#he's a perfect villain for them as the group of traumatized fuck ups trying to learn to not hurt others bc of their own pain that they are

[astralleywright]

frankly i'm just wondering who is out here acting like bh is gonna kiss ludinus' ass the second they find out what happened to aeor? because a lot of people say they're scared of it happening and i have no idea why they'd think it

idk if these asks were sent together but they're abt the same things, which. yeah. like i said on that other post, western and specifically usamerican liberal online spaces developed a deep hatred and fear of any radicalism post-2016. this makes it incredibly easy to fold the questioning of the status quo and the narratives of power into the same category as explicitly cruel and conspiratorial ideology, and to treat all of the above as toxic waste only to be touched when it's being disposed of. horseshoe theory and all that.

it's pertinent that you mention white supremacy here, anon, given that that is an example of an ideology that truly does deserve no quarter, no validation, nothing but violent resistance at every turn. it is also an ideology that in no way reflects reality, or history, or truth, now or ever. there is absolutely nothing of value or importance to be gleaned from it. the same cannot be said of what Ludinus is saying.

Ludinus is a facist, and a colonialist, and like first anon said, I severely doubt BH would actually ever side with him except on a deeply temporary basis (like the present moment, wherein siding means not trying to murder him for a few minutes). like second anon said, his actions are deeply hypocritical in light of what he experienced. he has become a god in all of the ways that matter, which are the ones he despises them for. but that's the thing; unlike white supremacist fantasies of "what they took from us" or what the fuck ever, what we are seeing is that some version of what Ludinus is expressing DID happen. we saw it in FRIDA's vision; a wrong was done. the Gods destroyed Aeor, they killed thousands of people, both innocent and not. and Ludinus' response is hypocritical and cruel and disproportionate; just like the Gods response to Aeor.

[sky-fire-forever]

Being a Our Flag Means Death fan whose favorite characters are Izzy AND Ed is wild. Because I'll be in the Izzy Hands tag and I'll see posts about how horrible Ed is and how you shouldn't like him and how his arc sucked and actually he's terrible and unforgivable

And then I'll be in the Edward Teach tag and I'll see posts about how Izzy is the real villain and how him dying is so good for his arc and Ed is finally free of him

I genuinely think people who try to make either Izzy or Ed into the perfect victims who never did anything wrong are kinda... boring? I dunno. Imo pretending that either of them are completely innocent is a disservice to their characters. But so is acting like either of them are terrible, unforgivable people

Ed abused Izzy. He was nasty to him and incredibly physically violent towards him as a routine. He abused not only Izzy, but the entire crew. He was beyond cruel. He struggles with understanding the severity of his own actions and disassociates to deal with his more horrific crimes. He drives Izzy to a suicide attempt after abusing him directly and mutilating him repeatedly. He gives a non-apology and is grumpy when the people he tortured don't automatically forgive him

Ed is also a survivor of his own abuse, both from his father and Hornigold. He's someone who desperately wants to be a better person, but doesn't understand how. He's someone who loves people a lot, but who also genuinely doesn't understand what love IS. He doesn't understand romance or gentleness or how to exist in a world without violence. But he tries really hard to become something that doesn't come naturally to him. He tries to learn how to become a good person and gets frustrated when he makes mistakes

Ed constantly relapses into abusive tendencies or doesn't realize that his behavior is wrong. But he very genuinely TRIES. He's someone who clearly struggles with empathy, with understanding that what's fun for him is traumatizing to others. He struggles with understanding that just because he's ready to move on, that doesn't mean everyone else has to

I don't think that's a flaw in his writing! I think that's a character flaw and it's actually something about Ed that really, really interests me!

(I do think there's some issue in the way the narrative presents it, with the crew going along with Ed's non-apology and then Lucius being shamed for still being traumatized, but that's not the point of this particular post)

And then with Izzy

Izzy is a fucking dick. He's a jerk who lashes out against people who aren't part of the group he's deemed worthy of his protection. He views people as either allies or enemies, with very little room for something in between. His allies are only the people in his crew and everyone else can get fucked. He's quite selfish in certain ways and he doesn't care who gets hurt as long as it isn't himself or the people he cares about. He holds himself and others to standards of extremely toxic masculinity. He despises change and resorts to allying with his literal worst enemies just so he can get the guy he likes to be with him again. He's cruel and abusive towards those who are lower than him in rank, constantly making other people feel insecure.

He's also someone who is fiercely loyal, even to his own detriment. He's someone who admits when he's wrong and always tries to fix his own mistakes. When he loses the duel with Stede, he asks Ed to let him stay, but he doesn't actually fight it. He goes peacefully, even if he whines about it. He holds himself accountable to his word and to his bond. He's loyal to Ed as his captain and as his friend/lover. He's loyal to his own crew first and foremost. When he has the British attack The Revenge, it appears as though he saves Ivan and Fang, not just Ed. He expresses disappointment when members of their crew die saving Stede from the Spanish. He protects the Kraken Crew from Ed and even stands up to Ed when he realizes things have gone too far. He's someone who has longed for community, but has only found it recently

Izzy as a character is loyal to a fault. Loyal to Ed to the point where he'll get Stede killed rather than let Ed go soft and betray who he is. And I do genuinely think Izzy thinks Stede dying is the best possible course of action because he's an idiot who is going to get Ed killed because he's a fucking idiot. And Ed being so soft snd not being a pirate is also super dangerous when he's like. The most wanted pirate there is. Izzy is loyal to Ed and to his crew. He's someone who cares too much, but tries to act like he doesn't care at all. He covers up his own insecurity by insulting others and he has a LOT of insecurity

They're both just.... such great characters and I love them both. But neither of them are perfect. They're both so fucked up and that's part of why I love them

[xomby]

I am going to be predictable and ask you 003 for Yates, but also, just to spice things up - 003 for Jo as well <3

OK EHEHEHEE be prepared this might be super long.

yates-

how i feel about this character- yates is my everything. he’s so funny and so sad and so relatable i genuinely can’t put into words how much i care about him. i project onto him really hard he’s legitimately just ogh. oughg

romantic ships- really just benton tbh, i think they really have a great dynamic that’s a perfect mix of genuinely healthy and hilarious banter, earnest care for one another, and gut wrenching angst. one of my fav things about them is how much they say without actually saying anything. right from the get go (honestly forget which episode it’s in but one of yates’ first) he’s missing and unit doesn’t know where he is, and benton asks the brig and there’s such deep worry in his voice and eyes idk. i was sold from that point on. there’s many other moments i could talk about but yeah they’re so fucking good and a really interesting show of two characters who clearly care about each other but are not able to adequately express it in their work setting imo. also i have a theory that the tom yates is dating in PROSE happy endings is tommy from planet of the spiders just cause it seems like the truth to me and they’re ok but not like benton/yates.

fav nonromantic relationship- YATES AND JO. you know this. i’m so insane about them they have such a close loving friendship it’s so cute. they’re almost dating but he’s gay so they’re not dating it’s really real. they care about each other so much i’m obsessed with them. also such a small moment but when jo checks the time on yates’ wristwatch in the dæmons. it’s so cute they function as 1 entity sometimes

unpopular opinion- i don’t know if enough people care about yates for there to be popular/unpopular opinions about him tbh. that being said maybe that i absolutely see where he’s coming from with the operation golden age thing. like being not-fully-recovered from violently painful and traumatic brainwashing and being approached by a group claiming to be trying to save the environment, anyone would do what he did imo. also the fact that he was fully prepared to die, maybe even expecting it, maybe even wanting it, makes it really hard for me to understand how people see him as a heartless villain in that scenario. like nah bruh

something i wish had happened in canon- i guess maybe just more content. even when he played a major role in stories, he didn’t get much screentime, and his struggles were very infrequently focused on. i would have liked to see a bit more care put into the depth of his character (in an overt sense, cause it’s definitely there in subtext/implications/throwaway lines)

crossover ship- tbh i don’t do crossover ships, i just don’t get it

jo-

how i feel about this character- MY FUCKING GIRL. jo. jo. god. she’s genuinely my everything, and my second fav doctor who character closely after yates. it takes another kind of likability for an entire episode to basically come down to jo being such a loving and selfless person that her pure kindness destroys the sci-fi equivalent of the devil. she’s just so fucking good. also it’s hilarious how dumb she is but it still doesn’t dictate her character. yes she’s stupid, but that’s a trait that’s sometimes good, sometimes bad. she has other traits and skills that balance it out. she’s pretty much the world to me.

romantic ships- ok they never met but i’ve always loved the idea of jo and liz. i think their personalities really balance out perfectly, and they’d have a hilarious and adorable dynamic- jo being very forward and openly sweet and liz sort of being out of touch and closed off, trying not to let her feelings show. i also kind of like cliff and jo. i hated it initially cause her exit is so… 😕 like it is in character for her to marry a guy she just met but idk how i feel about her dropping everything and leaving all her friends for his scientific endeavors, it seems out of character. however, i think they’re funny together and i love the idea that everyone at unit hates cliff.

fav nonromantic relationships- YATES AND JO AGAIN!!!! but since i already talked about it it’s also worth mentioning jo and benton, who are just fucking adorable friends (especially in the three doctors, hugging and holding hands when they’re nervous, it’s so cute and silly). also jo and the doctor are the father daughter dynamic of a lifetime and the scene in time monster when they’re in jail and he tells her the story of how he started seeing the world in color has made me cry before.

unpopular opinion- again idk how many opinions i know. i think a popular hc is that she’s a lesbian which is so unreal to me she’s the most bisexual character of all time. BUT that’s a very little one that i don’t really have that strong feelings about. i guess people often think she’s sort of a typical damsel-type companion which is so far from true, she’s such a whole character with such a fleshed out personality with strengths, weaknesses, interests, and feelings. i will never understand the argument that jo is a weak character.

something i wish had happened in canon- honestly i thought she was a really well done character with great relationships with everyone she interacted with. i genuinely think the only thing that could really improve the viewing experience when it comes to jo is a couple more seasons tbh, although i completely get and respect manning not wanting to do the show anymore after delgado passed away

crossover ship- again. maybe i’m missing something but i don’t really get it

[moonamite]

MCSM ideas because a handful of people wanted it

Basically this is a list of some of the things i’d change plus some headcanons and some commentary. -*Looks at Radar* Oh. Oh you poor baby. They did you dirty. -Ok I’ll just dump all the Radar headcanons since he deserves some love: Trans man, that’s it. He’s got ADHD and Autism, and infodumps about his latest hyperfixations to anyone who’ll listen, and yes, he stims. He has self-esteem issues. He’s TERRIFIED of messing up in front of people he admires, and is scared of weirding them out, which is why he tries to act cool with the protags. Don’t worry, he’s still baby :) -Romeo, oh boy. So here’s what i’d do: It’s always bugged me how his character did a complete 180 after loosing his powers and being saved. Like, we’re supposed to believe he’s completely good and trustworthy after all the demented shit he did? That wasn’t an arc, that was bad writing. The way I’d do it is that the more Jesse challenges his views and beliefs, the more Romeo starts to question himself, and if what he’s doing is sane. He wouldn’t be a one-sided villain this way. They’d still fight at the end, but if the player chose the right things to say prior, the outcome would change. Instead of having to beat the snot out of him and forcefully remove his powers, as the fight went on, he’d start to falter- And not because of the loss of his powers. All the things you said before stuck with him, and midway into the fight, all start to show their effect. After a while, he’d force himself to give up his admin powers. But because the world needs an admin to function, he gives it to the person he thinks will do the right thing with it- Jesse. -Ivor is already perfect. Except for that whole ‘ninja’ thing, which was totally Telltale’s way of lazily covering up plot holes and avoiding having to actually put effort in. -Lukas!! I remember younger me simped for him lmao. Anyways yeah you can’t tell me that he and Jesse didn’t have chemistry. Minecraft boyfriend. Jesse is a dumb Bisexual and Lukas has some serious yearning. Pan Lukas hc. He really was yearning hard when he was away in his little house writing. Wonder what else he wrote about there. -Lukas: *Sees Romeo disguised as Jesse* “NO! That’s NOT Jesse!” -The Ocelots group. Ok random headcanon, they’re childhood friends and Aiden wasn’t always an ass. Lukas stuck with them for so long because he couldn’t bring himself to leave them, that is until Jesse came along. Ok this is mostly about Aiden- Even when he’s literally trying to kill Jesse I can’t take him seriously as a threat. He’s just so childish, like a bratty teenager more than a serious threat. Well, in canon that is... I’d write him a bit differently. He doesn’t switch from bully to murderer on a dime. My version of him is more like just a little mean boy. Lil’ angry dude. He’s still a bully, but wouldn’t try to kill whenever something doesn’t go his way (Also obviously gay). After Jesse does a bunch of traumatic and heroic stuff, he starts to respect him. I mean the guy killed the witherstorm, what kind of moron would fuck with someone like that- *Looks at canon!Aiden* Oh yeah. But the newfound respect doesn’t make Jesse immune to teasing. Once he has his arc, they start to have sort of a younger-older sibling dynamic. The Ocelots as a whole go back to being just a group of friends once Aiden gets his shit together and when the world isn’t on fire for 10 minutes. Then he’s just a guy, though still very firey. Become himbo. -Axel and Olivia would be more involved in Season 2.

[vt-scribbles]

SU Future spoilers if you’re not caught up:

It’s a very good thing that we’re seeing a protagonist be problematic and act out badly because of trauma.

No, I don’t take critique.

We constantly see villains, anti-heroes, antagonists, and even side-characters being problematic. [Mostly antagonists/villains]. But unless it’s a Tragic Hero trope, we never see this. ESPECIALLY in kid’s media.

But this isn’t a Tragic Hero trope. Steven isn’t going to ‘die’ permanently to his fatal flaw- people-pleasing so much that he’s now unable to talk about his trauma healthily.

Instead... we’re finally being shown a protagonist, in a modern-time show, acting the same way the traumatized/flawed villains in his world have acted. We’re seeing everything come full circle. The reason the Diamonds, or Jasper, Lapis, Spinel, or Peridot weren’t shattered isn’t just because the story is about family, not a political struggle...

It’s also because what they did, in the overall metaphor of the show, isn’t meant to be irredeemable. It isn’t meant to be seen as ‘oh these are VILLAINS, of course they would act that way! They’re the bad guys!’ All the main ‘bad guys’ in SU are flawed, or traumatized people. And the point of SU is to show... those people can change. Even if you do AWFUL things, for whatever reason [especially if it’s because you were hurt], you can make a turn-around. Peridot did. Lapis. Spinel. The Diamonds. Jasper’s /working/ on it, slowly. She hasn’t had  a reality check quite yet. They can change. They can get better.

And guess what... so can Steven.

That’s the whole point.

If SU shattered White in the series finale, and then we had SU Future... it would stand to reason that Steven deserves to be killed for acting JUST like her. But we don’t want that... right? He’s the protagonist. He’s hurt. He’s just a teenager dealing with Complex PTSD.

And he still, just like EVERYONE else in the world.... has the capacity to hurt people. To be nasty. To hate himself. To push away love, support, conversation, even logic.

--

We constantly see Villains watered down to insultingly bare bones, to the point where nobody can see themselves in that character, and they don’t WANT to. Take The Lion King, for example. None of us are malicious, homicidal lions that would kill their brother, try to kill their nephew, and then take over an entire group of people. Scar was just evil and ambitious, plain and simple. Sure, maybe there was a SMIDGE of ‘I was never as good as my brother’ mixed in... but that doesn’t count. Think of pretty much ANY animated villain, especially ones that are ‘corporate scumbags’. There’s not a trace of humanity in them. We don’t see ourselves in them, and over time, that builds up this mentality that we’re all protagonists. We’re all the good guys. When we screw up, people should forgive it easily cuz we’re USUALLY so good and well behaved. We’re not NEAAAARLY as flawed as those ‘bad guys’ or ‘bad people’ we see.

Every single person has some good in them. And every single person has bad.

When you see people as ‘villains’ and ‘heroes’, as ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys,’ you dehumanize things. You completely erase the spectrum of kindness and shittyness that all humans dance around on every day.

You can’t purify yourself into some perfect being that never fucks up. You can’t be someone that pleases EVERYONE. You can never be free of flaws. You’re GOING to fuck up sometimes. And you have to be aware of that... and be able to accept it and be better.

Instead... you wind up bottling up your problems, lashing out, feeling like you’re ‘not yourself,’ and you wind up hating yourself for it and feeling like a monster for having flaws.

Steven fucking up and reacting badly to his trauma is important... because it’s human.

It’s the most human thing about him right now, and yet... he sees himself as a monster.

[facepalming-since-chernobyl]

My brain is rotting

Maybe isntead 

All dumb shit - (x)

“ Whether or not you believe Lena Luthor was behaving out of character on Supergirl season 5 or not, there’s no denying that Lena has a lot to make up for and make right on Supergirl season 6. “ 

yeah, out of character. She was never manipulated by her brother, never killed people,never threw a tantrum, never did morally wrong experiments, never was sure she is right when she wasn’t, was never blinded by her emotions, blah blah blah

It’s clear that there is a lot to be done with Lena Luthor during Supergirl season 6 after a season of her siding with her brother and the writers consistently destroying the relationship between Lena and Kara over the big Kryptonian secret.

