#and to a certain extent her diamond family

[angstandhappiness]

Interesting

@faelapis #really interesting character motivation analysis#as for bismuth's plan -#i think also some of rose's dislike - going by bismuth saying 'that's exactly what she said' - also has to do with compassion towards HW#and to a certain extent her diamond family#like. she thinks so lowly of herself and the concept of pink diamond - and theres plenty resentment towards the other diamonds too for#understandable reason - that its probably hard for her to think of anyone else as worthy of death. especially by her hands. she wants to#fully leave her old family and she says with conviction that she doesnt miss her home planet ever. but i dont think she wants to kill them.#and part of that i think comes not just from complicated feelings but that she wants rose and the CGs to be this symbol and#care for everyone perhaps in a way different from steven because she has the cynicism that some aspect of gemkind cannot change#but maybe the 'best' thing for her is just to scare them away. that way no one gets hurt. no one will care if its just her being gone.#idk im rambling this didnt really need my addition

Hello, hope you're somewhat well. I was wondering if you could possibly explain what the whole deal with bismuth and rose was. To explain, I am confused on why exactly bismuth was wrong with her idea about killing the the diamonds and rose's later response. I remember reading somewhere that the reason that bismuth was wrong with her plans was because a) the diamonds are just too powerful and b) it wouldn't really fix/help anything because the system would still be in place (you'd just have dead dictators). Is that correct? And so why did rose later on do somewhat of what bismuth wanted if she (assuming here) knew it wouldn't work? Pink would be dead, but the system not at all dismantled. Please explain as if you were speaking to a really dumb person (me)

Thanks for this question. I know it's been sitting for a while in the inbox but I didn't forget, I just think that I should leave this macerate... because? that's a complicated question??? you're not dumb at all.

I think that you're conflating perspectives here: what the story is trying to tell, morally, with how the characters feel and do and where they morally position themselves regardless of the story. The first corresponds with your first question: why Bismuth's plan was wrong (in the sense that it was flawed, not necessarily inmoral--though it is). And the second question corresponds with what pertains the characters inside the narrative.

Objectively, Bismuth's plan was not going to be succesful, and it would've been a mistake in the future. We know this because... Rose went in with the idea, she carried it out. She killed Pink Diamond and it changed nothing about the situation. Homeworld's status quo, its hierarchy and its system, remained unchanged, but moreso it created an earthquake, a trauma, on the landscape that reverberated back on the crystal gems.

I want to say that this is normal. It's a plan that is blotchy, messy and runs on a very emotionally charged motivation. Bismuth was right on feeling this way, these emotions are admirable and also very valid. But having the right feelings does not mean that things are going to go the way you expect and the way you want to.

Let's look at what the story says about this: Steven Universe is a medium that sits on the belief that justice must be restorative in order to be justice. Punishment, vengeance, other contemptious actions are always unwarranted under this principle, because they're not considered useful to actually amend the hurtful situation and are in fact almost always counter productive to mitigating the injustice. Hurts keeps going because we keep hurting each other back.

There are several examples were this statement particularly stands out in the show, most notably Steven in Homeworld Bound when he shows resentment towards the Diamonds, perceiving injustice for the trauma they directly caused on him and feeling vengeful at this injustice. This is portrayed as wrong. It's okay to have feelings on the matter but if you want to kill someone that is actually already trying to fix their wrongdoings, the story says, you're the one that is going too far and the one that needs help.

Bismuth is another example because she also has resentment towards the Diamonds (for a completely good reason!) and wants to revenge her friends and free everyone by getting rid of the only thing that seems to be perpetuating that. While the way Rose acted is unfair and kind of cruel? , Bismuth's plan is never warranted by the story because it collides with this principle of restorative justice.

Parenthesis, part of the reason Bismuth hates the Diamonds so much is that she's been swallowing everything Rose had been saying about them. Rose comes from a place of self hate and she's particularly harsh on Pink Diamond when she talks about them with the CGs. We could talk about how she uses this to cope with her own inner critic and to find what feels to her like an honest response to her inexcusable behavior, but maybe not here.

Moving on to why Rose follows through despite disagreeing with that plan... I think she doesn't, necessarily, disagree on the plan of Killing Pink Diamond. I think that's a possibility although we cannot know for sure. What she's definitely against is the weapon. She doesn't think it's right. And I think it makes perfect sense when you think about her background and her feelings on the matter of destruction: she has the core belief that her nature is inherently destructive and she's deeply ashamed of it, she wishes to make it disappear, to not reproduce that destructive nature ever again.

There is some complex trauma around it that gets triggered when Bismuth shows her the breaking point. She had swore to never hurt anyone ever again but here it is the most Crystal Gem of all telling her that she created a weapon of (at the time) irreversible destruction... As irreversible as Volley's scar. How is she not going to feel responsible for this, after all she created the Crystal Gems, and how is she not going to feel contempt at someone who wants and seeks to do something like this to someone else?

Who says they wouldn't use this weapon against any other gems too? I don't know, I think Rose simply didn't want to get more gems hurt so horribly. Which is not incompatible with killing "herself".

One thing is that Rose is not aware of the impact this action will have when she decides to go through with it. She's under the impression that she's utterly irrelevant and that no one on Homeworld will miss her if she were to be gone (and I don't think she can truly believe it even after that, since she does it a second time).

I think that the major catalyst to this decision for sure was what Blue told her in Can't Go Back. Immediately, she believes the words, fixates on them. Earth will be a colony for as long as she's there to rule. And materializes the idea in her mind. For as long as she's there. If she's not Pink Diamond anymore, if she gives up her status and kills this part of herself, Earth will be free and the war will end. And everyone will be free. She will be free.

With this comes the second and last realization, Rose’s goals killing Pink Diamond were never about dismantling the system. Not because she's conservative, that'd be absurd, it's just that she simply does not believe that she's capable of that at all (out of feelings of powerlessness). She thinks reedeeming the system is impossible, and therefore the only solution is to escape the system and create a new solar punk anarchist utopia outside of it.

[ladyantiheroine]

Daughters of Falcone

a revenge fantasy

Summary: After Sofia Gigante catches Selina Kyle trying to steal her box of diamonds, the two daughters of Carmine Falcone finally cross paths. Despite having lived two very different lives, the two unexpected sisters share one thing in common: A deep desire for vengeance. Together, they plot to bring the king of Gotham's underworld down to his knees.

Content Warnings: Violence, torture, electrocution, choking/suffocation, blood, bodily harm, murder, guns, toxic family relationships, death of loved ones.

Word Count: 7.3k

Author's Note: Set after The Batman and before The Penguin. Falcone is still alive after surviving the Riddler's gunshot wound. You can also read this on my AO3.

Chapter 1: You Shouldn’t Be Here

If Selina had known Carmine’s vault was this easy to crack, she would have tried stealing from him a long time ago. But for the longest time, all she cared about was putting a bullet in the man’s head, and whatever shiny things he kept at home were far from her mind. But Selina was back in Gotham now, the streets were still flooded, and she needed cash.

And if there was anyone in the world who owed her, it was that fucker Falcone.

The Falcone home was dark and cavernous as night, and just as cold. The only light Selina had to see the safe was the amber streetlight that beamed from the window. She turned the knob slowly, wincing at every mechanical click that broke the gnawing silence of the house.

Finally, one click and the safe door creaked open. It had been a while since Selina broke a proper lock, and the last time she did, she ended up in a scuffle with a certain man in a mask.

Don’t think about him, her mind whispered.

In the dim light, Selina caught a black leather case of small pockets, and each one was a tiny, white glimmer. Diamonds. A whole bunch of them. Small, like the ones that may line a necklace or a golden ring. It was hard to say what the diamonds meant to Carmine Falcone. A gift for his late wife? An heirloom from his (and to an extent, her) predecessors? 

None of these questions mattered to a thief. To a thief’s eyes, diamonds were just money that hadn’t been transferred to paper yet. And these were enough to float Selina to her next step, wherever that was.

Selina reached her leather-glove hands inside, when a cold voice crawled up behind her.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

It was like ice water poured down Selina’s back. For a brief moment, her heart ricocheted in her chest, until she realized the voice was too feminine to be his. The thief lifted both her hands and turned to face the voice.

In the pale light, she looked like a ghost, but it didn’t take too long for Selina to recognize her face. The face that had been plastered on newspapers, on televisions screens, under the ominous name “HANGMAN.” Sofia Falcone stepped up to her in the dark, draped in a long white sleeping gown, a small pistol in her hand.

“I’m not sure if you’re aware who’s house you’re stealing from,” Sofia said. She walked closer, her silk slippers peeking from under her skirt. “But I think you’ve picked the wrong place.”

Selina stood still and straight. It wasn’t the first time she found herself on the other side of a gun. But she also knew Sofia was a former Arkham inmate, and if she wasn’t unstable going in, there was a good chance was unstable once she got out.

“I know exactly who’s place this is,” Selina said. “This is Carmine Falcone’s house. Was Carmine Falcone’s house.” She said her neck words gently. “And you’re his daughter.”

Sofia gave her a tight lip smile.

“So you’ve read the papers,” she said. “So you should be informed enough to know what happens when you try to steal from me.”

Selina heard a clicking sound in the dark. Even as she was frozen, her mind scrambling for a way out, she kept eyeing Sofia. It stunned her a little to see her in person. They were both daughters of Falcone, and only one of them knew it.

Selina came here for diamonds to pawn. She didn’t return to Gotham expecting a family reunion.

“If it’s any consolation,” Selina said. “I wasn’t trying to steal from you specifically, Miss Falcone—”

“Gigante,” Sofia snapped. Her tone split the air and made Selina flinch. “My name is Sofia Gigante. Don’t call me Falcone.”

The pistol was shaking just a little in her hand. Careful, Selina told herself. This is the Hangman you’re dealing with. You never know what might set her off.

But then again, Selina knew who Carmine Falcone was. If she had to grow up in a house with that man, she just might change her name too. Selina moved her gaze from the pistol to Sofia’s eyes.

“Miss Gigante,” she said. “I was trying to steal from Carmine, not you.”

“Well, this is my place, not his,” Sofia said. “He’s got a different house closer to the city.”

“I see,” Selina said. She curled her words around before she spoke. “Last time I checked, he said he had a place at this address. If I had known he moved, I wouldn’t have come and bothered you.”

Sofia narrowed her eyes at Selina. She took a few steps closer, the pistol never wavering from her aim.

“How does someone like you know where my father—Carmine could live? Do you work for him?”

Selina ran her tongue along her bottom lip.

“I used to,” she said.

“If you worked for him, I would’ve known you,” Sofia said. She aimed the pistol at Selina’s head, and for a moment Selina’s heart lurched as she imagined her brain popping all over the wall behind her. “Take off the mask.”

Selina was stiff for a moment. If Sofia saw her face, she was done for. But it’s not like she had much defense against a bullet. So she lifted a hand to the top of her head, and pulled the black mask off.

Sofia looked at her for a long moment. Her eyes examined Selina’s face, her eyes, her short hair.

“I’ve never seen you before,” she said. “I know everyone who works for Carmine, I’ve never seen your face in my entire life.”

“I wasn’t anyone important to him,” Selina said. “I didn’t work on the business side. I was…an underling of an underling.”

Sofia was still giving her a look like she was considering popping her head off and heading back to bed. So, Selina kept talking.

“I overheard him mention it to a bunch of his associates over drinks,” she said. “Two guys named Johnny and…Milos, I think? Carmine was drinking whiskey with Johnny, but Milos insisted on having a Sex on the Beach, and the other two were making fun of him for having a ‘girly’ drink.”

Sofia’s teeth clenched, and her armed hand started shaking a little again.

“Were you eavesdropping on them?” she asked. “Are you  a spy? Do you work for the Maronis or something?”

“No, I was the one serving the drinks,” Selina said. “For guys who have to stay discreet, they talk awfully loud once they’ve had a few." She leaned forward a little. “Don’t tell them, but I spat in all their glasses before I handed them over.”

Sofia didn’t say anything. She kept looking at Selina, eyeing her up and down, like she was a puzzle she couldn’t crack. For the first time, the impenetrable Sofia Gigante seemed to falter in her steely resolve. Selina stepped closer, dropping her hands to her side.

“My name is Selina Kyle,” she said. “I knew your dad pretty well.

Sofia’s jaw tightened. So did her knuckles on the pistol.

“You’re full of shit.”

“It’s true.”

“It’s not, and you better fuck off before I do something you’ll regret.

The woman, Selina, looked at her for a long moment. Sofia’s body was tense, ready for a struggle, like the kind she got into with the ladies back at Arkham. But then, Selina took a step back, then reached for the neckline of her shirt. With both hands, she pulled the fabric down to reveal her neck. Immediately, Sofia’s breath fled her lungs.

It was subtle, but even in the buzzy light of the diner one could  make it out. A ring of old bruises and scars from fingernails around Selina’s neck. It wasn’t the burn of a rope, nor were the nails scratched sharp enough to match Selina’s claw-like talons. These were from much larger, much stronger hands, with the intent to squeeze out life. And Sofia knew exactly whose hands those were.

She felt light-headed all of sudden, like all the weight had fled her body. She pressed a hand to a table counter to steady herself.

“I gotta be dreaming,” she said. “This can’t be real.”

Selina took the opportunity to step over and take the gun from Sofia. She resisted, but she let Selina set it aside on the other end of the table.

“I can explain everything to you, if you want,” Selina said. Her eyes darted around the darkened walls of the house. “Maybe somewhere other than here?”

She glanced back over at the safe hanging open, the tin diamond glimmering inside. This was her chance to bolt for it. Grab the gun, grab the diamonds, take off before the Hangman could hang her. But something about this was just…too damn enticing. And if there was one thing about Selina Kyle, she wasn’t good at resisting what enticed her.

Sofia seemed to pick up a similar thought.

“How do I know you’re not just gonna take off the second we’re out the door?”

Good question. Selina wasn’t the best at trust either. She turned and walked slowly back to the safe. The metal door creaked as she shut it, leaving the diamonds inside while she clicked the lock back into place. Then, she walked back to the table, picked up the pistol, then placed it in Sofia’s hand.

“Can you trust me until we find somewhere with coffee?” Selina asked.

Chapter 2: Coffee and Cigarettes

Mooney’s was the only cafe in Gotham that was open after midnight. Around one in the morning, the only people there were the waitress wiping the counter and a couple nibbling at croissants in the corner. The cafe’s customer attendance had been especially sparse after the police found the Riddler sipping a latte in one of its red-cushioned seats. For most people, it gave the place an uneasy atmosphere, like a haunted house or a former crime scene. Except for dedicated regulars and the occasional Riddler superfan who wanted to ask which pumpkin pie he ordered before the police slammed his head against the counter. The knowledge that one of your patrons flooded the city wasn’t exactly good for business.

Selina and Sofia found a small, sequestered booth. Sofia ordered a full plate of eggs and bacon. Selina stuck with one mug of black coffee. For the first few minutes, the two of them sat in silence while they ate and drank.

Of all the things Selina could have expected from Sofia, her eating habits was not something she considered. Sofia Falcone ate like a woman who had just returned from nearly starving on some deserted island. She pinched her food between her fingers before plopping it in her mouth. Her fork scooped up scrambled eggs quickly and she gulped down coffee between each bite. Like she was in a hurry. Like she might die before she can finish.

Selina, on the other hand, chewed her eggs and bacon slowly. She sipped her coffee, and over the white ceramic rim, she examined Sofia Falcone. She tried to find traces of her father—their father—that they both shared. Maybe it was the shape of their faces, the shape of their figures, maybe just the shade of dark that made up their eyes. Selina looked for the similarities and differences, parsing away the pieces of Isabella Falcone and Maria Kyle, until only one terrible, cruel man stood between the two daughters.

Sofia finished her food quickly, licking each of her fingertips and wiping them clean with her napkin.

“I can cover this,” she said. “I’m not making you pay for my breakfast.”

Yeah, it would be rude for the woman with the diamond earrings and Chanel-scented cashmere to make the woman in the thrifted jacket and boots pay. While it took time for Selina to find traces of Carmine that she and Sofia shared, their differences couldn’t be more obvious. The woman across from her dripping in the kind of fabric, jewels and pampered body that only Falcone money could buy. Meanwhile, Selina sat in her leather suit and boots, dripping with rainwater on the outside and sweat on the inside, her body ragged from years of dirty apartments and dirty hands of dirty men.

A small part of her was angry. One man produces two girls, one raised in a house of diamonds and the other on the streets of a corrupt city. It’s like there had been some cosmic coin flip between two baby girls, and one of them got the wrong side.

But then Selina recalled the story of Sofia’s sentence to Arkham. It was all over the newspapers and televisions when it happened. The beautiful but mad daughter of Carmine Falcone, sentenced away. Selina had heard all kinds of stories about Arkham Asylum. She once heard an ex-inmate say that he had a choice between an eternity in Hell or another year in Arkham, he would’ve shot himself just to get to Hell faster.

Maybe life in the castle could be hellish too.

“So,” Sofia said, snapping Selina from her thoughts. “Your mother knew my father. How so?”

Selina pursed her lips. She’d spent a while trying to think of ways to approach this, and even to the moment she struggled to find the words. So, she decided to start as far back in the beginning as she could.

“My mother was Maria Kyle,” she said. “She worked at the 44 Below.”

Immediately, a light crossed Sofia’s eyes.

“Really?” she said. “At the Iceberg Lounge? Oz Cobb’s old place”

Selina pursed her lips and nodded. Sofia leaned slowly back into her chair, her eyes forward but refusing to meet Selina’s.

“Fuck…” Sofia said. “One of the girls of the club…I mean…Men of the family are known to sleep with sister-in-laws, housekeepers, not…”

She seemed surprised. Selina crossed her arms and leaned forward on the table.

“You never thought your dad might have been getting with any of the 44 Below girls?” she asked. “Especially after your mom died? You never thought he had a few extra secrets that he never told you?”

Sofia’s eyes were in her coffee mug. Some dark, sorrowful look fell across her face. Selina felt compelled to comfort her, somehow. Reach across the table and clasp her hand. But Sofia looked like she had turned to glass, that any touch could crack her.

After a minute, Sofia’s eyes flicked back up to Selina.

“You know,” she said. “When I was a little kid, especially after Ma died…I kept pestering my dad, telling him I wanted a sister. He told me that my brother and I were trouble enough.” She grinned and sniffled a little. “I guess he changed his mind on that.”

Selina offered a small smile in turn. Sofia sniffled again and rubbed the corner of her eyes.

“I have a sister,” she said. “God help me, I have a sister.”

The two sat quietly for several minutes. Sofia reached into the pocket of her white fur coat and pulled out a boz of Marlboros and a lighter.

“Do you mind?” she asked.

Selina nodded.

“You want one?”

Selina shook her head. She watched Sofia take a cigarette between her teeth and bring the little flame to her mouth. The waitress didn’t seem to mind. It seemed like if you came to Mooney’s at this hour, you were someone in need of a smoke. Sofia took a long, long drag and let the ghostly wisps leave her lips.

“And your mother,” she said softly. “Where is she now?” Selina knew she was going to answer that question, but that didn’t stop the cold spill in her stomach. She clenched her jaw and blinked so her eyes wouldn’t start watering. “She died,” she said. She said it fast, like she was spitting out a tooth. “Carmine killed her.”

Sofia paused, and slowly removed the cigarette from her lips.

“When?” she asked.

“When I was a kid.” Selina spoke slowly and carefully, trying to resist the ache in her throat that wanted her to start crying. “He strangled her to death.”

Something crossed Sofia’s eyes, something slow and dark and hard for Selina’s decipher. Selina sucked in a deep breath through her nose, trying to unclench her whole body. The waitress brought her a refilled mug of coffee. But right now, she wished she had a cold, bitter bottle of whiskey. She took a sip then set it down.

“And your mother,” she said.

Sofia pursed her lips together and dropped her eyes to the table. Selina didn’t make her explain. Everyone knew what happened to Isabella Falcone. The beautiful, troubled wife of the king of Gotham’s underworld. Found in her bedroom with a noose around her lovely neck.

“I can’t believe it,” Sofia said. Her voice was shaking. Her hand gripped her mug with white knuckles. “With his own hands…both times with his own hands…”

Selina narrowed her eyes.

“Both times?” she said. “What are you talking about?” Sofia lifted her gaze to Selina, so dark and cold it made Selina shiver all over.

“My mother did not hang herself,” she said. “My father strangled her.”

Immediately, a cold, hard stone of dread dropped into Selina’s stomach. The back of her neck flared hot and she began to visibly tremble.

“He what?” she said.

The room around both women suddenly felt fuzzy, like they were sitting in a static television. All other sights and sounds became unintelligible except for their table.

“My mother tried to leave him when my brother and I were kids,” Sofia said. She explained it slowly, carefully, like her words were glass that could shatter. “She had a car waiting for her and everything. But before she could leave with us, my father strangled her to death in their bedroom.”

Selina's breath was frozen in her lungs. Her heartbeat was loud in her ear. And from the looks of it, Sofia was just the same.

“He made it look like she’d hung herself,” Sofia said. Then, her voice started to shiver and her eyes started to drip. “I was the one that found her.”

At this point, the waitress and the elderly couple were starting to look their way. No, they couldn’t draw attention, not even here. Selina sucked in a slow, deep breath and Sofia wiped her eyes with a napkin. But under the table, both their hands were shaking. “He killed them both,” Selina said. “In the exact same way…” “Why do you think he does it?” Sofia said. Her voice was soft and her eyes were to the wall. “So he can look into their eyes while they die? Feel their heartbeat disappear?”

“Maybe it’s so he can feel strong. To know he doesn’t need guns or blades to annihilate someone.”

