#he's definitely capable of defending himself but is not allowed to due to what that would mean due to his position in this mess

[silverynight]

Underworld

<---Previous

Part XVI

"FUCK OFF, HALF AND HALF!"

"Don't talk to my son like that!"

"I don't need you to defend me, old man!"

At least they're not physically fighting each other, but the sight of everyone yelling has started to make Izuku feel distressed. This is his fault; Endeavor is clearly angry because Izuku is in the Olympus.

"You belong here," Aizawa's voice startles him; Izuku wasn't expecting to have the god at side again. But the hand on his shoulder is definitely reassuring.

At that, Katsuki also stops growling at Todoroki and gets closer to the demigod instead.

"Are you alright, Izuku?"

"I'm fine, Kacchan. Maybe I should go–"

"That'd be for the best," Endeavor says at the same time everyone else cuts Izuku off with a loud: "No!"

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave," All Might speaks then and for a moment Izuku thinks he's talking to him, but then he realizes he's actually looking directly at Endeavor.

"Me? How dare–"

"Well, you certainly deserve it, after ruining everything with your presence," Aizawa comments with a venom in his voice Izuku didn't believe he was capable of until now. He always looked so calm and collected before.

"Not like I wanted to be here," the god huffs, glaring at Izuku again. "Let's go, Shoto."

"I'm staying, if All Might allows it," Todoroki says instead, ignoring his father's outraged expression to look at the King of the Gods and then at Izuku with a pleading expression.

"Just behave," Aizawa cuts in, before All Might can say anything else. "And the same goes to you, Bakugo."

"What? But I didn't start it–tch! Fine!"

Izuku feels a little bit uncomfortable, thinking about how everything could have been avoided if he didn't–

"Stop that, Izuku," Katsuki whispers, leaning closer to him before pulling him into his arms. "I know that face. You deserve to be here more than he does."

"As much as I dislike to agree with him," Todoroki tells him, ignoring Katsuki's grimace. "He's right, Izuku."

"Thank you," the demigod smiles, looking around himself and noticing that All Might and Aizawa are nodding too. "You're very kind to me."

"I'd like to dance with you, Izuku."

"Not in a million years, you half and–"

"Careful, young man," this time is All Might who interrupts Katsuki. "I can kick you out too if I want."

"Tch!" The god of the dead grimaces before crossing his arms over his chest. "I was dancing with Izuku first."

"He's right, Shoto. I'll finish this dance with him and then I'll dance with you!"

Todoroki nods as Katsuki growls and pulls Izuku closer to him again.

"Why do you want to dance with an extra like him?"

"He's my friend," Izuku whispers before giggling when Katsuki puts both of his hands on the demigod's waist. It feels good because Katsuki's hands are always warm.

"Your flowers are blooming again," Katsuki observes, although now he sounds very pleased at that.

Izuku's face turns pink in seconds; he's not exactly sure what it means, but he knows the flowers upon his head are reacting to his emotions.

His time with Katsuki ends up too soon for his liking, but Izuku knows he needs to talk with Todoroki and he's going to use their time dancing to do that.

"Hi," Todoroki mumbles as soon as Izuku is in his arms. He looks flustered, although Izuku is not sure if it's because they're finally dancing or due to Aizawa's warning glare he's throwing at him at the moment.

"I'll be keeping an eye on you too!"

"I understand," Todoroki assures the other god, looking a little bit more pale, prompting Izuku to chuckle.

However, Izuku stops quickly. Silently reminding himself that he shouldn't be smiling at the moment. He needs to have a serious conversation with his friend.

"Stop accusing Kacchan of trying to hurt me, Shoto," he whispers, not knowing how else to initiate that particular conversation. "You were rude earlier; he was just dancing with me."

"I'm sorry," Todoroki sighs, making Izuku spin once and smiling after hearing him giggle.

Alright, turns out it's a little bit difficult to have a serious conversation like that.

"Just don't do it again."

"I don't trust him."

Izuku knows he can't make both his friends like each other, no matter how much he wants them to get along.

"Even if you don't, spending time with him is my decision to make. No matter what you think about what happened before," Izuku says. "I forgave him a while ago."

For a moment it looks like Todoroki is about to protest, but he just nods instead.

"It won't happen again."

Finally, Izuku relaxes into his arms and lets his friend pull him even closer.

***

It's not like they start getting along, but at least they tolerate each other while Izuku is with them. He has decided that he danced enough (at least for the time being) and now he just wants to spend time with his friends.

Katsuki is right next to him, he's a little bit grumpy, but at least he knows when to behave. Izuku is just happy to have seen him again because the truth is that he missed him a lot.

He's also making new friends in the Olympus, which is a plus and something he didn't think it could be possible before.

Now that he doesn't have Endeavor glaring at him the whole time, Izuku can finally say he's enjoying himself.

"Can I pay you a visit soon?" Katsuki leans closer to whisper next to his ear; Izuku blushes at the proximity, but when he recovers, he finds himself nodding.

"Of course!" He giggles, feeling suddenly very warm inside. "I'd love to show you my field now. I think you're going to like it!"

Now that things are going well, Izuku thinks that maybe he should give Katsuki the pomegranate back; it clearly doesn't belong in the mortal word, because it hasn't changed in the slightest since Izuku took it, but at the same time he thinks it'll be better if he keeps it for a while.

Smiling softly, Katsuki pulls Izuku into his arms; at first the demigod thinks the blond wants to dance again, but he just holds Izuku against his chest for a couple of seconds.

At least until Todoroki clears his throat and Katsuki growls at him over the green haired demigod's shoulder.

Izuku rolls his eyes, but instead of worrying, this time he just chuckles and pulls away from Katsuki to look at his other friend.

"What is it, Shoto?"

"I want a flower crown too."

"Sure thing!" Izuku says, happily getting closer to him. Behind him, Katsuki growls. "Kacchan!"

Izuku gets to dance and spend time with a lot of people; Iida turns out to be an excellent dancing partner, but he has so much fun when Yaoyorozu and Jiro decide to dance with him at the same time.

"Glad you're enjoying yourself, young man," All Might startles him by appearing behind him at some point.

When he turns around he notices that Aizawa is talking with Katsuki and Todoroki and both gods are staring at the ground almost like they're being scolded.

Izuku decides to join them, but All Might puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"They'll be fine. Besides, I think it's important to let them have this conversation with Shota."

The demigod nods, just slightly worried now.

By the end of the night, Izuku is completely relaxed again, mostly because both Katsuki and Todoroki haven't yelled at each other in a while and Izuku gets back on the dance floor two more times: to dance with All Might and Aizawa respectively.

It's the most fun he has had in a while.

***

Next--->

Patreon

[daughter-of-melpomene]

I got some questions for your Tav’s based on the ask game! These ones are for your Tav Amalal! The questions are 3, 16, 18, 22, 23, 28, 30, 41, 47, 52, 57, 68, 69 and the bonus 70, my bonus questions is what are some headcanons for Astarion and Amala once they finally start a relationship together?

Ahhhhh, thank you so much for asking about my cleric baby!! Answers are under the cut! (And I’m also gonna tag the BG3 moots @astarionbae and @reyofluke-ocs. <3)

What is your character’s moral alignment?

He starts out the adventure as Neutral Good, absolutely dedicated to helping everyone they can and understanding the need for authority but not truly respecting any except for his goddess, and ends it having shifted into Chaotic Good - by the time everything is over, they’ve realized he will pretty much to anything to protect the innocent, even if it means breaking the law and killing those who would harm others.

Which of the companions does your Tav trust most?

Already answered this here!!

Who is your Tav’s biggest rival?

Any followers of Lolth, really, both because of how they were raised as a Seldarine-sworn drow and due to his being a cleric of Eilistrae, Lolth’s daughter. They will do almost anything to dim Lolth’s influence on the world, and keep any more drow from falling under her evil influence.

How does your Tav act around their crush?

Amalal doesn’t really have any experience with romantic attraction before he meets Astarion, so a lot of the phase of them having a crush on him is trying as hard as he can to repress these feelings, both because they’re less important than the mission the party is on and because they don’t think that someone as beautiful and smooth as Astarion could ever truly return his feelings. Most of the time during which they have a crush on Astarion involves him hardcore blushing whenever the vampire is around, simultaneously craving his touch and shying away whenever they actually get it, and stuttering hard whenever Astarion flirts with him.

What is your Tav’s favorite moment they’ve had with their lover?

I think Amalal’s favorite would be the conversation they have with Astarion after Cazador is defeated and Amalal has stopped Astarion from ascending. That moment was the kindest he’s ever heard Astarion talk about himself up to that point, and the fact that it contained a big speech in which Astarion confessed his true love and admiration for the cleric made it a whole hell of a lot better.

What is your Tav’s guilty pleasure?

Amalal has always insisted on keeping their body clean and unpolluted, the most perfect vessel for his goddess they can make it… mostly. However, he definitely enjoys a good glass of wine every now and again, and even a pint of ale if it’s being offered to them.

How does your Tav react when someone insults their friend/partner?

The thing about Amalal is that, generally, he’s completely okay with allowing the people they care about to defend themselves if he knows they’re capable of it; they don’t always want to be stepping in and playing the hero if he doesn’t need to. However, they also know that if an insult actually gets to Astarion, which they don’t always, his lover will just make a little quip or joke to try to hide his feelings and not actually make it clear that he’s been hurt, and Amalal will not stand for that. So whenever someone insults Astarion, Amalal will not hesitate to give the person who gave the insult a vigorous tongue-lashing, filled with extremely clever and hurtful insults disguised in their usual polite speech.

What animal best represents your Tav?

I think I would say a lion, or at least what a lot of people associate with lions: noble, proud, and a natural leader, but also not afraid to fight to the death if he or anyone in their circle is threatened.

What is the most important item your Tav has?

A long, polished wooden staff, gifted to him by an old woman from one of the first towns they ever helped out as a walking stick. It’s a symbol, to him of their dedication to helping people in service of his goddess, and so they keep it on him and all times and would absolutely hate to lose it (as well as using it as a weapon when the occasion calls for it).

What is your Tav’s worst fear?

Before the whole adventure, they would have said that his worst fear was all the rest of the Seldarine drows converting to Lolth’s cult and embracing her evil. But after the party’s whole journey, their absolute worst fear is now losing the little family he’s made, and especially Astarion.

What are your Tav’s biggest insecurities?

Due to being on the road and alone for a lot of the time for so long, Amalal was deprived of a lot of social interaction and can often be pretty awkward and naïve as a result, which they’re often pretty insecure about. Another insecurity is being so dedicated to his goddess and their faith, as much of the rest of the party either worships different deities or doesn’t believe in any at all and he often feels a bit awkward about being so openly devoted to Eilistrae, which in turn they then feel awful about.

How does your Tav get along with each party member?

Amalal mostly gets along with everyone; he’s the kind of person you can’t really help but get along with. There’s definitely some tension between them and Shadowheart and him and Lae’zel for a while, since they and Shadowheart serve very different goddesses and Lae’zel doesn’t think much of Amalal’s consistent dedication to always doing the right thing (even though his morals do get a bit less strict as the story goes on), but eventually even the two of them realize how kind and genuine and likeable Amalal actually is, and they manage to become friends. Amalal also gets along with Wyll especially, since they can bond over travelling around a lot to help people and they’re both very dedicated, upright people committed to helping others.

What are your Tav’s other hobbies?

Other than helping those in trouble and praying to their goddess every day, Amalal doesn’t really have a lot of hobbies before getting kidnapped and infected with the Mindflayer parasite. After the party’s adventure, however, he takes up drawing as a way to help their mind relax, even if they aren’t very good at it, and also asks Astarion to teach him how to sew.

Some headcanons for Amalal and Astarion’s relationship:

Amalal’s favorite place for Astarion to drink from on their body is from his wrist; there’s something so intimate about it to them that he doesn’t even feel when Astarion drinks from their neck.

Every single day when Amalal prays to his goddess, they make sure to thank Eilistrae for bringing Astarion into his life.

Astarion’s favorite way to cuddle Amalal is lying on their chest with his head tucked between his beloved’s neck and shoulder, soaking in his warmth. Amalal likes to gently tease that he turns into a cat whenever the two of them cuddle.

Even years after they’ve gotten together, Amalal will still ask Astarion’s permission before every kiss or loving touch they give him, unless it’s a sudden thing to push him out of danger and he doesn’t really have a choice - they never want him to feel like his choices are being taken away again.

bg3 tav questions!!

[valkyrietookmoved]

Oh he's a lot more pathetic than I thought wow I am in love with him even more <3

[mzdsanalysis]

Wei Wuxian’s Actions and Morality:

I am kind of confused on some parts, and i would really appreciate it if someone is willing to discuss it with me. It’s regarding Wei Wuxian, and his exact involvement in the events at the Accident at Qiongqi Path and Bloodbath of Nightless City.

Now, at the accident at Quiongqi path, Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning were just going to Koi tower for the full month celebration to which they had been invited to. Jin Zixun ambushes and threatens to kill him if he doesn’t remove the hundred hole curse. Wei wuxian tries to explain that he didn’t cast the curse and isn’t guilty (admittedly he could have done it in a better way). Jin zixun doesn’t believe him and continues to threaten him. Jin Zixuan appears, tries to diffuse the tension, but still insists that wei wuxian comes along to answer the accusations. Wei wuxian doesn’t believe him (he isn’t wrong to. Guys show up with a whole gang, accuse him of something he didn’t do, and then ask him willingly to come along to “resolve” the issue, though they had spent the past year slandering him and wanting to murder the people he is trying to protect. Just getting into his perspective of things.) Wei wuxian gets angry and accuses Jin zixuan of being on the whole thing, and is agitated and afraid. Which is when he loses control of the resentful energy, which extends to his control of wen ning, and that’s how wen ning, not currently being in control of his body, punches a hole into Jin Zixuan and kills him. Now, automatically, I am going to absolve Wen Ning of any guilt. He is literally NOT in control of his own body. He did that due to the Wei wuxian controlling him with resentful energy. But Wei wuxian also isn’t completely guilty. He was upset, confused, and to some extent scared. But not even subconsciously was he planning or intending to kill Jin zixuan. He lost control over the resentful energy. He put wen ning is a specific state, and then lost control over him, due to not being able to regulate his own emotions during the whole chaos. An accident. An accident that led to someone innocent being killed, but an accident none the less.

Now, I expect different peoples take on this is going to deviate somewhat and that’s fine. I am cool with it. In my opinion, he isn’t completely guilty, but is still responsible. He did not have the intention to kill Jin zixuan, but he DID kill him. It was because of the resentful energy that he was still learning about and how to control it. But if you are going to use a knife after everyone telling you it’s dangerous – although they are doing it just because they don’t want you to have the knife, they want themselves having the knife, while at the same time threating to kill your friends, so you don’t exactly have a choice, but use a freaking knife to, you know, NOT DIE – when you accidently stab someone, it’s still somewhat on you. Lan Zhan had warned him that it could end up badly if he did loose control over the resentful energy and wen ning, and wei wuxian dismissed it. But it was still something he was experimenting with and researching, and hadn’t completely figured out. So it’s not like he didn’t care or was dismissing that it was a bad thing, just that he genuinely didn’t think it would happen. He has been controlling it so far, and everything has been fine, and since he doesn’t exactly have any other options, he will have to continue using it, despite the arguments on the dangers of it.

Now, the bloodbath at Nightless City. Wei wuxian already knows at this point that wen ning and wen qing are dead, and he heads there to atleast collect their ashes and bring them back. When he arrives at the pledge conference, all the sects attending, all 3000, are collected together, and Jin Guangshan makes his speech. He announced that both wens are dead, and then spreads the ashes, the ones Wei ying had come to collect. Then announces that they were going on next day to kill the rest of wens anyway, along with wei ying, to loud applause from the crowd in attendance. Its only then wei wuxian makes his presence known. Before that, he was just listening on. Jin Guangshan makes some more accusations: at Qiongqi Path wei wuxian killed Lanlingjin sect members, the ones jin zixun brought to ambush him, and that wei ying is the one who made wen ning go in a rampage at koi tower (a lie. While jin zixuan’s death at wen ning – actually wei wuxian’s – was an accident, the rampage at koi tower, as we know for a fact, wasn’t an accident (confirmed by MXTX’s interview.) I am not sure if it was mentioned in the book, but from what I can recall, it was xue yang. I might be wrong, but it was still done on Jin Guangshan’s orders. So the deaths of members of the other sect’s members, Lan and Nie, and the others, lie not at wei wuxian’s feet but Jin Guangshan’s. Wei wuxian doesn’t take the accusations silently, and argues back: he was the one who was ambushed, who almost got killed. He has every right to defend himself against the men Jin Zixun brought to attack and kill him. The crowd says he shouldn’t have been so heartless, and in wei wuxian’s own words: no matter what the other sects throw at him, no matter how hard they try to harm and kill him, he is not allowed to touch them, harm their members, defend himself or fight back even if it cost him his life. The sects throw in their final arguments in:

Even if he was fighting back, it doesn’t account for the 130 people who died at koi tower at hands of wen ning.

He shouldn’t defend the wens. They are horrible and evil and guilty and deserve to die.

He is only doing it for his pride, and to prove himself a hero.

He laid the curse on Jin zixun.

Each of them are easily nullified.

Wei wuxian didn’t cause wen’s ning rampage. Jin Guangshan did. The 130 lives are on his own hands, not wei wuxians.

