#but it's not a hard no maybe I manage to get gutsy enough in the future who knows

[canisalbus]

Have you considered selling merch? Some stickers pins or patches of the boys would go hard

.

[thatdarlingdeviant]

Things that are now, or were from the start,

Just for me to know

Feb '23:

Started training for that peer pressure event

Kinda really thought I'd manage to reach the goal by Oct (with your (professional) help too!)

It feels just as terrible as I thought

Jul '23:

Chatted up this super pretty girl, who is a admirable writer and (overly) confident person

She's your type, she's my type, this is hot, it's gonna be fun scening and maybe having sex

I am not too confident about my looks but sth possessed me to still try

Aug '23:

Starting to feel really anxious about my progress

It's not enough improvement, it still feels awful; in fact I think it just felt progressively worse, bodily and mentally

On the other front we have made plans with the pretty girl

I felt very excited, which is not a typical state of mind and not one I had in the last, year

And since I thought things weren't progressing in the flirting, general sexual anticipation kinda way with you two, I shared a tiny tidbit of fantasy/wishes

You did not react at all (besides thanking me later for being so gutsy (wtaf))

She did with a few analyzing comments

None of your shared anything in return up until now (Mar '24)

That was definitely one of the most shameful experiences ever, and I won't do it again

Sep '23

The pretty girl comes to visit

It's a very different experience than what I hoped for.

It's not bad for me and the two of you clearly enjoy it a lot, so I leave it

There is a lot more mushy talk in the aftermath than I am comfortable with

But you seem to be fine with it and also give me the feeling you are only indulging her

Oct '23:

peer pressure event was the anticipated catastrophe

No goal reached

Wow, new level of shame lmao, collecting them like Pokemon

I still don’t know what I did wrong, I tried to adhere to plans religiously

I feel paralyzed and don't do anything for a month

Nov '23:

After you pressing and poking (at least about the exercise part)I started the whole weightloss+getting fit shtick again

Made up some bullshit goals. Couldn’t very well tell you the only real goal is for you to be satisfied with my looks and abilities

It feels just as awful as I remember

But every smart person, scientist, trainer I research for advise tells me just to stick with it, it will get better, I will feel awesome, it will become a habit, yadda, yadda, yadda

Dec '23

It doesn't get better

I try to talk to you but I don't wanna be annoying, I can feel you already getting fed up with me not feeling better and my honest assessment and inability of exercises

There is some progress at least? You seem chuffed about it, that's good, I like pleasing you and not wasting your efforts is important

I am scared of taking a break

Jan '24

Nothing gets better, I feel tired, sad, frustrated, fat and ugly working out, before and after

It consumes my whole life, almost all of my free time is invested in exercising and making sure the dieting is up to standard too

When I have time I am too exhausted to do any of the things I like (or feel bad because I clearly didn’t train hard enough if I have energy left)

The pretty girl and you push for a second meeting really strongly, I don't want to but I don't wanna be a killjoy

Sex is the absolute last thing on my mind and I am so fucking tired all the time.

But I can feel you getting impatient with me, so I make an effort in that department too

Feb '24

We are on vacation and all I feel is stressed,

about not being able to track calories, exercise per plan, meeting the pretty girl

I've had food that I really, really liked! Not feeling faint and all was kinda good too. But it didn’t weigh off against the guilt I felt after eating

(I have not one day of rest mentally and I am really worried about work performance. I am just so tired)

The meeting with pretty girl is around the corner and I accidentally (trying to watch a motogp team intro stream) come across your private chat with her

You told me that she sometimes asks for military explanations and you designed that shirt together but else you don’t chat

What a lie,

there's hundreds of messages exchanged deep into the night, a lot while we are on vacation and your interest in me was not that strong at all

I feel betrayed, but, I mean, I can understand you, I guess?

She is pretty, kind, warm, obviously head over heels for you and hot

I do not scroll further than a few days back, let it be, don't mention it

I mean, you've already lied to me about it to my face without me asking so I don't see this going well

We meet the pretty girl as planned

It is, again, way different than what I hoped for but you two seem to really like it even more than last time

And I try to do everything to make you feel comfortable and give you a good experience

After we are back, you are essentially out of the house for 3 weeks straight with one little break

I feel awful, fat, ugly, incapable (in general but especially in comparison to her)

The training has changed and I am too dumb to get the new exercises, (and I feel so weak and cold) but I now know that I stand to lose you so I double down on being super pleasant, never complain, don't force you to invest more time in me

I hurt pretty bad nowadays, I didn't have one pain free day since we started this regime, and I think it's getting worse? Might just imagine things though, weak

I think about your private chat with pretty girl 24/7 and wonder if there's sth new there, I eventually go look

and read,

back until the beginning

I haven't cried like that since my first heartbreak, lmao I was always so sure I wouldn't ever again, not with you

But alas

I got an even more detailed to do list now at least and I am so very sorry I didn't give you what you so desperately wanted before. I can work harder! I'm gonna work so hard!

Be cuddly and sweet

More compliments

Stay up later, be more available

More blowjobs and anal and everything you like

Be pleasant and easy

Be thin

Be funny, hot and pretty (yeah...I wish I could just work on that too haha)

Be less sensitive bodywise, learn to take more and not show when it hurts

I have a plan and I will try so hard, really, I'll try everything and be content

But I am stretched so fucking thin, I say some tiny thing, not like obvious, don't lay my cards on the table, just a rational little push to not write privately with pretty girl, I make it plausible, I am a terrific actor and you don’t suspect anything and agree, very understanding and sympathetic, liar

(It holds a few days)

I lost some weight since the start of this all in Nov. I can't see a lot of it, but the scale doesn't lie, so success, I guess. I can feel how different people treat me already. How different you treat me. How much more you enjoy to touch and feel me being smaller. A little better, a little closer to her. What a suckerpunch.

I feel really bad bodywise too. Super empty. Nauseous, dizzy, weak, cold. Just gotta keep pushing though, be good. I still don’t feel like I have the slightest idea what I'm doing with the new exercises

Mar '24

We are back at pretty girl pushing for a new meet up. I think I show first class acting skills again

It's in less than a month, I am so sick but you want to and I will be pleasant

You let me know you want anal. Which is good! We agreed on this kind of commucation and I can chicken out obviously. But I don't want to, I am going to be so good for you. (I just desperately hope my body can take it, and I don't pass out or sth)

[casspurrjoybell-33]

Wreckless - The Plan

*Warning Adult Content*

Finnegan

I slept like crap last night.

Maybe I was too tired, maybe some planet was in retrograde or there was some sort of weather front moving through or maybe I was simply missing Emmett.

I had no distractions when I woke up and managed to find the hotel Megan had booked for us with almost half an hour to spare.

Once everyone was seated around the cheap wood-laminate conference table... I laid it all out for them.

I told them the truth, that Walker Industry's official position was that the factory would not reopen in Baltimore. 

They are understandably disappointed.

Then I tell them my plan.

My audacious, backhanded, brilliant plan. 

That I have every intention of going to the Department of Defense tonight and securing not only a multi-million dollar contract but also an advance large enough to fund the rebuilding of the factory so that we won't have to wait for the insurance money.

I understand their hesitation and lack of enthusiasm.. it seems impossible even to me but I have, never-ever, failed at anything I've truly set my mind to.

I tell them that this sort of gutsy risk-taking is what helped my grandfather make Walker Industries what it is today.

I ask them to give me until close of business on Monday before they start job hunting, to have a little faith and more importantly, be on call for anything and everything I could possibly need for the next few days.

I will need my accountants to work all afternoon and find out exactly how much money I need upfront to rebuild.

I need my lawyers to be available if I need to call them from the meeting tonight and then of course to review the contract once it arrives.

I need HR to take care of my people as well as they possibly with almost no money and come up with options for my skilled workers during the months it takes to rebuild.

I need IT to make sure they have the computers and networks to do that with.

We make an outline and plan of attack together.

Everything rides on my meeting this evening.

People offer to come with me but I turn them down.

This entire enterprise will ride or die on my ability to sell the name that is Walker Industries.

I have to convince lifelong defense officials that I can take a burnt down factory and manage to come in on time and cheaper than anyone else.

Men forty years my senior will see a child.

I have to remove their doubt and there's only one way to do that... I have to convince them that I'm a Walker.

By the time I leave at 6:45 p.m. I'm emotionally and mentally drained.

All I have to show for my work is a list of jobs currently accepting bids.

They've encouraged me to apply for two that are closing on Monday.

I told them they'd have the paperwork by noon on Monday.

It's going to be a very, very long weekend.

My apartment is dark when I get home. 

I order pizza but it's not nearly as good as Emmett's and then it's a long night of sitting on my hard couch and trying to get some work done...  The first of many.

[shotorozu]

encountering a ‘pick me’ girl

character(s) : kirishima eijirou, todoroki shouto, bakugou katsuki (bnha)

warning : PICK ME GIRL, misogyny (?) pick me girl makes an off handed comment about your body but it’s not detailed at all

PART TWO — PART THREE

legend : [Y/N = your name] afab! reader, but they/them pronouns used, quirk not mentioned

headcanon type : fluff, angst if you squint

note(s) : i made 2 versions of this post so,, if you’re reading this— then i probably decided that i liked this one more than the other one i made,, anyways, i used real life examples 💀

»»————-　♡　————-««

kirishima eijirou

i’d imagine that eijirou would have an idea of what a pick me girl is— i mean, there were probably 2 of those girls in middle school

but has he experienced it first hand? nahh.

though, eijirou didn’t think he’d encounter one when he was already in a healthy and committed relationship!

eijirou is practically friends with everyone— and yeah, even the most unexpected. so, he’s bound to accidentally befriend a pick me girl

him, being the nicest one out of all of the characters in this list, will still be nice to said pick me girl, despite wanting to snob them to the core

because really— you can’t really fight fire with fire in some cases

but, he can be everything but lenient when the pick me girl starts insulting you for doing certain things, and for absurd reasons too

like,, how you laugh, and how you take care of yourself (for example— if you wear makeup, or how you style your hair)

which is odd! everything about you is everything but the things the pick me girl has stated so.. he cannot stand by.

SCENARIO

the girl giggles to herself after that snide comment leaves her lip gloss coated lips. eijirou shifts uncomfortably— honestly taken aback by the anything but subtle insult that was thrown at you

“like.. seriously! it’s honestly quite superficial if you look at it like that. who the hell would put that much effort infront of your boyfriend? i’d assume they’d see everything AND everything but.. i guess not.”

you blink. superficial? now that’s a new one. the girl infront of you has been babbling insults sugarcoated in boasts the entire time, and you’re just wondering if it’s about time you guys leave but—

“well that’s unfair,” your boyfriend laughs, “i put the same amount of effort as this cutie right here,” eijirou pokes at your cheek, earning a quick laugh from you— which he can only thank the heavens for that

“but that’s different. it actually looks put together when you’re doing it, eiji.” the certain glint in her smile makes you want to wipe it right off with a dirty mop, “it’s impossible to look put together with expensive clothes, but being built like a—”

the sound of the sliding of a chair is quicker than your actions, and it easily cuts her off.

“i’m sorry, but we gotta go, it’s totally not cool of you to say those things about Y/N!”

“what? but i mean.. it’s true, right? i’m looking out for them! they’re literally out here l—”

“bye!” eijirou waves her goodbye with your hand, dismissing the sour expression on her face— as he dashes off with you

you’d question how he’s just so nice to people like that, but when he turns around, you could see the distaste in his eyes

“so that’s what a pick me girl’s like,” shaking his head, his expression lights up with such a quick manner “i’ll never make friends that are like that again!”

safe to say, eijirou’s friend list has been a a person shorter ever since that incident

bakugou katsuki

oh, so that girl’s bold bold.

if she thinks she could get away with being a not so subtle pick me girl infront of bakugou katsuki, then she couldn’t be more wrong.

it’s absolutely revolting— i mean, he hasn’t displayed any romantic feelings towards ANYONE that isn’t you.

also, they’re quite gutsy if you ask me. so congrats for having guts??

i don’t think he’d be friends with a pick me girl. he’s very selective of who he’s befriending, so it’s probably your friend that’s the pick me girl in this case

he wouldn’t know what a pick me girl would be, but he’d probably know the description of one.

over some time, he’d grow some resistance to insults directed at him, but when someone insults his s/o

oh boy. that’s not good. remember when i said that katsuki was almost like your scary and intimidating dog

this is what i mean

knows he can’t make a scene, so his first option is to be dismissive asf— but if said pick me girl literally can’t get it, he won’t be afraid of shoving some explosions into her face

because his hands are rated e for everyone

SCENARIO

“so you wanna be picked or something, is that it?” he hates how you literally have the resistance of a rock— which is something he always liked, but in this case hated. if it weren’t for you— he would’ve blasted explosions into her sorry excuse of a face until it’s beyond recognition (that wouldn’t be hero like, is what you’ve said in the past, but he disagrees.)

but seriously? ugh. he just wants to leave this horrid place, and make some dinner with you in the comfort of his home. why are you even friends with her anyway? she’s not even trying to be slick at this point.

“p-picked? i’m not understanding, katsu.”

“it’s bakugou.”

“right,” her laughter is like nails on chalkboard, “i’m just watching out for Y/N, y’know? there’s no point in wearing all of that.. on their face.” and she’s obviously referring to your obviously very well done makeup

“it’ll make your skin terrible in the long run! and really— i couldn’t really understand on why someone would wear that much, when you could survive with i dunno.. lip gloss at most?”

you would’ve actually said something as a rebuttal, but your boyfriend is quicker, and a lot more direct than anyone else in the area.

“just say you can’t do makeup and fucking scram,” katsuki’s ice cold glare finally breaks out of the act he’s been trying to hold together for you

“their makeup is fucking bomb as hell, compared to your ridiculous spider lashes, lady. come back when you’ve watched james charles’ entire fucking channel.” he harshly states in similar bakugou fashion, despite the lack of screaming.

and if you squinted hard enough, you could see tears welling up in her eyes. but katsuki tugs your hand before anything else could be said

“let’s fucking go, you need better friends.”

he makes you cut ties with all of them, and he practically scolds your terrible choice of friends— but he goes quiet when you tell him that you’ve been friends with her since middle school

“good fucking riddance. next time, i’ll punch them as soon as they say something outta line, got that?” and next time (hopefully, there won’t be a next time) you’ll actually lash out— or maybe,, you’ll let him loose for once.

todoroki shouto

now shouto might be,, socially unaware sometimes. but he can tell whenever someone’s trying to insult his s/o

like,, right away.

now— you both run into this person after a pleasant date, and she eagerly presented herself as your friend

so, her attitude catches him off guard because who’d have anything rude to say about you and towards shouto’s face? especially when it’s about something normal.

like,, wasn’t she your friend?? why is she even like this?

his hostility is very well known, so they should be scared.

he gets detached from the conversation, and he’ll immediately go cold— and shouto would probably go as far as walking away with your hand in his

doesn’t matter if he properly says goodbye or not— if a girl’s being rude to his s/o, they obviously don’t deserve his usually polite attitude. nope, that’s a luxury.

oh— and what more when they’re seeking for his validation. newsflash! said pick me girl won’t be get any from him.

SCENARIO

shouto couldn’t stop the bitterness bleeding into his mouth, when the girl in front of him continued to babble and take up the valuable time he had left with his s/o

initially, she presented herself as your friend from middle school— but as of now? she seems to be more interested in him more than you, despite knowing you first.

she’d ask him a string of obvious questions with very obvious answers, like ‘is she treating you well?’ ‘is she acting correctly?’ and questions of the sort

“oh, sorry! i’d hate to cut this conversation short, but—” you finally decide that it was about time to leave, while shouto looks pretty,, deadpanned right now, you could tell that he was gradually starting to get irritated by your friend’s words.

“wait. thats.. kind of controlling, don’t you think? do you ever let shou make decisions?”

“uh.. controlling? since when??” you question at the accusation. this girl knows nothing about your relationship dynamic, and she’s already jumping the gun and making conclusions.

your gaze snaps back to shouto, who looks just as surprised as he could possibly be.

