#but after my sister tried to say something about the fucking WAR CRIMES and all I've heard my dad say in return was

[jewishcissiekj]

Throwing up whenever any of my teachers say anything about Israel

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

The Problem With The Southern Raiders

Brynn_Sasha191 asked: And what do you have to say about TSR episode as a whole? And how ZK shippers constantly refer and think of it as 'the Zutara episode'.

***

The episode itself is alright. Katara and Zuko looked cool as hell in their ninja outfits, sneaking around and being menaces. The scene of Katara choosing to bloodbend (and her horror after) were shocking. The moral of the episode ("Unnecessary violence is never the answer, BUT that doesn't mean people who wronged you are entitled to your forgiveness") is pretty good. Zuko looked like he gained some genuine understanding for Katara's situation, as well as respect for her mom, when he was told about how Kya's death happened. Plus the Sukka bit, and Zuko's reaction to it, was one of the funniest moments in the show.

The only thing that REALLY bothers me about it how it is the ONE time the show tried to sweep Zuko's mistakes under the rug. Katara was not mad at him because she was wrongfully "projecting" her grief over her mom, and her anger at the killer, on poor, innocent Zuzu.

She was mad because this entitled prince that had threatened the people of her village, tried to use her mom's necklace to blackmail her and then threatened to burn it, had been chasing her group all around the world, endangering them several times, to kidnap her best friend managed to convince her for five minutes that maybe there was some humanity to him - and then immediately helped his sister essentially win the war for the Fire Nation, and killing Aang. Then after Katara saved him, the same goddamn prince sent an assassin after them.

It doesn't matter that he was never fully evil, that he had understandable reasons to do what he did, that truly changed sides, and that he doesn't intend to ever do something like that again. Katara does NOT have to forgive him, and she sure as hell does not owe him her friendship, and it's not cool how the episode keeps allowing Zuko to act all entitled, without ever calling him out for it - and worse, activelly saying KATARA is the one in the wrong.

Plus, it's kinda fucked up that it's never acknowledged how Zuko, the guy who was disfigured and banished for wanting the soldiers of the Fire Nation to be treated fairly and with any humanity, and saw harming them for daring to OBEY ORDERS as an absolute betrayal, was willing to kill one of these guys for the crime of... following the Fire Lord's orders - which Zuko had also been doing mere WEEKS before.

Don't get me wrong, I can understand Katara being out for blood and not giving a shit about "well, if he didn't obey, he'd be traitor" when what he did traumatized her for life and made her grow up without her mom, but Zuko just seemed a bit hypocritical, and like he was betraying his beliefs there. It just doesn't make sense in my head that he wouldn't be thinking "What that guy did was fucked up, but I nearly got all of my current allies killed just a month ago because they were still enemies and it'd make sure my dad would not disfigure/banish me again or even kill me, it'd not be right of me to act like I can judge this guy"

But this one doesn't bother me as much since the whole point of that episode was for Zuko to unlearn all the awful "lessons" his father taught him by fully normalizing violence to him - and considering the finale showed us he was feeling sorry for Azula (hell, he was already giving off Concerned Big Brother vibes on the opening scene of TSR)  and was willing to spare even Ozai, I think it's safe to say he will never make that kind of mistake again (the comics are not canon, I don't care what anyone says).

So yeah, it's a deeply flawed, but entertaining episode that MOSTLY works - but it's NOT the "zutara" episode, not just because there's no romance there, but also because, if anything, 99% of it just shows how these two have the potential to bring out the absolute worst in each other, and that, at least until he genuinely started bonding with her during their mission) Zuko had no problem with playing the victim whenever Katara dared to be mad at him for doing horrible things that hurt her, the people she cared about, and innocents in general.

Thank God they grew as people AND have other friends that can pull them out of destructive spirals.

[aishu-no-melody]

Can you please talk about Roy Mustang for me? I'd love to hear your interpretation of him? What do you think of him in 03 vs brotherhood/manga?

Ok grab a snack lol.

So to preface I have to say that I don't like Brotherhood in general and my opinions on that play a part in my opinion of Roy. He's my absolute favorite character like I have a VHS tape from like 2005 where I took my sister's VCDs and literally took up half the tape of a Roy montage lol. But these are my opinions and why I think he has the superir portrayl in 03.

Keep in mind though I have seen Brotherhood once, havent read the manga in years, but ive seen 03 and COS SO SO SO many times.

So I feel like the overall theme of Brotherhood is "military and armestris good. Ishvalain immigrants bad." And the military in 03 is painted so much differently. It's more realistic and they drive home the point that the military fucked up and show us that Roy really has not been a great person. I mean in 03 we see him try to kill himself twice over the fact that he's killed so many people and especially he's haunted by the innocent children. When he kills Winrys parents he realzies hes become so absolutely immoral and rotten that he has killed his own people and gets turnt and tries to take his own life. He's shady, there's that scene where he threatens to blackmail child Edward/expose him and Al (it's early in the season but I can't quite remember what for) yet he tries to shelter them from how harsh reality is. He thinks by becoming Furher everything will be okay now, he will be forgiven, and the country will be better. Long story short he has his own agenda that sounds great on paper but in reality, at least in the first like half of the series, is impossible.

The growth of his character in 03 is huge and they kind of stealthily plant the seeds early on. He's no longer gunning for the position of Furher because of his own selfish reasons, he's actively seeking revenge for Hughes which makes him start to unravel.

Obviously the character of Pride/Bradley deviates from the source in 03. Actually all the homonculous and their personal foes are directly related to the people they're fighting. Edward/Sloth etc. The whole relationship of Bradley and Roy and also the characterization of Bradley as Pride is very deliberate - Roy fights Bradley and is severely wounded/almost dies fighting Pride. The entire series Roy has so much pride and so much of an ego that it's destroying him. He is literally forced to face his own deadly sin and to kill his own ego.

Ultimately he kills Bradley but in doing so his life unravels and he does not get to be the hero, the savior, the one that fixes everything which his pride previously convinced him he was capable of doing. In COS we find him isolated, depressed and a shell of his former self, waiting for Edward to return, crippled and alone. Even by the end when he saves the day in the fancy little air balloon, he still cannot protect Edward and looses him forever. He looses absolutely everything and the director of COS even said in some kind of interview or something that after the movie Roy still would never hold the same power he once did and have that same respect. So at the end of the day - he has thrown everything he's ever had away for good because of his pride. He has no happy ending. He redeems himself to the viewer (unless you're me and the second you first see him go 😍 zaddy I can fix him) but by then he is too far gone - he is both an awful person and a martyr. We know his heart ultimately is in the right place by the end but his war crimes and atrocities still exist and his failure is still very evident. If you've never seen it, look up the 10 of Swords tarot card - while I'm pretty sure they did not purposely do it, the meaning of the card and ESPECIALLY the imagery of the original card is so so accurate and I think the best summary of his character. Look up Labyrnthos or something like that their summary of it is the best.

So I feel like in 03 he has far more depth and his character arc is so, so, much richer.

To discuss this I also have to get into his relationship with the Elric brothers, mainly Edward. He and Edward are parallels of each other - both of them are arrogant and oblivious and in trivial pursuit of righting their wrongs, when in reality there is nothing they can do to rectify either situation or take back the damage they've done. Roy obviously does care for the Elric brothers but does not know how to show it properly and ends up hurting them more than helping them, he basically put them into a world that destroys them - Edward loves his brother but can't outwardly emote it in the same way Al can and ends up literally destroying Al's everything when he convinces him to help attempt their mom's life.

Edward hates people who use others for their own personal gain or for selfish reasons, he hates arrogance and hatred itself. He rightly identifies all these qualities in Roy who he appears to hate, when in reality Edward tried to bring back his mom knowing there's a chance he and his brother could die, he is also extremely arrogant and has no problem using all the militaries money and resources to do what he wants yet he cannot fathom why Roy, who sticks his neck out for him many times, gets angry with him or why some Ishvallans people are offended that he is in the military.

They have some distantly codependent relationship because they both realize they need each other - Roy needed to recruit Edward initially to show off, he also realizes Edward knows valuable information he uses to complete his goal, but also sees someone who needs some form of guidance and discipline. Edward needs Roy so he can access the power and resources he provides but he also at the end of the day, after leaving the military and coming back randomly and literally going AWOL, Roy (AND his team) does not abandon him.

So knowing that Edward is loyal, Roy assumes in the last episode when he runs into Edward on the street looking fine as hell, that Edward will join him in his battle with pride. Roy has to go into battle now alone which it seems he didn't apparently take into account and because of this he barely beats Bradley and almost dies. Edward finally accepts that Roy isn't 100% gutted and sees the good in him and finally becomes aware that the military he chose to join is corrupt, therefore so is he - he doesn't think what Roy is going to do will solve anything yet he goes and fights Dante to basically accomplish the same thing. You finally see that deep down they did always care about each other. When they say goodbye it is like the completion of both character arcs, at least for the series itself.

In COS they still follow the same path in that, yes, did they accomplish their goals? For sure, but now Roy -who succesfully killed Bradley - is demoted and exciled and miserable, and Edward -who got his brothers body restored - is alone and has absolutely nobody who understands him and is stuck that way for life.

This relates to my over feelings about Roy and his character arc because it adds to the depth of it. Their relationship is integral to it and would not be the same at all without it. I didnt talk much about Brotherhood because its been so long I don't want to mess up the facts on, but the one thing that plays into my opinion is that in BH Roy does get what he wants and I dont like that. Roy does not desevre that unfortunately and it is way boring because its like.....oh....ok? What a total shocker -_- VS Wow after ALL this, he fails even though we all think hes going to succeed at first. I also like how Edward is portrayed in 03 way better and all that ties into it to but that's another topic itself.

[annamarabella-grumble]

mass effect replay thoughts, episode 6

episode 1 / episode 2 / episode 3 / episode 4 / episode 5 / episode 7 / episode 8 / episode 9

it’s two for two for surprise inspections/interviews after coming out of an airlock/elevator on the citadel!

imagine investigate journalists getting wind of the two and a half war crimes we covered up for admiral hackett on all those unc assignments!! now that’d be a conversation full of moral quandaries that i would enjoy trying to wind my way out of

like, shepard wouldn’t want puff pieces written about them or the council or the alliance, for that matter, but if you’re gonna call them a shill, do it because they just lied to you about the shit the alliance tried to pull on luna, or the citadel administrator who deceived shepard into a hit job on her own sister so as not to lose her diplomatic privileges.

additionally, what both reporter al-jilani and rear admiral mikhailovich miss in their lines of questioning is that the normandy itself is a peace-keeping venture (doesn’t anderson even say as much early in the game? or did i hallucinate that?) and that means: compromise

by working so closely together on the design of the normandy (and other cooperations that we don't know about yet shhh), humans and turians now know so much about each other’s engineering and military tactics including strategic weaknesses that it would be farcically undignified to start another war with each other. this goes for both entities and requires trust. (trade and multilateral treaties are another huge part of that: when hurting your ally hurts you, you'll have a lot less incentive to do it. see also: the founding of the precursor to what's now the european union after ww2.)

i’m sure the turian public aren’t thrilled about this ship being under human/alliance command, either, but y’all are just gonna have to deal. i’m sure there’ve been press releases coming from both earth and palaven about this, why are you askin me, rear admiral???

the whole point of this thing is that we’re all friends now, and we don’t. eat. our friends.

anyway everyone on earth seems to be very surprised pikachu at the fact that working with and for the council in order to get a foot in the door means, well, working with and for the council. human interests are not the only ones that shepard can consider — much as the council themselves don’t make that easy when hiding behind “we can’t be seen only helping humans.”

so. about those war crimes, huh? girl, hackett will NOT STOP CALLING ME. he’s got a tracker on the normandy’s ass. “oh while you’re in the area; we weren’t doing anything technically illegal, but if the council finds out we’re up shit creek with no paddles, so…” yeah how about humanity’s interests now??

and then, garrus said something so unbelievably vile to tali on a citadel elevator that we put him in time-out for three missions. fucking hell

most importantly, however: we support women’s rights, but also women’s wrongs.

this criminal enterprise is only beyond salvaging because it has a pr problem. you’re free to go, ma’am.

[ravenveenova97]

IRL Pokémon Journey (Part 1)

(this is the first song i chose to listen to wile wile wrighting this, you dont have to lissen to it wile u read but it sets the mood)

It was a calm night in the middle of spring and I left mine to just get out of the house to reflect on everything in my life, so I took a strole down to my local riverside, as I'm looking up into the clear night sky and took a deep breath of the cool night air “i love nights like these so peaceful and no people around” I'm happily walking down past the park to get to the bridge that crosses over a rail way witch i normally come to if things get bad at home, I would just stand there and look at the rail and be optimistic saying to myself one day I be moving forward in my life just like these lines, as you can't tell this is on earth the world we all live in today full of war and hate crimes and bad news all over the tv that one country determined to destroy the next, I hate it here and I feel like I was borne into the wrong world half the time like I wasn’t meant to be here, I'm not the only one though that feels that way I have a very close friend I've grown up with for just about 20 years and she feels the same way I do, like we were not meant to be here. 

Not saying growing up was bad it was a lot of fun but gradually like with all people when they grow up your life just starts to full apart we all go through this in our life time but to be honest it like I'm living ground hog day same stuff different day, plus my romantic life is non-existent it's been over a year now and I'm now starting to feel the loneliness and missing the intermont side of things, that’s not the sex though more the cuddling up and kissing someone you love and feeling safe in their arms, it makes me sad most of the time and there are nights were I just cry because I'm feel so alone with so much love to give but no one to give it too, iv not been very good at choosing men to love they were ever violent or they mentally fucked me up, so I gave up on finding love even though I crave it but I know the kind of man i want don’t exist, you can say I'm picky and my standards are too high but that was never the case I settled for the bare minimum and look where that got me, full of messed up mental problems so I can see why my standards are high now. 

After I mentally reflected on the rail bridge while looking at the rail lines i continued down my path and soon reaching the riverside, the tide was in and the moon illuminated the howl area so I lessened to all the waves washing upon land as I made my way to blurs Walf, it’s a big open area like a pier were it goes out into the water and when I arrive I walk to the edge and just sit down. 

I look up into the sky and sigh to myself “life.....what's the point of living it if nothing good ever happens to me” I become sadden and look down at my hands and start picking the skin on the side of my finger “is there any point of living to continue with my life here in this world.........i just wish I could be somewhere else but here” I've really have reached my rope in this world I'm not happy and I've tried to do things to make it better but no matter what I do something always comes along and destroyes my peace........it's not like I just want to end my life I still want to live I still want to be alive and the only reason why I've got this far is because of my sister I could never just leave her in this world on her own, I wouldn’t want to put her threw that pain and have her walk the dark path alone she made me promise to not off myself the day I was close too, but the thing is when I was going to do it I had a flicker of hope that things will get better for me so I didn’t end up doing it, I guess I was scared to end my life I was scared of all the people I love would be left behind and suffer if I was gone. 

It's not easy being suicidal but also having the will to live to not die to keep going as there could be a bright light at the end of the tunnel just waiting for me and if I gave everything up I wouldn’t get to that light, I continue to contemplate on things as my legs dangle of the edge of the pier and I'm kicking them out while looking up into the night sky seeing all the stars out and twinkling away “i guess there one thing I love about this world.......and that’s the way the starts and moon glow in the sky” a small smile creeps on my face as the moon shines down on me and having the stars twinkle above my head “so this is where you got to sis” I look round and i see my friend and sister Kim standing behind me “heheheheh yer sorry to make you worrie........i needed a walk” she smiles softly and sits down next to me and also dangles her legs of the side and looks into the night sky “it's a beautiful night agen” I smile and nod as we both look up “hay sis remember we spoke about being in the Pokémon world.........i know it's not posable but if by some myrical do you think a portal will open up for us so we can go there and leave our old life's behind” Kim looks at me and giggles a little “that would be great if that was posable and I know the first person you go to wile getting there” I look at her and laugh “hahahahh ow really who would it be” she smiles brightly and winks at me. 

