain? All these people? Wanda said they weren’t and you trusted her more than you trusted them.

Yet why were you so bothered and confused.

What were you even doing?

You glance back at your wrist and then turn back to Pietro, releasing another sigh before going to him and releasing him from the frozen state he was in, also erasing the memory of what had just happened, only letting him remember what was happening before you got interrupted.

“Right,” Pietro speaks up happily, “so where were we?”

“Our date,” you remind him with a beaming grin, extending your hand out to him so he would gladly take it and pull you back to the table.

“So I was thinking,” Pietro begins mischievously, “we should have a kid of our own.”

“Huh?”

“Just think about it, we could give Billy and Tommy a cousin and a play date.”

You lick your lips and set down your utensils that you had just picked up. “You want a child? I thought you wanted to live life in the fast lane? Live life like if we were always in a vacation?”

Pietro shrugs, “we can do that with a kid. A little girl? We’re not on the run anymore, y/n, we have a nice home, it’s what you wanted no? I think we’re ready.”

A grin spreads on your lips and you feel an excitement wash over you and erase the stress you had gone under. You pick up your utensils again and take a bite out of your food that until this moment had been left untouched, leaving him in a small, tense waiting period until you swallowed and gave him your answer. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good. Good,” Pietro nodded, taking a bite out of his food and then continuing quite impatiently, “but don’t think about it too long.”

You chuckle and roll your eyes. “Fine. I’ll give you my answer by tomorrow.”

“Morning?” He finished for you.

“Mhmm, maybe.”

Pietro groans, “fine, fine.” He takes another bite of his food and just as you saw he was going to add something else, another knock sounds on your door. “Who could that be at this time?”

You shrug and this time feel yourself turn more nervous that you had gotten before. You hesitate to answer, but when you see Pietro move to open the door you get up faster. “I’ll open it.”

Before he could argue against it, you head to the door and swing it open, freezing completely at who was standing out the door this time.

He was familiar yet unfamiliar. He had the same white hair but that’s about it, his face was different and his body was built different. You should’ve been confused at his sudden appearance, but it just automatically made sense.

“Pietro?”

Said man out the door smiles and waves, “hello, little witch, you’re not going to let me in?”

[violetfaust]

(Belated) TFATWS 1.3 roundup

This will probably be surprising to anyone whom I’ve subjected to my megaton of tfatws reblogs--but ep 1.3 was my least favorite of the series so far. And unfortunately every time I try to put together my breezy little liveblogging impressions, I get immediately stuck wanting to write ten paragraphs of WHY it’s my least favorite, which, in so many words: too little Sam POV. And by this time, plenty of other people who agree with me on this have written plenty of thoughtful threads on why, so I am just going to...let it go. For the moment. (And maybe just make it a separate ten-paragraph post.) Anyway, tl;dr:

I still enjoyed the episode

I’m still loving the show

I still think we’ll get emotional and dramatic payoff; BUT

I’m disappointed with my fave’s treatment this time around.  

Okay! Got it down to one paragraph and a bulleted list. Onward.

I’m relieved that Isaiah is at least in the previouslys.

I dunno, man, that cheesy commercial alone doesn’t make the GRC seem like the good guys, even before you follow it up with Walker throwing his weight around.

“Do you know who I am?” And just like that, Walker shows his true colors and proves he’s not worthy of the legacy. Because he’s a person who allows power and fame to corrupt him.

So is Zemo Nazi/Hydra or is he just a Nazi/Hydra fanboy? 

“What are you reading?” “Machiavelli.” “Yeah, you definitely seem like the kind of guy to break out of high-security prison. This is a good idea.”

“We are NOT breaking him out!!!” *puppy dog eyes* “sigh. fine”

I know the fandom loves Zemo, but man he is a little bitch. It literally takes him three minutes to start breaking down both Bucky and Sam. How the fuck did he even get his hands on Bucky’s notebook? (see below) Excuse me, Steve’s notebook. <x3

“Heartbreaking: Worst person you know just made a great point.”--> Sam re: Zemo and Marvin Gaye.

So Karli is friends with a cute little girl, sees her mother/mentor die unnecessarily, and just wanted to be a teacher when she grew up, and we think she’s the villain? NO.

This is getting super long so....below.

Heartbreaking Pt. 2: Yes, Sam, Zemo is right and you look good in the suit. (That is impeccable pattern matching, btw. I did not watch seven seasons of Project Runway for nothing.)

Okay, I should save this for my ten-paragraph bitching post but: I KNOW the trope of “undercover guy has to eat something gross to pass” is objectively funny. But Sam is from Louisiana.  I can guarantee you the man has eaten frog and/or alligator AT LEAST once. In fact, since the family business is shrimping, there’s a non-zero chance that he has prepared and served super-gross foods such as six-inch sea cockroaches with heads and ganglia attached. He should NOT have been fazed by a cocktail with fresh snake gonads or whatever those were. You know what would have been a funny take? Sam knocks back the drink, then says: “Delicious. And [pointing to Zemo] one for my friend here.”  (AM is hilarious here though.)

“Power Broker, really?” Goes with “Smiling Tiger is a bad name” and “Battlestar? Stop the car!” (Frankly, a person still going by “Winter Soldier” does not have a lot of room to criticize here...)

How does Zemo wearing a cool coat and dancing like a cute dork make up for what he’s doing to Bucky here? Sebstan had tears shining in his eyes. 

Love language: “You good?”

The layers of Sam, an African American man from the South, watching another human, his friend, apparently being sold...

REALLY? Sam didn’t put his phone on silent? (Bless Sarah for being a civilian and not playing along...)

HOWEVER this is a pretty ugly reminder in this episode when Zemo is throwing around his zillions and his private plane while Sam can’t get a loan to save his family business.

Was it Sharon who killed Selby? I’m confused?

Sharon! Being the poster woman for landing on her feet. Good for her. And thank you, Sharon, for having a wardrobe of men’s wear in Bucky and Sam’s sizes. Although if you could have gotten one of them to wear that sequined number...

It is just hard to accept that Steve and the Avengers did her SO dirty that they simply ignored her in the two years they were on the run. (It also doesn’t gibe with Sam and even Bucky seeming to know Sharon, since they never met before CW.) Come to think of it though, I don’t remember how Steve even got himself pardoned after IW?

I’ve read the theories that she might be the Power Broker, which seems unlikely purely on the practical basis that if she was blipped for five years she’d lose her standing, but this is Marvel, so who cares about making sense? If she is, I hope she’s not treated as a flat-out villain; maybe she deliberately let Karli and her group get the SS serum rather than Hydra wannabes? 

Let’s hear it for Sharon--kicking ass and not even bothering with the names.

Nagel is the most villainous villain who has villained here so far. What a waste.

So there are up to twelve SS serum doses left. Calling it now: Walker is going to do whatever he has to in order to get his hands on one of them.

However I do NOT want Sam to take one. He doesn’t need to be superpowered to be a hero.

“Partners each convinced the other is the sidekick.” 

We’ve all been waiting for this callback.

That had better not be the last of Sharon. She has her own minion--this should be good.

Look: the only reason Bucky would even CONSIDER taking the shield is that Sam says he doesn’t want it. (And I’m not sure he even IS seriously considering it so much as trying to make Sam reconsider.)

So I said this elsewhere but: apparently Zemo is redeemable. Sharon killed about fourteen people this episode alone. Bucky killed “almost everyone he ever met.” Sam offed helicopters full of terrorists in ep 1. Karli’s victims are not exactly innocent--they are hoarding resources meant for those refugee children and sick people.  I am not giving up on my daughter for this. ;-)

Heartbreaking #3: Bucky and Sam were dead for five years so it’s not exactly fair to call them out for not visiting the Sokovia memorial but...would they have thought of it?