People aren’t guilty by association, especially by family relation. None of the wen remnants have any blood on their hands. They are from wen qing’s branch and are non-combatants, thus they were not involved in any of the Wen Ruhon’s actions. Nor were they involved in at the accident at Qiongqi Path or Koi tower. They are innocent.

The argument about his pride came from their attitude towards him from before his defection. They had admired his powers and were intimated by it, but didn’t like that he belonged to Jiang sect, and wasn’t willing to change his loyalties to belong to them instead. He also dared being defiant and outspoken, and powerful while being a servant’s son, and that’s a crime of it’s own in their eyes. Is wei wuxian’s slightly arrogant? Yes. Is he wrong to be? No, he is very powerful and is aware of what he is capable of. Is that a reason to hate him enough to want to kill him? No! wth

He laid the curse on Jin Zixun. He didn’t. Su she did. Jin Guangshan and Guangyo were aware of that, and still sent zixun to ambush wei ying anyway.

None of their accusation hold any weight to them. Admittedly, we know that because we read the book and these characters aren’t exactly able to do that. The only people here who know about it are Jin Guangshan and Jin Guangyao, who planned the whole thing in the first place. So, I am not going to paint these people as all evil. Some of the sect’s members did die. Some of these people have actually the right to be angry at what happened, though the anger is pointed in the wrong direction.

But the rest of the people are there because of the mob mentality. Because someone is guilty, someone needs to be punished. Here its 50 people and wei ying, one of their own ex members. But because they are not worth the effort, none of it needs to be investigated, to be proven. They have an available party to hold guilty, and it’s far too comfortable for them to put it on their heads rather than find the actually accountable people.

To an extent, it really does seem, by the proofs handfed to them by Jin Guangshan, the wei ying is guilty, That he actually did it. But don’t they owe to the 50 wen members who are about to be slaughtered like cattle, for no other reason than being associated with Wen sect and Wei wuxian, for atleast one of them to look a bit harder, to try a bit harder? I would say so. Wei ying would too. I don’t think the other sects would agree with us, but it’s ancient china society, and modern war ethics and laws aren’t exactly in place to prevent them from doing so.

Back to Wei ying, he gets shot at by a disciple. It actually pierces him, just by luck not in a fatal place but only by a fluke. It was aimed at the heart. The intention to kill was there.  He fires the arrow back, kills back the guy who tried to kill him. I don’t know exactly how anyone could hold him completely in the wrong here. We might not like it, but wei ying is not some pure white angel, nor a pacifist by any means. He is a soldier, a fighter, and he is amidst people who are literally moving to kill him by any means, and he just got an almost kill-shot. He has every right to defend himself, fight back, and honestly, kill back anyone who is trying to kill him. Eye for an eye, punch for a punch. It’s ruthlessly fair, despite sounding harsh. Honestly, it is harsh, but it’s not wrong, wither we like it or not.

He calls forth his dead, the battle begins. Lan Wangji tries to get him to stop, but it doesn’t work. There are definite tones of a sort of deliriousness. I am not exactly sure to how severe it was, but it shows he wasn’t exactly in an emotional and mental fit state. It’s definitely obvious when he tries to make his way to Yanli, and is too worked up to control the corpses crowding around, and the one standing behind Jiang Yanli. He is only able to do it when yanli asks him to stop it all so that she could tell him what she had wanted to tell him. He forces himself to calm down, and is only then able to control the corpses. (I am not saying the deliriousness was severe enough to absolve him of any responsibility he does hold in the event; I am merely acknowledging it’s presence.)

Then Jiang Yanli gets killed by the bow guy’s brother, and that when thing’s go from going downhill to just jumping right off the cliff. But unfortunately, MXTXs writing doesn’t exactly let us to be a witness to the scene, so the curtains close, and we are only allowed to make our assumptions on what happened, who/how/how many exactly died.

The point of this bloody essay is to determine the exactly how much of the event was Wei wuxian involved and responsibly for, so I can examine wei wuxian’s morality with all facts present.

If we go according to the book, wei ying:

Used some pretty grotesque methods to kill in the sunshot campaign

Allowed/ made Wen Ning kill his killers at Qiongqi Path

Accidentally killed Jin Zixuan

Kill Jin Zixun and his men after their ambush

Got in a fight on the way to the pledge conference with a group of cultivators: he broke one’s nose, kicked out his teeth, and made another fall and break his legs (not a severe injury according to lan wangji)

Fought in Bloodbath at Nightless city (after they had made the announcement, they were going ahead with the attack on the wen remnants and wen ying)

I am only including actions that me, anyone else (or the character’s) could possibly hold against him and question his morality with.

Here is where my confusion comes in. Now, I made the mistake of reading the novel only after finishing the tv show. As we know, the tv show took some liberties with the plotline and altered a few things. I honestly like a lot of the changes. Usually when tv shows make changes like that, it doesn’t always work out and it kind of depletes the essence of the story, but they actually managed it quite well. But one of the key changes were the plotlines around the Qiongqi Path accident and nightless city.

Divergences in the tv show:

At Qiongqi Path, Su she’s flute is what makes Wen Ning kill Jin Zixuan (+ Jin Zixun) rather than wei wuxian loosing control due to his emotions.

At the bloodbath, Su She playing the flute is what stopped wei wuxian from halting the battle and loose control of the fierce corpses.

(+ by the time of the battle, the wen remnants were already dead, so wei wuxian’s fight becomes more about revenge and grief rather than to protect them)

Basically, they abbreviated a lot of his action to other people. Which I understand, I guess. You are less in the character’s head while watching the tv show rather than when you are reading the book, and for the audience to develop a better and more empathetic relationship with a lead character, liberties needed to be taken to make him more sympathetic.

My debate on his morality, hence, is more focused on the book character rather the tv show (honestly, since even his only 2 serious offences are not even his fault in the show.) but in the book, they kind of are. He did kill Jin Zixuan: accidentally. He had no intention whatsoever of him doing it; not subconsciously or consciously. He was just feeling agitated and angry and viewed Jin Zixuan as a threat, and Wen Ning, who was in his fierce corpse state, interpreted as a need to kill jin Zixuan.

The only way you could put this against him is if you hold him responsible of using such an unstable and dangerous form of cultivation/magic. But he already gave an answer for that, which none of us can argue against: he didn’t have choice. He never did with demonic cultivation.

He started using it in the Burial mounds to survive and make it out.

He used it to seek justice for his sects massacre (go ahead and debate the need for that if you need to. I don’t)

He used it to fight in the Sunshot campaign, and he was a MAJOR force in the campaign, and a enormous contributor to it’s success. Could they still have won if he hadn’t been with them? Maybe, sure. But if there was any risk to loosing them, and wen sect remained undefeated, Jiang chen and yanli and wei wuxian were as good as dead. No way they or the other sects who had raised arms against wen sect would have been allowed to live or survive.

He used it to save Wen Ning and other wen remnants: war prisoners who were undergoing severe abuse and were basically being killed off. For no reason than being wens. Yes, I know it was common in ancient china to kill off the whole family. But it’s not right. Wei wuxian doesn’t think so. And neither do i.

He used it to bring back Wen Ning for Wen qing.

-  I don’t know where I read it that he brought him back for protection or as a weapon. He didn’t. He was pissed at what they did to him, and brought him to allow him to tell wei ying who had kill him then allowed him to get his revenge. He than made him sentient because he had promise wen qing & the other wen members that he could bring him back. He promised his sister that he could bring her brother back. That’s why.

He used it to protect burial mounds and the wen remnants: A bunch of non-combatant members that he had grown to love and care about as family. As you can see here:

“ He turned around, knowing that it’d be a long time before he’s get to see the people he was familiar with again.

But…right now, wasn’t he on his way to seeing people he was familiar with as well?”

He used it to fight back during the ambush. He doesn’t have a gold core; He literally cant wield a sword to defend himself. So he uses it to summon corpses to fight against Jin Zixun’s men.

·       He uses it to fight in the Bloodbath of Nightless City, after Jin Guangshan announced that they were going ahead with killing the rest of the wens and wei ying, and the attending crowd voiced out their excitement over the prospect.

 Second, the bloodbath at nightless city. Yes, it was a very brutal battle with many casualties. But these people were planning to kill him and the wens. They had decided it by the time he spoke up. It was a definite thing that was going to happen.

 Now you can argue against the use of violence, and need of it. But while I am very anti-war myself, I still hold to the belief that there are some fights that are worth fighting for, that need to be fought for. The wen remnants were innocent, and no one, NO ONE, had the right to decide they needed to die just because they were wens. They were innocent people. They had not actively killed or participated in the massacre that the main wen sect had conducted, and being blood relations to the actual guilty party is not an indication of being guilty too.

You could also argue the value of 3000 lives against 50. I have seen people do it, and write metas about. But whats the value of 1 life or 10 or 50? How are we supposed to decide who deserve to live more? How is that anyway moral?

Wei wuxian didn’t act to choose one group of lives over the other. He did it to protect himself and the people he cared about, and that meant fighting against anyone who was actively intending to kill and harm them, and was an acting threat. As human being who, like any other being, has the right to defend himself, to protect himself, to survive and be able to live. 3000 people wanting to kill him, and wens doesn’t take away his right to do that. There isn’t a rule that if enough people want you dead and murdered, rightly or not, you should just let them go ahead with it and turn your belly up. That…just doesn’t make sense?

I am in acceptance that he is a grey character, with his flaws and his merits. What I am confused about is exactly how much black and white went into making his grey. Maybe because I watched tv show and read the novel at the about same time, I feel like I am missing something. Did I miss anything? Did he do anything else? Am I wrong? What do other people think? Where do you guys lie on your judgment of wei wuxian as person and on his moral stance?

[gravesightings]

tmi: three’s a crowd - the collector & chromeskull

believe it or not slashers are capable of sharing - some are just better at it than others.

Asa Emory / The Collector & Jesse Cromeans / Chromeskull

although the two seem to have a lot in common, their personalities are almost exact opposites. Asa likes to have everything planned out while Jesse is more spontaneous. despite being mute, Jesse is a lot chattier and animated compared to Asa. it might seem like two very domineering figures would constantly be fighting to get the most control out of the relationship but they’re surprisingly very civil. they’re actually very fond of each other and are unlikely to fight over your attention. if anything, they’ve probably already synchronized their busy work schedules to spend time with you to ensure that you’re almost never alone.

still, this does not mean they're capable of keeping their jealousy in check. they’re mature about it (most of the time) but if one of them keeps you from the other for too long, things can get a little messy. of course, you don’t have to worry your pretty little head about it. they’ll settle it between themselves like responsible adults. (.i.e. getting into physical fights with each other or seeing who can add to their victim count the fastest.)

Jesse is more prone to it than he’d like to admit since he’s a busy man. Asa on the other hand, being an on-call exterminator, does not have a fixed schedule and is most likely the one who spends more time with you. this doesn’t mean that Asa is any less obsessed about you however, and he will express his disdain over Jesse’s tendency to take you out on impromptu dates without informing him first.

on the rare occasions that neither of them are busy, they would want to just stay at home. Asa is a homebody while Jesse is a bit of a workaholic so he rarely has time to just sit back and relax. cuddling up on the couch while watching tv is one of their favorites. usually it’s the gorey horror movies that Jesse always seems to have something smart to say about. (”that’s not realistic i’ve done that before” or “this guy’s an amateur.”) other times Asa puts on a documentary either about insects or something macabre and surprisingly, Jesse also seems fascinated by it.

these two are the most likely to teach you how to defend yourself given what they’ve gone through - Jesse being betrayed by Preston and Asa being tortured by Arkin. Asa would teach you how to set certain traps, how to command the dogs, handle throwing knives, etc. similarly Jesse would even have custom-made weapons for you and maybe take you to a shooting range to teach you how to use a gun. if you’re already capable of defending yourself, they’ll be a lot more lenient with leaving you by yourself or taking you to where they work.

Asa wouldn’t take you to the hotel even if you asked (this is if you haven’t started as his favorite in the first place.) so naturally, Jesse would most definitely take you there for a surprise visit. no matter how you react, Asa would be pissed that Jesse would take you there without his permission. afterwards though he decides to just might show you two around since you’re already there and all. if you’re not disturbed by this visit then you’ll find yourself spending more time there with Asa than at home. he’s very proud of his art, you see.

Jesse is a bit more reluctant. it’s not like he doesn’t want to show you off - it’s just that he no longer trusts his workers like he used to. you’ll only find yourself there if it’s an emergency or if it’s too risky to leave you at home alone. even then, Jesse limits the people who can actually be in the same room as you. you’ve found out later on that Asa has visited him there on multiple occasions, posing as a fellow cohort to keep tabs on Jesse’s workers. the two have already eliminated potential traitors because of this and it’s surprisingly efficient.

despite their murderous tendencies, the two are actually well-adapted to live the domestic life! Jesse is more prone to hiring other people to do chores/errands for him but since he’s not about to trust anyone anywhere near you or his home, he mostly learns through Asa. Asa pretty much lives a double life and he’s learned to be self-sufficient from a young age due to his past. he appreciates all the help he can get with the house chores but he’s a little sensitive about doing things a certain way. he also got very pissed at Jesse one time for not knowing how to work the washer/dryer despite being the one who bought it.

the only pets that they’ll allow you to “have” are Asa’s dogs. if Asa notices that you’re fond of them, he’ll introduce you. the canines are already familiar with Jesse, he rarely interacts with them unless he has to dog-sit. as much as Asa tries not to get attached due to the nature of his work, he tends to fail miserably since he trains the dogs himself. if you want to lend a hand he’ll be more than happy to indulge you. walking the dogs can be a fun little activity for the two of you. (and Jesse, if he can lower his ego enough to ask if he can tag along.)

ironically enough, these two are quite possibly the best at polyamory despite being two of the most violent and ruthless. this mostly has to do with their mutual desire to have a happy family of their own. they’re quite capable of seeing you as their actual spouse - an addictive taste of normalcy they wouldn’t have achieved through normal means. but since their morals are askew, they’re both very obsessive and prone to violence. they wouldn’t take lightly to being rejected or cheated on. these men are very distrusting enough as they are but make one wrong decision and it could go horribly wrong for you.

[sluttbuttsstuff]

Hucow!AU Part 5 (FINALE!!!)

WOOHOO!! It’s finally Bruno’s turn, I saved best boy for last.  All parts combined in gdocs are 29 pages total, this is def the longest thing i’ve written in over a decade!! I hope you enjoy, and look forward to whatever i decide to write next

thanks, and enjoy!

as always. credit goes to @dark-side-blog2 for the wonderful hucow! au

WARNINGS: not sfw, yandere, duncon, noncon, sleep fucking, force feeding, manipulation, dark themes, afab reader, she/her pronouns, all characters 18+!!

After taking care of Narancia and tucking him into bed, Bruno returned to your room once more.  You slept like the dead, worn out from a long night.  Bruno smiled proudly, you had been wonderful for them.  Each bull, you had accepted their love, their passion, their essence and earned your place in the herd once again.  It filled Bruno with such joy, knowing that you were the perfect mate for them, for all of them.

You were caring and kind for Narancia, playful and fun for Mista, calming and gentle for Fugo, accepting and attentive for Abbacchio.  And for Bruno: you were everything.  For so long, there had been a piece of the puzzle missing in his life.  He had a family with no mother, no children.  

Bruno had met you first in a very dark part of his life-his herd was beaten, driven from his home in fear, on the brink of death with no hope.  And then, you had appeared, an angel hidden away in paradise, offering safety, shelter.  Much more than that, even, with a little bit of convincing, and a lot of planning.  He would have his family, his children, and you.

Bruno knew how to play the long game, how to strategize and manipulate, but he only did it for good reason.  He had to, you were too prideful, too stubborn to realize how much you needed him.  You were running a giant farm several acres large by yourself, no employees, relatives or neighbors to help.  Bruno couldn’t have that,now could he?  He and the other bulls took over the hard work and heavy lifting-eventually, after a lot of hemming and hawing from you.  Bruno managed to talk you into it; it was beneficial for both of you, a way for the bulls to earn their keep and for you to get some help.

The bulls helped with Bruno’s plan as well, in their own ways.  Mista put his cooking skills to use, making you healthy meals infused with lackweed (Mulgeo, a plant that encouraged your body to lactate) and pills that increased your sexual urges.  He’d even been adding charcoal to your meals to cancel out your birth control; it wasn’t necessary, Bruno had gotten rid of your birth control months ago while you were asleep, but Bruno appreciated it nonetheless.  

Narancia had gotten you to warm up to them very quickly, being as innocent and naive as he was, and Bruno was able to use him to display his parenting skills.  Yes, Narancia was a grown bull, and mostly treated as such, but he was still the youngest, and hard not to spoil.  Plus, the way you seemed to light up when Bruno would baby Narancia- it was clear your maternal instincts were awakening.  Good!  It was excellent practice for your own children.  

Fugo was admittedly the most awkward around you, it wasn’t really his fault, though.  He had the least experience out of the bulls with women, but Bruno could tell his true feelings about you.  So, he encouraged Fugo to show his strengths to you; mainly his brain.  There was an old tractor collecting rust that needed repairs, and you had lost several crops last season due to lack of irrigation. Fugo was able to repair them, thanks to researching some books and some help from you.  Plus, it was one less job for you to do, and another reason for you to depend on them.  Bruno knew Fugo was nervous, but Bruno was certain he’d be a good mate and husband.  He would make their children very smart.

