#he also wants to live but

[teecupangel]

au idea:

So what happens is: we take Daniel, as he is dying, and send him back in time, when he's about 24 years old, before being found by the Assassins.

He wakes up from this terrible nightmare he barely even remembers, but the few things he can recall fill him with a sense of dread, especially the face of his murderer, which he starts seeing everywhere.

Skip forwards to the events of "The Fall", and as he's living through Nikolai's memories of the Tunguska event, his great-grandfather's visions of the future unlock his own memories as well.

He has a full-blown panic attack as he remembers his own death in vivid detail and, as Hannah and Bellamy try to hold him still, he decides that he can't, just can't, go through this again.

He has to kill Desmond long before the bastard gets the chance to kill him.

So he tries to do everything as he had done before, even though his memories of the time spent with the Assassins are vague at best, all the while looking for Desmond.

Finally, he gets his chance when he meets William Miles at the Farm.

Sneaking into his house at night is easy, and so is gutting both him and his wife.

As for Desmond... how hard could it be, to kill an eleven years old child?

An hour has passed and he's still there, holding a bloodied knife in his hand, asking himself that same damned question as he looms over this sleeping child who is one day going to become his murderer, and... he can't.

He can't.

Change of plans: he's taking the kid to Abstergo with him, so that he can keep him under surveillance and make sure he doesn't wind up joining the Assassins.

And since he's already stealing children, he figured he might as well take one he gets along with, and not only does he know which hideout Lucy lives in, it also happens to be very conveniently on his way to Philadelphia.

He doen't need to kill the Mentor this time around, as he still remembers his address from his first time killing him, and the same goes for all the other Assassin hideouts.

Basically what I'm trying to get at is this:

Oh, and Desmond? He also had a nightmare, the same day as Daniel in fact, and has this vague feeling of impending doom, and also this name, "Clay"... he doesn't know who that is, only that he is somehow to blame for this whole situation.

Daniel will definitely not want to return to the Animus even if Dr Sung told him it would help with the… twitching. Daniel can’t really explain that the twitching is because he can still see him… he can still see Nikolai and he’s not saying anything, that’s the most annoying thing in this entire bullshit called ‘second chance’. The moment he decided not to kill Desmond and took him with him, Nikolai had been a silent ghost, always following Daniel around.

That damn hood made it hard to see his expression but it’s annoying Daniel and…

Returning to the Animus might just aggravate this entire thing.

Vidic has taken a shine on little Lucy and Desmond. They were born and raised by the Assassins but Vidic’s kind grandfatherly act was working wonders. The two brats were also getting along quite well, all things considered. They were already whispering to each other and saying “nothing” whenever someone asked what they were talking about.

Daniel knew they were going to be giving him a lot of headaches in the future.

Then he learned that Vidic had checked their DNA and froze when he heard the triumph in Vidic’s tone as he said, “Desmond is a descendant of not just Ezio Auditore but Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. Daniel, my boy! You saved such a wonderful boy!”

And Daniel knew…

He just knew…

If Desmond gets into an Animus… if he relived even just one memory of any of his ancestors…

The man who killed him will wake up.

Fuck!

.

.

.

Wanna make this more complicated?

Clay has a nightmare on the same day and, unlike Daniel who needed a ‘spark’ to open that can of worms, or Desmond who still needs his own trigger, Clay remembers everything vividly.

So Clay tries to get into contact with the Assassins, even going as far as calling the number Bill made him remember before he went undercover and the one who answers wants to know why he would know William Miles’ personal phone number.

Clay just tells the Assassin to get Bill on the phone, it’s important.

He can't say the truth though because he knows he fucked up.

He had only been trying to take both his and Desmond’s consciousness (the ghosts remaining in the Gray) back into the past but he knows someone hitched a ride. He doesn’t know who but he sure as hell knows it was another Animus Subject.

Then the Assassin tells him Bill is dead, killed in his own home.

And Clay goes, “And Desmond? Is Desmond okay?”

“… The boy’s missing. Now, may I know who this is?”

“Fuck.” Clay hissed because his greatest fear has just come true.

There were only two Animus Subjects that he didn’t want to be the hitchhiker.

Warren Vidic (Subject 2) and Daniel Cross (Subject 4).

If Bill is dead and Desmond is missing, most probably captured, then it only meant that it was one of the two.

“Come get me. We need to talk.” Clay said before giving the Assassin his current location.

A few hours later, a different Assassin came and got him and drove him to a place he didn’t recognize in Massachusetts.

