#dont go where i cant follow

[winwin17]

Elrond is the way he is because someone he loved went where he couldn't follow.

[andreisvechnikov]

Teuvo going back to what you know is actually NOT a good idea!!!! Please Teuvo I am begging you to not go back but to go forward please please please

[99point9percentwhump]

Whumptober 2023 day 16 - Don't go where I cant follow

Starhunter Redux S1E3

[daandori]

one thing about your favourite authors on ao3 is that they WILL be having Men’s Hockey RPF in their fandoms list

[laffy-taffy-creations]

DAY SIXTEEN FUCKERSSSSSS

This fic was cross-posted on Ao3 here

A Secret, Third Thing

Gurney | Flatline | "Don't go where I can't follow"

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Words: 846

Warnings: temporary character death, also exposition heavy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An agent working in the shadows.

A force for evil.

A force for good.

Someone who heals. Someone who hacks. Someone who builds. Someone who mends.

Someone who kills. Someone who tortures. Someone who steals quirks. Someone who breaks them.

The only thing that anybody really knew about me, was that I could show up anywhere, anytime, and almost exclusively of my volition.

I worked out of a saferoom, multiple actually. All built in by me in secret, into various villain bases, hero agencies, warehouses, and many more. Each equipped with my AI, Donovan, and security measures to ensure no one would find me.

All could be transformed into a tech work space, into a safehouse-esque place, into something resembling a medical room, or a child’s playroom. And to think, I hadn’t even required my quirk to build any of it. And without the knowledge of the people who ran or owned any of these buildings.

I did my best to remain ambiguous, but I’m a little bit bad at that. I only helped people I liked. Most of class 1-A, heroes trying to take down villains I found obnoxious or annoying, villains I actually liked from previous timelines such as Toga.

It was a beauty watching the world, built on heroes and villains, be faced with something, or rather someone who couldn’t fit cleanly into their boxes. Who couldn’t quite be classified. I was never good at fitting into people’s plain binary of expectations.

The only other thing anyone had been able to accurately pin down about me, other than the obvious stuff that made shit confusing for the media, was that out of everything I hated violence against children the most. And that was it.

It was fun watching people argue online about me. Oh so entertaining. But I didnt exactly have time for that right now. Right now, there was something of a fight going on between the LOV and 1-A. What else was new. Hiding in the shadows, refusing to show myself, I had to keep watch. These were children after all.

I couldn’t interfere. I didnt want to make myself known. So then, when Ashido got struck out and seemed to be on the brink of death, why exactly had I rushed to her side? She wasn’t in immediate danger of a villain finishing her off.

Her heart rate was slowing. So was her breathing. She was hanging on by a thread. “Oh, fuck no, you aren’t going where your friends wont be able to follow you!” And in a blink, we were gone. Back at one of my saferooms. I should’ve picked another location, this one was routinely checked for any signs of me in the walls now.

Didnt matter, “Donovan, site A4-S3 in hospital mode, now.” The shelves and things along the walls switched themselves out in a matter of seconds, a table in the center for a patient to be laid across rose up from seemingly nowhere. The trick was collapsable technology, stuff that didnt look hollow but was, and was also structured and built well with strong and durable materials.

I laid her across it, hooking her up to the heart rate monitor and breathing mask. She was already flatlining.

Perhaps for the better, too. Right before starting CPR I heard the standard buzzing of them checking for me again. The main thing they looked for? Heartbeats.

I put my fingers to the pulse point on my neck, taking a deep breat and feeling it suddenly drop to 0 as well. I had now flatlined too. Only I had control over mine, and could start up my own heart again so long as I did it withing 60 seconds.

The buzzing stopped, whatever tech it was moved on, and I let my pulse return to normal. Then, I went back to the matter of returning hers to normal. Healing up her injuries as best I could, checking iver the mask again, I started up the CPR.

She was completely unresponsive. I would have to use my quirk for this.

I had already used my healing quirk on her, now it was a matter of the magic actions, three shakes to the shoulders and saying something to her. “I refuse to let you leave them.”

Eyes opening, entire body jolting awake, I removed her from the machines while she remembered who and where she was. Well, she could remember the who at least. “Wh-wha-what- where am I?”

“Dont worry about it. You wont be here for much longer.”

“Well that’s not ominous at all… who are you?”

Ah, the classic who are you thing. Everyone always asks the same two questions.

“An angel,” I answered.

“Well, what’s your name?” she asked.

I had finished unhooking her and putting stuff away. I grabbed her by the shoulders. “Cridhe Dorcha.”