Abbacchio could be a little rough around the edges, it's true, but he clearly had a soft spot for you.  While he would smack Mista and Narancia around when they got on his nerves or got ornery, you he respected and let a lot slide.  Bruno had seen you tug on his tail (admittedly by accident) , elbow him (after a funny joke), and even put flowers (that he was allergic to!) in his hair!  Abbacchio had taken it in stride, and even defended you when Mista’s teasing or the other shenanigans went too far.  Plus, Abbacchio’s skills as a lockpick let them sneak into your house when you were away or sleeping.  Very useful indeed…

 Bruno knew he had to share you, as much as he wanted you for his own.  He couldn’t hurt his herd, his brothers, who loved you almost as much as he did.  So Bruno was patient, he let them have their turns first, keep the peace….

But Bruno couldn’t wait any longer.

The timing had to be perfect, to ensure he had the best chances. He had snuck into your home months before, stealing and disposing of your birth control, and destroying your refill prescription.  Thankfully you were too busy and preoccupied to make a new appointment with the doctor for new medication, which Bruno appreciated greatly.   Digging through your trash, he was able to record and determine your cycle, in order to find out when you would be most fertile.  He would allow his herd many things,including you.

But his child would be first.

Letting the others go first- he allowed it before you were truly in heat.  They didn’t know why, but were grateful nonetheless, eager to claim you. 

He pulled back your blankets, after making sure you were deep in R.E.M. sleep.  Birds started chirping as dawn rose outside, but you were dead to the world.  So much, in fact, that when Bruno pulled back your bed sheets you didn’t so much as flinch.  You were still nude, too tired to put your pajamas back on last night; Bruno admired the early morning light glowing on your body.  Bruno kissed down your face and body everywhere the sun touched, relieved you were still asleep.  Bruno made note of every bruise and marking on your skin to treat later that morning, as he went lower and lower down your body.  Spreading your legs, you tasted divine.  You were definitely ready, too: now would be his best chance. 

 Licking the others out of your core, he heard you quietly whimper- he paused, waiting for you to stir, but you eventually drifted back to sleep.  You always were cute when you slept, the way you would sometimes talk in your sleep or kick your legs “Running.”  Bruno had learned a lot observing you, and intended to learn a lot more from you today.  He cleaned you out with his tongue and prepped you thoroughly-maybe it was petty of him, saving you all for himself, but Bruno was the alpha bull, and the perfect mate for you.  That’s why it was so important to not just get you pregnant, but pregnant with his children.  It’s what you, the both of you deserved.

Once Bruno was certain you were ready ( you were still soft and wet from last night, and pleasantly warm against his tongue and fingers)  he leaned over you, pulling your legs up against his shoulders into a mating press.  It terrified him how easily you slept, how dangerous it would be if his herd hadn’t found you.  What if someone else had found you before them, taken you like this in your sleep?  It worried him so, that’s why he had to do this, claim you and protect you from any rivals.

  Bruno stroked your cheek, before pressing inside.  Finally, after all this time, he was inside of you, warm and wonderful and all his.  You squirmed in your sleep,but otherwise accepted him without complaint.  Bruno was so happy he could cry, he settled for kissing your  shoulder as he pushed into the hilt.  Bruno couldn’t hold his urges back any longer, he thrust into you again and again, hitting against your sweet spot.  You cried out in your sleep, jumbled noises Bruno convinced himself were his name.  In this position, he was able to reach so deep, force himself as far inside as he could reach.  

His grip on you tightened, feeling the strain of the position, the slap of his balls on your ass fueling his desire more.  But it wasn’t enough, he had to make sure you felt good too.  He suckled your chest, licking your nipples the way he had seen you enjoy.  Your pussy was so wet he was able to rub slick onto your hard throbbing clit, careful to rub the raw skin gently. 

“Y/n, I’m so thankful to have found you, finally we can make our dreams come true~” Bruno whispered to you, desperate for you to know the feelings he’d held back for so long.

“I can hardly hold back with you; I’ve been waiting so long for this, and I can tell now that so have you.  Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you, we all will.  Just give in, you can trust me.”  Bruno pleaded, close to the edge.  Bruno grit his teeth, it was about to end, all too soon.  Bruno wasn’t ready, he wanted to stay like this with you forever.  Relief washed over Bruno as he heard you cry out in release, tightening around him and bringing him to release.

“I’m cumming, y/n.  Please, accept all of me!”  He gasped,spilling his seed inside.  Tears Bruno had held back spilled down as his emotions overcame him, something he would only allow to happen while you couldn’t see.  He was certain this was the right thing to do, now more than ever.  You were his, all of theirs, safe and protected. 

 In the next months, you would become full with child.  Naturally, you would have to stop manual labor-which would be fine, you could depend on your sturdy bulls to run the farm for you.  And then when you had their children, you would need to raise them. Obviously, you had five capable mates to help you; taking turns feeding them, staying up on long sleepless nights, teaching them right from wrong.  So many precious memories to be made with you, Bruno could 

hardly wait.

As Bruno turned to leave you to rest, he saw you start to rise.

“...Bruno?”  You called weakly, and Bruno was by your side in an instant.

“Y/n?  What’s wrong, you’re up so early?”  Bruno asked, concerned.  

“...It’s hot” you groaned, reaching out for him.  Bruno’s heart fluttered, you called out for him.  He felt your forehead; admittedly sweaty, but not necessarily from illness.  

“You are a little warm.  Let’s get you out of these sweaty blankets and cleaned up.”  Bruno helped you out of your sheets, and ran to get a damp washcloth.  He returned quickly, sitting on your bed and wiped the cloth over your body.  Your body flushed, and whenever you thought Bruno wasn’t looking, you would glance over at him.  Bruno smiled to himself, you really were spoiling him this morning-he couldn’t be more delighted.

“Are you feeling any better?  You should take it easy today, you had a long night.”  Bruno said as he washed your stomach.

“Umm, yes, im-ahh!”  You jumped, as Bruno’s wash cloth reached your nether regions.  

“Relax, bella, It’s important to clean this area as well. We don’t want you getting sick now do we?”  Bruno continued, unfazed by your reaction.  You fidgeted a moment longer, but considering all that had happened, you relented.  What more could Bruno do to you?

He toweled you off quickly, patting you dry and then headed to your closet.

“Let’s find you something extra comfortable to wear today, shall we?”  Bruno asked, flipping through your hangers.  What a shame, most of your outfits were utilitarian and industrial, not befitting a mother to be.  

“Oh, Bruno, you don’t have to-”  You began, but Bruno cut you off.

“Here we go, perfect!  Ah, and this shade of lavender will look lovely on you!”  Bruno proclaimed, holding up a flowery sundress made of soft cotton.  Very comfortable, but not the best for farm work.  Bruno couldn’t be stopped though, grabbing some undergarments for you    (how did he know where you kept them?) and helped you sit up in bed.

“Let’s get you dressed, as much as I love the thought of having you nude all day, nothing will get done around the farm with the boys fawning over you.”  Bruno chuckled, sliding socks onto your feet for you.

“Bruno, please! I can dress myself!”  You pleaded, trying to pull away, but Bruno stopped you with gentle but firm hands.  

“Bella, please-let me take care of you the way you’ve taken care of us.  It’s only fair, isn’t it?”  Bruno smiled, tugging your socks up to your ankles.  He held a white pair of panties out for you, “Step in, dear, one foot at a time” You groaned, turning an adorable shade of red Bruno loved, but did indeed let him slide the panties up and onto you.  He convinced you to skip a bra today (Bruno wasn’t completely selfless) and slip into the sundress, snug as a bug.

“Much better!  Now, do you want to see if you can get some more sleep?  You didn’t get many hours of sleep last night, and your body must be very sore.”  He asked you, stroking your cheek.  “Well, maybe later, but-”  You began, only to be interrupted by your growling stomach.  Bruno chuckled, “Ahh, of course, let’s get you fed shall we?”  he winked, placing a hand on the small of your back and escorting you to the kitchen.

You tried to make yourself breakfast, really you did, but Bruno wasn’t giving you any leeway this morning.

“Please, Bambina, let me cook for you.  You always make the rest of us meals, and I’m not completely hopeless in the kitchen.”  He told you, sitting you on a kitchen chair, rolling up his sleeves.  True to his word, he was decent in the kitchen-more than decent, in fact.  Bruno fried up a pig’s worth of bacon, crispy and fried with a sprinkle of cinnamon.  Eggs, sunny-side scrambled and over-easy, just a little bit runny and fresh from your henhouse.  And the cru-de-ta, a mountain-pile of fluffy home batter pancakes, smothered in homemade syrup and creamy smooth butter dollops piled on top.  Bruno piled your plate to the brim, sure to give you only the crunchiest bacon strips and roundest pancakes, with plenty left over for the boys.  It was a miracle the other boys hadn’t woken up yet, but you supposed they were still wiped out from the night before and needed a little more rest.  

Bruno didn’t mind one bit, enjoying the one on one time with you he rarely got.  Sitting patiently for him like a good mate, letting him clean you, dress you, even feed you. Bruno was determined to spoil you, so you would never want for anything other than him again.  Looking around your plate, you asked Bruno, “Sorry, but you forgot to grab a fork and knife.  Would you mind?”  

Bruno smiled, unblinkingly, “Oh no, I didn’t.  Open wide~”  He cooed, stacking a silver fork full of your breakfast.  You looked at him incredulously, “Seriously?”  

Bruno didn’t relent, smile unwavering, “You wouldn’t turn down all my hard work and this delicious food, would you?”  

You wanted to argue with him, you really did.  For every inch he gave you, he took a mile, and it was starting to be humiliating.  But for whatever reason, Bruno always made you cave.  Besides, after everything you’d been through, he’d never hurt you, always gentle and caring.  So, against your better judgement, you sheepishly opened your mouth for him.

Bruno lifted the fork into your mouth, watching your lips close around his fork.  You savored the buttery rich flavor of the pancakes, the spongy texture bouncing lightly in your mouth as you chewed.  To say it was delicious would be an understatement; you were starting to consider letting Mista and Bruno handle mealtime more often.  Bruno bit the corner of his lip, watching you eat your meal.  You wanted to pout, not give Bruno the satisfaction of knowing you enjoyed being babied like this, but you couldn’t help smiling as you swallowed bite after bite, opening your mouth and even leaning forward.  Each bite was better than the last; the salty sweet bacon grease and runny eggs soaked into the pancakes, soaking up the flavor medley and sending your palette into overdrive. 

 Bruno loved every minute, watching you let your guard down for him, licking up syrup from your chin, even letting him wipe your cheek clean with a napkin.  Your stomach puffed out as you ate through your meal, it excited him to know he did that to you, and that your stomach would soon be even more distended and full with his baby.  Your plate was nearly clean, but you didn’t think you could eat another bite.  Bruno had given you so much already, and it was all delicious and rich, and had no more room.

“Please, Bruno, I’m full to the brim.  I’m sorry but I can’t eat anymore.”  You groaned, clutching your stomach.  

“Oh please, just another bite, bambina~  you’ve done so well, you’re almost done.”  He cooed, forking the last bits on your plate.  You tried to excuse yourself, but Bruno stuffed it into your open unsuspecting mouth.  You nearly choked on the utensil forcing your way into your mouth, a sugary syrupy mess that was starting to nauseate you.  It was too much, too rich, but Bruno held your mouth shut.

“Please, y/n, you have to eat more.  Think of our children, won’t you?”  You froze, as you remembered everything that had happened last night with a wave.  You looked at Bruno, mouth still full and ready to vomit.  His gaze tore into you, more serious than he had been all morning.  In fact, the last time he looked at you like that…

Bruno rubbed your back, as your eyes watered and spilled over.  Poor thing, were you already having morning sickness?  No worries, it was only natural; he would take care of you. You were having trouble breathing, not sure if it was the food or the panic setting in.  

“Come on Bambina, you’re almost done.  Just swallow it all down, you can do it~”  Bruno hissed, as he plugged up your nose.  Bruno sighed, watching your eyes bug out; he didn’t want to be harsh with you, but what other choice were you giving him?  You needed to follow his orders, that’s how he kept you safe and happy.  “Now, y/n”  

Despite the lump in your throat, you had no choice but to swallow, the lack of oxygen making you gag.  How could you forget who you were dealing with?  How could you let him take advantage of you again and again?  You wiped the snot and tears from your face, catching your breath.  You flinched as a familiar hand reached out and grabbed your chin.  Bruno turned you to look at him, his face calm and smiling as if nothing had happened.

“There, Bambina, that wasn’t so bad was it?  You have to let me take care of you, okay?  We don’t want you hurting yourself do we?”  He asked, voice soft and patronizing, like he hadn’t just force fed you against your will.  You wanted to run away, but didn’t know where to go.  It didn’t help any as you heard footsteps coming down the stairs.  

“Yo, y/n!  You’re up already?  I thought we wiped you out last night!”

“Guess we’ll have to try harder next time.”

“Are you okay, y/n?  You look ill.  Maybe you should go back to bed.”

“Ohh, it smells so good!  Did you make breakfast for us, y/n?”

You were surrounded.  No way out.  Five strong angry bulls that had taken over your life, your home, even your body.  You couldn’t trust them, not any of them.  There was no escape.

“What’s wrong, bella?  Are you crying?”

“Don’t cry, y/n!  There’s nothing to worry about, we’ll take care of you!”

“You can count on us, y/n.  We’re mates, after all.”

You were trapped.

Trapped.

Trapped.

 You opened your mouth to scream, but it was no use.

It’s not like anyone would hear you, anyways

END

[aj28gaming]

Danganronpa messing up Nagito's character cuz apparently even they believe headcanons

Is it just me or is Danganronpa making Nagito worse?

Like at the start we have a socially intelligent and intuitive paranoid kid who hates despair and gets forced into a killing game that is filled with everything he hates and fears

So he clings desperately to hope as a coping mechanism to deal with everything

And then in the anime, we get a social outcast (for some reason even though people would've loved his hope talks like they did back in chapter 1 since no killing game happens and he is just speaking normally)

who bombs a school (forget his paranoia apparently) and nonchalantly allows himself to get out of the island and accidentally kill 40+ soldiers (again, ignoring his paranoia of his destructive luck cycle apparently)

And then in Danganronpa 2.5 we get a socially inept, clingy hope addict who apparently doesn't have boundaries?

(We seriously ignoring how much he pushes people away back in SDR2, is afraid of having friends due to his luck cycle, respects boundaries to the max, and how socially intelligent he is and his crazy empathy to know people's hopes and despairs?)

(And no even Mikan's motivations he understood, he knew she killed for despair because she literally killed for Junko, Mikan just says he doesn't understand because she doesn't count is as killing for despair, she counts it as killing for love)

And some of the fans defend this and says Nagito is hated or is supposed to have no boundaries because of his social ineptness or inability to properly socialize

Okay

WHEN?

WHEN HAS HE IN SUPER DANGANRONPA 2 ACTUALLY SUCKED AT SOCIALIZING OR WAS SOCIALLY INEPT OR OUT OF TOUCH?

NOT THE ANIME OR SPINOFFS, I AM TALKING ABOUT THE ACTUAL SECOND GAME WHERE HE FIRST SHOWED HIS FACE

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOW GONNA BASE ALMOST ALL OF MY POINTS ON HOW NAGITO IS AND ACTS DURING SDR2 AND THAT INCLUDES HIS FREE TIME EVENTS AND ISLAND MODE

NOT THE ANIME OR DANGANRONPA 2.5, JUST DANGANRONPA 2 GOODBYE DESPAIR

Bruh, the guy is hated sure, but boy was he awesome at being a people-person and gathering people during chapter 1

He encouraged everyone with his hope talks and Hajime even kept simping for the guy because of his positivity

And due to the guy's CRAZY HIGH EMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING, he is able to understand the hopes and despairs of almost every freaking character

He knew Teruteru wanted to continue the culinary legacy and help his mom, that's his hope

He knew Imposter would want to protect everyone no matter what, that's his hope

He knew Mikan killed for Despair, that despair being Junko Enoshima

He knew Fuyuhiko's hope is Peko and that both of them care about each other very much

He knew how similar he and Hajime are and how they are both bystanders and lovers of Hope, for Hajime that Hope being Hope's Peak academy itself and/or having talent

The guy is crazy with how well he knows people, and he is definitely not socially inept at all

He respects boundaries, is able to read the room and the only time he seems socially inept is when he is either trying to purposefully annoy someone to get a reaction or when he is too obsessed with his ideas with hope

The guy is obsessed with hope, yes, but he is not socially inept

That is seriously downgrading how much empathy he has and how much understanding he has for every character

And Nagito does have empathy, the reason why it seems like he doesn't is because he treats the dead people like stepping stones for hope

He does have empathy tho, and too much that it takes a toll on his mental health whenever he sees dead bodies, so he clings to hope in order to cope and tries to pretend that it's okay if people die because there is always hope

(basically, deniability at it's finest)

It's not that the guy doesn't care, it's that he does a little too much

Which is why he laughs, laughing for him doesn't mean he is happy, it means he is surprised (he says this in island mode)

And seeing that his greatest fears are seeing people die constantly because of his luck cycle, wouldn't be surprised that he laughs like crazy in a literal killing game

And laughing out of stress or fear isn't unheard of, I mean there is also a thing called nervous laughter

And jesus christ, CAN PEOPLE STOP TRYING TO USE FRONTOTEMPORAL DEMENTIA SYMPTOMS TO EXPLAIN HIM?

