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gocrazygostupidtheories · 3 years

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AH AH OW OW OW

I’ve been trying to look into sources of story inspiration for Amphibia because I am not smart enough to predict what will happen, and I think I’ve found a few connections or patterns that can help predict certain story beats and character mysteries based the sources Matt Braly has said to us (excluding his personal life events for obvious reasons), or just sources for people who know these topics better than I do.

For the actual plot itself, he’s said his general love of fantasy has, but the more specific sources include:

The Dark Crystal (I’m assuming just the first film.)

Chrono Trigger (going for the first game too because I am lazy.)

Magic Knight Rayearth (originally a manga, so I’m trusting the source material.)

Studio Ghibli films directed by Hayao Miyazaki

The Legend of Zelda (again, very general and I think he’s referring to the first game?)

Lord of the Rings (I don’t know if he means the film trilogy or the books so I’ve tried to mash together both.)

Batman: The Animated Series

Gargoyles (Disney)

I honestly cannot be bothered to do the lower four and I will probably update it once I get around to it. If anybody has any more, please tell me. It should be noted that I’m not an expert, and I didn’t even know some of these existed, so I may miss a few things or get something wrong. If that’s the case, please tell me! I’m basically going to go through these one by one, and then do an overall summary for both groups of things that can be seen as inspiration in Amphibia so far, and stuff I find slightly alluding with mini-theories mixed in. So, whoopee. It’s a long, long post. It is important to remember not every event or bit of information I’m listing will absolutely happen in Amphibia, but I am finding similarities between other inspirations or things that may match up with the character.

THE DARK CRYSTAL

The Dark Crystal’s plot is that said a shard of the Crystal of Truth was shattered, and that brought around two races: the Skeksis, and the Mystics. Jen, a Gelfling, has to restore the shard to the Crystal to save Thra, the planet this is set on. Already we have mentions of crystals, fantasy and other-wordly planets.

The designs and set are very mediaeval-fantasy, specifically English mediaeval-fantasy. Creatures are often enlarged and over exaggerated animals, the Gelfling are almost fae-like and the Skeksis being disturbing fusions of various creatures, part reptile (alligators do exist in Amphibia, seen in Scavenger Hunt as an example), part predatory bird (herons and many, many more) and part dragon. Bugs do appear quite a lot, often oversized ones. Surprisingly, there are no real-life amphibians to my knowledge. There’s also English inspired buildings in Amphibia, such as the Tudor mushroom-cottages in Wartwood and many of them having English accents.

Though it’s a movie meant for kids, and is rated PG, it’s surprisingly dark? Like, I can’t speak for people who grew up with it but most have said how they were terrified of it when they were younger. One of the directors, Jim Henson, said his main intention was to bring back the darkness of Grimm’s fairy tales and it was unhealthy for kids not to be afraid (bonus detail, he produced The Muppet Show, which has been referenced in Amphibia through Kermit as a special guest). It in includes, but is not limited to: genocide, war, the end of the world, climate change but make it mystical, body horror, way too much murder, animal abuse, death, totalitarianism, emotional ambiguity, harmony and the balance of power and immortality. I think we can all guess where Matt took inspiration for certain events happening so far, or what we can see happening soon, especially with the “immortality” part if he does include such a topic.

Oh, and many of the other characters of varying relevancy we’ve grown to love die. And the main character’s love interest does get stabbed in the end and temporarily dies as a sacrifice for a ritual. And the main character, for a while, just blankly stares and cries in shock holding her dead body. But, do not fret, she does get revived and the two kiss as the land is restored. Go wild, shippers, and good luck Plantar and Grime fans.

The Crystal itself is almost like the heart of Thra, and is linked to the wildlife and its well being. It is linked with all living things and its energy reverberates all around Thra. The Crystal is actually sentient, and can communicate verbally on rare occasions through projections and images. It nourished itself through the light of three stars (we’ll get to that later), and while nourishing would release an intense beam of light that had healing properties on direct exposure. However, it was shattered in an attempt to cleanse evil from a groups’ souls when somebody gave into their evil nature. The crystal, in a daily ritual, prolongs peoples’ lives and can suck the essence out of living beings, turning them into slaves. It’s also purple. I’ve seen, and do enjoy, the questions as to why purple is such a prevalent colour in Amphibia, so here is my poor contribution: a lot of these are actually seen in Amphibia. The entire episode of Anne Hunter (it does sound silly, but then again, Matt has said some of the most important scenes aren’t the most plot relevant episodes)? The projection of Sprig? The hunting dance? Also, the more obvious examples of the bursts of energy being released when a gem is recharged in a temple, and the fact the box is considered to be so dangerous. My guess is that a possible fourth gem is missing or lost, either hiding somewhere in the box or in Amphibia. I would say the purple is just an Anne thing, but the fact it is so prevalent throughout the series makes me think otherwise.

A trio of some kind! The Three Suns/Brothers (Greater, Rose and Dying Sun) are a trio of stars Thra, orbits. Whenever all three of them fully align (people have said it looks like an eyeball, and with no shame that I will update eventually) which is a once in almost a thousand years event, it forms an intense beam to the crystal. The Three Brothers have their own folklore, where they all compete to win the hand of the daughter of the moon and return to battle again in an alignment. I don’t really think I need to explain this one. There are also Three Moons known as Three Sisters, but they aren’t nearly as significant or relevant to the original movie.

The Skeksis remind me of Valeriana for some reason? Maybe it’s just a “thing with a sharp beak in black cloak”, but there could be some connections. Originally, a fallen group of UrSkeks (tall, luminescent, psychic and from the furthest reaches of the Uni-Verse possible, basically like angels) were banished to Thra, and attempted to separate their good and evil selves through the crystal, but accidentally created two races from that division. The Skeksis were basically born pissed and had a huge fear of mortality and used the ritual to prolong their lives. They believed themselves to be the Lords of the Crystal and kept it in their very delightful silly little castle and hid themselves in black cloaks. When the crystal was restored, they transformed back into UrSkeks, who wore white cloaks. Now, I don’t think Valeriana’s evil or that afraid of mortality, but it could link somehow? Sadly, I’m not smart enough to think of why.

The Gelfling Clans, seven of them, are matriarchies, and women are pretty important and powerful people in the story. Matt has stated he was more interested in having a female main character for the story from some Studio Ghibli Films, so we’ll add this one to the “respects women” in this list.

CHRONO TRIGGER

In a fictional alternate universe to Earth, the lead characters travel through time to explore and adventure in different eras of time. It could also be considered an isekai, considering how different these time periods are, from the prehistoric wilds to the future cyber dystopia.

The isn’t a trio but instead a main cast of six: Crono, the silent yet fearless katana-wielding protagonist, Marle, the runaway princess, Lucca, Crono’s childhood friend and a genius inventor, Robo, a friendly and curious robot from the future designed to assist humans despite his robotic counterparts slaughtering them (remind you of any characters?), Ayla, a prehistoric village chief with unmatched raw strength and Frog, a former squire cursed to be in an amphibian form. There is an optional seventh character named Magus who’s a powerful sorcerer. Though, you can see a few similarities with some of them and characters in Amphibia. Marle is a blonde-haired, sheltered but vivacious and strong-willed girl who hates royal life and escaped into the Millenial Fair (a fair with all kinds of games and inventions) where she met Crono. Ever since her mother passed from illness, her relationship with her father has been broken, and you can fix it in the game as they finally recollect. She’s a healer, but her magical element is ice, and has techs (gadgets) that deliver strong water damage, but has a weakness to fire damage. Or, possibly the chief Ayla, another blonde haired, decisively confident and fiercely courageous woman who is physically the strongest in the game, and though she cannot use magic, uses her physical prowess and her hands. Another similarity is with Lucca, the inventor. She is classified as intelligent, inquisitive and shrewd who deals with problems head on. Raised in an environment where inventions were always present, she sometimes gets annoyed at her father for neglecting her for his creations, and witnessed her go through a horrible accident that left her unable to walk. Though she is physically weak and slow, she is a long-range combatant who uses techs that deal mass amounts of fire damage (her magical element), and occasionally has her father make new techs and special equipment for her.

Early on in the game, we find out the future is desolate as a creature called Lavos who has been dwelling under the Earth, has awoken. Also known as the Destroyer of all Life, Lavos is an alien that came to Earth to drain its energy, produce genetically enhanced spawn, and continue the cycle. He is summoned by Queen Zeal, a secondary antagonist who is fixated on Lavos in a desperate attempt to become immortal and will inevitably destroy the world unless he is stopped. He has three forms: the outer shell, black with orange highlights, a humanoid form wearing armour that does remind me of Darcy, and the Lavos Core, a creepy scuba-diver looking guy. The game has multiple endings, from Lavos destroying all of humanity to Crono dying while defeating Lavos and nearly all of the characters moving on. Though, that’s only if you forget to re-acquire him. Then it’s happy.

MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH

Three 13-14 year olds on a trip to Tokyo Tower are summoned to the world of Cephiro as the Magical Knights to save Princess Emeraude, the pillar keeping the world in balance, from the malicious Zagato. To do so, they have to revive their respective Rune-God they get their power from, and avoid Zagato’s minions while retrieving rare items. Except for the Princess Part, it seems like a pretty solid, though varied, inspiration from the plot or prophecy of Amphibia.

Though the girls are complete strangers except for a single interaction, they do become incredibly attached quickly. With their red, green and blue colour scheme (them?), each girl embodies the element they represent.

Hikaru, the protagonist, is red and represents fire: tomboyish, honest, brave, mature despite her innocence and incredibly strong despite being mistaken for a ten year old due to her height and attitude due to her kendo training she attends as her family run a dojo. She possesses the strongest heart out of the three and is the most enthusiastic about being a Magical Knight. It also helps that she's the strongest out of the three, shown with swords, bows and arrows and magic.

Umi is blue and represents water: despite her beauty and elegance, she is incredibly doubtful, over-protective and arrogant. Because of her upbringing as an only rich child with doting parents, despite her seeming calm and collected, she is really spoiled with a short temper, and because she speaks her mind, comes across as selfish. However, she does mean well, and cares alot about her friends to the point of over-protecting the two and worrying endlessly about them. She denies all the good or caring things she does by other people and is completely clueless about love and relationships, which is unfortunate as her biggest fear is being left alone. In battle, she is calm and poised while remaining loyal and proud, wielding a fencing sword and focusing on speed and effectiveness. The Rune-God (basically like helpers for the Magical Knights that form a huge fuck-you mecha) she had to revive, Selece, involved her choosing her friends or embracing the ritual to gain more power, to which angrily she chose the former, which was the right answer, and slapping him in the process.

Fuu is green and represents wind: despite always smiling and her polite attitude, is a strategist. She’s blunt, accurate and insanely logical. She’s quieter and more reserved than the other two, but she constantly stays calm and tries to think her way through a situation. She’s incredibly good at archery, and uses a bow and arrow before switching to a heavy sword only she can wield later on, focusing on defence and spells, and has an affinity for video games, mathematics and computer programming. She has an older sister who she loves and adores, but her parents are never mentioned. Unlike the other two, she probably has the best knowledge about love and romance, and her relationship with a guy is not questioned and is more obviously implied.

Though the colours are switched around, and having “brains, brawn and heart” is the base for nearly all trios, we can see some comparisons here, and if they are inspired and fully taken from it, some slight implications. We came to the conclusion that Marcy had siblings, so I feel like she’d have an older sister, and since Sasha’s family owns a pool and with her behaviour, we can assume she’s pretty pampered too. There’s a cool theory I reblogged by @fermented-writers-block about their theory that Sasha is related to water contrasting with Anne’s fire motif, and hopefully this is another addition to that theory-pile. And, if they are linked to three elements, we can assume Marcy is linked to air (she has been associated with butterflies, so maybe that could also mean something?).

Despite the seemingly more trope-y aspects on the surface, there’s just one slight plot twist near the end. They end up killing Zagato and go on to see the princess. However, it is then revealed to us she’s not doing great. The knowledge told to them from the start is actually a farce, and the reason why the world is in dismay is because Princess Emeraude was distracted from her duties because she fell in love with Zagato. As the pillar, she had to spend her entire life devoting herself to prayer in keeping the balance, but because of Zagato, began to think about more things than just Cephiro. The only way for her to stop being the pillar was for somebody else to take her place when she was dead, so she decided to summon the knights as the only people who could kill her. Zagato, who was also in love with her, abducted her and imprisoned her in hopes that she couldn’t summon them. When she did, he decided to protect her so they couldn’t come and kill her, sending out minions in hopes they’d kill them. So, basically, the real reason why the knights were originally summoned was to kill the person who sent them here, that quickly became to kill two people for being inlove under the guise of kidnapping and dark magic and have just murdered her lover trying to protect her from the people she summoned. And she is pissed. She turns into a darker form and beings to fight them in grief and rage, and realising they have no choice after being on the defence, murder her too as they cry. The whole theme of “love solves everything”, a common theme in magical girl stories and one that has been demonstrated in this one, gets two people killed because that’s what they embody. Their love was seen as selfish and evil, and they have just killed two people who would have been the types they would have been sworn to save like in all those other fights. It’s safe to say after they return back home, the girls are traumatised and cope in their own ways, from being silent and reserved (Hikaru, which we’ve seen Anne do from the mentions of Toad Tower and alot after the events of True Colours) to blanking out (Umi, remember Sasha zoning out upon entering the Plantar’s home?) to bottling up feelings of grief (Fuu, and do I even need to expain this one), and that this has changed them significantly. Though the damage has been done, later on, Hikaru is chosen as the next pillar and ends up destroying the corrupt system that prevents any more damage being done, and choosing to uphold those values of love. Princess Emeraude did not wish just to end her own life, but also the cycle that would harm others too.

