#and the biggest problem with me is even if I obtain it I’ll be like. hm. I’m bored. what’s next

[look-at-the-stars-tonight]

Anyone else feel like everyone else is moving on in life and ur just kinda around

[spinningbuster98]

Metroid Other M Ending: Checking boxes off a list

Other M’s post game is the closest that it gets to a pure Metroid experience. There is barely any story or cutscenes, pretty much no monologues, no Adam being a cunt to Samus, you get full freedom to go wherever you want, the station even starts to feel a bit eerie with how desolated it looks. There’s even a cool nugget of environmental storytelling in the form of the corpses of Ridley and Nightmare not being there anymore, implying that they were carried off to the BSL station, thus fixing one of the weirdest plot holes from Fusion! Subtle storytelling? In Other M!? What is this witchcraft!?!?

Since there isn’t a whole lot of story to go around, I figured I’d talk about one last thing that’s usually dear to me in Metroid games: 100% completion

To recount: in Metroid games, especially classic-style ones, I really love to speedrun them while going for 100% item completion. That is because if I try to only collect all the items, then it becomes just a matter of checking a few boxes off a list on repeated playthroughs since I’ll know where all of them are. I also don’t like to simply speedrun them, because it feels like I’m rushing them to the point of skipping a lot of content. By mixing the two approaches you get the best of both worlds, essentially combining exploration and speedrunning, two key elements that have been with the series since day 1. The GBA games in particular explicitly aknowledged the validity of this approach by featuring some exclusive ending images obtainable only by doing things this way

So how does Other M fare in this category?

Ehhh...

It’s better than the Prime games, at least as far as going around the map at a decent pace is concerned, but we have a bunch of oddities which bog down the experience

First off: as soon as you enter this phase of the game the location of every item will automatically be displayed on the map. ALL of them. It’s not even like Prime 3 where at least you had to activate a few satellites on your own, nah here it’s automatic whether you want to or not.

Surprisingly I’m not too bothered by this, mainly because I find that there technically still is some challenge in the form of still having to “discover” the items. Yeah their locations may be displayed on the map, but once you get there the item will often be hidden in a spot that will often require you to find a hidden passage nearby or maybe you’ll have to destroy some off camera object or whatnot. So it’s usually not as easy as just going there and picking it up.

Unfortunately there are still problems with this approach, the first one is that, due to the fixed camera, you’ll have to often stop to look around in first person mode. Now I, personally, don’t have...TOO much of an issue with this, but it’s mainly due to me having experience with some PS1 and PS2 games with similar ways of handling the camera, like MGS. Other M is not a PS1 or PS2 game, nor is it a slow and methodical stealth game where you are supposed to take things calmly, it’s supposed to be a speedy game that should keep up a steady pace, so having to stop every two seconds just to look around when you want to explore tends to harm the pacing

But the biggest issue here is that Other M, quite frankly, is just boring to explore.

This game’s locations are so dull, especially color-wise, that you simply feel little incentive to go look for stuff. Usually adventure games tend to incentivize item-hunting through stuff like cracked walls, differently colored tiles, fake walls etc, which are all tools employed by Metroid games, the general idea being of catching the player’s attention and curiosity. A game like Super does this with a good balance, Fusion relies too much on unmarked spots while Dread is too generous and obvious but overall they all invite you to look at the environment to search for stuff just for the fun of discovering things. Other M also does this technically, but it’s so much less effective here because stuff like an open air vent, or a breakable wall or a differently colored floor all blend in together into this grey-ish mass that is Other M’s level design, then you add the aforementioned stuff about the camera and item-hunting in Other M can be more of a chore than anything else.

However another reason why 100%ing Other M is just bleh, aside from the fact that you don’t really get anything for it other than a lame “congratulations” by Samus, is that just going through this place isn’t a snappy an endeavor as you’d think. Sure Samus may be faster then in Prime, but the way these levels are designed can still make it quite a drag to go from one point to another, it’s nowhere near as fast as in the 2D games, and with how often you’ll find yourself running down empty corridors, it can even get boring. Hell there are cases, like in Sector 3, where the stage flat out puts some invisible walls in places to force you to go down a specific route even though you have the Space Jump. I’d still say it’s a less time consuming and meandering experience than trying to complete the Prime games, but at least those were far more interesting to actually explore

Oh and in the end you fight Phantoon. Why? Who knows. Who cares. And no, don’t tell me it’s because some media say that Phantoon is generated by Mother Brain’s thought waves and so this one may have been created by MB, because in Other M’s concept art you find another backstory for Phantoon claiming that he’s a Lovecraftian interdimensional creature that feeds off of abandoned ships and was responsible for the Chozo crashing on Zebes. Ngl i actually prefer this version, but it doesn’t exactly help this fight feel like the laziest attempt at nostalgia baiting, and that’s in a game that blatantly copies Fusion at every turn and that brought back both Ridley and a Queen Metroid for no good reason

So the reason why Samus has gone through all of this is because she wanted to retrieve Adam’s helmet, it being the last thing that’s left of him.

Also that flashback makes no sense: during the time when Samus was speaking to MB, Adam had gone AWFK after being attacked by the Deleter, which is why Samus couldn’t contact him anymore. If you’re telling him that he’d, for some reason, gotten back at his console right at that moment then why didn’t he just contact Samus to tell her that MB was full of shit?

Why doesn’t Samus reactivate her suit when the self destruct sequence starts? She’s not exactly in any emotional distress now. Oh that’s right we need a shallow Zero Mission homage and I guess we also need to see Samus shake her ass for the 5th time I suppose

You know what though? I take some degree of solace from all of this

Because assuming that Samus simply left Adam’s helmet in her ship at all times that means that it got unceremoniously destroyed at the start of Fusion when the ship crashed into an asteroid belt, taking the last “physical remains” of Adam Malkovitch with it

Rest in piss, asshole

[astarionposting]

Hi, I just want to say that your work is stunning and we're very thankful for it! I also hope that nobody is causing you problems about liking that other route...It's ludicrous that people still act like children when it comes to what others enjoy, not to mention that if you show them two pictures of Astarion they won't even be able to tell which one is the 'bad' route and which one is the 'good' one.

Other than that, I wish you a very nice day!

Thank you so much! 🥹🥹 I’m so so happy you enjoy my content.

Thankfully no one has caused me any issues with Ascended Astarion stuff haha. I guess because I do acknowledge he is 100% evil if he ascends, but SOMETIMES I LIKE ME AN EVIL MAN!! I enjoy both routes and think they are both super fun to play.

I love Spawn Astarion for him being able to overcome his fears, open up, heal and become “better” (but still pretty cheeky and wanting to create as much chaos as possible) and end the cycle of abuse, which is very personal to me as well in my own trauma. I love that he is able to overcome what I would consider an unhealthy coping mechanism to his fear; he is scared, so his reaction is to obtain as much power over everyone else so no one can ever hurt him again, but then he would lose himself in the process… and his SO if you decide not to become his spawn. I mean, he pretty much becomes his BIGGEST fear, his own source of 200 years of trauma and abuse (“the new cazador”—just like Cazador did since he was also a spawn and killed his own master for power out of fear—if I’m remembering correctly).

BUT I also like the Ascended Astarion route for how tragic it is. How you can really see right through him and how he ISN’T satisfied. He gets so angry with you if you even point it out a little bit, that sacrificing all of those souls, including his own in a way, didn’t fix anything. He’s still so insecure. He is still afraid (he’s just much more aggressive and defensive about it). He is still unhappy and he will never actually be free. I mean, it’s a deal with MEPHISTOPHELES. He might have been freed from one master, but now he owes his power to another, much more dangerous and powerful being. Not only that, but he will never be free from himself. If you listen to Cazador’s inner thoughts, you can hear how much he WANTS to die, how much he HATES being a soulless and vile vampire with only a lust for blood. No capability to love, to care, to be any part of who he might’ve been before.

The song “hurt” by NIN makes me think of Ascended Astarion. He says “we can have it all, we can take the world”. But what is “having it all?”. “Having it all” to me would be the Spawn ending. Being free of his abuser, being free of owing his power to someone else, being able to be HIMSELF and surrounded by people who care about him because of who he is, not because of his power.

Anyways I’m not that great at writing my thoughts coherently so I’ll stop there lol, but I also like his voice lines cause they can be kind of hot because also kind of goofy 😭 😭 and it’s fiction!! I read the wildest fanfic out there but if an actual man spoke to me that way, I would be OUT OF THERE SOOOO FAST lol

I don’t like to call them the “bad” or “good” ending, because it’s different for everyone. I mean, it’s a ROLEPLAYING GAME. Yeah, if your Tav/Durge is good alignment, then the spawn ending may seem to be the “good” one, but if your Tav/Durge is evil then wouldn’t the vampire ascendent ending technically be “good” for them? Anyways, I just think people struggle to separate reality from fiction when they get too deep into it. I love soft-ish and cheeky vampire and also evil and hot vampire like WE CAN ENJOY BOTH!!!

Anyways, thank you so much again and I hope you also have a wonderful day!! ❤️

[littleguypumpkinsheep]

Let’s take a look at Spy next. (Again, my own interpretation of his character will likely come up in some areas, but I’ll try my best to be as objective about it as possible)

Now. He doesn’t have a whole lot of history to analyze because of his being a spy, (asides from being Scouts father, but that’s not something I’m too interested in discussing today) so we’ll break down his personality instead. He is actually a very nuanced character underneath his surface level arrogance. (Which, I don’t actually think he’s arrogant. But we’ll get into that)

The first thing I want to talk about is when Scout is trying to hitch a ride with him to the bank. Spy very obviously dislikes him and at first refuses to take him anywhere, but as soon as Scout mentions his mother and the possibility of her being upset by losing their finances, Spy relents.

Spy is capable of feeling sympathy. He’s capable of overcoming his annoyance and dislike of someone if he feels they really need his help.

This is an extremely important aspect of his character and it implies a lot about him. He’s most often characterized as being sarcastic, uninterested, and cynical, sometimes even rude. But there have been multiple instances of him breaking this model and doing something unexpected. One of the biggest examples of this is during “Expiration Date” where Medic and Engineer believe they all have three days to live before being killed by tumors. This is a short amount of time, and instead of spending it for himself, he dedicates it to someone else two times.

The first is gathering the dying wishes of his teammates, presumably to discuss how to carry each of them out. This doesn’t end up going anywhere as Scout just uses it as an opportunity to make fun of him, but even after all of this, Spy still agrees to help him. Why? Because Scout owed up to what he did and apologized for it. He was mature. And that’s a common theme with Spy’s kindness. He isn’t a mean person, he just will only treat someone with respect if they give it back to him. But because his teammates more often than not don’t do this, he doesn’t bother with being polite. Is this petty? Yes. But it doesn’t equate to him being a bad person. Dealing with coworkers who refuse to take anything seriously and cause more problems than they solve would make anyone react that way. Spy holds himself in high regard with a set amount of standards, and he does the same with the other mercs. To me, it just seems like he’s in a perpetual cycle of being disappointed and annoyed with the people around him for making themselves purposefully incompetent. Spy is of the only people to do actual work, like scouting a route of infiltration, obtaining the keys they needed, giving legal advice, making a plan of attack against an enemy Spy, and preparing coordinated assaults. I don’t think it would be too fair to judge him for being irritated and fed up sometimes.

But, even despite all of this, he continues working with them. He still helps them, he still puts aside his aggravation to carry out missions and save their lives in some cases. It’s not just work related, either.

He offers Scout a comforting and safe death.

Spy cares about people. And I think folks forget that sometimes.

[maintitle]

I’m a big fan of the dialogue option in Inquisition where you talk about Orsino with Varric.

Inquisitor:  “In the book, you say that First Enchanter Orsino turned himself into a giant monster made of corpses.  How?  Why?”

Varric:  “Do I look like an expert on magical weirdness to you?”

VARRIC SLIGHTLY DISAPROVES.

Now, this could be read in a few ways by Varric himself, but I don’t see it like that at all.  It’s always felt like the writers tilting their head toward the camera and staring directly into the lens.  At the time people were entirely confused by Orsino’s actions, forcing a confrontation with the guy you’re siding with for what can be amounted to as no reason.  

Now, granted, there is in fact an in-game letter that can be found during your chase after your Mother that infer’s Orsino is dabbling in more than he lets on.  

My dear friend, I have obtained the books you requested. I'll leave them at our usual hiding spot. Please collect them as soon as possible. I would hate to see them in the wrong hands! Your last letter was fascinating! You have proven me wrong, once again, by doing the impossible. I shouldn't have doubted your resolve, and I hope you will keep me apprised of further progress. Your friend and colleague, O

This is a Codex found just before the confrontation with Quinton in Act 2, one that’s overshadowed by the horror Hawke goes through in that quest.  I, personally, feel like it was an afterthought put into the game in order to explain why the seemingly straight arrow First Enchanter is suddenly using necromancy to make a person meat shield.

The biggest thing that makes me think this is the Inquisition writing team acknowledging this, however, is Mark Darrah’s wrap-up video on his memories and the lessons he learned leading the project.  