At that moment, the dread and panic in both women alighted into something else. Something scalding, ravenous and explosive. Pure, blinding rage. “That bastard…” Sofia whispered.

“That son of a bitch,” Selina said. “That worthless, spineless piece of—”

CRACK.

All eyes in the diner turned to their table. Sofia and Selina glanced down to see a mess of shattered white ceramic over a puddle of coffee. The black liquid ran to both ends of the table to drip onto the floor. The waitress hurried over.

“What happened here?” she asked.

Sofia and Selina looked at each other, then looked down at their hands. Tiny flecks of white ceramic clung to each of their hands, between flecks of blood where they were cut. Two mugs of coffee, shattered in the grip of two hands.

“I’m sorry,” Sofia said. She didn’t look at the waitress. “We’ll pay for it.”

~ Sofia gave the waitress a wad of cash, enough to cover the two mugs and the meal, and even gave her her pearl earrings as a tip for her troubles. Then, she and Selina stepped outside, where the sky was still dark but the rain had ceased. Sofia lit another cigarette and stared off down the street.

“We have to do something,” she said.

“We should,” Selina said.

“And I don’t just mean stealing his diamonds. You and I both need more than that.”

An icy wind moaned down the street. Despite how big and anarchic Gotham was, it was surprisingly quiet on this street. Like even the rats of the city didn’t dare to disturb the two women.

“I have some ideas,” Selina said. “And I think we should do it tonight.” Her fingers curved into a fist, tight enough for her nail to pierce her palm. “I can’t wait until tomorrow.”

A long curl of smoke escaped Sofia’s lips. She dropped her cigarette on the ground and pressed it under her boot. Then, she turned to Selina, looked her right in the eye. Dark, pitch- black eyes. Just like Selina’s. Just like Maria’s. Just like Isabella’s.

“Whatever you’re thinking,” she said. “I’m ready.”

Chapter 3: Last Breath

Carmine Falcone was not unused to waking in the middle of the night. A lifetime in the underworld made you a light sleeper. One developed a kind of sense that was awake even when you were not, ready to pounce on a hand around your throat or a pillow over your face. So at first, it wasn’t strange that he opened his eyes to the full moon seeping through his window and a feeling that something was off.

He groaned as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. His aging body creaked and groaned like the rest of the house. He slipped his feet into his slippers and tightened the knot of his black robe.

“Mickey?” Carmine called.

His nighttime bodyguard didn’t respond. He was supposed to remain outside of Carmine’s door the entire night. Carmine wondered if the bastard had fallen asleep. He lifted himself from the bed and headed to the door.

“You better not be dozing off,” he said. “I hate to do something bad at this ungodly hour.”

He opened the door and peaked out into the hallway. Mickey wasn’t at his post right outside the door. Carmine stepped out of the bedroom and looked down the hallway. The moonlight spilled from the arching windows, and between the wisping white curtain, he could a glimpse of a familiar figure, and the familiar glint of silver handcuffs.

“Mickey!” Carmine snapped. He stomped down the hallway towards where his bodyguard was standing against the wall. “What the hell are ya doing? This ain’t your post.”

He hobbled closer, and as he did Carmine realized something was off about his personal guard. Mickey wasn’t just leaning against the wall. His arms were at his side, limp, and he wasn’t moving or saying a word.

“You asleep?” Carmine said. “The hell’s wrong with you? I outta get my pistol and put one in you right—”

He grabbed Mickey by the shoulder, and immediately the whole weight of his body fell forward. Carmine scrambled out of the way as the guard fell face-first to the floor with a loud thump that shook the floorboards. 

“The fuck?!” Carmine said.

He looked down at Mickey’s body. In the dim moonlight, he saw a red spot on the back of the guard’s neck. Like he’d been injected from behind.

“Shit,” Carmine said.

A stone of dread dropped in his stomach. He turned to scurry back to his room and call for Milos. But before he could even start moving, he heard his bedroom door slam shut. He glanced up and saw a shadowy silhouette standing by the door.

“Evening, Carmine,” a feminine voice said. “Can’t sleep?” Carmine’s teeth clenched. Everyone called him Mr. Falcone, never Carmine. Everyone in Gotham knew to respect that. He moved closer to the door, trying to identify the face of the broad who broke into his house.

“Whoever the fuck you are,” he growled “You better—”

All of a sudden, someone grabbed him from behind and pressed a handkerchief over his mouth. Carmine bucked and fought against the hands behind him, but without his gun and his body still half-asleep, he couldn’t release himself in time. The handkerchief was cold and wet with something chemical, and in seconds his body drained and stumbled to the floor.

~

“He’s waking up,” Selina said.

Carmine’s eyes struggled open and he let out an aching moan. Selina and Sofia stood before the chair where they placed him, hands cuffed behind his back and his ankles tied to the wooden legs. The fireplace crackled and turned the two women to silhouettes, but the light was just enough for Carmine to make out their faces. His eyes flicked between them.

“Sofia,” he said. “And you…”

“Can’t even remember my name?” Selina said. She clicked her teeth. “You’re off to a bad start, Carmine.”

“What the hell is this?” he asked. “Where’s Mickey?”

“It’s nearly four in the morning,” Sofia said. “He’s asleep. Where else would he be?”

“No, they aren’t,” Carmine growled. “You two did something to Mickey.”

Selina shrugged. “He was passed out on the floor last time we saw him.”

“Maybe too much to drink,” Sofia said.

She plucked an iron poker from its stand and turned some of the logs in the fire. The flames sputtered and spat out a flurry of embers, one landing on the carpet just an inch from Carmine’s foot.

“Sofia, darling,” Carmine said. “What’s all this about?” Sofia stepped away from the fireplace but kept the hot poker in her hand. She glanced over at Selina.

“I think my sister can explain it,” she said. Carmine’s eyes widened and his lips parted. He looked frantically between the two women.

“How did you…” he said. He looked at Selina. “Did you…?” “Shush,” Sofia said.

She pressed the tip of poker on his big toe, and Carmine released a croak of pain. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to move his foot, but the rope kept it in place.

“Let her speak,” Sofia said.

She pulled back the poker, and a red, bleeding wound was left on Carmine’s wrinkled, hairy toe. Selina crossed her arms. “We’re here on behalf of our mothers,” Selina said. “Do you remember their names?”

“My…my wife was Isabella Falcone,” Carmine said.

“Wrong,” Sofia said.

She pressed the poker to Falcone’s other toe, harder this time, and Falcone released an even louder cry of agony. When Sofia pulled it out, the tip was shiny red.

“My mom was Isabella Gigante,” Sofia said. She gestured to Selina. “And her mom?”

Carmine, tears in his eyes, looked at Selina. He recognized her, she could tell. The pretty waitress in the tall leather boots who delivered drops and martinis to Oswald. The girl who had the hots for that Russian chick, enough to hold a gun to Carmine’s head. The girl who would’ve killed him if the Batman hadn’t stepped in first.

“Selina,” he said. “You’re Selina.”

“I am,” Selina said. “But who’s my mother?”

She stepped closer to his chair, towering over him, the flames crackling behind her like hellish brimstone.

“She…” Carmine said.

“She worked at the 44 Below. You two were close for a while. She brought me to the club all the time. I used to watch you. You probably saw me plenty of times.”

“Your mother…” Carmine’s brain scrambled. He knew Selina’s mother, but the panic in his body and the searing pain from the poker were muddling his thoughts.

“Maybe this will remind you,” Selina said.

She brought her hand to his face. Selina’s nails were long and claw-like. She pressed the pointed tips to the meat of his cheek, then pulled down. Carmine released a cackling yell of pain as Selina tore the skin down the side of his face. She left four, bleeding red lines, alone with flaps of peeled skin hanging from his flesh.

“Maria!” Carmine cried. “Her name…was Maria Kyle!”

“That’s it,” Selina said.

She stood up straight and backed up to stand beside Sofia.

“We’re not just here for them,” she said. “We’re also here for Annika, and those seven other girls you killed.”

“I didn’t kill those girls,” Carmine said. 

“Oh, really? Because you seem convinced that I did.” Sofia’s eyes darkened. “You were so sure of yourself that you sent me to Arkham.”

“Tell us, Carmine,” Selina said. Her hand was in her back pocket, but Carmine couldn’t see what she was holding. “Can you tell us the names of the girls who died?”

Carmine scoffed.

“How am I supposed to remember the names of seven whores I had nothing to do with?” he spat.

“Wrong answer,” Selina said. “Maybe I can help you again.”

Carmine’s face scrunched up, like he was expecting Selina to slash up the other side of his face too. But what he saw Selina pull out of her back pocket was much, much worse. In her cat-like hand, she held a taser.

“Do you know what they do to patients in Arkham?” Sofia said. “Do you or any of the big men in this city actually know?”

Selina clicked a button and the taser buzzed to light with a spark of electricity. Carmine’s heart lurched in his chest and he started struggling viciously against his restraints.

“The other inmates try to kick the snot out of you almost everyday,” Sofia said. “And the orderlies don’t do nothing about it. Sometimes, they even pin us against each other on purpose.”

Selina stepped back up to Carmine, taser bright and buzzing in her hands. Carmine was crying at this point, tears streaming down his face, muttering prayers in Italian under his breath.

“But the inmates and guards weren’t the worst,” Sofia said. “The worst were the doctors. The ones who said in the softest voices that they just wanted to help you.”

Selina grabbed Carmine by the tufts of his gray hair and forced his head back. 

“Please…please…” he begged.

“My doctor’s name was Ventris. Ever heard of him? He’s the one who conducted most of my treatments.” Sofia’s eyes darkened. “The worst of them…was the electroshock therapy.”

“No!” Carmine wailed.

“I didn’t even think they still did that stuff. Seems a little outdated, no? You’d think hospitals stopped using that years ago. Like they did with leeches.”

“Please, you can’t!”

“But maybe healing wasn’t really the point.” Sofia stepped up next to Selina, looking down at her father. A man who ruled over Gotham's underbelly, so feared by so many, quivering and shaking like a baby that pissed itself. “Arkham is a place of punishment.” She leaned down to her father’s face. “Can you imagine being in a house of horrors for ten years?”

Carmine’s face was shiny with tears and snot. He swallowed thickly before he spoke.

“Okay, I understand,” he said. “I hurt you both. And your mothers. And Annika.” He swallowed again. “Whatever I can do to repent for this, I’ll do it. Just name your price.”

“Price?” Selina snorted. “Guys like you think of everything in terms of money, do you?”

“And it’s not just us.” Sofia said. “Or our mothers. Or Annika. It’s those seven girls that you took out.”

Selina hissed right in Carmine’s ears.

“Those girls were not just whores,” she said. “They were people, with lives before you, and should have had lives after you.”

“Do you remember their names?” Sofia asked. “Can you name even one of them?”

“I…I…”

Carmine had no answer. Of course he didn’t. Sofia sighed and stood up straight, backing up by the fireplace to give Selina some room

“Let’s help jog your memory,” she said. “Maybe some electroshock could help.”

Sofia looked at Selina and cocked her head to Carmine’s foot. Selina nodded, then drove the taser into Carmine’s ankle. The man released a howl that echoed through the entire house. It clawed up his throat and rang across the walls.

“Summer Gleeson,” Selina said. “Remember her?”

Carmine heaved his breath in and out. He was too weak and in pain to even think. Before he could gather his senses again, Selina pressed the taser to his chin. Another long, agonizing scream.

“Taylor Montgomery,” Sofia said.

The two sisters took turns going down the list. Each time, Selina sent a sharp, electric pain through Carmine’s body.

"Nancy Hoffman."

Scream.

"Yolanda Jones."

Scream.

"Susannah Weakly."

Scream.

"Devri Blake."

Scream.

"Tricia Becker."

Scream.

His shin, his thigh, his stomach, his chest, his shoulder. After the final name, Selina took the taser and pressed it to Carmine’s neck. At that point, his throat was so torn from screaming that he could get out little more than a high-pitched rasp. He was weak and burning with so much pain that he wished they would just kill him already.

“If…I’m a monster,” Carmine managed to whisper. He looked at both of them. “Then you, my daughters, have become monsters like me.

Sofia pursed her lips. “You might be right, Falcone.”

“But we were our mothers’ girls first,” Selina said. She narrowed her eyes at Carmine, as sharp as a blade. “And no one hurts girls in my city.”

“Not anymore,” Sofia said.

Carmine looked at them both for a long moment, then finally, dropped his head to the Persian rug beneath their feet.

“Are you going to kill me?” he said. “Or keep me in this room like some toy?”

The sister looked at each other, then Carmine.

“We thought about keeping you here,” Sofia said. “See how much you can take until you’re just skin and bones.”

“But we are your daughters, Carmine,” Selina said. “And just like you, there’s really only one way we know how to finish the job.”

The two women approached his chair, Selina at the front while Sofia stood behind him.

“What’re you doing?” Carmine said.

Selina wrapped her hands around Carmine’ throat, her claws digging into his tender flesh. Sofia did the same from behind. Then, both of them started squeezing.

With whatever strength he could still muster, Carmine tried to fight back. He grunted as they closed around his windpipe, he bucked against the chair and the ropes, but they had worn him down.With one hand, Sofia grabbed his head and pulled his face back, and forced him to look in both their eyes as the breath left his lungs.

Maybe it was the loss of blood, the fleeting oxygen, or the sheer lack of sleep, but Carmine thought he saw more than just his daughter. Around them he saw more faces. Maria, Isabella, Annika, the seven girls, they hovered from the ceiling, bruises ringed around their throat, his hand prints on their bodies, watching down on him with pale, pupiless eyes, all of them screaming at him, their hands reaching to grab him and pull him away.

Soon, his daughters were gone. All that was left was the cold darkness around him, and nine screaming hands pulling him down, down down…

Chapter 4: Roses and Sunflowers

For a brief moment at dawn, Gotham was almost a city of gold. It was dark enough that the amber streetlights still flickered, but the sunrise left a shine over the glassy skyscrapers. To anyone awake this early, for a brief moment Gotham had more light than darkness. The only exception was the cemetery, which was cast in shade from the trees.

It was at this hour that Sofia and Selina arrived at their second grave of the morning. Both sisters were blurry-eyed from lack of sleep, from a night of too many revelations and too much ruminating on death, combined with the knowledge of the dominos that would fall in the coming day. Carmine Falcone was dead, hanging in his bedroom, waiting to be discovered by whichever family member was unfortunate enough to find him first.

But Falcone didn’t matter right now. Right now, the two sisters had flowers to deliver, to two women who mattered much more.

“My mother said she preferred roses because they had more variety,” Sofia said as she walked beside Selina. “Red for romance, yellow for friendship, pink for desire…she said there was a rose for every occasion.”

She glanced down at her white glove. There were a few small specks of dirt from when she clutched the bouquet in her hand. She’d left it when she and Selina visited Isabella’s tomb, though not before taking one petal and placing it in her pocket.

Selina grinned.

“My mom liked sunflowers because she thought we could both use them,” she said. “Gotham is so dark all the time. The days are short and rainy, the nights are long and cold.” She gestured to the bouquet of bright yellow blossoms rustling in her arms. “She told me that if you want a sun in Gotham, you have to grow it yourself.”

Sofia chuckled and nodded. She followed Selina to the morgue where she stopped in front of one engraving on the wall. Sofia stood beside her and read over the word, faded etching carefully: IN THE MEMORY OF MARIA KYLE. 1976—2004.

Sofia looked at Selina in the corner of her eye. Her sister was quiet, meditative, in the way that graves always made you. Sofia tried to imagine in her head what Maria Kyle may have looked like. She looked at Selina, tried to strip away Carmine’s features and see what was left, to find a portrait of women with the same dark skin and darker eyes, the same elegant figure and smokey voice.

“I haven’t visited her since I was last in the city,” Selina said.

Sofia pursed her lips and nodded. She visited her mother’s grave all the time, a privilege she didn’t realize she had until now.

“It must be nice to be back,” she said. “I’m sure she’s watching from above, happy to see you again.

“Yeah.” Then, Selina smirked. “She’d probably ask me why I keep bringing strangers with me when I visit.”

“You bring strangers here often?”

“Just you. And…one other person.”

Sofia raised an eyebrow.

“What other person?”

All of sudden, Selina went uncharacteristically shy. She bit down on her lower lip and tossed her gaze to the ground,

“I visited here right before I left for Gotham after the Riddler’s flood,” she said. “And…someone came and found me here. He…was the one who helped me find out that Falcone killed Annika.”

“Was he a cop?”

Selina shook her head.

“Not exactly. He was…a friend. Kind of. A friend, or something else too…

Sofia looked at Selina, who was twisting her leather glove in her hand like she was embarrassed. Sofia took a step closer.

“Well, who was he?” she asked.

“I…don’t really know his name.” “Well, how much of a friend is he if you don’t know his name?”

Selina chuckled and shook her head, then looked at Sofia.

“He calls him ‘The Batman,’” she said.

Sofia paused as her eyes widened and her lips parted.

“That masked freak with the cape who’s been beating up street urchins for the past two years?” she said. “You were getting close to that maniac?”

Selina wrapped her arms around herself and shrugged. There was a smile threatening to break onto her face and a heat crawling up her cheeks.

“He worked on the Riddler case,” she said. “Came by the Iceberg Lounge looking for Annika and we both got caught up in the whole thing.”

“I see.” Sofia stepped closer to her sister. “And based on your schoolgirl blush, I’m sensing you two got close.”

Selina grinned and turned to hide her face.

“Sort of,” she said.

“Did you get his name? See his face under the mask?” Sofia grinned and leaned closer to Selina. “Did you get him out of that suit?”

Selina flushed hot and pushed Sofia away.

“No,” she said. She paused and pursed her lips. “I kissed him once. That’s all he would allow for me.”

“A crime-fighter and a cat burglar,” Sofia said. “The kind of match only Gotham could make.”

Selina grinned. “You could say that.”

Sofia nodded then clucked her tongue.

“So, you lost Annika, and then you started making moves on the freak in the cape?”

Selina bit her lip.

“I mean…when you say it like that…”

Sofia laughed and nudged her sister in the side with her hip.

“I had no idea my own sister was such a player.”

Both of the women giggled. Sofia pressed her hands into her coat pockets. 

“I haven’t heard as much from him recently. Mostly on the news, helping out with flood relief.”

A soft smile on Selina’s face.

“That sounds like him,” she said.

Her face was dreamy, and she kept pursing her lips as if remembering a taste. 

“He’s been doing a lot less urchin-punching, lately,” Sofia said. “It’s nice to see someone doing it. Rich bastards like, I don’t know, Bruce Wayne or something, they give thousands of dollars to relief efforts while their mansions are untouched.” Then, Sofia paused. “Kind of like what my family does.”

Selina reached over and squeezed her sister’s arm.

“Hey,” she said. “Now that Carmine’s out, maybe you and your brother could do some good.”

Sofia snorted.

“You suggesting Alberto and I dress in leather and go out punching robbers?”

“I mean…your idea, not mine.”

The two women started laughing again, and suddenly the chilled late autumn air felt a bit warmer. For a moment, the two women felt like girls again. Doing what sisters do, exchanging secrets and jokes and a familiar pulse. The two of them stood together in silence for a long while, as the sun crept over the edge of the trees, turning the branches to silhouettes. The golden lift crept up to shine around Maria Kyle’s name. 

Then, the silence was interrupted by a loud ring. Sofia reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Selina didn’t recognize the name on the screen, but she saw the dark look in Sofia’s eyes.

“It’s my cousin,” she said. “They must have found Carmine.”

She stared at the phone until it stopped ringing. Then, she pocketed it and turned to Selina.

“I need to go deal with them,” she said. “Make sure our story is straight.” “Let me go with you,” Selina said.

Sofia shook her head.

“They don’t know who you are. Don’t know you’re involved in any way. It’s best we keep it that way.” She took Selina’s hand and squeezed it. “It’s my family. I know how to deal with them. In the meantime, stay low for a while. Leave the city if you have to. You have my number, you can tell me if you’re not okay.”

Selina felt something tight in her chest. Neither of them had any idea what this fallout would look like. If they would buy the fake suicide, if they would figure out it was Sofia. The thought that Sofia would fall while she ran away made Selina feel sick. She just met her sister, why did they have to separate so soon?

Sofia must have sensed her thoughts. Because she took both of Selina’s hands and squeezed them in hers.

“I want to see you again,” she said. “You’re my sister. I have so much more to learn about you.” She cupped a hand on the back of Selina’s head and pressed their foreheads together. “You and I are going to meet in that shitty diner again, and we’re going to talk, and once Carmine is buried, we’re going to dance on his grave together.”

A small, soft smile curled on Selina’s face.

“Call me when I need to come back.” she said. “Whether you’re in trouble or not.”

“I promise.”

The sun peaked from over the trees, and the city of Gotham began to rumble to life. Cars and taxis wheeled into the streets, the trains rumbled underground, millions of footsteps emerged onto the streets. And at the gates of the cemetery, two sisters parted in separate directions, smelling of flowers and blood. THE END

[artsy-hobbitses]

Just finished watching X-Men 97 Ep 7 (I love having a series to look forward to on a weekly basis again! Excited to get a good dinner and sit down for half and hour of getting WHIPLASHED by all the new reveals and emotions. It's such a nice thing to look forward to inthe mid-week slog as well)!!!

Thoughts and spoilers below!

They REALLY went all out with Gambit's funeral, and it was nice seeing Nightcrawler carrying out priest rites for the brother-in-law he could have had. Jubilee's anguished anger at Rogue not being there HURT

Holy shit ROGUE. VERY Rogue-centric episode, and it's pain pain PAIN evbery other minute. Her absolute disdain for Captain America not wanting her to be on his team to check out Gyrich because of the tense situation/'optics' is 100% understandable, I stand by women's rights and Rogue's Wrongs in this case. Also her backhanding him with the "America's Top Cop" label, she taking no prisoners this week.

