#even they know they're down bad

[incorrectgenv]

Marie: Come on, Andre. Nobody actually believes that Jordan is in love with me.

Andre, to The Squad: Raise your hand if you think that Jordan is helplessly in love with Marie.

*Everyone raises their hand*

Marie: Jordan, put your hand down.

[dirtytransmasc]

Davos going to patrol the border like he does every night, only for him to find his enemy wounded in the grass, leaning against the stack of border stones they regularly argued over.

Blackwood crimson spilling through his golden Bracken tunic, coating his fingers, slipping from his lips.

Aeron's eyes would meet his hazily, caught somewhere between fear and acceptance. "C'm h're t'finish the-" he'll pause so he can cough blood all over his tunic, " -job?" he finish, looking through his lashes.

Davos will realize his kin drew blood, in the dead of night. They drew Bracken blood. No.

No they drew His blood. Aeron's blood. His beloved's blood.

And had been too cowardly to finish the job. They had left him here to die, no doubt an omen about touching border stones. His wounds left to weep the colors of house Blackwood, stripping him of his own Houses colors as he bled out.

It was cruel, and now Aeron expected him to continue the torture.... so one could only imagine the shock that cast over the Brackens face when the Blackwood kneeled before him, inspecting the litany of stab wounds in the other's side.

"Who?" he'll mutter under his breath as he presses hands to the wounds, "Do you know who did this? Names?"

The Bracken won't speak, not at first, confused and unable to find his voice past the pain and shock and utter bafflement running through his head. And when he doesn't, Davos will put a hand to his cheek, bringing his chin up so they can see eye to eye. Aeron will find fear in that bright blue gaze. It will scare him.

"Who did this to you, B- Aeron? tell me, please tell me," his voice so much softer than normal, even as fuery broiled deep in his chest, his thumb gently padding Aeron's cheek.

"... didn't..... couldn't see..... th'y w're there 'n then gone."

Davos nod's, but hate the answer nonetheless. Aeron was no help, typical Bracken, but Davos would find them. Davos would make them pay for their cowardess, for laying a hand on his beloved.

For now, he would sink his weight into the other's wound, apologizing gently when the brunette hissed and bit down a scream. If he rested their foreheads together, a whispered, "I'm sorry" falling from his lips, comforting the Bracken beneath him, no, no he didn't.

He doesn't know what to do. His Bracken is hurt. He's bleeding. He's in pain. He's dying.

"It's ok Bracken, easy now, I'm.... I'm going to take you someplace safe... I'm going to take care of you now," and he was wrapping his cloak around the other's middle, pulling it tight until the brunette was whining beneath him, "I said easy, it's alright."

Aeron's eyes were on him. They were afraid, so afraid. His skin was pale and clammy, shining sickly in the moonlight. His soft red whore lips splattered in bright crimson. His hair was hanging in his eyes, soft strands pulling down from his braid. Davos smoothed them away.

"It's ok, it'll be ok," he kissed the Bracken's forehead, "I'm here," he kissed him, like he had always longed to, his lips falling onto Aeron's, attempting to savor how soft and plump they were, but the others lips are too slack, too cool. He tastes blood before he even gets a chance to sink in his teeth and they hesitate to flee when he bites. It's all wrong.

When Aeron huffs against him, attempting to shift his lips to kiss back, Davis will pull back, peck him once more, and then in one fluid motion, pull him up into his arms, shifting to stand.

The kiss will have worked as enough of a distraction to keep him from screaming in the moment, and the myriad of kisses he presses to those soft lips now, swallow up any that escape Aeron's throat.

"Hush now," he whispers, straining ever so slightly under the others weight, "we're going somewhere safe, just trust me."

He doesn't know where they're going, but they're going together. If Ser Aeron Bracken dies tonight, he will die in the arms of Davos Blackwood, and Davos will follow him shortly after. Their bodies will be found in the clearing by the river, curled amongst one another. Their houses will go to war for this, no doubt, but that will be fine. They'll be dead, they won't know better or have any strong feelings about it.