Mark Darrah:  “We’ve talked about the level reuse, which I think is probably one of the weakest things in Dragon Age 2.  The thing that actually makes me feel the most regret for Dragon Age 2 is the way that the endings go.  So, I guess spoilers... but you get to the end of Dragon Age 2, and you have to deal with the mages and the Templars, there’s the whole question of the mages and the Templars.  But regardless of the choice that you make there, you end up fighting both Orsino and Meredith and the mages end up going all crazy regardless.  You’ve made a different choice, you’ve come down on this decision in a very different way... and yet the game has you play through basically the same content, in a slightly different order, but it’s basically the same content.  I think that’s a mistake... I mean, I’m pretty sure that was my decision, but I think that’s a mistake because it undercut the mage/templar question quite a bit.”

Mark Darrah:  “Now the reason why it is that way in Dragon Age II is that the games under incredibly tight constraints.  Orsino isn’t worthy of being an end boss all on his own, so the decision is that you gotta fight Meredith no matter what.  Okay.  So... that’s actually, I think, defensible, you could say.  Meredith has been corrupted by red lyrium, you gotta fight her no matter what.  You can still make the choice.  I think the place where Dragon Age 2 crosses the line is that we also make you fight Orsino no matter what, and I think that’s the mistake.  And the reason we do that is, it’s content, we want players to consume as much of our content as we can, because it feels like waste if we have content that isn’t seen by a player.  And I think that is a mistake, and I think that’s a lesson that maybe video game studios are just waking up to now, that actually it’s NOT waste, content that isn’t consumed by the player ISN’T a problem, that actually you should WANT that.”

Now, that summarization to me covers a lot of DA2, and I’m glad he’s had that reflection, even as the man that pulled the trigger.  DA2 deserves a bit of grace considering they had to take an idea for an Origins DLC and make it a full game because EA demanded it, and I’ve certainly been far more forgiving of the game as time has passed.  But that’s STILL a decision that drives me bonkers.

Now, that leaves us back at where we began.  It’s a FASCINATING moment with the writers, when we get that disapproval at the question.  It almost feels defensive.  Had they learned the lesson Mark Darrah later learned at that point, or where they still a bit upset by how badly that fight was received by folks who sided with the mages?  I’m really not sure, but I love it just because it has such sass attached to it.  It’s a moment in Inquisition where Varric once again becomes the voice of the writers, telling the plot of their previous game in a really defensive manner.  It’s a unique little moment that stands out so much to me.

[themculibrary]

Peter Quill Masterlist 2

part one

20 questions (ao3) - bevioletskies gamora/peter T, 118k

Summary: Wasp has a new competition in store for the students of Avengers Academy, and there’s money involved. So obviously, Peter and Gamora have to pretend to be a couple in order to win. Wait, what?

a bother-figure (ao3) - judypoovey T, 7k

Summary: It wasn’t going to do him any good to get all sentimental and excited about meeting his dad, considering his dad had kidnapped his sort-of-replacement dad.

all fucked up and no place to go (ao3) - scioscribe drax/gamora/peter E, 4k

Summary: Peter Quill is the only omega in all of space.

It sucks.

A Matter of Restraint (ao3) - fayedartmouth T, 3k

Summary: Peter’s not exactly known for his brilliant strategies.

And Get Nowhere (ao3) - Wawa_Girl gamora/peter T, 7k

Summary: "Why?" Gamora asked from several feet below them, an eyebrow raised and her tone slightly less hard - curious, suspicious, like she wasn't sure whether to buy this explanation.

Peter didn't know if she was asking, 'Why is that a common joke on Earth?' or 'Why weren't you thinking before spitting it out right now?' but either way his quick reply was the same. "No idea!" he said with the biggest fake smile. "No clue, makes no sense, stupid--I don't know why it slipped out, meant nothing, forget it, I'm sorry..." he continued rambling and reassuring to spare himself the fate of sleeping outside for the next month during the impending hail storm.

(Or: Sometimes Peter has really bad "no filter" days, and rooftop antics ensue.)

Base of Support (ao3) - interabang T, 3k

Summary: The Guardians discover that Yondu would do anything (when he feels like it) to give Peter help when he needs it.

break the chain (ao3) - evotter T, 16k

Summary: “Thanos is the worst threat you could possibly imagine.” Gamora says. Her voice sets a chill in Peter’s bones. “We need to get ahead of him as quickly as we possibly can or we will lose if he even gets the slightest bit in front of us. Please, Peter Parker. We need all the help we can get. You do this for us, and we will do something for you. Anything you need.”

Anything is pretty nice. Especially considering he might need them to guard him so Tony doesn’t totally murder him. And they seem like nice enough people. And if Strange trusts them… “Okay,” says Peter, rather reluctantly. “I’ll go with you guys to space.“

(or: peter contacts star-lord and meets the guardians of the galaxy. not infinity war/endgame compliant.)

bring it on home to me (ao3) - bevioletskies T, 19k

Summary: The fight of everyone’s lives may be over, but for Nebula, Peter, and the rest of the Guardians, the search for the person they love most has just begun.

don’t need no credit card to ride this train (ao3) - Sholio T, 5k

Summary: Peter gets a second chance to make a very important change.

Five times Rocket claimed Peter as his own (and one time he realised what it meant) (ao3) - prosodiical peter/rocket T, 4k

Summary: "You," says Rocket lowly, "keep your distance, and I won't have to kill you." He pauses, then adds, as though it isn't obvious enough already, "He's mine."

Rocket's got a bit of a possessiveness problem when it comes to Peter Quill.

Fox on the Run (ao3) - Sholio T, 13k

Summary: When bounty hunters get the drop on Yondu, 11-year-old Peter is the only person in a position to do anything about it.

Go For The Throat (ao3) - laylabinx T, 9k

Summary: Peter finds out the hard way what it means to be the Ravager mascot and Yondu uses this as an opportunity to teach him how to kick someone’s ass.

Happiness Goes On (ao3) - Wawa_Girl gamora/peter T, 25k

Summary: "What does it mean? The day the music died?"

The words were said without the inquisitor looking at the human beside her, owner and expert of the tunes they were sharing.

"I guess..." Peter spoke up, his tone distant. Faraway. Lost. Gamora realized she would have given nearly anything to obtain Mantis' powers and know what he was feeling, what was going on in his head. "It means when people stop...appreciating it. Or learning from it? Or...use music to do...bad things."

Please Rewind (ao3) - interabang gamora/peter E, 4k

Summary: When Rocket and Groot gift Peter with a TV and VHS tapes, he’s excited to relive his childhood memories with the group - so excited, in fact, that he won’t stop talking throughout the movie. After his rambling drives the other Guardians away, Gamora quickly finds a way to shut him up.

Ruins (ao3) - TheFictionalMe gamora/peter M, 51k

Summary: Five times Peter told Gamora to go right, and one time he didn’t.

“Why does somebody always have to die in this scenario?”

Vacation! All I Ever Wanted (ao3) - clockheartedcrocodile gamora/peter E, 7k

Summary: The Guardians of the Galaxy have a nice day at the boardwalk.

you lay your bets and then you pay the price (ao3) - orphan_account gamora/peter T, 32k

Summary: (or: five times Peter idiotically risks his life for Gamora, and the one time he… can’t)

Zuneology (ao3) - interabang gamora/peter T, 13k

Summary: After the war, Gamora listens to Peter's music player and reflects on her memories with him.

[unravelingwires]

Zyga

“You can’t even say his name, can you?” He stepped forward, smirking. “The Uncrowned King, Narayana. You can be pithy about it, but you sully our nobility, and in a year’s time, I’ll be able to pay back every blasted insult with interest.”

Jaya twisted her head up to bare her neck properly. “And why, precisely, don’t you start now?”

Theodore twitched. Jaya triggered the knife, shattering the cuffs chaining her to the wall.

Theodore flailed a hand, sending splinters of rock forwards. Jaya turned her stumble into a roll, ducking under the shards and hiding her knife up her sleeve. She gathered mist with her right hand, freezing it and shooting it towards him.

  The spike froze in midair, a hair from Theodore’s neck. The rocks froze. Jaya smirked before flicking her fingers, letting the ice inch forwards. Theodore jerked backwards before smoothing his stride into something deliberate, finally dropping the dramatic mist.

Jaya recalled the ice. “Corrigan.”

  Theodore exhaled. “Narayana.”

The two turned simultaneously to walk away.

---

“Jamie, I don’t care how much of a pratt you are,” Priya said. “I loved you before you were born.”

---

Katie groaned. “That’s so long!”

“We have been apart for centuries in the past. Now you’re complaining about three months?” Vidya asked.

“We weren’t roommates before!” Katie slumped against Vidya, pouting. “I’m going to be so lonely without you.”

“I’m just going to see what Artemisia is so ruffled about,” Vidya said. “You know it’s unwise to say no to her.”

“God—”

“That’s a little blasphemous—”

“It’s not like it’ll be serious. She’s going to say ‘it’s a threat to our entire family,’ you’re going to say ‘vampires don’t make up a family,’ she’ll try to convince you otherwise, you’ll roll your eyes and walk out. Why even make the trip?”

“It’s easier to respect the elders,” Vidya sighed, “even if this will most likely be an inconsequential waste of my time.”

“You agree with me!”

“It’s not like I like her lording authority. It’s just not unjust enough to fight properly.”

Katie straightened. “But we can subvert.”

“Katie…”

“No, this will be great. I’m coming with you.”

---

Nila groaned, put her head in her hands. Lexi laughed semi-hysterically.

---

“Dr. Campbell just had a word with me,” Luke said.

“I imagine it was similar to the word they had with me.” Lakshmi licked a bit of strawberry froyo off her hand. Luke snorted. “Was it enjoyable?”

“Oh, yeah, I love being chewed out by someone who isn’t even actually my boss about something that’s barely a problem.”

Luke went deadpan. “How dare you endanger this mission with slight passive aggression. Dr. Kumari is a fragile flower, and she will jettison you into space if you step wrong.”

Lakshmi tipped her head, considering. “We’re all 15, so none of us can handle the slightest amount of social tension!”

“I hate sociable competition and friendly teasing.”

“No money-talk at the dinner table!”

“I have the biggest stick up my ass of anyone on the team, including Rosenberg.”

Both of them laughed. “I don’t understand Rosenberg,” the Lakshmi mused. “I mean, I get that she wants respect, but why she thinks being cold will get her there…”

Luke snorted. “Of course, the correct way to obtain respect is to insult the person disrespecting you constantly, in public.”

“Hypocrite.”

“That was about me, actually. But if the shoe fits…”

Lakshmi scraped the last bit of froyo from her cup. “This wasn’t about getting you to respect me, I don’t think. It was about getting everyone else to. You’re right, though. It was bad tactics, and I’m sorry for bringing you into it.”

The Chemist paused, looking at her. “I cannot tell if you really mean that.”

“This is the part where you apologize back so we can both move on with our lives.”

“I’m sorry my superiority at everything we’ve tried bruised your ego.”

“Fuck you.” Lakshmi laughed, again. Her tone turned saccharine and she fluttered her eyelashes. “Don’t you want to be friends?”

“Do not lecture me about friendship. I remember Fae.”

“Oh, you can’t remind me of her. That’s way too low a blow.” Lakshmi leaned back. “Okay, what do we do about this.”

“Do about what?” At her expression, Luke said, “Alright, alright, how’s this. We’ll stop talking to each other except when we need to. We’ll be extremely professional to the point where it makes Cambell uncomfortable. You won’t call me ‘Luke’ again. We just need to get through another half-year. After that, we’ll be too far into space for them to remove us from the project.”

“That works for me.” Lakshmi swung to her feet. “We should do this again sometime, Chemistry.”

“Chemistry?”

“Like fuck am I calling anyone ‘Lucian.’”

The Chemist got up, then hesitated. “Were you serious about doing this again sometime?”

Lakshmi gave him a look. “What, are you���no. Good day, Dr. Whittemore.”

She was halfway out the door before he managed, “Good day, Dr. Kumari.”

[makeste]

some follow-up thoughts on BnHA 306

mostly Deku angst, but also a little Baku angst (and some TodoBaku angst) mixed in for good measure. because there’s plenty of angst to go around.

1. “if I’d only been stronger...”