“yeah! it clearly looks like he still wants to talk” which is an obvious lie, shouto just wants it out of here “i wonder how you managed to snag such a guy like him,” she comments with a smile that looked anything above suspicion (yet, it makes your stomach churn)

you could see the way her hand gets gradually closer to him— and frankly, you’re not sure about what she was planning to do next, “you wouldn’t need to dress all expensive and fancy, if you’re with a girl with an already classy appear—”

“i think this conversation is over,” shouto grip is firm on the wrist that was attempting to grab his shoulder, shouto makes no attempt to even look at the girl infront of him “i don’t know what you’re trying to do, but it’s not humorous. at all.”

“what?” she stammers, drawing her hand back “i-it’s obvious they don’t know how to take a joke! this is why there are barely any good w—”

shouto’s next actions knocks her speechless, his hand rests at the small of your back, before gently guiding you forward— “love, what movie are we watching later?” he says, making an effort to press a quick, yet intense kiss on your lips

“oh,” you breathe out, surprised by this action. “don’t be so tense, love.” shouto comments on how tense your shoulders have looked, ever since she started running her mouth, “now.. what movie do you want to watch tonight? comedy? thriller?”

“you pick,” you laugh at the quick shift of topic. and when you look behind you, you could see shame and defeat welling up on her face. shouto finally feels like he could smile again, the bitterness dissipating from his mouth

after shouto questions you if that was what a pick me girl was, he makes sure that you guys won’t ever encounter such thing again

“you.. don’t have more friends like that, right? if you do— we could always do another friend list cleansing.” this statement makes you laugh but shouto is anything but joking

but being reminded of his reaction to that ‘pick me’ girl does puts a smile on your face.

»»————-　♡　————-««

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own bnha/mha and it’s characters. boku no hero academia/my hero academia belongs to horikoshi kohei, i only own the writing and i do not profit off of my hobby

do not plagiarize, reupload, translate, or use my works for audio readings without permission

[humancomedy]

Human Comedy: Humanity - 4

Arashi: Come on, already! We have to get moving, Mika-chan! The Repayment Festival's about to start!

Content Warning!

Mentions of death within.

Location: Underground Live House

Arashi: Come on, already! We have to get moving, Mika-chan! The Repayment Festival's about to start!

Mika: Ngah~... I wanna finish up what I'm doin' here first, so why dontcha go on without me?

This is somethin' real important fer Knights, ain't it? Ya don't wanna be late!

Arashi: It doesn't feel right leaving you alone, though?

Mika: 'S fine, I promise! Valkyrie's not even gonna be in RepayFes, so it don't really matter if I show up late.

Arashi: Mm~... I haven't said a word all this time, but what if I told you that the two of you actually are performing?

Mika: Huh? Whazzat? I didn't hear nothin' 'bout that!

Arashi: I was sworn to secrecy—that overbearing "Oshi-san" of yours actually lowered his head and practically begged me for help.

Listening to him was as tedious as ever, but I could tell he was almost frantic, and he brought up some good points...

Quite honestly, the fact that I've managed to keep my lips sealed until now impresses even myself, but there's no time to explain.

Mika: Eh... Naru-chan, ya really had a chat with Oshi-san? When?

Arashi: Remember that day when you looked like you'd gone through the wringer? Right after that, I went to find him—I grabbed him by the collar and demanded that he tell me everything.

Honestly, I can't even remember the last time I lost my cool like that; I seriously thought I was gonna knock your "Oshi-san's" lights out for real. ♪

Mika: Wh-what good would hittin' him do? Violence won't help nothin'; Oshi-san would probably just keel over an' die from shock!

Arashi: Aww, he would've been fine! Maybe it's because you've been looking after him for all this time, but... Whatever the reason, he's way tougher than I remembered—or it's more like he's gotten super gutsy.

I was actually pretty impressed.

The moment he saw the look on my face, he just rolled right over and said, "do as you please."

But he asked for me to spare his face if I was going to hit or kick him—the fans at the Repayment Festival would be concerned if they noticed he was hurt, after all...

To see your "Oshi-san" acting like that... it's hard to believe, but it seriously made my opinion of him shoot way up~

After hearing what he had to say, I couldn't help feeling guilty, but there was nothing else to do except walk away.

It was like, "What am I supposed to do with my raised fist now? Should I just hit him as hard as I can on the RepayFes stage instead?"

Either way, we've been in contact ever since—I've been calling him regularly and giving him secret reports on how you're doing.

I'm sorry for acting like some sort of spy.

Mika: Hmm...? So that's how ya found out 'bout Oshi-san's plan to perform at RepayFes?

Arashi: Yep! It was honestly pretty amazing... Literally everything you've done since then is exactly as he predicted. It's like he has you right in the palm of his hand, huh, Mika-chan?

Or, since this is you, should I describe it instead as him pulling all the strings?

Mika: ...Nah, I'm pretty sure it ain't like that. Oshi-san wasn't tryin' to pull me in one direction or another, he just knows me well enough to guess how I'd move...

He's prone to worryin', y'know? Betcha he was so anxious that he could hardly stand it, but he trusted 'n waited fer me instead.

I kinda reckon he's puttin' too much faith in me.

Y'know, I ain't really got that much confidence... But if nothin' else, I wanna try my best t'live up to what he wants.

Arashi: Hm~m? I'm not so sure about that—the two of you always seem to have your own little way of doing things that nobody else can figure out, you know?

Mika: Ahaha, I know, right? It's 'cause I'm Oshi-san's family.

Nazuna: Kagehira...!

Mika: Huh!? Nazuna-nii! What's goin' on?

Nazuna: So you really were here...! What are you even doing in a place like this!?

Mika: Eh? Ehh? Um, ya wanna know what I'm doin'?

Well, right now I'm kinda... breathin', 'n blinkin' my eyes, 'n lookin' at ya, Nazuna-nii...?

Nazuna: That's not what I'm talking about! Sheesh, where do I even start with you!?

Kagehira, weren't you supposed to go back home? Isn't that what Itsuki told you to do?

Mika: Ah~, I did go rushin' to my hometown fer a bit, but then I came right back...

Oh, d'ya want a souvenir? Here, I've got these octopus-flavored chips... Lately it seems like they've been makin' more 'n more stuff that you'd only find around there. ♪

I don't normally buy this kinda stuff, so I thought it was pretty cool t'see, y'know?

Nazuna: ...? ...?

Arashi: Ufufu. I feel your pain, but trying to get a straight answer from him isn't really worth it, Nazuna-chan.

The two of them in Valkyrie really do have their own language that only they understand, so as outsiders we're totally lost, huh?

Nazuna: Oh, Arashi-chin... Um, what are you doing here? Are you and Kagehira here together?

Arashi: Yep. I've been busy preparing for the Repayment Festival, too, but I always made sure to stop by at least once or twice every day to check on him.

To tell you the truth, I didn't want to leave his side for even a second, you know?

But Mika-chan kept saying I didn't have to stay, and it's not like I had a lot of free time, either...

Still, this boy would be working 24/7 if nobody reminded him of basic human needs like sleep and food, so someone had to make sure he was looked after, right?

Mika: Yeah... I'm real grateful, Naru-chan. Thanks t'you, I was right comfortable stayin' here ♪

Arashi: There's no need to thank me. But come spring you're going to be living on your own, right? Are you sure you'll be okay? I'm beginning to worry...

Mika: 'S gonna be fine, I promise! Even back home... I got praised lots fer how much I've grown up. ♪

Arashi: It's honestly more incredible that you've even survived this long...

Hold on, we can't stand here just chatting like this! We've got to hurry back—the Repayment Festival's about to begin!

Nazuna: Y-yeah, that's true, right? Besides, we can keep talking along the way...?

Mika: Ah, can y'all hang on a sec? It'd be a real shame if I forgot t'bring along the outfits I worked so hard on.

Nazuna: Outfits? You mean, you made them?

Mika: Yep. Though I can't totally take credit fer 'em, since I used a couple of Oshi-san's old sewin' patterns 'n stuff. It'd be right bold of me to act like it's an original design.

But still, I worked real hard day 'n night to get 'em done... and if that ain't enough to prove that I poured all my heart 'n soul into 'em, I dunno what is.

The way things are now, I've got no right t'talk to Oshi-san...

But if I can't ever talk to him again, then I reckon I'd rather be dead. That's why I've gotta keep givin' it my all to live up to what he expects.

And right now, everythin' I am and everythin' I feel is right here in these outfits.

← prev ❖ all ❖ next →

[dreamwatchpro-wrestling]

Dreamwatch Blood Crown Tournament Night 1 (Match 6)

Shin Yagami vs Hiro Kurosaki

Sometimes, as a wrestling fan, its good to admit that at the core of our fandom we really just want to see passionate violence. Maybe I'm projecting a little, but that's what this match was. It was fascinating, watching this match start out as a violent brawl and then become more violent and frenzied without letting up as the match continued. Wild strikes, stiff kicks, brutal slams, desperate top rope dives, blood, sneaky weaponry, this match truly had it all. Hiro Kurosaki is on a bit of a losing streak at the moment but his performances are so violent and gutsy that he's always a treat to look forward to. He's fearless, to the point where I'm not sure if he ever knows when he's outmatched. He was obviously outmatched here by the striking and submission expertise of Shin Yagami, who was more than willing to up the brutality to keep Kurosaki down. Kurosaki managed to stay in the match as long as he did with raw power and aggression above all else, and even though he lost, it made for an admirable attempt regardless. Shin Yagami eventually punched Kurosaki in the back of the head enough times for Naomi to call the match before Kurosaki's skull was turned into powder. Shin Yagami moves on to the next round!

Shin Yagami: Heh... That was a pretty fun one. Not every day you meet someone that strong and dumb enough to keep fighting when the fights obviously over. He's got guts, but nothing else. As for the brass knucks... Well, someone really wanted me to beat that guy, and that's all I'll say on that. You don't get paid by the hour in this business, only by the victory. I plan to be paid handsomely by the time this tournament is done. When the business is all done with, I'll have another match with him for the pleasure.

--

Hiro Kurosaki: I should have won that! Brass knuckles?! I thought the people coming in were supposed to be legitimate fighters, trained strikers or whatever bullshit-

Daigo Asahina: You worked hard out there. You almost had him.

Huro Kurosaki: You think this shit is funny...? You're here trying to mock me and play innocent?! I'm not tired enough to crush you right now!

-Hiro stands to confront Daigo. Daigo Sighs-

Daigo: heh... Sure. Well I suppose we'll see what happens out there.

-Daigo exits-

Hiro Kurosaki: Fuck that last match, I am going to put Daigo in the fucking ground and end that little hype train. That's all that matters...

D A R K M A T T E R

[violetwolfraven]

Some Kind of Disaster

A song fic that is part 2 to this. Basically, it’s an angsty sprace fic to Some Kind of Disaster by All Time Low. Mostly cause I felt guilty for breaking Race’s heart a little bit. Enjoy, y’all.

...

I'm a liar, I'm a cynic. I'm a sinner, I'm a saint. I'm a loser, I'm a critic. I'm the ghost of my mistakes. And it's all my fault that I'm still the one you want. What are you after? Some kind of disaster?

Spot felt numb as he walked back to the Lodging House.

It was Race.

They both had to be the stupidest sons if bitches who ever lived, because they’d known each other since Spot was 13 and Race was 12 and it had never registered in Spot’s mind that he knew most of his friends’ soulmarks, yet Race was his best friend and he’d never seen his. Never even considered that it might say his name.

I woke up from a never-ending dream. I shut my eyes at 17.

It had been 4 years.

How were they just finding this out now?

Probably because they were stupid. They were goddamn idiots and now everything was messed up.

I lost every moment in between. I felt the sun rise up and swallow me, yeah.

Replaying every interaction they’d had in the last 4 years, Spot guessed he wasn’t particularly surprised.

He’d started spending time with Race because he found him intriguing. No one else risked crossing a King of Brooklyn if they didn’t have to—even one who hadn’t been king very long—and then here came this cocky little shit who’d apparently been selling at Sheepshead for years and somehow managed to talk every Brooklyn kid who found out into not reporting him to whatever king happened to be in power.

When Spot did find out about him, he hadn’t been scared. Not even a little.

Even Jack Kelly, three-time Refuge escapee and all around badass (Spot would never say it to Kelly’s face, but he actually respected his fighting skills.) had a healthy respect for the Brooklyn crown. He knew that Spot could kill him if he needed to, and was understandably wary, even as the best fighter in Manhattan.

Race hadn’t shown any respect beyond the normal kind decent people showed other human beings.

And it's all my fault that I'm still the one you want.

So, Spot had always figured that was what had drawn him to Race. What had kept him running back to this gutsy Manhattan kid no matter how annoying he was sometimes or how many other friendships Spot had ended for his friends’ own sake.

And Spot had ended many friendships over the years. People close to you were just people for you to cry over when they inevitably left you, one way or another. Or they were people who could be used to manipulate or hurt you, and either way, it wasn’t worth it.

But he’d never been able to bring himself to push Race away, because Race treated him like he was any other kid. Because Race laughed when Spot asked him if he was scared of him. Because Race could be annoying and sarcastic at all the wrong times, but he also could be so considerate and caring when something was genuinely wrong. There was no one else Spot trusted enough to talk about feelings with.

I'm a liar, I'm a cynic. I’m a sinner, I’m a saint.

And yet he’d never thought of Race in the way a soulmate bond was supposed to imply. He’d never daydreamed about what it might be like to kiss Race, never thought about how nice it felt just to hug him. Never. Because being queer was dangerous when you weren’t leading the bloodiest borough in New York and besides, Spot didn’t have time for any relationship.

He’d never thought about it. Never. He couldn’t.

Because even if he had, there was the fact that Spot was a killer, he was objectively a terrible person, and Race deserved someone good. He deserved someone who it wasn’t dangerous to be with, and if he couldn’t want a girl, he deserved a nice boy who could give him an easy relationship. Or, as easy as two boys could be.

I'm a loser, I'm a critic. I'm the ghost of my mistakes.

That would never be Spot. He could never give Race what he deserved, which was why, despite the look on his soulmate’s face when he pulled back from that kiss, he had to do it. He had to push him away—had to finally force himself to push Race away—because if he didn’t, Race would end up stuck with a broken, complicated killer who didn’t deserve him.

And it’s all my fault that I’m still the one you want. So what are you after?

That didn’t mean the pain on Race’s face hadn’t been agony to witness. It was Spot’s fault, he knew, for not pushing him away sooner.

He kept all his other friends at arm’s length for a reason. It was his own damn fault that Race was hurting right now, because if he’d just pushed him away when he should have, Race wouldn’t have developed any kind of feelings for him.

Some kind of disaster?

And he knew that Race did have feelings for him, because Spot knew Race, and Race wasn’t the kind of dumbass to kiss someone just because they were soulmates.

God, Spot wished he could wish that never happened. In truth, he couldn’t stop thinking about it, because it had been full of uncertainty but it was good. He totally hadn’t imagined kissing Race before, but if he had, it still would have been better than anything he could imagine. He hadn’t wanted to stop even as he pushed him away.

I crashed down from a high that felt so real.

Spot was fighting a smile over the fact that Race had kissed him, which was stupid because he wasn’t a goddamn teenage girl.

I never knew how much it would hurt to feel.

Thinking again about how hurt Race had looked when he pushed him away, it wasn’t hard not to smile anymore.

Even without the fact that they were soulmates, even if you disregarded them being best friends, Racetrack Higgins was one of the few genuinely nice people in the world. Spot genuinely couldn’t imagine wanting to hurt him.

You gotta hurt sometimes to learn to heal.

He would recover. He’d pick himself up and find some other boy and Spot could pretend it didn’t ache to even think about seeing him with someone else.

Well, imagining Race happy with someone else was better than imagining him hurting.

You gotta get back up and learn to deal. Yeah.

And Spot would be fine. Love wasn’t something that had ever been in the cards for him. He would be lucky if he lived to 20 as it was, and honestly... well, he couldn’t imagine what his life would look like when he was anything other than a Newsie. He knew he’d have to move on eventually, but...

Well, wherever he ended up, Spot was sure it wouldn’t be with a bouncy boy with a blue-eyed smirk that could melt anyone’s heart.

