#but meanwhile that's not exactly true! some things apparently come far more naturally to me than others

[echthr0s]

sometimes I'm reading a post and it's like "how can I do/make [x] in the headspace?" or "how can I attract a specific soulbond?" or something similar and I'm baffled, like, you don't just... do it?

genuinely feels like some Flatland type comedy, like, you can't just get up off the paper and walk around??? wh 🤔

[aphrodite-would-be-proud]

Anon said: I hope I'm not too late to slip in a request! I was actually hoping for a more platonic request with Miche? Just how he would help out a new cadet on his squad or something... Maybe there having a hard time fitting in now that there on a section commander squad or even worried about an upcoming expedition. Miche is one of my biggest comfort Characters and I'm such a shy person lol...I love you blog by the way, it's such a comforting place...🥺

Miche reassuring you that you're enough.

{Miche & reader | tw:none | platonic, comfort | canonverse}

{ "The Interior of the Palm House on the Pfaueninsel Near Potsdam" 1834 by Carl Blechen 1798 - 1840 }

No one can deny that the survey corps had a...certain reputation between the people, for being ruthless, unhinged and not a place for someone hoping for a future.

Their leader is known for gambling with human lives, their strongest has a criminal history record and their most intelligent, does experiments that would put medical student dropout Frankenstein himself to shame.

In short, you'd be crazy for walking there with your own two feet and expecting a crumb of compassion.

You don't go looking for fish in the desert.

You've heard it all, those sayings people keep reciting like a broken record whenever you'd bring up joining the survey corps.

"You'll just end up titan food"

"Why do you want to throw away your life?"

"God your poor family…"

And despite all of that, you still marched on, despite everyone who told you to quit.

Not only did you join and stayed alive for so long, you've even managed to climb the ranks in record time.

So fast in fact that you were assigned to join a section commander's squad after a very successful titan capture mission that earned you a pat on the back from Erwin.

Being pulled from your friends and moved to a new place where you were surrounded by veterans who've been in their positions for 10 years or more, was quite sudden and shocking.

One thing that should've eased your nerves, was the fact it was squad Miche you're being put into.

Anyone in the survey corps can tell you that in comparison to other squads, this was the most...friendly per say, since they prioritised teamwork and coming back alive over everything else, knowing together they're much stronger and willing to protect each other no matter what.

While yes they did have their quirks, it was almost nothing in comparison to Levi's strict hygiene rules and Hange's workaholic routine or Erwin's unreadable intentions.

And yet, you felt unease at the whole situation.

You were clearly "that new cadet" in this old group of close-knit people, almost standing out even.

You wanted to prove yourself, you've done it before to all those people so why is it any different now.

Maybe...because they are actually experienced soldiers this time, and not strangers living in blissful ignorance inside the walls.

Maybe because you feel the growing burden of expectations set on you for being the newest person in the squad, and being put there by none other than the commander himself which would raise some eyebrows if you couldn't deliver.

Uncertainty and doubt began pooling up inside your mind, making you second guess decisions and overthink actions.

And it's not like the squad members were leaving you out, no in fact they were doing their best to include you.

….maybe even too much actually, it didn't help that all of them were outgoing people, it was overwhelming.

Nanaba was an unofficial stand in caption when Miche wasn't around. Having a confident yet compassionate personality made her protective of her teammates, almost like a big sister, earning her a lot of respect.

So much in fact that it would unintentionally intimidate people out of approaching her

Gelgar was a strong believer in Miche, loyal to a fault almost. Yet he wouldn't say no for a chance to relax and grab a couple drinks, being friends with so many people came naturally to him with his mellow personality and overall friendliness.

Maybe a bit much too friendly? That personal boundaries were often crossed without him realising it. 

Lynne was a good balance between the two, she was considerate of others feelings...even so much in fact that she tended to sugar-coat almost everything.

Thomas and Henning were close with each other, both serious and determined. But maybe because they were so used to each other that dealing with new people became...strange, for conversations with them resembled an awkward dad attempting to check on you but not actually putting much effort to understand.

Meanwhile, you were a reserved and shy person.

It was a miracle that you managed to get a group of friends in cadet training that stayed with you throughout the years, but now after being transferred it was all turned to dust.

You have to start again, meet people again and talk to them while wondering if they actually like you or are pretending to be nice because they don't wanna come off as rude-

On top of that, Erwin seemed to keep an eye on you after your last mission, silently conveying the trust and expectations he's putting your way, to not fail him and show you're worthy of this special treatment.

It was too much, too overwhelming and draining.

Dread and uncertainty loomed in the corners of your mind, only metastating in size as the date for the new expedition was announced.

To add fuel to the fire, apparently everyone seemed almost...excited or nonchalant for going out there again, like this is a mere walk in the park as they began making preparations and training.

Were you the only one that felt nervous? Oh god.

Your legs felt like they were weighted down by stones as you stared at the large board in front of you, a white sheet signed by the commander announcing next week to be the date of the expedition, several names listed below for who'd be required for service.

Your name was at the top, even with a line underneath it. The fact it was in cursive didn't make it any less gut-wrenching.

The chatter of people around you, discussing the plans and joking with each other, began blurring out at the back of your mind.

The weather seemed colder as shivers ran down your neck. A rolling feeling in your stomach making your throat tighten, your own voice inside your head was the only noise you could hear.

All those thoughts and worries creeping from underneath the dark corners that you've been pushing them into all this time, like a swarm drowning you in their "what if" and skepticism, full of doubt and illogical pessimism for worst case scenarios.

Thoughts that aren't even your own joined them, ones you never had and knew weren't true and yet amidst the storm it was hard to tell the real from the ones passing through.

You know you're capable, so why…

Are you capable?

Yes…

but are you really?

...

And how are you even sure?

Before it could pull you deeper into that hole of despair, something snapped your attention back to reality, a hand nudging your shoulder. 

"You really didn't hear me huh." The voice came from behind you, a tall figure stepping closer till you were in his shadow.

Miche looked at you with a tilted head, his lips pressed into a thin line as his eyes bore into you like he's attempting to guess what's going inside your brain.

You've been too lost inside your mind you didn't notice that you were the only one left standing in front of the board.

From the way Miche's shoulders fell after reading your expression, eyes softening after glancing at your name on the sheet, he was quick to catch on.

Before you could say something to save your face after being caught in this state by none other than your new captain, Miche just told you to come with him, making sure to walk beside you، protectively staying close that no one on your way would interrupt.

Passing the corridor leading to his office, you gave him an uncertain glance as he simply gestured for you to continue walking for whatever unknown place you're headed to.

Soon enough the buildings and stone streets faded the further you went on, grass and dirt roads taking its place.

It wasn't a long walk per say, but more of a secluded area that took both of you some turns in seemingly shady alleyways to reach.

You couldn't hear the horses or soldiers walking anymore, only the soft flowing of the nearby river.

The tall grass barely reaching below your knees, some ladybugs crawling on top of the scattered daffodils in-between, the closer to the river cliff you got the taller it became.

The first thing Miche did, wasn't explaining to you why you're here, or what exactly he was after.

No, he barely said a word even, only taking in a deep breath as the wind had the courtesy of pushing his bangs back, eyes finally in clear view now.

Gaze meeting yours, he gave you a nod, a gesture to do the same thing.

You reluctantly took a deep breath.

He smiled.

Both of you sat by the river, he gave you his jacket to sit on.

As the silence grew between you, even while it wasn't the uncomfortable kind, it was clear he was struggling to phrase something, the right words just not coming to mind.

Turning his body towards you, he finally said, "how about i just..listen, let it out.".

It wasn't easy, you can't just pour out your heart to your superior.

Not to mention the military wasn't a place for weakness, could you really openly admit to your worries?

Well, yes you could, because it isn't weak, it takes great strength to face something scary and admit to it.

It's strength that got you this far.

How could you ever mistake vulnerability for weakness?

Keeping true to his words, Miche didn't interrupt you as you slowly opened up about what's been troubling you.

He patiently listened, occasionally humming for you to go on whenever you'd lose track.

And by the end of it, after you poured out all your frustration, sadness and worries, it felt...like a weight lifted off your shoulders.

Miche looked at you with understanding in his eyes, as if he himself has been in this exact same position years ago.

...and maybe he was, considering his behaviour wasn't what's socially common, he would've definitely stood out back before he had the respect of being a captain.

He isn't a man of words, for actions spoke much louder.

That's why he became more attentive from that day on, offering to help you train, giving you a smile whenever you passed by and sitting near you whenever his squad were gathered so he'd ask for your opinion on plans or simply share looks whenever they began joking with each other.

He didn't attempt to make you change, instead he made changes to accommodate you.

You're part of the team and he made it clear.

And while he couldn't give reassuring words, he certainly gave his time and energy, paying attention to you, reading your moods and listening whenever life becomes too much.

Maybe he saw his past self in you, and wanted to give you all the comfort, attention and care he wished for back then.

Even if it was mere hugs and shoulder pats that he could offer, he knew small things can make changes overtime.

For him, it's not getting rid of your stress that he was attempting to achieve, no, for life is full of stress.

Instead, he wanted to offer you ways to deal with the stress, to acknowledge it as it is and be heard, to be understood.

Because while stress will pass either way, it didn't mean it had to pass painfully.

You weren't alone, he made sure of that.

Maybe he got too attached, maybe someone might say he's giving you special treatment, maybe Erwin would give him a backhanded comment every now and then.

But since when did Miche pay attention to these things? 

Well...he can't deny he might be giving you more break days than the other Cadets, larger food portions and even most of his time.

But he won't justify himself to anyone either, he doesn't have to.

Because after all, there really isn't any ulterior motives behind his actions, they were as simple as they came.

It was pure genuine care, the type that makes someone want to protect a person and watch them grow healthy.

The type that made him offer you a thumbs up after each training session, a proud smile on his face for how much you're learning.

Maybe some slight teasing about how if you keep this up, you might even replace him as the second strongest one day.

And while he said it with a joking tone, the hopeful pride-filled look on his face told a whole nother story.

you're not sure if it was a joke or a promise.

[incorrect-quotes-from-she-ra]

Morning! I hope you don't mind if i give you yet another She-Ra thought I'm too damn lazy to post on my own. Also, it's long again. I WILL find that character limit some day.

So, we know the way Shadow Weaver raised Adora resulted, among other issues, in her being selfless to the point of self-sacrifice, which came to a climax in the Heart's failsafe business.

And it's been suggested that this was basically intentional on Shadow Weaver's part. Basically, selflessness is a very beneficial quality for others to have. My theory is that <b>her plan for Adora had always been specifically for her to someday use the failsafe and release all magic</b>.

(i will admit i am also curious how formatting works in this app. thank you for your help with these experiments)

So, evidence. Let's start with her name. I know this is a remake and they were stuck with the existing names, but there's a scene where Scorpia complains about it ("yeah i GET it, everyone LOVES you"), which constitutes the writers acknowledging its meaning, which makes me think it's fair game to analyze.

First, I'm obviously assuming Shadow Weaver choose it, as part of her ongoing parenting plan. It's also possible it was her original First One-given name, we don't know. Neither quite works because either she or Light Hope should have had some issues knowing what the name was and they clearly knew automatically. Really the entire series is weird in that everyone communicates with everyone else way too easily, and i will definitely rant about that someday.

For now let it stand that Shadow Weaver is the parent figure, it makes the most sense for her to pick the name, both in-universe and narratively, so i shall assume so by default. I have two things to say about that choice.

First, as we all have noticed, most of the princesses have names ending in -a. All of them, if you count "Glimma". It's never said to be intentional, but it would make sense. And then IF such a tradition exists among Etheria's royalty, it's not unreasonable for Shadow Weaver, a notable and moderately respected member of the land of knowledge, to know about it.

And then if she knew, of course she would take it into consideration when looking for names. Admittedly it's a little weird with the anti-Princess propaganda that the Horde has, but she doesn't really need to explain or justify this. Hordak has a very [i]laissez-faire[/i] attitude, and everyone else she clearly doesn't care about.

And if she knew or suspected that the princesses' powers were related to the Heart of Etheria, which i will argue for later, then giving her a princessy name is also adequately ironic.

The second name bit is that Scorpia clearly knows some Latin, but not enough. True, <em>adorare</em> means to worship and/or to love, but Latin verbs are more complex than that. _Adora_ specifically is 3rd person singular present indicative active. The translation would be "she loves".

Names aside, i want to talk about how they (we) learned about the Heart of Etheria. Castaspella doesn't know what to do, Shadow Weaver suggests they take a road trip to research, which she's reticent about but concedes is probably the best use of her time, and they find success. We don't know how long it took them, but i had the distinct impression that it wasn't very long.

Naturally, I'm suggesting Shadow Weaver knew all along, and led Castaspella on the trip to have an excuse for the inevitable "how do you know?". Also tricked her into thinking it was /her/ discovery, and maybe even that she was succeeding where Shadow Weaver had failed before, if necessary.

That's why she's so excited to share their results with everybody, and Shadow Weaver cuts her off, apparently just to antagonize her for fun, but I'm suggesting it was also because for her this is the culmination of a decades-long plan, and she wants to Get On With It.

It's also interesting that there was a mural depicting the Spell of Obtainment in the hallway leading to the failsafe. It was a reminder of Shadow Weaver's past, and an opportunity for her to show she regrets her results but doesn't repent from her choices, which i quite like actually. But I'm also saying that, meta-textually, it was a signal that she'd been there before, literally.

And then there is the potential in-universe connection, since we don't know what exactly the spell was meant to be obtaining. Power, for sure, and from what happened we're probably meant to assume it's tapping into some sort of demonic entity or dimension.

Fair enough, except that it never comes up again. And it's kind of a big plot point that Etheria is isolated from the rest of the cosmos, which may or may not conflict with it having a contactable "hell". Meanwhile there's the Heart of Etheria Project collecting all that magic, which Mara's allies (and their descendants) would know something about, have access to at least one backdoor to, and may well have tried to tap into its power at some point.

And then what went wrong may well be one of the defense mechanisms of the Project, though I'm admittedly veering into unfounded speculation.

So, a rough timeline. Light Spinner was always motivated to excel and craved power. She was probably always envied the princesses, who command greater magic than most sorcerers with apparently none of the study and practice.

She took to researching everything she could that might lead to power, eventually discovering the chamber with the failsafe, and presumably other information left by Mara's Friends, either in other chambers or in documents she's since removed. She would have learned a lot of things from this.

As i suggested, i believe she knew there's some connection between the princesses at large and the Heart of Etheria. Incidentally, i don't know exactly what that connection is, and in particular whether princesses were created by the Project or an existing phenomenon that the First Ones co-opted. But it doesn't matter, exactly.

What's important is that there's clearly a connection, more specifically a control system for the princesses and their magic, which is presumably related to how Shadow Weaver was able to tap into the Black Garnet's power. With Hordak's help, obviously, since she clearly believed it when he claimed he could cut her off at will, but he's later shown to have basically no understanding of First Ones' tech, so the knowledge must have come from her.

For the record, i would guess she thinks princesses are artificial, empowered both magically and politically to keep the planet in check, and that they would be depowered once the failsafe was fired. I also think that may be true, actually, since it almost happened when Entrapta was messing with the system, and if i recall none of them were shown to use any magic after Adora did fire it, while she clearly used Perfuma's power. But anyways!

Back to what Shadow Weaver learned, she would know some of what the failsafe does, namely disrupt the system that's hoarding most of the planet's magic, thereby spreading magic to all (most notably her), and some of how to use it, and the fact that she couldn't do so and hope to live, and some of the criteria for who can. That part is important.

But first, she also learned the Spell of Obtainment, deemed it more likely but didn't think she could do it herself, despaired of getting help until she thought Hordak's rise to fame would give her #casus belli#, lost her patience when the Mystacor leadership disagreed, etc etc etc. Pretty uncontroversial in this part, i think.

After she'd joined the Horde, when Hordak showed up with baby Adora and wanted to lump her with the rest of the orphans they have, Shadow Weaver pleaded to have her get special treatment. She even said that she's special, and it couldn't have been her leadership skills or good heart, since she didn't have either yet. It's heavily implied she could recognize her as a First One, but it's not clear why she would care, since they were known for leaving behind advanced technology, which a baby also doesn't have. Unless, of course, she knew there are devices only a First One could use, and maybe has plans related to that.

So I'm pretty sure she learned the criteria that the failsafe requires, devised some spell or technique to check people for them that she pretty much used all the time, just in case, and was very surprised when a newborn tested positive. She was also surprised when Hordak made her personally responsible for the raising of the kid, but her reaction is pretty much "ok, that could work, i guess".

Also also, i suspect she can read First One script. Not perfectly like Adora, but better than Bow's parents probably. Mostly because when she puts Adora's hand on the crystal and says "i think you know the password", that seems like a very transparent attempt to pretend she knows it too when she doesn't. But that seems irresponsible at such a crucial moment, she and Castaspella should really have researched it earlier. Or at least her line there should have been "you can read this, right?" or somesuch.

So I'm thinking it's a double bluff, hoping everybody assumes she doesn't know so she doesn't have to reveal how and why she knows, again.

And that's all i have, i think? This is not nearly as well laid out as i would like. But then, nothing ever is, right?

Also it's not even close to morning anymore. Thank you if you even got this far, and have a good evening!

hi!!! this took me a while to answer, i'm so sorry about that <3

i'm very low on energy today so i cannot summon up the brain energy to respond properly to this, as much as i want to, i'm really sorry for that as well

i love this theory!! it actually fits in really well with canon and makes, like, a LOT of sense now that i think about it. i definitely wouldn't have thought of this on my own, so thank you for sharing this with me!! :D

[ourloveisforthelovely]

Alive Again Part 3

Harry Potter AU 

Link to Part two

Pairings: Regulus Black x Reader 

Rating: T

______

You were the first to wake up the next morning. Turning on your side, you were relieved to see Regulus lying beside you. You smiled, resisting the urge to gently kiss him. He looked so peaceful sleeping. You reached out, stroking his cheek.

“You're staring at me again, aren’t you?”

Regulus asked, not opening his eyes. You giggled and finally pressed a kiss to his cheek. The two of you had finally fallen asleep around four am. You prayed that Astaria would sleep in. If only an hour or two later than normal would be fine. You needed some time with Regulus alone. Judging by his own desperation to keep you under him, he needed this time just as much.

“Maybe I am.”

You replied tracing your finger over his lips. He threw an arm around you to pull your body back to his.

“You’re too far away. Keep me warm, woman.”

He said opening one eye with a smirk. You threw your leg over his hip to prevent either of you from moving too far from the other.

The sound of Evan’s voice coming from the dining room got both of your attention. Regulus poked his head up first hearing his best friend.

“You know he won’t believe anything.”

You said, darkly. It didn’t take being Evan’s sister to know how he would react. Evan would believe anything that Voldemort told him and nothing Regulus would say. It didn’t matter that Regulus was his best friend and had put together some secret that the dark lord didn’t want to be figured out. Your prior thought about Evan grabbing an ankle for Voldemort returned.

Regulus stood up and began to dress.

“I know he won’t. I also don’t think my mother will enjoy being told that her way of thinking is wrong either. My suggestion, my love, is to be ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

You were fixing the bra that Regulus had torn off of you before you looked up.

“Where will we go?”

Regulus’ eyes flickered in your direction before giving you his best scowl.

“Just do what I say.”

Regulus kept his eyes on you as if silently pleading with you. He would never be the begging type and you knew it. It didn’t take growing up together to know what Regulus was and what he was not.

“Fine.”

You replied. Regulus quickly closed the distance between your body and his. His right hand tilted your face to him.

“You're still such a stubborn girl. It's no wonder that I fell so hopelessly in love with you. Like I said last night...it's time to see how brave you really are.”

Regulus followed you downstairs to the dining room. From your place by the door, you could see Walburga watching Evan interact with Astaria with an expression of approval. Evan was the closest thing that she had to Regulus when he “died.”

Astaria meanwhile was busy playing with a stuffed owl that Evan had given her. She sat happily in her uncle’s arms and would smile up at him coyly every few moments. Astaria, being only two, already knew how to work her uncle to her advantage. When Evan was around, if she wanted something then she knew who to go to. If she squeezed out a few tears and lip wiggles then BAM instant whatever it was.

“She looks so much like her father. I feel like Regulus is looking back at me sometimes.”

Evan said with a sad smile.

“Daddy’s sleeping with mummy.”

Astaria said as she continued to pet her new stuffy. Walburga’s eyes fell to her granddaughter. The older woman hadn’t said anything to Evan about Regulus being alive. She was going to leave that to her son as she still had questions that needed to be answered too.

“What did you say, sweetpea?”

Evan asked, wanting to make sure that he had heard his niece right. The little girl looked up with a sassy frown. At two years old, she didn’t like repeating herself.

“Daddy is sleeping with mummy.”

Regulus nudged your forward when Evan’s face went white. He had heard his niece right. What did that mean? There was no way…

The moment that Regulus walked into the room with you, Evan nearly passed out. He rubbed his hands over his eyes a few times. Evan wondered if this was actually some drunken dream and not reality.

“See?”

Astaria said, not bothering to look up at her uncle’s stunned face. All that she knew was her daddy and mummy were right across the room. That was all that mattered other than petting her new toy.

“Regulus…”

Evan stuttered. You knew your brother was within an inch of losing it.

“I felt the same way, Evan. This is no joke.”

Regulus didn’t meet his mother’s gaze. He kept his attention locked on Evan’s petrified face.

“How are you alive? The dark lord said…”

Regulus motioned for you to get Astaria. He was ready for this conversation to go south very quickly. When Evan Rosier was backed into a corner, he would be the first to last out at anyone that was nearby. Now he was about to be told that he was in the wrong on everything...he would resume his “ready to kill” temper. Regulus would make god damn sure that Evan wouldn’t lay an unloving hand on you or Astaria.

“You need to find new friends.”