“well it be either Jacq or Arven right” I chuckle at that and smile to myself as there the two I've fallen hard for iv even wrote a fanfic where I grew up with Jacq and I was he's childhood friend but ended up leaving Paldea coz of my parents with my sis Kim, I was so in love with him that in the fanfic I got with him and also Arven my MC’s name was Raven and everything that happens in that fanfic traumatically is a little glimpse into my actual life.......how I suffered but threw out it I fell deeply in love with both of them, Arven was the first from Violet and then Jacq soon after, I didn’t plan to make him my Mc’s boyfriend I was just going to keep him as a friend but slowly I felt the need to have him too but I didn’t know how hard I loved that non-existent man, there was rumours going about he was going to be a villain in the next Violet update the indigo disk and it hurt me to see people think of him like that knowing he's a kind genital soul and wouldn’t hurt anyone, I remembered crying over it. 

But that wasn’t the only time as soon as the teal mask was released I brought the DLC and played it and that unova teacher Brier when she called him charming my heart hit the floor, I was scared I would lose him to her so I refused to play the DLC and cried for three days strate, but all it took was my friend to send me an image that you go on a little picknick date with Jacq and that gave me the courage to finish the DLC in one sitting I might add hahahahahah, but yer it was then that I truly grew fond of Jacq so everything changed in my fanfic leading up to the first DLC, I know he's not real and its stupid to be in love with a Pokémon dude but..........i just couldn’t bring myself to fall in love with a real life man anymore......i have my reasons and I know people will ether judge me or call me dilutional but I know the differences from reality and fantasy and I know I never see him in real life. 

After my sister said that I just chuckled and looked out into the water that was hitting the side of the wall “hahahaha I guess your right” but I soon became sad and sighed “sis what wrong” I smile wirily and griped my hands “i don’t know, if its anything like the games im sure there both be in a relationship........Jacq with Brier and.......Arven with Jullianna” Kim smiles softly at me and moves a little bit closer to me and takes my hand into hers “well what about the others you like? You have Leon and Raihan plus your bad boy Guzma” I just lightly chuckle to that and look at her “i think there be taken too.........there no way I can compete with Sonia and Plum” Kim saw I was sad as she knows iv been alone for a while now, I let go of her hand and sigh and lay back so I'm looking up into the night sky “to be honest sis I think its best I remain alone........that way I can't get hurt again”  

Kim's eyes soften as she looks down at me “i guess........ok let's change the subject then, what would your team of six be?” I laugh at her infusiasem and answer “well I have to go with my Zoroark as my main partner of course as I love that Pokémon and have a deep fondness for them, I say my other five would be Dragapult but has to be a shiny then I go umbreon.......I would like a Flygon I've always loved them since ruby erm........i guess I go Gorgiest and lastly one of Jacq’s Pokémon Arcanine” Kim smiled at me and layed down with me too “well if by some Mirical one of us find that portal into the Pokémon world we tell each other ok” I turn my head to her and nod, living in the Pokémon world......that would be amazing and existing........I finally have a reason to wake up in the morning instead of sleeping my days away “well shall we head back home, I get us a few drinks and we have fun tonight what do you say” I sit up and nod at her, so we got up and made our way back home or so we thought. 

We walked the path back home and soon walked threw a tree canopy that’s on the path on the way back we were happily talking so it took us a while to relies that we were not coming out of it we walked for a while and I spoke up “sis we been walking through this for a while now and I don’t remember it taking this long to get out of it” Kim looked around her as well “i agree and is it me or have the trees become more thicker” I look to my side and nod but we both looked ahed and we saw moon light shining at the exist so we quickened out pace to reach it and soon steped out of the tree canopy and looked around “did we take a wrong turn......no we were walking in a strate line” I look behind me and the path we walked threw was gone and nothing but bushes “WAIT WAHT!”  

I ran over to where we walked out and there was no tunnel it just disappeared, just then we herd the bush rustle and looked at it “please don’t be a rat” I move back and then a black mass jumped out and me and Kim full back and land on our asses shielding ourselves with our arms, “Vollll” my eyes shoot wide open as I recognise that cry and so did Kim, we looked to what was standing behind us and our eyes widen “sis.......that’s” the little fox ran off and we looked at each other and shouted in unison “THAT WAS A FUCKING VULPIX” soon the realisation struck us and we got up and looked about properly “this........it's the wild area” Kim's voice broke as she said it and im shaking “were in the Gala reign” we stop in silence and take in the entire area, im stood there with tears streaming down my face “we made it........we’re finally here” I full to the floor as happy tiers stream down my face and im lathing threw them, Kim got super existed and was pointing out every Pokémon she saw. 

I eventually got up and wiped my tears away and we started to walk about taking everything in and I got existed “sis look it’s a Purloin eeeeee adorable” just then I get an idea that struck me I remember we talked about if we came here there could be a slim chance the Pokémon we chose would be in our bags, so I quickly opened my bag and I see six balls inside of it “sis check your bag” Kim opens her bag and gasps “I've got six pokeballs inside” I smile bright and then reach for my purse “i wonder if our money got converted too” as soon as I opened it notes exploded out from it and im stood there shocked “i don't remember having this much in side I swore I had £50 the rest of my money in my savings account and that a lot of money in it” I quickly get the money that exploded out and put it all into my bag, Kim did the same thing and it also happened to her “sis I think our money multiplied........” she got up all her money and we looked at each other and smiles grew on out face “WERE FUCKING RICH SIS HAHAHAHAHAHA” we hugged each other and Kim pulled away and got existed “ok we got the money pick a place to live” I giggle at her and I smile softly but it soon turned into a smirk “you're going to live in Spikmoth arn’t you” I fold my arms and look at her she smiles bright “you know it and I don’t have to guess for you, it be Hamerloke right” 

I laugh and nod at her “yer but you only want to live in Spikmoth because of piers right” she goes rosy cheeks and smiles “nothing gets past you dose it” I giggle and shake my head “well at least we won't be living far from each other so that’s a bonus” Kim giggles and walks off with a smirk on her face and I follow her “sooooo.......who you choosing sis, Leon or Raihan” I end up blushing super hard and bring my hands up to my face to hide how red I've gone “sis don’t tease me like this, if I ever saw either of them I think I die right on the spot” Kim lathed at my reaction and walked back up to me as I was behind a little “or you got Hop.......that's if he's of age that is” I just keped on getting more and more red in the face and I shook my head “no I can't see them I....i....i might pass out "Kim continued to lath at me but she soon became serious “ok so were in the Pokémon world now......so sis from now on call me Kio ok” I look at her and nod “and were biological sister too” I smile bright at her and get a little giddy “ok so what name would you like to be called I know you have a few being Raven,Nova or Vee but witch one” I think for a bit I could go by any of those names but Raven is my paldea MC and Nova is what Arven calls me and Vee is Jacq’s......i need a new name to go by, I look into the Gala night sky and look at the moon “how about Ayla......it means moonlight” Kio smiles at me and puts her arm around my shoulder “ok then I call you that from now on then” I giggle and we walk thither into the wild area from where the portal spat us out and we make our way to Mokastoke all the way to the Budew inn to get a room for the next couple of weeks till we found our own place to live at, once we got our key cards we opened the door and walked into our twin room “it's nice in here” I look about and see the beds and grin “i hope these are soft.......well one way to find out” I ran for the bed and jumped on it and I started to sink in a little, I started to lath and was happily rolling around on it “hahahahah its swishy, I love it”  

Kio lathed and did the same thing, we were both happily lathing away and after a while I calmed down and was hanging upside down off the edge of the bed and looked at the balcony door, my eyes soften as I feel happy emotions well up inside me and I see that the street lamps were glowing outside and there was three little Rokidi’s sat outside on the balcony pole sleeping away, I slowly move my hands up to my face and pinch my cheeks “nope it's not a dream......were actually here.....we finally found the Pokémon world” Kio sighs in happiness and sits up from laying down “we sure did.......we can make a new life here and be happy” I nod then sit back up and look at her “so what's the first thing we going to do” she smiles happily at me and she lays down on her side “i guess we have to find a place to live” just then she looked down at the clothes she was wearing and giggled “and maybe a style change too, so looks like we need to go clothe shopping.......any idea what you're going to do with your look”  

I think and move over to my bag that was on the floor on the bottom of the bed and reached my hand in to get my phone but I was shocked to find another one in side “er sis I have two phones” Kio shoots up and lunches herself across the room to were her bag was hanging up “ow shit we do have two phones......this is a Rotom phone” I see the one she holding and I look at mine “hahahahah ours are different colours” I show her mine that was a pastel purple and she looked at her one “mines is Phthalo blue that’s so cool, any way back to our styles” Kio walks back over to her bed and plonks herself on the edge of it “well I like to go cute pastel and maybe a little alternative.........i also like to change my hair colour......and my eyes, im guessing you're going to be wearing all black” Kio nods at me “yep I live in black hahahahha so might as well, I do the same as you but more gothic alternative” I giggle as we both have similar tase but yet so different styles, so she be in all moody colours were I be in bright bubbly colours, hehehehehe I've always liked that were so night and day but its why we get along so well “well sis we got a big day ahead of us tomorrow so we should get some sleep” 

I nod at her and then look at myself “you don’t mind if I sleep in my top and underwear for tonight do you” Kio lathed and took off her black skinny jeans “pretty much what I'm doing tonight so knock yourself out, we get some pjs tomorrow and a few other bits” I smile and get out of my blue high waisted skinny's and got into bed, I  pulled out one of the pillows from under me and hugged it “well night sis, let's start our Pokémon journey together in the morning” I giggle at her and said night, Kio drifted off fast, must have been all the excitement to finally be here..........i wonder if we meet the three tomorrow......I wonder what Jacq and Arven are doing right now, after that last thought floats around in my head my eyes grew heavy and I closed them, I'm happy to finally be here but I hope my mum will be ok.........good night mum I love you........and it all faded to darkness. 

[moral-turpitudes]

Burnt Toast:

Trigger Warnings: Swearing, Angst.

Word Count: 4,226

Characters: Polly Gray + The Shelby Siblings x Shelby!Sister Reader

Requested: Yes

Requested by: @atjafshelby​, I hope you like it love!

Summary: After seeing her family turn to a life of crime, one incident causes Y/N to finally leave Small Heath in a desperate attempt to rid herself of the Shelby name. But when the family makes a sudden appearance after years of no contact, she soon realizes she’s not the only one with news to bear.

“Kids! Breakfast is ready!” Shouted Y/N from the kitchen, the smell of toast and crackling bacon snaking it’s way through the two story town house in the middle of suburban Manhattan. The sight of the meal reminding her of home when she’d help cook, practicing her craft until she rarely made burnt toast. The voice of her aunt telling her how long to toast it so it would be perfect, even if the family eating it was far from so.

As she prepared the table, the scurrying of little feet pattering away on the floorboards filled the room as they sprinted down the lavish hall. Giggles erupting as two bright eyed girls climbed into their seats.

“Now girls, you both have to get ready quickly today alright? I have some errands to run.” Y/N said, placing a mug of coffee in front of herself. Heavy footsteps came trotting down the stairs as her husband, a man of status in the banking industry, waltzed into the room.

“Morning love. I have to go in early today. Are you sure you and the girls are okay?” He asked, adjusting his tie.

“Yes, I’m going to take them with me. I have some...personal matters to attend to.” She said, her tone dropping slightly as the girls played with their food.

“I know plenty of children back home who’d love to eat what you’re playing with, now stop it...” She said sternly, memories of her mother swatting her hand when she’d go to eat with her fingers instead of the silverware.

“Is it your family again?” He asked, brushing a stray hair from her face as he sat down next to her.

“Yes.” She said, taking a sip of her coffee as her hands shook, the anxiety of ever seeing them again gnawing at her brain.

It seemed like only yesterday that it happened. Her younger brothers running out of the old shop in Small Heath to go on a another mission after their fathers business had been left on their shoulders after the war. The sight later that night making her swear off violence all-together.

Her younger brothers had a knack for messing with the wrong people, even before the war changed them. John was the feisty one, always rough-housing with the boys and bullies on the streets, always pestering her and Ada as they chased rats through town. “I’m trying to help you defend yourself sis! Don’t be such a baby!” He’d say after tackling her to the ground where she’d cry and hesitate to fight back, Ada always punching him in the shoulder to stop as their aunt Polly would come running out of the house with the Devil in her eyes.

“You’re too sweet for your own good, Y/N. Too sweet to be a Shelby.” Polly would say while bandaging any cuts or scrapes.

“You sure as hell didn’t get it from your father...” She’d say, looking at the oldest Shelby girl with a mixture of awe and pity. Y/N resembled her mother more often than not, her temper only shining through in certain situations. But she never thought she’d lose it like she did that night.

It was the night of her first real date, Polly helping brush her hair as she flipped through an old book she’d found in their house.

"That Tommy’s?” Polly would ask, looking at the cover to see a horse running wild in a field.

“Yeah.” She’d say, wishing she could be free like the horse.

“Where are you meeting this young man, Y/N?” Polly asked after a moment of silence.

“The pub down the road.” She said shortly. She remembered Polly’s grip on her hair tightening at the mention of it.

“Ow! What is it?” She asked yanking herself free and turning to look at her aunt.

“D-don’t go. Please don’t.” She said, a fearful look in her eyes.

“Why? Arthur, Tommy, and John get to go anywhere in town and I can’t?!” She said, angrily putting her hair up herself and adjusting her dress.

“It’s not safe...” Polly said, walking down the hall.

“Right...so you want to lecture me on what’s safe because I’m so nice aye? What do you fucking see in me anyway?” She asked loudly. She never really raised her voice to Polly, fearing her to a slight degree. But as her younger brothers went out on business more often, she was practically shoved away, only being able to see Ada and Finn even though she was the oldest.

Polly’s eyes welled up with tears as she spoke.

“I see hope for this god-forsaken family. You have more control over yourself than I care to admit and I can’t bare to see you squander it all away by becoming one of them. You should live for yourself, at least then one of us in this family would be doing something good for a change.” She said, sauntering off into the kitchen.

“Tommy’s planning something isn’t he? That’s why you don’t want me to go on the date.” She said, following her into the kitchen with tears in her eyes. Even if she was older than Arthur by two years, he and the rest of them never stopped being over-protective.

“Yes.” Was all Polly said before Y/N ran out the door. If she wanted her to live for herself then she was going to do as she pleased. She was tired of being seen as some family secret, some mystery sibling that was different. She never liked the violence she grew up in but was that such a crime? To know how to not hurt people? To be able to know when to call it quits? These were thoughts she still struggled with as she looked at her two little girls getting up from the table and racing up the stairs. Their hair wild and smiles a mile long. Carefree like she always dreamed of being, and like most of her aunts family always claimed to be.

“I want you girls ready in 10 minutes!” Y/N yelled as the girls moved about upstairs, her husbands voice breaking her from her thoughts.

“Well I’m off love. I’ll see you all at my lunch break.” He said, kissing her goodbye and heading off to his ordinary job. Despite him being successful and full of money himself, she couldn’t shake the fact that they led very different lives before they met. He’d go off to college while she stayed and helped Polly with Finn, and Ada occasionally staying to help as she was always wanting to be out and about. While he grew up with a silver spoon, she grew up with rusted broken ones. She couldn’t for the life her know why he chose her, maybe it was luck? But nevertheless they worked out together and she was grateful no matter how many times her past haunted her.

As she cleaned up the kitchen, she fell back onto the memories from years ago. Her heart still aching like it was yesterday.

Remembering herself sprinting towards the pub where her new date had agreed to meet her, seeing a rowdy group of men near the entrance. The sharp sound of bottles breaking and slurs being spewed as she warily made her way over. Her eyes landed on her date and her stomach dropped. Arthur was holding him by the neck as Tommy pulled off his cap, slashing the mans face open in one fell swoop.

