#because well that'd be defending herself as well

[demodraws0606]

The fact people haven't pointed how weird Hu's entire behavior is in the latest episode is wild to me, like genuinely.

As soon as her weapon is mentioned, she goes completely silent and looks terrified.

Then Teruko asks her "what lie did Nico tell you to get a hold of that" and she doesn't respond. In fact she sounds confused and let's out a

"...What" As though she's confused that was the conclusion Teruko had made

In fact she doesn't even says a singular full sentence about it. No questioning Nico, no giving us context as to how Nico would've even gotten the weapon in the first place, no reaction from Hu to the idea that Nico would've tried to frame her and the fact they admit to it right in front of her.

This is the women who acted shocked and entered a blind rage when she learned that David betrayed her, blaming him for "toying with her heart".

Even if she would treat Nico different from David, I don't fucking buy the idea that she'd have 0 reaction to that. No tearful reaction of betrayal ? No breakdown.

Somehow here she says nothing, acting confused and then just sheepishly adding a "That's..." when the conversation moves further.

That moment is still stuck in my mind because it is such a strange moment especially with how we've established Hu's behavior during the entire trial.

We literally see how she reacts to being betrayed, we've seen it in this class trial, and yet someone even closer to her admits to framing her and it's just...crickets.

[loganwritesprobably]

When You're In Danger (Straw Hats P2)

Feat. Nami, Robin and Jinbei

Content/warnings: Reader is GN, canon-typical violence referenced, injuries referenced

Nami is a coward and she knows it

Rarely does she rush head first into danger

But she'd do it for you

You're her most prized treasure, and she'll be damned if anyone things she'll let you get hurt

She can't do much damage herself, so she'd prefer to stay closeby so the two of you can back each other up

If the two of you are separated, and she sees or hears that you're in trouble, it'll give her a new surge of determination

She may cross the battlefield screaming, but she'll do it to get to you

Nami knows she might not be able to save you, but she can be there to at least lessen the hurt you suffer

Rather than showing she guilty that she couldn't help you, Nami would lash out at the stronger crew members because they should've helped

Even though she knows you don't normally need the help

If you got hurt because you were protecting her though

That'd devastate her

She hates that she isn't as strong as the others, and it would never hurt more than in that moment

Robin is a powerhouse in her own right

She can more than handle herself in a fight

But diverting attention is dangerous

She will focus on her own fight first and foremost, even if you're in danger

She can't help you if she ends up hurt because she was careless

Once her own fight is over, she'll be at your side instantly

She'll insert herself into your fight without waiting for permission, because she knows at that point for sure if she's needed

She'll protect you first, then deal with your attacker second

You are capable, and she always makes sure to explain that she doesn't involve herself because she thinks otherwise - she just wants you to be safe

If someone hurt you, they'd see no mercy from the Devil Child

She'd be the one to carry you to Chopper, even if you were perfectly capable of walking

She'd remain by your side, reading aloud, until you were well again

We've seen already what Jinbei will do to defend someone he thinks deserves it

You're no different

He'll dive directly into danger if it means he can keep you safe

He knows that you're capable, but you're also both aware that he is more capable, and so him coming to your defence isn't an insult

It's a sign of how much he cares

9/10 times if Jinbei comes to your defence, you won't get so much as a scratch

But that one in ten creates hell to pay

He's been through a lot in his life, but he cares for you more than most, and so you getting hurt is way up there on the list of things that piss him off

He's able to dispatch whoever was causing you harm immediately, and then check on you

Before he takes you anywhere, he'll check in and ask how you're feeling. He's calm and collected while he gathers the information he needs from you

Only then would he take you to be seen by Chopper

Requests are open! See below links for my other works, and how to leave requests. I write both canon/canon and canon/reader requests for your enjoyment

AO3 | Fanfic Masterlist | Request Rules | Fic Trades Guide | WIPs

Tags: @claryeverlarkf

[knight-of-the-graces]

I... am having EPIC Thoughts. I read a post that talked about how Odysseus really isn't doing any better with ruthlessness than mercy, and I just started thinking, so... here you so. Yes, I'm writing an essay now, you're welcome, I am 'That Guy' in every fandom I'm in ever, yes.

Ruthlessness and Mercy: Would It Matter? An EPIC: The Musical Study

In short... no. No, it really wouldn't.

From the beginning, the conflict was never about ruthlessness or mercy; it was always about the will of the gods. It never mattered whether Odysseus was merciful or ruthless or prideful or what-have-you, insert-chosen-character-trait-or-flaw-here-- the only thing that mattered was if he was obeying the gods, if he had angered them or not. Odysseus wasn't the problem in The Odyssey, at least at the start.

(This is not me saying the man doesn't have or cause problems, because he definitely does, but the overarching problem of The Odyssey isn't about Odysseus.)

Think about it. Several of the gods had decided --at least, in The Odyssey-- to make Odysseus' life a living nightmare. The reason for this seems to vary, but it's there. So right there, no matter what he did, what choices he made, the outcome was already decided for him. He was doomed from the start and didn't even know it.

See, here's the thing, about the Greek gods: Most of them really don't care about mortals any more than most humans care about insects. Interesting on occasion, but usually just something to ignore. And then you have the people who like to torment them, to pull off their wings and legs and watch them suffer and squirm-- those are the gods who involved themselves in the Trojan War. They weren't interested in the affairs of mortals in that they didn't care about the cause of the war, only that it was something interesting to do to break up the monotony of their daily lives up on Mount Olympus, a chance to show off and compete with one another and settle old scores. (I'm particularly upset about Aphrodite. Like, seriously, who just kidnaps some poor woman to marry off to a random guy she's never even met? I mean, c'mon, you're a literal goddess, you couldn't've just... y'know, made a person out of clay instead of kidnapping someone who already had a husband and family? Goodness.)

But anyway. Let's take a hypothetical, shall we? Let's say that Odysseus didn't show Polyphemus mercy, when Athena said to kill him. Do you really think Poseidon would've been any less angry about a dead descendant than a blinded one? I mean, even in this same tale the gods were known for taking vengeance on those who wronged their descendants, and being dead is definitely worse of a wrong than being blind, at least in my humble opinion.

Then, let's take into consideration who exactly killed him: that'd be Odysseus, King of Ithaca and all of that... and a champion of Athena. Now, this might or might not be common knowledge, but Poseidon and Athena competed extensively for the patronage of the city of Athens, and Poseidon lost, badly; that isn't the kind of slight he'd forget easily. (I mean, an olive tree is a food source, though, so... sorry, but it's definitely more useful than a salty spring from the salty man of the sea. Thanks, but no thanks.)

In EPIC, Odysseus had at least defied Athena, so she'd left him by the time Poseidon could discover what exactly he'd done, and thus wasn't responsible for defending her former champion; however, in a Ruthless hypothetical, he'd done exactly as she'd said, and now she had a predicament on her hands: Abandon the champion who had obeyed her to the letter, or face the wrath of Poseidon herself, too?

In The Odyssey, Athena abandons Odysseus to face the wrath of Poseidon by himself, so as not to incur her uncle's ire as well. So in our hypothetical, she would likely have abandoned Odysseus here too. The only thing that would change would be the guilt.

Why is that?

Well, to put it simply, there isn't a way for Odysseus to not incur Poseidon's wrath here. Polyphemus is Poseidon's son, and Odysseus --in order to save the lives of himself and as many of his men as he can-- will do him harm. Poseidon, as Polyphemus' father --whether a good one or not--, is responsible for avenging a slight against his bloodline. Athena, due to Odysseus' actions, will leave him.

Perhaps --straying from the question of ruthlessness and mercy-- if Odysseus hadn't said his name, if pride or anger or stress or whatever interpretation of it you take hadn't influenced his decision, Poseidon might not have learned who was responsible for the act. But then again, who else was sailing the sea --Poseidon's domain, about which he knew every detail-- in that exact area at that exact time, with a captain clever enough to give his name as Nobody so as to not reveal himself, with a sudden influx of stolen sheep on their ships where Polyphemus the shepherd had lost his?

Really, though, that isn't relevant. The question was if it would make a difference whether he was ruthless or merciful, and honestly... I don't think it would make much of a difference. One way or another, his crew was going to die. One way or another, he was going to wind up alone. Do you think that his crew wouldn't have mutinied after yet another monster their captain had chosen to spare came back with a vengeance? Do you think they would have listened when he warned them about Helios' cows then?

Do you think a merciful Odysseus would've chosen his traitorous crew, his former friends, over the chance to see his wife and son again?

[justplainlovely]

Defending my new favorite ship again because why tf not

I’ll start by stating the obvious (cuz apparently it isn’t a given to some of the folks on here, which is weird, but okay). We DO NOT condone abuse in any form. With that said, an explanation is not an excuse and many folks, almost all I’d venture to guess, have been abusive at some point in their lives (I know I wouldn’t have been on the receiving end of so much abuse if that were untrue - hurt people hurt people). We also DO NOT condone racism. I get the feeling people assume malice on the Ghoulcy shipper side because of disgusting comments that were made long ago about Rey and Finn (which was a similar dynamic that, I’d argue, made more sense than a Lucy/Max relationship but that’s also my 🌈 heart shipping him with Dane). These disclaimers also extend to the villains, which Barb is one of. We DO NOT condone misogynoir here either cuz while I haven’t seen much racism on Lucy/Max, I have seen a surprising amount about Barb. Being a fictional villain does not allow for any kind of bigotry, NOTHING does, but I digress.

So on Ghoulcy, I’ll say this. The foreshadowing is layered heavily throughout the story. Whether they are intended to be friends or partners is up for debate, but the writing makes it quite clear that these characters are destined to team up, bringing us to the end of Season 1 when Lucy walks off with Cooper. I’m brought back to what Wilzig said at the beginning of the season, when Lucy was by herself camping and he warned her several times to go home before finally saying:

“The question is, will you still want the same things when you’ve become a different animal altogether?”

Lucy is very distraught at the end of the season after learning everything she does about her dad and Vault-tec and, for her to return to the vaults and live out her days there, with or without Max, seems like a stretch when things are all said and done. This can be poignantly compared to Persephone going to the underworld (in Lucy’s case, the surface world) - she has eaten the proverbial pomegranate.

This isn’t the only dynamic which Ghoulcy has been compared to, either. I have also seen them compared to Beauty and the Beast, which brings Max back into the dynamic often as a Gaston. Personally, I don’t see that, but if he turned out to be a villain it would be an interesting storyline and Aaron Moten could play it off very well. But bringing Max back in, something about his character to me feels very incomplete and I’m not sure if a love interest is the way forward for him. We only know one of his wants:

“I want to hurt the people who hurt me.”