What I mean is, yes he has dementia or is at least diagnosed with it

And I believe that he probably does actually have dementia (not saying he could've lied tho but he could've still been misdiagnosed)

But that doesn't mean he has all of the symptoms

I don't think we can confirm if he does or doesn't have dementia because he might just not have all of the symptoms

But I do know that using the symptoms to explain his character isn't a good idea especially since it usually undermines who he actually is

Like, let me explain

Behavior and/or dramatic personality changes, such as swearing, stealing, increased interest in sex, or a deterioration in personal hygiene habits

- No, and no not even when the killing game started. Yeah sure he laughs now, but that's no different from how he is normally since laughing for him is what he does when he gets surprised or stressed. He doesn't change much in the killing game, he still believes in hope and everyone else, still respects boundaries, still have crazy high intellect and empathy, still pushes people away

Socially inappropriate, impulsive, or repetitive behaviors

- not really, again the guy is a freaking gentleman even during the killing game. He respects boundaries, reprimands Teruteru for sexual assault during chapter 1, pushes people away and distances himself from others, isn't at all impulsive (usually quite the opposite really), and is usually planning and tries to remain calm and composed throughout the killing game (struggling tho cuz yeah killing game)

Impaired judgment

- here, I kinda disagree. I wouldn't say that Nagito is entirely in the right with everything he does, but I understand his views. The guy knows that no one is truly a bad person in the killing game because everyone was forced into it. He knows that even the blackened escapes and everyone dies, it isn't fully a bad thing because that means someone escapes and goes back home to their loved ones while the killing game ends

If a blackened succeeds, the despair would be of course everyone else dying and the blackened going through a lot of trauma, but the hope would be the end of the killing game and the blackened going home or to their loved ones or to their goal in life or whatever

If the blackened dies, the despair would obviously be the blackened dying and the killing game still continuing, while the hope would be everyone else still alive

Nagito isn't exactly wrong in wanting to help the blackened as well, of course, Nagito would want him himself to be the victim so another person gets a chance at escape and no one else would be the victim

Sadly for Nagito, that time never comes

Nagito doesn't want others to be killed, he wants to sacrifice himself instead as the victim instead of everyone else

Apathy

- .....big no. Nonononono. The dude is anything but apathetic.

"Apathy is a lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern about something."

Seriously, being a dude who is constantly supportive of everyone and their hopes in life and how passionate this dude gets about hope and despair, and the fact that he is the most stressed 24/7 about something bad happening due to his luck, this guy is seriously anything but apathetic

Lack of empathy

- No. If the guy truly lack empathy he wouldn't need to use Hope desperately as a coping mechanism, wouldn't care about the ultimates and their hopes and despairs, wouldn't constantly be thinking about helping the ultimates and overcoming despair, wouldn't be the most stressed out of everyone, and definitely wouldn't be in love with Hajime or even act the way he did in chapter 1

Decreased self-awareness

- You don't actually understand why you act the way you do.

A good indicator that you lack self-awareness deals with how well you understand your emotions, actions, and behavior. People who lack self-awareness often feel constantly off-kilter, anxious, or angry.

This is not Nagito at all. The guy understands his emotions and behaviors which is why he is able to do the things he does and is able to conduct plans based on how much he understands his own self and capabilities. The guy is actually the most self-aware out of everyone, he knows about how people don't understand him and constantly misunderstand him and his intentions, he is aware constantly of his inability sometimes to properly explain his goals to people.

The guy has a lot of self-awareness and isn't afraid to take responsibility for his actions. Actually, it's because of how self-aware he is of his own self and his destructive luck cycle that he constantly blames himself for anything bad that happens.

The guy is seriously self-aware as hell and it's scary sometimes

Loss of interest in normal daily activities

- Nope, he hasn't shown any sign of apathy towards anything and is usually pretty hyped about doing daily activities. He is paranoid though on the daily because he fears for what his luck cycle might do

Emotional withdrawal from others

- Emotional withdrawal involves bottling up your emotions. It involves cutting out the people who could help us, because we're so used to rejection that we've learned to anticipate it. Because we've learned to disconnect from others, we develop other unhealthy coping mechanisms

Emotional withdrawal is defined as pulling back emotionally or physically by bottling up your feelings or disconnecting from others. Emotional withdrawal can be far more complex at times. It is comparable to a breakup, in every way but physical.

Kind of? Yes, he pushes people away, but he is still willing to spend time with people, especially Hajime, when they really insist. He politely pushes people away, but he isn't opposed to hanging out with people either though it is sometimes rare

Loss of energy and motivation

- .... I already said it before, the guy is full of motivation and energy and passion that it is scary sometimes

Inability to use or understand language; this may include difficulty naming objects, expressing words, or understanding the meanings of words

-.....WHY IS THIS HERE? THE GUY IN THE JAPANESE DUB CONSTANTLY FLEXES HIS DAMN ENGLISH VOCABULARY DESPITE IT BEING A JAPANESE DUB

AND THE FUCKING ENGLISH WORDS HE USES ARE FANCY AND HIGH LEVEL AS FUCK THAT I FEEL SMART JUST READING THEM

Hesitation when speaking

- Definite no, the guy isn't afraid to voice his own opinions and never hesitates and can get very vocal about the things he is passionate about

Less frequent speech

- Again, definite hell no. I wouldn't be surprised if his voice lines are longer than the voice lines of everyone else combined

Distractibility

- Nope. The guy is focused on his goals constantly. No matter what he does, you can always be sure that it is for a certain goal. He pisses of Fuyuhiko? It was to get a reaction from him to confirm his suspicions about the true culprit. He lied about the rope? It was to see how Mikan would react and how the trial would go to confirm his suspicions about Mikan being the culprit?

The guy is focused like a damn soldier

Trouble planning and organizing

-.....do I seriously need to explain? This is Nagito we are talking about

Frequent mood changes

- Not really. He usually acts or reacts a certain way because something happened like someone died or something. He is actually pretty normal with how he acts and reacts and doesn't really change his mood rapidly that much

Agitation

- Yes and no? Sure the guy gets paranoid 24/7, but is still somewhat more chill than agitated to an extent. He is easy going and is just paranoid about what his luck would do, he is vigilant but not necessarily agitated

Increasing dependence

- No. The guy is independent to a fault and only relies on others when his plans call for it. He also usually does things of his own accord and rarely with a partner unless he really needs to or his goal is to help that person specifically, which knowing him is a usual thing

Unwillingness to talk

- Again, no. The guy talks a lot and while he pushes others away, he wouldn't turn down a conversation if the other person wanted one

Lack of inhibition or lack of social tact

- Again, no. The guy is a gentleman and respects boundaries and definitely gets stressed especially in the killing game. The guy is also paranoid 24/7 on a normal day due to his luck cycle

Obsessive or repetitive behavior, such as compulsively shaving or collecting items

- No? Sure he clings to hope but that is more of a coping mechanism. If he isn't in a stressful situation like a killing game he doesn't get that obsessive as much about hope since he doesn't need to desperately cling to it as a coping mechanism

Unusual verbal, physical or sexual behavior

- No? He isn't at all like this. It isn't unusual to panic or use a coping mechanism desperately when in a situation like a killing game, and he doesn't do anything unusual like this when it's a normal day. Sure the guy gets paranoid, but that's it

Weight gain due to dramatic overeating

- No? Actually, I don't really know how much weight he gains to be honest so idk

My main point here is, yes there is a chance Nagito does actually have dementia, but using the symptoms as a way to explain his character undermines who he actually is and can cause a lot of misunderstandings of his character

Especially since I remember being told that they only added in dementia to his character backstory a little late during his character development and creation

It isn't a good idea to use his symptoms because it usually gets his character wrong and sometimes makes them excuse a lot of the things he has done

The guy is self-aware, isn't socially inept, is a gentleman, and socially intelligent as hell

And I really hate how even Danganronpa itself seems to forget that

It's like they forgot who Nagito is, to begin with

[maxwell-grant]

Cass wouldn’t even begrudingly tolerate [the Black Bat], because she’s even less lenient than Bruce on killing and far more willing to throw down.' - THANK YOU for remembering that.

Cass is my favorite Batfam member, the only one really that I have an active interest in reading about. I'd be incredibly ignorant to not bring bring up such a crucial aspect of her characterization. And even if I didn't personally care for her, well, last thing I'd want is to be another source of frustration for Cass fans. Lord knows there's enough of those to go around.

mousebrass also asked: On that note, how do you imagine a meeting between Cass and the Shadow going?

Fair warning: This one took me 6 hours to write, and it became a hell of a lot longer than I imagined. I liked Cass a lot, but I never quite realized I had this many feelings regarding her until I was tasked with writing this, and a lot of things clicked for me regarding my plans for The Shadow thanks to this ask. @mousebrass, thank you. I mean it. I think I may have found something here I've spent years looking for. Hope you enjoy the post.

I'm thankful that this scenario is only really taking place in a hypothetical fanon where both characters can get a fair shot, because I wouldn't trust DC with this premise. I don't trust DC with either of them as is.

There's a lot of ways that this crossover could go on about taking place naturally, initially because Cass is already connected to some of Batman's pulpier elements, due to her connections to Lady Shiva and the League of Assassins, and one could connect Cass to Myra Reldon (who really should just be race swapped if ever brought back so she can stand out as the cool character she is, without the yellowface gimmick holding her back). There's two things I think are crucial to making the most of this idea, and the first of which has to do with the subject of killing. I usually don't like to come up with hypothetical team-ups for The Shadow that focus too much on the fact that he kills, because it's far from the most significant aspect of his character to focus on, much of it is written from a wrong understanding of the character, and it never amounts to anything other than perfunctory. But here, not only is it completely unavoidable to discuss, here there is actually a very, very substantial grounding as to why this has to be such a big part of the story.

The first and foremost thing that's gotta be established to everyone reading that doesn't know already is this: Cassandra Cain, more so than Batman, more so than any other DCU hero, has a tolerance towards murder lower than zero, and this is completely non-negotiable. She will throw herself on the path of an assault rifle to stop men trying to kill her from accidentally killing each other. The defining moment of her incredibly grim backstory is that she was trained from birth to be the world's greatest murderer, and her first kill traumatized her so badly that she has pivoted as far away from that as possible. I stress a lot that the Shadow should not be written as the trigger-happy maniac comics made him into and that the pulp version killed mostly to defend himself and others, generally left criminals to the police if possible, offered plenty of second-chances, had stories dedicated to the rehabilitation of criminals and so on, but none of this would matter to Cass.

Cass has literally chosen suicide over the prospect of living with murder on her hands time and time again, and The Shadow kills. When he kills, he does so without remorse, with unshakeable certainty. He hates death, he doesn't want lives to be at risk in the first place. But people will die if he doesn't do anything, and what he can do, what he exists to do, is turn the tools of evil against evil, and murder is the oldest tool of evil there is. He doesn't kill because a war scarred him, he doesn't kill because he's got a demon in his soul, he doesn't kill because he's mentally off balance, he doesn't kill because he's evil or sadistic or arrogant or anything of the sort. He kills because the men he fights chose death when they sought to harm innocents and fire guns at him. He kills because he is Death itself.

Regardless of how compassionate he is or can be, regardless of the fact that he's motivated by a desire to protect people, regardless of how justified he is, he is still dropping corpses and laughing maniacally doing so. Cass's real arch-enemy isn't Shiva or David Cain, it's Death, it's the thing that she's fundamentally most opposed to. And guess what The Shadow gets compared to often enough? Literally the very first line of the very first book where we get to see him, this is how we are introduced to him:

So the premise here is that we are taking a character who is defined by her fundamental opposition to death with every fiber of her being, who understands death on a level no other human being does, who is traumatized and hard-wired to detest death at all costs and to choose suicide over it, and asking her to team up with The Grim Reaper.

Even if he received the most abject lesson conceivable on the sheer wrongness of murder, even if he does put down the guns around Cass out of respect for her, he cannot protect his agents and others if he cannot shoot or kill those who try to harm them, and the protection of the agents is absolutely non-negotiable and not at all something he's willing to fuck around with by trying out gadget kung fu superhero alternatives. The Shadow has chosen to throw his life away for their sake time and time again, and no matter how appaling or disgusting Cass finds his deeds, even if he concedes that she's right and should be right on all accounts and that he is fundamentally a monster who has no right to judge others, he would not concede on his mission and he would make it very clear she would have to put him down violently to stop him from protecting others this way, and death has not stopped him before.

And to be upfront in case there's anyone who doubts it, Cass would kick The Shadow's ass, if they had to fight. She is the strongest fighter in the DCU, she lives and breathes fighting and combat in a way no one else does. And The Shadow's not one of those characters who is supposed to be invincible and the best at everything all the time always, he can and does lose fights and scrapes to people far less adept at it than Cass. He's a great fighter, obviously, he hauls bigger men than him through doors and was disabling people with Vulcan neck pinches decades before Spock, and he would definitely have an edge in other areas, but he's out of his league here. Frankly, I don't see The Shadow raising a finger against Cass unless she's been brainwashed into killing people by bad writing. Not because she's a woman, that doesn't really stop him from dealing with evil. But because, for one, she's practically a child compared to him age-wise. Two, he'd obviously know beforehand of her capabilities and how futile it would be to fight or even provoke her. And three, the Shadow's whole thing is knowing. The Shadow Knows and all that. Knowing comes with understanding.

He'd understand very quickly that there is no way someone this young could grow so quickly into the world's greatest fighter without horrific treatment that no one should ever be subjected to. He'd see the movements too practiced and quick, the self-control, the strength and speed far beyond even the trained warriors he's seen, the places where she's been scarred and is good at covering it up. Assuming he doesn't already know about her life story, any meeting between the two would lead to him very quickly figuring out that there's something much deeper about her opposition to killing than just moral reservations, something deeper than Bruce's own gun trauma.

Denny O'Neil's 2nd Batman and Shadow story was about The Shadow secretly helping Bruce overcome gun trauma, and Bruce rejecting The Shadow's intentions to hand him a gun. And to make it clear, people tend to assume that The Shadow only helps people for utilitarian reasons, which is not true as I've tried to demonstrate many times now. I don't want to convey that he would want to help Cass overcome her trauma just so she could be more efficient or something, absolutely no, he'd help her because he helps people in any way he can. I think a story with The Shadow and Cass might involve a similar premise, The Shadow understanding that she has been traumatized very deeply by death and refuses to accept it on any terms, trying to help her overcome it, only to learn that she does not want to "learn" anything she doesn't already know, that she has weaponized her trauma into a source of strength, and wishes nothing more than to help others with it.

And here's where we get to the part that allows the two to be on less antagonistic terms, because one thing that also very strongly defines Cass, at least the Cass I like reading most, is her stubborn, almost desperate need to believe in the best of people, that people can and will change for the better. Like The Shadow, her strength too is knowing, it's perception, the things that she knows about people that words cannot convey. Just as there are many things The Shadow would grow to understand about her that others would not, there would be many things that The Shadow would not be able to conceal from her. Things that no one but her would figure out. Things that, despite her age and lack of experience compared to him, he would have to defer to her knowledge on, which reverses the usual dynamic The Shadow has with people. And perhaps one aspect of that reversal, it's that maybe it's she who winds up secretly manipulating The Shadow into overcoming a deeper issue.

Cass's perspective on killing is shaped not just through trauma, but from a painfully intimate understanding of not just what happens to someone at the time of death, but the cost of murder upon the human soul, the ways it warps people into things they never should have been. Killing is a deeply, deeply serious matter, much more so than fiction seems ever willing to go into. Of course we suspend disbelief for fiction, there's nothing wrong with that, but if a story starts asking questions, starts poking holes into fantasies, they should not be disregarded.

And so it begs a question: How has it affected The Shadow? Is he really as remorseless as he appears to be? Is the fact that he's only killing evil people really of that much use? What's the cost of living as someone who has to know so much about so much evil in so many hearts? Knowledge never comes without price, and knowing evil is his tagline. When he enlists Harry Vincent, he makes it very clear that he has lost lives as he has saved them. From when is that regret coming from? What lives did he lose then? Is he saving people by damning his soul or merely prolonging the inevitable by piling corpses on another end of the scale?

If there's a character that could meaningfully start bringing these questions forth, who could ever truly get The Shadow to stop and reveal things to the audience he never would otherwise, maybe Cass could be that character. A girl who was raised to be a monster, who is treated as a monster and an aberration in-universe (and even outside of it), and turned that into a strength she uses to help others, who cares about everyone and refuses to let others be dehumanized as she was. Who better to know what lurks in the Shadow's heart?

Sometimes when I get an ask, I bullshit my way through infodump walls of text until I can structure it into something vaguely resembling a point. And sometimes, and I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes I get a very, very clear word on my mind related to it before I start writing, that almost seems to be a beacon pointing where I need to get to, and I work my way into getting there. Once you sent me an ask about crossing over The Shadow with Cassandra Cain, the word that came to mind the very second was Language.

It's an interesting relation the two have with language. Language is of course a very substantial part of Cass's character, who does not process language and linguistic development the way most people do, and instead reads body language to the point of superpower. Many stories revolve around Cass's relation to the concept of language, the help she may require from others in getting around things beyond her upbringing, and ways in which she has mastered beyond anyone's scope. Though she is mute, language is her power, what makes her what she is, and she is someone that Batman freely admits could kick his ass if she ever felt like it.

For The Shadow, language is also his power. He speaks all languages and connects allies all over the world, he is an expert ventriloquist, he is able to project his voice beyond what's physically possible, he can imitate voices perfectly to the point of being able to conduct group conversations single-handedly well enough to fool even the people whose voices he's imitating, much of his presence and terror and manipulation are done through his voice, arguably the very reason he exists in the first place is entirely because a radio actor's voice performance was so good and captivating that it tricked people into thinking the character was a real star and not just a glorified narrator. The man you cannot see, but only hear, the perfect hero for radio. And then of course the laugh, which I have a whole separate post on and which, in many ways, acts as a substitute for language in the novels. He uses the laugh so often as a substitute for statements or words, even to himself, that it's pretty much his own personal language. And language is at the core of how he deals with people, as he knows the right language to use to manipulate and move and help them. He knows what to promise, what to reveal, what to omit. He knows what to say, how to say it, when to say it. Language is the strings by which he puppeteers the world around him (and he can talk to animals, at least of one kind).

