#because I think sometimes exploring what will happen if it all goes wrong is interesting

[pastafossa]

Preview of Angsty In-Progress TRT What If fic

Right so there won't be a chapter cause I'm still in Covid Brain Fog Town, Population: Me which is affecting my writing (I've gotten a bit written but it's slow going). But I have found time to edit that sad thing I'd been working on BEFORE getting sick and I'm planning to release that because I think it works as a really good illustration of just what the stakes are in TRT if they get this wrong. AKA: a what-if, in which all their preparations fail and Jane is taken (spawned by an ask in my box that's been chewing at my brain for months now).

This will be a really dark and angsty side-fic, and the ending won't be happy per se, although I'm planning to give a little hope at the end since I'm not a COMPLETE monster, but I don't expect everyone to read it regardless and am designing it so there's no need to if you'd prefer to stick to TRT canon. BUT if you DO want to read something like this, here's a preview of the first section.

Warnings for: angst (obviously), blood, reference to shock collars.

Preview wordcount: around 1k

Putting this behind a cut.

Sad Matt gif cause this part's from his POV and it will not be fun.

There should have been a fight. 

That had always been the plan, an unspoken agreement the moment you’d decided to stay. You’d all known the Man in the White Coat, Cyrus James, would come to town eventually. It was an inevitability, a reality, and it was one you’d prepared for. Slowly, you’d gathered in your allies, armor composed of S.H.I.E.L.D., of the Ferryman, of the Punisher and the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen and even Spider-Man, had you asked. There’d been plans and backup plans, alarm systems and fail safes. And just in case that still wasn’t enough, you and Matt had taken to practicing, over and over and over again, all the ways you could signal him should your hunter slip through the cracks. 

It was foolproof. 

It should have been foolproof. That was what you’d all believed. 

You were all wrong. So terribly, terribly wrong.

This isn’t how it was supposed to happen. 

There was no battle. 

It’s my fault. 

No war along the familiar streets that had become your home. 

I should have sensed him. 

There’d been no signal given. No warning, no alarm that rang out, not when you were walking home after a late case. 

Caught alone in the dark.

Where are you, sweetheart? Please, just give me something, anything—

You didn’t even have time to scream, they said.

Not physically, anyway.

He’d felt your fear before on occasion, when you reached for him psychically. Then, your presence felt like the frantic bite of your nails in his skin, tasted like the sharp tang of cold sweat and burning adrenaline, sounded like the stuttered racing of your heart, a drumbeat in his ears that never failed to set his own heart racing as he cast his senses out, hunting for threat-threat-threat and for those that dared to harm you. He’d felt your fear when you woke in the quiet dark of the apartment, and when you’d been trapped beneath the warehouse in a cruel, dusty cell. He’d felt it, too, that night Frank had chased after you. 

He thought he’d known the flavor of your fear. 

But those moments were nothing compared to the moment your deepest, darkest fear became… real. 

The deafening psychic scream that tore through the thread with all the force of a hurricane was like nothing he’d felt before, or ever would again. That storm was all-consuming, the world around him gone in a heartbeat as the sudden wave brought him to his knees, his mouth shocked open on a silent shout. He could barely breathe through that terrified tide, one cold as bitter ice, your panicked heartbeat less a drumbeat than a constant roar in his ears as your panic rolled through him. This was the tremor of muscle and blind, animalistic instinct, the last, desperate sprint of a doomed hare just before the hawk’s talons cinched shut against the back of its neck.

This wasn’t fear. That was too small a word.

It was sheer, absolute terror. 

And in that terror, you managed only a single word. 

“Matt, h—”

You never got a chance to finish. Instead, he was struck by a blinding surge of electricity, white-hot coils of lightning snaking around his throat before locking tight. That shock raced outwards from there, traveling along lines of hidden nerves and thick muscle until his whole body locked up in agony. It was impossible to writhe, to thrash, to fight. All he could do was scream, mindless and furious, your terror matched only by his surge of rage, rage that covered his own wave of terror. Because he knew. He knew, distantly, what this was, and what this meant. 

The collar. 

Just as quickly as it came, the connection was gone, leaving him with nothing but the steady drip of blood from his nose and a ringing in his ears.

He wanted to retch, his stomach roiling, but there was no time. 

It can’t end like this. 

The directional signal he’d gotten from you was worthless. Even when he found where you’d been snatched off the street, they’d left him nothing but droplets of your blood and a fading snatch of cigarette smoke, a poor cover for the faint chemical scent lingering in the alley. Tranquilizers, he’d learn later, meant to knock you out, make you tame enough to be bound, collared, and forced into the back of a van. From there, your scent vanished into the night. 

Caught. Collared. 

Taken.

There was supposed to be more time. 

More time for him in your arms and you in his. 

More quiet touches in the early morning, and laughter in the kitchen, at Fogwell’s, on warm rooftops and cold ones, too. 

Time for him to slip a ring on your finger, and for his name to twine with yours, joyful tears in both your eyes as he pressed his lips to yours on the day you finally became his wife, the keeper of his soul, and he the keeper of yours, for all the rest of your days.

Why hadn’t he asked you?

He should have asked you.

Our rocking chairs should be red, you’d said sleepily last night, when we’re old. 

He should have been faster. 

Stronger. 

Smarter.

“All this, all this that we have here, that you love, is at risk. It always is when I stop. He takes this from me every time, Matt."

He should have protected you. 

He’d promised you he’d keep you safe. 

“No one will take you. I won’t let them, no matter what I have to do to stop them. What happened before—you didn’t have me. I’ll hear him coming from a mile away. We’ll be prepared for him."

“Ciro promised me the same thing. And he was wrong.”

He’d… promised. 

“I promise. I’ll find them before they even get close.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, D.”

And he’d failed.

The Devil’s roar of anguish, of grief, and of absolute agony shook the very bones of the city. 

By that point, you were too far away to hear it. 

It would be seven months before he found you again.

[jweekgoji]

hellooo, i love your work, especially the yan! d-16!! i wanted to ask, could you pleasee write something for starscream from tfone? i think he'd be such a good yandere and i'd love to read some for himm, thank youu!

Yandere!Starscream/Reader [TFO/hcs]

tw: yandere behavior, power dynamics, very brief mentions of violence, jealousy, slightly masochistic!Starscream at the end. word count: ~1250 additional tags: cybertronian!reader, high guard!reader, gender-neutral!reader. a/n: I tried to keep it neutral, so I didn't make reader only a part of High Guard or a part of the main 4. There are some discussions from both sides, so I divided it to not confuse you. Thank you for your request~

Starscream is such an interesting yandere to be honest; it's almost sad that he has got less screen time than it was intentionally planned.

Yandere!Starscream is living for praise. Basically, like the most if not all Starscream variants in different universes, he's a sucker for a compliment or two, especially if it's from the person he deeply admires.

↑ TFO!Star is a leader of the high guard, he was used to working closely with the 13 Primes, and it is no surprise how other bots like B-127, who had the chance to know about this time period, are absolutely devoted to him. He's probably been on par with Sentinel before the latter became the leader of Iacon.

>> Regular Cybertronian!Reader

↑ But there should be a good, clear line between being a fan and being an unbearable. If you get too close, too pushy or talkative with him, and he just barely knows about you, Starscream might as well just shut you up completely so you wouldn't bother him anymore. Yandere or not, he's not falling in love easily; even then, he's not shy to use force whenever he seems like it.

That is because Yandere!Starscream is very careful about who gets into proximity with him, and with an attitude of a wild cat, he's quick to snap at you the very first moment you try to do something, even remotely reminding him of suspicious.

↑ Yandere!Starscream is a paranoid leader, in some way. It doesn't matter if you're a part of the high guard or the newcomer that just received your cog only some hours ago. It's difficult to get his trust, and it's more difficult to even try to calm his mind.

>> High Guard!Reader

↑ I feel like, apart from praise, another way to get his spark is to actually listen to what he orders you to do. That is something they both share with Sentinel, but unlike the False Prime, Starscream is not as much of a control freak as Sentinel is.

↑ Yandere!Starscream has to know that everything goes well. Because he is actually concerned about the well-being of the group, but more importantly, he doesn't want anything to happen with his lover.

↑ He knows how dangerous exploring the surface is, and every time they're trying to sabotage the meetings between quintessons and the new ruler, the chances of getting caught, imprisoned, and even executed are incredibly high.

↑ Yandere!Starscream is especially protective towards his high guard!reader, but I do not see him overprotective to the point he doesn't let you leave their hiding place and force you stay inside instead.

↑ He's been leading the high guard for 50 or so cycles, and even though they had to resort to hiding most of the time, it's still impressive that they hold back for so long. Low on energon, far away from their home, and only themselves to rely on. Starscream might not be the perfect leader he wants to look like, but he's aware of how strong his comrades are, and you're no exception. 

↑ In my opinion, he's pretty bearable yandere if you know him long enough. Sure, he has his moments or two, where a wrong glance in your way from the others might scream 'right in front of ME? how dare you!' in his head, leading it all to more conflicts and unnecessary violence. But he's an old, war-torn mech, a veteran, with the biggest enemy which is his own tongue, sometimes.

↑ Yandere!Starscream with his high guard!reader is possessive. It starts with the small things first. From the time you first joined the high guard, you were his. His subordinate, first, his right hand. It's hard for him to let go of the fact that he warmed up to you. He's not entirely heartless or cold, as someone might think, but he's not the one to show any sort of affection.

↑ Another reason for him to get more agitated and annoyed once D-16 challenges his authority. Not only that will hurt his ego, but it will also shatter the image he worked so hard to build up. Such an embarrassing sight, watching your now ex-leader beaten up by a young, inexperienced bot who only left the mines for a day or two.

↑ Megatron should be lucky because you might actually prevent a few murder attempts by talking Starscream out of it. Somehow. Yaay?

>> Regular Cybertronian!Reader

↑ But you cannot convince me Starscream doesn't have at least a tiny thing for bots who are able to put him down at his place.  You know, similar to how Rhinox scared off poor Dinobot when the latter got too high of himself, hehe.

↑ Yandere!Starscream doesn't even pay more than a few seconds of his attention towards regular Cybertronian!Reader. He already has enough of troubles on his shoulders, and now, he has to deal with some colorful bunch of gobots?? Primus, what a life.