Beast gently but sternly calling out Trish the reporter about how 'tolerance' simply isn't enough anymore and it was a low bar to set for mutant-human relations to begin with, and how he's aghast at the idea of having to give a calming/professional sound byte or something to try and quell mutant protests and demonstrations worldwide after what happened, after MILLIONS OF THEM DIED is. Very relevant. To certain current events. He's been trying SO HARD to be the sweet, professional one, but he is tired and he is sad and he doesn't have it in him to ask for the bare minimum anymore or tell his people they don't have the right to feel the way they do.

We get Diamond Emma! No clue as to whether the massacre has changed her outlook on life since her appearance was during a brief rescue moment where Cyclop's hopes that Madelyne could have survived (Jean said she could feel a telepath under all the rubble) got crushed, but hopefully that'll be answered in the next ep!

Sunspot finally coming clean to his mum about him being a mutant! She seems like a very sweet lady who clearly loves him and takes it VERY WELL, but immediately she's like "Our family is established and in the spotlight, your father's business can't afford this sort of publicity. The world won't accept you, especially given what happened, so we have to find a way to hide this from the public, and that includes cultivating a list of people you can associate with". Which feels like it could be relevant to today's queer acceptance where it's like "On a personal basis I love you and accept you for who you are, BUT..." as an evolution from the X-Men movie's "Have you ever tried... not being a mutant?"

There is a LOT of talk about 'optics' in this episode, which feels VERY TIMELY. And VERY POINTED. How President Kelly apparently wants to send aid to Genosha, but doesn't do it to the fullest extent because he's worried about the political optics from 'normal humans' who are now afraid of an all out human-mutant war, and argues that he's doing his best here and that he needs suppport to stay in office to ensure a 'worse' person for mutant advocacy doesn't step in (I'm not going to lie. Very Democrat argument for why their man should stay in office---look at the boogieman who might be there if they aren't, instead of dealing with issues head-on) . And Cyclops's civil but seething rage at that because this is NOT a time for subtleties or politicking MILLIONS OF MY PEOPLE ARE DEAD.

Nightcrawler comforting Rogue and letting her just bawl openly in his arms during Day of the Dead ;; My heart.

Rogue kills a man. Or, helps him to his death, I'm not sure how you categorize this when Trask was already attempting to jump off a building out of guilt anyway, and she stepped in to stop him, only to let go when he said he had no other info for her (she had initially told him to help them to redeem himself). Again, 100% understandable, I support Rogue's Wrongs, and I LOVE how dark they're taking this, watching our girl step closer and closer to the abyss from her rage and grief and just plunging into it. Also her screaming that Trask deserved it for killing a great man, "MY MAN!!!!!". Whoof.

KNEW Mags wasn't dead. Going to be fun seeing WHAT Bastion plans to do with him now.

Again, STELLAR episode, a good 9/10 from me!

[immoralimmortals]

Sickness has taken over me, giving me the courage to ask you out. Since There probly isn’t going to be a tobi chapter for a while, so I’m asking maybe for a Takara and tobi interactions ? Or headcannon or thoughts or him…oh idk yeaaa

Oh no! Alas, it is true. I am going to be on vacation with my family in another state, so I won't be writing as much as usual. Here is some Tobi and Takara to satiate you and ease your ills.

A man with gloved hands places them in between his stretched legs, orange mask tilted up to the stars. The emotion he's meant to evoke, the performer realizes, is fascination. As carefully as she can, she walks up. "Hi, Tobi."

Not carefully enough. As she speaks, the man loses his balance on the edge of the rooftop, beginning to flail and shriek. "Ah! AH!"

"TOBI!"

A grasp around his wrist appears to save the masked clown from certain demise. The woman attempts to catch her breath, best as she can while leveraging the weight of her body against the weight of his as he tilts over the edge. His scarf waves in the wind, and from a distance, it looks like they're in the middle of dance. If it wasn't so terrifying, it'd be beautiful.

...For the performer, at least. Obito is drinking every inch of her in.

But the game must continue, the facade of clumsiness cannot yet end. As such, he ends the moment by falling into her, clasping hands between their chests. He gives an "oof" with the impact, seeming to resist ever so slightly as in her panic she pulls him a bit further from the edge. "Oh geez--" she apologizes, but that isn't necessary so the clown happy to be in her circus jolts his head up so a black hole matches level with her face.

"Takara-chan!" he sings in delight, despite nearly dying. She's only slightly relieved; it'd be nice if he could be a bit more self-preserving. But that's a bit of a pot calling a kettle black, being a "ghost" and all. "Whatcha doin' out here?!"

"...You invited me here!" she responds in surprise, a bit of a confused giggle bubbling on the back of her tongue. "Remember?!"

"Oh yeah...!" Tobi recalls from all of ten minutes ago.

"So..." Oh, how cutely she tilts her head, he thinks; it even lets the starlight shine in her gaze like diamonds. "What's up?"

"What's UP?!" He sounds nearly aghast; it's good that he's already holding her, as now *she* would be the one tripping with the abruptness. Indeed, she couldn't move if she tried, the way he's started to hold her shoulders, look at her somehow, without expression yet with great urgency. "Just LOOK!"

A point to the sky with the full extent of his right arm, straight over his shoulder and towards where he was looking before being spooked. The performer squints, a touch of wind playing with the lace of her nightgown, and for a second he has doubts if she'll notice the obvious...

...But the good girl she is, so she does.

"...Oh," she coos, soft and under the tongue. "The moon is full."

"That's right!" Tobi answers proudly.

"You wanted me to see the moon?"

"Yes!"

And Obito loves-- how deeply he loves-- the way she smiles. It's a familiarity from times so far in the past that it feels new every time he sees it. Yes, this was meant to be. Him...her...and the majesty of the full moon. The three of them, together, they can save the world.

They sit on the edge of the rooftop once again, and he ponders cyclically-- over and over and over again-- if now is the time. Is now the time for her to know? He reaches to hold her hand and studies the way it feels through the fabric of his glove. The skin beneath yearns, and he once again imagines what it would feel like to really, truly, hold her fingers between his.

She holds it back all the same. She knows Tobi isn't who he says he is...but she knows who he wants her to think is behind the mask. That's more than most people will afford you.

"...May I ask you something?" he whispers. A confused hum and a blink turn to him. "Mm...? Yeah, sure."

"If you could change anything...would you do it?"

What a strange way to word that question. "You mean...what I'd change?" But he shakes his head.

"No...Takara-chan...--" he begins, dipping his face ever so slightly to convey deep thought. "I think we all want things to change." Before she can address that contradiction, he continues. "...But no one considers the consequences. To change things...often means to change yourself. For good. And for worse."

And so minutely, the spiral tilts a bit higher; the performer knows this means he is looking straight into her soul.

"So would you? Would you do that sort of thing...no matter what?"

To his approval, she doesn't even hesitate.

"I mean...yeah. Some things are worth changing yourself for. Right?"

And with the moon as his witness, Obito is affirmed again that if anyone could understand him, it'd be her. He doesn't give himself that night, but he's never been so close. He squeezes her hand tight and looks back up to the stars she came from. Everything is nearly as it should be.

"Right," Tobi says in his place.

[jackiequick]

—SpiderMan OC | Antonia ‘AJ’ Morales 🕸

— I blame @hanlueluver for creating a cool Andrew Parker ;)

Full Name: Antonia Julia Luz Morales

Nicknames: Toni, Annie, Luzia, AJ

Age: 28

Height: 5’6

Birthday: February 27th

Family:

Sister -> Rio Morales

Nephew -> Miles Morales

Brother in Law -> Jefferson Davis

Nationality: Puerto Rican 

Preference: Guys but she can always make room for a lady in her life ;)

Alliance: Spider-Women, Spider-Scale, Diamond, XS.

Power: She was given her powers after sneaking around a train station to spray paint the walls with her nephew and boyfriend at the time, being of course bitten by a spider and you know the rest ;) Her power are similar to every spider man/women however she got an added skill.

— That’s teleportation! Popping in and out of places during fights, surprising people and phase between walls when possible. It’s nothing specific or special but she believes it’s rather cool, however she doesn’t use it too often.

Weapons: Aside from powers, she still uses her gun and taser. As well as whatever is around her to fight.

Career: She refers to herself as a cop. Well mainly works at NYPD, as assistant detective and helping keeping order of filming for case studies. She’s pretty skillful with a camera and note taking.

Personality: AJ is kind, smart, strong hearted, can be very sweet, easily annoyed at time and she tends to be clumsy. But she’s a good friend to have when you need a shoulder to cry on. She is someone who doesn’t always catches onto clues too quickly, it takes her time but she’ll get there.

Side-note: She sometimes tends to run in first and ask questions later, never taking time to exactly explain something. So she needs to slow down and get her facts straight sometimes.

—//-

Her 2D animated/comic book version + style of her suit

—//-

When AJ was bitten by the accidental spider, she didn’t feel anything at first until she felt a bump on the side of her wrist later on. She didn’t think anything of it in the beginning, taking care of the bite like any other bite waiting for it to heal.

That was until she started expecting heavy headaches, dizziness and a few climbing hot flashes at work. She didn’t like it one bit, thinking she was sick or something. It felt like anything was going wrong, she couldn’t focus and even her fingers tips started sticking to the files.

Hell even the stapler got stuck

“Aye no!” She muttered to herself, sitting in her office trying to remove the papers from her fingers and throwing the stapler across the floor.

She left work that afternoon, spending two days just to herself trying to everything out. It made her head hurt. She realized her nephew left a SpiderMan comic book in her apartment, reading and raised an eyebrow.

“Okay that’s impossible! There’s only one Spider-Man, there is not such a Spider-Woman. But it all matches up…” AJ said to herself, throwing the comic book aside when she heard the doorbell.

She quickly answered it. It was her sister with her son smiling brightly saying that she needed someone to babysit Miles.

Miles sighed, “Mami! I told you already I don’t need a babysitter. I’m 13! I turn 14 in a month.”

“You’re still a child, Miles.” Rio replied with a smile, then thanking her sister.

Later on, the two spend the whole rest of the day together. Even uncle Aaron joined them, before heading off to work. She loved her family especially her nephew and her boyfriend Aaron, who just so happens to be her sister’s husband’s brother, but still. She will do anything to keep herself and themselves safe.

~~~~~~~

Some time past, AJ kept reading her nephews comic books and secretly watching Spider-Man speed across the city taking note of his every move. Her brother in law may not like Spider-Man to a certain extent but she did. She found him brave, strong, kind, funny and caring towards the people of New York.

Sadly, it hurt that she had to kept herself a secret. Her boyfriend couldn’t even know, hell he was always suspicious and wondering what was going on in her head. She tended to come home late, didn’t hear very often, studied more often than not and sensed everything around her.

One afternoon, she was walking to work with Aaron when suddenly she caught into a robbery accident downtown and quickly ran into place, as the detective she is to look into it. Her boyfriend screamed telling her not to do it, call the other police instead but she didn’t listen.

Spider-Man on was the screen protecting others and trying his best to save the day, when he thought everything was taken care of a robber swooped in and catches AJ taking her hostage. It was a crazy fight, people got hurt.

She tried to fight, smacking his face using her gun and whatever metal plate was next to her, when Spider-Man raced in to help her. She let Spider-Man save her, as she tried to drop the plate but it was stuck to her hands and her physical body popped in and out of place.

Looking over her shoulder to notice the hero glancing at her.

Once he knocked the man unconscious, it was when her fingers suddenly released and she stopped phasing. Spider-Man senses tingled having a feeling he knew what happen as he mutters, “You’re like him, uh, me..?”

“What? Oh no! I’m not. I was just…” She exclaimed trying to explain what happened.

“Your fingers uh, they stuck to the item you were holding..”

“I don’t know what’s happening, alright? I guess we are the same…”

“I can show you the ropes, if you uh, like. It’s crazy but you will get the hang of it.”

AJ half smiled at the New York hero and nodded, as Spider-Man brought her back outside safely away from the robbery.

That moment she went home, figuring out that she didn’t have to hide who she was exactly and maybe living a little different would be good. A detective during the day and turning into a vigilante at night, finding herself spending more time with Spider-Man.

Saving a few lives when possible, seeing the city take flight and keeping her cover.

AJ has met a few allies as she started fighting to save the day. Miss Siren, SliverStone, Tigress and etc.

She went as far as saving her nephew and his friend, once when there was citywide blackout and other time in the park. Miles after being saved twice, having heard the saviors voice and smiled muttering to himself, “Tia..? Cool..”

~~~~

It was all fun and games, until AJ found herself fight one of the quick villains of the week. The Prowler.

She has been watching his movements for a week, having Spider-Man bring in information if possible. She even went far as to go out as Spider-Women to scout what the hell he wanted to do. But nothing.

It sucks. The whole week felt like a downer, hell she was supposed to go on date nights and lunches but Aaron kept canceling. His exact excuses were work, friends need his help and what not. He was hiding something, but she didn’t know what.

She found herself that Saturday night, alone waiting for him to show up, until she got an entertainment report from a friend that The Prowler was out again. She ran out leaving a note for her boyfriend and strapped on her suit, rushing out to the crime scene. She didn’t having time to suit up as the vigilante, so she worn her black uniform and a mask to cover half her face due to the cold weather.

A downtown build held the man in question, as her team rushed in to search for him and hold him captive. Her and her brother in law, Jefferson Davis, run up the stairs racing to get him. SpiderMan was VERY running late.

AJ pulled together finding The Prowler in the building before her brother in law, by teleporting around. A few officers came running behind her, holding up their guns.

Hoisted her gun high to his back and yelled, “Turn around, buddy! You have two seconds to turn yourself in or i shoot!”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, sweetheart…” He muttered to himself quietly, turning around to face the officer.

The two held their stance, bouncing around the room being quick on their feet. He pounded the ground, trying to scoop her up as she flipped and turned around the room, trying to swiftly take the items he had behind his back.

The fight didn’t last long, running around the stairs where fellows officers and detectives were behind held waiting for a signal but fell short, since it resulted in a fight. It got to a point where an officer shot The Prowler as AJ grabbed the items.

The items were weapon to be transferred to Oscorp.

Spider-Man showed up late to the fight, beating up the villain.

The second The Prowler hit the ground, he was starting to bleed deeply and bruised. AJ raced to detect the situation, after tossing the information to SpiderMan. She quickly unmasked The Prowler as she gasped, removing her own mask…

“No..no, no, no! Aaron!” She screamed out softly, “…why?”

“Oh baby..I’m sorry I didn’t tell you..” He replies coughing with a soft smile, placing a hand on her cheek.

“I..i saw him fight with you..that’s why you weren’t home…”

He simply nodded whispering, “…we what we love..my secrets safe with me, baby..”

“..w-what..? Oh no! Jefferson!” She yelled out to her brother in law.