Nope. It hadn’t melted Spot’s. It definitely hadn’t. He couldn’t think about that.

And it's all my fault that I'm still the one you want.

“Why do you look like someone spat in your sandwich?”

Shit. Spot hadn’t expected anyone to be waiting up for him, but a couple of his friends had.

Or maybe Hotshot and Joey just felt like playing cards in the common room at 9:00 at night when they had work tomorrow. Who knew?

I’m a liar, I’m a cynic. I’m a sinner, I’m a saint.

“I’m fine, Hotshot,” Spot mumbled, heading for the stairs.

“That ain’t super convincin’, Spot,” Joey remarked, “If you’s gonna lie, can ya at least do it well?”

Hotshot slapped her in the arm, “Spot, what is it?”

Screw it. Spot had to talk to someone about this, and Hotshot was his second. He trusted him more than just about anyone.

“Hey, Jo, can you go upstairs?”

Joey looked up from her cards, registered that Spot was serious, and put the cards down, standing up and heading for the stairs.

“Guess I can kick Hotshot’s ass in poker tomorrow,” she said, “Have a good talk, boys.”

I’m a loser, I’m a critic. I’m the ghost of my mistakes.

Spot sat down in the seat Joey had been in, waiting until he heard her get to the top of the stairs to untie the fabric covering his wrist.

“You remember this, right?”

Hotshot nodded, untieing his own, “So, this is ‘bout Anthony?”

“I guess.”

“Wait, did ya find him?!”

“Did you find Isaac?”

Hotshot hesitated.

“Wait, did you? When?” Spot demanded, “Did ya find your soulmate and not tell me?”

Hotshot laughed nervously, “Maybe?”

“Who?”

“Um...” Hotshot looked at the floor, “It’s... it’s Ike. He’s a Manhattan boy. We found out maybe six months ago. We’s been meetin’ up in secret for a few months, but... well, so far it’s workin’.”

Spot realized that... well, Hotshot was an angry, defiant 12-year-old when he first came to Brooklyn. Now, he was an angry, defiant 15-year-old. He ran hot. They called him ‘Hotshot’ for a reason.

But a few months ago, he’d started cooling down a little. He was calmer. Happier. He still was a bit too confrontational for his own good, but Spot hadn’t had to bail his little brother (because Hotshot was his little brother, blood be damned) out of a fight in a while. He’d noticed the smile that came out more often, but just... hadn’t asked about it.

“That’s...” Spot forced a smile, “That’s great. I’m happy for ya, kid.”

“So, what’s the story with Anthony?” Hotshot asked, “I takes it by the look on your face, whatever it is didn’t go well.”

“It... it’s complicated.”

“Well, what is it?” Hotshot urged, “What happened?”

Spot’s instinct was to not tell him. His instinct was to just run away and talk to someone he was more comfortable with talking to.

But he wasn’t comfortable with anyone more than Hotshot. No one except Race. And his head was still a little hazy from the alcohol, so he could blame it on that.

“I pushed him away.”

Hotshot nodded, “Okay. I did the same thing.”

Spot didn’t expect that, “Wait, what?”

“I pushed him away when I found out—relationships are messy and dumb, right? Only the little shit wouldn’t leave me alone. He kept findin’ any excuse to come see me. It took him gettin’ sick and finally stayin’ away for a few days for me to realize I didn’t want him to.”

Well, that wasn’t Spot’s problem. He wasn’t pushing Race away because he didn’t want him. He was pushing him away because he knew that confident, funny dumbass deserved better than him.

Spot took a deep breath, “It’s Race.”

“Oh, shit. Wait... haven’t ya known him for—“

“Years, yeah,” Spot admitted, “And we’s just figurin’ it out now. We’re stupid. I get it.”

“Still... Race is your best friend. Why would you push him away?”

Spot scoffed, “Hotshot, ya know what kind of person I am, right?”

“Yeah..?” he looked confused, “This is a problem because..?”

“I don’t deserve him.”

Hotshot was silent for a second before banging his head on the table.

“What—“

“Ya think I deserve Ike?” he asked, rolling his eyes, “You had to pull me off a Harlem kid before I killed him, once, Spot.”

“Yeah, but—“

“I ain’t a good person, either. Hell, most of Brooklyn ain’t. But do ya see the rest of us mopin’ ‘bout not bein’ good enough for our soulmates? Do you actually know what ‘soulmates’ means?”

“Yes,” Spot growled, “It means fate made a goddamn mistake, cause Race is so good, and he deserves better than me.”

“But you’re his soulmate,” Hotshot argued, “That means nobody can make him happy like you can and... dammit Spot, even if ya don’t deserve him, he deserves to be happy. So if ya really care, just... the best you can do for him is to suck it up, accept you’ll never deserve him, and love him, anyway.”

“I.... I don’t...”

The words stuck in his throat. He couldn’t say that he didn’t love Race.

He couldn’t say that he did, though, either.

“I thought you was supposed to be the wise one,” Hotshot muttered, “Bein’ leader and a couple years older than me. Thought you’s supposed to have more figured out.”

Spot shrugged, “I probably am.”

And it’s all my fault that I’m still the one you want. So what are you after? Some kind of disaster?

Spot stalled until the next day, waiting until after selling time and then hurrying over to catch his soulmate before he left for Manhattan.

Race looked like... like someone had blown out a candle inside him. Sad didn’t quite cover it.

When he saw Spot, he froze, somewhere between afraid, angry, and hopeful, but thankfully not trying to run as he watched him approach.

Spot took a deep breath, “Can we talk?”

Race seemed to be pondering the options before he nodded once, jerking his chin towards his usual hangout place under the stands.

Well I've sung this song a thousand times.

“So, what is it?” Race asked, kind of annoyed-sounding.

Spot knew him well enough to know that he was using faked anger to cover up his real feelings, though he wasn’t sure what said feelings were. He decided not to point that out.

“What?” Race asked again, an impatient edge in his voice as Spot struggled for words.

He had no idea what to say. This was... he usually knew what to say to Race. Race was his best friend. Things were easy and safe with Race.

Race was his soulmate. He didn’t know what to say about that.

I wore the crown, I sold the lie.

“I think I owe ya an explanation,” he said finally.

Race snorted, “What’s there to say? Soulmates ain’t always a guarantee. Sometimes fate makes mistakes, and I ain’t gonna try to make you want me, Spottie, so—“

“I do,” Spot interrupted, “Or... I don’t... not.”

“What?”

There was hope and fear in that word.

I lived the life and paid for every crime, yeah.

Spot took a deep breath, shoving down his nerves. Race deserved the truth.

“There are things I can’t say, Racer, but don’t think for a second that I pushed ya away because I don’t have... feelings. Believe me, it’s frustratin’ that I do, but... I don’t deserve you. Plain and simple. I’ve got more blood on my hands than you should have to deal with.”

Race looked at the ground as he took a step closer to Spot.

“Ain’t that my decision to make?”

His voice was softer, now, but Spot still knew he needed to choose his words carefully.

It's all downhill 'til it's a climb. Through blood and tears, but I don't mind.

“I can’t give ya everything you deserve,” he said, “I can’t. It’s a fact. You deserve someone who isn’t a damaged killer who’s angry all the time.”

“I don’t give a fuck what I deserve,” Race said quietly, “I already know everything you’ve had to do to survive, Spot. I ain’t ran yet and I ain’t gonna. If ya don’t want me, you can just say so. But if you do, you need to say it right now.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Spot admitted, “Race, I push everyone away because it’s... it’s safer.”

“So let me be the one person you don’t push away. Ya never have before we found out ‘bout this.”

“This is different. Havin’ a friend is one thing. A lover... a soulmate... that’s different.”

I'll just keep singing on and on and on.

“I don’t care,” Race insisted, “Spot, it’s my choice what I want to take on. And I know bein’ with you, I’d be takin’ on danger and a whole lot of complications, but I don’t care. I’ll take it all on if you’ll let me.”

Spot took a deep breath. He replayed Hotshot’s words in his head, knowing that he didn’t deserve Race, but Race deserved to be happy. He was terrified to let someone get that close to him, but...

Well, to be honest, Race already was that close. Race had been breaking down his walls since he was 13, and if they got together, not that much would actually change because they already knew every part of each other.

And it's all my fault that I'm still the one you want...

“I don’t deserve you,” Spot said slowly, “And there are things I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to say to you, but... I’m willin’ to try. I want to try.”

Race smiled, “Is that the truth?”

I’m a liar, I’m a cynic.

Spot realized right then how close together they were standing.

Maybe it was still annoying to him how he had to look up a bit to look Race in the eye. It wasn’t fair, considering Spot was actually a little under a year older.

I’m a sinner, I’m a saint.

“Yes,” he mumbled, “That’s the truth.”

It was. Because even if it was hard to admit it to himself, Spot did want Race, and he was glad he was his soulmate.

I’m a loser, I’m a critic. I’m the ghost of my mistakes.

Race looked around, checking that no one was around. It was late enough that no one was. They probably wouldn’t be walked in on here.

Spot was a little nervous about what that meant, but a little excited, too, as Race turned back to him with a cheeky little smirk.

“May I?”

And it’s all my fault that I’m still the one you want.

Spot nodded, grabbing the front of Race’s shirt, himself, to pull him into a kiss like the one he’d been too scared to return last night.

Yeah, it’s all my fault that I’m still the one you want. So what are you after? Some kind of disaster?

[safflowerseason]

i find it hard to believe adam brody would come back, unless there is a lot of money on the table. season 4 already felt different and without ben & adam, it just won't be the oc. tbh tho, it would be interesting to have a spin-off style show following julie cooper, or if the show was gutsy enough, summer after divorcing seth (lol would never happen). maybe the latter is getting into hart of dixie territory basically.

Yes I was surprised the deuxmoi blind item didn’t mention that, since Adam Brody has been the most explicitly on the record against a revival in previous interviews. I guess everyone has a price in Hollywood, especially post-pandemic, but I also feel like Brody and McKenzie actually have/had the correct read on things - what the show’s core fans really want is a do-over because the show cratered so spectacularly (except no one is saying that part out loud), not because they want more of what was happening in S3 and S4. Like, no shade to Willa Holland (I remember watching her in Arrow and feeling pleasantly surprised by the fact that her acting had significantly improved!), but it’s hardly like she would be a main draw for fans. And sure, some revivals can basically ignore controversial final seasons, like Roseanne and Gilmore Girls, but The OC was so poorly plotted and managed, it’s impossible to gloss over the less-great or more controversial parts of the show. Like, there is simply *no* way to work around Marissa’s death. Again, if the Gossip Girl revival does well and they are set on bringing back The OC in some fashion, they should just do a full-on reboot--new characters, same setting--and not a revival. But also, like, the premise of The OC is not that unique...new outsider kid on the block, somewhere in SoCal...just do a new show! 

Would 100% watch a Julie Cooper spin-off, though. 

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #204: Claws Across the Water!

February, 1981

Welcome back, true believers! ... Eh, true believer?

I hope at least one person out there is still into this.

It has been nearly two years. I let this sort of series slip into forever hiatus. My at the time job was really eating all of my energy.

That plus the yellow peril villain two-parter that’s this and next made it hard to get motivation up to get back into it.

But in the time between then and now, I wrote a fixer-upper draft of a pretty okay novel for nanowrimo and started learning crochet. So the time not Avengersing wasn’t entirely wasted.

But now I don’t have a job!

Thus, the Avengers.

Our roster of Captain America, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Vision, Beast and Wonder Man are going to fight an enormous Ming the Merciless and many fuchsia Laserbeaks from Transformers.

Its a weird but gutsy concept for a crossover.

(Three cooks in the kitchen, writing-wise. Not an auspicious start.)

The issue really starts with a woman named Shu Han sending a secret message for help because she is being held captive by THE YELLOW CLAW.

Yellow Claw has offered Shu Han “honor, unlimited power, a pivotal role in the new history of the world” in exchange for something. He gives her three days to make up her mind, leaving Shu Han unsure of how much longer she can continue to resist.

And a day later, in Avengers Mansion, the Avengers say goodbye to Hawkeye. He had been hanging out with them a couple issues through the Red Ronin thing, the shudder Avengers #200 thing, and yet another Ultron thing.

And then Jarvis comes in with the mail.

Despite the Avengers being the Avengers, all of their mail fits neatly on one tray. And one piece of mail dramatically marked LIFE AND DEATH gets Cap’s attention and he pauses their meeting to read it.

It seems that Shu Han’s secret distress message was picked up by a ham radio operator in Hong Kong.

Imagine. Two hundred and four issues in and ham radios are still a relevant plot point! And yet Rick Jones no longer is. Goes to show...

Anyway, the ham radio operator’s letter says that Shu Han says that she’s being held captive by the Yellow Claw. And since Jocasta doesn’t know who that is, it lets Cap exposit.

Captain America: “The Yellow Claw is a biochemical genius. Well over a hundred years old, he retains his youth through secret scientific methods of his own devising. Unfortunately, he’s also a tyrant intent on destroying every last vestige of western civilization -- at any price! The Claw and I have fought several times in the past. I’d hope we wouldn’t have to again.”

So as you might guess from this, Yellow Claw isn’t a new character. He first appeared in a self-titled book in 1956. And opposing the Yellow Claw in the Yellow Claw was FBI agent Jimmy Woo. Which is slightly better.

Anyway, Iron Man chimes in that he’s heard of Shu Han. She’s a gold medalist in track in the 1968 Olympics. And Beast has heard of her too! She won the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics!

Both of these things! Shu Han is quite the accomplished person.

And Cap isn’t sure why the Yellow Claw wants an Olympic gold medalist who is also a physicist but it can’t be for anything good!

Vision points out that the Yellow Claw’s island is in contested waters and that actions by the Avengers could cause an international incident. And also it might just be a trap.

I mean, ham radio operator? Really? In 1981?

Captain America: “That might be true, Vision, but the fact remains that someone in trouble has asked for our help. And as acting chairman, the only thing I can say in response to that is -- AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!”

Good attitude, Cap. That’s a good attitude to have.

And the Avengers Assemble, which in this case means run out the door like they’re racing for shotgun in the Quinjet.

Running right past Jarvis who was bringing coffee and ginger cake in. Leaving him to eat the cake himself because heck, no sense letting it go to waste.

I tell ya, Jarvis is underappreciated. Do you know, I don’t think they even invited him to move into Dead Alien Mountain in the current book? Instead they got a man trapped in a gorilla to be their butler. I mean, valid, but you do Jarvis a disservice.

LATER ELSEWHERE

The Yellow Claw stands villainously on a balcony talking with a Dr. Liu and asking him about the status of a project.

Dr. Liu says that there’s almost enough “formula” to begin distribution.

Yellow Claw: “Your words please me, Liu, for I have waited long to grasp this moment. Others may have their kingdoms, their countries, even their continents. But soon, doctor, I... shall have a world!”

But the Avengers’ Quinjet appearing on radar takes some wind out of his sails and he orders the base locked down and defenses activated.

As the Quinjet circles the island, Cap decides to send Wasp and Vision to try to find a way to snoop around undetected.

Vision can just intangible through walls and Wasp can find small entrances.

Of course, when Yellow Claw says lock the base down he means lock it down because even the air vents have been covered up with plexiglass. But Wasp decides to just blow it open and fly inside.

Somehow, even with that, its Vision who makes the more conspicuous entrance, as he manages to intangible in right where some guards happen to be staring at a wall.

Good work, Vision.

For whatever reason, solid snaking through a dark air vent makes Wasp wistful for some time that she and Hank went in a tunnel of love. And he was so shy that she had to teach him SOMETHING.

I’m almost sorry that she stops her internal monologue anecdote when she spots the Yellow Claw.

And here our two sneakiest Avengers both prove that they need to intern with Black Panther for a weekend or something because they both make a goofus.

Vision beat up the two guards that spotted him and just left their bodies where they fell, causing alarum when they were found. See, Black Panther would have told Vision that you need to hide bodies in a locker.

And Wasp falls off the wall while trying to eavesdrop and is spotted by the Yellow Claw.