This is just so, so much, but hopefully you get the gist. Since Andrias is all about undoing the prophecy, I can’t say for certain that undoing or ending it is necessarily good, but I don’t think it’s bad either. Since this show does live it’s moral ambiguity with certain topics and open perspectives about most things (thankfully child murder isn’t one of them), and with the limited information we have about the box and the Core, I can’t say for sure which route it’s going to go. All I can say is that it’s going to get messy. Though it does sound a bit doom-and-gloom, it still does remain a typical fun, run-of-the-mill manga with magical girls and mechas, so don’t worry too much, except for the more depressing bits.

It’s also serves as a feminist criticism of the shoujo drama, and alot of anime and manga in general: about how purity and innocence are attributed with naive young girls, and how adult, independent and strong women serve as villainous forces. It shows the slight horror of the situation as Hikaru says in the last words of the manga, “It can’t end like this”. Unfortunately, it did. They have been stripped of their innocence as they’ve just murdered two people and their former innocence is gone as they’ve arrived back in their world. People, especially women, are nearly always punished for being in love or gaining their own sense of identity outside of an oppressive system in Magic Girl Rayearth. Princess Emeraude having her own sense of agency and desires instead of constantly caring for the people is seen as a bad thing, and once she does mourn over her lover, turns from basically the embodiment of “young, pure shoujo girl” to “adult, corrupted villainous woman”. Women falling in love, especially adult women, are corrupted and renounce their “innocence” because of their political power and maturity. Women are expected to physically and mentally be “girls'', and that’s that. And honestly, I give so much kudos for Matt Braly, along with other creators, going against that (ironically while writing this, it reminded me of a response from him I cannot find for the life of me where he stated the complaints of Anne’s character he got from) and having such wonderful female characters.

STUDIO GHIBLI FILMS (DIRECTED BY HAYAO MIYAZAKI)

Films include: Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Nausicaä: Valley of the Wind.

I grew up with some of these myself, and let me tell you from first hand experience that some of these are terrifying for children. I’m very glad the next generation of kids, and some adults and teenagers looking back, are experiencing the same thing with our favourite 13 year olds breaking down in tears as they are injured and possessed. On the other hand, some of these are some of the most comforting and magical things to watch, no matter what age you are. These films can go from light hearted comedies and comforts to tear-jerkers real quickly.

But, no matter the film, there are usually more sensitive topics being discussed such as growing up, fear, change, family and especially the devastating effects of war and industrialism. Miyazaki often uses whimsy to explore these themes but still remains in touch with the core message, which I feel Matt Braly does do. He has described Amphibia’s core message to be about “past friendships and changing yourself for the better”, but also includes maturity, tolerance, the devastation of war and industrialism, the dangers of escapism, toxic friendships, culture, the importance of role models and parents, trust, death, denial and power which can be quite a lot to handle, especially for its structure. It explains it and demonstrates it in a way kids can understand, but also in a way that doesn’t feel patronising to older audiences.

From a quick browse at interviews, Twitter and Reddit, he has stated the protagonists from the specific movies Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and though technically not a Ghibli film, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind inspired him. But, I’m also including Princess Mononoke as it was apparently the movie that got him into animation. I will discuss things I noticed in the other films too, but I feel like these ones are the most prevalent in inspiration.

Spirited Away could technically count as an isekai. It follows a ten year old in the world of Kami, working in a witch’s bathhouse in order to free herself and her transformed parents back into the human realm. It’s the most popular film the company and he has produced and is held in high regard virtually everywhere, and for very good reason.

Spirited Away terrified me as a kid. And I mean yelling at the TV, covering my ears and eyes, forcibly turning it off and nightmares. One of my gripes is having written children just. Not be like children and act more like sunshine. And I think that Chihiro as the protagonist is just so well done, especially for a child audience. Chihiro’s not exactly a ray of sunshine: she’s stubborn, scared of nearly everything but with no survival instinct in her and starts the movie sulking and unfairly whining. But, she’s a ten year old, and that’s how ten year olds think and act. They’re not exactly blooming flowers, they’re ten year olds. And, in my opinion, by having her flaws well-established but also understandable to a less or more mature audience (either from relating easily to knowledge of the time), it is so much better seeing her mature, learn, grow and get what she wants versus a stagnant character who’s happy all the time except for maybe one dramatic scene. I’m glad Matt Braly embraced making his main character, and other characters, more inherently flawed and not just constant beams of sunshine (slight bias, but I just prefer my dynamics like that) that makes it all the more better seeing them flourish and upsetting seeing them suffer.

The isekai in this isn’t wished for or exactly good, either. For Chihiro, she’s constantly having to work while being picked on by her colleagues for being a human and smelling like one, being given the worst jobs and guests to handle and also being threatened to be turned into livestock and eaten. Chihiro is stuck in this situation because of her parents’ greed and over consumption, and she even Haku, someone from the Kami world, tells her to run as soon as she can for her own protection. The world is dangerous and foreign to her, without the comfort of her parents or family to help her and instead relying on her own abilities, so it’s no wonder she hates it. Because of her hard work and attitude compared to the constant greed of the others, she gains the respect and admiration of her colleagues (a few in particular) against Yubaba (or Natsuki), the witch. And because of her allies she can get through certain obstacles, such as almost forgetting her original identity, escaping other spirits or helping a customer fully get clean. She’s tough and brave, but she’s also incredibly vulnerable, breaking down when she fully processes the situation she’s in and acting in childlike ways. We can see similar parallels in Anne. She is dropped into Amphibia unexpectedly and spends her first few days stranded in the wilderness where everything wants to eat her, and then has to warm up to villagers who refer to her as a monster and a beast. Both characters learn how to adapt and overcome their situations with the help of allies and family they make along the way, and end up changing themselves for the better.

Unlike the devastating film that is Spirited Away, on the surface, Kiki’s Delivery Service doesn’t seem like much of a heartthrob. It’s a story about a 13 year old trainee witch who leaves her home for the first time to start her training in a big city. It seems like a typical coming of age story, but it’s just executed so well. Kiki, the main character, was a source of inspiration for Anne’s character. While it may not seem likely comparing the two on paper, both characters go through the very, very complicated process of adolescence and dealing with sudden maturity and independence from their family. In Anne’s case, however, it is forced independence, but both characters manage to make their way in this new and strange place through befriending people and making their connections (both literally find their new homes by helping their found families, in Anne’s case helping Sprig escape and befriending him and in Kiki’s case helping the locals and gaining their respect). Both characters become the local oddity of their respective homes, human or witch. But, because of their new setting, they find themselves growing or realising certain things about themselves, sadly being insecurities. Kiki is a loving and energetic but aloof girl that doesn’t know how to interact with the city kids her age, who cannot afford nice shoes or has a specific special talent like other witches, and because of the constant stress of her delivery job from various factors, she grows physically and mentally exhausted, or burnout. Her magic starts fading as she loses faith in herself and she loathes associations with the things she once loved: she cannot fly, and she cannot talk to her cat, Jiji. At the end of the film, while she gets the ability to fly again, she can no longer talk to her cat, but she is content and happy with herself. The film shows her progression and departure from immaturity and shows the loneliness and terror of maturity and growing up, but also shows how it has changed her for the better, and not the worse. In Anne’s case though? We’ll have to see. She has significantly improved, and has shown being significantly more mature and independent, but she’s also gotten a lot worse and probably hasn’t reached her lowest point, which is slightly terrifying. In Anne Sterminator, we’ve seen her and her parents, specifically her mother, struggle with the topic of her maturity too, which though addressed in the episode (communication good), may be a bit of a bigger problem than we think, considering her change in attitude towards the Plantars over the course of Season 3A.

Nausicaä was actually one I hadn’t really heard of until recently, but I heavily recommend you do. It’s really, really good. It is about a princess of a valley in a post-apocalypse world where poisonous spores grow into jungles with strange bug-like creatures. It heavily digs into themes like anti-war/violence and environmentalism, and the designs are just beautiful.

Miyazaki has stated that Nausicaä “is not a protagonist who defeats an opponent, but one who understands, or accepts. She is someone who lives in a different dimension”. Nausicaä, despite being a brave and skilled fighter, hates fighting and is incredibly humane and empathetic towards all kinds of life. She’s incredibly intelligent and skilled, especially for a sixteen year old princess, studying the Sea of Corruption (that is ironically the spore jungle) and its inhabitants, almost knowing how to communicate with them and also being an amazing windrider. Nausicaä is a fusion between the princess of the Odyssey with the same name, and a folk hero “The Princess Who Loved Insects”. Miyazaki said she is “governed by some kind of animism”, as she is, unknowingly, part of a prophecy as the hero “clothed in a blue robe, descending upon a field” (her main colour is also blue, by the way, and descending? Like how we’ve seen Anne levitate and with all the star references?). I have not read the manga, so I cannot confirm this, but she also apparently has psychic abilities, such as telepathy.

TL;DR

Anne’s Calamity powers could end up really good, really bad or both, but it could be “good power, bad context”. Marcy may have an older sister she idolises, and sadly, the possibility of neglectful parents and siblings, while Sasha (though we could all tell already) is rich and spoilt, she has a broken family from a single incident, probably the divorce, or something that could have led towards it and has something going on with her dad. Sasha, contrasting to Anne’s fire-inspired abilities, may have water-based ones if she ever were to access her Calamity powers. Marcy’s abilities are more uncertain, but air-related abilities could be likely. The prophecy is sketchy and possibly corrupt as Hell, and we are in for some world-breaking (literally) shenanigans. The Core may have been created in a desperate attempt to remain immortal. I’m begging that my silly theory on “the invasion with Darcy will bring an eclipse” will be right. The shippers will maybe have a ship become canon, but at the cost of an almost death, or even an actual death. Plantar fans and Grime fans are nearly definitely fucked as there is a high chance of death. The real villain is the strive for power, more obviously with Andrias, and if the Night is different from the Core, more literally the embodiment of power. For the constant purple, there may be a fourth purple gem which could be what that frog in the mural is holding in the opening that could be the sort of power-source or heart of Amphibia that maybe got put in the box or is hidden somewhere in Amphibia.

#this is awful but atleast its done #amphibia #amphibia season 3 #amphibia theory #AHHHH #this took so long #and im doing a toh one next

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adhdvane · 2 years

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don't be sorry the answer was great!

and i also view saru as somebody who can't deal with being left for the life of him and it's somehow uplifting i'm not the only one who views him that way. i take it the stuff that happened to fei is something that would be better off discussed in dms?

-:/

i am also glad i am not alone in the saru not being able to deal with being left alone. i relate it back to hecanon’s about his childhood. (the idea that his parents were terrified of him as a ssc and kept him mostly locked in his room). hahaha some of the bad stuff with fei is probably better for dms only (i decided to finally change it so anyone can dm me on tumblr now. might as well). (uh i’m just gunna say c/w self-harm for anyone reading) but things that i can describe here was fei getting basically like branded (some kind of future deam/heat knife, shhh). Vanfeny carved MONSTER into Fei’s chest. This was to both torture Fei & Saru. Because other Saru headcanon’s are that the word Monster is a serious trigger for him. Fei is like so fucked up about it that even after the rescue, he hides it from Saru and then ends up slowly trying to like just make cuts and marks over it so it’ll become unreadable bc he knows how much it’ll mess up Saru. Like and Fei still continue to try and hide this two years later (bc we time skip) (which means he’s been hiding this from Saru successfully for two years) but Saru does get suspicious though, bc he’s worn these bandages for two fricking years. But approaching Fei doesn’t go well (he invited Asurei & ...ok so that person zanark was actually trying to break out was Kinako... the au is really dumb and full of stuff that happens just bc, but Zanark already does insane shit in canon. Basically Kinako was supposed to die in that attack on the hospital or whatever when Fei was born but Zanark rescued her, kind of as a thank you to Fei. Except, El Dorado got involved and was like yo, hold up, you can’t do this shit, you’re fucking with the time line, Kinako being dead is important and you can’t do this. So Kinako got locked up as a cautionary method. They were supposed to release her after the events of Chrono Stone, but there was paperwork to do and approvals to needed and it just... never got done. So Zanark was eventually like, you know what, fuck you El Dorado, I’m gunna break her out. So Uh, Kanako Alive. For Reasons. One of the Reasons being I Really Fucking Love Kinako and writing her is so much fun.). Saru does find out though, and see’s the M.O.N.S.T.E.R. scarred into Fei’s chest. I’m just... you know what, gunna leave the text form the au (rp bc it’s a really old rp that no longer happens), with uh some edits. (PLEASE FORGIVE MY WRITING FROM LIKE UHG GOD SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 2015-2016??) Saru’s stomach drops. Saru’s heart drops. Saru feels like he’s going to puke. His chest hurts. His heart is racing. He grits his teeth and clenches his fists. Saru is shaking. Fei… Fei would not write that. Fei would not write that. Monster. Monster. Saru lifts up a fist at Fei, face enraged, and punches-- --the wall behind Fei. Saru punches the wall behind Fei. It leaves a dent and a few cracks. Saru breathes heavily. Monster. He’s not a monster. He’s NOT a monster. You’re the monster. HE’S NOT A MONSTER. FEI IS NOT A MONSTER. No longer is a man standing in front of Fei. Only an enraged beast of an ape-like appearance remains. “WHO? WHO DID THIS?” okay infodump done

#ask #anon #:/ anon #sammy be quiet #sammy no #thank you for being interested in talking about sarufei #sobs it's not just that it's my old writing and it's embarrassing it's that 99% of the writing in the rp is like #was like just fcjking around and not caring about quality #kinda want to rewrite this whole scene tho #but uh yes there are some other things that happen to fei while he is kidnapped :)

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overobsessedfanboy23 · 3 years

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I Finished GX

I’ll talk about season four specifically before covering the entire show. I knew going into season four that it was shorter and saw people on Tumblr talking about how the season was rushed. After actually watching it however… Yeah, they’re completely right. I don’t think it’s as rushed as people say but yes, the stuff with Yubel last season was brushed over as well as the final arc involving Darkness (the being Darkness). They chucked Sho out of the narrative in a blink and you’ll miss it moment and the others are all picked off in one episode. The build up to everyone disappearing was pretty lacking but Judai’s final confrontation with Darkness was fine. The resolution was quite touching actually. The season also starts off a little dull for my taste. I’m not sure what it was, it just felt lacking especially right after the season three finale, which I rewatched with my sibling before jumping into season four.