There, he recognized the voice of the one who picked up the phone.

And recognized him as the current mentor of the entire Brotherhood. The one that Daniel Cross was meant to assassinate.

Learning that only Bill and his wife had been killed, by a bladed weapon of all things…

Clay knew…

It was Daniel Cross.

Warren Vidic would have gotten Abstergo’s spec ops team to burn the entire Farm to the ground.

That only meant…

“You need to tell every Assassin to run…” Clay said solemnly, hoping against hope that he still had time, “The Templars will start their purge soon.”

.

.

And now, we have a race between Daniel and Clay on who can find the other quicker. The purge will still take out some of the Assassins, Clay might have been able to warn them but trying to order everyone to escape took time, but more Assassins escaped this time around.

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[symphonyofsilence]

Let the poor man rest.

[loriache]

"I've been waiting for ages for somebody to unmask them."

This moment tends to elicit negative reactions in a first read through, and I've got some opinions about why where Kabru is coming from here actually makes a lot of logical sense. So I thought I'd elaborate on that.

I think people hear this and go, "He thinks they must be hiding something because they gave money to someone? What a cynic." Or "he dislikes them because they did charity?? What's wrong with this guy!". And obviously, a lot, a lot is wrong with him. But I think this makes more sense than it seems at first glance! What people evaluating this judgement miss is why Kabru is paying attention to Laios and co to begin with.

Kabru knows of the Touden siblings because (he's a little bit of a stalker-) he is keeping an eye on all the relevant parties in events developing on the island, in order to be able to guide them to his preferred outcome. This includes adventurers because they are the ones actually exploring the dungeon! He's well aware that something as minor as internal tensions between party members could be key to the historical events that are developing. (He would love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.)

His desired outcome is that whatever the rewards are of breaking the dungeon's curse, whether that's kingship or the ancient elven secrets of dungeons, are claimed by:

A) a short lived person

B) Someone who will be a good, effective leader and/or use those secrets and the power they carry wisely, with foresight, and to establish a political bloc for short lived people.

The person he can best trust to do this is, of course, himself. But due to his PTSD regarding dungeons and monsters, he's not able to develop the necessary skills to conquer the dungeon. Once he realises this, he starts looking for someone else who he can support to that end.

But most of the adventurers don't have any intentions of conquering the dungeon, don't have the skills, or are unsuitable in other ways. In fact, it seems like some potentially suitable people are the Toudens. There are a lot of good rumours about them going around - they actually seem to have a very positive reputation! That's what Kabru means when he says "unmask".

So when Kabru is observing something like them giving money to an old comrade from their gold-peeling days, he doesn't consider it a problem because "they're giving money to this person who doesn't actually need it" or because they must have some dark secret if they act superficially nice. I think he actually understands this situation and what it implies about Laios (in particular) perfectly well.

Laios and Falin gave money to an old comrade who got injured and couldn't work. That person then healed up but kept taking their money. Then he used the money to start smuggling illicit goods to the island.

The key is that for Kabru, the problem here is the same as with the corpse retrievers - people using the dungeon's resources to fuel dangerous, selfish, or violent pursuits cause problems for the island, attract more criminals and people with motives other than breaking the curse, and increase the chances of the whole situation ending in tragedy.

Kabru is willing to work with the Shadow Lord of the island if it gets him to his goal - he isn't scrupulous - but the criminal element of the island increasing is something he sees as a major issue.

Also, when you're evaluating someone as a candidate for power, riches, secrets, potentially kingship - then being curious about how the money you give to people is going to be used is kind of a relevant trait!

Interpersonally, Kabru's actually very easygoing - I mean, Mickbell isn't exactly an upstanding guy, is he! But Kabru likes him and they get along well. These traits wouldn't be a problem at all in a friend, or a comrade, or someone Kabru was confident he could use. But he can't get a handle on Laios, and Laios is someone who has the potential to be a major player!

On Laios' end, this is the same as with the marriage seeker who joined their party. She kept asking for things and he gave them to her, because he tries to be nice to others. He even gives her money! It's the exact same thing.

That's fine, but it became a problem because he basically wasn't interested in her motives, didn't notice she was trying to manipulate him, and it also didn't occur to him that the other party members would notice or be affected. We can assume the situation with the gold peeler is the same. When Kabru says that "It's not that they're bad people, they just aren't interested in humans," he isn't wrong.

