#and you also see it as proof of the kids growing into themselves

[hijklab]

The thing about liveship traders that I think is so dope is that from page one you’re given exactly the tools that the vestrits will use to get through everything together. They are traders, they bargain. They don’t just bargain their way into marriages, they bargain their way out of poverty, into new government structures, into the favor of the most powerful people and creatures in their world, into royal status among dragons and pirates and diplomats, until they’re literally shaping a new society and new relationship with humanity entirely. From day one we understand that this family has a specific skill set and then they use it to dig their way out of hell.

[almondmilktargaryen]

Duty & Sacrifice (Part Three)

Summary: Aemond is married with two kids to Floris Baratheon, as it was his duty. But it's when he ventures into Flea Bottom in the night that he faces his sacrifices.

Couple: Aemond Targaryen/Fem!Reader

Category: Flangst

Content warnings: Mourning child loss (written by someone who's not a parent), lying

Word count: 4.6k

Also on my Ao3

Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four ✍️

Just as when he left Flea Bottom, the guards do not look twice at Aemond as he walks through the Keep. They do not see his face, nor the two cloaks he wore (Criston gave him his to hide the blood). No, all they see is his boots as they bow upon passing. The only words they utter are, “My prince.” Aemond faces forward. His eye does not stray. And his head stays up.

He turns sharply after climbing the stairs, finding his chamber doors in the east wing. The guard outside mimics the expected behavior before Aemond pushes himself through.

Out of all things unexpected in one night, Floris being absent was jarring. She sticks to a routine, just like him. With the candles already snuffed out, the smell of smoke had been replaced by the open air from their balcony. She should’ve retired hours ago.

Perhaps the gods wanted to leave him alone after… all of it, reminding him how alone he truly was. Still, Aemond looks around, peering past corners and squinting into dark areas at the far ends of their chambers, straining his vision with the distance as he feels the chains in his chest. They weighed down his heart and lungs as he staggered and lifted the bedcovers. Caution camouflages with his grief and takes hold just as strongly. Floris could be anywhere.

The weight, the chains stacked on themselves. Aemond discards the cloaks and mixes them in their shared dirty clothes. The view of King’s Landing taunts him; the capital he once saw from a safe distance nearly two years ago. Even in daylight, the people were nothing more than specks of dust. None of them could hurt him. He never thought it would be the reason, once again, why he felt this way. It was only more proof that he has not changed, still stupid. Three and ten, self-loathing, and stupid.

Luc used to represent his self-loathing. Now he sees Alyssa.

She was warm whenever he held her to his chest, like the sun washing over the cityscape. She was a blaze as fiery as her hair. Now she’s snuffed out like the candles in his chambers, but this time far away from home.

Aemond grips the barrier of the balcony as he falls. The stone scratches his skin as he clings to it like a cliff’s edge, yet he sinks down and down. A heave escapes him, squeezed out of him as the imagery of it all floods back, every angle pouring in as he convinces himself there was something he could have done. Before the alleyway, before Chataya’s. Surely, there was a step he missed. He had to have, so he retraced it all while shivering, like winter was here.

The door creaked open, making Aemond’s head spring up like a deer hearing a twig’s snap. He plugged his grief, picking himself up in the shroud of darkness and rubbing his face.

“Aemond!” Floris’ silhouette is barely in view, but he still recognizes it as she pushes her bangs from her forehead. Her rapid breaths grow louder with each step toward him before she’s fully in the moonlight. She’s in her nightgown. The black one from her mother that matches her hair, both now in crumpled waves. “Where have you been? Daeron has been in a state demanding to see you.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

A hand remains in her hair, the other on her hip. “He won’t stop crying. A nightmare, maybe? I put him to bed hours ago, and the handmaidens said he woke up screaming.”

“I’ll go to him.”

“Wait.” A palm meets his chest, square in the center. “What’s wrong?”

Aemond stares into the dark of their chambers just above her head before falling to her blue eyes. It was wiser not to speak.

The tips of her fingers are cold as they brush under his eye. Her short nails barely scrape his unmarred cheek. The wetness shines under the moon as she turns her palm to him.

He pulled out his usual excuse, putting a hand over his patch. “Eye pain.”

“Eye pain?”

“Yes.”

“Your upsets usually force you to rest, not tears.” She observes the residue before wiping it on her gown. “I haven’t seen it this bad since Baelon’s last name day.”

“Well, it happened. It comes in waves. Or sometimes a moment’s fit.” Another way to cover himself in the future. He’s discovered grief rises in him at inconvenient times. Gods love to torture. “I can’t control when they occur, Floris.”

“I never said you could. I just—”

“I need to see Daeron.”

The children sleep in the west wing of the Keep now. After what happened to Jaehaerys, Aemond insisted their rooms be away from the royal quarters. He made sure there was a guard at their doors day and night. Jaehaera included. Tonight, however, there were two guards outside Daeron’s door, appearing dazed and confused. Yet they still had the sense to bow to their prince.

Aemond opened the door to find five handmaidens completely helpless. But like the guards outside, Aemond was also confused when finding his son not screaming. His body only bounces in place like he had the hiccups. His head was down and he gripped his little golden blanket.

“He’s tired out his throat, my prince,” one handmaiden says. Her voice shakes.

Daeron looks up when hearing the title. His little eyes are puffy from crying so hard, and Aemond’s heart, merely hanging by chords, can still twist in on itself as he watches his boy’s lip quiver.

“Leave us, please,” Aemond says.

“Forgive us, my prince. We tried our best.”

Daeron rubs an eye with the heel of his hand. “Papa, my… throat hurts.” His voice sounds like he swallowed gravel from the training yard.

“I’m sure, sweetling. Hold on,” Aemond turns his head to the group. “My son is thirsty. Please, one of you fetch him some water. Add some essence of nightshade to help him sleep.”

Their curtsies blend with their departure. The door shuts behind him.

The candle on Daeron’s bedside table revealed the redness across his face, hot and sticky with tears. Aemond walks to the foot of the bed. He’s careful not to let his weight go too suddenly, recalling the height difference this time between this bed and Baelon’s. He’s not hesitant though with stretching out his arms. “Come here,” he says.

Daeron springs from his covers, leaving behind the small golden blanket as he crawls into Aemond’s lap. He hugs him at the neck while Aemond holds him at the waist. It’s a long hug, something they both need. He smells like outside, earthy yet sweet. He lets himself feel the boy’s fragile ribs steadying themselves. His father was here now. There was no need to worry. So they took in air as they needed it—with ease. When he pulls back, Aemond grabs the spare handkerchiefs left behind. Daeron still sniffled, but refused to blow his nose. Aemond pinches it instead.

“What’s upsetting you so much?”

“Am I to be Lord of Storm’s End?”

“What?”

Snot dribbles on the handkerchief. “I had a dream.”

Aemond cocks his head. “Tell me about it.”

“I had a dream that… that we went to Storm’s End to see Uncle Royce. But I was alone. And-and—”

“It’s alright.” Aemond rubs his son’s back. “It’s alright.”

“You wouldn’t let me fly Morning. I couldn’t get back home.”

Aemond gave pause as he listened to Daeron. The boy’s lip quivers again as Aemond’s thoughts swirl, shushing his son as he remembers Helaena. Aemond clears his throat. He smiled down at his son. “I know what this is,” he says with an exhale. “Come with me.” He holds him close as he stands up, walking across the rooms to settle at his window, the other side of King’s Landing before them. Aemond used Daeron’s fleshy arm to point. “What’s that building there?”

“S-Sept?”

“That’s right. The Grand Sept. Your Aunt Helaena is there. You never got the chance to meet her.” He petted Daeron’s head, white fluffy hairs that swept to the front and covered his forehead. He looks back up at Visenya’s Hill. The sept’s cylindrical corners and golden domes draw eyes to the center of the city. One of them held three bejeweled urns with their ashes inside, and Aemond dares not sniffle. “She would have dreams like yours, except she would often be awake. They would overwhelm her all the same. We didn’t understand them.”

“What happened?” He doesn’t look up at Aemond when he asks, only straight ahead at the sept. Meanwhile, Aemond blocks the memories; gore and blood still trailed the back of his mind if he ventured far enough. His leg bounces as he exhales slowly through his mouth, sounding like a haunting wind. Daeron didn’t notice. Aemond couldn’t gather an answer. What could he say? His sister went insane. She killed herself. He found her on Maegor’s spikes. She blamed herself for something that was his fault, and he never got to apologize.

“She lost her sons in the last war. Your cousin Jaehaera’s brothers.”

“Were they soldiers?”

“No, no.” He’s perfectly between Jaehaerys and Maelor in age. The ages they remain for the rest of time. He skips that. “But she loved them so much, losing them was too much to bear for her.” He rests his chin on Daeron’s head, just catching the tear streaking down his cheek before it dripped onto his son’s scalp. Observing the sept again, he longed to be ignorant of such despair. He shook Alyssa from his mind (as best as he could) to come back. “That’s how I feel about you.”

Daeron relaxed a little, his back touching Aemond’s chest. “But what about—” he coughs. “Uncle Royce.”

Aemond ignored the name. “These dreams can be very vivid. About things we already know. Your uncle named you heir, so you will be Lord of Storm’s End one day, yes. But you will go when you are ready.” He kissed Daeron’s head, inhaling his scent as he tried sniffling subtly. “We will ensure your brother receives proper training in royal proceedings as king. Your mother and I will ensure you’re prepared as a lord.”

Daeron doesn’t speak. He picks at the leather of Aemond’s jerkin.

Aemond, in return, hugs him tight with both arms. He gets close to his ear. “You’re not leaving me for a long, long time. Is that what you needed?”

He finally nods. His little white sideburns tickle his nose.

“Good. Because it’s the truth.” He picks him up again. “Now, time for bed.” His sniffling boy buried his head into his neck as he cuddled close, his fingers wrapped around the back. It was painful to do so, he could admit, but he still pried him off. His fingers slipped off him like broken stitches as he made him settle back in bed. He was reluctant, but gave him the golden one, avoiding the black stag sewn in the corner. He kissed the boy one more time before walking to the door.

“Papa?”

“Hm?”

“Uncle Royce. Where is he?”

“I assume at home.”

“But in my dream, I didn’t see him there. I said I was alone.”

Aemond blinks rapidly. “Perhaps… you didn’t venture far enough to find him.”

He rubs the satin edge of the Baratheon blanket.

“He loves you very much, Daeron. He wouldn’t leave you alone.”

“I know. I just don’t feel like he’s there.”

Aemond said nothing, only watched his son. His purple eyes, swollen and exhausted, darted up at Aemond briefly. They eventually went back down as he pulled his bigger blankets over his lap. Aemond could feel there was something else there, more his son wanted to say. And Aemond, for all the love he bears for his children, didn’t want to hear it tonight. So, he slowly turns on his heels.

“Papa?”

He suppressed his curse. “Yes?”

“Was… Aunt Helaena… were all her dreams true?”

Aemond swallowed thickly as he saw his wife do hours before he left for Flea Bottom. The truth is painful to keep down as he hears Helaena��s voice speaking of rats, then Jaehaerys’ head rolling on the floor just hours later. Still, Aemond looks his son in his beautiful purple eyes as he sternly says, “No. Now go to bed.”

Daeron doesn’t move for a moment, but eventually lays down. Neither of them say goodnight.

Finally, Aemond exits and heads back to his room. Keeping his head up, he pushes down his anguish with each step. He’s not out yet.

Floris barely waited for the door to close before she pounced. “Where have you been?” She is now the starkest thing in the room, all the candles alight again and casting a deep orange across their chambers and she is as dark as tonight’s sky. Only her cream skin contrasted with her hair and attire.

“I told you,” Aemond said. “At a meeting with the City Watch.”

“Her arms crossed over her small belly. “For two hours?”

“Yes.”

“When have you had a City Watch meeting last two hours?”

“Just now.”

“Aemond.”

“Floris, please.” He walks past her, cornering himself on the damn balcony. He lacks the courage to even glance at the city, choosing the brush below instead.

“What did this meeting consist of?” Her voice gets closer.

“My business with the City Watch.”

“Our baby boy wailed for his father.” Aemond can hear the way she bares her teeth. “And wherever this City Watch meeting occurred in the Keep, you were nowhere to be found.”

“It was a meeting in the city.” He spat out the first retort in his mind. “A dire meeting.”

“What could be so dire that you could not tend to your own son?”

“Someone killed a baby.”

The brewing storm halted with a catch in her breath. Her suspicion, though, is still strong around her. Aemond could smell it like rain in the air. He didn’t speak further. Rather, he found the nearest chair and fell into it. The barrier’s small columns blocked the city, similar to a cell as he thought of the woman he loved near the Old Gate. He cannot tell which one is the prisoner, as he pressed his temple with two fingers.