And like that, she was gone. Teleported back to where she had been by my quirk.

I couldn’t wait for everyone to get confused by a new nickname I went by. I had way too many to choose from nowadays.

[heungmins]

DUMOOOOOO

[gottalovecatss]

Feeling sick rn, wish all my besties were on tumblr again

[tomathi]

watching an art blog u rlly used to enjoy slowly change into nothing but pictures of wine glasses and cheese plates and skinny women in mid-century clothing :(

[manichewitz]

sam and frodo’s relationship is so crazy theyre like what if we had a homoerotic adventurer’s bond that was so strong it overcame the power of supreme evil, saving not just the world but one another, and the only reason we were able to survive the violence around us was through sheer love for each other, and although we’re not canonically lovers our relationship is so much more intimate and tender than acceptable norms for male/male relationships that we transcend easily definable labels and thus become queer irregardless of whether our attraction is platonic, romantic, or sexual…and we were both hobbits

[twilishark]

Loving you both was so easy to do.

Thank you for the affection and time, no matter how brief it was.

[cent-scratchnsniff]

it was just going to be a few warmup doodles but then she infected the rest of the page like the ever eternal and spreading spores. hod!!! hod. hod :)

[tauforged]

how it feels watching my husband resub to world of warcraft after ‘quitting’ a few months ago

[dykedvonte]

I think the most baffling thing about the Tulpar as a vessel to me is the fact that the ship really did only have a one way communication system.

I know it was cheap but even the most basic of vessels regarding major transport would have some way, shape or form for outside communication. Not only that but there was absolutely no form of innate emergency signal to show they may have been offline or in trouble despite clearly having a system to dock credits if they went off course. It's another factor that really shows that bad situations are made to get worse by design. One person who is required to relay all information to the crew and make all the choices without feedback. No way to update or call for help in case of a dire situation. No way to inform of inner personal conflicts and acquire procedures accordingly.

It really is like they are all in some sort of fucked up solitary confinement. They have their own world with strict roles that are meaningless in the end, as long as the cargo makes it, it doesn't matter what happens on that ship to the company. They don't want to hear anything and will come to conclusions on what happened based on how much pay they can withhold from the workers. Even what they do send is short, sterile and corporate to the extent it was likely written and sent out with a command by some random unmanned computer in an office.

There's something to be said about how unfair it is to force absolute power and control onto one person when you as an entity could do so much more to offload it but I've said it many times before so I won't again.

[nashvillethotchicken]

Louis acting more traditionally masculine, aggressive and angry ways in Paris coinciding with his realization that he hasn't had real control over his life in 77 years because of armand

[ohmigoshiloveu]

Okay so like. I still haven't managed to get myself to finish episode 9, so I don't fully know how Theo's glow up finishes, but regardless I fucking love relistening to Emizel's section of episode 1 and like. Fuck man Theo does a lot of growing. Like he's a little bit pathetic at the beginning of the series. He's so, so brave during the alleyway fight, but he sounds shaky and scared and like a sopping wet pathetic baby the entire time. Charlie specifically describes him as not very alert, not a great fighter, and gives him this little moment where it takes him a second to manage to crush a soda can. He botches the check to beat Emizel in Smash Bros so there's a chance he sucks at the related skills (dexterity and computers I think?), but also after he loses Charlie specifically has him sound super frustrated and conclude that he should've 'stayed in his lane'. When Emizel says 'We'll do what we do best,' and Theo immediately responds with 'drink soda?' so fast that the other players notice it. Charlie might've had that as a predetermined character thing. Theo drinks soda. There's not much else to him.

Which creates this interesting dynamic between him and Emizel, because Emizel is so much better at him at all of these skills that the people around them (a FUCKING GANG) value. Emizel's perceptive, and agile, and strong, and a great fucking fighter irl and in videogames AND he always sounds badass. He's the top dog, the apex predator in their social circle. And I think that colors their relationship a lot? Like Theo has to look up to Emizel. I bet that Theo's looked up to Emizel since they first met, maybe Emizel came crashing into his life doing something epic and Theo thought it was the greatest shit ever.

On the flip side, I was getting a few hints of resentment? Hear me out! It's that 'should have just stayed in my lane' line. He's painfully aware how great Emizel is, compared to how much he's (from his perspective!) just a one trick pony. He's here to drink soda and say funny things, that's all most people want from him and he fucks up whenever he tries to do anything else!