What a lot? All they need to do is put the bitch in jail. Tell me, why Lena won’t admit on public she was hapily helping Lex with lobotomizing whole fucking humanity? That she kidnapped and enslaved people? Why? Because she KNOWS she would end in a jail. What makes her a fucking coward. What makes her redemption a SHIT.

If there’s any way to make sure this is done (and done correctly), it’s to bring Lena into the fold and give her a pivotal role in these stories. Let’s start by making her a super friend.

 Pivotal. LOL. She HAD pivotal role in season 5 and that’s why this season SUCKED BALLS. And she was a superfriend. And guess what? She used Kara and manipulated them all, put them in DANGER, because she was butthurt. 

Making things right needs to be Lena Luthor’s top priority on Supergirl season 6. She really screwed up. (I personally don’t agree with the narrative that the show painted of Lena’s actions, as it was very clear that her past abuse and trauma was clouding her judgment and she was actively being manipulated by one of her abusers, but nonetheless…) Her relationships are in shambles, but for the first time in her life, she has the chance to put the pieces back together.

I’m dyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing. Her top priority should be going to police and confessing her crimes. But we all know she won’t, because she is a coward.

Sure, you don’t agree because Boo Hoo Hoo Luthor showed her true colors. Yeah, sure, she had traumatic past and Lex and Lilian abused her all the time, we just don’t know how exactly. Plus, sorry not sorry, your traumatic past don’t give you the rights to kidnap, enslave, manipulate, lie and torture people. And plan to lobotomize whole humanity because you are too poor to go to theraphy... WAIT.

STOP excusing abusers and toxic people’s behavior. It’s fucking disgusting. Especially when all what they have to do is cry (crocodile tears) and help to fix shit THEY CREATED. ONCE AGAIN. 

The abuser she first SHOT IN COLD BLOOD and then happily work with, when he was magically brought to life, because oh yeah, he made Luthors look good. LOL

Her relationships are in shambles and it’s her fault. What first? She had that chances in s2. 

Lena’s finally seen the light and the truth about who Lex and Lillian are, so it’s given her a new lease on life, one where she can begin to put her past behind her and move forward for the first time in her life. She can, hopefully, start to have a life that isn’t constantly dragged down by her family. And I think the best way to do this is to make her an official super friend.

I’m dyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyying. Lena shot Lex with cold blood because she knew who he was. And then she was still manipulated by him. For the THIRD TIME. And she had that life in STARCITY and she threw it away, because she wanted to be a LUTHOR. Once again, it’s on HER. She could walk away every fucking second. But she chose to stay. And do horrible

On this point I’m pretty sure she is a dumb bitch that can’t learn on her own experiences what makes me wonder about people calling her a genius. 

Lena’s often kept out of the loop until the very end when she invents some life-saving device and stops the villain, which is tiresome and shows that the writers truly don’t understand the complexity of the character and how impactful her relationships with the other characters could be.

How many times the shit she “helped” to fix was HER fault? Because she knew better and didn’t listen to her friends? This is IN character and writers know exactly who she is. Sorry not sorry, canon.

I’m not saying that Kara and company are going to immediately trust Lena to be on their side and always do the right thing. That will be part of the tension of Lena joining the group at first, proving that she’s capable of helping them and being a positive addition to their group. With Lex on the loose (hopefully not for long), this provides the perfect opportunity to begin Supergirl season 6 with Lena in the fold, finding more reasons to keep her there along the way.

Sure, once again Superfriends need to offer their hand to their ABUSER and invate her to their circle. So she can fuck shit again. Positive addition, yeah - butthurt, complains, eternal bitching about how people call her Luthor, being always right, not listening to the others. But oh yeah, she can produce more kryptonite to torture Kara. Once again, why keep her? Put her in the jail, case close.

(...)now is the time that Supergirl seems to be relying heavily on the team element, and leaving Lena out would be disastrous. The entirety of the Lena vs. Kara story on season 5 could have been avoided if Lena was brought into the fold earlier (and seeing only a few alternate realities doesn’t convince me that there was no way Kara could have told Lena earlier… that’s a pathetically easy way out of the story and the writers surely know it).

Sure. Blame Kara once again for rightfully protecting herself. And sure, CANON can’t convince you that telling Lena earlier would have changed a shit. Some people can’t understand that Lena is the pathetic control freak and has to know everything, because if not boo hoo hoo, people call her a Luthor.

This is canon Lena Luthor. I’m sorry she doesn’t fit your headcanon.

 And aside from Kara, Lena needs to work out her relationships with the others, too. She had minimal scenes with Alex — which is the second most important relationship to develop next to Kara and Lena’s on Supergirl season 6 — on season 5 and Brainy, too. But have Lena and Nia even been in a scene together? That’s a tragedy in and of itself. Plus, Kelly was the only one on good terms with Lena, and that could grow into a beautiful friendship, especially because of the relationship that Katie McGrath and Azie Tesfai share off-screen.

Her most important relationships are: her and her ego, her and her last name, her and her mommy issues, her and her brother. What she needs to develope is a fucking conscience. 

And Jesus Christ, leave Nia out of her fucking clucthes, we don’t need her corrupting poor Dreamer (aside of the fact Dreamer is protective of Kara and is going to show Lena her middle finger in s6). Why we need being tortured but going through Lena making friends with everybody?

Lena’s been a series regular on the show for three seasons, yet she’s continuously the person left out. Nia’s a superhero and knew Kara’s identity before her, Kelly has close ties with Alex and Kara even if she’s not officially in on the secret yet, and Brainy instantaneously became part of the group when the Legion showed up during season 3. Because of the ridiculous good vs. evil story, Lena has not been allowed to grow and develop real relationships after three seasons. Supergirl season 6 must rectify that.

LOL, she was in the cricle. All the time. She just didn’t know Kara’s secret. But sure, it kept her form growing up *dyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing*. All of the characters that knew earlier were worthy Kara’s trust. Canon showed Lena was and is not. She is ruled by her BUTTHURT. That’s the problem with Princess Lena. She was blinded by her emotions by MONTHS. And for sure it will happen again, because Miss Luthorgirl is unable to understand her own fucking flaws and blames everyone but herself.

After painting Lena out to be a villain for the entirety of season 5, Supergirl season 6 absolutely cannot follow their history of major interpersonal developments occurring off-screen with Lena, especially when it comes to her relationship with Kara.

Not painiting. She was the villain. Yeah, all we need is focusing on Lena’s being sad and uspet and Kara trying to fix shit again. Because we don’t suffer from it since s2. 

Maybe instead of wasting time on a white privileged white bitch, who makes the same msiakes all the time and never paid for it, who kidnapped, tortured. enslaved and lobotomize people and her friends, let’s focus on dansen, developing Kelly, focusing more on Alex and Alex and Kara, giving Nia more screen time. I wonder, why the author thinks Lena and her whiny ass should get anything more?

This goes for all relationships, honestly, not just those involving Lena. While I do think everyone should get these moments on-screen, it absolutely has to happen with Lena if we’re going to believe her journey going forward. Making all of these moments happen off-screen is quite a bad habit that has constantly dragged Supergirl down, but should we actually get to see the emotions and growth exploring during Supergirl season 6, there’s a lot of potential, particularly because of how talented this cast is.

Sure. But the others, REAL representation, are not that important as Lena and her privileged ass. Who needs her journey going forward? She had her chance. She fucked it more than once. 

And now, amazing how this person totally IGNORED that Lena kidnapped, killed, lobotomized, enslaved, tortured Kara and hurt her physically and emotionally like NO ONE EVER HAD, that she supported and happily worked with a mass murderer and terrorist, that she planned to DESTROY Kara and her family. Like all she did was some bad things, but it was not her fault that much, because her family abused her and Kara lied to her, what a crime!, let’s not talk about what she really has done. The shit since s2. The list is LONG. Because, ha ha haaaaaa, Lena doing bad things, while being “blinded by her emotions” is NOT only s5.

Lena Luthor is not a poor victim of circumstances and her family. Her crying and helping people fixing HER shit is not a redemption. Her apologizing to Kara is not REDEMPTION. All of she has done is still THERE. If she wants redemption, she needs to PAY for her SHIT and earn it. 

The problem is, I don’t give a flying fuck anymore. She can rot in jail. And tbh, this is what she deserves. 

Kara deserves better. Superfriends deserve better.

[vannahfanfics]

The Healing Properties of Oolong Tea

Category: Hurt and Comfort, Mild Romantic Fluff

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Characters: Ochako Uraraka, Katsuki Bakugo

Hey, everyone! This piece was made for @bnhabookclub‘s weekly SFW prompt, “I’m fine.” I hope you all enjoy it! ^u^

The ceramic mug was pleasantly warm in Ochako’s hands, as it had absorbed much of the heat emanating from the piping hot Oolong tea Momo had courteously prepared for their weekly girls’ night. Steam was curling in faint tendrils in the air above the cup, which was still full to the brim with the dark liquid sweetened with honey, sugar, and a dash of cream.

The tea, though still hot, was the perfect temperature to drink after several minutes of cooling, but Ochako made no move to do so. The heat continued to bleed out of the cup into her fingers and palms, turning the soft flesh a faint hue of pink. Distantly, Ochako heard Kyoka quip something about her tea going cold, and so she robotically lifted it to her mouth to take a dainty but mechanical sip. Its robust flavor, highlighted by the undertones of the sweeteners, spread a comforting warmth through her mouth and body. Ochako barely noticed. She was too busy staring at the entranceway leading up to the boys’ dormitory rooms, where one Katsuki Bakugo had made his exit not three minutes before.

“Guys… Does Bakugo seem a little more… tense than usual?” she finally posed and looked back at the girls with raised eyebrows. They were all snuggled up on the common room couches together, preparing to watch whatever romantic comedy Mina was loading into the DVD player. At her question, the pink, fluffy-haired girl peered over the edge of the coffee table with a frown.

“He does seem a little snippier than usual. He yelled at me this morning because I didn’t pour my cereal fast enough and was ‘hogging the box like a stupid extra,’” she pouted. Momo rubbed her chin thoughtfully, and her gaze shifted up to the ceiling as she pondered the notion.

“It’s only been four days since Kamino Ward… He was kidnapped by the League of Villains and held hostage and witnessed All Might’s fight against All for One up close. Even for him, it must have been a very traumatic experience.”

“Yeah, ribbit, but he’s Bakugo,” Tsuyu sighed dejectedly. “He’s not the type to talk about his feelings or accept help dealing with them.” At her poignant statement, the troupe of girls collectively heaved weighty sighs. Ochako sipped once more at the tea, finding its spreading warmth more therapeutic now. She knew she should focus on girls’ night, because they started the weekly get-together specifically to create a safe space away from their problems, but she simply couldn’t help but worry about Katsuki. Everyone is so convinced they’ll be rejected that he probably hasn’t even been offered help, she moped. Deku hasn’t even made any gestures to help him feel better. He just says, “Kacchan is strong. He can manage.”

But could he? All Might’s retirement had proved that even the strongest people had their breaking points. Katsuki could be suffering immensely, and they would never even know it because he was bottling it all up inside, and no one even attempted to twist the cap open to let out a little of the built-up pressure. That’s it! Ochako decided and set down her cup of tea to pour a fresh one from the teapot. Kyoka raised a critical eyebrow at her as she stirred in a small amount of sugar.

“Uh… Ochako, what’re you doing? You have a full cup right there. Are you going all space-case on us again?” she teased with a playful smirk. It fell from her face when Ochako abruptly rose from the couch and began stepping over their legs.

“It’s not for me. I’m taking it to Bakugo.”

“Why are you even bothering, ‘Chako?” Tooru quipped. Ochako could tell by the way her llama-patterned pajamas bunched at her bust that she had crossed her invisible arms. “He’ll probably yell at you to go away!” Just as she had clambered over Momo’s legs, Ochako stopped and stared down at the bitter tea swirling in the rose-patterned teacup.

“Yeah,” she agreed quietly. She watched the swirling light patterns of the sloshing tea slowly settle with her lack of movement. “You’re probably right. But he may open the door and take it, too. If he does that, then I’ll know that I’ve helped, even if it’s just a fractional amount.” The group of girls fell into awed silence. She continued to stand there at the edge of the couch for a second, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth as she steeled her nerves. Bakugo would probably yell at her to go away and not even open up the door… but at the very least, she ought to try. That’s what friends were for, after all. Even if Bakugo didn’t consider them friends, she considered everyone in Class 1-A her friend, and friends always made an effort to be there when they were needed most- even if the recipient didn’t know they needed help in the first place.

“Wait, Ochako,” Momo interrupted when Ochako began walking again. Ochako looked over her shoulder to see that the black-haired girl had taken a saucer and was loading it up with the small tea cakes and tartlets that Tooru had bought from the supermarket. “Take these to him as well. I’m not sure if he has much of a sweet tooth, but at the very least, there should be something he likes,” she said with a smile and held out the pastry-laden saucer. Ochako adjusted her grip on the teacup before taking the small platter with a grateful smile.

“I’m sure he’ll love them! Feel free to start without me, guys. I’ve seen this one!” she chirped before whirling on her heel- not too fast, because she didn’t want the tea to spill and scald her hand. She carefully walked from the common room to the boys’ side of the dormitory, using the placards hanging on the doors to guide her to Bakugo’s room. She knew she had reached it when she stumbled upon a slightly crooked and bright red “Keep Out!” sign hanging on a door. Ochako kept Momo’s expensive teaware close to her body and kicked the door a few times with her foot since she couldn’t knock. “Bakugo! I brought you some tea and cake!”

“What the hell?” she heard him grunt from within. His voice sounded thick. He had announced that he was going to bed before stomping out of the common room, so it could be from sleep… But Ochako knew from overheard conversations that Katsuki fell asleep remarkably fast. It had only been about five or ten minutes since he had left; by all rights, he should be sleeping. Did that mean that Ochako’s instincts were right, and he was having difficulty sleeping because he couldn’t stop thinking about Kamino?

She jumped slightly at the harsh shriek of a chair scraping across the wood floor, then hissed as a few droplets of scalding tea landed on her hand and sizzled against the vulnerable skin of her fingers. Katsuki’s heavy footsteps echoed behind the door, but never seemed to grow any closer; he was muttering under his breath, too, words she couldn’t hear enough to comprehend. Is he… pacing? “I’m fine!” he barked suddenly, making her violently wince once more. She clenched her teeth with a little whine as more small, circular burns appeared on her hand from the hot Oolong.

He said he was fine… But he didn’t tell her to go away.

“Bakugo…” she murmured pityingly. Her eyebrows cinched a little, and she pouted determinedly before kicking the door with the toe of her slipper a few more times. “Momo worked really hard to make this Oolong tea! I didn’t add a lot of sugar because I wasn’t sure if you would like it too sweet, but I brought cakes, too! So please open the door and take them.”

“Stop bangin’ on the door, Uraraka; you’re givin’ me a headache!”

“Caffeine is great for headaches!”

“Shitty Round Face…!” Ochako grinned victoriously as his hefty footsteps finally thundered in the direction of the door. She kept the grin plastered on her- as Katsuki called it- round face, even as he flung the bedroom door open to glare scathingly at her. “I said that I am fine.” Her expression trembled a little at the unquestionable venom dripping from his voice, but she had come too far to yield to his defensive maneuvers. Wordlessly, she offered up the tea and cakes to him. His vermillion eyes bore seditiously into hers before slowly drifting down to the Oolong tea. His words were but a breath as he repeated, “I. Am. Fine. I don’t want the stupid tea.”

“Bakugo, I-” Evidently, as she began to protest again, her grin finally wavered and was replaced by an expression that Katsuki absolutely detested.

“Can’t you take a fucking hint?! I don’t want your fucking help, Uraraka, so stop looking at me with that fucking pitying look on your face!” He roared and, on reflex, knocked her hand away.

Ochako screamed in agony as the piping hot tea splashed all over her forearm. The scalding heat dissolved her fragile skin with violent relish, and she wasn’t sure if the steam billowing over her arm was just from the heat rapidly dissipating or her skin cells evaporating. Katsuki’s red eyes went as huge as blood moons as she crouched down over the shattered teacup and splattered pastries. She held her trembling arm at the elbow, wailing shrilly at the burning pain dominating her senses. Tears streamed down her cheeks to puddle at her chin, then drip down onto her fluffy purple spaceship pajamas.

“I just-” she could barely choke out the words with the sobs heaving in her chest at the terrible stinging pain, “I just didn’t want you to suffer all alone.”

“Jesus, I- Uraraka, don’t just sit there, here,” Katsuki huffed and grabbed her by the elbow of her good arm. It took no effort for him to haul her to her feet and drag her into his bedroom. He kicked the door of his bathroom open and flipped on the light. He lugged her over to the sink to flip on the tap. Ochako quailed at the sight of the stream of cold water, knowing it was going to burn like Hell, and tried to tug away. “No,” Katsuki insisted, and his grip tightened around her arm, but only just enough to keep her in place. “No,” he repeated more softly. With a gentle movement so unlike him, he pulled her back to the sink and lifted her burned arm to the stream of water. “It’s gonna hurt,” he warned.