Regulus said, casually. Evan’s shocked expression turned into confusion.

“What is that supposed to me?”

“Exactly what I said. I didn’t stutter.”

Regulus snapped as you returned to his side. Evan stood up as his mind was finally able to begin to work again.

“Are you saying that you doubt our master?”

Regulus chuckled.

“He isn’t nothing to me of that nature.”

Walburga was the next one to speak. She was tired of her youngest son ignoring her and she was not to be ignored anymore.

“Regulus Arcturus Black, what are you saying?”

Regulus turned his attention back to his mother. He was about to rock her world and for once he didn’t care. This time Regulus would not try to calm his mother so she wouldn’t lose her temper. Walburga could go crazy for all Regulus cared. She could scream, throw things, cry like a baby if she wanted but Walburga was about to be told.

“I’m saying that everything you ever taught me, everything that I ever believed is wrong. Both of you are foolish for believing in a thing that Voldemort has to say. Evan, if you were smart you would grab something valuable and run for it.”

Evan looked disgusted by his best friend’s words.

“What happened to you while you were at the bottom of that lake? Did almost becoming an inferi teach you nothing? The dark lord is not to be messed with and what you are saying is a one-way ticket to death...that you won’t escape from.”

Regulus only blinked.

“Are you threatening me? I suppose you are going to run right to Voldemort and tell him everything? I guess I should be frightened. Tell him that I said hello and know his secret.”

Evan’s surprised expression had turned furious.

“Y/n, get away from him. Get Astaria and come to me at once.”

You looked between Evan, Walburga, and Regulus. Stepped closer to Regulus, you let him wrap his arm around your waist. He gently took Astaria into his arms tucking her head against his shoulder.

“My place is with my husband.”

You stated defiantly. Evan was seething.

“You’ll be hunted like animals. If you think that I won’t tell him the truth...you’re both mistaken.”

Evan started for you but was stopped when Regulus hexed him.

“Do what you have to.”

He replied before turning his attention to his mother.

“Au revoir, mere.” (good bye, mother)

Regulus quickly apparated the three of you from Grimmauld Place. The next thing that you knew, you were standing outside of a small brick home.

“Reggie, where are we?”

You questioned as he placed your daughter back in your arms. Astaria was looking around, totally confused herself. Regulus glanced over his shoulder before knocking on the door. He chose not to respond. Regulus could have told you that you were about to see him “kiss ass” but decided not to.

“Somewhere safe.”

A moment later, Sirius opened the door. His mouth fell the moment that he saw his younger brother, whom he thought was dead on his doorstep. Sirius blinked a few times before being able to close his mouth.

“Please tell me that you are real.”

Regulus reached out and pinched Sirius’ arm hard causing the older brother to yelp.

“Is that real enough for you?”

Regulus questioned. Sirius nodded before meeting your gaze. The two of you haven't spoken since before you married Regulus. He had tried to persuade you to say no to the engagement. There were no romantic intentions (you knew that he was happy with Remus) instead, it was Sirius worrying about your safety.

“Y/n!”

His eyes finally fell on the niece that he didn’t know that he had. Sirius didn’t have to ask questions. He knew that was his niece.

“Can we come in?”

Regulus finally asked. He was getting the hint that Sirius was still in a state of shock and the whole “being safe” thing was beginning to evaporate.

Sirius quickly moved aside. This was something that he never expected. After he received your owl about Regulus dying, he couldn't get back to you. It was exactly what Sirius said would happen.

“Sweetie, he is so in deep with the death eaters that you will end up a widow by 20.”

Now it appeared that he was wrong about everything. His little brother was alive. He still looked as cocky and arrogant as he did the last time that Sirius tried to talk him out of joining the death eaters. Sirius tried not to let his mind go there but he couldn't help it…

“Don’t do it, Regulus. I’m begging you. You can come to our side. No one will hurt you. You're my brother and I can’t let anything happen to you.”

Regulus stood with his hood up. All that Sirius could see was his mouth and chin. Regulus did everything that he could to conceal his identity.

“I am no one to you. You made that perfectly clear years ago.”

Sirius wanted nothing more than to grab Regulus and shake him.

“You know that isn’t true. I begged you to come with me. I could have taken care of you.”

Regulus sneered.

“No, you wouldn’t. You would ignore my existence just like you do at school. Don’t you dare say you won't because you fucking do. It's too late anyway.”

Sirius was going to regret asking but he had to.

“What about Y/n? Do you want to make her a widow by the time the two of you are 20?”

Regulus chuckled.

“We have an understanding.”

He quickly unbuttoned the cuff of his shirt enough to pull the sleeve up. Sirius looked ill the moment that his eyes landed on the dark mark...just like that his innocent baby brother was gone never to return….

It was Remus that pulled Sirius from one of his worst memories. Remus had been reading a new book but was staring at Regulus. He too was clearly stunned and confused by the youngest Black brother’s apparent existence.

“I’m confused.”

Remus stuttered. He met your gaze then froze the moment that he saw the little girl in your arms. He had no idea that you were pregnant. Sirius said nothing about it. From the heartbroken expression on Sirius’ face, Remus knew that his lover didn’t know. Had he known, Sirius would never have missed this much time in her life.

Regulus sighed.

“I am going to say this once and will never speak of it again. You all were right about the dark lord.”

Sirius blinked. Had this situation been different, he would have said something snarky. Today he couldn’t.

“It's taken you a long time to figure this out.”

Remus said, calmly. Regulus smirked.

“This long and lying at the bottom of a lake nearly drowned helped me come to my senses.”

Remus winced and found that he was unable to meet Sirius’ gaze. Sirius had blamed himself for Regulus’ fate since the day that he got the letter from you about his death. There had been many nights that Sirius would cry himself out of tears after drinking all of the alcohol in the house. Only Remus knew this fact…

“I don’t think Astaria should be hearing this.”

You said, gently. Sirius nodded. The little girl was looking intently between her father and Remus.

Sirius stepped forward and knelt down to Astaria’s level. You had sat her down a moment before. She had waddled over to Regulus’ leg and was holding onto his robes.

“Hi, there sweetheart. I am your uncle Sirius. Do you like ice cream?”

Astaria nodded but didn’t let go of her father. Sirius smirked. There was no DNA test needed on who this child belonged to. She had that same calculating reserved expression that Regulus wore 95% of the time.

“It's alright.”

Regulus said, gently to the child. Astaria finally nodded. Sirius met your gaze with a smile.

“I have some ice cream if you want to go to the kitchen.”

You stepped forward and picked the little girl up.

“That will be nice. I’ll let you all talk. It's nothing that I don’t already know.”

Sirius waited until you were out of the room to face his little brother. He had to fight the urge to hug the little jerk until he begged for mercy. Sirius motioned to the couch.

“Sit down. I want to know what you have to say before I go buy myself a world’s best uncle mug.”

_______

@fairywriter-oracle

@amelie-black

@velveteencurls

@swinginsoulbailiffrascal

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@authoressskr

@fandom-trash-worth-it

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@summer-novak

@emiwrites3reads

@li0nh34rt

@tas898

@marichromatic

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@knight-of-gleefulness

@shadows-and-padlocked-hearts

@untoldshortsofthefandoms

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@mycuddlycorner

@wontlookaway

[du0tine]

    𝑷𝑹𝑬𝑺𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝒀𝑶𝑼: 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑭𝑼𝑳𝑳 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀.

𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 | 𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓: 𝟓.𝟕𝐊 |𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 + 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐒

𝑶𝑵𝑬 𝑺𝑰𝑫𝑬𝑫 𝑳𝑶𝑽𝑬. 𝑨𝑵𝑮𝑺𝑻, 𝑫𝑨𝑹𝑲 𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑴𝑬𝑺. 𝑴𝑨𝑵𝑰𝑷𝑼𝑳𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵, 𝑴𝑼𝑹𝑫𝑬𝑹, 𝑻𝑶𝑹𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑬 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑮𝑶𝑹𝑬. 𝑳𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 𝑺𝑼𝑮𝑮𝑬𝑺𝑻𝑰𝑽𝑬 𝑺𝑪𝑬𝑵𝑬𝑺 𝑾𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑬 𝑯𝑬 𝑳𝑰𝑲𝑬 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯𝑬𝑺 𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑩𝑶𝑶𝑩𝑺, 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑪𝑨𝑵 𝑺𝑲𝑰𝑷 𝑻𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑹𝑬𝑺𝑻. 𝑩𝑨𝑫 𝑳𝑨𝑵𝑮𝑼𝑨𝑮𝑬 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑰 𝑫𝑶𝑵’𝑻 𝑲𝑵𝑶𝑾 𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑬𝑳𝑺𝑬.

𝑽𝑰𝑬𝑾𝑬𝑹 𝑫𝑰𝑺𝑪𝑹𝑬𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵 𝑰𝑺 𝑨𝑫𝑽𝑰𝑺𝑬𝑫

𝐓𝐀𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓:

@treblesomeharmonies @pastelsicheng @dearyongs @y2hyck @stayinzencity

The wind was harsh, blowing roughly as it rocked the large gondola back and forth. The passengers within were filled with unease. The looming feeling of fear lingering within them all as if the cable were to snap at any moment. The ten of them plummeting to their deaths, falling into the thick snow. Buried beneath the ground their bodies turning into a state of permafrost, freezing with looks of terror etched permanently on their faces.

The air was tense between the group of young individuals, no words were exchanged as they all gawked at the complete 360-degree view of mountains and large tall trees. All except for one, the very man himself who’d even invited them here in the first place. Jungwoo was leading his group of friends up towards the mountain where they’d be spending Christmas at his family cabin situated perfectly at one of the summits. One would think that perhaps he was leading them here for a nice gathering where the Christmas spirit could fill the air and bonds could be mended, the group of friends becoming closer than ever. But if you knew Jungwoo, truly knew him that is. You’d know that he had planned something much more sinister for his selfish desires and for him to fulfil such a thing he needed them alive. 

Everyone dying through such a coincidental issue such as the gondola snapping and plunging into the forest below would’ve been horrible in his mind. Not because they’d die but because they’d die at the hands of fate, not his. A death like this wouldn’t suffice and surely wouldn’t be able to feed his hunger for blood. He wanted their demise to be beautiful, an image he’d been painting within the dark confinements of his twisted mind for so long. A perfect picture ready to be ripped from the canvas and painted into reality. The maestro ready to twist and pull at the strings and create something extraordinary with his own hands. It was going to be written into history, it was going to be monumental. 

Clearing his throat, his lips stretch into a bright smile as he grins at them brightly. 

"It’s going to be alright, sure it’s a bit rocky but the gondola system gets inspected bi-yearly! Especially in the winter season,” He announces to his group of friends. His aura practically shined with hope, he radiated positivity and filled them with ease. His words made them feel reassured even making the younger Haechan decide to fuck around and jump up and down rocking the gondola even more causing everyone to erupt with playful screams. 

Meanwhile, you find yourself gripping tightly onto the railing as you look dead straight ahead at Jungwoo, your eyes filled with fear. You hated being up this high and even tried to convince Jungwoo to let you come up the mountain through the trail that switchbacked and snaked its way up through the forest but he had claimed it would’ve been much faster to just come up with them. Judging by the blazing winds that blew roughly outside, he was right it would’ve taken you ages to come upwards. 

You watch him as he pushes past your group of friends making his way next to you, his hand finding yours as he quietly takes it placing it into his pocket. His sudden actions making you feel rather flustered as you lose focus of the fear that once loomed greatly within your mind. It was now replaced with the thought of Jungwoo. Feeling rather embarrassed you look down at your shoes, the snow melting off of them making the suede leather rather wet. It was exactly how he made you feel. 

You weren’t dating but the light flirtatious moves never went by unnoticed. Mostly exchanged through by him, his advances were always quiet yet bold. He made your insides churn, your stomach turning to mush as your feelings erupted within your chest. Your mind went elsewhere whenever you were this close with Jungwoo and it soon became something you wished to always have. You wanted Jungwoo but did he want you? It seemed apparent that he did but why hadn’t he just asked you out already? There was no way you were going to confess first. Turning your head upwards slightly you turn to face him, observing his perfect side profile. He was gorgeous and yet here he was standing next to you, holding your hand. Silently trying his best to make you feel reassured. Could it be too good to be true?

Your hands began to feel clammy, your cheeks becoming hot as you attempt to pull your hand away. Only to have him lean down, his lips near your ear as the light breathes from his mouth caused goosebumps to erupt across your neck. 

"It’ll be okay, you’re safe here with me,” He whispers as you whip your head towards him. Your eyes are wide in awe as his face is few mere inches away from yours. You’re falling into a daze, the remainder of the fear that lingered within you completely washed away. After all, there is no room for terror when you’ve got your crush so close to you, if you leaned any closer you could just kiss him then and there and that was nerve-racking enough. 

The sweet moment between the two of you is suddenly cut short when you’re reminded that it’s not just the two of you inside the gondola. As a groan erupts from Haechan and Mark, the young boys publicly cringing at the two of you. Your body jerks away from Jungwoo, your hand leaving his as you cover the majority of your face with your scarf eager to hide the red streak of blush that covered your face. Staring outside the window you attempt to look anywhere but at him and yet there his is. His perfect reflection in the glass, twinkling as tiny snowflakes fly onto the surface. He’s staring at you and you can’t muster the courage to turn around and face him. Perhaps it’s for the best. 

Since to Jungwoo, it meant nothing but simply playing games with you and he couldn’t help but feel giddy at the thought of everyone heading up the mountain with simply no point of return. There’d be 10 friends and one sole survivor, himself. 

The torturous gondola was soon done and over, with the machine coming to a halt at the top of the mountain. The cold wind flowing into the confined space shaking them of the fear they once had and replacing them with the shivers. Eager to reach some warmth they all pile out, light pieces of luggage in their hands. Stepping outwards made that entire ride feel worth it, the reward at the top showcased natures utmost gorgeous beauty. Everyone was astonished by the panoramic view that wrapped around them, the towering mountains in the distance stood tall with the added plus of the small town of Banff beneath them made them feel like they were on top of the world and yet in the centre of it all. 

To the right stood the Kim’s family cabin, a rather modern-looking building that to be honest did not resemble a cabin and yet was dubbed to be one. 

“Welcome to Sulphur Mountain,” Announces Jungwoo, his soft voice practically engulfed by the blowing gusts of wind as he tries to catch everyone's attention.  

“You’re fucking kidding me, how rich are you?!” Screams Haechan as Jungwoo laughs in response, shrugging his shoulders, “We’re just comfy.” To you the whole scene looked like one from a silent movie, there was a scene and yet no sound. It was just the natural elements that filtered in. 

Jungwoo is quick to signal everyone over towards his home. The group of friends were soon led into the cabin where they were immediately met with the Kim’s family butler. An old man beyond his years, yet capable of moving quickly and nimbly. His features were almost mouselike, small framed with tiny hands. Hell, his voice barely squeaked loud enough as he welcomed you all before scurrying into what you heard from him was the kitchen. 

As everyone piled into the living room you couldn’t help but peek out the window. There seemed to have been some sort of boardwalk bridge that led up to another section farther away from the cabin. As it levelled upwards you spotted another building situated at its summit. A small cobblestone building with an antenna attached at the top was what you could make out past all the snow that began to pour rather roughly. 

“Its the comms station,” Answered Jungwoo, his voice is soft and tender as he places his head atop your shoulder. His long arms wrapping around you tenderly, engulfing you in a back hug. 

“Why so far away? Wouldn’t it be better if it was stationed inside the house?” You ask as you place your hands atop his. 

“Doesn’t matter. We won’t be needing it. I mean what’s the worst that could happen? Getting snowed in?” He responds as he laughs it off lightly pulling you away from the window and seating you onto the leather couch, “Just relax. You’re almost always on edge.” 

Just like that he’s gone, the scent of his cologne filling your sense as you shrug into your white, Proenza Schouler wool dress. The room was lively, with the sound of Christmas music filling the room as Taeil and Doyoung harmonized with almost every song that played. You couldn’t help but feel out of place, normally you would’ve joined in on the fun but you couldn’t help but feel stationed on the couch. Your gaze drifting towards the window as you looked at the comms tower that grew foggier and foggier, soon falling out of sight. 

Deep inside your mind you mentally made note of the station's placement. You couldn’t help but feel like maybe you’d have to make use of it because there was just this underlying feeling that there was the possibility of something occurring. You didn’t know what exactly but there was just something off about this whole situation. Turning your gaze back towards everyone you realize Jungwoo is still missing and he wasn’t one to miss out on the fun. He was known to be the mood maker of the group, always joining on the fun or busting a rather silly move causing everyone to cry of laughter. 

Perhaps, you’d look for him. I mean he wouldn’t mind you exploring the house a bit right? Maybe you’d be able to finally muster up the courage to confess to him. The image of the two of you sitting in his room alone, hot breaths against each other as you lean in to share a passionate kiss with him made you feel antsy. Shaking yourself from the fantasy that you played foolishly inside your mind you sneak out from the loud living room tiptoeing through the long corridors. 

You couldn’t help but cringe whenever your bare feet creaked underneath the wooden floorboards as it completely gave away your position every time and you were trying to get by quietly. As your mind filtered through possible excuses you could use should you have gotten caught. Quickly getting distracted as you continued to wander about staring at pictures of the Kim family that hung on the walls. Not even bothering to think about where the rest of the family members were. 

Suddenly the noise of one of the doors swinging open snaps you back into reality, the sound of cups and plates echo through the corridor as you quickly dash into one of the many identical doors just barely managing to sneak away from the butler as he wobbles down the hallways. The sound of china dishes disappearing just as quickly as it came. Warily peaking your head from the doorway you look both ways making sure the coast is clear and surely it is, the hallways are quiet and empty once more. 

Stepping back onto the creaky floorboards you continue to tiptoe about until you spot a nearby staircase that was merely a couple of feet away. 

'Maybe he’s making the rooms for everyone’ You think to yourself as you grip the stairwell handle and look upwards before quickly spiralling on upwards. Once you’d arrived on the second floor this sudden feeling of unease began to ripple through your spine, creeping downwards slowly and into the pits of your stomach. 

This floor was dimly lit and the faint sound of laughter disappeared the further you walked away from the staircase and instead was replaced with complete silence. 

‘Where the hell was Jungwoo?’ You kept thinking to yourself. At this point, you were more than willing to ditch the whole plan of finding him and heading back to where everyone else was. 

This corridor like the last ended with yet again another staircase and you seriously debated going any further. As you reached the bottom railing of the stairwell you glanced upwards at the spiral of steps. It was dark, the lights were completely out. Pulling out your phone you turn on the flashlight and point it upwards. Again, there was nothing but a series of stairs. Then you heard it, the sound of something slowly being dragged or rather dragging itself. The sound of nails being sharply dragged against the floorboards as a voice croaked from above, it wasn’t Jungwoo’s. 

You were frozen in place, you didn’t know if you were supposed to run or go upstairs. Was the person hurt? Did they need help? You simply just couldn’t decide as you stood there phone in hand as your legs trembled with fear. 

Thump, thump, thump. 

The body had begun descending the stairs slowly until the sounds became closer and much louder. Having lost control the body had slid down the rest of the way falling to the bottom merely inches away from your feet. Contorted awkwardly you nearly screamed in fear, your mouth going agape as you looked in horror at what lay in front of you. 

It was a young woman, perhaps a couple of years older than you. Her features were battered, clothes covered in blood. Her kneecaps were both busted as she lay there mangled, her legs twisted about. She was barely alive and yet she took whatever she had left within her to let out a string of groans. 

“W-what happened to you?” You stuttered quietly, your eyebrows scrunching in fear. Leaning in forwards you examine the poor girl up closer as she continued to moan in pain, slowly the words began to piece together. 

“Jung…woo, run,” Fluttered past her busted lips, her front teeth were broken as blood seeped past the gaps and out of her mouth. She fell into a coughing fit once you’d realized what she had said. Quickly sitting her up against the railing you brush the hairs out of her face tucking them behind her ears only to realize who was sitting in front of you. 

Jungwoo’s sister. 

Gasping out loud you fall backwards, your back slamming harshly against the stairs. She too had recognized you since you’d met her before all of this at Jungwoo’s city home. There she was yet again in front of you completely unrecognizable, her face was beaten in and bleeding. Cuts, bruises and bumps protruding from her once beautiful face. She was something else, the victim of something cruel and had become like this by the hands of what seemed like her very own brother. 

Sitting her up against the wall seemed to have helped her from choking on her blood. Things were silent except for the heavy wheezing that omitted from her, she must’ve had a collapsed lung as she struggled to breath. She didn’t look like she had much longer. Time was running out, her internal clock coming to its final countdown. 

“J-jungwoo, dan..ger— dangerous,” Was the last thing she had managed to croak out before her eyes went lifeless, her body falling still before slumping down harshly once more. She fell to her side, face planted into the ground never to wake up again. 

You struggled to move, your mind had gone into full panic mode. Millions of things running through your head, where were his parents? Had he done the same thing to them? Was this even Jungwoo? Looking upwards at the stairwell you decided that you had enough of figuring things out. You couldn’t play detective any longer because you knew that if you kept prying the price you’d have to pay with was not a poor excuse but your life. 

Standing up from the stairs you pulled yourself together, deciding that if you needed to get out you’d have to play along with whatever the fuck this was. Straightening the ends of your dress you don’t look behind leaving whatever you’d just seen behind and heading downstairs. Not realizing that your blood-stained hands had just tainted your white dress. The blood collecting within the fibres of the wool. 

Once you found yourself on the main floor making your way back to the group of friends who still roared from the living room, you felt yourself not even being able to see straight. It was almost as if you were traversing through a dark tunnel with the only lit exit being the one that lay ahead of you. Where safety was with all your friends and yet just like that you were pulled away. 