And later in the segment Theo snarkily brings up a medicine check that Emizel had just fucked up in like this super backhanded, super passive aggressive way. That could be him wanting to rub Emizel's one singular fuck up in his face (especially because Theo was having a Moment about how he feels like people only see him as the soda guy, so any feelings of inadequacy would've been dialed up to eleven, so if there was any time for him to resent Emizel it'd be then), but it could also be that he was frustrated with Emizel being an ass (Emizel had just guessed that Theo's dream was to be a nurse, which was flat out wrong, and that's literally what set up the backhanded comment. Theo was saying something like 'thank fuck you don't wanna be a nurse cuz you sure fucked up with nursing that guy earlier.' It could also be that Emizel literally almost forgot Theo's name. Theo literally gave him the 'th' sound, it might've just been a bit Charlie was doing or it could've been Theo being AWARE that Emizel almost forgot his name. Or! It could be that in this moment, where Theo was confiding in Emizel about feeling like being the soda guy was all anyone ever saw in him, Emizel said something to the affect of 'well yeah Soda's the fun one.' Emizel doesn't think before he speaks and literally has a 1 in empathy. Just because he loves Theo doesn't mean he's not gonna blunder into being a complete and utter asshole to him. I'd hazard to say Emizel accidentally being an ass to people he cares about is a running theme).

But also all of that might come down to Charlie still getting the character down. Or, because I've theorized before that Theo might not've been supposed to survive the first Gabriel fight, the little hints of bitterness might've been intentional (even if they were completely improvved and Charlie didn't mean to add that to Theo's character) because Charlie was trying to shove as much character into this character before he was gone, but once it became clear that Theo was going to stick around longer he dropped it. As far as I remember, that bitterness is completely gone in all later interactions we see with Theo. OR! It could be that the bitterness drops because they've both got bigger fish to fry from that point onward, what with Theo's Shilo Incident TM, Emizel's vampirism, the Weylin twins. He doesn't have time to be bitter, he's too busy worrying about losing a cornerstone of his identity or helping his best friend adjust to being a fucking vampire now. And then after he learns to live without soda that basically negates his feelings of inadequacy- like, getting over the idea that he's nothing if he's not the soda guy would be required for him to give up on being the soda guy. And then Emizel would drift back into JUST being a guy to aspire to instead of also being a reminder of Theo's short comings, and then drift even further down into being 'guy who is actually going through it and has to overcome his own demons just like I had to overcome mine'. Like, I think we got to watch Theo slowly start to take Emizel off this pedestal in real time (he still definitely thinks Emizel's hot shit tho. Emizel's his boy, after all.)

Regardless, even if Theo did resent Emizel a little in the beginning, it's so fucking clearly overshadowed by how much he fucking loved him. And like, how could he not? Imagine you're Theo, critically low self esteem, and the literal coolest guy you know fucking LOVES you. Like, Emizel keeps consistently going out of his way to pull Theo up to his level and to treat him as an equal (mostly. Sometimes protectiveness bleeds through, like in his hypothetical fang scenario in ep 1 where he predicts there being five Fangs to fight and he says he can take three and Theo can take two (which in itself is still incredibly kind to Theo. Like, boy, you thought Theo was gonna be able to take out two whole guys? Hell no.) But that could also be chalked up to Emizel just being a cocky ass who wants to show off). Like dude, c'mon. Emizel might be a reminder of everything that Theo's not, but he's also probably Theo's biggest cheerleader. He wholeheartedly thought he was being supportive when he said he thought Theo'd make a great nurse! In all seriousness, though, even if it ultimately discourages him, Theo playing that Smash game against Emizel was at least a little bit of proof of him decidedly not 'staying in his lane,' and Emizel seems to inspire that! Later in that segment he challenges Theo to see which of them can break one of the Fangs kneecaps first! I bet Emizel challenged him to stupid competitions a lot, and that got Theo fired up and competitive in return!

And even when Emizel's not building Theo up, he's still giving Theo special attention, or readily receiving any attention Theo gives him. If nothing else, even at his lowest points that might've made Theo feel cool by association.