Floris crouched in her gown. Her gaze was heavy as Aemond did everything to keep from letting unnecessary information slip from him. “We took care of the killer. That’s what matters.”

Floris’ pale hand meets the crook of his arm. A thumb doesn’t brush back and forth like it did when his mother succumbed to her fever. The other arm does not wrap him in closer like it did when his nightmares of war jolted him and woke them both. Her thick brows didn’t slant in sympathy. They were straight and stern. “Whose baby was it?”

“What?”

“Whose baby was it?”

Aemond rips his arm away, the leather of his sleeve squeaking sharply from her grip. “What relevance is that?”

“Because you’re a kinslayer.” It rolls off her tongue so naturally.

“I’ve told you not to—”

“It’s what you’re known for, Aemond. I don’t understand how one baby would concern you.”

Aemond slams a fist on the arm of the iron chair as he stands, turning his back to his wife before facing her again. “You know I lost my nephews in the Dance.”

“After killing another.”

“Don’t!” His fingers curl into a fist. It’s when his father crosses his mind that he throws the force against his hip and lets out a shaky exhale. “Floris.”

“With your brother’s bastards rotting in the alleyways, I just don’t understand the difference.” She picks herself  up, pushing with her knees  and holding her belly. Aemond doesn’t help her.

“Because she wasn’t a bastard.” He spits out the words. Another lie, but he doesn’t care.

“Then whose baby was it?”

The chamber doors groan slowly. Aemond doesn’t move from his wife, but refuses to answer. Even as he sees her anger boil her skin and streak her cheeks, he keeps his mouth shut and watches the doors.

“Forgive me, my prince. Princess. I do not mean to disturb.”

“Cole.”

Even in a tunic and linen breeches, he stands like he wears his Kingsguard armor: feet apart, hands collected at his front. No blood in sight, and his hair is disheveled as if someone tore him from bed.

“Leave us,” Floris snaps over her shoulder.

“Cole, what news?” 

He delays in reply, clearing his throat. “Once again, we require your presence, my prince.”

“With what?” Aemond slips around Floris before she can stop him.

“With, uh, burial arrangements.”

Aemond stood still, frozen.

“If the baby has a family, they can decide for themselves,” Floris says. “I don’t understand why such matters require my husband.”

“The family is quite… distraught, princess. As a mother, I’m sure you can understand the idea of such pain.”

Floris’ eyes falter slightly to the floor before glaring back at Criston

“The maesters have wrapped the body and prepared her for her final journey.”

“I’ll go,” Aemond says.

Floris snatches Aemond at the arm. “No!” Her heels skid on the stone floor.

“Do you wish to see the child’s body yourself?” Aemond snaps back at her. “For proof she’s real and your husband has a heart?”

He expected Floris to let him go, in every sense of the phrase. But her small fists only coiled tighter around his forearm. Everything hard about her expression fractured before him. The blue in her eyes glisten brilliantly as she shakes. “Please, Aemond.”

“It won’t take long, princess. I assure you. Your husband will be back soon.”

“Don’t leave.”

Aemond sighs. But he looks his wife in the face as he pulls his arm from her hold a second time. He walks to Criston.

“Please.”

It falls on deaf ears.

Neither speak a word as they make their way through the Keep, nor create any sense of urgency with their footsteps. The only ones who look them in the face are a number of Gold Cloaks, either nodding or appearing extra sullen.

They don’t exit through the front doors. No disguises with them now. Instead, the pair navigate through Maegor’s tunnels to find their escape, opening one (of many) secret doors. The scale of Aegon’s High Hill meets them, the white waves of the Blackwater and a bobbing rowboat just below.

“How did you do it? Is Alyssa—”

“Not now.”

Criston jumps down first, landing on a small area of flat rock. He scales down the small mountain with ease, and Aemond follows with enough distance to not disturb each other’s footing. They hug the jagged walls and Aemond keeps his eye focused down on his own feet, his impaired sight working against him more than ever, with only moonlight just barely revealing shadows here and there. Criston even turned around to help him with some of the hill’s slimmer edges, but he refused, wanting to retain his focus. Over time (and with an absurd amount of patience), they meet at the bottom. They let the steep decline guide them to the small beach, meeting the rowboat.

“We have paid some Gold Cloaks to act as alibis in case your wife wants to inquire. They have already spread the word to others.”

The pools of Floris’ Baratheon blue eyes stick with him. She barely faltered upon word of her father’s fall in battle, nor a tear shed at his funeral. She maintained a grace fit for an unmoving force like her. Yet it was Aemond who pushed her tonight. He pushed her to tears. “And the maesters?” He inquires while clearing his throat. “What you said back there, that was true?”

Criston stretches his arms out to steady the boat. “Watch your step,” he tells him. But before Aemond can even take a step, he’s holding out his hand. Aemond looks down at it.

“I can get in fine on my own, Cole.”

“Just…” He gestures again and keeps it out until Aemond reluctantly takes it, one palm meeting the other. Criston guides him in and continues holding tight as the wood creaks under his boots. He doesn’t let go until Aemond sits down, the boat wobbling. Then Criston steps in on the other side, the Blackwater just missing his ankles, rocking the boat all the same. He grips the edges as he steadies it before reaching down.

Even the late night couldn’t hide the bundle of white waxy cloth, the small bloodless being that he held himself just hours ago. He can still feel the phantom wriggling in his arms from her twin’s screams. Now she is here, still. Still and cold as Criston handed her over. But even as the wind blows, Aemond hovers over her to shield her from the chill. He whispers to her as he does.

“I asked Maester Orwyle to wrap her, so we have another alibi should we need it. With her… injury…”

Aemond traces over her eye. Where her eye would be.

“There was no reason to suspect she was anything but a peasant child.”

“And Royce?”

“The less you know, the better.” Criston then pulls their weight with the boat’s oars as Aemond’s fingers brush the outline of his daughter’s face. The noise of moving water surrounds them as he pictures her. He pulled her into the world first, and he never thought bringing his third child into the world would affect him as deeply as his first two. He never imagined she would leave the world the way she came: wet and screaming.

It wasn’t until Criston docked the boat on the other side of the bay that he thought about asking where he—they—were being taken. He still stood unsteadily when stepping out, eyeing the breathing mountain amongst the young trees: his Vhagar. White birds that were perched on her spine flew when she picked up her head. She doesn’t yawn as she normally does when she wakes up, leaving Aemond to wonder, again, just what they’re doing here.

She peers from her high vantage point, neck fully stretched out as her acid green eyes peer at them both, watching them trudge through the brush of her dwelling. She sniffed the air harshly, sounding like a long hiss if Aemond wasn’t looking. Criston continues pushing the vegetation aside (as he had clearly done before, given the faint imprints of feet in the lush grass). It’s not until they make a circle around her that he sees the pyre; a shadow of dry black timber. Thick logs made the foundation as smaller sticks crossed each other to make the bed.

“She was a Targaryen,” Criston says. “She deserves a proper sendoff.”

Aemond clings to the cloth, securing her against his chest as if he is concealing her under his cloak all over again. He stares at the stick bed, and Vhagar lying behind it. Her chest rumbles, something like a hum that causes the earth to tremor under them. Her neck cranes down for a closer look, and Aemond can see the slashes in her pupils as he feels the creaking of her ancient joints when she tries standing.

“Lykirī, Vhagar.” Aemond tries adding some force behind his High Valyrian.

She doesn’t listen. One foot forward, and the ground quakes. Roots and leaves shiver. The length of yellow teeth come into view as she takes another sharp breath.

“Lykirī!”

Still nothing. Her snout is inches from his forehead as her sniffs are smaller and more rapid. Her pupils drop to his chest, then back to him as she nudges him. Aemond has to step back to replant himself, but doesn’t order her to be still. His hold on Alyssa remains firm, closer to his chest than her mouth. She closes her lips, and the vibrancy of her eyes disappears when they do the same. Aemond’s forehead meets her snout, and Vhagar is silent as Aemond keeps his sobs down. He clenches his teeth hard and his jaw already aches from the tension.

Eventually, Vhagar steps back, leaving Aemond to walk to the pyre. He was not sure how long it took him to get there. Neither Criston nor Vhagar spoke. The strain from his temples to his eye, and now his jaw, made every step feel glacial. But eventually he did. He couldn’t imagine the sticks being more comfortable than that cot, but he didn’t pick her back up. He swallowed the snot and bile, meeting in the middle of his throat as he stepped back. Criston stood next to him. Vhagar looked at him.

“Dracarys.” He orders it as pathetically as he did before.

Again, she doesn’t follow him. She opens her mouth with no dragonfire. Her massive head twitches to one side, looking at him as she did the first time he ordered her to fly at Driftmark. But just as Aemond can feel the ache in her bones, she can feel the chains in his chest.

Neither of them wants to do this.

Aemond takes a breath, swallowing something like courage. “Dohaerās, Vhagar! Dracarys!”

Her head drew back with another hiss and her pupils thin out before her eyes close. Her neck curls back and she stretches her jaw. It’s always slow. Even the green color that lights up her mouth. He would be convinced that the pyre lit at the same speed, but Aemond fell into the grass; his knees giving in like the wood did under the intense heat.

Criston is still there as Aemond sobs freely, the sounds of it drowned out by the cracks of sticks and logs. He holds Aemond tightly as he buries his face into Criston’s shoulder. “It’s beautiful,” he tells him. “She’s ascending to the heavens where she belongs. No one can hurt her anymore.”

Aemond blocks his nose in the cloth of Criston’s shirt, sucking in air through his mouth so he doesn’t smell any of it. He remembers how Helaena wailed when she held Jaehaerys, his body limp and the blood soaking into her dress. The woman he loves screamed the same way. The cry of emptiness, a gaping wound inside. Aemond doesn’t have the lungs to scream like that. He just thinks of Helaena on the spikes. “I have to go to her,” he finally says. He pulls away, and Criston’s silhouette is nothing but a bleary shadow. “I have to before—”

“You know she doesn’t want to see you.”

“It doesn’t mean she won’t need me. We still have a child to take care of.”

“She has a child to take care of. You have three. Two of them are here. Another will be in the coming months, and your wife does not need the extra stress of questioning your whereabouts.”

Criston now sandwiches Aemond’s face between his hands. He doesn’t scream at him, but the force of the bones in his hands is hard against his skull.

“Don’t make me build a pyre for your fifth child, Aemond.”

His voice catches in his throat. Neither mother of his children wishes to see him now. Helaena once felt the same, but Aemond’s mistakes called him and Aegon to war, leaving her to grieve on her own. He turns to the pyre, a green haze that occasionally spits at the sky. The smoke burns his nose, making his eye clench shut against the sting. In that darkness, he remembers his mother and the knife to Rhaenyra’s eye. She understood sacrifice. And it was now his turn.

Criston stands up. His outline is still blurry and black, but Aemond can just see his hand outstretched for him. “Your family needs you.”

Aemond remembered his role. And he took Criston’s hand.

Taglist: @paprikaquinn @immyowndefender @teal-anchor @dixie-elocin

[connorsbonez]

DC/DP Crossover Idea #44

Somehow Skulker is the one to acquire a de-aged Phantom and decides to just…take him along in his hunts?? Just strap him to one of those baby carriers and they’re good to go.

Like sure, he could just drop the welp somewhere in his haunt back in the Human Realm and wait till the kid is back to his normal form but that would require Skulker having to drop by the Human Realm often to check in on the welps status so it was just easier to carry him around till the boy changes back and they can go back to hunting him down. (He’ll change back, right?)

Of course, nothing is that simple when it comes to the Phantom boy, because due to him getting suddenly shrunk down his powers have decided ‘hey, you can no longer reasonably control me’. And it’s not usually a problem because Phantom is usually hanging out in a good old baby carrier that’s close enough to Skulker so his core kind of…helps stabilize the powers a bit??? Like sure, more often than not there’s a thin sheet of frost covering his body from where Phantom was, and every so often the boys limbs would randomly disappear or shoot out ectoplasm but that only really happened in the times that Skulker had to remove Phantom from his person and leave him alone to his own devices.

Skulker had quickly learned that he couldn’t just leave Phantom because 1. The welp was a natural wanderer and only being able to either crawl or barely float didn’t stop him, at all. 2. He was a trouble magnet and 3. All these got worse when the boy got bored, causing him to wander off and attract trouble

There totally wasn’t a 4th reason, nope, not at all.