“I’m fine, Bakugo, really! It’s worse than it looks!” she attempted to dissuade him with fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

“No, Uraraka, you’re not fine!” he barked savagely, and all the protests died in her throat as his voice cracked. While she was reeling, he jerked the burned section of her arm under the cold water. The sudden change in temperature along with the liquid streaming over the wounded flesh tore a shrieking wail from her throat. Soon it died into a few pitiful sniffles as the ice-cold water soothed the stinging flesh. “You’re not fine,” he repeated in a broken whisper. “You’re not fine, I’m not fine, this whole situation is fucked up and so far from fine, it ain’t even funny.”

Her red, puffy eyes found his. While her brown irises swam with awe and shock, his red ones burned with the most vicious self-loathing. He stared miserably at the disfigured skin of her forearm. “’S not fine,” he grumbled. “You were just tryin’ to make me feel better. Now look. I’ve gone and scarred you all up.” Ochako wanted to argue that it probably wouldn’t scar at all, but her tongue was unwilling to voice the fact. She went ahead and closed her mouth that was hanging open, since she clearly couldn’t use it. Katsuki’s face sagged woefully as he watched the last dregs of the dark tea swirl down the sink drain. “That’s all I can do, is fuck up and hurt people.”

“Bakugo, that’s not true.” This time, she was able to voice her opposition. He continued to gaze wretchedly at her arm, so she raised her good one to cup his cheek and force him to meet her eyes. He didn’t resist her. When those vermillion eyes met hers, she couldn’t help but whimper, because she had never seen him wear such a lost and devastated expression.

“I hurt you,” he insisted in a small voice. Ochako smiled forgivingly and caught the single tear that leaked out of the corner of his eye with her thumb. The fact that he was so passive right now, accepting her gestures and even deigning to shed a tear, meant that Ochako’s instincts had been correct. Katsuki was so overwhelmed by the incident at Kamino Ward that he was shouldering the blame entirely. In his mind, it was he and he alone who caused the downfall of the invincible, infallible, indestructible All Might.

“It’s not your fault.” She only had to say it once before the dam broke. He let out a choking sob and put a tightly balled fist to his mouth, obviously trying to contain the roiling emotions inside him. She let out a soothing “hey” and stroked his cheek a little. “It’s okay. You can let it out. I won’t judge you. It’s okay.” It was the most distraught she had ever seen him- face flushed, eyes brimming with tears, teeth clenched, and breaths heaved in between little sobs. At her coaxing, he slowly dropped his hand from his mouth and let out a little choking snuffle, then hung his head.

“I was so fucking useless, Uraraka.”

“There was nothing you could have done,” she said firmly. She reached up to put her hand on the back of his head, guiding his forehead to her shoulder. His hands came up to dig into her upper arms, like she was his lifeline, keeping him from sweeping out into an unforgiving and perilous sea. His body shuddered with an agonized groan, and she began to feel the shoulder of her pajama shirt dampening as the tears finally poured down. “It’s not your fault,” she repeated while rubbing comforting circles into the muscles of his upper back, just above his shoulder blades. “All Might doesn’t blame you. We don’t blame you. Please stop blaming yourself. Sometimes there are just things we cannot do alone, and it’s okay if you need help. But it’s not your fault if that help doesn’t turn out the way you wanted it to.”

His grip on her arm tightened as he heaved another wracking sob. She rested her head against his as he sought ought more of her reassuring presence, burying his face into the crook of her neck. She closed her eyes as tears of her own began to prickle in the corners of her eyes. It was just so heartbreaking, seeing the ordinarily confident and proud Katsuki reduced to such a state. It was enough to bring even the stoutest, staunchest stone wall of a person to tears. Ochako was not made of stone at all, so the tears began to cascade. “It’s not your fault.”

Finally, he nodded weakly. Ochako smiled as he began to wind himself down, inhaling and exhaling deeply to steady his breathing. With each deflation of his lungs, she could feel the tension working out of his muscles. Soon, he was breathing normally again, but he remained with his face buried into her neck and her small frame supporting his bulky one. “Bakugo-”

“Katsuki,” he interrupted quietly. Her face flushed pink. No one called him by his given name, not even Deku- just Kacchan, but that was a little different. “Call me Katsuki, and just… I need a little longer.” Ochako smiled sweetly and nodded. Her head still leaned against his, and his ash-blond hairs twisted a bit with her chestnut locks.

“You take as long as you need to. I’ll be right here.” She closed her eyes to relax, just allowing him to recover his mental state when he did something she would never have expected. His hands slipped from her upper arms to slowly slide to her lower back, and then he pulled her body against his in a small but firm hug. Ochako was so shocked at the intimate gesture that she just froze. She didn’t want him to think it was unwelcome, however, so she quickly gave him a squeeze of her own in response. Her cheeks reddened further when she felt him grin against the junction of her neck.

“Thank you... Ochako.” She hummed affirmingly, and he finally retreated, giving her a small smile. He then returned to serious, kinda-grumpy Katsuki, frowning at her burned arm and lifting it to inspect the injury. “Jeez… Can’t believe myself for this.”

“It’s okay!” she chirped brightly, and he gave her an inquisitive side-eye. “I don’t mind a scar. Scars are sexy, right?” He stared at her in utter disbelief for a second before bursting into a fit of incredulous laughter. Ochako started pouting, very unappreciative of his complete disregard for the sexiness of scars. “What?”

“You? Sexy? Come on.”

“Katsuki, that’s mean,” she frowned. She knew she wasn’t as sexy as Momo or Kyoka, but damn, did he have to go for the throat? His cheeks darkened, and he gave her a stern look.

“Dammit, that’s not-! I just mean-! Gah, I just meant that you’re cute, that’s all! Cute and sexy are two different things, but bein’ cute ain’t bad!” It was evident that he was saying these things well before actually realizing it, because after he finished babbling, he went as red as his vermillion eyes. Ochako stared at him with a gaping mouth.

“You think I’m… cute?”

“W-well, yeah,” he grunted nonchalantly, but the increasing hue of his face belied his words. “With those cheeks of yours, how can I not?” She squeaked in protest as he playfully pinched one of them emphatically. She swatted his hand away, protesting loudly but very much enjoying the compliment as betrayed by her blush. She was so focused on maintaining the unbothered act that he didn’t notice his face approaching her other cheek until he pressed a quick, chaste kiss to it. Her face immediately blazed with heat, like he had dumped some more hot Oolong right in it. He moved so that his face was hovering right in front of hers, their noses nearly touching. “Thanks for the help, cutie.”

It probably would’ve been the smoothest line ever if his face wasn’t the color of Tooru’s llama pajamas. Literally, it was the exact shade, a bright pink bubblegum color. Ochako got the image in her head of Katsuki dressed like a fluffy llama and immediately snorted piggishly in laughter. He reared back as she doubled over, giggling and holding her stomach. “The fuck you laughing at? I mean it!”

“No-! Ah, it’s just-! Ahahaha… You’re just so cute!”

“The hell? I ain’t cute! I fall under the category of sexy, thank you very much! Damn Cheeks…” he grumbled. Still holding her arm aloft, he began rummaging through his medicine cabinet and procured a tub of burn cream and some bandages. They quibbled back and forth over his levels of cuteness and sexiness as he applied the thick white cream to the burn and then wrapped it up. She was so absorbed in trying to keep from breaking into hysterical snickers that she barely registered the little spikes of pain his ministrations caused. After he secured the loose end of the bandage with a fastener, he playfully shoved her in the head. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Cheeks.”

“Is that what you’re calling me now?”

“Damn right,” he confirmed haughtily with another pinch. She groaned as he yanked on the sensitive skin and slapped half-heartedly at him, making him grin widely. “Better get used to it, Cheeks.” She sniggered happily and looked down at her bandaged arm. He had been very gentle in nursing her injury, applying only the necessary amount of pressure, and hadn’t wrapped the dressings too tight. It made her smile warmly. “Oi. Space Case,” he huffed and knocked on her head with his knuckles.

“What?” she pouted. She shrilled as his face dove down to steal a little kiss from her. All she saw was his triumphant grin as he strolled out of the bathroom with his hands stuffed into his sweatpants pockets. “K-Katsuki…!”

“You make it too easy! Let’s go.”

“Wh-where?”

“You were so damn insistent on that tea, so I’m goin’ to get some.” She jumped when she heard the click of his doorknob.

“Ah! Wait for me!” she cried and rushed out of the bathroom. It wasn’t necessary, as he already stood in the threshold. He frowned at her with the faintest hint of a smile. As she hurried to his side, he roughly threw his arm around her shoulders and steered her into the hall. Her face steamed hot with embarrassment, but she snuggled into his form with a tiny smile. “… Are you gonna try the little cakes too?”

“Eh? I ain’t tryin’ no frou-frou girly-ass cakes.”

“But they’re good!”

“Just one! But you better pick wisely. I ain’t gonna forgive you if you give me something gross.”

“Hehe, don’t worry,” Ochako reassured him brightly. He grinned and hugged her a little tighter.

“Ochako?”

“Mhmm?”

“… Nuthin’.” He didn’t say it, but she knew he was thanking her again. She decided against embarrassing him by acknowledging that, and instead said, “Thanks for your help with the burn.” He raised an eyebrow at her, then looked away, faintly blushing.

“Anytime.”

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

Tag List: @deliathedork @mhafandomman @simplybakugou @sadistiks

[ketsuekki]

THE BLOODY WRAITH: JAPAN’S S-RATE BLIGHT!

PROFILE.

NAME: Keumi, Minami // 毛海美波. ALIASES: The Bloody Wraith (alt: The Bloody Onryō, The Bloody Goryō), Leech Bitch. AGE: 25 (as of chapter 296) D.O.B: 22nd of May. BLOOD TYPE: AB negative. GENDER: Cis female. SEXUALITY: Closeted bisexual, heavy preference for women. NOTABLE CONDITIONS: Antisocial Personality Disorder, Sexual Sadism Disorder, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anemia (occasional, result of quirk overuse), dyslexia. APPEARANCE: Pallid skin tone. Thick, wavy and short green hair that reaches just past her shoulders. Green eyes with prominent dark circles beneath them. Abnormally sharp canines and two pairs of fangs; one pair beside her canines and one pair below them. Large (large!) breasts with a thin and lithe build. Little muscle. Arms and legs covered in self-harm scars. Has a thin, raised scar across her throat. 187cm tall and weighs 65kg. ETHNICITY: ½ Russian, ½ Japanese. NATIONALITY: Russian (formerly), Japanese. OCCUPATION: freelance photographer, yakuza head, terrorist. AFFILIATIONS: All For One, The League of Villains, Ketsueki-kai.

QUIRK.

Minami’s quirk is “Blood Pump”!! It is an Emitter-type power that has run in the Inoue clan’s ruling branch for over two hundred years, and allows the user to produce and control their own blood. Things such as volume, power and shape can all be changed to the user’s will --- but although the blood can be manipulated into various forms, movements or even pressurised streams, it should be noted they are unable to actually solidify it beyond the consistency of an average clot. 

This quirk uses the holder’s vitality as “fuel” to make and exert control over their blood and is extremely draining; its use must be efficient and tactical to prevent extreme exhaustion or, in some cases, death. Minami can use Blood Pump at her maximum output for roughly twelve minutes before falling into unconsciousness. The blood can not be controlled from more than ten metres away if it isn’t in contact with the user’s body. 

Unless it is being actively suppressed with a nullification quirk or the bearer has run out of stamina, this quirk can be used for the survival of otherwise fatal injuries by compensating for blood loss and, if there’s the skill for it, even ‘manually’ running one’s own circulatory system until proper treatment arrives.

Minami’s unique iteration of this quirk is the result of her parents’ powers combining, allowing others to receive a temporary powerup via consumption; since her blood is saturated with her life force, others can become energized and have their own quirk factors boosted from consuming it. The other quality she inherited from her father’s ability --- Ambrosia --- makes her blood adjust itself to be registered as delicious no matter the person tasting (or smelling) it. It has the potential to be addictive.

BIOGRAPHY.

Minami was born in the slums of Moscow alongside her identical twin Kiseki; their parents were Keumi Rui and Keumi Hanako (nee Inoue). Her childhood was a grim one; her ‘normal’ being outright neglect, left to fend herself and her older sister with zero care from their parents for as long as she could remember --- and, to be honest, she preferred to be her own carer when the alternative was her parent’s abusive teachings. The slightest mistake was punished with the most severe beating in their dingy little excuse of a home, a routine that would leave Minami distorted beyond salvaging for the rest of her life.

The girls had been instructed to hide their quirk the moment it awakened (three years old for Minami, seven for Kiseki). Their mother had run away from her family to elope with her husband, and their quirk was one that would give them away faster than hanging up a banner across their apartment building declaring their identities. The twins complied; Minami simply didn’t dare to disobey her parents, no matter how irrational their orders were, while Kiseki found a twisted satisfaction in the attention that came with being an outlier in a superpower dominated society. But, for all their filial piety, they were still human, and humans make mistakes.

While Minami was as violent as a child could come, she could only get so far with her body --- weak, frail and sickly --- before she began to desire to unleash her quirk to give way to even more absolute victories. Her blood practically boiled beneath her skin in every fight, and the innate desire to bleed grew and grew until she just couldn’t resist slicing herself open any longer. From age seven, she began training her quirk for combat in secret, practicing in alleyways and on drunks and vagabonds. Kiseki declined her offers to spar together, deeming it ‘not worth making her clothes dirty’. In the classroom, she was an absolute terror to both her teachers and her classmates, slowly but surely becoming a queen of bullies as she tormented anyone who slighted (which was any easy thing to achieve, considering a budding sociopath’s definition of ‘insult’ would bend over backwards to somehow place the blame on you) her and Kiseki. 

At age fifteen, Minami used her quirk on another student in her sister’s defence. Word spread of her quirk amongst the community, and she was forced to announce it officially on the quirk register… A register that was quickly brought to the attention of people who had been searching for any listing of a blood-based ability for years. They were rather rare, even now, after all. 

It didn’t take long for the Inoue, a yakuza clan in borderline retirement, to collect their lost daughters. It came as a shock to the twins, who had never once been informed of any family outside their little group of four. Minami and Kiseki were told their parents were forgiven for eloping, that they themselves were to return to Japan and take their proper place as members of the ruling branch. Their parents would remain in Russia as a reward, since they had gone to such lengths to escape there. Predictably, that was a lie: Hanako and Rui were killed before the twins’ plane left the ground.

Kiseki was soon bought by a rising Pro Hero for a quirk marriage. For the family, it was a perfect match; the pro wanted to build a lineage that would aid his prestige, and the Inoue wished to go legitimate, something having connections to a powerful, popular hero would aid... It didn’t go as planned. Refusing to succumb to the fate her own mother escaped, Kiseki rebelled against the arrangement as much as possible, acting out and threatening to tell the media all about the lucky hero’s teenage-purchasing, eugenicist schemes, displeasing her fiancée and her now face saving grandparents. Unchanged from their foregone glory days, the Inoue honour killed the elder twin for ‘disgracing the clan’. Minami was not told of this occurrence, seeing her touch trigger emotional stability but, after becoming suspicious of the sudden radio silence from her beloved sibling, she tortured her cousin into revealing the truth about both her sister and her parents. 

Predictably, Minami murdered the other members of the ruling family in a fit of rage, leaving herself the sole heir to the Inoue at only sixteen. She came to regret being blinded by red almost immediately --- seeing as she failed to get the name of the hero who had helped kill Kiseki before they all kicked the big one. For as much as she now hated them, Minami had to admit they were good, too good, at what they did. She didn’t have the faintest idea on how to track down Kiseki’s fiancée, and the lower branches of the Inoue, her adorable extended family, couldn’t make a dent in her grandparent’s cover ups either. So: Minami did the only logical thing she could think of --- she bribed the erasure of all records of her family’s quirks, anticipating future police investigations, and then proceeded to curb stomp her way through every single hero she could get her hands on, revealing her face to them just before they died to judge their reactions. If they were Kiseki’s fiancée, even the most twisted pro would flinch or… Or something, upon seeing the face of someone they killed, right..?

Her strategy was no better than trying to find a needle in a haystack, and she knew it… But she couldn’t just leave Kiseki’s vengeance unfulfilled. That was simply the kind of person she was; someone who wished to make the people she loved happy, no matter the cost. For the people who were kind to someone as burdensome, as terrible as her… She would show her love by dedicating her everything to them. Even if they were dead, even if it wouldn’t change what happened, Minami would make all those who hurt them pay for it.

At age eighteen, she was approached by a man called All For One (‘what kind of fucking weirdo has three words as a name?’). He claimed to have heard of her troubles through her cousins, and wished to help. Without asking for anything in exchange, he dug up the identity of Kiseki’s fiancée and watched as Minami finally fulfilled her life’s purpose --- and then swiftly swooped in to give her to give her a new role to play as soon as the euphoria faded and the realisation she was once again worthless began to settle in. Grateful and desperate to be used, All For One replaced Kiseki as the holder of her heart. Minami became his servant, first and foremost.