WAKANDA! Finally! They’ve been teasing it since ep 1 but I didn’t think we’d actually get there. (Although I’m 100% sure that Shuri is one of the nine numbers in Bucky’s phone.)

Not a lot of Sambucky this time around, although we did get

Sam being a sweetly worried boyfriend throughout. Sam calling him “Buck” at least three times--with no pushback. 

Bucky very determinedly NOT looking at ALL at shirtless Sam. Not at all. 

And POSSIBLY Bucky reading a self-help book about forming strong erotic love relationships. 

[goji-pilled]

Um uh hi I suck at analyzing things so uh question: how does the engine room go in the mg au (after all the fighting where I’m guessing Akechi lives)? And is hamuko with the thieves during it? Djdhjdnfd sorry I’m just really interested lol

dw its not that you're bad at analyzing the AU stuff, its just that I dont know how to properly handle an AU (especially one as self indulgent as this one) and convey the lore (???? idk) and barely give people little crumbs <\3

As for the actual question... a thing I should mention before is the fact that once Akechi goes full Black Mask mode and attacks the PTs Hamuko is the one who gets inbetween and fights him one-on-one. Its her way of trying to make up for the fact that she messed up as a parent and didn't manage to get him away from his (extremely) toxic obsession of destroying Shido's career, of making the man who deemed him and his mom worthless ackowledge him, show Shido that he is worth being seen. Goro's entire self worth is based on that very obsession he clung onto when he was 10.

When the Thives get in the way, when Hamuko fucks up both his and their plans during the arrest after the Casino heist he gets scared, because losing his plan equals failure and to Goro it would prove that he really is worthless, which he really doesnt want that to happen. So out of desparation and fear he lashes out in the Engine Room and ultimately gets his ass beaten by Hamuko (who still is recovering from the events in the Interrogation Room btw bc girl has no chill rip)

And now comes the actual answer to your questiom fjseyjsyeyehewj

Anyways after that Goro can't anymore, he's beaten and defeated and so so so tired that he just breaks and Loki reverts into a Shadow for a short moment, a Shadow that's his 10yo self crying and he finally, fucking finally admits out loud the truth: He's just a scared child who clung to a toxic obession that would ultimately kill him just to find a reason to keep going after his mom's death. He even admits that he's a hypocrit in some way, telling Sumire that clinging to unhealthy wishes wont do but here he is. In the end the Thieves and Hamuko finally got him to his senses, despite what he did they still offered him a hand in civility and friendship, they offered him a chance to still get the justice he wanted for so long by changing Shido's heart - and he accepts. Goro (and Hamuko) officially joins them, to get closure with all of this so he can start healing properly and find a new and better reason to live, free from Shido's control over his life and selfworth. Its also that ressolve that gives him Loki back

Oh and once they leave the Palace after that Hamuko takes him to the side and tells him about how someone very precious to her once told her that you dont need to be a hero to find purpose in life, that sometimes all you nees is something simple, like someone to take of.

[hiimsociallyawkward]

the darkest hour pt 2

i'm back with my bs. this is for my bestie @lady-ofmagic-andstars. basically, all of my dumb thoughts while i watched 'darkest hour pt 2', 04.02 of merlin. in case you weren't aware.. ✨spoilers✨

right off the bat i'm sad

ok when i first watched this i was really confused. i mean, you see others when they interact with the dorocha have that perpetual frost on their face right? all of them, every single one. so imagine my surprise when merlin has no frost on his face, and he's miserable yea- but he's not dead??

like tbh, watching this again, ik why but when i first watched this, i was SO confused.

arthur looks so worried slkdjfalskfsd

him being willing to abandon the mission to get merlin back to camelot to be treated 😔🤪😎🤤🤩 lots of emotions

LANCELOT. of course it's lancelot. santiago is perfect. actually.

merlin looks so SICKLY. it physically pains me to see him like that

okok hahaa. the scene where percival is carrying merlin. i have several notes on that.

1) ik it's supposed to be all 'noble' looking. yk? them walking in slow mo, percival carrying merlin like he's been slained in battle. knights looking knightly

ALL I CAN FOCUS ON IS THE LACK OF PROPER NECK SUPPORT FOR MERLIN. PLS TELL ME I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE.

like pls

second note, idk why this remind me of hagrid carrying harry back

idk maybe that's just me but it feels oddly reminiscent

colin is SO pale my heart is actually hurting for him what the heck

asf;lsdjfa;lsdfj 'take me with you' stop.

dude they ACTUALLY care about each other. i just love them. arthur is so worried rn and while i'm like 'alsjfalsdj i don't want arthur to be sad and worried' we can see just how MUCH arthur cares about merlin.

like yea, we KNOW that they care about each other. but arthur is the prince and merlin's a servant so arthur can't have friends, but they're friends, and they care, and it makes me happy

ok it's sad and everything that merlin's basically dying but is it bad of me that i chuckle at merlin SLUMPED over on his horse?? probably.

but i mean, merlin is already raising himself up so he can sit more comfortably on the horse. ik that doesn't mean that he's in the clear yet, but he's doing a LOT better than the other people who ran into the dorocha. idk where i'm going with this

to quote the destiny and chicken podcast (who i love btw, if you want an awesome merlin podcast, check them out), they stay on arthur's face for SO long after merlin and lancelot leave.

i feel EVERYTHING that arthur is feeling in this moment. he's so pretty

there's another beautiful landscape. i'm not even sorry i'm gonna attach them ALL.

tell me that's not gorgeous

LMAO WHAT IS GWAINE DOING IN THAT TREE.

gwaine is the EMBODIMENT of 'boys will be boys' when he sticks his hand into that tree and gets swarmed by bees.

he's adorable and i love him

ok but also, someone tell me why capes are so hot. someone TELL me.

separate from the episode but on the note of capes being hot, i want a cloak SO BADLY. like the whole gist. floor length, big hooded cloak. why?? it's not like i'm sneaking anywhere but still. ✨cloak✨

ok the line where leon goes 'if anyone can get merlin back to camelot, it's lancelot' and arthur's face?? idk what to make of it. someone help me pls.

ok actually this probably isn't the best reaction shot but someone please help

the only thing i can think of is that arthur momentarily forgot and was reminded that merlin was in danger bc of him?

another thought is that he thinks he should take merlin back instead of lancelot?

ik for a fact you guys are better at analysising this stuff than i am so pls, thoughts?

i love lancelot so much. first time i watched this, i was CRUSHED

him carrying merlin to the lake(?) pond(?) area and then covering him with his cape? i love it

ok idk why but i love the idea of merlin instinctively going towards the water

it makes me think back to how he's made of magic and basically everywhere, espeically nature, has magic and instinctively- he wants to connect with nature as much as he can so his body just puts his hand in the water

a dumber thought i had, his hand is ✨sparkly✨in the water HAHAH

omg when the water called lancelot i deadass thought it was freya. i'm actually dumb i have WATCHED this before and i STILL thought it was freya

'a future that has been written since the dawn of time' makes me so proud but also so sad at the same time

it's like, yes, merlin is going to 'save the world' but it's like he's there just to do that. anyways, i just want him to be happy

MORE SPARKLY

these water spirts are op but also MORE SPARKLY. hehe i thin kthat's so funny

also, i'm literally only like 7 mins in. buckle yourself in

l;askdjflskdjf arthur going into the tunnels with the wilderons?? i miss merlin ouch. AND THE GAJA BERRIES. arthur misses merlin.

ok percival tackling gwaine?? cuties ;))

heheheeh gwaine kicking a skull and then running directly behind arthur for protection?? pls stop. i already love you

HAHA OK. THEM WEARING THE GAJA BERRIES ON THEIR FACE REMINDS ME OF THIS FACE MASK . THAT'S LITERALLY HOW I LOOK WITH THAT THIS FACE MASK ON HAHAA

yes im dumb, but the 5 of them slowly peeking over the rock and then ducking back down?? i love that so much they're so cute

omg what's wrong with me. not these knights literally FEARING their lives and me going 'they're so cute'

ANYWAYS

gwaine you absolute dumbass. smh merlin just took it but you just HAD to stab it. #cancelled

FRICK. YOU. AGRAVAINE.