That being said, I loved this season. I recently graduated high school at the time of watching this so Asuka, Sho, and Manjome’s stories about trying to decide what they want to do after graduating really interested me and got to me a little personally. I loved seeing how far these characters have come and them coming to the realization that they will continue changing. To talk about these episodes a little individually, Asuka’s episode was equally Judai’s, with Judai getting out of his funk a little and the two of them reaffirming their friendship by the end. Asuka also chooses to go abroad over staying at the school, which was close to my own real life conflict: choosing between my desire to leave my home country to pursue better opportunities or staying with my friends. I’ve seen multiple graduation plots but I rarely relate to them to this degree. Meanwhile, Sho’s episode was the weakest of these in my opinion. I didn’t care for Ryo being back, I thought his death felt very final and effective, and Sho inheriting his deck felt odd. Still, Sho coming into his own, fighting for his brother, and the two of them deciding to start a dueling league together was nice. Manjome’s story was probably the best of the three. He’s obviously my favourite of these three characters (although for the overall show it is is Judai again and I’ll get to that) but his story of trying to get into the pro leagues after constantly being rejected felt the most realistic and it was nice not only seeing Edo again but seeing Majome get a really good victory for his character. After these, there was also the episode where Judai duels Chronos as a thank you for the past three years which was also really sweet. Chronos was a little annoying but it was for endearing reasons and the duel itself was a really nice call-back to the very first episode. I was a little disappointed to be getting back to the Darkness plot after all these sweet episodes. However, they decided to do something really smart with this final arc by tying in the villain’s motivation with the students’ fears over going out into the real world and drifting apart from their friends. The darkness that ends up consuming them are their own anxieties and doubts about their uncertain futures, which I really really relate to. I am terrified of facing the future, especially with the pandemic still sort of going on. So, look, this season could be the most horrible rushed thing in the world (and maybe in some places it is) but I would still love it because it is exactly what I needed to hear right now:

I don’t think it topped the mastery that was season three but I personally related to it more. Regardless, both seasons had moments that made me cry. Overall, I believe GX was a better overall show than the original Yugioh. I think the cast was a lot more well-rounded, having the best anime protagonist in Judai and many loveable side characters with interesting stories such as Manjome, Ryo, Edo, Asuka, Sho, Johan, Yubel, and Chronos. I’ve covered most of these characters in other posts so I want to cover Judai:

I have liked Judai ever since the very first episode. He was a total sweetheart and his fun-loving personality was appealing and fun to watch, but he had the flaws of being overly arrogant and sometimes dense to balance him out. Unlike Yugi, he was also allowed to lose without the opponents outright cheating. Judai loved dueling and only wanted to have fun. As the show went on, Judai experienced traumatic event after traumatic event tied to dueling, which began affecting his psyche as early as season one. He does manage to bounce back to his fun-loving attitude both times in season one and season two but then season three and four came along and Judai can’t just revert to his old self again. He was forced to kill his friends, fell to evil, and witnessed even more of his friends being killed, believing them all to be irreversible, all because of dueling. Judai experienced traumatic event after traumatic event in rapid succession and was actually changed by them, like a real human being. He will always think back on these events and he learned the hard way that he can’t always have fun, even with something that’s supposed to be fun. Judai does regain his love of dueling by the end after his frankly amazing duel with Yugi but the effect on his personality still remains. Overall, Judai is my favourite Yugioh character. His development alone makes the show for me. That along with the great cast and amazing stories of seasons three and four really made this show something special for me.

I do plan to get to the other spin offs (including continuing Zexal with my sibling and likely 5Ds on my own) though I don’t know when I’ll get to them or if any of them will top GX. Then again, I didn’t think GX would top the original so we’ll just see.

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zuffer-weird-girl · 4 years

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How diid they gst into this mess?

A fight lead by some conflits on opposite yakusas from the past week has lead on the kidnapping of Overhaul's most precious treasure on this earth.

You.

The event has somehow ended up being on the top of some still on construction building, one of the future largest buildings in that entire city for that manner.

He just wasn't having a good evening.

"Ah." The main leader spoke, back towards him and the three man he trusted to hekp him get you back "I see you came then Overhaul. Such an honour." He looked over his shoulder with a smug look. His own subbordinates snickering from where they were.

"Save your fucking words, it means nothing to me. I hope you had a good life befofe regretting to even mess with the Hassaikai." He growled between tedth as he prepared to slip his glove off before the man turned his front to him, shaking his index finger.

"Ah, ah, ah! No need to use that power of yours or any of tge rest of your gang, well... unless of course-!" He smirked at one bald wearing sunglasses guy who had a grin that came from one ear to another...

His arm, that was a freaking tentacle lifted up a bit, showed you, hanging by the ankle of your left leg as you squirmed in fear of falling from that place.

"(Y/n)!" He shouted, extending one hand of his before retreating when your captor treatened to drop you, make you scream at the action... Chrono and Mimic had to hold back Chisaki if they didn't want a pancake of you or Overhaul losing his shit.

"So is true?!" The leader laughed before looking between you and Kai "Overhaul has someone?! Oh what a glorious day! Wr should celebrate even, am I right boys?!" The whole group laughed as Kai gritted his teeth under his plague mask, some hives threatening to show up due to how angry and nervous he was.

"The hell you want pUNK?!" Mimic yelled as the man chucklex darkly and paced around for a bit at the top of the building they were currently at.

"Well, I do know of this new "product" of yours. Is a very well selled bullet on the underground, and I think I might even take some advanteges of it." He stopped, crossing his arms behind his back with another laugh of his, extending one of his hands, shooking one finger at Kai "You're pretty good at what you do my pal!"

"Spill it out." Overhaul growled as hos rival smirked, giving a sigmal to your captor to hold you up even higher as he made gis point very clear.

"Give me the antiquirk bullets formula and Shie Hassaikai's leadership unless you want to see your little angel crash into a pile of concrete on the floor." He widened his eyes as Mimic shriked, pointing at finger at him.

"ThE fuCK YA ThiNk yoU Are BasTARD?!"

"Overhaul, we can't." Chrono murmured as he fell his body start to tremble.

"You have thirty seconds mister boss." The man snapped hsi fingers, and the guy with a tentacle holding you hostage was starting to loose his grip on your ankle.

His eyes widened in horror as he slowly lifted his hands up enough to shown his rival he wasn't planning to use his quirk neither attack.

"Have anything. Just don't hurt my partner." He spoke through teeth with furrowed eyebrows as Chrono and mimic widened their eyes at their boss.

"No! Kai!" You shouted as the main leader laughed, as if you had spoken a hilarious joke...

He frowned at yojr words before widening even more hsi arms when you showed a hidden knife on your hip that miraculously didn't fell.

"Kai? Is that his name?! Oh so romantic. But enough with that!" He shouted witha sick look at Chisaki, who gave a silently signal for Chrono, Mimic, Rappa and Tengai to get ready to fight "With the power of the bullets and the status of the Hassaikai I can take over the whole Japan in less than two months! Ohoho! Is not even close to dinner time yet, it is indeed a beautiful day." He smirked at his companions as you gave Kai a worried yet determined look.

You snatched the knife from your hip and stabbed your captor, making him let go of you as well curse out loud in pain as you luckily held on to one of the ropes of a crane that was in front of the building.

"ATTACK!" Kai shouted as he finally used his quirk and his subbordinates did as they told.

In the middle of the fighting, the leader scoffed before smilling maniacly as he saw you getting your balance back, using his quirk of metal manipulation he was ready to make that crane kill you.

That was his intention if it wasn't for Kai coming with a heavy punch on his jaw.

"(Y/N)!" He shouted as you screamed, holding for your life at the metal bar wuth your legs swing on the air "Hold still!" He shouted before he cursed when something sharp enough cut what was holding his mask on his face and cheek, he looked up in guard to see his rival yelling and knocking him on the ground.

"You think you're powerfull HUH?! Just so FUCKING full of yourself!" He smiled sadically as he pressed further more the bar of metal on Chisaki's throat. For some odd reason he wasn't able to use to his quirk on that damn bar neither reach for the fucker. "is no use kai! WITH ME USING MY QUIRK, YOUR CONTROL OVER THIS BAR IS EQUAL TO NOTHING!" he laughed as he narrowed his eyes before managing to overpower his strenght to snatch the bar of metal put of their grasp as he choked with one hand his enemy.

"Gove me one fucking reason to let you live now your damn pest." He hissed as the guy laughed brethless, slowly lifting one of his finger up towards you

"Because I am the only one that is controlling your little plaything's life!" He said in a breathy and pysochotic tone before snapping his fingers, he widened his eyes at that and immediately looked at your direction. The crame suddenly started to move and you weren't able to hold much longer.

You looked at Chizaki with teary and desperate eyes before shouting his names as your safe bar contorned, makung you fall.

"NO!" He shouted, all of the enemies down as the time seemes to go slower. His subbordinates tried to stop them... but his body seemed to move on his own as he jumped from the building.

Extending his arms and shouting your name, he saw the look you gave him. frightened by her life and his, which in less than seconds could end in a terrible death in this fall, making a little more effort, except for one arm he managed to take her hand and pull it to his chest.

"KAI WHAT DID YOU DO ?!" you cried, gripping on his clothing while he and you were getting closer to the floor. By the speed, his mask completely loosened and leaved his face, showing you that he was also seeing death coming closer and closed by any minute or second.

Seing him moving his eyes as if he was calculating someyhing he craddled you to his chest.

"Trust me." He said suddenly.

"WE ARE CLOSE TO DYING WHY ON HELL DID YOU JUMPED ALONG?!" Your tears flew from your face as you looked at him. His golden eyes that were once wide turned back as he frowned.

"If you're going to die by me, then the least i could do is be with you my dear." You sobbed as he screatched his arm next to the parts of the building that were already done with the concrete and glasses for the windows.

Accspting your fate you just burried your face in Kai's neck as you heard him counting numbers.

One finger, he just need one damn fi ger to touch that place on less than 40 seconds-!

"39, 38, 37-!" He tried many times but he was mere inches away from touching that damn construction!

"27, 26, 25, 24, 23-!" He heard your sobbing how much you loved him, wetning all of his shirt aa he cursed between couting, franquily trying to brush one of gis fingers on the building.

"13 fUCK-!" He finally managed to brush his middle finger on the concrete, shouting a "YES!" in glory as he embraced you closer, creating some type of slide to prevent you guys from falling.

Your screams didn't vanished as he used gis quirk, he only tightened gsi grip to manage to put you two safe on the ground... and he was relieved after who knows how long finally.

You peeked and gasped at seing you were still alive and still on your boyfriend's arms as you and him tried to catch your breaths.

He cupped your cheek, making you look up at him and it shockedd you enough to see that he also had one or two tears on his terrified golden eyes.

He breathed out your name before you succumbed to relieved crying as he crushed you in a tight embrace that you most gladly retribuited becofe he pushed your face away amd kissed you.

His lips crashed on yours as it grew wet by yours or his tears. Every time you paused a bit to breath, it didn't even lasted one second before yoh two were at each other again. Chisaki claimed your mouth and needed to feel everything about you.

A shout from beneath you two made you guys finally stop and look upward to see the mans looking down worried at you both.

"ARE YOU TWO OKAY?!" Chrono shouted at the top of his lungs as you simply gave him a thumbs up, not mindfull that the man couldn't see it or not as Kai chuckled at your reaction before peppering your face and lips with mofe kisses than you ever could hope for.

"I thought I lost you dammit.." he breathed out befofe letting a soft chuckle escape his lips as he craddled you in his arms and lifted you both up, not willing to let go of you anytime soon.

"Me too." You nuzzled onto him, not willing to let go of the safety feeling only Chisaki could provide "I was so scared." You whimpered as tears threatenes to spill befofe Kai wiped them away, touching forehead with you.

"... me as well." He breathed out befofe his look turned dark. You went to question it befofe he looked up and made you crouch down on the ground as well with him "Hold onto me."

One simpel command and you took it without questions, Wrapping your arms around his neck as he slammed his palm on the ground, creating a huge plataform to make you two get up on that building.

Right on top, you let go of his neck and somehow manage to fall on his arms in bridal style as he jumped from the made up plataform to tge building.

"You fuckers still fucking alive???!!" Rappa shouted as the guys surrounded both of you as Kai slowly and gently put yoh to the ground, holding onto you in your waist still as you hugged him.

"Thank godness..." Tengai sighed in relief before all of them grabbed their guns, excluding you and Kai and Rappa, because he fight with his fists duh, as the main leader got shkly up before being beated not only by Chisaki but by the others as well.

Immediately darknening his amber eyes, he went for him before your gentle hand on his chest made him stop before yourself got to him and kicked him... on his lowest areas.

All the man hissed in pain, yes, even Kai, as the guy fell on the ground hissing on pain before Chisaki put a hand on your shoulder and looking down at the leader.

"What now...? Going to kill me?" Even beaten up, the guy still had that cocky attitude.

"No. Much worse." Chisaki growled before tje poor soul's vision saw the last Overhaul's hand blocking their view before everything turned dark.

You sipped on your cocoa as Kai sitted besides you with a sigh.

"Long day?"

"Experiments and all that shit." He allowed himself to curse one time, hearing you giggle besides him and letting your drink down on the coffee table to snuggle up to him.

Lifting his arm awkwardly on the air he arched one eyebrow at you as you almost purred in delight.

"Do I make a good pillow now?" He asked sarcastically before slowly lowering his arm to bring you closer despite his harsh and cold tone of voice.

"The best..." you murmured, sleep taling over you as he pondered over his plan again, seing you were distracted "Kai?"

"What?"

"Why were you willing to kill yourself along with me that day? Crazy man." You giggled as he furrowed his eyebrow, rememberihg the events as he craddled you on his arms, resting his cjin on the top of your head with a sigh.