After graduation from high school, she began work as a freelance photographer for the fun of it (and to maintain a civilian persona, she would cry to her amused cousins), grew the Ketsueki-kai’s criminal activities for no reason other than to spite the ghosts of the former ruling family, and brought about whatever bloodshed All For One wished for. Of course, Minami never quite lost her taste for hero killing, and continued to destroy any hero, celebrity, politician or even villain that happened to irritate her. Some bastards needed a good humbling every now and then, right? Wouldn’t want those egos of theirs to kill them before she did! Anyone who posed an obstacle to the Ketsueki-kai met the same fate.

Minami is known to murder a target’s entire household before the target themselves. She won’t refrain from killing witnesses, either --- unless All For One orders her not to. By the present day, she’s built up quite a reputation as an S-rated villain, garnering rather fanatic fans who adore the nightmarish gore she leaves in her wake. Her personal villainy has no true goal --- she simply wishes to chase her desires, Cause Problems On Purpose and earn All For One’s praise. 

If she were to be arrested, Minami would be sent to Tartarus.

[nellynee]

FowlPlayAU (aka Miraculous Peacock Marinette AU)

Literally no one asked but I don’t care. An AU in which Marinette holds the Peacock Miraculous

This actually developed from a few different threads that I tugged on over the course of a few months.

I guess the starting point for this was probably the season 1 episode “Simon Says” with the very short but profound moment of understanding between Gabriel and Ladybug over the pedestal they both placed Adrien on and the subsequent really, really heavy handed comparisons everyone kept making towards everyone else about who resembled Emilie the most

Basically I thought this episode was the heaviest seed in the narrative of the parallels between Gabriel and Marinette, both fashion career focused workaholics who take way to much responsibility on their own shoulders and get obsessive to the point of destructiveness over their respective, similar love interests, and using those parallels as a point of interest in showing both Marinette's growth as she moves beyond that destructive mentality and towards regarding Adrien as a person and how Gabriel’s “love conquers all” mentality isn’t an inherently positive thing but no. *sigh* no, they needed more screen time for one time characters. It fleshes out the world,yes, but not the characters. LOTS of interesting long term threads were dropped in favor of broadening the cast to try and shoehorn that “kid superhero group” into the show that was originally tossed. Basically I’m saying that I do think Gabriel and Marinette have enough in common to surprise some people, including each other, and I’m a sucker for intergenerational friendships

The second main factor was the small subplot at the time of Gabriel suspecting Adrien of being Cat Noir. I got really interested after “Gorizilla” about what might actually happen if Gabriel did figure out that Adrien was Cat Noir at that point in the series (I have words about Cat Blanc, trust me. No those words aren’t “throw the whole mess out the window” because I actually love it. But many, many words) Going off the heavy handed implications that Emilie was the former Peacock, I thought it would be interesting, and in character, for Gabriel desperately analyze his son’s behavior as Cat Noir, trying to figure out WTF Adrien thinks he’s doing, only to realize that Cat Noir has some pretty obvious affections for Ladybug. This is unacceptable of course, but understandable in a “he’s a hormone ridden, teenage boy, and Gabriel was once too the same sort of boy in love with the same sort of heroin” sort of way. The obvious answer to getting rid of what is the only possible obstacle for his son’s cooperation (I was going off the pilot with the potential of Cat Noir as a Hawkmoth agent because of their familial connections) is to get rid of his affections, and since it has to be shallow, he’s too young and also Gabriel controls his whole life so it can’t be love, then all he has to do is shift his son’s affections. Cue an uncomfortable number of episodes in which Gabriel subtly inserts a B plot into his Akumatized villains by trying to push various girl together with his son in carefully controlled circumstances. Because this is before Kasumi, and again, those nice parallels between Marinette and Gabriel himself, he eventually after trial and error settles on Marinette as the perfect candidate. Thus, we get a series of hilarious situations in which Marinette and Adrien are pushed more and more into high pressure uncomfortable and intimate situations, losing time and ability to turn into their superhero personas as a natural deterrent to power creep and justifying the use of other Miraculous users a lot more. 

I saw someone comment in one of their author’s notes on a fic a long time ago that they hated the trope of Marinette being an emotional Atlas and my instantaneous internal response that that kinda WAS Marinette's character early series, especially the origin episode, and that a lot of the most prevalent fics were written in that time period, and that really intense response from me really stuck. 

Peacock aesthetic. yup, that alone gets an equal piece of the pie 

So yeah, if any of that interests you, keeping in mind that on top of potential sympathy and understanding of his actions, Gabriel is still absolutly a shitty person, then the actual (canon divergent) AU is under the cut.

The actual thing diverts during Stone Heart, in which the moment Marinette decided to become Ladybug for realsies rather than try to faust it off Alya doesn’t happen. Rather than deciding to put on the earings, Marinette distracts the monster enough they can get away. Alya finds the earings, and takes up the Mantle of Ladybug.

This decidedly marks a regression in Marinette. Where as Ladybug, and with Tiki’s constant assurances and influence, Marinette learns to work past her urges to take responsibility for everyone’s emotions, Marinette has now lost that constant companion, and has to deal to with her new best friend’s time being diverted

Cut forward to “Stormy Weather” and Marinette has fallen into a vicious cycle of guilt. The little creature had told her it was her destiny to be Ladybug. And while we know that the situation with Hawkmoth is not much different than it is in canon, Marinette is totally convinced that the only reason Hawkmoth is still around hurting people is because she rejected the call. That guilt has built into a feeling of impotent inadequacy that convinces her that she’s no longer deserving of the Ladybug roll, and so she’s both unable to do anything, and responsible for Hawkmoth still being around. 

The most prevalent of episode changes is Lady Wifi. It’s Marinette who’s akumatized, not Alya, and it’s a fairly traumatizing, but empowering experience for Marinette. 

The ultimate culmination of this is this universe’ “Volpina” episode, where, in the background of main battle events, Marinette gains an understanding of the suspicions that Gabriel might be Hawkmoth, and in the climax of the battle, believing Adrien in danger, she confronts him, confirming his alter ego. 

In a scene I have no time to actually extrapolate on, if your curious, just ask, Gabriel and Marinette come to a tentative understanding. He’ll give her the powers to protect his son, and she’ll actually have some sort of control in her life again. This akumatization takes the form of a faux Peacock Miraculous. 

This marks the first half of her partnership as an antihero with Hawkmoth. (and yes, I do have the mechanics of how he can akumatized more than one person at a time without Catalyst, which will be extrapolated upon request, but this is long enough already)

Again, I wanna draw attention to those Sweet, Sweet Marinette and Gabriel parallels. Gabriel, through half truths and carefully peppered moments of emotional manipulation and practiced vulnerability, attempts to B plot Marinette into stealing the Miraculouses. Believing herself to be at least somewhat in his thrall, Marinette allows herself to empathize with his plight, and they build a surprising, if strained, raport. 

After discovering that she is not, in fact, under Hawkmoth’s control Marinette rebels just long enough to have Hawkmoth take back his Akuma, and Marinette caves the next time Adrien is in Genuine Danger, stealing the real Peacock Miraculous and using it.

This marks the second half of their partnership, and Hawkmoth reveals that the miraculous is broken, and Marinette is now dying from it’s use, and that her only choice of survival is to help him make his wish. This evens out the power balance, at they both now have the same goals and powers independent of each other, but also ups ante. 

That’s the most tldr general of overview, with other more specific highlights like

Ladybug!Alya having to reach her own emotional maturity, her earlier stint as a hero leaving her with a much bigger ego in terms of how she perceives her impact of the morale of the city and where her priorities lie in trying to boost that morale vs her personal needs. Ladybug!Alya tries too hard to take notes from already established heroes and public images. She still runs the Ladyblog, Spiderman style.

After quickly realizing (after some confusion) that the Ladybug he fought Stoneheart with the last time is not the same as the one he fought the first time with, Adrien gets a big old case of the pining sighs

Early series Adrien and Alya are both not the type to value secret identities, and so yes, they do reveal said identities to each other fairly early.

They also can both keep a fucking secret, so it works. They are secret BFFs

After the first time Adrien is rescued by the mysterious Peacock Holder, he figures out that whoever she is, she’s the original Ladybug, and more and more ends up distracted and drawn away from fights by her, the perfect reason for Alya to have to bring in other miraculous users. (the interactions tend to take place on moonlit balconies. There’s heavy Pilot influences here)

Marinette does this thing where she spreads her fan when she’s startled and hides her face. Mostly because Cat Noir wont stay out of it. The miraculous’ memory means she tends to fan speak a lot. Symbolism

Speaking of symbolism, the character designs are rife with them. I know exactly what Peacock Marinette looks like and there’s a reason for everything.

The subplot where (inspired by the pilot) Cat Noir finds out that there used to be a curse on the ring that could only be lifted by a kiss from Ladybug (thanks to her creation/retcon powers). Cat Noir convinces (inaccurately) himself that his destruction powers can totally do something similar with Hawkmoth’s mind control now all he needs is to kiss the Peacock user and she’ll be free! She’s totes not a bad guy!

Yes, Marinette does get a different miraculous ala being an episode helper, and her emotions are complicated about it

And other fun tidbits. This got way to long but I’m more than willing to extrapolate on anything more specific that anyone is curious about

[opmsecretsanta]

OPM Prompts 2019

Edit: Prompts are now CLOSED! We have 36 prompts listed below, but you can also view and claim them HERE on AO3

Last day to submit your fills is Jan 31st

If you post on tumblr, please use #OPMSS2019 so your post can be found, and the corresponding prompt tag below (example: #OPMSS Prompt 001) if you want your work searchable.

(List below the cut)

Prompt 001

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 001 Rating: Any Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama, Mini-Bots Tags: Christmas, Fluff Prompt: It’s the minibots’ first Christmas! Saitama and Genos try to make it a fun time for them.

Prompt 002

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 002 Rating: Any Pairing: None or Any combo Characters:  Genos, Metal Bat, Garou Tags: Christmas Prompt:  Three terrible teens and their shenanigans! Honestly, I’ll love any setting, but something related to winter/the holidays could be fun. Out of these three, it might be Metal Bat who’s the closest to having any sort of proper and/or happy memories of this time of year - maybe he’s trying to help the other two to have a good time as well? Or perhaps they do a gift exchange, a stupid dare, dress up and visit kids in the hospital... the stage is yours! (Feel free to see them as just friends or dating in any combination you like - I like it all!)

Prompt 003

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 003 Rating: Any Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama, Dr. Kuseno Tags: Family Prompt:  Dr. Kuseno invites Genos and Saitama to celebrate the holidays with him and - drumroll - his family, which Saitama had no idea even existed. Who do they meet and how does it go? Do they like Saitama or are they suspicious of him? Can Genos behave himself for a whole weekend? Are there gifts exchanged and how does that go? I’d love to hear what you come up with!

Prompt 004

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 004 Rating: Any/Explicit Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama Tags: Topping from the Bottom, Rough Sex, Praise Kink Prompt: Tabloids tried to pick her apart all the time for being with the hottest of the S-class heroes. They called her bland and bald, they claimed she was too built, they accused her of using blackmail to trick Genos into dating her. Oh fucking well. They could write anything they wanted, and it still wouldn't hit home. Nothing they said could change the fact that her blindingly gorgeous boyfriend railed her to the moon and back almost every night. Sometimes, in fact, he did it just to spite them.

Prompt 005

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 005 Rating: Any Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama Tags: Parenthood, Mistletoe Prompt: Saitama and Genos in ugly matching sweaters smooching under the mistletoe...and then smooching the baby nestled into Genos' arms right after.Baby also has an equally ugly, matching sweater.

Prompt 006

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 006 Rating: Any Pairing: Sonic/Zombieman Characters: Sonic, Zombieman Tags: Bondage, Dirty Talk Prompt:  "You're a lot more feisty than Flash, huh?" "You call me 'feisty' again and I'll chop your dick off." "Good luck with that. It'll just grow back."

Prompt 007

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 007 Rating: Gen Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama Tags: Fluff Prompt: It's cold! Better stay as close as humanly possible to your cyborg roommate. Right, Saitama? This is a request for wintertime saigenos cuddles :D

Prompt 008

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 008 Rating: Teen Pairing: None or Saitama/Genos Characters: Saitama, Genos Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort Prompt: More Villlain!AU stuff! It can be something based off of someone's existing AU, or you can do your own thing! It can be shippy or gen, anything goes as long as it's the bois as villains :O

Prompt 009

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 009 Rating: Gen Pairing: None Characters: Sonic, Saitama, Genos Tags: Humor, Fluff Prompt:"SAITAMA! Mark this day, for it is the day I finally-" "Hey. I already have. Merry Christmas, Panic!" "...What?" "You didn't know today is Christmas?" "I..." "That's so sad!" "It doesn't matter! Today is the day I beat you, Saitama!" "Oh, cool. Come on in! We didn't expect another guest but there's enough food, I guess."(Sonic accidentally ends up celebrating Christmas with Saitama and Genos)

Prompt 010

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 010 Rating: Mature Pairing: None or Optional Characters: Genos Tags: Blood and gore, Inspired by Frankenstein Prompt: In a goth / fantasy / horror setting: Genos is not mechanical. He is a collection of various body parts, gathered from different creatures, obtaining their strength. All that's left of him is his pretty face. Art or writing appreciated. It can be gore if you like, or not. Shipping is optional.

Prompt 011

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 011 Rating: Any Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama  Tags: Fluff Prompt: Any fluff with Saitama/Genos. The violence is optional but acceptable.

Prompt 012

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 012 Rating: Any Pairing: Garou/Mumen Rider Characters: Garou, Mumen Rider Tags: Fluff Prompt: Any fluff with Mumen/Garou. The violence is optional but acceptable.

Prompt 013

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 013 Rating: Any Pairing: Metal Bat/Reader Characters: Metal Bat, Reader, Zenko Tags: Tooth-rotting Fluff, Bad Cooking, Christmas Kisses Prompt: Metal Bat and his s/o are just enjoying some time off to themselves, and decided to make some holiday food, (dinner and dessert) for Zenko, as a surprise! However, it ends with the smoke alarm going off, a mess to clean up in the kitchen, and Metal Bat, his s/o, and his sister all getting takeout for dinner, and sharing a quart of ice cream. (There were no drop-down menus, at least, not on my prompt submission. All I'm asking for is some good family fluff, and a kiss or two please!)

Prompt 014

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 014 Rating: Any Pairing: Garou/Metal Bat or Optional Characters: Garou, Metal Bat Tags: First Meetings, Internal Conflict, Secret Identity Prompt: Garou and Metal Bat meet for the first time in different circumstances and both of them don't realize who the other is (or one of them doesn't realize who the other is, your choice!), and (not so) surprisingly, they end up getting along. Fastforward to when they meet in canon and realize that the guy they met the other day and had a pleasant/fun/interesting encounter with was, in fact, their enemy-by-opposing-moral-standards. Shipping, graphic violence and higher ratings are appreciated but not a must!

Prompt 015

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 015 Rating: Any Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama, Dr. Kuseno Tags: Character Study, Family Feels, Hurt/Comfort Prompt: Before Saitama came to Genos' life, their world was confined to only the two of them; doctor and cyborg against the evil deeds of the world. One could only assume, a young and charming man like Genos would eventually find a partner and settle for a normal life, as it was meant to be. And it was not like he wished that Genos wouldn't find his place in the world and peace in his mind (God knew the boy had suffered far too much for such a young age), but as the years passed and the memory of his loss became ever more distant and Genos only seemed to care about their shared goal, the sense of familiarity and past parenthood settled tighter and tighter in Kuseno's heart, until he eventually forgot that kids grow and a metal body wouldn't stop that. And then Saitama came to Genos' life. (The summary sounds a little dark, but it's mostly a 'how does Kuseno react to Saitama entering their two-man world as he grows closer to Genos" kind of character exploration, make it as fluffy or as angsty as it feels right for you!)

Prompt 016

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 016 Rating: Teen Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama Tags: Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, Misunderstandings Prompt: As Saitama and Genos have friends over more frequently over the holiday season, their friends start to notice the affection discrepancies between Genos and Saitama. The heroes attempt to discern how much Saitama actually cares for Genos and are torn between bringing them together or helping Genos move on. (Basically, a bunch Team Genos characters meddling.)

Prompt 017

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 017 Rating: Mature Pairing: Fubuki/Psykos Characters: Fubuki, Psykos, Blizzard Group, Lily, Tatsumaki Tags: Angst, Conflict Resolution, Emotional Manipulation, First Kiss, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, Obsessive Behavior, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Smut Prompt: When it comes to these two, the angst potential is astronomical. Anything during or post-canon would be awesome, with some resolution of their very messy split, or Fubuki trying to bring back the girl she once knew. Psykos not recognizing Fubuki, and then slowly regaining a few scraps of memory and then becoming obsessively preoccupied with her would be. amazing. absolutely stellar. Fubuki seeing some small reminder of her old friend at the most innocuous moments, and her struggling with the guilt of what she had to do/Psykos's current state would also be aces. Other than that, I just think these two have a fascinating dynamic past hero/villain because of their shared history. Smut would be great (maybe guilty pleasure hook-ups that they both promise themselves won't happen again) but is by no means a must. Emotional intimacy is definitely the priority here.