He doesn’t recognize her as a tiny woman, tiiiiiny woman, but the fact that a bug is in the base at all means that the base isn’t airtight which means one of the air vents has been compromised.

Meanwhile, the Quinjet has continued to circle because there’s no good place to land on the whole island. So Cap decides to land off the whole island and makes a water landing.

Apparently Quinjets are like seaplanes in that regard.

And then as they are trudging through the surf to come ashore, -battle transition music- A SLIME ATTACKS!

Wait, this isn’t a dragon quest. This is an Avengers. They’ve got a man in power armor and a robot woman. We’re sci-fi. Okay so its a cyborg slime.

Or a jellyfish. Or, you know what? It has a beak. Maybe its a kraken. A cykraken.

And it drags the Avengers underwater, which is just what a jellyslimefishkraken cyborg would do, if you think about it.

Beast and Scarlet Witch are SOL. Scarlet Witch’s arms are tentacled to her sides and all of her spells require a somatic component. And she hasn’t taken the feat yet to let her ignore that requirement.

And Beast doesn’t have any leverage underwater to apply his strength and agility.

Cap isn’t doing much better because he’s trying to hit the thing with his shield underwater and the water drag isn’t helping.

Jocasta is doing alright. Her eye beams work perfectly fine underwater at cutting the tentacles. Although the narration calls her a “robotrix” which... what?

And Wonder Man does fine too. Even underwater his super strength is enough to just tie the tentacles in knots.

But Iron Man goes completely limp and the jellyslimefishkraken cyborg grabs him up and sticks him right in its mouth.

But it was a ruse. He baited the thing into eating him so he can repulsor blast it from inside and destroy it, freeing the other Avengers.

Good job, Iron Man. You killed a unique, horrible lifeform.

I think we can see that the real monster is Man. Comma Iron.

Meanwhile, inside the evil villain base, Vision runs into the evil villain. Who asks sincerely what the fuck Vision is doing here.

And Vision responds by immediately firing a laser at Yellow Claw.

Which. Good hustle, Vision.

Buuuut. The guy has an energy field that rebounds the energy back at Vision and knocks him out. Its a proven fact that the villain will always have something to stop Vision from soloing the plot.

Kryptonite, so to speak, is everywhere.

Yellow Claw has Vision taken to his lab to be dissected. FOR SCIENCE!

Outside, Beast goes ahead of the other Avengers to scout.

In his Beasty way, he’s goofing a little, singing the Loch Lomond song. And then he’s attacked by just so many flying blades. A lot many.

And so are the rest of the Avengers.

Wonder Man: “No kidding! One just clipped a lock of Jocasta’s hair -- and that stuff can take a bazooka blast!”

I really like imagining the Avengers testing that.

More than that, I’m amused imagining Jocasta’s deadpan expression as they shoot bazookas at her head.

‘The things I do to socialize.’

Anyway, the Avengers scatter to make harder targets because the blades are clearing the jungle to deny any cover to the heroes. Cap spots the blade launcher and throws his shield at it. Because that’s what he do. And it works. Because that’s what he do.

And since the jellyslimefishkraken cyborg and the “death crescents” hadn’t given the Avengers the hint, Yellow Claw appears before them towering several stories high and tells the Avengers to GTFO his island! GEEZ!

Jocasta notices that giant Yellow Claw casts no shadow and announces that it must be a hologram of some sort.

AND THEN THE METAL DEATH BIRDS

They get very angry when you point out special effect failures.

And then the Avengers do their various Avengers things.

Its an action scene. Avengers fighting robot death birds.

Iron Man jumps upside down in front of Beast to protect him from a missile. And Cap does the same right side up with his shield to protect Wanda.

I do appreciate the teamwork with immediate protecting the squishy members of the team.

Wonder Man hits one metal death bird with another. Because hitting an enemy with an enemy is great. I love grievous harm with a body.

Only thing better? If some Jedi force pushed General Grievous to smash some droids. Grievous harm.

Anyway, Jocasta does her eye blasts again, to great effect again.

Captain America throws his mighty shield and even a metal death bird must yiiiiield.

And Scarlet Witch gets to do something this time because everybody is doing a thing this time. Its a real team showcase.

She. And this is totally what probability alteration is. She changes the probability that a launched missile will just turn around and blow up the robot death bird that launched it. That’s just math.

Iron Man says that since his armor powers were originally based on magnetism, he can just remotely magnetize two of the metal death birds and cause them to smash into each other.

BUT THE BEST ONE OF ALL? And the reason I bothered to synopsize the individual actions instead of just saying “and then an action scene happened”? The best one of all.

A robot death bird launches a missile at Beast and he catches it. He catches it between his toes and throws it back, blowing up the robot.

Spectacular.

So spectacular that we can assume that it instantly ended the battle just because of its sheer majesty. I can draw no other conclusions from the juxtaposition of panels.

The Avengers finally reach the base after spending most of the issue traipsing up from the beach. And the base being locked down is swiftly solved by Wonder Man and Iron Man punching the door down.

My only regret is that neither of them make a joke about knocking. C’mon guys, I can’t be writing your snappy dialogue for you decades after the fact. Publishing doesn’t work that way! I’m not writing a redub!

A bunch of Yellow Claw’s goofy guards all prepare to be ineffectual mooks in a mob brawl but Yellow Claw stops them over the intercom.

See, he’s got Vision prisoner. And while he had intended to dissect him FOR SCIENCE, hostage is equally good. So if the Avengers don’t surrender, Vision will be sliced to bits by dissection laser scalpels.

Anyway, Dr. Liu shows up through a secret door to show the Avengers in to talk to Yellow Claw.

And Yellow Claw says politely ‘why the fuck you on my island??’

Or:

Yellow Claw: “Welcome, Avengers. I am pleased to have such illustrious visitors in my humble home. In fact, there is one thing that could possibly make my bliss more complete -- the reason why you’ve invaded my island, and my privacy!”

Which in less polite terms is ‘why the fuck you on my island??’

At this point, Wasp secretly flies up to Cap and tells him she’s okay.

It’s good to reassure him that she’s not a second hostage but. There was no reason in the plot for her to have entered the base. She accomplishes no things. She arguably makes things worst but its only arguably because she didn’t alert the Yellow Claw any more than Vision already did.

I would have liked if she had tried to free Vision or sabotaged Yellow Claw’s security system or something but that’s not the direction the plot was going.

Anyway.

Yellow Claw asked a question so Cap answers. He tells Yellow Claw that the Avengers are here because they received a distress call from a woman named Shu Han who says she’s being held captive.

Yellow Claw is actually surprised. Possibly dismayed.

He recovers himself quickly and has Shu Han brought in so the Avengers can see she’s not under restraint.

She wasn’t brought to this island to be a prisoner! She was brought to be his bride!

Easy mistake to make, honestly!

Wonder Man points out the should-be-obvious that hey kidnapping is kidnapping even if its for nuptials but Yellow Claw is like ha ha kidnapping no no, Shu Han fill this dumbo in.

And it is. A story.

Shu Han: “I... I wasn’t exactly... kidnapped. You see, when I was very young, a man came to my father’s farm, and, as was custom in my country, an arrangement was made. To be less delicate... I was bought!

“Over the years, I all but forgot the arrangement, as I turned my thoughts and energies towards excelling in athletics, and in science.

“But then, some weeks ago, I was approached by agents of Master Claw, and was brought here. I was frightened, but didn’t know what to do. And so I secretly sent a message, hoping for you help.”

Shu Han has that mix of super good at science and sports you see in superheroes but she’s a normal genius person living her life. It’s going to be weird if she just never shows up again. But also: good for her.

Yellow Claw is just so disappointed that she dragged some randos into their interpersonal drama. And we can see now that the proposal he was proposing at her was “marry me.”

Yellow Claw: “Shu Han, I wished you no harm. I am old -- even my potions cannot stay the hand of death much longer -- and I fervently desired an heir to carry my name when that hand fell.

“Thus I offered you wealth, power, the prestige of sitting at my side. And now you repay me with treachery, with cowardice... with dishonor.

“You wish your freedom that much? Very well, then -- you shall have it!

“Go! For I’ve no desire to take an unwilling bride!”

Yellow Claw: May be a supervillain but is big into consent. I mean, except for the part where he bought a child.

Yellow Claw: May be a supervillain but is big into consent when the alternative is superheroes hanging around.

Shu Han doesn’t look super burned by his speech so maybe that’s why he does what he does. He klaps to bring out a bunch of backup wives to prove that he’s not so hurt by rejection. And that he’s got ‘mad game.’

Yellow Claw: “As you can see, there are others more amenable to that lofty position! So, Avengers, you have what you came for. Please don’t let me delay your departure any longer.”

Or in less polite terms ‘GTFO!’

Cap points out that obviously they’re not going to just leave without Vision so Yellow Claw has some goons carry out Vision like a potato sack.

Iron Man and Wonder Man carry Vision with Iron Man warning that he’s not just going to forget Yellow Claw even though the guy claims he just wants to spend his final years in peace with his pile of wives.

And a good call to not take the guy strictly at his word.

As soon as the Avengers are gone Yellow Claw all about mwahahahahas and says that now his evil plan can commence.

Yellow Claw: “No, Dr. Liu, having one less wife should not effect the project appreciably. For the others, hand-picked like Shu Han for their superior genetic traits, will all give me sons, strong sons whom I will train in the arcane ways.

“Then, when they reach manhood, they shall fight each other, until only the most worthy, the strongest, survives! And it shall be he who shall inherit my destiny! The conquest and eradication of the western world!

“Yes, the plan is still sound, and there shall be no defense against it! For my children, doctor -- SHALL BE THE LAST CHILDREN ON EARTH!”

As far as evil plans go, having a bunch of babies so they can fight to the death is pretty evil even before the conquest thing. And the last children on Earth thing.

Follow @essential-avengers. Or don’t. Honestly, I can’t blame you if you don’t. Throw me a like if you read and liked so I can get a sense of how many people read and liked, if you like.

[timidstoryteller]

The Bridge to Arden

Part one

I was standing on the bridge after my run, looking  into the water, seeing the reflection of trees always calms my wandering mind. I had been thinking a lot about how complicated life has gotten for me. It was all his fault. Him with his dark emerald eyes and wavy dark hair, it all complimented his fair skin tone. Arden has confused me since preschool, and I am honestly over it. That’s decided, I’m through talking to him. My heart aches at the idea. I have a magnetic connection to him, like we were made to be in the same place all the time. My mind goes back to the time when he left me, without word, without warning. He was gone, and then he was back. Years went by in that time, all of it blurry. Then he returned without warning, he clarified with, “I was away.” But where had he been? I wanted to know; I wanted him to let me in. But he never budged. Maybe he didn’t trust me. I pick up a jagged rock and throw it into the water with all my strength to calm my frustration. It doesn’t. And I knew, I’d never be able to give up on Arden. 

I gather my emotions and start running towards home. As I pass the huge brick mansions, I can’t help but think about what complicated lives were living behind the walls. I wouldn’t wish the way I feel onto anyone else. There is a yearning to be close to Arden. I look towards the snow capped mountain, and wish I could be gutsy enough to run away and hide from my feelings. But if I’ve learned anything, my emotions run quicker. But I am determined to run them out of my system right now. I am focusing on the cotton candy clouds I see through the foggy mountain peaks, when I hear“Hi Leanne!” in the near distance.

Looking up I focus on the towering six foot five man standing by his brick mailbox; I choke on the breath I am inhaling, and my left foot rolls under my stride. I fall rolling over my shoulder to recover to my feet, but no matter how smooth my recovery is, a tall girl falling is never graceful. “Hi A-Arden.” I managed while stumbling over his name. It was good to actually say his name out loud again, catching my breath, “You know my name is Leanna.” I add, glaring at him to make sure he gets the point. He throws his hands up in surrender while laughing, as if it were a joke. “Now, now Leanne,” smirks Arden as he moves towards me to place a hand on my shoulder, which I conveniently dodge. “Arden, DON’T,” I scream; gaining my composure, I continue, “I’m all sweaty, please don’t.” I make my already protruding eyes appear larger and rounder and add a pouty lip for good measure. Arden stands in front of me smirking, pain and compassion show behind his deep green almond shaped eyes. “Arden,” I say in a soft whisper, “I can’t…” He interrupts, “Leanne, we’ve discussed this, I am here and always will be.” 

He has this way of reading my thoughts before I articulate them. “You weren’t though Arden, you left, and the only explanation was that you were away. No call or text or goodbye. You were there and then you were gone. Fuck, Arden,” I say as I put my heads on the top of my head. He looks down at his feet. I think about continuing to let him have it, but all I manage is a growl of built up resentment. “Leanna,” calling me by my name to win me over, “I’m sorry,” he replies, sounding small and defeated. I emphasize, “I needed you,” as I fight back tears. “How can I make it up to you?” he smiles sweetly, but I am buying none of it. “Well for starters you could tell me where you were and why,” I say placing my hands on my hips. A long silence fills the space between us; he moves closer, now only inches from me. He towers over me, even for me being as tall as a Victoria Secret model. My eyes connect with his, pleading for an answer. Arden reaches out, taking my hands into his. I melt as his rough thumbs rub the backs of my hands slowly. “Leanne, you know I can’t…” cutting him off, I break my hands free from his, “Save it,” I say as I start my run back up. 

Arden shouts for me to come back, but I keep running home. I wonder why I did this to myself, I knew it was possible to run into him. It was only half past nine in the morning, and Arden normally slept until ten on Saturday. It doesn’t help that the only scenic place around besides the distant mountains was the bridge past his house on a dirt trail. Most people didn’t know about it due to it being hidden behind the victorian style mansion practically sitting in front of it. Man, how I feel like that little trail. It is beautiful, quiet, taken for granted, and kept hidden away. A place where secrets are told and kept. Not even the time Arden spent with me there could ruin it for me. Arden and his whit, which had no rival. I’m thinking about him again. “Come on, Leanna Ruby, you run to forget your problems, not dwell on them,” I say aloud, attempting a weak self pep talk. And a second later, my mind has returned to Arden Matthews. I slow to a walk, as I take my headphones out of my leggings, slipping my wireless headphones in, I press play on my Imagine Dragons playlist to drown out my thoughts. 

Arriving at  my driveway, I punch in the gate code, and squeeze through the opening as soon as the gap is wide enough for me to slip through. A few steps later, I turn to watch it close again. I see Arden standing off in the distance. I pull out my phone to send him a snarky text about how I didn’t need a shadow to see me home. And I reminded him that it’s 2020, so women can fend for themselves. I turn to walk towards my house in the distance. My phone buzzes. I read, I’ll always protect you, Leanne. Even if you don’t think you need it. I roll my eyes hard, but catch my full lips breaking out into a grin. A warm tingling fills me up as I make my way home, even more emotionally exhausted than before.

To be continued...

[daresplaining]

Hi, long time lurker, first time asker here. What are your thoughts on Trish's arc in Jessica Jones S3, and where do you think it would go if this wasn't the final season? Would she find a way to appeal her case or break out of prison?

    Hi! 

    I’m really torn on Trish’s Season 3 arc, and I’m not sure if that’s because it was horribly upsetting or because I had trouble making sense of it. I am also trying my best to look at it without the bitterness of it being the last season, because I doubt they knew it would be the last season when it was being written/filmed, and so saying that it was an unsatisfying way to end her character arc isn’t a fair criticism. 

    Jessica Jones has always been a show that takes its characters uncomfortable, morally iffy places. It leans into the fact that sometimes people are just terrible– and sometimes they grow and improve and sometimes they don’t. As Jessica comments in her narration in the very first episode of Season 1, this is a story about seeing the worst in people– the uncomfortable and messy aspects of just being human and handling the cruelties of the world in whatever way works. And that’s something I really like and respect about this show. It never backs down from its darkest themes, and all of its characters are unapologetically flawed. One of my favorites, Jeryn Hogarth, is a terrible person in this universe (her comics counterpart isn’t a paragon of virtue either, but he’s better). She starts out awful, she goes through some horrific experiences, and she clings to her awfulness as a survival tactic. She isn’t given a redemption arc or a neat, satisfying happy ending in any season, and that’s a gutsy storytelling choice that I absolutely respect. 

