#he got himself involved in the only quest that didn't mention him

[ryukolighter]

Titan's curse was legit SO FUN and like... Their quest group isn't talked about enough??? It was so cool and fun 😭

[skzhua]

We Going For the Win

MASTERLIST

Pairing: Bang Chan x Female!Reader

Genre: Zombie Apocalypse!AU, fluff, bit of angst. (The Last of Us vibes)

Word Count: 9,982

Warnings: Violence, swearing, mentions of sex/death/killing, drinking. (Not proofread yet!)

Summary: While being in quest of finding your childhood friend you have lost contact with ever since the start of the infection, your ex fling and ex smuggling partner involves you in a difficult situation. New friends and difficulties are waiting for you.

A/N: Might do a part 2 or leave it as it is... I don't know yet.

"Here." the man simply said while dropping the bag on the table in front of you.

He gestured at his men to open the door behind you as a way to inform you this little meeting was over. However, you didn't budge.

Instead, you took the bag to see the content of it, and frowned. "The deal was 10 silvers and a pack of cigarettes."

"No, no. The deal was 10 silvers and a pack of cigarette if you did the job correctly."

"Which I did."

He started to laugh before taking another shot of whiskey. "I asked you to steal the radio and get SKZ's location from them. You only got the radio. Therefore, you only get the cigarettes."

"You're kidding, right?"

He shrugged, fiddling around with his glass. Not answering your question, he poured himself another drink. Before he could bring it to his lips, you took his glass harshly from his grasp and threw it accross the room.

"What the fuck, woman!" he shouted angrily.

"You fucking asked me an impossible task, plus bringing you a most likely broken radio from the restricted area, made me infiltrate a fucking government base to steal infos and you're thanking me with fucking cigarettes." You slamed the bag in front of him, giving him a glare. "The deal included 10 silvers. I want them."

"Sweetheart, you know it doesn't work like this." he chuckled with a smug smile on his face.

You shut your eyes in disgust of the infamous nickname he gave you. "Don't fuck with me, give me the silvers."

He got up from his seat and signaled to his men to shut the door. The already stinky room was filled by the alcohol's odor, making you want to puke. How could this man drink so many shots without being dead already?

He paused a moment, looking at the ground, before he spoke again. "Do you want to find your little friend or not?"

"What does this have to do with this?"

"Y/N, I know you want the silvers to go across the country to find your friend. That is if he isn't infected yet, of course. What I'm saying is, there is a reason I'm not giving you those silvers."

"That's what this is about? About you not losing your best dealer?"

He laughed, again. "At least you know you're the best. Not only that but we have helped each other so much in the last six years. You're like a daughter to me, I'd hate to see something bad happen to you."

You smiled sarcastically. "And yet, you've sent me away to die thousands of times just so I could do the job for you."

"Because you are the best I have." he pointed out again.

You were getting tired of this. Frankly, you just wanted to get the damn silvers and go to bed. However, you knew the man and he wouldn't let you have what you wanted so easily. With that in mind, you seemed to have only but one option to get out of this.

"Alright then. I guess I'm not leaving today." you sighed, standing up from your chair. "I do want one thing if I don't get the money." He stepped closer with a curious look on his face. "I want to know if Changbin ever sends something on this radio."

He smiled. "Done deal." You nodded before heading towards the door. "And Y/N?"

You stopped on your tracks, rolling your eyes. "What?"

"I better see you tomorrow morning, I have another job for you."

Ignoring him, you resumed your way to the exit. Once outside, the sirens couldn't be any louder. In all of places, you had to be at the worst safe haven of the country where only dealers, smugglers, thiefs and many others lived. You were grateful your uncle was renowned enough for the other rebellious groups to leave you alone, but that also meant you had to do all of his work for him. If not, you were dead meat for sure.

When you arrived at your half torn down apartment, you jumped as soon as you walked in, as you were welcomed by an unannounced man sitting on your couch.

"Yeonjun, what the fuck?" you shouted, closing the door behind you. "I told you to not fucking burst into my place randomly like that."

"I know, but I kind of had nowhere else to go."

This was enough said for you to know he got in trouble, again. "Who was it this time? Beomgyu? Taehyun?" you asked while serving yourself a beer, offering one to your former partner.

He took the bottle and drank from it before talking. "Soobin."

You frowned. "I thought he was off to the west zone."

"So we thought, but turns out he had an encounter with SKZ, and he's been taken hostage. We tried to free him, but fucking stupid Beomgyu crashed into a pole and now all of them are taken away."

"And why are you here?"

He rolled his eyes. "To ask you for your help, obviously."

"No, I know that. But why are you not with them?"

"I jumped out of the car before it crashed. Hid until they all left and came here as soon as it was clear."

You shook your head in disbelief. "No matter how much I'm trying to cut you off from my life, you're still going to involve me in your stupid schemes."

"You're quite literally the best fighter, sniper, liar and also the prettiest I know."

You almost choked on your drink from his words. "We're not going to fuck again, Yeonjun. Stop with the flirting."

He held his hands up. "It was just a joke, relax. But for real, I really need your help."

"I don't deal with SKZ."

"They're just another gang, what's the big deal?"

"They're not feared by the whole country for no reason. I support their whole rebellion shit, but they're taking it a bit far."

SKZ were an anonymous group of rebels. When more people were starting to get infected, the government put the country in war mode. They established curfews, safe zones, duties, everything they could have control on anything that you could think of. As the years passed, they started to like this kind of power, meaning they did close to no research on a cure. Groups against the new regime started to form, but the most well-known of them was SKZ. Apparently, they were formed in the south part of the country, the area with the most infected. They ravaged headquarters, gathered information about the virus so their team could study them in order to find a cure. They had great intentions, but anyone on their way would be one of their victims. And that now included your ex-fling and smuggling partner's own gang.

"Y/N, please."

"No, I saved your butt enough times." You walked to your room and he followed you behind, still bombarding you with 'help me', 'this one time', 'please'... "I said no!" you grunted, closing the door on his face.

You dropped on your bed, sore from your morning task. As you were already starting to doze off, a creek from your door did not allow you to go to sleep just yet.

"Yeonjun, go away." you mumbled, eyes still closed.

The man didn't listen and sat next to your laid down body on the bed. "What if I say I can help you find Changbin?"

Your eyes shot open and you stared at Yeonjun. "Don't." you warned.

"Y/N, I swear I'm not kidding. I know where he is."

"How? You barely go outside of the limits."

"Just... Trust me on this one." he spoke softly. "Look, we've had our ups and downs and I understand how unreliable I am to you. There is one thing that I can assure you, and that is I never would mess with you with this. I know how much it means to you."

He took your hand in his and gave you one last pleading look. You were hesitant. You didn't know if you could trust him, but at this point, who could you really trust? Plus, Yeonjun has always been around. Even if he was a pain in the ass, he might be the only recurrent person in your life other than your uncle and his deals.

"If I learn this is a whole fucking joke-"

"I swear it's not!"

"But if it is... you owe me 1000 silvers, a car and your dead body." you smiled.

"So, you're going to help me?" he stared at you in shock.

"Yeah, sure. As if I have anything better to do."

As you were making your way up the ladder, you couldn't ignore the undistinguished noises Yeonjun was making as he was following you closely.

"Can you shut up?" you half-whispered.

"I didn't know you were thinking of leaving during the night. There is a fucking curfew, Y/N. You know what that means? Agents everywhere and going against the law!" he whispered back quite aggressively. "Also, how the fuck do you know the way to the other side from the sewers?"

"Okay, first of all, a curfew means no one's outside. Less chances of getting spotted. Second of all, we've gone against the law so many times, I don't get why you think it's a problem now. And third of all." you stopped climbing and stared down at him. "I've been outside the limits a few times. Now, are we done? Can we just move and get there before it's morning?"

Yeonjun's eyes went wide as he shook his head in yes. "My bad..."

Satisfied, you continued to climb up. When you finally reached the lid of the manhole, you pushed it up carefully, staying alert in case there would be agents on duty close by. Once you made sure it was clear, you pushed the lid so you could get out. You helped out Yeonjun and you both pushed the lid back into its place.

"Alright, so are you sure they went to District 9?" you whispered.

"For the nth time, yes." he said with annoyance.

"How are you so sure?"

"Dude, I heard them loud and clear."

"They might have said this to trick you?"

"Y/N, focus!"

You tried to remember the quickest way to the fences. Agents were everywhere, and what bothered you the most was Yeonjun not being the most careful, as he kept questioning you on why you knew how to get out.

Finally, you reached a part of the fences that surrounded the city. Yeonjun gasped in amazement, much to your discouragement. Sighing, you headed towards the underground tunner that some kids had dug a few days ago.

"Go first."

Nodding, Yeonjun followed your orders. Once he was on the other side, you copied his action and, soon enough, you both had crossed the limits. Once you got to the other side, you could already feel how different it was from the build closed community. The air was much heavier and actual forms of life were rare. There was already an infected who spotted you, who signaled to his other infect friend there was a meal for them.

"Shit." you muttered.

The monster was already running in your direction, and fast. You took a bar of metal that was randomly (and conveniently) lying at your feet, and you ran to it before swinging your weapon to his head, ripping it off its body. The second infected was next to head toward you and you instinctively pierced the bar through it, making it drop on the ground. When you turned back to check on Yeonjun, he could only stare at you with wide eyes and his breath unsteady.

"Now what?" he gulped.

"Follow me." you said, running towards an old building, visibly abandoned.

Only, it was just that. Visibly abandoned. As soon as you turned the corner, you were met with a bunch of men, four of them, masks hiding the bottom half of their faces while pointing guns at you.

"Fuck." Yeonjun said in a low tone while holding his hands up in the air.

"We were waiting for you." one of the men spoke.

"Oh, so them saying they would be in District 9 wasn't a trap?" you sarcastically asked Yeonjun, pettiness overflowing.

"I was convinced they didn't see me." he said in defense.

"We didn't." the man talked again. "But we knew you were there. Now, mind to follow us?"

"Okay, so now y'all are being polite?" Yeonjun scoffed and you kicked his leg. "Fine, let's follow them bluntly, I guess."

The men led you inside the building, holding onto your arms with guns still pointing at you. This was the exact reason you wanted nothing to do with SKZ, they could catch anyone and they were not afraid to use the weapons they had.

After walking endlessly in a hallway, you reached an elevator. You were surprised it was still functional, as most of the things in the infected zones were destroyed. Once the doors shut, one of the men pushed the button to the basement. Of course, it was the basement. You would've thought they'd be more original with where they kept their hostages.

"Are we meeting your big boss?" you asked in a joking tone.

"You're joining your friends." one responded.

When the doors opened, you didn't waste a second to take the gun from the man who was grabbing your arm, twisting it so he would let go. Hitting him on the head, he fell onto the ground. Meanwhile, Yeonjun copied you and also managed to disarm two other men. As for the last one, he held his gun to you.

"Don't waste my time, give me the gun." you said boringly.

He glanced at his friends on the ground, who were massaging their heads from the hits, and they all seemed to be in agreement to just let you be. They knew the others would take care of the both of you, anyway. You took the gun and didn't hesitate to give him a good punch in the face, making him fall next to his friends.

"Let's go." you nodded your head to Yeonjun.

As he was walking by your side, he started rambling again. "That, right there, was fucking awesome! There was a reason why I came to you for help. If it was someone else, I'm sure I'd probably be-"

"Dead? Yeah, well, you'll be if you don't shut up." you whispered loudly.

By the end of the hallway, you could see a large closed door that was seemingly locked. Pretty convinced it was where they detained the others, you made your way to it.

"I guess that's it." you mumbled.

When you reached it, you searched in your bag to see if you had anything that could help you open the door. Noticing you were short in terms of tools, you figured Yeonjun brought something that might be useful.

"Got something?" you asked, but when there was no response, you looked around and Yeonjun was nowhere to be found. "Jun?" you called out.

Just then you were suddenly tackled onto the ground. You met eyes with a young man with freckles.

"You don't look like an SKZ member to me. Who are you?" he asked, restraining you as you tried to push him off.

"Doesn't matter." you managed to breathe out.

"It does to us."

"I guess you'll have to find out another day."

Kicking him in his lower abdomen, you freed yourself and grabbed your knife from you bag. When you were about to throw it to the boy, a hand grabbed your arm, stopping your motion. The stranger twisted your wrist, loosening your grip on the knife. He took it from you and inspected it for a bit.

"Felix, go see if Minho, Jeongin, Hyunjin and Seungmin are fine." he said, his voice low.

The freckled boy, now up onto his feet, nodded and headed to the elevator you were previously coming down from.

"I didn't expect Yeonjun to bring a friend." he said, now talking to you.

He led you to the door you were trying to open not even 2 minutes ago. In contrary of what you thought, it was a simple empty room with a single lamp as its source of light. He threw you to the ground and closed the door behind him. He sighed loudly before walking to you, crouching down to be at your level.

"Now, as my friend asked. Who are you?" You only stared at him, not a sound slipping from your mouth. "Do you know why we took your friends?" No answer. "Why are you here?"

"For no reason, just to enjoy a different environment I guess, just like y'all do."

He didn't expect you to answer this time. "Looks like you don't know much about us, sweetheart."

You cringed at the nickname. Hearing it from someone other than your uncle was odd. Even just hearing it from your uncle was uncomfortable.

"Maybe I don't. Honestly, I don't give a fuck about who you are." You crossed your arms and gave him a bored look.

"Maybe you don't. Still, I think a little introduction can be helpful. I'm Christopher Bang, leader of SKZ." Unfazed, you were still staring at him. "And you are?"

"Tired and annoyed."

He chuckled at your answer. "I like you." He stood up and started to walk back and forth in the room. "I shall contimue then. SKZ is a group of rebels, as people call us, whose purpose is to take down the government's new policy in order to restore some sort of purpose among the population. We're also trying to find a cure for the infection and we, as you might have seen, have many people against us. Your friends were trying to get to our secret base to steal a drug we use during our experiments. They wanted to sell it to make profit off of it."

"Sounds like them." you huffed.

He smiled at your comment. "We've dealt with TXT before, but you're a new one. I've never seen you, I believe."

"Like I said, I literally don't give a fuck about y'all. I just do my thing on my side."