↑ Yandere!Starscream might act all high and mighty in front of you, given his high position and connection to the Primes in the past. A walking legend right in front of you. It will be so amusing to see his face redden, a pair of wings bristling at the sight of some youngling being so ignorant and disrespectful.

↑In some sort of way, you're a challenge to him. An unexpected, bratty and with a clear lack of interest towards the older bot. It's totally not what he wanted, expecting at least some amount of fear for your and your friend's well-being after the high guards caught you.

↑ How surprised he was when you answered him with the same sharpness. The bright scarlet optics widen for a moment, then narrow. Oh, the audacity...! Your friends can only stare at you anxiously, glancing back and forth, when suddenly, your conflict only just flares up, and now a fight is all but inevitable.

↑All that counts is the strength of one bot over another, to quote his own words. As you pin the poor bot to the cold floor, feeling his digits desperately digging into your heated metal. You notice nothing more than surprise, a hint of fear perhaps, but this fleeting display of submission is simply impossible to ignore.

↑ Yandere!Starscream, after the breaking point, is especially attentive to you. He constantly looms somewhere behind your back, watching you closely like a hawk. It's hard to read his true motive behind the picture of indifference and skepticism, but some part of him really wants to help you.

↑ You are very careless in his opinion, naive in most decisions, and desperate for his guidance. Yandere! Starscream is the only bot in the old high guard who can criticize you. Otherwise...how dare they say anything in your direction!

↑ He can play nice in front of you if he wants to, only to try to attack you at the most unexpected moment, anticipating that finally this time he can repay you in kind for the shame you've made him feel. But at the end of the day, it's hard to know if he's doing it just to come crawling back to you on his knees begging for forgiveness or if he finds some kind of strange pleasure in it.

Freak.

[soundop-central]

the megasoundopstarshock polycule exists for a reason

I need to know everything you HC with them stat

ive made two posts about them!! the initial introduction and the cuddle puddle

General Headcanons

The Soundwave Chaos Polycule (also known as the Soundwave Harem) exists less to explore Soundwave's relationships with each member, and more to explore the dynamics that each of the members have with each other

I think its very funny to make it that Soundwave is aware of literally everything that goes on between his partners (spymaster goes brrrr). He's like a scientist watching his ant colony interact. He's watching the bacteria grow in a petri dish. He's a wildlife conservationist studying a pack of wolves.

I cannot stress how much Shockwave hates Optimus and how much Optimus just wants to be his friend. Optimus will find him outside of work (he knows better than to disturb him in their home lab), sit next to him, and start yapping. OP yaps about anything and everything, usually about whatever archivist project he's working on. Shockwave could not be less interested. Sometimes, OP will start a friendly debate with Shockwave because that's the only way he can get him to conversate. Shockwave immediately tries to shut him down, but it never really works. They are in an eternal struggle.

Optimus is super monogamous. He supports Soundwave whole heartedly and is secure in their relationship. Still, he can't help but get a little jealous when Soundwave chooses to spend the night in someone else's berth when its his turn to have the 'Wave. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes Soundwave has a rough day and needs to sleep next to his fellow weird cryptid scientist. The next morning, Soundwave always makes it up to OP though through gestures like bringing him extra energon, giving him the Cybertronian equivalent of a massage, or with a morning frag. It's really up to Optimus as to what he gets. Soundwave is more than happy to do whatever he wants him to. What matters is that Optimus feels reassured, which he always does.

Megatron and Shockwave are very good...uh. its complicated? They honestly don't know either. Both of them are too weird about feelings to be able to put a label on their relationship. But they enjoy each other's company in all contexts. The tenderness that Megatron is capable of is not saved for Soundwave only. He often shares it with Shockwave; gentle touches, soft spoken praise, showing a genuine interest in his work. Shockwave, likewise, will give to Megatron in his own way. He occasionally will invite him into his lab for "intellectually stimulating exercises" in which really he just enlists Megatron to be his lab assistant for the day. He teaches Megatron about science and engineering, and Megatron high key loves it. He loves that Shockwave recognizes his intellect beyond his military prowess and poetic craftsmanship.

Starscream, on the other hand, has a strained relationship with both of them. Because it's Starscream. Starscream, quite frankly, thinks its funny to annoy them at this point. He will pull pranks on Shockwave, like breaking into his lab at night and moving everything slightly to the right, or hiding an inconspicuous tool. Shockwave doesn't even know about the latter until he actually needs the instrument, and then all hell breaks loose. Starscream will walk in a couple hours later, ask what's wrong, pretend to look for about ten minutes before magically finding whatever it Shockwave is looking for. Shockwave suspects him HEAVILY, but never has enough empirical data to accuse him.

Star is a little seductress too, so when he's feeling especially spicy, he will try to egg Shockwave on in all the right ways. They've spent so long doing this dance that Starscream knows exactly the right buttons and when to push them to get Shockwave in his berth. Though, usually, it's Starscream sitting on a lab table with Shockwave between his legs.

Star and Shockwave are also lab "partners". I use that term very loosely. It's more that they have separate labs that are adjoined by a small hallway and they occasionally run into each other. Sometimes they collaborate on projects. Star proves to actually be quite skilled at being professional, something that surprises Shockwave. 

Starscream and Megatron are...they sure are!! They still fight like cats and dogs, but there is a sexual tension there now (as if it wasn't always there). Starscream doesn't really prank Megatron like he does Shockwave. But, he also doesn't try to kill him anymore which is a megastar W. Soundwave insisted that they go to therapy before they were allowed to move in, and after a few years (human years, i like to think human years are like months to Cybertronians) they managed to work out the Major Issues between them. Still, there is no fixing their clash of personalities.

Still, Starscream and Megatron are charming, and a lot of times their fights look like a battle of wits. Whoever loses gets to top. I cannot stress this enough: they solve their problems by fucking.

Still, there are strangely sweet moments between them too. It feels wrong for everyone involved, but it happens.

Starscream and Optimus are BESTIES. They love going out on the town and doing things together. They'll grab brunch and go shopping. They'll go to the library. They'll go to parks and people watch. They do literally everything together. Optimus is a secret gossip, and Starscream LOVES tea, so during their brunches Optimus talks about office drama and Starscream punctuates with gasps and "oh no she didn't!"s accordingly.

I honestly dont have a lot of thoughts about the megop angle (im not a megop shipper), but i think its really funny if Megatron pined after Optimus and optimus acts oblivious. he knows that Megs is pining. He does not care. He has all he needs with Soundwave.

TL;DR theyre all gay, your honor

[kassian-ck]

I might do a whole ass series of posts regarding Miguel and Robby just staring at each other an analyzing what might be going on behind those glances. The writers sucked at giving them the depth they deserved, but giving credit where credit is due, they do know sometimes how to show and not tell, and the quiet glances that they give to each other from time to time does that pretty nicely in my opinion. Xolo and Tanner also help bring these messages across so kudos for their acting 🗣🔥

Or I could be completely wrong and they just staring at each other cause oh they're rivals grrrr.

ALSO THANK YOU EVERYONE for the feedback in the last post. I didn't think so many people would read what I wanna say. Yall real ones 😭🫂

So this time, I'm going alllll the way back to season 3 to talk about a scene that goes pretty under the radar when it comes to them and I think is really interesting (excuse the quality):

This one is a bit long ngl

Getting what's very telling out of the way – is insane that Miguel's look here barely resembles any kind of anger or hatred towards Robby. The situation isn't really the best for him to bring up any of that and he knows that, but Miguel isn't exactly the best at hiding his emotions, and to hide any (justifiable) anger he had towards Robby after what happened during the school fight wouldn't have been easy at all for him.

His experience was insanely traumatic. That's not something you can simply forget, nor your mind nor your body. But yk the writers, they don't actually like to explore anything with Miguel in depth–

Finding each other after going through one of, if not the hardest and most traumatic events of their lives at that point must have brought up pretty complex emotions they aren't sure what to do with. When they meet in Miyagi Do earlier in the season, Robby does resort to his anger from how betrayed he feels by the people he thought he could trust completely turn his back on him (in his pov). There might have been resentment towards Miguel, but I feel like that act of throwing a punch at him was more out of impulse caused by a fresh wound and the behavior he had to keep for months in juvie.

In this scene, Robby is angry but I heavily doubt any anger is directed towards Miguel at that moment. Instead, they look at each other blinking slowly as if it was hard to believe that they were in the presence of the other now that the situation had nothing to do with their rivalry.

Especially for Miguel. Not only for what happened between them but for what he thought of Robby once he saw him stepping out of the dojo right behind Kreese.

He didn't look angry. Man, he barely even seemed angry towards Robby regarding his injury compared to how he was with Johnny. Because even if he didn't know much about Robby, he did know one thing about him. Miyagi Do is about honor and balance, and he's seen Robby uphold those teachings with pride since the first time he fought him in their first tournament. Something that he massively lacked and nearly loss complete sight of when Kreese came into the picture.

Even if they weren't in the best terms in season 2, Miguel at least esteemed Robby's honor and balance the more he saw that Cobra Kai's teachings didn't have those principles he himself believed in. Maybe at some point he saw that what Robby did to him wasn't out of revenge or out of pure hatred towards him, it was because he was angry and he let his emotions take control, causing an accident that he knew the Robby he fought against in the tournament would have immediately regretted.

So to see this Robby come out, wearing a Cobra Kai gi and taking the side of the same old man who's philosophy nearly pushed him towards a very dangerous ideology had to feel like being hit by a truck. Because as much as it might be hard for him to admit it due to his ego, Robby was supposed to be better than him. He was supposed to be more honorable and with more integrity than him; to see that the rhetoric Cobra Kai wants to push isn't the right way to do things.

How was somebody like Robby now in the same position he was in? In the position that brought them to where they were in the first place? Miguel can only guess so much with what he knows from Johnny. He doesn't know that he's pretty much homeless or that his mom isn't available for him. He barely knows what he went through in juvie, or how Johnny chose him over his biological son and how that made him feel.

He's completely left in the dark wondering why Robby didn't care anymore. Thus, looking perplexed as he does in the scene.

If this is the case, he might have been the only one of the teens to see Robby past the mistakes that were made and past the choices he took from the very beginning. He wanted to understand what was going on, but who was he to even approach him?