And at the end of the season it’s like he seems less convinced by that, even though it’s hard to guess exactly what he’s thinking when he is knighted (something he should want, but judging by his expression he seems disenchanted by it) and finds Lucy has left. Part of the reason I ship him and Dane is because Dane has been a rock to him, one who he can probably trust with doubts about the Brotherhood. But returning to Ghoulcy, Cooper has been exactly where Lucy is before. He was betrayed by the one person he trusted most and what did he love most about Barb before they divorced (remember there was talk about alimony in the first episode - not sure how people forgot that):

“I know you always try to do the right thing. That’s what I love about you.”

Who embodies that better than Lucy, I ask you. (Cooper very well could still care about his ex-wife so take that with a grain of salt) But when it comes down to it, and we don’t know who initiated the divorce so it’s up for interpretation like any good story, part of Cooper died when he listened in on Barb’s Vault-Tec meeting just like part of Lucy is dying after she learns what her father did to her mother and Shady Sands.

“If my dad found out that I destroyed an entire community to save him... that'd break his heart.”

That is likely what’s on repeat for her when she learns about the city. And when Cooper offers her his company to New Vegas, his tone notably softens. I think when they first met, the vile things Cooper did to Lucy made her realize very quickly what she would have to do to make it on the surface. Cooper is intrigued, maybe even put off by, her genuine goodness. And it’s not just that, but he sees part of his past self and seeks to kill it any chance he can get. I’d argue that’s a large part of why he’s so cruel to her (him shooting the Vault Boy poster was more than just a fuck you to Vault-Tec). And likewise, Lucy shows him that embracing his humanity again is not so bad - whatever morsel he has left. It begins with trust, though, whatever they have. When she follows him, he has his back turned to her and is walking ahead with the dog. Normally, he wouldn’t put himself in such a vulnerable position, but he is showing her that he believes in her golden rule. Or more accurately that he believes that she believes in it.

Anyway, I dare not risk turning this into an actual essay. It’s already long enough. I’m interested in exploring other aspects that I might have missed if y’all have any thoughts.

[possamble]

whats your take on marcille and pattadols post canon friendship? they seem to hang out occasionally in a couple of post canon shorts and i was wondering if your beautiful mind has anything more to add? youre amazing 💖

☺️ aha thank you so much!!! Pattadol and Marcille are sooo interesting to me because like. I think Pattadol is who Marcille would have become if her parents had both been long-lived, and she never had a reason to question elven authority. The hardworking attitude, insistence on sticking to a very rigid set of principles, a little bit of vanity in wanting to be recognized for her efforts... the slightly ridiculous uptightness and neurotic attitude at times, though at heart they're both kind people who want the best for everyone in their own ways.

In the post-canon, I'm assuming that Pattadol has her own ambassador's quarters in either the castle or the inner city, and the two of them grab tea at the castle drawing room/garden/whatever. I think they talk shop, soundboard ideas off each other, and gossip/complain a little about incompetent colleagues/problems... I think they're each others' dream work friends, honestly. Polite, competent, friendly but never getting overly personal, fun and pleasant to talk to. The fact that Pattadol's 82 and a fairly young woman by elven standards also plays into it, I think -- Marcille hasn't had another elf friend along the same maturity range and professional level of experience, so this is probably nice for her!

What I would like to see is them eventually developing a closer relationship. I think a lot about the way Pattadol reassured Marcille that, because of her accomplishments, she'd have a pretty comfortable sentence as a Canary. About the way, while there was tension because of what was happening at the time, they were both immediately very polite to each other upon meeting and kind of?? got along/clicked immediately in some ways?? It feels like they have the same kind of standards for themselves and others (as well as general inexperience and slight insecurity about their own competency, which probably makes them feel at more or less an equal level with each other).

And I think that'd be good for both of them -- having someone else that they admire, who also admires them in return and recognizes their talents and hard work. There's a very unique kind of rapport you build with someone that you hold as an intellectual peer and can trust to give you feedback that's actually reliable and up to par. While they might both be too professional to really become super close friends who can always be open with each other, there's a very real and deep kind of companionship that forms from this kind of trust, and I hope that's the direction they're heading in.

It's also extra delicious if you add in the tension of Pattadol inherently being a foreign agent from a country that isn't necessarily friendly, but they end up with that strange trust anyway... not to mention the thought that she might find herself actually admiring how Melini is growing and trying to defend it when reporting back to the queen.

[odusseus-xvi]

Wanted to talk about q!Forever and his presidency seen from the pov of someone who mostly experience it from outside percepctive as I'm incapable of understanding Brazilian. SAYING IT RIGHT NOW I'm not here to say q!Forever is wrong or evil (as I'm convinced he is not, no need to come and tell me), this is not what's it's about, this is about how lost he seems when you are looking from the exterior.

So I know drama is brewing because people are fighting over who's right and who's an evil virus of satan, and I don't care, I'm not interested in this. I want to talk about the characters I love, because I love q!Forever, and his story makes me so sad.

I want to explain to those who wouldn't know, I'm a mostly french viewers, I follow Etoiles, Baghz, Antoine, Aypierre and Phil (mostly, I try to follow everyone's storyline and povs), the last two are not important here as Philza doesn't interact with the president storyline at all and Aypierre's involvement can be resumed to "I don't care who's in power and what they do, I'll be nice to them because I want power". But basically what the Forever Presidency feels like is not evil, or corrupted, it feels WEIRD :

Because obviously he is kindhearted, he has saved the eggs multiple times, he has done a lot for the island, and has said multiple times he wants to help everyone, and I believe that. But then in some of his actions and speeches, there is so much stuff that we are weirded out about. First how he told Baghera how he wanted to make everyone vote etc. That's okay, but like she said herself "Well that was my campaign idea..." And that's true, and that was also a thing Him and Cellbit used as way to descend her campaign, so that felt like a light knife in the back. But that's the least worrying thing.

There was then the whole deal where from what I understood he felt betrayed by Baghera and Bad as they didn't share everything and witheld information. And from Baghz pov that felt like it came out of nowhere because... Well she didn't ! That was simply miscommunication. And ensued the whole deal where he talked about how he felt about the arrival of the new people, and how he didn't trust them and didn't want to help them unless they had an egg. That was a weird thing in itself, he is supposed to be the president of the island and he is the one least willing to welcome new people.

There was also the nerfing armor stuff. At first we thought he said that as a joke you know, he is just not saying no to Quackity because that'd be rude. But who in their right mind would do that right ? Right... ? And then yestedray he asks Etoiles to do a debate with Quackity to discuss it and everyone went "Wait, he's actually considering it ?" And that was weird because... Well Forever spends most of his time in his base. Isolated. And when you watch Etoiles you know that even with the strongest suit of armor in the game you CAN die everyday. Is... Is Forever asking for a death sentence ? Has he been living under a rock ?

The last thing was yesterday, when Etoiles wanted to ask him a few things, he arrived when Forever was having a secret discussion with Cucurucho, and he ordered the construction of a prison he would have access to. And THAT was so WEIRD, everyone in chat and in reaction were like "WHAT !!??? WH... WHY ??", and then followed by "could I have a gun to defend myself ?" and everyone went "Oh. He... He doesn't trust us !!!", Etoiles himself went *raises eyebrow*. There is something REALLY going bad with q!Forever. And then he immediatly follows by taking in consideration Etoiles' request to allow Dark Metal for his fight against the code, so he's not evil, he's not corrupted... And that's where I realised what it felt like, it feels like he is lost.

It seems he want to do good, but takes weird unnecessary decisions after weird unnecessary decisions that in most cases fucks over other islanders more than it helps, and the important thing to remember is that he is not doing that purposefully, again it seems he is lost, it feels like he doesn't know what he is doing, because of that people are more wary of him, and it leads him to become more paranoïd and he makes even more bad decisions, wich leads to more people being wary of him and it creates a vicious feedback loop that constantly raises the tension. (also having the big PRESIDENT sign next to his name creates an epidermic reaction in every french that makes us want a revolution /j) And it's so sad because the only exit I can see is for the tension to be released in an explosion, a revolution, and THAT could be interesting because for once neither side is truly evil per say. They can be misguided, but not outright evil. Like Baghera said herself "I... I don't understand where he is going."

What's terrifying is what we foresaw with the election is happening, the islanders are driving themselves apart and turning against each other. I don't think the Federation wants to avoid a revolution, I'm pretty sure they would be rooting for it.

(HOWEVER next time I see someone saying q!Forever is this perfect little guy that did nothing wrong... PLEASE. The guy was vicious during the election arc. With how much misinformation he spread on Etoiles most notably.)

[lunastarnight]

Curts teeth

Another writing project, once again inspired by @turkeyinnovember. They made a post about a headcanon of theirs ( this one: https://www.tumblr.com/turkeyinnovember/717345318493110272/i-wish-i-can-just-shtpost-about-recreyo-and-not?source=share), so i tjought I might as well put my own little spin on it.

They had all just finished another scenario, and were now all sitting in their living room, just kinda excausted.

Curt and Christian were both on their phones, Curt playing some shitty mobile game to kill time and Christian looking through social media, Den was fidgeting with a pocket knife she had brought along, Ivan was still just kinda subconciously feeling where he had (once again) gotten stabbed in that scenario, and Kristine was holding an ice pack to her head, having hit it earlier.

But she was also staring at Curt. She had been wondering something for some time, finally unable to hold back and breaking the silence:

"So what's up with your teeth?"

Curt looked up confused. "My teeth?" he asked, thinking he might've just misheard her.

Kristine nodded, "Yeah, your teeth, why are they so weird?"

Curt looked confused, flashing his teeth for a moment. "The fuck are you talking about?" He looked to the others, hoping they could clarify what the fuck Kristine was trying to say.

Kristine vaguely gestured to him. "You know", she tried to explain herself, "why do they get so sharp sometimes?"

Christian laughed, speaking up. "Out of everything that happened, this is weird to you?"

Den shrugged. "Never really took the time to question it, figured it wad just some Multiverse stuff."

Ivan looked over with a small grin. "Gotta agree, sharp teeth aren't that big compared to some of the other stuff."

"Oh, that's what you meant." Curt shrugged. "No, not some multiverse thing or anything like that, this has always been like that, ever since I was a kid." Curt went back to his phone, nonchalantly adding "Probably just what happens when you're quarter Werewolf."

"Huh!?"

"Hm?!"

"What?!?"

The atmosphere in the room immediatally shifted, the other four staring at Curt, all of them having a different version of a mix of confusion and shock on their face.

Kristine spoke up first. "What did you just say?"Curt looked up at them again, raising an eyebrow. "What? Did I never tell you?" Chtistian sputtered in disbelief. "No! You kinda didn't." Curt seemed slightly apologetic for that, and quickly went to explain. "Oh, sorry. Well, my Grandma on my dad's side was a Werewolf, so with my dad being half a Werewolf, I'm quarter Werewolf."