YES. i have a love hate relationship with gaius, but BUST into the council room. king energy right there

smh gaius you pUSH over.

I LOVE GWEN RIGHT HERE

YES

FIGHT FOR WHAT IS RIGHT

DON'T LET ALL THOSE SMELLY OLD COUNCILMEN PUSH YOU AROUND

THIS IS ACTUALLY QUEEN SH!T RIGHT HERE EVERYONE ELSE CAN LEAVE

stfu agravaine 'gueniviere'. ST F UP

ok gwen. pop OFF

you KNOW that arthur would've fought agravaine on this. GO GWEN for speaking her mind

oh look at me with anotehr fic rec. sort of, not really. ok but this scene with gwen talking about all the villagers remind of this fic called To Love, Honor, and Piss Off by @thenerdyindividual .

ok so it's basically a fic where basically merlin and arthur have this 'arranged marriage' type thing for 3 years, and merlin is arthur's 'common consort'. what that means is that arthur marries merlin as a show of good faith and to learn more about what it means to be a commoner- merlin giving arthur the tea about commoner life

anywAYS. check that our if you want, but i loved it

stfu 'i feel the pain as much as you' agravaine. hop off my dick

YES. GWEN. PLANT THAT SEED OF DOUBT THAT AGRAVAINE MIGHT NOT BE ALL THAT HE SEEMS. i love gwen :,)

wow when she's intellegent with her speaking so everyone HAS to side with her but also respectful so NO ONE can get mad at her?? i stan. i ACTUALLY stan

santiago is so pretty

the PANIC in his voice. i stan.

HAHA AND MERLIN'S SNARKY 'SHH'

merlin is ready to GO. he's like, sorry for almost dying. that was ill advised of me.

i'm actually soft for any displays of friendship ever. what does that mean about me 💀 KIDDING. anyways..

i love the *swing* *duck* 'yea, not as quick as arthur

sa;kfs;akdfj lancelot insisting that merlin go back to camelot and merlin just nOt

LADS

stop rn. lancelot's face when merlin turns away. i am in pAin. I AM SO SAD OVER LANCELOT. PLS LANCELOT.

this isn't exactly, but morgana's paleness from here on out reminded me of merlin when he was literally DYING.

anyways, that's my note on that

like, yes- i get it- morgana is evil now. but idk should i feel bad for her? she looks so pale and ghasty and just :(

aksfhaskdjfas;ldf morgana

HAHA MORGANA IS SO EDGY IN THIS MOMENT. 'I'D RATHER DROWN IN MY OWN BLOOD THAN SEE THAT DAY' SO DRAMATIC. WHY IS SHE SO EMO/GOTH. LIKE IK I SHOULD BE SCARED FOR WHAT THAT MEANS BUT I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING

stfu don't kill gwen i'll KiLl you

agravaine literally needs to die

stop. i am literally SCREAMING when agravaine is asking gwen to meet him in his chambers. PLS. STOP. STOP STOP STOP. I NEED A WHISLTE. I BITE MY THUMB AT AGRAVAINE. HE NEEDS TO SACK THE HATEFUL MANSION. BETTER YET I'LL BURN HIS MANSION

again, someone tell me why capes are so hot. especially these red ones?? i'm in love with them.

ok see this guy?? he just died with the forst on his face. not merlin?? he started getting better. surly that should've tipped them off that merlin was different

merlin's little head quirk when he does magic. ALSFJASLDFJAS MERLIN. NO ONE SAID YOU WERE USELESS. AND IF THEY DID I WOULD BEAT. THEM. UP. GIVE ME ADDRESS RN.

wow. seriously. i'm gonna attach all the pretty landscape pictures

morgana's like 'i'll cut a b!tch'. ok ik morgana's evil and everything, but morgana flinging that guard against the wall is bad ass

oh this is weird but gwen telling agravaine to 'show courage' but the whole room tinted green? ik this isn't harry potter or anything but idk i thought that was interesting. i'm not abt to go into if i think agravaine is a slytherin or what but still

STOP. GET. YOUR. HANDS. AWAY. FROM. HER. I ACTULALY HATE HIM. SHE'S SO UNCOMFORTABLE. BACK THE FRICK UP AGARAVINE.

morgana :( smh you can't deny that morgana and gwen carried for each other and morgana flinging gwen away is making me sad. don't touch me

asldjfasldasd 'you're never alone' elyan i love you

lancelot and merlins being lads. omg no them talking about gwen

lancelot is SO noble. stop this reminds me of Die for you in secret by @emrysofmagic so much right now. not gonna lie. your fic LITERALLY lives in my head rent free and sometimes i think of it and my heart just HURTS in those last few chapeters. PHYSICALLy. i am in pain. anyways.

stop the trope where it's like "i love them, but i just want them to be happy. it doesn't matter if they're with me or not. i just want them to be happy"

I WAS LITERALLY SCREECHING AS MERLIN WAS CALLING KILGHARRAH i'm not even capping

ok so it's been like a month ish since i've watched merlin bc i was waiting for @//f-f-podcast 's destiny and chicken podcast, so i don't exactly what terms kilgharrah and merlin are at right now

still i think it's very sweet of merlin to bow slightly when kilgharrah looks at him

'the bravest and most noble of them all' 🥺

aw. merlin is really saying good bye right now

ok this scene is weird bc like i said, i don't rlly remember how merlin and kilgharrah are right now but it still makes me sad

asldjfslakdjfasd merlin and kilgharrah are old friends now. that makes me happy but sad at the same time

ok the 'it will be an empty world without you, young warlock' kills me.

obviously, we know that even though they butt heads, kilgharrah and merlin both care about each other

not only is kilgharrah being forced to let merlin go right now, but he's making peace with the fact that he'll be alone

the last dragonlord is planning to die. and kilgharrah is going to be alone again, like he was in that cave.

another thing is that if merlin died rn then we would never have aithusia. i'm kinda going on a tangent now but idk this scene is sad

this forest is so pretty

literally just lancelot's face and lancelot in this whole episode.

that's my note

HAHA GWAINE BURNING IS SOCKS

LADS BEING LADS

I LOVE THEM

omg i always see posts about this.

like merlin and lancelot planned that lancelot was going to walk in first and trick them and THEN merlin walked in

that's so funny to me. they're SO dramatic HAHAH

merlin looks so happy

BRO

ARTHUR

JUST HUG

HIM

PLS

STO

P

JUST HUG HIM WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM

Tell me why they actually look MARRIED here. PLS

🥲🥲 SELF SACRIFICING IDIOTS I LOVE YOU BOTH YOURE BREAKING MY HEART

LADS I LOVE THEM

🤠🤠 arthur wanting Gwen to be happy is KILLING ME. He loves her so much

This is so pretty. Honestly like how

Who let merlin have this many pretty landscapes

HOENSTLY

Lajs;dlkfajd buds in a boat together.

This reminds me of going to amusement parks and there’s always that boat ride

They’re the cutest

Ok so they also have this picture. It’s actually 3 pictures spliced together because the episode pans down and it’s really badly spliced (sorry) but LOOk how pretty that is.

WTF

Omg not me literally copying merlin with his slow mo head flick at the wyverns to make them go away

;sldkfjasdlkjasd leon percival and elyan and my heart.