This is why in season 4 I honestly would have loved it if they had fought instead of Eli fighting Miguel. Keep Eli winning, I liked that he won the tournament a lot, but just give Robby and Miguel a fight 🙏 It's not a 1:1 parallel but since they have pretty much flipped sides, it would force them to look at the other in the eye and notice sides of each other that they have not seen in earlier fights, giving them a sense of deja vu yet see what made this different. We could have gotten Robby's reaction to Miguel feeling a sharp pain in his lower back too after attempting that jumping kick. I feel this way the tournament could have had so much more weight emotionally, and it could have added another layer to the relationship that could work well with Robby ultimately turning away from Cobra Kai and deciding to stay in Mexico to search for Miguel with his dad.

[aziraphales-library]

Ello ello ello! Are there any humorous fics you know that involve an exorcism? Preferably lighthearted ones =) perhaps a similar vibe to Shane and Ryan in this one video: https://youtu.be/RzPk6VHPeDY?feature=shared

I hope that made sense!! I don't know how else to describe what I'm looking for T0T

2/2: Hi hi! It's that ryan and shane anon, i think i found a better way to describe what I'm looking for? Just anything involving someone looking for paranormal happenings going on, doesn't have to be an exorcism-- but still something humorous and lighthearted If someone already requested something like this, sorry bout that

Hello. You'll be interested in this post about paranormal investigations of the bookshop, including some buzzfeed unsolved crossovers. Here are some more lighthearted paranormal fics...

Hey There, Demons by IneffableAlien (T)

Married paranormal investigators Azra and Crowley explore an abandoned asylum. It goes about as well as you might expect.

The Wrong Side of the Door by HolyCatsAndRabbits (M)

Crowley had been with this group of ghost-hunters for two years, Aziraphale for three. They’d never had a conversation that didn’t end in an argument. If they weren’t both essential (read: would work this as a side job on the weekends for low pay), Gabriel would have fired one or both of them a long time ago. So now, as Aziraphale conducted his interview, Crowley was sure to scowl at him when he looked up. Because Aziraphale was on camera and couldn’t scowl back. Aziraphale returned his focus to Deirdre with an irritated huff of breath that Crowley did not miss. “What happened that day you stayed home?” he asked her. Deirdre talked with her hands, shaping out her thoughts in a vague, fluttery way. “I started hearing things, like scraping noises. From upstairs.” She pointed, as if they’d need direction, maybe thinking they might not be able to imagine what had happened that day, not in this warm and well-lit room with the open window and the front door in sight.

paranormal activity by dykeula (G)

"Humans were to ghosts what ghosts were to humans: a delightful jest to pass the time if the radio didn’t offer any relief. Sort of like chatting to fellas from oversees. They talked funny, wore fancy hats and were to be enjoyed with caution, and in doses. Problem was when they wouldn't leave Crowley alone." --  Back in the midst of the 19th century, a certain gentleman by the name of Mr. Fell aquires the rights to a particular empty store in London that's been closed for a while - for good reason. But what challenge's a little haunting to an ethereal being, right? It's tickety boo. Crowley, on the other hand, very much objects to his newest roomie. So far his track record for scaring off potential buyers is holding at a steady 100%. But what challenge's a bookish nerd to a omnipresent malevolent spirit, right? It's tickety boo.

Ghostly Ever After by Tiny_Dragongirl (T)

They say it’s all sorted out after you are dead—but sometimes, just sometimes, things need a bit of sorting-out even after you are dead. Aziraphale Fell and Anthony J. Crowley, professional paranormal investigators, might be the perfect candidates for handling problems of the supernatural, after-life kind. Only if they would sort out their own lives while they are alive… A romantic comedy, where ghosts are gathering, tempers are flaring, and love is rising above all.

Pulling Heaven Down by Bluethenstaub, PepperPrints (M)

Anthony J. Crowley is the best paranormal investigator in London. From minor poltergeist problems to full blown exorcisms, he does it all, satisfaction guaranteed. There’s only one catch: it’s all a con. At least, that’s what Crowley thinks. A run in with a strange, ethereal competitor threatens to turn Crowley’s world upside down, and before he knows it he finds himself caught up in affairs that might be way, way above his paygrade.

YES. YES. YES. GOODBYE? by AppleSeeds (T)

Aziraphale and Crowley are independently dragged along to a paranormal investigation event in a haunted castle on Halloween. They're both extremely sceptical about the whole thing, but manage to keep themselves entertained. Self-indulgent Halloween nonsense, 10 chapters taking place between 8.45pm on 31st October and 3.15am on 1st November. Attraction will be instantaneous. Hands will be joined together for a séance. Fingers will brush against each other on the planchette of a Ouija board. A scrying mirror will be used for indiscreet ogling. Crowley will be dressed inappropriately and need warming up. You get the idea.

- Mod D

[farshootergotme]

Oh you and your friend make some interesting points about why Bruce adopting Dick so late in his life was a problem. It’s something writers clearly didn’t take into account when the trying to make this scene work while also not letting go of the not being adopted thing plot line while also trying to have their cake too by having Dick and Bruce makeup and finally having Dick be adopted by Bruce.

I know the writer writing Protugal wanted it to be a touching moment between the two of them. But the problem is it isn’t about what Dick wants and it written in a way where Bruce while has good intention offering him the adoption papers, he doesn’t own up to the fact he caused this issue in the first place if I am remembering correctly although I will have double check and reread that scene so take my statement with a grain of salt. Poor communication is truly the worst emery of them all and cough comic book writers loving to hammer in unnecessary drama and conflict even if makes no bloody sense at times or take into account how it effect the characters going forward. 

The thing about what is a good Batman writer is not necessarily if they nail Bruce Wayne and Batman as a whole but rather if they care about Robin as a concept or even like characters Dick Grayson in general. Same goes to Nightwing writers as well you can absolutely love Dick Grayson but do you actually understand Bruce Wayne as a character and are you willing to explore that aspect of their relationship Ie father/son. (Then again some of Nightwing writers do him so bloody dirty it’s honestly mind boggling to me.)

Another thing to think about is how most modern day writers and even some of older best writers from back in day of Batman is that they refuse to let him be wrong or admit he has messed up. Like my god, I like Bruce as character I really do but it’s so frustrating to see how he is treated in modern books like my god just stop the drama already with his family, I’m tired of Batman being regressed to his younger less mature self mentality and acts like he has learned nothing. Why is it so hard to just let him be a flawed but well meaning dad who yes messes up sometimes but is willing to get better and grow as a person because at the end of the day he truly cares about his children.

My problem with Richard getting adopted as an adult is well mainly with how it was handled. It never about what Dick wants if it was the writers would have made Bruce apologise for his failing as a father to him and make it so it’s up to Richard if he decides to forgive him or not because let’s be honest Bruce hurt his eldest son by his selfish actions but Bruce should also just be honest with him about he has always seen him as a son maybe not at first but it grew into that overtime and that he was wrong for assuming how Dick felt about being adopted and should have done sooner in fact he should have done around the same time as Jason. Again he should have done the minute or at least offered it when he and Dick had a heart to heart in the Marv wolf man run at Donna wedding but I don’t know. You know what amusing about his run is before this story was made he refer to Dick as Bruce adopted child early in his run which is an interesting thing to think about or maybe I misremember and it was a different writer altogether. OvO’)

Or maybe we can just skip all the stupid drama of adopting or no adopting bs and just have Bruce adopt Richard as a young teen which gives Dick enough time to think about it and probably change his mind. It also gives them time to bond as father and son, now I am not asking for Bruce to be a perfect father figure mistakes will happen as he learns what it means to be a father figure to Dick. Like come on give me fun and compassionate Batman please I miss him like geez why are the writers afraid to just let Bruce grow and move on from his past to some extent. 

Another to get off my chest with DC is well isn’t time to just retire the whole ward thing because it not really used anymore and might as well change to Dick being a foster child because that is what he is. Like the 2004 cartoon The Batman made this change to just that. Like I get Ward is historically important to Richard but I don’t know. Another thing I wish for is just to let Dick be adopted earlier at this point because the drama of not being adopted is just hurting both Dick and Bruce as characters at this point. 

When you could instead be focusing on why Dick wanting space and independence from Bruce like how his parenting style can be quite old fashioned the strict yet overprotective father figure and how he shows his love through his actions rather then his words. You could also explore how Bruce being a dad with a mental health issue aka ptsd, being kind of a control freak and suffer from self loathing issues and how he thinks he never be a good enough parent to his adopted soon. Effects Dick development and how Dick felt like over-coddled and suppressed by Bruce being overprotective and at times being super critical of his decisions as a young teen and young adult.

Honestly what frustrating about Tom Tyler run of Nightwing is that the scene with Dick and Bruce in the bat cave is so good but the problem is it is not earned because Tom Tyler hasn’t really taken the time to explore Dick’s and Bruce’s relationship as father and son or having the balls to actually explore the nuances of it and gasp let Dick call Bruce out on where he has hurt him and that Bruce needing to take responsibility for his actions as father. 

This is why I hate when people say they aren’t father and son or god damn family because one it makes it out Bruce actions aren’t as bad because they’re just “coworkers/partners” which just gross to me and also takes away Richard agency and why he repels so heavily against Bruce and why he is so upset about not being adopted you can’t just sit there and tell me they’re not family because it’s simply not true because this effects Richard heavily because in his mind he thought he wasn’t good enough to be Bruce’s son and felt replaced. Literally Eldest feeling replaced by the new baby sibling coded right there.

Another thing, I feel people will have come and accept about superhero comics mostly by Marvel and DC is well they’re kinda like fairy tales in a way, writers giving their own spin and takes on the world and the characters that function within it. They only things that keep them connected is how characters themselves and if they develop and grows carries over or sticks within that part of the lore. I also feel that writers are afraid to take big risks like changing how Dick Grayson became Nightwing even though they’re already one or two versions where it doesn’t lead to him fighting with Bruce and getting fired.

Now I am not saying ignore canon completely but I feel you’re at the mercy of the writers or eras of comic book runs and I think people should pick the writers they like rather try to stitch all these different takes and continuities together. Then again, I guess it doesn’t help that most media has Batman alone and completely disregard the concept of Robin or his found family in general and that honestly such a shame because Robin aka Dick Grayson is the reason Batman comics stayed alive for so alive for so long, hell he was created even before blooming Alfred.