I’ll talk more about Deku later in this post as well, because there’s definitely plenty to talk about; this is the most character development he’s gotten in almost 200 chapters. but for starters, I want to discuss the possible parallels between Deku’s current character arc, and what is arguably the most iconic moment of angst/character development in the series.

remember how this kid, who up until this point had rarely seemed to give two fucks about the world around him, suddenly revealed that he blamed himself for being the downfall of All Might? remember how it came almost out of nowhere? how he’d been hiding it, and trying to suppress it? “but even if I try to forget... sometimes it all just comes rushing back.”

yeah. so anyway, I got to thinking -- if being the cause of one hero’s downfall could affect someone this badly, what about being responsible for the downfall of all heroes?

what if a boy who wanted nothing more than to keep people safe suddenly found himself at the epicenter of a disaster that killed hundreds, possibly even thousands of people?

now obviously, this is not the sole thing that’s troubling Deku right now; this kid has a whole array of traumas as of the War arc. like, you know it’s bad when Society As We Know It Coming To An End Partially Because Of You is the least of your problems. but still, I think this is worth bringing up, because the hero kids blaming themselves for things that aren’t their fault is hardly anything new. and yet, what with everything else that’s been going on -- all of the Todoroki drama, and Vestige revelations, and hospital antics, and political strife -- I feel like it’s easy to forget or overlook this little detail.

the fact is that AFO put this entire plan into motion solely in the hopes of finally obtaining OFA. every single thing that happened at Jakku -- Tomura powering up; Machia waking up and going on his rampage (after being ordered to do so by Tomura); and even Dabi/Touya choosing this moment to finally strike (because he knew this was when the reveal would do the maximum damage -- when people’s faith in heroes was already wavering) -- every last bit of it can ultimately be traced back to AFO’s desire to steal OFA. which, obviously, makes it AFO’s fault, not Deku’s. but then, Kamino wasn’t actually Katsuki’s fault either. it wasn’t his fault the villains went after him (but he blamed himself anyway), and it wasn’t his fault that people got hurt in the ensuing battle to save him (but he blamed himself anyway).

just. I think we’re underestimating just how strong of an impact all of this likely had on Deku. we haven’t really had the chance to see him process it yet. he’s been too busy, and there have been too many other things going on. but I’m telling you guys, that empty look in his eyes in the final page of the chapter? I can all but guarantee you that at least some of that emotional weight is coming from this.

sure would be nice if he had a friend who knew exactly what that was like, and could help him process the guilt and all of the other associated emotions, just like Deku once helped him. unfortunately I’m not so sure things will be that easy this time around. anyways though let’s move on to a couple of other thoughts and speculations.

2. “...and I bullied him.”

one of my least-favorite BnHA fanfic tropes is the one where the rest of class 1-A somehow finds out about Katsuki and Deku’s history -- i.e. that Katsuki bullied Deku throughout most of their childhood. mind you, it’s not the concept itself that I dislike; it’s mostly how it’s used. a lot of times it’s just an excuse to have all of the other kids turn on Katsuki and ostracize him; either because the author thinks that’s what he deserves, or else so that Deku can eventually come to his rescue and defend him and shame the rest of the class for not seeing how much he’s changed. either way, it’s usually pretty awkward to read, and more often than not the characters are pretty OOC (especially Ochako and Todoroki).

however! there’s a big difference between fanfic and canon, and just because I’m not a fan of this trope in the former doesn’t mean it couldn’t be executed well in the latter. and lately I’ve been thinking about this a lot. mainly for three reasons:

the recent (can we still call it recent?? well whatever) scene where Katsuki confessed to All Might that he used to bully Deku is now one of my favorite scenes in the entire series, and proof that this can be executed well.

both Todoroki and Deku have finally had their respective big secrets revealed to the rest of the class. so like, idk. feels like it just might be secret-revealing season now, you know?

and lastly, as a result of Deku’s secret about OFA finally being revealed, the rest of 1-A now either knows, or can extrapolate, that he used to be quirkless.

and from there, I feel like it’s not all that hard to put two and two together with how terrible Kacchan and Deku’s relationship was when they first started at UA. that’s not a terribly difficult puzzle to solve. so I feel like it might come out anyway, and if so, I’d prefer Bakugou telling them himself, and taking responsibility as part of his atonement process. because we know that he regrets it. we know their relationship has changed. we know that he has changed. and so I think I might like to see this.

alternately, if confessing to the entire class is too much, at the very least I could see him confessing to Shouto, because I’ve always felt like this was one of the big things that made Katsuki so resistant to letting Todoroki call him a friend. because I feel like there’s a part of Katsuki that saw the parallels between Endeavor’s abuse of Shouto and his own bullying of Deku, and thought, he wouldn’t be so quick to call me his friend if he actually knew the truth. and so there’s actually been this roadblock wedged between them this whole time that Shouto doesn’t even know about. because Shouto hates Endeavor. and so it’s not such a leap to assume he’d hate Katsuki too if he knew just how terrible he’d been to Deku when they were younger.

not that I think he actually would! actually I don’t think either of those things is actually true (because Shouto clearly doesn’t hate his father either, in spite of everything that’s happened). but the point isn’t what I think -- the point is what Katsuki thinks. and I really do think there’s a good chance he’s worried about Shouto hating him, and it’s one of the things that’s made him so reluctant to accept his friendship. anyway, so I’m really just rambling now, but you get my point. I don’t know if this is actually going to happen, but it’s a scene I would like to see if Horikoshi decides to indulge me.

3. “...so when you wake up, please give him my best.”

and now, as promised, back to Deku.

ngl guys, when I first saw this image, my immediate thought was that Gran must have died. because I mean, hello, leaving U.A.?? donning himself in his teacher’s old cape?? empty, exhausted look in his eyes?? what else were we supposed to think lol.

but maybe that was an overreaction. because when I think about it more, Gran’s death isn’t strictly necessary in order to push Deku over the edge. first of all, there’s already the whole “hero society is in ruins now because of you” thing I mentioned earlier. but also, there are just so many other things. like, let’s just list them here because omg. what a rough couple of days this kid had.

he was forced to battle TomurAFO and was terribly injured in the process (most of which was his own fault, but he wouldn’t have gone that far with OFA unless he felt like he had no choice)

and it wasn’t just him that was injured, either. in fact, even though he tried to act as bait to keep everyone else safe, he wasn’t able to stop three of the people closest to him from nearly being killed right before his eyes

and of course that last one was especially traumatic, because it was Kacchan, and because he had to watch Kacchan nearly die just to protect him. out of all the things that Deku witnessed in this arc, this might be the one that had the biggest impact on him

he was also basically helpless to do anything to protect Shouto and Endeavor when Dabi showed up. so again, we have this running theme of people he cares about being hurt and him not being able to save them

and he also got sucked into the OFA Interstellar Dream Vortex for a brief spell during the battle, during which he learned that AFO had possessed Tomura. more importantly, he learned that Tomura was Nana’s grandson, a fact which was only briefly touched on during that scene, but which I think wound up being the trigger to the whole avalanche that ended with Deku leaving UA. but more on that in a moment

anyway so just to wrap this all up, the battle eventually ended, Tomura got away despite all of their efforts, and then Deku wound up comatose in the hospital for two days. which brings us to the most recent chapters, during which

Deku learns that he will be the last wielder of OFA, whether he likes or not

Deku learns the identity of the last two mystery OFA users

and then at some point, he wakes up and presumably talks to Gran, and winds up with his cape

something happened during these last two scenes which helped to push Deku over the edge. I won’t delve into the matter of the Second or Third users for now, although most of you already know my suspicions regarding that, and I do think that would fit into the general pattern here (that is, the pattern of Deku feeling more and more strongly that he is putting the people around him in danger, and his fear of losing them becoming so overwhelming that it eventually pushes him to leave).

but that’s not what I want to talk about for now. what I want to talk about is Gran. specifically, what it is that Deku discussed with Gran. and this is where we come back to that reveal I mentioned earlier -- that Tomura is Nana’s grandchild.

basically, what I think happened is that Deku mentioned seeing Nana in the OFA Zany Psychedelic Spirit Void, which led to the topic of Tomura, and the fun fact Deku recently learned about him being related to Nana. this, in turn leads to Gran divulging his various regrets about everything that happened with him and Nana and Kotarou. his intent is to apologize to Deku for placing the burden of their failures on him. unfortunately, the part that Deku actually gets fixated on instead is this:

All for One hunted down and killed Nana’s son (and probably her husband as well), and stole her grandchild and psychologically tortured him into becoming a mass murderer, for no other reason than that Nana had once held OFA

in other words, AFO can and will hurt and kill anyone Deku is close to, anyone who has any kind of connection to him at all, without mercy, and regardless of whether it actually gives him any kind of tactical advantage or not. he’ll do it simply to hurt him. no other reason necessary.

I don’t know about you, but for me that would be a terrifying realization. and for Deku, I think it just might have been the tipping point.

so, let’s recap.

Deku learns that AFO is after him

AFO/Tomura very nearly kills several of Deku’s most important people, including Kacchan

and then he learns that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and realizes that all of their lives are still in danger and will continue to be as long as Deku is AFO’s target

and then add to all of this the misplaced guilt about society already being shambles, and the heroes already having more than enough to worry about. they’re barely holding things together as it is. and we already know how Deku feels about being a burden to them:

and so instead, he leaves. of course he does. in hindsight, I think this was inevitable.

the question is, did anyone else also put the pieces together in time to realize what Deku was planning before he actually left? specifically, did Katsuki, who understands Deku’s self-sacrificial nature better than anyone else, see the signs and put two and two together? like he did back at Jakku?

and if he did, would Deku have been willing to accept his help again?

somehow, I can’t help but think it might not be that easy this time.

anyway, so that was a lot of rambling, lol. sorry about that. I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS about all of this angsty shit. tired nomad Deku needs hugs and comfort and someone to reassure him that he doesn’t have to face this alone, and that everything is going to be all right. HE IS JUST A LITTLE BOY. this is too much, and I cannot handle any of these feels, and oh my god, somebody please help him.

[sdvharveybby]

How the Bachelors handle farm work

So, I got the inspiration of this from the parking lot of Walmart. Don’t ask- I don’t know.

Also, these are hella long but I just LOVED writing this. I really did- they all are just so cute. I hope y’all enjoy reading this!!

 Alex

Ever just wanted to move a straight up cow? Then boy do I have the man for you!!

Honestly, because Alex trains so much he has the stamina and strength of a bull. He will help you move anything you need him to for as long as you need him too. Hay bales? He’s got it. You need help hoeing, planting seeds, and watering? Literally no problem. Because he hasn’t been so big on book learning- he loves learning through his physical strength. He loves when you teach him the basics of crop growing and how to properly take care of animals, and once you teach him- you can just let him run wild. He’ll then realize how physically stressing your job is and will soon put ‘working on the farm’ as part of his regiment. (Plus seeing him chop down trees shirtless isn’t such a bad sight, heh heh.)

You soon realize that he just loves all the cows. He moo’s back to tease them almost all the time, but genuinely enjoys feeding them and giving them pats on the head. His favorite way of showing off to you is going, “Hey, honey!” when you turn around, you’re always surprised to see him just holding a calf in his arms. His beaming smile makes your heart flutter.

Alex is always willingly to help you out on the farm in any way he can- sometimes you don’t know if it’s because he loves you or it’s because he thinks of it as training. With time though, you see that it’s actually both. He loves when you ask him for help because he enjoys knowing that you depend on him too and showing off his muscles in some way just makes him smile. He loves making you laugh, so while you take care of the chickens- he likes to make funny voices for the cows.

His constant help on the farm and his drive to make you laugh, has you loving him even more.

Sam

Sam doesn’t know a whole lot about farming, but he absolutely loves working with the animals. I’d imagine goats would be his favorite because they’re just so weird. I mean, he’s fascinated by the fact that they just want to eat everything in sight- soley because they can and that they don’t know any better.

Another reason Sam loves working with the animals is that once he realizes they’re safe and relatively easy to handle- he brings Vincent along to show him how to pet and take care of the animals. Sometimes you’ll see Penny, Vincent, and Jas on a field trip to the farm so that Sam can actually be a guide to them (of course Jas also gets the opportunity of showing off what she knows since she lives on a farm herself.)

There is nothing more wholesome than seeing Sam’s goofy smile when working with the kids. He loves feeling like he’s a part of the children’s lives and enjoys teaching them lifelong lessons.

Although… Seeing him fighting the goats as they try and eat his shirt is one of the funniest parts of your day. You can’t help but laugh as you watch him tell the goats to, “F*CK OFF!” (only sometimes do you actually help him.)

Sebastian

Sebastian wasn’t to keen on helping you out on the farm when you first asked for his help. “I’ll just screw things up.” He kept saying to you, but one day, as a present you give him a pure black egg with freckles on it. You tell him that it’s a very special looking chicken that’s hard to obtain, but that when it grows up it’s black. Oh man. When you told him this, he was ALL about this chicken. He placed the egg in the incubator and every single day- he would check up on it until it hatched.

The chicken and him were absolutely inseparable. You’d find him talking to himself all throughout the day until you find out that he puts the little chick in his sweatshirt pocket and literally carries it around everywhere with him. He shows off his little chick to everyone he knows- what made the chicken and him even closer was that people were just as weirded out by the chicken as they were of Sebastian. “I want to call my chicken, Midnight” He explains one day, “I actually feel like Midnight understands me as much as you do.”

Sure, Sebastian wasn’t great help with any of the other tasks on the farm, but the fact that he gives you the biggest, goofiest looking smile whenever he holds Midnight- it makes it all worth it. You’re happy that you could give Sebastian something to look forward to each and every day. It’s not long until you have a pet bed in your own house- just for Midnight, but you can’t complain. Seeing Sebastian smile as often as he had been was enough for you.