"Then, why are you here?"

"Ask Yeonjun."

Sighing at your lack of engagement in the conversation, he stopped walking around to turn his body to face you. "You took out half of my squad back in the elevator, I want to know who I'm dealing with."

Half? All this time, you thought SZK had hundreds of members around the country. There were eight of them? This new information was surprising, to say the least.

"Sweetheart?" he called out since you were not answering him.

"How-"

You were interrupted when the door opened. When your gaze shifted towards the door to see who had joined, your met eyes with the person you least expected to see. For a moment, you felt as if time had stopped as you exchanged looks.

"Bin?" you breathed out, your heart pounding.

There stood, alive and well, Changbin. "Holy fuck! What are you doing here?" he exclaimed, running to hold you into his arms.

His embrace was warm and felt like home. After so many years, you felt at ease and tears were streaming down your face.

"Where the fuck were you? I searched for you everywhere." you cried out.

"I'm sorry, baby. I'm here now, it's all good."

When you finally let go of him, he turned to Chris, who was clearly confused on what was happening. "Care to explain, Changbin?"

"She's her. She's Y/N."

Holding the ice pack to his head, Minho was mumbling some curses, still sore from your attacks.

"I'm sorry." you said shyly and he nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"So, Y/N." Chris started. "Can we do this interrogation again, please?"

You had moved to a small office, Minho tagging along. With knowing that Changbin was there, you felt more relaxed. However, it didn't stop you from being on your guard. Changbin might be a friend you've been looking for in the past 6 years, but him being part of SKZ changed things a little. You couldn't fully trust those men.

"Sure."

"Good. Who are you?"

"I'm Y/N. Been pretty much alone since everything started. I was a neighbour of Changbin and we grew up together. He was my closest friend. I've been trying to find him ever since the walls have been put up." you said, keeping it honest, but short.

"What I'm getting from this is that you're against the government as well?" he asked and you nodded. "Why were you with TXT?"

"I'm only here because Yeonjun quite literally begged me to help him get his friends. I didn't ask questions, I just wanted the job done."

"There was something in exchange?"

You paused, hesitantly, but nodded. "He said he knew where Changbin was."

From your answer, he got up and walked out of the room, leaving you and Minho alone. You smiled awkwardly at the man, who gave you a glare, still pissed at your previous encounter.

Outside, Chris had joined Changbin and Felix to talk. He didn't know what to do with you, and something was stopping from either releasing you, or finishing you off.

"Changbin." he called out and the man immediately focused his attention on his leader. "You know her. So, what's her deal?"

"I can't know for sure, I haven't seen her in years. She is colder than before, for sure. I doubt she is lying, though, but I can't be certain."

"Okay. What do I do with her? She might be lying and has tried to steal something from us."

"Honestly, Chan, I'd give her the benefit of the doubt." Changbin said.

With that, he went back to the office, encountering a rather uncomfortable silence between you and Minho. He coughed a bit before sitting back in front of you.

"Do you have any reason we should believe you?" Chan asked, continuing the interrogation.

"I'm repeating myself, but I quite don't care about what y'all do, and I am not fond of the authorities either."

"A reason we shouldn't believe you?"

"There are many, but one is that you don't know me."

"Your relationship with Yeonjun?"

"He used to work with me... and sleep with me."

"Have you crossed roads with any infected?"

"Two on our way here. I killed both."

"Did you get bitten?"

"Do you see a mark?

"No..." he trailed off.

This kept going for while, and Chan was strarting to be very precise with his questions, as he was wondering why you were on your own and why were you looking so desperately for Changbin. Until then, you were short with your responses, much to Chan's dislike. After a while, Minho, who had been observing the interraction this whole time, stepped forward to take the seat next to you.

Interrupting the conversation, he grunted in annoyance. "Chan, she seems fine to me. Can you just let her go? We're wasting time here."

"No wait." Chan paused, inspecting your traits. "I have some questions, concerning your skills."

"My skills?" you said, confused. "I think you saw them."

"I just know you knocked out my members, killed two infected, do some stupid deals in the city and fucked Yeonjun." he summed up while giving you a blank stare.

"Fucking is a skill?" you scoffed.

"I'm just repeating what you said, sweetheart. Now, skills?"

"I fight, I kill, I spy, I steal, I negociate and I lie." you listed and your last point seemed to grab Chan's attention. "Also, I don't owe shit to anyone."

"Have you thought of joining a group?"

"I told you, I'm on my own."

"But do you like it this way?"

You thought for a moment. Did you? "Yes."

Chan laughed and shook his head. "You're not so much of a good liar there, sweetheart."

You rolled your eyes. "Let's say I do fine alone but being alone can be rough at times."

Minho whined loudly once more. Not only did he have to listen to this whole pointless conversation, but he had to suffer from the tension happening between you and Chris, and he had to see his leader ask a hundred questions before getting to the point. It was very unlikely him, who would usually not bother talk and kill those who are on his path. With you, however, it seemed more like a game. It might be a fun one when in it, but Minho was done observing.

"He's asking you to join SKZ." Minho spilled out, going straight to the point.

"Thank you, Minho." Chan said, giving his friend a death stare.

Thinking about it, being on SKZ's good sad wasn't too bad of an idea. They are great fighters and took care of their business quickly, from what you've heard. Nonetheless, you still had your friends in mind, who remained detained at the moment. If joining the infamous rebels meant you could get them out, you might be able to help them out, after all.

"What do I have in exchange?" you asked, which took Chan by surprise.

"You would join us?"

You shrugged. "Depends on the offer."

"Of course, you'd ask something in return." Chan shook his head. "What do you want?"

"Release my friends. And give Yeonjun 1k silvers, he needs it. Also, I want to choose my own weapons and I still want to be able to do my uncle's deals. Last thing, I want to talk with Changbin, alone."

Chan looked at you curiously. You didn't ask anything for yourself, except talking with Changbin. For a world nearing its end, you were surprisingly selfless.

"Deal."

Yeonjun came to visit you a few days after. He thanked you a thousand times for what you had done for him but you weren't so happy with how things turned out. While you were close to punching Chan in the face, your friend had been nothing but grateful to the man.

"He really wanted to kill us, you know?"

You rolled your eyes while sharpening the knife you were gifted earlier that day. "I'm literally the one who saved you, but sure. Thank Chan for being such a good person."

Yeonjun frowned, hearing your tone. "You don't sound too fond of him."

"I asked for a moment with Changbin, and he still hasn't allowed me to stay in a room alone with him. It's almost been a week."

"You tend to be impatient-"

"I've waited for six years, Jun." you cut him off, pointing the knife at him. "I am patient, but I have limits."

He lifted his hands up in defense and sighed as you went back to sharpening. The building was so quiet, it was almost sickening. While you thought there would be more action in the group, there was almost nothing to do. Seungmin and Minho were in charge of looking into a cure and the remaining of them were mostly simply guarding the place. As for Chan, he and Changbin were nowhere to be seen.

"Do you know why he joined them?" Yeonjun asked.

"That's exactly what I'm wondering myself."

Just then, Felix walked in the room and took the seat next to Yeonjun, waving at you two. You nodded your head at him and focused back on the blade. Twirling it around, you sighed in boredom.

"Doing some training?" Felix asked.

"No, there's just nothing to do in this shithole." you deadpanned at him. "Weren't you on the lookout?"

"Changbin took over."

You huffed in disbelief. "It's as if Chris is doing everything in his power for me to not meet him."

"He will let you two talk eventually." he assured. "He's still on his guard with you, that's all."

"Sure." you spat out as you got up on your feet.

"What are you doing?" Yeonjun frowned, Felix having the same expression.

"I'm going to talk with Chan." you declared, walking towards the exit.

The boys didn't seem opposed to your idea, so they let you leave, although Felix did look more concerned. You had no idea where Chan could be. The building was so huge, you were barely starting familiarize yourself with the ground level. You soon spotted Hyunjin from afar and didn't waste a moment to run to him.

"Hey, Y/N." he smiled, his eyes almost closing.

"Do you know where Chan is?"

Startled by your lack of courtesy, he nodded his head nonetheless as he pointed to a door nearby.

"Thanks." you said as you left him there.

"He's with Seungmin, just saying." he yelled out but you ignored him.

You stormed into the room and the two men at your sudden entrance. While Seungmin got up with his gun pointing at you, Chan reached his hand out to him as a way to tell him to lower his weapon. You stared at him, unimpressed. He motioned for Seungmin to leave the two of you alone. As the door closed, he invited you to sit with him.

"What is it?"

You looked at him, baffled. "That's it? What is it? I know you know."

He nodded. "Changbin, isn't it?"

"Obviously..."

He shrugged. "What about him?"

"Stop messing with me, Chris." you warned, getting up to lean on the desk to get closer to him.

Sighing heavily, his shoulders dropped in defeat. Without adding another word, he stood up and gestured for you to follow him. You were skeptical of how easy it had been to convince him but didn't say anything about it. If you were just about to get what you wanted, there was no way you'd complain.

Chan made you follow for a good ten minutes. Turning left and right, going up and down the stairs... you were almost scared of getting lost. It was all worth it in the end, though. As soon as he opened the door to the rooftop, you spotted Changbin who wasn't doing much other than playing around with his gun.

"Bin." you called out and the man in question turned around, seemingly taken aback from your presence.

You mouthed a small "thank you" to Chris who answered with a quick nod before leaving, closing the door behind him. You let out a sigh of relief and went to go hug your old friend. As Changbin was still on duty, he returned the embrace coldly as he was watching around the building.

"What are you doing here? I thought Yeonjun was visiting you today." he asked.

"Fuck Yeonjun, I've seen enough of his face. What about you? I've nearly said a word to you since I arrived."

He chuckled, visibly still fond of you. "You haven't changed."

You shrugged, fully knowing you weren't the same person he once knew. "I guess I kept some of my old mannerisms."

He nodded slowly before looking to the view of the city you had. A moment of silence felt both good and torturous. He was right there, just next to you, and you weren't talking still.

"So? How did you get here?" you said, breaking the ice.

"Wow, going straight to the point." he laughed. "I don't know. After the evacuation, I was pretty much on my own. I still have no idea where my family is, if I'm being honest. About five years ago, I had a quibble with Han. It was over some food or whatever, I don't remember. Anyway, I beat him but it was cold that night so he offered to go back to his hideout. And that's when I met Chris. The guy saved our lives, I've never met someone quite like him."

You hummed as he finished. You were as much worried as he was about finding family and such. And that's what he was to you, family. The exact reason why you've been wanting to find him for so long. He was your comfort place, your home. Someone who had been there for you far more than your actual family.

"No." he spoke again. "He actually reminds me of you at times."

Seeing the knowing smile on his face, you cleared your throat as you grew uncomfortable. "So you thought of me..."

"Obviously. You were my closest friend."

Nostalgia hitting you right in the face, you smiled sadly to yourself. "These were the good days."

"They were. How did you even survive on your own, anyway? Six years alone, it must have been rough."

You could hear the worry in his voice which you almost took as an insult. You are small and lanky for sure, but you have always managed to do everything by yourself and with success.

"I was with my uncle for the first year before I ran away. I believe I was alone for about two years, which wasn't that hard. I made contacts everywhere and it became pretty handy. Then my uncle found me and we've been having this thing going on ever since. I do his deals and he pays me." you explained.

Changbin scoffed. "He's still around?"

You nodded. "After my dad got infected, he was pretty much all I had left. Except for you, who I have tried to contact for the past couple of years." you said, sending him a glare.

He held his hands up in defense. "It's not my fault SKZ is a secret organization. I would've put the whole team in danger if I answered your radio signals."

You crossed your arms on your chest. "A little sign of life would've been nice, though."

"Please, Y/N. I'm sorry, okay?"

A loud explosion nearby cut the conversation short. Looking to where it came from, you saw Felix and Jeongin hiding behind a wall while a crowd of infected people ran towards them. They had seemingly threw a bomb at them but it was clearly uneffective. Instinctively, you took Changbin's gun and went ahead with shooting the monsters who were the closest to the boys. Jeongin took a moment to spot you before nodding his head as a sign of thank you. While you continued to shoot, he grabbed Felix and rushed him to a building further away.

"Changbin, Y/N!" Yeonjun's voice said as it came from the door Chris had previously gone through. "The building's not safe anymore, come with me."

You rushed to follow him and walked down the stairs to get to a level where you could jump to the building beside. Changbin took his gun back and made sure to beat any infected with whom you'd come upon.

"Are Seungmin and Minho alright with the cure? And Chris-"

"They're all fine, now's not the time." Yeonjun shut you up.

A couple of levels later, you left the staircase to go find a window wide enough to go through. As it seemed to be a quieter place, you allowed yourself to calm down and take a look around. It resembled an old office room where workers would type all day about whatever.

"I never came here." Changbin informed.

"We didn't necessarily need this space anyway." Chris said as he walked in the room, limping slightly. "I've gotten everyone out, it's just us now."

"Where are the others?" you asked.

Chris let out a grunt from the pain his leg was causing but still took the time to answer you. "I don't know but we have a meeting point. We'll find each other again eventually. It is a shame, though, this place has been the longest settlement we've had so far."

"Oh, fuck." Yeonjun cursed before running to the doors, shutting them closed. "We don't have much time and the way to the next building isn't that simple."

"What do you mean?"

Changbin pointed to the hole in the wall. "It leads to a balcony. The plank of wood there can be our bridge."

You went ahead and helped him get the piece of wood, trying your best to get it out as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Yeonjun was trying his best to keep the door closed but as more infected came, it became harder. Chris wanted to help but his leg wasn't letting him. Helplessly, he watched Yeonjun struggle and you and Changbin doing everything to get out fast.

In his mind, he was already dead. He thought about Minho for a moment, hoping he had taught the younger man everything to take over his place as leader. He truly hoped he did. Because he wasn't going to make it. He would only slow everyone down.

"Man, come here." Changbin yelled at him.

"You'll have to go without me." he declared, feeling defeated.

This caught your attention and you went back to Chris. Seeing him so vulnerable, your heart sank. If he was like Changbin had described him, it would be a waste for him to die. With a determined walk, you went to his side and put his arm around your neck to be his support.

"What are you doing?"