Which leads to final point this whole thing about Dick Grayson not being adopted, has made so that is all is ever talked about. Who Dick Grayson the character like what are his goals who he is like yes he relationship with his father figure is important as it what lead him to this pathway and wether he likes or not he can quite similar to Bruce in terms of his beliefs and parts of his personality but also what about his friends the titans or his journey into adulthood and he finds himself that’s more interesting to me. Modern writers what are you doing with Richard he has so much potential and yet it feels like they have no idea on what they want to do with. No more Tony Zuuco no more changing to his backstory leave it alone please it’s fine how it is there is no reason to make it more complicated and by doing that you take away how the parallel between Bruce and Dick backstories 👏👏👏Hot take I know. 

Also, there is nothing wrong with wanting to write Dick and Bruce patching up their relationship as father and son, I love Bruce being a good dad that is trying to best despite being mentally ill himself. But keep in mind how you go about writing Bruce and make sure he faces consequences for his decisions and actions as a parental figure to  Dick Grayson and his other children. 

Oh wow sorry for making another kinda essay in your ask box again. 😅 (Hmm, I could talk about how Dick parents and his lifestyle at the circus effect his personality and how his flaws were already there before Bruce took him in but that probably for another time ha ha.

Anyway, that is enough of my rambles and inner never ending thought of this complicated father and son duo.

Hey, thanks for sharing your thoughts! I personally can agree with a lot that you're saying.

The problem when it comes to writing Dick and Bruce is that their characters are so old that many of the things from the earliest comics would be very different if one wants to write them in a more modern era. But many writers seem to choose to keep things (despite also changing things that are actually alright and should be left alone, but, oh, well...)

I mean, I don't think the drama of Bruce not being able to adopt is all that bad. For example, in one of the origins, there was woman, Sister Mary, who took care of Dick during his time at the orphanage. She mentions doubting Bruce's capabilities as a father because of his reputation as a womanizer, but that she was convinced she'd be good for Dick after talking with him in private.

They could still use this conflict in modern era and how his image as the playboy billionaire could influence the jury's decision to only give him custody of Dick as his new guardian rather than his adoptive father. Plus (I don't remember if it was in the same origin or not) Dick at the beginning wasn't fully ready to have a 'replacement' for his dad, so Bruce would respect that and accept the responsibility as his guardian.

However, here's where I'd say that they screw up; they let the years pass, no mention of adoption whatsoever (despite both clearly growing to see each other as father and son, respectively) and they just leave it at that until, check this out! Jason is adopted! I would assume now the jury is okay with letting him adopt a child because he's proven himself by taking care of Dick all these years. But, yeah, actually, back to Dick, what about him, then?

I don't believe for a second nobody would bring up the adoption issues. Like, if not Bruce or Dick (maybe because they're both afraid of being rejected by the other if they bring it up) why not Alfred? He's not shy about voicing his thoughts to Bruce, and I'm sure he could convince him to have a chat with Dick about a possible adoption because Dick is only getting older and one day it'll be too late to ask.

(Except not apparently because DC wrote Bruce asking a Dick in his early twenty's if he can adopt him which is definitely not late at all! Not to mention they had the first real conversation about adoption years ago, but Bruce just ignored Dick clears desires to be adopted and only brought it up when he thought it was the right time because why make a father that cares also about his son's emotions, am I right?

It just feels like a cheap compensation for all the years they (specially Dick) waited to become an official family. So what if the bond is more important? Maybe Dick wanted the reassurance that no matter what he would still be Bruce's family without meaning the end of their relationship everytime he left the manor to make a life for himself, is that so wrong?)

And it just makes Bruce look so bad when someone comes up with the excuse that "Dick didn't want to be adopted so Bruce was only respecting his wishes". Well, of fucking course he didn't want to get a new father a few weeks after he saw his dad's bloody corpse laying on the floor of the circus! But years later? When he's already learnt to deal with the grief and has found a new family in these two older men that chose to take care of him? What excuse does Bruce have then to not have ever brought it up again? The only 'excuse' I could think of is that he was insecure that he wouldn't be a good father to Dick (or as good as Jhon Grayson) or, as I mentioned before, afraid of being rejected. But this isn't just about him!! And as the adult in the situation he needs to save those feelings for later and communicate with Dick first without coming to any assumptions. What will change from the current relationship, anyway? Other than the security that Bruce can't just get rid of Dick whenever he wants since he's just his guardian and he can pass the responsibility to anyone else which sounds a lot more like a plus to me than a negative change.

And Bruce himself said "it doesn't really change anything" when he gave Dick the papers, so it really was a non-issue since the beginning.

I get he can have doubts and insecurities, but when it's between putting your feelings first or the ones of the child you're raising, I think the decision should come pretty easily. (Not to Bruce, apparently)

So, yeah, if DC really wanted, they could just change the early years again (we know they can, they've done it enough times already) and make Dick Bruce's officially adopted son during his Robin years and fix the whole issue very easily.

Now, I wanted to address the part about Bruce's parenting and DC not letting him develop and grow as both a character and a father, but I don't want to make this too long and you already said enough about the topic, so I'll leave it at that.

(also, would definitely love to hear about your thoughts on Dick's upbringing at the circus and how his issues began from his early childhood and not everything was for Bruce's influence. I have my own thoughts about that and it'd be great to discuss them with you)

[gemsbian]

Cat fic - Part 1/2 Series: Pokemon Horizons Characters: Friede, Roy, Frankie (OC), Liko, Orla, Spinel Length: 3k Summary: Friede takes Liko and Roy exploring an ancient temple in search of treasure, where they run into the Explorers. After becoming separated from their respective groups, Roy and Frankie partner together to escape. But things don’t go quite to plan, and Friede is left to pick up the pieces

AKA, Neither Frankie or Roy are that smart, and I wanted to write what happens when they combine their brainpower (its not good)

Friede spreads the map across the table, looking across at his crew one last time,

“So, everyone understands what we’re doing?” the kids nod their heads affirmatively, “Right, Roy, what are the most important things I said?”

He’s singling out Roy because of two of them, Liko doesn’t get into trouble so much as trouble finds her, and he’s not forgotten the whole Krookodile incident with Roy from a while back. If not for Cap’s sharp reflexes, Friede struggles to think how long it would’ve taken him to find the kid.

“Stay close to you, stay calm and… oh! Don’t touch anything”

With a slight smile, Friede nods at him,

“That’s right. Liko, you got all that?”

“Yes sir!”

Something smacks him in the back of the head and Friede turns to spot Orla with a rolled up newspaper, giving him a look he knows all too well.

“What’s most important is that you follow my lead. This temple is hundreds of years old and the people who built it did so with the intention to keep intruders out. There’s a complex system of hydraulics and primitive metalwork that can and will go off if we stray from the designated course. You got all that?”

Roy stares ahead, looking confused,

“Uhm, could you repeat that?”

“-Boobie traps. Orla’s saying the temple has boobie traps”

“What! That’s so cool - oh do you think it’ll be like those old-timey movies?”

There’s another thwack as Roy becomes victim to Orla’s rolled up newspaper. He can tell that she was a lot more gentle and playful with Roy though, given the kid giggled when she smacked him instead of flinching. She wasn’t so forgiving with Friede.

“A good adventurer story is a boring one. Don’t go wandering off and touching things. There’s a reason these places are so dangerous”

There’s an ernest sigh from Roy, before he nods. Friede can understand his disappointment. When he was Roy’s age, he and Charizard where a force to be reckoned with. Even when his partner was still a Charmander, they were getting into all sorts of trouble. The only difference is now he’s a touch smarter, a much better battler, and has an Orla to keep him in line.

It’s been a while since he had the passion to go chase down adventures like these on his own, so he’s happy to help Roy go seek ancient treasures. He’s glad that Roy didn’t seem too let down to find out that the treasure they find could be dangerous. Friede isn’t sure what lies ahead of them in the temple to know if it were hidden away for good reason.

—

“Here’s a map of where they’re headed. I trust you to be a guide in this”

Frankie’s eyes drift over the map. It doesn’t tell her much in terms of what engineering is actually going on within the temple. And truthfully, she wasn’t paying much attention to whatever it is that they’re supposed to be looking for. Was this an elaborate mission for Spinel to stalk his man-crush, or were they trying to steal some kind of ancient artifact? It’s difficult to tell with him sometimes.

He’s hard to read, but as far as she’s concerned, he’s not exactly an interesting story.

“Of course, I’ll be your loyal and devout guide through this-” she waves her hand vaguely over the map, “-temple thing”

“That’s reassuring” his voice drips with sarcasm, “Just make sure I don’t get speared by any hidden traps, will you?”

She gives him an overly confident smile and a stout thumbs-up. They both know that in the event something goes wrong, Spinel is teleporting out of there with his trusty Pokemon and Frankie will be left to scramble around the aftermath. So it’s really in her best interest to make sure things don’t go south, though she’s not exactly concerned for her safety if it means adding some excitement to her day.

That is why she chose to work for the Explorers, after all. Workplace hazards and bosses with dubious intentions are what make life interesting. To her, at least.

—

Roy nearly bounds head-first into the temple entrance, but holds himself back after a stern look from Orla. Right, stay on track. Don’t wander off. Don’t touch anything. He fidgets in place, staying still is pretty hard to do.

He watches as the two adults step first towards the entrance. Friede has a weird look on his face as he stares at the ground. Roy knows this means he found something interesting and is trying to figure out how to say it.

“Friede?” Liko asks hesitantly. She must’ve reached the same conclusion as Roy.

All at once, Friede’s concern vanishes and he’s back to his confident self,

“People have been here recently. There are a pair of fresh footprints”

Liko frowns, nervously clutching the strap on her bag, “Do you think it’s the Explorers?” Roy feels his hand tighten around Hogator’s pokeball. He’s not too fond of the Explorers, and he’s not going to let them hurt Liko.

“It could be. But, we’ll show them what we’re made of if we do run into them, yeah?”

“Yeah!” Liko and Roy reply in unison. He turns to see Liko’s trying to mask her fear with determination. They’ve got this.

With the brief pep talk over, Orla heads into the temple with the rest of them following close behind. Roy keeps a watchful eye on her as she stops at certain places, inspecting the machinery lining the walls before directing them one way or the other. It doesn’t get his blood pumping the same way battling does, but there’s something about it that still gets him excited, like he’s exploring something no one else has.