Dragged into a room by gentle arms and that smell. The distinct scent of cologne, his cologne. Once it made you feel weak in the knees and now you wanted to gag. It didn’t take much to know it was him for he was always the one grasping your body with ease, touching you so gently. You grew to know his touch yet you never learned to understand you’d been touched by a murderer until now. 

“Found you,” He playfully whispers into your ear, his breath is hot as his hands begin to wander. Gripping your waist only to move slightly upwards resting just below your breasts. Meanwhile, his lips are attached to your neck as he places soft, tender kisses trailing up towards your jawline. 

Thank god the lights were off otherwise he’d see how pale your complexion was from the amount of fear he displaced in you. Underneath his touch you were trembling, your bottom lip quivering as you bite down trying to calm yourself down. You needed to play along but you couldn’t find it in you to do so.

“Why’re you so quiet?” He asks, his voice is daunting as he teases you. His hands moving to cup your breasts tightly, fondling them gently as if he’s expecting you to melt under his touch and given the possibility that this was a normal night where you hadn’t just seen his dead sister you would’ve been a mewling mess under his touch but here you were in this twisted, cruel reality. Not quite the picturesque fantasy you had in mind. 

Just as he spins you around to face him, you pull away from his grasps making a bolt for the door. Pushing past the wooden door as it slams roughly against the wall but to him, he sees it merely a game of cat and mouse, it excites him. He’s on your tail as you burst through the door running for the brightly lit living room, your feet thumping loudly against the floor. Stumbling inside you find yourself screaming out for everyone and yet much to your chagrin there definitely was everyone but was everyone alive? 

There they sat next to each other on the couch, their headless bodies slightly slumped as a loud soundtrack made the sound of laughter echo through the room. Your heart had completely dropped to the floor, your mouth opening in fear as you properly screamed for the first time that entire evening. Your vocal cords piercing through the room as you stared at your group of friends sitting there silently, their heads in their laps. 

The music then came to an abrupt stop as you whipped around only to come face to face with the perpetrator himself. He seemed completely calm, not a single string of fear on his visage as he merely smiled at you. 

“Cat got your tongue?” He asks as he raises a pair of sharp scissors snipping them playfully in the air.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” You spit out, the look on your face is mixed with terror and pure disgust. “I mean your sister and now, now our friends?!”

“My sister?” He asks raising an eyebrow in curiosity. His dark brown eyes observe your body from head to toe and once he realizes your blood-splattered clothes he merely scoffs, “Look at you, all dirty. You’ve been a bad girl huh? Sticking your nose in places you don’t belong.” 

Looking downwards you lift your shaky hands, facing your bloodied palms upwards and see the handprints you’d created imprinted onto your dress. You were a living piece of criminal evidence, a walking crime scene. There was no telling him you hadn’t seen her, the evidence was splattered right in front of him.

Throwing his head back he lets out a sinister laugh ignoring your silence before bringing his gaze back onto you, his lips pouting slightly as he taunts you, “Christmas came early, now won’t you come to sit on Santa’s lap? Or have you been a bad girl?” 

Slowly he inches towards you taking his time with each step as if he’s had all the time in the world. “Come on, tell Santa what you want?” He asks as he continues to come closer to you. Your eyes frantically begin to look around the room for an exit but as you look past the windows all you can see is the raging blizzard. 

Then it hits you, Jungwoo had planned this all before arriving. He had made sure to bring you all here when the weather was bad so there was no way you could escape. His joke of getting snowed in no longer being funny. You truly felt like you were trapped and you were. 

“I’m getting impatient,” He says cutting your thoughts short as he averts your attention back onto him. He’s now standing merely an arm’s length away from you, sharp scissors in hand as he taps his foot against the floor over and over again. 

"Times running out, tell Santa what you want for Christmas,” He asks again. 

“My life,” You reply, your eyes never leaving the sharp scissors grasped tightly in his hands. It’s silent as he pauses before bursting into laughter, he’s laughing so hard you’ve got him clenching his gut. “Your life?!” He exclaims as he stands up straight wiping the light tears from his cheeks. 

“You know I can’t just give you that, what do you think I am? God?!” 

Raising your arms in annoyance you point a finger straight at his face, “Haven’t you had enough twisted, cruel fun for tonight? What more can you do with killing one more person?” 

For a moment he stands there pondering as he mockingly lifts a finger and places it on his chin. Rolling his eyes he pulls out his watch from his pocket and dangles it in front of you.

“Since you’re cute and fuck, you turn me the hell on. I’ll give you 10 minutes, you can run but you can’t hide and of course, you won’t be running for long,” He explains offering you some sort of ultimatum before stepping aside and letting you have access to the door out of the living room. 

It was better than nothing and you very well knew where you were heading. Taking one last glance at Jungwoo who merely smiled brightly at you as he taps onto the surface of the watch, “Your time starts now.” With that, you’re out of the living room and towards the front door, slipping on your shoes and jacket you tug and twist at the doorknob. It didn’t even budge one bit. Of course, he’d have the door locked. 

You were wasting precious time fidgeting with the door so you quickly headed back up towards the corridors and up the first set of stairs. The sound of blaring music radiating from the living room along with Jungwoo’s voice, he was singing along. Zig zagging through the many rooms on the second floor you run to all the windows, tugging and pulling at them but having no luck in doing so. Quickly you stumble out running towards the second flight of stairs trying your best to ignore the dead body that lay there only to stupidly slip on the pool of blood. Your body falling backwards and colliding harshly with the floor.

The sound of footsteps began to echo through your ears, thumping rapidly inside your mind as you tried to get up, only to be pulled to the side by a small frail hand. It was the butler. Instinctively you use your free arm to elbow him square in the face. The man falls to the floor clutching his nose as blood begins to pour from his nostrils, you’re expecting him to hurt you or bring you to Jungwoo but instead, he stands back up and faces you once more this time not daring to touch you. 

“You need to get out of here, head to the third floor and make a run for the window at the end of the corridor. It won’t open so you’ll need to burst through,” He explains as you look at him in confusion. How on earth was he on your side? 

“Climb down or hell, drop down if you can. You won’t get hurt from the jump, it’s not that high. Head straight down the mountain. Don’t even think about going to the comm’s centre, it’s all fake. There's nothing there it’s merely a trap,” He squeaks out, quickly explaining some sort of escape plan to you as he begins to push you up towards the stairs. 

“How can I trust you?!” You question as he continues to shove you upstairs. 

“You’ll just have to take a chance and right now you only have one,” He replies giving you one last shove before turning his focus away from you. 

“Master Jungwoo?” Is the last thing you hear from the butler before you bolt up towards the stairs. Once at the top you’re met yet again with complete and utter darkness, what seemed like the window ahead was also quite dim as it was covered with snow that caked its surface. 

You didn’t wait for a cue, you didn’t even hesitate as you made ran towards the window ramming your body against it. The window had only cracked moderately and your body felt immense pain as a result but you couldn’t wait any longer. The pain you had to suffer was surely temporary if it meant saving your life. Taking a couple of steps back you ram yourself into the window once more this time managing to break a few big shards, the cold winter air seeping through the broken glass into the hallway. Small shards cutting into your arms and sticking into your face. 

Just before you can ram yourself into the window once more you hear his voice.

“You better watch out, you better not cry. You better not pout I’m telling you why,” He sings as his footsteps slowly saunter towards you. You don’t even bother looking back because if you did you knew you’d become distraught once more. Not because he was there but you’d be shocked to see the Butler’s head gripped tightly in his hands. There was no turning back or you’d face the same fate. Jungwoo was simply merciless. 

"Santa Clause is coming to town,” He bellows out, his voice echoing through the hallways crescendoing loudly as you’re taking two steps back and pushing your body through the window breaking through the glass once and for all. You’re free-falling through the air for a couple of seconds before landing roughly on your back. His head popping through the broken window as he waves at you, “Elsa?! Do you wanna build a snowman?!” 

Your body aches as you stare up at this mentally deranged man who’s usual cute habit of quoting songs quickly became much more disturbing. There’s no time to lay there in pain as you force yourself to quickly get back up. Looking back towards the broken window you no longer see him there. Automatically, you know he’s not given up and that he’s about to come outside to drag you back in so you make a run for the trailhead. If only you could find it in such horrible weather conditions. 

Stumbling around you bite your lip in agony as random pieces of glass shards cause your muscles to twitch in discomfort. The rough winds are blowing at your face, whipping at your skin. The snow blurring your vision as you blindly run around wasting your stamina. It didn’t help that with every step you took your legs fell deeper and deeper into the freshly powdered snow creating a drag on every single one of your movements slowing you down immensely. 

Suddenly you heard something whizz just past your arm, skinning it in the process. Howling in pain you clutch your arm tightly attempting to stop the blood. Only to be hit once more this time in the shoulder, your body jolting forwards as you fall onto the snow. You’d been shot, twice, and the bullets didn’t seem to stop as you lay there hearing the sounds of bullets zooming over you. He’d found your location, you were screwed. 

Crouching back up you start to run in zig zags, blood dripping from your body as it leaves a perfectly nice trail atop the snow. Your breath is heavy as you stagger in the snow eager for a way out. Then you’re hit once more, the bullet lodging through your skin from behind as it pierces through your left leg hitting your achilles heel. Falling to the floor you bite your lip in attempts to stay quiet as you silently scream to yourself. 

Then he appears, standing above you silver pistol in hand. Dressed in his black winter coat as he sneers at you from above. Leaning down he hovers above you, pinning you down with his body as he coos gently. 

“My poor baby, you’re so hurt,” He taunts pouting his lips as he tries to play it off cutely. 

Momentarily you’re silent as you look up towards him. You weren’t scared anymore, you were just sick and tired of this. If this was how you were going to die you’d accepted your fate. Your chest heaves with discomfort as you struggle to maintain your breath, you were cold and weak. There was no more fight left in you. 

“You know, I thought you’d make this harder. I mean you jumped out of a fucking window but I find you here?” He says as brings his dainty fingers towards your cheek tugging at one of the glass shards and ripping it out swiftly earning a muffled scream from you. The tear were streaming down your cheeks, the saltiness seeping into the lacerations in your skin. The destroyed porcelain made you look like an abused rag doll. 

Then it hits you, where exactly were you that made you so accessible. Scrunching your eyebrows in confusion your eyes begin to dart all around the place. Where were you? 

“Allow me to explain, your dumb ass that had been previously ogling over at the comms centre came directly here after escaping. I mean what did you expect? To be able to call in the cops? In this weather?!” He scoffs. 

Rolling his eyes you can tell he’s had enough of playing around. He came here to kill you and he wasn’t going to wait any longer. “Pity it has to end this way,” He says before bringing the pistol towards your temple, pulling the trigger you shut your eyes tightly expecting a loud bang followed by darkness. 

Click. 

Click. Click. 

You open your eyes in confusion, how were you brains not blasted out already. Jungwoo seemed to have been just as surprised as he fumbled with the empty gun, he’d run out of bullets. Taking this as a sign of hope you bring your hands upwards towards his shoulders taking everything you had left inside of you to head butt him roughly. Earning a groan from him as his head falls back staggering slightly backwards into the snow. Dropping the gun and rubbing his forehead in pain. 

“You bitch!” He exclaims. 

Quickly you get back up the adrenaline kicking back in, giving you that extra dose of energy that you needed to survive as you ran away from him once more. Ignoring his protests in the background. Surely, he’d run after you and you weren’t going to let him kill you. Running blindly through the snow you keep going straight until you start to feel the ground moving beneath you. The snow sliding rapidly as you fall onto your face, your body  getting swallowed by the snow. You had been caught in avalanche. Somehow you’d managed to run diagonally down the mountain side triggering the thick snow to plow underneath heading directly under towards the trees and the forest that lay below. 

Your body caught in the middle of it all as you free fell almost 2,000 metres to the ground. The mixture of ice and snow shoving your body around as you struggled to breath. It was unstoppable and soon enough you’d blacked out from the lack of oxygen. Your body would remain encased within snow until summer would arrive. Only when the snow would melt would your body reappear.

No-one would question your whereabouts except him. Did you escape? Did you die some other way? The questions would run through his mind for months to come eating away at his desires. His plan had failed, the picture he wanted to create and bring to life had been a disaster and now he had to start planning to create once more, to kill once again. 

He’d write this day in to be the worst Christmas of his life. Ironic huh? 

𝑨𝑳𝑳 𝑹𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻𝑺 𝑹𝑬𝑺𝑬𝑹𝑽𝑬𝑫 ©︎𝑫𝑼0𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑬

[duhragonball]

Hellsing Liveblog Ch. 77-81

This is the Seras vs. Captain fight, which is for some reason broken up over a one-shot “Operation Wolf”, and two 2-part arcs “Warcraft” and “Wolffang”.  

Seriously, why not just call it “Wolf Stuff” parts 1 through 5 and be done with it?

Okay, so The Captain has been hanging around Millennium since they debuted in Brazil, but he hasn’t done jack shit so far.   He intercepted Walter and Integra when they were trying to drive home to Hellsing HQ, and Walter sent Integra away, claiming that he doubted that he could defeat the Captain at his advanced age. After Integra left, he remarked that the Captain was just as strong as he had been when Walter last met him, presumably in 1944.

Then it turned out that Walter was secretly in league with Millennium, and as the invasion of London started to turn against the Nazis, you had the Captain and Vampire Walter both sort of hanging back and protecting the Major.  Then Alucard showed up and the Captain got right in his face, along with Alexander Anderson, as if to suggest that the three of them were the “big guns” of their respective camps.   But he still didn’t do a whole lot.   I mean, he attacked Alucard while he unlocked Level 0, but so did everyone else and it didn’t do any good.   When Anderson tried to fight Alucard one-on-one, the Captain and Walter held back and watched.

Finally, when Walter made his big play against Alucard, the Captain only stepped into keep anyone else from stepping in.   He shot Heinkel in the face, but not fatally, and even gave her a medical kit before he headed back to the Major’s blimp.

So this part where he confronts Integra and Seras as they fight their way to the Major is supposed to be a big deal, like when Darth Maul appears on Naboo and the Jedi have to fight him while Queen Amidala takes her soldiers on a detour.   Except it works in Star Wars because we had seen Darth Maul fight earlier in the movie, and we knew what he was capable of.  With the Captain, I guess the main appeal is that the story treats him like a big deal, as if hyping up the eventual moment when he finally shows us what he can do.    Well this is it. 

Leading into this fight, the Major was explaining to Hellsing that he and his Last Battalion crave death, but not just any old death.   They want to go out in a glorious struggle, which is why they spent 55 years preparing to pick a fight with the Hellsing Organization.   At this point, just about everyone in Millennium is dead, so now it comes down to the last few guys to choose their partners for their own final dance.   The Major wants a showdown with Integra, so the Captain points out the way for her so she can leave Seras and the Captain to have their showdown.

At this point, it’s really just process of elimination.  I think by now, Millennium’s down to just five guys: The Major, the Captain, the Doctor, Walter, and Warrant Officer Schrodinger.   Dok and Schrodinger don’t seem like fighters, and apparently Walter vs. Alucard suits the Major’s plans, so either the Captain can fight Seras or he can stand around and watch everyone else fight.  That seemed obvious to me when I watched the OVA in 2016, but now I’m thinking about it a little more.

I mean, for me, this is great, because Seras is my favorite character, and this means we get another Seras fight out of this story before it wraps up.   And the general idea here is that this is Seras’ first real battle after she leveled-up and turned the tables on Zorin Blitz.   This is a chance for her to face a much stronger enemy and show off what she can really do as a “true” vampire.  One advantage of late-game Seras is that Kouta Hirano draws her a lot more seriously.   Her stockings aren’t as baggy and her boobs aren’t flopping around like two walnuts in a condom.   I’ve always felt like a lot of early Seras art was intentionally silly just to emphasize her as a rookie-sidekick-comic relief.   That never completely goes away with Seras, but in the later volumes she gets to at least approach the dignity of her masters.

So for my money, this whole fight justifies the Captain’s existence in the story.   He was waiting in the wings to fight Seras once she had grown powerful enough to rise to the challenge.   And they did a good job building the guy up for this.  He never fought anyone up to now, but Walter acted like he was a big deal, and we’ve seen Walter wipe out a lot of bad guys over this story.  And his three-way showdown with Anderson and Alucard suggests that he could fight Alucard and not look too stupid.  

Also, I finally found a scanlation of Hellsing: The Dawn, and confirmed that yes, Kid Walter and Girlycard faced the Captain in 1944, and Girlycard cut and run.   The Dawn ended right after that moment, so we still don’t know exactly why Alucard abandoned that fight.   Was he actually afraid he might lose?  I suspect there was more to it than that.   The point is that if you know about that moment, you realize that Seras is in deep water here.   She’s throwing down with a guy who stood up to Walter and Alucard and survived.  

So this fight is a big deal for Seras’ character arc, but I sort of wonder if this was what the Captain wanted.  Everyone else in Millennium was looking forward to this big epic battle in London, just killing and eating civilians left and right, and then dying in some climactic battle with Hellsing and/or the 9th Crusade and/or a nuclear bomb dropped by the Queen.    I can imagine Zorin Blitz anxiously awaiting any of those outcomes.  

But the Captain’s almost too powerful for his own good, and I suspect he’s the one guy who understood what the Major had in mind for Alucard.   So he knew he wouldn’t get to fight Alucard or Walter or Anderson, because they’d be too busy fighting each other.   Anyone else is a mismatch for him.   He beat Heinkel Wolfe like she was nothing.   None of the 9th Crusaders would have stood a chance against him.   Seras is giving him a decent workout, but Seras wasn’t even on the board until a few months ago, and she didn’t start drinking blood until last night.

So was the Captain just sort of going along with the Major’s plan, hoping against hope that there’d be sport for him in London?  Maybe he was the backup plan in case something fell through with Walter or Anderson.  Maybe he was thrilled when they learned that Alucard had turned Seras.  “Maybe she can give me the fight I want,” he might have thought to himself. 

You know, I’m just thinking out loud here, but I think I’m starting to get into this guy.  I never cared much for The Captain’s strong silent act before, but he makes a nice blank slate that you can project things onto.   Maybe he’s been observing Seras this whole time, trying not to get his hopes up, but also knowing that she was his only chance to get anything out of this battle.   He’d watch the Dandyman fight and hope that Dandyman didn’t kill her.   He’d watch the crisis with the H.M.S. Eagle and be relieved that Alucard was sent to stop Rip van Winkle and not Seras, who might not have survived the attempt.   He’d watch Zorin Blitz’s unauthorized assault on the Hellsing Mansion and wonder if Zorin blew his chance or saved it.   There’s a fanfic in this.   I gotta write this down.  Wait, I am writing it down.   Sorry.

Let me get back to the fight itself.   After we get past the “shooting big guns at each other” stage, the fundamental problem becomes apparent.    The Captain can become intangible, allowing him to hit Seras without getting hit back.  This is something I had trouble following the first time I watched this fight, because early on, the Captain seemed to fake out Seras by slipping out of his coat and using it as a decoy.   Like, that’s a trick a mortal fighter could pull, but the point is that The Captain keeps doing that same gag without the coat.  But I didn’t pick up on it because he transforms into a wolf-like creature, so it didn’t register that he’s a giant werewolf and he can turn intangible.  But yeah, he can do both, and that’s why he gave Walter and Al such a hard time before.   You can’t hit the guy, and even if you could, he’s not a vampire, so the usual anti-vampire tactics we’ve seen so far aren’t going to be enough.

Meanwhile, Alucard is fed up with this fight against Walter.   Walter’s body is powerful but unstable, so it’s really just a matter of time before Alucard wins by default.    But he’s not willing to wait that long, because Walter’s a shithead turncoat who doesn’t deserve the honor of a glorious last stand.   Anderson got that honor, but Walter?   Get outta town.  So instead, Alucard decides to drink a bunch of blood to power up and crush Walter in one fell swoop.  

“But where’s he gonna get blood at this hour?” you might ask.   “The Blood Store” doesn’t open until 9:30am!”

Oh, that’s no trouble at all.   After all, there was an enormous battle in London last night, so Alucard can just summon all of the blood from everyone who was killed.  London civilians, Ninth Crusaders, Millennium troops, all of them.   I don’t know what the range is on this ability, but if you’re dead and you have blood, he’s taking it.  

This development pleases the Major, who reflects on the nature of vampires, and why he would never want to be one.    He flashes back to what I assume was the Battle of Berlin?  There were Russian soldiers beating the shit out of him and then they shot him and left him for dead.   I guess that could be any German town invaded by Soviet troops in the final months of the war.   Anyway, that moment bears a striking resemblence to Vlad Tepes’ final human moments in Chapter 68.   The blood even seems to seep towards the Major, as though inviting him to drink before he dies, so that he can become a vampire himself.  But the Major refuses.

Then the Doctor and the Captain happened along and saved him, I guess.  This marks the first confirmation that the Major is not a vampire like his Last Battallion troops.   Somehow he looks exactly the same in 1999 as he did in 1944, but it’s not because of vampire powers.    Well, the Doctor might have turned him into a vampire after 1944, right?   Wrong, the Major despises the very concept of becoming a vampire, because he understands the whole deal with absorbing the souls of others when you drink their blood.    As he sees it, doing this represents a dilution of the self.    Alucard has been drinking the blood of thousands of people over the centuries, which has made him powerful and nigh immortal, but you can make the argument that he’s lost his own identity in the process.    The Major respects his power but he considers the price too high.   “I am me,” he declares, in defiance of all the glorious, beautiful power that Alucard has.    That’s what makes them enemies, in his mind.  

So the Major resolved to defeat Alucard without becoming a vampire himself.   For him, this “war” he keeps talking about has been like a mountain climber looking for the ultimate mountain to climb.    How could he achieve this lofty goal?   Everything he’s done has been to set up this singular moment.    That’s why he treated his own goons as expendable, and why he never cared much when one of them failed a mission or defied him.   The Doctor thought Dandyman might beat Alucard, but the Major knew it would never be that easy.   It was just a test run to guage Alucard’s abilities.  Rip van Winkle and Zorin Blitz were never supposed to succeed in their missions, they were just pawns sacrificed to get the opposing pieces into position.   The Catholic forces were there to force Alucard to unleash Level 0 and then lose all of his stored-up souls.   And then Walter would attack Alucard, goading him into drinking all this new blood to finish the battle. 