"Saving your ass." you rolled your eyes before looking at Yeonjun. "Jun, we can go now."

Your friend's face was fully red, a result of his entire strength used to keep away the monsters. Even if he wanted to, he wasn't going to have the energy to join you and leave. And one glance at each other was everything it took for you to understand that.

"You've been great, Jun." you smiled sadly, not even feeling the single tear that left your eye.

He gave you a small smirk, the best he could give you given the circumstances.

With a heavy heart, you grabbed tightly onto Chris and dragged him all the way to the hole in the wall, and then to the improvised bridge you and Changbin made. The latter was already on the other side but he crossed back to give you a hand with Chan. You sat the man down so he could slide instead of walk. Once safely arrived, you hurried to join them and throw the plank down, preventing the zombie-like creatures to follow you.

Out of breath, the three of you dropped on the floor. You couldn't believe it, you had just lost Yeonjun. Sure, he wasn't your favourite person on Earth but he had never left your side for years. In a way, he was your safe space. An annoying one for sure but it hurt nonetheless. And without saying a thing, you let one more tear drop from your eye while being totally unaware of Chan's gaze on you.

Normally, you would have left the neighborhood entirely. But because Christopher was having an issue with his right leg, this was not an option. Staying at the highest floor of the building next to the old SKZ headquarters, you were pleasantly surprised by the arrangement of the space. Someone had stayed there for a bit but left their bedding as well as their canned food and magazines. Maybe this person died but it didn't matter to you at that moment. You were just grateful to have access to such a luxury.

You all had a long day and deserved a rest, and Chan needed it the most. You had bickered beforehand about who was going to stay awake in case of anything but you inevitably won the argument.

With the light provided by the lamp in the middle of the small room, you read out loud the words written on the pages. Boring was one way to describe the texts but it was better than nothing.

"-the release of the movie had been much awaited by fans from all around the world. At its first screening in theaters-"

"What movie?" Chris cut you off.

"Avatar 2."

He chuckled. "It was a big thing, wasn't it?"

"Movie theaters..." Changbin said dreamily. "Will we ever be able to have this kind if experience again?"

You could only roll your eyes. "This is mothing compared to our movie nights."

"Gosh, I forgot about those!"

Chan frowned. "You two were pretty close, yeah?"

Changbin grinned. "My whole childhood was with her."

"At its first screening in theaters, many complained about-"

"Let's do something else." Chan cut you off, snatching the magazine out of your hands.

"What else do you suggest?" you sighed, knowing there wasn't much to do.

"We can chat a bit, learn about each other."

Changbin shook his head. "We already know each other."

"I don't know her, and you might not be aware of some things about her too."

"Fine. Y/N, how's your uncle doing?" he asked, not expecting much of it.

"Head of the bounty group in the city. He's enjoying power and abusing people but at least he gives me some money from time to time." you answered.

"Let me guess, when you do the job for him."

You nodded and that pretty much shut the whole conversation. Well, for the two of you. Chris' mind was going through a whirlwind of questions to ask. He was fascinated by your ability to remain calm and unfazed but it surely meant you had gone through something that made you this way. He wanted to know what happened. He wanted to dig into your mind to find the troubled girl. He wanted to help her.

"Your parents died, no? How did you deal with that?"

Your jaw clenched and you noticed Changbin was ready to throw some fists. Surprisingly, you weren't mad that he dared to mention your parents. In some way, you had beeb waiting for an opportunity to think of them. Ever since they died, you didn't let yourself take a moment for them.

"I coped the best way I could. I mainly tried to forget about it but I miss them still, you know? And my uncle has always been an ass so it didn't help much that he was still alive, let's say. He's family but I would've rather not if I'm being honest."

Chan chuckled. "He seems like one hell of a persona."

"Believe me, he is."

"It reminds me of my own parents."

You frowned, intrigued. "Are they..?"

"Dead, yes. My sister too. I don't know where my brother is but he most likely didn't make it. I miss them too but I made my own little family now. And I won't lose them."

Your gaze softened at his words. Scary is definitely a good word to describe Chris but deep down, he was a simple guy wanting to do good to protect his friends.

"You're part of it now, you know?"

You cleared your throat, uncertain on how to react. "Right... Uhm, it's getting late. You two can sleep, I'll be on the lookout."

Changbin took the gun from you before you could stand up, sending you a look that said plenty to you. He was going to watch first. You let him do and looked at his back while he went to sit next to the closed door.

"I get why you took Bin with you." you said in a low tone to Chris while settling down on the small blanket next to him.

He laid on the mattress himself as he replied. "Why?"

"He's built like a bodyguard, mentally and physically."

"He is, but he was so vulnerable when I met him. I was in a similar headspace and with Han being the anxious guy he is, we were a unique trio."

You didn't expect him to open up like this about the past, especially not the beginnings of SKZ. The organization might be small, as you know now, but the power they hold is something. Knowing the slightest information about them could ruin their doings. But since you were a member, you guessed it didn't matter now.

"We had a different name back then, 3Racha. We thought we were clever but when the other guys joined, it wasn't a good fit anymore."

You laughed. "Good call on changing the name. Why SKZ, though?"

"Stray Kids, a good representation of us I think. We're wandering around with a purpose but, in the end, we're all children still."

You liked that way of thinking. You were about to ask more in terms of the formation of the group but Chris' grunt took you off guard. Wincing more as he wiggles around more, you sat up and leaned towards his body to check where the pain was coming from. From the way he was holding onto his leg, you could tell this was the issue.

"Can I take a look?"

While panting heavily, he nodded in a hurry as if he was begging you to make the pain go away. Carefully, you pulled the blanket off him and went ahead with rolling his pants up to above his knee. That part of his body had clearly gone through a slight fracture.

"Gosh, what the hell did you do?" you mumbled more to yourself than to him.

"I was pushed down the stairs by an infected, no bites though."

You started to massage his knee a bit but the wince he let out was enough to make you stop. Instead, you ripped a piece of your shirt, one long enough so you could wrap it around his leg.

"I don't know if this will help for sure but it will keep it stable for a bit. The more you move, the more it'll hurt and worsen." you explain was tying it all up.

Chris watched you in admiration. There was something about you that he hadn't seen before, softness. There was worry and care in your touch.

"Thank you."

You gave him a small smile. "We don't want our leader to suffer now, do we?"

"Suffering is part of the equation, Y/N. The sacrifices I make are for the others."

"For tonight, it might be good for you to feel at peace. We don't know what will happen tomorrow."

You said this as if this had not been the case for the last six years. Every day was an adventure with risks. However, now that the team no longer had a safe space, it was much more dangerous to be out in the forbidden zones.

"Sleep well, Y/N." Chan finally spoke up, laying down again.

"You too."

It took two weeks for Chris to be able to walk in some way. In that time, your trio grew to have a routine. You and Changbin would switch places every night for the lookout but he was most often out to get the food and such. That left you and Chan alone together for the majority of the time. You didn't mind, Chris was fun when he wanted to be.

You grew closer which made you both glad. You didn't feel like you were walking on eggshells every time you were around him anymore. Instead, you felt safe. He had the trick with words so he could tell you anything in the wisest way possible. That, or he was flirting.

Maybe it was due to his lack of action in the love department, but he would make flirty comments nonstop.

One time, Changbin left to see if he could get a hold of some medicine for Chan's leg. The moment he left, Chris was at it again.

"Now that he's gone, that leaves us alone again." he had said with an eyebrow raised.

This had to stop, now that you were on the move again. The sole focus had to be finding the other boys, and only Chris knew where to find them.

On the run again, you left your little temporary hideout that morning with only a couple of belongings with yourselves such as food and weapons. You were far away from the city now, leaving you wondering where the hell Chris had planned to go.

"Are we there yet?" you asked with a whine on purpose.

"No, I've told you." he answered calmly.

His patience was impressive but you were testing his limits. "How long do we have still?"

"More than expected if you continue complaining like this."

Changbin held back a laugh. For him, seeing the new dynamic his friends had was entertaining. The growth from being distant to joking around all the time was the last thing he would've expected from the two of you.

A couple of miles later, you settled down in an abandoned convenience store to take a small break. To your luck, some snacks were still intact as well as some beverages. This brought back memories from when you would demand sodas from your father and he would repeatedly tell you how bad it was for your health. Let's say it didn't matter anymore. Food was food.

"Look! They got ramen." Chris said, bringing a box full of them.

"Jackpot." you cheered, taking one pack for yourself.

"If only we have boiling water." Changbin pointed out but Chris coming from the back of the store with a boiler shut him off real quick. "Nevermind."

"It almost feels like we're robbing someone's safe place, this store has everything."

Chris shrugged. "We're not staying for long, just to refill our stomachs. We'll continue after."

Your eyes widened. "You mean we won't sleep?"

"Not tonight, we slept plenty last week. What, did you want to cuddle with me?" he winked at you.

"As if." you scoffed.

Changbin, feeling slightly uncomfortable by the tension, started to get the food ready. In the meantime, you and Chan kept an eye outside just in case. In no time, the three of you were on the ground, slurping on your noodles loudly. This might had been the first good meal you had in a long time. You really took instant noodles for granted back when you had easy access to it.

"Are you done?" Chris asked as he finished his bowl.

You and Changbin hurried to finish and you were back to walking again, not forgetting to pack a couple of items from the store.

It felt like you had been advancing for eternity without getting much closer. You were mostly silent, that didn't help. You were growing more and more bored by the minute and, visibly, both boys felt the same.

"Truth or dare?" you suddenly spoke, startling the guys.

"Uh, Y/N?" Changbin said, confused.

"Might as well make the most of this trip." you shrugged. "Truth or dare?"

Chan was the first to answer. "Truth."

"Do you really think we'll find a cure?"

He gave you a look, as if to tell you that you were being weird. "I think so, but it won't be a thing done by the snap of my fingers. Bin?"

"Dare."

"Hum the hapoy birthday song."

"Boring. Y/N?"

"Truth."

Changbin smirked at you, a sign he was uo to no good with his question. "Who's the most handsome in SKZ?"

You cleared your throat, keeping your eyes in front of you. From the side, you noticed Chan looking at you as he expected your answer more excitedly than he should.

"Uh, do I have to say?"

"Yes." both men answered.

You breathed out loudly and stopped on your tracks to look at them both. "You're all good-looking in your own ways but... uh... Chan is pretty nice to look at." you mumbled quickly before walking again.

Chan's smirk crept on his face before he jogged to catch up with your speed. Meanwhile, Changbin proudly tapped his own shoulder to congratulate himself.

"What did you say? I couldn't hear properly." Chris questioned, though you knew he had heard it perfectly.

"Don't make me repeat it."

"I'm pretty nice to look at? This might be the best compliment I have ever received." he snorted in a sarcastic way, earning a glare from you. "If it can help your case, you're pretty cute too, you know?"

If you could control it, you wouldn't blush. Never would you accept a compliment from Chris, even less after you were forced to give him one.

"Let's go back to walking in silence, shall we?" you suggested, ignoring the man completely. "Changbin, can I walk with you?"

He shrugged. "Nah, I'm good in my bubble."

You wanted to rip his head off at this instant but refrained yourself from doing so. Evidently, you had no choice but to continue to trip with Chan next to you.

"Ignoring people is rude."

"I'm not ignoring you." you defended, although it couldn't be any more false.

"It's not such a good look on you, baby."

Your eyes went wide immediately. In the spur of the moment, you shoved him to the side and fastened your speed of walk. You weren't even mad at the nickname. In fact, you kind of liked how bold Chris was. Anywho, you had no time to flirt, even less with the SKZ leader. Trying to recollect yourself, you focused on your breathing to being it back to a normal pace.

Only for Chan to show up again.

"It was a joke, I'm sorry."

"Uhm." you hummed, still not acknowledging him.

"Y/N..."

"It's fine, don't worry."

Feeling defeated, he didn't push it further. So you continued to walk, only hearing the wind and the sounds from your footsteps.

The warehouse was most likely a place they had previously chosen as a base. The equipment was still functional and tons of weapons had been hidden in a safe place under the floor of the basement. Heavy barbed wire all around on top of high fences, you wondered why they even left this place to begin with.

"Not discreet enough." Minho answered your question, which you had seemingly said outloud. "With all the heavy security mesures here, we are easily spotted by enemies. Sure, it's safer but we prefer places where we can work hidden from anyone."

You were glad the whole group made it to the safe meeting point. Jisung immediately went about taking care of Chan's injury while everyone gathered to figure out what to do next.

"We can always travel to the east part of the country?" Hyunjin suggested.

Seungmin, however, disapproved. "With an injured leader and a newbie on the team, we might want to stay close to the city."

"There's always TXT's hiding place." Jeongin shrugged.

It pinched inside to hear that group. You missed Yeonjun, more than you would have imagined.

"It's too small for you all." you argued.

"Yeah, I need the equipment for the research." Minho added.

"We'll stay here." Chan announced as he came back with Jisung. "We are almost done with the formula, we need a couple more weeks and it should be ready to test. I doubt we'll have issues until then."

"I added traps all around the base while we were waiting for the threesome people, we should be safe." Jisung precised before slumping down on a couch.

"Threesome people?" Chris repeated in a mumble.

"Yeah, like how Changbin was surely going to sleep with Y/N and Y/N and Chris keep eye-fucking each other nonstop."

"We got the point, thanks Jisung." Jeongin stopped him, which you were grateful for.

"She's like a sister to me, that'd be so wrong." Changbin continued.

You sent him a glare but he ignored it. "No one's slept or will sleep with anyone."

"Hmm, you'd be surprised." Hyunjin argued.

"I don't want the details."

Chan clapped his hands together, shutting the conversation. "Can we get back to work?"

Everybody went to their position: Felix and Jeongin on the lookout on the roof, Changbin at the entrance, Jisung and Hyunjin in training, Minho and Seungmin on the cure...

You were left alone with Chris in his new office. With a radio at hand, you were trying to catch any signals of new research found about the virus of potential visits from enemies that you could prepare for. It wasn't that exciting other than hearing people talk.

"Y/N L/N... works for... reward of..." you heard while tuning in the radio.

You had completely forgotten about your uncle, even more the load of work you still had to execute for him. In a moment of panic, you stood uo and paced around the room, looking for your stuff.