    On a certain level, I feel the same way about Trish’s arc. She has always been an imperfect person– not to the degree of many of the characters around her, but still. In Season 1 and The Defenders she was a hopeful figure– a success story of someone who had escaped an abusive situation and managed to rebuild her life on her own terms. She believed in the superheroic ideal– the image of a strong and noble individual protecting the weak and saving the world– to a degree that Jessica, thanks to her own traumas, no longer could. Trish served as a light in Jessica’s darkness, to put it sappily, and pushed Jessica along one of her (Jessica’s) main character journeys: that of seeing herself as a good person and a hero again. And that was very powerful and wonderful, and aligned with the themes of the Kilgrave plot. This part of Trish’s characterization was also further boosted by the complicated nature of own desire to be heroic. After spending her life as a victim who had no say in her own life or identity, she wanted the kind of power Jessica had to protect others from that type of situation and to also feel empowered herself. Trish’s desperate desire to be a superhero cannot be separated from her childhood as “Patsy”– an adored public figure who she had no say in becoming. Building herself a new public persona, gaining both literal and metaphorical power… it’s all about “killing” Patsy and recreating that same sense of positive influence on her own terms. 

    With this in mind, it has been horrifying (by design, to be clear) to watch this justified and understandable desire turn desperate and corrupted, and to see Trish transform into an antihero in the last two seasons of the show. As Trish, despite her better judgment, starts rebuilding her relationship with her mother, all of that past trauma comes back to the surface. She loses her grip on her life. And this comes out in her fervent desire to gain powers at any cost, thus warping her concept of heroism. Trish does what, in fact, many of the characters in the show do when their lives fall apart– she copes poorly. Her plans go awry, she makes mistakes, then she tries to justify them, and on and on, digging herself deeper and deeper until the idea of becoming a hero by murdering “bad” people seems like a logical and reasonable solution– the only way to feel like she is actually doing something “good” that makes a difference. This season emphasized the fact that, despite the illusion created in Season 1, Trish never actually escaped from her mother’s influence, she never actually moved on from that trauma, and those lingering ties end up destroying her. 

    Again, on a surface level, I don’t have a problem with this. I actually love dark stories with hopeless endings, and it is in conversation with Jessica’s journey of escape and personal reinvention. But Trish’s arc felt wrong to me, and beyond the anticlimax of the show’s cancellation, I felt it lacked nuance. If I think about it really hard, I can justify Trish going full-on Punisher. But in the moment, on an emotional level, it felt like a forced leap in her characterization. We weren’t deep enough in her head to fully understand how she ended up going so far off the rails. There’s also the problem of Trish not being the main character. In some ways, her story felt more like angst fodder for Jessica than anything else. As a Jessica fan, I love the final moment of the season, when she decides to stay in New York in spite of everything. But as a Trish fan, it felt unfair for Trish’s pain to just be treated as one more thing Jessica has to endure. There’s also the fact that Trish– Patsy Walker– is a long-established and beloved Marvel character. Her life has been dysfunctional, of course, but she is a superhero. She is Hellcat. And currently, she is a fairly positive, upbeat, and heroic figure within the Marvel Universe. I know it’s not fair or constructive to compare the shows/movies with the comics in this way. The MCU is its own universe, and Jessica Jones in particular has made many, many deviations from the source material. These are essentially new characters in new stories, and that’s fine. But I am always a little grumpy when adaptations blatantly disrespect their source material, and the plain fact is that the many Hellcat fans who waited and waited for Trish to get her superhero origin were given the middle finger this season.

    I have to assume that following seasons would have continued her journey. She is a major secondary protagonist, and with her mother dead and the very real consequences of Doing Heroing Wrong staring her in the face, her story would invite all kinds of further development and, hopefully, an actual, successful origin story. Jessica and Trish need each other, and I feel like that would remain true even now. I could see Jessica agonizing over what to do about Trish, considering breaking her out, deciding against it, drinking a bit… and then maybe Trish would get herself out. Or outside forces would intervene. Either way, I can’t imagine Trish would have spent the entirety of a hypothetical Season 4 locked up– and I suppose one upside of the cancellation is that we can imagine all kinds of scenarios from here to make ourselves feel better about the whole thing. 

[fairyscribbles]

Love at First Bite - Meetings (Kyungsoo, Pt. 1) [CHRONICLES OF THE WOLF SERIES]

Guess which handsome wolf just came to town! :3 Enjoy, sweets ♥

If you like it, support it on ko-fi! ♥

-

You tucked the final covered dish into the third of the large baskets with a proud sigh. Finally, everything was ready. Three big baskets full of food to feed a pack of hungry... werewolves.

You shuddered at the idea as you washed off your hands. 'And their mates,' your brain tacked on.

Including an old friend. The one who called on you to do this in the first place. When Haneul first approached you - late at night, knocking on your door with her protective mate standing behind her with his hood pulled over his eyes - it was difficult not to refuse it for your own self-preservation.

Though the capital was a bit more... open, there was a considerable danger to them being out and about in town that late. So you had to usher her into your home along with her tense mate, away from where the town's guards - as lazy as some of them were - could easily question them and even snatch them up for imprisonment. Then she explained her situation.

You loved Haneul. She was a beautiful, caring person. And while you didn't want to believe the old rumors about her being a wolf-lover... the golden-eyed man who was guarding her silently was kind of irrefutable proof.

And despite your own reservations about helping and being branded one yourself, you couldn't let them starve. It went completely against your own principles. But you weren't quite at the stage to brave the forest to deliver it to their home, so you made Haneul a deal. If they came and picked it up, you would prepare it for them.

You shuffled around to set all the baskets on the table along with a couple of bags full of other foodstuffs. Maybe it would hold them over for a little longer while you thought of how this could work...

The knock at your door made you jump. Out of a touch of fear that it was going to be the guards just magically knowing you were doing something like this. You weren't even sure anymore if it was illegal, considering the existence of werewolves was pretty much unheard of in towns anymore after the big exposure. You knew they went into hiding in the forests, but you weren't gutsy enough to go and find out.

Creeping up on your door, you murmured, "Who is it?"

"Hello..? Miss ___? We're Haneul's friends."

Your muscles immediately tensed with worry. Haneul explained she wouldn't be the one picking the food up, but knowing that didn't make it any easier on your panicked heart. It wasn't a big deal. Let them in to collect the food, then usher them out as politely and quickly as possible.

With that thought, you undid the sliding lock mechanism on your door, then flipped the doorknob unlocked as well. It took a deep breath before you were able to gather the courage to crack the door open.

The first sight that met your eyes was a kind female face, pale and soft and smiling so kindly. "Hi. ___-sshi?"

Her words were very controlled, her syllables well pronounced, which suggested she may not have been from the area. Her hood was already pulled off her face, but she dropped it even further to her shoulders. "Yijie..." a male voice whispered, making your stomach turn from nervousness.

"No, Xing," she whispered back, her tone reprimanding. "I would want to see faces if strangers were picking up food from me."

You couldn't resist asking. "Who else is with you?"

She turned back to you with another gentle smile. "I'm sorry. I'm Yijie. My mate is here. Yixing. And another of our family, Kyungsoo."

She gestured behind her, but you couldn't see. Still, something about the woman struck you as safe.

And you opened the door wider to take a look at the men standing outside the door.

One of them, it had to be Yixing, was standing very close to Yijie, close enough to reach out and touch her side for assurance that she was within arm's reach and in any case of emergency would be able to snatch her away.

The one behind the couple took your breath away. Dressed in monk's attire, his whole face was hooded away from you, making you bow your head in respect. Monks are the most revered warriors in the whole country, guided by god's hand. They seldom go into battle, but when they fight, they always win.

"One of your...kind is a monk?" You hissed in surprise, controlling yourself before you were able to say the word "werewolf". Yijie shook her head, looking back at the lone figure fleetingly.

"No, it's just Kyungsoo. Would you mind if..." she suddenly stopped, her lower lip pouted in thought, brows furrowed as she tried to remember something.

"Come in? It isn't good to be out in the open."

Yixing finished for his mate with a small, bashful smile. Yijie cast him an apologizing glance, to which he just kisses the top of her head in comfort. You stayed frozen in your spot.

You knew that it wasn't good to stay out in the open, but you also weren't quite sure if it was a perfect idea to let two wolves and their mate into her house.

You took a reluctant step back, trying hard to tamp down your nervousness. It was the reassuring hand that reached for yours that made you feel better as they all piled in. The monk impersonator - Kyungsoo - slid the door shut behind him, and your fingers tightened around the soft hand in yours.

"It's ok, ___," Yijie said with a smile. "We leave out of your way after we grab the food, alright?"

You nodded, rearranging the wording in your head. She definitely wasn't from here. "I-it's in the kitchen... I put together three baskets and a bag of some ingredients you might be able to use."

"Wow. That's more than enough, ___-sshi," Yixing said in amazement.

He and Kyungsoo headed to the kitchen, and you followed with Yijie closely in tow. Kyungsoo had pulled the hood off, and you felt yourself gulping when he looked over at you with a small smile. Yixing was good looking, yes, but.......

You shook your head, pointing at them. "Will it be okay?"

"Are you kidding this is amazing," Yijie said.

"There's so much. And it smells so good..." Kyungsoo whispered, and the voice that sounded in your kitchen was melodic, sweet. It was confusing.

You expected a gruff growl coming from the hooded impostor, not a voice that could belong to angels. Your cheeks darkened at the praise and you bowed your head to tear your sight away from the attractive male.

"T-thank you, Kyungsoo-sshi..." you muttered under your breath, trying your best to keep your heartbeat calm. But how could you when this strange feeling was coming over you every time you caught sight of the man?

Yijie smiled. "Then... we should get out of the way? Leave you to your peace."

It was so unnerving. About a minute ago, you wanted nothing else but that. But now, you were a little reluctant to let it end just like that.

"Kyungsoo-yah..." Yixing whispered.

"I... know, hyung..."

You raised your head. "How long will this last you?"

"With how many men are in the house, tonight," Yijie laughed.

"Then what?" you couldn't help but ask. Would they just go back to swiping food?

The three of them exchanged looks. "We'll manage."

"I can make more in a few days."

Your offer surprised even you. The fear was dissipating only to be replaced with a sense of protectiveness. They couldn't just starve.

"Really?" It was Kyungsoo that asked, and you found yourself hesitating before meeting his eye. Only to blush at the look of pure surprise on his handsome features.

Wow, what a time for your hormones to act up.

"S-sure. I wouldn't want you all to go without food. I'm not sure how much I can put together, but I have friends that have bakeries, even a creamery, and they love me at the market."

"___... I thought Haneul said..."

Yixing shook his head at his mate. "Yijie, no..." he whispered in a language you didn't understand. "We'd be grateful, ___."

They headed out, each man with something in hand. Kyungsoo's hood was back over his head, but even as they all headed out the door, you were able to see the small smile on his face. "I'll see you again soon, ___-sshi."

Your heart thudded. "O-okay..."

You went with them, to escort them from your house, and you watched them disappear in the crowd, only Kyungsoo's robe shining in the mass of people. You sighed, closing the door with shaky hands.

What did just happen? Those people weren't the horrible beasts the town told you about. For god's sakes, all three of them were the most harmless looking people you've seen in your life, and apart from their eyes, they looked nothing like the menacing beasts you heard about.

And they certainly didn't act anything like the horror stories you'd heard of. No violent snarling, aggressive approaches, threatening flashes of red eyes.

And that man... Kyungsoo.

You had to resist the dreamy sigh that bubbled up. Instead, you shuffled to the kitchen. You had to decide on the food to send them for next time.

You were successful in pressing back that dreamy sigh but you weren't able to control your mind, asking you questions about Kyungsoo's food prefference. Would it be prejudice to think they all enjoy meat? Maybe chicken will be good for them?

It didn't matter, because they wouldn't be back for quite some time. It will be wiser to wait for them to contact you.

-

Days passed and your hope was slowly fading. The first day, you were sure you'll see Haneul scurrying down the road, the shawl wrapped around her neck for protection (she mentioned she had a cold, did she?) But nothing came. Not even after the second day and so you gave up with the thought that they found a better link to the capital.

With a lifeless pace, you stode to the door at the heavy knocking. It must've been the guards wanting something. Nobody else bangs so aggressively as they did.

"K-kyungsoo?"

His smile was small, pressed. His hood was still pulled over but it was bright enough outside to reveal his expression.

"A-are you alright?"

"If it's alright with you, I'd like to come in. There are a lot of guards out and about today."

"Oh. Of course!" You stepped aside, ushering him in. As soon as the door was closed and locked, he shed the heavy cloak with a relieved sigh.

"Thank you."

"I-It's alright." What's wrong with you. You never stutter. You mused in your head as you reached for Kyungsoo's cloak, offering to put it on the rack. What you didn't expect was that the cloak would be so long, and you managed to step on it and lose your footing.

Oh man, this is going to be a hard fall.

You closed your eyes, body tensing for the impact... that never came. Instead, there were strong hands on your hips, urging you straight on your own two feet before taking the cloak from your hands. "Alright... here we go..."

You realized belatedly, as Kyungsoo stabilized you, that he was extremely close, one of his hands still perched on your hip. "Are you okay?"

You nodded, looking up at him with a slight blush on your cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I am so clumsy I am a threat to humanity." You laughed, trying to ease the heavy atmoshpere, but you didn't want to move away from Kyungsoo's touch. You were so close, you could smell his entrancing smell, his lips close enough to just stand on the tips of your toes and press yours against his...

"It's okay." He gave you such a bright smile, as he unfortunately stepped away

"Where can I hang this?"

You pointed to the rack where your own cloak hung from. "There would be fine."

He did as you said with that same smile, but when he turned to you, it was with a sigh. "I'm sorry for showing up unannounced."

"That's okay..." you said, surprised. "I was expecting someone to come..."

"I just thought you would come with backup." You explained with a smile that Kyungsoo reciprocated.

"They were all busy with the preparations, and I honestly just had to get out of that house. Do you mind me being here?"

He roamed quietly, observing his surroundings. "Your house is very nice..."

"Ah... Thank you. It's small, but it's home..."

He smiled at you, and your eyes were drawn to the way his heart shaped lips curled. "I completely understand. You should see our home now."

You smiled a bit startled at his sudden announcement, not quite sure what you should make of it.

"Haneul misses you quite a bit, you know." Kyungsoo told you with a knowing look.

"I would love to, but...it's in the middle of the woods and..." you couldn't tell him of your fear of the forest, because it sounded so freaking childish.

"I can't go alone." You finished lamely, which had Kyungsoo smiling.

"And you won't be alone."

He raised his hand almost cheerfully. "I do quite well as a guard."

"Ah, n-no. I don't think..."

"You're not..." His steps forward made you gulp. He was still smiling as you took an involuntary step back. "...afraid, are you?"

You couldn't even deny it. But Kyungsoo held his hand out as an official offer, apparently ignoring your discomfort. "I can take you. Then you could see our situation for yourself."

"B-but why?" You didn't see any point in it really. "I can help you from here. I don't need... evidence."

He chuckled.

"It was only an invitation, ___. I see you live by yourself and I guess I thought you could get lonely. All the brothers are asking about you." Kyungsoo sat down, watching your surprised face gaping at him.

"B-but why?"

"They would like to know about the woman who cooks better than me."

Your head tilted, not sure which part surprised you most. That his brothers were curious about you, of all people; that such a handsome man knew how to cook as well; or that you were apparently better.

"Oh... You cook?" That was the first question that slipped out, and you blushed madly.

He nodded. "I cook for the family. With Yixing hyung sometimes..."

Your nod was dazed. "I... I'm glad that they enjoyed the food."

Kyungsoo laughed, shaking his head.

"That's an understatement of the year. They basically fought for it. I've never seen more quarrels in the house about your food, and that's why I was sent out on a mission."

"What kind of mission?" You asked, leading him to the living room and sitting down on the couch, urging him to do the same.

"To invite you over for dinner to meet the rest of the family."