Y/N’s screams soon pierced the air as she saw him fall limp to the ground, Tommy finishing him off with a harsh twist of his neck.

The blinders all looked up to see their older sister just mere feet away from their mess. Without thinking, she ran over to the man she had grown to know, his face almost unrecognizable after what they’d done to him. As she cradled him, her eyes blurred with tears as her brothers stood in silence, the rain washing the mans blood off Tommy and Arthur’s hands as they waited for her to speak.

“Tommy...” She said, seeing red as she started at the man she once knew, lying dead on the cold pavement.

Her brother walked over, a tired look in his eyes as he crouched down to her level and put his cap back on.

“We had to do it Y/N...” He said, trying to reach for her hand.

Without warning she slapped him across the face with all the strength she could muster. Her hand stinging with the impact.

Polly came running in the distance, stopping near John who’d been holding his rifle as he sat against the wall of the pub.

As she got up, she wiped the blood on her clothes as she stared down her brother. A red handprint forming on his cheek as she neared him. With one hand she took his arm and with the other she grabbed Arthur’s hand, leading them near Polly and John.

“I knew him you know. How was he so bad that you had to kill him? Why was this part of your fucking plan?!” She yelled as they all looked at her with sorry expressions.

“He was working with Kimber’s men. Remember him?” John asked.

She got closer to John as she spoke, her arms folded in frustration.

“No John. I don’t remember. I wasn’t part of the family meetings...remember that?” She asked, knowing they always kept her, Ada, and little Finn in the dark ‘for their safety.’

“He was bad Y/N...” Tommy said, sticking a cigarette in his mouth.

“Like you all are any better. You didn’t even know him!” She shouted.

“Y/N love, please calm down. We had leads on him. He was trying to get with ya in order to get to us.” Arthur said.

“No...he wouldn’t.” She said, shaking her head as her tears fell.

“He did. Not everyone has a good heart like yours alright?” Tommy said, lighting a cigarette.

“You know what? Fuck the lot of you!” She yelled, her eyes boring into Tommy’s specifically.

“I can’t even look at you all anymore. You took away my one shot at meeting someone that wasn’t associated with this family and you all ruined it. You all ruined everything I’ve ever tried to do and here I am, the oldest fucking Shelby and I can’t even leave me own house.” She said, giving a side eye to Polly. As she spoke she remembered her aunts words, her eyes tearing up as she spat out her frantic goodbyes.

“You know what? I’m listening to what you said Pol. I’m going to go live for myself and I don’t want any of you to come for me. I can’t stand to be around any of ya. Goodbye.” She said, walking through the familiar dark streets for what felt like the last time.

“Mum? We’re ready!” She heard her oldest yell from the front door, ripping her from her thoughts.

“Alright, c’mere you.” She said, swooping her youngest up in her arms and walking out the door. As she walked with her oldest hand in hand they noticed the rain falling slightly as the city life bustled around them.

“I wish daddy didn’t take the car. He’ll be at his lunch break before we get there.” The oldest girl said, her white dress flowing in the wind.

“We’re going right up to the bank. He’ll be there. I promise.” She said, her nerves getting to her as they entered the tall building.

“I got a call about a check being sent from Polly Gray?” She asked the teller.

“Ah yes! Here you are. She also left a note.” She said, handing her the envelope.

Y/N’s eyes widened at the figures on the check, having to clutch the desk for support.

“Jesus fucking christ.” She said quietly.

“Jesus fuckin cwist!” Her youngest mumbled excitedly.

“Hey! We don’t say that.” She said smirking down at the little girl.

“Darling! Didn’t expect you to be here so early!” Her husband said as he stepped out of his office.

“This was uh...one of the errands. Can we go outside for a moment?” She asked.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, looking at her with concern.

“Oh um...it seems me aunt gave us a check for...$100,000.” She said.

“My god...you’re kidding. How did they get that kind of money?” He asked, even though they were well-off in New York it was still a shock, especially since the shop back home was far from successful all those years ago.

“Oh...you don’t want to know.” She said, her eyes scanning over the letter.

“Dear Y/N,

I know you don’t want to hear from any of us especially after so long, but we wanted to let you know we’re planning a visit to New York. We have some business to take care of and Tommy saw it best to come there personally. We’d love to meet up upon our arrival if you’d like. We have some unfortunate matters we’d like to discuss. In the meantime though, I wanted to gift you this check, seeing as we’ve come into more than enough good fortune over the years.

With love,

Aunt Pol”

“I have to get to a phone. Watch the girls please? I’ll be back.” She said, running inside the bank.

“What’s mummy doing?” Their oldest asked.

“Calling her family.” He said, holding her hand.

“She has a family? Like us but somewhere else?” She asked.

“Yeah...” He said, not knowing much about them as well. She’d kept that part of her life a secret for a while, but she’d let a few things slip every now and then, and she always got a check from Polly despite her refusing her help, but they never got one for this much before.

“Shelby Company Limited.” The woman said over the phone.

“Yes, this is Y/N...Y/N Johnson-I mean...Shelby. Y/N Shelby....is Polly there?”

“I’m sorry miss. The family has left for America, they’re expected in New York at noon.” She said.

“Alright, thank you.” She said, her watch ticked towards noon at a fast pace, knowing they’d be arriving soon.

“Girls were taking a trip. We uh...have to meet some of my family.” She said rushing out of the bank, scooping their youngest up in her arms with the others following.

“We need to get to customs, now.” She said, hurrying towards her husbands car.

Within the next 30 minutes they’d scrambled to get there, seeing the passengers get off the ship in groups. Her heart sped up as she saw her family, more dressed up now than before, but still the same tired features give or take Finn growing up before her eyes.

“Stay here you three. It’s going to be a moment.” She said, taking a shaky breath as she walked towards them.

“Y/N? Is that you?” She heard Polly call out. She stood frozen as they walked to her, her eyes brimming with tears.

“Hello Polly.” She said with a small smile, her tears plummeting to the ground as she gave her a warm hug.

“Oi! Is that really you?! Look at ya!” Arthur said with a smile.

“Yeah it’s me. Same old Y/N.” She said, wiping her tears as her brother Tommy stared at her.

“Cat got your tongue brother?” She asked, he gave her a hug but it was half-hearted at best.

“Right...so what are you lot doing here aye? Why’d you send us all that money?” She asked looking at them, Tommy’s eyes were more dead than all those years ago. She couldn’t shake the feeling something had happened as Polly spoke.

“Can we talk about this somewhere private at least? We just got here love...” Polly said.

Y/N sighed as she turned to her little family, the ring on her finger glinting in the sun as she nodded.

“Of course...follow me. I uh, have some people I want you to meet.” She said.

“Y/N...” Polly said in a shocked whisper as she saw the two girls and her husband standing there looking at them with smiles on their faces.

“This is my husband. His name is Charles Johnson, he’s a banker in Manhattan. And these are our girls. Jane is 7, Polly is 3.” She said, picking the little girl up as she giggled and waved at them.

“You...you never told us you’d met someone. Never told us you’d gotten married...Never told us you had children...” Polly said, waving at the girls.

“Well the street goes both ways. Didn’t know you got married aye Tom...” She said nodding to him, he lit a cigarette as they walked ahead. The tension growing in the air as she nervously took her husbands hand.

“It’s complicated, but yes I did.” He said shortly, the smoke wafting through the air.

“No smoking...please.” She said, her girls looking curiously at the man with piercing blue eyes.

“You serious?” He asked.

“Yes, the girls don’t like it. You’re such a grump though love. You’ve turned into an old man, older than Arthur even. Jesus.” She said, none the wiser to what they’d all been through over the years. Tommy just nodded with a slight smirk, knowing his past couple years would’ve destroyed her.

As the Shelby’s made small talk with the little girls, Charles got them a ride to their house, the bustling city taking them a little bit by surprise.

“I don’t know how you live here. It’s hectic.” Polly said, sitting in a small armchair in their living room.

“Well you wanted me to live my life for me Pol. I came here and I loved it. Never saw a reason to move.” She said, pouring her a glass of wine.

“Anyone want a drink?” She asked as her worse-for-wear brothers sat around.

“Now there’s our sister. You got whiskey?” Arthur asked.

“Did you think I left all of Birmingham behind? Of course I do.” She said, pouring out a couple glasses and handing them out. Her husband taking one and giving her a small peck on the cheek, Tommy staring him down for a moment before she came to him with a glass.

“What kind?” Tommy asked before drinking it.

“Irish...what else would it be? You taught me that.” She said with a smirk.

“Right...” He said, fixing his golden glasses.

“So tell me, what’s life been like here? It seems...grand.” Polly said looking around the place as the girls ran around giggling.

“Jane! Polly! No running in the house...go out to the courtyard.” She said, taking a sip of her whiskey.

“You named the little one Polly? I’m touched.” She said, sipping her wine.

Y/N sighed before she spoke, her husband sitting near her on the large sofa, holding her hand as he knew she had some things to get off her chest.

“Look...I was....angry. I was angry at the world when I left and...I’ve held onto that for so long it’s eaten me up. I know you all don’t care for me now, hell I wasn’t invited to anything anyways, but I did the same. I did this for me. And I’m happy here. I’m happy with my children. I named her Polly because even though we wanted to rip each other’s throats out some days, you were the one that helped me realize who I wanted to be. You helped raise me and I couldn’t not name her after someone I loved dearly.” She said, the room falling silent.

“You want us to forgive you?” Tommy asked.

“No. Honestly Tommy I’m still trying to forgive you. It was because of you all that I watched you kill him. I moved here so you’d never take people away from me again, but no I’m not looking for forgiveness or anything, I just want it behind us.” She said finishing off her whiskey.

“That was for your protection, love. You can understand that now at least, since you have your own children now.” Polly said, clasping her hand over hers.

“I can. But I wouldn’t kill someone. That’s how we’re different. I’ve told Charles about it, because I’ve always been the nice one. He may think otherwise though.” She said smirking at her husband.

“But, I’ve tried to move on. I just want you all to know I’m happy and I’m honestly not that hurt by it anymore. I’m just plagued with the memories that’s all.” She said.

“What about back home? How’s Ada? I’m assuming she’s with her kid...Karl right?” She asked, trying to change the subject.

“Yes. She has another on the way as well. Different father. Deceased though.”

“That’s too bad, I know she’s probably torn up, the poor thing. Give her a hug for me will ya? God I haven’t seen her in so long.” She said and Polly nodded.

“What about John? Where’s the cheeky bastard at anyway?” She asked. Polly teared up as Tommy held her hand, which he never did unless it was something important.

“He....he got shot. One of the mafias with a vendetta against us got him...it was recent enough that we figured we’d come to tell you.” He said.

“No.” She said, getting up quickly.

“No...no I-I said the most hateful things the last time I saw him. He can’t be...” She said as tears poured down her face.

“Hey....shh it’s alright darling.” Her husband said attempting to comfort her as she clung to him, her tears staining his expensive suit as Arthur and the rest looked away, their hearts growing heavy after re-hashing the news.

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. We couldn’t get to you in time for the funeral though, love.” Polly said, walking over.

“I have to sit down.” She said, her face paling as she sat on the sofa.

Her hands shook as she wiped her tears away. Polly kissed her forehead as she walked outside, observing the little girls as they played in the garden to keep from breaking down as well.

As Y/N settled down, she took another shot of whiskey, wincing at the burn of it going down. Since having her kids and working, she didn’t have as much time to drink, at least not like they did back home.

“I should’ve came back sooner...I-I should’ve written you all more often.” She said.

“Y/N that wouldn’t have changed much. We’re just happy you’re happy alright love?” Arthur said, patting her on the back.

“Yeah...” She said.

“Say...I know you all are tired. Would you all care to stay? We have enough room...” Charles asked as Polly walked in with the girls.

“Mum! Who that?” Little Polly asked in her sweet voice.

“Hello! Oh you silly girls! I hope you loved meeting Polly! These are your uncles, Arthur, Tommy, and Finn.” She said wiping her tears away as they came in, letting them walk over to them. Tommy smiled at them and put on his best kind expression, knowing how impressionable kids were.

“So uhm...Tommy do you have kids?” Y/N asked, circling back to the ring on his finger and trying to lighten the conversation.

“Yeah. I have a boy name Charlie, and a girl named Ruby. Charlie’s mum was uh...shot...by the mafia, Lizzie is well, she’s working at the office and helping with little Ruby.” He said.

“Shot! Jesus fuckin cwist!” Little Polly squealed out.

Y/N’s mouth dropped as she picked her up. Arthur and eventually everyone erupted in laughter.

“We do not say that Polly! Don’t repeat bad words!” Y/N scolded her, trying to hold back her own laugh in the process.

“I’m sorry about your first wife Tom...I’m also sorry little Polly over here has the mouth of a sailor.” She said playfully eyeing her daughter and giving her brother a pat on the shoulder.

“It’s alright love. Things happen aye?” He said, his heart still hurting after the loss, but warming at the sight of his little happy and not so nicely-mouthed nieces.

“Maybe we can visit the rest of the family sometime? I’m sure we can arrange that.” She asked looking at her husband.

“Of course! We’d um...we’d like that. Very much.” Polly said a genuine smile on her face as she watched her niece with her children.

“I’m so glad you’re doing well for yourself dear. Truly. We all are, and if we haven’t said it yet, welcome to the family Charles.” Polly said, shaking his hand.

“My offer still stands though by the way...” Charles said after a moment.

“What’s that aye?” Tommy asked, finally loosening up a bit.

“You all can stay here. You all aren’t the only ones with big houses you know. You’re family after all.” Y/N said.

“Well it’s not like we have anywhere else to go. What to do you say?” Polly asked, looking at Tommy. He smirked a bit before answering, Y/N could see the conditions he’d have with their stay floating around in his head.

“Alright...As long as we get to have the toast you always made. I’ve hired many a housemaid and none of them could make it like you do, they always burn it up.” He said.

She chuckled at the memory, always making a bunch of it in the mornings before they’d all go running off in the streets.

“Deal.” She said, giving him a small smile, knowing that even after all the years and all the losses, she knew she could never fully be away from family.

[nestasgalpal]

Your precious High Lord [Nessian fic]

Masterlist | AO3

Sinopsis: So this is a fix-it fic where I give my version of the scene where Nesta calls Rhysand an asshole and Cassian defends him and tells Nesta that everyone hates her 🤡🤡 The idea is to just fix the scene, so everything else (aka Cassian telling her that and Nesta leaving the room etc) stil happens. I just want Nesta to verbalize why she doesn’t like Rhysand, since nobody seems to understand her reasons.

Tagging: @gwynriel @rhaenystargaryn @clolikescloquetas @amelievrstr  @t8astr8ng @wanderlustlastsforever @saltydreamcollector @lordlorcan​ @esrahiba @queenestarcheron @ko0mbayamylord @poisonous-bloom  @jemstan300 

I might fix the Amren confrontation scene too, so let me know if you want to be removed or added to the tag list ^^

Azriel was having lunch with them, giving Cassian the details for the mission he was going into. Nesta maintained her silence as she slid into her chair, picked up her fork, and dug into the fillet of beef and roasted asparagus.

Cassian cleared his throat and said to Azriel, “How long will you be gone?”

“I’m not sure.” The shadowsinger’s eyes bore into her before he added, “Vassa was right to suspect something deadly amiss. Things are dangerous enough over there that it would be wiser for me to keep my base here at the House and winnow back and forth.”

Curiosity bit deep, but Nesta said nothing. Vassa—she hadn’t seen the enchanted human queen since the war had ended. Since the young woman had tried to speak to her about how wonderful Nesta’s father had been, how he had been a true father to her, helped her and won her this temporary freedom, and on and on until Nesta’s bones were screaming to get away, her blood boiling to think that her father had found his courage for someone other than her and her sisters. That he’d been the father she had needed—but for someone else. He had let their mother die in his refusal to send his merchant fleet hunting for a cure for her, had fallen into poverty and let them starve, but had decided to fight for this stranger? This nobody queen peddling a sad tale of betrayal and loss?