"Woah, Y/N." Chris said, standing up as well.

"I have to go back." you announced, breath unsteady.

"What?"

"My uncle, he's gonna kill me if I don't finish his deals."

He frowned. He had tried to understand why you were so insistent on continuing to work for that guy. From his point of view, nothing beneficial for you. You would receive much less than what you deserve, get treated like shit and live in a shitty torn down apartment.

"You don't have to-"

"You don't understand." you interrupted him. "That man is the reason why I'm still alive. I did all of his work and he allowed me to get by in exchange. I let him down, he can ruin my name. He has contacts, I know he will kot hesitate to-"

"You don't have to." Chan repeated. "You're not there anymore, you're not trapped. Look, I don't know what happened with the two of you but I think he might have manipulated you. Telling you that you owe him for what he did for you? You don't owe him anything, he's the one who owes you. You do all of his dirty work for a few silvers and do it all again the next day. And what if he ruins your name? You can't be found with us. Well, your chances are low let's say. You're safe."

You hadn't noticed he had taken your hands in reassurance until you felt his thumbs rubbing against your skin. This might had been the first time someone had touched you like this, so intimately. As much as it was a foreign sensation, you felt as if there was nothing else but you and him. As if a bubnle had created around you. As tears dropped from your eyes, you took in what he just said. For years, you believed you had no choice but to give back to your uncle for lpoking after you, when in reality, he had never done anything but use you. Chan was right.

You let out a chuckle. "In a way, you saved me. By recruiting me."

"In a way."

You stepped forward, getting closer to him. So close that you could smell him. He smelled fresh and new, nothing like someone who spent years being a rebel. Looking up to stare back at him, his gaze had moved down to your lips. So you looked at his lips too and, slowly, you moved closer to each other until you kissed.

It was nothing like you had experienced before. There wasn't just lust and want in the kiss, there was anger, sadness, relief.... It wasn't a clear mix but it felt good.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to seem to take advantage of the situation or-"

You shushed him with a small peck. "You're not, I swear. Look, I don't do great at relationship stuff but-"

It was his turn to cut you off as he let out a laugh. "There is no pressure."

For a moment, you could only smile and stare at one another. This was simple, easy. You loved it, actually.

"... vaccine in development..." the radip glitched, grabbing both your attention. "... no cure found... coming from yeast... mores tests..."

Chan took a deep breath. "I think the guys are going to like that information."

"What do you mean?"

His smile grew bigger. "We know the source of it now. If the guys can combine the source with the developped molecule, we might find a way to prevent it from evolving."

"So..?" you asked again, still not fully understanding.

"We're near the end of it all, Y/N."

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[ohnomyhooves]

Thoughts on the headcannons that doffy is colorblind and that’s part of why his fashion sense is Like That and that corazon is so unbalanced bcos he suffered a traumatic brain injury in the same event where doffy got an arrow in his eye and cora was only normal kid levels of klutzy before that and got much worse after

Firstly I'm so sorry if it took me ages to reply, I didn't get notified of this in my inbox at all!🥹

Also, I do like both of those theories– in my opinion there is definitely something about his eyes that Doffy is deliberately hiding, whether a natural 'flaw' or an injury.

On Doffy's eyes;

I think the arrow to the eye was quite clear, it's hard to imagine he could get away from something like that completely unscathed. The only question though if this is the case is why he was wearing glasses before any of that happened. My guess is either:

- he had some kind of eye defect from birth, something that he possibly saw as this huge flaw for a high and mighty Celestial Dragon. Perhaps colour blindness from birth, or heterochromia, or partial blindness etc.

- this is self-indulgent and unnecessarily cute (sue me!) but I also like to think that maybe he was just attached to the glasses themselves as an item, the way small kids get overly attached to things and just don't let them go for a long phase I.e a favourite piece of clothing they insist on wearing everywhere or an impractical accessory.

In either case, I can see that after his injury he started wearing glasses all the time for a totally different reason; to hide an injury that was now a bigger flaw than anything else because it was definite proof of weakness. Whatever he's hiding behind those glasses I refuse to believe he's not touchy and secretive about it. I think the HC that Doflamingo actually has perfectly normal eyes under there and is just an Extra Bitch is hilarious!! BUT considering that he got to keep them even at Impel Down, and I believe the wiki says that Tsuru got him a new pair before he was tossed in jail, they must be pretty important to him/ the Marines who arrested him for that little while his eyes were bare probably saw something that they knew Doflamingo would get Touchy and Dangerous about so they wanted to cover it right back up and pretend they hadn't seen anything.

BUT I'M GOING ON A TANGENT! To answer your actual question, I've never considered that his sense of fashion is so atrocious because he could be colourblind. Like, I just thought it was atrocious because his personality involves being the centre of attention all the time– sitting on the fcking table at warlord meetings, crowning himself King of Dressrosa and throwing massive celebrations in his honour, his behaviour at Marineford– but now that you mention it I like that possibility! I would have to look up how people with colourblindness perceive colours, I think, to get deeper into it; for example, if he doesn't perceive his horrid feather coat as being pink the way other people see it, what colour does it look like to him, what aesthetic exactly is he going for? Doflamingo would 100% not care if other people's visual senses were assaulted in his quest to look good to himself so that's fascinating.

On Cora's clumsiness;

I totally REFUSE to believe he was exaggerating this or playing it up for the sake of his cover. His accidents are too inconveniently timed for that to be the case, like when it got him in trouble when he was stealing the Op Op Fruit...(ouch😭)

He says he's always been clumsy since birth but his klutzness is simply next level, so it really makes sense that it's the result of some traumatic injury. If it was simply a childhood trait I think it would get better with time, not significantly worse; AND, I know we didn't see much of him as a child, but there wasn't any time child Rosi was depicted as being that clumsy. I believe the only time he ever showed clumsiness was when he tripped and fell into a treasure chest one time(?) in one of the very first scenes of their family before they moved out of Marie Jois, but that's like. On a totally believable level for a child. His clumsiness is such an integral element of his character as an adult that I think they would've highlighted it in his younger self.

So! Yes, I agree with that headcanon ;-; poor Rosi...

Thank you for submitting such a fun ask! I do enjoy yapping about them XD

[minzart]

His trusted collector

Pantalone x reader

childhood friends, gender neutral reader, debt collector reader, no warnings worth mentioning yet, found in my drafts and got the energy to finish this part 2! Still have the notes for part 3 so maybe it would one day see the light

Also on Ao3

(1) (2) His best investment

He thinks of you, and how you became friends

He watches you go, your back straight, head held high, such a contrast to the child he met years ago. A swell of pride finds itself in his chest, you were one of his precious investments, and what an investment you are, he will admit that he didn't expect you to still be with him for so long, but you surprised him as you always did.

Pantalone thinks back to your talk, you were exhausted, that much was a given, dark circles clear as day in your eyes, yet you were so energetic still, he envies that part of you a little, not that he would let you know of course, pride is a funny thing after all, nor that he missed your voice, such a small detail but it's true, it was your strongest asset, you molded it to what needed to be accomplished, fear, excitement, happiness, pity… that and your strength, it's been a while since he saw you work, but he knows, you are alive after all, and your quests are delivered almost flawlessly.

"Shit" he muttered to himself, small legs trembling from the cold, even with the Sun at its peak it didn't bring any warmth to the street, and to the boy with shabby garments it meant more suffering, not that it was anything new. What was unusual was his irritation, you were proving to be a pain in his ass to trick.

Plan 3 had failed, and 1 to 2 proved to be a waste of his time, since you didn't even recognize him, annoying, incredibly annoying, an annoying bug he's trying to catch in an intricate web that you were proving to be not worth the trouble for, the rumors he heard about you were being put to test every single time he laid eyes on you, good fighter, pff, you weren't even a good runner to begin with.

But, the little boy took a sharp breath, he needed allies, now more than ever, since one of his schemes is proving to be coming back to bite his ass, he needed a "friend", a strong friend, to be able to live another day if those brutes caught him desprepared. He knew that if he got caught once then all respect he had built to himself in the small amounts of talks and promises he made to other weak minded fools would be blown to the winds and become more trouble than he was capable of dealing alone.

That's why he needed a brute, strength, a temporary allie even, just for one day, but he hopes to gain your favor for more time however drastic times need drastic methods, he was not above begging… for now at least, one day he won't ever beg again and that will be the day he can finally get back to every single stupid bastard that even dared to treat him like garbage.

“Please just this time!” he throws himself in his knees, blocking your path “it's not a trick I need your help! Please!”

You huf, equilibrating the boxes you were carrying again “can't you see I’m busy?! Move!”

The hagged boy grabs your leg “Only if you promise to come with me and help!”

“stop that you're gonna make me break those and I don't have money to repay that old man!”

“I'm not letting go”

“yes you are” you shake your leg, the boy doesn't budge “it's your problem that you got involved with a prick”

“I gave you an apple!”

“I knew you were gonna bring this back- see that's why I didn't accept your generous offer to begin with-”

“you are my only friend please!”

“we are what?!” you stop, huge eyes locking with his and for a moment, the little boy cheeks burn pink, then he smiles bright, sweating bullets.

“exactly! We are friends! Aren't we? And Friends… help each other!” he cringes at the word, he want an ally, not a friend stupt kid brain slip of though, gluping he weakly hoped you would still agree with his bold assumptions without much fuss.

“since when?” you tilt your head to the side, puzzled expression matching his, internally he screams in despair.

“since… the… apple?”

“since the apple”

“yup”

“... how…?” you put your boxes down, crossing your arms.

“... friends… always hang out? I have been hanging out with you what do you mean?”

“bugging me isn't hang out”

“isn't it tho?” he let's go of you leg now that your attention was all on him, getting up bit never letting you out of sight he starts to bluff “don't your friends annoy you too? Everybody knows it's a love language-”

“I don't have friends” the archons smiled at him today, it seems, blessed be the insufferable fate.

“yes you do” he points at himself “welcome to the friendship distribution sistem we are like cats”

“that's bullshit-”

“no eyes!” a harsh new voice joins the echoing alley, he recognizes this brat, and you do too.

“shit” he turns around but two new boys block the path, he is stuck.

“you picked a fight” you grab him by his collar “with the richest prick in this town?!”

“It was an accident”

“was it?” he sees a hand appear in your shoulder, a cold smile gracing the lips of the most irritating older boy he has ever had the displeasure of interacting “ one hands hardly are that deep in someone pocket when it's about good intentions”

The boy tugs a lock of you hair behind your ear “is this your friend?”

You lock eyes with him, there's fear there, he knew, you just got a new gig, carring boxes full of spoiled fruits to the local orphanage that the merchants pay you two coins worth of labor, cheap and drastically underpaid and yest it was your first job, if you picked a fight with this boy, in his behalf, you would never see the color of money again, maybe not even the day.

It was a gamble, his life alone or dragging someone with him, a sliver of chance to getting out alive if he was good at faking a beg for your life, but then… then if you ever survived whatever happened to you today, you would never forgive him, he knew, he felt time stop, a decision must be made and things would change.

In the streets sticking together was as worse as being alone, but a companion even if for a brief moment could save one's life. He took a breath, lungs full of new fresh air for what he assumed would be the last time, and invested in you.

“no”

The older boy shoved you aside “good, less messy this way” and started to corner him.

The two other took position, grabbing his hands and shoving him in the ground “now be quiet”

He didn't even heard your steps getting further away as a boot meet his head, over and over and over.

It felt like days, kicks and punches and spit, blood didn't even had a taste anymore in his mouth, maybe he didn't even had tooth anymore. But finally it stoped, he was thrown in the ground, he could hear shouts, there was someone besides him, vision turvy, head sleepy, he almost didn't recognize the rich boy in the ground, passed out, a loud clang of metal hitting the ground made him try to look forward, the only thing he remembers before the black, was yours overused shoes.

When he awakes, he feels awful, head troubling, and the bumps aren't helping… bumps? Oh, yeah he can't feel the ground… he can't feel the ground? But he sure sees it passing by fast, then he feels an abrupt curve, someone is panting hard, it isn't him, he's sure, his lugs hurt. Then he finally looks to his side, and realizes, you are there.

Carrying him and running as fast as you could, to were he doesn't know nor care, but you are warm, very comfortable, so comfortable he could sleep.

The second time his eyes open, he could hear the rain, drops getting in the broken window of the house he doesn't recognize, there's a blanket in him, bandages clumsily put around his bruises, bloody water in a bow next to his feet, someone had cleaned him, and then you, curled around a tinny beaten down pillow by his other side.

That day, he thinks he finally understood what friendship was, and by the end of the week, rumors of a murder surrounded the city, the victim? A poor rich boy that was lost in a alley, playing with his friends. Pantalone couldn't be more happy that you were as smart as you were strong.

Back to the present, the baker chuckles to himself, what a desperate little boy he was, someday he still doesn't understand why you came back for him that day, sure what you have now is all consequence of that one act but still, you couldn't know that in the future that weak little boy would become such a powerful man. You must have pitied him, or his speech of friendship had worked, either way you did save his life, and builded the base for his empire, he couldn't have been more lucky.

Countless crimes committed, countless nights spent in each other's company, and yet he still feels you at only his arms length. Strictly professional even after years, your best and worse trait, after years of partnership, he still has little to no idea how your mind works. And it frustrates him, because he can easily command you and you will obey, no questions asked, kill, rob, treated, but then he asks for a match of mahjong and you… how long has it been since you both had anything to talk about that wasn't work anyway?

Has he become only a boss to you now? A small realization breaks him, work wasn't news to you both, in truth you both endorsed each other workaholic tendencies, it wasn't the first time he has noticed it, you reported he gave you another, you came from a job he sent you in another, he goes to interrogate, you guard the door, it's an old tale now, a song and dance you both knew to heart.

“I missed you”, you had said, he hadn't expected it, not by a mile, it was a slip of his tongue that greeting, and yet you answered in a way so raw it floored him at the moment. These memories he though were long buried still felt like yesterday, you little hands firming him in your back, the pain he felt that day a mere ghost to your firm hand in his, you name rolling out of your mouth, eyes locked in his as the world presented his first contract “that's my name, and I accept your friendship”

Friendship… at the time a good title, but now… he took the pen you were playing with mere moments ago, your hand treating it like a blade, passing from finger to finger, graciously, like nothing was a challenge, he writes with it instead from now on, not before drinking the rest of the tea left behind in the cup you poured for yourself during your long report, droplets still slowly falling down from were you lips touched it, and now his too.