"Because... I-" He arched one eyebrow at hearing your snore, getting a glimpse of your face befofe chuckling aoftly, brushing one strand of your hair out of your face before lowering his black casual mask to peck your lips.

"Soon, we will be on a safer and cleaner world angel... I promise you. And I will never let go of you, my dear. Ever."

#bnha villains #bnha #bnha characters #bnha x reader #bnha imagine #chisaki kai #chisaki kai x reader #overhaul x reader #fanfic overhaul #overhaul #my writing #zuffer writings

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brightblueinky · 3 years

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Pardon me for the intrusion, but you're the only person I found who's still into CC and I have to ask: does the romantic aspect of Chrono's and Rosette's relationship seem lacking to you? Like I can see when Rosette starts to view him as a love interest (chapter 28), but I can't see when Chrono starts to view her as one. To me it feels like he only had an interested in Mary, and Rosette is just his very beloved friend; the kiss felt too sudden. I'm sorry, I just need a second opinion on this.

Okay I am so sorry I didn’t respond to this until now, I’ve mostly been using tumblr on my phone and using it to check a few blogs and occasionally the CC tag, and apparently tumblr doesn’t notify for asks on the mobile app? Or I’m not seeing it? Something. I have no idea how long you’ve been waiting for a response on this, so I’m really sorry! I hope you find this!

I think I need a reread of the manga at this point--a lot of the stuff I’m writing these days is going off of head canon which might not be 100% accurate anymore. So I’m just going to write this off the cuff. Gonna be a bit stream of consciousness! So this is definitely not a definitive opinion or even one I’ll always stand by, just how I personally feel in this particular moment.

So off the top of my head...

I think we see less things from Chrono’s point of view than from Rosette’s, which is part of what makes this tricky. This isn’t ALWAYS the case obviously (we see his sort of...PTSD dream flashback after Rizelle’s death, the flashback in volume 6 is basically from Chrono’s viewpoint since it’s mostly his memories, etc), but since one of the way the plot moves forward is the mystery of what happened in Chrono’s past usually the viewpoint is more centered around Rosette. I actually always assumed that Rosette was the only character that Moriyama would consider the protagonist until I saw that on a dust jacket for one of the books he said that BOTH Chrono and Rosette are (can’t remember which book, sorry! it was a fan translation).

Thinking about it, I think we see Chrono start to realize he has romantic feelings at the end of volume 6. I think that’s the first time he really, truly comes to accept his contract with Rosette as a good thing instead of just...the lesser of two evils, I guess? It’s when he goes “oh, yeah, I made the contract because otherwise she would’ve run off to solve the problem on her own, and I didn’t want to leave her alone.” I think that’s when he starts to really see Rosette as someone that’s on the same level of emotional maturity as him, too--earlier he occasionally teases her for being immature, but I think when Rosette tells him that she wants to share his pain, and Mary’s, that he sees how emotionally strong she is as a person and really respects that. Not that he didn’t see her as strong BEFORE, buuut like...he’d been so hesitant to share his past with Rosette until right then, and her response, I think, makes him realize how helpful having her support really is to him.

This isn’t really the same situation and is definitely my own personal reaction, but as I write this it makes me think of when I was dating my husband. I was initially terrified he was going to break up with me because I was bisexual--we both came from conservative Christian backgrounds and were homeschooled, and in the past he expressed homophobic sentiments--but I felt like I HAD to tell him because I couldn’t see myself in a long term relationship with someone I couldn’t be 100% honest with. His reaction when I told him was to immediately tell me he trusted me and cared about me, start to reconsider what he’d been raised to feel immediately, and he’s become one of my biggest advocates as I’ve come out to friends and family. Coming out to him was one of the best things I’ve ever done, but it was terrifying until I did. I can see Chrono having similar fears talking about his past with Rosette, and having a similar sense of relief and healing as soon as he realized how much Rosette is in his corner and how helpful having someone he can be open with actually is.

In the next chapter, Rosette holds Chrono’s hands to comfort him while they briefly talk about their current situation (Chrono being held in, uh, demon jail? and Rosette being taken off of her mission to find Joshua), then they both blush and get flustered when they realize what they’re doing. They babble small talk afterward while inner dialogue repeats Rosette’s promise to share Chrono’s pain, and Mary’s too. And then RIGHT AFTER is when Remington walks in and takes them to Aion’s old house on the beach so...that’s about it.

So I think the manga does show that, either right after he’s pulled out of his coma by Rosette or sometime in the aftermath, Chrono is starting to acknowledge that his feelings for Rosette might be more romantic. But it is VERY brief, because literally everything after that is two volumes of the big finale, taking place entirely over no more than 24 hours. Everything after that is rushing to tie up as many loose ends as possible--Fiore being Satella’s sister, saving Joshua, Joshua beginning to grapple with the gravity of what he’s done and been a part of and what’s been done to him, Aion and Chrono’s confrontation, the Order and the Sinner’s confrontation, Rosette’s near death experience, Aion’s motivations revealed, Chrono and Aion’s true relationship revealed, Azmaria finally coming into her own in terms of taking ownership of her powers, the culmination of Aion’s plans (and near-Apocalypse caused by it), the true nature of demons, the deaths of most of the Sinners, Shader’s defection, Joshua and Fiore’s relationship being somewhat resolved, Rosette and Chrono’s relationship being somewhat resolved...like holy shit there is SO. MUCH. THERE.

On top of that, I’ve got the Japanese reprints and while I can read basically no Japanese (HUGE GRAIN OF SALT INCOMING), I’ve pointed Google Translate at some of the omakes and from what I can tell, Moriyama talks in the omake in...volume 6, I think, that he basically had a whole other volume’s worth of story for the flashback that had to be cut! If I’m understanding it right, it’s like...from Remington’s perspective, and involves some Native American tribe or reservation that had connections to the Sinners, and the woman in charge of the orphanage Joshua and Rosette grew up in was a child living in a town nearby....

Basically, from what I can tell? Moriyama had a LOOOOOOOOT of background stuff he wanted to go into in the back half of Chrono Crusade that he wasn’t able to do for time reasons. I’m not sure if his editor gave him a deadline, or he realized it would be too meandering, or what exactly happened, but...have you ever heard the “iceberg” theory of writing? Basically, flesh out as much of the backstory as you can--know everything about the town your story is set in, the family of your protag and their relationships with them, what they eat for breakfast, just...every little minutia you can possibly think of, but most of that won’t get into your story. The audience will only see the tip of the iceberg, but knowing so much background about your setting and characters will help it feel more alive and inform your decisions as you write.

I think Moriyama had a fucking huge iceberg, basically, and I think he actually wanted to show more of that, but...couldn’t. So we get little pieces of art that reference this entire backstory for Satella we never see, and Aion, etc....that gets small nods but doesn’t make it into the manga.

And I think there’s a lot of things Moriyama wanted to give time to breathe in the manga but due to space limitations, couldn’t. So that’s why the second half of the manga literally takes place from Thanksgiving to sunrise on Christmas Day and is...the entire second half of the manga. He’s rushing to get in as much as possible while still letting the story flow as a story and sometimes...it’s not perfect.

So....I think unfortunately, yeah, one of the casualties of that is that we don’t get a huuuuuge amount of Chrono’s side of the relationship, because most of the moments that really shows that they’re heading in that direction is from Rosette’s POV. Other than the scene I already mentioned, I think you could argue that Chrono’s reaction to “the place that Chrono can go back to was decided 4 years ago!” might also be the first moment he starts to consider how important Rosette is to him, but that doesn’t HAVE to be romantic...Chrono’s reaction to her death (and then realizing there’s a chance to revive her) again emphasizes how important she is to him, but it doesn’t HAVE to be romantic...the kiss at the end is the only thing that really 100% says “Yes, this is romantic and not platonic” on his part. And...yeah. It feels a bit sudden. There’s some underlying hints before that but...I mean, I know about them because I’m obsessive about character growth and narrowed in on it in subsequent rereads, I’m not sure if it came through right away on my first read of the manga, and I even knew going into it that they were at least meant to be teased as a ship, so, yeah.

Also I briefly want to admit that as I’ve gotten older, the age gap bothers me a little more. Not enough for me to abandon the ship, just, you know, it’s something I acknowledge will turn some people off. I think Chrono, maturity-wise, is meant to be seen as...about 20. I think Moriyama mentions in one of the early omakes that that’s what he looks like in his unsealed form, we know that when he leaves Pandaemonium it’s right after his coming of age ceremony so he’s about what a demon would consider to be 18 in terms of emotional (and physical?) maturity, and especially since he’s been sleeping for 50 years since that period of his life he doesn’t have the experience that his age really indicates (which Aion blantantly points out near the end). So I’m not THAT bothered by it because I don’t think that Rosette and Chrono are actually that inequal in terms of emotional maturity but it’s still...there, and...I mean he met her when she was 12...so...yeah that’s a bit weird!!

I’ve just gotten to where I shrug my shoulders and go “look, every ship in Chrono Crusade has something problematic about it, if you’re going to be a fan of Chrono Crusade you’re probably going to have to grapple with the fact that it’s messy and human and nobody is 100% good or bad in the manga, and that’s part of what I like about it, so, that’s cool, but it’s probably not for everyone.” It’s actually one reason why I’m kinda OK with CC not being as popular as some of its contemporaries because...some of the anti-shipper stuff I’ve seen online...oh boy.

So...I guess in conclusion, I think there’s stuff there in the manga to build up the relationship a little bit, but a lot of it is from Rosette’s POV and most of it is kind of subtle. I wouldn’t be surprised if Moriyama had wanted to flesh it out more obviously in the manga but the second half is stuffed full of wrapping up character arcs and questions and loose ends so it just didn’t really have the time to get as much focus. I really like the ship a lot, but a lot of it comes from analysis of the characters and how they relate to each other rather than it just being...canon. I’m okay with that, I’m the sort of person that will ship characters that never even meet just because I think the dynamic might be cool, but...I’m not surprised that not everyone would be into it, either.

And now I kinda want to make...a series of posts analyising the different relationships that are...either canon or teased in canon, see how much they’re built up, etc. Because this post makes me think a lot about Joshua/Azmaria and how confused I was by them apparently being married in the epilogue on my first read, and only seeing the hints Moriyama hinted about them possibly being a couple in the manga on subsequent rereads (and even then HO BOY it’s so subtle it makes Chrono and Rosette look really in your face aaaaaa). BUT I HAVE RAMBLED ENOUGH FOR THIS POST and, again, I need a reread. Maybe soon....!!!!

#chrono crusade #anonymous #ask #shipping #chrono/rosette #character analysis #ramble #long post #I'm so sorry this doesn't have a read more cut I don't know how to do that on an ask #I both love and hate tumblr #Anonymous

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pocketramblr · 4 years

Text

A crash-course on the most sought after super power

because apparently he’s been targeted for at least fifteen years now!

Anyway, i have now organized everything we know in canon about Erasure, so lets break it down.

1. Shouta needs to look at someone directly to activate his quirk. some types of cloth are thick enough to keep this from working. (See: the final exam fight)

2. Shouta can erase mutation-type quirks. Yes, i know what he said at USJ, but consider the context: A villain was goading about how he could ‘do nothing’ about heteromophic type quirks, and he responded with a ‘yeah but i don’t need my quirk to beat you.’ He’s fighting with a villain. he’s not about to tell that villain the true inner workings and exactly how it works, Shouta’s smarter than that and goes for a logical ruse- on the off chance a villain ever spreads that ‘eraserhead cant erase mutations’ then it will be even easier to catch them off guard. When he does tell someone- A group of heroes he’s teaming up with for whom it is relevant that they know how it works, he tells the truth.

(”It” refers to the eraser bullets made from Eri.)

3. The truth is that “Erasure” might more accurately be named “Pause” but ya know it was probably named by a four year old so. It works by cutting of the ‘Plus Alpha Factor’ or ‘Quirk Factor’ in a persons brain that lets them use their quirk. When Erased, Bakugou can’t use explosion, and Ojiro can’t use his tail. (See: the meeting just before the Shie Hassaikai Raid)

4. Erasure can erase more than one quirk at once. He erases at least three villain’s at a time at USJ (Gun fingers and movable hair and bull dude), he erases both Momo and Todoroki at once during their final exam, and he erases Tabe, Setsuno, and Hojo at once just before leaving them to Suneater to detain.

5. Erasure can erase more than one quirk in a single person at once- Nomu was not immune to erasure at USJ, it just wasn’t rendered useless by it. Shouta thinks to himself “He must be strong enough to break my bones without his quirk” and that’s totally possible for anyone. Nomu didn’t need to use any quirk factor when it was an unholy mass of so many people’s muscles shoved together. You’ll notice that the mangaka conveniently took Shouta out of the fight before Nomu needed to use his quirks to grow back his limbs, because he could have stopped that. Further, Woman (yes that’s actually her name) says in chapter 268:

Quirks, plural. Yes this is the official translation off Viz, so Woman has now confirmed Shouta’s theory back at USJ that he could nullify Nomu’s quirks, but he didn’t need them.

6. Erasure works on One For All- he’s erased Izuku a couple of times in the past, on the first day of school, after the provisional license exam, etc.

7. Erasure was the real target the day that Oboro died.

so as terrifying as that is, look to the little middle bubble there: “Back then”

It’s possible that fifteen years ago Erasure was a sought after quirk, but that for a time after, and even now, it’s not so much.

The fact that AFO lost his eyes sometime in between is probably the reason for this but technically, no confirmation. It could be a lie and he still wants Erasure, or just to rile Mic up.

Aizawa is targeted by other groups for his powers as well like Chrono and the 8P. yay....

8. Erasure can erase copied quirks as well as original quirks- Ujiko tells us that he gave his original ‘Life Force” quirk to AFO, and that now he has just a copy of it. He’s devout enough and AfO is selfish enough that that makes a lot of sense.