Prompt 018

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 018 Rating: Mature Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama, Fubuki, King, Mumen Rider Tags: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Bottom Saitama, Courtship, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Genos is a Little Shit, Hero Saitama, Jealous Genos, Trans Saitama, Villain Genos Prompt: Villain!Genos/Hero!Saitama is my reason for living. An AU where Genos sees the corruption of the HA and goes AWOL? A random encounter where Saitama saves Mumen, who in turn is the one who tells him about the Hero Organization? Genos developing a crush at first sight and being just as single-minded and stubborn about dating him as he was about apprenticing under him? Genos taking copious notes so that he slowly develops the perfect, sure-fire way to seduce Saitama completely? You can do no wrong here. Explicit themes are welcome, but emotional intimacy is a MUST, otherwise, I'm fine without. Sprinkles of some of the other tags would absolutely guarantee you my firstborn. If not that, I'm willing to negotiate.

Prompt 019

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 019 Rating: Any Pairing: Garou/Mumen Rider Characters: Garou, Mumen, Genos, Metal Bat Tags: Action/Adventure, Developing Friendships, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Stupidity Prompt: Garou, Genos and Metal Bat: These three are my OPM BROTP. They're all such extra, total hotheads, and they really need more scenes together.A scenario where the three of them have to work together would be awesome, and while before this they all thought the other two as nothing more than annoying, a friendship forms. They're all around the same age, and their different life experiences play well against one another, with MB being the one with the most 'normal' life experience.Bonus (very, very optional): +Genos and Garou dote on Zenko ++background Mumen/Garou and Genos/Saitama, with Genos and Garou getting to vent about their miserable futures, doomed to pine forever for these perfect, too-good-for-this-world men +++details of homeless Garou's day to day, and, once his friends find out, he starts bouncing from place to place, crashing where-ever is nearest once he caves in and admits to himself he misses having a bed and some sense of security ++++conversation between Saitama and Garou, fluffy and sincere, with Saitama giving him advice on how to quit burning every bridge before it's even halfway built +++++Just. the dumbest shit you can think of. The consequences of these three out together, the world at their mercy, they're all smart separately but the second they come together brain cells aren't even in the picture, they really just become three dumb teenage boys who do dumb shit when they're bored ++++++Saitama and Mumens reactions to the above shenanigans +++++++Found Family (...this got really long, lol, sorry)

Prompt 020

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 020 Rating: Gen Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama Tags: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort Prompt: It’s Christmas, and Genos remembers his family.

Prompt 021

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 021 Rating: Any Pairing: None Characters: Amai Mask, Child Emperor Tags: Crossover (Death Note), Reincarnation Prompt: When Amai Mask (formerly Light Yamigami) first met the prospective S-class hero he was looking at a wall of monitors with a pile of lollipop wrappers beside him.

Prompt 022

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 022 Rating: Any Pairing: Saitama/Everyone, Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama, Zombieman, Sonic, King Tags: Strength Kink Prompt: Genos discovers he has a strength kink... unfortunately he’s not the only one.

Prompt 023

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 023 Rating: Any Pairing: None Characters: Saitama, Sonic, King, Genos, Puri Puri Prisoner Tags: Social Media Prompt: Saitama accidentally gets caught on camera shirtless and the internet thirsts.

Prompt 024

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 024 Rating: Any Pairing: Genos & Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama, Tags: Apocalypse, Post-Apocalypse, Grooming Prompt: The constant onslaught of monsters has brought an end to civilisation. Saitama and Genos still have each other.Hurt/comfort, grooming, postapocalyptic scenery ❤Art or writing welcome!A few ideas to be more specific: -Genos teaching Saitama how to repair him -Genos keeping Saitama warm -Christmas with random stuff recycled into decoration -Snacking in an abandoned supermarket -Making out inbetween ruins

Prompt 025

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 025 Rating: Teen Pairing: King/Tatsumaki Characters: King, Tatsumaki Tags: Fluff, First Dates, Pre-Relationship Prompt: Normally, Tatsumaki had no reason to go out anywhere with anyone, let alone with King. But then she heard the words 'Christmas Fair'.(Writing and art both fine~ Anything where they get to the fair right as it's starting to get dark and the lights all come on at once is even more fine ^^ ///)

Prompt 026

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 026 Rating: Mature Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama, King Tags: Fluff and Angst, Tenderness, Stupidity, Dorks in Love Prompt: Saitama and Genos start dating (how is up to you!) which prompts both of them into trying to be the best boyfriend they can be, with disastrous consequences. Saitama tries to fit the "sexy attentive partner" model, instead of being the normal dude he is, and goes through the standard “I bought you flowers, got your favorite foods because you're my boyfriend instead of because I wanted to, offered myself any time you want, etc." and gets really uncomfortable, but not saying anything since Genos is into it, and he's a lot more caring than he gives himself credit for. Meanwhile Genos goes overboard as usual, doing a ton of stereotypically romantic things and recording Saitama's reactions to different combinations, trying to test for "romantic effectiveness," while just getting a hug makes him freeze up because he's so touch-starved. This continues for a while with neither of them outright saying anything, until it either hilariously or sadly implodes around Christmas, and they slow the fuck down and just hold hands. Ending is also up to you but do have a happy one! Sex is nice but not necessary, whatever works best for the plot, and fluff is always always appreciated! Any side characters or ships will also work, but it would be hilarious to fit in King giving horrible advice somewhere.

Prompt 027

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 027 Rating: Any Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama Tags: Fluff, First Kiss, Confessions Prompt: First kiss is my weakness! Maybe the boys get caught under the mistletoe or Fubuki throws a Christmas party and things happen?! HMMMM... I have no preference for either SaiGenos or Genosai both are good! But bonus points for a pining Saitama because I am weak...

Prompt 028

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 028 Rating: Gen Pairing: None Characters: Rover Tags: Fanart, Fanfiction, Hugs Prompt: Rover needs some love! He can be huge or appropriately dog-sized, but I'd love to see him getting a hug from one of these people (and be a little overwhelmed or smothered): - Genos - Fubuki - King (a very cautious hug I'm sure) - Dr. Kuseno - Psykos No actually, I'll stop here because essentially it can be anyone. Squish that fluffy doggo. Feel free to pick your favorite and try to think up a hug that fits their character! I love that (this is mostly a fanart prompt but a cute/funny drabble of this situation is also VERY welcome)

Prompt 029

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 029 Rating: Teen Pairing: None Characters: Genos Tags: Fanart, Portraits Prompt:  A Portrait/Bust of Genos (because we'll never have enough of those) I'd love to see your take on one of the following: - Evening wear Genos, maybe visiting a masquerade ball organized by the HA. Wearing sleek, special arms for this occasion, with elegant engravings, gold or silver inlays (or whatever you think looks good. I wanna see some beautiful non-battle arms) - insects crawling out and into Genos' machinery. He's got a bug problem in canon indeed. A centipede slithering out of his chest vents over to his neck? Cockroaches spilling out of his mouth? Mosquitos covering his eyes? Go wild! Would love to see a coloured version - milky white Genos. White hair, pale skin, soft sleek arms that are opalescent. They should be the focus of the image. Maybe naked, maybe some flowing fabric surrounding him. Quite tricky this one, maybe only for someone who wants a challenge

Prompt 030

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 030 Rating: Any Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama Tags: Fanart, Fanfiction, Camping, Getting Together, Fluff, First Time Prompt: Either dynamic (G/S or S/G) is fine! For a mission, Genos and Saitama nees to track down the lair of a monster. They leave the city for a multiple day camping trip. They're not exactly in a hurry, talk about personal things, grow closer. It feels different to sleep next to Genos in a tent than at home, and it's very cold and he's very warm so it's tempting to creep closer bit by bit. They mostly cross vast fields of tall grass, with fireflies illuminating the night. Sometimes they take a break at their improvised camp fire. It's easiest to talk about feelings when they can barely see the face of the one they're talking to.- - -This might read as a fic prompt but I'm very happy about fanart as well! Tall, serene grass fields by night, fireflies or campfires, cozy tent atmosphere, just to name a few things I'd love to see! If you'd rather have an idea for writing that's amazing! First times are absolutely lovely in this scenario, too!

Prompt 031

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 031 Rating: Explicit Pairing: None or Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama Tags: Fanart, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gore, Smut Prompt: Oil tears • heat • one villain • a hero suit, half undressed • robot gore • worship • kiss Choose two or more, interprete them as you like into an artwork. S / G or vice versa, or either character alone, nsfw is optional.🖤

Prompt 032

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 032 Rating: Gen Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama, Dr. Kuseno, Fubuki, Tatsumaki Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Alternate Universe, Fairy Tale Elements Prompt: [Medieval AU] Saitama stumbles upon a small stone cottage in the thick of the woods.

Prompt 033

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 033 Rating: Gen Pairing: Saitama/Fubuki, Saitama/Genos/Fubuki, Genos & Fubuki Characters: Saitama, Genos, Fubuki Tags: Angst, Comfort, Fluff Prompt: SAIBUKI Prompt Their dating life has gone as good as it can get. It’s different for Fubuki being with a guy that’s so simple as Saitama, but she picks up to the routine and is enjoying herself for the most part. Now if only his disciple could do the same for her. Genos gives Fubuki a hard time what with dating his Sensei. After countless of times bringing up the issue to Saitama and it going dismissed, Fubuki confronts Genos herself in an attempt to try and have a heart to heart with the Cyborg.

Prompt 034

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 034 Rating: Any Pairing: Garou/Mumen Rider Characters: Garou, Mumen Rider Tags: Fluff, Getting Together, Confessions, 5+1 Things, Getting to Know Each Other Prompt: Mumen sees a half-starved Garou staring into the window of a restaurant, and buys him a meal. His mother always warned him never to feed strays, but when it comes to Garou, he can't help it. Over a few shared meals, they grow close...Take your pick of the tags, fic or art are both good! Bonus points for making it festive.

Prompt 035

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 035 Rating: Mature Pairing: Genos/Saitama Characters: Genos, Saitama Tags: Costumes, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut Prompt: After wrecking one too many pairs of designer jeans, Genos decides to follow in his sensei's footsteps and find a hero costume. Saitama gives his opinions, and whilst there are some that don't do Genos any favours, others look too damn good to be seen by the general public.Smut optional; up to you whether or not Genos decides upon a costume ;)

Prompt 036

Tag: #OPMSS Prompt 036 Rating: Teen Pairing: King/Tatsumaki Characters: King, Tatsumaki Tags: Fluff, Friendship/Love Prompt: Tatsu is having a terrible day when she finds an unlikely ally (King). Everything is a little bit better with someone on your side. Can be friendship or the start of something more.

[verratensduo]

Why attack on titan will have no hero

After some discussion with @marley-warriors-of-demon-blood, I have decided to finally make my meta on this past chapter’s use of the “heroic” Helos. Let me first say I admire the optimism of those who honestly think that it means we will get a true hero. You have far more optimism than I do.  I go towards a darker take on the line about Helos, simply because of the facts of this world of Attack on Titan. Let it be known unlike most meta writers I don’t claim any impartiality, I am incredibly biased and giving my personal interpretation of the story, I am not her to be popular, just analyze from my perspective. Understand I use the literary terms in sense of hero, villain, anti-hero, and anti-villain as opposed to fandom definition. I won’t lie to you on my take with this, or change it to be more popular, or tell you want you want to hear. I also refuse to change my views to be popular. I will explain this in four parts, one talking on what we learned from willy, one speaking on implications for this world, one speaking of the heroes, and one speaking of the one who could have taken the title of “big bad”, aka THE villain of the story.

Let’s start with this Helos character. A figure in Marlyean history. He slayed “the devil” of humanity. He represented the victors of the eldian civil war, Marley. He is a hero that saved the entire human race from the evil genocidal Eldian empire. At least, that is what they tell us at first. Make it seem that Marley history is right and therefore they are somehow justified in their horrific crimes against humanity when it pertains to Eldians.

However, this isn’t true. Willy Tybur’s discussion with McGath proves that. He tells McGath that Helos is fake, an empty symbol, as empty as the existence of the Marley super state. There was no hero, at all. Helos doesn’t exist. He is an empty idea of Marlean supremacy over Eldians on the mainland. Though it gets even more pathetic than that.

During his speech on that stage, Willy revealed Helos was simply a figure created by King Karl Fritz and Tybur family to further make the Eldian civil war a loss for both sides. It was a cruel game of pure evil on their part, giving Marley a false idol as well as a protagonist to a story where there was no hero, and no villain. Unless you like me, see Karl Fritz as a villain, but that is a personal opinion.

This suggests that the ideal of a hero is simply that, an ideal. In the world our characters find themselves, you don’t get a choice. You don’t get to be the hero or the villain, you are either a pawn, or someone with power who abuses you for their own sick amusement. This alone leads me to believe that there is no hero of this story.

A story where the group that would serve as our primary villain, the Marley government has zero participation aside from ordering attacks against Paradise, it only makes sense we wouldn’t get a traditional hero. There is no way to overcome this in a heroic way. The heroic actions simply aren’t possible. Choices are limited as it is, there is no hope for the characters to get the chance to be a hero. They are either die before they get their chance, or they live long enough to commit horrific acts for the cause they deem to be noble.

However, this doesn’t mean they have to be villains. In fact aside from Marley’s government, the original Paradise government, and the terrorist organization known as the Restorationists I really don’t see any classic villains, and none of these groups have direct things they do within the main story, only things that happen off screen or in flashbacks. Once again, the villains I listed are my personal bias, not any canon confirmation.

Now in this story we had two primary candidates to be the big hero who saves the day. Those being Eren Yeager and Reiner Braun. However, we all know they have done far too many horrible things to ever be truly considered heroes. Instead, Isyama decided to do something interesting, in a cast of anti-heroes, he has focused on these two anti-heroes in particular. With good reason, they have massive followings and are arguably the ones that generate the most controversy. Not only that, they serve as the perfect archnemisis for one another.

Let’s start with Reiner. Starting off as a seeming mentor figure for Eren, you already are inclined to like him. The boom, he is the armored titan and his main goal is to for reasons unknown kidnap Eren and return to his home town. He has murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in that name, even personally leading the murder of Marco after stupidly talking about his plans in broad daylight.

Oh but wait, back in Marley he is the oppressed class in a Nazi nation. He is kind and caring to kids, and feels genuine remorse for what he did to Paradisians. However, he has decided that in the name of peace and his family, that his only option is to keep serving this government and work with his seemingly genocidal war chief on his plans for totally annihilation of Paradise. Oh Reiner, if only you knew that Zeke was even worse than Marley.

Now let’s talk about Eren. He starts off as our heroic protagonist, always fighting for the little guy. Suffering at the hands of his friends who betray him, and his own government who wants him tortured and dead. Fighting against all odds for even the hope of freedom for his people. Oh, and to make things worse, suddenly there is this aggressive nation across the sea and a world that wants to commit a genocide on their island. Oh, and then your government decides you’re a weapon, you’re friend is a breeding animal, and that they want to be colonized that is nice.

Then boom, heel turn so to speak. He attacks Librerio killing hundreds of innocents and forcing the SC, who has been content to let the government do their stupid things to get involved. He is jailed, and then rebels against the military dictatorship and against his friends and tears into his two best friends and throws them in prison. He is “the bad guy now”.

Now Reiner wants to be a hero and Eren wants freedom for himself and his people. Both arguably noble goals, but do they ever do fucked up shit to achieve them. Now given the situation I understand entirely, at least those two aren’t forcing this conflict on their kids, unlike a certain terrorist group and two particular characters who shall not be named but we all know who they are. Interesting enough to say the least.

Now onto the man who had potential to be either an anti-hero or the main villain. That is right, Zeke Yeager is here at last. He could have made an interesting anti-hero, trying to kidnap his little brother from the evil Paradise and bring him to be a good little eldian in Marley. Or he could have been a Joker esque villain to the Marley cast and have snapped in Marley and forced the warriors to bring down their beloved pure evil war chief. Now Isyama had plans for neither much to his credit.

Zeke’s goal is pretty simple, euthanize his people and let Paradise activate the rumbling to wipe them out.. Oh yay good for him. His goal is something he deems noble, but boy would anyone with half of a brain see it as fucked up.

Now from his perspective as a traumatized child mixed with his psychopathic love of killing people and enjoying doing it, even seeing it as “freeing them”, it makes perfect sense and makes him a benevolent hero. In reality, it couldn’t be more fucked up.

This is what puts him in a different class than most of the cast. He meets a text book definition for anti-villain. Without him to be able to serve as a true “big bad”, there is no need for a Helos like character to even appear. It is far to late at this point. No one matches that bill.

Now in all fairness, I think if we got a Helos like character at this point it would be a disservice to the story. It would ruin the morality challenging themes, and it would ruin his goal for a more non-traditional approach to telling his story.

The need for the cast to remain the same as it is now couldn’t be more clear. There will be no traditional hero in Attack on Titan, because the world it is in, is a world in which there can be no heroes, the situation prevents it.

Now remember, this is my biased opinion and take oin the story. I am not claiming any of this to be canon.

[snowe-zolynn-rogers]

An AU Idea I’ll Be Working On

The members (and their hero/villain names) are:

Watasaeki Kurogiri aka The Warp Hero: Blackmist

Shimura Tenko aka Tomura

Yukimura Touya (Dabi (formerly Todoroki Touya) aka Smokescreen

Toga Himiko aka Shifter

Iguchi Shuichi aka Shield

Bubaigawara Jin aka Twice

Hikiishi Tamijiki (formerly Hikiishi Kenji) aka Magne

Sako Atsuhiro aka Mr. Compress

Chisaki Kai aka Annihilation

Kurono Hari aka Chrono

Shinōkanri Eri aka Morningstar

Suji Ken aka Muscular

Gin Kuchi aka Moonfish

Koku Dokuna aka Mustard

The League of Villains are all fifteen besides Kurogiri, Muscular, Mustard, and Moonfish.