[bonefall]

did you have anything planned for snowtuft? or any of the other mentioned dark forest cats w/o a backstory that were kinda placed there (ie rushtooth, houndleap etc)

Until they get backstories of their own in main content and novellas and such, I am planning on peppering them into various points in time with different degrees of severity for their crimes.

Snowtuft I'm planning something pretty dark for; he killed kittens during the Crusade era. While on a raid in Chelford, he slaughtered a family and the only surviving kitten was stolen and brought back to ShadowClan.

He hadn't technically broken the code, as the Crusades were based on the very idea that outsiders don't get equal protection, but it was so horrible and so unforgivable that Snowtuft lived the rest of his life as a pariah. His Clanmates didn't want to look at him.

His cruelty made them really sit with what the Crusades meant, and what they were even trying to accomplish.

Snow lived and died in intense shame, and didn't even stick around for his trial. He marched himself through the Meadow of Young Stars and into the Place of No Stars. He's actually a generally petty, kind of meek gossip girl kind of dude.

Silly man with a past so intense it causes an awkward silence whenever it comes up

For Houndleap, I'm thinking he was early Skyfall Era. Not even part of SkyClan or its decline, he was just super involved in a halfclan romance. Several of them. Actually he was Appledusk x 3. He had six mates.

He got caught of course but honestly that was impressive. 16 kittens btw.

Rushtooth embarassed a leader after Ripplestar's Rot and generally disrespected a ton of the lesser commandments, enough to add up. He's just kind of a jerk and StarClan felt he wasn't worthy of Silverpelt.

Batear murdered the cat who killed his best friend. Hunted the guy down and shredded him in cold blood. That friend was Fenneldust, who wasn't going to just let Batsy go to hell without her.

Shredtail lost a mate and kits to a hog, and in his quest for revenge, used a clanmate as live bait. If he hadn't gone Captain Ahab on the boar that took his family, he would have been fondly remembered a pioneering a ton of hog-hunting techniques ThunderClan still uses.

[iustitians]

[RECALIBRATE] How frequently does your muse evaluate their own ways of thinking? Have they little self-insight/feel set in their minds for better or worse, or are they constantly questioning their own outlook? To the point of self-doubt, even?

Thought, learning and intellect headcanon asks for muses | no longer accepting

---

Oh god. I started casually answering this and then as I got further I had to open a Google Doc to keep notes, because the more I think about it the more I realize that Neuvillette is such a mixture of someone who is so open to new knowledge and yet at the same time so stuck on his own ways that it's actually kind of ridiculous. Okay let me try to be coherent for at least a moment.

So on the one hand...

How often does he re-evaluate his knowledge? Short answer is, all the time. Neuvillette came to Fontaine to learn about himself and who he is, due to losing many memories but also largely due to being born in human form. That means by extension learning about humanity, and that's what he's been doing all those centuries. He is also fully aware that there is much he doesn't know, he doesn't understand, and perhaps he doesn't truly have the potential to understand due to being a dragon. It's something he openly acknowledges. In that sense, he is certainly open to new discoveries and new knowledge, and re-adjusting and changing what he knew or what he thought he knew about humans and the world around him that now belongs to them.

And there certainly is a high degree of self-doubt involved, too - as I mentioned, he questions not only what he understands, but what he's capable of understanding in the first place. We see that at the beginning of his story quest - in spite of having lived in Fontaine for about 500 years, Neuvillette not only didn't consider himself a part of it, but also in fact didn't seem to even consider that a possibility to begin with. It took the experiences of that whole investigation, everyone pitching in willingly to help him, and then Wriothesley and the Traveler spelling things out for him, for him to begin to realize that both Fontaine and he have changed without him noticing. However, this kind of realization doesn't lead to immediate change. I'd say he's still processing all that to this day, to be honest.

But that doubt also seems to be at least part of what causes him to stand in place, or at least move forward very slowly. He appears to be his own greatest limitation, and that's where I say,

On the other hand...

How often he actually applies this new knowledge he has gained and adjusts to it is a whole different matter, and here my brain just returns a bunch of static noises as the answer. Because for all his openness to learning new things about the world, humans and himself, and for all his readiness to accept and acknowledge everything he had been wrong about, Neuvillette is a horribly inflexible person for whom many meaningful kinds of change take entire centuries to contemplate and then implement. Or try to, anyway. To a varying degree and with varying results. Like as an example, I'm pretty sure Furina has been trying to get him to loosen up and interact more with the human world for centuries, and finally after five hundred years, during the last Lantern Rite, he decided to give it a shot. Finally he was going to implement what he had learned about humanity in all that time by initiating some sort of activity on his own!

So he went to one place in Liyue, tried one new thing, and went back to work after half a day. Good job, buddy.

But hey, baby steps.

And perhaps part of the problem, in addition to the self-doubt issue I mentioned earlier, is something that he himself mentions at the end of Lantern Rite, and something I've been thinking a lot with regards to him recently: he is hardly bereft of time. He is under no pressure to learn and change quickly and rapidly. Of course, this does not apply to matters related to his work, and this kind of knowledge will be put in practice much more effectively. For example, the serial disappearances case taught him that people will sacrifice themselves for spiritual needs as well as each other, so now he will know to consider that as a possible realistic motive in future cases. But matters related to his work are human matters, and human matters are under more time pressure - and time itself is also a human matter.

When it comes to changing himself, he is in no rush because he does not need to rush. He has all the time in the world. If he doesn't understand something now, he can take a couple decades or centuries to think about it. He has too much time.

And sometimes one has to wonder whether that's a good or a bad thing.

tl;dr he's a mess that needs to be studied in a lab

[prettybluelites]

Thoughts: Fun and Games

Started this last night, accidentally deleted it, got annoyed and went to bed.

Take two.

Yes Stede, the head butt was absolutely on purpose, but not because it was you, rather because a fearsome pirate woke up from a traumatic-on-every-level experience with someone hovering over him, six inches from his face. Ed would have head butted anyone on sheer instinct.

Fascinated by Buttons choosing to check in with Ed about his gravy basket experience, and you can tell Buttons sorta understands that Ed did have a vision, even if Ed doesn't say as much. Also, Buttons has been there a few times himself? Can you get there only through massive physical injury or can you like take a vision quest?

All well and good that the unicorn can't hear without a head, but probably a bigger selling point for Izzy is that it can't talk back

The crew's at a deadlock? Really? They sounded pretty firmly in favor of banishment. Did Stede just want to make sure Izzy got to have a say?

How many takes did they have to do with the sandwich, and was "sammie" scripted or improvised? I need to know.

On a serious note, how Stede's heart must have hurt to see Ed look at him like that

How fucked up and re-traumatizing for Ed to have his lil bunny friend snatched out from under his nose mere seconds after telling it that it would always be safe with him

Did I mention how the costumes keep getting better and better? Minnie Driver looks absolutely spectacular

In Stede's place I would have been scared to death to accept Anne and Mary's dinner invitation, solely on the basis of their predatory grins, but I guess love is stronger than all that

Also stronger than Ed pelting him with backhanded comments all evening

Love the incongruity of Roach talking about reminding the other crew of their value and safety while brandishing a cleaver

Whatever either Stede or Ed was expecting from the evening, it sure wasn't this

"Actually, I was planning on killing him myself" - subtext: still might if sufficiently provoked

Stede's expression when Ed says he regretted shaving his beard - so like his expression when Ed finds him on the beach in Ep9

Taika is so good in this whole scene. The tiny, tiny change in his expression when Stede says he likes his new beard, it's like he's processing that this is happening and willing himself to remain objective. And then Stede asks about the gravy basket and it snaps him back to reality and causes him to turn abrupt/short when he says he's fine. Good stuff.

Not gonna lie, I kinda hate the scene with the pinata and the cake. I get the point, but it feels clunky to me. I do appreciate everyone struggling with the concept of a safe space, lol, and I would love to know what exactly the "fucked up sleeping arrangements" are.

Another costuming note: Lucius is wearing the hell out of those high-waisted trousers.

I personally would not have described Stede as an "artsy outsider," but from Mary's POV I kinda get it, "artsy" sounds a bit derisive, like artsy-fartsy, and outsider sounds like...well, not a pirate. If that's Ed's type, I'd love to know about past outsiders he's been involved with. Likewise, I'm fascinated by Ed calling Stede "fragile" - he's clearly not meaning it as weak, but as fine/delicate. He says it so fondly. :)

Offering relationship advice by saying that everything will be rosy for a while and then eventually, inevitably, it's all going to go to hell and you're going to be left attempting murder to "keep things fresh" is, ah, kind of upsetting. Anne's tactic is upsetting too but at least "let's make them jealous" isn't explicitly violent.

It's really important to me that Roach (along with Fang) is one of the first to try to help Izzy up, same as he was the first to approach Buttons when Karl got killed. He really is tender as hell. :)

In my previous post, I mentioned how Ed still doesn't know that Mary wasn't the whole reason Stede didn't come to the dock - and I want to know, what's going to set off Stede's PTSD? We've seen the crew grappling with theirs and Ed is a walking ball of it. Stede's kinda been skating over everyone else's damage and he hasn't really even touched his own. He says he panicked, and admits he went back to his wife, but the part where he was abducted at gunpoint and nearly murdered is a pretty key part of the narrative. Taking a wild guess that's going to come up when we meet Prince Ricky again. And it's going to lead us into the Season Finale which SHIT I do not want to think about yet.

Others have probably already connected these dots but I'm obsessed with the fact that the blanket that Ed is hiding under so strikingly resembles the Battle Jacket. It should be renamed the Ed Teach is Lovable Jacket.

I just love me some everything about this scene. I love Stede's confidence in making himself heard and I love how throughout their talk Ed comes out from under the blanket, then sits up, then turns toward Stede by degrees, and finally gives that tiny, tiny, sad smile. And the dialogue is beautiful and heartfelt and Rhys and Taika just take it to a wonderful place.

My blood runs cold on Ed and Stede's behalf when Anne and Mary bust in on them, honest to god.

Oh, Izzy. *sniffle*

Ed and Stede both so adorkable negotiating where Ed's going to spend the night

I was honestly not crazy about the whole avian transmogrification thing at first, but the more I've thought about it, the more I like it. Buttons is completely confident in his ability to pull it off and in his reason for doing it - which is, of course, love. His pointing out to Ed that love requires change/growth is just a sweet touch. Was Buttons a "good" first mate? Who knows? Was he a decent human and apparently a legit vessel of magic? I think yes.

Also, if you're going to write a character out of your story, changing them into a bird is a bang-up way to do it. No klutzy off-screen death for Buttons.

Also also, I think it's worth remembering that Zheng uses carrier birds. I predict avian espionage in the future. And no, gulls were not used as carrier birds, but we all know Djenks has been hand-wavy about bigger things.

Izzy...is himself again. Also, loving the casual acknowledgement that there's been at least one other person on the Revenge this whole time who could read :P

My week is going to be insane so I might do Episode 5 tonight and get it out of the way. Thanks for reading!

[youngpoetthomasthorne]

D&D is finally back on! I'm thrilled to be back.

I had an artwork commissioned of my character Thomoras, I got to show it off today. The artist was lovely, very collaborative. They shall post it on tumblr soon, I will reblog it once it's up.

Today I was seated with a player from my first session here, finally. Thomoras had promised his character a bottle of wine in trade for protection. It's been at the back of my mind since, I thought I got to sit with him one or two sessions later, but he was actually substitute DMing for someone, so I didn't get to make up for it.

We traveled by cart up to a mountain filled with dwarfs, some social, some not so much. (I would just like to mention I despise that this is the most common way dwarfism is represented. Little people deserve better.)

The more social ones got a bit handsy at first. Either way, we got to a bar, where I bought this chap a bottle of wine. The bartender saw me hand it to him, and poured some wine for the whole party (and himself) because of it. The wine... Sounded quite unappetizing. I won't recount the details, but trust me when I say I was glad to not have actually tasted it in real life.

We got to a crowded hall where we were meant to meet up with someone. However, there was a fight about to start, and Thomoras happened to take notice that there were four groups of people, all singing different songs. Two players went off to watch the fight, one of them placed a bet (and lost). The other two players went off to the person we were supposed to meet. I, however, recognized two of the songs people were singing. One of which was more cheerful than the other. I shouted out that everyone pull themselves together and sing the same song, as the clashing sounds were getting quite bothersome. Thomoras then proceeded to do an amazing job playing background music for the cheerful song. (I rolled a nat 20, with my modifier it was a 27.) People started joining in, Thomoras got a look from a racist high elf (Thomoras is a half-elf), but the high elf's friend, who was also a high elf, seemed fine with Thomoras.

Eventually, everyone gathered to hear our mission. We were to complete a trial for the dwarfs in the mountain. Unfortunately I didn't quite catch why, I was quite unfocused today.

After some discussion, we decided to go with the trial of the hunter, which involved tracking down something (or someone) dangerous and defeating it (/them) and bringing back something to show of it.

When we asked for some guidance, we were told we could defeat a wyvern, since there were loads nearby, and we were advised of a monastery of fighters, in which we would be rewarded an orange gold coin of sorts to show we have defeated someone.

However, we were gently informed that wyverns were quite dangerous, and we also didn't get an exact location for the monastery. We decided to sleep on it, and perhaps gain some more intel.

During this time, Thomoras decided to go around asking to read a poem to anyone willing to listen. He finally found someone willing to listen, and started to read out a medium length poem, of only 30 minutes. He gained quite a crowd, but unfortunately they felt it got repetitive and was written badly. Remember the high elfs from earlier? The one that was NOT racist had changed his mind. He said that was about what you'd expect from a half elf. As he and his friend left, they even called Thomoras a *quarter* elf. I have never in my life felt greater pain.

While Thomoras was doing this, the other players were asking around, and apparently some people had seen a bloated elk corpse with two large wounds. We concluded it must have been from some kind of snake.

We returned to the person responsible for the trial of the hunter, announcing our decision to track down this beast and kill it.