The Shadow and Cassandra Cain have mastered two different types of Language as throughly as anyone can possibly master them. The Shadow can talk a group of hardened criminals into killing themselves, Cassandra can punch a heart into stopping without killing it. The Shadow echoes his voice "through everywhere and nowhere at once" to whip crowds of thugs into frenzies, Cassandra outraces missiles and was tanking bullets as a child. The Shadow can lie and usurp lives so masterfully to fool even the families of those he's passing off as, Cassandra is a living lie detector who gleams inner conversations from miniscule reactions. The Shadow can speak every language known, Cassandra is the greatest master of the world's most universal language other than music. The two are supposedly human, but every now and then, something comes along to call that into question because of the things they can achieve. They cannot hide secrets from each other the way they do to everyone else. They are driven by a deep desire to help others, to make something out of the circumstances of their lives. To weaponize that which dictates they should be evil and monstrous into a relentless force of good.

Language is the root of understanding. And if nothing else, as impossible as a conciliation of their approaches to crimefighting may be, I think there could be an unique understanding between the two. Perhaps, and this is a bit crazier a concept but one that seems to be where I might have been heading towards all along, even Cassandra Cain finding a calling away from the frayed dynamics of the Batfamily, away from the Bat's looming presence, to become The Shadow's successor, swearing to uphold a mission of justice through non-lethal tactics while he stays on the backseat guiding her. If The Shadow could trust the safety of his agents and the protection of the innocent at the hands of someone as capable and selfless and good-natured as Cassandra, I think he'd be all too happy to be able to trust someone in such a manner, to no longer be the Master of Darkness, but instead to serve the next generation that's weaponized darkness without submerging in it. To achieve, and perhaps return, to his strongest, highest self: A disembodied voice heard, but not seen. Once again the narrator, not the star.

It's a concept I've thought about very extensively for the years I've been a Shadow fan, but now it occurs to me that, if I had to appoint a successor of The Shadow, someone who could take up the mission but shine on their own right, even improve it with the right guidance and circumstances, it would be Cassandra Cain. The Orphan, The Shadow of the Batgirl. Daughter of the greatest assassins, meant to be the world's most lethal murderer, instead pivoted to being one of it's greatest heroes, but never allowed to shine as she should. But in the darker, less restrictive and wilder world of pulp heroes, in The Shadow's world, a beacon would shine all the harder. Perfect strengths attached to perfect opposites, joined together for a greater good, unstoppable after together having weaponized that which most take for granted: the power of language to move worlds.

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Here’s a pet tax!! This times he’s nuzzling against my arm!

Btw here’s your excuse to talk more about Dice. Or,,,any of Fling Posse! Have fun!

Oh, you enabler, you. Thank you for this opportunity and for the bunny picture.

A collection of thoughts on Dice and why he may very well be the most important character to Ramuda. Put under a cut for some slight TDD spoilers.

Dice’s Personality Traits

Compared to the other two nosy Nancies that make up Fling Posse, Dice himself is the king of minding his own business. While he does display definite interest in his friend’s lives - see asking Riou about his favorite food in the ARB event “Riou’s Kitchen” or discussing Gentarou’s latest story in FP/M chapter 7 - he tends to avoid discussing topics that make others feel uncomfortable.

This can make Dice appear oblivious, but Dice is much more emotionally observant than most characters give him credit for. Let’s take chapter 14 of FP/M for a great example of this. I’ll link it here, and I encourage you to read through it again paying careful attention to his facial expressions.

Dice begins the chapter deep in thought and adopts a solemn facial expression for the next few pages. Something is clearly preoccupying him.

However, the moment Ramuda appears, Dice begins acting much more animated and begins playing along with Ramuda in an attempt to cheer him up. Note that Dice observed Ramuda acting out of sorts for the entire battle in the previous chapters and hasn’t seen Ramuda awake since (according to chapter 15). He’s likely greatly concerned. It is arguable that his reactions are entirely food motivated...

... except for the fact that he returns to his previously somber state the moment Ramuda is no longer looking at him. Dice also doesn’t immediately accept Gentarou’s suggestion that Ramuda is trying to keep up appearances for their sake.

At the restaurant, Dice begins to play up the cheerful glutton again and attempts to directly cheer up Ramuda by operating under the assumption that Ramuda is disappointed by their loss.

When Ramuda goes to leave, the art emphasizes Gentarou’s concern, but the silhouette of Dice (and the lack of any bulging cheeks or cups carried up to his mouth) in the final panel indicates that he has once again returned to his more serious state. In this scene, Dice recognizes that something has gone terribly wrong.

Each member of Fling Posse is a performer putting on an act, and as noted by Ramuda’s reaction to Gentarou invading his privacy, Ramuda feels most comfortable when each actor plays his part. Dice is aware of this and thus acts the cheerful idiot for Ramuda in these scenes because he recognizes that Ramuda needs that stability.

If I may demonstrate another quick example, take a look at the scene from FP/M chapter 12 and compare how Dice acts without (first image) and with a visibly distressed Ramuda (other images) in the room.

The FP/M mangaka also says (in the afterword of volume 3), “I think [Dice] might have a good poker face and be able to control his facial expressions even when he’s flat out broke. But his posse doesn’t seem to understand that.“ Dice’s poker face is a boon here when he can use it to help the ones he cares about.

For Dice does care very greatly. Dice minds his own business and doesn’t make any overt actions as long as his friends are capable of handling situations on their own. However, the moment he recognizes that they are in over their heads, he takes swift and decisive action (which, in turn, can be harmful to others).

Take this scene in FP/M chapter 10 as a great example. Prior to Gentarou grabbing Hifumi, Dice was firmly a bystander, but he immediately leaps in when the situation escalates. Notice that he removes Hifumi from harm’s way but also serves a shield for Gentarou and focuses his attention on Gentarou’s wellbeing.

He then offers Gentarou physical reassurance with a hand on the shoulder and an out to the situation, which would have allowed Gentarou to move on as if his mask had never slipped if it were not for Hifumi’s next comment. Dice also shuts down Hifumi before it can escalate any further.

Although Hifumi is attempting to justify himself because he doesn’t understand Gentarou’s reaction and doesn’t see what he did wong, Dice recognizes that this statement also denies Gentarou the right to express his feelings on something which is clearly an enormous deal to him.

By labeling Hifumi’s comments as “disrespect” and “hurting people” while simultaneously stressing that this topic is “important”, he allows Gentarou the right to feel upset at Hifumi’s comments. He also continues to use defensive posture in order to keep Gentarou physically safe (which must be an intentional choice on the artist’s part, as Hifumi mirrors this pose a few pages later as he begins to defend Doppo). Even though Dice’s reaction crosses the line when he, in turn, begins to hurt someone else, removing Gentarou from the situation, validating his feelings, and making Hifumi stop is exactly what Gentarou needed but was unable to provide for himself.

Dice is a damn good friend and an exceptional person. If you ever find a friend like Dice, don’t let them get away from you.

Saving Ramuda’s Life

Let’s switch gears for a moment to take a look at what goes on in Ramuda’s mind. As a disposable pawn for the Party of Words, Ramuda has an atypical view of the world. He genuinely enjoys the company of others and can form real bonds, but his primary motivation in life is fully self-centered: keep himself alive. Every order he receives comes with the caveat of, “Failure brings death.” The fear of death is enough to drive him to betray his closest friends in TDD, even Jakurai, who clearly means a lot to him.

^ TDD chapter 13. Ramuda receives an order from Ichijiku to handle the Jakurai side of things in the TDD breakup and reflects on the time that Jakurai saw who his true personality and not only accepted it but welcomed it.

Bear with me if you’ve seen me talk about this before, but Ramuda’s ability to feel emotions is considered a fluke. Ichijiku describes it as a “malfunction” and a “nuisance” for his job. She also describes Ramuda himself as a “failure” and “worthless”, sometimes to Ramuda’s face.

Ramuda internalizes this. Notice’s Ramuda’s reactions to slipping up and having an emotional outburst in TDD chapter 9 and FP/M chapter 8.

The former of these features Ramuda looking frightened (either due to concern of losing his life for revealing more than he should have done or fear that Jakurai will consider him as “worthless” as everyone else does), insulting himself, and self-harming. While the insults and self-harm are as stereotypically cute as the rest of Ramuda’s facade, the core idea remains that he believes showing his true personality is as idiotic and worth of punishment as everyone else believes. The lack of self-worth is ingrained in him.

The slightly more grown-up Ramuda in FP/M does not react as dramatically, but I really want to draw your attention to the question, “Was I spooky?” It’s worded in a deliberately silly manner because of Ramuda’s speech style, but he is asking his supposed friends if the real version of himself is frightening. Tell me, Dice. Does seeing me scare you? Do you want to run away now before it’s too late? It’s an innocent question on the surface level, but considering the about face his last friend turned after learning more about Ramuda’s real life and job, this question demonstrates that Ramuda’s view of himself has hardly changed for the positive since then.

(Also please observe Dice’s reaction. The pause is him getting into character in order to cheer up Ramuda after a clear emotional upset.)

Therefore Ramuda is a person running entirely on self-preservation but with no sense of self-worth. He sees himself largely the same way Chuuouku does and expects everyone else to do the same. This greatly limits his worldview and prevents him from considering possible other options besides, “Do or die”.

If most of the other cast members found themselves in Ramuda’s shoes, they would have the knowledge and ability to consider other options such as running away, asking for help, or fighting back. Yet Ramuda never considers any of these. He does not have the life experiences the other cast members have to consider making any of these options. He has never observed them or had an outside source present them as options to him. Once the order comes down the pipeline from Ichijiku, it is set in stone. He can hate the order - take a look at another illustration from TDD chapter 13 - but he considers its execution inevitable.

This is why the order to hypnotize Jakurai in FP/M chapter 11 hits him so hard. Now “do or die” has become “die or die”, and his only decision comes down to the nature of his death.

Yes, this situation could have been avoided by talking to Jakurai. Jakurai gives him multiple opportunities to speak up before and during the battle, but Ramuda doesn’t have the ability to recognize those as options for help. In Ramuda’s book, people don’t help him. “Help” doesn’t exist.

In fact, the entire TDD situation could have been avoided as well if Ramuda had trusted his friends, spoken up, and explained the situation. Jakurai (not to mention Ichirou and Samatoki after a fashion) would almost certainly have helped, and that seems to be what Jakurai was waiting for. Once he pushed Ramuda too hard by accident and caused an outburst, he stepped back and waited for Ramuda to come forward on his own terms. But that’s utterly foolish, because Ramuda doesn’t operate on his own terms either. Ramuda doesn’t have his own terms. He lives and thinks the way the Party of Words wants him to think, and if the Party of Words does not want him to speak up and ask for help, then he will never, ever be able to.

The beauty is that Dice is not Jakurai. As mentioned above, Dice minds his own business up until the point a friend of his is over their head, and it’s when Ramuda starts to pull out the True Hypnosis Mic in order to kill himself for Chuuouku that Dice finally acts.

As is the case with Gentarou up above, Dice acknowledges that he doesn’t fully understand the situation but offers physical reassurance, advice, and the implicit argument that Ramuda’s real strength is something of value. Dice writes the word “help” into Ramuda’s dictionary with genuine love and affection.

While Ramuda still can’t consider any option other than “do or die”, it is Dice and Gentarou’s intervention that imbues him with enough self-worth to even consider placing his own wants and needs above Chuuouku’s.

It is this that lays the groundwork for The Loneliness, Tears, and Hope of a Puppet and gives Ramuda the basic agency to even consider acting for himself and, contrarily, acting in line with consideration for other people. It’s this that allows him to avoid ruining Jakurai’s life a second time and this that allows him to accept Gentarou and Dice’s promise of friendship. In the drama track itself, once again it is Dice and Gentarou intervening and challenging Ramuda’s preconceived notions in order to save his life.

Gentarou absolutely plays a vital role in this as well, but it is Dice that chooses to make the first move. Had he not said anything, Ramuda would have used the True Hypnosis Mic and died onstage in front of the audience.

It is sometimes the tiniest of actions and the smallest pieces of support that make all the difference. Sometimes all it takes is someone being unafraid to reach out and flip a die over so it lands on a different number.

[vlion]

What Happens on Ryloth...

Summary: ...stays on Ryloth. Din's out looking for a bounty, and when you finally hear him return, you know something's off. As he approaches the ship, you have to take matters into your own hands to help the man who has protected you countless times before, who you couldn't help but pine over each time he left like this. Let's put your knowledge of basic medical care to the test, shall we? Don't worry, you'll be compensated fairly...

Warnings: swearing, descriptions of blood/injuries, a bit of angst, very slight innuendos Rating: teen+ Word Count: 4,392 Also Posted on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29023713

You wake up, stretching your limbs as far as you could in the small area on the floor of the hull that you were resting on. Your body slightly shakes as your arm collides with something warm, which lets out a tiny whine as you do so. 

“Come here, little guy.” You whispered, immediately wrapping your arms around the small body as he waddled over to you. 

You loved these moments more than anything, which is why you had decided to travel with him and his taller, beskar-donning companion as a sort-of caretaker and emotional support human for the both of them. You also admired the relationship that the two of them had, and how this fearsome and mighty Mandalorian had decided to drop almost everything and defend this strange little critter from the dangers of the universe. 

The relationship that you had with the little green alien was that of a mother and child; you were always there to comfort him, and in return, he made you smile and laugh during the many long hours you often spent in hyperspace. 

The relationship you had with Mando, or Din - which you were so grateful for knowing after having been told it during a rather emotional bout of pillow talk - was definitely… interesting. He held you at night ‒ like a lover, constantly looked out for you and protected you, and even went so far as to cater to you and ensure that you were healthy and comfortable. You knew a lot about him and the Creed, but no matter how much you had longed to know him more intimately, to feel his body and memorize every curve and inch of his skin, neither of you had made the first move.

You knew there was something unspoken between the two of you, you felt it in the way his hands would grip you for just a little bit longer than necessary as if he was afraid of letting you go or leaving you. You also felt it in the ways that he would look out for you, like reminding you when to take a break after a long day of repairs or cleaning around the Crest. 

You didn’t want to say that you loved each other, because you weren’t even sure you knew what love was. If love was when you knew someone was willing to protect you and care for you until the end of the universe, then yes, what you and Din shared was love. If it wasn’t, then whatever you shared was simply something that you would never trade away for anything. 

The gentle tugging on your hair brought you out of your thoughts and back to the present. The kid only gets impatient like this when he’s hungry or tired, and judging by the fact that he climbed out of his pod and woke you up, the former was probably what was bothering him. 

“Just a second, okay?” You reassured him, taking him into your arms and standing up from the makeshift bed of various blankets and pillows you had slept on. 

Din’s bed was barely even that ‒ a bed. It was more like the softest pile of rocks in the universe. However, it got the job done, and you had slept there countless times. It just simply felt wrong to sleep there without your Mandalorian companion, who had welcomed you into it in the first place.

Your companion. That was probably the best word that you could use to describe him in relation to you, now that you think about it. He was due to come back from a pretty straightforward bounty hunt today, ensuring you that he would be back to you after just three nights of sleep. He’s never broken one of these promises before, and you wished that you could tell him that he could take all of the time he needs, this is his job after all. 

However, you had to say, you admired the way that he was so disciplined and in tune with what he needed to do to ensure such a high rate of success in his line of work. Bounty hunting wasn’t easy, you knew that because you’ve seen what it can do to Din after days of subjecting himself to the gruesome conditions on planet after planet, and spending nights on his own in unknown surroundings. He was always quick to get showered and prepare to launch into hyperspace on those days, so he could join you in bed and hold you close once more. 

You shook yourself out of your thoughts once more, reaching for a bag of dried fruit you had picked up shortly after landing on Ryloth, which was where the Razor Crest had been parked while Din tracked down the bounty. 

You had let out a sigh of relief when you had initially landed, glad Din wouldn’t have to face temperate conditions that his beskar suit was most definitely not equipped for. It was a bit humid here, with lush valleys and jungles, but nothing he wasn’t used to. While there were many friendly faces on Tatooine, the place seemed like one big heat trap, which genuinely had you concerned about the wellbeing of the man covered in at least half his weight in metal. 

You smiled down at the kid in your hands as he fiddled with the bag to try and undo the top. His little fingers and claws seemed simultaneously too sharp and soft to properly get a grip on it, so you released the pressure that was holding the bag together for him and let him dig in. You nearly shed a tear when he extended his three-fingered hand out towards you, holding a rather large piece of fruit that he wanted you to have.

You tapped his nose and deepened your smile, graciously accepting his offering. “Thanks, bud.”

However, as you chewed, your jaw grew heavy as you focused on a distant sound. The fruit in your mouth was no longer relevant as you couldn’t help but feel like something was off. The sound could be best described as a faint clunking, which you were used to hearing thanks to your fellow shipmate. 

After quickly swallowing your food and releasing the kid from your grip, you stood up and approached one of the side ramps of the ship. You pressed your ear against it while it was still closed, focusing on the sound. Not many people were around in the remote area Din had landed, so you could only assume it was the Mandalorian himself. However, his steps were usually uniform and certain, this sounded… off. 