That thing deep in Nesta stirred, but she ignored it, pushed it down as best she could without the distraction of music or sex or wine. She took a sip of her water, letting it cool her throat, her belly, and supposed that would have to be enough.

“What’d Rhys say about it?” Cassian asked around a mouthful of food. 

“Who do you think insisted I not risk a base over there?”

“Protective bastard.” A note of affection rang in Cassian’s words, though.

Silence fell again. Azriel nodded at her. “What happened to you?”

She knew what he meant: the black eye that was finally fading. Her hands and chin had healed, along with the bruising on her body, but the black eye had turned greenish. By tomorrow morning, it’d be gone entirely. “Nothing,” she said without looking at Cassian.

“She fell down the stairs,” Cassian said, not looking at her, either.

Azriel’s silence was pointed before he asked, “Did someone … push you?” 

“Asshole,” Cassian growled.

Nesta lifted her eyes from her plate enough to note the amusement in Azriel’s gaze, even though no smile graced his sensuous mouth. Cassian went on, “I told her earlier today: if she’d bother to train, she’d at least have bragging rights for the bruises.”

Azriel took a calm sip of his water. “Why aren’t you training, Nesta?”

“I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

Cassian muttered, “Don’t waste your breath, Az.”

She glared at him. “I’m not training in that miserable village.”

Cassian glared right back. “You’ve been given an order . You know the consequences. If you don’t get off that fucking rock by the end of this week, what happens next is out of my hands.”

“So you’ll tattle to your precious High Lord?” she crooned. “Big, tough warrior needs oh-so-powerful Rhysand to fight his battles?”

“Don’t you fucking talk about Rhys with that tone” Cassian snarled.

“Or what?” Nesta snapped. “Rhys is an asshole. He is an arrogant, preening asshole.”

 Azriel sat back in his seat, eyes simmering with anger, but said nothing.

“That’s bullshit,” Cassian spat, the Siphons on the backs of his hands burning like ruby flames. “You know that is bullshit, Nesta."

“I hate him,” she seethed.

“Good. He hates you, too,” Cassian shot back. “Everyone fucking hates you. Is that what you want? Because congratulations, it’s happened.”

Azriel let out a long, long breath.

Cassian’s words pelted her, one after another. Hit her somewhere low and soft, and hit hard. Her fingers curled into claws, scraping along the table. Rage emerged, boiling in her veins. She tried to contain herself, but after months of drinking herself into oblivion, using alcohol to chain her feelings, her emotions, her nightmares, she was having trouble containing all the thoughts that were coming up her throat now that only water filled her cup. Nesta sensed her own anger rise to match Cassian’s.

“I’m done with you and your problems.” he finished.

The words rumbled between them. Nesta blinked. Azriel tensed, as if surprised.

Cassian aimed for the door, his pounding steps fading down the hall.

Nesta had never in her life tried to use her issues as an excuse. There was not one flaw in her character she didn’t know about. She was terrible to be around, and she was aware of it, but she had never expected people to try to understand where it all came from. On the contrary, she used it against every person that crossed her path, so they couldn’t get to see her aching heart. She wore her issues as an armour, so people never wanted to come closer and see why she was the way she was. Nesta had used her anger against almost every person she knew, but not once had she tried to use the cause of that rage, that infinite void in her chest, as an excuse.

But she was so sick of them, their patronizing, them projecting their own issues into her, that the seal that contained her darkest thoughts broke, and the words came out. Because if after everything she had given to them she still hadn’t made it up to Feyre, then there was absolutely nothing else for her to do. She had nothing left to give.

She wanted them to know what their victory cost her. If Cassian didn’t want to see on his own, she would make him.

“I gave my life for you. For all of you” Cassian halted in the archway of the door. Azriel’s eyes were fixed on her, even if her own stare had followed Cassian. “Even before the war, I tried to make it up to my sister for the four years she hunted for us.” Cassian’s body was almost lost in the shadows coming out of the hallway, but still close enough to the door that she could see his back, his wings, the tension in his muscles under his shirt.

“Your High Lord likes to pretend I’m nothing but a burden, but I’m only what you’ve made of me” When none of the illyrians interrupted her, Nesta felt seen for a moment.

Then, she realized the temperature in the room had dropped, her nails had left marks on the table, and Azriel’s shadows were ready to strike if needed.

Cassian was also still, ready to move.

They were not listening to her, they were waiting for her to attack. Like a wild animal. Like Rhysand in his studio, using his power on her to make her sit.

They expected nothing better from her than that. They expected her to unleash her wrath on them, and that’s what she was going to do. She didn’t care.

“To have any kind of contact with fae is a crime in the Mortal Lands. Did you know that?“

She wanted himto know she was talking about a time prior to their last day in the battlefield, because her sacrifice had not been only physical. No, she was talking about the things she did before, favours to help her sister’s cause. Their cause.

“I did everything you lot asked me to do. I sent the letters putting my neck on the line, and risking Elain’s future. I held the meeting at my house and let you come and go as you pleased.”

“Her future with Greysen would have made her miserable” Azriel’s icy tone surprised her. She merely blinked in his direction. His graceful face was covered in shadows of anger, too.

“That was the future she wanted. The one she chose”.

Azriel fought back “He came from a family of fae hunters”. Nesta wasn’t sure why he had gotten caught up on that detail, but she insisted. Now that she was a fae, she wanted to stay away from people like Greysen, but back then, his family and her money combined offered a safety she had desperately wanted.

“Which we both thought was a good thing. We thought Feyre had been killed by fae. We gave her a funeral” Cassian shuddered, his wings reacting to her words, tucking in a little more.

Nesta felt the cold of the room on her bones.

“I still let you into my house. Have you even considered how scared I was to let you in? Do you have any idea of the stories I grew up with about faeries and their tricks, their bloodthirst? I’ve met people who were taken by your kind… my kind, now, I guess. And I still helped you.” She didn’t tell them Rhysand was the one murdering her friend Clare and her family.

“Those stories are about faes like the ones in Hybern, of wild creatures near the Wall. Not Prythian’s folk” Cassian answered. His tone was dark and low, angry, insulted. But he was not screaming now.

“And how was I supposed to know?” She shouted. How was she supposed to know? His words almost made her doubt, thought. In the middle of her rage, his words almost made her doubt herself, like she might be overreacting, like she had gone crazy, maybe, paranoid. But she didn’t fall for it. She hadn’t been careful enough with them, their promises, their requests. “The only explanation I received when my sister came back after months with a new male in her arm -a male she had warned me about before her departure- was that the mortal realm was about to be destroyed by war, and she needed my help. So I helped her.”

It was not only anger or rage, but pure wrath what tinted her words. She could take the blame for all the things she did wrong -she would. She wanted to. But she was tired of them using her mistakes as an excuse to never acknowledge that fact that she had tried. Nesta had given them everything they had asked from her.

Azriel’s shadows were dangerously still. Nesta wasn’t sure if she had ever seen them like that. Cassian hadn’t moved either.

They were listening now.

”I know Feyre risked her life for us. So for her, I risked mine too. And Elain’s. The difference is that I actually died and became this,” she pointed at her own body, everyday stronger, gaining back the absurd beauty that belonged only to creatures from that side of the Wall. She hated it ”while Feyre found happiness. My sister chose to come back to this awful land full of monsters, I was dragged out of my bed and taken.”

“Nesta-” The shadowsinger didn’t move, but his tone had a cautious note to it. She knew her eyes were now quicksilver, flames dancing in them. She had seen herself in the mirror when that happened. She would be cautious too.

Nesta didn’t let Azriel finish. She wanted Cassian to hear the rest. Cassian, who had promised her a future and then vanished. Cassian, who would still defend his High Lord even when he physically threatened her. Nesta wanted him to hear her words until the end.

She wanted him to be as hurt as she was.

Something tucked in her stomach, warning her that both of them would regret it later if she went on, but her blood was boiling, so she did it anyway.

“Your High Lord of friend or brother or whatever he is to you, promised we would be guarded.”

Nesta let the words resonate. She didn’t need to remind any of them what had happened next. They knew. They had suffered from Hybern too that night.

She wanted them to remember. It wasn’t fair that they got to live their happy ever after, but she had to be consumed by it and left alone because she didn’t warm up the room with a smile like Elain did. It wasn’t fair that after everything she went through so they could live this perfect life, they still got to lock her up in a tower and make her the villain.

Nesta didn’t need to look into Cassian’s eyes to know he was remembering the same moment she went over and over in her nightmares every night. The moment she was dragged into the Cauldron. His body in the ground, covered in blood. His shredded wings. Her screams echoing in the hall.

“So the next time I call him an asshole -and I promise it will happen again- don’t you dare using that tone with me.”

There was a long silence. Silver fire remained in her eyes, but Cassian didn’t turn to meet her gaze. He only said “I won’t”, and stalked out.

Alone with Azriel, Nesta bared her teeth at him.

Azriel watched her with that cool quiet, keeping utterly still. Like he saw everything in her head. Her bruised heart.

She couldn’t bear it. So she stood, only two bites taken from her food, and left the room as well.

She returned to the library. The lights blazed as brightly as they had during the day, and a few lingering priestesses wandered the levels. She found her cart, filled again with books needing to be shelved.

No one spoke to her, and she spoke to no one as she began to work, with only the roaring silence in her head for company.

[supercantaloupe]

on Aelwyn Abernant, the Reformed Villain Squad, and redeeming teenage antagonists

an analysis on antagonist character development in Fantasy High. spoilers through sophomore year and (mildly so) the most recent roll20 oneshot. essay under the cut bc i am very long winded

the turnaround with Aelwyn in s2 is handled so well  i cant get over it. she was such a major antagonist in the first season and just. despicable. she had no pathos. we hated this bitchy older sister who tried to kill Adaine and her friends and raise an evil dragon, and when she gets knocked on her ass and thrown in jail, we cheer.

and then s2 fucking starts saying “hey she’s in jail still if you’d like to look into that” and pursuing that thread ends up being almost as comedic an idea as it is a reluctant one; it’s also quickly shunted to the background as soon as more pressing leads present themselves, to the point where we almost forget about her until Adaine is kidnapped and then the first time you see her it’s just. viscerally upsetting.

she’s bad. she did evil. she got what she deserved.

but she already got what she deserved. last season.

she got her ass handed to her by a bunch of 14 year olds including her little sister (how embarrassing!). her plans were thwarted. she got punched in the face and made fun of. she already got her punishment.

it just……immediately registers as over-the-top Wrong to be told “hey, remember that antagonist you beat last season? she’s still being punished for that, except it’s way worse than just going to mumple.”

and there’s that reminder that like…this is a teenager. a child. who has been manipulated and abused. which is a really fascinating look at this character we used to see pretty much unilaterally as a one dimensional bitchy villain.

i mean we got a more in depth look at Penelope’s and Biz’s motivations in s1 (Penelope being the popular rich girl sorceress obviously hungry for power and the alllure of the high school clout that is being prom queen, but also we know that her having to turn on her best friend Sam Nightingale as part of the scheme was something she was reluctant and not happy to do; and Biz being that predatory incel creeper type dude besides just a nerd with computers and a lack of social graces). and they were as much willingly active in the plot as Aelwyn was. yet in s1 they really never do bother to explore Aelwyn’s motivations. i remember after watching s1 but before s2 that was one of my biggest lingering questions: why tf was Aelwyn involved?

well. she was manipulated and abused. her terrible parents raised her in an awful environment that conditioned her to Listen and Obey and Behave and Be Perfect, and then Kalina helped cinch the noose around her neck with threats and coersion into the KVS Kaper and the NMK crown debacle. she doesn’t freely choose any of it; she’s coerced, manipulated, abused.

and she already got justifiably punished for her bad actions in s1. the torture is almost literal overkill. it’s just……there’s this immediate turnaround in sympathy and view of the character. on first watch, it’s viscerally upsetting to see her getting so brutally punished for actions she already faced consequences for, and on rewatch, it makes your skin crawl to know she’s being tortured for terrible things she had little choice in carrying out. and tortured by some of the very same people who coerced her to behave terribly in the first place, to add insult to injury.

and it’s still fucking frustrating when they rescue her and her memory gets reset and she goes back to her parents because it’s like “well shit, she’s evil again, and we just wasted all that effort for nothing” but it’s also sad cause we know she’s running back to her abusers and she isn’t happy about it but doesn’t feel like she has a choice. and it’s sadder still that what eventually inevitably gets her to turn to good for good (i.e. away from her parents) is just. a full dissociative mental breakdown.

(but then she survives and it’s gonna be good!!! until Adaine dies in her fucking arms. which is. almost funny. she’s been through so much shit and that isn’t something that Brennan would have just. preplanned. like a written in plot point. no, that was just an unpredictable consequence of the battle. what a juicy fucking moment. she’s been through All That Shit™️ and has finally turned to fight for good and her sister just fully dies in front of her. yeowch)

and she turns out okay in the end. she comes out the other side alive and whole and supported by her sister and her friends, with the hope of a future and recovery. there is an acknowledgement that A) she can and will grow from her mistakes and damage, B) it’s going to be really hard, and C) the post-s2 one shots both prove that she’s doing okay now. hell, she has a whole squad now of other former-teenage-villains-turned-good-guys. she has friends now, Ragh and Zayn, with common ground, and a secret handshake and everything. they’ve all grown from the mistakes of their past into better, happier, healthier people

and about Zayn and Ragh. we’ve seen a lot of characters, protagonist and antagonist, teenage and adult, PC and NPC do some really fucked up shit and get punished for it. but why do they get happy endings? why are Aelwyn, Ragh, and Zayn the only members of the RVS and not someone else like Biz or Penelope or Dayne? 

well, the latter two are dead by then; but then again, Biz and Ragh were also killed by the Bad Kids in s1, and subsequently resurrected. (Zayn died too, but was neither killed nor revived at the Bad Kids’ hands, so i’ll get to him in a sec.) and there are plenty of adult antagonists the Bad Kids face who are killed and left that way by the Bad Kids without second thought: Johnny Spells, Coach Daybreak, Captain Wicklaw, the Abernant parents (presuming Arianwen doesn’t survive in the forest for very long, which i doubt). why do some characters get second chances while others don’t?

in the case of Zayn, his death was pretty much out of the Bad Kids’ hands, and they later found out he was manipulated by Daybreak into being bad anyway because of his sad living situation. he was a pretty minor antagonist in the scheme of things, and when we re-meet him as a ghost in the s1 epilogue, he’s pretty obviously remorseful for his actions. and dying seems like a steep enough punishment to me for the shit he did to contribute to the KVX caper; returning as a ghost, free from the trappings of his unfortunate living life, he now has the room and freedom to grow into a better person.

in the cases of Daybreak, Spells, Wicklaw, and the Abernant parents: these are bad people who should know better. these are fully grown adults who actively choose to do evil. whether they think it’s the right thing to do or not (in Daybreak’s case), whether they think it will benefit them and don’t care about anyone else (in the Abernants’ case), or whether they don’t care much at all and are just doing shit because they feel like it (in the cases of Spells and Wicklaw), these are all adults who consciously make the decision to do terrible things and hurt other people. of course Johnny Spells, who is generally a punk thief and thug, is not on the same level of bad as Angwyn, who kidnaps and tortures his own daughters for political gain, but the point remains. these fuckers should know better. they’re grown ups. they had their chances to be good and they chose not to heed them. their minds are set on bad actions and they are a continued danger to other people as long as they are alive. when they die, the Bad Kids do their damndest to make sure it stays that way.

now, in the cases of Penelope and Dayne: these are teenagers who actively chose to participate in an evil plot. Penelope, Dayne, and Biz were all fully cognizant of what they were doing trying to raise KVX back to his former power. why? well, to some extent, we can only speculate. i suspect Penelope was just one of those Regina George bitches who is rich and popular and powerful and obsessed with power and popularity within high school as if that’s the end-all-be-all of existence (which, like, when you’re currently in high school, is a somewhat understandable worldview i think). Dayne being her boyfriend and a musclehead jock probably falls into a similar line of thinking. they are actively and willingly trying to cause harm, and teenager or not, must be stopped. they’re killed, anyway, during the Climactic Battle™️ anyhow; it’s not like the Bad Kids were going to gain anything at that point by keeping them alive.

now, Biz: Biz is the creepy Nice Guy incel type, sees woman as a prize he deserves to win, yadda yadda. he does, like Penelope and Dayne, actively choose to help KVX. there might be something to be said about his motivation the Bad Kids discover after the arcade battle by detecting his thoughts (that being to upload the captured maidens from the palimpsests to “call the shots” himself) is an altered memory; whether this was his original motivation from the start or not, i’m not sure. but the Bad Kids do kill him – and then resurrect him for important, time-sensitive information. and they beat it out of him – he gets two of his fucking fingers blown off. and Riz reattaches them once they have their info, and they realize his memory is altered. of course, the Bad Kids don’t know at this point that the altered memory was something he, Penelope, and Aelwyn had planned and agreed on and done to themselves, but this points to something important in my opinion: the Bad Kids, and the narrative/show as a whole by extension, acknowledge that external manipulation affects how guilty someone is in a crime.

which brings us to Ragh. Ragh, introduced from episode 1 as the meathead jock. Ragh the archetypical one-dimensional high school bully. Ragh who works with the harvestmen in effort to (ostensibly) end the world/provoke international war. Ragh, whose low intelligence but high loyalty and internalized homophobia led him to be fully swayed and blindly led by his coach and captain, who have actively chosen to do evil. Ragh who is killed in combat by the Bad Kids and resurrected for information, not Daybreak. Ragh, who the Bad Kids realize was probably not aware of exactly what he was being made to do and how bad it really was. Ragh, who by their kindness in sparing his life and directing him on a better path, becomes a well-rounded character and an active ally to the Bad Kids during and after prom, an invaluable companion during their quest in sophomore year, and overall a really good friend and person. 