They all just kinda stared at him, still very much confused. "You've never been gone on Full moon nights though.", Kristine muttered. "So what, you're immortal?" Ivan asked. "What, are you gonna turn us now that we know?" Christian said jokingly.

Curt held his hands up in the air, trying to get all of them to shut up. "Hold up, hold up, hold up, one thing after the other.", he said, looking to see if they were all paying attention, "First of all, how do you know I was never gone, did you watch me sleep or some shit?" Curt chuckled, interrupting Kristines sputtered attempt at defending herself as he continued. "But, the reason I was never away was, because I don't really have that transformation thing. Under 50 percent you typically loose most of the major Werewolf stuff like transforming into a Wolf or howling at the moon. Second, I'm not immortal, don't think any Werewolf is, they just have a longer lifespan, but since I'm more human, I will probably not live longer then any of you guys. Lastly, no, I won't. Even if I wanted to, the whole "turning people into Werewolfes" thing is kinda for actual Werewolfes, the only real Werewolf things I have are the teeth, slightly enhanced senses, and nightvision. So, even if I were to try, and bite one of you, the most that would probably happen is that'd taste bad."

They sat in silence for a bit, taking in the information, before Ivan perked up again. "What's that supposed to mean, do you think we aren't clean?"

Curt grinned, leaning back in his seat. "Honestly? Especially you, even just with all the stupid situations you're in every scenario, you probably sweat more then the rest of us, that can't taste good."

And with Ivan trying to defend himself, the usual banter continued as if nothing happened. Curts heritage had been a suprise, but honestly? As previously said, really not a big deal compared to what they were usually getting into, they'd be fine.

[rkin413]

Naeishi Family - Father's Day

"Father, we're here!" Taka called, knocking on the door. Next to him Makoto stood, struggling slightly with a couple bags of groceries they'd picked up, and the twins behind them.

"Wanna go home..." Sachiko muttered quietly to herself, although Taka still heard her.

"Come now, Sachiko! It's Father's Day!" he scolded. "Don't you want to see your grandfather?"

"No."

Taka bit back a sigh. Sachiko had never liked his father – she was just as scared of him as she was of... everyone that wasn't himself, Makoto, or Noriko. The one thing the two of them most frequently clashed over was her tendency to hide for the entire duration of his father's visits, which were becoming increasingly rare. No doubt due at least in part to Sachiko's blatant rejection of him.

The door opened.

"Taka-Boy, Mako!" Hiroko greeted, opening the door to let the family in. "4'oclock on the dot, I see."

"Of course! Punctuality-"

"Is everything," both Makoto and Hiroko said in unison. Makoto coughed slightly, apparently not expecting the stero.

"I'm going to take these to the kitchen," he said, holding up his bags. Sachiko clung onto his leg and gave him a pleading look to keep him from leaving. He transfered one bag to the other hand and pat her head. "You'll be fine, Sachi. Hiroko, could you show me the thing we talked about on the phone?"

Taka knew he was referring to something about the two of them cooking a meal for the day, although he didn't know the specifics. Hiroko nodded and led him towards the kitchen.

His father's study creaked open, and Taka had to lunge for Sachiko as she tried to dash behind a nightstand. Foiled, she instead spun with surprising dexterity to hide behind Taka instead, bending his arm awkwardly in the process.

"Hello you three," his father greeted, looking tired. As usual. "Happy Father's Day, Kiyotaka."

"Happy Father's Day to you as well, Father!" Taka greeted. he was still happy to see his father, no matter how melancholy the other man's exhaustion made him.

Noriko, completely unlike her sister, charged her grandfather and wrapped her arms around his legs. Takaaki ruffled her hair.

"Hello, Golden Rule."

"That's Daddy and Papa's name for Nori," Sachiko muttered to herself.

"Say hello to your grandfather, Sachiko," Taka told her, his tone slightly sharper than he'd intended.

"...hi, grandpa." Sachiko said quietly, barely peeking out from behind Taka's legs. She immediately hid herself again, and this time Taka did sigh.

.................................................

Aside from Sachiko's chronic rudeness, which was worsened by her disappearing to who-knows-where once Taka had let go of her, the visit was nice. Makoto had come out a few minutes later to greet his father-in-law, and the adults had struck up a conversation about recent clean-ups in the area, including the fact that a mysterious group (either one of Hajime's groups or a copycat group) had set up air purifiers in the area. Makoto clearly intended to ask later, and Taka quietly wondered if his father and stepmother living in the area had anything to do with it. Makoto and Hiroko both disappeared into and reappeared from the kitchen, and after an hour and a half, the doorbell rang again.

"That'd be Yasu," Hiroko smiled, and Taka watched her bring her son and grandson in.

"Hiro!" Taka scolded, making Hiro jump as soon as he'd wandered leisurely though the door. Eiji did not, and just shot his Dad an amused look, knowing a scolding was incoming. "Everyone was meant to be here by five o'clock at the latest! How could you be so late!"

"Whoa, hey, chill lil'bro!" Hiro defended. "Our train lost power midway, okay?"

"He lost our tickets," Eiji snitched.

"No I didn't! You stole them!"

"Because you would have forgotten the, Dad. You didn't realize you didn't have them until we were at the station."

"The disrespect..."

"How'd that make you guys late if you had the tickets?" Makoto asked in confusion.

"Dad dragged me all around the station trying to get someone else's, while I was trying to get his attention."

"Hey, you got my attention plenty of times! You just used those times to give suggestions instead of telling me you had-"

"Enough!" Taka interrupted. "You both should be ashamed of yourselves, trying to take other people's tickets! Especially you, Hiro, you need to set a better example!"

Hiro muttered something about Sachiko's absence from the room that no one quite caught but Taka still wilted slightly.

"I'll go find Sachiko," Makoto volunteered. "Eiji, want to help?"

"Sure, Uncle Makoto, I can ferret her out." The two left, and Taka heard him asking about whether Toko, Komaru, and Ryuu would be joining them, which they wouldn't be. Something about being busy – Makoto had told Taka that he suspected they were going to visit the hospital again. He wished them the best.

"Heya Nori!" Hiro greeted, scooping up his niece. "You're glad to see me, right?"

Noriko nodded once, neutral expression never leaving her face, and Hiro somehow managed to deposit her on his shoulders despite the excess of dreadlocks on his head that logically should have blocked her.

"I'm glad to see you," Hiroko said, inexplicably smirking, "now give your mother a hug!"

Hiro obliged.

"Now, dinner's almost ready. Help me take stuff out of the oven, will ya?"

"This is the real reason we were late," Hiro stage-whispered to Noriko, "getting out of manual labor- ow!"

Hiroko had flicked his cheek. Hiro swung Noriko down back onto the ground and followed his mother, and there were various sounds from the kitchen for a minute.

"NO NO NO!" Sachiko screamed as Eiji, with a little too much glee on his face, physically dragged her back into the room by her legs. Taka stood up immediately, panic jolting through him. "HAGAKURE LET ME GO I WILL HURT YOU!"

Noriko walked over and picked up her sister's shoulder to help. Taka sat back down – if Noriko wasn't all that concerned, she probably wasn't hurt.

"ET TU NORI?!" she wailed.

"You cannot possibly think you're going to die," Eiji said. "Why do you do this?"

"Are you okay, Sachikio?" Makoto asked, peering into the room nervously.

"No!"

"She's fine, right Noriko?"

Noriko nodded.

"Don't trust them they're liars!"

Eiji was – he somehow took after his father, despite no actual biological relation – but Noriko wasn't.

"Dinner!" Hiroko called.

"It's more of a late brunch!" Hiro called immediately after.

Eiji sighed, dropping his half of his cousin.

...............................................................

Dinner/Brunch was nice – although Hiro tried to claim more credit for it than just 'took a vegetable casserole out of the oven' probably warranted, but Taka decided to let that one go.

Sachiko looked like she wanted to run off still, and only very cautiously ate a few bites of her curry, until Makoto told her he'd cooked that in it's entierty. Then she ate all of it and didn't touch anything else.

"Wait, there could have been something wrong with the cookwear..." she muttered to herself in horror shortly after dinner and Taka felt a twinge of a headache. She wasn't like this at home!

Naturally, she disappeared before anyone else noticed as soon as she was able. Well, perhaps not anyone, since Noriko was also missing.

"I'll go find her," Makoto quietly told him with a sigh. "Again."

"Oh, hey, while they're doing that, Eiji and I've got a present for ya, Pops!" Hiro said. "Eiji, I know we left it in the living room, can you go get it?"

Eiji rolled his eyes, shoved himself out of his seat, and dashed into the other room.

Hiroko took a sip of her tea, and turned to her son.

"So, any girls I should know about?"

"Ma! Come on, not today!" Hiro blushed.

"What about that nice Nakajima girl?" Hiroko's tone made it clear she was just teasing, and not expecting an actual potential daughter-in-law. "Or Aoi? She's been around, she's nice."

"I think I'd have to be the last guy on earth for Hina to consider anything with me," Hiro said. "Same with Kanonchi. And I'm not interested either!"

"I believe Hina is dating someone, actually," Taka volunteered. Hiro blinked.

"Wait, really? Oh, wait, 's it that guy with the blue hair again?"

"They're not dating – they're just roommates," Makoto volunteered, reentering the room with no children. "The girl's are working on something in the study – nothing that should cause trouble, but they want privacy."

"Oh? What is it?" Takaaki asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You'll see."

"Present!" Eiji declared, running back into the room. Taka wondered if he'd waited for Makoto to rejoin them.

.......................................................................

A couple of hours later, and sadly the younger Ishimarus had to set off. Noriko had come out of the study, and Sachiko had graduated to peeking through doorways of her own volition, at least.

Taka hugged his father on the way out, and Makoto gave him a slightly nervous handshake. Hiroko scooped them both up into a hug to deposit "motherly kisses" onto both their foreheads. Noriko tugged on Takaaki's pantleg, and he bent down to see what was on the piece of paper she was holding up to him. As soon as he was down to her level, she wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug.

"Thank you Noriko," he said. She didn't let go after several seconds. "Okay, I need to stand up now." Nothing. "Alright, I love you too, please let me go now, N-"

Sachiko dashed out of where she was hiding, gave her grandfather a kiss on the cheek and fled out the partially-opened door. Noriko let go, an unusally smug look on her usually restrained face. She then handed the piece of paper to her stunned grandfather, and skipped out after her sister, leaving the stunned group behind.

"Hey, Progress!" Hiro declared, breaking the silence. Taka shared a relieved grin with his husband, before they both abruptly realized their daughters had both left the house without them and had to chase after them.