But what good would that do the Major?  Well, he seems to think he can “poison” this “wine”.   But we’ll get into that later.   For now, the point is that the Major has good reason to be smiling, even though he seems to be on the verge of defeat.

But let’s get back to this shindig.   You know, the Captain looks kind of cute this way, like he’s just sniffing Seras to get to know her.  

Just as Seras begins to despair, she suddenly hears a guy with a French accent speaking in her mind.    It’s Pip!  He’s alive!  Bullllllshit he is, he took a scythe in the back and Seras drank all his blood.  He’s as dead as it gets, but she can hear him anyway.  

The OVA explained this better.   There, when Zorin tried to read Seras’ mind that last time, she saw Pip’s memories intermingled with hers, and when Shrodinger appeared to relay the Major’s message, he also mentioned that when a human gives up his blood to a vampire willingly, it has a more profound effect on the vampire who consumes it.   And this always struck me as a good explanation for why Seras overwhelmed Zorin so completely, and why Pip could still retain his consciousness inside Seras.    We already saw Alucard’s host of absorbed souls, but they were little more than mindless drones.    I always found Dandyman and Rip to be especially frigthening, because we know they were bitter enemies of Alucard, but they seem completely oblivious to this as they fight in his service as familiars.    But Pip is his own man.   Maybe it helps that he’s the only one in Seras’ “castle”, but it’s probably got more to do with the fact that they were friends before and he wanted it to be this way.

Anyway, Pip starts giving Seras advice during the fight.  He convinces her not to give up, and then he gives pointers on how to use her powers in more tactical ways.   For example, instead of using her left arm to throw her shadow tendril at the Captain like a spear, he tells her to cast it along the ground.    This way, she can attack him along a plane, instead of a single point, making it harder for him to avoid it.  

But it still doesn’t solve the problem of the Captain’s intangibility.   I guess he can turn into something like mist?  I’m not sure what it is exactly, except that he can’t be touched unless he wants to be.

The Captain knocks Seras down into the cargo hold of the airship, where Seras discovers a gold tooth, and Pip observes that this must be a horde of treasure that the Nazis stole from all of their victims in World War II.   It’s easy to lose sight of the Nazi angle with this story, because it’s introduced like this shocking development, and then it becomes to commonplace in the story that it’s almost like background noise.   But this moment offers a helpful way to bring that back into focus.   There was never any cause behind Nazi Germany.   It was always about killing and brutalizing other people and taking all their stuff.   Likewise, Millennium’s been doing all this horrible shit for no other reason than the sick fun of it.  I think Kouta Hirano chose the Nazi imagery because he’s a World War II buff, but I’m glad he threw in scenes like these to remind everyone that this isn’t just some aesthetic choice.   He’s using the Nazis’ real world atrocities to bolster this dark narrative where the good guy is fucking Dracula of all people.

On another note, why did Millennium bring all this shit with them?   I guess they knew they wouldn’t be coming back to Brazil, but the Major seems pretty sure they won’t be leaving England alive either.   Then again, it seems like a lot of his men didn’t understand this, so maybe he only allowed them to bring their treasure to humor them.  

But it works out for the Captain because he brought Seras down here so he could kick a silver tooth at her.   Pip realizes that it’s a hint.   I don’t know if the Captain is trying to lose this fight, but he at least wants Seras to know how to beat him.   Maybe he’s just bored dodging her attacks, and he thinks he needs to give her a handicap to make this more interesting.    Or maybe he honestly doesn’t care about this fight, and he’s just trying to find someone to put him out of his misery because he can’t do it himself.

Something I noticed in the manga is that Seras is only briefly surprised to hear Pip speaking from within her.   Like, she wasn’t expecting this to happen, but it doesn’t take her very long to get used to it.   Maybe this is part of her development.    Stuff like this no longer throws her anymore.    She just instinctively understands how her vampire body works now.  How is Pip smoking right now?  How is she aware of him smoking?  Why does she care if he does it or not?  I dig this sort of thing because we never find out, but even if we had the answers we could never understand what this is like.  

My only complaint about the whole “Pip’s inside me” development is that it threatens to undermine Seras’ rise as a hero in her own right.    She became what she is now when she made the decision to drink blood and embrace her true nature.    But now that she’s here, she’s taking orders from Pip and calling him “Sir”, which sort of implies that she’s only doing this well because she’s merged with Pip and he’s giving her directions.  

Like, I know that’s not the real message her.    This is just Seras getting deeper into her own powers, one of which is the ability to use familiars like her Master did earlier.   It just plays out differently because she only has one and it’s a more personal connection.   She’s probably only calling him “sir” because Seras is just respectful of her elders and that’s in-character for her.   But I’m still not crazy about some of this.   

Anyway, they figure out that the Captain has to turn solid when he attacks, so the key here is to eat a hit from the Captain and then hit him back before he can go intangible again.

So Seras puts it all togehter for one final attack.    He picks up a huge bomb and throws it at the Captain...

...then she tries to divekick him through the smoke of the explosion.    He spots her anyway, but it doesn’t matter because...

... she needs to hit him while he’s trying to hit her.   I think the smoke was just to make him think she was making a mistake when she was actually trying to get him to stand his ground.   Note that Seras is punching with her left arm.   Usually it’s just a trail of shadowy tendrils, but she’s been coalescing it into a more typical arm shape during this fight, mostly to hold guns and such.  

So they punch each other’s hands so hard that their arms explode, but Seras recovers faster, because she’s used to that left arm being all disintegrated, I guess.  Then she says “Oo-wa-a-a!” like she’s either singing “Down With The Sickness” or doing the Count von Count laugh.   Take your pick, I got no idea what these word balloons are about.

The Captain throws a knee, but this time Seras catches his leg in her teeth, so I guess he can’t just go intangible like he normally does.  This sets him up nicely for...

... Pip emerging from her left shoulder with the silver tooth.    It’s a cool moment because it confirms that Pip isn’t just a voice in her head speaking from beyond the grave or whatever.    He’s in there, inside of her, just like with Alucard and all of his familiars.    This is Seras Victoria’s version of “Level 0″, which makes you wonder if she has the same Control Art Restriction thingies that Alucard had.   She just seems to have inherited these abilities from Alucard, powers which I’m pretty sure the Hellsing Organization gave Alucard when they enhanced him over the past 100 years.    Seras is doing all this naturally, if you can apply a word like “naturally” to alchemically enhanced vampires.  

Anyway, Pip coming out to say hello means that Seras has a  longer reach on her left side, so he drives the tooth into the Captain’s heart before he can do anything.   Then Pip flips him off for good measure.

And that does the trick.  The Captain seems surprised to be beaten this way, and then he laughs silently as he bursts into flame.   I almost wonder if he was relieved to meet his end.   The other Millennium soldiers died smiling, but he seemed more haunted by his time as an immortal monster.   Anyway, Seras is fucking sick of these Nazi Vampires and their nihilist bullshit.

So has Sir Integra, who has finally found the Major, only to discoer he’s behind some reinforced glass dome or something.   She uses up her ammo trying to shoot it, and then she breaks her sword on it.   

And this is standard for the Major, as he seems to relish the chance to explain everything.   Now that there’s no one left on his own team to listen, he seems to really want to go over it all with Integra, since he needs her to understand that this was all part of his plan.   Alucard’s about to disappear, and I guess he couldn’t stand the thought of Integra thinking it was a coincidence.

So yeah, Alucard is busy gathering up all the blood of all the dead people in London, something like three million people.   There’s rivers of blood flowing through town, converging on his location, and Warrant Officer Schrodinger is watching all of this when he suddenly whips out a knife and decapitates himself.

Then his head and body plunge into the river of blood.   I guess it was impossible to kill this little turd, so maybe it figures that he had to kill himself.

And Alucard, completely unaware of this, sucks up all the blood without a care in the world.   He’s finally ready to end Walter once and for all, but the Major thinks this is the end of Alucard instead.   But why?   Well...

[katehuntington]

Title: Black Dog - part two Word count: ±2250 words Episode summary: When Sam gets an anonymous phone call with information about his father, Dean receives a text message with coordinates to different location. The brothers clash and split up, one following orders, the other   trusting his instincts. Meanwhile, in the wilderness of Cascade Range, Washington State, Zoë loses grip on a personal case and is forced to confront her demons. Without back up, this might very well turn out to be her final hunt. Part two summary: After successfully wrapping up a werewolf case in Waco, Texas, the boys are on their way again. However, an unexpected phone call might just result in a change of course. Episode warnings: Dark! NSFW, 18+ only! Angst, gore, violence, character death. Description of blood, injury and  medical procedures. Supernatural creatures/entities, mentions of demon possession. Swearing, smoking, weaponry. Descriptions of  torture and murder. Illegal/criminal practices. Mentions of nightmares and flashbacks. Descriptions of suicidal thoughts and tendencies, depression, panic attacks, hallucinations. Author’s note: Beta’d by @winchest09​​ & @deanwanddamons​​​. Thanks, girls!

Supernatural: The Sullivan Series Masterlist

S1E03 “Black Dog” Masterlist

     Waco, Texas      November 30th, 2005 - Present Day

     “Get your motor runnin’. Head out on the highway! Lookin’ for adventure, and whatever comes our way.”

     It’s early morning in sunny Texas as the black Chevrolet Impala shoots down Interstate 35, just outside the city of Waco. The temperatures are still cool at this hour, but the orange sun that’s rising in the East will change that within hours. It is exceptionally warm for this time of the year, even for this far south. 

     Dean has his window rolled down and joins Steppenwolf’s lead singer John Kay on the vocals. The hunt was pretty straight forward; after a day of traveling and three more to track the creature, the hunters were able to make the kill. He feels ten times better than he did five days ago, the night he got pulled out of the water without a pulse. But the rest, time and a high dose of antibiotics did him good. Deep breaths aren’t much trouble anymore and the cough is as good as gone. Even the sprint to tackle the werewolf didn’t set his lungs on fire. He’s off pain medication, slept horizontally for the first time in days, and is behind the wheel of his Baby; Dean feels good as new. His way of celebrating is by belting out every word of the legendary rock classic Born To Be Wild.

     “Yeah, Darlin’, go and make it happen. Take the world in a love embrace. Fire all of your guns at once and explode into space.”

     His brother, who is huddled in the corner of the door and the front seat, opens his eyes slightly and glares at his sibling through the drowsiness. He’s not sure what’s more surprising, Dean’s unbelievably good mood or the fact that he’s able to hit the notes.

     “Like a true nature’s child, we were born, born to be wild. We can climb so high, I never wanna die!” Dean sings as he drums on the wheel.  

     “Dude, I’m trying to sleep,” Sam complains. “Turn that shit down, will you?”      Dean looks aside, as if his brother just said something vile. Did he just call Steppenwolf shit? The oldest of the two shakes his head; I tried so hard to raise him right. 

     Instead of honoring Sam’s request, Dean lets go of the steering wheel and plays the solo on his air guitar. Startled, the passenger reaches to take control in order to keep the car steady, after which he eyes his brother. As he does, Dean turns the volume button clockwise and sings along again.      “Born to be wi-i-ild!” he cries out.      “Seriously?” The youngest of the two shoots a look of annoyance at the driver.      “Ah, c’mon, Sammy. Why can’t a guy have a little fun?” Dean replies.      “It’s Sam,” his brother reminds him. “And for one, because I barely slept last night, and secondly, because it’s seven thirty in the morning.”      “So? You’re usually the one who’s all chirpy at the crack of dawn. This way we have the whole day ahead, y’know. Make some use of it,” Dean quips.

     Sam lifts one eyebrow and observes the driver for a few seconds. Is this truly coming from his brother, who is anything but a morning person? Bullshit, he thinks to himself.      “That’s the best you could come up with?” he confronts.      Right at that moment, AC/DC’s Stiff Upper Lip starts playing on the radio channel and Dean can’t help but to shout out when he recognizes the introduction.      “Man, I love this song!”      Sam shakes his head. All that his brother is doing is avoiding the topic of conversation. “And Erin didn’t mind you leaving before the alarm?” 

     Dean looks aside, thinking of the gorgeous brunette he picked up at a bar last night during their celebratory drink. “Not sure, she was still asleep when I left,” he admits.      The younger Winchester scoffs. “That’s just mean.”      “It ain’t my style to hang around too long, you know that,” Dean reminds his brother, defending his actions.      “Why the hell are you in such a hurry? We don’t have a lead on Dad, we don’t have a lead on any case at all. Yet you dragged me out of the motel room at 6 AM to hit the road,” Sam questions.

     His brother shrugs and fails to answer the question. Instead, he mouths the lyrics of the song while cheerily banging his head to the beat.      “Dean!” Sam shouts, trying to get his brother to focus.      “What?!” Dean bounces back, getting somewhat annoyed with his brother’s persistence. “I just wanna get to Hillsboro to pick up that lock so I can finally fix the trunk, that’s all.”

     The passenger rolls his eyes at the lame excuse. “That’s not the reason, Dean. And you know it.”      Dean lays his hand on top of the wheel and shakes his head. “You’re seeing things that ain’t there, know that?”      “Funny, though, apparently you know that I’m talking about Zoë, without me even mentioning her,” the youngest returns with an attitude. “And do you honestly think I didn’t notice that you’re driving north?”      “We’re in Texas, Sam. I can’t exactly go South without crossing any fucking borders,” Dean argues. “Not to mention that ‘north’ is a lot of square miles in this country. How the hell would we possibly be able to find her?”      “I don’t know, man…” Sam stares up the road ahead, but then looks aside. “But you did think of it then.”

     Dean sighs, realizing his slip of the tongue. Okay, so maybe he did, but he isn’t going to admit that. “You are the one who keeps calling her every day. You’re full on stalking her, no wonder she doesn’t pick up.”      “I hope to God that’s the reason,” Sam responds, worried.      “She’s probably just neck deep in a case,” the driver brings to mind. “Zoë’s a good hunter, she knows her shit. Why would you think she’s in trouble?”      “I don’t know, just the way she took off. Like she wasn’t expecting to see us again,” Sam recalls.      “You mean that she was nice?” the oldest rephrases. “Look, if she’s in trouble or not, we’d be searching for a needle in a very big haystack. For now -” He turns on his blinker and exits the highway, “- I’m gonna patch up my Baby.”

     Ten minutes later, they pull over on 526 West Elm Street in Hillsboro. It’s a quiet lane on the outer side of the city, on which a little auto shop called Ronny’s Garage and Wrecker Services is situated. It’s not a big place, just a shed, from which the Stars and Stripes flag flutter playfully. A big Chevrolet truck is parked in front of the lawn, and several wreckages fill the large yard behind the house. On the other side of the sober home next to the shed, there’s a small gas station. 

     Dean cuts the engine and gets out of the car. A largely built man with big sideburns and a slight limp in his walk shows up from under the garage door and moves into the sun. Whipping his hands clean with a dirty cloth, he smiles at the sight of the ‘67 Impala. The oldest of the two Winchester brothers walks up the driveway.      “Ronny Davis!” Dean grins as he approaches him. “Man, it’s good to see ya.”      “Long time, no see, Winchester,” the big man says, embracing the hunter.

     Dean pats him on the back and restores the space between them. It has been a while. Last time he saw the brawny guy was at a shady diner in Tampa, where he and John helped Ron out on a Djinn case. It must have been four years ago, at least. Sam just left for college around that time.      “How’s your old man?” he wonders.      “He’s alright,” Dean says, keeping up appearances. “Workin’ another case.”

     It’s not a lie. Well, technically it’s not. He will leave out the part where his father is missing, though. Not telling the truth to the old friend is not something he’s comfortable with, but he will do anything to make sure his father’s work isn’t jeopardized. Sam was eager to reach out to other hunters in order to find him and although Dean wants to track him down just as well, he prefers to keep this in the family, letting sleeping dogs lie. Who knows who, or what, might be listening in. They will find Dad, when he wants to be found. 

     The two men enter the garage, where a 62’ Lincoln Continental lays on the operating table with a bared engine bay. While Dean nods at the car with appreciating eyes, Ronny turns around to  observe the youngest Winchester for a moment, who gets out of the car.      “I see Sam is back in action.”      “Yeah, dragged his ass back into the game,” Dean replies with a trace of regret in his voice.      “He’s an excellent hunter. We can use a few good men like him,” Ronny says. “Especially now that one of the very best was sent on early retirement.”      Dean chuckles at his comment and glances down. “How are you, by the way?”      Ron pulls up the pant leg of his overhaul, revealing the bionic prosthetic.      “It doesn’t even hurt a bit,” he jokes. “Ruguru took it right off, knee and all.”      “I’m sorry, man,” Dean sighs, his sympathetic eyes meeting Ronny’s.      “It’s quite alright, actually,” he assures, smiling at the ground. “I mean, I still have holy water on my nightstand and a sixgun by the door, but instead of killing monsters I fix cars now. Life could be worse.”

     Dean can’t help but to agree on that. A small prick of jealousy pierces his heart, because deep down, he wouldn’t mind living the ordinary life. Sure, he has embraced hunting, or at least acts like he has. He finds fulfillment in the job, saving people who are in need and ridding the world of evil, but it comes with great sacrifice. Who knows, maybe when they finally find the son of a bitch that killed his mother, he can lay down his weapons. Some day.

     The former hunter has walked to his workbench on which a dissected transmission box lays bare. “So, what brings you here?”      “Passing through, just wrapped up a case in Waco,” Dean tells him. “Some scumbag tried to break into the trunk, though. The lock is busted, couldn’t fix it. And since you have six and a half a Chevy in your backyard, I figured you’d be the guy who could help me out.”      “I actually dismantled a 69’ Caprice last week, same lock as the ‘67.” He moves a few boxes around, snuffling through the thousands of parts. In this organized chaos Ron is able to find what he’s looking for and pulls the lock plus keys from a drawer.      “Let’s get to work,” Dean suggests, contented.

     As the mechanics take a look at the Impala, Sam wanders off. Not going anywhere in particular, the youngest Winchester strolls down the crooked sidewalk, taking in his surroundings. None of the lawns in the neighborhood are taken care of, no one made the effort to water the grass. The houses seem neglected, paint is coming off the wooden frames and weeds growing through the tiles. 

     With a sigh he takes out his phone. Scrolling through the list of last outgoing calls, Zoë shows on the display over and over again. Dean’s right; he is stalking her. Despite that thought, he presses the green button and puts his new Blackberry against his ear, since the last one perished in the lake in Paragould.

     “This is the voicemail of Zoë Sullivan. You can leave a message after the--”

     Annoyed, Sam hangs up and walks on. As he enters the small shop by the gas station, a bell rings. A middle aged woman behind the counter looks up and greets him politely. He gives her a nod and takes a few candy bars from the selves, since there is no healthy alternative in stock to choose from. So much for breakfast, but at least this will save them from starvation.      “That will be $ 3,60, sir,” the lady informs while she puts the bars in a plastic bag.      He passes her a five dollar bill and takes the bag and his change. As she wishes him a nice day, he leaves. The sun almost blinds him, still hanging low, but shining brightly already. Sam narrows his eyes and starts to make his way back to the garage, when his phone rings. A bit startled, he hastily takes out his phone, hoping it’s Zoë, but the caller ID isn’t identified on the display. While wondering who it could be, he answers.      “This is Sam.”      “Sam Winchester?”

     A bit stunned, the young hunter looks back at his display to make sure the woman on the other end of the line isn’t Zoë. The voice coming through is different, softer, with a slightly dissimilar accent. Sam digs deep down his memory, but he doesn’t recognize the person on the phone.      “Who is this?” he asks, still cautious.      “I have some information for you.”      Whoever she is, she got his attention. Sam tries to not sound too curious as he responds. “What kind of information?”       A short silence follows before the girl answers, but when she does, her words bring his heart and mind to a full stop.

      “I know where your father is.”

There you have it, the first chapter of the new episode “Black Dog”. I hope I got your attention! Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate every single one of you, but if you  do want to give me some extra love, you are free to reblog my work or  buy me coffee (Link in bio at the top of the page)

Read part three here

[jessilynse]

Better With Age; Lailathwen Leblanc

"Me, at twenty? Well, that would've been a couple years before I got caught up in the Scion's business and everything that entails. I'd been getting by doin' odd jobs here are there, fending for myself after striking out of my own. Had a bit of a falling out with my parents you see, they weren't exactly pleased by my distaste of tribal tradition and my new-found individuality. One thing led to another, and it became pretty clear the tribe didn't have a place for someone like me, so I had to go elsewhere. 

 "Anyroad, so I was out of my own. Livin' was tough, but you scrimp, and save, and do what you gotta to survive. Eventually, I got it into my head that life would be better out in the Shroud—no jackbooted thugs stomping about, lush greenery so you'd never go hungry, proper cities where you could live out your days in peace. Who wouldn't want a piece of that? 'Course, there was one thing standing in the way of that, and a big one too—Baelsar's blasted Wall.

"Now, it's not easy to get across the Wall, obviously, but not impossible if you believe the stories. Every now and then, you’d get rumours of sods who’d found a way across to where the grass is greener, and we ate it up. When there wasn’t enough to fill our bellies, we’d find sustenance in the tales of people reaching freedom. Now, I’ve no idea whether any of those stories were true, mind you. I’m more inclined nowadays to think they were intentional cover for folks “disappeared” by the Empire, so nobody gets inclined to ask too many questions. But, after enough time, I decided I was gonna be the next one to cross over.