If Din was in there with you, he would probably tell you to do the exact opposite of what you were about to do. He wasn’t though, and you were willing to take the risk because you already had a bad feeling about what you might see.

You stepped back and pressed the button which allowed the ramp to begin to descend and open up. You glanced at your green companion, ensuring he was too preoccupied with the food in his hand before glancing out into the now revealed landscape around you. 

You were immediately shocked to see the familiar glint reflection off of Din’s armor as he made his way towards the Crest. It wasn’t his presence that shocked you ‒ it was the fact that he seemed to be limping. 

Fucking limping? That’s just… not like him at all. He doesn’t do that. Not the mighty Mandalorian that you know. You knew something was wrong, but the limping wasn’t the only thing you were concerned with. He was carrying the bounty on his shoulders, something you had never seen him do before. Usually, if they were ‘warm,’ as you liked to call them, he would grab their arm and push them towards the ship. If they were ‘cold,’ he would drag them or find some type of ship or transport to get them to where he was parked. Never have you ever seen him do something like this. 

Granted, this bounty happened to be female and had a very small frame. She was Twi’lek, emphasis on was, because she didn’t appear to be alive anymore. Nice one Mando.

You weren’t one for violence unless it was justified, but then again, who was? You trusted Din, however, and judging by how he was walking this bounty likely put up a worthy fight and he did what he had to. Still, seeing him bringing in bounties this way never failed to remind you just how capable and strong the man - who was now almost a couple of feet from you - was. 

You moved out of the way to allow him in as he approached you, but you were shocked to see him having to pause and catch his breath. You looked him up and down and upon further notice could see a couple of patches of crimson liquid on both his armor and bits of fabric that clung to him. 

Immediately, you were out the doorway, walking down the ramp and approaching the man. “Are you okay? Here.” You reached for him as you spoke, gently brushing his outer arm when he was swatting you away and ascending the ramp himself. 

“Thanks for the offer, cyar'ika, but I can handle mysel-” The armored man was cut off as he nearly collapsed at the top of the stairs, his hand that was not gripping the bounty shooting out to clutch at his side. You were by him in seconds, supporting what you could of his weight from behind and looking around him to assess the situation.

Your eyes nearly bulged out of your head. “Din, did you get stabbed?!” You exclaimed, noticing how saturated his hand had become with what you could only assume to be his own blood. 

After several seconds of silence on Mando’s end, you decided to take matters into your own hands. Covering his gloved hand with your bare one and applying some pressure, you walked him a bit farther into the hull and closed the ramp that led outside. The bright lights in the ship switched on, illuminating the area better than the quickly diminishing natural light as the planet had begun to grow dark. 

You then did your best to back him towards the carbonite chamber, but you weren’t sure how you were going to get him to crouch down and put the bounty in to be frozen. 

“Okay, if you weren’t bleeding out right now I would totally be teasing you about the fact that you decided to carry a bounty on your back after being literally stabbed, but for right now I’m going to need you to work with me.” You said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. It seemed to have worked as you heard a faint laugh through the modulator, but then it was followed quickly by a grimace that had you frowning.

You knew Din could handle himself, but as someone who cared for the guy, to say that you were concerned would be an understatement. In fact, you were on the verge of freaking out, but you knew you had to keep up your calm composure for the sake of the man in front of you. 

You had to clean that wound soon as you knew it was prone to infection, so you had to be quick about figuring out what to do with the literal body on Din’s back. 

You stepped towards the chamber and opened it, and glanced at the bounty. You were strong, sure, Din made sure he trained you to protect yourself in case of emergencies and whatnot. However, you had never carried a person - except the little green man - much less a dead one. So, naturally, you did the next best thing: dragged her off of Din and straight-up pushed her into the chamber. It was awkward, messy, and rushed, but you did what you had to, and Din didn’t seem to complain. 

“Oh yeah!” You exclaimed, pressing the button next to the chamber and encapsulating the woman in carbonite. Your victory was only celebrated briefly, however, as you knew there were more pressing matters at hand. 

Din was now leaning against a crate, still gripping his side. You approached him, extending your arm towards him once more, smiling when he let you do what you had intended to earlier before when he nearly collapsed. You slowly moved his hand out of the way, glad to see that a stream of blood didn’t come cascading out of the wound when he did so. You placed your own hand on the area, feeling the thick fabric that he wears around his midsection which seemed to have prevented the blade of whatever stabbed him from doing any major damage. He definitely got injured, but not to the point where the pain that accompanies it is debilitating. 

The attacker seemed to get him in the single, small area of unarmored length on Din’s side. You huffed at that, of course they did. You glanced around, looking for a medkit but were not successful. There was one in the refresher, but you really didn’t want to leave Din right now. 

“Go, I’ll be fine.” The man in front of you spoke, and you could swear the helmet had mind-reading capabilities because you would need more than one hand to count the number of times he’s just… known things.

You flicked your eyes up to where his own would be under the helmet. “Okay, but if you die, that’s not on me.” 

“You know I could do this on my own?” You heard him say with a chuckle as you walked into the refresher, opening the small cabinet that contained what you were looking for. Of course, he could do this himself ‒ you had seen him do it before when he arrived injured while you were asleep or preoccupied with something that couldn’t be set aside like caring for the kid. Din would sometimes sit in the refresher for hours, worrying the shit out of you each time, but nevertheless proved that he could indeed care for himself after especially dangerous run-ins with enemies. The man had a whole life before meeting you, and it was in those times that you were reminded of that information. Still, you were here now and genuinely cared for the man. The least you could do is help him out when he is in need, knowing that he would do the same for you in a pinch. 

As you looked around the refresher, you remembered that you had some bacta onboard, somewhere, but you didn’t think that he needed it. You’ve seen him get some nasty cuts and wounds in the past, and he surely had the scars to prove it. All of those times, he simply cleaned and dressed them, seemingly saving the slimy substance for serious life-threatening injuries. Not to mention, the stuff wasn’t cheap, and Din was still cohesive - for the most part - so you knew that the contents of the medkit should suffice. You also made sure to wash your hands, and grab a cloth and run some warm water over it so that you could further treat his wound and provide him some relief. 

Provide him some relief. You couldn’t help snort but at the innuendo that phrase suggested. If you weren’t tending to an injured man currently, you would probably let your mind wander more, but you shook yourself out of the thought and began to head back towards Din. 

“Wait! Could you...turn around?” You heard Din yell, and immediately you faced the opposite direction from him. He took his helmet off, and probably most of his armor ‒ you could tell from the lack of modulation masking his voice when he called out to you. You were used to him taking it off around you, especially at night, and on the rare occasion when you would share a meal. You had nothing but respect for his oath to the Way and to remain as anonymous as possible, but damn, sometimes you just wanted to turn him around and gaze into what you were sure to be the most beautiful eyes you had ever seen. Granted, you’d seen some weird types of eyes across the galaxy, including the kid’s black-brown irises. Still, the eyes are the way to the soul - or so they say - and you wanted nothing more than to know Din in that way. 

Din’s panting is what brought you out of your thoughts this time. He seemed to be breathing rhythmically, in through the nose and out through the mouth. You could definitely understand why he would want the helmet off for this, and you were willing to give him all the time he needed. However, you couldn’t help but worry about the literal exposed wound on the side of his abdomen, so shutting your eyes, you decided to head towards him the best you could. 

You stuck your arms out and guided yourself towards him, thankful for once in your life for all of the days you spent in this very hull to help you make your way to your companion. 

Once you reached him, you reached out and your hand collided with his armor less thigh. He had sat on the crate, you could tell from the direction of the deep breaths that he was taking to calm himself and the bend in his knees in front of you.

You felt around on the crate, placing the medkit on it and feeling something smooth and cold. Taking the helmet into your hands, you turned towards where you assumed Din was, and began to reach up so that you could once again cover his face to dress and clean his wound.

“Wait,” Din said, reaching for you and angling your body and arms slightly so that your hands were correctly positioned over his head.

“What? You didn’t want me to whack you in the face?” You said sarcastically, feeling his hand continue to guide you to where his face was, your eyes still shut. 

You swear you could physically hear him roll his eyes as you placed the helmet over his head, noticing how soft his hair felt as your hands slid over it. 

You opened your eyes and glanced down at his injury, taking a knee so that you had better access to it. Opening the medkit, you pulled out a wipe meant for cleaning the wound, a bandage, and some healing cream infused with weak yet fast-healing bacta extracts. 

You reached up at the torn fabric, which was no longer affixed directly to his skin due to the armor and belt he was previously wearing. Pulling on it slightly, the already ripped fabric provided no resistance as you ripped it a bit more so you could do what you had to do.

“Don’t worry, I’ll buy you a new one.” You joked, once again attempting to ease him from the pain he was most likely experiencing. You put on a serious face after making light of the situation, as a warning of what was to come. “This is going to sting a little more than normal, bear with me, okay?” You said, opening the packet containing the cleansing wipe. 

Din nodded, and you heard him start to say something, but he clenched up and groaned as the wipe brushed against his wound, his hand shooting out to grab your forearm on instinct. 

“It’s okay, I know.” You said, trying to be as reassuring as possible. You knew Din could take it, he was the fucking Mandalorian after all, but the pain felt while disinfecting wounds of this scope was probably unimaginable. You were lucky that you had Din protecting you, nearly ensuring that you would never have to feel anything like that for the rest of the time you spent with him ‒ which you hoped was forever.

Din’s hand was still heavy on your arm, and you paused your swiping movements to unlatch his fingers from it and offer him your hand instead. He accepted it, wrapping his fingers around it as if he was about to beat you at a round of arm wrestling. The image of him arm wrestling you was now etched in your mind forever, and you nearly chuckled out loud at the thought but forced it out of your head and you brought your hand holding the wipe up once more. 

“Don’t be afraid to squeeze ‒ I’m a big girl, I can take it.” You say, closing the space between the wipe and his injury once again. He tensed up once again, once again groaning but channeling some of the pain from the stinging sensation out of him as he gripped your hand tight.

When you felt you had disinfected the area effectively and were close to receiving a broken hand, you tossed the wipe to the side and replaced it with the warm cloth. You heard Din let out a sigh of relief, his body slumping slightly. 

You sat there in silence, soothing the best you could as he continued to hold your hand. You were at peace, like this, slightly starting to massage what little of Din’s skin that you had access to. You had felt it before, when he would sling an arm over you at night, ensuring that you were safe and warm in his grasp. Now, however, as he sat here, he seemed so innocent, so exposed to you, with a vulnerability you had never seen in him, even when he would open up to you at night while holding you close. 

“She had a boyfriend,” Din said suddenly, breaking the silence. The statement made you tense up. Okay? She had a boyfriend? You assumed he was talking about the bounty but had no idea why he would even bring it up. 

“What, are you trying to make sure I don’t get jealous or something?” You replied, not putting much thought into the statement until you were met with nothing but silence from the man in front of you. 

“Oh… uh, I meant, that uh- she-” You stammered, pausing your movements while you did so and staring at anything but Mando. 

Din reached out to you then, tracing your cheek with the back of his hand and placing it under your chin, angling towards his visor.

“Cyar’ika…” He began, tilting his head at you when you tried to pull away from him. 

You closed your eyes and frowned, ashamed at yourself for saying something so possessive to Din, when you didn’t even know if what you felt for him was at all what he felt for you. You knew he cared for you, but you didn’t know if he liked you in that way. You almost physically cringed at how you were thinking in such childish terms, but it was all you could process at the time.

Din’s retracting arm caught your attention, bringing you out of your head for the time being. You went to look at him once more, but you were met with the palm of his hand over your eyes. 

“Do you trust me?” You heard him ask, and without hesitation, you nodded. You felt like you could hear the smirk on his face when he saw you shake your head so eagerly, and your suspicions were confirmed when a chuckle left Din’s lips. However, this laugh was unmodulated ‒ had he taken the helmet off once again? 

“Din, why did you‒” You were cut off abruptly by his lips pressing against yours. If Din’s hand wasn’t pressed against them, your eyes would’ve shot open because you literally wouldn’t be able to believe what you were feeling. Here was the man you had spent days on end thinking about in this way, never expecting any of your fantasies to come to light. Now, as you leaned forward to deepen the kiss, you felt like the happiest girl in the galaxy. 

His tongue ran across your lips as they began to part for him, and suddenly you were tasting him, memorizing this new, unexplored area of his body that you had yet to experience. It was everything you dreamt of and more: his lips were so soft and full, and they molded with yours like they were destined to meet in this way. He tasted like honey, his tongue brushing against your own as you felt his hot breath against your lips when he exhaled. 

He pulled back, smiling as you tried to get his lips back on yours again. “It’s always only been you, cyar’ika. Always.” 

 It was your turn to smile, as you leaned in once more, but were turned around by Din so that you were facing away from him. He leaned forward, and you could once again feel his warm breath, but this time it was on your neck, where he planted a soft kiss. 

“What I had meant to say…” he started, kissing the other side of your neck this time, "was that the bounty had a boyfriend. He caught me off guard as I was taking her down.” He continued kissing down your neck, making you start breathing as heavy as he was earlier when he had first arrived on the ship. 

“Din…” you said, still in complete shock that any of this was even happening. 

He smiled against the skin of your neck. “I still love hearing my name from your lips, mesh’la.” He said, pulling back to plant one final kiss on your head before you heard him placing the helmet back on his shoulders.

You turned around to dress his wound, which is why you had even initiated this interaction in the first place, but sighed and pinched your forehead as you glanced at his wound once again. He was bleeding once again, probably from all the shifting he had done while kissing you. 

Din looked down as well, looking back up at your eyes after seeing what you saw. 

“You better not be smirking under there Mando,” you said, refusing to use the name he had just complimented you on using.

“You know me so well, cyar’ika,” Din replied, and you swear that was the exact moment you truly, undoubtedly, fell in love with him.

[neverdoingmuch]

hello! I just wanted to ask, which do you think in the mdzs novel has the most questionable morality? like they have done more bad things but they still had kindness in them somehow (?)

oh!! this is a hard one for me anon! i’m always bad at ranking characters but i’ll do my best!  i’m not sure if you were hoping for like a quick answer or a long one but i’m gonna go with a long one bc that’s always fun and i’ll do a tldr if you don’t want to read through all that? yeah that seems like it’ll work because holy shit i didnt mean for it to get so long (and kind of away from the point of your ask too so sorry about that!)

okay! So, the three main contenders for morally dubious characters are, as far as I’ve seen, Xue Yang, Jin Guangyao, and Wei Wuxian. Not a big surprise, I’m sure. While they’re the more obvious options, they do have a lot of parallels and exhibit a lot of the themes and ideas that MXTX was getting at. I mean, I love looking at Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian as foils, and even other combinations of the three, so my answer will probably be heavy on the comparisons. I do think it’s worth touching on Jiang Cheng as well though. Also, I’ll try to stay as unbiased as I can because there’s a few characters on this list that I just don’t like … like at all.

Jiang Cheng tends to get brushed over a lot when it comes to some of the horrible things he’s done. From promising to protect Wei Wuxian from dogs only to immediately use them as a threat whenever he wants to to leading a siege on a group of people he knows are completely innocent of any crimes to torturing and killing people for thirteen years, he’s definitely not a good person. His concerns lie first and foremost with himself and his. That doesn’t seem like a horrible thing at first – he should owe his loyalty to himself, his family, and his sect – but it does mean that when the Xuanwu’s cave situation happened, his response was to get mad that Wei Wuxian helped Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji. (And that’s why Jiang Fengmian got mad at him!). Later on, when pressure comes from the sects regarding Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng chooses not to stand with him, which, while understandable, isn’t exactly a kind move to someone who called Jiang Cheng his family and was trying to repay the debt the two of them owed Wen Qing. There’s no denying that he does care about Wei Wuxian, but when forced to make hard choices, he picks what’s easiest for himself. In general, I’d say that his sense of morality is selfish and somewhat flighty, but not necessarily questionable, so I’ll move on!

For the usual suspects, I’ll start with Xue Yang because I’m just going to immediately eliminate him from the running. I’ve seen people interpret his character sympathetically or try to justify some of his actions or the way he turned out, but I honestly just can’t. While you could feel sympathetic towards him because of his childhood, we have Wei Wuxian as a direct contrast to Xue Yang, as well as, to a certain degree, Jin Guangyao. Both Xue Yang and Wei Wuxian were street kids who had a horrible time in their youth, but Wei Wuxian was able to leave that behind him. That’s a lot easier to do when you’ve been adopted into a major sect and afforded comforts above your station (and also have terrible coping mechanisms), but even Jin Guangyao’s revenge isn’t quite as wide-spread and malicious. I know it may seem a bit obvious, anon, but some people really do try and treat Xue Yang like he’s morally dubious which confuses me a lot because how?? Even if we do say that he has suitable cause, one of the messages of the novel is that your past experiences don’t justify your future actions, so even within the context of the novel – a novel which is concerned with highlighting the grey areas of morality – Xue Yang isn’t afforded any sympathy. So, there’s really no way to construe him in a positive light. His only moments of kindness come with his time spent in Yi City with Xiao Xingchen, where Xue Yang doesn’t change much – he may have cared for Xiao Xingchen, but Xue Yang still tortured him as he did so. I never quite read that arc as Xue Yang learning to care or being allowed to be kind again so I’d just say that he lacks both morals and kindness. On that basis we can boot him from this competition. 