Kurogiri is thirty and he's the Responsible Mom Friend™

Muscular is fourty someone please save these fifteen year olds from the pervy old guy whos killed a lot of kids and teenagers

Moonfish is twenty five and he has already mentally scarred ten fifteen year olds beyond repair like holy shit help them.

Mustard is eleven (vine: so shut the f*ck up) also WHO GAVE THIS ELEVEN YEAR OLD A GUN!?

I changed some aspects of their Quirks as well (but it couldn't be helped!)

In addition to being able to decay what he touches, Shimura can also reverse decomposition. (e.g. decaying an apple after touching it with all 5 fingers or keeping a building from falling by restoring it).

Yukimura's is entirely different. He can generate snow from his left and smoke from his right (like Todoroki with his fire and ice.)

Toga doesn't need to ingest someone's blood, she needs to have touched them within thirty minutes of transforming into them. It does have a time limit though. At the moment, it has a time limit of one minute per second she touched them (she's working on it).

Kurono's had to change completely, mostly because he can't move when he uses his Quirk and that's kind of limiting him. *shakes head at myself in disappointment* He can still slow down and speed up objects, and people, so long as he touches it or them with his bare hand, or hands. *I'm sorry I know his hair was cool looking but I had to take his limit off so he has room to improve and become the hero he would be in this AU*

Eri. Well...*scratches hair* I um...I couldn't leave the poor girl with a super destructive possibly traumatizing Quirk so I figured to still give her a Quirk that was a 'Mutation' of her family's (which I based around telekinesis) and I gave her a Quirk where she can transform into pure energy. Will explain more below. ↓↓↓↓

That being said, some of their Quirk's names are different. (aka me shamelessly wanting to go over the LoV's Quirks now that they're young and have less control over them)

Shimura Tenko. Quirk: Decay and Restore. Anything he touches with all five fingers can be decayed or restored, depending on which he's intending.

Yukimura Touya. Quirk: Snow and Smoke. From his left half of his body, he can create snow and control it too. From his right half, he can generate non-lethal smoke that serves well as a smoke screen.

Toga Himiko. Quirk: Transform. For up to thirty minutes, at the moment, after she touches someone she can transform into them.

Iguchi Shuichi. Quick: Force Fields. Iguchi can create force fields both for protection and as weapons. At the moment, his Quirk is limited to a five foot area around him, which unfortunately means he needs to be a close range fighter until he expands his range, and a ten minute limit of keeping them up until they fall down whether willing or not.

Bubaigawara Jin. Quirk: Double. He can create clones of people and even perfect copies, so long as he has their measurements. These copies will disintegrate into a mud-like substance after around four hours.

Hikiishi Tamijiki. Quirk: Magnetism. She can magnetize people within a 1 meter radius of her, she's still expanding her range. Men are polarized south and women polarize north.

Sako Atsuhiro. Quirk: Compress. He can compress anything into a marble without damaging it. He has an affinity for compressing Yukimura's smoke into a marble and using them for very effective smoke bombs. It works on people too, however he's been too hesitant to actually try, even on a willing volunteer. He can also decompress them on will so watch out for marbles flying at you, they may be filled with Yukimura's smoke.

Chisaki Kai. Quirk: Destruction and Recreation. He can destroy and recreate things by touching them with his bare hands. Unfortunately this has led to a lot of things being accidentally destroyed if he gets too anxious, so make sure you don't let him touch things if he's been stressed out.

Kurono Hari. Quirk: Molecular Control. With his left hand, he can speed up molecules to the extent that they can catch fire or melt. With his right hand, he can slow down molecules to where the object can be rendered motionless or freeze. If he touched something with both hands, it will cause it to explode from the combined acceleration and deceleration.

Shinōkanri Eri. Quirk: Energy Body. She can transform her body into energy, which makes her intangible if she wants and lets her move at very high speeds and fly. She can also, to a lesser extent, can heal mild wounds on people, with the side effect of making herself tired from the excessive energy it takes to do so.

Suji Ken. Quirk: Muscle Augmentation. He can augment the muscle fibers beneath his skin, increasing the power and speed of his movements.

Gin Kuchi. Quirk: Blade-Tooth. He can enlarge and manipulate his teeth into powerful blades.

Koku Dokuna. Quirk: Poison Gas. He can generate and control a vast amount of poisonous gas that can, over time, deteriorate his victim's lungs and throat if it's breathed in for too long. He can generate enough gas to create a typhoon and cover a large area and is able to detect movement from withing the gas by reading its fluctiation.

None of them, save Muscular, Moonfish, and Mustard, actually wanted to be a part of the League of Villains.

Kurogiri, a UA hero teacher and pro hero Blackmist, was the first to be forcibly inducted at All For One's discretion, aka AFO is an asshole and threatened Kurogiri's family (his wife and kids) dying if he didn't.

Kurogiri, blackmailed into doing AFO's dirty work, is ordered directly from AFO to scout the streets for potentially dangerous Quirk holders.

He ends up finding Toga, Yukimura, Shinōkanri, Chisaki, Kurono, and Shimura, six homeless kids that he ends up taking back to the bar (because his wife would freak out if he randomly brought home six homeless pre-teens (aka the first six Kurono, Eri, Shimura, Yukimura, Toga, and Chisaki)) and whoops now they're a part of the League of Villains but at least they're relatively safe.

AFO dubs them Chrono (Kurono), Morningstar (Eri), Tomura (Shimura), Smokescreen (Yukimura), Shifter (Toga), and Annihiation (Chisaki) and as their Villain identities.

After Kurogiri catches them, AFO keeps them under constant inhibitor use because he can't have them getting out of line and ruining his plans, plus they are kids and not even they really know what they're capable of. (this also infuriates Toga because she's used her Quirk almost constantly since she's been on the streets ya know to steal food and stuff).

He slowly gathers the others (Sako aka Mr. Compress, Hikiishi aka Magne, Iguchi aka Spinner, Bubaigawara aka Twice (in that order)

So now Kurogiri is basically the foster dad to ten teenagers

After the Stain Incident, Mustard, Muscular, and Moonfish join like they did in canon

None of these fifteen year olds are as 'useful in battle' as their elder selves so, when it comes to the Training Camp battle, it's just like...well, it's chaos.

Well, first Shimura’s not there because he’s having the tail-end of a cold and still has a pretty high fever.

Kurogiri isn’t with them because he’s caring for Shimura.

But he’s given them a meeting point and he’ll warp them home from there.

Over here we have Smokescreen and Twice distracting Eraserhead, and rather horribly at that.

This guy's way smarter than two fifteen year olds and it gets to where he's actually gotten to the real Smokescreen and knocks him out, which makes Twice unable to make copies of him and nOPE I don’t make copies of myself NOPE we don’t need that in this world ONE OF ME IS DEPRESSING ENOUGH.

Twice, at this point, just picks him up and VWOOPS to their meet up spot.

Sako a concerned bean. His boyfriend is in danger and he's off his game because of it.

He still manages to compress and capture Bakugo though and Yukimura is unimaginably proud of his smart boyfriend.

Mandalay and Tiger are fighting two teenagers. (FUCKING TEENAGERS!)

They came here to train future heroes not fight teenagers!

THERE'S AN ELEVEN YEAR OLD SHOOTING AT TWO FIFTEEN YEAR OLDS SOMEONE HELP HE'S MURDEROUS

Weirdo cannibal is actually noming Shouji's dismembered hand (instead of thinking about it) when Todoroki and Bakugo come across him and they are scared as hell.

Toga actually very resentful of having to do this and just immediately takes off her gear and seeks out someone (anyone) to listen to her.

She ends up finding Uraraka and Asui and she explains to them why the League of Villains is doing this and what exactly is going on behind the scenes of this group of teenagers being villains.

She's adamant that she needs to pass on the knowledge than none of them are truly there of their own volition (even the members that came with Stain's capture are being forced to stay with threats upon their life or the lives of those they care about).

Which is the right call btw because Uraraka and Asui make sure to keep her with them when the rest of the Vanguard retreats. 

They're both very protective of this girl.

It's a trainwreck. But they do kidnap Bakugo and they do somehow manage to (without trying) kidnap Todoroki by proxy.

TodorOKI DO NOT JUMP THROUGH THE WARP GA-GODAMMIT (he manages to accidentally jump through the warp gate and is livid about it and mad at himself but hey, it's better than going home right now, plus now he's the inside man).

Todoroki accidentally becomes Shimura's friend because he complains about his suppressor 99% of the time he's there and Shimura is just like ‘dude, same’.

The Kamino Ward Incident goes very differently.

Toga begs the pros not to hurt the other members of the League because they're just teenagers and they're all being blackmailed into doing these things. (her blackmail was that AFO would personally kill all her friends in front of her, other examples for later)

Even before the pros came to save Bakugo, they were already talking about sending him back because holy shit they are not about this life of stealing children.

Kurogiri was fine with taking in ten homeless kids but stealing a kid who has a family and a life and friends and people concerned about him? hell no

Shimura finds out his grandmother was the seventh holder of One For All and basically snaps and and tries to kill AFO for killing the only family he had left.

He’s still got a pretty high fever so he’s also pretty delirious even when he snaps.

Yukimura just straight up is borderline having a anxiety attack after the goop warp shit because it reminds him of when he was younger and Endeavor's training and HOLY SHIT HIS DAD IS A HERO TOO HE'LL BE HERE AND HE'LL RECOGNIZE HIM

Yukimura is busy during the hideout raid fearing his existence

The minute he sees Endeavor it's over, he's having a full anxiety attack.

Chisaki has been having one since they kidnapped two kids and he can't stop panicking so he's just being dragged around by his elbow away from the action while Eri is apologizing for touching him repeatedly but’ you need to move Kai it's DANGEROUS!’

Cue Protect Boyfriend mode Sako forcing the others (besides the stubborn-ass scary powerful feversnap Shimura) and Kurogiri (he's a peacekeeper he wouldn't attack anyone) to all hide and whoops that's where all the UA students who came to save Bakugo and Todoroki are.

Hikiishi and Iguchi have to physically drag Todoroki (who's trying to scream at Shimura to hide while he proceeds not to hide himself) and Bakugo (who's snark is going to get him killed) into hiding with the others.

Then the Bakugo and Todoroki Rescue Squad witness just how young and vulnerable the League members are when they witness Chisaki and Yukimura having equally bad panic attacks.

Todoroki is ‘brothering’ Chisaki and Yukimura because he knows how bad panic attacks are and he'll be damned if someone his age has one this bad.

It honestly doesn't really help much because neither Chisaki nor Yukimura are capable of calming down right now and it really doesn't help that Chisaki has asthma and Yukimura is effectively mute.

AFO is still captured though.

Kurogiri is busy trying to warp a sick Shimura away from the fight because ‘GOD DAMMIT KID HE'S GONNA HURT YOU’

‘NO HE KILLED MY GRANDMOTHER’

Shimura ends up decaying AFO's hands and having a mental breakdown.

Thank god because now Kurogiri's warp finally works now that Shimura is done fighting and he gets the boy to safety.

None of the BakuTodo Rescue Squad get in trouble for the event since they didn't need to save Bakugo or Todoroki, the 'villains' had already done it.

Kurogiri is awesome and he warps them all from Kamino District just before AllMight begins fighting AFO and they still all end up at that giant screen, watching.

Sadly, the majority of the former League members still have their villain costumes and inhibitors on so people notice them pretty easily but they've got UA students protecting them from the people in the crowd who try to pull them to the nearest police station.

AllMight still has trouble fighting AFO despite him being newly handless because AFO just won't give up!

So he still loses his muscley form and is outed.

But he saved Shimura's grandson so he doesn't care.

AllMight adopts Tenko shortly after the incident. Like the next morning he has the papers all written up and Tenko is an emotional mess signing them but he's just really happy he gets to have a real dad who knew his grandma.

Who knew but now 45 yo AllMight suddenly has a fifteen year old and nobody is surprised.

The LoV members are given another chance.

UA enrolls them to the hero courses and they have special training that brings them up to par with the other hero course students (which, of course, is a bit easier given that they've had practice using them curtosy of Kurogiri training them)

Everything is shaky but Aizawa trusts these kids. How could he not? He literally fought them and saw up close just how scared they were

Honenuki is the first student outside of Uraraka, Asui, Bakugo, Todoroki, and the BakuTodo Rescue Squad to warm up to them

He sees Sako sneaking to the 1-A dorms to cuddle Yukimura after a nightmare

He ends up joining Sako much to EVERYONE'S dismay

Skeleton Boi is just worried about everyone okay? He wants everyone to be happy and succeed and Yukimura is definitely not happy so he'll work extra hard to make him happy.

BFFs Honenuki and Yukimura

By proxy friends Sako and Shihai since their boyfriends hang out so much

The Classes And Seating Arrangements Are Now:

1-A

Row 1

Aoyama Yuuga

Ashido Mina

Asui Tsuyu

Iida Tenya

Uraraka Ochako

Row 2

Ojiro Mashirao

Kaminari Denki

Kirishima Eijiro

Koda Koji

Sato Ridiko

Row 3

Shoji Mezo

Jiro Kyoka

Sero Hanta

Tokoyami Fumikage

Todoroki Shoto

Row 4

Hagakure Toru

Bakugo Katsuki

Midoriya Izuku

Shinsou Hitoshi

Yaoyorozu Momo

Row 5

Kurono Hari

Chisaki Kai

Yukimura Touya

Bubaigawara Jin

Shimura Tenko

1-B

Row 1

Awase Yoyetsu

Kaibara Sen

Kamakiri Togaru

Kuroiro Shihai

Kendo Itsuka

Row 2

Kodai Yui

Komori Kinoko

Shiozaki Ibara

Shishida Jurota

Shoda Nirengeki

Row 3

Tsunotori Pony

Tsuburaba Kosei

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu

Tokage Setsuna

Fukidashi Manga

Row 4

Honenuki Juzo

Bondo Kojiro

Monoma Neito

Yanagi Reiko

Rin Hiryu

Row 5

Toga Himiko

Sako Atsuhiro

Hikiishi Tamijiki

Iguchi Shuichi

Shinōkanri Eri

[meggannn]

(based on your previous ask) do you mind if I ask how you feel about lok? is there a general consensus if it's good or bad? youre really insightful and just wanted to know if there were any major issues you had with it

yeah sure, i’ll do my best. if you want a quick answer to your question, here is a link to some of my other korra posts where i say pretty much the same thing as i do here, just in fewer words. cause this post will be mostly an unhappy summary of my experience watching the show. this post will contain spoilers, and disclaimer, i am a really biased, disappointed asshole, so i’ll just admit that now. 

short answer: i liked the concept of lok more than the product we got. a lot of that is because you had a physically buff brown wlw protagonist written mostly by cishet white men and, as you can imagine, it wasn’t handled great. when i think of lok now i tend to fluctuate between bittersweet nostalgia and quiet, simmering rage.

if you don’t care about the show summary, skip at the middle paragraph break down to my tldr.

so for those who don’t know, LOK was really my first “big” fandom on tumblr. when it was announced, a bunch of ATLA purists were already hating on it because 1) brown woman, 2) it was unrealistic to go from ATLA’s technology to streampunk in 70 years, and 3) it wasn’t ATLA, basically. it was my first big interest that i got to participate in as it was airing, and i was really excited about it. i defended it, i wrote meta, i liveblogged, i wrote tons of fic and spammed theories/wants before the damn show even had a release date. all that is to say, i was Invested, and i believed in it before i even saw it. people called me a bnf, i’m not sure if that’s true, but i did gain a lot my followers in my first few years on tumblr by posting korra stuff. a lot of them – hello – i think are still around today (i’m not certain how all the video games hasn’t scared them off yet)

i should say at this point that my opinion of LOK the show has been really wrapped up in the ugly stain left by the fanbase. korra the character has been the subject of tons of racist, misogynistic criticism since the moment we saw her back; when she showed up on screen as a proud young woman who fought with authority and stood up for herself, that was the nail in the coffin for her reputation. i agreed that she had a bit of growing up to do, because ATLA/LOK have always been stories about coming of age and maturing, but i disagreed strongly with this notion that she deserved to be “humbled,” which is what a lot of fans were looking for.

the overall consensus on if it’s “good” depends on who you ask. most people agree that ATLA is better overall: it was better plotted because it benefited from more writers in the room and more episodes to flesh out the world. opinions on LOK specifically range based a lot on their opinions of the K/orra/sami pairing, if they were involved in or what side they were on in any of the fandom wank, and also just complete random chance.

i’ll go more in depth into my ‘history’ with the show below, but i just wanted to mention that all the while the show was airing, korra was being hit with waves of criticism by so-called fans for basically being a confident brown woman who were calling for her to learn her place, respect her elders, etc. another common theme was fandom’s brilliant fucking idea that asami, a light-skinned feminine non-bending woman who was more polite and reserved than korra, would’ve made a better avatar. because you know why. (korra was often described as brutal, rough, unsophisticated, next to pretty, perfect asami. and asami is a fine character, to be clear, but that’s what she was – fine. nothing really stands out about her, which is a fault of the writing, because she had a lot of potential too.) so anyway all of this did sour my mood toward engaging with other fans outside my friend circle.