“You’ve seen the Wall, yeah? It’s like if you took a Garlean Castrum, and then just made a row of them as far as you could see. This wasn’t hopping over someone’s picket fence. And we weren’t allowed within a hundred yalms of the thing, only the Legion could go inside. So I figure, if only Garlean Soldiers are allowed inside, then I needed to get recruited by the XIVth Legion. Then I could hop the wall and wave that life behind.

"'Course, getting recruited wasn’t exactly a simple task either. With no active campaigns in the region, the XIVth wasn’t in dire need of soldiers, and had become picky in who they recruited. I, meanwhile, had spurned just about everything my parents had encouraged me to do, which had unfortunately included lessons in combat, so I wasn’t much in a fight. Still, I was determined, so I insisted to my local Prius Prior that the let me sign on with them. I had no interest in bravely serving Garlemald, to be clear, my intentions were solely to escape, but after a lifetime of lying about who you are, you get pretty good at concealing your true allegiances. After a moon or so of pestering him day after day about it, eventually he conceded me an opportunity: I could go one-on-one with one of their fresh recruits, and if I beat him, I’d be allowed to sign on.

"Now, as mentioned, I had no experience in a fight. I’d started learning what I could from whoever would give the the time of day, but I knew on the day of my match I’d be nowhere near the level of my opponent. Still, I had to try. So when I was introduced to the towering pure-blooded Garlean man, I knew I was in for trouble. I’ll save you the play-by-play, but naturally I got thrashed. I did land a blow on him, near the end. He was coming at me, blunted training sword at the ready. And then, just in a flash of my mind’s eye, I saw exactly what he was going to do, how he was going to swing and where it was going to hit me. In a instant, I dodged behind him, and stuck him along his back. I didn’t know it at the time, but the Echo had let me see what was coming, and let me act on it. I’d been having visions occasionally for a year or so by that point, but never anything like that.

"Anyway, so I landed one strike on him, then he whirled around a knocked me to the dirt with a final blow, sword spinning away from my hand. I’d lost. I could see the Pilus clapping smugly, clearly ready to be rid of me, but my sparring partner held up his hand. ‘She shows potential. I would have her trained properly,’ he said. You know who that was? Only the man himself, Gaius van bloody Baelsar! Apparently just arrived from Ala Mhigo for an inspection of the wall, he’d caught wind of my “initiation” and wanted to size me up himself. Everything after that was a whirl, getting dragged here and there as I was trained, fitted, equipped, indoctrinated. Then, after it all, where did I get sent? Castrum Abania, east of the Peaks. Right opposite of where I wanted to be.

"I was bitter for a while, what with my plan going so far awry, but after a while, I settled into service. It was a fairly quiet station, simple patrols and the occasional inspection of Ala Ghiri nearby. Food was never fancy, but it was filling, and that and a warm bed each night wasn’t a half-bad deal. It wasn’t until, a day after quelling a small resistance demonstration in Ala Ghiri, I’d realized how much had changed. My bunk-mate, a stand-up lass from Othard, went off about the “savages” that had started the trouble and they really oughta just give up at this point. There was no way any of them would ever outmatch the Empire, and it would be better to save their skins and our time by just letting it go. And I found myself agreeing with her. That’s what scared me. My mocking dedication to the Empire had turned genuine at some point. I’d given my allegiance to who could give me bread each night, damn whatever I had to do to earn it. That night, I renewed my commitment to escaping that bloody fortress, and make my way across to Eorzea.

"Not too much happened after that. A few moons after, I volunteered for a transfer back to Baelsar’s Wall. I’d served well enough in Castrum Abania to be selected for scouting patrols into the Shroud, and on one of them we encounter a squad of Wood Wailers. In the confusion, I managed to slip away, and the rest is history. That more or less the story of how "Lailathwen oen Nerayna" made her way to Eorzea."

— — — — — — — — —

"Gosh, I haven't the faintest where I’ll be at 40. That'd be another decade and half, and considering all that's happened in the last decade, I'm not sure I could make any reliable guesses. I would hope I'd be able to retire by then, adventurin' and world savin' take a lot out of you, it'd be nice if the cataclysmic disasters threatening to destroy the world were a little less frequent. I'd spend a lot of time with my husband, of course. Fishing trips, sightseeing, you know... I guess that's the sort of thing we'd get up to. Honestly, I have a rough time making plans a year or two down the road, just by the nature of our work. You really can't ever be sure what's going to happen next. So just visualizing 40? Out of my range."

— — — — — — — — —

"Goodness, you serious? Do I even know anyone in their 60s? Let me think... Is he? No, no... Hmph, closest I can think of Gaius Baelsar, who I believe is pushing 50-something. Hey, don't look at me like that! When I agreed to this interview, I certainly didn't think he'd come up as much as he has. Twice today is two times too many, if you ask me.

"Anyroad, by that point, definitely retired. Ah, should have mentioned this for the last question, but would probably want a few little gremlins running about the house at some point. At 60, they'd be out on their own, I suppose. Hmmm, the Warrior of Light, a tottering ol' granny, baking cookies and caring for kittens. Do you see it? I don't know if I do, haha. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see!"

(Wanted to try something a lil different, thanks for the opportunity @bard-of-light​! Tagging @lavenderleblanc and @oreoz-unfortunately​!)

[sweetteaanddragons]

How to Train Your (Evil) Dragon

A/N: I’d been wanting to write this for a while, and the five sentence prompt I recently wrote finally pushed me over the edge. Definite thanks is owed to the actual HtTYD.

Also, fair warning, this gets progressively crackier as it goes on.

. . . 

Dear Mother,

Someday, I’ll find a way to actually send these to you.

In the meantime, interesting news continues to accumulate! We ran into an exciting new creature on patrol this morning that looked something like a lizard, if a lizard happened to be the size of a horse. I’d include a sketch, but I’m afraid my drawing skills are as dismal as you remember.

My skills with the sword, however, are better than ever - I was able to drive the beast off before anyone was more than slightly injured! I think it may lose one leg entirely. Unfortunately, our pursuit failed, and I was not able to finish it off, but there is another patrol planned for tomorrow; perhaps I can find it then.

There is still no news from Turgon and Aredhel, but as I recently assured Father, that is no reason to fear the worst. If the worst had come to past, surely the Enemy would have found some way to taunt us with it.

I wish dearly that Father would let me go in search of them, but he insists he needs me here. I confess, I feel better keeping him in sight as well  - 

In better news, Maedhros’s letter has arrived after all; later than I expected, but the news in it is good, and my fears are much allayed. We are holding the line, and that’s the most important thing.

I hope you don’t worry too much.

All my love, 

Fingon

. . .

Dear Mother,

I have found the beast! A minor rockfall down by the river pinned its tail and has kept it trapped. When I found it, it had given up hope of pulling itself free and was sulking about it. It looked rather more like a cat than anything else, and I almost laughed.

. . . Which brings us to my next point.

It just looked so helpless, lying there like that, and I’d gotten a bit separated from the rest of the patrol - don’t look at me like that, I was perfectly safe - and it just felt, well, wrong to kill it. When else will we have an opportunity like this, to see if we can save one of the beasts Morgoth has corrupted? Don’t I have a duty to try?

And no, before you ask, this has nothing to do with the whispers I’ve been hearing about thralls -

I promise this will end better than the bear cub I brought home in Aman. And the fox. And that hawk.

This time, everything will work out perfectly.

I’ve started by feeding it fish.

All my love,

Fingon

. . .

Dear Mother,

Day Three of my new project! I am now almost certain that my new friend is male, and he has stopped hissing at me when I approach. Admittedly, this is probably because I continue to bring him fish, but still: progress!

Between the need to actually fish for the fish, for lack of a better phrase, and my attempts to train the horse-lizard (definitely need a better phrase), this has been taking up a larger portion of my time than is easy to conceal from Father. He has been starting to make jokes that are not actually jokes about my riding off into the unknown like Turgon. I’m not sure what to tell him. I want to be further into my project before I try to sell him on it.

So I tried to drop hints that I was actually sneaking away to have the kind of assignations that might eventually end in grandchildren, which successfully distracted him.

If this continues long enough, I might actually have to find a baby somewhere.

I can picture you laughing at me. I wish you were here.

I will try to come up with a better name than lizard-horse soon. I also need a name for this specific lizard-horse, which I admit is harder than I thought it would be. Maybe I can come up with a sneaky way to ask Maedhros to ask Maglor. Celegorm might also be of some help - with the training, not the naming - but I’m pretty sure he still isn’t speaking with me. According to Maedhros, this is because the last time they met, Aredhel wasn’t speaking to him, so now that she’s disappeared, I have to fill in as a proxy.

No, it doesn’t make sense to me either.

All my love,

Fingon

. . .

Dear Mother,

Day 12 of my project! I am spared of calling my new friend a horse-lizard by the wit of one of the people who was on patrol with me; she has taken to calling it a dragon, and I like the sound of it so well that I’ve decided to adopt it. My particular dragon I have decided to call Glaurung.

He gave me a bit of a fright today when he unexpectedly breathed out sparks while I was doing my best to mend his leg, but there was no true harm done, and I think he looked a bit sorry afterwards. He is beginning to look genuinely happy to see me when I come, and I harbor some small, probably foolish, hope that it’s not just excitement for the fish.

Father has begun to poke around to try to find out just who I’m having assignations with; I might actually have to start courting someone to satisfy him.

Or I could come clean, I suppose, but my other idea sounds easier. No luck finding a suitable and available baby to claim so far, but my efforts continue unabated!

All my love,

Fingon

. . .

Dear Mother,

Glaurung can talk! He said his very first word today! It was “fish.” I am very proud and am now attempting to get him to say my name. The first letters are the same; how hard could it be?

I stay longer and longer to sit and talk with him now. Hopefully it will help him learn to speak. Once he can actually hold a conversation, I feel I can present him to Father. 

I’m more hesitant than ever to do so before I can be sure how Father will react. He would be perfectly right to be cautious, of course, but I hate the thought of having to see Glaurung dead. I feel responsible for him now, and I want to protect him if I can, as ridiculous as that may seem directed towards a being that successfully started a fire for me yesterday.

In other news, Glaurung apparently now prefers his fish cooked.

All my love,

Fingon

. . .

Dear Mother,

I have finally freed Glaurung from where his tail was pinned. I confess I had some lingering fear that he would attack or at least wander off, but now that I see the damage, that concern has lessened greatly. He will need a good deal of help before he is ready to do that.

Please don’t worry. I’m being very careful, I promise.

In unrelated news, I discovered dragons can purr if you pet them just exactly right.

All my love,

Fingon

. . . 

Dear Mother,

Glaurung did a bad thing today.

He has been growing at an incredible rate, and I’m afraid my fishing skills are struggling to keep up with him. Today he wanted more fish when all I had left was the one I had intended for my own lunch. When I told him no, the strangest look came over his eyes, and suddenly I found myself bringing him the fish anyway despite my intention.

Fortunately, I snapped out of it before I could actually give him the fish, and I suppose no great harm would have come of it even I had, but the incident still alarms me. His fire is getting stronger. What if this does too?

Well, hopefully I can train it out of him. Immediately after I snapped out of it, I poured the bucket of water I’d brought him over his nose, and he reacted exactly as a cat would, sputtering and indignant, so that will be my new strategy: All misbehavior will be greeted with a liberal application of water. Perhaps I’ll see if one of the artisans can create something a little more manageable for the task than a bucket.

On the bright side, his language skills are improving! He asked for that fish in a full sentence. I’m very proud. Is this what parenting feels like?

Meanwhile, I think Father has questioned every eligible Noldorin woman in Hithlum. Presumably he’ll move on to the Sindar next; I don’t know what he’ll do when he runs out of those.

Possibly I should have come up with a different excuse.

Maedhros’s next letter has arrived, by the way. I referred to my project very discreetly in my last to him, but apparently it was not discreet enough, because he sounded rather alarmed. I’m torn between telling him the whole truth and obfuscating so he doesn’t feel the need to lie to Father on my behalf. 

I’ll just tell him I’ve gotten a cat. A very large cat. That breathes fire.

Maybe not that last part.

All my love,

Fingon

. . .

Dear Mother,

I now have a special bottle that sprays water when I push a little trigger at the top. I like it very much, and after extensive and absolutely necessary practice on various rocks, I have taken to carrying it with me when I go see Glaurung. Unfortunately, this has proven necessary. Twice more he has attempted that eye trick, both times in attempts to get more fish, but after the last attempt he seemed resigned to failure. I also take heart from the fact that he is now fully healed and could easily leave to survive on his own, but instead he has stayed here, seemingly perfectly content to stay with me. In fact, I’ve had to use the spray bottle once or twice to keep him from following me back to the fort.

(I am getting increasingly tempted to use the spray bottle on Father whenever he brings up the woman I am supposedly seeing, but I doubt I would find as good a result. In hindsight, I really should have found a different excuse to use.)

In cheerier news, I can have full conversations with Glaurung now! His own contributions remain simple, but he is improving greatly.

I also have a confession to make: I told you that I was teaching him to speak. I did not tell you that I was teaching him Quenya.

Keeping that secret from you of all people was spectacularly pointless, I know, seeing as you aren’t actually reading these, but I was afraid to commit the words to paper in case these were ever found.

You have to understand, it just seemed so natural! I was alone, doing something secret, so naturally I would use -

Well. I suppose when Father finds out, the sticking point about the dragon will probably not be what language he speaks. On the other hand, when Thingol finds out . . . 

Maybe I should start teaching him Sindarin.

All my love,

Fingon

. . .

Dear Mother,

I have a baby!

Admittedly, I’m increasingly concerned about the provenance of said baby, but Caranthir’s not talking, and Father’s already seen the baby, so it’s too late to back out now.

. . . Though maybe I should back up just a little.

You see, a few letters ago, I’d mentioned to Maedhros that I needed a baby, mostly because I was too tired to think about what I was writing, and then the messenger took it before I could -

Anyway. Maedhros, being the supportive cousin that he is - and also, notably, having survived Feanor’s determination to have 49 grandchildren at minimum - assumed that I had legitimate reasons to want said baby: Namely, Father pressuring me to get to work preserving the line of Finwe by providing more heirs.

Which shouldn’t be necessary but given that we still don’t know what happened to Turgon, Aredhel, and little Idril - 

Which, to be fair to Maedhros, was much more sensible than what was actually going on.

In my defense, I didn’t actually expect Maedhros to - to do whatever it is he did. I thought he would commiserate a little, maybe, and that would be the end of it.

But no. Caranthir is here with the horses he wants to trade for some of our stock, and he brought with him the tiniest, most perfect baby I’ve ever seen.

I’m going to call him Gil-Galad.

I know, I know! I shouldn’t be naming the baby before I’m sure I’ll get to keep him, and I shouldn’t decide I’m going to keep him before I can get Caranthir to cough up more than, “Don’t worry about it,” when I ask where he came from.

But Caranthir managed to smuggled the baby into my arms right before Father walked in, saw it, and jumped to the obvious conclusion, so if I do end up having to give the baby up, I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do.

Actually, I already have a lot of explaining to do because I might have panicked a little bit when Father saw me with the baby.

And by ‘panicked a little bit,’ I mean that when he said, “You have a baby?” I may have, possibly, blurted out, “I also have a dragon.”

So, as I write, Father’s getting kitted up to go meet said dragon.

Do you think Gil-Galah’s too young to come along?

All my love,

Fingon

[thelazyhermits]

New Test Subjects

After seeing how many votes the Kirishima & Tetsutetsu pair got in the poll, I decided to write a drabble with the pair. I’m gonna tag @mandsand whose idea inspired me to write this. Thank you for your help! <3 Also, there are references here to another drabble which you can find here, but you don’t have to read it for this one to make sense. 

I hope y’all enjoy it! ^-^

I think I just made a grave mistake.

In your defense, this wasn’t your idea. You even tried to avoid this outcome, but unfortunately, it was completely out of your hands.

It all started when Hatsume called you over to the support studio one day after school, requesting that you help her try out some of her babies. Naturally, you were reluctant considering your past experiences with trial runs of her inventions, but telling her no has always been a hard thing for you.

As a result, after making sure the 1-A students would look after Eri while you were gone, you soon found yourself heading to the support studio. On the way there, you passed Kirishima and Tetsutetsu who were having some kind of manliness training. Honestly, you had no idea what exactly that meant, but since they looked like they were enjoying themselves, you decided not to question it. 

Your original intention was to greet the boys before resuming your trek to the support studio. However, your plans quickly changed once the boys found out where you were heading.

After hearing that you were going to help Hatsume with her inventions, the two hero course students immediately volunteered to come along to help much to your surprise. Apparently, after hearing about Hatsume’s past trial runs, the boys thought it would be great training to help her test out her inventions.

Naturally, you were hesitant to go along with the idea since you knew they’d basically be volunteering themselves to be Hatsume’s test subjects. While it’s true they have the perfect Quirks to protect themselves from the usual explosions caused by her inventions, you still couldn’t help but worry about them.

Still, in the end, you allowed Kirishima and Tetsutetsu to tag along, knowing they’d eventually come see Hatsume anyway. You figured you might as well make sure you were there for the first meeting to make sure the pink haired girl didn’t get too crazy with her trial runs.

Unsurprisingly, Hatsume was absolutely ecstatic about having new test subjects. She immediately began pulling out more inventions to test since her original goal was just to get you to work with one invention.

Just as you feared, the support student didn’t hesitate to pull out the more combat-oriented inventions. It was obvious she wanted to test the fire power of her babies against the hero course students’ Quirks. 

That’s why you’re currently on the sidelines watching the boys enthusiastically take on the attacks from all of Hatsume’s inventions head on. You make a mental reminder to question Power Loader later about the large amount of dangerous weapons the support student currently has at her disposal. You were understandably concerned when she said she made them for fun when you questioned her about them earlier. 

At this point, considering how much the three students are enjoying themselves, the only thing you can really do is make sure things don’t go too far. That’s why you make sure they take breaks in between trial runs so the boys don’t needlessly wear themselves out. 

It’s near the end of one of those breaks that Hatsume brings out a familiar-looking drone which immediately puts you on edge. Seeing your tense expression, the pink haired girl grins, “Don’t worry, Fortune Teller-san! What happened last time won’t happen again since it’s programmed to just attack you. I won’t be losing control of it, I promise!”

You give her a deadpan look. “If you think I’m going to relax after hearing that it’ll only target me, you’re wrong. I’d rather not have to deal with being chased by that thing again. It was not at all fun the first time.”

Kirishima hits his fist against his open palm. “I got an idea! Just leave everything to me and Tetsutetsu, Sensei! We’ll protect you!”

Tetsutetsu rams his fists together. “I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m with you, bro! Let’s do this!”

As the boys share a manly fist bump, you stare at them with obvious confusion. “Hold on. What are you-”

Before you can finish that sentence, Kirishima suddenly pulls you into a bridal carry, surprising you. Seeing your wide eyed expression, he grins, “Be sure to keep your head down, Sensei!”

After saying that, the redhead takes off into a sprint while a laughing Tetsutetsu runs after him. Hatsume grins as she quickly sends the drone after them.

As laser beams rain down on you and the boys, you immediately realize what your student’s plan is. Since the drone is programmed to chase you, you need to be on the move for it to be tested.

However, since you were reluctant to test out the device considering what happened last time, Kirishima thought it’d be good training to have him and Tetsutetsu use their Quirks to protect you from the drone’s laser beam attacks. Either the redhead will use his Quirk to shield you, or the grey haired boy will use his so he can intercept the attacks.

All in all, it’s a pretty solid training session for them since they have to constantly use their Quirks. Not only that, they get to practice using their Quirks to protect someone else which is always beneficial for a hero.

Of course, that doesn’t make this situation any less crazy. The fact that the boys keep grinning and laughing while releasing loud battle cries makes it even more ridiculous. 

Well, at least, they’re having a good time, and thanks to them, you don’t have to worry about running for your life from the crazy drone which is another bonus. So, it’s hard for you to criticize your student’s idea since you definitely prefer this trial run over the one you had with Hatsume last time.

Just as you think that, Hatsume cheerfully shouts, “Phase One complete! Now, let’s head to Phase Two!”

You immediately get a bad feeling after hearing those words. “What is Phase Two?”

Your question is soon answered when several drones identical to the first one appear in the air, completely surrounding you and the hero course students. When you see them, your jaw drops. “Hatsume, what the hell?! Are you trying to kill us?!”

Tetsutetsu grins as he sizes up his new opponents. “Don’t worry, Sensei! We totally got this! Right, Kirishima?!”

Kirishima dons a similar grin. “Right! We won’t let any attacks hit you, Sensei!”

True to their word, the boys manage to continuously block all the attacks aimed your way despite how numerous they are. The redhead takes the job of shielding you with his body while the grey haired student starts punching as many laser beam attacks as he can in order to deflect them.

It’s honestly really impressive how well they’re doing. Even though you’re sure they must be exhausted, considering how long this trial run has been going on, they’re just as enthusiastic as ever. Their grins haven’t faltered one bit--a fact that you greatly admire since you’ve always thought that a hero’s smile was one of their most important features. 

The one downside of this situation is that you’re not really contributing to this situation. It doesn’t seem right for you to allow your students to do all the work, so you decide to lend a hand and put an end to this crazy trial run.

Grinning, you activate your Quirk, allowing you to foresee the drones’ movements. Once you see how they’ll react, you pull out your water gun and fire at some of the drones during the brief moment they stop their attacks so they can recharge. 

As you predicted, the drones are able to dodge like the original one. However, it looks like Hatsume hasn’t had the drones practice this feature while in a group since, when they attempt to move out of the way, the drones end up crashing into other drones, causing several of them to explode upon contact.

While Hatsume cries out in dismay, Tetsutetsu pumps his fist into the air. “That was so awesome! Nice shot, Sensei!”

Your grin grows as you repeat your earlier actions and successfully take out more of the drones. Meanwhile, Kirishima’s eyes sparkle with admiration. “So manly!”