[nullset2]

Why New 3D Mario Games Suck

Before I go to bed I want to write a quick article about my opinions of Mario games. Ah, Mario games... I will never tire of you. Crisp and clean, to the point and joyfully so. Just jump, mofocka. Games that revel in the concept of moving around, making it inherently fun. Is there more noble of a proposition in gaming? Has there ever been more lucid game design?

Yet, I think that modern Mario games suck.

Like everyone and their grandmother (and if your grandmother plays Mario send her my regards, she's cool as hell, dude) I've been playing Mario 3D All Stars to have me a nice time. However it does reinforce this idea that I've always had, that Mario games, even though they may share the same broad aesthetic values and mechanics, are different from each other by nature. In this article, I propose that this change over time has actually been for the worse, leading to a loss of complexity in platforming game design with each successive iteration which is being traded away in favor of more cinematics and bombastics.

First things first, we have the beautiful Mario 64. A timeless classic and most of us' first foray into 3D games (yes, this was the very first game I ever played where the notion of the third dimension actually mattered. I had already played Star Fox but in Star Fox you don't really move in three dimensions, you're just in a plane going on rails and you cannot move completely freely). I played this before I even touched Doom or other first person games of the sort.

Minor parentheses by the way: did you know that Star Fox was inspired on the Inari Taisha temple? The beautiful, big long mountain shrine in Kyoto full of orange gates?

Fox translates to Inari and its creator, Dylan Cuthberth, who loved Japan a lot, got inspiration from it which he applied to his new bizarre fucking mind bending 3D tech which he then pitched and sold to nintendo and then became the basis for the Ultra 64, which was to come, and thus one of the main pillars of all modern 3D gaming as a whole? Holy shit, right? In Star Fox you cross gates to gain powerups and to make it fun to maneuver around with your Airwing... How come that I had never seen the connection?

But anyway. Back to Mario 64.

It is commonly told that Mario 64 was created by Miyamoto parting from the concept of a "secret garden". Most of the development time initially, it is said, was spent on Miyamoto and Tezuka, Mario creators, fine tuning the movement system in an isolated garden map without any enemies or hazards.

The purpose of the secret garden was threefold: first, the team was used to designing Mario games as 2d platformers and they were uncertain about how to take Mario games into the 3D era (a literal, flat-out equivalent conversion of classic mario, think Super Mario World, powerups and all, was considered at a certain point in development, creating linear, obstacle course stages with a beginning and a goal, the remnants of which still linger in the final game as the bowser stages, an idea which was finally fleshed out with the Mario 3D series on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, 20 years later (!)), so they needed a way to hash out ideas about how to design this new installment.

Second, Miyamoto took as one of the goals of the project to design Mario's movement with a supreme level of fidelity, so he'd use this area to test and test and test all of Mario's acrobatics, to make them feel smooth, convincing and entertaining to play. He'd say that as long as a move didn't feel right in the garden, it couldn't be used in the final game, creating in the end as something that feels a little bit like ninja acrobatics on rollerskates or ice skating.

Third, the team eventually realized that, since 3D content was incredibly expensive to create back in 1995, when commonplace computer 3D animation and design was still quite in its infancy, they needed to develop the skill to design little sandboxes which were good enough to run around in over and over without getting tired of them (think of it as if constructing a highly detailed, complex diorama, an idea fleshed out finally in Captain Toad from Super Mario 3D world, again, 20 years later (!)). This was to create more content for the game while reusing the same architecture and geometry for the levels, since resource usage had to be maximized. The remnants of the garden are still present in the final game, as the Castle Grounds.

So, do you see the level of SOUL invested here? The level of care, the amount of love placed into each and everyone of Mario's moves in Super Mario 64? And the results show it: the game allows the player to tackle all objectives at their own pace, in their own terms, however way they can. The game forces nothing down your throat: blast to the island in the sky? Well, maybe just long jump to it if you're gutsy enough, no need to wait until you unlock cannons. Or get the 8 red coins first if you want. Or just fuck it, and go and release the chain chomp first because he looks very cool and this is probably the first power star that all people who play the game get first. Or just, fuck it, you can skip that objective all together if you want, just collect enough stars for the next door unlock.

Jump, double jump, triple jump, dive, dive from jump, punch, breakdance kick, backflip, turn and backflip, long jump, wall jump, grab objects and throw, jump-shortkick, slide down, ground pound, fly from triple jump, swim, crouch... and even crawl. I count a total of 20 possible interactions with the environment, maybe even more I'm missing. All movements completely available to you from the start to mix and match the way you best see fit (except for flying, which is unlocked like 15 minutes into the game). The world is yours and you're free, go nuts son. The only variable is your skill at the movement system.

So you can probably see why this is delicious design. There's never a single way to clear most power stars in the game, instead the decision is left to the player, which the game trusts is smart enough to figure out solutions to problems on their own. Wanna jump for it? Sure, if you can. Want to wait unil you got the powerup? That's cool too. Want to go play another level? Sure thing! OR FUCK IT! JUST RACE THE KOOPA IF YOU WANT!

So you can probably see why I loathe the fact that the sequel was based exclusively on giving people a dumbed down version of the same shit, with a fucking dumb water pack.

Come 2002 and under pressure to perform, the team releases Super Mario Sunshine and it's the most bland, dumbed down sequel ever (though, could anyone really live up to such a predecessor's prowess?). In an attempt to make the game accessible to more players (tm), the game is stripped out of its complexity. Mario no longer moves as a gracious, roller skating gazelle that can navigate the world in the most agile and beautiful way ever. Instead you screech down to a halt the second you stop pushing the direction stick instead of providing people with that most delicious sense of momentum and friction SM64 had. Boo Hoo! Baby think 3D platforming is too hard? BABY CANNOT HANDLE PING PING WAHOO ON THE N64? Then we give babby a water nozzle which will allow them to correct any miscalculated jump ever (it's insulting that this is the best solution they managed to come up with) HOORAY!

But hey! Sunshine has good things about it! Uh... the water is pretty! (that's probably where all the development time and resources probably went anyway).

SAY WHAT? WE GOT TO RELEASE THIS YEAR? AND THEY WANT US TO INCLUDE 120 STARS AGAIN? FUCK! WE RAN OUT OF TIME; JUST ADD BLUE COINS, DUDE! YEAH WHATEVER! SHIP IT! THIS IS THE GAME! I'M GONNA GO LIE DOWN AND HAVE A BEER! FUCK IT!

Mario Sunshine is not a bad game, but it's not a bold, groundbreaking game like its predecessor was. It detests and rejects the fact that you are a competent platforming game player. It nerfs everything down. It makes it almost impossible to lose. It plays things too safe and too easy, replacing action game design with flashing lights, prettier graphics, and an easier experience; it has its moments but it's an inferior game mechanically: jump, double jump, triple jump, hover, rocket jump, turbo run (why), walk on tightropes (why), spin in air (why), spin from ground into high jump, turn and backflip, swim, spray water, spray water and dive, wall jump, ground pound. It's only 16 moves -- less than its predecessor --, and they have less complexity and are easier to execute.

Not only that but you're no longer free to tackle objectives the way you see fit. The world is now a container for several course-clears, and no longer allowing for the freedom of open world games. If you pick Shine 1, you WILL clear shine 1 in that run of the level. If the game wants you to watch a cutscene (of which there were none in SM64), you WILL watch the fucking cutscene. Wash rinse repeat until you get enough shines to clear the lamest end boss in video game history.

Again, it's not a bad game but it reeks of suits getting involved in the process and demanding shit to be made easier because otherwise it wouldn't sell. It reeks of misplaced priorities. It's a pretty game and it's nice for an afternoon, but after that you just have blue coins left and hooooooooooooo weeeeeee I'm not touching that shit. The most asinine side quest I've ever seen in a video game: to find blue coins hidden in random spots, usually by cleaning a spot of graffitti, and exchange 10 of them for a single shine, the collection of which cannot be stacked and forces you to watch a cutscene every time. Reeks of laziness.

Then Mario Galaxy comes out and Jesus Christ. It's like they don't give a shit at this point. Open-world, acrobatics-centric 3D Mario is just fucking gone. This is probably the point where it became cheap enough to make 3D content en-masse that they just started copying the classic Mario formula in 3D to churn out content.

The bad thing, is that at a certain point it feels as if the games play themselves and I've always been against it and will always be against it because I'm into games due to the fact that they're something which engages my brain. I don't like games which just keep me there, passively looking at the screen, reacting to quick time events. I want to be immersed, engrossed and I want to feel that nice sense of exploration and fun experimentation that you only get with open world games.

The games are back to linear now: even though, in Sunshine, they made an effort to at least make things seem open world, they don't care anymore in this one. It's all just linear levels happening in planetoids which you visit in a sequence, to, yet again, remove all hazards and all notion of challenge and complexity, even more than before. And you have to shake the wii remote to spin to top it off, and this gives you a free save if you miscalculate a jump. The galaxy games were extrapolated through the 3D series: Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World (strong candidates for most bizarre title to a video game ever), to form which is called the "course clear" vein of 3D mario games, starting from the Galaxy games.

See, nintendo themselves differentiate between "Course-clear" 3D Mario and "Open World" 3D Mario. Once Super Mario Oddysey got announced, they came out with this interesting infographic about their classification for 3D Mario games:

Don't get me wrong again, there's nothing inherently bad about these types of Mario game, and Galaxy 2 and Mario 3D World are both some of the best video games ever created, but I think that something got lost in transition when compared to the sublime finesse of the movement system in Mario 64. The way it respects your intelligence, the way it drops you in an open world and gives you freedom, the way that its worlds are built, I think that all of this has never been paralleled, not even by nintendo themselves for some reason, and I think the reason why this happened is that, maybe the excellence of Mario 64, quirks and all, was a product of its time and the limitations in production ability for 3d content and graphics that surrounded its creation at the time.

Yet, Lo and Behold! 2017 is here and Super Mario Oddyssey is in the horizon and it promises to be the Next Big Thing (tm) since sliced bread. A TRUE and HONEST return to form, to the Glory Days of Mario 64! And the game is way too enthsiastic with its embracing of Super Mario 64 nostalgia: there's literally a whole level inspired after the Mario 64 castle grounds in Mario Oddysey and the whole notion of absolute freedom from Mario 64 (somewhat) returns (but not completely because you still are subject to doing a main big event per level, after which the rest of the level unlocks; once you clear the game, the second half of the game unlocks even). And the emphasis is back into acrobatics again, which is a good thing: playing with your hat can get you places if you're handy with it.

But my biggest gripe with Super Mario Oddysey is that it's not completely honest as it claims to be. It's a course-clear game hidden under a coat of paint of an open world-game. It's literally Zelda Breath of the Wild's half-assed design all over again: big empty world full of collectibles, with tiny "levels" to be found. Once you find a game, it's time to do a thing --wash rinse repeat. In Mario Oddysey you explore around until you find a pipe or a door or a character and you get plunked into a Super Mario 3D World style course-clear game with additional collectibles. So it's not really the game which it was told to be. The levels don't feel like beautiful dioramas, and the acrobatics, even if nice, are nowhere near as rich as the SM64 acrobatics. There's infinite lives this time around, so there's no real feeling of risk. The game rehashes its own content, you make a tower of goombas, cool. Then you make it again, twice as long. Then you make it again, in the water. Then you make it again, in the beach level. Then you make it again, in the ice level. Then you make it again. Then you make it again, then you make it again...

You could argue that they were onto something with the capture system, because it's an attempt to enhance the movement system while at the same time it's trying to keep things interesting, but the bad thing is that this is really not the case. Captures are contextual, and you're expected to capture an enemy, do something with it, then leave it behind, so it's not a skillset that you build up on, it's yet another course-clear level in a disguise.

So even though it's a good game, it's not the game that it set out to be, I'm sad to say. The Brilliance of Super Mario 64 is yet to be rivaled, and Nintendo should feel ashamed of it. It's been 20 years, man. Where has your mind been all along?

Alright Nintendo, to conclude, here's a freebie for you. This is how you design your next Mario game so it fucking kicks ass: you bring back the SM64 movement system and ADD ONTO IT. Do NOT take away from it, just ADD. Complexity is good in games. All of your fans are fucking 30 year olds, they can handle a complex game.

Next, you develop a vast, broad, massive open world. Think GTA-size. You set up 1200 stars and you place them all over the world in ways where it is EXCITING by itself to explore the world. Make it so people can collect stars at their own pace, ANY WAY THEY WANT, and expand the world accordingly. Keep the Super Mario Oddyssey persistence, where once you capture a moon you don't have to go back to a menu screen, that was a good addition. Embrace the diorama mentality and go nuts with the world. Fill it with waterfalls, caves, chasms, canyons, and provide the player nothing but their acrobatics to clear everything in the world. Avoid pre-scripted sequences (they can still be good for some things like bosses). And make the world seamless, none of this island in the sky thing anymore. Moving around and getting stars should be their own reward, not "getting to find a course clear level".

[jojotier]

The Grass Can Always be Greener

(Here just take this mushy shit just take it)

“Oi, Koichi- why are headed this way anyway?” Okuyasu complained, digging his hand out his pocket and rubbing at his nose, “That sale’s the other direction! This better not make us lose our shot at free ice cream...”

“Well- yeah,” Koichi said, rubbing at the back of his neck as he glanced in front of him to where the train station was, “but I wanted to go ahead and see Jotaro-san for a bit- just to get everything sorted out about… you know. The egg.”

Koichi… still wasn’t entirely sure what to think about Okuyasu, honestly. Sure, he was a pretty nice person, underneath all those rough edges, and he really did care about people, but he still tried to kill Josuke. And he had been working with his brother, who still kind of sort of tried to murder Koichi and put him in this entire stand situation in the first place. There were a lot of things to process, honestly. He still wasn’t entirely sure how to take everything, but he figured that the best place to start was with figuring out what was in this egg.

“Well I mean, if anyone would know anything about this stuff, it’d probably be him,” Josuke nodded along, “I can’t exactly tell you what it was like not to have a stand- I don’t even think I could imagine it! The only thing I could think of is that Mom probably would’ve had my head with all the stuff I was breaking around the house! God, if only she knew about all the vases…”

“Oh hey, isn’t that Jotaro-san up ahead?” Okuyasu suddenly straightened out and said, shielding his eyes against the sun. Just as he’d said, off in the distance, there was the intimidating white form of Jotaro against the backdrop of the train station, gold pins nearly blinding the lot of them. Koichi could only guess at what those things were there for- medallions? Some kind of secret code? There was so much that he couldn’t possibly know about Jotaro that sometimes it was a little unnerving…

“Well yeah, looks like it is!” Josuke grinned and then slung an arm so casually around Okuyasu’s shoulders that it was hard to believe that just days ago they were at each other’s throats. “You know what that means…”

“Hell yeah I do! We’ll have our ice cream in no time!” Okuyasu’s grin grew to match and the both of them started to speed up, forcing Koichi to jog to keep up with both them and their long legs. Okuyasu waved vigorously as they approached, calling out, “Jotaro! We’re-” before Josuke suddenly clamped a hand over his mouth. Okuyasu let out a muffled sound and Josuke hissed out a matching one, holding his slobber soaked palm with a look of pure betrayal crossing his face.

Koichi decided to ignore them both in favor of looking at what caused Josuke to pause- namely, Jotaro had Star Platinum out. The intimidating stand had both its feet planted firmly in the ground, hair floating on some invisible breeze- and despite its user seeming just as stoic as ever, the stand was looking… agitated, almost? As if Star was looking for something.

“Dude, not cool-- that’s so gross---”

“Well you started it, doing that-!”

“Guys!” Koichi cut in, nudging the both of them as he gestured to Jotaro. “Guys, there’s something going on up there, I think…”

“Yeah. It seems that way…” Josuke said, managing to wipe his hand off and nudging his shoulder with Okuyasu’s. Okuyasu looked maybe a little uncomfortable for a second before he squinted, looking at the scene too.

There were a couple moments of silence as they inched closer and waited to see if Jotaro would make any move. Any move, maybe to try and catch a train or anything. Nothing happened. He stayed firmly in place, looking disinterestedly at passerby as his stand grew more and more antsy by the second, buzzing with some unnamed energy. Could stands sense things that their users couldn’t? Koichi didn’t know enough about stands to know, but he did know that this seemed a little weird. Besides, hadn’t Jotaro been saying that he’d most likely be in the hotel that week for some thesis or another that he was trying to compile?