(it might also be worth considering the case of Jawbone here, too, who started out a very minor antagonist in a fight but ended up becoming a major NPC because the Bad Kids talked to him, found out he came from an unfortunate situation and set of circumstances, and showed him kindness in offering the school guidance counselor position, a kindness that isn’t really owed but given anyway and ends up changing his entire life for good.)

and then, Aelwyn, whose case is already discussed above. so, why is the RVS what it is, why them but not others?

if you’re familiar with Avatar: the Last Airbender, you’re probably familiar with Zuko’s character arc, and how it’s often lauded as a masterful example of developing a villain into a hero over the course of a narrative. what makes Zuko’s arc so well done and exceptional is that he starts out as a kid in a bad situation under the influence of bad adults seeking to do bad deeds, but he later realizes the error of those ways, actively removes himself from that situation despite the difficulty and danger in doing so, goes through a lot of shit and reflects on his past mistakes and learns from them, and then actively chooses to fight for good in the end with the help of close, trusted friends, found family. 

this, i believe, is the same in the case of Fantasy High and its treatment of the RVS. its members, like Zuko, are all teenagers who came from shitty situations and were manipulated by evil adults to do bad. they are punished for their bad actions, and they learn from their errors and mistakes. with the kindness and help of good people, friends and chosen family, they are able to escape their abusers and bad situations and grow into their own people. and they actively choose to improve themselves with that help and fight for good.

Fantasy High, through the arcs of Jawbone, Zayn, Ragh, and especially Aelwyn, asserts that it is not your fault if you come from a bad situation and are forced to behave badly as a result. it does not pretend that you are absolved of any responsibility for those actions; quite the opposite, as even though they were externally manipulated into their evil actions, all of those mentioned characters face tangible consequences for their actions and later express remorse for their mistakes. but Fantasy High also asserts that even if you have made great mistakes in your past, even if you came from a bad situation beyond your control, even if you were manipulated and abused, with care and love and support and a hell of a lot of work and effort, you can improve your situation and find good, happiness, peace, you can thrive. evil adults who should know better don’t get redeemed. teenagers who aren’t coerced but actively choose evil don’t get redeemed. but abused kids deserve another shot at happiness. with enough work, and some love and help along the way, they can get there, even from the lowest imaginable point, from rock fucking buttom. it’s possible. 

[honey-dewey]

Dye Day Disasters

Pairing: Shane ‘Dio’ Morrissey/Reader

Word Count: 2,377

Warnings: None!

Permanent Taglist: @phoenixhalliwell @star-wars-hell

Dio dyes his hair black every three weeks, and he does so in his bathroom. He has it all down to a science, so he should have no problem helping you dye your hair a fun color, right? Let’s just hope this afternoon project doesn’t turn into a colorful hair fail. 

“I’m going out!”

You looked up, seeing Dio by the door, stepping into his boots. “Where to?”

Dio shrugged. “Drug store. It’s dye day.”

Almost immediately, you were up and by his side. “I’m coming.”

“You aren’t dressed,” Dio pointed out. “And why?”

“I wanna dye my hair too,” you said. “Wait here, I’ll be ready in ten.”

True to your word, you were ready in ten minutes. Dio rolled his eyes, but put his arm over your shoulders as you two walked down the street to the drug store on the corner. The summer sun was warm on your skin as you walked, and you had no idea how the hell Dio wasn’t dying in his leather coat.

“Alright,” Dio said once you were in front of the dyes in the drug store. “What color do you want?” As he spoke, he reached over you and grabbed a bottle of black dye for himself.

You shrugged, looking over the dyes. “I dunno. Will I need bleach?”

“Probably. I’ve got some at home, but grab another one just in case.”

You grabbed a bottle of bleach and continued to consider your colors. “What about this?” You pointed to a bottle of hair dye that was the color of maraschino cherries called ‘Poison’. “Danger Days red!”

Dio snorted. “Mhm. Okay Gerard. If you want our bathroom to look like a crime scene, go right ahead.”

You laughed, continuing down the line. “Beetlejuice green?”

“Yeah,” Dio said. “It’d look good on you.”

Humming, you kept looking. “I’ve made up my mind,” you announced, grabbing the ‘Iris green’ and the ‘Virgin pink’ dyes. “We can half-and-half it!”

Dio smiled. “You’ll look like a watermelon.”

“And you’ll look like a bottle of ink again when we’re done,” you pointed out, walking happily to the counter.

When you got back to the apartment, Dio popped over your windows while you dragged your office chair into the kitchen. Spinning it eagerly, you lined up the various dyes on the kitchen counter and called Dio in.

“What the fuck is this?” He asked, seeing you emptying the sink.

“Bathroom gets cramped when it’s the both of us,” you reminded him. “Plus, this chair is infinitely better than bending over the sink.” To demonstrate, you sat in the chair and tipped all the way back, fumbling with the lever on the bottom that would lock it in place. “See?”

Dio sighed, looking over the dyes. “Fine. Drag the chair back over here. I’m bleaching your hair first.”

Rolling back towards Dio, you smiled watching him take his jacket off. “Comfy?” He asked, putting his hands on your shoulders.

“Yep!”

Dio popped open the bleach and expertly mixed it in a dye bowl. He set the bowl on the counter and looked at you. “Do you like that shirt?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You’ll ruin it,” Dio said. “Put this on.” He handed you an oversized Panic! at the Disco shirt with bleach and dye stains around the collar. You stripped out of your shirt and put Dio’s on, sitting back down and letting Dio put a towel across your shoulders.

“Ready?” Dio asked.

You nodded. “Do it.”

Dio smiled at your enthusiasm and slowly began to section your hair, using a surprising amount of hair clips. You relaxed into the chair, knowing you’d probably be here for a while. Scrolling aimlessly through your phone, you eventually found a playlist you’d made for Dio some time back. It was entirely the small sliver where his taste in music overlapped with yours. As soon as you hit play, Twenty One Pilots began to play, and Dio chuckled from behind you.

“Why don’t you bleach your hair?” You asked as Dio began to brush the bleach onto your hair.

“I’m going from brown to black. I don’t need to bleach it,” Dio said. “If you were going to black, we wouldn’t be bleaching your hair either.”

You had to stop yourself from nodding. “Okay. Why do you dye your hair?”

Dio paused. “You’re just full of questions today, aren’t you?”

“I’m curious, you emo fuck.”

That drew a laugh out of Dio. “Yeah yeah. I dye my hair because I like having black hair,” he said. “I tried vibrant colors years ago, but I liked having black hair the most.”

You thought about it for a minute. “Wait. If today is dye day, does that mean if we shaved your head, it would be completely brown?”

Dio stopped what he was doing and turned the chair around so you were face to face with him, his hands on the armrests trapping you in place. “Do not,” he said slowly. “We are not shaving my head.”

You nodded, eyes wide. “Okay mr. I’m in charge here. Not shaving your head. Got it.”

Satisfied, Dio turned you back around and continued to mess with your hair. You, still somewhat scared, sat very still as he worked, until he was wrapping your head in plastic wrap and pulling the towel from your shoulders. “Alright. Half an hour, but we’ll check it at twenty minutes.” And then he was gone, headed into the bathroom. You followed, regaining some of the confidence Dio had intimidated out of you.

“What are you doing?” You asked, seeing Dio take his shirt off. “I thought we were doing this in the kitchen.”

“We are,” Dio said, opening the bathroom cabinet and rummaging through it. “I’d just rather not get hair everywhere in the kitchen.” He resurfaced with a pair of scissors. “Have you never seen me do this before?”

You shook your head. “You cut your own hair?”

Dio nodded, ruffling his hair and examining himself in the mirror. “Yeah. I could do yours too, if you want.”

“Yeah no, I’ll leave that to the professionals,” you said, sitting on the edge of the bathroom counter and kicking your legs.

“I am a professional.”

You snorted. “Box dyeing and trimming your own hair doesn’t make you a professional, Dio.”

Dio shrugged one shoulder. “My sister, the oldest one, went to cosmetology school. I was her guinea pig. Eventually, I managed to graduate to the rank of her student. She taught me everything I know about all of this.”

“Huh.” You hadn’t even considered that. “Is she the one who visited last month and told you that you look like an oil spill?”

“Yeah, she is.”

You nodded. “I liked her.”

Dio finished his hair quickly, put a shirt back on, and herded you back into the kitchen to check the bleach. “Eh. We’ll wait the extra ten,” he said. “This stuff is powerful, so you’ll only need one round of bleach.”

The extra ten minutes were wasted with food. Dio sat on the counter while you spun lazily in the chair, humming to yourself and eating. When the timer went off, Dio hopped up and turned the sink on while you readjusted the chair.

“The water won’t be warm,” Dio warned you, but you just shrugged, rolling towards the sink.

Despite the warning, you flinched when the cool water hit your head, and Dio sighed. “Told you.”

You stuck your tongue out at him, and he returned the favor, giving you a flash of his tongue piercing in the process.

Somehow, you managed to relax into the water after a minute. It probably helped that Dio was slowly massaging your head, turning your body into jelly as he worked shampoo through your hair. When he was done, he wrapped your head in a towel and helped you sit up, looking you over for bleach burns. You had none, so he kissed the back of your neck and grabbed your hair dryer.

“Aren’t we gonna dye your hair?” You asked as he unwrapped the towel on your head.

“Yeah. When I finish yours,” he said, turning the hair dryer on and killing any protests you had.

Dio nearly put you to sleep with the hair dryer. It was warm, and he was running his free hand through your hair, and you were just about to fall asleep when he turned the dryer off and poked your shoulders. “Time to dye,” he said in a sinister voice, and you laughed.

“Dork.”

“Sap,” he said in return, mixing the dyes in two separate bowls. “Now’s the time to say something if you want me to cut your hair.”

You shook your head. “Just the color this time.”

Dio nodded, picking up his hair clips and putting them on the edge of his sleeve. He slowly and methodically sectioned your hair in half, clipping down the left side and leaving the right side loose. He turned away, and you heard the harsh snap of rubber gloves. The towel was around your shoulders once more, and then Dio was painting electric pink dye into your hair. He started near the back, so you couldn’t see a single thing he was doing. But you trusted him, so you let him continue, occasionally turning the chair when he asked so he could have better access to your head.

When the pink was done, the green was next. Dio unclipped the left section of hair, humming along to the unbearably adorable Train song you were playing. “Still sure about the watermelon colors?”

“Still sure,” you confirmed, holding up your phone. “Smile!”

Dio looked up and smiled, knowing this photo wouldn’t ever see the light of day. While he started to work the green into your hair, you made the photo your phone background. It was cute, and while Dio wasn’t known for being cute, you knew him differently than everyone else did.

“Green’s done,” Dio announced after a bit. “Let me just wrap it up and then you can do my hair.”

You were plenty eager to dye Dio’s hair, so you sat still as he wrapped your head up again. When he was done, you and him traded places.

“Just read the instructions carefully,” Dio said as you opened the dye. “It’s not as hard as it sounds.”

Dio was right. The instructions where simple, and you were soon pulling on a pair of gloves and putting a towel over Dio’s shoulders. You poured the black dye into the bowl and picked up the brush. “So what?” You asked, standing behind Dio. “I just paint it on?”

“You’re doing my roots, it’ll be easiest if you brush it on and then go back through with your hands,” Dio explained. “Just do what I did on your head. It’ll be hard to fuck this up.”

Nodding, you picked up the brush and began to apply the dye. It was a lot like painting, which you didn’t suck at. You, at Dio’s recommendation, did his hair in sections, the same way you had seen people straighten their hair. It was easy to gain a rhythm like this, and before you knew it, you were done. Dio took over, wrapping his head in plastic wrap and falling onto the couch. “Alright. Half an hour at the least.”

You two cuddled and watched some conspiracy theory show Dio liked, having to pause the episode about Mothman because your timer went off.

“Alright watermelon head,” Dio said, tipping the chair back and gesturing for you to sit. “Let’s get this done.”

Again, you went boneless as Dio used cold water to rinse your hair. Despite the chill that raced down your spine, his hands were experienced and helped relax you as he worked.

“Y’know,” you said softly while Dio was still working. “You could totally do this for a living. You’re good at it.”

“What, dye hair?” Dio asked.

You shrugged as best you could. “No. You could do what your sister does. For a living instead of just for you and me.”

Dio sighed. “Not my thing,” he said. “I’ll stick to doing your head and my own head, thank you very much.”

That was promptly the end of that conversation, mostly because Dio was helping you upright and turning on the hair dryer again. This time, you didn’t fall asleep, focused instead on Dio standing in front of you. His sternum was at your eye level, and you were half tempted to lift his shirt and kiss his belly. But you didn’t, mostly out of fear he’d fuck your hair up.

When he finished, you stood and he sat, tipping the chair back so you could wash his hair.

“No soap?”

“Nope.”

“Cold water?”

“Yep.”

You nodded, turning the sink on and beginning to rinse Dio’s hair. The water ran black for a while while you used your hands to massage Dio’s head, and when it finally ran clear, you turned the water off and squeezed the excess from Dio’s hair. He sat up while you messed with the dryer, turning it on and slowly beginning to dry Dio’s hair.

It took him some time to realize you’d put an attachment on the hair dryer. “Are you diffusing my hair?”

“Maybe,” you said happily, already seeing the curls Dio did his best to hide. “C’mon!” You said upon seeing the displeasure on his face. “Your curls are so pretty!”

Dio continued to pout while you dried his hair, and when you were done, he stood and stretched, shaking his head. “You did good. Wanna see?”

You nodded, pulling Dio into the bathroom and eagerly looked at yourself in the mirror. Dio looked almost no different, the black a bit more prominent and less faded than usual. But you, you looked like a whole different person. The vibrant green and pink gave you life and made you look unforgettable.

“I love it!” You said, ruffling your hair. “Oh it’s so cool!”

Dio smiled. “I’m glad you like it,” he said.