After ruffling his hair, you pull out your sunglasses and put them on before deactivating your Quirk. Thankfully, the headache isn’t too bad since you weren’t using your Quirk for very long. “Couldn’t let you boys have all the fun. I left you guys some drones if you wanna take a crack at them.”

Both boys exchange a look before grinning. “Hell yeah!”

Since there are only a few drones left, protecting you becomes much less difficult for the hero course students. As a result, Kirishima is free to set you down, so he and Tetsutetsu can take turns playing offense and defense.

While they’re having fun with the remaining drones, you look over at Hatsume and see her pouting. “Sorry, Hatsume, but you brought this upon yourself. You were just asking for us to fight back.”

A few seconds later, the pink haired girl’s pout fades, replaced with a bright grin. “It’s fine! This just proves that my babies still have room for improvement! Thank you for pointing out what I still need to work on, Fortune Teller-san!”

As expected of Hatsume, she bounces back quickly. It’ll take a lot to keep her down. At least, the trial run was successful in showing her what she needed to work on. 

The sounds of two loud battle cries have you returning your attention to the hero course students who are cheering after having taken out the last of the drones. You smile as you clap your hands. “Good job, boys. Very well done.”

Kirishima beams as he walks over to where you’re currently standing. “Thanks, Sensei! I’m really glad me and Tetsutetsu decided to come along today! This was great training! I hope you’ll take us along the next time Hatsume invites you over for more trial runs!”

Tetsutetsu nods as he grins, “I feel the same way as Kirishima! It’s been awhile since I last got this excited about after school training! My heart’s totally on fire right now!”

A grinning Hatsume gives them a thumbs-up. “Just come to the support studio whenever you want more training! I’ll be happy to put you to work for the sake of my babies!”

Shaking your head, you give the students an amused look. “Well, considering how today’s training went, I think things should be fine. Just be sure to not overdo it and don’t get too crazy, alright?”

Both boys quickly nod their heads while Hatsume excitedly rubs her hands together. “This is going to be great! Now, I have a good reason to start building the robots I recently finished blueprints for!”

While Kirishima and Tetsutetsu cheer at the news, obviously excited about their future opponents, your face pales. 

Yeah, this was definitely a mistake.

[isaacdian]

hope you don't mind me asking, do you have any Isaac and Miria headcanons? i'd love to read some from you. you appear to have a good grasp on the characters, and great love for them. :)

aw thank you so much for the ask, sure thing!

some of these will probably get into theory territory as well, because i’ve had the novels sitting in my mind for years now, and there are a few details i’d like to mention (beware of baccano light novel spoilers, just in case).

this could get a bit long, so you can read it below the cut:

i’ll write my headcanons/thoughts in no particular order. more people might have come to similar conclusions, but i don’t think i’ve seen any posts or had any discussions with anyone regarding these (at least in depth), so!

- i like to think that miria and isaac ran away from their then (seemingly) unhappy lives after they got to interact with each other for quite a while, and not spontaneously upon meeting for the first time.

there isn’t much evidence to back this up beyond some characters commenting that they “were probably runaways” or that “maybe they eloped”, so they might have escaped together on the spot, since we already know they can be very impulsive. however, i get this feeling that their bond took some time to develop, and i’d love to see some of their interactions as isaac dian —and— miria harvent before they ever became isaac & miria, if that makes sense.

i doubt they met too long before their string of robberies, though? this is such a weirdly specific and probably meaningless thing to pinpoint, but in 1935 miria asks isaac if he’s ever been to the circus, and he responds that he does remember animals, but he doesn’t remember if that was the circus or the zoo. this hardly means anything, but their circumstances overall don’t really make me think that they’ve known each other since they were too young.

- whatever optimism and general exhilaration regarding life isaac has is innate. on the other hand, miria has mostly acquired her own sense of hopefulness over time, with isaac’s help.

miria is a 100% confirmed literal ray of sunshine and this indisputable. it just hasn’t/doesn’t always come to her as effortlessly as it may seem. bloody to fair isaac and miria magic show color page.png

this is somewhat related to the next one (and also the last point i’ll mention at the end of this post):

- when isaac gets arrested and he and miria get separated in 1934, they’re both having an equally hard time dealing with this.

okay this one is like. obvious ksjksk. but i wanted to talk about how they deal with this situation, because at first glance it looks like miria got the shortest end of the stick here. and in a way, that might be true! i’ve already mentioned that miria herself has been shown thinking about how much isaac helped her to be happy, and narita has been deliberately vague regarding the nature of their silliness, on top of hinting at the possibility of their shenanigans being a kind of mechanism to escape the harsh realities of life from the rolling bootlegs (very first novel), if i recall correctly.

(btw:

i recall that somewhere in the 1935 arc, graham starts talking with the usual “let me tell you a sad, sad story” prelude. however, isaac and miria are upset by this, and they tell him that he shouldn’t tell sad stories, because if you do it, your happiness will run away. meanwhile, this part in cloudy to rainy living rent free in my head:

i have to laugh..........)

that being said, i couldn’t help but feel like isaac was having an equally bad time, even if he displayed it in a different and not so blatant way. while i was rereading the novels after i got to buy the official english release, i felt very strongly that something was definitely wrong about their separation, which, again, is obvious to us readers and to the characters who know isaac & miria. but it extends beyond that. there was this general feeling of knowing that whoever came across an unaccompanied isaac would magically feel like there was something missing. i don’t know how else to explain this. he’s still full of energy and optimism and he’s fueled by his desire to reunite with miria, but every time he’s shown hesitating or doesn’t reach a satisfying conclusion while thinking about a frivolous topic, it hits you like “oh... right” (firo didn’t help much on that last front, either, so miria and isaac must have had to discuss what exactly happens to fellas who don’t believe in fairies after their reunion... lol)

in short, he needs miria just as much as she needs him. this is something i’ve seen other people mention as well: isaac might be the “force” factor in their relationship, but that force won’t amount to much without miria’s “direction”, and viceversa. the lift each other up, and they keep each other grounded, too.

i’m also remembering isaac and sham’s conversation and just. there’s a self-esteem/confidence factor in there. Fun Game of Spot the Difference

and this is getting ridiculously long, so i’ll spare you from having to read my dumb thots about isaac’s (possibly real) fear of miria not liking him, as the narrator implies, which i subconsciously ended up linking to that one impossibly crack ending in the ds game, where you pick the option of him not knowing frankenstein’s monster’s real name, so miria leaves him after realizing how “cheap and uncool” he is LMAO

- isaac’s father might have been an academic of some sort, as well as a stern man who disapproved of his son’s flighty and childish tendencies.

???????? besides miria’s implied tragic backstory, the most we know about both of their pasts is that isaac comes from a wealthy family with whom he seems to have a bad relationship with, so even though i’ve tried to work out other details (his parents’ provenance for instance?) i can’t really elaborate on this. even if isaac’s knowledge on the topic is pretty scrambled (to put it nicely lol), he knows a lot about “the orient” as he puts it, and the “dian” surname is pretty unique so who knows!👀 i’ve only mentioned his father because isaac, too, has only mentioned his "old man” twice so far in the novels, if i’m not mistaken. in my opinion, it also speaks volumes how flustered isaac got when molsa apologized to him, because it was the first time someone older than him has done this. and this is pretty arbitrary, but if isaac started robbing and getting into trouble before he and miria even met and/or before he got kicked out/ran away from home, that whole deal about “being used to dealing with policemen” (in the unofficial translation i read back in the day it was something along the lines of “this isn’t my first time being interrogated by the police”) in 1934 would make sense, i guess, considering that miria didn’t realize what was going on at the moment even though she’s a fairly perceptive person.

anyways it’s too bad we don’t know that much about miria on this front, also!! i get the vague feeling that she might have also come from a wealthy family (probably not a good environment, though), since in 1935 it’s mentioned that the closest they’ve ever gotten to working/having a job was when they were digging for gold, apparently. that’s why i can’t really think of anything too specific regarding miria’s past and upbringing... i have a feeling that she might have felt alone, trapped and/or overwhelmed. let’s just hope that when she said her bruises would heal up fine with ice in 1935 it had nothing to do with this “i should have died” business :(((

- even though isaac and miria love their friends and would do anything for them, they aren’t particularly attached to anyone (or any place) besides each other.

this is more of an observation than a headcanon, but i find it really interesting: they would definitely do anything for their friends, and they do enjoy life very intensely, but that’s precisely why they don’t seem to be fixed in one singular spot? basically, i feel like they’re the personification of “home is where the heart is” taken to the extreme. they could go anywhere and do anything as long as they have each other, and they will never make any attempts to actively do things that make it easier to label their relationship, such as getting married, which is heavily implied by firo (i think) in 2002 bullet garden (i think!!). that’s also part of the reason why i’m sure they’d never find themselves commiting to things like taking care of a pet, or a child; it’s more like they instantly “adopt” everyone they run into, as if they’ve always been friends, even if they won’t meet again for months, years, or ever again. anyway, isaac and miria are extremely good and they are literally going to be happy together forever and ever! they don’t need to prove that.

that doesn’t mean they’re not sentimental, though! i like to think that they keep some meaningful objects that remind them of fond memories of their friends. and this is hardly canon because it shows up in the anime And in a background at that, but shoutout to the rocking toy horse in their california mine lol.

- miria knew about her own immortality (as well as isaac’s) before the 2000s.

THIS IS PROBABLY MY SPICIEST TAKE and i tried to back it up in the next point of this list. i still keep thinking i’m reading too much, into this but

i can’t stop thinking about the implications, folks

which brings us to:

- miria is smarter than isaac is and actually has a fairly good idea of when he’s making stuff up, but is happy to let him take the lead.

i won’t deny that isaac and miria dedicate a huge chunk of their day to doing moronic stuff, and they are pretty dumb, but i feel like people don’t give them enough credit for how perceptive they are. even though that’s true of the two of them, i feel like this mostly applies to miria.

among other things, we’ve learned that she knows ronny isn’t human and has supernatural powers (wow), which is why she comes to him for help after isaac’s arrest. she’s very good at paying attention to small details, such as the kind of programs ennis watches on tv, or chané’s feelings, when the two talk in 1934. miria also “really knows her way around japanese” and has been shown to --apparently?-- multiply large numbers in her head in 1935... while isaac was talking about how good of an idea it would be to use the martingale betting system. not to mention how isaac stated he “doesn’t know how to count money” earlier in this arc. my god ksdjgjks. i want to know what’s up with this, if anything.

so, yeah! there’s probably more stuff that i could mention, but i am exhausted lol. thank you for your patience anon, i have no idea how long this has been sitting in my inbox. always happy to get baccano questions <3 i apologize for any typos/errors and the like.

bonus headcanon: miria grabs ennis with one hand and chané with her other hand and they go out with their arms linked and excited and they learn more about having fun, as friends do. no printer just fax

[coutelier]

Another excerpt from chapter two (the whole thing will get posted eventually). Again, just over 1,000 words.

Kaya Cade didn’t believe in fate. She didn’t believe in Tarot Cards, or Astrology, or in sweet messages printed on confectionery. Yet, some outcomes did just feel inevitable. Perhaps not written in the stars, but some combination of parents, genes, environment, and other influences, all conspiring to bring about one inexorable end. Perhaps an intellect far greater than hers could trace all those threads, see how they all intertwined and unravel where they led. Kaya was confident no such power existed now, leaving her just a hapless passenger being taken for the ride of her life. Or at least to the cop car.

“You see, Officer Dibbles,” she tried to explain as they turned into the parking lot, “I’m really just a victim of causality. Slimy creep like that comes near me? Of course I’m going to punch him.”

Sergeant Chauncey Delainy, or Chance, halted with one fist clenched on his hip and the other soothing his weary brow. “And now you’re under arrest,” he said, “that’s also causality.”

“For a little thing like that? C’mon guys-”

“He says,” Sergeant Francis Daramy walked around with his little notebook. He was shorter and stockier and always maintained a far more cuddly appearance than his disheveled partner. “You tried to make him swallow an entire trumpet.”

“That is not true,” Kaya insisted, leaning back on the brick wall to the side of B-Naturals - her now former place of employment. “It was a trombone. And only up to the second slide - he’s blowing it all out of proportion.”

Exasperatedly, Chance asked, “did he do anything to provoke you?”

“He…” Kaya tapped her foot and scrunched her face, but now she tried to remember it wasn’t very clear - like it was all clouded by a red mist and she’d been a creature acting purely on instinct. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Know what I think?” Chance sighed, “I think you wanted to fired and were just looking for an excuse to do something that would give them no choice.”

Ridiculous - was Kaya’s first thought. She could have just quit any time she wanted, couldn’t she? But she’d never quit at anything. She’d been fired, thrown out of places, chased by clowns with baseball bats, but she’d never been a quitter. Maybe that was her way of quitting? In any case, Chance took her uncharacteristic silence as proof he was onto something.

“Jesus, Cade,” he groaned, “what are you, twenty-one now? You can’t keep acting like a teenager.”

Kaya broke her silence, sulkily muttering, “says the thirty-something who collects toys-” He gave her look so she corrected, “sorry - ‘action figures’.”

“You know why I hate kids?”

“Er,” Kaya thought, “you think they’ve evolved and have mutant powers?”

“Besides the obvious. It’s that they don’t think ahead - always acting on how they feel in the moment. And that’s what I’m saying to you is just think ahead. About consequences and how your actions affect other people.”

Daramy nodded. “You remind me of a cousin I had in Sierra Leone,” he said. “He was a rebel with no cause as well. Always fighting, but never knowing who or why he was fighting. His life lacked any direction.”

After a solemn pause, Kaya asked, “and so, did he find one? Did he figure it out?”

“No,” Daramy shook his head, “he got in a fight with a leopard one day and lost.”

“Okay, well, that was completely unhelpful. Thank you.” Kaya had noticed Chance bailing out on Francis’ story, chattering with someone through their car radio. Meanwhile, she had seen a notice pinned on the wall next to her head. “Speaking of kids - another one is missing?”

A pained expression sunk into Daramy’s usually jovial features. “Seems to be happening more frequently these last few months.”

“And you’ve no clues or anything?”

“We did find one girl, just wandering the woods by herself, but she has not been very communicative so far. Then there was a man who was convinced his wife and son had been replaced by Changelings - he thought killing them was the only way to get his real family back. I-” he paused, only now remembering he was talking to a civilian. “I should not be telling you these things. Just stay away from the woods.”

“And don’t post anything online,” Chance ordered, having apparently finished his radio chat and overheard the last bit of theirs. “Last thing these kids and their families need is a bunch of amateur investigators wasting time with false leads and promises. You understand me?”

Kaya hadn’t any intention of starting conspiracy theories right now, so she mock saluted, “sure thing, boss.”

“Now get of here, Cade,” Chance said, “you give me a headache.”

“So I’m not under arrest?”

“The guy’s not actually made any charges. So go.”

Kaya bounced from the wall, “did something come up?”

“It’s none of your business,” he kept trying to shoo her along, “go home.”

“Yeah, yeah. See you around dibs,” the only place Kaya had to go right now was to her little green hatchback that was also in the parking lot. She called him Greenback, and for the being he was her home. While the dibbles drove away she started rifling through one of the many shoe-boxes piled on the seats around her that contained her whole life looking for a phone charger. A moments quiet was enough to allow her to think about why she was, and when had she turned onto the path that inevitably led to being angry and miserable. As if the universe were answering her thoughts, she found a small, sharpened piece of stone. She didn’t know why she kept it - just a souvenir of an ‘adventure’ she’d had as a child. Her friend back then - Jennifer - had given it to her, saying it would keep her safe from evil magic and curses. Hadn’t exactly done a bang up job. But Jennifer had called it a ‘fairy arrow’, and there were other things about that night, fuzzy now in her memory, she now questioned if they could have been real.

With a turn of a key Greenback spluttered to life. It wasn’t much, but at least they had a destination.

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 12 Review/Rundown

Well well well, looks like it did NOT get much better this week than it was last week. And with Miles and Kerry saying Volume 8 will still have our heroes in Atlas, I don’t see much of a happy and satisfying end to the finale next week either. But you know what they say, the night is darkest just before the dawn. I will say, there are definitely some things in this episode that folks did not like one bit, and subject matter that must be taken quite seriously. We will get to that, and I will do my best to take care. But just to be safe we’ll save that portion of the narrative for last.

So since we’re skipping over the first scene let’s instead begin with Winter stood still in the hallways of Atlas’s research labs looking at her phone. Ironwood has sent out wanted posters for Team RWBY, JNR, Oscar, and Qrow. It was only RWBY that he saw oppose his plan, but Ruby did tell everyone else and he knows them well enough to realize they would agree with RWBY. Winter is concerned over what Weiss has done to cause this, which seems a bit rude to assume but she does know how vocal her sister is about not trusting Ironwood so... it’s a somewhat fair assessment overall. Penny is instead worried about Ruby’s warning of Ironwood leaving Mantle to die, and she can’t believe Winter seems unfazed by that news, that she is actually defending his actions. We get a reprisal of their conversation from a few episodes ago about personal feelings being discouraged in this line of work and how they need to instead do as they are told. But Penny seems to have more of a heart here than her superior, or is at least more willing to listen to it. Winter may be groomed to think that her terror about her sister’s safety is a liability and weakness and shouldn’t be allowed to affect her judgments and obedience, but Penny stands firm that regardless of what they’re told these feelings should matter. Winter tries to appeal again, saying that Ironwood is making the tough decisions as a leader so they don’t have to. But that’s taking away their power of choice. A political leader doesn’t get to just do as he pleases because he’s the leader so clearly his actions are for the good of the Kingdom... whoa. Got a little to topical there. The point is, it’s not up to Ironwood to decide these things for them. They need to be able to think for themselves, it’s part of human life to be faced with hard choices and grow from the mental turmoil of decision. Taking away that choice and forcing them to accept whatever decision he makes is taking away their freedom. Winter says this is for the good of everyone, though when Penny says this does not seem to be for the good of anyone she quietly agrees.

When we next see these two Atlesian maidens they are putting the actual Maiden into... an Aura transfer machine like the one Ozpin used on Amber and Pyrrha. Oh good, so that wasn’t in the room back in episode 5 just for funsies. But at least Winter isn’t actually killing Fria. She’s just attempting a scientific procedure that has never successfully worked before on a dying woman. That seems safer. She does say she hopes it will be painless for Fria, so at least she has some empathy and realizes this is a risky move. But Penny is still holding onto her earlier words and chooses now to throw them back in her face. Why express a personal sentiment for the comfort of another if your personal feelings don’t matter? Winter just says that she understands how serious the situation is and how necessary it is to put the Maiden powers into a healthier host so the Vault can be more effectively protected, even if it costs a good woman her life. But she admits that struggling to balance that duty with the importance of your personal feelings and your moral compass is essential and even she is having a tough time of it. But that’s what being human is. That’s not an especially comforting thought, but Penny understands. She’s doing that deadly dance in her own head too, and it’s not easily mastered. But their internal battles are interrupted by a great booming shudder outside, and Winter rushes out to check the situation. Only the flashing red emergency lights are on, and at the other end of a hallway filled with broken robots stands Cinder, who throws a fireball at Winter. She’s quick enough to dodge back into the medical room and lock the door, but that does next to nothing as a giant hole is blown in the wall where it once stood. Cinder of course believes this will be an easy slaughter of Ironwood’s “puppets”, which I think is a bit insensitive toward Penny after all the trouble she’s had with getting caught in her own strings. But of course Winter is ready to do her damn best to beat the Fail.. I mean Fall Maiden. Penny instead points out that Cinder was responsible for all the tragedy at Beacon, including her own original destruction, and Cinder laments how that was only temporary. But she assures Mantle’s protector that this time the annihilation will be far more total and leave much less to salvage. With little to no reason outside of it setting up Penny’s next line, Cinder asks what she thinks about that threat. All things considered, “it gives me personal feelings” isn’t the greatest epic one liner, though it does have the benefit of context and meaning something. Penny having the determination to stand for what she believes in is very satisfying, and I certainly hope she sticks to those convictions when Ironwood’s next orders come. But for now we have to wait on the epic fight sure to come until next week.

Now, if you want some really good banter and one liners, the return to Team RWBY’s story thread has that almost right out of the gate. Weiss is still trying for diplomacy and saying the Ace Ops should reconsider, but Harriet just sticks to what they were ordered, arrest Team RWBY. To this end, she puts the office in some kind of lock down with metal barricades covering the escape routes of the giant windows and the door. Vine doesn’t want his side to have to use force, but Blake makes it clear the girls won’t hesitate to fight if the Ace Ops don’t back off. Marrow is the only one who doesn’t draw his weapons at first, he really doesn’t want to have to fight their new friends. But Harriet says it’s up to the young huntresses if there will be any fighting or not, at which point Ruby finally walks back from behind the desk to deploy Crescent Rose. Marrow sees this is inevitable now and pulls out his gun too, but the first attack is verbal instead. Harriet laughs at the idea of Team RWBY trying to fight the Ace Ops since they are the best of the best in Atlas, but Ruby says they sealed their own fates by training Team RWBY and now they’ve been replaced. In a feat of strength that astounds many, Ruby petal bursts past the Ace Ops... and busts open the reinforced steel of the locked doors with her speed form. Imagine what she could do if she hit a person with that kind of force... Harriet of course gives chase, annoyed that the pipsqueak is trying to outrun her and escape to most likely catch Ironwood. Ruby is playing on Harriet’s competitive nature to goad her into acting recklessly, and it works. The older woman becomes obsessive about proving she’s better, and it costs her overall. The Hare is still falling victims to challenges of speed and superiority, it would seem. The others start fighting in the office while Harriet cuts Ruby off at the elevators and their brawl begins. Ruby tries to appeal to her again, saying this kind of division and internal fighting is exactly what Salem wants, but Harriet isn’t listening. She claims she was suspicious of Team RWBY all along and now she’s been vindicated. 