And if Aeron Bracken finds it in himself to pull through, who knows where their fate might lead.

[grayintogreen]

Respectfully, but a character can be and SHOULD BE allowed to be more than one thing without it being considered "contradictory", "retconning," or "negative character development."

[brekitten]

The Therapist

There's a new therapist at school.

Normally this wouldn't really bother Peter at all, since he's never gone to see a shrink in his life and doesn't ever plan on it, but there's something... off about this woman.

She seems unassuming enough at first glance. Red hair, green eyes, bright red lipstick. But there is something in her eyes, something that Peter can only describe as a predator looking at its next prey, when she looks around the school at all of the teenagers milling about. Heck, even the way she walks makes her seem as if she is a predator stalking her prey.

It could always be some kind of power move, Peter reasons. He's met people like that before, who try to intimidate everyone around them into thinking that they are superior, that they are the apex predator and anyone who dares to cross them would pay for it dearly.

But his Spidey Sense went crazy around her.

He tries to brush it off as paranoia. He'd pulled an all-nighter last night in the lab with Tony because neither of them had been able to sleep, and he hadn't been sleeping well even before that. (Funny, how it had all started the night after he first bumped into the new therapist in the halls.) So his Spidey Sense is probably out of wack because he's tired. Simple as that.

But it seems like everyone in the school is depressed. Even Ned, who can't even muster up the energy and enthusiasm to talk about Legos or Star Wars or even the weather. It worries Peter.

Because it all started when that therapist came to the school.

He can't ignore it forever, he knows that. There is only so long his Spidey Sense can tell him that she is danger danger danger before he finally listens. He has to do something to help everyone.

So he researches.

And he falls into the rabbit hole of ghosts and ectoplasm and secret government organizations and the little, unassuming town of Amity Park, Illinois.

He doesn't sleep that night.

When he comes to school the next morning, Dr. Penelope Spectra looks him dead in the eyes, and smiles.

[wayfayrr]

Hello! I was rereading your self aware series and I got to Wild’s and was like “Wait a minute… I know the boys don’t hold anything against reader for playing their games a lot but… what if reader was just a really bad gamer?” So like, I’m terrible at video games. But I love to play them! So I was wondering if the self aware boys could really not hold anything against reader if reader was just exceptionally bad at their game and caused them lots of pain? For example, I killed Link (ACCIDENTALLY) about 8 times last night during a single shrine… and that’s just my average gaming experience. I was just curious if the boys ever get mad or something after falling off a bridge for the gazillionth time whenever bad gamer reader grabs the controller. Is it like a love hate relationship? Like they go “Yes! My love has graced me with their presence!” *The realization hits.* “Oh no… not again.”

literally got this ask while watching @peepthatbish play skyward sword badly /lh/hj (love ya peep, even if you are stressful to watch play and we even talked about this exact thing a couple times!)

There really isn't much that they could hold against you, because when they've fallen for you, they're more than a bit delusional. Anyway you play the game in their minds is just you spending time with them. with that said though I honestly think they'd also blame themselves for getting hurt, are their controls that hard? what are they doing wrong? can they make it any easier for you? Sure they got hurt but you healed them!!!! they're so delusional that even just hurting them for fun can be rationalised in their minds (not that you would right? right???)

but I said not much right? well something they would hate you (or more themselves) for though? Rage quitting. They would rather you sitting there laughing, repeatedly intentionally killing them over you leaving the game like that. Because then you aren't with them, they're back in control of their own body because their game was too hard for you to play. it's their fault you abandoned them. They don't care how you spend time on their game just that you do and they respect that you can't play 24/7, they understand that! but quitting because it's too hard destroys them.

[claire-starsword]

OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL THING TO WAKE UP TO

[howtodisappearcompletelyand]

20/10 stars little guy

[imminent-danger-came]

There is a distinct difference between "something good with flaws" and "something bad that's almost good" me thinks

[feroluce]

Belobog was my fave main quest but a lot of it is so. Contradictory. It's like they had multiple groups doing different shit and none of them checked in with each other for consistency. And you see this so much in Gepard's profile.