Harvey

The physical work was not Harvey’s specialty. After trying to assign him different tasks- you figured that you should let Harvey do what he wanted to do. After all, you married the goofball because you enjoyed his independent and nurturing side. (Getting patched up or given a deep tissue massage after a long day was wonderful.)

It wasn’t until you saw him grumbling over some paperwork that you asked him what he was doing, “I know I don’t have the endurance and strength to help you out on the farm, but I wanted to help you out at least in some way.” When he hands you the papers- you find out that he had been tallying every single expense made on the farm. In short, he decided he wanted to handle all of the farms finances whilst also checking crop prices each season and dating them back through the years to see what crops made the most money. “Grow potatoes in Spring, blueberries in Summer, and cranberries in the Fall.” He started, “As you can see here-“ and that’s where you lost him. Going through all the numbers made your head spin, but the fact that he did this all on his own and that he wanted to do it gave you so much relief. After a flurry of kisses- he was happy to know that he was doing a good thing.

Although you also find that when you patch up the Greenhouse- he gets excited. You find out that the expansive farm was just overwhelming to him and he didn’t want to get sunburned or heat exhaustion (which happened to you often.) You give him the territory of the Greenhouse and tell him, “Just work on it on the days you want too. You’re not required to do anything.”

You soon find it extremely touching though when he routinely presents you with flowers that he grew himself. He explains that he only wanted the Greenhouse to gift you flowers all year long.

Elliot

Elliot finds the farm relaxing and fascinating. Having only lived on the beach- the farm was an entirely new territory that he got to explore. Every day, you’d find breakfast on the table with a note on it. You understood the general theme within each note being about ‘beauty’. He’d ask you the same question every day once you finished reading it, “Do you understand it yet?” What does he mean by ‘yet’, you wonder? Sheepishly you finally understood what every single note meant, and he was writing about you the whole time. When tiny snowflakes covered your hair in the Winter when you came in in the evening to how the sunlight glistened on your skin in the Summer. You finally get that his real fascination was watching and admiring you while you worked.

That’s not to say that he didn’t help you sometimes. Working on the farm humbled him greatly and inspired him to continuously write every single day. Before you knew it- he had multiple books published that became successful, all because he had you and your farm as inspiration.

His biggest physical help on the farm was taking care of the plants that grew each of the three seasons. He loved working on the farm with you because his enjoyment was discovering the new leaves that grew over night- or that a flower would bud on the potatoes. He was routinely in awe at the new discoveries in plant life that he couldn’t give it up. You would give him a section of the farm to take care of- only come to find out that when you finished your section, he was too distracted by about the third plant that you would have to finish it for him. He would always profusely apologize about it, but you found it touching that even something as simple as a plant was just so exciting to him.

Sometimes he looked like a little kid- mouth agape and eyes sparkling when he’d see a plant, he personally took care of growing bigger and bigger. As a gift, you gave him planters so he could better watch the plant life grow. His big, sweet smiles stick in your mind, making you smile too. He was just too cute.

Shane

You expected him to basically fight you over the chicken coop. But with everything that Shane had been through- you didn’t want to stand in the way of what made him happy. He complained about his body a lot, but you will never see this man run harder just to tell you that a new chick hatched overnight. You’d find yourself just watching him as he would chase the chickens around the pen only to then get swarmed by them- knocking him in on his ass every time. You would just laugh amongst all the bawking as he’d try to free himself. Now, he never hurt a chicken, and they’ve never hurt him- they just swarm him because they want too. It’s like one minute you’re watering your crops, just to turn and hear him scream as a mass of feathers cover him. You’d wash his clothes and routinely find feathers stuck in his pockets- you decided to collect them. One day you’ll make fun of him for it or cover the entire side of his bed with them. The feather prank was all in your hands.

Now, you thought he just had an affection for the birds until you get him to talk about them. Shane knows EVERYTHING about chickens- when’s the best time to feed them, what to feed them, how much to feed them, how to take care of their feathers, how to handle an egg-bound chicken, how to care for newly hatched chicks- this man knew everything. It wasn’t long until he knew the exact spot each chicken loved to be scratched at.  He’d explain that every chicken had a different spot that they loved being petted at- it was mind boggling.

Now Jas knew a whole lot about farming, but Shane would consistently bring her to the farm. She loved it too! Jas got to see Shane genuinely happy all the time and it brought her a lot of comfort to see him mess with the chickens (and the chickens mess with him back.) She was so happy to know that Shane was content and satisfied with his life now- instead of lonely and depressed. He expressed joy, and even to Jas- Shane was teaching her new things about chickens every time she came over. She’s smart, but there were things that he shows her that blows her mind.

Through it all- you knew Shane wouldn’t be big on helping out on the farm, but you knew if you could get him in the chicken coop, it would make him undeniably happy. That was enough for you- you didn’t marry him to make him work on the farm- you married him because of his goof ball smile and nerdy talk about chickens and it made you so so happy.

It also helped that he could take a joke and that you two could tease each other- filling his side of the bed with feathers cracked you up at the twisted face he gave. He was happy, and that made you happy.

[elysiadjarin]

Sword and Shield 3

Summary: Bad Batch x reader (you), fem!coded, poly!relationship, multi-part series, nonhuman!reader, Echo later on

Chapter 2: Familiarity

Warning: Mentions of previous abuse/trauma, and an injury.

3: Integrate

Nervously, you bit your lip and tugged at your hair. You’d secured it so it would stay out of your face for the mission, and you’d already gone over the notes you’d taken the previous day as you’d gotten ready for the day. Dressed in your gear, you double-checked that you had everything.

The whole crew had gathered in the cockpit while approaching the mission site to receive orders from Hunter.

“Tech, tell them the layout and strategy.”

Tech adjusted his goggles and pulled up a holoscreen. “Our mission is to obtain some information that’s been stored in a vault underneath this Separatist bunker,” he said, pointing at the map. It zoomed in on the bunker’s location, revealing the armored doors.

“It’s only going to be there for one day before it’s supposed to be moved, so we have to move in on this intel as soon as possible,” Tech continued, laying out the stakes. “This might be our only chance to get our hands on his information, especially since this base is out in the middle of nowhere. It’s held in the base, but there’s not much of a guard around the bunker itself.”

“So how are we getting in?” Wrecker asked, clearly eager to get to the plan.

“The biggest problem is going to be getting in. Once we’re in, it’ll be a quick and easy trip to the vault. There’s a holopad right by the doorway. I need a running distraction to let me get close enough to hack it and get us in.” Tech adjusted his glasses.

“Cross will find a point to pick off whoever comes in and out of those doors,” Hunter spoke up, focused on piloting while he listened. “Wrecker, we’re going to need you to try to run as big of a distraction as possible and keep them occupied. Tech will get close to the door, and I’ll follow behind him as close as possible to watch his back while he’s hacking the keypad.”

Tech turned to you, observing you. “We don’t know much about your skills yet. Do you see a place that would best suit you?”

You thought for a moment, eyebrows furrowing as you ran though the plan in your mind. “I’ve studied the footage and information you gave me yesterday,” you said, slow but even. “Considering the way we’re approaching this, I think I should be most useful if the Sergeant uses me as a weapon. Since I’m versatile and can be changed depending on what the situation requires, the close combat might be best for me. Plus, once we’re in, I might be able to help clear a path.”

“Sounds like a solid plan,” Hunter said crisply. “Hold on, we’re entering the atmosphere.”

Everyone grabbed onto something or strapped in as the descent began, and you grabbed onto a hanging strap, bracing your feet. You caught sight of Wrecker turning to you, and you glanced up at him instinctively.

“Oh, hey, thanks for the food yesterday!” he called over the rattling, grinning so wide that you swore you could count his teeth. “It was really good!”

The comment took you off guard, and you had to grab onto another strap to keep yourself from sliding against the floor. “Y-you’re welcome,” you called back, feeling some heat creep up your neck and cheeks. You supposed that answered your question about whether they’d at least found the portions.

Hunter evened the ship out as you broke through the atmosphere, leveling out and beginning to more smoothly descent. Everyone relaxed again, checking gear and preparing for the landing itself.

You took in a deep breath, closing your eyes for a moment in order to mentally prepare yourself. You’d have to create a Transference Bond with the Sergeant, so it would take a moment. You only opened your eyes once you felt the landing gear hit the ground and the ship settle in landing.

Hunter stood once the process was complete, turning. “Let’s go.” Once at the ramp, he turned to the group. “Gear and Plan?” He checked. Running his eyes over everyone and getting their confirmation, he turned to you. “Commander Rex explained a little of the process of Transference Bonding to me to give me a basis of understanding. I suppose it wouldn’t be the best idea to do it all at once.”

You shook your head. “I could, but it’s easier to do it one by one to give me a distinction between each Bond,” you answered, knowing the importance of explaining how you worked.

He nodded. Taking a breath, he held out his hand to you. “I suppose it’s time. Everyone watch and listen closely for when you have to do it yourself,” he ordered.

You nodded back, straightening. “You have to offer your hand and say ‘Permission to Transfer.’ It begins the process for me to able to start Transference.”

Hunter stared at you, focused. “Permission to Transfer,” he repeated in a firm, even tone.

You let the sensation of the sucking whirlpool in your gut start to grow stronger, stirred by the initiating words. Deliberately, you reached out and grasped his hand. “Once I finish the initiating words, you’re going to feel a strange sensation like you’re absorbing something into your body. Don’t fight it, just let it happen so I can stabilize the connection,” you warned. “If you feel anything like a weird snap or push in the back of your head, that’s just the Bond solidifying.” You took in a deep breath. “The more open you let yourself be towards me, the stronger the connection.”

Hunter nodded in understanding.

You closed your eyes. “Transfer Granted,” you said, finishing the circuit. Again, you worked through the suctioning sensation, allowing your body to Shift into a basic form you knew very well. Opening your eyes once the sensations settled, you checked the Bond and stability of your connection.

Hunter had been surprisingly receptive compared to most first-time Handlers, and you found the Bond to be pretty sturdy all things considered. As soon as you feel comfortable, getting used to the new Handler, you let yourself materialize over his shoulder.

“I usually start out with a standard blaster,” you said, your voice a little wispier than normal as you pointed at the blaster in his hand.

He stared down at the weapon, turning it over in his hands. “I can hear you both out loud and like... like an echo in my head,” he remarked, voice a little terse.

You nodded. “It’s part of the Bonding. You can communicate with me out loud, but in cases when silence is required or for quick-time response, there’s a limited mental connection created. You can either speak in words or visualize, whichever comes more easily to you. That’s also how you can customize me as a weapon, by visualizing or describing to me the specific modifications that you want,” you explained, used to the process by now. “I don’t read your mind, you have to sort of... push them towards me, in a sense. It’s a limited connection,” you added, knowing the trepidation of the idea of someone possibly being able to read your mind.

He relaxed a little at that, and a blurred image started to bloom in the back of your mind. You tilted your head, and slowly the image started to crystallize as Hunter got used to the Bond and the communication. You picked up on the request, and between one breath and the next, you had Shifted into a modified blaster specifically balanced to his preference.

You took in a breath. “Please be patient with me,” you requested. “It takes me a little while to become completely accustomed to your particular fighting styles in order to best accommodate to your strengths. It may take me some time in the beginning.”

Wrecker bent forward, squinting at you. “Hey Shiv — I can call you that, right? — why do you look so... blurry?”

Tech adjusted his goggles. “It’s more like she’s a shadow, Wrecker,” he remarked clinically, observing you closely. “I think it’s the only way she can manifest herself since she’s technically the weapon itself.”

You nodded at him. “Tech is right. It’s kind of my astral form,” you confirmed.

“Cool!” Wrecker grinned at the general vicinity of your face.

“Alright, let’s go,” Hunter said, starting down the ramp and off towards the direction of the base.

You mentally picked apart the details of the modified weapon he’d shown you, making sure your copy of it was exact down to the weight and size. You tried your best to recall all the footage you’d analyzed the day before, specifically the patterns you’d noticed and highlighted about the Sergeant. You’d have to try to accommodate yourself to his movements and attempt to predict his preferences in weaponry and how he chose to utilize it. That way, you could start to make your performance seamless and save precious nanoseconds of response time that could mean the difference between life and death.

He glanced down at you, feeling the slight shift in the weight as you adjusted. A distant voice sounded in the back of your mind. If I wanted to change weapons, how would I ask?

You strained to hear. Project a little more towards the area you feel like the Bond is. You coached. You’re a bit faint.

He repeated the question, and it sounded much clearer and louder.

Thank you. I can hear better. The best way is to either mentally request it, or to visualize it again like you did to modify this blaster. Whichever is easier for you. You responded to his question.

I tend to visualize things when thinking. Hunter said. I think that’s how it’ll probably come across.

I understand, you acknowledged. After all, different people worked differently. Luckily, you’d worked with both visualizers as well as stream-of-consciousness, full word or sentence thinkers. I’m only limited by the amount of information you give me. I can Shift in nanoseconds, but if you don’t make sure to specify everything, it might be incomplete or a little different than what you wanted. You warned.