Meanwhile, Yang is fighting Elm in an open area back up the hall and Blake is trying to outmaneuver Vine as they both swing around and dodge each other. Elm isn’t budging much and Vine throws Blake into her grip to get Yang’s attention. He still wants them to just surrender, but Elm has taken this very personally. More than anyone else, she feels betrayed by this change of goals. I do feel a little bad since she was one of the more friendly members of the group. And when Yang says it’s not worth appealing to their better natures because they’re puppets blindly following orders now, she just gets more angry and charges the blonde down. Vine stretches out his feet to get to a vantage point while Elm lands a few hits with her hammer. We shift back over to the office where Weiss is fighting Marrow, including forming ice on the ground to make him lose footing and fire a wave of fire that he barely jumps over. It does singe the end of his tail though, and create a fog. He tries to insult Weiss, saying she’s always gotten everything she ever wanted as a Schnee so she should let something go for once. One, that’s not remotely true of her life but you never empathized enough to learn about those nasty little details. Two, You’ve spent time with her so you at least know she’s not the spoiled brat the world assumes she would be. Three, Weiss Schnee is a hard woman to bargain with and she summons her Knight to help her, saying she’s not giving up on her home without a fight.

Ruby and Harriet are seen fighting again as the latter kicks the former back into the office then berates Marrow to “cut the crap”, since he’s apparently not trying hard enough to beat Weiss. His perfectly logical excuse is that he’s just trying to incapacitate her, not the more excessive option of doing a murder. After having deflected Marrow’s boomerang from hitting Weiss, Ruby takes the chance to run for the exit again while Harriet is insisting the extra effort is necessary. Harriet of course notices and gives chase again, and we next see the Bees fighting again... where they are getting their butts kicked. Yang knocks Elm off her guard long enough to get a shot in at Vine so he’ll stop shoving Blake against a wall. Elm says now is the time to get serious and wrap this up, but Vine points out that she probably needs that pep talk herself. Blake and Yang reevaluate their plan and realize they have more teamwork than their opponents, so they’ll use that. The girls dodge their opposing pair’s attacks more successfully and throw one of the piece of debris Vine was chucking down back at him with some explosive guests. He avoids that and grabs Blake, but she’s actually a shadow clone decoy covered in sticky bombs. Without any time to dodge, Vine is sent flying and Yang leaps up to meet him. In one fluid motion she grabs his gravity cuffs/bolas and ties him up in them before slamming him into the ground hard enough to break his Aura. Everyone else takes notice. One down, three to go. This 3 pronged fight scene was already spectacular in terms of fluid animation and choreography, but this is where it goes up to 11, complete with a new song sung by 4 women including the voice of Elm herself. This new bop, called War, is sure to be a hit when the soundtrack comes out. I just wanted to let folks know since this whole episode deserves huge props even for those factors alone. Back to the combat itself, Weiss creates a bunch of sharp icicles along one wall and pushes Marrow against it with a Glyph. He manages to avoid getting skewered but then has to dodge the Knight’s sword as it chases him across the length of the icy wall. Marrow uses his Semblance to stop Weiss from sending any more glyphs or elemental woes his way, but the Knight is still after him so he jumps into the middle of the room and tells it to Stay. Unfortunately that means he’s no longer focusing on Weiss and she is unfrozen. A few fireballs and he is down for the count too. Halfway done, team! 

Harriet is still running circles around Ruby and getting plenty of hits in, even knocking her to the floor and trying to cuff her. But Ruby petal bursts out of her grip and wraps the bola cuffs around Harriet’s arms and torso instead. No more punching with those techno knuckle dusters, but she can still headbutt the Huntress and keep running around. Back to the Bees, Elm is standing her ground but it’s not staying so sturdy for much longer. While she’s been dodging Blake’s leaping attacks from above the big bruiser didn’t notice Yang was turning the footing around her roots to rubble. The blonde brawler runs in to knock her down since she doesn’t have her sure footing anymore, but Elm just brings out the rocket launcher to try and shoot Yang point blank. Luckily Yang is quick thinking too and uses her Semblance for a shockwave punch into the ground that sends Elm skyward. The fiery effect enveloping her hair is really really cool to see, but what is more impressive is Blake launching off of the ceiling and Yang leaping from the ground to catch Elm from both sides in a brutal punch-slice combo that decimates her Aura before she loses the last of it as she hits the ground. I can only imagine how much that must have hurt, seeing how her body bends when Yang wallops her in the face. Three down, only Harriet to go. And she’s not going down easy. She’s dodging every shot Ruby takes at her, and catches the younger girl in a flying leg lock that makes me greatly miss MCU Black Widow. Ruby recovers quickly and dodges most of the flips and kicks that follow until the two are staring each other down from across the hall. With a determined and enraged yell, Harriet charges at Ruby again... and instead runs into a wall of ice. Weiss came to back her partner up, and the blunt impact was enough to knock Harriet out. Triumph for Team RWBY! And it was enough of a struggle for both sides to make the win feel well earned, so I don’t wanna hear claims about this being a cop out plot armor win. The team is piling up all the unconscious bodies in the middle of the hall, when in come Maria and Pietro! I missed our sassy grandma, and she reminds us why in only a single line. “This is the part where they ask us to help”. Her tendency to state the obvious and just be so done wit everyone else’s shenanigans is quite endearing, and the fact that she and Pietro rushed over to check on them when they heard there was trouble shows she was going to offer help anyway. We love you Maria, and I wish we had gotten some more of you after how you snuck into our hearts last Volume. Maybe she’ll pull another grand scheme to create a distraction in the finale? Who knows, though I do have some thoughts on what help they will actually provide. Maybe Pietro has finished the weapon upgrades he said weren’t ready yet back in episode 3, or he can re-enable their Scrolls so they can get another warning out?

But for now, we instead shift to Jaune, Ren, and Nora. They’re still looking over the mess of broken robots in Oscar’s room, and Nora in particular starts calling his name and looking down the other hallways. Sure enough, they spot Oscar rounding the corner with the Lamp in tow. Our dear leg breaker runs to hug him, very relieved that their missing friend has been found... but they hear a desperate cry from where he had come from. Sprinting towards them is... Oscar? Okay, I act like it’s some big mystery when we had all kinda puzzled it out already, but we weren’t immediately sure what the situation was going to be. The real Oscar looks like he’s been through hell by the state of his clothes, but he’s got enough fight in him to sucker punch Neo in the face and send her flying down the hall. She lands on her feet, but he knocked the lamp off of her waist and reclaims it. So she’s gonna want that back. But it seems like Ruby shared a few stories around the campfire during the trip to Mistral, because Jaune and the others know Neo’s name and apparently her reputation precedes her. We’ve got a 4 on 1 fight on our hands for the finale, and it should be a doozy. But here’s where some perspective might be necessary. We have this picture in our heads of Neopolitan, the great agile fighter who outmaneuvered and beat Yang in Volume 2 and didn’t seem all that fazed by Ruby in Volume 3. We assume that since she’s held her own without taking much of a beating for it against two of the main cast’s best fighters she’s on a whole other level and she can’t be beaten. But I think it’s more of a matter of who she’s been paired against in the past, and how the odds have been. Ruby and Yang both have particular fighting styles that Neo is naturally pretty good at evading and countering. But Jaune and Ren both have vastly different ways of fighting that she might not be so ready for, not to mention the powerhouse that is Nora. Not to mention, every fight we’ve seen her win has been a 1v1 or 2v1 where she had help from Roman. She hasn’t fought multiple people at once before, this could very well be too much for her to handle on her own and she may very well fail or have to retreat empty handed. But defeating them isn’t her objective to begin with, she just wants to get the Lamp for Cinder. So it’s going to be a matter of playing keep away, and I do hope our good boys and girl can manage it.

And now, boys and girls, we must come to the tragic portion of the episode. And it starts with how this group left off. Qrow, Robyn, and Clover are in their airship escorting Tyrian up to Atlas when they hear Ruby’s warning. Robyn is of course vocally against Ironwood’s plan, but Clover defends his boss, says he surely understands how much these goals would effect the rest of the Kingdom. Or he would, except he gets the notification that RWBY, JNR, and the others are to be arrested. So he gets up to explain, and maybe he intended to arrest Qrow at that point too. Unclear. But when he mentions that RWBY have warrants it just cements in Qrow’s head that Ironwood has gone overboard. And Robyn understands why he would want to arrest the kids, because they’re opposed to the awful plan. She takes out her crossbow on Clover saying she won’t be taken in quietly. But she doesn’t actually load a bolt into it until Clover expressly says he intends to arrest Qrow. Now Clover has his weapon drawn too, and Qrow tries to talk them both down like a sensible person. They’re almost back to Atlas, they can try to reason with Ironwood there. Unfortunately, the peanut gallery won’t shut up and Tyrian says they should stop talking and just kill each other already. And because Robyn is a hothead, she takes that as an invitation. You can feel like you should say or do something daring all you want, but as soon as someone else brings it up that’s in the air now and you can’t go back. So she shoots, Clover blocks, and it looses the bolt Tyrian’s cuffs are tied to. While Qrow gets annoyed and jumps into the fray, the criminal they all just worked so hard to capture gets loose and kills the pilot. He even puts his hat on for a laugh... and then purposefully crashes the ship into the snow. Clover is the only one quick enough to jump out.

 We see Qrow walking out of the wreckage and finding Robyn’s body. She’s alive, but she needs medical attention. Clover confronts his friend and says they can get her to a hospital as soon as Qrow surrenders. Qrow points out how manipulative that is, but after everything he’s learned about tonight he’s not too shocked anymore. Like his teammates, Clover implores the other man to just give up, he doesn’t want to have to fight him. But Qrow has been through this song and dance with people he called friends before. This is the inevitable conclusion to associating with a bad luck charm like him, and that’s rather depressing. The two men resign themselves to this inevitable clash and charge each other down. Back in the ship, Tyrian seems to have nary a scratch on him but still has to figure a way out of his cuffs. And he has a very unsettling solution. He manages to dislocate his right thumb so his hand is able to slip out of the tight cords. And then he just hits his hand on the ground and pops it back into place. Personally, I’ve been watching Arrow for 8 years so the concept is nothing new after Oliver Queen has used it to escape from capture on several occasions, and I’m not that affected by seeing it here. But it is admittedly a rather gruesome body horror concept to see out of nowhere so I understand how it might have unnerved or sickened some people. The CRWBY did put out a warning on Twitter to warn people there would be something in this episode that might make people want to puke, and I can believe it would be this. Regardless, the madman unties himself completely and joins Qrow and Clover out in the snow. The two seem evenly matched, but once Tyrian makes his presence known Qrow shifts priorities to taking him down. That leaves him open to Clover’s attacks though, and it becomes an utter free for all. Unfortunately, this is when Tyrian starts talking again. With such a grudge between the bird and the scorpion, why not take Clover out together so they can settle their feud without interruption? It’s a terrible idea of course, and you should never trust Tyrian at his word. He can’t help but screw you over, it’s just his nature~. Qrow doesn’t want to side with this killer, as you would expect. But after Clover has the nerve to throw a goddamn lucky horseshoe at him, the poor guy suffers a lapse in judgement. Better the fight be 2 on 1 against Clover than every man for himself and Qrow having to guard against two opponents, I guess. So he stops attacking Tyrian and the bastard laughs his ass off at how the tables have turned and things have grown so chaotic before the two charge at Clover.

The makeshift teamwork does a good enough job of keeping Clover off his guard and they land a few hits on him, but he still fends them off fairly well and holds his own. The back and forth continues until Clover hooks Harbinger and knocks it out of Qrow’s hands. While he gets back to his feet and tries to decide if he can reach it, Tyrian is trying to claw at Clover with his hands. We see his hands glowing with his Aura so we can assume he’s trying to tear open a weak spot like he did against Fiona back in Chapter 6. But the Ace Op is nimble enough to dodge all that and wraps the faunus up in his fishing line again. To Tyrian’s apparent delight, Qrow decides to just run in and gut punch Clover instead of retrieve his weapon. And that gamble works for the moment, the punch breaks Clover’s Aura. Qrow tries one last time to talk to his former ally, to ask why he had to be so stubborn and loyal to the man telling him to do such awful things. But Clover says sticking to his convictions was a hard choice but the only right one in his mind. He trusts Ironwood after all these years, and even after knowing each other for so little time Clover really wanted to be able to trust Qrow. But their morals and ideals just aren’t aligned. In an instant, everything changes and tragedy has struck viciously and swiftly. Tyrian was left unsupervised again, and grabbed Qrow’s weapon... the same weapon that has just been thrust through Clover’s back and out his chest to leave a splash of blood on the snow. We see the reveal in a visually captivating silhouette shot where the only color besides the black of the bodies is the grey of the sky... and the bright red covering the blade. Harbinger is pulled back out of Clover’s back, he stumbles away dropping his now bloody lucky badge before falling onto his back, and Tyrian tosses the murder weapon into the snow. See, Tyrian thought it would be fun to frame Qrow for his friend’s murder and then run away while the incoming police arrest the huntsman instead of him. Only he would find that fun, Qrow is just enraged and wants to kill him where he stands. But he can’t give chase because he decides it would be better to stay with Clover in his final moments. So Tyrian gets away, oh goody... Clover seems to say he understands and he doesn’t really blame Qrow, but Qrow promises he will make sure James takes the fall for this. It was his paranoid overreacting and crazy plans to isolate Atlas from the world that lead to the arrest warrants and this whole fight after all. That’s not to say Qrow and Robyn don’t have some of the blame for getting riled up and fighting rather than surrendering to the law. But the initial problem was Ironwood. Clover wishes him good luck and breaths his last before succumbing to his wounds, and we see the sun rising behind them. Everything from the dinner party in episode 8 until now has taken place over a single brutal night... and a new day is here with new determination to make things better. But before that, we have to talk about what this whole scene meant for these two, and what they meant for the fandom.

Ever since they started interacting in Chapter 3, and even since people noticed all the good luck charms Clover carried, people had been shipping Qrow and Clover together. There is nothing wrong with doing so, their chemistry seemed quite healthy and playful and they seemed to bring the best out of each other. Clover’s good luck gave Qrow hope that he could bond with someone without that ending in misfortune like his presence has caused so often before. Even if you didn’t ship them and just thought they were good friends, you had to admit they worked well together. And a healthy male friendship is nothing to be discouraged by either. A mlm relationship is completely acceptable and to be honest is rarely seen in animated shows in comparison to wlw romances. We have a lot of female characters in this show especially so the shippers had a lot of fuel for lesbian pairings while Martial Arcs (Ren and Jaune) was one of the only gay male ships that got anywhere near as popular. But then Lucky Charm, or Luck of the Caw as I personally called it, came around and so many people were happily on board. And now Clover has died, and a few people are quite outraged. But here is what must be understood. This pairing had only just started and for all the flirting and chemistry we saw between the two men, they were not in a relationship. There was no more proof that they were headed that way than there was for Bumbleby after Volume 1. Sure there were plenty of good moments between those two in that Volume, but their bond had not grown and developed to what we see it is now. Lucky Charm was still in that early stage and we cannot explicitly say Qrow and Clover were going to be a couple. You can be sad they didn’t end up that way, no doubt about that. But this is not a case of that old tragic trope of “bury your gays”. We had no confirmation that Clover was a gay man, or that Qrow is either. We can infer things from their conversation, but that’s it. An unfortunate loss to the fandom, yes. But this was likely not intentional baiting. And it is too bad that we couldn’t have this ship become canon, it would be great to have more mlm relationships in cartoons. Even if it only stayed a friendship, we need more of those that aren’t just macho action heroes. These two were emotionally open with one another and expressed their thoughts and doubts. It was a great thing while it lasted, but hatred over what could have been should not be the response to it ending. Nuff said.

One has to also wonder how the other Ace Ops are going to react to their leader being killed. He was the most level headed of the bunch and the one to keep them all in check when egos or tempers ran high. What would they do without him? We will have to see. But as Qrow screams in sorrow and frustration in the cold snow, the fans are left just as cold on the inside while we wait for the finale where things will hopefully wrap up on a better note. Like I said at the top, the night is darkest just before the dawn. And we literally see the dawn coming over the horizon behind Qrow. This is tragic, demoralizing and polarizing. But it is sure to be the worst this Volume gets. So lets all band together and face the new day with optimism and hope. 

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Aaand now it’s time for episode 6 of The Witcher! Rare Species is the title and it’s intriguing, are we going to learn more about witchers?

Anyway, let’s do this. F.lux off, luminosity on, earbuds, clean glasses, and we’re ready. Nobody cares about that but whatever.

We start directly with Jaskier which is always welcome.

Geralt’s employers for the case think he’s dead by now and take Geralt’s stuff... but some strangers just show up and help out. Stranger dude introduces himself and I immediately forget his name and don’t try to learn it. Now he’s Suspiciously Helpful Guy, for short Beard Guy. The ladies with him are gorgeous.

This is about a dragon!!! That’s super exciting. Hope the dragon looks cool.

Jaskier also thinks the ladies are gorgeous. He probably thinks everyone is gorgeous but still, mood.

The reward for killing the dragon is huge, because it’s about the reputation of a king. Makes sense. Suspiciously Helpful Guy isn’t suspicious after all, he just wants the lord title and whatnot and wants Geralt on his team because Geralt is like the Cristiano Ronaldo of monster hunters, and that makes sense.

Beard Guy doesn’t want the reward for itself, but wants a last adventure before he gets too old to do anything exciting, apparently. He tries to appeal to Geralt emotionally, but Geralt is still unconvinced. Aaaand now we get what convinces him to join. The world is small :)

So welcome to Deadly Gishwhes.

Yennefer is there as a fancy escort to Pompous Knight. I think they haven’t started yet and she is already Done with him.

Meanwhile-not-meanwhile Ciri is walking right into Fake Mousesack’s trap...

Deadly Gishwhes for now is a camping trip. Isn’t this fun! Geralt is convinced that the most dangerous thing on the mountain isn’t the dragon, but Yennefer... we’ll see. I mean, definitely.

Dinner is an awkward affair until it gets a more intimate affair, then it’s cute. I’m afraid these nice people won’t survive this.

Dara suspects Fake Mousesack, but Ciri doesn’t...

Meanwhile Yennefer has been sleeping and has lost her escort. Oops.

Oh, he’s been found. Double oops.

The dwarves suggest a shortcut, our team accepts, but we’re gonna have some Yennefer-Geralt drama first.

And of course Yennefer is meaning to use the dragon to get her uterus back.

Geralt says she’d definitely made a bad mother and, well, is he wrong. Apparently it’s customary to make witches and witchers sterile, and he acknowledges that their lifestyle isn’t suited for children. Which I can’t really disagree with... if you really want a child, you can adopt one after deliberation, and not risk to produce a child accidentally that will be thrown into a very unstable environment. I get where Yennefer is coming from, though--it’s not really about a child, it’s about reclaiming the possibility of a choice that was taken from her. I think it’s more about having a part of herself taken away, and maybe she’s been rationalizing her feelings as wanting to be able to have a child, but I think it’s about the integrity and wholeness of her body, of getting back something of herself she got robbed of (even if she chose it at the moment--but it was a choice dictated by the desperation of fixing what had caused her a lifetime of abuse, suffering and self-loathing).

I love how this thing is all leading to Geralt becoming a mama duck.

(Yeah, I don’t know how this story will progress exactly, but I am assuming the plot is going to be about Geralt becoming a mama duck until proven otherwise. I mean, this episode is yelling at us that Ciri is going to become his adopted daughter, we just got hammered with a reminder that she’s tied to him by destiny and Geralt is now babbling about the fact that it’s not a good idea for him to have a child. But for some reason I expect Geralt to go through the story being imprinted on by every orphan or lost soul he meets, like baby ducklings with mama duck.)

(I can’t really think of Geralt as a father but I can only think of him as a mother, does that make sense? I’ve watched too much Supernatural.)

AAAAAAH he’s “thought about this--often”. He’s thought about children and parenthood. Excuse me, I needed that heart, who gave you the right.

Oh my god, he’s been avoiding the surprise because he knows he’s supposed to parent the child, and does not want to subject the child to the life he leads!! I am having feelings!! He does not want a child to go through what he goes through!! He’s literally been tormented by the idea that destiny wants to give him a child but he doesn’t want the child to suffer through the horror and pain of his life!! Wasn’t one (1) show with these themes enough, did I have to add another??

Well, now Yennefer is going to be bitter that she’s been trying to get a child for decades and this dude stumbled into magical adoption just like that.

Also love how Geralt is like “why do I start babbling like an idiot when I’m near you”. It’s called being neurodivergent Geralt. I know this isn’t the take I was supposed to get from the scene but I’ll go with it. It makes sense okay?

Ciri catches Fake Mousesack, and They(TM) get fed up with the whole thing... Ciri is savage af.

The shortcut is terrifying and Jaskier is being perfectly reasonable thank you very much.

Nooo Beard Guy!!! Goergous Ladies!!!! I mean, I expected it, but still. :’(

Oh bby he’s trying to console Geralt and also working out his own pain.

The directors have a favorite angle to shoot Geralt, uh.

Yennefer has made a Tardis Tent. And they have an emotional (emotionally mature, at least for they standards?) moments. They suffer a bit from a-man-and-a-woman-share-a-pencil-syndrome, but that’s just how the show has been working so far, it’s a lot about negative space, so I’m giving them a pass.

Me the other day, as a joke: the horse is the fantasyland equivalent of the Impala. This episode: if he wasn’t a hunter witcher he’d work with cars horses. *deep inhale* Okay.

Ah. Her dream is to be important to someone, yes. A child of her own would be a sure way of achieving that.

Alright, this scene was sweet. They lil stupid faces when they wake up together. They’re dumbasses but cute.

And Ciri is caught. This guy is either feeding her some fat lies or not, let’s see. He speaks destiny stuff so he probably believes what he’s saying. The camping party was talking about the religious zealotry of Nifgaard peeps. He’s probably the religious righteous type, which is the most dangerous type.