Jefferson slide over in shock at the reveal, sending a glare at SpiderMan for a quick moment before hushing his brother’s worries. Quietly talking knowing he didn’t have long. The family stayed there in horrible shape of what just happened..

~~~~~

Late that night after that scene, AJ sat down at the rooftop of her building dressed in her Spider suit, whimpering and sighed. She wished she knew earlier or maybe she could’ve done something to stop it.

Spider-Man found her on the rooftop and just held her close. He told her that this life comes with mistakes, heartbreaking times and plenty of unfortunate situations. But you have to make the choice to stand up and fight.

Make the right decision to take on a new day.

Thank you for reading! Hope you like it

Tags: @gaminggirlsstuff @msrochelleromanofffelton @mandylove1000 @superspookyjanelle @sherloquestea @gcthvile @hanlueluver @blackheart-beauty @terry-perry @daughter-of-melpomene @meiramel @rooster-84 @blueboirick and etc

[medi-callixto]

OC Info

Name: Medea Lynch

Age: 26 years old

Gender: Female

Appearance: Long, purple hair and yellow eyes. She is of average height and has a slim build. She dresses in expensive, stylish clothing, reflecting her wealthy background.

Background: Medea grew up in Meteor City, a notorious slum known for its high crime rate and poverty. Despite the harsh living conditions, Medea was born into a wealthy family with ties to the city's political elite. She received a private education and was sheltered from the worst aspects of life in Meteor City. Despite being sheltered, she is well aware of the struggles that the people of Meteor City face every day.

Personality: A kind-hearted person who genuinely cares about others. She is a bubbly person. She is determined and courageous, with a strong sense of justice. However, she can be impulsive at times, especially when it comes to defending the people she cares about.

Abilities/Skills: A nen user. She has a Transmutation ability that allows her to change the properties of objects or substances. Her ability is called "Elemental Shift," and it allows her to transform one element into another. She is also physically strong and has undergone self-defense training.

•Elemental Shift is a Transmutation ability that allows Medea to change the properties of objects or substances by transmuting them into a different element. For example, she can transmute a block of ice into a block of metal, or transmute a pile of sand into a pile of diamonds.

•The transformation is temporary, and the object or substance will eventually return to its original state after a certain amount of time has passed, depending on the complexity and size of the object or substance.

•Medea can control the extent of the transformation and the time duration of the transformation. She can also choose which elements she wants to transform the object or substance into, as long as she has knowledge of those elements.

•However, Elemental Shift has some limitations. Medea cannot transmute living beings or organic matter, and the transformation cannot be used to create something out of nothing. She also needs to have a good understanding of the object or substance she wants to transmute and the elements involved. The more complex the transformation, the more concentration and energy she needs to use.

Goals/Motivations: Medea's ultimate goal is to find a way to help improve the lives of the people of Meteor City. She believes that the political system is corrupt and that there are many people suffering who are not being given the help they need. She is determined to use her abilities and her intelligence to fight against the corruption and bring about change.

Her boyfriend is Phinks Magcub💜

[electrasev5nwrites]

Ninja Daily: Vapors 20

"You're kidding, right," Kakashi said flatly in a way that implied he had little hope his Hokage was joking and was instead banking on using his one uncovered eye to light her on fire. White Hatake chakra had been known to have some unusual effects, after all.

No such luck. Despite his best efforts, Tsunade remained stubbornly not-on-fire.

The two kunoichi who had been paired with him for the mission tried not to snicker, but the woman behind the desk made no such concession to his dignity. Tsunade smirked up at one of her top ninja, fully prepared to send him on a mission far below his caliber in a relatively transparent attempt to force him to calm his nerves after what she classified as a minor breakdown.

"I don't joke, Hatake-chan. Have your cute little apprentice help you with your hair. Don't worry, it'll all wash out when you get back and apply the second bottle." He frowned down morosely at the dark red hair dye in his hands. "If you weren't so distinct looking, this wouldn't be necessary," she claimed with far too much enjoyment in her voice and no apparent notice for the irony of that statement coming from a woman with an incredibly rare hair color and breasts that had actually inspired several songs and stories (not counting Jiraiya's complete works, which Aiko was relatively sure were all one long love letter to Tsunade's chest and the woman herself to a lesser extent). "Besides, no one would believe a man with white hair and a woman with purple hair had a red-headed child."

"It's silver," he muttered rebelliously.

"Maybe I should color mine too," Aiko added cautiously. "My hair is far lighter than Anko-senpai's or that dye."

Tsunade gave her a lazy once-over, eyes darting between her features and those of her 'parents'. "You'll be fine, brat. We don't need to match exactly. That's almost as suspicious as not being in the same color family. Now shut up." She turned her attention back to the adults in the room. "As I was saying, you three will be posing as a family on vacation. A certain noble client has become concerned that there is an informant in their household, passing compromising information through their hotel and spa."

She rolled her eyes at the thought, adding in a rather scathing tone that, "The family is concerned that their attempt to marry into some other noble family will be sabotaged. A lot of money is on the line here—if this merger happens, our client will be getting a big fat wedding present in the form of a diamond mine." (Anko choked on the bamboo dango skewer hanging out of her mouth, eyes popping out in surprise) Tsunade grinned at the shock on the other two kunoichi's faces, pursing her vividly red lips prettily before she continued "It's your job to make sure that doesn't happen, or that if it does the person who doesn't isn't passing the gossip through the spa. Anko, make sure Hatake unwinds. This mission should be well within the capabilities of a team far less talented than you three, so I expect there to be no screw-ups."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." She shifted her weight to one hip, examining her cohorts. "Would it be acceptable for me to use henge to look a little older, or are we concerned about enemy nin?"

Aiko tried not to show amusement at that thought. 'Kakashi-sensei could pass for my dad in a pinch, (a young, hot dad, just barely old enough to be the father of a 13 year old) but Anko is definitely too young to be my mother. She would have been nine or ten when I was born.' She shuddered.

"Henge will be fine." The Hokage shrugged, shuffling around in her desk. "This is all civilian in-fighting. If they had hired ninja to get that information, those nobles wouldn't know anything was wrong. Any other questions that your mission brief didn't answer?" At the negative answers, she nodded decisively. "Good. Now get the hell out of my office."

As it turned out Kakashi-sensei did not want or need any help with his hair, showing up only half an hour late at the gates with pretty reddish hair that shone like Kankuro's in the sun and a slouched, defensive attitude that suggested a pout was hidden underneath his sky blue scarf. Aiko tried not to cringe while the Chuunin gate guards gave double and triple takes, Izumo gawking with his mouth hanging open at the moment he seemed to figure out who the fit redhead he'd been checking out was. Seeing her teacher out of uniform was strange enough, but Kakashi was wearing an eyepatch. 'I know he has to have his funky red eye closed, but… that looks terrible.'

Unfortunately they had to walk for even the first part of their journey like civilians instead of traveling at ninja speeds and then getting into cover. At least their destination was relatively close within Fire Country.

All three of them were dressed as relatively well-off civilians for the trip, packed lightly with minimal weaponry. The two kunoichi were in yukata. Aiko tried her best not to stare or laugh—it was hard to believe that Anko had actually owned a butter yellow yukata with green and blue butterflies and Lotus blossoms. The fabulously big, extravagant bow on the accompanying pink obi dwarfed her tiny frame. Her own clothing was a little plainer. It was almost entirely a faded purple with pink threading that suggested a vine pattern. In other words, it was suitable for travel, but still girlish enough to make her look like less of a threat.

'Maybe Anko has to wear ridiculously feminine clothing to get the same effect,' she hypothesized, carefully not spending too long looking at the older kunoichi and her carefully henged visage— an incredibly subtle confection that included tiny pore imperfections that suggested the use of makeup to compensate for age.

When they stopped for the night after and she looked at her teacher across the campfire, she'd had enough. "Stand still, tou-san."

Kakashi looked warily at her when she invaded his personal space with a brush. "What the hell are you doing." He stepped back defensively.

Aiko gave her fellow kunoichi exaggerated puppy eyes. "Kaa-san, help me. He can't wear that eye patch. He looks like a reject from an off-Broadway production of Pirates of Penzance." She looked a bit baffled, but Anko eyed up their sole male companion. Other than the eyepatch, he looked good. The role they were playing was a family of relatively new-monied civilians, so he was wearing black slacks and a blue shirt under a thigh-length coat. Some of the very wealthy families wore expensive traditional clothes regularly, but new money was often accompanied by foreign clothing. The role he was playing probably didn't include any rough accidents that would cause the loss of an eye.

"I don't know what the hell the kid said, but she's right. It looks terrible, anata," she drawled. "Be a dear and let her play with your hair."

"Just keep your eye closed." He sighed, but obligingly went limp and read his book with his dark gray eye and kept the other pressed closed when she tugged off his eyepatch and gave it a scathing look before tucking it into the front pocket of his tan coat. Then she wondered why he had to be dressed so warmly. It was only fall. She tried to run her fingers down his scalp and got them caught almost immediately. The feeling of his hair between her fingers set the hair on the back of her neck up- it was so tangled that he couldn't possibly have done anything with it in at least a week. At least it was soft.

'Does he back-comb? How on earth did he dye his hair? Did he just fill the sink with dye and dip his head in? Because this is definitely not hair that has been combed in the last week. Oh god, did no one teach him to comb his hair? He was an orphan at like six, wasn't he?' She attacked his hair with her brush, forcing it to obey gravity and fall over his forehead instead of arcing up, arranging it to cover his Sharingan eye and so that a few strands brushed over the rest of his forehead. It didn't want to obey, but she forced it. He patiently endured her attentions in the long-suffering manner he had adopted after about a year of trying to avoid physical contact when stuck with a little girl who liked to hold hands as a student.

"That's better." Anko pulled out her own dirty yellow book, kicking back on her bedroll. "Come to bed, love." Their team leader groaned. Aiko pouted that she couldn't have brought her own book.

The mission dragged on and on as they walked to the neighboring town where they actually hired a horse-drawn carriage to take them to the spa, (an extravagance that only the ridiculous, pretentious people they were portraying would be able to indulge in) and Aiko couldn't help but pout. She didn't complain aloud, however, because there was really no big reason to be upset. The missed training time could be made up for at home, and the spa itself was lovely. She received her own room with an adjoining door to the love suite where Anko had gigglingly dragged Kakashi with a deceptively delicate, pale hand on the first night and then proceeded to have what appeared to be an amazing time making theatrical noises. (The boy who had carried the luggage Anko had managed to buy upstairs had made an 'icky' face and not returned since).

She knew why they had gotten such a frivolous mission, of course. Posing as a family was the least conspicuous way to go on a vacation, and despite the likelihood that nothing dangerous would happen it was always possible that when nobles and money were involved, so were enemy ninja. The two adults with her were both highly skilled, and Aiko herself was capable enough to hold her own against average opponents. Although it seemed as if it might be a waste of an elite like Kakashi, the mission would also hopefully give him time to stabilize and repair some of the recent trauma. As far as Aiko could tell, Tsunade was the type of person who would take good care of her soldiers—not necessarily because she was soft, but because it was efficient to do so and she saw no use for either stupidity or cruelty.

Really, the woman was scarily perfect to be a military dictator. Assuming one could forgive her for the alcoholism and fits of violent temper, at least.

While undercover and unable to talk shop, avoid each other, or do shinobi type things, Aiko was amused to discover a strangely amiable chemistry between the three of them. Anko's undercover behavior varied the most from her normal actions. She was still a little raucous, but in a much less trigger-happy way and she gleefully recounted the scandalous interactions of their imaginary neighbors (especially that Hashimoto woman down the street who actually did her own gardening, can you imagine?). Aiko was going to have a talk with Anko when they returned to Konoha about her neglected talent as a writer—the woman had a knack for storytelling and a vivid imagination.

On the other hand, Kakashi-sensei's chosen cover wasn't actually that different from his usual behavior, with the exception of his deference to Anko. Though he was nominally in charge of both the mission and in the family they were portraying, Kakashi seemed content to slip into a slightly hen-pecked and affectionately long suffering role, allowing Anko to bully him into stopping at what seemed to be every 'adorable' tea shop in the Fire Country and hinting at a gruff fondness for his 'daughter', but mostly remaining as silent as he usually was, occasionally patting his hip sadly as if reaching reflexively for the book that he had not been able to bring with him now that they were in public.

For her part, Aiko took every opportunity to snuggle up to her sensei, both as part of her cover as a doting daughter delighted to get to spend some time with her slightly distant businessman father and in service of her private belief that her sensei really needed a lot of hugs. Anko leapt into the fray as the parent Aiko must have inherited her touchy qualities from, which meant that Aiko got to bask in hours of hair brushing and really silly braids and amateur geisha hair-dos.

"Mummy," Aiko called, clicking her knuckles against the door to the other two nin's room. At the muffled reply, she pushed the door open and stepped through, trying not to look too enviously at the luxurious suite. Her teacher didn't look up from his position on the bed. He was lying on his back with an Icha Icha book up to his face, reading desperately as if to save up enough happiness to get him through the rest of the book-less day. The older woman walked out of the bathroom still slipping on an earring, face rouged and in a fluffy pink bathrobe dotted with rhinestones at the hems. Aiko tried not to choke with laughter and wildly hoped that Anko would take it home and incorporate it into her wardrobe once this mission was over. The amused look on the other girl's face indicated that she had caught the amusement.

"Oh, I'm sorry darling, I'm running a bit late," Anko pouted, tugging open the folded closet door and extracting a silver and green yukata. "I'll be ready in just a moment." She sailed back into the bathroom and clicked the door behind her. Aiko pressed her lips together and breathed in deeply through her nose, struggling not to let any amusement show. The older kunoichi had really taken to her role as a trophy wife. The role worked for their investigation, however.

She perched on the edge of the bed, being careful not to wrinkle her yukata. When the surface dipped under her weight, one visible gray eye slid to her in what could have been a brief show of despair. Then she blinked and he was focused on his book again as if he'd never stopped. Aiko rolled her eyes and swatted playfully at his hair like a kitten, enjoying the way it bounced back. His hair was like a living thing—it had only taken one day for it to be nearly as tangled as it was when she'd first fixed it. When Anko was finally done primping, the two kunoichi would be taking advantage of their frivolous roles in order to investigate one of the employees that their client was worried about—a woman who, by all accounts, was a fabulous manicurist.

Life was pretty good.

"I haven't been out in the field for months," Inoichi grumbled, keeping an easy pace with his long-time teammates. Despite the long break in Interrogations work, he had worked with the other two men for so long that there was no chance he would forget the rhythm of travel they fell into or slip out of formations they had developed over twenty years ago. "Has it always been so cold outside?"

Choza chuckled. "You're getting out of shape, old man. I didn't know that interrogations work made you so soft. Don't complain." He made an extra large leap, playfully shaking the tree he landed on. The hefty Akimichi Clan Head had also been on the inactive roster for missions like this, due to clan obligations and the never ending politicking of his position, but he was delighted by the change in routine instead of inconvenienced. Shikaku rolled his eyes, wishing his teammates were a little more mature for once. They noticed his poor attitude, slowing down and dropping out of the trees to approach the Daimyo's home on foot. It was considered rude and possibly hostile to sneak up, after all.

"What's your problem, Shikaku? Is something wrong?" Inoichi probed, dusty blue eyes searching for signs. Signs of what, Shikaku didn't know, but he didn't appreciate the scrutiny either.

His long-time teammate scowled half-heartedly. "Don't pry, you miserable old gossip. You know I'd tell you if you could. You'll know soon anyways."

The blonde knew him too well to be put off by the rudeness, merely shrugging. He dropped the subject- classified was classified- and merely protested being referred to as a miserable old gossip. While the two lanky men bickered, Choza explained their presence to the samurai guarding the traditional gates and had a message sent to the Daimyo asking for a reception. He placidly returned and explained to his companions that they would have to wait a while.

When they were finally led in for an audience, the other two clan heads fell in line behind the Nara. He wasn't their team leader, precisely. They were an interesting team in large part because they were all alpha personalities but seamlessly traded places in the chain of command hierarchy to put the most suited man in charge. At the moment, that was Shikaku, who had all the information about this mission and about what Tsunade had hoped to accomplish by sending them here. It was no coincidence that she had sent three clan heads on this mission. Aside from the fact that it was more respectful to the Daimyo, they were each a pointed reminder that Konoha's strength was in its clans, and each man represented at least a hundred shinobi. It wasn't a threat, precisely, but it might make him leery of dismissing the rights of the large clans in favor of three seventy year olds.

The audience itself made Shikaku wish that Tsunade had allowed him to brief his teammates. He knew why she hadn't—it was her intention that the Daimyo would be able to see the visceral reaction of disgust and anger that the news caused in his teammates. Knowing not only how the clans would react to the news and that too many people to be easily silenced knew about the council's murderous misbehavior would probably factor into his decision.

Granted, Tsunade probably also knew the three men well enough that she had planned it this way so that they had burnt off the worst of their anger before they got back to Konoha and didn't irritate her so much as they might have otherwise. Shikaku admired the woman for her unique mix of laziness and pragmatism, in a terrified 'I-would-run-away-from-her-if-only-I-could' sort of way.

Shikaku knew better than to be surprised or disappointed by the non-committal response the Daimyo gave to the information. The man would almost certainly confer with his most trusted advisors, weighing the most politically viable and intelligent options before weighing with anything so petty as his personal opinion or human decency. The news delivered, the three clan heads backed out in bows and left the capital in a rush. Shikaku consciously did not look at his companions, clenching his jaw imperceptibly.

Choza was the one to break the silence. "When did you find this out?"

Shikaku answered the man honestly, explaining that Tsunade had summoned him to her office before he had even made it home from her inauguration.

The large man gave a low whistle, eyes fixed straight ahead at the treetops they were rushing through. "That's sick," he said with finality and a grimace.

On the other side of their triangle formation, Inoichi agreed quietly, thinking of his own family. "It's horrific," he said lowly, rumbling from his chest at an unusually low pitch. Pale lips pressed together unhappily, and then he gave a derisive laugh. "I almost wish it weren't true or that I didn't know. I don't care what Fugaku was up to. What Danzo ordered was monstrous far beyond the pale." He did his level best not to think of the mass funeral that had been held and all the tiny coffins involved. It had been a sight that sent chills down his spine— at the time he had been a full-grown man who had killed dozens of people in his life, and was still shocked wordless at the sight.

"It's obscene," Shikaku agreed curtly. "I want everyone involved or complicit out on their ear."

"But that can't be done without ruining that poor boy's deep cover," Choza worked out in a displeased rumble. "He'd be dead before the day was out if the Hokage made this public knowledge and tossed them out on their wrinkled asses like they should be." The Nara acknowledged his logic with a nod.

Inoichi sniffed imperiously and frowned. "Doesn't mean they can get away with this," he muttered darkly, mind already working on possible solutions.

The Fifth Hokage was the strangest human being that Uchiha Sasuke had ever met, and that included his genin sensei. Oh sure, at first glance she seemed relatively normal in comparison to people like Kakashi or his Eternal Rival, but after he had spent a few weeks in her company regularly it became quite clear that she had even less impulse control than Naruto did.

"They probably should have skipped the middleman and made Shizune the Hokage," he muttered to the civilian secretary when he dropped off her coffee. Keiko snorted indelicately, then straightened, mortified by the slip in professionalism, apparently ignorant to the fact that she had been hired precisely because she had no chance of outfoxing any of her shinobi coworkers. "She can't hear," he reassured quietly, trying not to smirk. Tsunade had fired every office worker in the tower to start over with an entirely new staff that she vetted personally, so they were all still a bit jumpy and mildly concerned that another round of firing was on its way.

Personally, Sasuke approved of Tsunade's apparent paranoia. For the moment the personnel switch was causing a lot of extra work—no one really knew the nuances of the old system—but it would be worth it to ensure information security. Once the old employees had made it through her security system, they would all be offered new employment in other office buildings, so he didn't feel particularly sorry for them. One man who had sold information had already been ferreted out by the interrogators and was cooling his heels in prison, so obviously the paranoia had been justified.

Besides, picking up slack in things like getting drinks for the three women who were habitually in the office (the secretary, Tsunade, and Shizune) didn't bother Sasuke. He left for lunch every day anyways, so it wasn't much of a hassle.

His apprenticeship was rather eclectic. He still did his physical conditioning and speed training with Aiko (and now Karin) in the early mornings, but Shizune had taken it upon herself to teach him to use her two favored weapons, senbon and a sword. He did chakra control exercises and assigned reading (both medical and political, to his displeasure) on his own, but his actual mentor did step up at least once daily in order to beat the hell out of him in a taijutsu spar (one of the few excuses Shizune would accept for taking a break from paperwork and boring meetings) or watch him demonstrate the next stage of the medical techniques she was having him work through. He wasn't overly pleased about learning medical jutsu, but they were necessary precursors to Tsunade's unique fighting style—near invulnerability, the ability to store enormous amounts of chakra, and the strength to break through any defense sounded pretty damn good to him.

Unfortunately, there was also a lot of busywork involved. Since his security clearance had been upped, he was now available to go through all sorts of records that needed to be updated. After the disastrous Chuunin Exams that had done massive structural damage and taken a big chunk out of their active reserves, the Jounin who would normally do that sort of thing were spending more time in the field. Even three man genin teams had been broken up into groups of two for D-class missions, a bullet he had barely dodged by dint of his new assignment. He still wasn't sure if he had been lucky or gotten screwed.

After he gave Shizune her coffee (flavoured generously with chocolate) and braved Tsunade's office to ungraciously hand off her tea (giving her attitude was almost as satisfying as poking Naruto into exploding), Sasuke slouched off to his own work space and gave the paperwork on his desk a morose stare. He wouldn't have to do most of the work himself, of course, but he did have to figure out where it needed to go and occasionally compile reports so that the Hokage didn't have to read everything herself to get the important information.

One such project occupied that afternoon—the bureaucratic mess of making sure their records for the statuses of all their active duty nin was updated after Orochimaru's failed invasion. Sasuke silently cursed the man to hell while he painstakingly picked through missing persons reports, autopsies, promotions, and hospital reports of career changing or ending injuries. When he was all done, he scanned through the lists of inactive ninja (very short, considering that they had almost all been called to active duty), active genin, Chuunin, Tobeketsu Jounin, and full Jounin, and then ended it off with finalizing the lists of fatalities and forcibly retired ninja. Then he frowned.

"Something's not right," he muttered to himself, leafing through the missing persons reports and comparing them to the autopsies. Three genin were completely missing— They hadn't been reported as missing, injured, or dead, but they also hadn't been relisted on the active duty roster when they should have reported in. A shinobi village thrived on information and noting details, so it seemed unlikely that no one would have noticed the oddity in the month since the incident. It wasn't as though no one knew the three genin— one of them was the hospital director's son. Yet somehow none of them had been reported as missing or killed in action.