You sent photos to your friends and family while Dio cleaned up, eventually joining you back on the couch so you could finish your conspiracy theory show.

“Thank you,” you said out of the blue, watching someone who claimed to have definitely seen Mothman.

“Hm?” Dio looked down at you, the hand that was running through your hair stopping. “What?”

“Thank you,” you repeated. “For my hair.”

Dio shrugged. “Just doing my job,” he said, kissing the top of your head. “Love you.”

“I love you too, you dork.”

[mssboo]

Hi! I adore all of your free content! There’s not nearly enough of tumblr, do you have any other headcanons? I love to read them :D

there is never too much free, just remeber that

like, i have nothing to do so here it is: 

- singing duets from different parts of the room. fred is singing in the shower and lee sings (so loud btw) with him from his bed - throwing into each other's bed - weirdly dancing at 3 a.m while the radio plays old songs - watching spanish shows because they don't have anything to do and don't understand anything - fred reading the mystery novels lee has because he absolutely loves them - talks that end with a bursting laugh - lee always flirting and saying embarrassing things to fred in the middle of quidditch matches - got suspended for 3 weeks because of that - "hey, wake up" - "what?" - "i just wanted to say that i love you" - fred always tries his best to make lee laugh when he's sad - he is capable of anything - the partners in crime™ - cliche sometimes - they spend 30% of their time together in the kitchens eating - passing notes during class - holding back laugh during class because one of them said something so stupid but rly funny in that notes - umbridge came and omg - hold up, so many things to say - always kissing when umbridge passes - or hugging or just some random lovers stuff - just to fuck off umbridge - " i love you" "i love you more" constantly - saying random and sometimes lovely names to each other - fred calling lee a dickhead and the next day calling him honey - lee is always late and fred has to wait for him like 20 minutes - and they are late for class but fred never blames lee - S T R E T C H   I N   E A C H   O T H E R ' S   L A P - tickle fights - fred trying to pass lee's muggle videogames and constantly asking what have he to do - lee loving james bond and fred enduring lovingly the huge admiration lee has for him - when they sleep together, lee puts his head in fred's neck and tackles him out of the bed when he's deeply sleeping. fred's arm is crushed by lee's body and his face gets closer to lee's - fred is the first to wake up usually, such a morning person - fred and george leave hogwarts and lee is so sad - and writes them every day - so when he ends goes directly to weasley wizard wheezes to meet them - and fred and lee hug and kiss again after a long time - lee does all the possible things and gets a little apartment near them - "fred and lee dancing and singing loud songs of the weird sisters in the street (despite they're in a war) because they didn't dance together in the yule ball" is one of my favourite things - potterwatch is a success and fred is like "i knew you will make it, love" - fred, george, and lee making a new part of the podcast just laughing and chilling with special guests because they want to remind people how important is feel happy - protecting each other's always - and then the battle of hogwarts cames - death? i don't know her - they both pass the war but fred is seriously injured - lee passes with him most of the day and nights and then he gots better - fred encourages them to keep with the radio, and lee helps him with the shop - molly is such a great mother-in-law - she starts to knit lee's sweater and lee is so happy (who no?) - and then, years later, they decide to adopt a girl and a boy, and hell yeah, the family jordan-weasley is a reality - it's 9:30 here in spain and i can’t think about that correctly because i only slept 5 hours - but i can say that they're very happy and they're a lovely couple who love their kids and family - fuck you, joanne - love y'all

bonus headcanon;

- it came out at 2011 but i can't resist imagine fred and lee singing super loudly "tongue tied" and it's my favourite headcanon

[discotreque]

LwD 2.03: We’ll Always Have Tom Paris

I’ve lived in the same apartment for eight years now, and yesterday was the fifth catastrophic mechanical failure of the same bathroom toilet—all unrelated issues, too; this time it was the fill valve. At this point I don’t know whether to call a plumber or an exorcist… but anyway, it’s been kind of hard to focus on Star Trek! Ugh.

This week’s episode is credited to M. Willis, who I last encountered on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, a show about which I wrote literally 100,000 words of fanfic last year, in between Picard and Lower Decks when I had no Star Trek to obsess over. Willis’s She-Ra episodes tended to be slightly off-format in execution, with big action set pieces, lots of characters in unexpected combinations, and usually an emotional game-changer of a climax—and her last credit on this show was “Much Ado About Boimler,” which obviously had all those elements too. She writes to her strengths!

Spoilers within:

If you need me, I’m going to be ugly-laughing about “Voy” for the rest of the day. (Wow, that does actually save a ton of time!)

SHAXS IS BACKXS!!!! The lower-deckers never knowing how or why a senior officer came back from the dead is a perfect microcosm of this show. I love that he still calls Rutherford “Baby Bear,” and I love the weird cosmic horror that LwD keeps sprinkling into the Star Trek universe. (What does that koala know?) I hope this doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Kayshon! His appearance on the bridge gives me hope we’ll get to keep both characters around.

Star Trek has always had fairly fuzzy world-building for the world outside Starfleet—understandable, since 99% of Star Trek takes place within Starfleet—but it’s been such a thrill to see LwD (and Picard) finally establish some in-universe pop culture that isn’t conveniently familiar to 20th- or 21st-century audiences. Like the Zebulon Sisters last season—a band that apparently does USO-style tours of Starfleet ships? Delightful. Kestra Troi-Riker having a t-shirt from a Sex Pistols cover band in Klingon? Fucking brilliant. Tendi bonding with the guy at the storage place over the “Klingon acid punk” playing from his little Bluetooth speaker? PUT IT IN MY VEINS.

They really put the character development in gear this week! I liked how we locked in a couple of things already established in extra-canonical material: Mariner’s bisexuality, which Mike McMahan mentioned in an interview last year, and Tendi’s given name, D’vana (which I was sure we’d heard on the show before, but I guess not?).

Speaking of Mariner’s love life, is human–Bynar dating just… by definition a threesome situation?

We learned a lot of new things about Tendi, though, and every single one makes her 10 times more interesting to me. Remember last season, when she said “many” Orions hadn’t been pirates or slavers “for over five years”? Is the implication that something happened in Orion culture—around the end of the Dominion War?—that led to Tendi (and presumably others) rejecting a life of crime and joining Starfleet? How long was she “the Mistress of Winter Constellations” before that—or is it more of an inherited title? I want more Tendi lore!!!!

(Speaking of Tendi’s life, another quick and confounding piece of information for my red-yarn “what the hell is up with Tendiford” theory board: Mariner asks if they’re dating and Tendi’s response is “Not really!” Not really? That’s not no, D’vana!)

This show continues to be a surprisingly conventional workplace sitcom underneath all the excellent Star Trek (and that’s not a bad thing, just a genre overlap that keeps falling out of the front of my mind). Boimler’s inability to use the computer hit way too close to home for me this week: a couple years ago, I returned to a job after a long-term leave of absence, during which time I’d been assigned to a new manager—who’d never had an employee return from long-term leave before, so he didn’t know what to do beforehand—so I spent my first day back just chilling at my desk, fucking around on my phone, because there was literally nothing else I could do without logging into the system first. Too real!

Something we’ve seen in this show that I’m not sure we’ve seen before w/r/t the food replicators is somebody putting a tray of food into the replicator to add more food on top of it—in this case Shaxs getting spicy kiwi ketchup (?!) on a hot dog he seems to have already replicated. (He couldn’t have asked for “hot dog, with spicy kiwi ketchup” in the first place? This is haunting me worse than him coming back from the dead.)

As a certified cat lady, the T’Ana plotline—and its resolution—made me laugh until I couldn’t breathe (unless that was the toxoplasmosis). I should have seen it coming, but I was too distracted by the second-hand embarrassment of them breaking “Jeremy” (and the completely unprecedented Star Trek plot of a doctor getting off on her grandmother’s family heirloom…).

Miscellany:

Jet offering to carry Boimler across the threshold of the door like a bride… am I going to ship THIS now?

Mariner interpreting Tendi’s “talk like a pirate!” in the same way a modern millennial would—“Arr, how ya be doin’ today, me fellow Orion?”—might have been my favourite dumb joke in the entire episode. (“I’m allergic to, uh, pheromones?”)

Tawny Newsome read the line about “only one name, like Odo!” in the script and apparently literally called Mike McMahan out of the blue to remind him that Odo’s name is short for “Odo’ital” and she didn’t want nitpicking nerds on her case. He told her the line was so funny he would accept the nitpicking, so don’t blame Tawny—she tried to warn him!

“There’s like, only a couple people in the quadrant who can say they got beat up by Tom Paris.” Is that a burn? I think that’s a burn.

Another banger of an episode. This show is more confident this season, and I’m loving it—and based on what I’ve heard from people who’ve seen the next two episodes, it only gets better from here. HYYYYYYYPE!!!!!!

See you next week—I’ve got to go fashion a toilet plunger into a crucifix, apparently.

[in-tua-deep]

20 for Vanya?

20. What-ifs/Alternate Timelines

I have a lot of what-ifs and alternate timelines for Vanya lmao, especially ones that prevent the apocalypse because I’m a sucker for a happy ending tbh

What if Vanya was included? Why not? Klaus’s powers weren’t useful for missions, Allison’s story for Claire was literally like “yeah Klaus got distracted by ghosts in the background lol” so it’s not like a kid without offensive powers couldn’t do it

you have rebellious Vanya aus, where she decides, like some neglected children do, so act out. If her father isn’t going to acknowledge anything good about her, she’s going to make him acknowledge the bad. Punishment might be the only time he pays attention to her, after all.

(let’s call this an au where the pills suppress her powers but not so much her emotions)

So you have an au where she sneaks out and joins the missions. She breaks into the mausoleum and picks Klaus up and stares her father down with a challenge in her eyes. 

Five vanishes, and Vanya gets worse. She plays her violin at 2 in the morning. She refuses to eat her broccoli. she teams up with diego to see who can piss dad off the most

(her and Diego actually get along very well in this sort of au, honestly)

Vanya gets out and plays the violin and gets angry. She plays with fury and fire and gets second chair, because Helen is actually really very good. But she makes Helen work for it. Helen isn’t secure in her position, she always knows that Vanya is a step away from taking it from her

and maybe that should make them enemies, but it doesn’t. They’re rivals. Helen respects the hell out of Vanya, and Vanya can’t help but admire the woman who makes the most difficult pieces look effortless

(RIVALS TO LOVERS: VIOLIN EDITION)

Vanya writes her book. Except she kicks down Diego’s boiler room door and is like “DIEGO”

“WHAT”

“I WANT TO WRITE A BOOK ABOUT HOW MUCH DAD FUCKING SUCKS”

“I’LL BE RIGHT THERE”

as one of the rebel kids, Vanya actually got along well with Klaus as well since she helped him sneak out and 100% also smoked at least some weed with him because it would piss off Reggie tbh though she didn’t get into the harder drugs like he did

(showing up absolutely plastered to breakfast when they were sixteen was hilarious even if the laps they had to run around the block were not)

anyway Klaus crashes at her apartment sometimes, with supervision, because she loves Klaus but he has a problem and has stolen from her before but he’s still her brother but regardless

Klaus-Diego-Vanya sleepovers where they brainstorm the book to shit talk their father. Honestly it’s kind of a blast. They all get super wine drunk and end up watching Mary Poppins together with some Very Loud Opinions about nannies in general tbh

klaus throwing popcorn at the screen: BOO WHY WAS OUR CHILDHOOD NOT A MUSICAL???

diego: idk if you can have cheery musicals about child soldiers

vanya: i mean if they can have a musical about child labor in factories and the starvation of the workers in oliver twist you could do something with child superheroes

klaus: EXACTLY thank you vanya

they publish the book (luther is uNHAPPY, vanya dedicates her book to ‘all my siblings who survived the Reginald Regime but especially those who didn’t’, and she gifts Reggie a copy that says “fuck you lol” and is signed by her, diego, and klaus), they continue living, they go to the funeral when reggie kicks the bucket

and then five shows up, feral and aching

and five tells vanya about the apocalypse, and vanya thinks about their father saying time travel messed with the mind, and then she thinks - fuck the old man he was wrong about her (ordinary, fuck that, she’s Vanya Fucking Hargreeves) and he was probably wrong about Five, too

and Five is wholeheartedly believed

“Let me call Diego,” Vanya says when Five tells her about the eye, “I bet he could totally wear a police uniform and get info about the eye. And if not, I’m absolutely sure Klaus could improvise a solution. He’s good at that.”

“Klaus??” Five asks, vaguely suspicious.

“We don’t talk about the Sleepover of 2012.” Vanya intones solemnly, and refuses to answer any further questions on the topic.

Harold Jenkins comes to the apartment and tries to woo Vanya or whatever, and Vanya is kind of like... “Look, Leonard. I can be your teacher for violin. It’s my job. But I am in a relationship. And also like, super gay. If you have a problem with that then I am not the teacher for you.”

Actually scratch Diego and Klaus getting called, which they do, Vanya looks at them and her thirteen year old brother and is like “wait. actually i know someone infinitely better to crack this case wide open.”

“Who?” Five, Klaus, and Diego all ask

“My girlfriend.” Vanya says proudly, called Helen up.

And Helen walks into the building like she’s at fucking war and has such demanding confidence that they just give her the information she seeks and apologize for inconveniencing her.

“Hey Vanya are we still on for date night tomorrow?” Helen casually asks after, and Five kind of wants to be her when he grows up honestly after watching her verbally eviscerate Lance or whatever the fuck his name is

“Yeah.” Vanya confirms, “Unless there’s other apocalypse stuff to do?”

“You take all the time you need, honey.” Helen says warmly, “After all the more time you take the less you have to practice.”

“I’m gonna destroy the concert piece and you know it.” Vanya threatens.

Helen sniffs, “Okay, whatever you say second chair.”

and then they kiss and Helen ditches and the others just kind of look at Vanya judgingly

“In fairness, she’s very hot and very talented.” Vanya defends herself.

Klaus nods sagely. Vanya nods back. He gets it. 

“Concert piece?” Diego asks, because he has priorities.

“Yeah, I’ve already asked for tickets for all of you and you will be attending Diego.” Vanya smiles prettily with all her teeth.

“When is it?” Five asks

“April 1st.” Vanya tells him, “And no that isn’t an April Fools joke. You will attend and you will marvel at my skill. And maybe run interference between Helen and Allison because I’m kind of afraid they’re going to rip each others throats out to establish dominance.”

“That’s the day of the apocalypse.” Five informs her.

“Not on my goddamn watch.” Vanya says, because her family will attend her fucking concert and they will make awkward small talk with her girlfriend and the fucking apocalypse has better lay down and get over itself because nothing can stop Vanya’s goddamn plans

“I can investigate Meritech more.” Diego offers, because Lance-or-whatever-his-name-is is clearly shady as shit, “I have police contacts I could go through. Hey Vanya, your concert tickets include a plus one?”

“They can.” Vanya shrugs.

“Sweet, let me see if Patch can come.”

“She’s way too good for you, bro.”

“Shut your goddamn mouth.”

Anyway the point is they all go home, and Diego goes to talk to his police contacts and Five is definitely at home for when Hazel and Cha-Cha attack the mansion, oops. 

“Whomst the FUCK.” Vanya yells, kicking Hazel in the crotch because she’s Vanya Fucking Hargreeves she knows self defense thank you very much

“Ah.” Five says. “Hazel. How’s it going.”

“Just peachy.” Hazel wheezes, “Why’d you betray the Commission?”

“Well, you know. They cut the dental. That was really the last straw.” Five says, sarcastically.

“The dental.” Hazel echoes back, nodding very seriously, “I fucking know. You know physical therapy isn’t even covered anymore?”

“No shit?” Five says, “I mean you’d think with a job as physical as ours...”

“I know.” Hazel howls, vindicated. 

“Five.” Vanya says, rolling her eyes, “The house?”

“Oh, right.” Five frowns, looking at Hazel, “I mean. Can you like, leave? And not come back?”