He thinks Liko is feeling the same way, based on her cautious yet constant smile as they move further into the temple. He just can’t stand still at the thought of discovering ancient treasures like Rayquaza’s Pokeball. Someday he’s going to be a great adventurer - just like Friede!

They’ve come to an area that splits off into a few different tunnels. Friede points one way from the map, and Orla wastes no time in making sure the pathway is safe for them to walk. As she works, movement in the corner of Roy’s eye catches his attention.

Something green? It reminds him of that coward who threatened to take Liko’s memories on the boat. Part of him knows he should tell Friede first, but it’s as though he’s functioning on pure instinct as he steps forward with a loud,

“HEY!”

There’s rustling behind him as Friede rushes to get up, but Roy is already taking another deep breath,

“I know you’re here, so come face us head on!”

Friede’s hand is on his shoulder and there’s a few moments of silence before footsteps resound from the darkness and a shadowy figure comes into view. He still can’t make out the person’s face, though.

“You want me to come and face you? Why not the other way around, if you’re so determined?”

The voice is taunting, and he recognizes it as the same one from the boat. So it is that coward from before. Liko tenses beside him, and Roy feels anger twisting around in his gut. How dare this guy come and follow them here after what he did!

"Sticking close to your babysitter, are you?" the voice tssks.

He feels Friede’s grip tighten around his shoulder but Roy is determined to stand up for Liko and twists out of it as Friede shouts for him to stop. He’s ready to send out Hogator when there’s a scream and a blur of movement and then everything goes quiet.

—

Frankie’s eyes narrow the moment the taunt leaves Spinel’s mouth. Is he insane, trying to goad the kid into rushing blindly through the danger-ridden passage between them? She keeps her position behind Spinel since that tall guy still has a hold on the kid - but that all changes in an instant.

He’s rushing forward and Frankie hears the shrill shriek their mechanic let’s out before his foot even lands onto the tile. Without thinking, she lunges forward. It’s not going to be graceful, but he’s going to land on it and she can’t let the weight leave the tile. She’s lucky she’s fast, because she collides with the kid a split second after his foot hits the tile, violently halting his momentum and knocking the air out of their lungs in the process.

There’s some limbs flailing in the air but they steady themselves on the tile. Above them, a large section of the ceiling shifts downward an inch, dust settling five feet away from them on either side. That ceiling is going to fall, and it’s going to fall faster than either of them can move. The air is tense.

“Roy, stay exactly where you are”

It’s their mechanic that speaks. The one with an orange fade to her hair. Frankie understands the gravity of the situation they're in.

That blue kid next to her looks utterly terrified, and the one next to Frankie isn’t looking any better. Glancing at the wall, she sees a small line of dust has settled on the ground, far from where the ceiling has displaced itself. So something else moved with all the commotion. She takes in a deep breath, breaking the silence,

“Hey, don’t look so scared now. We’re just going to play a little game”

The other mechanic shoots her a quizzical look and Roy stares at her with wide eyes,

“A- a game?”

Eugh, it’s still stuttering. Not like she wants to be in this situation, either. But she’s got a good game face so just smiles.

“Yeah. See this” Frankie knocks her hand against the wall a couple times, “It’s hollow. That means we’ve got ourselves a little escape”

There’s a slight breath of relief from the kid next to her and the mechanic standing outside the danger zone. She briefly glances in the direction of where Spinel was, but he seems to have disappeared in the chaos. She fishes the Pokeballs out of her pocket,

“Hey - goggles” she calls out, “Hold onto these for me, will you?”

And with that, she tosses them over. He catches them easily, seeming to understand her intentions immediately. For whatever reason, the kid next to her tenses at this.

“You’re giving Friede your Pokemon?”

Ah, right. It does kind of imply she - or they - won’t make it out of this alive. Which in her defense, is not a guarantee. She’d rather have the sky pirates hold onto her Pokemon if she ends up speedrunning the rest of her life in the next five minutes than have her partners go down with her.

“Relax, kid. It’s more of a worse case scenario thing. We don’t really know what’s on the other side of that wall”

He nods shakily, taking his own Pokeballs out of his pocket and tossing them over. Brave kid.

“Alright, ready? 5, 4, 3-”

Before she gets to 2, she abruptly kicks in the back of the wall where it looked discolored and there’s just enough space that opens up for her to spin the kid around, shoving him through first and completely launching herself after him because the ceiling started to fall the moment his weight left the tile.

There’s only a quarter second to breath in the safety before two tons of solid rock slam into the ground behind them. It feels like a god damn earthquake and silences any chance of communicating they’re still alive to the sky pirates outside.

“Are you still there?”

She blinks into the darkness,

“Yeah, kid. I’m still here”

A hand reaches out to grab hers, and she takes in a deep breath, walking forth into the vastness that stretches out ahead of them.

It’s quiet as they walk, and minutes feel like hours. Or maybe hours feel like minutes. She’s not exactly sure how long it’s been. The steady sound of their own breathing is what keeps pace as they move slowly through the void in front of them.

After a few more minutes - and she says minutes because she’s certain her legs would be complaining more if it were hours - a light ahead comes into view. It’s so faint she thinks she might be imagining it.

“Do you see that?”

The voice stirs her from her thoughts. So, it is real then.

“It might be a room. Come on, let’s go towards it”

Light wouldn’t last very long on it’s own, so she suspects that sunlight might trickle down into this system from somewhere far above. That, or the ceiling falling could’ve triggered some lamps to be lit. Neither seems that likely, but one of them must be true.

It’s not long before she gets her answer. They room they step into is vast. It must be the heart of the temple. In the very center is some kind of… bright thing? The sunlight reflecting off of it makes it hard to see, and she squints as she approaches.

Once she gets close enough, she sees it’s some kind of crystal carved to look like a-

“Meowth?”

She blinks at Roy,

“Seems like it. Haven’t seen those in a while”

He stares at it for a moment,

“We had them on our island back home. I wonder why they made a temple for this?”

Frankie stares at the crystal for another moment. Every part of her is screaming to touch it.

“Only one way to find out”

Roy takes a step back, looks at her, then looks at the crystal. There’s hesitancy on his face, but also curiosity and a touch of excitement. At least, that’s what Frankie is choosing to see. It’s still pretty dark in here so there’s only like a 50% chance that she’s making things out correctly.

“You mean we should touch it?”

She shrugs,

“Sure, what’s the worst that could happen?”

—

It’s only been 20 minutes since they last saw Roy but it feels like hours as Friede finally reaches the end of the last tunnel. He’s certain based on the map and Orla’s guidance that they should lie just beyond this area. In one piece, he hopes.

“Any luck?”

Friede lights up the wall where Orla searches with his Rotom-Phone. He’d be nervous about coming to a seeming dead end, if not for witnessing that other mechanic disappear into a wall via the power of kicking it really hard.

“One moment… we’re almost there”

Her hand glides down the wall before her fingers dip into the slightest crack and a section of wall pushes inward, followed by a collapse of the wall that has him putting an arm out on reflex, keeping Liko a good distance from the rockfall.

When the dust clears, he can see sunlight trickling down into a large chamber, with something bright in the center.

“Roy? Are you there?”

There’s no response. He can’t see either of them immediately, but tries not to let that keep him down as he looks for Orla’s approval and steps forward into the vastness of the room. The silence is suffocating. They should be here. Worry gnaws at him. What if they didn’t make it out in time?

“Roy?” He calls out again, hoping for any sign of life as he ventures further from the entrance.

“Mrap”

Friede blinks, scanning his eyes for the source of the scratchy meow. Could a Pokemon survive this deep in the temple? After a second, a tiny brown blob comes into sight. He recognizes it as a Litleo as it bounds up to him, tail wagging excitedly.

He picks it up, staring into the oddly familiar looking eyes as it mrrps and licks his hand.

“Friede!”

Liko’s voice comes from further in the chamber. She’s crouched down next to something, looking at him with concern,

“This one is limping”

In a few short strides, he’s beside her and looking down at a scruffy Shinx. The source of the alleged limping is immediately obvious. It’s missing half of it’s front left leg. He studies a notch in it’s left ear, then his mind drifts to the mechanic that saved Roy earlier. He frowns.

“Please don’t be who I think you are”

“Who?”

He told Roy a thousand times not to touch anything. The evidence is not building up in his favor.

With his free arm, he scoops the Shinx up into his arms with a few more hisses and complaints compared to when he had grabbed the Litleo. Luckily, both of them make themselves comfortable in his arms without fighting each other. Not being shredded by tiny claws is a small victory.

“Friede, what happened?”

He sighs, and puts on a smile to face Liko,

“I think I know what happened, but I need to check a few things out before I jump to any conclusions”

Sure enough, when he reaches the podium in the center of the chamber, there’s a set of footprints leading up to the podium and set of pawprints walking away from it. Well, that answers that question. On the podium is a Meowth crystal.

“Liko. Hold Roy for me, please”

She takes the Litleo in her hands, gawking at him,

“You mean this is Roy?” as if on cue, Roy mrrps happily in response.

Friede tucks the remaining Pokemon under one arm like a particularly angry duffel bag. Now he’s left with the daunting task of figuring out how to de-Poke-ify the two of them. Surely there’s some writing around here that will help them.

“Yes, that’s Roy. I don’t really know how, but I’m guessing it has something to do with that crystal”

Orla waves him over, so he leaves Liko to gush over her friend, confident she won’t make the same mistake as him. The Pokemon under his arm wiggles around so he adjusts his hold, letting her climb into his shoulder with surprisingly sharp claws. It’s a lot less graceful than when Cap gets on his shoulder, that’s for sure. He keeps a hand over her back so make sure she doesn’t slide off.

“You think you can make sense of these ruins?”

He takes out his phone, getting to work photographing the scrawling letters,

“Yeah. I have some guides on the ship. I can translate them when we get back. Don’t worry, Orla, we’ll get them back to normal”

She gives him a weary smile. It almost hurts how much she trusts him to take care of these things. If he had just held onto Roy a bit tighter, then none of this would’ve happened. But it has, so now he’s left to pick up the pieces. He only hopes he doesn’t let anyone down in the process.

[myfairkatiecat]

Thinking about getting into kotlc. What specifically do you like and find recommendable about it?