"Where's their sensei," he hmmed, pulling out the appropriate file. 'One person not being noted missing is a strange incident. Three… either criminal levels of incompetency or conspiracy.' Even if absolutely no one else knew they were missing, their sensei should have noted. When he found the appropriate file, Sasuke frowned. "Well, shit," he said with finality, irritably piling the relevant papers up to stalk to Tsunade's office. He rapped on the door and pushed it open without waiting for an answer.

The woman inside hurriedly pushed something off of her desk and pinned him with a sneer, amber eyes narrowed at his audacity.

"Put me in my place later," he grumped, handing over the folder. "I found something strange. An entire genin team that was completely unaccounted for but somehow not listed as missing. I wondered why their sensei didn't report the disappearances if nothing else. Turns out that their genin sensei was found dead in his home after the exam. By all accounts, he'd been dead for months." He raised an eyebrow. "You would think that they would have noticed that."

Tsunade groaned, running a hand through her hair and staring blearily at the papers he had handed her. "Why don't you people ever have any good news," she groused, glaring at the papers accusingly. "It's never 'we have record numbers of enrollment' or 'the peasants want another holiday in your honor.' Nooo, all you people ever tell me is what's wrong." She sighed heavily, dropping the papers and making a grab for her stash of hard candy, Shizune's most recent attempt to wean her off the hard liquor during business hours. She popped an orange candy in her mouth and sucked on it, clearly thinking. "The obvious explanation is that those three are traitors and they jumped ship," she eventually conceded, frowning darkly, "though that wouldn't explain why no one reported them missing." The woman groaned again, letting her head fall back on her chair.

"Someone covered it up for them to give them time to get out," Sasuke surmised easily. "Or covered up the kidnappings, if that's what happened to them. The Sound did make attempts on bloodline users that would have been easy targets—hospitalized genin and Chuunin, generally teenagers. Those three are on the older scale, but still within the age range we know was targeted."

"Did any of the three have bloodlines?" Tsunade frowned, gesturing for him to pass over their personnel reports. He easily acquiesced. The blonde frowned, resting her elbows on the table and scanning the papers. Sasuke tried not to stare too obviously at the way her shirt fell open at the movement. That was, like, half a foot of cleavage. It was mesmerizing. 'Is it a genjutsu?' he wondered seriously, eyes flicking between her face and the hemline of her shirt. Luckily, he was looking up when the women cursed like a sailor and threw the papers in a fit of temper. "Two of them were from minor bloodlines," she exhaled. "Orochimaru always did like playing around with genetics."

Sasuke frowned. "But he's dead," he said abruptly and a little viciously.

"I know that," his mentor snapped irritably. "The kidnapping idea is unlikely, unless we are also assuming that the combined intelligence of those three is low enough that they would fail to notice their teacher was dead for a month. Orochimaru probably promised them something, a place in his stupid Sound village most likely, in exchange for intelligence." She hissed a long breath out between pursed lips, staring off into space in a way that implied her mind was elsewhere. "Which means we need to figure out what they had access to and probably work on updating codes and procedures under the assumption that Sound possesses them."

When she gestured, Sasuke obediently propped open the door so she could yell to the secretary to clear her schedule for the next hour, and then whistled for one of her ANBU guards and promptly demoted him to fetching the head of intelligence. Sasuke watched, nonplussed. When she finally noticed him again, the woman huffed. "Good job, gaki. Don't you have work to do?" She gave a start at something remembered, and then a wicked grin. "Actually, I think you're ready to move on to human autopsies. Why don't you join the group with Homura Mito in…" she tilted her head to see the clock on the wall between the bookshelves. "half an hour. I think I remember signing off on the paperwork for supervised analysis of a Mist nuke-nin today. Try not to get sick."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and sauntered out, passing a rather flustered Shizune who was arguing on the phone with someone who was apparently far too important to have their appointment pushed back.

"This bites," Ino groused, delicately hefting plywood over her shoulder (a bizarre accomplishment) and grimacing at the potential for splinters. Her partner for the day rushed back and forth from the construction site and the lumber piles with far too much energy to be entirely appropriate. "Lee, just watching you is making me tired."

Tenten gave an amused laugh through the nails held in her teeth, hammering away at the joint her partner was holding in place. Neji grimaced slightly in a way that implied he could commiserate, but he didn't comment verbally.

Granted, she had not been foolish enough to believe that repairing damaged infrastructure would be glamorous (the village wide D-class assigned to all genin while their instructors rushed to fill border rosters and take high-paying missions and academy students picked up the slack on other menial missions). But the stupid reconstruction missions seemed to be never ending.

"We should all just get certified as architects once we're done here," Tenten joked once her mouth was empty of metal pieces, wiping at her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand. She didn't mind hard work, but she was a little bummed that the two boys who had been promoted in the exam were younger than she was. The Aburame and the Nara boys had both left for border patrol, which she only happened to know because they had left with Gai-sensei, who would be the senior nin at the outpost.

"That is an excellent suggestion, Tenten-san," Lee huffed cheerily, grabbing the end of the wood he was carrying and whipping it around his body, letting go at the perfect time so that it soared directly to Neji, who snatched it right out of the air and used it to prop up the sagging roof. Then he bounded up the side of the nearly-finished porch and landed neatly on the roof, beaming down at his partner. "Ino-san! If we cannot finish tiling this roof before Neji-san repairs the porch, we should do one hundred laps around the lake!"

The Yamanaka dropped the last armful of wood as if it burned her and let it clatter to the grass, already on the roof and yanking the hammer out of Lee's fist. "No way, eyebrows!" He immediately fell to his knees beside her and began laying tiles out in rows, scooting sideways just a little faster than she could hammer them in place.

Neji rolled silver eyes at his kunoichi teammate, hammering at his own task a little faster but making no comment. Tenten sighed fondly, fluffing out her bangs and gamely propping up the triangular brace that was going to scallop the edges of the porch. When he paused in his rhythmic hammering for a moment before picking up the pace angrily, Tenten curiously looked around for what had bothered him. All she could see was that the team working on a house across the street (an Akimichi and the Inuzuka from the last Chuunin exam) had been joined by a redhead and his shy little cousin. Tenten eyed the girls pensively, wondering why Neji even cared. He had always seemed to dislike the brunette, and she had never even met the redheaded girl in the purple dress before. Then she noted a slight oddity, with the laser-like precision of Academy-trained nosiness and anal-retentive attention to detail.

'Didn't Hinata-san used to wear her forehead protector around her neck?' Tenten shrugged. She'd remembered because it had seemed rather unusual. 'It looks good on her forehead,' the older girl noted. 'She looks more serious.'

[creedslove]

Hiiiiii-eeeee! Angst anon returns, brought out of hiding by the lovely slice of angst you gave us with Diamond Ring! In all truth, Pedro is pushing 50 and has he ever had a serious relationship? Maybe, truthfully we don't know but I personally highly doubt it. Maybe there is a broken heart in the past. He very well may end up alone or in the winter of his life he may finally settle for someone out of just sheer loneliness. It's kind of sad. Of course everyone will say it's none of our business and they're right, and he has lots of family and friends to comfort him. To a certain extent he may be one of the rare ones who never really "settles down," I am a touch older than him and I haven't (for entirely different reasons than his I'm sure). It just is.

BTW I did like the way you ended Betrayed. Making him wait and prove himself with patience was the way to go.

Hiiiii angst anon!!! I'm glad to have you back here!!!

Well, are you talking about Pedro from my story or real life Pedro? Because Pedro from my story never goes public with his relationships, I mean he spent four years with reader and never acknowledged her in public, so it leads us to understand he's done the same with his previous and post relationships after breaking up with reader.

Now about real life Pedro, I don't know, he's probably had many relationships but he is very private about them all. I don't care a lot about this particular part of his life, so I just hope he is happy especially because in my delusional mind he is my boyfriend and soon-to-be husband 😍🤣

AND THANK YOUU!!! I LOVED BETRAYED SO MUCH AND TO ME THE ENDING WAS PERFECT. WE HAD ANGST TO THE RIGHT POINT AND THEN A HAPPY ENDING ❤️

[viviwritesss]

Beautiful

Neteyam × female! Metkayina! reader

All moments, situations, encounters, despite their utmost challenging nature, are, at their very core, unimaginably beautiful. The infatuation of one's eyes are yet to fully display the extent of beauty that is yet to be discovered. However, Neteyam, solely when laying eyes on her, knows he is the only one who trully knows the meaning of beauty.

Word count: 4.6k

Tags: fluff, just Neteyam being down bad for reader.

A/n: hi! So, this is the first thing I ever published, I hope it's of your liking! I don' like adding y/n all the time, so I gave reader the name Zoraya! I must say english is not my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes, also, I wrote this in a weird mix between 2nd and 3rd person, hopefully it won't bother y'all♡

To say the sea was beautiful was an understatement. 

Upon his arrival, Neteyam couldn’t help but gasp, if ever so slightly, once his bright eyes were laid upon the enormous body of water. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. The water, crystal clear and shiny as a diamond, extended far beyond his sight could reach, so much so that it made his eyes seem pointless. It made him stare in wonder at how far they had gone, at how far away his home was, at how much they left behind. 

He wasn’t one to complain. Perhaps such trait arises from the fact that he was the oldest, the most mature among the Sully children, the example among his brothers and sisters that his father expected him to be and that, in time, he expected himself to become as well. And even though he never voiced discomfort about leaving his people, his forest, and his home behind, there was no denying it that Neteyam was not happy with the idea of abandoning everything once his father spoke to him about it. Yet the scenery displayed before his very eyes… he wouldn’t mind waking up to it for the rest of his days.

“Wow…” Kiri sighed, as stunned as she ever was when seeing something new in her common surroundings. “Maybe this won’t be too bad.” She smiled, hopeful, trying to convince herself more than anything else. Of course, she was ever doubtful of this change, and at this point, Neteyam believed even his father wasn’t as sure of this idea as he tried to seem before his family.

“Sure hope so,” Lo’ak mumbled with a low, displeased tone. It was evident that out of all of them, he was the most unsure of the situation at hand, besides Neytiri, of course, and the most willing to voice his discontent.

“We will be fine brother. As long as your ass doesn’t decide to do anything stupid, I’m sure you will be able to survive.” Neteyam said with a big grin on his face, eyeing his brother with mockery. It was no secret that Lo’ak could be quite a handful sometimes, more so to his big brother, who was accustomed to often taking the blame for him. “That is, of course, if father doesn’t kill you before we even arrive, which now that I think about it, seems more likely. Yeah, forget it, you definitely won't make it.” Neteyam knew how to upset his younger brother perfectly, and that by itself unnerved Lo’ak, whose answer was accompanied by a certain indecent hand gesture, proudly lifting both of his middle fingers towards his brother.

“Yeah, screw you, perfect boy.” 

Neteyam let out a shameless laugh at his brother’s actions. Perhaps annoying the hell out of Lo’ak would make the situation less depressing for him, if ever so slightly.

The family was getting closer and closer to the shore, and with each passing second, Neteyam felt some kind of nervousness arising from within his chest. They were delving into something new, something different to what he was accustomed to, being so that he grew up within green forests, tall trees and the utter beauty Eywa had to offer in the land. The scenery before him was completely foreign, as foreign as his family was to the clan that now glared at them in wonder, and perhaps distrust, once their feet finally touched land. It was well known that the Omaticaya weren’t ones to leave the comfort of the forest, much less to an environment so different as it was the sea; the water. Not only that, but the Metkayina clan was not accustomed to receiving visits, much less from na’vi from land so far as it was the Omaticaya. 

Suffice to say, the encounter was awkward.

His first impression was to notice how different the Metkayina were. Their skin, as strong and resistant as his own, was painted a much paler hue, while their tails appeared to be stronger to grant them the capacity of better mobility within the water. 

He couldn't help but feel like he didn't belong among the clan just from looks alone. The sentiment made him slightly insecure, being surrounded by people who (for the most part) did not welcome him, and much worse, did not welcome his family. Yet their safety was at stake, and Neteyam was anything if not protective, so he could do little more than to lower the head and let his father speak on their behalf, he knew better. 

'I see you' He politely signaled to everyone around him, gently nudging his sisters to do the same. The gesture was heavy on significance, as if granting respect to the mighty Na'vi surrounding them. He could do little more than that.

He stood tall before all his brothers and sisters, just slightly before Lo'ak and just behind his father and mother, as if to demonstrate he was the eldest son. The strongest. A subtle reminder and, why not, camouflaged intimidation, towards some Metkayina males who were making fun of Lo'ak and Kiri.

His father spoke to the people in a tone he's never heard before. As serious as ever; as confident as ever, yet desperate. His towering form remained still as imposing while his voice slightly wavered. It was to be expected, his family's destiny was at stake, a gamble he was not willing to lose.

Neteyam slowly raised his eyes beyond the crowd to glance at the houses of the village. They were lovely. The lively voices and laughter of children playing in the distance was the only factor that gave him a sense of familiarity, that, and the calming sound of the waves, which strangely enough, resembled the wild noises he often heard inside the forest. 

His eyes swayed towards the waves once more, where more Metkayina people were arising from its depths to witness their unexpected arrival.

That's when he saw it. Saw her. 

A young female emerging slowly from within the vast ocean, her beautiful braided hair wet with the reminiscent of the water she was once in. She wore bright eyes like he had never seen before, and a grace that made him inevitably suck his breath as water dripped down her form.

She used beautiful, small gemstones on her garments, skin and hair with colors that resembled the water, in such a delicate way that, if for a fleeting moment, left Neteyam out of breath.

She is like nothing he has ever seen before.

Unlike anyone he has ever seen before.

…she is gorgeous.

He could only imagine how foolish he must have looked. Dumbfounded, unable to tear his eyes from her silhouette, unable to remain calm, unable to stop his heart from beating so damn fast at the mere sight of her squeezing her hair in an attempt to get the ocean water out of it. 

What the hell was happening to him?

He was more than capable of riding an Ikran, hunting, killing, and yet… a beautiful girl he had only looked at had him relenting in the most stupid and embarrassing way he had ever seen. 

And then the worst happened.

She looked their way.

Looked at him. 

Never in his life has he felt so fucking weak. So fucking bashful and flustered.

He cleared his throat one, two, three times, his imposing stance dwindling preposterously while his nervous eyes quickly averted from one way to another, all to diligently avoid her gaze and the fact that he was so shamelessly staring at her. Intently.

What should he do? Should he look back her way? What if she thinks he is a freak? Much worse, what if she thinks he is an ugly, stalker freak? For Eywa's sake he wouldn't be able to live with himself from the embarrassment if that were the case. His brain couldn't compute a calm solution to his terrible dilemma, which is why he merely settled on looking the other way, a hand on his neck, trying to dissimulate the absolute wreck that was going on inside his mind.

Don't look her way again. Don't you fucking dare to look her way again. Just don't turn your eyes, you will look like a goddamn fool if you do it once more.

He convinced himself.

No he didn't. 

He ever so slightly turned his head around, slowly, as if his life depended on it, to catch a glimpse of her once more if only through the corner of his eye.

That's when he clenched his jaw in nervousness, fisting his hands until his nails dug into the skin. 

She was approaching.

"What's gotten into you dude?" Lo'ak murmured, noticing the way his older brother moved, how his broad shoulders faltered and his stance lowered suddenly and without a seeming explanation.

"Nothing, nothing." He repeated himself after silently clearing his throat. He felt flustered beyond explanation, lowering his head while occasionally shooting a fleeting, short glance at her.

She is beautiful.

Lo'ak, curious, confused, looked the way his brother's eyes were constantly eyeing, until he landed on a young Metkayina walking towards the crowd. 

Oh.

Oh.

"I see, I see." He said, teasingly. Shooting his brother a stupid grin that got on his very last nerve. "Good luck bro." Lo'ak's tone was awfully mocking, destroying what was left of Neteyam's dignity, while with his hand, he patted his brother's shoulder as if with pity. "You definitely won't make it."

Oh, he would annoy the living hell out of Neteyam.

"Shut the hell up." He smacked his brother's head with a low hiss, not as hard as he wished, for he'd be damned to act like so in front of the people who had yet to welcome them in their clan.

Lo'ak let out a low 'ow!', and he was about to shoot back at his brother until he noticed the piercing, murderous glance their mother was giving him from the corner of her eye.

Fucking hell.

Merely that made him stay in place, completely stiff and unmoving, straight face and wide eyes.

Neytiri looked at him knowingly, to then stand again, stone faced and valiant beside her husband.

Lo'ak let out a relieved sigh, watching his brother once more, and noticing how his eyes carefully scanned the female that now, was beside Ronal.

'I-I see you" He signaled, albeit clumsily, to the girl in front of him that captivated his eyes. How he managed to stutter while fucking signaling is beyond him and Lo'ak, who mentally facepalmed at his sentimentally constipated brother, yet all of the embarrassment and distress he went through just a couple of minutes ago was worth it.

For she smiled.

At him.

His heart couldn't stop racing.

But it got worse. She laughed. She laughed and his heart couldn't take it. A laugh so delightful that almost had him on his knees from how beautiful it sounded. From how downright adorable her laughing features were.

He didn't understand how na'vi women could be so beautiful.

No, how the one in front of him could be so beautiful.

And once he saw her delicately signal to him back, 'I see you', with a smile that made her bright eyes crinkle ever so slightly, he just knew he smiled like a fool.

She is cute. So, very cute.

"This is Zoraya, our second child." Ronal spoke harshly, with an imposing tone governing her strong voice, grabbing her daughter by the shoulder and gently shoving her forward before the Sully family, which had Lo'ak wiggling his eyebrows knowingly and without shame at his older brother who, in exchange, looked like he would murder Lo'ak right then and there if only he could. "I expect her to show your children and guide them in the Metkayina ways." She stated, glaring at the foreign kids in front of them, not bothering to cover at all her distrust, until she followed with a menacing hiss. "We do not need useless mouths to feed."

This unnerved Neytiri, who in exchange, responded with a hiss of her own, which made Jake quickly apologize on her behalf

"Do not worry. Our daughter is well versed in the matters of hunting, healing and riding the Ilu. Your children will be fine." Tonowari stepped in in a swift manner, trying to comfort an altered Neytiri the best he could, gently nodding at Jake who looked at him with gratitude. "The rest of our children shall also teach your kids all they have to know. And I expect everyone to accept the new family as one from our very own. Treat them like our brothers and sisters, for they are now part of our family." Tonowari announced this to his people, despite receiving odd looks from some who seemed adamant to accept the Omaticaya within their village. Yet there were no objections.

And so the Metkayina dissipated from what was once a crowd around the new family, leaving behind the children of the Tsahìk and Olo'eyktan. 

"Behave. I don't want any of you causing any trouble. Have I made myself clear?" Jake said with a tone resembling a commander talking to his soldiers. All of them nodded adamantly. Jake let out a stern 'good', before turning around with his wife to follow Tonowari, not before kindly acknowledging the kids that would show his children the Metkayina ways with a nod.

"As you already heard, my name is Zoraya. Don't be nervous, I'll make sure to teach you all you have to know to become one of us." She smiled kindly, her eyes settling for a fleeting moment on Neteyam, who looked at her intently. "This is my sister, Tsireya," The young na'vi bowed her head upon hearing her name, a gentle smile to reconfort the new kids on her face. "And this is-"

"Ao'nung." He cut her sister's sentence, grimacing menacingly at the na'vi in front of him with a slight tilt of his head. "Be sure to remember it." He let out a loud hiss, displaying rather plainly his discomfort at the new na'vi on the island, and quickly leaving his sisters with little regard for the duty his father bestowed upon him.

"Don't mind him. He can be rather rude sometimes. Consequences of not having a brain." Zoraya muttered, though making sure she spoke loud enough for her brother to hear her comment, winking in a friendly manner at Tuk, who seemed rather intimidated by Ao'nung. The small girl, tugging Neteyam's hand, shyly smiled at Zoraya with kindness, which made Zoraya giggle ever so slightly.

"What is your name, little one?" Tsireya kneeled close to Tuk, who was gently nudged forward by her older brother, giving her slight courage to speak. 

"Tuktirey." She said, fidgeting with her hands.

"Such a pretty name for a pretty lady, don't you think Zoraya?" Tsireya said, caressing her hair in such a motherly way that had Tuk smiling widely at the compliment.

"Oh, definitely! Not only that, but it sounds like the name of a fierce warrior, don't you think?" Zoraya exclaimed, a hand on her chin, with an expression of surprise and wonder adorning her kind features, until she smiled, noticing how the small girl's eyes instantly lit up at her comment.

"Well, you are definitely right, I am a fierce warrior! Just you wait and see!" Tuk said, raising her hands in excitement, smiling at Zoraya, while quickly taking Tsireya's hand in anticipation.

Neteyam merely observed with a warm look on his face.

"You seem to be good with kids." Neteyam approached her, giving himself courage to speak to her while overcoming the quick beating of his heart which couldn't help but speed up at the sight of the na'vi in front of him, and the adorable scene that just transpired before his very eyes.

Zoraya turned around to look at him with a giggle.

"Yes, well, I'm rather fond of kids. The children in the village are all lovely, good kids." She said, and Neteyam smiled, letting out a low 'I see.' as a response. Zoraya noticed this, feeling her face heat up at the handsome na'vi with bright eyes and fulminant stare before her. She had never seen anyone with features such as his. Gentle and strong, both at the same time, with kind, pretty eyes and a smile so delightful like water on a hot  day. "And what shall your name be?" Zoraya shifted her full attention to the oldest, tilting her head curiously while her sister conversed with Lo'ak and Kiri.

"Neteyam, my name is Neyetam." He nodded with resolve, his nervous voice betraying  his tone.

"Well, I hope our lessons go well, Neteyam."

She smiled, and he was infatuated.

Stunning. 

Your hand was gently placed on his chest, fingers grasping the dark blue skin beneath with care. You took a deep breath, eyes closed, in order to feel his breathing, feel him. Your fingers moved around carefully upon the warm surface beneath them, being sure to touch with care as if you were brushing with the tips of your fingers his very soul.

She was absolutely stunning.

The beating of his heart beneath you started increasing swiftly, as though he was fiercely running from a relentless foe. You touched him further, a slight frown on your features upon realizing that –for some reason– wherever and whenever you touched his chest and abdomen in such a delicate manner, his heart went mad, and his skin seemed to burn. You got closer, gently grazing his chest with your palm and he flinched ever so slightly at your touch.

"Neteyam?" Your voice was low, calming. Tender in such a way that, somehow, got him even more nervous, more so now, that you were so close to him. He could feel your touch on his skin, your breath nearing his neck and it drove him mad. With every passing second he couldn't help but feel like he was burning on the inside, as if your soft fingers left a gentle trail of heat on his chest and abdomen.

"Yes, Zoraya?" He responded softly, somehow swallowing the utter nervousness within his brain, head tilted in your direction, his eyes never leaving your face. 

You were so beautiful, even more so up close (he didn't even know how that was possible), that he couldn't help but stare at you in wonder, with an infatuation so evident that had Kiri rolling her eyes in the distance.

"Your heart is beating too fast." You slowly opened your eyes to look up at him, just to meet with the fact that he was already looking at you, beautiful yellow eyes like you've never seen before piercing your stare.

He is beautiful.

You had never seen a hue such as the one of his skin, blue as the sky on a gentle night, and so, so very beautiful.

And eyes so strong and tender at the same time, piercing at their own way, but full with a sense of duty, of responsibility, yet never rude nor egotistical, rather lenient, selfless.

And his smile. So full of life, of an air that resembled the sea on a hot summer night. So genuine and bright, as if the sun itself graced you with one of its radiant rays.

"Is that so?" He whispered, leaning closer to you to scan your face, and grinning upon noticing a slight, adorable flush on your cheeks.