Our quest got approved, and off we went. It didn't take us long to find the dead elk. It had decomposed quite rapidly, only having been dead for a few days. We concluded it was due to some kind of poison.

After a while, we found that the ground had an odd rainbow sheen to it. Two of the players rolled quite well on history/religion checks, so we learned that the tracks most likely belonged to a kind of rainbow snake. Either, a kind winged ond that would leave us alone, or a dangerous fallen one.

Moments later, we encounter this dangerous beast.

I would recount to you the battle in great detail, but it was already over right as we got into the 3rd round. I wanted to use my staff of the python, but the beast did consistently over 60 damage, which is Slitherz the fourth's HP. If he reaches 0, my staff breaks and he's dead for good. There's rumors of a player who lost their snake, cried, and never returned... And I would like to stay out of that rumor.

I'm quite thankful that I didn't release Slitherz, because one of the players died. He seemed quite casual about it, and the DM held sort of a funeral for his character. It was short, but it was respectful.

Right, I almost forgot! When we defeated the beast, it turned out that we had been followed by the trial of the hunter man, and he informed us that what we had defeated was... I believe a Naga? Which is a beast that regenerates. We hurried back with the head, which then got ushered away and presumably locked in some sort of cage.

At the end of it all, I (along with the rest of my team) got a sort of silver coin, engraved with dwarvish writing and anvils, as a sign of allegience.

During the game my bag of snacks (which was meant to be able to stand!) fell over and I lost around a third of it on the floor. :/

[haeresys-realm]

World, please no... There was awful story as a result of which we got really canonic Tighnari's voice replaced by such that mainers now switching to another language to play character without distasteful feeling. And I was really scared we could one day lose Mick Wingert, because it is the most great disaster in such sphere that can happen with this game. In contradistinction from Tighnari's case there's are NO really matching and canonical voice of the Doctor.in this game comparatively with Mick. If you didn't hear his Dottore, you didn't hear Dottore at all. The character will be dead without him. After not only hearing how he's acting as Dottore but seeing how canonic he see him, for example signing the cards like «Join.me in my quest for knowledge?», it's absolutely not an option to find another actor for the Doctor, and even Mick himself don't want to stop acting as him. So... Fuckin' Hoyoverse please stop disappointeing not only us but even your own co-wokers. It's really scaring situation. We should involve somehow to tell them this is inappropriate. We can't lose such great actors because this shitgivers are getting reckless because of their overindulgence.

P.S. I was talking not about adequate sanctions, good replacement or/and good trainings for Tighnari's voice actor, not about the fact you shouldn't do anything with situations such as one with Elliot Gindi. So, please, don't start all this shit about victimblaming just because I hate how non-corresponding new VA is sounding, we are not even talking about Tighnari, it was mentioned just in context with situations where they replace something good you used to play to something bad you want to switch. Dottore's case is even worse because the actor didn't do anything bad and because there's no other language dubbing that can correspond his level of canon. Unfortunately. This is why this situation is so TECHNICALLY scaring...

[icharchivist]

honestly this just shows again that wmtsb is SO GOOD, because i feel bad for everyone involved. sandy and belial and you even made a case for lucilius. theyre all such poor meow-meows. not to mention lucifer. and beelzebub is also here, ig, being gay and homophobic about it, hope he manages to sort that out for himself

dFMKJDF NO BUT RIGHT COMPLETELY!!!

wmtsb is truly peak event, i do really feel bad for everyone. And well i can understand the "anyway my life catastrophically suck and i'm going to put the world through an apocalypse to cope" that most of them have going on (Lucifer is the only one basically just begging them 'please just all go to therapy" in the meantime).

they're people who were created by the whims of fate, abandoned to their own device, and tried to cope with what it meant to have a purpose (or lack of), to exist for a reason.

I do also feel bad for Bubs but in his case i do think wmtsb didn't really do a good job fleshing him out until later in his raid quest. Because in a sense he's in a similar situation than Lucilius, he's also a clone, I think it's also implied he has Shalem's memories but he probably doesn't remember them as clearly as Lucilius does. So it explains why Bubs was the only astral to support Lucilius's actions, because while he didn't grasp it as much as Lucilius did, he felt the same groundwork as Lucilius did.

It's interesting in that sense that therefore Lucilius and Beelzebub has two drastically different God Complex. Lucilius wants to take down the God that made his life a joke and destroy the world He had created, and to redo it all mostly out of spite toward God. Beelzebub meanwhile genuinely believes he is owned to rule over all of the skies. Destruction is a means to an end. for Lucilius, Destruction is The End.

And i think it's even more interesting considering on one hand one is the clone of Sahar, the one who's desperately trying to follow what God wanted and who is set to destroy the Otherworld for his God after all, while the other is the clone of Shalem, who rebelled and questioned God's intentions so much so she got locked away.

(and also probably, is the reason why Lucilius has stronger memories than Bubs. Sahar lived longer than Shalem because Shalem got locked away, meaning Lucilius had more of the scope of Sahar's despair to take from compared to Bubs).

And it's ironical because Lucilius and Beelzebub both are rebelling to prove their Free Will, but in a sense they still copy their originals without even realizing it. Lucilius's destruction to get the eye of the Omnipotent on him, Beelzebub's rebellion as to challenge the God for his own gain, reflects Sahar and Shalem's storyarcs as well.

So the thing is that i feel like Bubs doesn't have a place anywhere. He's not as lost as Lucilius, his original isn't even here anymore (and wouldn't return until after Bubs had been locked away by Cags), he doesn't belong with the Astrals but he doesn't belong with Lucilius either. He relates to Lucilius, but their differences is creating a major divide between them.

And it's even further illustrated by Beelzebub becoming half Primal, and the time he had spent in the Otherworld.

First, the Primal thing, wheree Beelzebub was completely torn to shred by Otherworldly beings after a mission Lucilius sent him on, only to come back to see Lucilius make experiment on him out of pure scientific curiosity, to "save him", making him half primal, which as we know, ended up being Bubs's downfall as Cags could therefore lock him away. Beelzebub didn't ask for any of this, Lucilius didn't save him out of compassion, and the process was described as a torture, and there is this foreign body on Bubs that he has to cope to deal with.

He can't help but love Lucilius as well, he's the only person who understands him, but he has to curse Lucilius for even being in that state. and i think it's why even more Bubs is dedicated in becoming the King of the skies, to not be belittled by Lucilius having made him "lesser".

Meanwhile the Otherworld thing also is pretty horrifying like. Those beings torn him to shred, those beings are the only thing that could kill a primal which he half became, and he was locked in the Otherworld for thousands of years having to fight them to survive. This, also, is pretty horrible to imagine.

and once again an interesting way to compare them to Sahar and Shalem. Because while otherwise they copy their originals, after the failed Civil War, Lucilius ended up in limbo, the same way Shalem has been unconscious for thousands of years, while Bubs was doomed into fighting the Otherworld, like Sahar was doing for thousands of years. I think it's such a neat detail.

In a sense, everyone in wmtsb is doomed by the narrative, doomed by fate, and it extends to Beelzebub still. The problem with Beelzebub is that instead of exploring it into wmtsb itself they locked his story in HL raid quests super late in the story that most people have a hard time unlocking and that's awful.

I feel like Bubs might have less of an emotional plotline in general, but it still ties him back to the thematic of the wmtsb gang in a way that's bonechilling. They're all fucked, they're all tragic, and all of this wouldn't have been happening if Lucilius and Beelzebub hadn't been suffering from being clones to start with.

But yeah adding to that layer too, Bubs is also part of the "doomed by his crush on the Luci-gang" thematic that affects literally everyone in this saga. Luci brainrot disease make you act unwise (apocalypse)

I still feel bad for Bubs because of that though.. though disclaimer i didn't read his quest fully, i only saw bits of some scenes on Twitter so maybe there's even more to help out on his reading there. But, he's still fucked, and wmtsb is still a masterpieces.

(but that said i still agree with the gay and homophobic, rip Bubs you did your best)

[remofnj]

Craig's 2 Main Ships

OK, First off, Happy Summer!

We are halfway through season 4 of Craig Of The Creek. A lot of stuff has happened over the past few episodes, including the quest for Kenneth's Cube. Storylines are advancing, Character arcs are progressing, and relationships are becoming more and more official. The second half of season 4 starts this July. So before the CraigBomb arrives, I'd like to take closer look at where Craig's story is headed in terms of shipping.

I'm going to focus on the 2 girls in the show that have been shipped the most with Craig Williams.

Vanessa AKA, "Wildernessa"

Eileen AKA, "Sewer Queen"

Both ships have grown more prominent with subtle hints and were the only two ships directly mentioned by Cartoon Network via social media or otherwise. I've reviewed every episode involving Craig's direct interactions with Wildernessa and Sewer Queen respectively. Both girls have exhibited immense potential recently.

Wildernessa

Wildernessa started her character arc as one of Craig's rivals. In her debut episode, not many saw her as a possible ship for Craig, since she constantly belittled him for "not knowing a thing about animals." In fact, her warriors spirit and dedication to protecting wildlife made her catch the eye of Kelsey in earlier seasons before Kelsey and Stacks were made official in "Fire & Ice".

In "Ferret Quest" her teasing of Craig had turned somewhat more playful, which in turn frustrated Craig. Although, he does seem to care about what Wildernessa thinks of him, as he felt that catching the ferret was the best chance he had to prove himself to her.

It wasn't until "Breaking The Ice" that we see the most character development out of this ship. Wildernessa is basically a tsundere, she only acted mean to Craig hide her true feelings. Even as Craig acted kindly towards her in the playhouse, she couldn't help but push him away. Turns out, It's with good reason. She was bullied by other kids in school which made her develop this deep seeded distrust in people. She uses her negative attitude towards Craig as more of a defense mechanism to avoid getting too close to him, in fear of him victimizing her as well. However, she underestimated Craig's honesty. When he called her out, this convinced to her to bring down some her walls, this lead to a mission to change herself for the better. Even her dog knew that Craig deserved to be trusted. She always thought Craig didn't know anything about animals, but it turned out, she didn't know anything about Craig. At least, not until now.

"Craignessa" or "Crildernessa" Quickly gained notoriety from Cartoon Network itself and viewers alike following that episode.

The "Capture The Flag" arc saw Wildernessa's changes come full circle. She took Craig's side against Xavier throughout the 5 part special. Wildernessa kept on supporting Craig however she could, all the way up to the pivotal moment where she sacrificed herself for Craig in the game, before attempting to confess her feelings for him. It's hard to tell if Craig caught onto her confession, but he was without a doubt surprised and saddened to see his former rival freeze solid to protect him.

Sewer Queen

The Sewer Queen has been a possible ship for Craig since the show's pilot back in 2017. She's a strong, confident leader, who likes nothing more than to encourage her subjects and help them with their problems, something that Craig has great admiration for. It may seem one sided coming from Craig, but there have been hints throughout each of their interactions.

She's a kind soul who cares deeply for her subjects, but isn't afraid to ask Craig for help. The Sewer Queen could've called anyone to help her, but she instinctively chose Craig.

In "Lost In The Sewers" The Sewer Queen personally called for Craig to help map out the sewers. Craig was so amazed by the Sewer Queen's leadership skills, that when she got lost, he tried to emulate her abilities to lead his team to rescue her. Sewer Queen granted him the highest honor in her kingdom. Craig had earned his water shoes and the Sewer Queen's respect.

In "Return Of The Honeysuckle Rangers" she wasted no time in defending Craig, it also helps that she didn't mind posing for a portrait on Craig's map. Craig only continued to earn the Sewer Queen's favor by warning her about the secret entrance from the other side.

From then on, she had no quarrels with helping Craig whenever he needed it. from Joining the Council of the Creek, to helping free the Elders trapped under elder rock.

In "The Rise and Fall of The Green Poncho" When everyone else left refusing to believe Craig's warnings about Xavier, The Sewer Queen alongside Jason and Cannonball, were the only kids who stayed behind to aid Craig in defending the Creek. She knew from experience that Craig was telling the truth. The other side had invaded her kingdom, she couldn't just let that slide.

The biggest hints however, appeared in "Sink or Swim Team". Craig had discovered Sewer Queen's secret identity as a member of the swim team. So when she asked for his help to make her lie seem true to her family, he agreed to the plan and was introduced to "Eileen" for the first time. Eileen has occasionally been shown to be affectionate towards Craig, such as putting her arm around his shoulder at the beginning and end of the episode. Craig had never seen the Sewer Queen as a civilian before, so of course he responds with a case of the nervous sweats and stuttering. When Kelsey and J.P followed them the Eileen's house, the first thought that popped into Kelsey's head was that Craig and The Sewer Queen were getting married, indicating that she herself ships the two of them. After Craig was introduced to Eileen's Lola, she asked Eileen if Craig was her boyfriend, much to Eileen's embarrassment. Many argue that a similar incident happened in "The Shortcut" with Kit and her grandmother, but unlike Kit, Eileen actually managed to blush.

In an Instagram post on Cartoon Network's official page, we were asked which was the WORST out of eight ships from various shows, with Craig and Eileen being one of them. This is ironic since Craig and Eileen actually had the BEST ship out of all of them.

Wildernessa and Sewer Queen share some similarities with eachother

Both are slightly taller than Craig

Both have been mistreated at some point for their flaws

Both have shared their real names with Craig

Both their real names and their nicknames rhyme

Both had Strong shipping potential revealed in a single episode.

Both have strong reasons they could work out as Craig's girlfriend and reasons they could not. What could put all of this full circle is an episode involving an interaction between Wildernessa and The Sewer Queen. Could this the creek's first love triangle or is it part of something bigger?

[thefirstknife]

Some of the more interesting bits of today's reset and dialogues. I loved this from Mara. She acknowledges her participation in steering Uldren towards his downfall AND she realises that she will have to do better with him in the future. This is from the ending dialogue when you finish the exotic quest for the Ager's Scepter.

I want to mention something from the start of the week because I've seen people get angry (but when do they not when it comes to Mara?)