So in the main quest, they made him unfailingly, unquestionably loyal to Cocolia. Gepard's character arc is him learning to question authority etc etc. And this isn't even a bad thing; that's a story worth telling! It makes good conflict between him and Serval! And I love that we got Gepard as a boss battle and I get to see him all the time in SU!

But then you look at his character stories and it's like. The complete opposite.

According to his profile, Gepard has already HAD this awakening, long before the Astral Express, and he'd already decided Cocolia sucks. Even outside of his stories, there's a pretty damning readable between him and Pela.

He even disobeyed direct orders right in front of her- he has been disobeying orders for a while now!

So I've decided I'm marrying the two different sides of this into a 1.5k fic-ish thingy, because I think there's some fun potential there with Gepard not trusting Cocolia, but still having to pretend to be a good obedient little soldier.

Anyway. I love to think of it as like. Gepard knows Cocolia has sunk into her apathy. He can see it in her eyes every time he looks at her. She doesn't care. Not about him, not about Pela, not about all his soldiers on the frontlines giving their lives to protect the citizens. And that's... It makes him bristle a bit, but ok. Gepard can deal with this. Even if Cocolia no longer cares, as long as she does her job then it's fine. Having compassion behind an action doesn't matter as much as the action itself. If Cocolia's heart is no longer swayed, then he'll just have to care twice as hard to pick up the slack. He considers it part of his duty as a captain of the guard anyway. It's fine. Gepard can deal with it.

And then, Cocolia starts coming down to the restricted zone. Issuing direct orders.

And Gepard realizes he is in way over his head.

Because Cocolia orders him to stay back and issue commands from the ramparts, away from all his comrades, away from where he can protect them.

Gepard had thought nothing could be as bad as watching a fellow guard die right next to him. But the first time he watches someone struck by a killing blow, so far away, it hurts. Every defensive scar across his arms itches, his fingers curl in want of a weapon, the cold cannot numb his hands enough as they desperately ache for his shield. It hurts.

Gepard tries to find any reason to stay. Because surely... He knows Cocolia has lost her love for her people, but surely... She wouldn't...

One day, Cocolia orders for their gunners to advance 20 yards. There are no survivors. She almost looks like she smiles.

Gepard doesn't sleep that night.

Pela brings him the report at the end of the first month; and then the month after that, and the month after that. A significant uptick in losses, and all of it started on that first day Cocolia started overriding his authority and issuing her own orders. The ends of Gepard's pens have all been nearly chewed off. Pela outright calls Cocolia an idiot, and Gepard corrects her. Cocolia isn't an idiot. Gepard had known her through Serval, knew her through all her college years and then some, and he knows how intelligent she is. It's not that she's stupid, and it's not that she's inexperienced, it's nothing of the sort.

Cocolia knows exactly what she's doing.

She must, there's no way she could make such a horrible mess of things so badly by accident. And Pela, quick as a whip, sharp as a tack, always too smart for her own good, catches onto the meaning behind Gepard's correction without any further prompting. The tent goes deathly quiet, nothing but the wind howling outside.

"...She's trying to kill us," Pela whispers, her voice swiftly suffocated by the silence.

Gepard swallows. He can't bring himself to correct her this time. There is nothing he could say that he would actually mean.

His gaze drops, back down to his desk and the reports on it. The names aren't listed, just the numbers, but Gepard knows them, knew them, and there must be something wrong, something he's missing, because why, why would she-? What could this possibly accomplish-?

“Gepard! Focus!” Something snaps right under his nose, and Gepard startles, eyes instantly honing in on Pela's irritated face as she leans over his desk. She holds his gaze for a moment before she huffs and begins to pace, wedges a knuckle between her teeth and bites like Gepard hasn't seen her do since cadet school.

Pela angrily strides from one end of his tent to the other, words hissed between her grit teeth. “What are we going to do?” In the dim lighting, Gepard can just barely see the damp spot of blood weeping under her gloves. “We need a plan.”

“A plan?”