9. Erasure only stops when Shouta blinks. If his vision is obscured by anything other than his own eyelid after activating it, the target stays erased. We see this in recent chapters with him erasing nomus and turning his back to keep fighting, sure that they will remain erased, and we also saw it earlier in canon: After leaving 3/8 of the bullets to Suneater, he tells him he’ll keep them erased as long as possible, but that the kid should knock them out asap. Then he leaves the room and runs down the hall, but has not blinked since erasing the trio. As Such, they still can’t use their quirks for a while until Tamaki’s had some mental monologuing, tried to punch one of them, cut himself on a hidden knife, and then they monologue for a bit. Then way further down the hall, Shouta blinks and they can use their quirks again.

OK so i think that’s everything we know about erasure in canon. Fill free to add on with more things, or to ignore it for fics, of course, but when theorizing here’s the things to know.

#bnha meta #shouta aizawa #quirk science #love how ive been meaning to write a costume meta for over a year and havent but can pull out an erasure explanantion in less than an hour #thats the power of the beserker button babey!

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riversofmars · 4 years

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Unusual time of day for an update, I know, but seeing as I’m working late the next couple of days and didn’t want to put it off, here we are! Time for a Thoschei heart to heart! Read on AO3 or below!

Chapter 11: Where I Stand

“Oh come on, crack a smile.“

Missy looked around, trying her best to keep her anxiety in check. She was surrounded by Cybermen. She had never been scared of them before. Cybermen had always kept to themselves, inhabiting only the most inhospitable planets, reclaiming the land for others, making use of their unique make up… They had never been hostile or weaponised before… but there was a first time for everything and in the hands of her childhood friend, they could be something terrifying indeed. She looked back to him as he fastened the control bracelet around his wrist and raised his impressive eyebrows at her in amusement.

“Why are you doing this?“ She asked shaking her head. She was at a loss.

“Because I can.“ He shrugged.

“You already have everything.“ She gave a bitter laugh. He had bent most of the universe to his will, what did he need an army of Cybermen for? And why was he showing her?

“Almost everything.“ He corrected her. “See as I was conquering the universe I was thinking, there are two things, just two, left. Two wrongs that need righting.“

“I can think of a great many more wrongs that need righting.“ Missy retorted, unable to stop herself but he ignored her quip.

“Firstly, Gallifrey. My own people. They should be delighting in my triumphs, after all, is this not for the glory of the Gallifreyan Empire? Would it not please Rassilon to know the galaxy is finally bowing to to a son of Gallifrey?“ He spread his arms and in response, the the Cybermen started doing jumping jacks. He could make them do whatever he wanted, Missy realised. “But no, my own people have deserted me.“ He snapped and the Cybermen ceased their movements. “Cowards. Hiding somewhere. I will find them one day, you know, and oh the fun we will have. I cannot wait to see Rassilion’s face.“

“And you want me to help you find them? I don’t know where they are either! I’m an outcast, same as you.“ Missy replied bitterly. She had been looking for Gallifrey as well, not to return, no, but to make sure it was save from him. There was only so much she could do now. She had realised by now that she couldn’t stop him but she could still do some good, help people as she came across them. She would keep going as long as she could. She could only hope this wasn’t the end of the road now.

“Yes, you are. Same as me.“ He grinned.

“No, I don’t mean, I’m nothing like…“ Missy shook her head, that wasn’t what she had meant to say.

“Oh, but you are, Missy. And that’s what I’m trying to show you. That’s the other thing! Just think, the fun we could have together again. Remember how much fun we had at the academy? We were the best of friends.“ He stepped closer and held out his hand to her. She didn’t take them, she took a step back instead.

“That was a long time ago.“ She replied.

“But we could have it again.“ He smiled that incredibly charismatic smile of his. “Are you not mad at them for abandoning you?“

“They couldn’t have known…“ Missy evaded the question.

“Yeah, you just tell yourself that. Imagine if they actually never turn up again. Imagine if Gallifrey is actually gone for good. Then we are the last of our kind. Wouldn’t you rather walk the universe together? Friends reunited at long last. Everything you ever wanted I could give to you.“ He took the bracelet off and held it out to her.

“Doctor…“ Missy shook her head, she couldn’t believe he was serious. She eyed the bracelet with suspicion. Was there a trick to it? She could use it to stop him if she wanted.

“Don’t call me that, that is not my name anymore.“ He snapped, sharper than he perhaps intended.

“Emperor…“ She rolled her eyes at him. It was pompous and laughable in her opinion but he seemed to take it seriously indeed.

“Has a better ring to it, don’t you think.“ He smirked and she sighed:

“You are so wrong about so many things. Yes, you may have everything but does it make you happy?“ She asked shaking her head to herself. “You’re always looking for more, will it ever stop? Will it ever be enough? Will anything ever calm that rage in your hearts.“ It was a question she desperately needed an answer to.

“I don’t think anything will ever do that.“ He shrugged. “And why would I want it to stop? That rage is what made me. I can do whatever I want and the universe falls to its knees.“ The Emperor took a twirl, tightening his grip on the bracelet and all around the Cybermen dropped to their knees. “Don’t you want a taste of that?“ He held the bracelet out to her again.

“I can’t let you do this.“ Missy knocked the bracelet out of his hand and crushed it under her heeled boot. It wasn’t much but it momentarily destroyed his control over them.

“So what are you going to do? Stop me? Fight me?“ The Emperor laughed, spreading his arms out again daring her.

“Regrettably, I’m afraid I may have to do just that, yes.“ She replied. She knew there wasn’t much she could accomplish right now but she would keep trying.

“Oh Missy. Make the smart choice, just once. What do you even have to fight for?“ He smirked.

“Someone has to.“ She shrugged giving him a sad smile. How she wished to have her childhood friend back but it seemed like that Doctor was long gone.

“You and what army? You’re all alone.“ He snarled.

“And you have everything.“ Missy gave a bitter laugh. “But the drumming never stops, does it.“

——

“Yes she was here.“ Clara answered, River pushed herself closer to the door if that was even possible, she had to find out what was going on.

“And?! What did she want?“ The Emperor’s incredibly impatient voice sounded.

“She didn’t come here on purpose I don’t think, if she did, she didn’t say, she just… attacked me before I could do anything, then bolted.“ Clara explained. River had to admit she was a good actress, she sounded believable enough. Her life probably depended on it.

“You should have someone look at that.“ The Emperor snarled, River could only presume she was referring to the cut Clara had given herself.

“That wasn’t the Doctor, she wouldn’t hurt a fly. She did it herself to cover her tracks.“ Another voice cut in and this time River felt her hearts nearly stop. The voice sounded exactly like her own. “I told you all along she’s concluding with her!“

“What possible reason could I have? Your paranoia is…“ Clara was protesting as River tried to wrap her head around what she was hearing. It seemed as though there were versions of them all here. River had had this creeping suspicion that something wasn’t quite right with this place. She had been putting it off as side effects of the extraction chamber, but perhaps she should have trusted her instincts. This appeared to be some sort of parallel universe. It was the only thing that made sense.

“Your Highness, we have reason to believe she’s hiding in the citadel somewhere, most likely in disguise. Found a change of clothes a few corridors away.“ Another female voice piped up now, perhaps a new arrival.

“She’s probably back in the city…“ The other River mused.

“She didn’t use the passage way, I have men guarding it.“ The voice River couldn’t place retorted.

“Don’t leave a stone unturned until you find her, something brought her back into the palace after she’d left already, there must be a reason for it, she won’t go far.“ The Emperor snapped. “And if she doesn’t give up the information, I will have her strung up for the festivities tomorrow.“

“I know you have something to do with this. She came here to talk to you when I ran into her. And then she teleports in here and is gone by the time we arrive, very convenient don’t you think.“ River couldn’t argue with her other self. She was right on the money. She felt a sense of pride in knowing that whichever universe was concerned, she retained her intelligence and ability to see through a ruse.

“The Emperor doesn’t seem to think so.“ Clara bit back.

“I’ve got my eye on you.“ The other River warned her.

“Whatever you say your royal highness.“ There was no small measure of distaste in Clara’s voice.

“Both of you, stop it now, I’ve had enough of your bickering!“ The Emperor interrupted. “Let’s go, River.“

There was the distant slamming of a door and the apartment went quiet. River slowly stepped away from the door, trying to make sense of what she had just heard.

——

When the Doctor walked through the protective darkness of the Vashta Nerada her mind was in a haze. She felt better for being back in her own clothes but it made her stand out all the more. When she made her way through the camp, all eyes were on her. The Doctor didn’t know where to look, the destruction was devastating. People were working feverishly to build temporary shelter as night had fallen and they stopped as she walked past, shooting her accusing glances. This was all her fault, the Doctor realised, as if she wasn’t feeling terrible enough as it was.

“Missy?“ The Doctor called as she spotted her assisting an elderly couple in putting up a piece of heavy cloth for cover. She looked around in surprise.

“Doctor! You’re alive!“ She exclaimed and tied a knot to keep the sheet in place before excusing herself from the others. “Where have you been?“ She asked as she stepped closer. She looked her up and down. The Doctor’s body language spoke for itself. She looked exhausted and drained.

“The Monk, is he here?“ The Doctor asked looking around. “The chrono lock…“

“It’s gone. Was that your doing?“ Missy managed a small smile. The disappearance of the lock had been unexpected and inexplicable but knowing the Doctor had had something to do with it reassured her.

“That’s something at least…“ The Doctor sighed, she hadn’t really expected Clara to keep her word so this was a nice surprise.

“Doctor, what happened?“ Missy asked, part of her curious, part of her worried. The Doctor’s expression wasn’t one of triumph. She didn’t seem to be quite with it, even her t-shirt was the wrong way around.

“I uh…“ The Doctor blushed, realising what she was picking up on.

“Where did you go? Did they do something to you?“ Missy was searching her expression, trying to figure out what was going on. She was glad the Doctor was seemingly unharmed and that she had managed to free the Monk of his death sentence but she couldn’t help but wonder at what price.

“I… I’m in big trouble… really big trouble and I’ve done something bad…“ The Doctor whispered as she was beginning to process everything that had happened at the palace. Encountering River, the Emperor’s wife… what she had done with her, or rather, had been willing to do. And then to find her River, alive and well, she felt so incredibly guilty. And to top it off, Clara, her demands and threats. She had no idea what to do about it. Would it be the right thing to do, to help her topple the Emperor? Or would it only be transferring the problem from one tyrant to the next? And what would it mean for the Doctor if she played accomplice to this? If Clara could even pull it off. What if she was found out and they discovered her River?

“Okay, alright, I’m sure it’s not as bad as all that…“ Missy was taken aback by the devastation in the Doctor’s voice.

“What happened here?“ The Doctor asked looking around, the destruction only adding to her sense of desperation.

“The Emperor paid us a visit.“ Missy explained softly though she didn’t know how to sugar coat this.

“I’m sorry, this is all my fault, and now…“ The Doctor buried her face in her hands trying to compose herself. She was no use to anyone like this.

“Let’s go and sit down and then you tell me what happened.“ Missy offered softly and ushered her along to what was left of her tent. The front of it had collapsed but once they got through the layers of torn-up sheets, they got to the sleeping area that was still intact. Missy sat the Doctor down on the bed. She took her hand in hers and gave it a squeeze. It was this gentle gesture pushed the Doctor over the edge. She started crying.

“Oh Doctor… I’m sure it’s not as bad as all that.“ Missy didn’t know what to do at first. She was not sure how to deal with such a display of emotion. They had all hardened to the world around them, doing their best to keep their sanity, but what was most startling about it was that this was the Doctor. The Doctor who shared a face with her childhood friend who she was sure she would never find in a state such as this. Throwing caution to the wind, she pulled her into her arms and held her close. She stroked her hair, wondering what could possibly have brought this on. For a long moment, neither of them moved.

“I really messed up Missy, from start to finish…“ The Doctor wiped her face in embarrassment as she finally pulled away. “If I hadn’t been so selfish and used that extraction chamber…“

“Is that what brought you here? How is that possible?“ Missy looked at her confused. While she felt encouraged that the Doctor was starting to trust her and share things, it made little sense to her. She had never used an extraction chamber herself but she didn’t see how the technology could be connected to crossing between parallel universes.

“I don’t know if that’s the reason why I’m here but it’s what I was doing when I crossed over…“ The Doctor explained in a small voice. “In my universe, Gallifrey is destroyed, the Master…“ She looked up to Missy noticing her tensing a little at the mention of her name but she didn’t want to lie to her. Maybe it would help her understand why she had been so distrusting of her initially. “Sorry…“ She mumbled and took Missy’s hand, if only to show that she knew the difference between her and the Master from her own universe. “The Master destroyed it all. But I thought the extraction chambers might still work… and there was no-one there to police them… it was the only thing I hadn’t tried yet…“

“Did you lose someone?“ Missy asked softly though she felt she already knew the answer. It wasn’t how an extraction chamber was meant to be used but it sounded like the Doctor had been desperate.

“I’ve lost so many people.“ The Doctor laughed bitterly as more tears fell from her eyes. It was the most painful thing about being here, seeing the Emperor’s friends alive and well, while she had lost everyone. Missy was the exception. The Doctor couldn’t deny how wonderful it felt to have her, of all people, be here to comfort and support her. She had missed her childhood friend so much.

“Who were you trying to get back?“ Missy went fishing for a handkerchief by the side of the bed.

“My wife of course.“ The Doctor mumbled. “She died a long long time ago… And I thought if I got her back, I wouldn’t feel so lonely anymore…“ She took the handkerchief but just held it in her hands as she hung her head. River was back, she had managed it, but this was not the reunion she had hoped for.

“What’s your River like then?“ Missy asked sitting next to her again. She couldn’t help but feel deep compassion for this woman. She was indeed the exact opposite of the one she knew and she wanted to know her better. How she wished she had met her sooner. It was selfish, of course, the Doctor didn’t belong here and she needed to get back to her own universe, but for a moment she thought they could be the friend to each that they both had been missing.