To fix this problem, he put the welp into one of his cages (it got changed into a more child-friendly version, imagine a play pen with a top on it and there you go), perfectly baby Phantom proof so he couldn’t get out, and he even threw some baby ghost toys in there so he can entertain himself while Skulker went after his prey.

Eventually Skulker + Phantom find themselves in the DC universe for a reason of your choosing, maybe a group heard of the Infinite Realms Greatest Hunter and they needed his help to take a creature down.

Well, he goes and the group is greeted by a large robotic-looking man with solid green eyes and firey hair, and the white haired baby boy with glowing green eyes that sat happily in a baby carrier as he chewed on…ice that was formed in a doughnut shape and had a green tint to it? It wasn’t hard to see the sharp teeth dig into the ice that seemed to refuse to crack even a little.

They weren’t really given the chance to question the child, from both the lack of interest that the hunter had in answering and also the very reason they even tried to contact Skulker in the first place.

Some side-glanced the cage that suddenly appeared and now contained the small child who didn’t react to this like it was something normal for them. Some even tried to touch the cage, only to be quickly greeted by a shock of electricity, a clear sign to not touch the cage.

It’s only till after Skulker was able to deal with the creature that they needed him too, does he answer.

The problem is that Skulker forgot that these mortals weren’t from the Infinite Realms, they weren’t ghosts, and they also didn’t know how Skulker and Phantoms dynamic worked, as he wasn’t used to interacting with those who didn’t know all of those at least vaguely.

So maybe answering with “I’m waiting for him to grow up so I can have his pelt hung amongst the rest of my trophies.” And then immediately disappearing afterwards with Phantom wasn’t the smartest idea but hey, it’s not like Skulker knew.

[itsabouttimex2]

I noticed that you write MK to be a teen, when most other people call him an adult. Any reason why?

I’m in general not a fan of the “Megapolis, in spite of being a fictional futuristic high-tech city, has laws that mirror modern day China one to one” theory that most people use to try and prove that “MK is ‘canonically’ an adult”.

Because MK is like… a genuine masterclass in how to write a character’s age in that there are so many signs pointing to teen or adult (and in some very few cases even a child, but only rarely), but never entirely confirming a single number.

Which is just… so good? Because any person of any age can see themselves in MK’s shoes, which makes him much easier to relate to?

And also in general I just hate the “my headcanon is canon because (thing that is not proof)” that people use to bludgeon down other headcanons.

MK is written to be age-ambiguous for a reason! The show is meant to appeal to teens, who exist from “thirteen-nineteen”, so he’s been given traits that could easily point in any which direction for his age.

(He’s also a character in a CHILDREN’S TOY COMMERCIAL. He literally exists to sell expensive plastic toys. Why are people so serious about him “needing” to be an adult?)

Like, yes, he lives alone…

On the second floor of a building owned by his adoptive father, not by himself out in the city away from his guardian. He’s also very bad at taking care of his place, even though it’s a single room. Like, tell me this doesn’t just look like an average teenager’s room. (He also owns a night-light shaped like Monkey King’s cloud.)

Yes, he works as a full-time delivery boy and drives around everywhere…

But Tang calls him a “growing boy” in the second episode, which isn’t the sort of thing you say to a full-grown adult.

He’s given lots of moments to be very adult in ways that are hard to read as “childish”, and childish in ways that are very hard to read as “adult”- BECAUSE HE’S DELIBERATELY MEANT TO EVOKE A VARIETY OF AGES SO THAT ANYONE CAN RELATE TO HIM.

(These two scenes in particular lean towards MK being very young, but it doesn’t mean he’s canonically young, you know? Just like driving and having a job don’t make him canonically an adult.)

So I write him as an age-ambiguous “teen” while never described where exactly he is on that spectrum of “thirteen-nineteen”, which I think is the best way to write an ambiguously-aged character- by leaving them ambiguous! Then he can be an adult or kid or teen in the mind of whoever is reading my fics.

Wow this was supposed to be short but it went a little longer than I expected.

Thank you for asking!

[piss-pumpkin]

🏖️ A beach episode 🌊

Older!Dipper pines x reader, Douce amere chapter 23 ~4.0k words Masterlist Prev

The state of your head meant you couldn’t swim much. Getting water on it, especially dirty water, like that of the Gravity Falls lake was a bad idea. Having the cut contaminated or infected was a big no-no. Even with it healing well, there was still a somewhat open wound under your bandaid, and the cover was far from water proof. That being said, you also weren’t a bitch. 

You just couldn’t let the water touch your head. Seemed easy enough. 

Your flip flop broke on the way to the shore, so Dipper gave you a piggy back ride, and you kicked your other sandal at Mabel, who walked ahead of you. She didn’t dodge, and it hit her in the back. The Grunkles were grabbing things from the trunk: floaties, a chair for Stan, some weird invention of Fords that would do… something to the water. 

Dipper let you down on the dock, where you wouldn’t get sand stuck on your feet. 

The dock was worn down from years of splashing and walking, and you’d been told it was the place where Mabel got her first kiss. And with a merman Dipper was not fond of. That was a fun bit of mythology. 

The lake wasn’t exactly crowded, but it was on the busy side. You couldn’t be too surprised considering the good weather. On the beach, the cops, Blubs and Durland were laying in towels and giggling to themselves over magazines you couldn’t make out from the dock. A couple of Wendy’s brothers were on the water fishing. Mcguckets son was lecturing some teenager sternly.

Stan had used the car to inflate a couple floats. He was walking towards the three of you, tube in hand, a  nice one too. It had a headrest, and netting in the bottom to sit on.

“Oh my god, look at that!” Mabel said, pointing into the water. 

You looked. The lake water was a little dirty, tinted greenish from some underwater plants growing off the dock legs.

“Um, what?” Dipper asked, leaning over the edge of the dock. You fought the urge to push him in, he hadn’t wronged you in a while, probably didn’t deserve it.

”Yeah, I don’t see anything, what are we looking at?” You asked, studying the lake. You didn’t even see any fish.

Mabel looked up at the both of you, jaw hung open. She pointed accusingly at the small waves. “You guys seriously didn’t see that?” She asked, brow raised. “It was like- I fucking huge fish or something!” 

You pursed your lips, glancing back at the water. It seemed all clear. “Uhhh,” you looked at Dipper, who had a matching look of apprehension, with a little curiosity. “Yeah, I didn’t see anything,” you admitted.

Dipper put his hand up like he was in a classroom, “I also didn’t see-“

“Hey kids, catch,” Stan called, hurling the tube like a frisbee. 

You turned around to look at the shore where he came from. “Huh-“ the tube hit you square in the face. The impact of the rubber got your straight in the forehead. For a soft material, it sure did hit hard when you had stitches in your face. “Fuck!”

You heard Stan suck a breath in through his teeth, “Sorry, my bad,” he said. 

Dippers jaw was hanging open as he looked at Stan, and Stan shot a thumbs up with a guilty smile and shuffled away. 

Mabel swooped I’m in front of you to look at your head. “Bandaids still on,” she said, examining the edges. She picked up the tube Stan threw, and handed it to you. “So your still alive, that’s good!”

You grimaced. At least you could tell your head was getting better, because it didn’t stay bad for long. You blinked a few times, and the pain was nearly gone. “Yippee,” you said dryly.

                                         …

Dipper and Mabel could swim, and you could… hangout. When they went in the water, you lounged in the tube.

Mabel actually had one too. She swam to shore to grab a float shaped like a pizza slice. She flopped up on it, and laid on her back, saying she was trying to get tan.  Her head was buried face down in the crust.

You might’ve rested your sunglasses on your forehead if not for the bandage. Instead, they were over your eyes as you lounged on the tube, and you hoped to god that your sunscreen would be enough to avoid a sunglasses tan line. 

It was surprising how good a job you were doing keeping the water off your face. The headrest of your float was completely dry. 

The twins traded the pizza slice around. Dipper ended up sitting on it, holding onto the side of your tube so he didn’t drift away. The tube was much higher in the water then Dippers float, so for today you were taller than him. Felt good. 

Mabel insisted on diving for pearls. You and Dipper ended up slowly drifting away from her spot by the docks, carried by the weak waves. You caught a glimpse her feet above the surface before she vanished under the water for another dive. 

You leaned over to Dipper, “I feel like we should be betting on if she finds anything, you know?”

He leaned on the tube, and you smiled seeing up close how you were a good head and a half taller than him like this. “She totally won’t, right?” He said, half as a question. 

You shrugged, “I don’t know.” She came up for air again, and took her goggles off to get some water out of them. When she saw the two of you facing her, she waved enthusiastically before putting them on again and diving. “I would say no, but it’s Gravity Falls, you can never know for sure,” you grinned. 

Dipper snickered. “Okay, if she finds a pearl, it’ll be super weird,” he said, talking with his hands as he tried to draw an elaborate picture in the air. 

“Or better yet,” you added, “not even a pearl. She finds some weird cursed gem or artifact.”

He tapped at the rubber of the float. “Okay, I like your thinking,” he said, “but she’s so shallow, like what, did some dude just drop some weird magic thing off the dock?”

You waved your hand in dismissal as you snickered. “Well maybe, like a wizard or something was walking one night and just keeps shit in his pockets,” you said, trying to think. Thinking was hard through. “Or it’s just washing up from the tide.”

Dipper snorted, “washing up from where? This is not a big lake.”

You winced, swishing your cheeks around your mouth. “Uhhh,” you started. 

Before you could come up with something, Dipper gasped. “Wait no- no you’re right,” he said quickly, looking over at the island in the other side of the lake. “I, uh- remembered. There is very much weird shit in here.” 

You pursed your lips, “Okay, well now I’m worried.” The best you could think of was how Mabel’s merman boyfriend somehow ended up in the ocean from here, so it clearly connected somewhere. That or you could make up some underwater ancient city. 

Dipper glanced around, then pointed at the island on the far side. “I’m like, eighty percent sure that island is alive, and it’s a giant floating head,” he whispered. “But we’re fine, we’re… so far over here.”

”Um,” you said, trying to think about that. You had nothing though. Your head was completely empty. You’d totally been on that island before. 

In very convenient timing, you caught a dark glimmer under the water under you. Like… a big fish. But it didn’t look right in the way it moved. “Dipper,” you said sternly, pointing to the water. 

He hummed, looking first at you, then following your finger. Luckily, it was still in a sight. A big, maybe human sized, dark shadow swimming… towards the dock. You could tell Dipper saw it, because his face first lit up with excitement, then fell. Mabel had just come up for air. 

You and Dipper looked at each other, then back at Mabel. The dark shadow had disappeared in her direction. “Dude,” you said.

”Yep,” he affirmed quickly. 

You turned, and started to paddle your tube back over to the dock. Dipper looked like he was about to do the same. You poked at his arm, “you can just swim over, man,” you said. 

He glanced at Mabel, then at the pizza slice. “Yeah, okay,” he said, rolling back into the water.

As he started to swim away, Mabel raised her hand above the water, and you couldn’t hear what she was saying. It looked like she was holding something to show. Maybe a pearl. 

In a blink though, she was almost under. Your eyes widened as her head, all but the top of her hair sunk. Then she was back with a gasp, thrashing.

You sat right up, pointing, “Holy fuck!” You couldn’t tell if Dipper saw, but he definitely heard. He looked back at you for a moment. “Go get her!” you yelled, frantically trying to paddle over. How important was your head? Should you just jump in?

You worried faded quickly though, as Dipper picked up the pace swimming to the dock. He’d get there far faster than you could anyway, now. So you paddled as best you could. 

Mabel disappeared under, and Dipper was close enough to dive after her. And for a good moment, it was oddly quiet. Most of what you heard was your own paddling. You swallowed hard. Ford was far off on the shore doing something with the water. Stan was asleep on his chair. The rest of the people on the lake didn’t seem to see anything. It was just you, the twins, and some random sea monster. Or… lake monster.

By the time you got close, they were still under. You tapped against the tube. You pulled your feet out of the water, like touching it would get you pulled down too. Should you just go? You stood up, and peered over into the waves.

Just then, you heard the surface break behind you, and gasps for air. You whipped around, nearly falling off as you did. Your knees hit the netting in the tube as you crashed down. “Guys?” You asked, paddling over to them. 

Dipper was holding Mabel, who looked more shaken up, and swimming towards you. You offered a hand, and he made Mabel take it first. Only sliding around a little bit, you managed to help haul her into the tube beside you. 

Next was Dipper. Three people in one tube was not great, but it beat touching the water. You caught a glimpse of the shadow fish under you just as Dipper was climbing on. You held the pizza slice float like a weapon to bat it away if it tried anything. It didn’t. 

Dipper and Mabel were panting, and Dippers eyes were locked on the water. 