[hamofjustice]

very slight teal mask and indigo disc story spoilers (the kind that'll probably help decide if you want them or not instead of ruin it for you, probably?) and very long commentary about it. mostly about how they've chosen to advertise it

gonna hit you with my longest run-on sentence yet, here we go.

the fact that we had to datamine the teal mask, a DLC whose only returning character is jacq and does not add a line to or scene of anyone else (well, mentions of heath and clavell, i guess?) due to being available to do at any badge count, the fact that we had to dig and pry in unintended ways, just to finally prove that our implied greatest treasures nemona arven and penny would at least be available to hang out with in the indigo disc...

with no new images footage or mentions of the friend trio of in any of the six months since the DLCs were announced, and ten months after these kids opened their hearts and dorm rooms to us, saying we could hang out any time from now on, and turned out to be statues with one line of dialogue after we had already gone on an adventure with them following us around, helping us in battle, and getting to know each other as we walked, and our rival promised to keep up with our strength forever, then never got any stronger...

and now, in the narrative's timeline, we run off to another country to transfer away from our rival for life's school to one she would fit into perfectly the MOMENT she opens up to us about her problems and how she's so much happier now that we're the first person she can actually connect with and be herself around, and shows clear signs of worry that you're going to leave if she doesn't make you promise not to...

and also shortly after Arven became effectively a high school orphan, who's still treated as kind of a butt monkey dumbass for some reason, when he was putting everything he had into researching how to save his dog, his only dependable family, instead of going to class (i guess he's not telling anybody what he's going through, as usual with these kids)...

because TPC did not think these characters being present in the second DLC in any form and not actually having their newfound, hard-earned sense of belonging ruined by the basic premise of said transfer-student DLC was worth advertising at any point, and only showed off gym leaders Katy and Kofu... and that was only if you even bothered to look at the website to notice the feature at all, because hanging out with, battling, and trading with all of the past characters who aren't present in Paldea anymore is now actually a feature, but wasn't in the trailer...

is fucking mind boggling to me.

why is it a secret that they're in the DLC. why would they not just. tell people that as soon as they revealed the DLC. why is it still supposed to be a secret now, half a year later. why weren't they in the first half. why did they not think we'd be worried that they aren't in the second half.

silly me, why would you want to advertise giving people more of the story and main plot-driving characters, the main thing people defend the rushed game for, or that they might get some resolution, or reassure them that the vaguely happy ending to their sad stories isn't going to be ruined like they've implied it will be? that'd be silly. the only way anyone is going to find that out is through hacking

but at least we were finally able to pry that basic fucking information out of them against their will, the only thing I wanted to know about the DLC before I'd buy it, because they left in placeholder stubs for it by accident. oops. wouldn't want to tell people who were on the fence about getting the DLC this information on purpose or anything. need to keep it a secret

we were able to confirm through our own digging that nemona (and many others) are at least allowed to hang out with us, but the thing that would make both her as a character and me as a Pokemon player happier than we've ever been is if she actually got to enroll with us. why wouldn't she go, right? what do a school and society that don't respect her and an empty home where her parents should be have to offer, compared to living her dream with her favorite person, surrounded by people just like her? who can stop a champion from going wherever she wants? but for that to be the case, one of the "club rooms" we found references to would have to be hers. only us kieran and carmine clearly have what are marked as dorm room objects.

i'm glad we're getting what we're getting, but it's still no guarantee that nemona arven and penny will continue to be important to the story that they were the driving forces of, or get the true resolutions and healthier happy endings that they deserve, or that our "true equal" will ever be any stronger or more important to our character than our home ec teacher, or that they'll ever actually get to be a friend group on screen without life or death situations or harrowing grief being involved

oops! accidentally wrote decent character arcs and relationships in a pokemon game! they're going to spend time together in the postgame! abort abort abort quick shove them off into different countries before they hug

okay that's just me being cynical, they will almost certainly be important to the story, but... TPC has the power to make me not cynical and they keep choosing not to do that. but they do keep making really sappy recap videos using previous cutscene footage, like this attachment and uncertainty is something they're milking on purpose

maybe stringing people along with how much they miss the funny, cute, loving, strong characters, or are worried about these three lonely and isolated kids dealing with parental neglect, ptsd and self loathing, autism and motor impairments, identity issues, and more, whose problems are clearly not resolved yet if they can be at all, will... help sell more plushies and gacha pulls, and get people consuming more spinoffs, or something? idk, maybe

love to stop and helplessly gaze upon penny's depression pile every day before i go do tera raids / link battles with strangers (i don't actually do this but i might if poke portal worked indoors)

that all being said! it's pretty damn cool that hanging out with NPCs in a meaningful way and staging selfies with them and stuff is actually a game feature at all. that much is reassuring. it's a step in the right direction considering 90% of pokemon gameplay for a lot of people takes place after the credits roll and everyone normally despawns or becomes a one liner / repeating boss fight statue, or maybe if you're lucky a Multi Battle partner. it was just implied this game would be different, is all. i just don't know why they've chosen to string their audience along this way. wanting to have friends shouldn't throw up a $35 tollgate right as you go to talk to them that takes a year to open, and over six months to find out if it'll kill them when it opens.

i'd like to see pokemon postgame feel more like an animal crossing life sim type game in the future, personally, and this feature is a step toward that. i'd love if it one of your rewards for completing indigo disc was being able to take anyone you like as a follower as you go about your business and have them get on miraidon/koraidon with you as needed so your movement isn't impeded by it, even if there was no dialogue for it or anything. it's 2023, i shouldn't have to imagine something happening in a video game, or have to fill in my own fanfic to make a story satisfying, it should just be happening, on the screen. dammit. having a follower that goes with you everywhere even if you drive or have a following pokemon already was a feature in teal mask, so why not utilize it permanently?

(is the obvious player arven nemona penny 4v1 battle being saved for the final boss or something, is that why tera raids with them aren't a thing you can just do normally?)

Long story short: The basic transfer-student premise of The Indigo Disc implies that we ruin Nemona's happy ending and rub the one she really wants in her face to go enjoy it with Carmine instead for being more marketable, and I don't think they're even aware of why that would be a problem. Why have we not been reassured to the contrary in the last 6 months? I think a lot of us are waiting for this DLC anxiously instead of eagerly, especially after the first half.

[a-friend-of-mara]

Hey uh

I'm leaving my mask at the door for a minute

If you enjoy the image of myself I put forward, the happy cheery autistic trans girl who doesn't dwell on her issues

Please just ignore this post

If you are uncomfortable with mentions of self harm, talking about non prescription drug addiction, suicide rates of trans kids

Please just go

Look

I say my biggest fear is that I'll be forgotten

It's easier than saying that I'm scared to death of myself

I'm worried I'll give up on life and stop eating... considering I can't gain or maintain weight I'd have a week before I was dead at the most

I'm afraid that I'll give up trying to look like the person I want to be rather than being stuck, trapped in a body that isn't mine but I'm wired up to like some sick torture method

I don't want to fall into drug use or self harm hoping that it'd pull me out of this pit of self hatred and hopelessness

I don't wanna be another tally mark on the trans suicide charts

I don't wanna die

I feel like I'm suffocating

That I can't move my legs... only the ones attached to me

I don't even know if I matter at this point

I just

I wanna be me

Not some false image that I was born with

Nobody understands how it is for me

My dad almost killed me with th fact he understood so little he put me into survival mode where I cared about nothing but staying alive because of how much damage his insistence that my body was in fact his son and not the cage that trapped his daughter

He used to have twins now he just has one kid with her twin sister... my sister

Now I live with my mom who doesn't understand, how could she? She's never wanted to tear her skin off because it wasn't hers... she understands how much I hurt though

She's able to see through my mask that I'm really suffering inside

Without her yall wouldn't have ever known I existed

You would've heard a news article of a trans kid who killed herself by diving off the balcony at her school although the media would misgender me.

I've almost done it

Sitting on the edge of a lethal drop fighting with myself to not do it

Not sure if I was lying when i told myself things would get better

I'm not sure if they are

Everything just keeps getting worse and worse

I can't even cry anymore

I don't care about so many things that I used to

I used to love

Then I was heartbroken

I used to care for my friends

Until I moved away

I used to enjoy helping others

Now I'm so tired I can't

Just

Fuck

It's kinda funny

How part of me thinks it's all my fault

How I'm not sure if it's something I did

But then I have to think

What could I possibly have done that'd make this torment justified?

How can any higher power exist when I've prayed to every God and Goddess I've ever learned of and not once has a goddam thing happened

How would a higher power let the world get this fucked up

Fuckin hell

My trans siblings are getting murdered for being themselves

Innocent people who live in unfortunate places are being killed because of stupid ass reasons

Fucking hell in America most people aren't free enough to take a month off work without becoming homeless

Decades of prejudice make people think women are weak and need defending but don't pay them well because... fuckin I don't know why!

It's pathetic that men get away with rape while women get away with false rape accusations usually destroying every relationship the man ever cared about

People look at others and treat them differently based on the color of their skin

YA KNOW HOW FUCKIN STUPID THAT IS?!

ITS DUMBER THAN PICKING ON SOMEONE WHO WORE A BLUE SHIRT PURELY BECAUSE OF THE SHIRT

What for?!

WHAT THE FUCK IS ALL THIS FOR?!

The privilege to go through 12 to 20 years of school to earn the right to have to work a job I'll probably hate until I'm like 60?!

Right now I'm pretty sure my life is gonna end before I reach 30!

What's the fuckin point?!

America for fucks sake

The land of the free

Yeah free to work or die because the 0.01% run the fucking nation like their playground

People wonder why I've responded to hostility with hostility in the last 3 years

Simple

I've bottled my emotions for so long the bottles are all full

Yelling and ranting always make me feel a little better

If anyone comments on this negatively I hope you die in a vat of boiling vinegar and drown in the yolks of rotten eggs

That goes for all the phobic people too

If you made it through this whole essay sized emotional breakdown and don't think I'm a complaining winey bitch

I can only say I wish the world was made of more people like you

Alright

Time for sleep

[eleni-cherie]

among thieves ✨ || bts • pjm

- chapter 1.1

"what even am I to you? your rival, your lover, an obstacle or am I supposed to be your coffin?"

about two thieves who can't live with nor without each other. and a joint past that comes back to threaten them.

© 2023 | eleni_cherie

»»»

masterlist: here

— genre: thief au, gangster comedy, adventure, romcom, humour, angst, fluff, very flirty jimin, friends/rivals/exes to lovers (it's complicated, ok?!) f2l e2l ex2l all members play a role in this story!

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. CHARACTERS NOT NECESSARILY LIKE THE REAL PERSONS. ALSO VERY UNREALISTIC PLOT LOL - JUST PRETEND READING A MANGA/COMIC OR WATCHING A FILM, REALLY.