Ok i’m not even gonna try to lie. They all have my heart

Frick you cailleah

Omg i was like ‘gwaine you dumbass’ jK i love him. Pls don’t come for my neck

Asldjfasldjfka ‘i’m prepared to pay whatever price is necessary’

HAHA CAN YOU NOT. WHAT IS WITH THIS CREEPY ‘COME HITHER’ HAND MOTION MS CAILLEAH

Stopp rn. ‘It’s my density

STOP. I AM HOWLING. LANCELOT

WHY

COME BACK

NO NONO PLS. YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME.

stop rn merlin is all alone.

PAN TO ARTHUR WHO IS LITERALLY SURROUNDED BY EVERYONE.

Stop they all look so sad. I’m so sad.

merlin looks like he’s cried

I’m not sure abt arthur with his ‘no man is worth your tears’ type business but still

I am ✨sad✨

I screamed at this picture. I am depressed

Anyways

Gwen’s face is killing me

I’m so sad i don’t even want to write commentaries

Arthur realizing that lancelot only died because he loved gwen

Gwen standing in front of the fire

Aslkdfjasldjfa im so sad

HER STANDING IN FRONT OF THE FIRE ALL ALONE.

I. AM. SO. SAD.

STFU THAT THRONE IS NOT “RIGHTFULLY” YOURS MORGANA

STOP PLS GET AWAY

WHAT IS WITH THIS WEIRD TENSION

PLS DO NOT STAND WITHIN KISSING DISTANCE

IK YOU’RE NOT TECHNICALLY BLOOD RELATED BUT STILL.

PLEASE.

STOP.

I HATE AGRAVAINE

✨we hate agravaine in this house✨

😭😭 not merlin having ANOTHER secret. I’m so sorry bby

Anyways! I’ll be back next week to rant more about the wicked day so I’ll see you then! thanks I love you bye

[ask-vaal-hazak]

I just left a homebrew dnd campaign I've a message for new DM's

If your running a campaign for 2 ppl and there level 3 do not throw cr 6 and 9 monsters at them. For the love of the divine do not.

Extremely fustrating and deadly. And dont use the monsters from a homebrew forum bc it just sounds cool. Bc that "cool" cr 6 hag going against a lv3 party with multiple attack. Multiple spell cast and spell immunity and able to polymorph into any creature it wants at will is devastating.

Just to rant here. I lost 3 characters in 1 hour. My lv 3 barbarian (minotaur zelot). My battlemaster (centaur) and my wizard (yuan ti)

To be a dm ya have to balance and make sure every fight isnt designs to just upright kill ppl at the start bc. 5d12 worth of dmg with multiple attack on a hag or any creature. Is friggin broken.

There no way in hell a monster for a party of 2, level 3 adventures should hit for 5d12 (3 times) and be able to cast 2 spells (at will without using a spell slot) EVERY ROUND. And on top of that have a movement speed of 90 and an ac of 23. (I asked the dm to let me see what he was using and thers more. Swim of 30, fly of 300 ect this is pretty much a god with its stats but the cr says 6. It dosent even feel like a 6. More like a lv 20 broken sack of crap)

This is the reason there are tutorial guides in the book(s) and youtube to show you why you should look at cr then your players levels b4 u design an encounter.

I cant describe how fustrating it was to see my barbarian. Who I spent 5hours making just get tapped lightly and die. Bc 48 hp at lv 3 and taking well over 10 pts of dmg bc apparently she crit me on all attacks and only did like 1 attack to our female player (for 2 dmg with a level 6 scorching ray [its bs] ) was "Fair bc your a barbarian and should be able to tank this EASILY" (quote the dm.)

If there is a way to piss off players it's this and having a game were you get railroaded so hard it's a traveling trip with skill checks with a minimum of 18-20 to notice something like a bear on the road when the weather is CLEAR and everyone is PAYING THE HELL ATTENTION ON A BANDIT HIGHWAY. Not to mention the SCREAMS OF A CYCLOPS AS IT LITERALLY SMASHES INTO THE CARAVAN ACROSS A PLANE WITH A FEW TREES ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD.

Oh and let me not forget the NPCS WHO WANT TO SLEEP WITH EVERYONE BC THEY THINK THERE HOT AND DESERVE A NICE HOT MEAT ROD FOR THEIR SERVICES OF INTRODUCING THEMSELVES.

*Facepalm* my god....oh and if your thinking

"GEE-WILLY Mr. Person surely it couldnt be that bad?" This guys campaign was pretty much parappa the rapper, jojo bizarre adventures, bloodborne, Resident evil and memes.

I had a character who came in and apparently they caused the world to have wormholes? (Somehow) and referenced it everytime we played even when that character died. In session one. Bc apparently a company named (I kid you not) Shoe Rack was the equivalent of resident evil's umbrella cooperation. Complete with a drow leader and a litch bookkeeper who turned everyone into zombies to work for free while they apparently made diamonds to sell for millions of gold and keep the workers working g for 1 copper every month. Only giving gold to ppl that would sleep with them.

Not to mention apparently everyone in this world had magic resist or spell immunity to everyone except to females. And when I made a female char apparently that rule became I valid and it was just a straightforward

Me: does a 17 hit?

Dm: well it would but .... *they grin*

Me: but?

Dm: they use a special ring to catch the spell and cast meteor swarm on you point blank.

Me: well they get hit too I just stabbed them with a dagger.

Dm: no you see it's a SMALL METEOR THAT ONLY HITS THE PERSON THAT HIT THEM

Me: so they and my teammate. Who has literally been stabbing them are fine?"

Dm: yes

Me (takes like 589 pts of dmg and is ded)

Dm: the litch turns to you and asks if you want a cup of coffee.

Female player: umm sure?

Dm: whoo-yeah. Combat over you get 500 go and a date with the litch.

Me: I'm sorry what?

Female player: umm...ok. awsome.

Me: ......ok cool so I'll just bring in-

Dm: no that's cool the litch revives yorubas a female zombie slave.

Me: why?

Dm: and you need to have sex to keep yourself alive.

Me: yeah no. I'll just bring in my centaur battle master

1 hour later

Dm: you take umm..let's see *rolls dice.*

Me: (waiting)

Dm: *rolls a shit ton more dice*

Me: (waiting)

Dm: oh oh no *grins*

Me: (takes 40 dmg) I'm still up

Dm: how?

Me: I have 48 hp....I'm still up

Dm: ok it's your attack I guess.

Me: rolls a nat 1 "ok I guess I have disadvantage on my next att-"

Dm: rolls a d100 and a d10 (the percentile)

Me: what are you doing?

Dm: rolling for severity of your fail. Btw how much dmg does your lance do?

Me: it does 1d12 dmg and why are you using severity. That's not in 5e and you said we-

Dm: as you fail you accidentally stab yourself in the throat as your spear hits a rock and you take *rolls dice* 35 pts of dmg

Me: ok I'm out that's bs. Number one and two I have a lance and thers no way I can do 35 dmg. I get about 24 dmg on a crit and 28 if I use my racial feature to kick a person at max with a crit.

Dm: oh your just being salty, you dont play fair!

Me: excuse me?

Dm: ALL YOU DO IS PLAY SPELL CASTWRS AND THATS CHEATING!

Me: bc everyone has spell immunity for some reason or only takes 1/4 the dmg. I'm pretty much useless and am being fored to play melee unlike our LOREMASTER BARD who got an item to DOUBLE HER DMG AND SPELL SLOTS AND CRIT ON A 15 PERMANENTLY (this is the female btw)

Dm: well maybe you should have slept with the litch

Me: she literally found that item in a store for like 3 silver and when I looked (with a 17 arcana check) I found a rusty dagger and a flask of poisoned potion.

Dm: well maybe roll higher?