Keeper of the Lost Cities is my all time favorite book series. It's not the objectively best story I've ever read, but it's my favorite. Here are a few reasons you should ABSOLUTELY read KOTLC:

Fantastic adoption plot. The process of Grady and Edaline adopting Sophie and the complicated way Sophie grows to see them as parental figures, the ups and downs, the way it takes years for her to decide to adress one of them as mom or dad, the way those moments are portrayed as special... it really clicks, especially as someone from a foster family.

The main character is super realistic and well developed. She undergoes a lot of non-linear character development. She has strong beliefs that sometimes conflict with what she's expected to stand for. Her journey from book one to book nine with how she learns to be a leader, stand up for herself, and do what she thinks is right all the time is super well portrayed.

The characters and their relationships are very well developed and complex. Yes, certain things are made very clear through the narration because Shannon is in fact writing for kids, but after books one and two a lot of the kids series feel vanishes almost entirely. I mean, no, it's still charming and silly most of the time, but it doesn't feel as young, especially as the characters grow older and a lot of darker and more complicated issues begin to arise.

The portrayal of the dystopia is fascinating. KOTLC is not in the dystopian genre for a reason. The Lost Cities are not presented as a dystopia at all. That just... comes out slowly. Sophie goes there and is told that everything about the world is perfect, and since everything is sparkling and glittering, it must be, right? She has a few early thoughts about how certain things seem wrong, and those thoughts continue to grow as the problems with the Lost cities become clearer and clearer. Their government and social systems are very messed up, and Sophie only sees the surface of it because she's usually interacting with the nobility, but the reason for both rebellions formed is fixing those exact societal issues.

The good guys and bad guys want a lot of the same things. There's a focus in KOTLC on doing the right thing, not just achieving the right goal. Which sometimes means characters mess that up! (cough keefe sencen cough) But again, all this stuff is explored in a super accessible way, because it's a middle grade series. It feels like reading something deeply interesting with good messages without having to take a lot of time to wrap your head around what those messages are.

The characters are incredibly well-developed. Their backgrounds and history explain most of their personality and actions in amazing ways. I'm thinking specifically of Sophie, Keefe, Tam, Linh, Fitz, and Dex right now, but I'm sure there are more examples (and I hope it gets explored more with Marella in the future, tbh. We know about her childhood--how does that impact her personality?) It makes it very interesting to rotate these elves around in your head.

There are multi-book arcs, many huge reveals are foreshadowed from the beginning. The books open lots and lots of mystery boxes--there are tons of questions being asked ALWAYS--but in the end, they get answered (some more satisfying than others), really portraying just how much can happen even in a short time frame for these kids. Honestly, the whole three-years-over-nine-books thing feels PERFECT to me. Unlike Harry Potter, each book isn't a school year. Unlike Percy Jackson, each book isn't a summer vacation. All of these things happen one after the other, saturating the characters lives, and I think it's very interesting.

The adults have some crazy lore going on. It's pretty fun to try to piece all of that stuff together because Sophie doesn't take a lot of interest in it.

Everything about KOTLC is interesting to me. I'm not going to say there's no issues with it ever (please followers do not come in my ask box and start telling me there are issues with KOTLC idk why it's so controversial to say that Shannon did a really good job with character and plot complexity) but I hugely recommend giving it a read. Let me know if you read it and what you think!

[i-did]

Hi! I wanted to ask you opinion on Thea. I have seen that a lot of people in the fandom kinda hate her but I dont share their reasoning so I was really curious about what you think.

I honestly have very little idea of what the fandom is saying, I stay out the tag mostly and just live in my little bubble. I saw what Nora responded with pre-TSC being upset with the fandom painting Thea as a groomer, which I also disagree with. I feel her and Kevin’s dynamic pre-canon was undoubtedly unhealthy due to the fact that they were in an extreme underground sport cult, and she was older than him but he was also #2, below only Riko and the Master himself, which gives him more agency than just a typical teenager. I don’t believe they are healthy – Kevin didn’t tell her the truth, and they had been a secret so long but also hardly communicate – but I don’t see it as one is the Bad partner one is the Victim partner, just… two people who are together in a super fucked situation.

That being said – I didn’t like Thea in TSC lmaoo. I thought she had a lot of wasted potential as a character. She is in and out, concerned but then gone– I wish she wasn’t someone who was so concerned for Jean, only to immediately disappear. Thea is written to be unaware / in denial which almost makes her parallel with Cass in some ways– clinging to an idea of what happened vs. what actually happened. I’m not saying these make her a badly written character– I think it could actually be really interesting to explore. Sometimes, characters fandom's hate are also interesting.

She was an opportunity to see into another ‘fallen Raven’s’ mindset. How is she coping with Riko’s death? How could she try to ‘help Jean adjust’ which actually makes him fall back into unhealthy Raven habits? Her texting or calling Jean could spiral into panic attacks or remind him of what he's trying to leave behind even if she was just telling him ‘remember the diet plan’ and was unhelpfully trying to be helpful <- these idea's coming from @hopingforcoordinates. It would have been interesting to see her more so we could see that she wasn't just someone ignorant but someone who also was desperately clinging to the illusions of the Nest needing to have been worth it, otherwise what was it all for?

Maybe in the next book we will see more of that but who knows! I hope we do because honestly seeing the Raven’s flounder and fall apart is interesting to me and I'd like to see it as more than just in the background, especially as a narrative foil to Jean's own healing journey.

So I don’t dislike her for moral reasons. She kinda rubs me the wrong way, but I want to hate her more and then sympathize with her and see that she’s also been broken by the Nest – despite having ‘made it’ similarly to Kevin. She ‘has it all’ but is still drowning.

I feel like TSC was written with an audience in mind, unlike the first AFTG books, which has shifted the tone significantly. The first three AFTG books exist in a different realm to me than TSC, tonally and more. I’m curious to see where Nora goes from here and will definitely read the next book too.

[epickiya722]

To anyone deciding to follow me (whether you're new here or not), I'm letting you know a few things here...

I don't tolerate condescending attitudes. Nope, not going to to deal with the rudeness, the entitlement, none of that. You see something on my blog you don't like, scroll past, ignore it, unfollow me even. But don't be that person to inbox me and go "um actually I don't like this ship or this character" or whatever else.

Jumping off that, if you're going to send me an ask, be nice. Be respectful. You can disagree with me on something but it's so easy to just say "Hey, my view is a little different on this topic" and give your reasoning. Don't be the ass to go "your perspective is all wrong, you can't read, please understand this better, you're falling for it". No, you just look like an ass.

Other than that, feel free to ask a question about anything or even tell me about your day or something. I do have the anonymous option on because I know some people are shy. Don't abuse that option. Again, be nice.

Also if you send me an ask and want it answered privately, let me know! I don't mind keeping anything private.

With that in mind, if you happen to send me an ask through anonymous and want to know if I answered it (I sometimes have to mental prepare myself so it takes time), just look through the "kiya answers" and "kiya answers questions" tag!

I love the color purple. Purple runs through me. You happen to hate the color, you might not want to follow me.

I will have spoilers for whatever I'm engaged on posted on this blog. However! No matter how recent or old said spoiler is, I do tag those posts with "*insert media* spoiler".

Any thoughts I have, be it a whole meta post or just an update on life or something, I do have it tagged as "just kiya's thoughts". So if you think you missed a post that you may be interested in reading, just check out that tag!

This also goes for any writing I do. I reblog updates from my writing blog here and sometimes talk about what I'm writing. Interested in that just look at the "kiya writes" tag.

I'm mostly interested in anime and manga, so that's what you'll mostly see here. There are some anime and manga I haven't seen, so I'm still exploring here and there.

Now, folks, I have my ships and characters I like. You'll see them here. Not into certain ships or characters, keep that to yourself. Unless I open the door for you to express so. Example, I am a Miruko fan. I'm sure some people may even say I'm the biggest one (in doubt it though). If you don't like her, don't tell me unprovoked. We don't do that here.

Hm... I can't think of anything else to say! Have any questions and concerns, please let me know! Other than that, folks, welcome here and I hope you have a fun time!

[shalom-iamcominghome]

hi, shalom! i'm the email anon from a little while ago. i went to my first saturday morning shabbat service yesterday. everyone was really kind and welcoming!! i went to coffee with a bunch of people afterwards and we all exchanged numbers. i felt very out of place though. mainly because i'm not jewish and didn't really know what i doing. partly because i'm in my early 20s and everyone else was much older. i kept being asked what brought me there, since i don't have any jewish ancestry. when i said most of my family is dead so i can't be sure that i don't, i was told to take a dna test lol. i said i found that hard to answer and i just felt that it was right/felt a draw towards judaism but that seemed to be a bad answer. does that feeling of being out of place or feeling like an outsider ever go away? there were a few converts in progress there and a woman who converted 40 years ago so it's not necessarily because i'm trying to convert that i feel that way. it felt like a big family reunion where everyone knows everyone and i'd just walked in off the streets 😭. they were very excited for me to be there because everyone at the shul is so old. i think i was the youngest person there by far. idk, i just felt that it was "wrong" for me to be there or that i didn't quite belong/fit in. i do plan to keep going back as i had a great time there and this is something i've been interested in for a long time. sorry for rambling. just wanted to know if you/any of your followers could weigh in on whether or not that feeling goes away and if you do start to feel like you belong and that it's your family reunion too

You asked the perfect questions! I'm really proud of you for going through with this!

First off, yes, that feeling can definitely diminish, but I think it happens as you are in the community for more time. I felt like an interloper for the longest at shul, but the shabbos before this week, the members literally said, "we see you as family, now" when I opened up about why I was missing in shul. I definitely think you have the right idea by planning on going more. You deserve a community, and it seems like this could be a community for you - but you'll only learn by being in it!

Second, I relate with you about being the youngest. I am so much younger than everyone else, and this can certainly be a benefit (even when it's sometimes awkward). Shuls that skew older tend to love seeing young people, and I have found that they want nothing more than to help younger people find their place in this world. I'd say that's definitely been my experience in shul - the member who lent me his tehillim said he wanted to give me a copy he didn't need, so long as he could sign it. People want to be remembered, and I think this is a huge reason that people (especially older people) can sometimes go the extra, extra mile to help. If this happens, please let them! You are not a bad person for having a community, and a people to help. We are a family first and foremost, and one thing I think us as converts and students need to get used to first is feeling like family

And, finally, it is certainly common for converts to have ancestors that were jewish - even if it is very far back in their genealogy. However, you absolutely do not need to do a DNA test to know - hell, you know this, but you don't even need jewish ancestors to convert. It's oftentimes completely, wholly irrelevant. I wouldn't be surprised if I have jewish ancestors, but I literally can only know my heritage on one side of my family who are german, italian, and not jewish.