SUGGESTIVE THEMES. MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD (BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, IT'S STILL A COMEDY!)

»»»

After breaking into the evidence storage and finding his gun, Jimin found the staircase leading upstairs to the main building. He ensured no one was close by while peeking through the door.

If he remembered correctly from the previous times he had been there, there should be a visitor's lavatory on ground level. And that close to the staircase.

However, he stopped in his tracks and pressed himself against the wall when hearing voices coming from a corridor further away, footsteps echoing on the linoleum ground shortly before dying down. He exhaled relieved and reached the lavatory. Already spotting the small window up high. Too high for normal people but not for him. It wasn't any porblem to climb up the stalls and bent enough to reach the small margin and open it. He could literally climb on anything like a monkey.

He crawled through it, the frame just wide enough for him to fit. And since it was ground level, it wasn't too difficult to jump down.

Unfortunately, none other than Agent Blake turned around the building's corner just in that moment. Stopping in her tracks when seeing Jimin. Both staring at each other bewildered.

"Park Jimin, you're under arr-"

Before she could even finish her sentence and draw out her gun, he had already rushed behind her. Holding her arms behind her back and spreading her legs with his, just in case she thought about kicking him where it hurt, making it impossible for her to move.

"Nah, nah, love," he smirked, making her scoff.

"I'm Agent Blake, for you."

"Say, Agent Blake, can't remember anyone else smelling so lovely like you. Is that parfume?"

Skylar's lips parted, that comment coming out of nowhere took her off-guard. "Wh-"

"Let me guess," Jimin chuckled then from behind, "You're into your little colleague, agent Jeon, right?"

She frowned about this random conclusion. "T-that'd be highly unprofessional," she defended herself, huffing loudly.

"Aw, c'mon, you can tell me.."

The woman pursed her lips, feeling her cheeks flushing. She breathed in deeply then. Gathering all her energy. "Agent in danger! Hel-!" Her mouth got quickly covered by one of his hands. "Shhh, don't be so mean," he whined, "You know you ain't in danger. Don't get me in trouble just because I'm exposing your crush on the little guy."

"He isn't a little guy," she mumbled against his hand, "He could beat your ass with no trouble."

Jimin laughed out at this, amused about him having hit a nerve. As always. Analysing people and finding out their weaknesses was part of the job after all. "Aw, sorry for offending your crush."

"He isn't my crush!"

He grinned, knowing she couldn't see him. "Whatever you say, love." Before she could retort anything else or attempt escaping, he pinched the spot between her neck and shoulder.

And Skylar instantly succumbed, her body subsiding in his arms. "She's heavier than she looks," he mumbled and carefully sat her down. Leaning her unconscious body against the wall.

He grabbed her phone out of her jacket then and started running to the parking lot. Breaking into one of the few cars when hearing sirens going off inside the building.

"Well, those were exactly ten minutes," he said, looking at his watch, "Punctual as always, pops. But I'm not dumb." He took the little tracker from the coat's pocket that Seokjin thought he hadn't noticed him placing there, crushing it with his heal and got inside. Hot-wiring the car to get the motor to jump start instantly.

He floored the gas pedal and left, rushing down the streets of Seoul to the direction of an old hideout. On the way, he planned to stop in an alley and leave the car, as the cops would easily find the car tag from security footage, and change into a different one.

While overtaking another car he took Skylar's phone out of the pocket and started scrolling through her contacts. Pressing on one of them. 

As the dial tone started ringing, he coughed. Preparing his voice while he waited for the other person to pick up.

"Hello? Skylar?"

"Jungkookie, please help me!" Jimin said panicked in Skylar's voice. Immitating her perfectly. Even adding a pleading tone, to make it more believable.

"S-Skylar? Where are you?"

"At the east side of the building. Please, hurry." And with that he hung up. Tossing the phone out of the window.

"Thank me later, love."

»»»

3 minutes earlier

"Is everything alright? How did this happen?"Jungkook was looking with worried eyes at his supervisor. "Did he fake the amnesia after all?"

Seokjin shook his head, rubbing his wrists that were finally freed from the handcuffs.

"Sir, I-"

"It's alright," Seokjin waved off the guard who had failed to notice Jimin. He brushed past him and headed upstairs, leaving the cellblocks.

"I don't think he faked the amnesia part," he answered Jungkook who was trailing behind him. "He said someone gave him a pill and messed with his mind, ordering him to eliminate Valentine."

"Makes sense.. he'd never do this on his own.." the younger agent mumbled, earning an arched brow from Seokjin. "I-I mean, for all we know it'd be quite atypical of him."

"True," the older guy nodded and headed to his desk.

"And did he say who it was? The one ordering him to eliminate Arabella?"

"He didn't say that."

Seokjin's short replies only rose more questions in Jungkook's head. And Seokjin could tell by the deep crease betweem Jungkook's brows. "But why do they want him to kill her?"

Pursing his lips, Seokjin had to suppress a chuckle. "Not sure. He only said she had been part of them."

Jungkook nodded, still not entirely satisfied. Rubbing his forehead, his eyes fell on the whiteboard next to their desks. "Who's 'owl inc'?"

Seokjin hummed, glancing up from the papers in front of him confused. "Never heard of it. Why?"

"Because someone wrote it here." Jungkook pointed with his finger on the bulletpoint on the bottom.

The older agent furrowed his brows, walking up to him. Jungkook's phone rang then and he excused himself as Seokjin bent down, to reread the notes on Jimin and his gang.

Arabella Valentine

-no known alias

-thief/spy

-age: unknown, ca. 25-30

-birthplace/nationality: unknown

-background: kidnapped at 5 by 'owl inc', past member

-associate to PJ his lover!

Someone had wiped out 'unknown' under background and had added new info. Alongside 'his lover' under associate. And Seokjin knew exactly who that someone had been.

But what or who was 'owl inc'? Were they the ones Jimin had been talking about?

He heard hurried footsteps coming closet then. "Sir, that was Agent Blake. It seems she's in trouble," Jungkook said flustered.

Seokjin frowned. "Okay, but be careful. Perhaps it wasn't the real Blake after all."

Jungkook's eyes widened, eventually understanding what he meant. It wouldn't be the first time Park Jimin perfectly immitated someone's voice, even a female one. So he nodded, promising to be careful before rushing out.

Seokjin watched him disappear behind the glass doors before focusing his attention back to the white board.

"Don?" he called out for one of the other few agents there. The man instantly perking up when hearing his name. "Call Jung Hoseok from the organised crime department tomorrow morning, I wanna ask him if he knows anything about this 'owl inc'." The agent nodded and noted it down, when Seokjin called out for him again. "And also get Kim Namjoon from special victims department here. We might need him, too."

In the meantime. Jungkook had exited the building and headed to its east side. Looking around frantically for any signs of his partner. His gun in his hand, just in case as he carefully roamed the area and turned around a corner.

Catching his breath when seeing an unconscious body against the wall. "Sky!"

Her head was bent towards one side, eyes closed.

He instantly put his gun back into its holster and rushed towards her, getting down on one knee beside her. She didn't seem to have any external injuries however that would explain her unconsciousness. He brushed some strands of hair away, trying taking her pulse by pressing two fingers on her arteria carotis. A long sigh of relief leaving his lips, when he could sense her pulse. Although a faint one. He knew he had to take her to the hospital immediately.

So he heaved her from the ground, holding her close as he walked her to his parked car.

"Hang in there a lil' bit more, Sky."

»»»

Havana, Cuba

Three knocks on the door. Silence. Another three followed.

"Yeah, yeah, coming," Taehyung yawned. Hair tousled and strands flying around as he cracked open the door. Seeing Jimin standing there with a wide smile. "Oh hey!"

Taehyung instantly reached for his gun, eyeing Jimin suspiciously. "Wowhoho," Jimin chuckled, shoving the gun away from his face, "Is this how you greet your best friend?"

"Obviously," Yoongi appeared behind Taehyung and brushed past him. Holding his sword in front of Jimin, just in case. "So you're back to normal now?"

"Yep, good old Jimin!" he grinned, pushing his fists against his waist and boasting out his chest proudly. Taehyung eyed him suspiciously up and down. He wanted to be entirely sure before eventually nodding, lowering his gun. Yoongi followed, slowly. Very slowly, allowing him to enter. 

"So you won't try killing us again?" Taehyung arched a brow with a lopsided smirk, making Jimin huff. "I've never tried killing you."

"True, it was Arabella you were after," Yoongi corrected nodding, taking a seat on the couch, "You only attacked us because we tried holding you back."

Jimin sighed at the faint memory. It seemed rather like the memory of a stranger by now than his own. He was only glad his friends had been sane enough to keep him from getting to Arabella. He had been right after all when he had told her back in Mexico that they might not like her but they wouldn't let anyone harm her either. "Speaking of Bella, where's she?" he asked then, facing the two with a questioning look as he couldn't spot her anywhere.

Taehyung frowned. "Didn't you call her?"

"I assumed she'd be with you guys.. Why? Where's she?"

"Last time we heard of her she was with some multi-millionaire on a greek island," Yoongi shrugged. Causing Jimin to let out a loud groan. "This woman.. I told her it's not safe on her own.." He shook his head, exhaling deeply. "And you guys just let her?"

"She's an adult," Taehyung rolled his eyes, plopping down next to Yoongi, "It's not like we could force her to stay."

He groaned again. Getting more and more frustrated. "You should have."

"Jimin, chill. You out of all people should knew how headstrong she is. And it's not like she isn't able defending herself."

Folding his arms, he pouted and sat down. He knew Taehyung was right but couldn't help worrying about her. These guys were still after her after all. Whether to get revenge for her leaving or to get revenge for him for not finishing the job and crossing their current mission. Besides, he was the only one who could protect her, not some stupid 'multi-millionaire'.

He scoffed internally at the thought of that. 

"What happened to you anyway, why were you after her?"

"It was these guys," Jimin mumbled. "They got me and I don't know.. brainwashed me? They gave me some mind control drug and conditioned me into only seeing her as a target. I had completely forgotten everything else. Partially even you guys. I mean, I knew you, but I had forgotten what you're to me. And I forgot what she is to me. The only thing on my mind was that 'I had to eliminate her'."

Yoongi scrunched his nose at his narration. "Sounds like you were their puppet."

"Kinda."

"And explains why you attacked us," he pointed out. "But you seem fine now. Are you fine?"

Jimin shrugged. "Guess so.. I got memory flashbacks in the cell pops locked me into. And eventually it all came back."

"About that.." Taehyung said awkwardly, rubbing his neck, "Sorry I set him on you. But it seemed the only save solution back then. You were out of your mind after all."