Long post under read more:

It's about the discussion she and Ikora have at the terminal. Hot take, but both Mara and Ikora are right and wrong in the argument. Transcript:

Mara: "How long have your Hidden been privy to Uldren's resurrection?" Ikora: "Long enough to watch over him in your absence." Mara: "And you didn't direct him home. Why?" Ikora: "There was a concern he'd pick up some old habits." Mara: "You know the Garden made him sick. Riven twisted his mind. Eris would have seen it. She is not so easily deceived by skin-deep tricks." Ikora: "It's true I made mistakes, out of an idea of justice... out of grief. Are you leveling this same scrutiny toward Petra? Wasn't she supposed to be watching his grave?" Mara: "Petra has paid her dues. The Vanguard murdered him and has yet to pay theirs." Ikora: "We both lost family. I am sorry for my part in yours, but... Crow has been treated --" Mara: "My brother is dead. He was exhumed; his body twisted into a caricature. You had your vengeance." Ikora: "Is that what you're after? Cayde... I still feel that grief like a stone caught in my chest. Some days, it's more pronounced than others. Vengeance didn't erode that grief." Mara: "Then tell me. Who am I to blame? Who sent him to Savathun's clutches? Who bludgeoned Uldren into a scared animal and drove him from his home?" Ikora: "You did, Mara. And those Guardians that hurt him, did so out of misguided anger. Don't make the same mistake. Don't make my mistake."

This is some heavy stuff and there's a lot going on. First, I like that Mara doesn't respond at the end. It's uncharacteristic for her. It shows that Ikora's words did something to her. This is evident in the exotic quest later which I've already put at the beginning of the post. She's had time to think and she's admitting the part she played.

I dislike some of Ikora's arguments a lot. First, "concern that he'd pick up some old habits" goes entirely against the Vanguard policy and belief that Guardians are new people. They were only concerned because of bias towards Uldren due to what he's done. And Crow knows this! He said so last week when he wondered why is he the only Guardian judged by his past life. No one else is subjected to the same way of thinking. This is the reason why Guardians aren't supposed to dig around their past lives. Obviously with Crow, there's no way for him to avoid it, but the argument that, if he knew, he'd just magically become Uldren (and not just base!Uldren, but murderer!Uldren who will... I don't know, go after Ikora and Zavala or the innocent people in the City?) really shows how much the Vanguard mistreated Crow.

I also dislike the move to Petra. As Mara says, Petra has paid her dues. She really has. Let's not forget that Uldren was not just some guy to her or just her Prince; he was her friend. She had to watch him spiral out of control due to things she couldn't help him with, she had to make the choice to put him away until Mara comes back and at the end she had to make the choice to kill him. This trauma has shaped her.

The Vanguard hasn't paid any dues. That's kinda the whole point of Mara's questioning. Ikora tries to explain that this was due to grief and losing family, but pray tell Ikora, has Mara not lost family too? Mara mentions this immediately as expected.

Ikora is however right to say that it was ultimately Mara's actions that led to the situation we're currently in. The Vanguard had no say in Awoken royal family affairs. Mara knows this, she said as much in the past few weeks and other lore in general: she spoke at length about the distance she pushed between them out of perceived necessity, the need to shape Uldren in a way to make him less like himself (since she disliked his recklessness and dangerous behaviours), but ultimately that only made things worse. She's aware that his venture into the Black Garden was fuelled by Uldren's need to prove himself. Ironically, in an effort to make him loyal and devoted, Mara pushed him into more recklessness instead of stopping it. She's aware of this. Asking Ikora "who am I to blame" was just waiting to be roasted.

But Mara is also right to ask about how the Vanguard treated both Uldren and Crow. How they washed their hands from killing him "officially" by hiding behind the Guardian, how nobody in the Tower answered for this. Their treatment of Crow as well: forcing him into hiding, isolating him. Excusing all the suffering he felt at the hands of the Guardians as "misguided anger." The torture he endured from Guardians just for showing his face was so much more than just "misguided anger" and Mara is right to feel heated and enraged when she talks about this and when she asks her questions. She expressed similar distaste and anger in a voice line with Glint in regards to how the Spider treated Crow.

I got an interesting dialogue at the end of my Shattered Realm run which also made me really irritated on behalf of both Crow and Mara when it comes to the Vanguard. Ikora asks Crow why didn't he send his latest report and Crow replies that he's had a lot going on and a lot to deal with. Which is true! He's not the Drifter who doesn't send reports out of spite; Crow genuinely wants to help but he's struggling with a lot of things that we can't even begin to unravel. He deserves patience and understanding. However, the following then ensues.

Ikora:

Crow:

Ikora:

This last part is a nice sentiment. But excuse me. Crow has literally been resurrected, isolated, tortured, enslaved and then "rescued" only to be thrust into a cage in the Tower and given "responsibilities." He is not obliged to be the Vanguard's errand boy. It's honestly quite rude from Ikora to tell him that he has to take his responsibilities seriously. The man hasn't lived a single day in his life without anxiety over whether he'll be tortured to death in the street if he shows his face.

I know the Vanguard gave him protection from the Spider and stuff to do (which he enjoys) and accepted him into their ranks. That's all good. But there's very little empathy here that acknowledges the life he's lived. Crow deserves to experience things that aren't isolation, imprisonment and following orders.

And most of all, he deserves to know the truth. Something the Vanguard has denied him for almost a year now. I know Savathun's schemes were involved and specifically, they were involved through impersonating Osiris which made a lot of people turn a blind eye. But now that this is known?

Crow can't share his burdens without knowing the truth. That's the whole problem. Everybody, except him, knows who he was. Everyone looks at him and treats him through that lens. He can't unburden himself without being told half-truths and being denied information. His burdens exist precisely because he doesn't know while everyone else does. So while the sentiment is nice, it reads more like a "that sucks buddy" than a genuine offer to help him with what is really bothering him.

On the other hand, obviously sharing the truth is difficult. His past life is more complicated than for most other Guardians. He's been through things that other Guardians haven't. The situation is complex on every single level and every character has a reason for the choices they've made.

Sometimes those choices are wrong and they are mistakes. And Mara isn't the only one who made the wrong choices and mistakes, consciously and unconsciously. It's a disservice to the complexity of the situation, Ikora, the Vanguard and Uldren to boil everything down to "Mara bad." Doesn't make for a compelling story.

That's what I wanted to address in detail because on the surface, it's easy to just dismiss either of the character you dislike more. And that's just reducing the story to a spectrum of black and white that Destiny really, ironically, isn't about.

[lovecolibri]

Much like M*ria, Mimi has only ever been an inconsistent plot device and has always took on whatever personality is required in the situation, but it's also hard to assess if she was ever meant to be a bigot because the show abandoned the whole aliens-as-a-metaphor-for-immigration concept Carina was so proud of pretty much immediately. The writers never explored it or really connected Max and Liz over it after Liz handwaved Max's actions against her family after like 3 episodes. I mean the original setup was the pod squad being deathly afraid they would be discovered and experimented on, but the second that actually materialized with Jesse and Caulfield, everyone suddenly stopped worrying about it outside of Alex having to punish himself over it. We almost got Liz endangering the pod squad with her research at the end of s2, but then that had no consequences either. Plothole New Mexico is entirely accurate.

You are absolutely correct! Like, the 3 humans of the group outside of Liz had parents that were all supposedly involved in Caulfield and we just...didn't delve into that aside from Kyle and Alex dealing with guilt and Alex having to atone for generations of family mistakes even though he was a victim himself, but Mimi's knowledge/involvement was never addressed and I don't think anyone even knows she was involved in Alex's kidnapping?? And the only reason they were almost killed by that bootmaker was because Mimi went there? And then season 3 decided he was also a victim too of the Lockhart machine and worked for Deep Sky but again they don't know about aliens?? So why did she need to talk to him if we never get let in on what he learned?

Excuse me, I'm going to scream in the woods for an hour now.

I am just...so baffled that this show was created with these perfect set-ups for drama and narrative tension between the characters, and the show just...swerved past them to push relationship drama instead. 🙄🙄🙄.

I've been thinking about Heath lately (because the show just hasn't mentioned what happened with him), and how his quest to save Dallas while Liz was trying to save Max was such a more interesting story than them hooking up and her continually using him and him helping her because of a crush.

We should have had a moment of them being like, "you were flirting with me to get info to help someone you love who is an alien?! I was flirting with YOU to help someone I love who is an alien!" like

And then deciding to pool resources and knowledge to help each other, and then maybe Dallas wouldn't have to lose his childhood best friend because the writers IDK decided it was too awkward to have him around after he started something with Liz? Although Kyle, and Jenna, and m*ria, and Anatsa are all still around so who TF knows 🤷🏻‍♀️

[stimmypaw]

stimmypaw reads the apprentice’s quest, a blog post

A big one, just a bunch of thoughts as I’m reading it, of course, lots of spoilers for the first book in the Warrior Cats series A Vision of Shadows. This will be covering just the first book tho, it’s all in the Read More, let’s gooooooo!!!!

Vision Of Shadows time

Lots of new cats!!! I don't remember these guys as kits or anything wrow!!! I like their names but itll take a while to get used to them

Also cant believe they printed stormcloud's dead name

Omg there's a cat named beepaw

I love these cats all of them so much im going 2 cry

All new names are perfect

I FORGOT HOW GORGEOUS THE CAT VIEW IN THE RECENT BOOKS WAS, LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT

I'm glad leafpool smokes weed

I love reading from Jayfeather's point of view, his grumpiness hasn't grown on me ever but thats just me, I still enjoy it lots he's great and its fun

Firestar and Leopardstar's characterizations are On Point i love it

OOF i feel so bad when jayfeather is mean to others, poor kestrelflight, I love those two

Lovely Jayfeather moments now its time for the first chapter

I like this duo! Also I didn't think I'd ever say this but shut up squirrelflight one can have fun AND learn with their mentors

Sparkkit sounds nice she makes jingling bell noises when she walks around

Alderkit is chadphobic /j

I can see Alderkit taking deep breaths to relax its rotating in my mind its beautiful

God this first chapter feels so good and comfortable, like eating noodles and chicken nuggets. I am so so deeply in love with it, its gorgeous!

Sparkkit is so perfect too, and Graystripe remembering Firestar aaaaaa

DUSTPELT SAID WHAT? PHDHAHAHHA OH NOOOO I don't remember their relationship much, must have been fun, I love young little creature squirrelflight I MISSED HER SO BAD WOW

I started reading the second chapter and died, I think ill take a break now 2 sleep heehhee

I love them describing twoleg stuff its always so fun and alien, like watching an animal planet show about funny sea creatures.

Also I have determined sparkpaw is my favorite, might be my favorite cat ever next to hollyleaf??? I really identify with her and also she's autistic i have decided that

Alderpaw baby noooo hhhh their mentor at least is trying to show its okay, he seems very emotionally distant so far and alderheart feels very emotionally needy, actually both of them do, did I mention I love Sparkpaw??? I might be imprinting myself 2 much on her

I love how like, its clear both of them are absolutely anxious and worried about others opinions on them, which is clearly something they got from being Firestar's grandkids, deputy kids and leader kids. And bramblestar too, I recall him being quite the anxious lad ahhah. Sparkpaw will be showing confidence and being loud but the second anyone isn't approving of her or she does something "wrong" she gets small and quiet, and she ended up setting a high bar for herself by being good at hunting and fighting so I'm curious to see how that will go. Also there's nothing wrong with being guided through a crowded place to meet others Sparkpaw!!! I bet the two of them would be stuck without not knowing how to talk to others had Needlepaw not shown up. I love them, my gf is mocking me saying I'm a Sparkpaw kinnie.

Apprentices will like learn about a thing and tell everyone about it all the time and assume its always true in every situation and thats valid I love kids like that. Also in my head Needlepaw kinda looks like a porcupine. Oh boo she's fatphobic >:(

I love apprentices they are so fun and silly, just making fun of the leaders like its nothing. The way they are clearly learning and absorving everything their warriors say and do like sponges its just ***chefs kiss***

Omg shadowclan is just full of 12 year olds help

And then the old person said "it sure is hard being old!" And everyone clapped

Shout-out to pretty Riverclan apprentice #481977 I love her

Leafpool: 👁👁

Alderpaw: I knew it im cursed and awful and terrible and I will never amount to anything

I wish the cats didn't seem to be giving up on him so easily though

Ah yes the classic thunderclan move "you suck, into the medicine hole you go"

The way sparkpaw changes the things she says and how she does when it isn't the status quo around her oooooooooooooyeaaaaaaa I love 1 autistic cat

Alderpaw considering your problems lesser than other cats won't help you deal with them better bro

I love Needlepaw's excitement about Alderpaw being a medicine cat apprentice, and her sarcasm, she feels like a preppy teenager

Ahhh this is so good, I am so thirsty for family moments like this, just Alderpaw bonding with grandma, I’ll definitely want to draw this one it’s so sweet.

Oh to be young and silly.

I really am enjoying like, Alderpaw’s struggles to seeing how he fits in the clan, how he fits in himself, how he wants to be seen and what he wants to be, it’s really good. I Am Engaged(tm) With This Plot.

SPARKPAW NOOOOOOO but also Yes I want her to be shown vulnerable and weak please 

POP, god watching this stuff always awful, the cats must have thought he broke her ahahah

Also, really great that they learned from Dovewing and now like leave choices and discussions about prophecies between adults

And plus Brambles seemed to take the time to explain stuff to him, seems he wont be going alone either the 1 thing is that he will be the only one knowing what the journey is really about, why though??? I didnt read Firestar's Quest or whatever why does Skyclan need to be secret??? Seems quite silly really!

YESSSS SANDSTORM GET HIS ASS FIGHT FIGHT LOVE THIS LOVE SANDSTORM

I could feel squirrelflight nearing explosion here, this was very fun, i wish they werent hiding this though!!!

The secret thing is showing to be a plot point so I am once again Very Engaged

Also, wonderful dialogue bit, someone asked Bramblestar why an Elder is going and:

Lovely perfect perfect

I miss you dovewing

SQUIRRELFLIGHT LOVE YOU

Oh boy this is it

Traveling book moment

Graystripe: Soooo you're excited to go on the journey to the old territories and Skyclan?