“Wh- Yes, a plan! Unless you want more people to die!” Pela rounds on him then, all the wrath of a blizzard, winds roaring and snow sharp enough to cut.

“We don't even know-”

“What does it matter?! She killed-!!” Pela cuts off with a garbled noise when Gepard leaps up from his desk, hastily shoves his hand over her mouth. The prosthetic, not the flesh one, because he knows better than to assume Pela won't seize the opportunity to leave teeth marks in his skin.

“You're right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry; you're right. But you need to keep quiet.” Pela quirks an eyebrow at him and Gepard can read the question in her face. “Because we both saw what she did to Serval,” he hisses.

It's amazing the snow plains haven't thawed out yet, the amount of heat Pela can put behind a glare. The mere mention of Serval, and the smoking ruins Cocolia had made of her life and career, have her bristling up like a riled cat. The sudden hot breath she takes fans fog across his metal skin, and Gepard wisely keeps it in place until Pela finally sighs and reaches up, taps her fingertips against the back of his hand.

The second she's free, Pela bats him away and then her knuckle is right back between her teeth again, Gepard leaning back against his desk with his arms crossed to watch her resume her pacing. “If we spread the word, she'll have us discharged and make sure we can't even touch the frontlines,” Pela's voice seethes like an open sore. Gepard nods but keeps his silence. He knows better than to get in her way.

“And if you and I are both out of the picture, Belobog is fucked.” A little harsher than how he would have put it, but there's no denying that they're both important to the city's survival. Pela has the restricted zone running as efficiently as ever, and Gepard had become the youngest captain on record for a reason. “We need to keep this tight under wraps, at least for now… It can't leak to anyone higher up the chain.” Another nod. “Serval might know other discontents…” Another n-

Gepard's head snaps up. “No.”

“No what?”

“No. We're not involving Serval in this.”

Somehow, even the same tone that leaves entire squadrons shaking in their boots has never worked on her. “You're not deciding that for her, Gepard.”

Pela hadn't seen the worst of it, though, back when his sister had just been banned from the Architects. Serval's pride hadn't allowed it. Pela wasn't the one to find her passed out bottle still in hand, hadn't been the one to wash the sick out of her hair or carry her to bed. 

Serval still has trouble thinking clearly when it comes to Cocolia, still can't quite bring herself to be objective. And Gepard maybe doesn't want her to be purely objective- but he would worry a lot less if she thought twice before she acted more often.

“At least let me be the one to bring it up to her.”

“Whatever, fine,” Pela gestures affirmatively at him as she paces past, and Gepard sighs. Good, at least that's one thing he can help.

From there, it's a lot of hemming and hawing and frustration. Cocolia has them under her boot, and Gepard and Pela both know it. Even with the way she's been cracking down on freedoms lately, Cocolia is still, overall, liked by the people. It's unlikely anyone would believe them. They don't even have solid proof, because most people don't know Cocolia as well as they do and won't see the clues in the same light. 

The Fragmentum has been ramping up in recent years, too. Everyone is struggling just to survive as is, they can't afford a fight on two fronts. Gepard is a damn good captain, one of the best for that matter. But they're at a massive disadvantage, his experience is narrowed to fighting a defensive battle against monsters, that's all he's ever done. That's all anyone there has ever done. He has no way of finding first-hand knowledge for taking the offensive against a human opponent, and if he goes at this blind, there's no way he'll get everyone out unscathed. He's going to lose people. He's going to lose a lot of people.

He'd never thought before that Cocolia would have it in her to have someone killed. And with this new knowledge, he has no guarantee she won't go after Serval or Lynx if she decides to retaliate.

Gepard has to remind himself to breathe when he realizes this.

Pela writes down every name the two of them can come up with. Lists and lists of names and groups and anyone they can think of who might be an ally in all of this. They memorize every bit of it, make their plans of who to talk to and when. Gepard watches the sparks reflect off Pela's glasses as they burn the evidence together.

Pela finally leaves, far too late to make it home, but says she wants to stay in the restricted zone anyway to investigate. Gepard watches her make her way in the direction of Dunn's tent, watches her back until she's out of his sight and squashes down the urge to follow and keep an eye on her. His tent feels empty.