Jimin waved him off quickly, shaking his head. "Don't worry, I get it. And I had missed pops anyway," he chuckled then, "Poor guy looked so offended when I couldn't remember him anymore."

Maybe that was why he had given him those ten minutes to escape. He had looked quite happy when seeing Jimin had gained back his memory and remembered who Seokjin was.

They might be rivals, like cat and mouse, but they did have a mutual respect and sympathy for each other. And he was the only cop Jimin genuinely trusted.

"Alright, anyway," he exclaimed suddenly, clapping his hands enthusiastically. "New plan then! First we get Bella back, then we'll proceed with the original plan."

"The original plan?" Yoongi repeated, "You mean-"

"Yep. Following your idea and hopefully finding the treasure."

The older guy peeked at Taehyung who had been silently looking at his hands laying flat on his lap. Jimin frowned, eventually understanding. "Oh, look, Tae, if you prefer staying here with Cas, it's totally fine. I'd understand."

Taehyung pursed his lips, a troubled look on his face. Even if it had been only for merely two weeks, it had almost felt like the good old days. He always knew, however, that sooner or later he'd have to say goodbye to her again. Mentally preparing himself for that moment to come as it was lingering in the air from the beginning, ever since he let himself indulge and enter her life again. He was just glad it came later than expected. But still too soon.

"No, it's okay," he shook his head then and glanced at his friends. First at Jimin, then at Yoongi who was giving him a quiet glance of empathy. He had been there after all. He had seen him and Cassandra together and how happy he had been. "T-that's the life I've chosen after all. The only thing I'm good at," he smiled It was a sad one, they could tell. Sitting up straight then he forced his lips to grow wider. "And besides, I can't let you guys hanging. You'd be stranded without me. Well, at least you, Jimin. I know Yoongi can handle himself just fine."

Yoongi couldn't help but let out a small laugh at this as Jimin rolled his eyes.

"Fine. But don't use me as an excuse."

"I'm.. I'm not."

They grew quiet before Yoongi cleared his throat, changing topics. "When are we leaving?"

"I'll leave tomorrow to get Bella. You guys can follow later, in 2-3 days. Except if you already got other plans for these days." His glance wandered to Taehyung who shook his head quickly.

"N-no, that's fine." He stood up abrubtly and headed to the door. "2-3 days is enough to.. to bid her goodbye."

"Alright," Jimin nodded with a soft smile, "See you then."

Taehyung gave them a nod and left. 

Jimin facing Yoongi then with a grin. "Alright, how about we go ea-"

"Sorry, already got plans tonight."

His eyes widened. "What plans?"

Yoongi shrugged and just stared into nothing. And Jimin knew he didn't even need to try. He wouldn't get any info out of Yoongi. Not if he didn't want to.

"Hmph. I'm gonna look for food on my own then."

»»»

Taehyung knocked on Cassandra's door with a heavy heart. Unsure of how to break it to her that he was leaving her. Again.

Her reaction wasn't something that scared him. He knew how understanding she was. He knew how she respected his life. No, her possible reaction wasn't scaring him. Rather tearing him apart. Because even if she was more understanding than he deserved, she had never been good in hiding her feelings. Her pain. Her big brown eyes always giving her away, as much as she tried hiding it.

So when Cassandra opened the door, seeing him standing there slouching and with a troubled expression, her wide smile instantly dropped. And before his lips could even part, she sighed. Giving him a sad smile. "You've got to leave, right?"

He simply nodded, unable to utter a word.

"When?"

"In three days."

She inhaled deeply. A stern expression spreading on her features then and she stood straight. "Don't you dare disappear on me again. Got it?"

Taehyung's lips fell agape and blinked, taken aback. "Cas, you know it's better wh-"

"-when you just dip and disappear like I've never mattered to you?"

He pressed his lips together, an equally serious look in his eyes. "You know I don't wanna drag you into the mass that's my life."

"Not this again, Tae," she groaned, her voice breaking despite her trying sounding stern and upset, "You know I don't mind it." She took a step forward then, placing her hand on his cheek. Caressing his warm skin with her thumb as a smirk tucked on her lips. "You know how cool I find my super hot master thief boyfriend."

He couldn't help but laugh at this. Even now she managed making him laugh. Her hand dropped down to his. Intertwining their fingers.

"Jimin's the master thief, I'm just the gunman."

"That's even hotter."

He shook his head amused, chuckling at her nonsense. "Doesn't that go against everything you stand for though? You save people's life while I-"

"I know you well enough," she interrupted him with a frown, tugging lightly at his hand, "I know you'd never intentionally hurt anyone and only shoot if necessary, to defend yourself and others."

He remained silent, staring at her in awe.

He honestly didn't believe he deserved Cassandra. She was too good of a person for a jackass like him. She deserved better. And yet, there she was, always sticking with him. Despite him hurting her over and over again in the attempt of protecting her.

"So?" Cassandra arched a brow at him. "Promise you'll come back after the job's finished? Otherwise I'll hunt you down myself. I might not have all you guys' skills but I will track you down on my own if you dare vanishing into thin air again. You hear me, cool guy?"

A smile appeared on his lips and he nodded. Squeazing her hand before pulling her into his arms and embracing her tightly. "You make it hard for me to protect you, but yes, I promise, angel."

»»»

next chapter: 1.2 here

[humanpurposes]

Okay, INDULGE ME! Is there a literary quote for KIAG that in your opinion would describe the fic so far? Do you have a photo that'd fit the It Will Come Back AU aesthetic you'd be willing to share? AND if you were to make a playlist for August what songs would you include in it? I've been thinking about these three fics lately and need to be fed yk 🫣 Love you Gee, thanks for writing and giving us such well-written and addicting fics 😘

Hi baby 🥹 These asks are amazing, thank YOU for being awesome <3

Ok, Karma is a God. I love the quote from Wuthering Heights,

“You said I killed you-haunt me, then! [...] Be with me always-take any form-drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!”

It’s so perfect to me because that is soooo Aemond wallowing in guilt in Harrenhal!! Lucerra herself embodies so much to Aemond, she’s the one he lost his eye to, the reason why he dedicated himself to being perfect. Then he ‘kills’ her and her supposed death completely unravels him. The fact that she’s alive means he has a chance at redemption, either dying at her hands and allowing her that justice, or to be forgiven by her. He hates her but he’s incomplete without her.

rest under the cut because this is gonna get too long 😭

IT WILL COME BACK 🖤 Asking me to pick just one image is insane, but I was scrolling through my Pinterest board and I remembered there’s one picture that appears in all the headers for the chapters, The Rape of Proserpina:

It's a horrific image right? This young woman is being taken from her home and her family by the god of the underworld. I think it spoke to me for this fic as an expression of Aemond's possessiveness. His love for Jaya is tied to the idea that he can control her and influence her. In his mind, it is other people that separate them. The animosity between Rhaenyra and Alicent bleeding into their children, the competition between the factions of Dragon Bank, the fact that she defended Jace over Aemond. He wants a hold over her like no one else has. Aesthetically as well, I love the look of marble statues, I love how immersive and expressive they can be. And they have a sense of grandeur and ancientness (is that even a word?) which means they look perfect in a fic header or a moodboard hehe.

Can you believe I don’t have a playlist for August?? If I did, the first song would be Slowly by Susanne Sundfør. The working title for this fic was ‘I Know You’re Lonely Too’ which is a lyric from this song. There are so many lines I love in this but the chorus just really encapsulates the vibe I wanted for this,

“And you say it’s gonna last forever // We have different heartbeats // But all the same heartbreak // And I can feel it in the way you hold me… I know you’re lonely too.”

To me, this song feels like yearning and wanting to live in the moment even as you feel it slipping away.

Some other songs I would include would be:

Summer's Over by Jordana and TV Girl

Linger by The Cranberries (+ the remix by Iain Cook)

To Wish Impossible Things by the Cure

It's Not Living (If It's Not With You) by the 1975

Supernatural by Ariana Grande

August by Taylor Swift

[considermygenderminecrafted]

Tbf I only check tags for fanart so I've only seen that type of take secondhand but. There Is Interesting things to tallulah n q!wil's dynamic like how he was all ohhhh if bad things happen I'll be around to protect her and how that'd interface with the actual dangers of the qsmp or what have u. Shrugs. Who's to say rlly.

(this reply is not really about wilbur nd phil its more just me talkin about philza :]) i found it really funny how Phil was goin on an adventure with tallulah and goin round teachin her about the things that are safe nd the things that aren't safe, nd how to use a sword and such to defend herself etc. and how after every other things he'd be like 'make sure you tell your dad this as well because he'd gonna go "oh look at that cave lets go in" and you've gotta make sure he knows that's dangerous' Like idk, love wil but im NOT confident he'd genuinely be able to protect her from the actual dangers of the world. Like, Phil dunt trust himself to do that, it's why he teaches them how to defend themselves.

Like sure. One way to remain safe is to never go outside and just only be in the worlds securest bunker where you da is witchu nd he takes care of it all, but that's a pretty abstinence only way to go about it, and if you don't wanna go that route, then you need to know how to remain safe and defend yourself. I was always taught how to stay safe on public transport and navigate a city and some basic self defense nd you know what, i don't feel like i was raised a warrior, i feel like i was raised to ensure safety in the environment I frequented. Idk no hate to qWil at this point cause idrc but i do love to talk about Phil characters and I really enjoy watch qPhil w/ his wee'uns :] His adventure was really cool

[cheemken]

Ok so you know Encanto? It was real popular in 2021. Well if you don’t know the whole idea is that this one family gets “gifts” or powers when they turn five. The gifts in order are,

Healing

Weather Control

Future vision

Plant Manipulation

Super Hearing

Super Strength

Shapeshifting

Zoolinguists

So there’s 8 gifts in the movie, and 8 champions

I think you know where I’m going with this

But I just thought to myself, the Champions are technically the protectors of their regions. But their only defences are their Pokémon

So what if Arceus saw humans appoint certain humans the title of “Champion”, saw these certain humans protected the weaker humans, and decided they needed something else to help protect the humans on earth, and decided to gift them powers

And no, this isn’t going towards a super hero AU. It’s heading towards a god AU

But yeah, Arceus decided these humans needed more than Pokémon to defend themselves and others, and gifted them powers

And when I said this is turning into a god AU, I didn’t mean the champions consider themselves gods, but the people of their regions do. At the very least Demigods

Because in their eyes, their Champions got blessed by Arceus, the god of all life in the universe and he who knows best

Really this is just the champions expectations, but 10x worse cause now they’re looked at like gods

(Also I don’t know if this has gone on for centuries, and every new champion gets a new power while the previous champion loses theirs. Or if the present champions are the first ones to receive gifts, you can decide which one you like more)