I really want to encourage you to explore this more. You have a place within judaism, and I am hoping that this community can help foster your sense of how you fit in judaism. I think it's important to not only know that you do belong, but that you can have a certain way that you especially fit in. You can - and perhaps even will - find this.

[zyafics]

Hiii!!! Do you thinkthat Rafe should have a “redemption arc”? I have a opinion that not all characters need a redemption arc and I don’t think morally gray or “straight up evil “ characters are one dimensional, etc.. I feel like that’s a common trope in media where they take a character who has done many wrong things!! and they try to redeem them, but that being said I do think rafe has many layers to him in my opinion he’s extremely sensitive, erratic, and when his father was alive, he’s so desperate for his dad’s love so much so he can’t even see through the mistreatment. Also, the way Drew plays him u can tell he has moments of empathy, shame etc!! He’s such a complex character soo messed up but so interesting! I also find it hard to believe that the Rafe that we seen throughout the seasons would not spiral even more . Even though this season Rafe is still erratic at times he generally seems more composed and also drug free??? Idk it seems like such a massive shift from littarly telling his dad there’s something very wrong with him , also literally everything that happen in s3 . Also it would have been nice to see how he was as a child, Rose had mentioned that she always knew something was wrong with him . I wonder what went wrong and also how is relationship was with his mom? Do you have any head canons  on that . Sorry for this long rant. Would love to know ur opinion on everything and if you agree?

in my unserious opinion, i don’t want rafe to have a redemption arc because i want him to spiral and crash out. but on a serious note, i can explain why.

the reason why obx transitioned from rafe being an antagonist -> anti-hero is because of fan reception. and i don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing—sometimes it’s good to take in the reaction of your viewers to better steer the direction of your projects, but not at the cost of the character itself.

rafe’s redemption arc—no matter what direction it goes to—won’t be satisfying to me. because he didn’t get the chance to hit rock bottom. rafe was heading in that direction, but s3 felt like a complete shift from s2. let me explain.

rafe started as this character who was relatively background. he was just an agitator, a place of conflict to heighten the kook-pogue dynamics. then, he killed peterkin and it completely shifts the narrative. the thing about killing in shows such as these is that once you write it, u cannot go back. the only way to enhance problems and issues is to go deeper than murder—and that’s where it become very cartoonish and out-of-tune with the realism of obx. regardless, rafe shifts from this minor background character to a pivotal moment in the show—an on-screen death. and now he’s caught in the middle of everything—the treasure hunt, the ward-john b conflict, the pogues and kooks. and so, he’s beginning his first step to antagonism.

this heightens in s2. rafe had his moments of doubts but overall, he went straight into the treasure hunt and aiding his father. he helped ward hid the body, he almost killed kie, he found the cross and stole it from pope and had a whole fight against pope in the middle of the marsh. he was ruthless and relentless. he was becoming this demented version of himself he never saw himself going to—and that’s the most intriguing part of his character. there was so much to explore, especially as you said, a lot of his actions were driven by his need to be validated by his father. all his actions were manipulated by another voice. HOWEVER, by the end of the season. he won. he didn’t have any more doubts about himself. he managed to pull the cross back onto the ship, but he didn’t try to shoot sarah. that moment of hesitation was depicted, but not explored.

and then s3 happened.

this is where they took rafe’s character and completely flipped it imo. i truly believe it’s because of his depiction in s2 and how fans wanted rafe/drew to be more on screen; and the only way the creators could think of doing that is making him a “good guy.” but the problem with this is that, rafe felt like someone who was controlled by another person (s2) to someone who grew into their own (s3). he had this complete shift in mentality (also getting clean, growing more dominant) and we didn’t get to see his internal struggle with it.

nothing in the show has demonstrated for rafe to look back and reflect on his actions. everything he’s ever done felt right in his head, felt like his own ownership. he never hesitated nor regretted his choices. in fact, he enhanced it by taking the cross from the pogues successfully and melting it down. if rafe were to have doubts, he would have to be met with failure, but rafe kept winning. and that’s the problem. he never needed a moment of self-reflection, of second-guessing his choices because why would u when ur choices all lead you to success?

that’s why this shift into s4, which clearly shows the creators attempt to making rafe becoming redeemed, feels disingenuous. because rafe never wanted to change. he had no reason to. so why would he? and in addition, we never got to see the full version of who he could be had he descended down his villainy path. we never get to see the potential of anything. rafe feels flimsy in that aspects, and while we get moments of him tweaking, it feels like fan service rather than genuine responses. because it’s never explored why. 

again it comes back to the streaming problem and lack of filler episodes, but overall, i think the question isn’t that rafe “should” have a redemption arc but rather “could” he have it successfully in the show. and the answer is no. it’s too flimsy, it lacks the proper foundation for him to transition smoothly and naturally from who he was to who he becomes. because regardless of my answer, i think he will. it’s whether the execution can be done properly.

[dontyouworrydaddy]

Hey hun!! I was wondering if we could get more split personality Ghost/Simon Riley's x reader because you absolutely slay at writing that and I think it's an interesting concept to explore. (Don't feel obligated to answer this request or rush to anything this is just a little idea) anyways love ya boo. I hope you have an amazing day sending lots of love your way 💗💗💗

Lєт мє ℓσνє уσυ αηуωαу

Simon "Ghost" Riley x gn! reader

summary: Simon never puts on his mask when he is at home with you. But as you enter your shared apartment, you’re greeted with Ghost instead of Simon.

warning: angst, fluff

-> I‘m sorry this took me so long :/ I‘m back now tho! Took a break for my mental health and I‘m better now :))🫶🏻🫶🏻 <-

I literally love you so much, you have no idea. I‘m gonna attack you with online hugs so beware and DONT REJECT MY HUGS (and kisses xoxo). 💗💖💕💞💞💘💖

I also think the Simon/Ghost concept is interesting. Like Simon could be the CUTEST boyfriend and person in general but as soon as he puts on his mask he is COLD. Like you have never met such a cold person. He probably never wears his mask at home and when he does, he probably feels overwhelmed and feels like he needs protection from Ghost instead of his significant other. Poor baby :( Wish I could hug him ☹️☹️

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

"Siiiii, I‘m home!" you say loudly as you let your bag fall from your shoulder. Finally, another day done. Today was a pretty tough day at work. The clients were all rude and you were constantly stressed. And now, all you need is your Simon to hug you tightly and do nothing.

But instead of Simon greeting you, you were greeted by Ghost. And this can only mean one thing: Simon needs protection from Ghost again. The sight of seeing him with the mask in your shared home broke your heart. It makes you wonder why he needs the protection of Ghost. He has you. In those cases, you’re the one protecting him. It’s you he always goes to when he isn’t feeling well. Not Ghost.

"What happened?" you asked calmly as you make your way towards him. He doesn’t reply which breaks your heart any further. "Love, please talk to me…"

"There is nothing to talk. Go to sleep." he coldly replies, causing you to take a few steps back. But he and you both now you don’t give up that easily.

"Sim-" you get interrupted by Simon, but this time his voice is so harsh and suddenly everything crashes inside you. "Ghost! Ghost is standing in front of you! Not Simon" he snaps.

You don’t know why but you can feel tears building in the corner of your eyes. You’re not emotional usually. But everything build up inside you. Firstly, today you got yelled by your boss because he thought it was you doing something wrong even though it wasn’t you. Then it was just you doing your job and everyones else’s. Then it was the customers being absolute jerk towards to you. And you aren’t doing well either. But still you’re standing and there for everyone else. And you’re also just a human.

You decided to just leave him alone and go take a shower and then cry silently, so he doesn’t hear you and see how much it affected you.

"You know Ghost. If you just open your eyes, you‘d see how beautiful life can be sometimes. And maybe you‘d see how much you’re hurting me." you say and leave him standing alone in the living room.

~

As you sit in the shower you let yourself have 5 minutes to cry.

Life has been very tough lately and you can’t find a way to escape this hellhole. There are so many things you want to see and so many things you want to explore. But sometimes you feel like just giving up. But you know giving up isn’t an option because you know you can’t leave Simon alone. This man would feel guilty and fall into endless pain. But not only him, also you want to reach your goal. You have so many goals for your life and you can’t just give up on them.

As you let the final tears fall down your wet face, you take a deep breath before you step out of the shower and get ready for bed.

Maybe you shouldn’t talk to Simon Ghost today. You know how it will end. It will always end up with him taking a walk outside and you crying in your bed.

As you slide into your sheets and try to not think about anything right now, you hear the door opening and closing immediately after. Not so long after you feel Simon‘s bedside sink and you don’t know if you should turn to look at him.

"I‘m sorry baby" this time Simon says. When ghost talks to you, he always calls you by your name, not your pet name. Not even your nickname.

You don’t respond and just lay there. Soon enough you can feel Simons arms around your body and his touch is sending chills down your spine. His touch is so calming and so magical, you sometimes don’t know how he can do that.

"I scared Ghost off" yup it’s definitely your Simon talking to you right now. "I wanna lay here with my girl and talk about her day" he adds.

And after saying that, you just couldn’t resist. You turned to face him and move closer to him, wrapping your arms around his broad shoulders. Your broken heart starts to heal because whenever your in his arms, you feel like Simon scares off your problems. His arms make you feels safe and protected. He makes you forget about your problems.

His one hand rests at the back of your head and he leaves kisses on your forehead. "You’re home now. Rest baby. We can talk tomorrow,hm?" he suggests with a sweet and caring voice and you just nod.

With that, you fall asleep in your Simons arms. Maybe Ghost let him get out and be with you. But you don’t care right now. You‘ll care tomorrow. Right now, there are no problems and there is just you and him. Nothing and no one else.

Just you and Simon.

[notquitedeadpod]

What do you think about interview with the vampire (both the books and series)?