In the morning, Gepard is up before the wake up bells. He drags himself out of bed, leads his soldiers through their morning training. The same people gravitate to each other everyday. Friend groups and training partners. There's an ongoing rivalry between a few squadrons that everyone bets on. Some of them have lockets around their necks, keepsakes, mementos. Some of them wear wedding rings.

Gepard is suddenly, painfully aware of something acidic clawing at the inside of his throat, of a heavy weight low in his chest that blooms, takes up room until it threatens to spread his ribs. His mouth tastes of bile and blood.

He rearranges the schedules. Puts himself down for every open patrol into the Fragmentum, makes sure he'll be on the frontlines every single time Cocolia visits.

He only hopes that it's enough.

[canisalbus]

i like think about machete's death as a culmination of his paranoia and eventual cruelty and vasco as the single ray of light loving him up through the end. even through as terrible as he becomes, the thought of vasco's heart being with him even as he chokes on his own blood as the one thing that he could hold on to. what is it to love something you know is vile, and to mourn their loss regardless. i could drink the tragedy like wine

.

[vaguely-concerned]

sitting here with my head in my hands over just how much coalecroux is exactly tfgraves except tf incidentally happens to be a warlock alligator (a minor detail that changes surprisingly little overall tbh). I stand humbled once again before my own immense and unspeakable predictability

[torahtot]

i might just lay down and die just found out my ra for this year is someone my roommate used to be friends with til she posted a jews r the new nazis "becoming what you once hated- ironic" on her story and a whole thing supporting oct 7. like not even a post just her own heartfelt thoughts about how awesome it was.

[lupins-hehim-pussy]

I think of so many stupid shenanigans between Wriothesley and his daughters in the Addison Lee verse. They tell Wriothesley crazy shit all the time, their daddy-daughter secrets, and it drives Neuvillette nuts that Wriothesley won't snitch.

Sigewinne, whispering into his ear: Today at school I punched a boy because he was being mean. I waited until it was recess, and made sure that no one was watching, and I punched him. Everyone knows he is a liar, so noooo one believed him when he cried about it. And Sigewinne is aaaalways a superstar so Mr Vautrin didn't suspect a thing !

Wriothesley, mildly concerned: Uh huh.

Sigewinne: Papa would say Sigewinne has to be nice to everyone, but, Sigewinne thinks bullies need to get punched sometimes, b'cos, b'cos otherwise, they think everyone is just gonna let them be mean

Wriothesley: Y'know what. That's fair

[werentloyaltome]

I betray you like a man.

[dailykugisaki]

Day 223 | id in alt

Maki thinking some very unsorcererly things over a piece of damn cheesecake.

(Read from right to left💥)

[brick-van-dyke]

If there's one thing I've respectively noticed from Zionists and defenders of Israeli war crimes, it's that every source, argument and potential avenue to explore each explanation is riddled with cherry picking, moving the goalposts and mental gymnastics to explain why their conclusions, which typically are barely even related to the sources they use, somehow overshadow literal reality and what we see with our own eyes.

While scrolling, one example I came across was the repetitive misrepresentation of BLM, antifa and quotes from Martin Luther King Jr, as well as statistics, scholarly journal articles and government website information. These are all good sources, yet every single time they're mangled completely until the only possible "interpretation" of any of them is "well Israel is right to defend itself after shorting rockets beforehand because the retaliation was brutal and all Arabs are bad by default therefore". As if any of these sources are even about individual exceptions of Israel versus hatred towards Arabs.

I think what I find most absurd, as someone in the middle of their own studies, is how every bit of critical thinking and logic goes out the window as they do every single thing possible to do what professors worldwide say NOT to do when evaluating sources. It's like watching a race to see who can tangle and misconstrue scientific information to fit their world view the fastest. Then said people say "um actually I studied at university before so it's actually not wrong that I'm doing this exact this everyone is warned not to do because I have a permit". Ignorance I can forgive, but willful and arrogant manipulation? That's another thing entirely.