There was more silence before Okuyasu spoke up, voice way too loud for the quiet tone he was trying for, though it was obvious that he was at least trying. “What the hell’s got his stand so keyed up? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that- except when my brother’s…” He paused, chewed on the inside of his cheek, and then just brushed it off, “Nah, forget it- it’s stupid. Just me being a dumbass like usual. Jotaro doesn’t look like the kinda person who’d get excited like that.”

“Yeah- can he even get excited about anything? The guy just seems too cool for it, almost.” Josuke muttered.

“Well, he’s only human- he has to feel excitement, like anyone else,” Koichi said logically, though he wasn’t entirely sure if he believed himself on that. There was still too much with Jotaro to really pinpoint that kind of thing that Koichi didn’t really know about. He was about to say something else when Josuke started, tensing up completely.

“There.” Koichi followed his line of sight until he could see another figure, this one dressed in long green overcoat with a white scarf billowing behind him. At first, nothing seemed too weird about him- he was tall, broad shouldered, and had red hair neatly cropped except for one bang framing his face. There were the faintest hint of scars over his eyes, which he wore a pair of wire spectacles in front of. He seemed poised, elegant, and then Koichi saw the green tentacles trailing after him and his breath hitched.

Star Platinum’s gaze was locked on the stranger, and then Jotaro’s was as well. Jotaro and the stranger looked at each other for a moment and seemed to exchange a few words. Josuke nudged both Koichi and Okuyasu and Koichi nodded, following him a bit towards the corner of the train station, right between it and a shop. Then, they could make out the tail end of a conversation as Star Platinum nearly vibrated, eyes locked on the tendrils of green floating around the redhead’s frame.

“... Then perhaps we should settle this,” said the stranger, voice carefully airy despite a sharp undercurrent of a cool snap, “back at your hotel room, hm?”

“I’d much rather prefer if we settled it as soon as possible.” Jotaro replied, just as calm and stoic as ever. “There’s an alleyway between this station and a nearby tourist trap. We’ll go there.”

“My my, so forward, JoJo… but of course we can settle it there.” The stranger smiled, and the both of them started towards that alleyway.

“It’s an enemy stand user,” Josuke breathed, muscles tensing up even more as Crazy Diamond was summoned. Okuyasu, suddenly serious, summoned his stand as well, and Koichi could feel his heart drop to his stomach. So soon? How was he going to be able to do anything at this rate, with his own dumb little egg?

“Your nephew is damn gutsy, deciding to take him on his own,” Okuyasu nearly growled from low in his chest.

“He might have this- but let’s go, just in case he needs backup, alright?” Josuke said, and both Koichi and Okuyasu nodded. Koichi didn’t really know if he could do anything in this situation- but maybe he’d be able to figure it out, like, just how he was going to use this stand. The three of them crept towards the alleyway, hearing nothing as both Jotaro and the stranger entered, before there was a slight, shrill sound. Koichi hurried on ahead, peeking around the corner to have a look…

The stranger had his hands holding both of Jotaro’s cheeks, legs wrapped around his waist as Star Platinum held the both of them up from where the stranger had apparently been trying to tackle Jotaro to the ground. Koichi was about to say something back to Josuke when he finally heard what the redhead clinging to Jotaro was saying. And when he finally figured out what he was doing.

“JoJo,” The redhead pressed a kiss to Jotaro’s cheek, then his nose, then his other cheek, “Baby- darling- my wonderful JoJo...”

What.

The stranger kept peppering Jotaro’s face with kisses, and Koichi thought that maybe he caught a hint of the man’s normally stoic expression light up with the slightest tilt of his lips upward, but that could have been a trick of the light. Then he pulled back, and though Koichi couldn’t make out his expression from this angle, he could practically hear the pout on his face. “I am never doing a six month exhibition tour again. I was in hell, JoJo- two very specific kinds of hell, all at once, on top of not seeing my shining star for all this time. Speedwagon’s gonna kill me one of these days.”

“No one was telling you to double up on cases and art. That’s on you.” Jotaro told him, arms tightening around the redhead before setting him down on the ground with all the gentleness in the world. The green tentacles had apparently found their way underneath Jotaro’s coat, and Koichi watched as they reformed into the face of the stand, nuzzling affectionately against Jotaro’s neck while wrapping around him. Jotaro brought a hand up and a couple green tendrils wrapped around it.

“Well it was the best way to tie both thing together with a neat little bow.” The stranger said, crossing his arms almost petulantly over his chest. “If I had to look at those pieces for any longer while doing research I was going to lose it, JoJo, and then where would that leave you? Huh?” The stranger stood for a few moments before being swept up again, this time by an extremely overexcited Star Platinum who nearly crushed him against his immense purple chest.

Koichi glanced back, but only Okuyasu was there- Josuke was peering around the corner too, face twisted up in an expression that was one part disbelief, two parts amazement, and a healthy dose of shock. He heard a delighted laugh come from the stranger as Jotaro shrugged, looking back with a strange look in his eye. Something soft. Something that apparently had him focusing all his attention on the stranger pressing a kiss to his stand’s cheek and trying to wriggle free to the point where he hadn’t even noticed the three of them. “... Noriaki.”

“Hm?” The stranger- Noriaki, apparently- looked at Jotaro and then a slow grin crossed over his face, looking almost too wide with that mouth of his. “Yes, Jotaro?”

“...” Jotaro drew closer, wrapping his arms around Noriaki’s waist and tugging him down and out of the grip of his stand.

“I really did miss you…” Noriaki muttered, so quietly that Koichi had to strain to hear. His arms gently wrapped around Jotaro’s neck, one hand moving towards his hair. “My JoJo…”

Jotaro didn’t get much farther than leaning down a bit before Okuyasu interrupted with a sharp gasp. “What the hell?!” He yelled, and both adults’ heads whipped to where the three of them had been watching, staring back at them from where they were still holding each other.

Josuke stepped out, standing tall and with a scowl on his face. It looked like the initial shock of whatever had happened had worn off, so now they could all calm down and talk this out- “I don’t know what you did to Jotaro-san,” Josuke said, Crazy Diamond appearing beside him, “but whatever it is, you better undo it before you actually piss me off!”

“Yeah!” Okuyasu chimed in, The Hand getting ready to slice through the distance between the three of them and whatever was happening in the alleyway in front of them. “You better back down now, if you know what’s good for ya! We aren’t gonna let you do whatever you want with Jotaro-san, you got that?! No matter what kind of crazy love stand you have there!”

Both Jotaro and Noriaki stared blankly at the both of them before Noriaki’s face suddenly twisted up, hand flying over his mouth. There was an ungraceful, ugly snort, and then the other stand user began laughing, stepping away from Jotaro. Jotaro just kept staring both Okuyasu and Josuke down, less blankly, and more with a clear look of annoyance on his face. Noriaki wheezed.

“What the hell’s so funny, huh?!” Josuke barked out. “Are you really that damn arrogant?!”

“Josuke… I don’t think it’s what you guys think…” Koichi tried to say.

Okuyasu looked at him incredulously before pointing at the scene in front of them, where Star Platinum was currently holding onto a green stand (which had since wound together to make a humanoid shape) while this Noriaki person leaned his entire body against Jotaro. “Well what the hell other kind of explanation could you have for this?!”

“He’s my boyfriend.” Jotaro said.

There was a stunned silence as all three stand users stared at the couple. Koichi kind of suspected as much- but it was still a lot to take in anyway, since it seemed so strange to think about. Jotaro was actually dating someone- and from what it seemed like, it was a pretty serious relationship.

“I--” Josuke said, paused, and continued on, getting progressively more flustered, “I just thought--! I just, thought you wouldn’t really be one for relationships, Jotaro-san. You seemed almost too cool for it? Or if you, had one, I thought it was going to be like, some high society girl you’d have on your arm for scholarly doctor balls or- that sounds bad, I’m not saying that it’s wrong that your girlfriend’s a man- wait- it’s fine that you have a boyfriend, I’m not saying I don’t support you--”

“I just didn’t think you could like, be in love.” Okuyasu scratched the back of his neck. “Like you’d just scare everyone away!”

There was another bit of awkward silence before Noriaki looked at Jotaro and said, seemingly out of the blue, “The one with the pompadour and the heart pin is your uncle, huh.”

“Yeah.”

“I figured. Only Joseph’s son would have so wild an assumption.”

“Fair.”

Noriaki stepped forwards, politely smiling at the three of them. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you boys in any case. My name is Kakyoin Noriaki- I’ll be staying with Jotaro for the remainder of the stand arrow case.”

Koichi bowed politely, introducing himself. “My name is Hirose Koichi, and these two are Nijimura Okuyasu and Higashikata Josuke- I’m terribly sorry for barging in on you and Jotaro-san like this, Kakyoin-san.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. If I saw a seeming stranger walk into an alley with Jotaro for no reason, I’d be worried too.” Noriaki paused. “... Albeit for different reasons, perhaps. That’s neither here nor there though- were you boys going somewhere?”

“Actually, I was looking for Jotaro-san.” Koichi said, straightening back up and looking back towards where the man was. “I had a couple questions about stands, and uh… hatching them.”

“Ah, so you must be the one who was hit!” Kakyoin suddenly said, clapping his hands. “For now, your stand is an egg, yes? Fascinating- you wouldn’t mind terribly if I joined in on the conversation as well, would you? I would like to see this for myself.”

“Oh! Not at all, I wouldn’t-”

“Shit!!” Okuyasu suddenly butt in, raising his hands to his face as slow, dawning anguish flowed onto it. “The sale!!!!”

Josuke blanched as well, bringing both his hands up to his face and letting out a loud, “OH noooo! There’s only a limited amount!!!” He scrubbed his hands down his face, sadness pooling in his eyes. “We got so caught up with Jotaro’s muppet boyfriend that we forgot!!!!”

“This was just to drop Koichi off, dammit all!!”

Koichi spotted Kakyoin turn to Jotaro with an incredulous stare, to which he received a seemingly blank look in return. Then the adults turned back to Okuyasu and Josuke, who both were practically wallowing in self made seas of self pity. Then Kakyoin cleared his throat and said, “You know, if you two want, you can come with us and I’d be more than happy to get you some ice cream- my treat, since I did sort of drop by unexpectedly!”

Both delinquents were quick to hop up, faces brightening up immediately as another source of free ice cream presented itself. “Oh man, really?” Okuyasu said eagerly, a big grin on his face. “Dang, thanks!! You’re literally the best, Kakyoin-san!”

“Yeah!! Thanks, we totally appreciate it!!!” Josuke agreed full heartedly, and he and Okuyasu were already leaving the alleyway, already going ahead in their excitement.

“Well, it’s good to see that they’re okay with all this…” Koichi rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as Kakyoin crossed the rest of the way to him, looking down at Koichi with a warm smile on his face.

“Yes, it is.” Kakyoin said laughingly. Koichi blinked when a hand came down on his shoulder, a wide smile breaking out over Kakyoin’s face. “Ah, Koichi-kun; I just wanted to say, welcome on board! A stand truly can be a wonderful thing. I have full faith that whatever lays inside that egg of yours, it’ll grow, as you will, into something fantastic.”

Koichi couldn’t help but smile- Kakyoin just seemed so friendly, so calm and sincere, that he couldn’t help but think that this could be the start of something good. “Right! Though, maybe we should figure out a little more about it first…”

“A wise idea.” Kakyoin nodded sagely, then looked back to Jotaro, who was still stoically standing a couple feet from them. “Hey, JoJo- are you coming or what? I think I heard that there’s a place around here with cigar flavored cones I want to try…”

“Yeah, coming.” Jotaro said. Kakyoin frowned.

“Hey now- no need to sulk.” What? Jotaro’s face literally hadn’t moved in all this time. Koichi hadn’t seen any change in expression, much less anything that made it seem like Jotaro, the person standing straight and tall there in the alleyway and leisurely, unhurriedly making his way towards them, was sulking. Jotaro didn't say anything, and neither did Kakyoin, so Koichi just brushed off the odd exchange.

Soon, though, t hey were making their way down the street, with Okuyasu and Josuke hollering up ahead about god knew what. There was a comfortable silence between them before suddenly, Koichi remembered something that had been bothering him a bit. “Ah! Kakyoin-san?”

“Yes?” Kakyoin turned his attention towards the high schooler.

“I know it was rather rude to do, but we eavesdropped on a bit of your conversation with Jotaro-san earlier,” Koichi caught the motion of Jotaro pulling his hat brim down out the corner of his eye, “and you said that you wanted to ‘settle’ something in that alleyway. It seemed really suspicious at the time, but… what exactly were you trying to settle?”

Kakyoin paused, eyes looking blankly forwards, as if searching the horizon for an answer. Then he told Koichi, “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

Jotaro, looking pointedly ahead, muttered, “Give me a break…”

[kaelinaloveslomaris]

Vader shows Luke how to trick out his prosthetic hand. Because you can't tell me that Anakin never at least considered it, and thought up plans and components.

Okay, so this isn’t quite what you asked for, but this was what wanted to be written. It’s also horrendously late, and I feel bad about that, but I over-exerted myself with writing and desperately needed a break to recharge. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the rest of the prompts out soon, now that I’m getting my inspiration back.

“What are you doing?” Luke mumbled.His father entering the room had woken him from his somewhat restless sleep,and now he frowned in tired confusion as Vader settled on the edge of his bed,his weight making Luke slide closer to him. He ended up pressed snugly againsthis father’s side and groaned as the movement jostled his bruised ribs.

Vader lifted Luke’s right hand fromwhere it rested on the mattress and examined it. It had been damaged, notbadly, on the same botched mission that had injured his ribs and gotten himcaptured a few days ago. Days that had passed in a blur of bacta and medbays andnot a little fear about his future until Vader, who had hovered incessantlythroughout Luke’s stay in the Executor’smedbay, had received permission from a rather gutsy medical officer to removeLuke to the room he was currently in, a room he could only guess had beenprepared specifically for him by his father. Vader had assured him he was in nodanger and that any discussions about his future could wait until he was fullyhealed. Luke had managed to relax after that.

Now Vader pulled a small multitool froma pouch on his belt, and Luke chuckled as he realized what Vader intended todo. Despite the size and strength of his hands, his fingers were remarkablygentle and precise as he fiddled with the exposed wiring on the back of Luke’shand.

Luke watched him work for a longmoment, his father silent aside from the ever-present rhythm of his breathing.Luke’s fingers twitched as Vader reconnected one of the delicate wires servingas false nerves, and Vader’s hands stilled.

“Did that hurt?” Vader asked, and Lukefelt a bit of concern radiating from him.

“No," Luke said. “Tickled more thananything.”

Vader turned to look at Luke for thefirst time since entering the room. He stared for a long moment, and Luke lethim, waiting to see what his father would do. The moment stretched long enoughto edge towards awkward before Vader reached a tentative hand out to brushLuke’s hair away from his face. The tips of Vader’s fingers lingered on histemple before trailing down the side of his face and falling to rest on hisshoulder. Luke kept still, half someone frozen so as not to startle a jumpylothcat and half an eopie caught in a speeder’s lights. It was a tender gesturehe had never expected from Darth Vader, and he was unsure how to respond.

The Force was humming with hisfather’s emotions, strong enough that Luke could feel they were there, but well-shielded enough that hecouldn’t read them. Luke turned his head away and blinked back the little bitof moisture that had gathered at the corners of his eyes.

“Is my hand up to your standards?”Luke asked quietly, not sure what else to say. The question he wanted to ask – “Do you really careabout me?” – he wasn’t ready to voice, and he certainly wasn’t prepared to hearthe answer, no matter what it was.

“It is decent quality,” Vaderadmitted. “There are still many improvements that could be made.” He moved hishand again, this time to tilt Luke’s face back towards him, then went back toexamining Luke’s prosthetic hand. “Some of the wiring is overly complicated andcould easily be streamlined by rerouting several sensor relays. Response timecould be improved as well, though I doubt you have experienced any significantlags.” Luke shook his head mutely. He hadn’t noticed any. In fact, there wereeven times, recently, that he forgotthat his hand wasn’t real. They didn’t happen often or last long, and he knewit was more a testament to the quality of the prosthetic than him getting usedto it or moving on from what had happened at Bespin.