Female player: umm I rolled like a 10 and found this that's kind of cool but I dont think it's fair. But o wanna keep my items

Dm: ugh fine. You keep yours. Ummm (to me) I guess you get a potion of greater healing for....umm 500 go.

Me:.......nah I'm good, FUCK IT. I'll just make another spell caster Oops. Cant do that. How about a nope. Cant make a barbar I'm going to make a artificer

Dm: cant do that

Me: why?

Dm: they're broken its not good.

Me: *with the book* not broken..ulyou know what why dont you make me a character and I'll use that.

Dm: hands me a sheet

Me: reads "Zonia the sexy zombie elf sex slave that gets stronger every time she has sex?" *Looks at everyone* ok I'm out enjoy the campaign.

Dm: we cant have a dnd adventure with only 1 person.

Me: yes you can you've been doing it since session 1. I'm out goodbye. I'm still running my campaign on sunday. I wont hole anything against you. But I will not sit here and be shit on bc I refuse to kiss yur ass and make a slut of a character. Pull your head from your ass. I'm taking my stuff and I'm out.

Dm: but I need the dm screen and the mat and the markers.

Me: then buy your own or use theater of mind. I'm out.

Like how bad is it to want to be a dm to shit on ppl. THIS, THIS IS NOT OK. and no one wants a zombie sex slave that can only have sex and has a str of 0 a con of 30 a dex of 1 a cha of 40 and so on. Its friggin stupid!

Anyway that's my rant. Im....I think I'm just done with dms and crap I just want to play a dnd game I can be happy with. And not always be the Forever dm. Who has players challenge everything. Like why as a monk they cant use sleight of hand to CATCH A FRIGGIN FIREBALL AND/OR AN ARROW AIMED AT ANOTHER PERSON.

Anyway leave a comment or add on I'm just burnt out and glad I could get this rant off my chest

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

Coolest shit. On the hospital map. It’s a Pyramid Head with shitty aim tbh. I stun him with the pallet near the office, blind him with a Flashlight, and the legit slow-vault the window next to the pallet and use Balanced Landing when falling into the Basement, to make a silent af getaway.(Balanced Landing lessens your stagger when landing, makes you NOT grunt when landing, and gives you a quick burst of speed for running away.)

Got a slugging Wraith after the last Gen popped. Someone already mostly opened a door. I was the first downed near an unopened door. I start recovering because I have Unbreakable. I get up and open the door. This makes him come toward me while the other three are left by the other door which is almost open! I’m distracting the Wraith in the doorway when the other 3 all Unbreakable themselves off the ground at the same time! They were probably swf. We didn’t even get to leave cuz the Killer rage-quit! XD

Had my first shit-ranked match in 2 weeks. Me: Rank 4 Killer: Rank 12 Everyone Else: Rank 20. We only got 2 Gens done before the other three got pwned terribly. And I was like, ‘wouldn’t it be nice if the Hatch spawned in that one corner of the map?’, and I went there, and the Hatch was there! I Escaped!

Got the same Michael 2 matches in a row. He was attempting the Tombstone BS but couldn’t find 2 of us in the first game and the Gens got done too quickly so he rage-quit. 20 minutes later I get into another game and it was him, again, trying the same shit again, and he rage-quit again, because the Gens got done so fast. We powered through Gens despite being Injured and finished #3 and #4 within seconds of each other from different sides of the map. He rage-quit.

Me: *loads into a lobby with a Key already equipped and am ready to be tunneled because of it* Me: *does 2 Gens by myself, does 1 Gen with another person, rescues every other person once, heals every other person once, breaks all 5 Totems, & somehow manages to not be seen by the Killer all match even while hunting ppl down to bring them to the Hatch so we could all leave* Killer: Coward! u did nothing all match! u survivor mains r bad!! Keys need 2 b banned! Me: Big words from some1 with 13K pts less than my 29,394 pts. BTW, I had the most points out of everyone.

Faced a Clown with an Ebony Mori and the fucking bottles that Expose you if you get hit with them. I was a Blendette. He hit me with several bottles before he got a hit in, and the Exposed effect ran out so I was only Injured instead of downed. I ran a distance, saw a running Dwight, and stopped running so his scratch marks would be mistaken for my scratch marks. I then slowly crouched back the way I came, under the Clown’s nose and he didn’t know! Got Healed. Lost him in another Chase. It was funny. We all died but we did get 3 Gens done even with Overcharge and someone always being Hooked. Turned out he was a Twitch streamer doing his last Killer Challenge which was a 4K by any means necessary. The whole match was just him going ‘I want to Hook the Claudette!’ He’d Hooked Feng Min in the Basement and I had followed behind him the entire time. He wasn’t even out of the shack when I saved her and he’s like, ‘wtf, that was so fast, did somebody just follow me down there? I saw no scratch marks!’ And then she runs out and takes a Hit with Borrowed Time, and I Sprint Out and drop shack pallet to avoid getting downed after getting hit with a bottle. This was the first Chase we had and it’s what made him want to Kill me so bad! ‘Of course it’s a fucking Blendette! God dammit!’ XD

So I’m on Midwich and there’s this Gen in this long room on the bottom floor and I was hidden perfectly so when the Huntress came in, she only saw the Meg. I stopped working on it when Meg ran, so the Killer wouldn’t be notified of my presence. Meg proceeded to run her around that one room alone, ducking under Hatchets and never throwing the pallet down. So I decided to Gen-tap. Basically quickly hitting R2(Toolbox) over and over because there are no sounds beyond the loud cylinders moving. Usually you’d hear the mechanical parts cranking and turning but Gen-tapping eliminates that bit so I Gen-tapped while Meg ran the Killer around, and finished the Gen right in front of the Killer. She stopped what she was doing, turned to look at the Gen where I was still hidden because of how it was situated near the wall, and then rage-quit! XD

Got a Challenge to get 10 Great Skill Checks and decided to use This Is Not Happening which widens the Great Skill Check Zone by 30%. But you have to be injured to use it, so I used No Mither cuz I didn’t want to find the Killer just to get hurt. I Escaped with 19K pts, which was more than the Killer. It was a Twitch streamer using Ghost Face. Got to his stream in time to hear him question why I was using This Is Not Happening instead of Resilience. Sent him a “GG” and a Follow and he asked if I was the No Mither player. Told him about the Challenge I was doing and why I made those Perk choices and he told me it was smart considering the the details and adding Iron Will to No Mither(cuz it only lessens your pained cries by 50%) was genius since I was dead quiet and he only found me once all match! ^-^ 

I have a little spot I like to hide in on the Nurse and Clown maps. Sometimes Totems spawn in them. The fallen debris hides Claudette perfectly so I went to check for a Totem since another Claudette took the one I wanted earlier, and got glitched into a hole! I was there long enough to waste 5 Sprint Bursts trying to get out! And since it causes Exhaustion for 40 seconds, I was stuck for 3 ½ minutes! Freddy found me after hearing the crows I collected, took pity upon me, and downed me to get me out. He then let me wiggle off, so I gave him my Toolbox as thanks and he even refused to Hook me when I pointed to a Hook. Nice guy. Gave him a thumbs up. :) Gween Tea, wherever you at, TY.

[thepeanutbutterwizard]

Ninjago/Avatar au Pt 4

Basically just Book 1 (and I agonize over ships. Help)

(Also I finally finished watching A:TLA)

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5)

Recap time:

So, we’ve got Maya, Garm, Lloyd, Kai, and Nya flying on Ultra and trying to get to the North Pole. Morro and Wu are pursuing them, as is Clouse, (who will be taking Zhao’s place) and, y’know, the entire Fire Nation. Koko has been abroad for about three years, looking for any information on the Avatar she can. Ray went off to fight with the other men from the Southern Water Tribe.