As briefly mentioned in my audio essay Based Vampirification, I got pretty into the movie when I was a teen, and then read a couple of the books.

I'm going to waffle for a bit about this, so I'll put it under the cut. CW discussions of blood, sex, and rock and roll. No really.

Spoilers for: IwtV, Queen of the Damned

TL;DR: dead blood is stupid; let gay vampires fuck; i want to put Lestat under a microscope

Please note in addition that the following is all just my opinion and should not be taken as anything but such.

There are some interesting limitations on the vampires in that series, and some things I find frustrating about their mechanics. What is, for example, 'dead blood'? This is a nonsensical concept. It does feel vaguely folkloric to me, and I think primarily is there to explain why vampires don't simply drink the blood of the recently deceased. It irritates me. They lean towards being more magical beings and that's okay, but the introduction of such a mechanism as 'dead blood' troubles that and implies-- it just annoys me. We'll be here all week if I go on.

I also find it frustrating that they can't fuck. There's a lot of discomfort about the idea of two men having sex, and the mechanical changes which happen when an Anne Rice vampire turns canonically (in the books) mean he can't get it up in most instances. Whilst I don't think sex between two cis queer men begins and ends with dicks, discomfort about this precise thing is rife, so I find it annoying that these are men who are unable to connect in this way not through choice, and with biting and drinking each others blood - acts of violence and exploitation - serving as a substitution. This stands in sharp contrast to Lestat's escapades with Vampire God Queen Akasha, where he goes out of his way to specifically note that sometimes male vampires CAN get it up.

This is all troubling to me for what it infers about how the text views mlm vs wlm romantic and sexual connections. It should also be made clear that whilst the recent TV adaptation shows Louis and Lestat as explicitly queer in text, in the OG IwtV, this was not overt and space was left for doubt as to the real nature of their relationship. This is partly because of when the novel was written, but it also strikes me as pretty cowardly.

I've enjoyed what I have seen of the recent TV adaptation. I'm interested in how it's exploring the toxic back and forth between Lestat and Louis, and how it makes explicit a lot of things which were left implicit in the book and in prior adaptations. I really like that they've taken the choice to make Louis black, too. Textually this is really fascinating for his character. I think he's extraordinarily well cast as Louis and is now the default Louis I picture in my head. Plus I'm always thrilled when an adaptation takes the initiative to include more people of colour in major roles.

I find Lestat as a character MOST intriguing. He's unpleasant, abusive, and entitled. He goes on to become a rock star and attempts to out vampires to the human world and I'm fucking obsessed with that as a concept, have been for years. He's a horrible little man, and I love that for him. So does he, tbf. He's properly vile. I really enjoy it, not because I think his actions are good but because I enjoy watching him be horribly wrong. It's fun for me.

Anyway there are my fairly comprehensive thoughts on Anne Rice's vampires as far as I know them.

Hope this was illuminating!!

--- Eira xxx

[cloudyyoimiya]

HEAR ME OUT.. SCENARIO ABOUT DAZAI WITH A GN S/O LIKE AUBREY FROM OMORI??

oh my word i love this! i didn’t get too far into omori myself so i had my friend help me out on this! also i couldn’t get all of my thoughts out with just a scenario, so i hope you don’t mind a few headcanons! thank you for your request!

With a S/o Like Aubrey from Omori; Osamu Dazai

Format: Headcanons and Scenario

Possible Warnings: Mentions of anxiety, suicide mentions (Dazai), spoilers for Omori(?)

To start off, Dazai would absolutely love the energy you give off; especially if you’re more on the cheerful side! He loves how energetic you can get over something that peaks your interest!

Sometimes if you freak out over small things, he’ll find it funny. If you ever catch him laughing about this you’ll either calm down immediately or get a little angry. There’s no in between.

If you ever do get angry and lash out, Dazai would be there to try and calm you down. He’d put a hand on your shoulder, or if you’re comfortable with it, he’d hug you and attempt to tell you that everything is all right.

The same thing happens if something goes wrong and you try to distance yourself from your friends or him. He’d be there to comfort you in a heartbeat and he’d make sure that you don’t make any rash decisions. Dazai would also make sure that you aren’t too hard on yourself as well.

If you happen to be clumsy like Aubrey, Dazai will always be there to catch you when you fall. Though, he will find it amusing that you can trip over seemingly nothing. Sometimes he’d catch you and you’d see him smirking.

Sometimes if Dazai gets distracted from a case, you’d have to redirect him. It’s not a simple task, but it’s able to be done.

Here’s some food for thought; imagine if you were in the Port Mafia. You were an executive and you ran a small squad much like the Hooligans that Aubrey leads. Of course your small squad would be more… professional, but still. I’d like to think that this kind of thing drew Dazai in the first place.

Now, I won’t write the mafia scenario today, but maybe I will later if I’m asked to. <3

Scenario…

Today you and your boyfriend were out running errands for the agency. Originally Dazai was asked to do this alone, but knowing him he wouldn’t do it unless you came along. You were slightly mad at him because you already had a lot of work to do. You had to write a few reports, you had to print out some documents… All boring things.

Dazai hooked his arm around yours as he lead you towards the next shop you had to visit. You sighed at the contact. Despite how much you liked going outside to explore, running errands with Dazai was always a bore. He’d always get side tracked and you’d have to redirect him.

“Oh, we’re here,” you said as you two arrived at the store. “Do you wanna wait outside?”

“I could never leave you alone, my love!” Dazai exclaimed, acting as if he was offended by your question. “Plus, if I did you’d somehow run into trouble!”

Your eye slightly twitched at the thought. “Yeah, alright fine. C’mon.”

You practically dragged Dazai into the store. You then walked down the aisles, looking for a specific sweet that Ranpo wanted. Apparently this candy was getting rare since the company was going out of business.

You eventually grabbed everything that you needed to. Dazai had been talking your ear off about anything and everything, trying to make you engage in a conversation while you were concentrating. You did give him short and sweet answers, yes, but you also wanted to bash his head with the baseball bat that you always carried around with you.

“—And then Kunikida was all like, ‘Oh no Dazai! You can’t try to kill yourself on the job!’ with such a mad expression! He then hit me with his book of ideals on top of my beautiful head! I just can’t believe him!” Dazai ranted on. “I truly think that he hates me!”

You had arrived at the cash register, groceries in hand. “No, really? What makes you say that?”

You started to pay for the groceries, giving the cashier your credit card. The transaction went through and the two of you left the store quickly.

“Kunikida is always foiling my suicide attempts! It’s really starting to get on my nerves!”

You silently chuckled at his antics. “Maybe he just cares for you, Osamu.”

Dazai sighed. “If he cared he’d let me—“

You playfully smacked the back of his head.

“We need to head back soon.”

“Ow! That hurt!” Dazai whined.

The walk back contained Dazai blabbering on and on about rather mundane topics. You of course blabbered back once he reached a topic you liked. 

You walked up the stairs to the agency, almost tripping on a few of the steps. Dazai caught you one time at the top of the stairway. Embarrassed, you slightly yelled at him. He only smiled and led you back to your desk.

“You really need to work on your balance, you know. I won’t be able to catch you each time.”

“Oh would you shut up?!”

Requests are open!

[hauntedjohnny]

your ‘piece of meat’ johnny fic was sooooo good!! i really enjoyed reading it. its interesting reading about johnny in an established relationship instead of a victim one. i wonder what it would be like if the situation was reversed. johnny obviously gets possessive when he’s jealous but it feel like in this story his s/o is less unsure of herself. he can definitely be charming when he wants to be and can put up a good talk. undoubtedly how he got his s/o now. even if johnny wasn’t cheating, id imagine she’d probably feel more insecure. wondering if her time was finally up and he was about to moved on.

thank you sm <3 i enjoy a johnny/victim dynamic as much as the next guy but think there is an untapped market for more confident/sure readers. around the time i wrote it i think a couple of us were brainstorming ways he would get into a relationship and i always liked the idea of reader living in muerto county/being a neighbour to the family and the relationship being an arranged marriage of sorts (for money). it ties into my hc that everyone in the area has demons and the good either leave or die. i imagine a reader coming from a family with similar morals/ideals as the slaughters. maybe not as extreme but someone who is at least willing to turn a blind eye, after all theyve heard all the screams echo through the texan fields and havent done anything yet. in more extreme cases i think it would be fun to explore a reader who participates in killing alongside johnny and have them actually enjoy it.

i think the sureness comes from the arranged marriage side (and also the crazy) because they know they cant leave eachother but also refuse to accept that theres any genuine connection between them. so its a possessive push and pull game where they try to get the other to snap and admit they need the other. whether its actually love or not is to be determined but at the baseline i think they use eachother because they give eachother something no one else can. johnny is given some semblance of a way out from nancy and for reader is depends on whatever backstory you'd want so something similar to johnny or the opposite where its the only guaranteed protection/attention she has in her life or something as simple as he allows her to indulge in her violent urges in a fun exciting way.

and as for johnny flirting with others, i think she'd be a boiling point of jealousy stemming from insecurity. but unlike johnny, who takes it out on her, she would take it out on others. the first few times she witnesses it she just scoffs and brushes it off (because she doesnt actually think she needs/wants him or whatever) but her eyes dont leave his form the entire night. as it happens more and more her jaw starts to clench and fists ball at the sight. she gets short and snippy with him after, not even allowing him to touch her. its as if the spirit of the other woman is still on him. she would say nothings wrong but he can see right through her and he loves it. a smarmy grin telling her she aint got nothing to worry about. its only when he goes hunting for victims that she starts seeing red. it different when he flirts with intention to kill. its personal. its intimate. his hands inside another woman that he's been buying drinks for. i think it would be enough to make her snap. johnny doesnt even get the kill that night, she beats him to it. he's pissed at her for taking away his rush but theres also an awe to his glare, as if hes finally seen the real her. he tries to keep her at home when hunting from then on but allows her to sit in the cold room as he dismembers the body, degrading the body while simulatenously praising hers by comparison. if she continues with the attitude then im sure he would be happy to put her in her place. sometimes there's a fear that he will kill her like the girls he flirts with but she knows deep down he needs her. she sees the way he rolls his eyes behind nancys back. the constant excuses for a late night drive. even if he doesnt like her, he has to keep her for she's his only chance to escape nancy's grip without leaving nancy completely.