“Hell in high heels.“ The Doctor laughed a little to herself, how did she best describe her? “Nice hair, clever, has her own gun and unlike me doesn’t mind shooting people, which I shouldn’t like but kind of do…“ They were lines recited from memory of course because she couldn’t find appropriate words to do her justice.

“Worrying, that doesn’t sound all that different to our River Song…“ Missy joked, unsure of what else to say. The words struck the Doctor to the core, it was the same misconception she was beginning to regret so dearly.

“She died saving four thousand people she didn’t know and me, on her worst day, when I had no idea who she was.“ To this day, the Doctor couldn’t forgive the cruel twist of fate. That the day River died was the day of their first meeting. She blinked away her tears. “I made her kill me, to fulfil a fixed point in time, had her take the fall and the prison term for it… She didn’t get a normal childhood, she was abducted and conditioned to become the perfect assassin, all because of me. My River… is the strongest person I know and she didn’t deserve the things that happened to her because of me.“ She balled her hand around the handkerchief, her sadness giving way to anger. She was so angry over everything that had happened to River but most of all, she was angry with herself. For how she could have been so weak. “And despite it all, she still fell in love with me… she deserved so much better.“

“It sounds like you love her a great deal too.“ Missy gave her an encouraging smile as she let her words sink in, almost regretting her initial quip.

“You should think so, shouldn’t you.“ The Doctor shook her head to herself.

“What’s that supposed to mean?“ Missy frowned, slightly confused but the Doctor pressed on:

“And now she’s here.“

“What?“ Missy exclaimed.

“I don’t know how… I thought it hadn’t worked.“ The Doctor shrugged. She still couldn’t quite explain it. Evidently, the extraction chamber had worked as planned, and why shouldn’t it have? She had done everything exactly right. Plus, River was dressed the same as she had been in the Library. It all added up. What she couldn’t explain was how she got here, how either of them had.

“But that’s good, right?“ Missy didn’t know what else to say, surely these were good news? “I mean, an extraction chamber, it’s not exactly by the book but… it sounds like you’ve been through a lot so I understand…“

“Yes it’s good, of course it’s good, it worked but…“ The Doctor looked to Missy struggling to explain.

“Where is she now?“ Missy asked, realising what the problem was.

“With Clara…“ The Doctor answered burying her face in her hands again.

“I see.“ Missy said softly, she saw where this was going but let the Doctor explain in her own time:

“And she’s keeping her hostage, blackmailing me to help her.“

“What is she wanting you to do?“ Missy touched her hand to her shoulder. She knew she couldn’t be much comfort right now but she had to try.

“Take the Emperor’s place tomorrow and transfer power to Clara…“ The Doctor didn’t see any point in keeping this for her. Despite her natural distrust of her, she had seen enough of her friends turn on her to know that the opposite was very possible as well. Missy was her only hope right now. It felt so good to finally meet a Master she could actually trust.

“Did she say what she was planning for tomorrow?“ Missy frowned trying to keep up.

“She didn’t let me in on the details, she said to leave the plotting to her… Do you think that’s good or bad? Maybe you can get rid of the Emperor after all… though I’m not sure Clara would be an improvement… Could be an opportunity for you though…“ The Doctor didn’t know where her head was at by this point. She started rambling, as dangerous and desperate as the situation seemed, surely this could also be an opportunity too. It had to be. Something good had to come out of it. She had wanted to help and this might well prove their best and only opportunity if they could only turn this to their advantage. It’s what River would want and expect her to do.

“Doctor, we’re not in the business of toppling tyrants anymore, we haven’t got the capacity…“ Missy gave her a smile that was both kind and sad. As much as she would have liked to entertain the possibility once, these days she could barely keep the people down here safe. They had just had a painful reminder. A play for power amongst the Emperor’s rank and file was far above their pay grade.

“But if we found out what Clara is planning…“ The Doctor pressed on, surely she had to see that this could be their chance. Missy gave her a smile, she couldn’t help but admire her optimism but she shook her head. “But why not try?“ The Doctor asked, she couldn’t understand Missy’s hesitation.

“It’s no use, Doctor. Truly. Do you not think we’ve tried everything?“ Missy said softly.

“Then why are you still here?“ The Doctor snapped, surprising herself with the outburst. “You could just run, that would be your best chance, flee to the furthest reaches of the universe if you wanted to. But you’re still here.“ Suddenly she was angry again, it wasn’t even directed at Missy in particular, it was frustration with the entire situation.

“And leave everyone else to suffer? Can’t do that.“ Missy retorted, taken aback by her accusatory tone.

“You still have hope.“ The Doctor insisted taking Missy’s hands.

“Doctor…“ Missy shook her head.

“Please, Missy, you can’t be giving up.“ The Doctor pleaded with her. She couldn’t begin to understand what Missy and everyone here had been through, but she knew if she was anything like her - and in this universe she was - she could convince her.

“I’m not giving up. I try and focus on the things I can make a difference with.“ Missy tried to explain.

“But this might be the one chance we have to finally change things!“ The Doctor exclaimed. “Obviously not help Clara but if we can find out what she wants to do, maybe we can get rid of them all!“

“Doctor…“ Missy wished the Doctor would just stop, she knew she was right but the risk was too great. They had been managing okay, hadn’t they? Things would only get worse.

“Just entertain the possibility. I know you want to, you’re just scared!“ The Doctor could see it in her eyes.

“Doctor, this is too dangerous to involve ourselves in. For a start, no matter what Clara Oswald might be planning, I don’t think she would ever be able to outwit the Emperor. Most likely outcome is that she will get herself killed.“ Missy shot back, the Doctor hadn’t been here long enough to understand yet. The bitterness in her voice gave the Doctor pause.

“But she must have something she didn’t have before, else she wouldn’t try now when she never did before, it’s a huge risk…“ The Doctor tried to reason. Clara had a good life as it was, she wouldn’t risk it if she wasn’t confident she could succeed.

“Yes it is. And you are the thing she didn’t have before, you realise that, right?“ Missy exclaimed.

“Yes, maybe but all she wants me to do is take the Emperor’s place.“ Surely, Clara had to have more aces up her sleeve.

“That’s all she told you. Believe me, she will realise she needs more than that from you, and while she has your wife, she will be able to get your help, won’t she?“ Missy retorted, trying to make her understand. “Don’t think it will be that easy, Doctor.“

“I don’t. I realise that.“ The Doctor knew that none of this would be easy. She found herself in an incredibly desperate situation but the more she thought about it, the more she realised that in this fight, they also had something they didn’t have before: The ability to work and stand together at last. The Doctor and the Master. She just had to make Missy see the value of that. She straightened herself up and gave Missy a smile. “Here is the thing, Missy: In my universe? You wouldn’t be here. You would have run away, faced with a situation like this. There was this one time, I’d spent so much time with you and tried so hard to make you see, help you, get my friend back… and I thought you had changed - that my Missy had changed - but she turned her back on me. When it came to it, to making a stand, facing certain death, she walked away. But I couldn’t let those people die then and you’re doing the same thing here, now, that’s why you haven’t gone. And that is the reason why we will succeed.“

“Doctor…“ Missy sighed. She just didn’t give up, did she.

“I know it’s scary, like you say, you’re barely managing and let’s be honest, this is barely living, is it? It’s surviving but even that is only a matter of time now, surely you realise that.“ The Doctor squeezed her hands.

“She left us alone for so long before you came…“ Missy didn’t mean for her words to hurt her or accuse her, it was just a fact. They had been left to their little lives for the most part and so they had stopped trying, assuming this was the best they could have.

“Yes and I’m very sorry about that but she’s sensing that too, that’s why she came here to intimidate you. That this is your chance. You also have something you didn’t have before now: Me. And you don’t have to coerce me into helping. I want to.“ The Doctor explained, pleading with her to understand.

“Why? Why would you do this? Are you always like this? Making other people’s problems your own? Your best bet would be to try and go along with what Clara wants and try and get River out and go back to your own universe, flee and let the chips fall where they may…“ Missy gave her a half-hearted smile.

“I can’t do that.“ The Doctor shook her head. The thought had certainly crossed her mind, to come up with a plan to save River before Clara could force her cooperation but not only would it be difficult, it would also ruin this opportunity they had. The cracks in the Emperor’s reign were showing, they had an opportunity to smash them wide open if they took a chance. The more she thought about it, the surer she was that this was what they had to do. The Doctor still didn’t know whether they would even be able to cross back into their universe and if they wanted any hope of a decent life for themselves or the people here, this had to be done. Her sadness and anger gave way to steely determination and she could see in Missy’s eyes that she knew that too.

“You really think we could win?“ Missy asked softly and the Doctor grinned, knowing exactly what she needed to hear:

“I’m not trying to win. I’m not doing this because I want to beat someone, or because I hate someone. It’s not because it’s fun and God knows it’s not because it’s easy. It’s not even because it works, because it hardly ever does. I do what I do, because it’s right! Because it’s decent! And above all, it’s kind. It’s just that. Just kind.“ She pulled Missy into her arms and held her close. “Who I am is where I stand. Where I stand, is where I fall. Stand with me.“

#doctor who #fanfiction #river song #thirteen #thirteenth doctor #river x thirteen #river x the doctor #thirteen/river #space wives #clara oswald #missy #thoschei #thoschei friendship #the doctor & the master #action/adventure #Mirror Universe #mirrorverse #through the looking glass

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steve0discusses · 4 years

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Yugioh Ep 31: Oh. It’s Just a Duel for a Whole Episode

Full disclosure: I’ve been...putting off this particular project--not burned out on Yugioh or anything--just been overwhelmed with other things that have been somewhat unavoidable. And then I was like “I need to do something for tomorrow Rach,” so I turned on today’s episode thinking “well...gonna be a week before I finish this one” and it was entirely a duel.

This is great for me! I don’t cover duels here!

And then I did it and let it just sit in my drafts for nearly a week. Ahhhh this year.

Normally I’d just put this combined with another post, especially since we’re SO CLOSE to finishing this season, and I want to finish it before 2020 ends. I want to have one single good thing come out of this year. (lol prior to 2020, I would have finished this well within a month, RIP my productivity)

So enjoy these...I think there’s...9 caps for this episode? Amazing.

First off, this was originally going to be the only cap for this episode.

Because I kept thinking, as I was scrubbing through, that Raphael lost. But then he just...kept going. He in fact never dies this episode. I was wrong. Wishful thinking. What actually happened was a little bit different.

Bro note (The wiki has Raphael listed as both Raphael and Rafael. The Yugioh style guide must be wild.)

First off, the crew are having just the time of their life cheering for Yami in this end of the world very terrifying situation. But this is sort of their zone all the time. Just like me every day of fire season.

I’mma fight you, Quarantine 15.

Currently losing, PS I am very much gaining 15 lbs. But at least I’ll have so many opportunities to do so many V-ups in the process.

(read more under the cut)

And also, this happened.

This voice actor just delivering the line “MAGICAL PIGEON!!!” As metal as he possibly can. This show. This show just goes 1000% ham and that’s what makes it Yugioh.

Magical freakin pigeon.

This episode was mostly Raphael being a total hypocrite.

And like...maybe Raphael’s just speedrunning. You gotta break game logic to speedrun. You gotta play fast before the world ends. That and like...he’s totally done this before, it’s just that this time, Raphael went hella evil to do it, vs every other time he’s done this.

...I’m pretty sure Raphael had a big hand in murdering Yugi and abducted Mr Hawkins for a full day but youknow...NOW he’s really evil. I guess...every other time he was only “slightly less than hella evil.”

That and he was protected by his mom-card that he worships, and when Pharaoh deleted it from the field, Raphael just went dark.

Which honestly--that’s some wild Yugioh religion just now. Worship this card, make it your Mom--it will protect you from the most evil spells. Even protect you from this insane Pharaoh King of Games. Damn. Imagine that?

Like, Imagine if Yugi had just worshiped a card, then he’d be totally solid right now. He’d be totally normal and not cursed and probably attending High School like a normal kid because cards can just DO that.

And like this is reaching, but like...are we saying Seto hasn’t worshiped that dragon wife this whole time? Like he’s not just worshiping that, he’s straight up shipping that, so like...is there just endless power with Dragon wife? So when’s Dragon wife finally going to protect him from going completely evil? Never, right?

Like...I barely remember...but Seto was never given the option to use Orichalcos right? So we never found out if the Dragon wife would have protected him from it’s all engrossing power. But assuming he had, would it have had a consequence because he loves his Dragon so freakin much?

Man, quarantine did a number to my brain, disregard that fanfiction I just thought up just now, I’m just trying to figure out...the Raphael canon here. He’s like...Seto problems of card obsession...but somehow weirder. I didn’t think it could get weirder but...It did?

Anyway, while Yami does what he can to not think about how much time Raphael just spends vibing out with his cards, Pharaoh remembers a conversation he had with Yugi. Well...not so much the conversation...

...as it was the massive fireball he shot at his better half.

So Yami realizes “Well if I destroyed Yugi to heal myself, then clearly I can destroy Raphael and heal him, too” which sure was a conclusion he drew!

So Yami decides to do what he does best, which is mind games that make you doubt your entire identity.

Like maybe he leveled up his fog when he visited Yugi in Hell--but Yami can do this now. Honestly I think he could have done this the whole time, but just lacked confidence without the Yugi half of him.

And Mokuba, witnessing this grand force of darkness and magic is like “NOT TOURNEY LEGAL OMG THIS IS WHY YOU HAVE NO SUBSCRIBERS” just like a true Kaiba.

I guess it gives them time to break out a snack pack for Mokuba while he mourns the fact he can’t record this or profit off of streaming it in some sort of way. And...maybe it’s time for them to put Joey down? Maybe take some nice photos from the sweet view off the side of this huge building? I mean you got Seto now and he’s got two selfie sticks for arms and no one is like “hell we can finally fit everyone into the group shot”? No?

Just gonna keep staring at that orb huh?