On Emizel's part, I think he's like, possibly completely oblivious to any turmoil Theo's going through? Like he thinks Theo's the shit and genuinely sees him as an equal. I'm 99% sure that Theo being his right hand man happened because Theo would've put himself into the role (in episode one before he gets all of his character development he's pretty much always looking to Emizel for what to do, and still more or less does whatever he says up to where I'm at in the series, with refusing to leave the alleyway being the only exception I remember). I think if Theo'd had higher self esteem or been less eager to defer to Emizel, Emizel would've happily gone about his business slotting Theo into more of a partner role. He tells Theo to run from that alleyway because Theo'd taken a fucking devastating hit and Emizel was sure he could handle himself, not because he knows Theo sucks at fighting. He tries to turn Theo into a cool vampire. He convinces Shilo that Theo'll be a valuable asset to raiding the Weylin warehouse and they take Theo with them instead of having him stay behind with the car like Grefgore, despite Theo being the one who actually knows how to drive. He tells Theo about being a vampire even though he keeps it a secret from everyone else, confides in Theo that 'yeah he might absolutely be susceptible to going into a frenzy like Shilo did.'

When you get down to it, Emizel pretty much tells Theo everything he would think is relevant, with two notable exceptions. Maybe three if you count him not telling Theo he has nine lives like a cat but tbh I think he might've just forgot. Or maybe he gets to it later, or maybe he did tell him and I forgot! idk man! But! Those other two things. First off, he like. Pointedly does not tell Theo that he's a prince. Like when they were doing the recap on the way to the Weylin warehouse, there's like. Charlie gives Condi an opening to say it, a little 'is there anything else?' and Emizel just. Doesn't. And the second one is that (at least where I'm at) Emizel never comes clean about bloodbonding Theo. Maybe it just hasn't come up yet, but still. It fits a pattern of Emizel not wanting to admit something that makes him, like, ABOVE Theo somehow. He sees Theo as an equal, and a precious one at that, he doesn't want things to get weird between them because he's literal royalty, and he doesn't want Theo's life to literally revolve around him like it would under a level three blood bond- and doesn't want to admit that he even considered it, even if he did it without really understanding what it was.

And Emizel backing off from ghoulifying Theo after Arthur explains what it actually entails kinda leads into a far more headcanon-y relationship analysis thing so um. Feel free to skip the next paragraph.

So! Like. Why the fuck was Emizel so attached to Theo being Soda. Like he gets over it decently quick, cuz that's his buddy and it's what Theo wants, so like. Whatever. But like, if I'm right about Theo always looking up to Emizel from the moment they met, there might've been some wiggle room between when they first became friends and when Theo became Soda. And like, before Theo became Soda, being Emizel's buddy would probably be the only thing he'd feel he had going for him? Which would've made it even harder for Emizel to get them both on equal footing, and I think that's just... really unappealing to him. Like! Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Emizel loves having people kiss up to him and respect him and blah blah blah, I just think Theo being his boy and Emizel treating him like a partner go hand in hand. Either they weren't best friends yet or Emizel was just. Kind of uncomfortable and eager to push Theo into growing into something more than a hypeman. And then the soda incident occurs, and it gives Theo SOMETHING to define himself by, something people like him and know him for that's got nothing to do with Emizel, and maybe the initial soda incident was bad, but having that sense of identity and falling into what kind've feels like a class clown kinda role might've helped get Theo over his self esteem issues long enough for Emizel to go 'oh you're actually super cool. sweet.' and then blah blah blah they get super close like they are in canon. And then whenever Theo seems like he's backsliding into what he was before the soda incident, Emizel tries to course correct not because he doesn't think Theo's any fun without soda, but because he's made the mental connection that Soda without soda turns into less of a best friend and more of a follower, which as stated before he probably really doesn't want from Theo specifically. but idk. pure conjecture here.

Anyways, above all else, Theo's important to Emizel. I really, really like the idea that Theo was supposed to be like a brother to him (which. Again pointing at my 'Theo was supposed to die in episode 1' theory, can you IMAGINE the angst Emizel could've had about that? Lose one brother and then someone else claiming to be your brother shows up? It would've felt like some hellish, not-worth-it trade. Like a betrayal, like accepting Shilo might mean replacing Theo, and how could he ever?)

And Emizel's important to Theo! But unlike Emizel (who I'm 99% sure is gonna have some kinda moment with Theo but I genuinely cannot see him loving Theo in any other way than the way he does now), Theo has the bonus of having his view of Emizel have a clear trajectory to evolve over the course of the campaign. Like I said, he seems to be getting more confidence in himself and like, not gonna get into the stuff I've had spoiled beyond episode 9 but it seems like Theo's gonna get a lot more comfortable being a proper leader and not just a number two. He's gonna have an easier time seeing Emizel as an equal, and I think that's fucking awesome!

I could be completely off base, but if I never watch another episode then I'll never be proven wrong. So. Ya know.

[todayisafridaynight]

Top five moments in my personal rgg fandom experience will forever be the time i saw people become obsessed with that one extra from gaiden cause prior to release they thought it was mine