Sandstorm: Yes! It's been ages and-

Graystripe: I'm sure the tribe will love the visit too

Sandstorm, groaning: Oh noooo I forgot about how the tribe is in the way of every journeyyyyy noooooo they're such a racist caricature, please tell me you have a plan

Graystripe: Yes don't worry about it the writers forgot about the tribe in my comic book so you can just use the excuses i did to actively avoid it

Sandstorm: Oh thank Starclan

Sparkpaw's desperation to prove herself oof, her anxiety with understanding the prophecy, oh boy, and Alderpaw feeling too overwhelmed by the questions and not managing to talk!!!! I am so glad they are both autistic

Hoping "Being Leader" wont mean theyre putting nonsense responsibility on the apprentice again

Ah good Sandstorm is on the lead again, as she should, she should have been leader she would have been great

I can't believe Alderpaw thinks I look stupid and diseased :( /j

Everything about this twoleg scene was scandalous I loved it, Sparkpaw just toppled over a trash bag and they are eating from it, iconic, also did those twolegs throw out a whole turkey? Damn

Its not that Sparkpaw is freakishly good at hunting she is very hungry and constantly on the watch for things to eat

BRO Ive never been in a road where the drivers are this wild, throwing bottles out of the car????? Ive seen Fruit being thrown like once or twice, what the fuck!!! I'm glad they are going to wait until the morning to continue

Okay I was not expecting Needlepaw to show up this girl is chaotic I love her

ACTUALLY YEAH WHY DIDNT THEY TELL THE OTHER CLANS ABOUT THIS SINCE THE PROPHECY IS ABOUT ALL THE CLANS???

Needlepaw is like Rono from Bambi 2 if he wasnt a mean bully and thats very epic

Very curious character though, how come her mentor isnt teaching her the warrior code properly? Is that an issue with all apprentices?? Is the clan overwhelmed by 12 year olds and they won?

Having lots of fun trying to play the game "what animal are they describing this time" the erins made here, im glad they're in a farm. Worried about Sandstorm though :c

Fuck im worried about sandstorm a lot, her wound hurt on Me

Yeah water is good youre right sandstorm

Aw man I hope she's okay let her at least survive to meet skyclan please

NOOOOOOOO SANDSTORMA A AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Sandtteooonrjrbbbmmnnnnnnnnnn

I am so sad

Alderpaw denying it, Starclan shining upon their vigil, everything crushed me i cried

Alderpaw considers Nihilism

Haven't seen a cat thank starclan for prey in a while its

Oh look they time skipped a journey! They don't tend to do that thats nice

I'm so excited to be meeting The Skyclan that everyone in the fandom knows now

So far they seem kinda mean but thats most clans at first glance really

Okay somethings up

I uh have heard of Darktail pretty sure he's a bad guy so yeah something really bad happened to Skyclan

Am worried

Darktail sounds like an evil himbo* i may be enjoying him actually

*himbos are usually nice by default so he's just evil and stupid and strong

Does needletail know these cats already?????

Ah

Shit

Oh okay fuck

I've been quietly reading the rest because I am just concerned and I want them to be okay as quickly as possible

Waterfalls are a classic nice

Oh boy time for our unlikely duo of Alderpaw and Needlepaw to get out of a Mess!

I did not expect this to end up with the two of them journeying into parenthood, but I'm happy it did

Well actually I'm very unhappy theyre so lost and there's no sign of Skyclan I am very worried for everyone involved Sparkpaw must be feeling awful!

Twigkit is a great name

Yeah this ended terribly

Overall! Frigging loved it this book was GOOD and a great start for the series I am very excited to read the rest, SO WORRIED ABOUT SKYCLAN THO AAAA the characterizations were great the characters were great the pacing was fun and I didn't get bored once!

I think o only wish I had read this sooner really so I could look up others thoughts without getting heavily spoiled about the last books, I can watch a few videos already though thats a start ahhaha. But yeah it was great and it felt very good to read, haven't swallowed up a book so quickly in a very long time!!! Very happy I finally got my hands on this 💕💖💕💖💕💖 cant wait 2 start the next one

If you read all this, hope you had fun hahaha, ill be making more of these cus theyre fun and I like talking about warrior cats thats just my thing

Til next time

[elizabethrobertajones]

Hey 😊 What are your thoughts on not!Lucille being included in 12x15? I feel like I'm the only one (unpopular opinion coming) but I hated the way they did it? The fact that Dean ENJOYED using the bat (or at least seemed to), and was looking at it/handling it with REVERENCE creeped me out? It just drew parallels with Negan that I didn't want drawn? I mean I get that it's JDM, but Dean should never be paralleled with Negan 😭😭, it betrays who he is as a character just to get a cool reference in😭

Heya! Funnily enough I ended up in the same place, kind of. At least, being totally horrified by it, after I had a very good laugh on first impressions. I don’t think they shouldn’t have done it though because it was a great joke on first impression and then the fridge horror of it all actually works really well for me thematically with exactly what was going on in that scene ANYWAY so it was actually an incredibly clever and layered joke that I think happened to just fit in with something they were trying to tell anyway.

I actually talked out everything I had to say about it in my watching notes, so I hope you don’t mind me C&P-ing them to save time, after I already C&P’d a conversation with @mittensmorgul to save time on writing these, so really this is incredibly incredibly lazy :D Laziness squared.

Pfft some extras from the Walking Dead wander into the Bunker making obvious pop culture references. Do we even analyse that mention of Dad or do we just laugh hysterically and move on?

-

Wait so that time when they seemed to have it on set they weren’t just fucking around with the baseball bat because they felt like making one but it was actually going to be in an episode oh my god

-

I wonder if Mary has been watching The Walking Dead or if she hasn’t had time.

-

Being distracted by Mittens:

elizabethrobertajonesWait - Sam is clean… is this meta or are we still in the pop culture reference?

mittensmorgulThe things on Dean, “ghoul, wraith, siren.”

elizabethrobertajonesyeahThey fought a SIRENWHAT HAPPENI want to know everything

mittensmorgulI DON’T KNOW?!

elizabethrobertajonesI bet if it was “back to back to back” they didn’t have time for it to be complicated

mittensmorgulI mean, DEAN fought the siren, Sam is completely clean

elizabethrobertajonesWHY IS SAM CLEAN

mittensmorgulAnd Dean’s been wearing his underpants for four daysPeople are screaming OOC

elizabethrobertajonesoh god

mittensmorgulI have no idea

elizabethrobertajonesAhahahahah  "Frodo"

mittensmorgulSort of reminded me of how he looked after he killed the stynes

elizabethrobertajonesIs that a thing

mittensmorgul:D

elizabethrobertajonesmaybe they intentionally USE those code namesmaybe Mary talked to Samwait if Mick is telling Sam where to gohas he given them “back to back to back”

mittensmorgulyes…

elizabethrobertajonesand Dean did all the killingand Sam was cleanOkay THERE’S the symbolism I was looking for :P

mittensmorguldo go on…:D

elizabethrobertajonesI am literally paused just at “Frodo” and his missing campers message so idk what happens nextbut yeah :PDean’s being used as the weapon here and Sam’s coordinatingAka trying to turn him into Ketchor Mark!DeanSam doesn’t have any blood on his hands for these huntsand they’re coming too fast for Dean to process them and work out shades of grey….

mittensmorgulYep

elizabethrobertajoneswhich means the Negan thing is probably a reference to how bloody it has all beenand not just a joke >.>

mittensmorgulnope

elizabethrobertajonesthey’re trying to turn him back into a bloody single minded hunter like Johnthis is awfulI LAUGHEDnow I feel horrible about it all :P

elizabethrobertajonesAlso Dean not being a germ freak about it all is probably a bad sign >.>

-

elizabethrobertajonesOh no Sam lyingepically

mittensmorgulyep

elizabethrobertajonesreminds me of 8x01 when he tells Dean how he found Kevinbut he actually did thatDean like Purgatory DeanWait fuck that baseball bat is his purgatory weapon*slides under the table* Go away NeganThis is worse than the Eliot Ness thing

To clarify that last reference, it’s when they get to the uni campus and Sam explains in great detail how he tracked Kevin via his IP address and router and stuff, while Dean sits there unimpressed eating his first burger back from Purgatory. Despite actually being shown as the better HACKER (thanks, “Strictly into Dick” moment) Sam’s got a broader computer knowledge while Dean seems to have just intuitively picked up the software Frank and Charlie taught him better than Sam, probably because Dean learns the tools of the trade while Sam is, really broadly, more aligned with lore and research (this is a gross oversimplification for both but all these moments play into it) 

I think it was also that Dean forgot computers while he was in Purgatory and had to sort of re-learn being in the modern world and showing him not following computer babble was a good way to show how his mind was working right then… he re-learns it off-screen and within a few episodes was perfectly competent again. Dean making silly comments about computers only being good for monsters and porn also echoes that sentiment while he’s in a sort of over-hunted exhaustion because I think the point was to show him in a very particular state where all the Dean danger signs are flaring up, from not being precious about keeping his home tidy and initially rejecting the shower, to almost… tempting him with the high of killing monsters endlessly, and making him channel the darker part of himself that gets involved in killing. The attack dog imagery wasn’t spelled out for once, but Sam being completely clean showed the imbalance even before we see he’s getting all the cases…

Anyway Dean channelling Negan is awful and I haven’t even seen TWD but the meta links are brilliant even with a casual outside eye on what’s going on there, because the shadow of John is over everything all the time, and Negan is like… a worst case scenario or something, a way to really explore the idea of John as the boogeyman he is in the narrative because there’s a fresh reminder out there of Negan being like… a pop culture renowned worst villain ever contender because he’s really horrifying people and making big pop culture waves as far as I can tell sitting over here really not caring what JDM or TWD are up to and hearing all about it from multiple sources anyway :P I was wondering if they’d sneak a reference in but that was extremely blatant. It would be for someone who’s actually watched TWD to comment in-depth, but anyway linking John and Negan in the narrative is CLEARLY pulling pop culture strings to make a point, and one that works in the story… 

Not to say John was that bad, but to remind us that he was a dark, ruthless hunter, for example in 2x03 he was compared to Gordon, and we’ve always known he was falling out with mainstream hunters, and clearly with a black and white revenge-y approach to monsters that would fit well with the BMoL’s goals. He instilled “saving people, hunting things” in Dean (who passed it onto Sam) but 1x01 and 1x02 are a lot about taking up the mantle of that job because John’s moved on, abandoning everything to do with working regular cases and saving people, to work on the revenge mission. It’s clear that Dean especially in season 1 and both of them in general are much more focused on saving people, and Sam in 1x22 has his huge moment at the end of picking family over revenge, after which in 2x02 he clearly gets onto the same path Dean was on in 1x02 of focusing on the job and saving people… Anyway that’s all in contrast of what we learn about John while he’s around, which is mostly that he’s running around doing plot stuff and throwing cases their way to deal with, and not behaving as a regular hunter who’d work those cases himself. He’s on a quest to get revenge where that darkness has consumed him, and we see all season through Sam, what that means with the danger it could consume him too, until Sam rejects it at the last moment. But in many cases revenge makes Sam reckless and impatient and he leaves or argues with Dean about why they’re following orders and working regular cases, so if you parallel them together, you see through Sam that John had no interest in “saving people hunting things” any more, and that it had probably only been something he did on the side to his revenge mission anyway, emotionally. Like, he starts the family business, but out of necessity, while his sons are raised in it and as a life, changing the way they relate to saving people…

Sorry, this is really rambly but I get the feeling no one ever reads my long rewatches where I write very long essays about this sort of thing, so I’m trying to summarise in a few paragraphs something I’ve written like maybe 100k words on at least after wandering through season 1 and 2 getting really invested in the early Winchester family drama :P

Anyway! tl;dr John is still haunting them, especially when Dean is in a bad way, ESPECIALLY when he’s being made to prioritise “hunting things” over “saving people” because there’s a REALLY fragile balance and Dean only functions well when he’s over on the “saving people” side, and if he’s not, angst follows :P Even just being made to hunt monsters non-stop immediately wears down on Dean’s humanity, and so you get a parallel like this, and to Purgatory, Mark!Dean, and generally showing all sorts of the good parts of Dean stripped away. >.> I think it’s a warning we should be WORRIED about Dean, NOT a direct comparison between Dean and Negan, especially as he makes the comparison himself between John and not!Lucile, and therefore the parallel is between John and Negan, and Dean’s just caught up in that as an incidental part of his characterisation, but probably isn’t going to go around braining people willy nilly.

[icharchivist]

Cross was killed by Innocence (literally, Apocryphos shot him w/Judgement) for having been with the 14th. Bookman was captured and is now dying because of having been with the 14th at some point. Lavi got tortured because of the above. Allen is dying because of the 14th. Out if all of them Lavi is the only one who didn't have a choice to be involved w/Nea at some point. He's guilty by association. Even so he must lose 2 important people because of the hatred others have for Nea.

you’re ENTIERELY RIGHT oh my god. 

And it’s funny too bc Allen is dying because of the 14th both because the 14th is trying to take over (so because of a Noah, like Bookman), and because Apocryphos is hunting him down to fuze with him (so because of the innocence, like Cross). So while Bookman, Cross and Allen’s suffering/death are all started because of the 14th, they all suffer from different sides.

Also funny considering Bookman was officially on the side of the Order with a past with the Noah, and that Cross has a past with the Order but had been too much being on a solo quest for the 14th sake, so for the Noah. It’s kinda interesting to me too? 

Like let’s put it that way

Bookman:Is implied to have been with the Noah > The 14th got involved > Ended up in the Order > Got captured and tortured by the Noah because of the 14thCross:Was with the Order (as far as we know) > The 14th got involved > Ended up mostly Rogue to help a Noah > Got locked up by the Order and killed by the innocence because of the 14th

If Allen is also the Lost Apprentice it would mean that his direct “The 14th was involved” had an impact on him on both cases. And he had in the past been lost to the 14th by accepting him in his body, and is now getting lost to the 14th by fighting for refusing him.

There’s a lot of parallelism there and it’s all the 14th’s fault. 

But like you mention Lavi is mainly a collateral damage there. And he’s losing people he loves due to the 14th which would give him plenty of reasons to be angry at it goes by. 

Man I really hope that gets acknowledged, Lavi already has the most personal antagonistic relationship with the Noah aside from Allen, so to have him react to another Noah having doomed both his father figure and himself and now his best friend? I’d love to see that ahhh