They have a lot of similar adventures to cannon: they go to the Southern Air Temple to see if that can jog any memories from Lloyds past lives. It doesn’t work, Lloyd just gets ahold of a glider (there are a lot of shenanigans with him learning how to use that) and adopts a Flying Lemur (give Lloyd all of the pets pls) who is just as mischievous as Lloyd. They take a detour to Kyoshi Island, and get a letter that Koko had left for them, saying that she was going to look for a mysterious library (wink). They also befriend one of the prominent members of the village, Cyrus Borg, and his daughter Pixal (she’s human), the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors (I know Cyrus would make a great Mechanist, but the idea of Kyoshi Warrior Pixal was too good and I fell in love with it. Also Samuraishipping is fantastic.)

They fight pirates, there are Spirit World shenanigans (btw the last fully realized Avatar before Lloyd, and his spirit guide is a human version of Firstborn.) and there might be a Jet stand-in if I can figure out a good character for that role. There’s a running gag of people automatically assuming that Maya and Garm are married, to their combined amusement and annoyance, until one of the kids will call one of them their parent, and the other one aunt or uncle (they’re family in this au. Fight me). Eventually they just start automatically answering anything that implies they’re a couple with ‘We’re siblings’.

Wu and Morro have been chasing them the whole way. Wu has been conflicted this whole time; he just found out that his brother is actually alive, and has been hiding for years, with the Avatar no less. And now he’s having to hunt both of them down (as well as his brothers wife and kids? Maybe?) when all he wants to do is, like, talk? Have a cup of tea and catch up maybe? Meanwhile Garm is thinking that Wu is completely on their father’s side, and that he won’t show them any mercy if he catches them.

Eventually they make it to the Northern Water Tribe. The chief is the former elemental master of ice. I shall call him Ice, bc I dont think he has an actual name. He’s a waterbender. And now we finally meet Zane, the white haired (human) wonder! (Heh, you all can probably guess where I’m going with this. Pls don’t kill me.) His unnamed mother died giving birth to his younger brother, Echo, when Zane was about two, and their father died a few years after that, and they were taken in by Ice, who was a close friend of their parent.

I don’t think I’ll make Zane a bender bc of the whole ‘moon spirit saved my life as a baby’ thing, but Echo is (purely for angst reasons. You’ll see what I mean in a bit). But this is the part where we get some sweet sweet Oppositeshipping! Zane isn’t betrothed to anyone, but even though he likes Kai, he’s constantly worried about his tribes safety and worried about what will happen when the Fire Nation shows up (he’s smart enough to know that they will show up eventually) and he’s scared of letting everyone down, and there are just a lot of issues there holding him back from being in a relationship with Kai.

Now, even though everyone knows that Lloyds the Avatar, they’ve kept it secret that Kai and Garm are firebenders (and Garms whole backstory) for obvious reasons. But you guys know that date that Zuko went on in Ba Sing Se? Pretend that they have that lantern thing in the Northern Water Tribe. Kai and Zane have that cute date and Kai lights the lanterns and its adorable.

But I bet you’re wondering who takes the place of krusty old Pakku? Krux of course! Who better to be the traditionalist old jerk waterbender teacher than the traditionalist old jerk boomer? (Acronix is there too. He’s not a bender. If I could find a way to work Futureshipping into this au, I totally would. I am still trying to figure out how to organically work it in) So Lloyd, Nya, and Maya are ready to learn some traditional waterbending (bc even though Maya is a really good waterbender, she literally just made up her own style. It would be like someone trained in acrobatics and dance, turning it into a form of combat, and entering a mixed martial arts tournament. She’s always wanted to learn some traditional waterbending) but Krux does the whole ‘boys do combat, girls do healing’ speech.

None of them like it much, but they go along with it and try to pull the whole ‘I’ll just show you what he showed me!’ thing and get caught. Krux demands an apology, and Maya is trying to keep Lloyd and Nya from blowing up at Krux, and she’s also trying to keep from blowing up herself (I hc that Kai gets his temper from Maya). Krux says something about how even if he wanted to teach them, clearly Maya, and Nya especially, don’t have what it takes to be real waterbenders, and Maya fucking snaps. She goes off on Krux, says some things about how she’s spent her whole life living in fear, and how she worked her ass off to hone her bending, and then she challenges him to go outside and she’ll show him what a ‘real’ waterbender can do.

Lloyd, Kai, and Nya are all a little shocked. It’s the first time they’ve seen Maya get so mad. Garm, who has known Maya for years, had been trying to subtly tell Krux to shut up (even though Krux was really pissing him off too, but someone needed to be the adult). Since Maya isn’t about to let Krux get away without a fight, Garm is just thinking ‘hoo boy, here we go’.

Krux tries to walk away from Maya, and then promptly gets his ass handed to him on a silver platter. He begrudgingly admits that, while Maya’s bending is chaotic and wild and sloppy, it is very powerful. But just bc she was able to beat him in one fight doesn’t mean that he has to teach any of them any waterbending. Maya says ‘fine! We just thought it would be a good idea for the damn Avatar to learn traditional waterbending, but I guess I’ll just go ahead and teach him more of my ‘wild, chaotic, sloppy’ waterbending style! And, I’ll teach anyone in this tribe who wants to learn from me, no matter who they are! And besides, it’s not like you can stop me.’

And so she did! Maya spends the next little while teaching not only Lloyd and Nya everything she’s come up with, but a bunch of the young waterbenders in the tribe learn from her too, as well as some older benders. Krux is less than pleased, but he isn’t looking for Round 2, so he keeps his mouth shut. Garm has been trying to lay low through all this. As low as possible for the father of the Avatar at least.

Meanwhile, Wu and Morro have been tracking them down diligently. At least, Morro is being diligent. Wu has been a little shit and trying to slow them down on purpose, and anytime they have to fight team Avatar, he keeps trying to use that to get his brother alone and get him to talk shit out dammit brother, where have you been and who are these people do I have niblings? cause you do and he’s a good kid even though hes trying to kill you right now explain that he is really, truly glad that he’s alive and well, and that no, he doesn’t actually want to catch him.

There wasn’t any type of assassination attempt on Morros life like there was Zuko, he either faked an injury so he could go on his secret ‘capture the Avatar’ mission during the siege on the Northern Water Tribe, or he wasn’t allowed to go and snuck away (with a little help from Wu either way). He does the same thing Zuko did with the underwater tunnel, but Morro doesn’t have firebending to break the ice. He has airbending (bet no-one saw that coming). I debated with myself for a long, long time if I should make Morro an airbender (they were nomads, and bending is inherited. It’s not that hard to believe that a few airbenders survived that way. I also love the airbender Ty Lee theory)

Wu figured it out when Morro was pretty young, and did everything in his power to both teach Morro, and keep his bending a secret. This played a big part in contributing to Morro’s need to be seen as worthy and deserving.

So anyways, the siege. It’s happening. Kai is being a bit of a grumpy angst lord (bc he wants to hold hands with a pretty boy) but gets assigned by Ice to guard Zane and Echo. Lloyd enters the Spirit World, Morro fights Nya and only wins bc he pulled out his secret airbending when she had her back turned. Meanwhile, Maya and Garm are helping fight of the Fire Nation (Maya with her waterbending, Garm with hand-to-hand combat) when Garm see’s Clouse going off to kill the Moon Spirit and follows him. Wu also follows them and gives Clouse the whole ‘we need the moon too’ speech.