The extent to which this is true of Laios is linked to his autism imo, (because it isn't just disinterest - he genuinely isn't able to notice nonverbal cues that people are lying to him or have ulterior motives) but to a greater or lesser extent I think it's a very common trait. Most people aren't actually that interested in other people who aren't close to them. Kabru is the weird one here. It isn't an issue except as a leader - which is why we see an immediate comparison to the Island's Lord, because that's how Kabru is evaluating them.

And disinterest in/lack of ability with people to the extent Laios exhibits it, it does, actually, make him a worse leader... it's just that as we see in the story, people can help him out. The rest of the party tell him the marriage seeker is taking advantage of him so he tells her he can't give her special treatment anymore. They're pissed and it's a crisis point - he couldn't have recovered their trust without Marcille and Falin - but that's exactly the point. With Marcille and Falin, he was able to recover their trust.

And he has other good traits that make up for it, such as his intelligence, strategic knowledge, open-mindedness and sense of fairplay.

Kabru doesn't disqualify Laios as a candidate based on what he sees about him from afar, though - he still tries very hard to get close to him, obviously hoping that if he manages he can steer Laios to defeat the dungeon and make up for his lack of people-skills in the aftermath. (Which... he does eventually achieve that goal!) He completely fails until the events of the story, so... definitely I think "They just aren't interested in humans" could also partially be a stung reaction to Laios' complete disinterest in him.

Anyway, that's my read on what exactly Kabru's "issue" with Laios is. Obviously, once he does find out what Laios' true nature is like - about his love for monsters - he develops an entirely new set of fears about Laios' priorities. But since Laios kept that a secret until the start of the story, he has no idea of that yet.

Given all that, I think it's interesting that he says that he doesn't think that the Toudens are suitable to defeat the dungeon, and that he's hoping they'll turn out to be the thieves. As some of his few potential candidates, people who he thinks may play a big role in the island's future, you'd think he'd hope they would be good people!

I suppose it's better, in his eyes, because it means that he's involved in something "interesting". They haven't just had their stuff stolen by regular criminals (boring, puts them further away from his goal) - they've been caught up in the beginning stages of "a historic event". The desperate and dwindling group forgetting morals in their quest to retrieve their lost comrade probably appeals to his sense of melodrama. Because he also just... loves drama.

Despite it being "uglier than anything he was expecting", he still pursues Laios as the person he wants to conquer the dungeon pretty much as soon as it becomes clear that he won't be able to do it himself and they are out of time. That's because... well, to be fair, there aren't any other options. And he fits standard A: he's short-lived!

and Kabru still hopes he can fit standard B, too, and be persuaded to use the power he wins for good. No matter how many nightmares he has about Laios, or whether he thinks about killing him. He doubts him, but ultimately he puts his faith in him and seems happy after the manga's ending that he made the right decision.

[heartorbit]

happy halloween! 🎃🐈‍⬛👻🐇

[im-still-watching-anime]

apollo’s confidence in court: oh my god i’m the worst lawyer ever my client is going to go to JAIL because i can’t even do my JOB

apollo’s confidence outside of court: i’m the only smart one here, i’m the most normal guy in the world and NO ONE is doing it like i am, investigations are EASY, klavier gavin wants me carnally

[kensatou]

j… jesus oppa ;____;

[hinamie]

august

[synthsays]

Monster Falls girlies how we feeling about this one.

Happy Fiddleford Friday Y'all

(Bonus art under cut)

And one for the fiddauthor peeps

[choccy-milky]

dad seb dad seb dad seb 💕

[spiritsong]

wyll.y.am ravengard, I love you so

everyone loves to put him in gold (rightly so) but my personal style is lots of silver jewelry + heavy eyeliner so that's what I gave him. also roses because he's so damn venusian

[stankworth]

Soft spot

[bungobble-my-balls]

OK correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like the main 'yin/yang' parallel with Atsushi and Akutagawa is not something like 'this one is bad but secretly has a good side and this one is good but secretly has a bad side'.

I feel like it's more about 'who they are at their core vs who they choose to be'.

At his core Akutagawa is kind and at his core Atsushi is not. But despite this Atsushi tries every day to make the kinder choices and I love him so much for it. He has to work so hard to be good.

He wants to be a bitch SO bad I know he does but he tries his best to help people and be nice (sometimes he fails but that's OK <3)

Atsushi doesn't always WANT to help people, a lot of the time he's selfish and scared, but he does help people anyway. He keeps helping people over and over again. There's still some selfish motivation to it, and his initial motivation for helping people was because the headmaster told him that's all he was worth, but overall he does care about the people he helps and it weighs on him if he fails to save them. And of course, as the series goes on he starts helping people more because he can rather than because he feels like he needs to.