"Y-yes." He looked at you so downright adoringly that it was always inevitable for you to get flustered; to shy away from his adoration, from his smiles, from how he sometimes winked at you from afar, yet still got nervous when you were so close. You shook your head slightly, trying to focus on the task at hand, while putting a little distance between you two by gently pushing him to lessen your flustered state. "You ought to slow it down. We have practiced so many times before yet your heart never seems to remain still." You frowned, uncertain. Neteyam was a great warrior, pretty much exceptional at any task; perks of being burdened since birth you suppose, yet a single breathing exercise with you proved to be his weakness. The one thing he could never achieve fully, despite months of practice together.

He let out a small chuckle

"Well it's rather difficult you see." Neteyam answered, grinning.

Lo'ak rolled his eyes when watching the scene from afar. Truth is, Neteyam had long grasped the Metkayina breathing techniques, more so, mastered them, yet still seeked your help whenever possible. Seeked your company, your presence. He enjoyed your voice, the sweet tone it had, how you spoke and how, whenever he made you laugh, the corner of your eyes would slightly crinkle.

He enjoyed the way you talked about things you like, and how you would just sit down and listen, staring at him in wonder, with those big, adorable eyes of yours, whenever he spoke about the forest, about the environment that used to be his home.

He enjoyed your soft touches on his skin, how concentrated you'd get to feel his lungs, his breathing. And every time, his heart couldn't take it. His feelings couldn't take it.

You were so beautiful.

"Let me try again." He took your hand to place it on his chest once more, proning you to stand still, stand closer to him, smiling to you so brightly that had you smirking in return. "I'm sure I'll get it this time."

Unimaginably beautiful.

He always kept such thoughts sealed within, whether it be on his mind, or in sappy pieces of writing he often tried to commit to paper to, finally, give one to you some day. However, after finishing each letter, he couldn't help but feel like they were lacking, not only on skill but also on describing you. 

Today, however, the thought came out of his lips for the first time, without thinking it twice, as though the words were ingrained on his very skin and mind.

He was practicing with Tsireya and his brothers when he heard a distant, sweet laugh he could recognize anywhere. His ears twitched, turning around slyly to catch a glimpse of you, swimming with some children nearby. 

He noticed the way you maintained them close to the shore, helping them submerge properly, and showing them the kind creatures that lived underwater.

Neteyam couldn't help but chuckle when he saw a little kid get behind you devishly. You obviously noticed the little, not-so-stealthy girl's plan, yet acted fool, looking for her with an exaggerated tone and your hands on your waist, until she splashed you with water, a playful 'Hey!' coming out of your lips right after. You splashed the girl right back with little force. That's when the rest of the children decided to attack you, all of them relentlessly throwing water at you with big smiles on their faces.

You laughed, playfully trying to get to them, yet failing miserably upon facing their endless water attacks.

Neteyam chuckled when he saw you, completely defenseless against them, beaten by kids. He shifted his body to better witness the scene. 

After a couple of minutes, the kids ran out of the water full of laughter, escaping from you. You were left alone in the water, fully drenched, hair dripping and body completely soaked. You chuckled at the interaction, shaking your head.

"I'll be back soon." Neteyam muttered to the people around him and, without expecting to receive a response nor looking back, he hurriedly approached you with a smile. Tsireya and Lo'ak smirked knowingly when noticing where he was headed, and did nothing to stop him.

You noticed him quickly, beaming at him from the water you still were in, trying to get your hair out of your face, dealing with the consequences of your previous battle.

"Quite the war you had with them." Neteyam said mockingly, now a few meters from you, grabbing you by your elbows to get you closer to him.

You couldn't help but let out a low laugh, placing your hands on his chest with care.

"You saw all of it? Well, that's embarrassing." You said, shaking your head in defeat, which got Neteyam tilting his head while smirking at you. "I still won though."

"Zoraya, I'm sure you lost." Neteyam retorted between laughs, for your defeat was a fact that couldn't be denied, not even by you. His hands sneakily lowered, scavenging your skin, until settling on your waist with tenderness, trying to get you ever so close to him as possible. "Are you alright?" His thumb caressed your skin gently, murmuring the question with affection.

"I'm fine, my ego is the only one hurt here." You placed your hands on his shoulders, then around his neck, like you did many times before behind closed doors and far from prying eyes.

Neteyam looked at you in amusement, a quiet and adoring laugh leaving his lips when placing his eyes on you.

You were as beautiful as the day he first saw you, if not even more. The past months he spent with you were the happiest he had ever been, making him thank Eywa for getting your paths intertwined in such an intimate, endearing way.

He believes he would never get tired of looking at you. Of perceiving every detail of your face with an infatuated look, because every time, he found something new; something so adorable that he was sure he was doomed, fallen and struck down by nothing but love. Love for you. Yet if adoration was to be his damnation, he would gladly take it one and a million times, as long as he can see you smile at him.

He took a strand of your hair, placing it lovingly behind your ear, to then stroke softly your cheek.

"You are so beautiful." Neteyam murmured, and you smiled, flustered. His thumb moved against your cheek, and you leaned on his big palm, closing your eyes in comfort. "I mean it."

His face slowly got nearer to your own, your bodies flush against each other, with Neteyam firmly holding your waist with one hand. You held your breath in anticipation, with excitement and utter happiness pooling on your chest when realizing your closeness.

"Zoraya…" He whispered, so drunk in love and adoration that made your stomach flutter. You could feel his breath against your lips, ever so close yet still not pressed upon yours. "May I…?" He asked for permission, thumb caressing your cheek expectantly once more.

You merely nodded, and he was quick. Quick to join your lips and kiss you like a starved man, as if he was waiting for you for a million years. He held you close, impossibly close, your heart beating uncontrollably against your chest, feeling him as you had never before. 

You cut the kiss to breathe for a quick second, yet he trailed behind your lips, refusing to let you go.

"Again." He murmured, before connecting your lips once more and flushing you against him again.

You were like a drug he couldn't get enough of, lips so soft he wished to kiss them forever, get the memory of you ingrained in his flesh that even upon death he shall feel you as close as he did that day, when you shared you first kiss. The first of many yet to come.

He finally broke the kiss, an adorable smile adorning his lips, while he pressed his forehead to yours.

"You are insatiable." You chuckled at him, putting one hand on top of his, to caress it tenderly.

"How can I not be?" He said in a whisper, looking at you once more, kissing your forehead lovingly. 

You smiled.

Beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful. 

[vee-vee-writes]

Courting Gift (Thorinx gn!reader)

A/N: I'm back!!! This is a very very very belated holiday/Christmas themed imagine.

Thorin paced around as he considered what he was about to do. He had dreamed of growing up and marrying Y/N as a young dwarfling, but it was not until he reached adulthood that he realized the true extent of his feelings. So, in a bid to win her over he had sat down in front of a scrap of parchment and brainstormed up every sort of gift he could either buy or craft that would touch Y/N. He had eventually remembered the snow globe incident:

Two small dwarflings raced down the corridors of Erebor, giggling and chattering as they went. The two bumped into passersby as they went but nobody complained. The young prince and his companion were far too cute and joyous to be scolded. "Come on Thorin" Y/N giggled as they tugged him along to their family quarters.

The two quickly reached the door to the chambers of Y/N's family home and pushed their way through the heavy oaken door. "It's in here Thorin" Y/N smiled, quickly beckoning her friend into the large dining room. The two climbed up to sit at the sizeable chestnut table and that is where Thorin had spotted it. A large snow globe that had been immaculately crafted.

"Adad made it for me" Y/N chittered excitedly as she proudly showed it off. A globe of crystal glass sat upon a glowing marble base, with snowflakes of diamond and crystal inlaid within it. Inside the globe sat a family of three, all resembling Y/N's immediate family. Around their feet sat powdered snow made of crushed crystals. Thorin had never seen a snow globe like it, his friends' father truly was a master craftsman. It was no wonder that the King exclusively commissioned any metal craft or jewelry from the man.

"Look" Y/N chirped as they tilted forward on the chair to pick up the globe and shake the powdered snow around. In that moment the dwarfling lost their balance and tumbled out of the chair towards the stone floor. The snow globe had accidentally flung in the dwarflings' desperate attempts to grip on to anything as they fell. It landed only feet away, shattering into crystal shards on the floor. Thorin's mouth fell open in shock as he stared at the carnage that unfolded in a matter of mere seconds.

Quickly flinging himself off the chair he helped his friend off the floor and pulled them in against him in a comforting manner. The two simply sat there and starred over the scene.

He was unsure how his friend would take such a gesture; whether they would simply see it as the act of a loving friend or as a well thought-out and touching courting gift. Was the gift to personal, would you even remember the event, would you be offended by the twist he had put on the gift? "Thorin" Y/N's voice tentatively called out.

Thorin whipped around to see Y/N standing in the doorway, wringing their hands anxiously as they waited on permission to enter the Kings' office. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything important, but I got your message asking me to meet you" Y/N cautiously spoke, gaging Thorin's reaction. Thorin nodded, "you're always welcome in here, you're practically family Mudùmel (comfort of all comforts)."

Y/N smiled and glided into the room towards two plush couches that faced one another. "You shouldn't be working, it's a customary holiday of our people - even for the crown prince" Y/N scolded gently, knowing full well that Thorin worked far too hard. Thorin snorted, "Well as your crown prince I'm certain that I'm the one supposed to be ordering you around, not the other way around." "Well as your mudùmel I'm pretty sure that I'm an exception to that rule" Y/N teased back. Thorin blushed slightly as Y/N used his pet name against him but rolled his eyes at them to try and play it off.

"Actually, I have something for you, I wanted to give it to you away from prying eyes" Thorin quietly informed as he retreated behind his desk and into the draws to retrieve a neatly wrapped package. Dis had helped him wrap it after several failed attempts and a lot of frustrated grumbling. Anxious, he closed the distance between the two quickly and practically thrust the present into Y/N's lap. "I thought we agreed no presents" Y/N admonished. "Just open it" Thorin rebuked. "At least let me guess first" Y/N jested. Thorin sent them an unimpressed look and gestured for the dwarf to unwrap the present. Amused by his frustration, Y/N began to unwrap the luxury giftwrap, trying to peek at the contents as they went.

Typically, his love was an open book, so he watched their face studiously to gage their reaction to his gift. Childlike excitement and then, a look of…shock. Y/N's hand had darted to their chest to fidget with the linens of their clothing as they stared down at the now unwrap present. Inside sat the snow globe of crystal glass set upon a marble base decorated with the finest of white gems and diamonds to have been mined in all the Dwarven Kingdoms. It was exactly the same as the one Y/N's father had so meticulously crafted, down to the powdered crystal snow that stood at the figurines' feet. The only difference was the figurines themselves.

Rather than having copied the old globe detail from detail, Thorin had added his own flair. He had spent hours and had many lessons from Bofur to learn how to carve stone figurines. In the end had settled on a statuette of the two of you with your foreheads pressed intimately together. He had made it clear that it was the two of you by carving his crown onto the male figure. To further convey his meaning, he had carved a Queenlike circlet onto the other.

The meaning did not seem lost on Y/N who had initially been taken aback by the intense detail of the original that Thorin had remembered. A large smile crept over their face as Y/N's eyes met Thorin's, "it's about time. I've only been waiting for a million years." After carefully setting the snow globe down on the couch, Y/N practically launched themselves up off the couch and into Thorin's arms, surprising the King and knocking him off his feet. The two landed on the floor, looking at each other in surprise with Y/N's arms still around Thorin's neck. After a moment the two broke out into boisterous laughter filled with unbridled joy. Pressing their foreheads together Y/N mumbled her thanks sweetly to him before pressing a kiss to his whiskery cheek. Thorin's gamble had paid off.

Taglist: @fizzyxcustard @lathalea @thewhiteladyofrohan @shethereadinghobbit @tschrist1 @kpopgirlbtssvt @awkwardspontaneity @kami-chan1512 @midearthwritings @sadndnboii-reads

[slavghoul]

Interview from Soundi 4/2022

This one was done very early in March so nothing new in terms of news, but he talks a great deal about his youth and past projects, which I think is very cool.

What role did music play in your family and in your life growing up in the 1980s and 90s in Linköping?

- My family was very interested in music and really consumed a lot of it, but we weren't the kind of a family that played or sang a lot. I think my mother and my brother could have been very musical, but they just never got into it. My dad had been in a band way back in the 60s, but he too chose photography as a career. Still, a certain artistry was always present in our lives. We have all always been very aesthetic. Both of my brothers have also written a lot.

What were the turning points in your youth or the things that ignited your passion for music? You have often mentioned your older brother, who passed away in 2010, as an important mentor.

- My parents divorced when I was born. My father always had a separate life with a different family, so my mother raised me and my brother on her own. My older brother was already a teenager when I was just a toddler. This led to two things. First, there was no sibling rivalry between us. He always took care of me and to a certain extent was very responsible, although he did do some silly things like taking me to gigs and parties when I was a kid. Secondly, he exposed me to a lot of different culture. For as long as I can remember, I've always been surrounded by diverse influences. That's why I have such vivid images of the '80s, even though I was just a little kid at the time. Pop culture from the mid-80s onwards defined my life as a child. My brother would come home and say, "Look at this! I just found Prince's new album", holding Purple Rain. Then we devoured the album in its entirety. So it's no wonder I've always been interested in music. It's been a part of me for longer than I can remember.

Over the decades you've written music and lyrics, played the guitar, drums and piano, sung and even recorded albums yourself. Do you feel you are first and foremost a guitarist, or do you really identify with any instrument?

- I'm okay with all those instruments, but I'm not particularly good at any of them. I sort of started as a drummer after finding my grandmother's weaving looms in the house. I started beating on our corner sofa! I did that for years. I've been singing forever too. Even before I had my voice break, I tried to sing in a 60s style, really deep, like Jim Morrison. But I didn't become a singer, and now I'm just okay at it because I've done it so much. At the same time I've got worse as a guitar player. During Ghost, I didn't practice playing as much as I should have. This is a shame really. The guitar is the most rockin' instrument because you play it by dangling it over your crotch! But I've been playing it since I was 7, so I'll never be a total failure at it. If you put me in any cover band, I'm sure I could emulate any rock or pop style of playing. Theoretically I'm pretty clueless, and my strength has been more that I have a keen ear for music.

In the 1990s and 2000s, you did ten years of black and death music with Superior and Repugnant (Forge used the stage name Mary Goore). Even with Ghost, you can still tell that extreme metal means a lot to you.

- Extreme metal is appealing in a very primal way, and death metal is still one of my favourite genres. I'm still a metal collector and I listen to it a lot. When I was 11 or 13 years old in the early 90s, I started buying records and magazines, devouring all kinds of music. Candlemass, King Diamond, Coroner, Mercyful Fate, Bathory, Testament and countless other bands appealed to me. In an instant, I was a head-to-toe rocker and I knew I was on the verge of something that would forever be important to me. The emergence of Entombed, Dismember and other Swedish death metal felt different. Suddenly I saw them on local TV channels and in OK! magazine stories. Almost all the teenage boys in town were wearing Morbid Angel shirts.They all started wearing black. It was a phase in life for a lot of people. For me, it's been my whole life.

The Papa Emeritus and Cardinal Copia characters, as well as some of the Ghost lyrics, are still pure extreme metallic catalogue, which in turn draws from horror and history.

- This also dates back to the 90s, when there was a record store in Stockholm called House Of Kicks. I was completely freaked out when I entered it for the first time, I felt like I was walking straight into a horror movie. Soon everything around me revolved around horror films and satanic imagery. At that age, it all felt completely intense. Given that my family was Christian, that was the opposite of what I should have been looking for. I think the 90s is my favourite period of my musical life. When everything was still new and wonderful, and I hadn't yet grasped the inevitable business loops and laws behind it all.

In retrospect, Repugnant became a cult band with their demos, EP and Epitome Of Darkness album (2006), but you've said that being in that band was a frustrating period for you because of the constant stagnation.

- If you had asked me when I was 17 or even 21 what I wanted from music, I would have said I wanted to be signed to a major label and tour the world, not just be part of a small underground band forever. When that didn't happen, I started to lose my inspiration for Repugnant. We were completely behind the times, which was cool for a while, but if you couldn't see any future for it, it was hard to keep the hunger alive. Ever since I was a little kid I've been fascinated by the idea of making really, really melodic and catchy music. I've always been a fan of huge rock and pop bands. I thought I could do that too. Partly because in the metal scene the idea was strictly forbidden. I wanted to break the idea that the same person can't belong to both worlds.

At the turn of the millennium, you joined the forerunner of glam rock, Crashdiet. Just a few years later, you made several EP releases and one album with hardrockers Subvision.

- Crashdiet was initially a therapy project, but it also showed that I was quite puritanical about a certain kind of rock. I soon realised that me and Dave (Lepard, guitar) were pursuing quite different things. I was a big glam rock fan. The New York Dolls and all those bands up to Guns N' Roses. Dave was more into sleaze rock bands. I didn't care for Poison, Stryper and all that stuff when rock became lime green entertainment. We went out on our own with a few Crashdiet mates to do what we thought that kind of rock was all about. Rock where old glam meets punk aesthetics. Subvision became a kind of hybrid. It was too metal to become a popular pop rock band, but it was also too pop and rock to be a proper metal band. We were operating in the middle of all this, where there was nothing. We made some really bad decisions and worked with a manager who didn't have the right weapons to back up what we were doing. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time again.

If the stars had aligned and you had hit it off properly, could Subvision have been the band you would have experienced creative fulfillment with as well?

- I'm happy that neither Crashdiet or Subvision became anything bigger when I was in my twenties. I could have easily ruined it all. If the breakthrough had happened back then, it would all be over. I was arrogant and naive. The fact that I have managed to do some things right with Ghost is because, for all my mistakes, I knew better what to do. Even now I have not managed to avoid all the mistakes, as we well know. Besides, I would have hated most of the music we wrote at the time. I never want to hear again any of the songs I wrote with Subvision. They make me sick. Those songs were too close to me. Too personal. Ghost also has a lot of my own personality, but it doesn't come out in the same way. I realised at the time that what was much more interesting to me was how I told the stories.

Was this the moment when you came up with the idea of the stage characters seen on the front of Ghost? It's guaranteed you a quirky, secretive avenue to create music.

- Yes. While I was in Repugnant and Crashdiet, I played a few gigs with a honky-tonk band. I found I liked being undercover. I wanted to do things in secret. Not to become famous in my own face or to put myself in the spotlight for some egoistic reason, but because it is a fun concept. The experience made me feel that if I create a kind of figure that gets all the attention, I can still be myself behind the scenes. That way, I could look at my creations objectively, because I'm kind of doing it for someone else.

When Ghost's debut Opus Eponymus came out, you were almost 30 years old and trying to achieve success with several bands. What were your goals for Ghost? Would you have continued making albums if this project had remained a marginal audience affair?

- I would have been more than happy if Ghost had remained a small, stable business that I could have done on top of everything else. That was my idea from the beginning, when I was writing my debut for four years. My original vision was not where we are now. I could never have seen an occult rock project achieving commercial success. I didn't make Ghost with the idea that this was my breakthrough. I just thought that if I'm going to do something creative with my life, it has to be something that I really feel. I imagined myself doing something in the same spirit as Diamanda Galas, Dead Can Dance or Sunn O))). Not in the sense that my music sounds like any of those, but that it's some kind of art installation. As if we were a theatre show rather than a band. My goal was that we would perform in Helsinki Opera House at the most.

When did you realise that Ghost was on its way to a size where you could realise your dream of an artistically independent, yet gigantic show touring the world with a rock band?

- The biggest step I've taken in my entire career was when I leapt from complete nothingness to at least being something with a future. That was in March 2010, when I released my first songs on Myspace. It was kind of an overnight breakthrough. Before that night, maybe about ten people knew about Ghost. The next minute the number was in the thousands. It. Was. Totally. Unbelievable. Just the sheer number of people who were glowing about Ghost and the number of people who made loud declarations about how much they hated us was a signal that we had spawned something powerful. That could have ended in a brief shock, but song, album and concert after song, it just kept going. And it still goes on. You can see it with every new single release. Everyone has an opinion about Ghost. Wow! Moments abound from then on. Like seeing James Hetfield wearing a Ghost shirt in an interview that was seen all over Swedish television. It was a gigantic, huge moment that I will never forget. Or when Darkthrone's Fenriz listed us as one of the metal bands of the future, which sounds pretty funny now knowing our music.

The last stadium-level heavy rock bands, such as Guns N' Roses and Metallica, cemented their size category more than 30 years ago. Even then, heavy rock was still mainstream. Ghost, on the other hand, made its breakthrough in the 2010s, when rock was definitely not big.

- So, similarly, many 80s rock bands like Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne grew to be huge because they managed to make a few albums that were part of the pop peak of the time. The rock they made was what was topping the Billboard charts at the time. Now it's a different story. Ghost is not hip-hop, r'n'b or experimental pop made by young artists. In the metal world, people think we're doing really commercial things, but in the big picture we're just a footnote to the fact that someone is still making old-fashioned music. We're the odd bird that gets a Grammy every now and then for some reason. I don't know if there's continuity for us. I'm pretty sure that everything we do with Ghost could change at any time. And it will. Sooner or later I'm going to realize that the peak of our career passed some time ago, and now people are talking about something completely different. I'm happy as long as I manage to make music to which people's first reaction is some kind of exclamation mark. It means that we still stand out from the crowd, but you can't repeat that forever.

At first, Ghost was just you. Then came the Nameless Ghouls, a band of faceless members. Later, you even had to go to court with them, as they demanded a larger share of Ghost's income. Now Ghost is just you again. Is self-governance the best solution for Ghost, or do you long for a full-blooded band activity?

- The biggest mistake I ever made was to think for a single second that Ghost could be both. When I was in my thirties, I thought the same as many people that age. I worried that my youth was over and that I was losing my grip on my friends. I feared that life would put us on our own rafts and we'd drift in different directions. By the time Ghost hit, I was at a point in my life where I had a job for once, had two kids and had taken some pretty big steps towards adulthood. Up until then, I had been single and unemployed. Ready to go out into the world at a moment's notice. By the turn of the 2010s, I hadn't given up on those dreams, but I had settled down. To put it really cynically, I needed some guys because I couldn't do Ghost alone. It was easy to ask these friends I didn't want to lose touch with to join me. Invite them to a party, so to speak. I was absolutely sure that we were going to experience something that was going to be fun, and I wanted to experience it with friends. I had already done most of the groundwork for Ghost. The whole concept was there. We had a record deal. The rest of them were sitting at a ready-made table. Some of these people were sceptical about whether this was going to be anything at all. They were moaning about how stupid it all sounds, and how silly they look in their outfits. Although these same people have since said that Ghost meant a lot to them, it is nothing compared to what it means to me. Ghost is everything to me from 2006 onwards. So I just had to give up the idea that this was something I could with other people. It wasn't that from the beginning, and I shouldn't have forced this concept into a band. I lied to myself for a while about it.