Garm watches from the shadows as that confrontation takes place, but jumps in to fight the Fire Nation soldiers who came with Clouse at the same time that Wu does when he kills the Moon Spirit, and not only does he all-out firebend for the first time in a while (once he and Ray became more trusted by the Southern Water Tribe the blanket ban on their firebending was lifted, but it’s kind of a bad idea to excessively play with fire in a village that’s made almost entirely of ice and snow) he reveals his identity to everyone. He’s actually a little surprised that Clouse is surprised that he’s alive. He figured that Wu would have told everyone about his death being greatly exaggurated.

Clouse books it, Lloyd fuses with the Ocean Spirit to go wreck the Fire Nation, things are a teensy bit more awkward in the spirit-cave-pond-area-place with Garm and Wu being there together, but its overall just a somber moment.

And then, Zane becomes the new Moon Spirit. But not only do we have a sad Oppositeshipping good-bye kiss, we have a sad last hug ever between Zane and Echo. I made Echo a waterbender solely so it could be a terribly sad thing where anytime Echo bends he can feel his brother with him. It’s sad. There are tears (including from myself as I type this). Kai is comforted by Garm, which is basically confirms Wu’s incorrect suspicions that Kai and Nya and Maya are Garms kids and wife, and that they’re helping the Avatar (look, this gag is just too funny to me and I will keep it going as long as I can.)

When they leave the spirit pond, Wu tries to pull Garm aside to talk to him, but Garm still has no idea if he can trust Wu, and that means that the kids are super wary of him (they know that Wu and Garm are brothers) so all that really accomplishes is getting Kai to firebend at Wu’s face (btw, Kai firebending is a big deal. When he was a fairly little kid he accidentally firebended [firebent?] and Maya got burned. For Kai, firebending is the last thing he uses, not the first) and then grabbing Garm and Nya (whos giving an inconsolable Echo a piggy-back ride as he is still sobbing) and booking it. But not before Wu was able to slip a letter into Garm’s parka.

While all this is going down, Morro and Clouse had their little scuffle, but Morro has to airbend at one point to save his own skin, and not only does Clouse see, but quite a few mid-retreat Fire Nation soldiers see as well. Then Clouse gets killed by the Ocean Spirit.

Morro and Wu steal a raft and book it, since now one of them is a traitor and the other was just outed as an airbender. Krux and a group of people, both benders and non-benders, head to the South Pole to help them out. Echo is a part of this group; it’s what he knows Zane would have wanted to do. Team Avatar head out to find Lloyd an earthbending teacher, and Garm finds the letter from Wu. He’s scared to open it, and doesn’t for a while.

And now, it’s time to introduce a new character! See, back in the Fire Nation, the Firelord had been growing displeased with his son. Despite Wu’s best efforts, dear old dad had caught on to how much Wu disliked the war, and he figured it would only be a matter of time before something tipped Wu over the edge and he turned full traitor. That would leave him as a ruler with no heirs, and that wouldn’t do. So he secretly was searching for a good candidate to take the throne, preferably an orphan, who showed proficiency in firebending and could be moulded into a cut-throat living weapon.

He found what he was looking for in a young girl named Harumi. A firebending prodigy whose parents had both died in the war. And now that the Firelord learned that, not only did his younger son turn traitor in the North Pole and run off with his airbender adopted son, but his disgraced fool of an older son is alive and actively helping the Avatar, well, it’s high time the world saw just what his hand-picked heir can do.

[freeshavacado]

My thoughts while reading Gone by Michael Grant:

* wait how old is Sam

* He do be liking Astrid doe

* Damn so Sam is a Leader

* Ew Orc is an 8th grader? 🤮

* Ok I googled it Sam is 14

* I like Quinn

* Sam thinks he’s so awkward but he’s actually really chill so far

* THE PAIN THIS GIRL IS GOING THROUGH OH MY GOD

* Poor Mary :(

* Howard’s a bitch

* Cut to Quinn being a racist motherfucker

* I love Edilio

* Sam is WHIPPED for Astrid

* Orc is such a piece of shiiiiiit

* LANAAAAA :(((

* Poor thing is in so much pain

* Patrick her dog is alive so that’s good

* She’s deadass slowly dying

* Thank god her arm is better

* I want to make this into a TV series

* If Sam and Astrid don’t kiss at some point I swear

* Hahahaha Sam do be shirtless rn

* Why isn’t Astrid happy to see Little Pete???

* MARY. IF YOU POUR HOT ASS COFFEE ON A CHILD, DONT JUST STAND THERE AND THEN RUN AWAY. PUT COLD WATER ON THE BURN

* Aw Mary has had bulimia since she was ten :(

* Ok so what she just took her Prozac and then threw up? Wouldn’t the pill go up too? I think your stomach/body needs like 30 minutes to absorb it into the blood stream...

* HELP SAM HES CHOKING

* Bruh my ass would be so exhausted

* Quinn low key an ass tho

* Lol edilio isn’t standing for this bullshit

* Lmaooo Astrid knew 💀

* Omg little Pete has it too

* Wow Quinn is an asshole pt 2

* I feel like Caine is gonna be a villain...like he’s pretty AND nice? Nah bro too good to be true

* Fucking Orc god 😒😒😒

* Caine is up to some shit 🤨

* Lmao hold up

* Diana probably whipped tho

* Sam please only be a simp for Astrid 😩

* I bet Drake is hot

* Aww computer Jack :) DONT YOU TURN ON ME SON

* “The captain is already maintaining” Bullshit 💀

* Are they really gonna call this eighth grader ‘Captain’?

* LMAOOO THE BASTARD CANT EVEN READ OR WRITE 💀💀💀

* Lol making Sam the fire chief because he was brave enough to go into a fire one time, so therefore he is the most qualified

* Bruh that’s like if I gave a kid the Heimlich maneuver bc he was choking on a gummy worm or some shit and they were like “Well because she did that, she should be the head doctor!!!”

* CAINE IS FULL OF SUCH BULLSHIT OML

* PRETENDING TO CRY N SHIT GOD

* I already know that Diana is gonna try and seduce Sam while she’s actually a spy for the private school kids

* Which, btw, of course it’s the private school kids smh

* I feel like maybe Computer Jack will be someone who eventually switches to the Good Side

* ALSO wow jack really be thinking that he’s smarter than Astrid smh 🙄

* Jack is such a smartsass

* Diana is such a fucking bitch oh my god 😒😒😒

* “You don’t look tough, Astrid” STFU SHES THE TOUGHEST OF THEM ALL

* Ok but I bet Diana and Astrid low key have sexual tension. Like obviously nothing’s gonna happen...but still

* Bruh I hate Caine

* Fuckin Diana with her ‘readings’ bullshit smh

* YESSSS LANA 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 so strong

* Literally how do they not know how to make pasta

* “I thought your people ate tortillas,” QUINN YOU RACIST PEICE OF SHIT UGH

* Poor Bette :(

* Orc is a piece of shit, I know we’ve already established this but I wanted to say it again

* I love Edilio so much

* Orc really using a slur against Edilio huh. Imma kill him

* IM SO DONE WITH QUINN. THIS BITCH REALLY JUST SAID “let him have her” LIKE TF????

* Drake is such a bastard oh my god

* If you hate Quinn and you know it clap your hands 👏🏻👏🏻

* No seriously. I fucking hate him.

* Nooooo Bette died :((

* “I can’t kiss you with your little brother watching” AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

* Did they kiss or not wtf

* What the hell is up with this cat

* Ah so they did kiss!!

* Why didn’t I get details 🤨

* No a baby died 😞

* Quinn s u c k s

* How convenient that Sam got there *right* before Emma disappeared

* Those last 6 minutes before Anna disappeared too and was calling out to her sister, and so for what she thought was her last few minutes on earth she held sams hand :(

* Lol Diana sucks

* ‘WoRDs DONT sCArE mE’ shut up Drake

* Okay Computer Jack is definitely going to betray them because they underestimate him and take him for granted

* You’re telling me Caine and Sam could be TWINS???