He nodded wordlessly, just as you came up to the clearing where the base was. The planet itself was rather forested, and the base had been set in the middle of a small clearing, half-hidden from above by the tree canopy. You briefly wondered how much intel had been needed in order to even find this place, much less know when and how long the intel would be shipped through this base anyway.

Two guards stood by the door, holding electro-spears with blasters at their sides. You didn’t doubt that there were probably more stationed within the base as well that would probably stream out like a disturbed ants nest once a confrontation began.

“Alright,” Hunter hissed lowly, gathering everyone’s attention. Cross, find a spot. You’ve got three minutes. Wrecker, get ready to run distraction. Yes, you can blow the ground sky-high for all I care, just make it big enough and keep their attention for as long as you can. Tech, get ready to slip around once Wrecker has them occupied.”

A sudden idea occurred to you. Cloaking shield. You whispered to Hunter, sending across a visualization of your possible contribution.

He instantly pounced on the idea. “Shiv is going to create a cloaking shield, get over here,” he hissed to Tech, who stepped closer to Hunter’s side. “We’ll use this to get as close as possible. If our cover’s blown, I’ll back you up.”

Tech nodded, pushing the visor of his helmet down in preparation. A minute later, Hunter nodded. “Let’s go.” He motioned to Wrecker.

With a booming laugh that you swore rattled through your currently nonexistent bones, Wrecker took a running leap into the clearing and slammed his fists into the ground. Chunks of earth went flying, and just as expected, the two armored guards started to run towards him. As soon as Hunter decided they were distracted enough, he motioned decisively.

You Shifted, creating the cloaking shield large enough for both him and Tech to fit under. Hunter started to move around the edge of the clearing, trying to stay a bit away from the flying rubble as Wrecker pulled out his grenades. You tried your best to keep monitoring, materializing over Hunter’s shoulder in order to keep eyes out for the flying rubble that might cause you to lose concentration if it hit the shield too hard or unexpectedly.

“How long can you hold it?” Hunter hissed, trying to stay quiet but let Tech in on the conversation.

“As long as nothing directly damages or hits me, as long as you need,” you whispered back. “But I expend more energy the larger of a weapon or shield that I am required to be.”

He nodded, helmet focused forward. You’d almost reached the doors, and the doors had cracked open to briefly allow backup to wriggle through.

“There’s going to be a risk,” you warned them as you reached the keypad. “I can’t hide the fact that the keypad is going to disappear from view or be tampered with. If anyone notices, the cover is blown.”

Hunter nodded. “Tech, you know how fast you can work. Concentrate, we’ll give you cover.”

Tech nodded, instantly pulling out some gear and hooking himself up to the keypad.

Hunter started filtering information to you about various weapons and their modifications he preferred to use, and you started instantly absorbing the information. To your surprise, you found that his visuals were extremely detailed, to the point that you almost started feeling them yourself. Everything in his head felt so much... crisper. So much more. You realized that it did make sense, considering his heightened senses. Everything would feel that much more to him, so it would naturally be transferred to you, especially considering your Bond.

Send me your Instincts, you whispered to him mentally.

What?

You let your astral form float a little in front of him, then pointed to his hands. Push across every instinct that you can towards the Bond. Channel them straight to me. Let your thoughts and instincts flow straight through the Bond, like a stream rushing by.

Hunter glanced at you, keeping an eye out for the distraction Wrecker was running. Crosshair had begun to snipe them down one by one, you vaguely noted. What does that do?

You started to feel him direct towards you, trying your best to accommodate and map out the way his instincts were honed. I am a living weapon, Sergeant, you reminded him. If a weapon could understand your instincts and become a part of your body, an extension of yourself, able to work with your thoughts in real time, what would you do with that? How would you shape that weapon and use it? I am a tool. I am a weapon, under your control. Please use me. This is my job.

Sometimes, the words felt like betrayal, coming from your own mind and mouth. Even though you knew you had worth, were more than just an object, you also knew that your part in this war and what you fundamentally were as a being was... a weapon. A weapon to be utilized to devastating effect. To kill, or to protect... to shield, or to destroy.

I am a weapon. You are a Handler. I will be used however you decide.

Hunter’s eyes hardened as he glanced at your form, and you felt his fingers tighten around the handle of the cloaking shield. But he said nothing and continued to funnel everything like a rushing stream into the Bond.

Tech hissed. “I’ve got it.”

The doors slid open, revealing an empty hallway.

Hunter stepped forward. “Get in, now, before anyone notices,” he barked.

Tech and Hunter quickly stepped in, heading down the corridor.

Blaster, Hunter requested.

You Shifted, allowing the cloaking shield to disappear. The three of you crept down the hallway, Tech leading the way as he glanced down at the map of the base he’d managed to strip. He fiddled with his controls as he led down the twisting hallways, opening doors as necessary.

“The intel holding should be just past this door,” Tech whispered tersely, holding his device up to the blast doors. The infrared picked up several life forms, and when he switched to x-ray, a couple of droids showed up on the screen.

“Those are assassin droids,” you whispered urgently, recognizing the shape and build.

Hunter nodded grimly. “Tech, once the doors are open, go for the others. We’ll handle the droids.”

You leaned toward Hunter’s ear. “Weaken the head plates and use a vibro-shiv to get to the cores,” you whispered, knowing how those droids worked. You’d lost Handlers before thanks to the stupid droids and their required close-combat.

Hunter nodded, and the doors started to open. As soon as they’d opened wide enough, Tech followed Hunter’s nod and slid around the corner. They both started to shoot at the same time. A few of the organic soldiers dropped thanks to getting caught in crossfire from the assassin droids, and Hunter started to target the head plates of the droids.

You quickly picked up on his flow of movement, correcting for precision aiming and knocking plates loose from the droids. Three of them started converging on you, and Hunter shouted at Tech.

“Get to cover!”

In a heartbeat, you’d Shifted into the vibro-shiv and he’d slashed at the wiring under one of the droid’s loose plates. It started to stagger, some of the support lost. Kicking out at the other, Hunter quickly managed to incapacitate the other two enough to slash at their wires as well. It didn’t take long for them to stagger about, losing some of their motor functions.

Tech found an opening and managed to nail one droid right in the exposed core, downing it in a shower of sparks. Hunter sank the shiv into another core, but you’d already caught sight of the last droid starting to point its blastered hand.

Hardly thinking, you bulked the weight of the vibro-shiv and made Hunter drop at the unexpected weight, barely missing the blast that went over his head. You returned it to normal a second later, and Hunter whirled on his heels close to the ground and threw.

You pointed the shiv with deadly accuracy, making it sink directly into the center of the exposed core. The droid froze, shuddering. For a moment the whole room seemed to freeze as Hunter and the droid faced off. Then the droid crumpled with a screech of metal, collapsing on the floor. The shiv shuddered.

Hold out your hand, you whispered to Hunter.

He held out his hand, and the shiv whipped back into his hand as you returned yourself to him. His hand closed over the hilt, and it shifted back into a blaster.

Tech had already scurried over the vault and was quickly working on it, fingers flying over his cracking device. Hunter turned toward the door, pointing the blaster and keeping an eye out.

“Thanks,” Hunter said gruffly. “Back there, with the third.”

The thanks caught you off guard. Why would he thank you? I... It’s my job, was all you could really think to say, thoroughly confused. You were a weapon. Why would he thank you for doing what you were literally born to do?

A flash of anger traveled through your Bond, and you instinctively shrank away though it passed just as quickly as it had appeared. Why would he be angry? Had you done something wrong? Had he not wanted you to correct it? Would it have been better if you’d done it differently?

You tried to refocus, knowing better than to get distracted now. The mission was still underway.

You heard the vault click behind you, then a quick rustle. Tech’s footsteps faltered, then squeaked against the floor.

“We need to go!” he shouted, beginning to sprint. “The vault was rigged! This place is going to blow in T-minus two minutes!”

Hunter had automatically followed Tech, but his pace quickened. “Tech, we’re not going to make it,” Hunter called grimly.

And he was right. It would take you longer to get out than that. There were so many twists and turns. You thinned your lips, materializing over his shoulder.

“Grab Tech,” you said, already Shifting. Hunter lunged forward towards Tech, grabbing him as he threw you down and jumped. You guided yourself to catch both him and Tech as a hoverdisc. A joystick grew from the base, and Tech unquestioningly grabbed it, beginning to guide you down paths so quickly that you barely had time to register any surroundings.

You rounded a corner, and Hunter shouted something. The doors had begun to close. But Tech just hunched over, and flicked a button you provided on the joystick.

“Hold on!” Tech yelled.

You Shifted, closing your eyes in order to concentrate, get it right, there wasn’t room for hesitation or error, you knew this, you could do this-

Heat seared your senses just as you managed to throw up both a shield and the proper mechanics that you’d studied so diligently and meticulously.

You screamed.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you knew that you were flying through the air, the Transference forcefully Dissolved. But all you could really pay attention to was the pain that burned through all of your nerves and senses. The moment you felt yourself hit the ground and roll, all breath was knocked out of your lungs.

Tears streamed down your cheeks as you wordlessly clutched at your arm, unable to make a single sound. You knew this had been a risk, the moment you’d done it. You’d only managed to put up the shield just in time to save Hunter and Tech from the blast approaching behind you, but it had been incomplete in your hurry to both throw it up and blow the doors open.

You’d been distracted. And now you were paying for your own mistake.

A half-strangled sob burst from your lips as you peeled your hand away from your arm, digging your hand into the soil underneath you and jacking yourself up. You’d taken damage from the blast, and just as you’d known would happen, it had Transferred to your physical body as well. After all... you were a weapon. And every weapon gets dents and scorch marks in battle. But you knew you were meant to take it. You’d always known you were meant to be the shield for your Handler.

Someone skidded to your side as you hunched over, trying to breathe through the pain. If you could just-

“Maker,” a voice snarled.

Vaguely, you half-registered the voice as Hunter’s. You scrabbled back, throwing out your good hand. “Don’t touch me!” you sobbed out, begging, praying that he wouldn’t touch you.

“Shiv, you need medical attention-“

“Please, don’t touch me, you don’t understand-“ you managed to sob out, shaking and hunching over.

“What happened?” Crosshair’s voice growled from nearby.

“Shiv-“ Hunter’s voice barked.

But you staggered to your feet, trying to just focus, you needed to focus- your ears rang. Gritting your teeth, you forced yourself to push. You were a weapon. You did not fail your Handler. You got back up. You took the consequences, you will take the pain, you will do your kriffing job-

A shuddering gasp tore from your throat as you felt yourself begin to work. You could feel the numbing ice of cold gunmetal creep up your mangled arm, could fairly smell your hissing flesh as you covered your arm slowly but ruthlessly.

Numbness. You barely felt anything, now, except for a vague pressure on your arm. Letting out a half-broken sob, shuddering, you reached up and smeared tears away from your face. Looking up, you caught sight of all four of the Bad Batch gazing at you with varying expressions of horror or concern.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered, feeling dizziness start to descend. Everything started to spin. “I’m sorry, I’ll- I’ll fix it-“

As everything tilted, the last thing you saw was someone’s hand reaching for you.

Part 4: Learning Process

[mycrofts-gunbrella]

Remus Lupin x Reader Smut- Full Moon Aftercare

Gif not mine :)

Waking up with the sheets cold beside you had become an occurrance you were used to every month since your secret relationship with your Dark Arts Professor had started. You use the term 'secret' loosely however as your dorm friends all knew what was going on and you were 99% sure all of the staff faculty were aware and just hiding it from the ministry but still, the idea of a forbidden relationship only made it that much more exciting. You'd fallen for him the second he walked through those classroom doors in his cardigan you now steal at every opportunity possible and finding out during you final year at Hogwarts that your feelings were reciprocated was one of the best days of your life. Being 18 your choice in boyfriend was technically legal but whilst you were still a student and on Hogwarts grounds you could never be truly 'official', else the ministry would take Remus' job in a heartbeat- of course it wasn't ideal but for now the both of you were happy to settle with stolen hidden kisses and sneaking to Lupin's dorm of an evening without getting caught out by some worms like Malfoy and his goons.

You rolled over to his side of the bed and laid your face into his pillow, breathing in the scent you missed the night before. Looking out the window you could see it was still the early hours of the morning and knew it wouldn't be long until a blanket clad man was going to walk through the door. Full moons were a tough time for the both of you- albeit Remus clearly suffered a lot more- with your boyfriend returning back from a hard night each time and you patching up any wounds that he obtained on his travels with a bar of his favourite chocolate resting on the bedside counter. This month's was no different as you got up and gathered the first aid kit Remus left at the top of his wardrobe and a pair of his comfiest pyjamas and waited on the end of the bed for him to come through the door.

Barely 10 minutes had passed and you heard the shuffling of your boyfriend's heavy footsteps coming down the hall; you stood to meet him at the door.

"Hey" You smiled sadly as Remus all but limped through the door. He gave you a weak smile in return and softly kissed your cheek before practically collapsing on the bed behind you. "Rough night?" You joked with a side smile as you sat beside him with his pyjamas in hand. You'd almost asked him once why he only hid a blanket out in the forest rather than a spare set of clothes but after seeing him struggle even wrapping the threaded material round his bare frame by himself you cut yourself off.