With decisions like this and your records, many people see you as a confident and visionary musician who knows what you're doing. In what ways are you outside your own comfort zone and the most insecure?

- I'm usually confident about music, but the next moment I might be unsure about the same things. However, I never doubt myself to the point of feeling completely useless. There are a lot of people who dabble in designing houses, building them and then selling them for a small profit that just about compensates for the resources spent on them. I experience composing in much the same way. Every piece is like a new project. A new goal that I try to achieve as successfully as possible. I don't settle for easy solutions. I might throw a few of my colleagues under the bus when I say that quite a few musicians are content to make whatever sound they want for 45 minutes. As long as the band keeps going and going. I don't get the fulfilment of making an album every two or three years because that's just the way it has to be. It's important to me to try and write the best songs I can. Even in my Repugnant days, my desire to write recognisable songs was high. I wanted it to be the superstar in its genre. This creates situations where I know what I want, but I can't seem to find the means to achieve my goal.

How do you get out of such locked situations when composing?

- I may be a bit of a control freak in some things, but I'm not afraid to admit I need help to achieve a bigger goal. That's where co-writing sessions very often help, as I did on the new album with Joakim Berg, Salem Al Fakir, Vincent Pontare, Max Grahn, Peter Svensson and Klas Åhlund. I also developed a little imagination exercise for myself years ago. In a locked situation, I imagine for a moment that I am another musician, writing music for a completely different band. What if I were this person from this band who always does these things well, I think, and I start a kind of role-play. That little imaginative exercise has often opened up possibilities in any number of directions. In a way, it's the same kind of opportunity opener for objectivity that all the visible role-playing has been.

When we last spoke in March 2019, the tours for the Prequelle album were in their final stages. You said at the time that you had a clear vision for Ghost's fifth album. Now, two and a half years later, Impera has been released. How much do your visions for the albums change as you make them?

- Can I make a small reference to Star Wars? You may know how different George Lucas' original idea of a single Star Wars film was, and what the franchise has grown into. Even before a second of the album was written, I knew I wanted to write an album about empires and their disintegration. I knew what kind of visual expression would go alongside all that. I had also sketched out what songs should be on the album at what stage, so that my idea of the right kind of drama would be realised. The idea of all this may have been in my head since 2014, but Ghost albums are not finished until they are finished. I'm always making changes to the albums, all the time and even in the last few moments. There are always some decisions and choices to be made, because every beat and every melody has to have a meaning.

After Prequelle's melodic, catchy and poppy Ghost, it was certainly possible to continue in the same vein and guarantee steady growth. You chose a different path, and Impera's melodic language, rhythm and atmosphere is like the joy of 80s rock squeezed through the formal language of the vicious Ghost.

My goal has always been to write new music. New experiments. If my music matters, all the better. If it stands on its own feet as something that has meant something to someone, great. At the point when I'm writing music and trying to do my job, if you think of composing as a job, I can't think at all about what my music is, what it isn't, what it could be, what it can't be or what it will mean. I just have to try to make something as good as possible until the whole album crystallises in my mind. I might find that this song is like a closing song, this is the last act, so it doesn't matter if it lasts seven minutes. It's not a song that could become a hit, so it doesn't need to be compressed into a form that could be played on the radio. Similarly, I might have a song in my hands that screams "Hit! Hit! Hit!" and it may be a good idea to trim it a little and make sure that the song has the right seeds to reach its potential. It's about not shying away from any means when you have a certain imagery in mind that you want the music to express.

One of the unwritten rules in rock's history is that at some point, even big bands will turn around and change their style completely. Ghost has already flirted with many genres, but how far could you go here? Could you imagine doing something completely different, like a hip-hop album, and succeeding?

- I don't know if my rap record would be good, hah hah, but if it seemed topical, why not? I think I understand the design language of hip-hop, which I like. Of course, my interest in the genre is limited because I only like a certain type of hip-hop from a certain period, i.e. the late 80s and early 90s. Sampling is the most fascinating part of hip hop. You can take any part of the music that you like, whether it's an old soul track or a be-bop song, find a rhythm to give it flow and get someone to rap over it. Public Enemy, Run-DMC, Cypress Hill, House Of Pain... all that stuff that sounded very different from most of the hip-hop of today. At the time, hip-hop's message could be very loud, but it was also celebratory, hit-making and in a certain, strange way, joyful. The tone could be very self-ironic and the music even sounded funny. Hip-hop today often feels like a feverish nightmare, whereas the Beastie Boys, for example, had a more colourful feel. The core idea of Beastie Boys is something that I feel a kinship with in Ghost. If I wanted to make a death metal album that sounded like it was made in 1987, I could do it. If I wanted to make a punk album that sounded like 1977, I could do that too. But writing an urban hip-hop album? I'm not entirely sure… but maybe that’s exactly why I should do it someday.

[kindredhearts13]

Dissecting the Cleaning Lady, Episode 1x07 “Our Father, Who Art in Vegas”

Alright, it is finally time to break down this episode that has been occupying FAR TOO MUCH of my mind these past few days. Based off of my notes (and yes, I took notes- I’m that invested), this is going to be a long one. Strap in.

GARRETT

Okay, it is absolutely no secret that I DO NOT like Garrett. His entire being annoys me, BUT I have to say that I think this was his strongest episode. Still not a fan, but I felt like I know and understand more about him than I have this entire season now- so, I actually have an interest to know what is going to happen to him now. Let me explain:

Up until this point, I felt like we were supposed to empathize with Garrett due to his family issues- sympathize at the very least. But, his enormous ego and tendency for utter ignorance has made that a very tall order that- for me- has yet to be fulfilled. This episode, I felt like I got him; as in, I felt like I understood why he is the way he is. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think Oliver Hudson is doing a great job playing this character- annoying as he is; but I truly think the real diamond in the rough of Garrett’s character is Liza Weil’s portrayal of Agent Russo. Liza is a phenomenal actress that has found a way to anchor every character she’s given and somehow make them feel more authentic than they may even be written to be. (Case and point, in How to Get Away with Murder she was cast opposite AMAZING actors and tended to steal the scene from all of them; EXCEPT Viola Davis because literally no one, not even Meryl Streep, could ever.) Agent Russo seems to be such a badass woman with a strong sense of self and a solid moral compass. When Garrett sent Thony, Fiona, and Gabby to the detention center, she wasn’t just angry because he did it without going through the proper channels, but she was upset because he was in the wrong. He unnecessarily put these women at risk to try and prove something; and all he proved was how incompetent he is. 

The use of her character to help bolster his tells me we’re going to have some questions answered because of her. She sees the good in him, even when we don’t. In a way, their relationship mirrors Thony and Arman, except the woman has the power. I am curious if they’ll take them down the romantic route and have Garrett’s obsession with Arman and Thony cause issues with them- how that will all play out. No idea, but I can’t imagine getting someone as capable as Liza on the show and wasting her talent. So, I am officially curious to see what they do with her (and by way, Garrett, Thony, and Arman).

My main question where Garrett’s concerned is quite simple: Why is he so obsessed with Arman? Arman is a whole ass meal, but Garrett isn’t fixated on him for that reason; so, I just need more clarity. There is absolutely no way they’ve done all of this research and don’t know that Hayak is the head of this whole organization; and while I understand wanting to get to the person that could take Hayak down and all that he’s connected to with insider info, it feels weird to me that Garrett barely mentions him, he only focuses on ONE person and people connected to Arman.

 NADIA

I LOVE Nadia. I want to know so much more about her than we do, but she makes the most of every single scene that she’s in. The show of strength amongst female characters in this show is absolutely delicious and something that I take such pride in as a female viewer. Seeing women depicted as complex, flawed, vulnerable, strong and multi-faceted is so beautiful, and I love getting a new dose of that with these women each week. 

Something that truly struck me this episode, more than any other time, is how absolutely terrified she is. Not of losing Arman, not even of Hayak to a certain extent. Nadia is genuinely terrified of being meaningless, powerless. Her use of the word “common” was so striking because she was directly referring to Thony and her life in that way. Whatever Nadia has been through, and it appears to have been a lot, it clearly took everything she had to get to where she is. I think that Thony being “common” is more of a threat of Nadia ending up that way, more of a threat of her losing her beloved life, than anything else- even than losing Arman, her husband. 

Something that really strikes me about Nadia is her relationship with Arman. It’s weird to say, but they remind me of siblings more than a married couple at times. They seem so intensely not intimate with each other in the way you would expect them to be, and the way they speak to each other- mainly Nadia to Arman- is quite spiteful, when you think about it. 

“Did you really think throwing some money at a sick little boy makes you a good man?”

For the second time, we watched Nadia cut Arman down with her words. Belittle him, emasculate him, and then walk away with her head held high after doing it. She knows what to say to hurt him, because I think that deep down she’s always known that Arman’s moral compass didn’t match hers exactly. He was desperate too, but not as much as she. I would argue that’s why hearing Thony say, “You’re not the man I thought you were,” cut so deeply. He’s used to hearing how horrid, less than he is. He craves those “here’s a drawing my kid made of you because you’re his hero” moments that he just doesn’t have. Or, at least, didn’t before Thony. 

We already know that Arman’s greatest struggle is his conscious and sense of self. He so badly wants to be what he believes is a good man, and because Thony is the best thing in his life, he views what she sees as good to be just that, good. Arman hasn’t yet learned to accept and love himself as he is, so he so desperately wants someone- particularly the person who woke up the humanity he’s been hiding away- to see him as a good person, “a good man.” I would dare to guess that Arman’s idea of a good man has a lot to do with his father. He spoke about Hayak in terms of strength and power, but when he spoke of his family, it was with a sense of reference and remorse. Back when he was good. With good people. 

Nadia, his wife, sees him as a monster- perhaps not in the way he sees himself, but still not in the way he wants to be seen. The interesting thing here is that I don’t think Arman being a monster is necessarily a bad thing to Nadia. He’s a titan of his industry, a monster when he needs to be, and they’ve been wildly successful because of it. To her, they are who they are, and there’s no point of pretending any differently. But for him, he wants more, he wants to be more. And that truly terrifies Nadia.

I’d like to close this section out by pointing out how incredibly lackluster their intimacy seems. Arman had to convince himself to kiss Nadia, Nadia. That tells you something. 

MARCO

Okay, I have to admit, I don’t hate Marco- I don’t necessarily like him, but I don’t hate him. I think he’s a selfish asshole who deserves to get punched; but I actually have sympathy for him because he’s just pathetic. Marco makes me sad more than anything, because he is so lost. He is literally trying so hard to pretend that he isn’t sinking when he 100% is. The saddest thing is that he probably wouldn’t have lost Thony, even before she came to Vegas, had he just admitted that to himself (and to her). 

Thony gave up her career, so much of her life, trying to save Luca and she ended up having to keep every single thing together for her family. She had to carry the weight of the vastly unbalanced emotional (and potentially more) responsibilities of her marriage, keep hope alive for her son so that he wouldn’t give up and could have as normal of a life as possible, and try and keep herself standing on two feet and breathing and moving all at the same time. I can’t even imagine how incredibly exhausted Thony is. The saddest thing about their marriage is that he is actively choosing to ignore how unhappy she is, instead of rising up to be what she’s needed for a long time now. 

Two of the biggest things I noticed about them are: 

1. Marco gaslights her

2. Thony is so uncomfortable doing anything remotely intimate with him that you can feel it through the screen. 

Let’s further analyze this. 

It has bothered, and not gone unnoticed by, me that the only thing consistent about Marco is his ability to make literally every single thing about him. Before arriving in Vegas, he turned every conversation about Luca’s health into a conversation about his needs. Luca getting sicker suddenly became Marco needing to see his son, not Marco trying to help find a solution. Luca needing a liver transplant turned into Marco needing Thony to send him money, not him doing what Thony would’ve done and figuring out how we can work himself to the bone to get there. He talks to Fiona about being away from his family for almost a year and not being able to do anything, but I can’t help but question why he wasn’t able to do anything? Even if money carries more from the US to the Philippines, for what reason was he UNABLE to do even the bare minimum in supporting his family? EMOTIONALLY SUPPORTING HIS WIFE? Marco is the king of victim mentality and it’s extremely infuriating. 

He also has the profound ability to manipulate her into feeling badly about the choices that he’s made. She asks him, a gambling addict, a valid question about how he was able to gather money so quickly. And he turns it into her being unsupportive, judgmental (a throwback to Arman calling her sanctimonious, something that hit a nerve for her during that argument). 

“Why do you always have to assume the worst of me?”

But absolutely no answer was ever given to her question, yet he expected her to answer every single one of his. 

Let’s point out the obvious, neither Thony nor Arman wear their wedding rings but both of their spouses do. I feel like this is clear foreshadowing (to me, I think we’ll see Arman and Thony getting married at some point before the series, as a whole, ends and a they’ll work with the cinematographer to have a very artistic shot of their hands with rings on them- but that’s in the future). 

The show has done a good job at pointing out and hinting at the issues within the marriage between Thony and Marco, and it honestly came at no surprise that they weren’t sharing a bed- save for a few times to be intimate, as suggested by Marco. What strikes me here is just how so incredibly uncomfortable this entire exchange makes Thony. I felt uneasy watching her on screen and was afraid that she’d force herself into something that she didn’t want to do because of her guilt, but I am so glad that she didn’t. Kudos to the show for that. 

At the top of that first bathroom scene with them, Marco says how much he’s missed Thony. Her response is, “We missed you, too,” not “I missed you, too.” Then, he tries to kiss her and become intimate, and she is just so visibly uncomfortable. She tries to respectfully move away from him, and he even as he tries to convince her that things weren’t as bad as she thinks; she stands her ground. I truly believe that Thony is trying to hold onto this marriage mainly for Luca- she grew up without her Dad and doesn’t want to do anything that could potentially lessen Luca’s time with his Dad (unless absolutely necessary, like, moving to save his life). There’s also basis for an argument that Thony is afraid of failure. She doesn’t want to fail Luca, she doesn’t want to fail Fiona, she doesn’t want to fail Arman, she doesn’t want to fail her marriage and I think her strive for perfection ties into her having to rely on herself more than anyone else. Outside of Fiona, and recently in her life Arman, who has she been able to rely on besides herself?

I feel for her so much because this woman is so deserving of love and support, but she’s with someone that is more in love with the idea of her than the actual woman that she is. The difference in how Marco and Arman treat Thony is astounding. Arguably, Marco should know her more. She’s his wife. She’s his sister’s best friend. And they have a son together. But we saw in just one scene how little he actually knows her and can read her; or, one could say how little he cares about how she feels. He speaks to her with a hint of condescension. As if she’s too naive to realize what’s happening around her and undeserving of being trusted to make her own decisions and take care of herself. I understand the need for open, continuous communication in a marriage but Marco doesn’t actually listen to Thony. He is rightfully upset that she kept any word of Arman from him, but he is wrong to completely shut down the lines of communication and start speaking to her as if she hasn’t been keeping their son alive all this time. He doesn’t offer her the respect that she deserves and consistently puts his feelings and needs ahead of her own. 

Showing up to her job unannounced and trying to force her out of the way to get to her boss? Gaslighting her every time she asks him a valid question? Horrid. But outside of all of this, and stealing from his own son- which is just next level buffoonery- he acts as if it is her fault that he hasn’t stepped up as a husband and father; as if Thony being herself- strong, independent, resourceful- somehow emasculates him. He takes zero responsibility for the dissolving of his marriage, but is fully ready to place all blame on her. 

Something that I did appreciate from Marco was seeing him with Fiona. They have a good relationship and it was really sweet to catch those little moments of them just joking around and being family. It gives glimpses into the man that Thony probably fell in love with- the sad reality, however, is that he wasn’t able to be that person for her as a partner. 

Sidenote: I am curious about Fiona’s reaction to Thony potentially being with Arman. She knows something is going on, but she also seemed far more willing to understand than to judge. I don’t know if she knows the extent of the issues with Thony and her brother, but she defintely knows that something is up with them and has been for a while. 

ARMAN & THONY

Okay, this post is about to get longer- so sorry but shout out to you if you’re still here. Time to dig into this brilliant pair.

So, I already touched on the juxtaposition of how Marco and Arman treat Thony, but I’d like to expand by breaking down how Arman’s treatment of Thony so incredibly differs from her husband. 

Arman supports Thony. At this point, we have seen Arman literally and figuratively support Thony. He doesn’t know every single thing about her, every single thing going through her mind- but he knows that she’s hurting and needs support and that’s enough for him. He’s just there, even when she doesn’t ask him to be. I’ve spoken about how emotionally intelligent Arman is, but it is not lost on me how much he pays attention to her. 

While Marco didn’t seen to quite get it when Thony rejected being intimate with him- he picked up on it somewhat- but even so. Arman is incredibly aware of what is going on with her based off of her body language. He knows what she looks like when happy or stressed or sad. And he knows because he cares enough to pay attention and always check in with her to confirm his suspicions, and see how he can then support her should anything be wrong. Also, a point should be made that Arman knew how to evoke an erotic response out of Thony (the moaning) the very first time they had any physical intimacy but her husband clearly isn’t quite that in tune with her. 

Arman respects Thony. As much as he loves being there for her and finding a solution to her problems, he respects her independence and how completely capable she is. He asks her permission before just doing something, trying to understand her boundaries. I imagine that the closer they get, the more he’ll feel comfortable making decisions without always checking in first- but these would always be rooted in his conversations with her, knowing how she feels about something, and making sure that it aligns with her level of comfort. He isn’t emasculated by her strength and self-sufficiency, he’s enthralled with it; and it makes her vulnerability all the more meaningful to him, in turn. And even when upset and cross with her, he doesn’t condescend her. He has threatened back when they first met, but he’s gone out of his way to be tender with her once he’s realized that he didn’t treat her with the level of respect initially deserved.

An example of this would be their discussion in the wine cellar (we will touch on this again in a moment); he starts to lose his temper when he hears about the FBI but quickly adjusts his tone when speaking to her, as to not disrespect her or make her feel blamed for something that was not her fault. He’s more measured than he’s ever been when talking to her while upset. That tells us that, one, he is actively making an effort to work on his outbursts; but also that something truly shifted for him from that kiss. Besides realizing that he’s falling (has fallen) in love with Thony, he realized that he’s revealed the parts of himself that he views as beastly or monster-like and she’s still here. She still cares about him. And she still thinks he’s a good man. 

Okay, let’s address the use of “we” vs “I.” It clearly cut Arman to the core when Thony said “I’ll find another way,” after Arman telling her “We’ll find another way” before their kiss. But, in her defense, I don’t think she met it that way- as in to hurt him. I think there’s a two-fold reason for this response: for one, it was a knee-jerk reaction. We’ve already discussed how she has to do everything herself, she’s used to having doors closed in her face and trying to find a solution. It slipped out of her so naturally like it’s something she says all of the time.

Now, here’s the second part to it: she and Arman looked at each other for a long time, an unspoken conversation happening. I truly believe that she just let it hang in the air, in part, because Arman pretty much told her he was tapping out of her life the last time they spoke. He was in his feelings, thinking he was doing this noble thing but also being the one to “cut the chord first;” when in reality he went from telling her that they were in all of this together to saying that he’s already thinking ahead to his life without her. He didn’t mean it, but he said it. And she can only do so much with that. 

Okay, to this post is already so long, so I am going to make a separate post to discuss the duality and dichotomy of Arman and Nadia vs Thony and Marco, take a look at that Marco vs Arman stand-off, and where I think the relationship between Arman and Thony stands/is heading. There’s some more I would like to unpack, but I think that deserves its own post ahead of Monday. 

[a-problematic-writer]

New and Improved S1 Jesse Profiles

Like it says on the tin! Just the improved versions of my S1 Jesse profiles. Got all of their lore sorted and am happy with where they are! A few got new names. That’s about it! Under a read more because, dear lord, did I have a lot to say.

Jemma! (Yellow Clip/Highlight)

Chaos incarnate because she's a child at heart. She's aloof and a bit of a loner and socially selective. (Yes, this does make running Beacon Town hard, but she manages) Only certain people have been able to get into her circle. And it's only then that her more chaotic traits jump out. She has more sense and self-control than other Jesse's who may try drinking lava, though the curiosity would be there. She prefers to doodle than participate in meetings or do paperwork. (However, she does know to an extent she's supposed to do those things) Always down for a game of tag. A 4'11'' can of whoop ass. She's kinda like a small dog. Can and will pick a fight and win. Professional at hide and seek. A whole Lesbian. So into women it HURTS. Left-handed! Her weapon of choice is a trident and WHEW. It's probably custom and enchanted to the nines. That's her BABY. Despite not quite understanding redstone to the fullest, she thought Ellegaard was the coolest. Family life wise, she was raised by her grandparents.

Her nickname's include Jem, Emma, and Em. [Em is typically exclusive to Petra <3]

She would honestly be the one playing with the kids around Beacon Town instead of making the big decisions for the city. This is one of the few Jesse's I imagine leaves with Petra. She doesn't want routine! She wants to explore and have fun! Her Beacon Town was like canon standard BT. *Chaos.* Just the way she likes it.

She’s dating Petra and, besties, they are the sweetest couple. They’re out there having fun together exploring the world!!!!

Josiah! (Red Suspenders)

He's tired. Really tired. Let him sleep, please. But if you do, know he sleeps like a rock. And is super cuddly in his sleep. He likes, like, 5 people, maybe (Aiden's one of them). Despite that though, he's like super personable. People like him a lot even if he likes none of them. If Josiah likes you, though, he's likely to tell you how much you mean to him. Super affectionate to his friends. Doesn't want to even be touched by other people. He's kinda grumpy. I suspect it's because he's always tired. Sarcastic to everyone. Except his friends. As I said, he loves his friends and would lay down his life for them. He prefers animals to people, but says that; "Some animals are just as jerk-y as humans. Those animals are cats. They are surprisingly my favorite of the not-pig animals." A bit of a griefer, ngl. Can and will destroy you (and your minecraft house). My tallest Jesse coming in at 6'0''. Absolutely ADORES bracelets. Wears several. Pansexual. Anygender goes, babeyyyy. Right-handed! Weapon of choice is your standard diamond sword preferably with Sharpness and Knockback. Enemies are gettin' FLUNG. He thought Gabriel was the coolest, hands down. He lived with Axel and his family until he was old enough to be out on his own.

His nicknames include Jo, Si, and Siah. (Siah's rare and might get you punched unless you're Aiden in which it will get you stabbed [Guess who still calls him Siah and starts to get away with it])

He likes Beacon Town a lot, but running it is a hassle. He leaves with Petra with some serious reservations because f r i e n d s but he knows they'll be there when he gets back. (He ends up catching up with an old rival while out and about anyway and makes 3 new friends) His Beacon Town, just like Jemma's, was pretty canon standard. Though, I definitely think he kept things a BIT more uniform!