“Guys, what happened?” You asked, starting to paddle to the dock. If you could climb up onto it, you wouldn’t have to be on the water so long. Dipper must have had the same idea, because he started helping. 

But he also kept looking back at the water. The fish was gone, though. He hummed lowly, “there was-“

”-That bitch had arms!” Mabel shouted, staring at her hands. They were shaking a little. “And they were fucking gross!” 

You grimaced. Fish with arms. Alright. You got to the dock, and Mabel was talking about the fish with arms, and black hollow eyes, according to her. The dock wasn’t too high off the water. With a boost at the feet, you and Dip got Mabel up first, then you, then you both helped to pull him up. You had his hands, so he brought the floats up one with his leg, and one with his teeth. 

You all sat on the dock a moment, catching your breath. You looked around. Nobody seemed to notice the commotion, somehow. 

“Guys!” Mabel shouted, pointing at the water.

You rushed over to the edge to see. The big fish was moving towards the shore, and closer to the surface. You could see the… arms.. flowing at its sides more clearly now that Mabel pointed them out. 

You scanned the beach. Nobody was too near the water except… Ford, kneeling by the waterline with a little machine. You sucked a breath in through your teeth, “God, Fuck.”

The fish moved pretty fast. The three of you stood up, and started to run.

Running felt weird on the head. You slowed to a jog while the others sped to Ford. 

The fish got there first, though. Dipper and Mabel were calling his name, but Ford didn’t seem to be listening. He was staring at the water. The dark shadow was swirling where he knelt, and Ford seemed hypnotized. 

“Cathrine, you came!” He said giddily. His eyes were wide and enchanted as the fish emerges from the water. 

The twins slowed down, stopping to stare. You caught up to have with them. The fish, apparently named Cathrine, was disgusting. It… or maybe she- had arms that moved and sagged and hung like kelp, and were the same colour, too. She didn’t have fingers, instead just… leaves. Her hair was a wet lump of darker plant, cooled down her back. Her skin was also a murky green, and feathered with plants and dusted with sand.

Mabel was gaping, and pointed at the slimy kelp hands, “oh my god, that touched me,” she said meekly. 

“Great uncle Ford!” Dipper yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. “Get away from that, it’s dangerous!”

His warning were in vein, though. Ford finally looked over at the three of you on the docks, and just waved happily, “Hi Kids!” then went back to staring into Cathrines eyes. Or… actually you weren’t sure if it had eyes, you didn’t see its face. 

Dipper started speed walking to him again, and you and Mabel followed behind. He stopped suddenly, “wait, Cathrine?” He said, one hand moving to his chin. 

You and Mabel shared a glance, silently agreeing not to interrupt his thought process.

”Cathrine- ugh, where do I recognize that…” he grumbled, string between the wood planks of the dock into the water. He snapped his fingers, “oh my god, I’ve got it,” he said, looking at Ford again. “Great uncle Ford wrote in the journal, he used to date a siren names Cathrine, do you guys think…” he trailed off, and you all looked at the big fish again. 

Yeah, she could look like a Cathrine.

“Okay, so let’s kick her away from him, right?” You asked, eying Cathrine. 

They nodded. 

When Ford saw you all approaching again, he grinned even wider at you. He pointed the three of you out to Cathrine, who turned her head to look, and for the first time you saw she did have eyes. She had hollow, pure black eyes, and completely sunken in skin, worn down like when water blazes a trail into stone. Her cheeks could have been a river, and her wrinkles like streams. 

“Kids, come meet Cathy!” Ford called happily. How Stan was still asleep on the chair with a magazine over his face, you’d never understand. 

Dipper practically wheezed, “fucking Cathy?” He looked frantically between you and Mabel, then back to Ford. He shouted across the water again, “That thing tried to drown Mabel!”

Ford waved his hand, “she wouldn’t do that,” he said quietly, possibly forgetting that you were all across the dock from him.

That might’ve been the last straw. The three of you started running to the shore again to catch Ford before something unfortunate happened. You had to slow down for your head, but even in a jog the old planks of the dock hammered under your feet. 

“You’ll love her,” Ford declared happily, taking her slimy kelp hands in his own to hold lovingly. “I think we’re going to finally tie the knot!”

Mabel had to stop running to cough and sputter as she started to laugh. “Go on without me,” she wheezed, planting her hands on her knees to support herself.

You heard Dipper mumble under his breath at her, but he kept forward towards Ford. When your feet hit the sand and dirt off the ground, Dipper was already close. Mabel coughed behind you as she caught up.

Ford was entranced in Cathrines eyes, and she was subtly pulling him closer by the hands. Well, not that subtle, actually, if you could notice from across the beach. Subtle enough that Ford didn’t seem to pay any mind. “I can’t believe it,” he said dreamily. “After all these years, I found you again.”

 ”No fucking shot,” you said, turning to Mabel as the two of you rested. Damn your head. Dipper was the only one doing anything productive. 

Catherine pulled harder, and Ford started idly leaning more toward the water, until he was wading in on his knees to follow her direction. It was only when she smiled wide that you saw her mouth. Her lips blended well into her skin, almost unnoticeable until she opened her jaw, and you could see the rows upon rows of sharpened teeth. 

“Great uncle Ford, no!” Dipper said, as if he was scolding a dog. 

You and Mabel shared a glance, and decided rest time was over. You both tried to catch up with them. 

Just as Cathy tried to yank Ford into the water, Dipper practically tackled him, wrapping his arms around his torso and pulling him back. “Great uncle Ford, snap out of it!” He yelled, turning his head so he didn’t scream in Fords ear. 

“D-dipper, what are you doing?” Ford asked, with all the hurt in his tone of a kicked puppy. He fought back against Dipper, and was far stronger. 

Luckily, just as he broke free, and Dippers grasp broke, you and Mabel got there. She took his arms, pulling them out of Cathy’s grip, while you shoved Ford onto his side in the sand and held him down. Ford tried to thrash and resist, but Mabel kept a firmer grip than Dipper did. 

“Ford, you fuck,” you said, looking as Cathrines deranged smile curled into a teeth scowl. “Do we have to kill you? What’s going on?” 

“She’s the love of my life!” 

Dipper groaned, glaring down Cathrine. 

Ford struggled against you and Mabel, hard. Mabel grumbled holding back his arms as his thrashing grew more desperate the closer Cathrine inched to the sand. Ford tried to wiggle towards her, so you sat on him to hold him down.

You looked to Dipper, expecting help. Or for him to swat the creature away. Instead, he was staring down Cathy, with what at first looked like a glare, but you went on to realize was… a trance. “God fucking-“ you started. You tried to reach him without moving too far from your post, but it didn’t work. At least Dip wasn’t moving. 

Cathy had turned her attention to your boyfriend, and Ford was not happy. “Cathy?” He practically begged. 

You were also not happy. “Dip,” you said, snapping your finger at him to get his attention. It didn’t work. In fact, he hadn’t blinked the whole time you’d been looking at him. You glanced back at Mabel, still holding thrashing arms. Ugh. “Dipper, snap the fuck out of it,” you complained. 

The siren creeped closer to him, and he made no effort to move away. Worse, he knelt down to her level. Mabel seemed to notice too, “uh, bro?” She asked. 

“Ok, Mabes, let’s both agree not to look too hard at Cathy, alright?” You said, trying to keep the fish out of your peripheral. “Cuz he can’t look away right now.”

Mabel nodded, averting her eyes. At the very least, Ford was calming down. Well, no. Calm was not the right word. Ford was depressed and disparaged like you’d never seen before, practically melting into the sand rather than thrashing for escape. 

You tentatively got up from Ford. The moment your weight was off him, he sprang up and tried to lunge for Cathrine. “Oh, fuck off,” you grumbled, tackling him again and holding him down. A low groan escaped his lips. 

Things were getting worse for Dipper though. Slowly, as if crossing a threshold, he outstretched his hand for Cathrine, despite Fords despondent wails. Her disgusting slimy leaves were dangling above him as she lowered them onto his palm. You made mental note not to touch his hands until he washed them.

You looked at Mabel. There seemed to be a stalemate going on. “Ok, what if one of us takes arms and body,” you suggested, looking at Fords sad face resting in the sand. 

“Oh!” She perked up. “I can try,” she offered. 

“Uh, on three?” You asked. You shared a nod and started to count.

On three, you leapt up towards Dipper, shoved him out of the way. You pressed your eyes into a squint as you faced Cathy, trying to avoid her face. Holy fuck her gross hand was near your legs. 

You squirmed at the thought of that touching you, and your legs moved on their own. In a swift motion that you didn’t even fully register, Cathrine was kicked in the head. Easy, since she was low to the ground on the water. 

The moment your foot collided with her face, you regretted it. Still barefoot, you could feel her grainy, slimy skin on yours, and feel the way her jaw moved with your hit, and the way it freaked with the motion. You squeaked as you recoiled away, almost wanting to cleave your foot from your body. 

Cathrine hissed, with a remarkably similar reaction to you. She slithered away back under the water like a snake, and swam away. That was all it took? 

You looked back to take stock. Mabel had knocked the wind out of Ford landing on his back, taking his arms down with her in a makeshift arm bar. Why in gods name she wasn’t doing that the whole time, you didn’t know. With Cathy gone though, he seemed to be doing better, and was actually spitting out the sand that had gotten in his mouth instead of gnawing on it defeatedly. 

You glanced at Dipper, who blinked a few times. His eyes were watery, probably recovering from the dry spell staring context he seemed to have with Cathrine. “Hey, so-“ he started, looking at you, the Ford and Mabel, then the empty spot in the water where the siren was. “Um, what happened just now?”

You snickered, “Found out you’re into old fish hags.”

Ford mumbled out a dazed, “Don’t call her that, she’s a beautiful woman.” None of that was factually correct. She looked more like a fish. 

Dippers face reddened. “I-“ he stopped himself, jaw hanging slightly open. He closed it, pursing his lips, “Yeah, I got nothing, actually.”

You rolled your eyes, and offered him a hand up. “Yeah, I didn’t think so, you freak,” you laughed smugly, “should I be jealous?”

He took the hand, brushing the sand off his legs. “Uh, maybe not you,” he said, glancing back at the ground. “But Great uncle Ford should be.”

He groaned again from the ground, and Mabel got off of him. “Do you guys, uh, wanna leave?”

You stared at the water a moment, scanning for anymore dark shadows underneath. Your eyes caught on the boat Wendy’s siblings were on. “Yeah, alright,” you affirmed. “Is somebody gonna wake Stan?”

“Not it,” Mabel said. You quickly echoed her, leaving Dipper the odd one out. 

“Why are you guys the worst?” He said, walking off toward Stans chair. Ford mumbled an agreement from the ground, and you were fine to call the beach episode done. The water was not looking amazing after seeing its creatures. And you had to go home and wash your foot as soon as possible, since cutting it off wasn’t an option. 

Next

Chat I did smth scary 💀 after like 2 years I’ve given my friend fanfic privileges back. I got one friend who matches my freak and I can trust to read my fucking x readers. Trying to write this chapter was so stressful cuz for once I was self aware of my cringe.

Taglist: @cipheress-to-k-pop @dead-esque @phobo-ss

[pinkiemachine]

Superman: Origin Story! 🎉

Part one involving what became of Krypton and the rest of the El family will be linked below.

Lara and Cal crash landed together on Earth (specifically, outside of Smallville Kansas) in the summer of 1977 with their escape pod badly damaged, and Lara bleeding out. As luck would have it, a young couple was driving through that part of the country and saw what they thought was a plane of some sort crash land. John Kent jumped out of the car and went to check to see if there were survivors and found a Kryptonian escape pod, steaming and smoking, with a woman and baby inside. Lara could tell that she didn’t have much time. Attempting to speak to John (though, he didn’t understand her language) she asked that he would take care of her son and bring help. Along with Cal, she also gave John a small, hand-held device that he couldn’t figure out the purpose of. Then… she died.

John was left standing there, not knowing what to do for a few seconds. Ultimately, he figured he ought to bury the body out of respect, so he ran back to his wife to give her the baby. By that point, though, there were already dark shapes on the horizon. Martha spotted them. Black helicopters. The Kents got in their car and sped away as quickly as they could, not wanting to get tangled up in whatever conspiracy this was. John didn’t take them back to house that night. Instead, they kept driving until they reached his sister Emma’s house where they would lay low for a while.

Martha was still holding baby Cal and she couldn’t bear to let him go. She had suffered a miscarriage just a week before and immediately fell in love with the boy. There would be no getting rid of him now. They decided to name him Clark, after a word John thought that the woman in the pod had tried to say to him.