“‘Fraid not.” Hazel actually sounds somewhat apologetic, “You know what the Commission is like. They’re really gunning for you.”

Five nods, because really what did he expect, “Can you leave like, temporarily? I mean you’d pretty clearly outnumbered. I don’t even know where Cha-Cha is, but judging by the furious yelling she probably met our sister and brother and Luther is hard to kill. Trust me, if he wasn’t we would have killed him when we were like, eight. But for real, can you get out of our house? I mean. Storming the den? Seriously? What kind of information did they even give you?”

“They didn’t give us any information.” Hazel responds back, sounding appropriately outraged, “They didn’t even tell us you could teleport.”

“Well that’s just rude. You’d think they wanted you dead or something.” Five muses, “But seriously, get out of my house.”

“Yeah, that’s fair.” Hazel admits, and leaves, because honestly Hazel is chill like that and knows when he’s lost. And Hazel also has a lot to think about. Like the fact that the Commission sucks and doesn’t even have dental, and how pretty the donut lady is. 

and Vanya is just like... okay. Weird. Is that going to happen again? Probably? I mean. Okay, this day has already been so goddamn weird. This week, honestly.

And they keep getting attacked by the Commission. And Vanya finds out someone broke into her apartment and stole her meds. What the fuck. 

“Did your shitty assassin friends do this?” Vanya asks, waving an empty pill bottle.

“Why would they?” Five asks, honestly confused.

“Because they’re assholes?” Vanya says, honestly outraged.

“You got me there.” Five admits.

The combined forces of Diego-and-Patch (because Patch is actually thrilled that Diego is asking for help regarding an actual fucking crime) figure out that the eyeballs are being sold illegally

Klaus is not kidnapped so he’s fine, just tagging along and living his best life, however this also means that Klaus does not steal the briefcase and Hazel and Cha-Cha are fine

Vanya keeps Five close at hand because frankly she doesn’t want him to leave again and she did really miss him. Also if she does save the world she can lord it over Helen’s head forever. 

And so Five is around when Vanya’s powers manifest, probably because they just got targeted by commission goons again because they’re trying real hard to kill five and separate Vanya

“Holy SHIT.” Five says, very intelligently, “You have POWERS.”

“Wow. Gonna have to write a fucking sequel to the shit-talking-dad book.” Vanya says, honestly a little light headed.

And then Vanya finds out her powers are sound based.

“Oh no.” Vanya says, “Where the fuck are my pills. I am not relearning how to play the violin with-powers a few days before the big concert Five, what the fuck.”

“But you need to learn to control them!” Five protests, “They’re your powers!”

“They’re a goddamn inconvenience is what they are.” Vanya states, “I mean, what am I going to do with them? Stop a bank robbery with the Umbrella Academy? Yeah, no thanks, that ship has sailed and sunk to the bottom of the ocean Titanic style. I’ll figure them out when I’m not in danger of blasting the audience halfway across the continent.”

“Yeah.” Five admits, “That’s fair.”

“Besides, if I’ve been on that shit as long as I have, and it’s been a long time, I cannot even IMAGINE what quitting cold turkey will do.” Vanya points out, very sensibly, like a siblings who has watched Klaus go through withdrawal symptoms more than once.

“Maybe there’s extra at the manor?” Five suggests, “Pogo probably knows.”

“Oh yeah I bet Pogo knows something.” Vanya mutters maybe a little bitterly.

They go back to the mansion and the Commission is honestly pulling their hair out tbh, and they ask Pogo who kind of pales and is like “UHHHH YES I CAN GET VANYA EXTRA PILLS” and goes to get them from whatever stash

“Fucking sweet.” Vanya whispers, entirely done with this situation, “The only adult male role model I had and he hid my powers from me and betrayed me. Love that for us.”

Five shrugs, “I mean, you’re right. All of our adult role models were all kinds of fucked up.”

“You vanished when we were 13.” Vanya says, “Didn’t you find like, any other adults ever?”

“Oh let me tell you about the Handler.” Five says, and proceeds to do just that. Because let’s be real, the Handler was the only human interaction Five had after forty odd years alone it was pretty damn important

Vanya, on the other hand, has strong plans to eviscerate the Handler should the two ever meet because Five deserved way better than to be forcibly made into an assassin?? honestly fuck that woman

that’s it that’s the au

Vanya finds out she has powers and is like “i have a LIFE i don’t want to interrupt it with bullshit POWERS,,, also going cold turkey off my meds seems like a bad idea if I don’t want to deal with withdrawal symptoms during my concert for fucks sake, my gf would never let me live it down if i skipped”

so vanya takes her meds, does NOT destroy the world, makes every one of her siblings go to the concert and even invites Hazel and Agnes after Hazel betrays Cha-Cha to join team No-Apocalypse. 

and then introduces them all to her girlfriend

“Holy shit Vanya.” Helen deadpans, “Your family is all kinds of fucked up.”

“I know.” Vanya says, aggrieved, “It’s been a long fucking week. Want to go camping and help me figure out my cool sound based powers? Bet they’ll make me a better violin player than you.”

“I think the fuck not.” Helen hisses, always up for a challenge, “Let’s do this. Me and my violin vs. you and your dumb baby powers. You’re on.”

“FAMILY CAMPING TRIP.” Klaus hollers, with all the enthusiasm in his little heart.

“Holy shit this is going to be such a disaster, I just know it.” Diego mutters.

“Shut up, it’ll be nice.” Allison says, elbowing Diego with her pointy pointy elbows.

“It’s going to be a shitshow.” Vanya says serenely, because it is. That’s just who their family is. 

Wouldn’t have it any other way, though

[ceilingfan5]

can i please get a 6 "make me" / 33 "this is too easy" for the dialogue prompt?

im so sorry this is so long

“Ohhh, this? This is too easy,” Taako mutters to himself, waiting in the wings for his cue. The wedding music is so loud it rattles his teeth. If he weren’t clenching them in anticipation, he’d be worried about accidentally spitting one out. But he straightens his silk cape and his tulle veil with the beautiful embroidered flowers and he pastes on a smile like he’s happy to be there. If anyone spots a crack in his expression, they’ll surely chalk it up to it being an arranged marriage. 

And not, in fact, the dark deed Taako has to do right after the ceremony. 

The attendant waves him on and Taako steels himself and walks like he’s floating on a lilypad right up to the altar. 

And falters. 

He knew he would be charged with assassinating a prince. He knew that it would be a dirty job, a thankless job, and that he would be at great risk for doing so. But Taako was put into a position that made it impossible to refuse, and he justified it quietly to himself that royalty deserved their fate, and that there was no way an arranged marriage would go well for him anyway. Who would want Taako, after all he’d been through? 

But when he sees that gentle smile on the prince’s handsome face and he receives Taako with a supportive arm around his waist, Taako forgets how to breathe. 

He’s beautiful. Taako’s heart is singing, a desperate little bird calling for one last shot at a real life, before almost certainly being executed for his crimes. But at least they’ll let Lup go when he’s done. 

If he can do it. The prince pulls him close and Taako’s skin feels like champagne at every touch, and he looks back up at the prince’s face and the prince smiles back down at him, reassuring and so sweet. 

“You look a little nervous,” he whispers. “It’ll be alright.” 

If only that were true. 

“Do you, Prince Kravitz, Raven of Divinity, Inheritor of the Seven Seas, Lord of the Northern Passage, take Prince Taako of Amare to be your lawfully wedded husband?” 

“I do,” he says, with such certainty that Taako wishes for lightning to strike him right then and there and get the whole business over with. 

“And do you, Prince Taako of Amare, take Prince Kravitz, Raven of Divinity, Inheritor of the Seven Seas, Lord of the Northern Passage, to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I-” Taako’s throat is closing over. How stupid of him. He’s been doing this since he was thirteen and he’s falling in love with a target now? “I do.”

Kravitz raises the veil, and tenderly, like he’s been waiting for this moment his entire life, Kravitz kisses him, soft and sweet and deadly. 

The rest of the ceremony is a rush, and Taako barely takes in any of it, even the delicious food or the sweet little things Kravitz keeps whispering in his ear, or the way his ankle keeps brushing against Taako’s in clear invitation. They don’t retire until well into the night, and Taako almost seems to wake back up when the guards lock their chamber for their wedding night. 

Kravitz smiles at him. 

“I hope this isn’t too much for you. I know arranged marriages aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I really...I really think we can grow to love each other, Taako, and I’m so excited to start that journey with you. I’m so ready to help your land recover from those awful wars--there are so many people we can help-” 

He’s too nice. He keeps talking like that, but Taako’s ears are ringing. He can’t kill this man. But if he doesn’t, he loses Lup. He has to do it. 

He can’t. 

But he must. 

“My prince,” he interrupts, sickly sweet. “I’ve been thinking of nothing more all night than getting close to you. Perhaps you could help me with the fastenings on my outfit-?” 

“Oh, oh, yes, of course!” Kravitz bounces adorably on his toes and hurries over to help Taako out of his ridiculous garb. 

This doesn’t feel too easy anymore. 

He holds still as Kravitz unlaces every ribbon, and he gasps as he can finally take in a whole breath, and relaxes slightly as his coverings pool on the floor and he’s left in his undergarments. 

“Would you like help with these as well?” He presses a soft kiss to Taako’s cheek and Taako tries to keep breathing.

“Of course, my love,” Taako says. 

And Kravitz does, unlacing all the smallest bits like Taako was a present he’d been waiting for for twenty-one years. Taako hates what comes next. He can’t--but he must. 

“Is this……………..a dagger...in your pants?”

“I’m just happy to see you,” Taako quips, and he spins and presses the cold blade to Kravitz’s throat. For all his charm and wit, Kravitz just blinks stupidly at him. 

“I don’t understand?”

“What’s to get, stupid!” Fuck. Taako needs to keep his voice down if he’s going to get away with blaming a bandit coming through the window, or something. “You have to die tonight.”

“It’s an awful night to die on.” Kravitz frowns. “I was really excited to share the evening with you.”

“I’m not a fucking prince!” Taako hisses. “I’m an assassin, and you’re dying!”

“Well...Why? What have I done?”

“I don’t know! I just have to- or- or-” 

“Or what?” Kravitz’s neck is bleeding, but he still seems just put out by this situation, as if Taako had sat on his wedding cake instead of plotting to murder him in cold blood. 

“Or-” Taako can’t do this. “Or they kill my sister.” 

“Oh. Well, we can fix that. I’ll have them executed.”

“They’re too quick! You won’t get to them in time! She’s going to die if I don’t give the signal in the next three hours!”

Kravitz thinks for a moment, and then a slow, sly smile spreads across his face. 

“What if we fake my death until we can have them arrested?” 

Taako stares at him like he grew a second dick and offered to share it with him. 

“What? Why? Why are you doing this for me? I’m trying to kill you!”

“Not very hard,” Kravitz points out. “And I like you. I want to spend my life with you.”

“I’m not even a real prince!”

“My kingdom doesn’t know that. And I’ve always wanted to have an adventure. Let’s do this!”

Taako shakes his head in disbelief. 

“Fuck,” he says, hoarse and tired, lowering his dagger. “Why not.”

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 35: Oops! All Supports Volume #5

Time for one last chunk of Supports with the old Hoshidans before we get a bunch of new ones.

Support: Corrin/Saizo 

C: Saizo spies on Corrin because she's a royal from the country they're at war with.

B: Corrin, exhausted from looking over her back to check for Saizo, has trouble moving boxes. Saizo sneaks up and carries the boxes for her, because he's honorable.

A: Corrin gives Saizo candy, which he despises. Saizo tells her that he's done spying on her, because she's so fucking stupid that she couldn't possibly be scheming anything. Corrin decides that the two of them are friends, much to Saizo's chagrin.

S: Saizo says he fell in love with Corrin while stalking her.

Review: Overall, pretty decent. Saizo stalking Corrin and Corrin just shouting at him to get him to come out is fun.

Support: Kaze/Sakura

C: Kaze finds Sakura crying because she lost her doll. Sakura is embarrassed, but Kaze understands that it's important to her and helps her look.

B: Kaze helps Sakura find her doll, which was taken to a shop for repairs by Subaki. Sakura pretends she doesn't sleep with the doll.

A: Sakura shows Kaze all of her dolls, one for each of her siblings.

S: Sakura asks Kaze to see her as a woman, not a child, because she's an adult with a woman's feelings. Something contradicted by the rest of this Support.

Review: This one is cute. Sakura acts like a kid and Kaze is nice to her, treating her lost doll as serious. I’d really like this one, if it didn’t remind me that Sakura is a child soldier who marries much older men.

Support: Jakob/Setsuna

C: Setsuna falls into a pit. Jakob sarcastically asks Setsuna if she's having fun, which tricks her into wanting to stay in the pit.

B: Setsuna falls into another pit. Jakob makes fun of her.

A: Jakob falls into a trap himself and begs Setsuna for help; Setsuna tries to help him out but falls in too.

S: Jakob decides to babysit Setsuna to keep her from falling into pits, an excuse to spend more time with her. The two of them get married.

Review: As I’ve stated previously, Jakob and Setsuna are my favorite characters. Jakob’s dry snark pairs nicely with Setsuna’s stupidity. My only complaint is that it isn’t quite as funny as I hoped and Jakob is a bit of a dick.

Support: Azura/Hayato

C: Hayato asks Azura to tell him about all the places she's seen while traveling the world. She says no and Hayato monologues that she's hiding something.

B: Azura apologizes for being closed off, explaining that her childhood wasn't very happy. With a little more prodding, she describes several beautiful things she saw as a kid.

A: Azura describes more places and thanks Hayato for helping her remember the good times in her past.

S: Hayato proposes to Azura, saying they can visit all of those nice places together. Azura says turns him down and says she'd rather just be friends. Despite this, the two get married and have a kid immediately after this scene.

Review: Not bad, although it does raise one question: how much traveling did Azura do before her mother and her arrived in Nohr? I assumed it wasn’t too much travel, and that it happened when she was very young, but apparently not. I suppose she could be talking about traveling done later, but she was mostly confined to the castle in both of her later homes.

Support: Felicia/Ryoma

C: Felicia, wanting to be friends with Ryoma for Corrin's sake, makes Ryoma rice balls. They contain dark chocolate, which makes Ryoma gag.

B: Felicia tries again, this time filling them with massive lumps of salt.

A: Felicia, on Ryoma's suggestion, makes a Nohrian dish: sandwiches. As a child who watched Pokemon as a kid, this confuses me, because I thought sandwiches and riceballs were the same thing. Surprisingly, the sandwich is good.

S: Felicia and Ryoma eat together, her making sandwiches and him rice balls. Ryoma proposes because Felicia is cute.

Review: A simple, but cute Support.

Support: Oboro/Silas

C: Silas tries to befriend Oboro, but she turns him away because she despises Nohrians to the point of wanting to kill Silas for just existing.

B: Silas, after finding out about Oboro's parents, apologizes to her. She threatened to commit a hate crime, so I think she should be the one apologizing, but whatever. Oboro says she's cool with Silas now apparently because they fought together. Silas tells her that lots of Nohrians are good people, which Oboro kinda accepts but not really.

A: After Silas saves a Hoshidan village from Nohrian bandits off-screen, Oboro asks him if he only did it to prove his loyalty. Silas explains that he's a decent goddamn person, in less harsh words.

S: Oboro apologizes for being awful. Silas proposes and Oboro accepts.

Review: Yeah, this one isn’t great. Oboro is at her most awful here, and the game really doesn’t treat her harshly for that, with Silas treating her as just being misguided. Like, Oboro flat out says she wants to murder Silas for his race and he just shrugs it off. Oboro is a shitty person. And this problem is compounded by the fact that Nohr is constantly played as cartoonishly evil and Hoshido as unquestionably good, meaning that Oboro’s bullshit is somewhat justified by the narrative.