Ngl, he’s likely dating Aiden. They’re both mean and get to be mean together. On the flip side, I could also see him and Axel together. I’m not willing to officially choose. It’s one of them.

Jasmine! (Red Clip/Highlight)

The absolute brightest ball of sunshine you'll ever meet! An optimist through and through! Though, not quite in the morning. Let her get awake though and she's back to herself! She LOVES to dance and you best believe if you're her friend dancing is a must and required, with or without music! She's extroverted to the MAX. Collects friends like baseball cards and cherishes them even more. Kind of a flashy/glamorous person! She can totally run in heels and loves wearing nice clothes. 5'6'' and loving it! She's fun-sized :> Has the patience of a saint. And is so forgiving it's insane. Forgive and forget to the max of the phrase. Though she doesn't let people step all over her in the slightest. Pansexual :> Right-handed! Loves a nice gold sword [Flashy, remember?] Definitely a dual wielder. They're enchanted to the max and she can do DAMAGE with them. Definitely learned from Isa. Thinks all of the Old Order were the coolest. She grew up on her uncles farm.

She is known as Jazz to everyone and that's what she prefers to be called! [On the rarer side there's Jazzy which is exclusive to Aiden and Stella]

Beacon Town is her pride and joy! So, of course, she stays. She's ready for a quiet life. Hers definitely has a more modern, cyberpunk, solarpunk vibe! Glitzy and flashy but in the most down to earth way with plenty of room for the citizens to vote on projects and include their own!

She’s dating Aiden. They’re the sunshine/grumpy trope, wholeheartedly.

Javier! (Green Suspenders)

He's the type to joke about/make light of minor inconveniences and big problems. He's very sarcastic but in like the nicest way possible? He's serious despite his constant joking, I promise. He loves hats? Beanies, ball caps, etc. he owns them, he wears them, he loves them. Also hoodies! He owns like 50+ ("What? They're comfy!" is his number one defense to people's questioning stares at his hoodie collections) He's not all that into sweets. Will occasionally eat one or two. He really likes jazz music; more often than not that's what's playing on his jukebox. He's 5'5'' and mad about it. Honestly, he's just like your average older Gen Z. You know, the one who's over the age of 16 and shitposts about how shitty life and the world are. The definitely not okay but pretends they are kinda Gen Z. That's Javier. Architecture buff. He really knows his stuff! Another Pansexual :> Left-handed king! Just hand him any kind of weapon he'll learn how to use it with finesse <3 Thought Soren was the coolest and incorporated a lot of his architecture style into his own [suffered a horrible version of "never meet your heroes"] He was raised by his two moms and they lived happily in town.

He goes by the nickname Javi more often than not. Friend or foe. He's Javi. (Or Jav [said like Javi without the 'ee' sound at the end] by close friends/a partner)

He's dedicated to leading Beacon Town. He likes the stability the routine of it gives him. So, he let Petra go off on her own but not without swearing her into writing at least twice a month. His Beacon Town is very lush and soft on the eyes. Brick and terracotta are used liberally and he's always happy to include citizens in the planning of new expansions.

Javi’s either with Aiden or Lukas; maybe Aiden and Lukas. I don’t have much else on the matter except that he likes his men tall and wearing a leather jacket.

Jaime! (Blue Clip/Highlight)

She's probably one of the kindest people you'll ever meet but she is so sad. She's afraid of being alone and often wonders if she's good enough. Needs a hug fr fr. A long one, at least an hour of being held. She might cry though. Despite this, she tries to be upbeat and jokes a lot. And can be a menace when she wants to be. None of her friends are safe from pranks and teasing. Also, she's super loyal to her friends! Definitely a ride or die. So brave! Sometimes a bit reckless, but she gets the job done. Definitely has a bit of a temper. Though it's rare it shows through. Very curious! Can sometimes seem nosy, but she just likes learning things! This plays well into her ability to sleuth things out and solve mysteries. She's a clothes thief, 100%. Shirts are the number one thing she takes. Owns at least a couple from all her friends. A really good piano player. It's a hobby she doesn't often get to take part in. Reading and adventuring usually take precedence. Mostly because she can't say no to a good book or new adventure. A decent enchanter and potion brewer! Another Pansexual <3 Right-handed! Sword and shield is her forte. Definitely uses a diamond blade with Sharpness on it. Ivor's her favorite Old Order member. She's learned a lot from him. She was raised by her parents who were the Minecraft equivalent of governors/mayors/politicians.

Jaime's typical nickname is Jay! Aime is another one though on the rarer side. Typically used by Olivia, Axel, and Stella. The rarest goes to Jaybird and Blue Jay. Jaybird coming from her parents and later being adopted by Lukas and Blue Jay coming from Aiden <3

She adores Beacon Town and wants a life of peace after S2 so she chooses to stay despite hating watching Petra go. Her Beacon Town is Steampunk and super lush and green and filled with flowers. It's a center for travel and an adventurer's stop!

She’s, of course, dating Aiden, currently. They’d had a will they/won’t they dynamic for some time. Also, she and Lukas had a small stint as a couple. A few months or so, methinks.

Javon! (Yellow Suspenders)

Has a bit of a temper and that makes him seem really mean but he's actually so nice. Like so so so nice and super gentle. He just usually doesn't like strangers and that makes him seem very unapproachable. He loves his friends though. Would commit crimes in their favor. Would also kick someone's teeth in for them. He's really good with redstone and rigging traps; specifically explosives. A griefer sometimes. Definitely loves Boom Town. He loves playing the guitar and learned at a young age! Likes collecting rocks; has all sorts of cool ones. While he dislikes strangers he's still super polite. And great at moving a crowd! Another Pansexual for the Pansexual Jesse tally. Right-handed! Nothing beats explosives when it comes to weapons however he's a decent archer! Loves his crossbow dearly. His favorite member of the Old Order is Magnus. He was raised by his dad. They lived in a little cabin on the outskirts of town.

His close friends call him Von! It's the only nickname he really has.

He also stays in Beacon Town. May or may not have been for a blonde, no one can prove it though. His Beacon Town is full on Steampunk. Greenery can be seen in some places. It's kinda like an extension to Redstonia in a way. Redstone and technological advancement are appreciated in both—with a side of destruction also being achieved in BT.

He’s dating Lukas. That blonde has had him in a chokehold for years and, tbh, who would blame him?

[picturejasper20]

Pink and the Diamonds

The relationship between Pink and the Diamonds is always presented in the series as very complicated.There is this side of them that shows they really care about Pink such as in the song ¨What´s the use of feeling blue?¨, when Blue and Yellow found out that Pink wasn´t shattered or when we see Blue mourning over Pink´s shattering in ¨Steven Dream¨.It´s easy to guess from many moments and lines that the Diamonds really loved her.

On the other hand, there was this more cruel,controling and abusive side of them. Those moments when they ignored her constanly, when Blue would lock up Pink inside a tower or when they kept her separated from ¨lower gems¨. This cruel side seemed to be motivated by them trying to make Pink act like a Diamond and follow their role in Homeworld´s system.

To analyse their relationships i´m going to talk about them separately since each one is different from the other:

Blue Diamond and Pink

¨I should've done more. Yellow says it'll all be over soon. I wonder what you would think. This is your planet, after all. I still think it is.¨

Out of all the three diamonds,Blue appears to be the one that was closest with Pink. According to ¨Familiar¨ Blue loved watching Pink singing on the bottom of the pool. When she first found about the truth about Rose she held Steven near her while crying tears of happiness, relieved to see Pink again. She also appeared to be the most affected by Pink´s shattering, severeal hints in the series show she suffered from depression and she deeply regret her ¨death¨.

 While all the three Diamonds represent a toxic mother figure to some extent, Blue´s case is the most obvious one. She appeared to be the one that used her powers against Pink the most. She tried teaching her how to ¨behave¨ and the one who was in charge of her punishments.

On the other hand she let Pink bend the rules at times and sometimes encouraged her fun side. Blue also preserved the zoo, earth gems and Rose Quartzes just to not forget about Pink. As she said to Yellow in ¨That will be all¨: 

¨Yellow, she made them. This is all we have left of her. These Gems, this place, and the Earth.¨

Blue´s abuse to Pink is more subtle since her niceness was sometimes used to emotionally manipulate Pink by treating her like a child who is not capable of taking care of herself.

Yellow Diamond and Pink

¨I want my own planet! I deserve it! I'm just as important as you!¨  

¨Then why don't you act like it, Pink?!¨  

Yellow is a gem who prefers hiding her emotions. She seems to be more focused on her Diamond duties than Blue is. Homeworlds system is very important to her but so its her love for Pink.

Yellow considered that Pink wasn´t ready to run a colony on her own. Often she treated her more like a annoyance when she had to spend time with her. She was quite neglectful because she was always busy with giving orders to other gems and checking her colonies.

While Yellow appears to be rational, she can get very emotional when it comes to people she cares about: When Peridot mentioned that she didn´t approve Yellow´s plan to destroy the Earth, she became incredibly enraged and put the  Diamond Communicator on self-destruct mode. This was because Yellow wanted to get rid of everything that remind her of Pink, like Earth, the zoo and the Rose Quartzes.

¨Drowning in all this regret? / Wouldn't you rather forget her?

Ohh! Won't it be grand to get rid of it all?

Let's make a plan of attack! Start looking forward and stop looking back!¨

In the song ¨What´s the use of feeling Blue¨ her desire to destroy the Rose Quartzes and Earth seems to be motivated by her wanting to forget about the past on contrast with Blue Diamond. Yellow blames herself for Pink´s shattering saying they shouldn´t have given a colony to her.

¨How miserable. I knew Pink couldn't handle her own colony. But, I gave in. And now, I'm to blame for her fate.¨

In the end, Yellow cared deeply about Pink, she just doesn´t show her emotions as often as Blue does.

White Diamond and Pink

¨As for me, I'm certain I don't need you. After all, I'm every color of the light! But you're a part of me… the part I always have to repress¨ 

White and Pink is one of most mysterious relationship in the series. However, through small hints and additional material, it´s easy to see that White was very controlling with Pink and their relationship was very distant.

¨Pink was as silly as she was small. She was impossible to understand, impossible to ignore, and impossible to control.¨  White Diamond, The Tale of Steven.

Blue and Yellow mentioned in ¨Familiar¨ how they used to be closer and how White locked herself up in her own head after Pink´s shattering. It´s very likely that White did this as way to pretent that nothing ever happened and to not show any emotions since emotions meant weakness to White, and weakness meant to be flawed.

White always assumed what it was best for Pink, she knew better than her. In her eyes, Pink was a silly naive gem who couldn´t make choices on her own and needed to be controlled every second.

And while she didn´t say it out loud, her love for Pink is her weakness. In Change your mind she thought that Pink was hiding in Steven, she was desperate to prove that the little gem was still alive and didn´t want to believe she was gone.

Finding out that Steven was just Steven was what made her break down and realize how wrong she was about everything. In reality, she was in denial of  Pink´s shattering and wanted to pretend to that she was fine. 

That´s why she hide in her own spaceship and avoided talking with everyone. She was obsessed with being this perfect flawless leader that knew what was best for all gems.

While their relationship was cold and distant, she still cared (and cares) about Pink. 

In conclusion: Pink´s relationship with the Diamonds was very complicated. In this analysis i talked about how they really loved her. The main issue was that their very toxic and controlling parenting pushed Pink away. Their obsession with keeping everything under control on Homeworld prevented them from having a healthy relatioship with her and was what finally broke them apart.

I think it´s very interesting how the writers showed that an very authoritarian regime can destroy families and make parents develop a very toxic mentality that ends up hurting their kids. It not only hurts the society but also what is personal for us.

Note: Gifs are from Steven universe wikia

[ookamihanta]

Tired of waiting for araki to give us more mixed jojos from different parts of the world and female jojos so i did it myself. 

Fyi, these kids are assuming everyone somehow lives to have kids so like. >>side eyes jolyne. And my own personal headcanons as to how they came to be obviously. To better understand everything, best go read some of my other posts about older Giorno and Josuke and assume everyone lives. (Personal note: I don’t really see any of trio ever actually settling down in these aspects, but these situations need to happen for these kids to actually exist lmao.)

Josephine Baker Jolicoeur is the granddaughter of Josuke Higashikita. Since Josuke got to travel the world being a detective for the Speedwagon foundation, he met a woman in America and had a child with her. Eventually, Josuke’s granddaughter is born to Josuke’s daughter, but from a man who was less than father material. One day, her father snapped and murdered her mother, leaving her orphaned at 10yrs old and being taken in by her grandparents. Josuke still travels the world solving crime, especially now that he has had two close family members of his murdered in cold blood. Josuke’s wife moved to Paris and thus, Josephine did as well. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Josephine actually developed her stand when she was the sole witness to her mother’s killing, explaining how she miraculously escaped before her father to get to her as well. It took several more years for her to fully explore her abilities, as Josuke one day used Crazy Diamond in front of her on one of his rare trips back home to Paris and she freaked tf out because she didn’t know other people had a stand.

Black Venus’s power is quite a feat. It basically can create black holes, or open spaces that sucks everything into it. Josuke likes to say it’s a stand he finds similar to his best friend’s, Okuyasu’s The Hand, so you can bet Josephine is close to her god uncle too. Unlike Okuyasu however, Black Venus can create multiple spaces that can hold and suck objects up. Black Venus can also choose to spit back the objects out by creating a chain of black holes near by. However, if only one is created, then whatever is sucked into it is gone forever. Of course, this black hole can transport people as well, explaining how Josephine managed to escape her father’s wrath when she was younger.

Jordan Josius is the grandson of Jolyne Cujoh. In some AU, Jolyne lives and gets to have a family, yay. I don’t care much if you think Jolyne has a kid with Annasui or someone else, just know she had a daughter and her daughter gave birth to Jordan. Jordan lives in the U.S like the rest of his family and resides in Orlando, a senior in high school. He has a part time job at Disney World as one of the mascot costume characters, as he’s rather shy and quiet, so it was one of the only jobs he could snag at his age and experience. Unlike most of his extended family, Jordan actually has a good relationship with his parents and grandparents. He still lives at home and the only reason he gets roped up to any sort of mess is because of his job. You’d think being a costume character would be a simple job, but the amounts of time some lunatic has came into the theme park while he was working is quite ridiculous. He’s gotten into several scuffles while being in his uniform, but the managers at the park cover his back whenever something happens. Jordan was born with his stand, so he doesn’t quite recall when it first manifested. Jolyne tells him often that she’d had to tie up his stand when he was a baby because it would cause harm by accident whenever he started crying.

Tympany Five’s power is the ability to create a cloak of mist/fog around its enemies, which once trapped in, can manipulate your senses. Jordan has to be careful when using this ability however, as he can’t control every aspect of it and can only vaguely give commands to a certain extent. When it comes to changing one’s senses, he can only change one at a time and he has to continuously focus on that one person, or else the ability loses its affect. He can use this mist to sense multiple bodies in his range, but if he is not directly focusing on them, the sense that is changed is completely random and out of Jordan’s control. Tympay Five can create everything from hallucinations to simple changes such as making someone’s perspective shift just the slightest to make them off balance. 

Josie ‘Jose’ Pablo Jofre is the granddaughter of Giorno Giovanna. The mafia don Giorno didn’t think too much about relationships, considering his position, but when he traveled to Mexico looking in to take over their gang routes and supplies, he encountered the head of the entire operation--who was a beautiful woman. Long story short, they elope, but keep their relationship behind closed doors due to their jobs. It would be very dangerous for word to get out that two figureheads were in a relationship with each other, much less had a child soon afterwards, after all. They have two children, one son and one daughter. However, both Giorno and his wife agreed they didn’t want their children to get involve in their mafia work more than they needed to, so they did their best to hide that side of their world from them. To do this even more so, Giorno and his wife live apart in their own separate countries with one child with each parent. Giorno takes care of his daughter in Italy while his son stays with his wife in Mexico. Because of this, Giorno’s son also takes his mother’s surname and soon grows up to have a child of his own--Josie. Despite all of Giorno’s attempts to keep his family out of the mafia business, Josie easily finds out what her grandparents are up to and immediately takes awe with them. She’s very much like Giorno, someone who looks up to the gangsters rather than down upon. She eventually convinces Giorno to let her join Passione and when Giorno retired, Josie happily took over both Giorno’s position as Don and merged all routes and supplies with her grandmother’s.

Hard Tango’s abilities simply boil down to being extremely good fortune. Being in its range, one’s precision and chances of achieving rise exponentially, even if they’re not trying. Of course, this also affects opponents of Josie’s, so bringing out Hard Tango can be a challenge if her opponents are close combat heavy and stay within her range. She often uses Hard Tango when she gambles or when making trade deals, as things will always go in her favor. Put to its extreme, Hard Tango can even save people’s lives, as it can create situations where an injury is not as deep or as deadly as it may seem. Yes, this ability op as fuck, but hey she’s Giorno’s grandchild so it only makes sense. 

[opalsiren]

some bella x emma (bemma) headcanons under the cut:

the first time they meet is in the moon pool after emma returns from her travels. bella was meeting the girls there to help with the repair effort, while emma was hoping to surprise the girls there the moment she got home. despite having only spoken the once on a skype call with dodgy signal, they recognise each other instantly. they have a 'you must be bella!' / 'you must be emma!' moment and an instant connection. the girls had given emma the bare bones of the comet eva story, but bella is the one who has to explain the full extent of the damage to the moon pool before cleo and rikki get there

lewis runs into emma and her family in the US on their travels while studying. it occurs to him at that moment that emma and bella are kindred spirits who would get on really well, and he tells her so. emma never would have guessed just how much she would grow to like bella

emma feels a little lost when she returns home with everything that's changed and all she missed out on, not to mention guilty for not being around. emma feels like cleo and rikki don't really need her anymore with bella around. conversely bella feels insecure about her place in the group when emma is welcomed back with open arms, the girls sporting their lockets again. bella feels like cleo and rikki don't need her anymore now that emma is back. they confide their fears to one another one day trying to fix the moon pool and reassure each other about their places in cleo and rikki's lives i cannot stress enough how little this ends in pointless girl rivalry

with cleo soon to study marine biology at university and rikki planning to take classes at a local college, emma feels a little lost upon returning home. she had managed to graduate high school while travelling, because of course she did, but doesn't feel college is for her right now and wants to travel some more. bella also feels lost with will away on an extended holiday with his sister and the band's imminent break-up when summer ends. they both decide to go travelling together at the end of the summer, bella insisting on emma seeing the irish sea caves, while emma knows of this gorgeous romantic little patisserie in paris she's dying to take her to

somewhere between fixing the moon pool, planning their trip, and hanging out with the others at the café, they start to catch feelings for one another. they probably start to fall at around the same time but i think bella realises her feelings first (she has known she's liked girls for a long time, whereas emma still isn't really all that comfy with the concept of fancying girls). i'm inclined to say cleo, rikki, and even lewis know that emma fancies bella before emma herself knows. bella is scared to cause a potential rift in the group but slowly starts to insert 'she' pronouns into the band's songs and even has the nerve to be a little more touchy-feely with emma than the others. emma is the stereotypical clueless sapphic who has no idea that bella is flirting with her, even after she realises she herself likes her. eventually rikki uses one of the thousand favours zane owes her to lock them in the café's storeroom and force them to admit their feelings for one another

when they start dating emma freaks out about coming out to her parents. the others reassure her that coming out may not be necessary, but emma has such a hard time lying to her parents and even told them about her tail before they went travelling. bella assures her that, if they're okay with their daughter being a mermaid, they should be okay with her being gay, promising to be as involved as emma wants. in the end the coming out is out of her hands: elliot catches a vibe between emma and bella and essentially tells their parents to stage a family meeting to show her they love and support her no matter who she dates. the meeting itself is long and filled with happy tears and lots of hugs. they are completely accepting of her sexuality and basically treat bella like another member of the family. elliot starts a gsa at school and the whole family go to pride events together every june. bella, not close with nor out to her parents, is overwhelmingly grateful and jokes about taking emma's last name when they get married

emma and bella are quite different on the surface, but ultimately bring out the best in one another. bella is the zen member of the group and gets super into yoga and meditation. she helps emma deal with her anxiety and lets her know that it's okay to just be, that she doesn't have to perform to high standards of perfectionism all the time. emma is for sure the extrovert of the relationship and helps to bring bella out of her shell when she wants to retreat into shyness, allowing her confidence and assertiveness to flourish. when emma is quick to anger, bella calms. when bella doubts her worth, emma reminds her just how valuable she is. they are both deeply warm, empathetic, and compassionate people who are loyal to a fault, and these traits only grow the longer they are together

rikki likes to take credit for their entire relationship for the stunt at the storeroom, while lewis is certain he is responsible since he told emma that she would like bella. cleo claims that, if she never got into zane's zodiac all those years ago they never would have become mermaids together, therefore she should be credited for emma and bella's entire relationship. chaos ensues

during their extended world tour, they find half a dozen other moon pools and meet ten or fifteen other mermaids. with consent they send their details on to the others back home in the hopes of gaining further understanding around magic and mermaids

bella uses her gifts to make emma lots and lots of jewellery. in the early stages of their relationship she can be found proudly wearing a dozen or so different bracelets, necklaces, and anklets at any given time. for their first anniversary bella makes her a rose made of crystal from the water in the moon pool

emma doesn't have the same sense of creativity as bella, but years of taking elliot to oboe practice, reading music theory for fun, and even her grasp of english grammar conventions helps her to help bella write songs. if bella is stuck on a particular line or needs a second pair of ears, emma is the first person she goes to with her problem. when the record deals start flooding in, emma also helps to decode the legal jargon and acts as her manager until a more permanent replacement can be found

bella is lowkey obsessed with emma's mum's extensive crystal ware collection. she likes to make one-of-a-kind, totally unique crystal sculptures for her using her powers. it takes mrs. gilbert a little while to make the connection

when emma starts to study medicine and bella goes on tour, they have to do long distance for a little while. long distance with a mermaid's tail isn't quite so bad, though, as they frequently meet in the middle of the ocean to spend time together between more land-oriented visits

both emma and bella are deeply connected to the environment. when emma is a little older with an established medical practice she uses her money and connections to campaign for environmental protections. when bella gains success as an artist she, too, uses her platform to promote environmental awareness, LGBT rights, women's rights, and a whole host of other issues

they propose to each other at the same time, out for dinner near the marina. right as bella presents emma with the diamond ring elliot helped her pick out, a clumsy waiter spills a jug of water, and bella has to leg it to the water so as not to expose the secret. emma finds her crestfallen at the moon pool and quickly surfaces to console her, revealing the moonstone ring she’s had hidden behind the rocks for weeks. suffice to say, they said yes

despite her best efforts, emma never really got over having to abandon her swimming aspirations due to her tail. similarly a part of bella always mourned the childhood she never got to have since she became a mermaid, nor any chance of a relationship with her family. in the end they are both able to make peace with their fate: it brought them to each other

(bonus: shameless self plug of my bella x emma oneshot aka the only bemma fic in existence. god bless)