“Did you mean to do it?” Luke askedbefore he could stop himself.

Vader froze again, one hand grippingLuke’s wrist tightly. Luke winced, but Vader did not relax his hold. He turnedhis head away from Luke, and Luke felt a brief trickle of shame from him.

“No. I never intended to harm you.”

Luke watched his father carefully fora long moment, trying to read his minimal body language and glean any sparseinformation he could from the Force. The hand that was not clamped aroundLuke’s wrist was a tight fist, his shoulders were slightly hunched, and hestill refused to look at Luke. His shields were locked down too tightly forLuke to feel anything from him after that brief moment directly followingLuke’s question, but the shame he had felt spoke for itself. Luke noddedslightly.

“Alright.” He tried to sit up,levering himself up with his free hand, but gasped at the dull flare from hisribs. Vader turned quickly, releasing Luke’s hand and pushing him back to thebed with a hand on both shoulders.

“Do not move, son,” he said.

“Probably good advice,” Luke saidwryly. He relaxed back against the mattress, slightly touched by Vader’sfussing. They sat in silence for a long moment before Luke spoke again. “Couldyou… show me how to improve it? My hand, I mean. I know a fair amount aboutmechanics, but I don’t have a lot of experience with prosthetics.”

Vader’s head jerked up slightly insurprise. “Yes, Luke. When you are healed.”

Luke nodded, pleased, though hesuspected his father was intending to use this as a way to convince him to stay,instead of attempting escape or bargaining for release. But at the moment, hedidn’t really care. It would be nice to have something to work on with hisfather, find some common ground with their interest in mechanics, even if theproject was… unconventional and not quite what Luke had pictured as a childwhen he had imagined fixing speeders and ships with his idealized version ofhis father. But Vader was real and present, and maybe, just maybe, they couldhave a chance at being a family if Luke could fan the small spark of Light hecould feel in his father back to life.

Then maybe Leia would forgive him fornot trying hard enough to escape.

[kingofthewilderwest]

I absolutely loved season 4 of RTTE! The graphics were great and I enjoyed so many of the episodes. Especially touching was the scene with Toothless and Hiccup in Dire Straits. It left me in tears and was so well put together! I would love to hear your thoughts on that episode! Would you be willing to analyze it?

I think this moment in Race to the Edge Season 4 was one of the highlights of the season. It was an extraordinary moment between Hiccup and Toothless. The facial expressions and body language demonstrate the love and closeness these two share, while Toothless’ gutsy actions show how much he was willing to risk to try to save his best friend. Even in an impossible scenario like this one, Toothless does not give up. To my last anon friend who feels that Toothless did not try hard, I hope my description of the situation explains why I believe that Toothless does everything in his emotional power and physical might to try to save his best friend. This dragon did not do nothing. On the contrary, he does a whole lot in an attempt to save the human he loves! It’s an incredible moment and displays their friendship oh-so-powerfully.

Now. One wonderfully written element about Dire Straits is that, from the very beginning, the story sets up the concept of Hiccup going deep underwater, and Toothless fretting about the venture. Toothless commonly becomes leery of Hiccup’s experiments, be it gliding through the sky or submerging deep below the ocean surface. In fact, every single time we see Hiccup prepare to descend in his latest invention, we also see Toothless cringing, moaning, and worrying. Toothless is fearful something might go wrong.

As we know, having seen the whole episode, Toothless’ worries end up being founded. Something does go wrong and Hiccup almost dies. And we see an early, powerful moment foreshadowing the climax of Dire Straits. The first time Hiccup tests out his invention, Toothless stares worriedly at him from the other side of the amber, with a similar camera angle to the horrific scene that happens at the end of the episode.

And at the same time we see Toothless worrying throughout the episode, we watch Hiccup preparing. During this time, we learn much about the construction of Hiccup’s underwater cauldron. It is constructed from Gobber’s old metal smelting cauldron and reinforced with Gronckle iron, an alloy that is stronger than iron. The death song amber window is thick and triple reinforced to ensure it does not break. The cauldron is built of an incredibly thick metal base, easily several inches thick, and due to its heavy weight, it must be raised and lowered with thick chains through a pulley system. The thick metal dome is held up by three heavy metal supports, presumably constructed from Gronckle iron, too, given as they appear to be the same material as the other reinforcements.

This robust construction is actually an important aspect of the episode’s climactic underwater accident. The point is that this is a very, very firm invention, something Fishlegs even describes as “dragon-proof.” Dragons cannot simply break open this device. It’s not that easy. It’s reinforced with Gronckle iron. And… it is so heavy that it requires a very robust pulley system… the average-sized dragon isn’t going to be able to carry this thing. The story makes it seem like this solid construction would be an asset, as it would prevent breakage or damage while Hiccup was underwater. He needed this to stay together or else he would die. However, what ends up happening is that this solid construction is so solid that… Toothless cannot get Hiccup out of it.

So everything building up to the climax leads to it: the strong construction of the cauldron and Toothless’ continued worrying all lead to the moment Hiccup is trapped underwater.

Part of what makes that scene so emotional and effective is the extent to which Toothless tries to save Hiccup. Toothless’ heroics start small but then spiral into increasingly dangerous, gutsy, futile actions. 

When the dragon riders first realize Hiccup is in danger, Toothless is already unnerved and tense, constantly staring down at the water. When Fishlegs says that they cannot bring Hiccup up because it’s too early, Toothless growls. Toothless wants Fishlegs to pull Hiccup out of the water; he would rather have his dragon rider companion alive than the Submaripper rescued.

And then the pulley system breaks. Here comes Toothless’ first enormously bold move. He instantly charges and grabs the cauldron’s pulley chain to try to pull Hiccup up. Even though an enormous, heavy metal dome is hurtling down ocean waters, and there’s no possible way a single Night Fury could carry such a weight, Toothless grabs the chain anyway. It’s a desperate, frantic, emotional, instinctive action. It’s not the most logical choice to grab on this chain… but what we see is that Toothless’ first instinct is to save Hiccup’s life. 

As expected, Toothless grabbing and pulling on the chain with all his physical power does squat. He is pulled down to the bottom of the ocean with Hiccup.

Already, we have one desperate, emotional, frantic action coming out from Toothless. And this is just the start of the dragon’s attempts to save his friend.

Now Hiccup is trapped on the bottom of the ocean surface. Toothless wastes no time trying to free Hiccup. Toothless swims around the cauldron, yanking on chains (which is a completely useless and emotional task, if you think about it… if he can’t pick up the cauldron the first time, he can’t pick it up the second or third or fourth times). Toothless also, as you point out, fires several plasma blasts underwater at the cauldron.

But there’s only so much Toothless can do in these conditions. The plasma blasts hit their mark, going straight to the base of the cauldron, but they’re not going to be as effective as they are above water. This is because Toothless fires acetylene charges that react to oxygen. When acetylene and oxygen interact, they create a plasma blast. Here’s the problem: Toothless is underwater. The acetylene cannot come in contact with oxygen. It’s the same reason why fire doesn’t burn underwater; water prevents the fire’s fuel from coming in contact with needed oxygen. So even if Toothless gave his largest, most aggressive plasma blasts underwater… they’re… not going to do much. Not in these conditions where we don’t have much free oxygen gas floating around.

Granted, even if Toothless had access to his full firepower, it’d probably be wise if Toothless didn’t shoot his strongest blasts. Plasma blasts are extremely explosive, and we don’t want Toothless killing Hiccup with his own shots. But that’s still all a hypothetical. We don’t know if Toothless was giving his full firepower or not underwater here… but we do know that Toothless was giving his best attempt to free Hiccup. We do know that, chemically, Toothless’ plasma blasts are rather weakened. His shots, which he uses for so many useful, quick-save tricks above water, are useless down here.

Another strength of Toothless’ that is suddenly depleted underwater… is his speed. Sure, Toothless is a fast swimmer from what we see, but it’s going to be nowhere close to the hundred mile speeds he gets in the sky. This is another thing to consider when we watch Toothless swimming around seeking to save Hiccup. Maybe it looks like Toothless’ attempts are “weak” and “halfhearted” because he seems to be moving slowly and without much force. But he’s underwater. Have you ever tried running even just waist-deep in water? You can’t. You’re extraordinarily slowed down. There is no way for Toothless to move quickly; I bet he’s moving about as fast as he can.

Here we see Toothless using all the tricks he usually employs to save others… and these tricks fail. Plasma blasts, strength, speed: none of them are going to do anything in this submarine situation. Even if he had thought to do things like ram against the death song amber… that had been reinforced to be dragon-proof, and he wouldn’t have been able to break it. HTTYD 2 has some amazing, near-impossible saves, yes, but it also shows us that sometimes reality doesn’t go as we want it to. Stoick had to die to protect Hiccup. There wasn’t a perfect, beat-the-impossible solution to save Hiccup there. And it looks like there isn’t a perfect, beat-the-impossible solution to save Hiccup here.

Now some people might note that Toothless doesn’t seem as frantic as some other people might be watching their best friend drown. This all comes to various personalities having different psychological reactions. For some people, in frightening circumstances, it might not fully click what’s happening until after the event. Many people terrifying events seemingly rather numbly or “calmly”, functioning just fine, until their minds can process what has occured. Then they get hysterical. Other people are very emotionally distraught during a situation but still manage to function halfway well on the outside. Just because Toothless isn’t in hysterics doesn’t mean he isn’t emotionally affected by what’s going on. We see that he’s extremely distressed. It’s just that he’s not frantic-frantic panicking.

It’s also to note that Hiccup and Toothless are seasoned to danger. Toothless is going to be extraordinarily distressed about Hiccup, but he’s been in enough dangerous situations to know not to panic. He’s conditioned to be able to operate efficiently even under enormous, terrible pressure. It’s going to emotionally kill Toothless to go through this situation… and we can see, with his worried eyes, that this is a horrible reality for Toothless to experience. But Toothless isn’t going to get hysterical like some lesser-experienced individuals might so do.

The dragon might be operating more efficiently than some people in tight spots, but we can tell he’s not operating as logically as he would in calmer situations. His distress is emotionally compromising him. Toothless is wasting his strength doing things that obviously won’t free Hiccup. Remember: this dragon yanked on a chain to pull up an object impossibly heavier than he could bear. It’s entirely possible Toothless can’t think of other solutions to this problem with his mind in his compromised, scared state.What we see is a dragon who is doing his best to help Hiccup, is able not to panic, but is still extremely distressed and emotionally compromised. We can see it all through his emotions and his choices.

It’s a very realistic and simultaneously poignant reaction from Toothless here. Once he goes through all the methods he can think of to free Hiccup, he comes to the conclusion that Hiccup might die down here. We start to see Toothless slow down. Toothless is starting to run out of ideas, and he’s starting to realize that his best efforts might be futile. That’s really disheartening, so his emotions cause him to break his rescue attempts, look at Hiccup face-to-face, and mourn. Toothless slows down and stops trying to save Hiccup… because the depression of the situation is weighing him down. It’s the point where Toothless’ thoughts of “I might save Hiccup” change into “I can’t save Hiccup” which lead to the horrible realization… “Hiccup is going to die.”

Boom. Ow.

Now, in addition to Toothless doing so much to try to save his friend, the reason this scene is so powerful is because of the complex emotional reactions that occur when Hiccup and Toothless communicate. What we see in this interaction is that their primary concern is for each other. Hiccup whacks against the death song amber, insisting worriedly, “Go! Save yourself!” He loves Toothless and he wants Toothless alive. But Toothless is worried about Hiccup, not himself.

So when Hiccup tells Toothless to save himself, Toothless doesn’t swim to the surface. Toothless continues to stare at Hiccup, and Hiccup says, in response, “I know, bud. I wouldn’t leave you either.” 

What this means is that Hiccup and Toothless both know… the dragon isn’t leaving. They know that their love for each other is too strong for that to be an option.

Toothless would rather die helping Hiccup to the very end than save himself.

Hiccup realizes Toothless’ intent. And then we see his facial reaction change… from one of fear for his best friend’s life… to sad comfort. He’s touched, albeit emotionally pained, that Toothless loves him so much he’s going to stay at his side.

It is at this point that Hiccup calms. He accepts he won’t make it out alive. Toothless, on the other side, cannot accept this. Depressed and worried, the dragon is going to make the ultimate sacrifice of staying by Hiccup’s side to the very end… even if this means the end to both of them.

The end of the “conversation” occurs when Toothless closes his eyes, reaches out, and nuzzles the amber window. Note that he’s reaching for Hiccup’s hand. Hiccup’s hand is outstretched toward Toothless, and Toothless tries to touch Hiccup’s hand. Recognize the gesture? It’s only sort of similar to this friendship-building moment from long ago…

Yep.

Toothless can’t save Hiccup. He can’t even touch Hiccup. But he demonstrates the trust and love of their friendship as best he can: with the gesture of “touching” nose to palm. It’s the demonstration of ultimate love and trust, the motion Toothless and Hiccup make when they are at their most tender and caring.

My feels.

It’s such an emotional moment. It’s the concept of so-close-and-yet-so-far. We see this done in movies. A New Hope with Obi-Wan’s death. The Force Awakens with Han Solo. Characters are close enough they can watch someone die, but simultaneously too far away (or barricaded) such that they can’t do anything. Hiccup and Toothless are so close. They’re face-to-face. They can read one another’s eyes, communicate, see how the other is emotionally handling this nightmare. But Toothless is separated from Hiccup, unable to touch him and unable to save him. The best Toothless can do is nuzzle the glass in front of Hiccup. In a way, this nuzzle is a way of expressing his loyalty, his love… and his good-byes.

It’s possible that Toothless might have gotten some physical rest at this moment. Then he might have tried some more futile attempts of freeing Hiccup. But we don’t know because it is at this instant the Submaripper appears. 

So. You know what I said about Toothless doing ridiculously, increasingly gutsy things to protect his best friend? This is what we have going here. Toothless is probably running out of air. He has exerted a lot of physical energy trying to budge a cauldron that is too heavy for him. He has shot several plasma blasts and seen they have almost no destructive effect underwater.

And yet when the enormous Submaripper swims toward the cauldron…

…Toothless goes into attack mode. It doesn’t matter Toothless is out of his element. It doesn’t matter Toothless is probably running out of physical strength. It doesn’t matter his plasma blasts mean squat here. It doesn’t matter that he’s so much smaller than the other dragon. When Toothless sees the Submaripper advancing toward Hiccup, his automatic response… is… to… fight.

There’s no logic to this. Hiccup is going to die anyway. Toothless is going to die anyway. Toothless is completely, utterly outmatched.

Doesn’t stop him from trying to defend his best friend.

Toothless fires two plasma blasts immediately, trying to fight off the enormous dragon and keep Hiccup - at least for a few seconds more - safe. This dragon is willing to die underwater with Hiccup. This dragon is even willing to die fighting a seadragon to prevent Hiccup’s soon-to-be-dead body from being touched by a hostile individual.

We can all breathe a sigh of relief (wordplay on breathing intentional) that the Submaripper’s motives were misread by Toothless. Toothless tends to be suspicious first, friendly second… and to be fair, the Submaripper had been aggressive toward the humans up to this point. But instead of attacking Toothless, we see the Submaripper pay debts. Hiccup saved the dragon… so the dragon will now save Hiccup.

Thus Hiccup is rescued.

So yes. I absolutely love this moment, and I consider it one of the standout moments of Race to the Edge. This is a moment that expresses the deep bonds between Hiccup and Toothless in a horrifying, emotional near-death situation. Everything is done so perfectly… the foreshadowing camera angle compared to the climax… the nose-to-palm “touch”… even the music, which is a variation on the theme that happens whenever Toothless is in grave danger (heard, for instance, at the end of the Kill Ring). What we see here is a friend desperate to save a friend… a friend willing to die next to his friend… a friend willing to sacrifice himself for a friend…

It’s the very essence of the loving bond between dragon and rider.