Straight up I haven’t seen any modern Yugioh, but I hope they do address game streaming at some point and I hope that they reveal that Mokuba would end up with his channel locked and banned like every other day for so many TOS violations. (And so would Joey Wheeler but for completely different reasons)

These kids have just...they’ve just seen so many evil orbs and are so over it.

Anyway, here’s a link to read these recaps in order if you just got here.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

And, my God, please vote.

#ygo #yugioh #recap #photo recap #episode recap #yami muto #raphael #rafael #Tea Gardner #Tristan Taylor #Mokuba #Seto Kaiba #Joey Wheeler #'s corp #rafael's card mom he worships #return of ORB #but not Seto's other brother that's a different orb #S4 #Ep31

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katsukis-sad-angel · 4 years

Text

Kai Chisaki as a Boyfriend

Pairing: Kai Chisaki (Overhaul) x Reader

Summary: Rat man boyfriend hc’s

Warnings: mentions of kidnapping, blackmail, etc. , fluff

BF Scenarios Masterlist

BF Scenarios Tag List:

@thedreadthreadanomaly

A/N: I love evil rat man. Yes, he tortured little Eri, but he’s hot. Give me a beak break

look at those pretty golden eyes... STEP ON ME

Cleanliness is top priority

You must be clean, nothing less than pure for him to even consider a romantic relationship with you

You can have a quirk, but he’d much rather have you as his helpless, quirkless princess

Punctuality. Be fucking on time. Kai is not a patient man.

He won’t eat certain foods (sausage - meat encased in pig intestine, eggs in general - squishy, gross, baby animals, mammal larvae, just no)

A picky and annoying eater

“Did you wash your hands?”

“Yes, Kai.”

“With Soap?”

“Yes Kai.”

“Did you dry them?”

And all that jazz

Antisocial psychopath

No crowds. Ever.

If one of those filthy swine touches him, even so much as breathing the same air will make Kai itchy and uncomfortable

You want something? Puppy eyes always work

Despite his phobias, after a hot shower Kai likes cuddling with his beautiful angel (you)

Secretly enjoys showing off to you (buying you extravagant jewelry, clothes, etc)

He enjoys bathing you; using a loofah to cleanse your skin, massaging shampoo into your soft hair, and helping you rinse the filth of the day down the drain makes him really happy

Because he knows if he does it, it’s done right

If he’s busy, he’s gonna make Chronostasis do it ajlkfghshskaa so you’re nice and clean for bedtime cuddles

Very possessive, overbearing, and a little bit scary at times

Idk if you saw those muscles but in all honesty everyone in the Shie Hassaikai is terrified of him

“What took you so long? What was so damn important that-”

“Sssh, calm your man tiddies, Kai.”

“Tch-”

Man tiddies

Mitties

Ok, moving on

Kai isn’t the best at feelings (when he realised he liked you he was like, whAT aRe FeELiNgS?)

So if you get upset about something, rat man is expecting you to tell him what the matter is and to make it snappy. Your makeup is smudging and there’s snot on your lip and aaaaaaaaaaaa germs

“Chrono, what is wrong with her? Why is her face doing that? Fix it!”

“Overhaul…”

Poor Hari is the reason your relationship is working in the first place; he’s like a counsellor, babysitter, genius, and a father at the same time (not to mention he’s really hot)

But this is about Chisaki

Chrono calms you down and gets you to tell him what the matter is, then relays it in simpler terms to his boss. After Kai takes a minute to figure out how to fix things, he does

Wraps you in his coat and holds you for awhile, stroking your tear stained cheeks and doing his best to make you happy again

He’s gentle with you, shows a little bit of sympathy, and everything works out

Kai is a manchild

Idk why he and Shiggy didn’t become besties

He likes things the way he wants it, when he wants it, and if it’s not he throws a tantrum and kills someone

It is possible that he kidnapped you or tricked or blackmailed you into a relationship with him, or some other means of villainy to get you in his grasp

Fortunately for you, he is a gentleman despite torturing a small girl

He is kind to you

If he went as far as kidnapping, Kai obviously treasures you and thinks you are at least some kind of god-sent angel for him to keep

He sees you as a fragile little damsel who needs to be protected and cared for

He’s a picky boi

If he chose you to be his damsel, you are pretty damn special

Not to mention gorgeous

Kai loves fresh things; freshly dried hair that’s cool to the touch and a good place to hide his face in, the feeling of your supple hand holding onto his, and the cute cheeks he likes to lean over and kiss

He’s not a short guy

If you haven’t noticed, Kai has these hypnotically gorgeous golden yellow eyes that you can easily lose yourself in

Kai doesn’t exactly know how hot he is. He doesn’t focus on appearance, (which explains the purple fur on his hood) but when you told him how handsome you thought he was, he was taken by surprise

You thought he was… cute? His eyes were really pretty? His hairstyle was appealing? You liked holding the calloused hands that were dangerous and had taken so many lives? You wanted him to smile more?

You really were an angel

When he finds out you aren’t afraid of his bare hands, it hits differently. He’s so used to people flinching when he so much as scratched his wrist.

It was… nice

Kai. Buys. You. Everything.

Flashy, expensive jewelry, fresh, tightly-fitting clothes he wants to see you in, high-end, five-star restaurants, everything

If you’re genuinely in love with him, you might pout and tell him he doesn’t need to spoil you because you feel guilty, but that only makes him buy you more stuff

“Kaiii! I said no more jewelry! I have too much as it is!” You whine as your indulgent boyfriend handed you a small box. It contained an expensive pink-pearl necklace that glittered in the dim light of your room. Before you knew what was happening, Kai was behind you clasping the small hook and loop with a small chuckle.

“I saw this piece and it reminded me of you, so naturally I had to get it for you. My angel deserves nothing but the best.”

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crimson-dxwn · 4 years

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Room 8297 (Fox/Mouse Companion Piece)

When you try and write a little companion one-shot and end up creating an OC complete with backstory and appearance…

So @detroitbydark and I were having a little convo about what the nurses on Mouse’s ward think about the constant Coruscant Guard presence and I got a little carried away. She was gracious enough to let me write a little scene from one of the nurses’ POV.

Warnings: Angst. A lot of it (I’m a dramatic bitch). Medical stuff, nothing explicit.

Word Count: 1,900 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It was finally the end of her shift. It had been another frantic, exhausting day. The Medcenter was understaffed and it seemed like Tekla always had one more task to do, more charting, endless paperwork. She allowed herself a stretch from her gray-wrapped lekku down to her toes before lowering herself into a seat. She’d been getting ready for sign-out to the night shift when an alarm went off from one of her rooms. SW-8297.

Mouse, she’d heard one of the soldiers call her. A strange nickname, but the men guarding her door said it with such fondness that Tekla couldn’t help but attach it to her patient too. Only in her head, of course. Tekla hadn’t been out of school long, but she prided herself on her professionalism and bedside manner. As she checked the alarm on the screen before her, other nurses hustled around, busy with last minute vitals checks and scribbling down notes for the next shift.

Tekla checked her wrist chrono. She’d given Mouse her last dose of pain medication an hour ago, which should have kicked in by now. Luckily, the woman was young and healthy and had been recovering well. By far the strangest part of her stay had been the fact that she was under constant guard.

According to her chart, she’d been mugged on her way home from work. Tekla had overheard the medics saying that the man had been caught, so she wasn’t completely sure who or what the red-and-white-clad clone soldiers were watching out for. But they kept watch nonetheless. An endless rotation stood perfectly still at attention, never faltering, never a piece of armor out of place. Their discipline was impressive. Working at a civilian Medcenter didn’t give Tekla a lot of chances to interact with them, but she knew from the Holonet News that they had helped liberate Ryloth from the Separatists in the early years of the war. They seem like good men. Their brothers probably saved my family. As Tekla walked the unit, she would occasionally get a peek at their guard changes. Usually the men spoke briefly for a while, laughed and joked sometimes. They seemed more concerned with her patient’s well-being than randomly assigned soldiers would. They must know her.

Sighing deeply, she rose from her seat at the nurse’s station and headed towards 8297. It was more likely that the alarm was from a malfunction or Mouse moving around in her sleep than anything serious, as she’d been prone to nightmares over the last week. It wasn’t uncommon after being attacked. Mouse’s overnight nurse, Miri, had told her at the beginning of her shift that the slight woman had woken the night before, disoriented, screaming. The trooper on watch had been able to calm her down without having to use any meds, but she’d still slept poorly. Tekla prayed Mouse wasn’t having another nightmare. Her thrashing tended to spike her pain to unbearable levels. She was getting discharged tomorrow, or that was the plan at the moment, and she needed all the rest she could get. The last guard outside Mouse’s door had been attired differently from the rest, with inverted armor colors and a dark visor adorning his helmet. Tekla thought she spotted the Senate seal on one of his shoulders as she’d rushed by earlier. She was good at noticing patterns, and she knew for sure she’d never seen that armor before.

The injuries her patient had arrived with had been serious - a through-and-through shot to the right abdomen and a blaster graze on her left shoulder. She’d spent days in a bacta tank, and even after that she’d needed inpatient care. No cuts, bruises, or scrapes though, except for some transparisteel lodged into the back of her neck. No scratches from fingernails, no dirt or grime on her shoes or clothes. Working on Coruscant, Tekla had seen her fair share of assault victims. Mouse’s injuries were unusual for a mugging, to say the least, but who was she to argue with the Jedi that brought her in? Jedi don’t lie…do they? She continued to ponder her blasphemous question as she made her way towards Mouse’s room. Regardless of the suspicious nature of her injuries, whoever had shot her was no professional, judging by their aim. The woman was lucky the bastard didn’t know their way around a blaster - guess it wasn’t much of a shock they’d caught the man so soon.

As she entered the hallway, the absence of a guard outside Mouse’s room immediately took her by surprise. Probably just another nightmare. The pain meds likely aren’t helping either. That didn’t stop Tekla from increasing her pace. Until she reached the doorway, that is. Voices were just audible, one male which she didn’t recognize, and the other female, which she knew immediately to be Mouse’s. Unbearably curious, she stopped to listen for a moment.

“…leave once I do.” “Yes, that was the deal,” she heard the male voice say. “You’re not going to come back,” replied Mouse. “No, cyar’ika. I’m not.” Tekla felt the finality in his statement, all the way from the doorway.

After a moment of silence, Tekla poked her head into the room. The trooper was in bed with her, blood-red armor still on save for his helmet and a glove. They were curled around each other, face-to-face, her with one hand on his neck and his ungloved hand stroking softly through her hair. His eyes were closed, brow knitted ever so slightly, as if he was in pain too.

Tekla may have been new, but she certainly wasn’t stupid. He and Mouse were together. So this was the reason she had what amounted to an honor guard outside her room. They looked so peaceful, lying together on the bed. There was no way she could disturb them like this. Mouse’s vitals had been stable up until now and her color was good. Better, actually. From the door, Tekla could see the small woman’s chest rising and falling slowly. Leaving them for a little while longer isn’t going to hurt anything, she thought to herself. She felt intensely voyeuristic, even though they were both fully clothed and Mouse was mostly tucked under the blankets. He’d been courteous enough to leave his twin pistols on the table by the window. She was glad; blasters made Tekla nervous. Both of them looked like they needed rest. Who was she to say that having him there wouldn’t help Mouse get better?

Then, right before she turned to leave, the clone’s eyes snapped open and met hers. They flicked to his blasters on the table beside her, protectively down to Mouse in his arms, and then at the floor, shame flashing hot as he looked away. But he didn’t move a muscle - she even thought she saw him tighten his arms around Mouse ever so slightly. Tekla lowered her eyes in response and carefully closed the door just a bit more to give them some privacy.

—————

She made her way back to the nurse’s station, which by now was packed with everyone getting ready for sign-out. Her coworkers were chatting excitedly, eager to head home, exchanging gossip and stories from the day they’d been too busy to relay earlier. Tekla wondered what had to have happened between Mouse and the trooper for him to take so long to come see her, and then to leave her? It seemed incredibly cruel. She moved to sit, and a familiar voice wrenched her out of her musings. Le-Tii, one of the veteran nurses on the unit had taken the chair next to hers and was eyeing her suspiciously.

“You know patients aren’t supposed to have visitors past 1700, Tekla. You’ve been here long enough.”

“She’s fine,” Tekla offered. “I didn’t want to disturb them like that. Plus he’s not exactly a visitor.”

The stout man huffed in annoyance. “Please tell me they at least had their clothes on.”

“Yes!” Tekla was flabbergasted.

“Hm. Good,” he picked at his nails, clearly bored. “’cause I’m not quite sure I approve of my taxes paying for the Republic’s finest to screw my patients in their downtime.”

“Well I think it’s sweet,” Tekla retorted. She felt some sort of protectiveness over Mouse. She was so patient and kind compared to some of the other patients that she cared for, and the woman had obviously been through a lot. How much harm could one night with him do?

“He’s a Commander, you know. Guards the Chancellor personally,” the man said, opening a ration bar, “If you look close on the Holonet you can tell it’s him. His armor’s different.”

A lowered voice from behind her back had joined the conversation.

“I bet he’s the one who shot her.” Looked like Miri was here for her shift.

Tekla gaped as the meaning of Miri’s words sank in. She felt better about her reaction when she looked over at Le-Tii, who was sporting the same expression.

“No, hear me out. She’s been here, what, over a week? And he’s come here three times. Twice I saw him turn on his heel and rush out before he even got past the nurse’s station.”

“That’s ridiculous, Miri.” Tekla couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She shook her head. “No. Why would he-”

“-when do they ever need a reason? She woke up screaming his name last night and he hasn’t come to visit her once.”

“That’s a horrible thing to say.” The thought terrified Tekla. It hadn’t crossed her mind in the whole time she’d been caring for Mouse. She thought back to the image of the two lovers lying in the bed together, to the look in the man’s eyes when he saw Tekla in the doorway. No. There was no way he did this.