After the black helicopters had gone, and after the crashed pod had mysteriously disappeared, John and Martha went back home and continued on with life. Naturally, they had a million questions, but answers would be very tricky to supply unless they wanted to poke their noses into uncertain places. So they kept to themselves. Clark, meanwhile, was growing up fast and strong. Literally. By the time he was two, he was lifting things he really shouldn’t be able to, running faster than they could keep up with, and falling out trees on purpose (not sustaining any injuries) because it was fun. This was their first inkling that Clark might not be human. (After all, Kryptonians do look a lot like humans.)

I would also like to mention that in this version, Clark has siblings. Yes, a few years after saving Clark, Martha gave birth to another son, Micheal. Then came Sean, then Rueben, and finally Suzie. They all worked together on their father’s farm, though it was kind of an open secret who did most of the work. Clark would out-perform his brothers constantly, and it had become quite the sore spot in the family. But, when the tractor breaks down, who’re you gonna call to get it back to the barn? Probably the superhuman son who can lift it with one hand and fly. They did have a lot of good times as well. They got up to so much stupid stuff…heheh… story for another time.

Clark was told from a young age that he was allowed to use his powers on the farm, but nowhere else. Especially not in town. John and Martha were worried the black helicopters might come back. So Clark did his best, but rumours still abounded. Some of the other kids in his class at school even called him an “alien” because of how weird he acted sometimes. Naturally, he had been told his origins by this point. When he was six, his parents sat him down and explained about the pod and his mother and John gave him the small device that Lara had given him. The moment Clark touched it, it activated. It was a holo-photo projector, and it displayed a portrait of the El family, baby Clark included. This was proof that Clark was from the stars, and from that moment onward, he became obsessed with outer space. By the time he was in middle school, he had star maps and rocket posters pinned up in his room, he tracked down every scrap of alien news and conspiracy theories that he could find, and tried to send out radio signals into deep space with his own dinky, homemade system in the family tree house. He loved his adoptive family, he did, but he also wanted to know what had happened to the rest of his birth family. Were they out there? Did they know where he was? That he was alive? He had so many questions!

Alas, time flew by, and no answers appeared. He had a falling out with one of his brothers (involving Clark losing control and accidentally hurting one of the family dogs with his laser vision) and after high school he left to get a degree in investigative journalism, later taking a job at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. He still talked to his brothers and sister and Ma and Pa, but he felt alienated. He didn’t really belong anywhere. That’s why this job was so important. He would scour the ends of the Earth to find answers.

Little did he know, though, that the escape pod and Lara’s body had been taken by the government and were being experimented on. Head of the classified project currently: Amanda Waller. Most invested investor: Lex Luthor.

Part one here 👇

[browniefox]

The (New) +Anima Au Guide!

A few months ago, I made a post about the basics of +anima, and now I realize it was kinda bad, so I'm making it again! So, here's a little guide to the basic world of +anima - mostly how anima work - in hopes to inspire people to create +anima aus!

What is +Anima?

+Anima is a ten-volume manga written by Natsumi Mukai. It is very good and cute, you should read it! It revolves around a world where certain people have something called an anima.

When a child is put into a life-threatening situation, there's a chance that they will get the abilities of a nearby animal - granting them wings like a bird, or tail of a fish, for example - in order to survive the situation. It's like if trauma gave you cat ears!

Nana, for instance, was running from her drunk and angry father in the woods at night, and got a bat anima. Natural anima only happen to children.

Getting an anima, or seeing someone with an anima, is rare enough that, even if people are aware of what anima are, those with bird or fish anima are often confused for angels or mermaids. Those with anima are usually treated poorly and feared as something dangerous and scary.

Those with anima are able to look like normal humans most of the time, accessing their anima and transforming back and forth at will. When appearing like a normal human, however, there is still proof of being an anima by way of a marking(s) somewhere on their body. The marking reflects the animal/trait that they have, the location usually correlates with there or how the trait shows up.

As an anima is connected to survival, children with them usually lose their anima as they grow older and find themselves in better situations. In the manga, most of the anima are either kids or teens. There are a few cases of adults with natural anima, two being seemingly homesless men (one seems to be a rat anima, while another is a bison), and a few who are of the Native American-Coded group in the manga, the Kim-un-Kur, who are known to keep their anima through adulthood seemingly because 1. it's less ostracized against, 2. their life style probably is better with one, and 3. they're more in tune with nature and their anima.

(^this is the the buffalo anima and a crow anima)

There is also such a thing as 'fake' or 'manufactured' anima, but only in a sense. There's a way to extract the anima from a person, though if the person is not willing the anima will not remain after the procedure. When willingly extracted, however, the anima can then placed into another person, though the connection between human and anima seems to be tenuous, and the anima may choose to leave.

Outside of a 'manufactored' anima, in canon there is one instance of an anima hopping from one human to another, though in that case the anima was that of a vicious and vengeful bear.

While in-fiction it's mostly hinted at and a little vague, it seems that the anima - as in the animal power itself - seems to have some degree of sentience, as it seems its the anima that makes makes the choice when to leave the human. It seems to be that the spirit of the animal literally ends up in the human that gains the anima.

Those with anima also seem to be able to do a further transformation into a more animal-like form called metamorphosis.

As you may have noticed me doing throughout the post, those with anima are usually just referred to as ‘anima’, though the animal spirit in the is also called their ‘anima’.

In the world of +Anima, there is also a side of the continent that has big market in anima slave trade, so make of that what you will.

Anyway, I find the world of +Anima FASCINATING, please talk to me about +Anima and make aus I love it.

(These are the four main characters of the manga! Cooro (crow), Husky (fish), Senri (bear), and Nana (bat).)

[bi-bi-bi-bakugo]

I think I could talk about BakuDeku for hours.

Like, genuinely

I understand their past. All that's happened.

But when you see past that. See Katsuki's actions for what they were supposed to be. Acknowledge of course what he's done but also acknowledge he is changing and atoning.

These two have always been special to me but now that I'm older I'm (somewhat) smart enough to understand and adore their relationship on a greater scale.

And also, looking at them from a literary standpoint. The parallel of Izuku's body running before he had a chance to think to save Katsuki from the sludge villain.

And Katsuki doing the same thing for Izuku with Shigaraki, ending up getting impaled?

The soft looks you catch when you're paying extra close attention to Katsuki.

The familiarity and comfort the two find in each other.

These two mean the world to me. And I know not everyone sees their relationship like that. But they're special to me. And I love them.

I can only hope for them to get the happy ending they deserve. Maybe even together? But I know how unlikely that is.

He's looking at Izuku here. Seeing him train when he should be sleeping after a long day of hero work.

The soft smile he has as he watches Izuku win. Seeing him be victorious in battle. (At least until Shoto catches him!!)

And that's just two examples from the movies not even talking about the canon stuff!

Their story is tragic, something that breaks my heart the longer I think about it. But they're healing.

I know some people can't forgive Katsuki for what he has done, the important part is Izuku has. And Katsuki is growing. He's becoming better.

Class 1.A vs Deku is proof. This kid is desperate to have Izuku back. So he does something that who knows if he was planning on doing them or if it was on a whim.

He apologized. And he's putting in effort to call him Izuku. Even when Izuku says he doesn't have to.

And then there's the recent episode.

(spoiler below break)

Say all that you want about Katsuki. But his "7 minutes" when he died? Were Izuku. In his final moments, Izuku was not only on his mind but gave him strength to keep going. To push past what I can only assume would be the worse amount of pain imaginable.

He still had that card on him. That special All Might card that matches with Izuku's.

Whether you see their relationship as platonic or romantic, I do truly think they're soulmates.

Not in the traditional sense, but I do believe their souls are meant for one another. They complete eachother. Where one falls flat the other excels in. They push eachother to be the best version of themselves they can be. And I think that has to count for something.

Izuku and Katsuki were made for eachother. That is something I can say without a shadow of a doubt.

Two sides of the same coin.

Soulmates.

[seraph-of-the-mikayuu]

Beginning of the fanfic I'm writing where Tang Bo has also reincarnated! I'm pretty much rewriting the novel, but with Tang Bo! Leave comments if u think it should go on ao3 with the rest of it!

It's quite long right now, but I hope you enjoy!

Being reborn into the Tang family to a body around 7 had to have been just his luck. If Tang bo knew that reincarnation was what would happen after death, he would have been more prepared. With the surprise of being alive again, he pushed that aside to train as much as possible in his hidden weapon techniques. The elders were useless and all the techniques they lost during the war, Tang Bo was steadily trying to bring back.

Long nights left unwanted thoughts to arise, of how he was truly alone in this world. Cheongmyeong was dead and so was everyone he once knew. The fact that when he asked about the war and someone said Mount Hua was in a decline was more than proof his old lover was dead. Tang Bo had decided to try and sneak glances at Mount Hua to maybe try and keep them from closing completely, that was the least he could do.

This all led to Tang Bo putting on a dark cloak and accompanying Tang Gunak and a few of his ‘brothers’ to see if the divine dragon was truly a problem. Something about a merchant’s son from Mount Hua had beaten two of his brothers and the divine dragon had mentioned the secret technique of twelve daggers. He vaguely remembers spilling all the secret techniques of the Tang family to Cheongmyung.

In reality he wanted to check the one with the name of his old love if he's honest. The news of Mount Hua starting to climb back up by the hands of one kid wasn't that big of a deal to Tang Bo. Even beating all second disciples of Zhongnan. Sure he was happy that Dosa Hyung-nim’s sect was growing back but the name of the kid changed everything. There was a slight flicker of hope that what happened to him happened the same to Cheongmyung.

He watched the Tang family’s lord talk, mostly spacing out. There was a tingling sensation on his skin. He was honestly excited to meet the Divine Dragon. Maybe it would be him. Tang Bo has nothing to lose in this, there's no point checking but the idea that he might have reincarnated made him giddy.

A voice quickly snapped him out of his daze, “Hey, old man. You've got a really weird personality.”

Tang bo knew that voice, he looked up immediately and as if the heaven was playing jokes on him, the bright blue sky made him look heavenly. The face was too similar, the nose, the grin, the expression, the voice. There was no mistaking it. It had to have been. How lucky was Tang Bo.

The rest of the conversation was muffled as he stared right at Cheongmyeong.He had landed near Tang Bo, his back was turned towards him as he spoke to the head. Tang Bo had ignored the pressing qi from Tang Gunak, moving closer to Cheongmyeong reaching out to grab his shoulder before he was startled by the sudden yell.

“ENOUGH!!!!”

Four people ran and placed themselves in front of Cheongmyeong as if defending him from Tang Gunak, Tang Bo gritted his teeth and took a step near the Tang Family head so he could see Cheongmyeong’s face. It was the same as he remembered all those years ago.

Bows from all four Mount Hua disciples, all at the same time, was honestly kind of impressive. The front one was wearing white compared to the rest so he must have been the eldest. The words of him being the Righteous Sword actually fit this kid well. He was quite handsome and he spoke like a melody.

The Righteous Sword mumbled about taking punishment for Cheongmyeong's actions. It honestly made Tang Bo snort in laughter but, that must have been strange to everyone else since they all turned to look at him as if just noticing him.

“What's so funny? Something you want to share?” Cheongmyeong stopped talking as soon as they met with their eyes. An indescribable expression clouded his face, eyes seemed to be glassy as if he was looking at a memory. Everything went silent, you could hear a pin drop before Cheongmyeong's face changed to anger.

“...bo-ya, wait..?”

“Dosa Hyung-nim?” Tang Bo said hesitantly as if testing the waters, that anger seemed to spike as Cheongmyeong clenched his fist. He started walking forward towards Tang-Bo, a smile on his face but it was obvious to everyone that he was mad.

“-you!” The Disciples quickly placed themselves in front of Cheongmyeong again to stop him from beating up an unknown Tang member

“Hyung-?” The Righteous Sword looked at Tang Bo then at Cheongmyeong and then back. Even Tang Gunak hadn't said anything yet, “What's your name?

“Tang Bo, it's nice to meet other Mount Hua disciples,” He slightly bowed his head before looking back up,”and you?”

“Baek Cheon, it's an honor as well” Baek Cheon turned around to Cheongmyeong, “You know him?”

With gritted teeth, Cheongmyeong stared right at Tang Bo, “Yes, I do. You guys can talk later” he turned towards Tang Gunak

“I agree, it's time to truly test what I came here for. I intend to see whether you are truly devoid of substance or unfathomable in its depth”

Watching the two of them walk away from the group, the killing intent from Tang Gunak only seemed to increase with every step. Yet Tang Bo didn't feel nervous or scared because he was more excited to speak with him after Tang Gunak got defeated. It wasn't that he thought of the head like the elders. If anything Tang Gunak felt like Tang Bo's grandson and nothing negative, really. Just that he knew with Cheongmyeong, Tang Gunak would put up a good fight with his hidden weapons but the fight's end was already set in stone.