–

it was around maybe the middle of book 1 that i realized the writing for the show was simpler than what i was expecting – not that it was childish, which it was (because it was written for children, i understood that), but i felt like the plot meandered and the twists came out of nowhere. it felt like they were making it up as they were going, and it opened threads it didn’t answer. one of the biggest threads was the equalist revolution, which was a very sensitive topic that got jettisoned when the leader was revealed to be a fraud, and that devalued the entire movement in an instant. really disappointing, because i was looking forward to seeing that addressed. for a lot of people, this was a dealbreaker, and they started walking. i stuck with it, but loosely.

book 2 aired, focusing on the spiritual world and some really cool history. it still suffered a lot from awkward b-plots and loose threads it didn’t know how to tackle. korra lost her memory and then regained it 2 episodes later with no consequences, mako flip-flopped between korra and asami because bryke don’t know how to write teenage romances without making it a love triangle, and at some point bolin kissed a girl against her will and they didnt acknowledge that at all? i honestly don’t remember. anyway at the end of book 2, even though korra saves the day and prevents the world from descending into darkness for ten thousand years, due to events beyond her control, korra loses the spiritual connection that ties her to all of the previous avatars – aang, roku, kyoshi, wan, everyone. and people hit the fucking ceiling. “korra’s not a real avatar if she lost her connection to the old ones! that’s the entire point of the cycle! this show is bullshit, it’s not canon anymore!” (the entire point that finale demonstrated that korra’s power alone was enough to save the world and she didn’t need anyone else. but people found that ~unrealistic~ i guess). as you can imagine, being a fan of LOK is starting to get a little tiring by now.

books 3-4 is where the korra haters got to love the show again, because they were both straight-up torture porn. after everything she did saving the world, this is the arc where korra got beat down, tortured, dragged into the dirt, swallowed and spat back out. book 3 is a lot of people’s favorites because it was the first book that felt fully plotted out before it was put on air, which is why i enjoyed it too. but for me it was difficult to see a girl, whose identity revolved around being the avatar after being raised and sheltered to think it was all she was good for, effectively abandon her life and even her name by the beginning of book 4 because the events of book 3 were that traumatizing for her. somehow this was character development. we were encouraged to stick with it because we hoped korra would find herself again. and she did, sorta.

but it makes me furious that people who had quit in books 1-2 came back during 3 because they heard these books were better – aka book 3, the book that featured korra the least, and books 3-4 in which korra got her ass handed to her in some of the hardest fights vs some of the cruelest villains of the series. (nevermind that the book 3 villains suffer from the anime villain curse: they quickly went from “cool character design” to “wait, how does this rando group of villains show up with powers literally no one in the universe has ever heard before?” – questions no one ever answers)

anyway book 4 is a mish-mash of… i’m not sure. i’ve rewatched all the books but i don’t know if i’ll ever touch this one again. the culturally appropriating airbender wannabe, zaheer (a complete rando who somehow masters airbending enough to fly, which was a huge middle finger to airbending masters aang and tenzin for no reason) a guy who literally tortured korra one season before and put her in a wheelchair, is the one who the writers send korra to for her spiritual awakening that lets her save the day. not tenzin or jinora, her spiritual teachers with whom she has positive, healthy relationships – they send her back to her abuser who terrifies and degrades her a bit more before deciding to help. this was a pattern: the writers made both korra and asami face their abusers (in asami’s case, her father) for catharsis instead of gaining peace over their trauma another, healthier way because…. i’m not sure why. there is no reason why. and then there’s the guilt tripping nonsense of asami feeling as if she had to forgive her father, who tried to kill her, because he said he was sorry and sacrificed himself for her in the finale. it’s angst galore, if you like that kind of thing, which i normally do, except this is less angst and more just the writers trying to hammer in torture porn, grimdark, and poor attempts at morally gray nonsense into their finale season.

anyway at the end of her journey, korra, our buff brown woc, learns that she had to suffer to learn how to be compassionate and relate to her enemy. i’m not exaggerating, she literally says that. which is lovely.

–

tldr: i wasted a lot of emotional time and energy into this show and was extremely disappointed when some of the ending’s notes were “you had to suffer to become a better person” and “forgive your abusers/villains because aren’t we all the same in the end?”

but also on a strictly narrative level, LOK also bit off way more than it could chew both emotionally and thematically. it had an amazing premise, but it was not committed to

utilizing the steampunk genre to its best potential in the bending world (after the creativity in the rest of the worldbuilding, the LOK series finale was literally fighting a giant robot – seriously?)

giving its hero the respect and character arc she deserved. and i don’t say that because i think korra had no growing up to do in b1, she did, but she didn’t deserve for it to happen like that.

so basically i realized that a lot of the writers that made ATLA great weren’t brought back for LOK, and it showed. i realized that the LOK writers, when they listened to fans, were listening to the fans that whined the loudest, or (more likely, since they plan seasons years before we see them) they thought from the beginning that it was a good idea for korra to go through years’ worth of pain just to be spat out a humbler, “better” person

the reason i told you all that about me defending LOK in the beginning is because i need you to understand that i believed in LOK longer than i probably should’ve. i wanted it to be everything i was expecting in a diverse children’s show with an unorthodox female protaganist. but just because they had a brown wlw heroine doesn’t mean that they deserved to be praised for it when they treated her like garbage.

and korra and asami walk into a beam of light together in the last second of the show and i’m supposed to applaud the writers for their bravery or something

[qualapec]

Favorite characters meme

@myheartgoesswimming tagged me in this!

“Post 10 of your favorite characters from different fandoms, in no particular order, and tag 10 people [if you want!] “

I’m a JERK who can’t help but rank my favorite characters,

Favorite male characters:

1. Jacob Frye Jacob had an absolutely unprecedented climb up my favorite characters list. He went from being this butch asshole in the trailers for AC:S to...I LOVE MY BI SON??? I don’t think I’ve purely identified with a character so much since Marian Hawke in DAII when I was a closeted 18 year old who didn’t think I’d ever come out. Like, I’m ultimately not too protective of my favorite dudes--I look at my list and I’m like, yeah, this is mostly garbage. Jacob is the one dude character who I have actually cried over people saying shit about him (I casually call Jacob garbage a lot, but not too long ago a good friend said “yeah, he fucks up everything. really everyone would be better off without him” and I cried harder than I thought I would).

I identify with Jacob because he’s a giant ADHD bisexual who messes up literally everything he does but still tries the best he can to be a good person and he’s someone who still legitimately cares about people who have hurt him deeply. At the same time, he’s not a queer character that wants to fully integrate with society either. He’s funny and loves his sister and she’s a better Assassin than he is. He’s a good person but his queerness isn’t clean--it’s rough and it hurts and it damages his relationships and it’s so real to me.

I’ve never felt happier about being bi and not totally good at things than the months after AC:S came out and Jacob was announced as canonically bisexual. Before that I’d been struggling a lot with the lesbians v. bi women thing, and Jacob just made me feel so good about myself and so hopeful. I love Jacob Frye.

2. Johannes Cabal I have never been more right about a character’s ultimate arc than I was with Cabal. He’s been on my list of faves for years, but the fifth book jettisoned him into second place among the guys. If he were canonically queer he and Jacob would probably be tied tbqh. I love this horrible man. I love his arc. Anyone who wants to write villains with a redemption should read these books. SPOILERS but I love how his arc isn’t about accepting things the way they are re: death. He never accepts the Bible, never goes to confession and gets his sins forgiven. He never gives up his desire for things to be changed and for the unfairness/injustice of death to be righted and his disbelief in religion as a savior. He never gives up his arrogance. He’s still really smart.

But by the end, he becomes a human who is worthy of having friends and is capable of doing the right thing and that means so much to me. I expected a giant Thing at the end where he did something truly villainous to show that he was Always That Way and Always Would Be, but it never happened. He slowly defeated evil within himself without even knowing it, and that matters to me.

END SPOILERS. The second trash wizard I ever fell in love with.

3. Loki (MCU). Oh, Loki. My queer rage analogue.

Some context: I saw Thor (2011) when my family was falling apart. I was mad, so mad. That scene when Loki confronts Odin was so profound to me--I read it as a coming out scene, and I know a lot of other queer folks did, too.

I’ve known I was bi since Dragon Age II, as dumb as that sounds. When I wanted nothing more than to romance both a dude and a lady. BUT I had planned to bury it. It was easier to just date men, so why not? When Loki was revealed as Canonically Bisexual, that was really when the word clicked for me. That was the moment I think I knew that word was truly inescapable for me.

Whoo boy. That scene in the Avengers when he shows up after creating a portal with the Tesseract and intends to tear the world apart...that’s the moment I realized how queer and angry I was. I was closeted and wanted to burn it ALL down. He would either win or be destroyed, and the fantasy of burning as I was was so satisfying to me--either way he was going to die as himself. I was sitting in the theatre and that was when I knew I had no choice but to come out. I was afraid. Anger was an easier feeling to have.

Loki. My reminder that I’ll take a queer villain over a Perfect Queer (TM) every day of the week and also for the rest of my life--I will never, ever care about a Perfect Queer, because that’s not what I am, that’s not the family I come from, that’s not the reality of my health or what I aspire to be. That rage gave me the courage to come out, and tbqh it gives me strength now.

4. Harry Dresden Harry is Trash Wizard Prime. I discovered him during a time when men were an absolute mystery to me--I didn’t grow up with many (any) good male role models. As a bi teenager, I started to notice men because that’s the thing girls attracted to men were socially supposed to do, and I realized I didn’t understand them.

I saw the cover for Dead Beat in a Barnes & Noble and I picked it up. He looked so dashing, so rogueish. And this chaotic good motherfucker is that. He cares about people and wants to do the best he can with his gift, even if he is imperfect, and that spoke to me as a teenager so much.

He was a male character who I felt safe with. Society hated him for his gift, and sometimes did its best to destroy him even while he was trying to be good (which, in retrospect, is one reason why I associate mages/wizards/witches with queerness). I felt like he was a man who would protect me as a girl who, at that time, thought of myself as het but who was very afraid of men (L O L. LOL. L      O       L. Biggest joke ever) and who had experienced trauma at male hands.

I felt deeply betrayed when, after Changes, he had intrusive thoughts about raping the women around him.

I don’t quite have words for how much that hurt. Cabal was never misogynist in quite that way, and Loki is a virulent misogynist, but in a way that strikes me as very real for some queer men (not okay, but A Thing That Actually Happens). And as someone with OCD who experiences damaging intrusive thoughts myself, I feel like should have understood.

I felt really betrayed when Harry’s character took that direction. It caught me by surprise. It was actually triggering for me--the message I got was “every man will hurt you” and I’ve spent years trying to unlearn that. I remember shaking after a certain chapter of the book after Changes. I remember thinking that Men Will Always Hurt Me if Harry would.

Recent books revealed it was the result of a demon in his head...but it still hurt a lot. I discovered those books when I needed a man to look up to, and I still feel like that trust was betrayed.

I wouldn’t really recommend The Dresden Files to any of my friends now--I still want them to read them to understand a very formative text for me. I love Harry Dresden. He is part of what made me, of what defined my morality. I love him. I want him to be part of a better story.

Also I will be 100% honest and say that his super cis straight dude descriptions of wanting to sleep with women really spoke to me as a young queer chick. I was really into “vagazzled” btw.

5. Cullen Rutherford WE HAVE ARRIVED AT THE OUTLIER.

Cullen has that Captain America vibe I usually can’t stand. He’s super lawful good and even upholds laws that he shouldn’t.

He’s also a drug addict who was deeply traumatized and needs his girlfriend to function (an ongoing theme with me). Even his very oppressive anger makes sense to me. It sucks, but I get it. That’s valid.

Also, I really hate it when people say his character arc made no sense. I’m sorry, those people flat out don’t understand narrative or think characters can escape their original packaging. Spoiler; that’s not an ‘arc’. Characters change, deal with it.

I think one thing I love about Cullen is that he was really, really tailored for women who are interested in men (note: not just Straight Women).

I think one of the biggest things for me is that he’ll do anything for the Inquisitor (his girlfriend). He was SUPPOSED to be bi via leaks from the company that made the game (if that was canon he’d be much higher on this list). But it does ultimately matter a lot to me that he was so specifically tailored to be a fantasy for women who are interested in men. He loves her. He will do almost anything for her. She helps him get over a serious addiction. Cullen taught (my bi/poly ass) about m/f narratives that I needed.

I guess I have a Thing for men who really need the women in their lives. Cullen gets the girlfriend role, and all the trauma that only men are usually allowed to have.

Honorable mentions:

Victor and Yuuri from Yuri on Ice. (If they had more canonical trauma, they would have lettered, and they may in the future. I love that Literally Wearing a Bi Flag Victor is a garbage human being who doesn’t understand feelings but still loves is boyfriend and doesn’t want that relationship to end. I love how Yuuri is an anxious gay baby.) Albert Wesker, a truly fine villain who was not done justice by those movies. Ned Wynert, who taught me a lot about writing characters from marginalized groups I am not a part of.

Favorite lady characters: 1. Marian Hawke. I almost don’t have words for how deeply formative Hawke is to me. She changed my life. I know she can be a different person no matter who plays her, but I think the things I fundamentally love about her are somehow universal.

For context on Marian Hawke--I was 18 and deeply closeted when I played DAII for the first time. I had committed to “never coming out” because I thought it would make my mom sad. I remember sitting in the uni library and thinking about Hawke and how bi aka queer (ADDITIONALLY poly) I was and I regret how that was the moment I decided I would only date men because it would be easier. That didn’t last. I didn’t know how much that would tear me up inside.

Hawke was the first gateway to my sexuality, but I thought I could avoid her message.  I knew I wanted to date both men and women.

Hawke herself is...me. Granted, you can control some of her actions as the player, but she still fucks up in a lot of the same ways no matter which version of her you play. She still tries to do the best she can (sometimes that’s a lot, sometimes not a lot, sometimes it’s oppressive). She cares. I can’t remember if she or Cabal came into the Trash Wizard (or trash mage) #2 slot, but she’s right up there on my fave trash magician list.

Because she’s so deeply formative, she’s another character I can’t be rational about. I HATE with every fiber of my being that she’s not static/unchangeable. I partly hate dude!Hawke so much because there are no female characters like my take on Marian that even EXIST. Soft butch, bi, diplomatic, kinda funny, kinda mad.

She tries her best, just like I think I do. She fails a lot, even when she means well. My Marian is bi as fuck. She changed my life. I don’t know who I would be without her (I mean, probably still bi as fuck, but still). I love Marian Hawke.

2. Evie Frye. I’ll just say it: Evie Frye fixed my ability to write female characters.

I was feeling a lot of pressure from other female writers (sadly, even particularly other queer women) to write WOMEN’S NARRATIVES. I felt like those had to be about rape and weakness and strength in spite of that. THAT IS A NARRATIVE THAT MATTERS, however I either struggle to identify with it, or I over-identify with it and I’m afraid to walk to my car.

Evie isn’t that.

She’s perhaps the greatest Assassin in history, short of Altair or Ezio, who made the brotherhood what it is. She lives and breathes that tradition. She’s most powerful when she is unseen, and in that way, I always feel safe with her. She’s the rightful heir to the entire series, so I feel like she will always be safe.

I learned so much about how to write myself and what I wanted and what I think a lot of other women want even if it’s not part of The Discourse, through Evie Frye. She defies stereotypes about what it means to be “woman”. She’s treated no worse than Jacob by the narrative, and she’s arguably treated as the inheritor of the Assassin tradition and like her skills matter just a bit more. The narrative could do without Jacob (as much as I love him) but it couldn’t do without Evie. She’s just as powerful as he is.

That we get to see her as both a new adult and a middle aged women is extra important. The fact that she spends her later narrative hunting one of the most virulent men in history (Jack the Ripper) means a lot to me. She is most powerful in her prime, while Jacob burns out later on, and that ALSO matters a lot to me. Shitty men are afraid of her, not the other way around. There’s no narrative where she lets the think they could rape her to win; she just wins. (Again, nothing wrong with female characters who use their femininity that way, but Evie just kills those fuckers, and that’s what I need in my life of believing in self defense).

I love her. She loves her husband, she loves her brother. She’s prim and proper and perfectly tailors her outfits and knows how to strike a killing blow. Evie is about a different kind of resistance than Jacob, but she’s still about resistance. She’s the first female character I’ve seen, in literal years, who is allowed to exist beyond her own femininity. She’s just allowed to exist and be really cool. Evie also means a lot to me.

3. Leonie Barrow This song really sums up Leonie Barrow for me. /They see you as small and helpless, they see you as just a child/ Surprise when they find out that a warrior will soon run wild/. She starts out as so?? Small?? compared to the overall narrative of the Cabal books, which are steeped in angels and gods and Lovecraftian abominations from whom the very foundations of the universe were forged. She’s the Innocent Girl at first. Her femininity, her innocence, does matter, but it’s not what I thought it would be. And by the end, she’s a shotgun wielding master detective, who Cabal CANONICALLY trusts to make the same logical decisions he would.