“It’s not horrible if it’s the truth.” Le-Tii offered, finally deciding to contribute to the conversation.

“Well I just checked on them and she’s actually looking better now than she did the whole day, so take that as you will.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Miri replied, indignantly as ever.

The human woman was always fond of reminding Tekla that she had more experience than her. Something in her manner told her that the other girl had something against Twi’leks. Or maybe it was just non-humans...and clones, apparently.

To Tekla’s relief, Miri dropped the subject and they began their sign-out routine. Right before they handed off their last patient, Tekla noticed a flash of red at the corner of her vision. He’s leaving, she thought, poor Mouse. He walked past the nurse’s station, head studying the floor, trying to be inconspicuous. He wasn’t successful. Almost every head in the group turned to watch as he made his way to the lift. A bizarre silence made its way over the usually animated group. Not once did the visored helmet turn back.

“Good riddance,” she heard Miri mutter under her breath. “All those things know how to do is kill.”

—————— -Later that night-

Tekla hesitated before she typed the word into the search bar on her datapad. Cyarika. She hoped she spelled it correctly.

The results popped up and she studied the first entry: Mando’a to Basic Dictionary. Cyar’ika: n., beloved.

#Gen is a dramatic bitch on main #inspired by DetroitbyDark #fic #TCW #companion piece #Fox x Mouse

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lifblogs · 3 years

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Whumpay 2021: Day 7 - Mercy

Together We Will Grow

read on ao3 2771 words star wars, rogue one, cassian andor/jyn erso, canon-typical violence, angst

Great. Just great! Of course Imperial troopers had caught up to her. It wasn’t as if she had done that much! Well, she’d drunk an officer under the table and he had ended up dying of alcohol poisoning, she’d stolen an Imperial freighter along with all its weapons, had sold the weapons and the ship, and had had the ship stripped down for parts, and oh, she’d attacked three troopers after they’d tried arresting her for forgery of scandocs. So maybe she had done quite a bit. Really, Kestrel Dawn was out on her luck.

The stormtroopers that were after her had decided using stun prods was more acceptable than just stunning her with a blaster. For one, it was more fun for them, and for two… well, that was about the only reason.

Out of breath, hoping she’d lost her pursuers in the chaos of the market, Kestrel hid behind a stack of crates holding joguns. She brushed her dyed auburn hair out of her face, blowing out heavy breaths. Her heart raced.

“Check down that alley,” she heard one of the stormtroopers say, voice filtered through the helmet.

Kriff. Kriff!

Her stomach decided to grumble at that time (when had her last meal been? Three days ago?), so, thinking it best to multi-task, she grabbed as many joguns as she could and stuffed them into the bag she had over her shoulder.

The clatter of the stormtrooper’s boots against the hard ground was getting closer. He was about to be right on top of her.

Kestrel grabbed one of the purple fruits and threw it in his general direction—not taking time to aim—and then she knocked the crates over.

She ran for it.

“Hey, get back here!”

To her surprise, the stormtrooper fired at her, and she dodged. The blast hit the corner of a building, spraying bits of broken stone into the air. Some of the debris hit her face, slicing through her left cheek, and just above her eye.

Damn it! So the blasters weren’t set to stun. That had to be against some regulation or other, but what would the Empire care?

The blood welled up fast, and began to drip down to her eye. Now blinded in one eye, the blood stinging, she didn’t see the other stormtrooper coming from around the corner at the end of the alley that led back into the market.

She was hit with a stun prod. A choked scream left her at the pain, and she went down, colliding with the hard ground. Her head smacked against hard-packed dirt and sand, leaving stars in her vision. A small part of her worried about the fruit in her pack, and hoped they hadn’t cracked open. She told herself it was because the juice could ruin her datapad, but really, despite the pain she was in, it was difficult to forget her hunger.

Training kicked in as Kestrel heard the other trooper rush to help her current attacker, and she ignored the pain, tried to breathe into it. She unclipped her truncheon from her belt, while hooking her foot behind the trooper’s calf and having him go down.

In moments, she was up on her feet, kicking the stun prod out of his hands, and kicking his helmet off. Seeing the young face beneath did nothing to deter her, and she kicked him into unconsciousness. Showing mercy to these scum wasn’t an option, not when they would surely throw her in prison, and not when they could take her to someone higher up who might discover her true name.

She was shot at again, but a well-aimed throw with the helmet had the second trooper drop his blaster. He lunged at her, trying to grab her, and she whacked him in the solar plexus with the truncheon. Her blows landed quick and hard. He got a few blows in, punching her in the face, leaving her already-cut cheek throbbing relentlessly.

He started calling for backup, revealing her position.

Terrified, Kestrel wrested his stun prod from him. She powered it on, whacking him right in the neck with it. He went down, and for good measure, she held the prod to his throat, right in between the white plastoid of his armor. His body jerked, choked cries eventually going silent. Kestrel didn’t take the time to see if he was alive. She didn’t care.

Deciding to keep the stun prod with her, she clipped it to her belt with her truncheon, blew her auburn hair out of her face, and started heading to the docks. She’d have to steal a ship, but that was nothing new to her.

When she was Jyn Erso she wouldn’t have been able to do any of this, but Jyn Erso had been hurt and abandoned. She’d learned, and for now, she was Kestrel Dawn, and Kestrel wasn’t about to let herself be put in an Imperial prison. If that took showing no mercy, then so be it.

~~~

Joreth Sward was having a really bad day. It had started out fairly normal: he’d been bullied by Admiral Grendreef into getting him some caf (yes, Joreth was his assistant, but that was beneath him), organizing his datapads, and gathering some other employees beneath him for further bullying.

Things had really changed when the oh-so-merciful admiral decided to dock at a civilian station in the Midrim. He was to make a prisoner pick-up. Joreth had been given the list of names just to make sure that when they collected the prisoners, all of them would be there.

Making sure no one had been following him, he made his way to a computer terminal, looped the camera to show the compartment empty as it had been before his arrival, and logged in. He managed to get past the firewalls put in place so lowly assistants like himself couldn’t get at the real information. He searched the Imperial database for the prisoners, wondering why they had been waylaid for such a task. Surely someone else could’ve been sent for prisoner pick-up? It wasn’t strictly in an admiral’s duties.

The list of names was long, but after the fifth name he was sure he had all the information he needed. The prisoners were scientists: engineers, and at least one physicist. Further digging had shown that they had been working in sustainable energy and had been taken prisoner by the Empire to be forced into work on some sort of project called Celestial Power. It seemed straightforward enough, but this task had been marked as high importance.

He’d have to call this in.

Joreth took out his datapad and began to download the information. He’d put a binary lock on his info so his information couldn’t be accessed and drawn back to him. Once hooked in, he waited, slightly nervous, for the information to download. A beep sounded from the terminal to let him know the download was complete, and he removed his datapad.

Once done with that he cleared the log and history. He hadn’t completed all his training with computer terminals, so for now, that would have to do. By the time anyone thought to search for the missing information, he would hopefully be long gone.

Now to make his way to comms.

Datapad in hand, Joreth hurried through the ship, putting on a flustered look as if Admiral Grendreef had just sent him on another wild bantha chase. The Imperials had the brain cells to get out of his way.

The comms center wasn’t empty (it never was), but he’d be using codes anyway, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Joreth passed on the information to his commander, and then he was given a single order: Terminate the prisoners.

It was that order that ruined his day.

So here Joreth now was, standing before cell block B, lying through his teeth to some stormtrooper guards.

One of them stepped closer to him, not yet buying what he was saying, “These prisoners are to be interred until we reach base DS-1; no one allowed in or out.”

Joreth did his best to look annoyed, even as sweat began to run down his back, and he was sure his hands were shaking. To hide it, he clasped them behind his back.

“I know what your original orders were, but the admiral wants them inspected and logged again, and he’s having a very bad day. Would you like to take it up with him?”

Thank god Admiral Grendreef had a horrible reputation, because the two troopers looked at each other, clearly questioning what to do. No one wanted to be on Grendreef’s bad side. His temper usually ended with someone facing a firing squad.

“Why did he send his assistant to do it?”

Joreth gave them a smile, trying to put them at ease. “I haven’t poisoned his caf yet, so I think he trusts me,” he joked.

“I’d poison his caf,” the one on Joreth’s right muttered, somewhat amused.

“Check yourself, trooper.”

“What? Comms are off.”

Joreth cleared his throat.

“He wants it done now.”

Surprisingly, the one who had joked about poisoning the admiral said, “I don’t know. We should take it up with our superior.”

“And who do you think he answers to?” Joreth asked.

This was taking too long, and he could tell they weren’t buying it.

“Fine, I didn’t want to have to do this,” he said, his accent slipping, his pronunciations of words becoming softer rather than similar to the clipped Coruscanti style.

“Huh?”

Joreth kicked a blaster out of one stormtrooper’s hand, and the other raised his own to fire. It wa easy getting inside his defenses, and he was able to disarm him, along with elbowing him in the gut hard enough to faze him.

Step one was to get the weapons. Step two… disable comms. These bucketheads had the comms right in their helmets, so he didn’t feel at all bad for shooting them at point blank range.

It was over before it had barely started.

He ran a hand over his face, and through his dark hair, trying to settle himself. He had to do this.

And he didn’t have a lot of time. The guards had to check-in each system cycle, which was fifteen minutes. He’d checked his chrono before coming down here, and he checked it again now. He’d wasted about four and a half minutes arguing with them, so he barely had ten minutes left.

What was the Rebellion even thinking asking him to do this? Joreth wasn’t an executioner! But today, he had to be. He had orders.

So he got to work. A vibroblade would be quieter, but then he’d leave a trail of blood. So the blaster would have to do.

One by one he executed the prisoners, pushing all feelings aside, not thinking about what he was doing. No mercy. There couldn’t be any mercy if they were to win against the Empire. Yet why did winning include killing innocent prisoners?

When he was finished with the job he was sweaty, and shaky, and felt like he could barely breathe. Yet he managed to drag the bodies of the stormtroopers into one of the cells after stripping one of his armor. He donned the armor, and then it was time for a check-in. Joreth’s voice sounded fake and dead to his ears as he called in the attack. Hopefully they’d believe it long enough for him to get off this horrid ship. After all, he had left one of the blasters with a prisoner. A prisoner whose blood was soaking the floor, and—

Stop. Stop. Focus.

In the chaos that ensued, Joreth managed to sneak away, and he made his way off the ship. Once he was away from Imperial controlled space, he took off the armor, and sat down with his head in his hands, trying to hold in tears. He was in a stolen shuttle, and had already done everything he could to make sure it couldn’t be tracked. He’d have to dock before reaching his destination on Atollon to refuel and get supplies. He was so tired, exhausted down to his very marrow by what he had done.

But kriff, he still had a job to do. He had to report in. Wiping at his eyes, then staring at his hands, half-expecting for there to be blood on them, he pressed the comms button and dialed in his code to reach base.

It was a relief to drop the accent, to let Joreth Sward slip away, as he said, “Captain Andor to base 1. Checking in.”

“Base 1 to Captain Andor, reading you loud and clear.”

“It’s done,” Cassian said, voice numb even with the rich accent. “Tell General Draven that the prisoners have been terminated.”

“Right away, sir. Base 1 out.”

“I did it for the Rebellion,” Cassian whispered to himself in the quiet of the shuttle, the quiet of space.

No one was there to assure him that it had been the right thing. It must have been, so he locked all his feelings away, and he settled in for the long journey ahead.

~~~

Blast this rain! It was pouring down hard, getting in Cassian’s eyes, obstructing his view of Galen Erso. Bodhi had left, so now he had a job to do.

It was difficult to get a pin down on Galen. There seemed to always be something in the way. Cassian counted his breaths as he waited for the right moment, as he tried to get a precise lock on his target. He’d have to get him in the head. That was the only way to be completely sure.

Galen was talking to a man in white. Did his eyes deceive him, or was that Director Orson Krennic? There had been rumors about him, that he was the one in charge of this weapon that had been tested on Jedha. Cassian’s trigger finger twitched, a deep, dark part of him wanting to take him out too. He wanted to take them all out. For what they were planning to do, for what they had already done to Jedha!

But no, that wasn’t the plan. The plan was to assassinate Galen Erso, stop him before the weapon could be complete.

Yet, as he lay there amongst the dark, wet rocks, soaked through to his skin, Cassian didn’t take the shot.

There was something wrong with his orders. Jyn had spoken of her father, and what he saw now, with him protecting his engineers, he wasn’t the monster the Rebellion thought.

He’s still a danger, a liability.

Still, Cassian couldn’t pull the trigger. He showed mercy, and maybe it was because of Jyn Erso. ~~~

Jyn put up the bare minimum of a fight as Cassian stopped her from going to Krennic. She wanted to kick him, stomp his head in. For killing her father, for Jedha, for everything. But Cassian pulled her away, and she listened to the insistence in his body, the gentle urging that was somehow so comforting in that moment.

“Leave him,” Cassian told her.

And somehow, Jyn did just that. She told herself it was because she was sure Krennic was going to die anyway—something told her that she and Cassian were about to die—but perhaps she’d seen enough death for one day. Perhaps she had done enough terrible things in her life, and she wanted it to end.

As Jyn and Cassian helped each other walk, and they took the lift down from the spire, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. Away from this man that had shown her father mercy, and who had just taught her to do the same thing. She wanted to kiss him, but somehow, when their eyes met, she knew that what they had went far beyond that. In this moment, they were the two closest beings in the galaxy.

“Do you think anybody’s listening?” Cassian asked, desperation in his voice, in the way he clung to her.

“I do,” Jyn answered, voice filled with raw hope. “Someone’s out there.”

It had to all be worth something, and she believed it was. Her last act had been mercy, and giving hope to the Rebellion. To Jyn, that made it all worth it—the pain, the loss, the anger. She and Cassian had learned from each other, built off of each other, let their hope grow within one another.

As the Death Star came out of hyperspace within targeting range of Scarif, and her injuries began to take hold, that was all she could ask for.

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