Tang Bo glanced at the four standing near him and smiled before speaking, “Baek Cheon, was it? I see you're more impressive than your rumors state”

It was obvious by the red tip of the other person’s ears that being nice was the right choice

“-Ah thank you, it's just strange that you were once friends with Cheongmyung. The way you referred to him caught me off guard” Baek Cheon spoke with a fluidity that would charm anyone. He truly was fit for his title.

“Enough with the pleasantries, I'm sure we’ll be seeing each other much more”

It was as if all rigid movement bleed from Baek as a strained smile stayed on his face, “Oh? Why's that?”

That sentence made him chuckle. There was no way he was just gonna let Cheongmyung run off around without him by his side. His attention was brought to the other three standing behind Baek Cheon watching the so-called spar. If Cheongmyung was helping them then it would be nice to get to know them all.

“And you three are?”

“Yunjong”

“.. Yoo Iseol”

“Jo Gul”

Tang bo perked up when he heard the last name, “Jo Gul..? Ah, you’re the one who had fought two of my siblings and won. I’m curious to see your strength as well if the spar doesn’t take too long.”

“Yes, that was me.. although I hope that there's no hard feelings but, what do you mean not take too long? Do you already know who will win?”

“None at all and… yes, it's clear who will win this battle” That wasn't a lie, the two that got beat had no relation to him or importance. Seeing the Tang Family this weak did make him a little annoyed but that wasn't the fault of the disciples in front of him. Jo Gul put his hands on his face sighing,”So it’ll be for nothing-”

Tang Bo snapped back towards Jo Gul, raising his eyebrow “What do you mean? Dosa Hyung-nim is going to win”

Everyone's attention was quickly brought back on the spar as Cheongmyeong was pushed into a sticky situation. The dagger going right at his face caused Jo Gul to yell out only to be held back by Baek Cheon. Screaming and yelling about murder. The sight of Cheongmyung catching the dagger with his teeth made him smile as he brought his attention to Jo Gul who had calmed down.

“Eighth strike, you have two left. Make it count.”

Watching the rest of the two attacks was strange, it was like watching a memory. The movement of Cheongmyeong was almost the same as back then. Watching him jump and swing his blade right at the shoulder of the head of the Tang family, Tang Bo had started walking closer. The duel was done and decided. It was only when something shone from the corner of his eye as it flew through the air landing and planting itself into the side of Cheongmyeong's stomach.

Tang bo was the first who made it to Tang Pae, immediately grabbing the arm that had thrown that forsaken dagger. With a quick move, the arm snapped, a scream pierced the air as Tang Pae crumbled in front of him.

“..how dare you-.. who do you-..” He felt anger bubbling up to the surface, his grip tightened no doubt causing the broken bone to rub against each other. He swiftly grabbed a dagger and with one quick movement went to end the life of that pathetic-

“TANG BO!” He turned towards Tang Gunak who was looking right at him, “Tang Pae will deal with the consequences” Tang Bo dropped Pae's hand before walking over to where Baek Cheon had lifted Cheongmyeong up to bring him back to the Tang estate.

---------

Waking up for Cheongmyeong felt like he was swimming through a deep ocean, there was someone talking to him. It was muffled but he recognized the voice just couldn't place who.

He blinked slowly as he sat up, a tingling of pain near the side of his hip. Immediately the four on the ground were the first thing he noticed. He scoffed but a small smile threatened to break through on his lips. He truly cared for the four and it was nice to know they were the same.

“Dosa Hyung-nim?” That very word repeated through his head as he searched the room for the one who was responsible. There by the closed door was someone he thought he would never see again. Memories pushed to resurface of that last meeting between the two.

[]

“Will you marry me?”

“Ask that again when I bring you to the medics! Just- wait”

“Dosa, will you marry me”

“...” Cheongmyung desperately grabbed onto Tang Bo’s clothes, dipping his head down to the others face before placing a gentle kiss on Tang Bo's lips, “of course I will”

Tears dripped down Tang Bo's face as his smile widened. It took every energy left in his body to smile. Cheongmyung shakily cradled his lover to his chest. Tears flowed from his eyes before he screamed and screamed and screamed until his throat was torn. There is nothing he could do except promise to end this war.

[]

He carefully got off the bed and walked towards Tang Bo, his fist tightened into a fist as he walked closer to him. A smile on his face but, he definitely wasn't happy.

“‘Dosa Hyung-nim’ that's it? Just ‘Dosa Hyung-nim’. Did you want to die again today? Did you think I would be so happy to see you, I would forget that you broke your promise”

“Ah! Nonono Come on don't-” Tang Bo waved his hands as he backed up from Cheongmyeong who was quickly approaching.

“I didn't think it was actually you! Being reincarnated is strange by itself and you too I just- Wait! Don't hit me!” Tang Bo continued to ramble before he felt a tight grip on one of his wrists before he was pulled into a hug.

“Shut up, brat” Cheongmyeong mumbled as he hugged his lover, Tang Bo took a second before hugging Cheongmyeong back. A smile slowly making its way on his face, he could feel the way the other trembled and shaken with fear. It only made Tang Bo hug him tighter, tears running down his face. He could feel how his lover gripped his clothes desperately as if trying to find out if he was truly here. Tang Bo never thought he would see Cheongmyung again.

It only lasted a few seconds but felt like eternity to Tang Bo. He looked Cheongmyeong up and down when they let go. The Pink eyes he loved were glassy and sad. Tang Bo cupped Cheongmyeong's face placing a kiss on his cheeks then to his forehead then to his nose and at last his lips. He truly looked similar to his past life even though Tang Bo had never met him when he was a kid, he could definitely see the resemblance between the two.

He had wanted to stay in that hug forever. It was the first time since he reincarnated that he felt not completely alone in this.

“If I knew you were so clingy. I would've jumped for the chance every time!” There was one swift movement as a fist hit his head, Tang Bo reached up rubbing the top of his head before throwing his arm over Cheongmyung’s shoulder bringing him closer, it wasn't hard to notice the pink decorating his cheeks from this close “Come on I was just kidding”

“You never knew when to shut up” Cheongmyung scoffed before glancing back at the four by the end of the bed, Tang Bo used his sleeve to rub his eyes from the tears earlier.

“Oh! By the way, the way they protected you was kinda sweet, ripping cloth out of people’s hands to do it themselves. Eventually the current head had to press pressure points to safely get them to sleep. It's nice to see other people can manage to put up with y-”

WHACK

“Owowowow, Dosa Hyung-nim- why are you so mean? You don’t understand how hard it is to stay here. The elders try to control everything and they’re relying on poison, againnn. Tang Gunak has my daggers also so it's not like I can get those back and they made rules that the disciples aren’t even allowed to leave the sect without permission”

“Yeah yeah” Cheongmyung waved him off before blinking for a few seconds and looking back at Tang Bo, “Your family has always had that rule, you just didn’t listen”

“Oh right..”

Cheongmyung looked around before walking towards the door and opening it, “Aren’t you gonna take me to see Tang Gunak, Bo-ya? I would rather get this robbe-” He coughed before finishing his sentence, “compensation dealt with”

Tang Bo dragged his feet as he walked alongside Cheongmyung, “Can’t it wait? They don’t exactly know I’m here, ‘checking up’ on you and wouldn’t you rather go get some alcohol and just relax”

Cheongmyung rolled his eyes and took a step forward with Tang Bo hanging off the side of him. He never minded the physical touch from Tang Bo since it wasn’t like non harmful physical touch from someone was common in his past life other than his Sasuk and Tang Bo.

It wasn’t long until his eyes immediately locked on the person they were just talking about. Tang Gunak was walking this way and was only a few steps away. Tang Bo from next to him, let go of Cheongmyung with a grumble but suddenly grabbed Cheongmyung's arm and dragged him back into the room.

“..huh?”

Tang Bo opened up the window inside of the room as he pulled Cheongmyung with him. Sliding easily out of the window.

“Come on! You can always talk to him later, let's go to our favorite drinking spot!”

With a smile, Cheongmyung followed along where Tang Bo led him. It was a forgotten path filled with weeds but he knew every step of it like muscle memory. At some point in the stroll, their hands intertwined. Whether it was Tang Bo who started it or Cheongmyung. Neither would answer, only knowing that they walked side by side together.

When they got to the pavilion, it was dusty and cracked by the weather. Nothing like how it had looked 100 years ago. But it was better than nothing. The two sat down across from each other just like they used to.

“You better have actually brought alcohol if you wanted to drag me all the way out here”

“Yes, yes” Tang Bo set down two bottles, out of his robe, placing both on the table in front of them with a smile. Almost right after he pulled out a small wooden box and slid it over to Cheongmyung who had already poured himself a drink.

“Hm? What's this?” When he opened it, the first thing he saw was a green stone. It was surrounded by yellowish gold. Cheongmyung immediately looked up at Tang Bo. His hands shook as he tried to come up with a clear thought.

“I had them prepared a long time ago and I had already asked Cheong Mun first of course!,” a gentle smile replaced the look on Tang Bo's face, “if I'm being honest, this was the place I had wanted to ask you. When I was reincarnated, I checked and they were untouched in the spot I had left them. So I'll ask you again, this time at the right time”

Cheongmyung held the box tightly in his hands, yet gentle as if the ring would break with a touch from him. His brows furrowed in thought. Listening intently to Tang Bo.

“Will you marry me, Cheongmyung, the 13th generation disciple of Mount Hua?”

For a second, everything went quiet. Cheongmyung slowly stood up before moving around the table. Before Tang Bo could react, he grabbed Tang Bo to bring him closer before pressing a kiss to his lips. He licked his lips after they parted and he finally answered, “Of course I will”

Tang Bo pulled Cheongmyung back towards him, hands gripping the uniform he wore. As he was desperate just to have the touch of the other. Kiss after kiss after kiss, when it calmed back down. Tang Bo looked at Cheongmyung’s face with a slight chuckle, his cheeks were red and his lips were slightly swollen. It was a beautiful sight.

Flustered by all the attention that Tang Bo was giving him, he looked away mumbling, “What about your ring?”

“It's similar to yours, just a different stone!” He pulled out another small bow and opened it up, Tang Bo was right. The ring was the same but the stone was a deep pink.

“Look, it matches your eyes” He held it up to Cheongmyung’s eyes before reaching across the table and grabbing the ring he had made for Cheongmyung while using his other hand to grab Cheongmyung’s hand. He carefully slipped the ring on his middle finger and then on his own with a huge smile. The ring was a little big but not enough where it would fall off for both of them.

Tang Bo poured two cups of the sake he brought and pushed on the Cheongmyung, who had sat down next to him

“To celebrate?”

“To celebrate.”

They both brought it to their lips, taking a large gulp before Tang Bo flopped over onto Cheongmyung.

Resting his head on the other’s thighs as a pillow. Looking up at Cheongmyung who was looking down right at him, his hair falling to the side and tickling Tang Bo’s cheeks.

“You sure seem to get comfortable fast. There’s still alot to decide, you know.”

“All of that can wait! I’m busy with my husband”

Cheongmyung’s cheeks flushed pink at the word Tang Bo used,

“What? Are you flustered because I called you my husband?”

“...”

“My lover. My husband. My friend. My partner. My true love”

BANG

Cheongmyung pushed his hand to push Tang Bo off his lap, as he fell, his hand was brought up to cover his mouth. His cheeks burned redder at the very second.

“Ow-! You’re so mean”

----------

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

Writing in tags got a ball rolling and I'm thinking more and more about full ghost/bitter babysitter Vlad

Thinking about how Jazz and Danny grew up with ghost hunters as parents and a ghost as an uncle, the types of wrenches it throws into the family's relationships with each other...

Starting with the parents' perspective,

It's easy in the beginning to dismiss the paradoxical nature of ghost hunters having a ghost live with them, The Ghostbusters had Slimer, Fentonworks has V-Man. At the start, their tiny children can see and understand the difference between their friendly uncle Vlad (who at the start, looked like a pathetic wet kitten) and a 'real' dangerous ghost.

It's less easy when you and your old friend wind up in an arms race driven and perpetuated by both rational and irrational fear.

At the start when he looked human and his grudge was apparent but it was shown when he was passive-aggressively doing chores around the house and getting the kids ready for school, it was funny, guilt-trippy, sure, but also helpful. Now that the kids are teenagers and can do their own share of the chores and get themselves ready for school that grudge needs other ways to manifest and he can't break inventions and loom ominously on their bedroom ceiling forever.