In Akutagawa's case, he's still capable of being kind but his environment led him into being someone who chooses to hurt people. But he's always been a protector at heart. In the start he was bad compared to Atsushi because he was choosing to hurt people and keep the cycle of abuse going. Just like how Atsushi developed in why he saved people, Akutagawa starts to get redeemed when he chooses to not just act on his rage. Not only does he start to spare people, but he speaks more kindly to them (apologising to Higuchi and telling Kyouka he's proud of her). It all culminates into the moment he chooses to help Atsushi and sacrifice himself for him, going back to his core value of being a protector. Even when he's finally revived, he keeps this role in his new position as Aya's Knight.

I kind of see the streaks of white in Akutagawa and the streaks of black in Atsushi not as their 'hidden sides' but as their fundamental selfs. That's who they are at their core, and their main colours (black for Akutagawa and white for Atsushi) are how they're presented to everyone else and how they try to have people see them as.

[the-purple-possum]

When I say I really want a Jason adopts tim fic, I don't mean I want him to become a parent at 19 to a teen like 2-4 years younger than him, I want Jason to meet Tim and decide that he wants Tim on his side.

I want Jason to adopt Tim as his Robin, like he decides that he wants to recruit this 15 year old that is some how the smartest and snarkiest person in Gotham. I don't want infantilised tim, I want a sorta Nani and Lilo sibling dynamic, but with a smaller age gap.

Like sure, Jason sees his little brother as some sort of soggy kitten that he must protect, but also a Tim that is very capable of looking after himself.

I want Tim to look at Jason, see Bruce back when he first donned the Cape and traffic light colours. And then in true Tim fashion decide to fix him, B was being too over protective since Red Hood showed up anyways.

Like imagine, Jason meeting Tim instead by accident when he drops in on a drug trade. Tim says some quip that throws him off his game while fighting. Jason basically losing to a very deadly fifteen year old who's not slept in 29 hours, and he thinks 'f it, I like the kid'. Then trying to recruit him consistently until Tim goes 'why tf not'.

I want enemies to caretaker, but they both think they're the caretaker

[kagoutiss]

pelican town, ‘72

[brainmuncher]

So I had another idea come at me while making lunch (I'm starting to sense a pattern with myself, lmao)

What if when Jazz sends out letters to the colleges she wants to get into, she gets sent rejection letters from every single one... except the local community college. She's absolutely devastated about it. She thought that she did everything she could to be chosen. How could every single one reject her?

Danny, of course, hears about it and asks Tucker to check and see if something happened digitally. Surely, Technus or Vlad or someone messed with something to sabotage her. But when Tucker checks, there's absolutely nothing wrong. She still has her perfect grades and attendance record all set with no marks. Her community service hours are all there. It's only when he looks at the letters themselves that he finds the problem...

After looking online to see what the letters look like, he comes to a puzzling realization... the letters were fake. It's a good fake, but it's not the real thing. The signatures were off, and the writing had been changed.

This is what leads him down the rabbit hole.

He tries to ask about it online to ask others who've also been rejected. Except nobody is answering him.

Sam tries to call the numbers listed on the websites of the colleges... but the person who answers is strangely unknowledgeable about the college they represent.

The only college that seems normal about it was the nearby community college. And that somehow feels the least normal about everything.

It was only when he heard his mom complaining that they never heard from family anymore after they moved to Amity that he figured it out.

Containment. Nothing is leaving Amity. No emails, texts, letters, or posts online. Everything was being blocked.

Of course, this sends him on a mission as to why and how. He spends weeks on it. Sam and Danny actually began to become concerned for him. No, this isn't a pride thing, Sam. And yes, he is taking care of himself, Danny.

Technus is the one who gives him the answer. It was just a passing comment about how he needed to funnel through the GIW in order to infect the world. It didn't make sense to any of them because surely that's the last place you would want to do that. But then it dawned on Tucker. That's who has the power needed to do it! That's where he needed to look!

So he hacks into the GIW and is astonished by what he finds.

The anti ecto acts aren't real. There's no laws even acknowledging ghosts.

There's a file on Phantom, marked as 'candidate for X'.

And all he can find on the containment is a name he's seen described as the creator of the GIW and the main supplier of funds.

Amanda Waller.