She is willing to kill to defend her friends even if she doesn’t like it. She will stand against the darkness and be afraid but she will smile.

She’s also almost /definitely/ canonically bi at the end of the fifth book, short of the actual word being used. It’s not a plot spoiler, but it gives me life either way. She’s not the girlfriend, she’s not the Woman, she’s something else and she matters in her own way. Her potential is limitless, and I’m inspired by her every single day. People talk about Stever Rogers as their human ideal, but I guess Leonie Barrow is my comfortable alternative.

Leonie Barrow saves people by her empathy--and she’s also willing to wield a shotgun. Outside of a magical girl narrative, she and Elizabeth DeWitt are the purest versions of the ‘weaponized femininity’ narrative I can think of.

4. Elizabeth DeWitt Oh, Elizabeth. I love her. I love her fucked up history. I love her fucked up present and her implied fucked up future. I wish she had a better ending. If I ever write fic, it will be to correct what has been done to her by canon.

Elizabeth is trying to escape her fate. Her ultimate arc may be about accepting a shitty end, but I don’t think that has to be the case, since I think so much of her story is about denying her future. Like her, I will always hope and strive for something better. She’s femme and hard and powerful and will break the world and make it whole again all with one wishing <3 .

She has the power of a god and the writers/developers/designers didn’t know how to handle that in an interesting way. I love her.

5. Talia (from Arrows of the Queen) SO

When you are reading about a clinically depressed character and you think, “I IDENTIFY WITH HER SO MUCH” that’s probably a sign. So many times, Talia tried to tell me how I was feeling, and it took me a very long time to listen.

I was easily clinically depressed when I read the Arrows of the Queen books. My uncle had just died without me coming out to him. I felt like a disappointment to my mom. My bachelors degree was on fire and it wasn’t totally my fault. There was nothing about myself that I didn’t deeply despise when I read these books, nothing that I didn’t feel the world would be better without. I didn’t want to die, since I have a very particular attachment to my mortality and no matter what, I’m attached to my life for my mom, but I felt so fundamentally worthless that it still hurts to think about. I haven’t been that low since then, and I hope to never be that low again.

I was depressed and I didn’t know it. I don’t think I was truly suicidal even then, even if I was experiencing almost daily suicidal ideation. I don’t think I would have died, but I still think Talia saved my life a little bit--she at least taught me that it’s okay to acknowledge my illness and seek treatment and that it’s okay to want to be happy. I’m so deeply grateful for that I don’t even have words for it, partly because, while I think I would have survived, I wouldn’t be happy.

Talia also got to fuck the most desirable male characters in the Arrows of the Queen trilogy. Even though she was quiet and was shy and was depressed. The message was this: I could have love even if I was mentally ill. I specify ‘male’ characters because Talia was straight, and also because a part of me feels less desirable to men than women, so that fantasy means a lot to me.

Talia is me at my most vulnerable. Talia is me when I want to reach into my own chest and tear myself apart. I love her. She matters. <3

Honorable mentions:

Pearl from Steven Universe (my favorite anxious lesbian, who got a great character arc that I never expected to be validating to both the lesbian-bi women dilemma and to her mental illness. I <3 Pearl). All the women in Overwatch. Sailor Moon and her soldiers. Tamora Pierce’s heroines. Lara Croft.

Tagging @swimthroughthefires @fakeandroid @doomquasar @amandaironic @strawberrylaugh @ghostofthemotif

[morethanithoughtofficialblog]

Chapter 16: Bad intentions...?

In which Sans questions everything about you.

*Sans's POV*

Calm down, Sans.

You got this.

You...

Fuck.

My brother and (Y/N) were cooking in the kitchen while I was freaking out in the couch, thinking why I had a burst out when she told me she worked at science. It's not the first scientist I've met, so there was no reason to become THAT enthusiastic about it. Considering that she's probably a science nerd and that she has multiple problems I have as well, we may be pretty similar. Thing that scares me, needless to say. Besides, one day I heard her ringtone and it was Sweet Child O' Mine, which it's an incredible taste in music. I do like rock as well, so... this is freaking me out. A lot.

One of the reasons I'm probably feeling weird around her is the fact that she's someone new. I've known the monsters in the Underground all my life, no new relationships haven't been made since years. The kid, Frisk, turned out to be a fucking bitch, so we can't consider it as a relationship, even. Emily, well, she shared my passion for books, so that may be something. But (Y/N)? She's becoming closer and closer every time she comes here, which it's scary. I've never been good at making friends. Yes, I'm not afraid to talk to new people, but making friends? Oh, that's just letting my vulnerabilities show.

Even if (Y/N) knows I have depression and all that stuff, she doesn't know the reasons- that's the intimate part. I could even tell everyone in the world that I have these mental problems, but tell them the backstory of it? That's a huge step I'll never take with anyone. I mean, Papyrus doesn't know it, for God's sake! How can I risk myself more and more?!

More friendships mean more reasons to speak out loud, which it's what I don't want to do. The worst thing is that Frisk and Flowey know exactly why I have these things, that's why I can't show my problems to them. If they get to know I'm really traumatized of what they've done, they will torment me with that 'till the rest of my life...

Which reminds me- why she hasn't reset? Is she really thinking that we, finally, have the right to have a normal life out of the Underground? Nope, I don't think so. It's stupid to think she had a change of heart, less if Flowey can be inciting her into doing it again. Then why? Has she... Did she lose her power? The power to reset it all? To have the world in the tip of her fingers?

Wow, the laws of physics are just huge fuckers. I mean, they let the power of time and space to an irresponsible teenager, bored of having a normal life and trying to make it more interesting every time. Did they just realize it was a mistake? How funny.

I have suffered a lot, taking in consideration that two kids have power over me. No matter how much I train. No matter how old I get. They'll always have the power to change it all, in a way that their immature minds think it's correct. How stupid they can be? Do they think this is all a fucking videogame?! Just because they know they will come back from death...

They fear no man.

They fear nothing.

Just the fact that someone can take the power away from them.

But that's never gonna happen...

Or am I wrong?

A new timeline, new things to discover. And I must say that everything in this new world I've been dragged along is confusing to me. The thought that I won't necessarily live in Snowdin, that I can meet new faces, that I can finish a career...

That I can fall in love with a different face.

Is this even real?

How have I become so free in a matter of seconds?

Now I have the power to decide over my future, to run away, to breathe fresh air, feel the sun, and watch the stars. The real stars; the ones I always wanted to see as a kid. Thinking about it, Frisk had mercy this time. Or curiosity took over, who knows? This is the first 'Pacifist' timeline she has ever done, the ones before it were either neutral or... genocidal.

...

I'm afraid I can be wrong, though.

There's a thing called "True Reset"- a reset than only the... player of this goddamn videogame will remember. Not even I would remember anything about it... or the other timelines before it. There's a probability that Frisk has done it, but I still don't know...

The first timeline I remember was a neutral one, in which Frisk seemed scared. TRULY scared, like if she was going to collapse at any moment. It would make no sense that it wasn't her first time there- why would she fake kindness? At first, she was a good kid, I admit it. Now, she's not my friend anymore. Because she broke her promise- OUR promise, and give a shit about it. She knows why I hate her, and she just laughs it off.

sHe'S A bITCh.

She... she turned into a soulless being. Not literally, but morally. She gave up and decided to take her fucking rage and need for something new on us. Like if we were nothing. To her, we are probably just the characters of some cheap videogame: repetitive, boring, predictable, and insensible. But she's wrong- oh, she's so fucking wrong. We are not repetitive, we all have different stories to tell, our own problems, hopes, and dreams. We cry when we lose someone, we laugh when we hear a joke. We hate, we help, we can make other people's lives miserable, just as she did. We are able to do all of that, and more. Because there's a difference between her and us- and that's love. She may have LOVE, but we... we love...

We love other people, we love our families, and we help each other. Because we fucking care about everything.

Even Gaster.

Even me.

...

Are other humans different?

Is (Y/N) different?

Does she care? Does she help? Does she...

Does she love?

Or is she the new player of this game?

Is she the new person that will ruin my life?

Or the one that will improve it?

It's so confusing to me to realize that people can be different. Frisk... she's a human, I know, But does that mean that they are all the same? I truly don't think so. There are people so genuine, with no need to hide identities because they know it's no use. (Y/N) seems truly genuine...

She cares.

She helps.

And she loves.

She fights for her own hopes, dreams, and deals with her problems. She has a story to tell, that not all people will hear.

Frisk has that as well, but it's different.

Someone so blindly open-minded can't be bad. I need to convince myself to not question her anymore. To not question (Y/N) anymore.

She can be good.

She has been good so far.

I have nothing to object.

She's been nice to Papyrus, to my... parents, to Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton...

She's been nice to Frisk, even when she doesn't know all the fucking horrible things she has done.

She's been nice to Flowey, even though he usually acts as a picky bitch.

She's been all nice and supportive to me, even though she doesn't know. She doesn't know a fucking thing of what's going on, but there's the thing. If I had the courage enough to tell her right now, she would hear it. And not all people have that courage- to listen to others and help them out. To be a good friend.

Is...

How is this girl so lonely, again?

She deals daily with herself, a thing that breaks her a lot in the inside. No one is there to shut the hell up that little voice of her head. To tell her that she'll be okay if she gets help...

She doesn't even receive fucking help.

But...

Her enemy is the world around her? Or is her mind the true villain?

I checked the chat we both had some minutes before she arrived, and I sighed. Her life seems so... perfect on the outside. A smile in her face, a kind tone in her voice, a good career, a prodigy mind, and an easy way to make someone feel at ease. She, however, is never feeling at ease. that makes her imperfect, though? What does perfect even mean? To have a life full of roses? To have your job dream? To be happy no matter what?

I remembered that I, no matter how many times put Frisk as the bad of the story, am not perfect. I'm far from being a perfect person, I'm truly broken...

I'm a fucking mess that constantly bothers people. That hurts them, that breaks the promises with them, and that is really selfish. My mind thinks that I know the problems they have, but I don't. I don't know Frisk's past, I don't know Gaster's reasons to hate me, I don't know why Flowey changed his attitude so... suddenly. I...

I don't know (Y/N)'s story.

And she doesn't know mine.

Not even Papyrus know the half of it, and that's just... stupid.

He trusts me with his deeper struggles, his own dreams, and his wildest aspirations. Things that only I get to know because he trusts me. But...

Do I really want to ruin his innocence?

How would he react if he knew I watched him turn to dust...?

I... I feel really guilty about those timelines- Genocide runs. I had to wait until Frisk killed a lot of monsters to actually do something...

I'm weak. One hp, one of defense.

tHe eASIeSt eNEmY.

In order to gain power, I had to wait until my ability, "Karma", was activated. The more she killed, the more "Karma" I gain. And in the end, I was able to stop her only 'cause of the weight of her sins. "Karma" is like a counterattack, making the sinner pay for all they've done. Awfully, that characteristic is also pretty similar to the videogames' features.

I...

I wasn't this weak before. I was really strong and able to protect Papyrus before I lost all HOPE, which it's the equivalent of "HP". My defense dropped as well, making me more vulnerable than ever. That, however, happened before the kid fell down...

Gaster is a huge factor in my depression as well. He makes me think I'm worthless, doubtful and a disappointment. He treats me like that since years ago, and I totally hate it. He just keeps telling me that I never was there for anyone, but I'm sure that's not true. I care about Papyrus and, secretly, about the others as well. The only ones I don't care about are Frisk, Flowey, and him. But he thinks I'm all careless and I don't give a shit, when in fact, I'm one of the most worried in the group.

I went to my room and closed the door behind me, then flopped right onto my bed. I supervised the room with a glance and noticed how different it is from the one in the Underground. Now I have a proper bed, a bigger desk where a new laptop resides in, a functional lamp ('cause the one in the Underground wasn't), a smaller self-sustaining tornado and... it is a bit less messy. The color of the walls is dark blue (almost black) and the furniture is dark brown, as well as the floor. It is a nice change of scenario, I guess.  I tried to make it as different as possible from the one I had before because it only brings me bad memories. Papyrus helped in the major decoration, though- I need to thank him for that.

The similarity, though, is that I have a window above my bed... and that the balcony is really close to my room. In this house, the balcony is actually closer than in the previous one. I remember that, back in Snowdin, I used to get out in the balcony when everyone was asleep and write peacefully a new chapter for my story. It was such a nice feeling, a moment of calm before school had to begin and TVs started to emit Mettaton's shitty shows.

I laughed quietly, remembering my life before the kid came and depression hit me. It was... far from perfect, but it was better. I worked as a scientist apprentice and I learned a lot. My rank was one of the highest, only one below the Royal Scientist occupation... that my father used to have. I was considered one of the smartest; not only in there but in school as well. I had the highest of grades, even better than Alphys's, and my social life was never bad. I never got in trouble, the teachers respected me, and Papyrus was alright. Thanks to my job and other small ones, I was able to always pay for the house and our necessities...

Papyrus is like three weeks away from becoming a high schooler, and the thought terrifies me. He's so innocent, so... precious to me. I don't want a stupid teenager to ruin that. But... I'm also afraid that others might bully him, because, well... he's a monster. They might even hurt him, and if something ever happens to him, I will never forgive myself.

Never...

"SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" My brother screamed at the top of his lungs... and believe me, you don't want to hear that.

I swear that I jumped some good feet above the ground and fell painfully out of my bed, scared and shocked at the same time. I think one of my ribs cracked, actually. The thing is, that it scared me and hurt me like a bitch, and I groaned loudly after trying to get up.

"papy, ah... wh-what's wrong?" I asked weakly, barely able to keep a balance in my words. My mind was considering shouting curses out loud, but I know that's not the best option.

"THE HUMAN AND I HAVE FINISHED OUR CREATION! IT IS A HOMEMADE RECIPE OF LASAGNA MADE BY (Y/N)!"

"It's actually on the family, Papyrus... I didn't create it"

"STILL! IT IS A RECIPE OF YOUR OWN HEART AND MEMORIES, AND IT MUST MEAN A LOT TO YOU! SO WE CAN CONSIDER YOU AS ONE ITS OWNERS!"

I caught my breath and got up slowly, then I checked my soul. It was as good as always: a white heart upside down, gleaming weakly but still gleaming. I sighed in relief and kinda contented, then I got out of my room, only to be granted by a heavenly smell. I smiled weakly, knowing that it was probably (Y/N)'s influence. I only had one question...

What the fuck is lasagna?

"SANS! PLEASE HELP US SET THE TABLE!" No fucking way, Paps.

"hello papy, how are you? any news lately?" I stupidly said, probably putting a goofy grin in my face.

"SANS, THAT'S THE WORST WAY YOU HAVE AVOIDED A TOPIC IN ALL YOUR LIFE! THAT'S JUST PITIFUL!"

And before I could give him another of my fantastic answers, I heard a loud crash coming from the kitchen.

"HUMAN? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Papyrus ran with clear panic in his voice, while I followed him with slow steps full of confusion.

"I'm fine, Papyrus... I think it's not me who you should worry about, though..."

And when I spotted what really happened, I broke out in laughter. An old man, formally known as my father, was laying on the ground after he unsuccessfully teleported into the house. (Y/N) was there in a defensive position and confused as heck. Papyrus tried to stop my laughter, but it didn't work. Who's the disappointment now, Gaster?

"wow, aren't you old?" I smiled widely, feeling mostly euphoric and incapable of reasoning.

"Shut up, Sans"

After a bit of argument and a groaning Papyrus, we finally thought it would be a good idea to start eating. Or well, I did. I was extremely hungry. And the smell wasn't helping either. Besides, why would I want to keep discussing with that annoying man?

We sat and eat then and, as expected, it was amazing. That's what I expected at least. Even (Y/N) seem a little dumbfounded by her own creation, that was probably a familiar recipe.

"is your family from italy or what?" I asked jokingly, and she let out a small and lighthearted laugh.

"Nah, my father just used to like cooking a lot. This a way too old recipe... I think he established it when I was just born"

"really? heh, it's good. was your father a-"

"He just cooked as a hobby, nothing serious. Still, I always liked his homemade food"

Huh.

"and you? do you cook as well or..."

"Nope, I'm too busy for that... and maybe a bit lazy" She laughed quietly, then continued "I tend to only eat fast food during lunch breaks or at nights, nothing more"

I chuckled at the realization that I've done that so many times as well. Mostly not because I'm working, but because I'm ungodly lazy. I remembered all those times I ran away from Papyrus's cooking and head to Grillby's, which was like my second home. Me being a comedian, the bar was an excellent place to make top-quality jokes and friends of the same ranking.

After eating, (Y/N) had to leave, and we had as well. Papyrus never forgot that I had an appointment with a psychologist, and she couldn't stay any longer if she wanted to return at a proper hour. I know she takes the subway, which according to my calculations, is way more annoying and risky than being in a car.

"HUMAN! WE SHALL BE HEADING OFF!"

"Hope it goes well"

"luck at your new job, kiddo"

"Thanks! The best of lucks in your session, Sans. It won't be easy, but you'll eventually get used to it"

"i hope so"

I really do.