Jin Guangyao may have been one of the antagonists of the novel, but he wasn't a completely bad person or like The Worst. His main crimes involved getting revenge for slights against him or his mother – being from Nie Mingjue, Jin Guangshan, or any number of other cultivators. I think that, to an extent, his actions are justifiable. While you can contrast this to the way Wei Wuxian gets called a servant's son, they do differ in the fact that Wei Wuxian is afforded a higher level of protection due to him being favoured by Jiang Fengmian. Additionally, when Wei Wuxian does have his birth used against him, he's usually the person who acted out first anyway. Jin Guangyao was insulted for doing little more than exist and was never the person to act out first, yet still faced a near constant onslaught of insults. I'm not saying his actions were justified by any means, but the reasoning behind his actions is sound. The one thing I will note is that he doesn't let go of his grudges – even when everything is all done and dusted and he has everything that he could possibly want from life, he still holds onto that hatred. I remember seeing a post where someone mentioned that characters who were able to move on and change for the better were able to get their happy ending in MDZS, which isn't relevant here but definitely applies to Jin Guangyao when thinking about why he got the ending he did. I don't agree with the degree to which he enacted his revenge against certain characters and I loathe the whole Qin Su situation. I don't care how much he cries about it, he could've at least told her, but I mainly just pretend that part didn't exist. So, he has suitable cause for at least some of his actions, and his other victims can just be classified as necessary collateral rather than being intentional innocent targets, if that makes sense, but he's definitely vindictive and spiteful.

On the other hand, he did a lot of good, too. He's a side character for the most part so Jin Guangyao didn't get the most screen-time, but we do hear of some of the good things he's done. The main example would probably be the watchtowers. One of the interesting things about Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian is that while both of them are capable of kindness, the breadth and scope of Jin Guangyao's is much broader – the watchtowers are an idea that not only showcase how Jin Guangyao's upbringing allows him to see flaws in the cultivation world that the other privileged cultivators can't, but also show how he does care about the people. I've seen a few people try and play it as a spying technique but I don’t really believe that in the slightest. I mean, the point of the towers is to cover the areas where the sects aren't, so I have no idea what Jin Guangyao's people would even be spying on. Anyway, setting up those watchtowers really didn't benefit him any specific way – unless you consider him endearing himself to Lan Xichen and garnering a good reputation with the common folk something that outweighs the absolute nightmare it would have been to make the sects participate in the project to begin with. In a more specific case, Jin Ling's dog was given to him by Jin Guangyao. It's interesting that, despite Jin Ling spending the novel being trailed by Jiang Cheng, the gift that he obviously cares for deeply is from Jin Guangyao. In the Guanyin Temple scene I definitely got the sense that Jin Ling had loved and trusted Jin Guangyao before the truth came out so I'm firmly convinced that he would've been a wonderful and conscientious uncle to him and just generally good to the people who worked for him and/or the commoners.

Okay, now Wei Wuxian!! As far as I've seen, people are relatively good at staying true to his questionable sense of morality. Like with Jin Guangyao, we know that he can be vindictive and pretty excessive when it comes to getting his revenge, but I'm not going to deny that I was definitely rooting for him when he went after Wen Chao and his little gang. The main issue with Wei Wuxian is probably the demonic cultivation – the stigma against it tends to get reduced to it being bad for the user and their temperament etc. etc., but there's more to it than that. I'm no expert on Daoism by any means, but from my understanding desecration of corpses and disturbing the dead is a significant cultural taboo. This isn't just Wei Wuxian doing something no one else can do (though it certainly is true), it's also him doing something no one else should do. I've seen the massacre at Nightless City being added as another tally to his list of crimes, but I honestly think that that isn’t a crime worth adding – he needed to defend himself so he did, simple as that. 

As I mentioned above, Wei Wuxian's kindness is a bit more specific – where Jin Guangyao cares for the people, Wei Wuxian cares for individuals. We see his kindness more clearly, be it because he's the main character or be it because actions are clearer and stronger when it's for a single person or a small group. It's a bit easier, in my opinion, to care about people when you don't have to live with them and face them every day, but Wei Wuxian does. Even though Wei Wuxian led a lot more comfortable life than Jin Guangyao, we never really see Jin Guangyao get his hands dirty in the same way Wei Wuxian does. When a sacrifice needs to be made, Wei Wuxian’s the one who makes it. He doesn't relegate, he does it himself. We know that he would do absolutely anything for those he cares about and that's why he's able to commit a lot of the atrocities he does.

When it comes to deciding between Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian for most questionable morality, I think we need to look at the reasons behind their actions. Wei Wuxian’s sense of morality is definitely nowhere near that of the Lans but he has always been driven by his sense of justice and his love for those around him. In that sense, I've always read him as having a flexible sense of morality rather than a questionable one. I'm not sure how much of it ties in with his sense of duty, but it's definitely a lot. Wei Wuxian is, and always will, fill the role that is required of him – be it the childish and sweet younger brother, the talented but flippant older brother, the monster that wins the war, or the fierce protector that gives his all, Wei Wuxian will twist himself into whatever position he's needed in at that moment. Obviously, he went after Wen Chao for his own benefit, and the corrupting influence of the resentful energy does need to be factored into this, but at his core, Wei Wuxian will always value his duty (to his sect, family, friends, and innocents) and doing what is right over anything else. He may have stumbled along the way, but he did manage to form his own path to uphold all the values that he wanted to. Jin Guangyao, on the other hand, is similar to Jiang Cheng in how he's driven by his own motivations for betterment and revenge, albeit with more grace and intelligence. Jin Guangyao may masquerade as being motivated by any number of causes but he will never do anything at his own risk, and he will always be his top priority. So, while it's a close call between Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao, I'm going to have to go with Jin Guangyao on this one!

tldr; the fandom favourites for questionable morality are xy, jgy, and wwx so i mainly looked at them. I included jc as well but neither xy or jc demonstrate the dichotomy needed so they got eliminated from the running. Jgy and wwx both commit and are willing to commit horrible crimes as well as being capable of caring for others and being kind. but, where wwx is driven by his sense of justice and love for others, jgy is driven by his own motivations for betterment and revenge, making for a more questionable morality (as compared to wwx's more flexible morality).

[gumnut-logic]

If you should choose a plus one Tracy there are a number of things to be considered. Height, interest level, eye colour and mood are all important factors.

Height because these boys come in the ridiculous. If you want to kiss a Tracy you may need heels.

Interest level varies and as you will see further on, is rather more important than any of the other factors.

Eye colour is because they come in a variety of shades. It also helps if you colour coordinate.

Mood...well, trust me, you don’t want the wrong mood. Tracys can be volatile and dangerous if not maintained correctly. Also, if you happen upon one of the wilder ones, things can get scary.

So which Tracy is right for you?

Let’s start with the youngest.

Alan is sandy haired which is great for beach outings, though you might want to take the sunscreen or he will come back in various shades of red. Height is not an issue as he doesn’t have much. Flats are good for this situation, which is excellent since heels suck on the beach.

His interests generally involve lots of activity, so you’ll want to let him loose in wide open spaces. He will also chatter a lot, so be aware of this in public. To keep him quiet a small investment in a game console will work wonders.

Be very aware that combining Alan with one of his brothers, particularly Gordon, has been known to create havoc. Investing in Gordon along with Alan does have some advantages, particularly at the beach since Alan’s attempts at surfing often require a water rescue and Gordon is highly trained for such a situation.

Why Alan is incapable of surfing is a mystery as he is considered very capable at surfing in space. Like the issues his brother John must tackle, gravity may be the culprit.

As with all Tracys, his manners are excellent and he presents well in all social situations, with the exception of the Gordon factor. If Gordon is involved, all bets are off.

Also, boredom can be an issue and if left to himself, such boredom reveals that Gordon’s lifetime influence has left its imprint and the youngest Tracy will self instigate pranks if left by himself for too long. So make sure you provide adequate stimulation and attention.

Of all the Tracys, Alan’s moods are the most manageable. He does not tend to go to extremes, though there have been some instances of extensive pouting when he is not allowed to do what he wants to. It is suspected that this is due to the Scott influence. Often this can be mitigated by hugging and extensive coddling. All Tracys respond well to such actions, but as Alan is the youngest, he has been subjected to this the most. Obvious suspects include both Scott and Virgil. Rumour has it that Gordon hugs often devolve into tackles and rolling on the floor. Please be aware of this as the youngest Tracy may take advantage of the opportunity to emulate his older brother.

Ultimately, though, Alan Tracy is a good choice for the lover of the outdoors and those who don’t mind a little quiet time. Bonus factors include the option to go into space, an excellent knowledge of our Solar System, particularly good reflexes and an untapped genius level of thought underneath his obsession with video games. Generally cheerful and attentive, Alan Tracy is definitely a good investment.

Now, if you’re into more watersports you may want to consider the next oldest Tracy.

Gordon Tracy is the water specialist. Compact and slim, this Tracy fits into a variety of marine vehicles and can be deployed in freshwater as well.

More of a strawberry blonde than his younger brother, and with russet brown eyes rather than blue, he can be somewhat reminiscent of a small terrier with a comparable risk to the furniture.

Gordon is the prankster of the family. From blue dye to itching powder to the classic kick me sign on your back he has done it all. This may be useful if you possess an arch-nemesis in society, however, in the majority Gordon prefers humour rather than vengeance.

Having said that, Gordon is one of only two Tracys with military experience. He possesses a uniform that can be flaunted for the formal occasion where his International Rescue wetsuit is not applicable. Associated military skills, including excellent marksmanship, may be useful in various social situations.

His interests lie in all things marine. You may be gifted the occasional crab or shellfish. This is a sign of friendship and trust. Note that caring for these gifts is mandatory, even the sea slugs, snails and worms. You may want to make it clear that marine organisms are not welcome at the dinner table unless they are part of the menu.

One advantage of Gordon Tracy is his smiles. He is a generally happy man and loves to share that happiness. Virgil has theorised that the pranks are one of his methods to do just that. Unfortunately, his brothers rarely see the humour in the super glue in their underwear.

As noted above, combining Gordon with his younger brother will lower his intellectual age by about half. Combining him with his other brothers, however, does provide for some interesting effects. If you add Scott Tracy to Gordon, there is usually one of two results. The first can be quite explosive as rebellion against the older Tracy can be spectacular, however, if combined at just the right point, the brothers’ shared military history can create an awesome synergy. At this point, should you want to take over a small country with just the determination present, you have a good chance of success.

On the other hand, combining Gordon with Virgil Tracy prompts him to prank and his older brother to uncharacteristically mirror the tendency. Gordon will bring out the humour in the heavy lifter and hijinks often ensue. However, it should also be noted that the two brothers do possess an somewhat extraordinary bond and despite their differences, make an excellent team.

One very useful if the prank requires heavy lifting.

Yes, Gordon Tracy is an excellent choice. It should be noted however that one of high society’s prominent figures may be interested in taking this Tracy off the market. Be aware that she is not to be trifled with, so if you are determined that Gordon is the Tracy for you, you may have to defend that position.

Violently.

If the quiet lifestyle is more your thing, you may wish to upgrade to John Tracy. ‘Up’ is the keyword here as he resides twenty-two thousand miles up, in orbit, in fact. Yes, John is the original space Tracy. Fully adapted to the cold and dark beyond our atmosphere, he does indeed adore the quiet life.

However, before we tempt you any further, it should be noted that John is the only Tracy brother who is a parent. A single parent at that. Inadvertent though her existence is, Eos is recognised as John’s daughter and she presents a number of unique challenges, the least of which is what she will do to your bank accounts if you upset her. Yes, if you are looking for bankruptcy, offending Eos is a fantastic way to achieve your goal.

In summary, don’t piss off the kid.

Having said that, should she approve of your existence, Eos is quite capable of enhancing that existence should she so choose. In any case, John’s daughter is a great conversationalist, even if she has locked you in the bathroom.

John himself sports arguably the most stunning eyes of all the five brothers. Alan, please be quite and Scott, sit down.

A unique pair of turquoise irises that contrast exquisitely with his copper hair makes for a stunning date to have on your arm. The only downside is that arm may need to be handcuffed to yours if you intend on going anywhere involving more than six people at a time.

Our space Tracy is not a social being. Despite communication as a profession, John Tracy has been heard to wish to only speak to others from space. This may include you. Please keep your phone charged at all times.

It should also be noted that if your phone battery is dead and John wishes to contact you, he may hack an appliance as mundane as your toaster. Communicating via the temperature controls in the shower has been reported. Virgil was not impressed.

John is one of the taller Tracys. Unlike Scott, however, heels may not be needed as ninety-five percent of the time John is in space, so if you are planning to get to know him, you’re going to be in space too. Just float up to look him in those gorgeous eyes.

A fan of spaceball and Star Trek, John is your traditional loveable geek. Be aware that his neighbour knows this and you may want to lock all the airlocks in case she comes knocking for a cup of sugar.

John is definitely a good investment and comes with a space station to boot. You will be able to spend many hours stargazing both at the universe and those irises.

If you feel you would prefer a more earthbound personality, you may want to consider the Tracy capable of moving that earth, in more ways than one.

Virgil Tracy is the biggest brother. Not the tallest, but those shoulders can deadlift all of his brothers with ease. You like muscles, Virgil is your Tracy.

Not to say that the other Tracy brothers lack muscles, the five boys are all very well defined. Virgil was just built for heavy lifting. You want your plus one to carry you anywhere, Virgil is your man.

Crowned with the darkest hair of all the brothers, Virgil’s eyes are chocolate brown, great for subtle and moody expressions. This is an important factor when you consider that he is the artist in the family. Skilled in both the visual and musical arts, the second eldest brother has the tools to serenade until you swoon.

Which makes his muscles useful again when he has to lug you off the floor.

Virgil is a full qualified engineer and comes complete with all the virtues of a home handyman. Capable of replacing tap washers or overhauling your fusion reactor, Virgil is happy tinkering and repairing whatever is needed.

He is the calmest of the brothers. However, early mornings are not appreciated in any way. If you need Virgil for a breakfast outing you will need copious amounts of coffee to get more than a sour grunt out of the man. In fact, breakfast outings are not recommended at all and you may want to invest in his older brother Scott if you need the early morning option.

In his position as second eldest, Virgil has extensive mothering experience. This is useful if you are high maintenance. This Tracy has the medical skills to both bandage and kiss boo-boos better.

Be warned he has been known to remove food smudges from faces with his finger and his own saliva. Keeping your face clean to prevent this embarrassment is highly recommended.

Virgil Tracy is an excellent  investment if you are looking for an all round nice guy. He comes complete with a range of accessories including wrenches, paint brushes and a honkin’ great green machine with which you may have to compete with for his attention...amongst other things.

If nice isn’t enough (and green is not your colour) and you’d prefer the rakishly handsome, daredevil, Jim Kirk kind of guy, then you might as well go straight to the top and get yourself a Scott Tracy. Built for speed, flirt and for swooping you off your feet, Scott will tick all the boxes of all people at your party.

Suave with a devilish smile, this Tracy knows how to work a room. The eldest of the brothers, Scott knows how to give commands and make sure they are followed. You may even find yourself caught in his thrall as sapphire blue eyes and chestnut hair, tinged with the grey of authority, lend their persuasion well to his cause.

This Tracy is built for speed and at Mach 20 there is no faster. Combined with his strategic mind and his terrible determination, this is a man who knows how to get where he wants to go and fast.

He is one hell of a ride.

Just be aware that should you piss him off, he may run you over, then back up and toast you with his afterburners, because big brother Scott has a temper. It is especially advisable not to injure or offend one of his younger brothers or any member of his family for that.

You won’t like him when he’s angry.

Ultimately though, beneath the commander and the bravado, Scott has a soft marshmallow centre...protected viciously by his brother Virgil. Remember those muscles? You don’t want to go there, trust me.

But treat big brother right and you become part of that family and he will defend you to the death.

Military option fully included.

It should be noted that Scott Tracy does not come as a single man. Alan will be coming with him because despite being eighteen, Scott isn’t ready to let the apron strings drop just yet. Also there are three other brothers to consider, and a grandmother. Scott Tracy comes as a total family package.

Bet you didn’t see that coming behind that suave and sultry smile, did you?

No?

Too bad.

Because really you can’t have one Tracy without the others. Despite the apparent simplicity of five billionaire brothers and their heroic lifestyles, these five are one tight knit group. You will never quite have a plus one, it will be more of a plus five.

And I have yet to mention your main obstacle.

You like the youngest Tracys with their sunshine smiles, or Virgil with his soft heart, John with his tender attempts at conversation, or even Scott as he stares at you with that worried frown on his face? Never forget what is standing between them and you.

Me.

Think twice before you commit.

Because none of the havoc the boys can cause can be compared to what I can offer you.

Remember that.

Very sincerely,

Kayo Kyrano

International Rescue Security

And your worst nightmare.

-o-o-o-

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Not really related to what’s going on but if Mod could rank the protagonists in terms of strength and power, how would he rank them? Not including Sora and Yuki

//Im going to assume you’re talking about within the universe of the blog specifically, because it’s a little different than canon. And yeah sure I can do that.

//If we’re not including Sora and Yuki, I’m going to do Makoto, Hajime, Shuichi, Kaede, Komaru, Toko and Kuripa.

//Shuichi is, unfortunately, the weakest. He CAN fight somewhat, but his skills are mainly in his intelligence and his perceptiveness and talent as a sleuth. Not so much in combat or self defence. Additionally he’s pretty low on muscle power, and probably relies on a weapon to take care of people.

//Kaede is second from the bottom I feel, because while she’s learning to fight, and is pretty good at it, she’s not very physically powerful and has never been in a hand to hand fight before this current arc. Her training with Kuripa had made her stronger and more combative than Shuichi, but she’s still new to this and hasn’t had much hands on experience outside of training.