* Why was the kiss ‘a mistake’ ?

* Okay NOW they’re awkward

* “But it was the first time I meant it” I CANT. ITS SO CHEESY

* I HATE QUINN

* These kids are crazy violent

* Fuck Diana

* Yikes now Sam only has some of his eyebrows left 😬

* Caine is in love with Diana 👀

* Little Pete might be more powerful than Caine 😛

* THESE KIDS ARE CRAZY LIKE CHILL

* Diana: I really dislike you Astrid: of course you dislike me, I make you feel inferior

* ROASTED ^

* Mmmm Quinn is trying to redeem himself

* “Don’t call me brah. I’m not your brother” OHHHHHHHHHHH HE REALLY WENT THERE

* that’s what you get for being a backstabbing asshole

* Poor Astrid :(

* Poor Little Pete :(

* Bro I need this to be a movie

* I love that Sam just punched Quinn like we had no choice but to stan

* Ok drake would definitely shoot up a school

* Fuck Drake

* Lana is so strong. Like she’s been in so much pain physically and mentally, and she almost died. But she saved herself and now even though she thinks she might be the only person left alive on earth, she is still keeping strong.

* What happens if the boat runs out of gas?

* Bruh these coyotes don’t give up

* THE COYOTES AGAIN??

* “Go out” “You’ll kill me,” “Yes. Go out, die fast. Stay, die slow”

* Wowwwwwwwwwww^

* Lmaooo “L.P.”

* Awwww Sam: “...she was still so beautiful that sometimes he had to look away.”

* Okay he a lil’ horny

* Awe Astrid and Sam hugging I’m soft 🥺

* I’m so sick of these damn coyotes

* Bruh these coyotes 😒

* Diana is annoying

* Literally can’t remember who Andrew is, but they’re about to film his passing away like wtf

* Poor Andrew :(

* “You’re a deep sleeper, Jack. Just now, while you were sleeping? I held your pudgy little hand. Probably as close as you’ll ever get to holding hands with a girl. Assuming you even like girls.” FUCK YOU DIANA

* Okay so Diana will protect Jack as long as he ‘belongs’ to her and does what ever she wants? That’s pretty sus

* Sam and Astrid kissed again 😖☺️

* Lmaooo Albert over here running McDonald’s

* Salads disappeared quickly from the McDonald’s menu since this whole thing? Who the hell orders a salad from McDonald’s?

* So Albert kinda whipped for Mary 👀

* I haaaaatttteeee the private school kids

* Y’know what depending on where I was and who I was with in this situation, I might’ve just killed myself

* “Remember who owns you” ew 🤨

* Diana. I hate you

* Bro I feel bad for Andrew

* How is Lana back at the cabin?

* That IS Lana right??

* Okay things are moving fast between Sam and Astrid. Like she’s already saying “I just want you here with me. Safe” like 🤢

* Lana, about Sam: your boyfriend? Astrid: ThAts nOt WhAt iTs AbouT

* LMAOO AFTER SHE SAID THAT SHE SAID IN A LOW VOICE “kind of” WHAT

* Lol Lana be out here like “yeah shits crazy. Get with the program”

* Ew they’re eating pudding with their hands 🤮

* I don’t care how hungry you are, that’s gross

* Like get a spoon or something

* Lana just called Astrid “smart girl Barbie” 🤨

* Part of me is like “lol” but the other part of me is like “bruh stop Astrid did nothing wrong”

* I still hate Quinn but he is kind of funny

* Lana calling Astrid “the blonde” like girl 😑

* Bruh you’re stuck in a house that is literally on fire and getting hotter by the second as it fills with smoke, now is not the time to be kissing Astrid

* Finally the damn coyotes are gone.

* Sam is so angry and he’s disgusted with himself for being so angry, I relate

* Fuck you, Quinn

* Fuck drake

* I would gladly kill Drake

* OOOOOOOOO EDILIO LIKES LANA AHHHHHH

* SIMP

* omg I love it 😩

* Lmaooooo Sams speech wow

* Sam you should NOT forgive Quinn. Especially not that fast. Yikes.

* Orc should feel bad for killing Bette. I have no pity for him rn

* Yes please kill drake.

* I am so happy that his arm is on fire. 100% he deserves to feel that pain

* Aww that’s kinda nice that Albert is planning thanksgiving dinner for everyone

* DAMMIT DRAKE

* I hate drake so much like dude just shut up and leave everyone alone

* Orc oh my god I could not be rolling my eyes harder right now

* Tbh if Orc and his other friends die, I’m okay with that

* What tf is up with this DVD

* Little Pete caused all of this??? 😦

* I’m sooooo sick of this whole darkness and coyote stuff istg

* Where is Patrick?????

* If Patrick is dead imma throw hands

* Diana is such an evil person. Like Drake is a monster, but she’s horrible in a different way.

* Also ughhhhhhhhhh Drake is back 😒😒😒😒😒 so sick of that mf

* “So. When do we go take down Sam Temple?” 🙄🙄🙄 no one likes you Drake

* AHAHAHHSJAHSHSHHSHD

* SAM JUST TOLD ASTRID HE LOVED HER

* AND SHE SAID IT BACK

* IM. S O F T

* (like my brain is still saying “y’all have talked for less than two weeks and you’re 14”)

* But like whatever 😭❤️

* My eyes just rolled into the back of my skull once Diana appeared

* Taylor low key flirting with Sam tho 👀

* When I first met Dekka, I was all: ‘what the hecka?’

* THOSE DAMN COYOTES

* I’m crying because Quinn couldn’t kill Drake because he was scared, and now children are screaming. Ugh I really wanted him to kill Drake but I understand that killing someone is a crazy thing to have on your conscience

* Call me cold hearted, but I would’ve shot him

* This is all in theory of course ^ I bet if I was in that situation though it wouldn’t be as easy as “just shoot him”

* I don’t think I’ve ever been more annoyed with a fictional character than I am with Drake rn

* Yooo I bet Isabella has some animal powers or sumn

* Caine 🙄🙄🙄 like that emoji doesn’t even come close to describing how annoyed I am

* Wait so is Patrick back now or...?

* Caine really just. Kissed Diana. Because she “owed him”????

* THIS IS SOME BULLSHIT

* I literally hate sooooooooo many characters in this book ugh 😒😒😒

* Quinn is watching Drake kill Sam and is doing nothing. I’m so done with this piece of shit

* Ok finally he tried to shoot him

* “You know it always gets me hot when you say ‘apt analogy.’” “Why do you think I do it?”

* Y’all 🥴🥴🥴

* THOSE DAMN COYOTES

* Literally? Imagine being this heartless. Giving up hundreds of kids to coyotes without hesitation. The hate I have for Caine is real

* Once again, Orc feeling bad for what he did to Bette. And honestly? I’m still okay with that

* This kid is an a l c o h o l i c

* Computer Jack is so annoying like dude stop holding on to Sams leg. Literally

* Still hate Diana, but I like that she’s helping out Sam a little bit

* Ew Diana just kissed Sam on the corner of his mouth 🤢

* I TOLD YALL ^^^

* Yay Patrick is alive :)

* “I guess we won,” Sam said. “Yeah,” Edilio agreed. “I’ll get the backhoe. Got a lot of holes to dig.”

* ^im. Depressed

* I cannot for the life of me remember who Cookie is

* “Orc sat with Howard in a corner by themselves. Orc had fought Drake to a standstill. But no one-least of all Orc-had forgotten Bette.”

* ^good.

* Y’all Sam and Astrid flirting I- 🥴🥴

* We love to see it ^

* Awww “we’re going to the beach” y’all Astrid and Sam are so cute

* THOSE DAMN COYOTES

* FUCK. Goddamn this cliffhanger 😡