Oh and while they are powers, they can still be referred to as gifts in this AU because Arceus gifted the Champions with them

ENCANTO, DUDE, THE WAY I CRIED OVER THAT MOVIE man I just bcnxbxnxn dude the way it came to my house and broke my fucking heart giving me false hope of an apology from my grandmother but she didn't but I shouldn't speak abt that bc I'd be trauma dumping on an au lmfaooo

Anyways

HCMXHDJD YES DEMIGODS CHAMPIONS CHNXBC

It would be dope tho if like, the champions before them got the gifts too, but was then passed down to the next cause I have Diantha angst with the former champion bc she thinks she couldn't live up to his legacy even worse now bc she has powers and he was such a great champion they have a statue of him as Kalos' greatest champion and protector and she's like spiralling if she could really live up to the legacy he left behind

Anyways

Ough,,,,,, pls,,, that's so fuckin dope cnxnnd how it's really Arceus that gives the champions their gifts, but also should we still base the gifts off the movie?? I'm like thinking abt it but like feel free to also share yours on who'd get this gift and such but for me it's gonna be like this

Lance w super strength

Steven w plant manipulation

Wallace w weather control

Cynthia w future vision

Diantha w shapeshifting

Hau w zoolinguist

Leon w healing

Geeta w super hearing

Imagine if Iris is like Mirabel tho, she didn't get a gift from Arceus for whatever reason, and people kinda look down on her bc ofc she's a champion without a gift, could she truly protect the region w just her pkmn? And throughout it all she's trying to prove herself competent despite her lack of gift

But also it would be so so cool and it's so self indulgent bc I think Iris deserves dope things, that she does have a gift, it was still untapped, but she does have it, she has Arceus' powers herself maybe, that'd be cool, but ofc she doesn't know yet bc it's not as clear and prominent as the rest, so as she grew older, still trying to prove herself to everyone, she's desperately praying to Arceus to at least give her a gift too, she was a strong and competent champion, so why doesn't she have one

But ough she does she fucking does, Arceus took one good look at her and decided she's the one to truly inherit his power to protect the world, the way she could really help the other Champions with their power as well, the way she could give others gifts as well, the way she could do all the things Arceus could do, but she never realized it just yet

No cause there are nine champions so there should be one who doesn't have a gift hahah and me being me gave Iris the main charac card once again hahahah

But don't you think that'd be dope?? Idk it's dope for me that Iris could really use the move Judgement, but it's also cool to see her bond with the other Champions learning abt their gifts too, and then being the one to help them open up about their gifts

BUT ALSO PLEASE CYNTHIA W FUTURE VISION HER BEING THE BRUNO OF THE AU JDMCBDK

We don't talk about Cynthia😭😭

Lmfaooooo Wallace singing that, "we don't talk about Cynthia here, Iris" proceeds to talk about Cynthia

Man that's fucked up tho imagine since all the champions are already burdened by their gifts, and Cynthia sees it all, sees how it'll end for them if they can't handle the pressure anymore, sees that Iris won't get a power, and she doesn't wanna let her down, doesn't want Iris to feel like shit, so when she told the other Champions abt it, they didn't want to believe her, no, the pressure was already too much before they got their gifts, what more a champion without one? Cynthia felt like shit, she doesn't want to tell Iris about it, she couldn't handle the disappointment, the hurt, everything; so she ran away, hid herself from both her league and the rest of the champions

And since Arceus gave his powers to Iris (tho I wanna say he gave Hau his gift first before finally giving Iris everything he has), he couldn't give another person Cynthia's gift, also it's the fact no one's taken her title yet, she doesn't want anyone to take the champion title, she doesn't want anyone to go through the same shit she went through both before and after getting the gift

Ough shit this is making me go through it again lmfaoooo Lance w Surface Pressure HXKXXMXFJXBXK SHET

Or like Geeta w that Dolores fan song Turn It Down, please PLEASE DO YOU SEE MY VISION the line "I always listen, but never act" DO YOU SEE IT PLS she's like chdmdb she hears everything, hears every whisper, ever rumour, ever hateful comment about her and her fellow champions, but she doesn't do anything abt it. Arceus gave them these powers to help the people, but it's so hard to protect the people who doesn't even like her and will give her fake smiles and compliments when she does her duties to the point she became so fucking passive and would only act when someone tells her to

Omf okay I'm rambling this is dope I'm gonna fucking combust this is exciting chdmdb hahaha

[cantdanceflynn]

So, hc number one, kinda nice, bit sad, mostly funny. I think. And I have no evidence for this, kinda the opposite, the vibes just feel right to me. But I think ponty was somehow involved w George's death, and he also tried to speak up about it like Marie, who I don't think knew he did. Possibly another member of the party who tried to talk them out of the whistling man game. I don't think Marie knew this while she was planning everything originally, but she found out when making adjustments to the plan, ie kill Eugene instead of his parents, and, not wanting to admit that everything she worked for was based off an incorrect assumption and as far as she knew, ruining her chance at a normal life with her son, just attempted to ig ignore it. But also good for Ponty for channelling that into a passion. He probably caters anything Roller Ricky plans :]

Hc number two, Peggy straightened her hair a lot when she was younger. That'd explain the discrepancy between the pictures n her model a bit, and it'd make sense overall. Ik there are official ages n heights for some of the characters but I don't remember if there are official ethnicities, but personally I feel like she's biracial, specifically African-American and Latino. And by extension so is Marie.

Hc number three, depending on who asks her, Marie has different reasons for choosing the name Dawn to go by. When the cops asked her, she brushed it off as a random name. When Teddy asked, she told him it was to symbolize the dawn of a new day without his life in it. When Forrest asked, she bitterly told him it was because she wanted the hope of a new beginning for her once her revenge was complete. And when Peggy asked, Marie made an off handed reference to an old tv show they used to watch.

Hc number four, (one of the more obviously Alice n Mystery inspired ones), Henry is actually better at cooking and taking care of things than Marie is, usually taking care of the meals and making sure she ate and took care of herself as she obsessed and planned.

Hc number five, Peggy ended up playing the whistling man prank on Chad after the fact for breaking up w Barbara. Partially bc she wanted to play just once n get anything out of her newfound trauma, n partially bc jealousy.

Hc number six, Clive wasn't killed yet. He was meant to be the final murder before Teddy, to symbolize how the one who started the cover-up would also be the one to end it, but due to so many people surviving she didn't have the time to go through with it, and planned to kill him later.

Hc number seven, Marie was actually pretty mad at Henry when he got trapped in the vault, as she thought she taught him better than that. Still, when she immediately failed the next kill, she couldn't really blame him.

Hc number eight, Forrest dyes his hair to hide the greying. After the events of KillFreq itself, he chooses to stop, mostly because it was ruining his hair and he had enough stress caused ones it wasn't reasonable.

Hc number nine, Eugene wasn't fully stood up, his date tried to tell him to stay in but he didn't listen and thought she would do the same. She chewed him out later dvjodvjodcojdcjdc.

Hc number ten, out of the group of teens, as Carrie was the only one to get a close-up of Jimmy's cut off face, she ended up going into the horror movie industry, in sort of a macabre way to deal with the trauma.

Hc number eleven, Max is actually a husky golden retriever mix. Arguably the two best dog breeds to teach to skate. He'd also bitten people before and Ricky has had to put a lot on the line to defend him and get him well trained due to trauma from a previous owner, but he ended up very happy w Ricky :]

Hc number twelve, Marie and Peggy shared a soft spot for foxes and would draw them a lot. This is just vibes :]

Hc number thirteen, assuming Marie's alive(which, duhhhhh its slasher horror), Forrest actually talks to her and is, surprisingly, quite sympathetic to her after the fact, and while Peggy doesn't quite enjoy spending time with her as much anymore, it still hurts.

@dragon-type-snom THIS ISNT ALL OF EM AND I TYPED EM IN A SEPARATE APP SO THATS WHY ITS NOT ALL CAPS, I HAVE SM MORE IM JUST BOUT TO NAP N I DONT WANNA LEAVE U HANGING FOR LONGER

[astarab1aze]

➥ Drabble 1 / ?? - @gyofukuki

There were plenty of occasions, since their journey began, that Crovita had wondered if she'd made the right decision; This wasn't to say Geralt had been too rough around all his little edges, or that Asuka had been unhelpful and loud - although, both were, perhaps, a little true; Rather, her mind was elsewhere entirely, focusing too hard on the secrets she was keeping, sacrificing honesty for haste. She hadn't exactly been forthright with the hows and whys, hadn't exactly relayed what she'd been running from, offering too little for Geralt or Asuka to go on. All either of them knew was, simply, that they had to go, and keep moving. Don't look back, no matter what should happen, with or without her.

The Askarri Shades were disbanded in the aftermath of her choice, free, then, to go their own ways before the revolutionaries could claim them. In her heart of hearts, the uncertainty that any at all had survived the swarm of pitchforks and sickles, the hangman's noose and the headman's axe, or the influence of Myrrdinian hatred toward mages and all things non-human- It settled in like a poison most vile, riddling her heartstrings with guilty rot not even the freshest and most effective of antidotes could cure. So many lives in her hands, and she let them go to save herself. Slit the Azzar's throat on the night the revolutionaries raided the royal palace - she wouldn't deign to call them by their chosen name; idiots and betrayers, all of them - and incurred the wrath of the surviving nobles, ending an era with her own two hands and watching as Sekora burned, blood running in her streets. So many innocent people, too, caught well in the mix, people she loved, defended, protected from the Azzar - people she had to abandon, lest she be killed before she could get to Zuri, retrieve Asuka, and leave for... someplace safer, someplace else.

When next they made camp for the night, she resolved herself to tell them both a bit more of the truth, instead of the paltry breadcrumbs she'd offered in the beginning... Geralt had to have known of the violence that'd broken out in Askarra, though perhaps not the extent of it or why it was happening in the first place, her involvement in it, choices she'd made, lives she'd ended through both action and inaction. Maybe he wanted to know, maybe he didn't, but even so, she didn't see a way out of this that didn't require some level of deeper honesty. If he didn't know exactly what could be trailing after them, how could he do his job effectively? How could he protect Asuka, himself? Even if he knew the risks, prepared for everything because he didn't know, it didn't sit right with her that she'd more or less lied by omission to him, counting on his help regardless of the truth.

Oh, how desperate she'd been, too, obfuscating it all in her frightened haste.

She thought about it for a long time, only half-paying attention to the roll of Tali's spine as he canted behind Asuka and Geralt's Roach. Poor thing was getting antsy, bobbing and shaking his scaly black head, all in response to the aches and pains Crovita had been feeling. Celare always were sensitive to their riders' emotions, not knowing what they meant but feeling them anyway.