"Darling you have no idea." He winced as he attempted to sit up, fresh cuts and scrapes getting shifted with each movement. You smiled sympathetically at him as you helped him get into his pyjama bottoms (secret Lupin insight, underwear is a big no after a change, the waistband is far too tight around his aching bones) and passed him a square of the dark chocolate that he'd been eyeing up since he saw it on the counter. You noticed the large cut that was going down the underside of his arm and nodded your head towards it, grabbing the first aid kit.

"Okay I'm sorry, this is going to sting quite a bit at first but just remember it'll be worth it in the end; you'll feel a lot better." You apologised, as you used an alcohol soaked cotton pad to clean the wound before bandaging it up. A small, pain-filled laugh sounded beside you and you turned in confusion.

"Sorry.. I know you're trying to help and I love you for it. You just.. reminded me what I said on the first night you stayed here." He chuckled.

"Remus John Lupin amidst your pain from a bloody long night did you really just answer me with a 'that's what he said' line? You're such a child sometimes." You laughed.

"You know you love me for it Y/N."

"Of course I do Professor." You couldn't help it sometimes, honestly you couldn't. In your defence, after having him as a teacher for so long you just became accustomed to calling him professor when talking to him. Sometimes in private you did it on purpose, especially after seeing the reaction it got out of him when you did it accidentally during the first few weeks of your relationship- let's just say you're not allowed to use any such title in class with Remus anymore.. you'd trialled 'sir' for a while but apparently any such term towards him leaving your lips turns him back into a horny teenager. Apparently even in pain it had the same effect."Y/NNNN" He moaned softly, hanging his head down to try and avoid eye contact with you. You followed his gaze and noticed his half-hard bulge poking at the striped trousers.

"Remus I'm so sorry, it was an accident I swear." You apologised profusely. The two of you had learned very early on that Remus' transition come-down effects him sexually too. The two of you usually have to wait at least 3 days before being intimate with each other as the change causes Lupin to be incredibly sensitive and sometimes even in pain until he fully feels like himself again. It becomes difficult after the first day as his libido skyrockets after a full moon event, neither of you were quite sure why. Sometimes Remus would try to push himself too far but with the mixture of his aching body and the oversensitivity he deals with in his trousers the moment ends fairly quickly with a shout of pain. You'd vowed to make it up to him massively each month if he could hold out the three days because you were always worried that you would hurt him if you tried too soon- that's if he doesn't hurt himself first of course- and the promise was "definitely worth the wait" according to your partner.

"Shh it's okay. I just-ah need a minute." He winced again as he shifted his weight to lay against the headboard of the bed. You nodded and laid beside him, resting your head against his shoulder and lightly kissing the base of his jaw in apology. The silences were there but it wasn't awkward as you frequently tried to talk to him to take his mind off his growing erection (clearly his mind was doing the opposite). The minutes ticked by and nothing seemed to help. "I'm sorry Y/N, you're probably exhausted getting up this early to help me out. I won't be offended if you want to go back to your dorm to get a proper sleep, I'm afraid I wouldn't be such a good host wincing like a kicked puppy every time I take a deep breath. Besides, my uh- problem, shall we say, doesn't appear to be getting any better." He spoke, realising his half-hard erection had grown in the last few minutes rather than going away. The last few weeks you'd been spending a lot of your time studying for your final exams so the two of you didn't really have time to have sex as you were constantly busy. It annoyed you, of course it did, but Lupin understood completely knowing how much your studies meant to you. But he'd be lying if he said he didn't pleasure himself each time in the shower fantasising your previous sexual endeavours and now found his mind wandering back to the old memories as he felt his cock twitch.

"I'm not going anywhere unless you really want me to. It's technically my fault you're even more uncomfortable." You shifted from your position to face him a little more. " And don't you ever feel bad about me getting myself up early on these days to make sure you're okay. I'd drive myself mad if I just stayed in my dorm room knowing you'd come back here by yourself. I love you and I want to help you out as much as I can. I knew what I was signing up for in this relationship when it started and I'm not going to back out." You confessed. Remus gave you a soft smile in return and leaned himself to kiss the side of your head, words often failing him when you speak to him like this as he'll never understand how he got so lucky with such an understanding, loving person. He stifled a noise that sounded a mixture of pain and pleasure at the sensation of his trousers rubbing against him. "Can I at least try to help? Please?" You asked, moving to rest your hand on his upper inner thigh. "I'll go slow and if you tell me to stop, I'll stop." From the corner of your eye you could see Lupin stifling a laugh. "Another flashback?" You grinned. "That's not going to help this go anywhere." You teased, gesturing to the tent in his trousers.

"One of the best." He answered with a smile. He was in pain, there was no doubt about that, but he felt guilty accepting your offer, almost like he felt he was using you breaking your 3 day rule. You moved your hand to the waistband of his pyjama bottoms and looked at him for approval.

"It's probably going to hurt at first but just focus on me and I'll try to make this as easy as I can." You whispered. With a soft nod given as consent you softly put your hand in and wrapped your fingers around his throbbing cock, hearing a sharp intake of breath and a quiet wince from the man beside you. With your spare hand you turned his face towards yours, pressing your lips against his as your other hand slowly made a steady rhythm, causing the older man to eventually moan against your mouth. Your movements were slow. Careful. As you twisted your hand as it reached the head, pre-cum dripped down your knuckles as Remus slowly came undone below you.

"I love you Professor." You turned your head to whisper in his ear as you kissed and licked down his jaw and neck. Your voice did things to him that he would never be able to explain. It usually embarrasses you but knowing it was one of Remus' biggest turn ons you decided to treat him on this occasion, willing to do anything to make this easier for him. "I especially love how your big cock fits in my hand so perfectly, like you were made for me." You moaned breathlessly in his ear as you picked up the pace with your hand. You felt Lupin's big hand come round in attempt to lift your shirt but the pain in his arm stopped him. "Calm down Professor. As much as I'd love for you to fill me up right here and now we need to wait, then you can have me any way you want to remember? Use me as your own personal sex doll over and over until you pass out of exhaustion." You bit his earlobe.

"P-Promise?" He managed to breathe out, any pain he was feeling long gone by his new distraction as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"I'd want nothing else sir."

"Fuck Y/N." He swore, moving his head into your shoulder and biting the bit of flesh he could reach. You moaned in response and moved your other hand down towards the front of your own trousers, beginning to rub circles on your swollen clit that had been dying for your attention. "Oh you're such.. a naughty girl Y/N." He teased lowly seeing your actions. "MY naughty girl."His deep voiced words caught you off-guard as you squeezed tighter onto his member, flicking your thumb over the top of his sensitive head as you felt him come close to the edge.

You moaned deeply and pushed two fingers inside yourself, matching the pace of your other hand as you turned your head into Remus' and kissed him deeply.

"I'm almost there." Remus breathed between the kiss, fisting his hands into the bedsheet, angry he felt too weak to be able to touch you properly. "Come on darling, cum with me." He encouraged, fighting back his own orgasm as he watched your hand work steadily on yourself through your trousers. He didn't have to tell you twice. With a few more twists of your hands and pumps of your fingers the two of you came undone, moaning each other's names as you reached your high.

"Feeling.. better?" You teased breathlessly as you grabbed one of the spare cleaning cloths and wiped you both down.

"You could say that." He smirked, slowly letting himself sink down the bed until he was laying completely. You joined him and rested your head on his chest, careful to avoid any fresh bruises. His fingers lazily danced against your hip as you yawned beside him. "Thank you." He spoke sincerely, turning his head to kiss the top of your head.

"For accidentally turning you on and tossing you off when you really needed to sleep? You're welcome." You joked, nestling closer.

"No- well yes actually, for that too-" He laughed. "But more-so for being here every time I get back after a full moon like this. It's nice knowing I'm not coming home to an empty bed every time. You make it almost bearable. I really do love you Y/N, more than I could have ever imagined loving anybody."

"I'll always be here for you to get back to Remus, unfortunately for you you're now stuck with me. I love you too. Now let's go to sleep, you need your rest." Lupin opened his mouth to speak but you cut him off, practically reading his mind. "I spoke to the other professors earlier this week and they've agreed that after seeing me practically hanging out my arse every day after a full moon that I could take the day off to be with you, providing I catch up with the work within a week." You spoke.

"You're truly an amazing woman Y/N, I believe I'd be lost without you."

"You haven't heard the best part yet. I even managed to convince Snape to agree to the deal, with the agreement that I would go to his classroom once a fortnight to make the potions with him that I miss and do a timed essay that the rest of the class don't have to do. I'm more than happy with that as it counts towards my potions studying but I didn't let him see that and let him believe it was some kind of small punishment."

"One on one time with Severus in his classroom eh?" Remus began. "Should I be concerned? That is how we started off after all." He joked. You rolled your eyes and shook your head. Whilst Remus sounded as though he was kidding you could always see the underlying insecurities in his eyes, constantly worried you'd leave him for anyone that didn't have his 'condition', constantly thinking you deserved better- even if it was Snape...

"I'd never leave you for anyone Remus, especially never Snape."

"Oh? And why's that."

"He doesn't like chocolate. Immediate red flag." You grinned, slowly rubbing your fingers along the raised scars that patterned your boyfriend's chest. Another thing he was hugely insecure enough. The first few months you were dating you learned he was even trying to use make-up to hide the ones on his face but you managed to convince him that scars made any man sexier, but the ones on his chest and torso were the ones he hated most- hell, the first few times you had sex he kept his shirt on and then when you finally convinced him to take it off you'd have to be in the dark. But doing little things like now, tracing the map of pink and white lines across his body, memorising every inch of him made him feel better. He let out a small laugh and managed to roll over onto his side and take you under his good arm for a hug, appreciating the smell of your shampoo under his nose as he kissed your head. He really did strike it lucky with you and he loved you more than anything in this world but being here and treating him like you do, Remus finally found himself doing something he never thought he could again. He was starting to love himself.

[cosmicjoke]

Alright, so onto chapter 2 of “No Regrets”.  

I want to talk a little about these opening panels, when Levi, Furlan and Isabel are being driven to HQ by carriage.  They seem unimportant, but I think they’re actually really important in understanding Levi’s psychology going into this new situation they’re all in.

We see the interior of the carriage, with Levi and the other two, along with an escort from the SC.  Furlan and Isabel are both looking out the window of the carriage, and in particular, Isabel seems incredibly excited and in awe of the passing view.  She’s stood up, with her face pressed to the window.  And in the next panel, we see her looking at a little girl with her mother, dressed nicely and holding a doll.  This really encapsulates everything Isabel herself has probably never had.  A reliable mother to take care of her, fancy clothes and toys to play with.  Essentially, an actual childhood.  We see Isabel’s face in the window, and her mouth is open in wonder, her eyes wide.  Like she can’t believe what she’s seeing.  It emphasizes the depravation and lack of privilege she’s endured all her life.  Meanwhile, by contrast, Levi sits there with his head bowed down, ignoring the passing scenery, looking deeply unhappy, even depressed.  When he does look up though, he sees Isabel looking out the window, and on the close up shot of him, he’s got an almost thoughtful expression, if still extremely dour.  No doubt, Levi is feeling uneasy and uncertain about the situation they’ve all gotten themselves into here, but I’m also sure that he’s unable to ignore the bubbling over excitement of Isabel, her obvious joy in being, at last, on the surface.  I’ll get more into this later in the post, when we see Levi really considering his friends and their dreams, and how it influences and dictates his own decisions.

But first lets talk a little about Erwin and his role in all of this.

Now at the time this series came out, Erwin’s actual, motivating reasons for doing what he does weren’t yet known, so it’s interesting to read into his actions in this story with that context.  I have no doubt that Erwin really DOES care about humanity, and wants to fight for it, and its salvation.  But as we come to learn from the main series, he places his own dream of proving his father right about the existence of human’s beyond the walls above what’s best for humanity, and it puts his actions in this story into an interesting, if harsher light.

No doubt, Erwin is a master manipulator.  He plays both sides expertly against the middle in this story, and I’ll get more into it by the end, when his actual plan is revealed to Levi.  But what I don’t see often discussed is how, exactly, Erwin got all the parts moving in the direction he wanted, to obtain a specific outcome, and how he pretty ruthlessly uses so many people as pawns to do so.  It’s obvious from the context of what we later learn in the story that Erwin first spread a rumor about having evidence against Lovof stealing funds in order to force him into tipping his hand by trying to make a preemptive move.  What I see people miss all the time, or at least, fail to discuss, is how Erwin also, at the same time, made it public knowledge within the Capital, that he would be going after a group of thugs in the Underground who had shown exceptional skill using ODM gear, and that he would be making contact with them as soon as possible to try and enlist them into military service, and how Erwin made these plans public specifically to encourage Lobov into seeking out Levi and his friends for the exact purpose of both implicating Lobov in a crime, and gaining Levi’s and his friends strength for the SC.  One, by hiring a group of criminals to steal from Erwin and attempt to assassinate him, so he could use that as leverage in case he wasn’t able to obtain proof of Lobov’s further criminal activities, thus having two means of getting rid of one of the SC’s biggest threats, and at the same time, also manage to score for the SC the exceptional skill of Levi and his friends through forced enlistment.  He even says to Zackely at one point “I intend to make use of anyone who has even the smallest potential during this expedition.”.  Erwin manipulated and had control of this entire scenario from the start, and from behind these scenes moved all of these people exactly how he wanted to, to achieve his goals.  That’s pretty impressive, but also pretty scary.  Well, I’ll talk more about all of that when we get to it later on.