"We're not *just* ghost hunters, there's more to our studies than dissection and having Vladdie around makes those other studies easier."

With time, turns into...

"Well, how would we know if our anti ghost forcefields and other ghost proofing gadgets work or not if we didn't have a ghost to test them on?"

With more time, turns into...

"This is the Fenton Ecto-Vaporizer, it turns every ghost caught in its rays into nothing but steam! Well, every ghost except the pesky patient because it grew immune to Blood Blossoms and effect amplifying serums 🙄"

And for the most part 'the ghost haunting our home for decades is immune to our shock collar and we need to make something stronger or he'll rip our spines out of our bodies and wear our skins like coats' is said in jest,

at the end of the day,

during those nights that SHOULD be silent but their guilty consciences make the whispers at the end of the bed recounting the day they not only killed, but dumped their best friend like garbage and fled the state that much louder as the bright red eyes of the vengeful spirit become their unwelcome night light...

They have to ask themselves will he kill them before or after the kids go to college?

From the kids' perspective... where do I even start?

Okay, good news is that they had a good tradeoff with a better childhood, I mean for starters their Christmases were a lot less nasty with Uncle Vlad and I strongly suspect that Little Danny's favorite Christmas story of all time was 'A Christmas Carol' as he'd love the christmas ghosts thanks to knowing his own 'christmas ghosts'.

And both kids grow up knowing that ghosts CAN be good people, they see their uncle lose his outer humanity over the years while they grow up and come to understand that just because a ghost can *look* mean and scary doesn't mean that they *are* mean.

Danny would likely have more 'tools' in his belt other than fighting. Sure, fighting's on the table if need be, but when it comes to different ghosts and their different issues, he'd likely stop and ask himself "Is this ghost who's screaming about a dance in need of a butt-kicking, or is she in need of some help?"

but as teenagers who can see that their family situation is NOT normal...

Jazz knows that there's more to Vlad's tragic story than 'I was really sick and your parents didn't visit me in the hospital :C'. She also knows he's not telling her.

Granted, nobody's really comfortable telling the girl one raised to adulthood that their parents murdered and abandoned them without a second thought,

But the whimsy and charm of 'oh look my uncle's a ghost' is lost when 1. you're not a kid anymore. and 2. getting him to be emotionally honest and upfront with you about his past is like pulling teeth.

Does Danny go to any of the adults when the accident happens? CAN he go to any of the adults when the accident happens?

It's established how he hates the idea of his parents getting a divorce, of losing his family, and at this point in time despite their attempts to hide it in front of him and Jazz, he can pick up that Vlad is not happy with or around his parents who in turn appear more and more uncomfortable with their old friend.

He knows that his mom and dad can put up with ghosts if they absolutely need to, but how will they take knowing that HE'S a ghost?

And how will Uncle Vlad himself take it?

He can trust him to teach him everything he knows about being a ghost, but at the same time, he's grown up watching Vlad destroy any and all inventions his parents make that seem too dangerous to them, so what would he do to his parents if he knew that 'their negligence killed him'?

[louisisalarrie]

https://www.tumblr.com/louisisalarrie/767071307043110912/did-you-see-what-daisy-posted-on?source=share

i know you dont mean it as is, but people hate way more than enough on Louis and his sisters for a shit ass stunt that none of them want or choose.

i know you're is sarcastic, but i also dont think it translates well for a lot of this fandom who use all this verbatim to be really vile to all the tomlinsons.

oh boy anon you are barking up the wrong tree here my friend, BUT, everyone is welcome to the show here

listen, I’ve watched this little sisters grow up for over a decade now and yes, they took on some responsibility of the bbg stuff. But it took a turn from like… the girls posting some stuff that actually was somewhat Larry proof, to then really picking up more of this stunt than what I thought was necessary. they would be under NDAs sure, but they’re not directly involved in this stunt. this is NOT their stunt, this is a contract between louis and 1d’s team. the girls would not be contractually obligated to post a certain amount of content of F etc., but they would be highly encouraged to. and that’s great that they’re taking on the social media aspect of it and louis can step back. they are a very tight knit bunch of siblings who love and care for each other dearly.

they also are now adults (which is still so weird to me lol) and influencers, so they are much more aware of the interactions between themselves and the 1d fandom, what gets them likes and hits etc etc., and they are quite media savvy from having grown up surrounded by one of the music industry’s biggest cover ups ever. them and Lou Teasdale both used the occasional Snapchat/social media post that would be very clearly hinted towards Larry - all with some classic plausible deniability included.

now, the fact that they are influencers, means they need engagement. Lottie has done extremely well for herself and has created her own kind of social media presence that does not rely on louis these days, and she has her own branding. She’s her own public figure, and that’s great.

the twins are following suit, but haven’t reached that level of interaction and following that is outside of the fandom. they have a little bit, but nowhere near like Lottie. SO what posts get them the most engagement? the most clicks? the most likes? well… anything that has to do with Louis. with louis not really wanting to be the star of his little sisters’ instagrams, the next closest thing is that kid. and im not being “villainous” towards the tomlinson sisters, im simply laying down the facts. those girls, while they have been encouraged to take on bbg content off of louis’ hands to keep up the ruse, they also have benefit in doing so. it gets them engagement. it’s truly that simple.

im not hating on those girls, but also, their accounts aren’t being run by someone else. they aren’t in the same position louis is. and lottie does do the occasional bbg post too, but also, she’s her own influencer now. there’s a big difference between her and the twins’ brands, and maybe that’s why they’re now stepping back from pushing the F content. they want their reality show, they want their own attention, and while posting F gets them love AND hate, it works. it’s super basic marketing, and it’s a good thing for louis to step back, and the twins to use the stunt for engagement.

I am not putting all fault to those girls, btw. im saying that they may sometimes take advantage of the stunt for a boost in engagement, and that’s on them. they follow F update accounts - there is absolutely NO reason to do that and those accounts are creepy af as it is.

The problem is though, that they started taking on the bbg content heavily. I would argue more heavy than what is necessary of them, and I think they screwed themselves over with that.

I think all the Tomlinsons are good people with good hearts, and the twins im sure are lovely people. but you have to see through the surface and not take things at face value.

I have to say im a little shocked at your message because frankly, being a Larrie, means you don’t take things at face value and that’s why we don’t share a collective braincell like the solos do. they PUSH for F content, they are not fine if things are kept private (there are a million examples of this I can show you if you really want), it’s creepy and unnecessary and that would be way more upsetting to me than my fans thinking it’s not my kid. god it’s so weird. But taking every thing at face value is what the media and all the PR teams want you to do. but it’s about analysing and thinking for yourself as to why things are posted, when they are posted, and the purpose behind the overall stunt.

true larries are not vicious to louis and his sisters when they post bbg content. sure there are some that do have a go sometimes, of course, but also there are far more solos that yell for content than there are larries who get mad at bbg content. I literally am so over this stunt that I just roll my fucking eyes when that kid is dragged into the public eye again.

anyway, my point is, that the twins are now backing away from the content that got them engagement in the first place. I despise that they’ve been encouraged to post content on louis’ behalf, I also despise that a minor has his face plastered all over the internet when they’re (literally everyone involved) well aware of how wrong this all is, and I feel sorry for those girls. but at the end of the day, they did too much for engagement and are now against it.

and if im wrong, if for some reason 9 years later 1d’s team is in constant contact sending the girls messages and asking for them to post shit, then I take back everything I said. but I highly doubt that. and it’s all just a classic marketing ploy. I love louis, I’ll defend him with everything I have, I’ll throw myself in front of a truck driven by solos if I have to, but I do not hate him or his sisters. you’ve gotten this very wrong, my friend.

anyway, shout out to you for sharing your opinion and wanting to have a chat. that’s what this is all about! and I hope I cleared some stuff up for you <3

[hehearse]

kids again by Artist vs Poet as kdj about yjh and reading his story as a teen

Colors by Halsey. About kdj and maybe yjh?

Buzzcut Season by Lorde. Paradise? Def yjh about kdj, esp the first lines

We Raise Our Cups from Hadestown. Hear me out here, the kdjcom after kdj’s died again. Bc they know he’s alive (ish) somewhere but don’t know where.

The Projectionist by Sleeping At Last. Kdj about stories.

also under cut cause i keep yapping ^^

kids again by Artist vs Poet

i see why you suggest that but hear me out: lgy and sys.

cause to me it's too... two-sided for kdj and yjh. on the other hand, shin yoosung and lee gilyoung. they did go through the scenarios hand in hand, and supported each other despite their bickering. just like when shin yoosung got discouraged about not understanding kdj for real, even as his incarnation, and lee gilyoung, who himself doesn't feel all that secure about his affection, took her hand and helped her move again. shin yoosung is wearing - wore - her loneliness like a crown, disaster and all, and while gilyoung is in no way coward, the vibe still fits i think. ^^

Colors by Halsey

yeah.. i see your vision. but to me it can be kdj. can be yjh. can be hsy. they all go through it, through their color draining, through changing themselves, changing others, hope growing dull and hearts tired etc etc

(but in my heart thats also han yoojin from shj's -or any of his kids probably - pov. yoojin glowing so bright in this dull boring life. then he looks over and bam - color draining through the holes in the rotting canvas. additionally the last part is yoojin fearing shj losing interest. heh.)

Buzzcut Season by Lorde LISTEN I SWEAR I AM NOT DOING IT ON PURPOSE but do consider. jung heewon about kim dokja back at the paradise.

isn't it them. jung heewon swayed by the happy people, painless paradise. and kdj letting her be swayed. i have no further proofs because my memory is shit but. them. source: trust me ^^

We Raise Our Cups from Hadestown

i would even say. it's them writing orv. isn't their singing - or well. writing. to follow him wherever he and all his fragments are and bring him comfort? ogh. kim dokja .... in his bitter snow. the worst guy ever........

The Projectionist by Sleeping At Last

that one absolutely. no notes no elaboration... just kim dokja in his projection room watching the brightest things he could ever see huh. combusting-

[hatlordave]

More Misty Woods stuff:

Nyxia technically legally owns the property. Technically. Shenanigans were involved in that coming to be seeing as she didn’t previously have a birth certificate.

They dont have an oracle or missions that they do. Most of them just live there full time. Some do leave once they hit 18-20, but they’re welcome to stay as long as they want. Nyxia is currently the oldest resident at 24.

Mythological heritage doesn’t effect status or lodgings, rather age does. The younger you are, the lower in the silo your room is (with a couple older kids/young adults to help guard and care for the little ones)

Exceptions include infants (not too common) and those with disabilities that would prevent them from climbing the silo. Those exceptions have lodgings in the farm house as it has better baby-proofing and disability access. The nymphs who raised Nyxia help out with the littlest ones

The three oldest on the property (Nyxia, Jamison, and Penny) take turns keeping watch from the top of the silo at night where they can survey the upper part of the property.

In edition to the farmhouse, barn, and Silo, there’s also a garden plot and some apple trees in front of the house, and they do have a larger field where they grow different crops that they rotate each year. Theres also a creek running down to a small lake on the property.

They dont have any mythical animals (yet! Nyxia is trying to change that), but they do have a few normal ones! They’ve got chicken hutch, a couple dogs, a barn cat, and two horses.

Theres plenty of woodland on and surrounding the property as well, so whatever they dont grow or raise themselves, they can hunt or forage. Though they DO make trips into town for other food and supplies, they’re largely self sufficient.

[alienoresimagines]

I would love to see more of Clegan after the war (I know this has already been mentioned) but specifically in the context where they adopt or have a child (preferably a girl because they are girl dads to the core)!! I know there are a few ones but they’ve likely been abandoned so I’d loveee to see more domesticity and them settling into the whole white picket fend thing (even though this would be super hard for them given the time period)!🥹

Ooh, see, as per my own personal hc I don't see them with a child, at least not in canon, but I love that there is so much diversity in what people would like to read 🥰🥰 It's proof of a fandom that's alive in my opinion 😌

I think I've seen one going around where John has a biological little girl that comes to live with them after the war (?) but it's true there aren't many set in canon, it could be such a fun thing to explore! And the good thing with fanfiction is that it doesn't have to be 100% historically accurate 🥰 Maybe John or Gale's sister has a child but is unable to take care of them so the child goes to stay with their uncle and his war buddy 🥹 Maybe John was the godfather of a kid who's lost their parents during the war or maybe they adopt once they feel settled and safe enough 🥹 But you're absolutely right about giving them the white picket fence and the nine yards, they deserve them 🥹 If they get a dog, they'd have the new American dream 🥹 Be right back crying about John teaching his kids how to play sports in the backyard while Buck reads on their porch but looking so fondly at his little family 🥹

It could also be really interesting to explore the impact it has on the Buckies themselves, to have a child, a person, to take care of and help grow 🥹

Also the 100th as uncles!!! Grandpa Chick!!! Meatball being all soft for that lil' one 🥹

I hope more people will write those kind of stories for you, Nonnie 💕

What are some tropes/hc you'd like to see more of in Clegan fics?