"Mister Geralt, s'there any way we can take a break?" Asuka chirped, quieting with a firm hush, all those wild feathers ruffled. "Everythin' hurts. I'm not used to this like you an' mother... I'd rather use me own two legs."

Crovita tilted her head at that, then shook it, piping up before the witcher had a chance.

"Stay on the horse for now, Asuka," she said, soft authority leaking into her voice. "We'll find a suitable enough place to camp before sunset."

"But, mother--" They threw their head over their shoulder, momentarily unwinding their arms from around Geralt's middle to settle a hand on Roach's backside. There was a look in their eye, a furrow to their brow, and it only made matters worse for Crovita. "It hurts. I can't take all this constant bouncing."

"Patience, dear... Patience. Hold out just a while longer." Unless you'd rather ride Tali, but you know as well as I you'd hate that even more.

With a grumbling huff, Asuka turned forward again and was silent for the next three hours of riding, until the sun had dipped some below the horizon, casting long, orange shadows across the Scarburran hills. In the morning, they would make it to the Chimerian border and, if they were lucky, perhaps they wouldn't have to travel through the pseudocilium forest. Luck, however, was a quality most in Sunjatta were bereft, and though she'd exerted utmost care in charting their path up to this point, she'd no confidence such would lend them even a moment's peace. The closer they got to the border, the higher their chances of running into Wildlings and Myhala both; Not all of Scarburn had been reclaimed, as yet still subject to the hordes of violent, feral men and nameless, hideous creatures pouring out of the Myhalan Deep. Luck had served them well till now, but it would run out before long and no amount of careful planning or navigation would save them from the obstacles to come.

Still, it didn't much matter now. They were safe enough for the time being, enough to take a break, eat, stretch their legs, relieve themselves, feed and water both Tali and Roach, and decide what to do from there. There hadn't been any fresh signs of Wildlings or Myhala, only tracks a few days old, muddied by coastal rain turned inland, campsites all but trampled and picked clean by wildlife in the nights following. Both a good and bad sign, as there was no guarantee there wouldn't be any monsters, beasts, or Wildlings lurking somewhere else in the hills - but there certainly weren't any nearby at the moment.

As Crovita dismounted, slipping free of Tali's saddle and ignoring the puddle of mud she'd landed in, she heaved a sigh. There'd been evidence of some sort of struggle here, coagulated blood in what few footprints remained, and the scents still clinging to the grass and soil by threads had gone off in multiple directions then faded abruptly, washed away by the rain. Some weapons left behind, an odd collection of broken swords, chipped daggers, and dented hammers; The Wildlings that camped here before must've been attacked by Myhala, forcing them to flea into the hills. Odd, then, that they hadn't seen any, unless they'd been eaten. Which...inspired far less confidence than she'd been able to maintain as it was.

In spite of the ache between her thighs, tendons and ligaments all aflame with the day's ride, she wordlessly handed off Tali's reins to Asuka and made her way to Geralt's side, tending to Roach and adjusting his saddle. She touched his arm to get his attention, and he momentarily gave pause if only to glance at her; There was a...certain knowing in his eyes, a knowing that they couldn't stay there for the night, that something or someone awaited them in the hills.

"Geralt," she addressed him, "not here. Only long enough to do what we have to, no more."

"Myhala, Wildings, in the hills. Can't stay anyway."

"Should we circle back, make for Braemare northwest of here? May be wise to spend the night in the city."

"Too close to the border, overpopulated by Myrrdinian soldiers and hunters. Wouldn't be safe for either of you." He tightened the straps of his saddle, but not so as to harm to Roach - she would have to give her a few carrots for her patience, when Geralt wasn't looking. "Told you I'd defend you; Taking you back to Braemare would be doing the opposite."

There's nothing saying the Askarri we're running from won't be there either...

"What are we to do, then? If we can't stay here and we can't go back, we should press on, skirt 'round the pseudocilium and make camp once we cross the border. If we can find the Lightguards' tower, we may yet seek shelter there."

"No, too risky and too far. Those towers were built in the Second Era at entrances to the Deep, crumbling, infested ruins by now." A thoughtful pause, and cat-like gaze pulled away from her a moment. Likewise, she drew her arm away and instead crossed both over her chest, thinking over the steadily narrowing options they had left to herself.

"Aren't there old smuggler's paths 'round here? Didn't Vago have some of the witchers carve them out in the same era? We could take one of them... Hmm," came a surprising suggestion, and Crovita had to turn some, cock her head over her shoulder at Asuka, who'd been prodding at their chin as if thinking aloud, not meaning to interrupt. That wasn't a bad idea, likely brought on by their study of history at the university. "Not sure if they're overrun yet. Could be. Maybe not, though. Maybe mother and Geralt know 'bout them already..."

Silly thing, eavesdropping while Tali lipped at their hair.

"That's not a half-bad idea. Geralt," and she turned once more to face him, but he had moved elsewhere, now removing the bit from Roach's mouth, "are the old smuggling routes still operational, still in use?"

"Some of them, others are overrun - hard to tell which. If Myhala came out this way, there's a risk none of the routes here are any safer to travel." Then, gruffly, as he briefly rubbed at Roach's snout, "Most of them are underground, likely to be overrun. Myhala nest in the tunnels."

She shouldn't have been surprised, yet she was, though out of frustration. Were they being too careful at the start of their journey, or not careful enough? Running out of options already and it'd only been a week's worth of travel, at least since they arrived in Scarburn; They couldn't take Roach or Tali through the underground routes, and if those same routes were overrun as Geralt seemed to suspect, then he was right and they wouldn't have been able to take them anyway, not unless they found one above-ground, untouched by Wildlings or Myhala. The likelihood of that was far too small for comfort, yet perhaps still worth a try - anything to avoid the fuckery in the pseudocilium forest, where too much lurked beneath mushroom caps and the hallucinogenic spores may as well have been snow.

After a few moments longer, she peeled herself away from Roach and Geralt, slinking back to Tali if only to tend to him much the same. Gently pulling the bit from his mouth and taking the reins from Asuka, slinging them over her shoulder long enough for her to scratch his chin and fish a strip of dried venison from her saddlebags with which to feed him. It wouldn't be enough to satisfy him, but unfastening the saddle and letting him hunt wasn't an option either. This would have to suffice, at least until they found a suitable place to camp for the night.

"I'm sorry, Tali. Later, I promise," she whispered, rubbing the celare's ashen nose.

"Mother, what are we going to do?" Asuka asked, at once huddling closer to her, talons sploshing in the mud puddles. "I'm so tired of pissin' outside--"

"Asuka," Crovita warned.

"Sorry, sorry, just- It's gross out here, an' what if we're bein' watched? Those Wildling barbarians - I don't want to be seen by them."

"Sweetheart, I understand you're not used to life on the road, but there are some things you're going to have to get used to. There are no toilets for miles, so, regrettably, this is one of those things." She tried her best to be sensitive to Asuka's unfamiliarity with the wilds, but now wasn't the time to be picky or display their inability to cope without the comforts of city life. "Do you need to go now, or can it wait a while?"

"I don't need to go at all, but that's not the point."

"Then stop complaining."

She could feel those golden eyes burning holes into the side of her head, but she paid them no mind, running her fingers over the patch of gray scales looping around Tali's neck.

"I bet Geralt gets it," Asuka muttered bitterly, crossing their arms over their chest.

"I don't think he much minds either way, dear - and don't bother him about it, please. He's neither the time nor, I'm sure, the patience to worry whether you can handle existing outdoors, and I'm not sure I do either."

At last, she stepped away, rifling through her saddlebags again for her waterskin and bowl, pouring in just enough to keep Tali going for a while longer - that was to say, the rest. She could wait until they came upon a stream to refill it, and there were enough between where they were and the border for it not to matter much besides. Handing the bowl to a pouting Asuka, waterskin in hand, she ruffled their hair and leaned forward to press a kiss to their forehead.

"Eat something, won't you? Venison and apples in my saddlebags. Geralt and I will figure out what to do from here," and she left them standing beside Tali a second time, her eyes shifting over to the witcher now crouched above a particularly deep four-toed print in the mud, gloved hand plucking free a scrap handful of scales.

He didn't utter a single word, and he didn't have to. Four toes and scales meant the Wildlings had celare themselves, be it one or many; Leastways, it couldn't have meant a pack of them happened to pass through the ruined camp, but it did mean their riders may well have escaped the Myhala that attacked them. Geralt ought to know more, if only by virtue of his senses; A witcher's abilities were comparable, perhaps better, than a harpy's, natural or not.

"Which direction did they run off in?" she asked lowly, the slightest tweak of... something to her expression.

"Northwest, to cut the Myhala off at the river," he said. "Some were injured, wouldn't have made it far. Myhala likely caught up to them before they could cross."

Ah, so returning to Braemare is dangerous for another reason.

"...And the path ahead?"

"May have to follow the border north to avoid Myhala. Less of a risk, after the March. Going south will take us into Luvia; Not sure that's wise."

"Mmm. Finally ordered their borders closed, haven't they?" she hummed, dropping to a crouch beside him, hands clasped betwixt her knees. "They can't afford to have Wildings, Myhala, and Myrrdin encroaching upon them at the same time. Only just recently reclaimed some parts of the Stormwilds, they don't have enough resources to keep up a fight."

He grunted and offered little else, more focused on weighing the risks versus rewards of whatever route he decided to take them down - or so she assumed. It was at this point she had to make the choice to trust his judgment alone; He knew best how to navigate the nations east of Zuri, where she simply did not. It'd been well over twenty years since she'd had to herself, and much had changed since then, much he'd be more familiar with.

It made her sick to her stomach. Not to trust him, but to trust at all, to hinge so much of her and Asuka's survival on the expertise of a single man. Maddening, uncomfortable, all amix with the guilt of not quite telling him the truth. On top of everything, there was the Askarri to consider, too. If they followed the borders north, there was a chance they'd run into Shades not yet returned from their annual journey to the Black Eyrie, and she'd not a doubt in her mind someone had sent a Crimson-Talon raven their way to inform them of the hells breaking out in Askarra.

Sooner, rather than later, she would have to tell him everything and, somehow, that terrified her more than the sparest chance they might cross the Shades' path. Perhaps irrationally so. She hoped he'd forgive her for it, in the way a professional ought to, but she wouldn't hold her breath, contingencies already forming in her mind in the off-chance he decided to wash his hands of them.

"Geralt, I-" She looked at him then, not bothering to hide the concern crawling across her face. "There's something I must tell you, when next we make camp. I'll trust you to guide us forward, until then, but I'm afraid it cannot wait much longer after. It's important, vitally so. My only hope is you - forgive my dishonesty, and continue to travel with us. I won't begrudge your decision not to, should that be your choice... We need you more than you need us, after all."