Back to Levi and his friends though.

We see them arrive at the SC HQ, and a really important conversation happens between Levi and Furlan.  

Furlan seems like he’s almost bitten off more than he can chew here, beginning to express his concern to Levi about what joining the SC actually means, before Levi cuts him off, telling him he’s got no intention of enlisting, and that he only agreed to come along so that he could get closer to Erwin and then kill him.  I think Levi genuinely felt murderous towards Erwin at this point, and really means what he says here, at least about killing him.  Though given the end of chapter 1, with the significant look shared between Levi and Furlan, and Levi’s begrudging acceptance of Erwin’s offer, it’s obvious that Levi also agreed to come because that’s what Furlan wanted him to do, to give them the opportunity they needed.  Levi’s just feeling incredibly emotional here, I think, with the way Erwin treated all of them hot on his mind.  Furlan tries to implore Levi to forget about killing Erwin, that it isn’t necessary anymore because of his own plan, and the almost certainty that Lobov and his people won’t ever try to make contact with them again.  He tells Levi, if he just listens to him and follows his plan, “I know it’ll work.  Trust me, Levi.”  Furlan asking him to trust him pulls a meaningful look from Levi, seeming to break through Levi’s angry insistence on killing Erwin.  This is where the manga improved on Levi’s characterization and motivation by leaps and bounds over the visual novel, because in the next few panels, we see Levi walking away, with Furlan calling after him, concerned, but we get to see Levi’s inner thoughts, and he’s remembering specifically Furlan insisting to him that “one day, we’ll get outta this trash heap and live up above.”  We see Levi thinking about Furlan’s hopes and dreams in these panels, and he has a saddened, and guilt-ridden look on his face, like he feels bad about having dismissed Furlan’s plans back there in favor of his own plans for revenge.  We didn’t get any of this in the visual novel, instead the text there making Levi look like he refused to consider anyones position but his own in this whole situation.  But here, Levi is clearly concerned with and considering Furlan’s desires.  

We go into a flashback then, with Furlan explaining to Levi his plans, telling him that “nothing’s gone according to plan... But with you here we’ll really be able to raise hell.”  Furlan’s trying to explain to Levi that since he now has Levi’s strength to rely on, they can actually get something done once they get into the Survey Corps.  It almost seems like Furlan’s been planning on trying something like this, or at least, had some sort of loose plan about getting to the surface, even before he met Levi.  It’s obviously something he’s been dreaming about for a long time.

Then Isabel comes back, and she’s been roughed up and assaulted, and we learn from Furlan asking her if she went to see those “low-life scumbags again?” that this has obviously happened to her before, that she’s been associating with some bad people and it’s gotten her hurt.  She denies it and lies about having just tripped, but clearly neither Levi or Furlan are buying that.  Levi asks Isabel what happened to her hair, and Isabel reacts badly, running away and hiding in her room.  We get a close up of Levi holding a knife in his hands, foreshadowing his own intentions.  Later that night, Furlan hears Isabel crying in her room, and her chanting to herself over and over that she’s going to “kill you”, presumably meaning the men that hurt her earlier.  Furlan stands there lamenting that he thinks both Levi and Isabel are going “mad”, and that all they can think about is dragging everyone else down to where they are.  He’s obviously terrified that he’s going to lose both his friends to the savagery and ruthlessness of the Underground, that both of them are going to end up becoming lost to their own anger and pain.  He starts to say “That’s why I...” before Levi suddenly comes back in, holding a bloody knife, clearly having returned from exacting revenge on the men who hurt Isabel.  Furlan asks Levi “Did you kill them...?”, and Levi doesn’t answer, but we see a completely resigned, even sad look on his face.  This of course is the world Levi comes from.  It’s the world he was raised in.  A world of kill or be killed.  Levi must have figured, if he didn’t go out and kill those men that had hurt Isabel now, then someday, they would end up going too far with her, and kill her instead.  But Furlan clearly doesn’t understand, and doesn’t relate to that kind of mindset, despite coming from the Underground too.  Of course, Furlan wasn’t raised by Kenny the Ripper either.  This is how Levi was taught to deal with his problems, and Furlan can only see him spiraling into an abyss from which he fears Levi won’t return.

We cut back to the present then, and Levi is sitting up on the roof of the SC HQ, again remembering Furlan’s words about “This is our chance.  Trust me.”.  Getting to the surface and finding better lives for themselves is Furlan’s dream.  The fact that Levi keeps remembering it, keeps remembering Furlan insisting and pushing the idea of the possibility of living on the surface, shows that this is probably something he would talk about all the time with Levi, trying to get him to agree to it, to believe in it.  Once again, Levi is contemplating the hopes and dreams of his friends.  We get another close up of him holding a knife, and it represents, I think, his struggle between his desire for revenge against Erwin, and his desire to help Furlan realize what, to Levi, is probably an unrealistic goal.

We then get Furlan and Isabel joining Levi, commenting on how beautiful the night sky is, and asking Levi how he could keep it to himself.  Levi snips testily at Furlan that him and Isabel are so loud, that he’d be too irritated to get any killing done, and then Furlan looking clearly unsettled by the remark.  But it’s obvious, given the context of the previous panels of Levi’s thinking about Furlan’s dream, that Levi is just being peevish and saying things out of frustration and confusion.  He doesn’t really mean what he says here.  He’s taking his frustration out on Furlan by saying what he knows will upset him the most.  What this also tells us is that Levi is very much aware of how bothered Furlan is by Levi’s willingness to kill.  He isn’t at all oblivious to it, and given his resigned, saddened expression after coming back from killing the men who assaulted Isabel, I would say Levi even understands Furlan’s dismay.  That’s a glimpse at Levi’s famous compassion.

The next panels show the three of them bonding, sitting together and admiring the night sky.  Isabel asks Levi if the stars are as pretty as where he used to live.  I’m just going to chalk the mistake in continuity here up to this manga coming out before, I believe, Levi’s backstory of being born in a brothel in the Underground was established by Isayama.  Regardless of this mistake, this is an important moment between the three of them.  You can see the awe and wonder they all feel, looking up and seeing the sky fully for what has to be the first time in all their lives.  Remember, all three of them have lived literally underground their entire lives, with little to no sunlight, stagnant, stale air, hideously unclean living conditions, etc...  It must be overwhelming to them , just to see nature in all its splendor like that.  It’s after sharing this moment together that Levi tells Furlan that he’s decided he won’t kill Erwin for now.  He looks at him and says “I’m going to trust you.”.  And Furlan smiles at him, clearly happy and relieved.  This scene is really important, because we’re seeing Levi choose Furlan’s dream over his own desire for revenge.  We see Levi place Furlan’s desires over his own, which is totally in line with how Levi is in the main AoT storyline.  He decides his revenge can wait, that it’s not as important as helping Furlan achieve his goals.  What’s particularly remarkable about this, I think, is that it doesn’t appear that Levi ever dreamed of going to the surface himself, and likely that he never even considered it a possibility.  So just like Levi fights, later on, for a world without fear and violence, for humanity’s salvation, even as all his life experiences tell him it likely isn’t possible, we see the Levi doing the same here, deciding to fight for his friend’s dream, even as to him, it seems unrealistic.  It’s obviously a pivotal moment too, when Levi tells him he’s going to trust him, because this ties in hugely with the theme which applies so much to Levi throughout the whole series, of never knowing if it’s better to rely on himself solely, to trust himself, or to trust and rely on his friends and their capabilities.  Levi chooses, here, to trust in his friends, and that will obviously have it’s own ramifications down the line.  Again, this is an area in which the manga improves radically over the visual novel, which had no instances whatsoever of Levi struggling with the question of the choices we make, which is absurd, since it’s one of the driving factors behind who Levi is, and how he ultimately came to see the world as he does.  It was precisely this struggle between choices, between trying to choose correctly, giving so much thought and effort to our choices, and still sometimes coming out wrong, that shaped Levi into being able to accept his lack of control and instead of regretting it, using it to keep fighting.  

Anyway, I’ll get to chapter 3 tomorrow.  

[rederiswrites]

Mmmm! Time to start thinking about spring! @turtlesandfrogs  post has me inspired. 

If I want to get my hands on good quality stock of green and blue egg layers, I have to find and order them now. If I want bees, I have to find and order them now. 

And I do, oh, I do. Having that swarm of bees for about a hot minute last summer and then losing them really stung (ha! ha!). I was so happy to have bees again for about three days. Plus my daughter loves them and it would be great for her to work with them more. She’s big enough now for the heavy lifting, so she and I can work together and get things done quickly. Plus, in the last five/ten years there’s been a lot of really intensive research and now there are new treatments for so many of the intractable problems beekeepers have been facing. That’s pretty exciting to be a part of.

And collecting and using those chocolate brown eggs every day (we’ve gotten nearly a dozen eggs a day all through the winter!! I would have expected to be getting close to zero by now!) is such a pleasure, but the green and blue layers I got are all so pallid that you can only tell them from white if there’s an actual white in the mix. We can do better. (I say that, but apparently my mother adores the greens and favors them like I favor the browns.)

Then there’s all the trees and shrubs I want to plant--some I got last year and never planted, many I still need to order. The biggest thing is my work to create a hedge/treeline along the road front, which should help cut the incredibly vicious winds that come across the surrounding fields all winter. That will not only reduce that winter evening sensation that a vast wild creature is trying to rip my house apart, but it should increase the survivability of the Mediterranean herbs in my front garden. Well, in like, five years when it’s filled in. I’m continually amazed by how 1. being older and 2. living in a place you fully intend to Stay extends your viewpoint and makes long-term projects feel more tangible. Now, five years feels like “Eh, well, I’ll be busy and then they’ll be grown and I’ll be like ‘nice’.”

I love the ducks, and look forward to expanding the flock. They are quiet, undemanding to care for, and incredibly charming to watch. I haven’t gotten a single egg yet but I’ve had duck eggs and they’re excellent. What purpose do the ducks serve? Uhhhh. Butt wiggle cute?

As for obtaining more of a very rare sheep breed, I think the best I can do is still to message round to the keepers I know of and ask them to keep us in mind when the lambs come. Hopefully any road trips we might need to make to get them will be more feasible and less fraught with pandemic concerns by the time the lambs are ready to be separated from their mothers. The goal is to be able to do conservation breeding, which requires a flock of a dozen or more to be effective. We’ve got a long way to go before we have a genetically diverse flock that size.

The vegetable garden? My brain is not ready for all those variables yet. Augh. I already feel behind. I wanted to put wood chips over the whole thing. I don’t know whether it’s still worth it now, knowing that in two/three months I’ll be raking it back to make seed beds. Probably I should just Do It Anyway. Then I think, “Straw would break down faster” but honestly, straw mats and gets slimy. But at least if I do a mulch it’ll stifle all the grass and weeds to a large extent once spring arrives. That’s totally enough reason to buy a four inch cover of wood chips for a 40 x 60 foot area and then spread it?? Ugh veggie gardens are seriously the hardest.

I think I’mm’a not think about tomatoes and cucumbers for a little bit and shop for chickens instead.

[gainaxvel3o]

A look at Adam Taurus

Now that I’ve rewatched  RWBY up until Adam’s death, I kinda want to talk about him. There’s a thought in some circles that think Adam was a wasted character, that he had no arc or personality to say much of.

I don’t quite agree. Or at least, I don’t agree that’s where his actual flaws as a character are.

Adam has a demonstrably clear and comprehensive arc built up over the course of the series. As far back as the Black trailer, we could see that this guy was someone Blake respected, who was also a bit of an extreme guy given the whole “trying to kill everyone on the train” thing. Naturally Blake left him after that, and he doesn’t show up in full until pretty much the last few minutes of Volume 2. Given how disgusted Blake was by his violence against humans, you’d think Adam would take the time to think on why she might possibly disagree with hm- ha, just kidding he goes on to help destroy Beacon Academy, specifically targeting Blake for leaving him, promising to destroy everything she ever loved, a promise he made good on by cutting off Yang’s arm when she tried to step in. 

His presence kick starts Blake and Yang’s arcs from Volume 4-6, where each have to recover from the scars Adam inflicted on that night. As that happened, Adam makes a couple of appearances in Volume 5; the first one he kills Sienna Khan to take control of the White Fang, planning on turning it into his cult much like in Vale; the second appearance is in the finale, which has him lose his sway over the White Fang due to Blake and her friends forcing him to run off. Volume 6 begins with him slaughtering a bunch of White Fang grunts for making fun of him. He began the show having this power over Blake and loses it through the series.