Support: Hinata/Mozu

C: Hinata, scammed by a pretty shopkeeper, pays way too much for supplies. Mozu explains that he needs to haggle.

B: Mozu teaches Hinata to haggle by figuring out people’s personalities.

A: Hinata says that haggling is like fighting.

S: Hinata asks Mozu out because she taught him to look at people differently.

Review: Not bad.

Support: Hana/Takumi

C: Takumi finds Hana training early in the morning. Hana suggests they train together, like they did when they were younger, and Takumi runs away.

B: Takumi reveals he stopped training with Hana after she kicked his ass in front of Sakura. He claims that it was because he held back to avoid beating up his sister's best friend, but I prefer the idea that Takumi got beat up by a child then ran away and never fought her again.

A: Hana swears that she'll protect Takumi to restore her honor. Takumi tells her to focus on protecting Sakura, because Hana really cares about her.

S: Hana reports in everytime she defends Sakura as an excuse to talk to Takumi. Takumi says he likes her too.

Review: A fairly bland Support, all things considered. The stuff about Hana wanting to protect Sakura is fine, but other than that it's fairly mediocre.

Support: Azama/Kagero

C: Azama asks about Kagero's clothing. Kagero tells Azama to fuck off.

B: Azama tries talking to Kagero. She puts a knife to his throat and tells him to never talk to her again.

A: Kagero says she should probably do research into ninja clothes.

S: Kagero explains that ninja clothes are good for stealth. Azama says he likes her.

Review: This one went from zero to one hundred really fast. And I’d call Kagero out for being insanely violent when Azama did nothing to her, but I’ve read his other Supports. Threatening to kill him if he talks to you is completely reasonable. Still, this one completely fails to be a romantic Support line.

Support: Ryoma/Silas

C: Ryoma asks about Corrin's childhood in Nohr. Silas explains that they played together as kids. Ryoma tells Silas to stay with Corrin, because it's important for her to have friends.

B: Silas confides that he was a lonely, isolated child before meeting Corrin. Ryoma and Silas bond over their mutual love of Corrin.

A: Silas swears a blood oath out of their respect for each other.

Review: Not bad. I especially like that this is the only Silas Support thus far to actually give a good reason for Silas’s loyalty. Him being a lonely kid with Corrin as his only friend is a great bit of characterization that should have been mentioned in their Support.

[ramblinganthropologist]

MER Week 5 - We are Family

Summary: Visiting family can be tough sometimes, especially when your job involves being the only fucking hope for humanity. Alistair’s never sure what to tell his sister when he sees her, but at least he’s got Bo to remind him he’s an idiot when he gets back. Don’t you just love family?

(ME 2 setting)

---

“So… uh… how are things going?”

Ah, the question he had been dreading for the last hour had finally shown itself. Maybe this was a bad idea after all. Worst of all, his exit was cut off. No way out but through it…

Fuck.

Normally, Alistair Shepard didn’t mind going to see his sister Anora. After all, they had a lot of catching up to do what with 11 years of separation and all between them. However, they usually had his niece as a buffer. Kelly was great for that sort of thing, especially if she wanted to hear parent-approved stories. Unfortunately, her father had custody that weekend. So, it was just the two of them, sitting on the couch and making awkward small talk.

Did he mention it was awkward? Because it was so fucking awkward. Fuck, maybe he should’ve taken a preventative anxiety dose…

The Spectre took a tentative sip of his tea just to have something to do – gross. His sister liked this variety of tea bag that he just couldn’t stand, but she was trying. That was enough to make a good try of things as she watched him over her own cup. What she was thinking, he had no clue.

It was hard to read his sister. Maybe it was because he was so used to military types?

“I mean… it’s going?” He put the cup down. “We were on Illium before we got back to the Citadel.”

Yeah, he had been hunting down an assassin and a justiciar to add to his crew in order to survive killing a shit ton of Collectors. Thane was great – he lived in Life Support so he didn’t die before the Collectors killed them. He hadn’t even mentioned Samara and her centuries of baggage, that was the best part. Reflecting on that, he knew it wasn’t exactly something you told your older sister over really shitty tea. So, he kept mum on the details.

Most of his stories wound up like that. Was that bad?

“Illium… well, at least you’d be easy to spot among the asari with your hair and all.” Anora took a cautious sip. “Did you… need armor for that one?”

Need armor – that was their codeword they’d come up when he hadn’t been sure what to call what he did. Anora had a weak stomach, and he didn’t exactly want to drag up the gory details of his job. Though, was it technically a job at that point? They had literally brought him back from the dead for it – that was nearly a calling. More than that, he wasn’t really getting paid. Cerberus was in a weird gray area…

Either way, it was a useful code.

“Yeah. It got heated at points, but nobody died.” Well… nobody on his side anyway. There were plenty of dead mercs thanks to both his crew and his own two hands. This was something else he wouldn’t tell Anora, mostly to keep her mind at ease. Apparently, hearing your younger brother was really good at killing people tended to put people off.

Civilians, couldn’t live with them…  kind of turned into a war crime if you accidentally shot them.

“Oh… that’s good. I know it…” she paused, frowning. “I know you’ve had it rough lately.  I saw you on the news with your friend Garrus and it looked like half of his face was missing.”

Alistair took another sip of his nasty tea to give him time to think of how to best phrase his possible boyfriend taking a rocket to the fucking face after a goddamn siege. It wasn’t exactly polite dinner conversation as he made the mental edits.

“Yeah… kind of. The implants are healing, though. At least the mandible is still attached and all.”

Judging by the look his sister gave, that probably wasn’t the right answer.

“Omega is not a fun place.” Was his only justification as he took another sip. “I definitely don’t recommend the Terminus system for Kelly’s spring break.”

Another wince – he was just knocking it out of the park with today’s visit. Maybe he should just close his stupid mouth and drink his tea before he gave her a coronary…

Anora at least didn’t drop her cup. Concern was written all over her face though as she rolled it between her palms. There were probably a thousand thoughts running through her mind, and he just had to wait on the final decision. Lucky for him, he was good at waiting.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” A judicious answer. She sipped from her mug, face unreadable. “So… where are you going next?”

To hell in a fucking hand basket, or a least close enough when they managed to get through Omega-4. However, it wasn’t exactly something you shared over tea, especially with your older sister.

When he glanced away, Anora sighed. “Right… top secret Spectre business, then?”

“Something like that.” He frowned. What little good feeling between them was starting to wear down. Soon there would be nothing left but awkward questions and long pauses full of questions neither of them could answer. No doubt it would be time for him to go soon.

Lucky for him, his omni-tool started to beep. Someone was trying to communicate with him. Without thinking, he hit the button and his sister’s living room was soon filled with the sound of the Normandy’s cockpit. If he strained, he could hear EDI softly beeping in the background.

“Commander, you there? Sorry to break up the family visit, but we’re getting a message from Admiral Hackett. I think you’re going to want to hear this.”

Alistair could already feel his forehead throbbing at the thought. “I swear, he just bothered us…”

“Yeah, tried to mute him but you know how he does that thing to get it through anyway.” Joker was priming the Normandy for takeoff in the background. “You should probably get back to the Normandy in case we need to head out.”

Sweet relief.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in twenty. Knowing the admiral, we’re going to be in the ass end of nowhere, so start checking the relays.” He paused, sighing. “Thanks, Joker. See you soon.”

The call ended not long after. He finished his tea in one long swallow. Anora was watching him, impossible to read. She had long since abandoned her tea – it was growing cool on the table. Talk about a bad sign.

“Admiral Hackett contacts you directly?”

Alistair sighed a ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I’m kind of his go-to for confidential stuff he doesn’t want to do. Call it first human Spectre privilege I guess.”

Anora didn’t exactly look impressed. “I’m guessing armor is going to be needed then.”

“Probably.” He sighed again. “I should go. They can’t exactly leave the Citadel without a CO on deck, can they?”

His cup clinked softly as he placed it back down on the table and stood. Anora stood as well and walked him to the front door. There they hovered, neither really saying anything, eyes not really meeting.

It always ended like that. It was why he preferred Kelly there to help soften things between them.

Her hand reached out – maybe to squeeze his shoulder – but it didn’t make contact. Instead, it fell back to her side, limp. It was hard to read the emotion in her face then, but then again it always was. When it came down to it, Anora was a bit of a brick wall he wound up hitting his head against.

“Well… be safe. I’ll see you when you’re back on the Citadel?”

He nodded, already planning his route back to the ship. “Yeah. Thanks for the tea. Tell Kelly I said hi.”

She nodded, and that was it. No hug goodbye, nothing more than an awkward wave as he walked down the path. Then the door shut, and it was back to work. Maybe he felt bad about the relief that he felt as he turned to leave, like a weight had just been lifted off his shoulders. The more he walked, the easier it was to forget.

He had to anyway – he had work to do.

“Wonder what the fuck Hackett wants this time…” Alistair grumbled to himself as he aimed for the port that would get him back to the docking bay he had left earlier that day. By the time he got there, the Normandy would be ready to leave. Within the hour, he’d be shooting towards the relay. Then – who knew. With Hackett, anything was possible.

“Seriously? He wants something AGAIN? Didn’t we risk our collective asses for him last week?”

Probably because he’d be lost in his thoughts, but Alistair realized he was standing in shadow. He glanced up, unsurprised to find red eyes and a bored expression. Without much thought, he shifted his pace. He needed to – otherwise he couldn’t keep up.

Bo had a bag of snacks in her arms that jingled as she walked. From the looks of things, Joker had paged her during a grocery run. Hopefully she had managed to get the citric acid he had asked for – he was starting to run low, and without it he’d just be eating sugar. That was a line even he wouldn’t cross.

It wasn’t a big line, but every man needed one.

“Yeah, I have no idea what. Joker couldn’t tell me; I was still with Anora.”

His adopted sister winced. “So, which one would you rather have faced: her or first contact?”

“I’d say I’d rather see a turian’s face pointing a gun at me.” He winced at his own bluntness. “Sorry… have to watch my tongue around her. You know she worries.”

Bo rolled her eyes at this as she handed him a smaller bag to carry. From the looks of things, there was a massive container of citric acid inside, buried next to a candy bar he was definitely going to destroy within a few hours of achieving FTL flight. It was nice to have someone who thought of him.

“You’re a fucking N7 level marine, I think she can figure out you’re winding up in some pretty fucked up shit.”

That was another wince on his part. “Yeah, but… I don’t exactly have to tell her how I stood in the line of sight for Garrus’ rifle, now do I?”

His answer got him quite the shove forward – it was a miracle he didn’t hit the ground face first as Bo continued on ahead, bag still jingling. “I’m pretty sure she knows you’re a dumbass with a martyr complex, don’t worry.”

Ah, someone was still sore about that. Well, excuse him for using his head…

Still, attempted face plant aside, Alistair had to admit he felt a lot more at ease as he and Bo continued their walk back towards the Normandy and their continuing fight against Admiral Hackett’s to-do list. Maybe he should have felt bad about that, but he had enough actual bad things to worry about. Something like this, he’d be happy to let slide for the moment. It could get him later, when he was in bed and couldn’t sleep.

“Gee, thanks. Love you too.”

Bo flipped him the bird as he caught up to her. “Can’t help I have a dumbass for a commanding officer brother, now can I?”

“He didn’t shoot…”

“You still got in the fucking way of a sniper rifle, you moron. The ghost of Alec Ryder is going to chew your ass out when you go to bed tonight, and I’m pretty sure that bastard’s still alive.”

The last thing he wanted was Alec Ryder, corporal or otherwise, near his ass. No thanks. That was enough to give him a lifetime of nightmares…

His adopted sister nudged him again as they got closer. “Next time just… don’t be a fucking hero. I don’t even know why I’m saying it, I know you will, and it’ll piss me off and then we start all over again.”

Despite the lecture, he chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”

“No, you won’t. You’re a fucking boy scout and it’s the worst.”

At least they had at last reached the Normandy. The yellow still needed painting over, but it was a sight for sore eyes nonetheless. Alistair was happy to hop aboard as decontamination hissed around him. It was humming to life beneath his feet, almost as if it was welcoming him back.

He loved this part.

“Commander Shepard and Commander Shepard have returned. Agent Miranda stands relieved.”

EDI’s robotic voice echoed as they stepped out of decontamination. Off to the side, Joker swiveled around in his chair to greet them. His grin only got wider as he spotted the bag hanging from Bo’s arm, almost reminding Alistair of a kid in a candy store.

“Did you get it?”

Bo snorted as he pulled out a smaller bag and handed it over. “You’re worse than Saren when it comes to snacks.”

“Hey, leave my hamster out of it. Saren is a gentleman.” Alistair still chuckled as he looked out at the Citadel dock from the Normandy’s front window. Soon, it would all be the blackness of space rushing out to meet them.

“Well, can’t be too bad if I’m getting compared to that.” Joker swiveled back around, already starting the procedure for takeoff. “Hackett’s message is ready when you are, Commander.”

Right… ugh. Just thinking about it gave Alistair a headache as he watched Bo head off to distribute her snacks. Still, it was a headache he could tolerate as he felt his mind shifting back to mission mode. At least here, he was in his element.

“Go ahead and play it. Might as well find out what ass end of nowhere we’re heading to…”

And just like that, it was business as usual. Admiral Hackett needed help, and the Normandy was the only ship he could get to do it. Soon, Alistair would be back in armor and ready to face whatever hell awaited them.

In a weird way, it was good to be home. But how fucked up is it that home was a fucking bootleg Alliance frigate hotwired by Cerberus?

[naomana]

Hiya, it's M. Hope you still remember

I really want to know 2, 4 and 12 for my boy Jack ♥

Full prompt list Here

Ffs M you are hard to forget. How do you always find my stuff, idk but glad you are here 🙈💖

2. What were they like as a child? Were they quiet and reserved, outgoing, or a bit of both?

From the little bits about Jack in the fanfic, I bet a lot of people assumed he was a good kid.

Haha.

Despite coming from quite well off family (they wwre not rich, but didn't have to worry where their next meal was coming from) Jack was aaalways in trouble. He was the neighbourhoods bully, especially if somebody tried to pick on his younger sister (when she was old enough to play outside)

He'd always get his ass spanked and his mama would always think where she went wrong with him

And as he was growing up, he started doing petty crime, not because he had to, but because he wanted to

Especially around his "gang" because for whatever reason, he had to fit in no matter what and despite his best efforts, he was always called mama's boy (which he 100% was)

When he hit puberty he realised WHY he wanted to fit in, more like why he wanted the attention on him, because around his 15-16s he started looking at the boys in that way, which honestly scared him at first

4. What are 3 of their irrational fears?

I know it says irrational, but all his fears have reason

Firstly, he's scared of women. Not because he's gay, but because of his sister. Because despite being picked on by all the boys in the neighbourhood, she grew up into respected woman. And she is the type of person that will make you suffer when you do something bad. She has authority, which later shows in the fic, that nobody dares to question. You know she's in charge and she will make it clear any time you try to step out of the line. Not by shouting, by whispering. And when she shouts, you know you FUCKED up

And that's exactly the type of women he's scared off.

Secondly, he's scared of God. Being raised by proper Christian mother, being Christian himself, growing up knowing he likes men was something he had hard time living with. Even when he meets Vito, he's still struggling to accept himself for it, knowing his beliefs were against it. So he's scared of God's doing. He's scared that he'll get attached to somebody, God will punish him by hurting them, because he is a sinner

And lastly, he's terrified of war. As you'll find out in the Mini chapters I'm writting, he's been at war longer than Vito. His whole squad died, while he got injured and sent home. And he blamed himself for making it home, he was blaming himself for their deaths.

So going back to war after his leave, he was PETRIFIED to find himself in the same situation again.

12. Are they hot-headed or even-tempered? What frustrates them the most?

He's hot-headed. Especially when somebody tries to pick on him or his close ones. Being the childhood bully, ironically the thing he hates the most is bullying.

And stupid people that can't mind their own business and don't think before they speak frustrate him the most.