[the-s1lly-corner]

Starlight, Starshine; Missing In Action

Guys can you tell I'm bad at making up title names yet

Because I SUCK at coming up with titles author is still insecure ab their writing short one this time well theyre all short one shots but yk not beta/proof read author is eepy

Author swaps between writing on mobile and on computer so

Yeah

Summary: Sun and Moon miss you! You haven't been coming to work lately! Be it illness or injury, they're worried about your wellbeing!

Notes/CWs: no real CWs I think, at least none I can think of, readers reason for being MIA is vague and non descriptive, story mostly shows Sun and Moons side of things, au where nothing goes wrong because I just want the glamrocks + sun/moon to be happy, Sun is sad and Moon is worried, ends on a positive note, little to no dialogue (mix of a stylistic thing and also admin still sucks at dialogue(

sun would be lying if he didnt notice your absence immediately. the same could be applied to moon. it was... weird. they were so used to working alone, just the two of them in their shared body in the daycare before you had arrived, but...

without you there giving them an extra set of hands and a pair of eyes, things seemed duller. sure, they still got their job done just fine, the kids were still taken care of, but they had to admit that their worry was putting a damper on them.

first it was just one day, then two, then three. what was once manageable became unbearable. even the children began to notice that sun seemed to drag his feet just a little and snap his head at any sound coming from the slide to the daycare. moon, on the other hand, seemed to wander about more than usual while they slept, according to the children who had trouble sleeping during naptime.

things came to a head on the night of the third day, after everyone had gone home. things were so quiet, yet so loud.

no one was telling them anything, even after they had managed to talk to a few of the remaining human staff members, but they didnt do anything to give the animatronic relief.

were you sick? hurt? fired?

did you die?

immediately moon shut down the idea as soon as it occured; of course something so horrible hasnt happened!

but still, on the fourth day you didnt turn up, and for a fleeting moment, moon had revisited that idea.

no, you were still here, hed reassure himself and sun

the children, at least the ones who were regulars, began to ask about you before naptime that day. no answer moon could give seemed to satisfy them, just as the growing anxiety wracked through them at the end of the day.

it was early on the fifth day, before the daycare had opened. not a single person in sight, save for sun; who had resigned himself to perching himself on his balcony, not quite trying to pinpoint anything in his line of sight.

then suddenly, the sound of someone setting themselves down at the top of the slide ripped through the quiet air. sun spun his head around, just in time to see an employee be engulfed by the ball pit at the end.

sun didnt even do his signature dive before plunging himself into the pit below, and crawled along the floor of it.

just as you broke the surface of the pit, and brought your eyes to look up and adjust to the bright lights above, sun made his presence known as soon as you made you revealed yourself.

in the form of a tight hug. his rays sound rapidly around his head, the tips just slightly brushing against your skin. he pulled you out of the pile of plastic, doing a little twirl before walking towards the bridge and placing you down on solid ground.. a hand firmly placed on your shoulder, the other, almost resting itself on your cheek before finding its place on your other shoulder. in an instant, sun unloaded into a long string of questions

where were you?

were you okay?

what happened?

are you hurt? sick? are you still recovering?

and before he could stop himself he went into a small tirade of how worried he and moon were

they started messing up their job!

the kids started to notice!

they couldnt relax at all the entire time you were gone!

not that they wanted you to feel bad for not being there, it's not like you asked to be away.. it's just,

they were so happy you were back, and okay!

the entire time, suns rays moved; clicking nervously and retreating slightly back into his head while he talked about his and moons fears; and in a fast whirl when he expressed his joy over your return

he just kept on going, and going, and going. two minutes turned to five then began to drag on.

"I'm here, I'm not going anywhere," you said suddenly, before clasping your hands over his, which were still attatched to your shoulders. you removed them, and carefully intertwined your fingers between his.

"Promise," you added

his rays went still, his head lowering to your hands. a simple nod, and that was that. silence

silence that was short lived, as the daycare was due to open, with people steadily streaming in.

as the children arrived and squealed at your return, things began to feel right again.

yeah

things were going to be just fine..

[mofffun]

Team wings headcanons??? Any????

They are children on the playground and arguing is proof of their "friendship"!!

Headcanons

Rita being the secret supplier to Yanma's antique collection (think government auction, double as one Gokkan's source of income)

Yanma Gast 100% knew about Moffun.

Yanma the hashtag angry mark vs Rita the pool of yarn mark (ahhh I want to doodle)

THEM WITH KIDS: Rita scaring a little girl in N’kosopa vs. the flower twirl with Ishabana boy + Yanma is a good teacher

when did they first hear the king-ohger legend

"You don't even know that?" -> Yanma: yelling at auroras to "turn off your damn speakers!!!" // Rita: can't tell a lightning cable from a type c

I don't think Rita is bad in tech in terms of lacking a sense in it but they just never had the need to study it

Rita will never say the full technical name for Yanma's inventions though (Does he even know his lie detector is called the Thundercarcker behind his back?)

(bringing the actors into this) Rita serectly adding another grudge on their list because Yanma's Moffun voice is actually really good

per manga ch13, the grudge list grew again because the Jealous Judge's retainer has a heart uchiwa for the yankii king

Yanma is smart enough to motivate the judge with words into helping him if necessary but it'll take a minute hour for Rita to begin wonder if it was because they agreed with his reasoning or his choice of words

Yanma is 2 years older but by kingship he is 6 years Rita's junior. Their first meeting happened at 21/19. The number fluctuates because I also really want to see their first meeting at 19/15.

similarity and differences:

teased by Himeno, Yanma turns red and Rita turns white

they are too gay to sit properly

parallel play (they could sit in a coffee shop for hours and people would think they are angry with each other because they're not talking but it's actually the most comfortable way for them to stay together in the same room)

unconsciously hum while working long hours

“what is sleep”/caffeine addicts 

 you KNOW they both have a tendency to fall asleep in their office

Both have a sweet tooth but Yanma in drinks and Rita in hard candy. Rita more so than Yanma because butterfly.

don’t really look at what he’s eating vs. has a gokkan-native comfort food

Yanma doesn't mind trying foods with dry/weird textures Rita is not exactly a picky eater (because gokkan food shortage/low variety of homegrown food) but typical “I need that texture once in a while or I start malfunctioning”

(Gokkan has all sort of weird pickles and dried meats, typical winter country)

Like any northerner Rita has a high alcohol tolerance though without a preference (okay Gokkan harvest(?) festival and the one day the prison complex is allowed fruit punch) and you'll find me beat up before I say Yanma Gast can take more than a beer.

Yanma Gast has a HUGE ego but I think it’s only gotten worse by having an eternal hyper in Shiokara. Does Rita has an ego? long story short, yeah.

Instances:

first meeting

development of king's hotline/ohger calibur/king's weapon

the moffun scalper

development of the lie detector

yanma's arrest and trial

when yanma and rita were castle-mates (?) before himeno and kagu got themselves in jail

jail time

the body swap phone call!!

body swap resolution (admit it canon is not giving it to us)

the voyage back home

maintenance spa day of the shugods

first meeting: I think one reason Rita doesn't like N'kosopa much (and an underlying cause to them randomly arresting everyone in 28 besides stress), is organized crime plagued N'kosopa in the aftermath of Wrath of Gods.

Post-Wrath, the blue king ran away, so N'kosopa is either an anarchy or at warring states where crime bosses and militarists took hold. "Police" exist but took bribes per Shiokara. At that time, Rita just became king themself and has enough on their plate. So even though it's technically a domestic affair, it's a growing potential threat to Chikyuu's order but it's too systemic for a 10-year-old foreigner to take on alone.

I also think Rita would be required to witness the day Yanma officially becomes King. He has the popular vote, but to keep things simple, the monarchy is kept instead of transitioning into procedural democracy. So the yakuza lawyer, Usba maybe, say they have to get the Chief Justice here, to everyone turning blue and silent for a moment from the excited discussion of a big ceremony hearing their name.

but! my initial fic idea in may/june was very simple because I only wanted to put them in a bike + sidecar and sunglasses and comedic road trip. They chase down a McGuffin to help a kid. Their budapest. Where Yanma making "Absolute Neutrality" Rita's name comes from something they said. Maybe that's why the couldn't end the incident in a less legal but more effective way.

another first meeting idea allows them to meet younger as late teens is maintenance day for the shugods. A very random event is if the Yanma needs the Ohger Calibur to stay over temporarily, how is Rita gonna continue with the trials? Did he buy them a substitute pon pon Moffun hammer at the tuck shop??

Developing the henshin system: See I think Yanma is not going to bother putting in a function that he personally can’t use but knowing it’s a team’s weapon, as a good designer, he at least has to ask the other kings what they want as an auxillary. What is his reaction hearing Rita says bow? (i talk as if anything other than HA? is an option) What if Rita didn’t suggest bow, but Yanma just assigned them that because it fits that stick-in-the-mud?

Body swap resolution: Yanma wants to train his body but doesn't know where to start. I mean, he can't ask Rita of course. But if anyone can keep a secret, it's them. Oh of course he doesn't have to go that far and outright get humiliated again, so he has to phrase it like picking a fight. Rita is down anytime to "convince" Yanma Gast so they didn't really register it as a one either. (re: Erica saying arguing is the proof that this two are "friends")

Yanma's arrest:

Yanma's hair got fried blond because of his ultracomputer

N'kosopa mass protest + boast rally that conversely proved Yanma is the culprit

nobody remembers to hire Yanma a lawyer

a particular loud shriek when Gokkan's power black out (lucky for yanma it's summer i.e. long day)

Morfonia and her unsaved files

Yanma's sentence include improving Gokkan TV/Internet reception as community service

Jeramie using the "boys will be boys"/"he's just a kid" defence as Yanma's Grand-Master to mask he secretly contributed here and there

+ power blackout doesn't really affect the bugnarok because they're underground and only beginning to build a power system with Gira and Shugoddom's help

Shugoddom's historic gas lamps!

Himeno breaking down Yanma's door because "if not for my hospitals all equipped with the best backup power!" (solar/wind energy), and that she can't curl her hair that morning.

Kaguragi turned it into a campfire story night/community event somehow

Yanma's trial day is the day Gokkan's immigration and tourism board has to overwork for the first time.

Shiokara and hacker gang arguing for visitation rights. homemade bento

does yanma sentence last for more than two years if he says prison break is an additional charge?

Gira tried negotiations but he knew he isn't being fair and backed down quickly with a Rita stare

Yanma got dragged away with Papi-chan helicopter style, he's yelling at Tonbo to put in a good word for for his buddy and Papi-chan ignore him lol

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

They have two key words: past/present and secrets.

the thing with wings is, they somehow sparked in each other another side. (i.e. they drive each other crazy, and they are the only ones that can do that to the other) But then they spring back like nothing next day like children on the playground.

On a level, these two are actually very similar in terms of being analytical and practical. Yet their conflict comes from attacking problems from opposite angles. Rita represents the past and Yanma the future. Rita will collect evidence and review history while Yanma focuses on what's already in hand and invents something new. I said that right, but in a way Rita is forward-facing when they never let any childhood trauma stay a trauma or haunt them; Yanma is nostalgic based on his antique/physical media collection.

You may say it's partly recognition of the self. That's why they are only antagonistic 80% of the time.

(hc territory) They ended up doing the same thing/making the same choice ouf of completely different reasons. They are more similar than they think they are but no one can name what/why (not even me).

Yanma Gast 100% knew about Moffun but he kept his mouth shut in ep11. He (should) never told anyone about what Rita did in the underworld. I'm lying to myself he trusted the judge won't do something they didn't deem necessary so he turned away in 38.

Rita holds grudges. Yanma Gast is the source of their headache since he stole Gira and kick-started the story. Sometimes they don't get how such an obnoxious person is so popular. But Rita guesses, he's dependable when it's important. Not a very skilled fighter but he's not dumb. At least they can count on him not to intervene if they make it clear they are making a move.

the movie scene: No spoilers, but, I just think that’s a really nice scene to that established how different Yanma and Rita are while providing a base for reconciliation following their argument in 19. Neither of them are acting like their usual self. I don’t mean they are ooc, but you see them perform different than everyday under an unknown situation.