The Adam Short before Volume 6 expands on his origins, showing his rise to power in each of it’s little segments, how Adam explains the Grimm masks as a fear tactic against the humans, how Sienna unintentionally encouraged his violent behavior, how even in the past he was more than a manipulative jerk to Blake, Power and control are a constant theme with Adam, each volume peeling back a bit on him until his end, where he ditched the mask to reveal the SDC symbol on his eye. From those details, one can surmise that Adam hated weakness, so he sough to obtain strength, and on his quest for it he turned into an abuser himself, one that Blake and Yang had to stop.

So if all of that is understandable, what is my problem with Adam?

Well, he’s tied heavily into the Faunus racism plot, which I hate, but I’m not gonna get into that here. For now, I’ll say that my biggest problem with Adam is that... I just don’t buy him as an effective cult leader.

Let me explain. It’s not inconceivable that Adam was able to get far in the White Fang due to his strength alone, but whether due to the acting or a lack of scenes with this, I don’t get the sense that he’s a charismatic enough man who could get a ton of people into his cause. Aside from the brief scene in his short where he hands out the masks, we don’t get a sense of Adam’s ideology, or what he’s selling to the Faunus in order to gain momentum. Sienna seems more politically savvy than Adam, but we don’t see enough of the two to get meaningful distinctions in their approaches. That’s partially due to Sienna dying in her first scene (to this day I still think that was one of RWBY’s biggest mistakes), but also that Adam’s sparse appearances make it harder to understand what he’s thinking.

His use of Grimm masks is interesting to me. What does Adam think of the Grimm? Given we never see him take his mask off until late in the series, does he see the Grimm as a symbol of strength? That seems to be the implication given the masks are used by the White Fang as a fear tactic and how he doesn’t seem to have a problem working with Grimm to destroy Beacon, but how far does that go? Speaking of working with others, why did he think that working with Cinder and Roman, a bunch of humans, was a good idea to begin with? The latter is especially odd given Roman is a huge racist against Faunus. I’m surprised Adam never tried to gut him at all. Keep in mind that this team up happened before Blake left him, it was one of the reasons she was suspicious of him in fact. Adam is not exactly known for his pragmatism so something’s up here.

Looking back on Sienna’s death, that could have been the perfect opportunity for Adam to show what he’s made of. Imagine if Adam doesn’t kill Sienna right off the bat; she makes the same accusations, but Adam picks apart her words and build a case that she’s “gotten soft,” that she doesn’t understand how destroying an establishment where humans force faunus into working for them was an essential part of protecting the future of their kind. In an ironic turn around of her scene with Ghira, Adam turns the White Fang against her by making her pragmatism seem too centrist for their liking. Maybe Ilia is there too. Maybe she agrees with Adam openly, putting Sienna on the spot. Maybe Sienna retreats while Adam is cheered on by his fellow members. 

But he doesn’t take the throne for himself, no that would be too convenient, plus it might stop him form acting in the field. He gets Ilia to do it instead.

Blake and Ilia worked under Adam. It’s implied that Adam had also manipulated Ilia on some level, which he could seize upon to make his grand take over of the White Fang. Adam could be on the frontlines attacking the humans while Ilia was in his control, which would also effectively pit her further against Blake.

But that’s just a hypothetical scenario. It’s easy to think of something like that in hindsight, when the volumes have been out for years. I just think that something along those lines could have helped sell Adam as a manipulative bastard who could convincingly pull off a take over of the White Fang.

I feel that Adam is a fine enough character as depicted, just that there were some specific holes that could have been used to better flesh him out. I like him primarily as a phantom that Blake and Yang must overcome together, but it would have been nice to get a bit more insight into Adam’s motives and ideology. 

[ribbononline]

Horrible high school kids

You thought it was bonus doodles, but twas I ! another long hc post! This one is mainly about my personal HC’s for their childhoods and teenage years. Now edited to be slightly more readable! 

Also, for clarification- I’m from the Netherlands, so that’s the school system I’ll be using. I just don’t understand other systems well enough, so bear with me. We’ve got elementary school from ~4 to ~12 , high school from ~12 to ~18, and college after that. 

-Archie comes from a rather large family. His household consists of his mother, one older brother, one older sister, two younger twin sisters and one younger brother. His father used to be a sailor, but ended up in a shipwreck, never to be seen again. When he was still around, he was the one who caught a Carvanha for Archie.

 Despite his mother being a stay at home mom to take care of the children, due to being well insured and having a large network of aunts and uncles money never ended up being a problem for them. His mother did end up taking on farming on the side, mostly for themselves, but selling extra’s to the neighbourhood. Once Archie’s eldest siblings ended up getting jobs they also helped keep the family afloat.

Their house is right next to Slateport. They own their own patch of land and dock there.

-Maxie came from a pretty bad household. His mother and father didn’t meet under happy circumstanced, and his father ended up leaving the household when he was ~8. This left him alone with his mother, who fell further into a bad state. Due to not being in contact with other family members, it was just the two of them. Their house was an apartment in Mauville. They got in cheaply when the town was just partly done being rebuild. He stayed out as much as possible, preferring to explore the routes nearby whenever he could which is how he obtained his Numel. Back at home, the Houndoom his father left behind with them ended up having two Poochyena pups with the neighbours Mightyena. 

-Archie and Maxie went to the same high school in Mauville, which is where they met (around 14/15yo). Archie was the kid who passed all classes despite never even studying. Maxie was a problem child at school. Due to not having a healthy outlet, he mostly took things out on those around him, leading into him getting into fights a lot and being rather disrespectful towards the teachers.

-Neither of them really interacted until they ended up in some of the same classes. 

Due to Maxie keeping to himself and Archie already having a friend group, they still didn’t really talk to each other unless it was for class projects. Maxie didn’t care, and Archie just knew Maxie as the kid that liked to pick fights with people.

-The first real talk they had was when Archie ended up in detention due to being late with an assignment. Despite liking to act tough like any teenager would being put in detention for the first time kind of freaked him out! Maxie who also happened to be in for detention ended up striking up a conversation with him before the teacher came in.

They mainly ended up talking about Pokémon a bunch, and ended up promising each other a battle once they both weren’t stuck here. Archie assumed that meant once detention was over for the day, but Maxie decided he didn’t feel like sitting around there for an hour and left trough a window, leaving Archie to explain to the teacher what happened there.

(Due to always picking fights and never really turning anything in on time or being on time, Maxie was more or less in detention daily- or at least supposed to be. More often then not he didn’t feel like going, or left the moment the teacher stepped out of the room. He was kind of the personification of a problem kid.)

-After that, they did in fact have their battle later that week which ended in a tie, and they started talking in the hall sometimes. The year after their shared classes didn’t include any of Archie’s other friends, meaning they ended up sticking together more often as they gradually got closer. They started hanging out more after class, and kind of became an infamous duo- mainly thanks to Maxie- around the school.

Archie wasn’t quite as hyped at the idea of his mom being called about bad behaviour though, so he did his best to make sure they didn’t get in too much trouble. They butted heads over it sometimes, but overall kept getting closer.

This was also around the time Maxie got invited over to the Aogiri’s household more often. (Yes, I’m just using their japanese names as their last names, I don’t trust myself to name anything so this is just what it’s gonna be)

-From the way Maxie never invited Archie over to his house/the way he avoided talking about his home situation and family, Archie eventually figured something was up. After some awkward attempts to talk to Maxie about it (that mainly ended up in Maxie going on the offensive and yelling a lot) he one day showed up to Archie’s house crying and talked some about it. After that Archie became the only person he ever really confided in and even then not that much- preferring to talk about other things. Archie did his best to support him, but as a teen himself with his own issues it admittedly did take a toll on him as well.

-Somewhere during this time friendship turned to dating! It ended up being natural progression more then anything so it wasn’t the biggest change- they were already all over each other at that point anyhow. Now they just could be slightly more obnoxious about it PDA wise.

-Archie’s mother ended up noticing some things off about Maxie’s home situation over time as well, and after Archie explained some things to her, Maxie ended up being invited over even more. The Aogiri’s did their best to let him know he could stay here whenever, and he ended up being really close with all of them.

-Maxie started eventually doing a lot better in school with the support of the Aogiri’s. He mellowed out a lot and started getting better grades too. Despite trying harder in class, doing well in them never came as naturally to him as it did to Archie, so Archie ended up helping him majorly when it came to studying. That said, Maxie would never ever admit to that.

-At 16, Maxie officially stopped ever coming back to his own house. Most of his stuff was already with Archie’s family anyhow. He took the two Poochyena pups they had at home and his Numel and took off. His grand master plan was mainly just to live either outside or stay in Pokémon centers nearby- with all the 10yos running free in the world, it wouldn’t look that out of place. He figured he’d just keep himself monetarily supported by battling.

-As it turned out though, that was a lot easier said then done. Archie and his family however knew Maxie was on his own now, so they ended up being the ones providing for him. At that point there already was always a mattress laid out in Archie’s room for him and he had a corner of it to himself for all his stuff he couldn’t carry on him, so it worked out. They invited him in to officially live with them, but the anxiety of living in a house with others again was hard for him to deal with. So to keep his peace of mind he ‚officially’ stayed homeless. That said, he stayed there more then half of the time, and Archie’s mother always joked about how Archie was the first of her kids to bring her a child-in-law.

-Maxie ended up helping Archie’s mother on her mini farm a lot. He really enjoyed the work, and she appreciated the extra helping hand.

-Archie meanwhile ended up feeding stray Pokémon around their house a lot. This meant more and more would show up there each day, especially once his younger siblings started joining him. His mother wasn’t the happiest about it, but as long as they caused no harm saw no reason to stop them. It’s where he met his Zubat!

-Maxie met his Zubat when off on his own once in one of the school vacations where he ended up exploring a cave. 

-Despite Archie trying very hard not to let it be noticed, and not even being entirely sure himself why, somewhere in high school he ended up first getting kind of depressed and feeling down. Due to having the support of his family and Maxie, it never ended up getting too bad, but he refused to truly confide to people about it, so it never truly left either. He did his best to ignore it and hoped it’d eventually go away on his own. (it didn’t)

-Once the kids turned 18, the Aogiri’s ended up helping fund his college education. Unbeknownst to anyone else, he also ended up sneaking back into his own parents house and stealing a large sum of cash from them to help with that. 

-Despite having a rocky childhood, the support shown to him by so many different people throughout the years made Maxie grow very fond of community and humanity. He didn’t really have any big grandiose ideals at these ages, but it helped lay the groundwork. 

Archie always kind of felt the opposite, being upset that the system led down his friend and worrying about what would have happened had his family not been there. 

-While Archie and Maxie ended up getting different degrees- Maxie in Geology, and Archie in Marine Biology, they got an apartment together where they lived together pretty happily! It was mostly a calm time for the both of them. They both had some odd jobs on the side to support themselves, still looking for the actual dream job they wanted to end up in after graduating.

And from here on out it’s to be continued for whenever I finish the next HC post about their Rocket years! ＼（°▽°）／

[tomoruna]

HEEEEY TWIRLS HAIR. what do you love most about each other? GO. 🎤

What I love most about tomoya? Ehehe~ Anonie you seem quite violent if I do say so myself~ Fear not dear child, this is nothing~! Although, to keep this readable length, I can’t write an essay of how much i love him sobs

I love tomoya for being someone that I can admire and look up to. However, that’s not all to it. Tomoya is a very admirable person, he has ambitious dreams that he’s not afraid to try and to obtain. Even though he calls himself, “plain” “average” “normal” he’s still unique to me. All of his habits are just so adorable. He looks up to his seniors with the biggest of eyes and always wants to be like them. However, he’s perfect the way he is already, he doesn’t need to be exactly like his seniors. Tomoya is someone that can provide comfort to someone else when in dire need, he looks at all perspectives before he makes a final judgment. I can always trust his opinions and suggestions to me because he would never lie to me, he’s always straight forward and straight to the point. He’s someone who I can rely on when I have my hard times, just like he can rely on me when he has his hard times.

From: Runa~☆

____________

What I love most about Runa? Hmm, there’s a lot of things that I love about her, it’s kinda hard to choose just one.. But I’ll share some of the things i love most about her instead of just one thing.

Runa’s a very… Whimsical girl, kinda like an oddball, but that’s what I love about her. She’s surprisingly a very nurturing figure, despite wanting to be the one to be nurtured. She’s almost like a big sister even though we’re around the same age. Runa is a very good listener as she’s always willing to listen to someone’s problems, no matter who or what it is. She’s quite the creative one though, she’s always working on her writing and art. It's just so admirable, always striving to be better. However, she lacks a lot of confidence and is extremely gullible , but that just makes me want to protect her even more from the world. She’s always comforting me when I have my hard times, never complaining, not even once. Her little giggles here and there, her odd lisp and stuttering, and her energy to brighten any mood, all of it is just all lovable. I hope she can rely on me more and open up about her feelings more in the future, since I’ll always be here to listen to her.

From: Tomoya~☆