OH! Now this is intriguing! It’s Them(TM). And yes, he believes the prophecy stuff, and the shapeshifter thinks he’s insane. Yep.

Yennefer cheats at track and field.

I have a theory about the dragon, let’s see.

Ho ho ho! This is great, the ladies are alive, Suspicious Guy was not what he appeared uh.

I was right, the dragon was a she and had a baby. That was my theory. Yennefer was after it for motherhood reasons... but the real motherhood was the dragon she was after all along.

Suspicious Guy was indeed a gold dragon, the rarest, the ones with the very peculiar mutation... of course. I should have expected it. He hired the only person who’d empathize with dragons and could protect the baby dragon. 

Mama Duck Geralt Foreshadowing Abounds!!

Sorry guys, Team Protect Baby Dragon are the most badass people around.

Dracarys.

Ah, I’m so happy about how this episode went. Sorry for poor dragon mama, but the rest was 👌🏼

Dara is done with white people bullshit, which we can’t blame him for.

And now it’s time for draa~ama! They break up. I mean, I knew I’d happen because they’re dumbasses and just at the beginning of their character development arc. I want them to be each other’s weird ex that somehow is always involved accidentally in everything the other does.

Dragon Dude is like, forget heterosexuality, embrace your true nature as a Mama Duck.

Well, dumping your frustrations on Jaskier doesn’t seem fair. Aw, that’s so sad. Yennefer and Geralt speak the same emotional language, but Jaskier is a lil dumpling.

Fringilla boosts Creepy Religious Dude’s self-esteem. They have a Mission!

And we’ll see how it goes in the next installment...

This episode was really good. Yep.

[justsomebucky]

The Three Date Minimum - 2

Summary: Reader is the last single person at her office, and while she puts on a good front, she’s lonely. Will dating apps find true love, or will she swear off romance for good?

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x fem!reader

Word Count: 2,377

Warnings: language, drinking, minor angst?, fluff…this is fluff.

A/N: Please enjoy this chapter. Have some bartender!Bucky.  Also - please note that I tried everything to fix this stupid spacing issue. I would recommend reading on a normal browser or your mobile browser (or Ao3) and not in the app.

“I wasn’t even supposed to be in that neighborhood, can you believe it? The bus was late and I had to make sure my daughter got to school okay so I just drove her myself. So anyway, there I was just minding my own business, and out of nowhere I see –”

DING!

“I’m so sorry,” you said, offering a forced smile to the guy across the table. “I think our time is up.”

Your current speed date, Scott Lang, looked genuinely disappointed that he couldn’t finish his story about the time he met some famous somebody-or-other.

“Definitely rating this date as my best of the night, so far,” Scott said as he stood, reaching for your hand to give it a peck. “It was great to meet you, Y/N.”

“It was nice to meet you, too.” You tried to force a smile to your face for his sake. “Take care, Scott.”

He flashed another boyish grin and gave you a wave before awkwardly wandering over to his next date’s table.  

Well, now you felt awful. It wasn’t that he was a bad or boring guy, it’s just…there wasn’t any spark. Maybe that was stupid, but it was how you felt. And while you believed him when he said his daughter was an angel, you weren’t ready to be a step-mom.

Anyway, first speed-dating experience wasn’t all that great, just as you had predicted.

Your dates so far were a lawyer who seemed suspiciously interested in your driving record, a dentist who tried to get you to show him your teeth and then commented that he could see the plaque from across the table, a guy who had just moved to New York following some time spent in jail for insider trading ('white collar crimes barely count' according to him), someone who couldn’t stop talking about his mother, and now Scott Lang, nice guy extraordinaire. To be fair, Scott was the best of the bunch.

Meanwhile, Natasha looked like she was having the time of her life. She had so many free drinks and more than once you saw guys arguing when their time was up and they didn’t want to leave her table.

Wearily, you glanced at the clock on the wall. There was still another forty-five minutes to go.

For a bar called The 107th in the middle of Brooklyn, you would have thought the experience would be a little more interesting. It was new place, supposedly trendy, and had a confusing name (it wasn’t on 107th street??), but to you it seemed like a normal local bar.

And even after your last semi-decent date, the thought of going through yet another three-minute introduction with someone new made you anxious. Before the next guy could get to your table, you gathered your coat and bag and ripped off your name tag, making your way over to the bar.

---

“What’re you having?”

You eyed the bartender, not bothering to reply just yet since you were mid-sip. He must have just started his shift, because when you first arrived there was a tiny woman with mermaid hair tending to customers.

The alcohol was just a band-aid for the situation, really. You never used it as a crutch, but some situations called for a little backup. It was liquid courage for some, and a little liquid tolerance for you.

When you put the now-empty glass back down, you pushed it toward him like you were in some kind of cowboy movie. “Rum and coke.”

He gave a nod and turned away to refill your drink, looking a little bored with your choice.

You let your eyes flicker up to the mirror above the shelves and shelves of liquor. Behind you, the speed-dating was just wrapping up with the final round. The results would be handed out soon; you hoped Scott Lang had found someone better suited for him.

As for you? Most of your time had been spent at the bar and Natasha hadn’t even noticed.

“I heard a rumor that dating used to be an organic thing,” the bartender mused, breaking you out of your reverie. He set your new drink in front of you. “You know, meeting someone, feeling a spark, going on a first date…”

You shook your head. “That’s not how it works anymore. It’s the digital era of dating. Now you’ve got to have a pristine profile complete with model-level selfies to gain anyone’s attention, or come to shit like this in a basic bar and hope someone finds you tolerable.”

He didn’t seem offended by your little insult. “You’re a part of that group, right? So why are you sitting over here instead of talking to your last date?”

Your brows furrowed a little. “You ask a lot of questions for a bartender. Is that normal?”

He gave you an amused look. “Just curious. These events cost money, right?”

“They do,” you confirmed. “But the only reason I’m here is because my roommate paid. She caught me watching TV in my pajamas on a Friday night again and she wouldn’t leave me alone until I agreed to go.”

“Nice. So which one is she?” The bartender leaned over, arms resting on the bar top as his eyes scanned the crowd.

There was no point in hiding her. He would have spotted her eventually, anyways.

You reluctantly spun on your barstool and found her almost immediately. Her megawatt smile lit up the room; how could anyone possibly miss her in a crowd?

“There,” you said, pointing. “Natasha, the beautiful redhead standing over in that corner.” You glanced back at him to see him squinting that direction.

Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to instantly drool over her like everyone else tends to. That confused you, since he wasn’t unfortunate-looking himself.He would definitely be her type.

“So if she’s your friend and she brought you here to help you, why has she not noticed you over here drinking all alone?”

The barstool squeaked as you turned back around. “Because this is what happens.”

He stared at you blankly.

“She gets the attention,” you explained, taking another sip. “I get the hangover.”

Your nosy bartender didn’t look convinced. “How do you figure that? Didn’t you just have a few speed dates?”

“Yes, but they’re in rotation, they had to come to my table. She literally had guys fighting to have more than three minutes with her.”

He made a face but didn’t say anything, so you continued.

“And I know because it’s happened always. Every friend I’ve ever had has been more enticing than me, from high school all the way through college, where my roommate then was also a bombshell who turned heads everywhere she went. I’m so used to being invisible that it’s second nature.”

“Well…I’d say your name in a scolding tone, but you ripped your name tag off already.” He shifted on his feet, crossing his arms over his chest. “It sounds to me like you’re making excuses to protect yourself. When is the last time you put in any effort? Do you just brush everyone off? Do you even try?”

“Try?”

“Let yourself be open to the possibilities?”

The possibilities? What the hell was with this guy? Was he some kind of failed psych major? It took all your strength not to splash your drink in his face and leave. He was lucky you were trying to be nice.

You could feel your blood pressure rise. “First of all, whatever your name is, I don’t think you know me well enough to sit behind your bar counter and judge me!”

The corner of his mouth lifted a little in amusement. And no, he was most definitely not more attractive in that moment. Absolutely not.

“Name’s James, but my friends call me Bucky.” His head tilted a little and you saw that his eyes were a cool blue-grey color, with just a little obnoxious twinkle in them. “What’s your name?”

“Y/N.”

“Well, Y/N, do you try?” He had that stupid, infuriating little hint of a smile again. God, it was amazing that this place was still in business with an obnoxious guy like him at the bar.

“Yes, I try. I just sat through five three-minute dates, for fuck’s sake. I just…I’m not meant for anything like that.”

“You know when I said try, I didn’t mean actively push people away.” Both eyebrows raised as he assessed you again. “Because I think that’s exactly what you’re doing, even with me right now.”

The door opened then, and a huge crowd of women donning matching pink shirts walked in giggling with a girl wearing a sash that said Bride. That was your cue to get the hell out of that bar.

You downed the rest of your drink quickly, offering him a small fake smile as you set the glass down. “Yes, well…I think I’m going to swipe left on this conversation. It’s been…enlightening, James.” You reached into your bag to pull out some money, but the bartender waved his hands.

“Call me Bucky. And it’s on the house. You seem like you needed it.” With a nod and wink, he turned away again to make the million shots a newly-arrived bachelorette party wanted.

As if you would ever accept something for free from someone with that attitude…

“Thanks anyway, James,” you muttered. Without a glance back to him, you set the money on the bar and stood up, determined to either pull Natasha away or leave her there.

---

“One date down, two to go.” You stretched your legs out under the table and leaned back. Wanda wanted to hear all about the event the night before, so the two of you went to a nearby café for a quick lunch.

Wanda eyed you over her coffee cup. “That only counted as one date?”

“Apparently,” you muttered, picking at your scone. “Natasha’s rules.”

She leaned forward. “Got any ideas for the next two?”

“No, not unless you know someone?”

“There are lots of someones on dating apps, Y/N.”

You groaned, putting your head in your hands. “Wan, not now.”

“Come on,” she chided, gently pulling your hands away from your face. “If you give some of the apps a try, I’ll…I’ll do your donation calls for a week.”

That had you interested. Not only could you potentially be left alone for a month, but have less work to do. “Two weeks, one for each remaining date.”

Wanda held out her hand and you shook it.

She had the nerve to look genuinely excited, that absolute witch. “First I think we’ll try Tinder. My neighbor’s husband’s sister met the love of her life…”

You sighed as you tuned her out, trying to enjoy your last moments of Tinder-free life.

---

After lunch, Wanda came over and teamed up with Natasha to harass you until you agreed to download the dating apps.They helped set up your account, even forced you to take about fifty pictures before they were satisfied with your profile.

“Wait, what do I do?” You glared down at the offending app on your phone, trying to ignore the nervous feeling in your stomach.

Natasha flopped down on the couch next to you. “When you see a profile of someone you’re interested in, you swipe right. If they swiped right on you too, it’ll tell you that you’ve made a match.”

“What’s the blue star thing for?”

“A super like!” Wanda’s eyes lit up. “I wonder if you will find any of those!”

Unlikely.

“So, in theory, I could like all these people and they could loathe me and I would never know?” That didn’t sound so bad. It was like less hurtful window shopping.

“Sometimes you’ll get the occasional douchebag and you’ll have to put up with bad messages, but yes, that’s generally how that works.”

You played around on the app in silence for about five minutes, going through and swiping left on most of the profiles you read.

“What was wrong with that last one?” Wanda asked, frowning at you. “He seemed cute? He had a kayak and a puppy! You love puppies.”

The last one she was talking about was also wearing a shirt that said Federal Boob Investigator, but leave it to the romantic to not notice that.

“Just wasn’t feeling it.”

Natasha scoffed. “Are you gonna swipe right on anyone?”

You gave her a look. “Maybe.”

Before you could react, Nat grabbed your phone from your hand and started swiping right on almost everyone with a wicked gleam in her eye.

“Stop it! You’ll make me look desperate,” you screeched, trying to grab the phone back.

She let out a gasp, then turned the phone to you. “Y/N! Look at this guy. Look at him! His name is Wade and he is perfect!”

He was handsome enough, but his profile was pretty weird. “No, Natasha. He probably thinks he’s hilarious and has deep-rooted abandonment issues or something.”

“Exactly. You need someone different and exciting like that. We’re getting you out of your comfort zone, remember?”

You watched in horror as she swiped right.

Then, that wicked gleam in her eye got even brighter as she showed the screen again.

“It’s a match!”

“Natashaaaa….”

“Oh shit, he messaged you already!”

“He did?” You snatched the phone back, crawling over her to get away. You didn’t want to admit it, but your stomach was in knots. “Oh my god, he did!”

“What’s it say?” Wanda leaned over. “Read it!”

“He wants to see me tomorrow.”

You read the message over and over. A handsome guy, who most definitely probably definitely had some issues but also seemed cute and funny, wanted to see you.

God, you hoped you didn’t regret this.

When you glanced back up, they were both staring at you. Something about this whole situation seemed too good to be true. There was no way in hell that anything would last.

Logically, if you went into it thinking it was just a one-time date with a hot guy, there wouldn’t be a problem, right?

“Well?”

“Are you gonna reply?”

And if there weren’t feelings involved, you could stand to have a little fun.

You grinned at them. “Of course. I have two bets to win now, don’t I?”

---

Part 3

Masterlist

 no taglist

[flightfoot]

An explanation of my stance on Adrien

Really looking over what I think of Adrien as a character, how he’s portrayed in the story, and the writing of conflicts and characters surrounding him, I think I approach the whole subject differently than most other people in the fandom do. 

For one thing, I tend to draw the line between “writing that makes me dislike a character” and “how that character is portrayed in the narrative” differently. A lot of times, if a character you like does something you don’t agree with, it’s blamed on bad writing. While if a character you aren’t particularly fond of does something you don’t like, it’s blamed on them as a character.

Problem is there isn’t really a clear line of demarcation between things that you blame on the character and things that you blame on the writing, since technically anything a character does or doesn’t do is because they were written that way, and anything that occurs in the narrative that’s related to a character may be at least partly attributable to them.

So for me personally, I tend to consider “how the narrative treats the character” to be more of an example of the writing of the show, so if I don’t think the narrative is treating the character the way I believe they should be treated, I tend to consider that a case of bad writing, rather than something that’s attached to the character themselves. Meanwhile I tend to view the characters actual actions and inaction as being something that’s more attached to the character themselves, and so colors my perception of them more.

For instance, there’s the whole conflict over Adrien with several girls chasing after him, either because they genuinely like him or because he’d be a good trophy and give a boost to their social status. Most fans view this conflict with distaste. I do as well. But instead of attaching my distaste for this conflict to Adrien himself, I tend to chalk it up more to bad writing, and somewhat to the characters involved in the chasing. As has been pointed out before, Adrien could be replaced with an inanimate object for this conflict and it would pretty much turn out the same way, because while the conflict is ABOUT him, he himself has pretty much nothing to do with it and is only vaguely aware that it exists. Since he as a character has pretty much nothing to do with it, I don’t really consider it to be attached to him, and my dislike for the conflict has little impact on my feelings regarding Adrien.

It’s kind of similar to Ginny’s situation regarding her feelings for Harry in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Ginny develops a debilitating crush on Harry, to the point that she turns red and clumsy whenever he’s around and has trouble getting her words out straight. She’s apparently very preoccupied with her crush on Harry and what he might think of her, but her attempts to do anything romantic regarding him don’t go well. She sends him a singing valentine which he finds thoroughly embarrassing, but he doesn’t actually do anything about it or anything about Ginny’s feelings for him. Ginny’s whole preoccupation with him is thoroughly in the background of the book, since her whole romantic conflict has nothing to do with him personally. It’s just something happening on Ginny’s end. It has little to do with Harry himself

Also, sometimes the direction the narrative points and the direction that the character’s actions points conflict. For instance, it’s been pointed out that when Marinette steps out of line, she tends to be called out - often by Tikki. On the one hand, her being called out and being held at least sort of accountable makes her more likable from an outside view, since she isn’t a karma houdini. On the other hand, when Tikki acts as a voice of reason and Marinette deliberately ignores her - at least at first - such as in Animaestro and Ikari Gozen, it makes her less likable because she HAD someone telling her what she was doing was a bad idea, had a moment to step back and realize it was a bad idea... and didn’t. Not until later.

(I do realize that the writers may not have intended to have Tikki call Marinette out partially for the purpose of removing some of the sting from her negative actions in those cases, but that does seem to be the general effect it’s had on the fandom.)

So like when Adrien’s treated differently by the narrative than other characters, I don’t really hold that against him as a character, since I don’t consider him at fault for it. I understand the stance of the people who do, I just don’t agree with them. My opinion on a character tends to be more independent of how the narrative portrays them (not completely independent, that would be both impossible and unreasonable and I will not claim that) than I’ve seen most other people’s opinions be.

It’s partially because of this difference in philosophy that my whole thinking about Adrien, as well as the other characters in the show (especially Marinette since she’s the main character, but my difference in opinion is most noticeable when it comes to Adrien).

But I have other reasons that I tend to defend Adrien a lot. A lot of the things that I see him lambasted for, I generally don’t consider as bad as portrayed, not in the context of the show.

I will say that I’ve been uncomfortable with the times when Chat’s made advances towards Ladybug that she wasn’t into, like some of the cases in seasons 1 and 2 when he leaned in for a kiss when she wasn’t interested,or when he’s acted like they’re a couple or are definitely going to BECOME a couple. That being said, she appeared more vaguely annoyed in most of those examples than uncomfortable, and usually set him straight pretty quickly. I think there’s also some exaggeration for comedic effect thrown in there, but with this show, it can be kinda hard to tell when and how much to account for that. He does seem to have learned and to have toned it down a lot by season 3 at least.

 The biggest example of that this season was in Oblivio when he... lounged around during the original fight I guess? I’m not entirely sure WHAT he was doing in that footage honestly, Ladybug talked about him pulling a “charming kitty act” but I don’t really know what all that entailed. We just see one short segment where Chat is hiding behind Ladybug sitting down while she shields him with from Oblivio’s shots with her yo-yo since she’s the only bit of cover in the area, then it cuts to him jumping around Oblivio and getting hit. I’m not entirely sure how whatever he did interfered with the akuma fight. Ladybug indicated that it did, but I’d like to know details before holding that against him too much. Character interpretations aren’t completely reliable. Plus whenever he HAS let his personal feelings interfere during akuma attacks, like during Glaciator, Syren, and Frozer, it’s only lasted about a minute and when they weren’t in immediate danger. Once one of them was in danger, like in Frozer when Frozer targeted Ladybug, he got over it and went back to doing his job as normal. So I have my doubts as to how much his apparently messing around was actually responsible for the difficulties they faced in the Oblivio fight.

Oh, and later in Oblivio, of course. He was kinda smarmy about the kiss, but that was it. He teased her a bit about it which annoyed her, but that was about it, and it hasn’t been brought up again, at least as of yet. Irritating, but not exactly a major sin.

And as for all the accusations of Adrien being passive... well, he IS passive for the most part. I do think people over-exaggerate it at times though. Like during Chameleon. Except for his terrible advice at the end (though I do see where he’s coming from in that advice, considering his own personal experiences with his father and fans, as well as his belief that Lila is only lying because she’s lonely), I actually thought his actions were pretty good. He didn’t interfere in the initial rearrangement of the seats before Marinette stepped in, but we don’t really know how exactly that happened. Lila was apparently responsible for it, but it also seemed like she was entering the classroom for the first time when we saw her walk in, so that was kinda weird. My best guess? Alya probably has Lila’s number from the first time she was in school, she texted with Lila, and Lila suggested the seat rearrangements. Adrien walks in during the seat rearrangement and Alya informs him of why it’s happening, and he naturally assumes that since Alya is Marinette’s best friend that she got Marinette’s approval before changing her seat. 

When Marinette DID walk in and it was evident that that she HADN’T agreed to it and was unhappy with the situation, he offered to move to the back in her stead. He wasn’t there for the lunchroom scene or for Lila threatening Marinette. He still tried to deal with Lila’s lies, but by asking her to stop and attempting to remove what he believed was the reason for her lies (loneliness, a belief that people wouldn’t like her unless she propped herself up) and asking her to stop. It’s not like the aggressive approach had worked, so maybe a gentler, less aggressive approach would. but he didn’t have all the facts about Lila’s actions and motives and so misread her, so it didn’t work. But he did try. His advice to Marinette about leaving Lila be wasn’t very good, but it fit with his life experience of “you make a fuss and nothing will improve for you and you and maybe your friends will be punished worse”. Plus the lies she told and their effects that he knew of weren’t that bad. It was mostly just propping herself up. And... well I’ll agree that he just generally hadn’t thought about the potential far-reaching consequences of letting her lies go. I don’t think it occurred to him.

I’m not sure I’d say that Adrien was portrayed as being in the RIGHT for the advice he gave exactly, though. It’s true that he seemed to have the last word on it in Chameleon, but I think Oni-chan gave him an indictment of that policy, with his witnessing how her lies harmed people and how terrible of a person Lila really is, culminating in his saying that she can count on him, but not when she’s hurting the people he cares about. He wasn’t able to rip into her for what she did to Ladybug because that wasn’t public knowledge, but he still held her accountable for her actions towards other people surrounding him earlier. He didn’t immediately go on the offensive like Marinette was doing, attempting to expose her lies, but he did try to cut her out of his own circle, and did subtly warn her that if her lies proved harmful to the people he cares about (which in this case I’m pretty sure includes most everyone in class) that she’d lose him as an ally, and I think hinted that she might make an enemy of him, though I’ll admit I might be reading that part in a bit. In any case, he no longer seems to believe her lies are harmless. He doesn’t seem to be actively debunking them, but it’s not like that worked before anyway.

This by no means covers my full opinion on Adrien, his actions, and everything around him, but this is quite long enough already. I hope it gives some clarification as to why I have the opinions that I do about both Adrien and Miraculous Ladybug as a whole.