//Next I think that, while yes, he’s definitely very strong and capable in a fight now, I still think Makoto is 5th place. Like Kaede, he’s only been training for a year or so, which isn’t very long, and theres no physical way he could reach someone of a High combat level like Sakura or Tenko. However, as he is currently, he could PROBABLY take Mondo in a fair fight? Everything above that though is out of the question by himself.

//Fourth and slightly above her brother is Komaru. Similarly to the previous two entries, Komaru was originally very normal, and had to learn to fight and shoot because of a situation thrust upon her. However, said situation was 8 or 9 years ago as of the story, and in that time Komaru has had a lot more experience and sharpshooting and defending Towa City and the rest of Japan is basically her job. She’s much more capable due to experience and that’s why she’s better than her brother, albeit only slightly.

//This is a bit of a weird one, but the top 3 is kicked off by Toko. The reason it’s a bit weird is because of the split personality thing. Toko herself doesn’t have the high energy or adrenaline rush of her alternate personality, so if it was Toko on her own, I would probably put her around Makoto’s level. Genocide Jack though had been proven to perform superhuman feats and somehow have unrealistic strength, since she’s able to grab Komaru and throw her up high vantage points with one arm. Komaru weighs 2 kilograms more than Toko, so that’s pretty impressive that she’s capable of not just holding, but throwing her with only one hand. So I don’t think it’s unreasonable to allow Toko the third spot.

//Lastly, between Kuripa and Hajime, as much as I love my adorably violent OC, I believe Hajime is stronger. It’s clear that Kuripa is easily enraged, and when he is hes an almost unstoppable force, and that’s why he gets second. As we all know, he’s durable enough to survive long falls, stabs and bullet wounds, and even a huge impact from a speeding train, and walking around like it’s nothing the next day. His strength is almost superhuman, and at this point it’s impossible to say how and why he’s so powerful, but he’s on a level that’s almost unreachable for the other protags.

//Hajime still wins though for reasons that are obvious. The unfortunate thing is that we never actually SEE it, but Danganronpa always eluded to just how incredibly powerful Hajime/Izuru is through things like DR3 and UTDP, with the latter implying that he outranks Sakura in strength. It’s not unreasonable that Hajime had Goku level strength in this world of basic human beings, which is why as someone pointed out, a lot of fights involving him are more Dragon Ball-esque than others.

-Mod

[violethowler]

The Heroine’s Journey of Sora

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks writing out my thoughts on Kingdom Hearts and the way the series follows the framework of the Heroine’s Journey. Rather than a bunch of drabbles or a single long-winded post, I’ve decided to break up my explanations of the Heroine’s Journey and the way Kingdom Hearts fits into it as a series of ten essays posted weekly. I will put up a masterpost once all of them are finished, and in the meantime I will have all of them on my blog under the tag ‘Kingdom Hearts and the Heroine’s Journey.’

Due to the length of this essay, I will be putting the full thing under a cut. 

What many Kingdom Hearts fans do not realize is that while Tetsuya Nomura does sometimes make up the details as he goes when it comes to the writing of Kingdom Hearts, he does do things with a plan. 

In the KH3 Ultimania [1], he talked about how he’d had the conclusion of the Dark Seeker Saga outlined by the end of Kingdom Hearts II’s development. In an April 2012 interview [2] with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, he indicated that he’d had a general framework up to Kingdom Hearts II planned out when the original game was first announced. And in a 2004 interview after the original Chain of Memories was released on GameBoy Advance, he mentioned that he’d already come up with the “last scene” that would serve as the definitive ending of the entire series[3]. 

So while some details may be hard to predict because Nomura comes up with lore and backstory details as he goes, he does have a plan in mind where the overall story is going. And the central arc of the series is entirely predictable once you understand the framework that the story fits into. 

Since the late 1800s, scholars have been studying the common patterns that repeat in stories, legends, and myths across different cultures around the world. One of the most well known templates developed from such research is the Hero’s Journey. In his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, literature professor Joseph Campbell published a 17 step formula of storytelling. Campbell held up this framework as the monomyth, an ultimate narrative archetype from which all other stories are derived, and in discussion of his work expressed his view of The Hero’s Journey as a universal framework that showed how people grow from youth into adulthood.

However in the 1980s, Maureen Murdock began work on her own narrative framework. Believing that Campbell’s view on the universality of the Hero’s Journey did not encompass the experiences of every identity like he claimed, Murdock developed what she called The Heroine’s Journey as a critique and response to Campbell’s monomyth. Other authors have shared their own variations of the Heroine’s Journey, but for the purposes of this analysis, I will be focusing on Murdock’s model. Hers is both the oldest one I know of, and the one that I personally have the most familiarity with. Though originally conceived as a therapy tool, the core concepts of Murdock’s template have resulted in its use in storytelling for narratives about protagonists overcoming the ingrained biases and preconceptions of society. 

Some notable examples of stories that follow the Heroine’s Journey template, albeit most with different formulas, include 

Beauty and the Beast

The Hunger Games trilogy

The Princess and the Frog

Tangled

Howl’s Moving Castle

Labyrinth 

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy*

Voltron: Legendary Defender*

*Note: Voltron: Legendary Defender and the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy are examples of 3-act narratives that followed the Heroine’s Journey framework in the first 2 acts only for behind-the-scenes conflicts to result in the formula being abandoned in the final act. 

Despite the name, it is possible in theory to have a male protagonist follow the Heroine’s Journey, much like how you can have a female protagonist in a Hero’s Journey.  While nearly every story I know that follows the Heroine’s Journey template has a female protagonist in the lead role, Kingdom Hearts is the first example that I’ve discovered of a male protagonist following this formula. Sora’s arc across the series follows Murdock’s framework so precisely that I was able to correctly predict the broad strokes of how Re:Mind would go three months before the DLC was released. 

Part I: The Beginning

While the Heroine’s Journey mimics the Hero’s Journey in its early stages, it ultimately goes in its own direction. I plan to go into further detail about the differences between the two in a later essay, but for now I will say that while Campbell’s monomyth describes physical plot points and the themes they represent, the Heroine’s Journey formula focuses on the emotional conflict of the narrative and the psychological development of its main characters. The pattern of the Hero’s Journey is fluid and doesn’t have a fixed central theme, while the core element of the Heroine’s Journey is a protagonist coming of age in a society that consciously or not regards them as lesser because they do not fit in with the expectations of the dominant social group. 

I know that some people who decide to read further will be put off by the fact that the names and descriptions of the Heroine’s Journey feature gendered language and focus on discussions of masculinity and femininity, so allow me to explain. The reason for this is that in a Heroine’s Journey, the protagonist is attempting to conform to a set of traits that the audience’s culture values. In pursuing this external validation, the main character has to suppress a vital part of who they are, cutting themselves off from achieving their full potential. The traits they are suppressing are the ones which are often regarded as feminine, while the ones they are trying to conform to are typically associated with masculinity. We see this pattern frequently in movies where the female lead tries to succeed in a male-dominated career field, only to feel lonely and unfulfilled when she finally gets what she wants because she sacrificed the parts of herself that made her who she is along the way. 

Now that I’ve given you a relatively brief summary of the Heroine’s Journey, I can get down to business and walk people through the steps to this template and how it fits with the story of Kingdom Hearts. Note that this is only a basic rundown of the steps of the Heroine’s Journey and how it relates to these games, and I will be posting additional essays shortly which go into greater detail on the themes, character archetypes, and other different layers of the framework that are present in the series. 

Murdock’s version of the Heroine’s Journey begins with the “Separation from the Feminine”. This is the stage where, as mentioned, the protagonist suppresses a core part of themselves in pursuit of external validation. It often takes the form of the protagonist sacrificing their emotional strengths and focuses exclusively on proving themselves in the physical sphere. Sora has demonstrated again and again that his greatest strength is his empathy and his willingness to make connections with others. It makes him a strong unifying force because of how well it complements the people around him. But because this isn’t something tangible in the same way that physical strength is, he doesn’t see the value of it, believing that without the strength of his friends he’s nothing. 

From the way the other kids on Destiny Islands talk about their competitions, Sora’s focus is on trying to prove that he’s just as strong and capable as Riku is. But he’s so focused on proving himself in physical challenges that he doesn’t notice the signs of Riku’s jealousy that lead his friend into the arms of Maleficent. And we see through Anti Form and Rage Form that Sora is still repressing his own negative emotions in Kingdom Hearts III. His narrow focus on external skills has cut him off from achieving the full potential of his internal ones. 

When Sora awakens in Traverse Town after the destruction of Destiny Islands, we come to the second stage of the Heroine’s Journey, “Identification with the Masculine and Gathering of Allies”. This is where the main character chooses to align with the traits and roles that the dominant social group sees as desirable in order to achieve their goal, and where they acquire the allies who will help them in their quest. With the adults around him focusing on his ability to destroy the Heartless, Sora latches onto the Chosen One status that implicitly comes with having a Keyblade. His interactions with Phil and his disappointment with the status of Junior Hero in subsequent games paint Sora as being focused on heroism in the sense of overcoming obstacles with force. Even Donald and Goofy, in the beginning, are focused on Sora’s value as a Keyblade Wielder in terms of how their fight against the Heartless can lead them to King Mickey’s location.

By setting off with Donald, and Goofy, Sora embarks on the “Road of Trials” stage of the Heroine’s Journey. This is one of the few points of similarity between the Heroine’s Journey and the Hero’s, corresponding to Campbell’s “Tests, Allies, and Enemies” stage. This is where the main character faces the initial obstacles and challenges of their quest. In the first few Kingdom Hearts games we have Sora face off against Maleficent, Ansem, and the Organization, before reuniting with Riku and Kairi in The World That Never Was. The final stages of Kingdom Hearts II correspond to the “Finding the Boon of Success” stage of both the Hero and Heroine’s Journeys. 

Part II: Interlude

In a Hero’s Journey, the Boon of Success is the end of the story. They slay the dragon, save the princess, and go home to live happily ever after. I suspect this is one reason why a lot of gamers in the KH fanbase tend to think of Kingdom Hearts 2 as the best game of the series - because in their minds Sora’s quest had been completed now that he had found Riku and Kairi like he set out to do in the first game. His journey, as far as they were concerned, was done. 

(This may also have an affect on how some fans reacted to Kingdom Hearts III, expecting it to be a grand epic finale that wrapped everything up with a bow and left a completely blank slate for the future of the series)

But in a Heroine’s Journey, the Boon of Success is not the end of the main character’s story. They have achieved their external goal, but they have not addressed their internal motivations for seeking that goal in the first place. And as their story continues, they find themselves facing challenges that their attitude thus far has failed to prepare them for. Finding The Boon of Success typically occurs early during the second act of the story. Usually it is achieved in the second half of Act II, but can sometimes happen as early as the end of the first act. For Sora, this was of course finding Riku and Kairi so that they could all go home to the Destiny Islands together.

But because the protagonist of a Heroine’s Journey has not addressed the underlying insecurities which set them on their current path, they “Awaken to Feelings of Spiritual Aridity”. 

They begin to learn that the conflict they find themselves involved in is not as clear cut as they previously believed, and the challenges that come with this new knowledge are ones that their current way of doing things has failed to prepare them for. They may have found their boon of success, but things quickly begin to go wrong until they are ultimately forced to sacrifice their reward. 

The first game already showed through Riku and Mickey that Sora was not the only person able to wield a Keyblade, but because of his heroic deeds the story still framed him as the Keyblade Master and treated him as having a more significant role to play in important events than anyone else. It’s only after he hears from Mickey of the Keyblade Wielders who came before him that it begins to sink in for him that being a Keyblade Master is not a special Chosen One status. He thinks that because of all that he’s accomplished, he doesn’t need the recognition that comes with the official title, and because of that he’s careless and almost gets himself Norted at the end of DDD. 

His failure in the exam is a blow to his self confidence and shows that despite what he had said at the start of the test, deep down he really does want that kind of external validation. His insecurities and doubts continue to eat at him over the course of KH3, culminating in his breakdown at the Keyblade Graveyard. Outside of battle, we see him bottle up his doubts and other negative emotions because his friends (Except for Riku. More on him later) brush his concerns and problems aside. It is very much like Joy from Inside Out doing everything to keep Rylee happy and refusing to let Sadness take the controls. 

When their current way of doing things ultimately costs them their boon, the protagonist tries to go back to the way things used to be. To return to a simpler time and avoid the pain of the present. When literally going back to where their journey began isn’t possible, a Heroine’s Journey story will use this stage symbolically. The main character will cling to a person, object, or relationship that they associate with a simpler time. But as comfortable as the sense of familiarity they get from that is, it ultimately cannot truly address their inner pain in the long run.

This is reflected in the Re:Mind DLC, where Sora goes back in time in order to find the pieces of Kairi’s heart and bring her back. One of Kairi’s most consistent character traits is her fear of change and desire for things to remain the way they were. 

At the end of the DLC, Sora compares his connection with Kairi to the bond between Ventus and Chirithy, a friendship explicitly strained by distance, time, and Ven’s amnesia. In an interview at E3 2018 [4], Nomura commented about Kingdom Hearts III tying into a theme of childhood friendships changing as one gets older, a plotline that Merlin calls attention to after Sora’s visit to the 100 Acre Wood. And in a 2006 book titled Character’s Report Vol. 1, Nomura specifically calls attention to Kairi’s anxiety about growing apart from Sora and Riku as they get older. [5] All of these details combined frame Sora’s quest to save Kairi as an attempt to symbolically recover the innocence he lost when he began his journey.

But while he is able to find a way to renew his connection to Kairi, it can never be the same as it was before, and attempting to go back to how things used to be is ultimately doomed to failure. By the time he brings her to The Final World at the end of Re:Mind, Sora has realized that he and Kairi cannot stay on the same plan of existence anymore as a consequence of his actions. So he takes her on a tour of the worlds to re-establish their connection before fading away at the end of KH3. Thus, we come to the final act of the Kingdom Hearts narrative. 

Part III: The Future Story 

It is at this point that the protagonist of a Heroine’s Journey begins the “Initiation and Descent to the Goddess” stage. Having failed to achieve meaningful success through their old way of doing things, they must look inward and examine the cause of their insecurities and accept that in order to move forward they need to heal themselves. In this step, the main character travels to either a dream world or a physical location that is closed off and forbidden to them, like the West Wing of Beast’s Castle in Beauty and the Beast. In Jungian psychology, this metaphorical dark cave represents the main character’s subconscious, and entering it triggers a dark night of the soul for our protagonist as they are forced to confront the parts of themselves they’ve been keeping locked away.

While Sora knows in his head that darkness is not inherently bad, he continues to rely entirely exclusively on light, on his connections to others, and has not properly accepted it in his heart. In order to truly finish his coming of age narrative, Sora must learn to balance his inner light and darkness the same way that Riku has. And to do that, he needs to look inside himself and figure out why he feels so badly that he needs his connections to others in order to be strong. And in order to achieve that level of understanding of himself, he needs to understand his Animus. 

Derived from the psychological theories of Carl Jung, the Animus in a Heroine’s Journey is an external representation of the protagonist’s masculine-coded traits in physical form. While not every Heroine’s Journey features an Animus, many of the stories I’ve seen that follow the formula do. Usually the Animus appears in the form of a deuteragonist who often functions as the protagonist’s Shadow, an archetypal character that embodies the aspects of the main character’s personality that due to their immaturity they either aren’t aware or don’t want to acknowledge that they have. 

In order to complete their character arc, the protagonist must symbolically integrate with their Shadow by learning to embrace the parts of their psyche that the Shadow represents. In many stories the protagonist has more than one Shadow figure, all of whom challenge the protagonist by forcing them to become faster or smarter to stay one step ahead, giving their interactions with the main character a push-and-pull dynamic as they drive the main character to grow. Shadow figures who fill the role of the Animus also challenge the protagonist to look inside themselves and examine their own emotional needs. With an Animus, the push to grow runs in both directions, with the main character motivating their Animus’ growth just as much as the other way around. 

In these types of stories, every aspect of the character is tailored to make the Animus and the protagonist fit together like Yin and Yang. In visual stories such as film, television, and video games, the Animus’ entire look is designed to complement the main character and they are framed in the narrative as the protagonist’s equal physically, intellectually, and spiritually. This serves to emphasize that despite their surface differences, much of the conflict between the protagonist and their Animus comes from the ways in which they are fundamentally similar. While their circumstances may have led them to drastically different lives, the characters are ultimately two sides of the same coin, and their character development is driven by learning to balance their contrasting traits.

And within the structure of the Kingdom Hearts series, there is only one character who fulfills all of these qualities in relation to Sora’s journey. 

The same character who Testuya Nomura said in the KH1 Ultimania was designed to balance Sora; [6]

Who series producer Shinji Hasimoto said was part of the core of the series alongside Sora [7], as has been repeatedly emphasized by the number of games where he is given a major focus and is a playable character alongside Sora. 

[Image Description: Riku walking towards a door to light in the opening of Kingdom Hearts III. End Description]

While Sora and Riku have addressed some of the latter’s behavior in the first game during their conversation on the dark beach at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, they have yet to truly dig deep into why Riku felt the way he did in the first game. Riku has not told Sora about how he felt like he was being left behind and forgotten. And since that conversation, Riku has gone to the opposite extreme, dealing with his emotional problems on his own instead of lashing out at others like he had done at the start. Likewise while Sora has accepted that darkness is not inherently evil he has yet to apply this to his own negative emotions, as seen in Kingdom Hearts III. Neither character has truly achieved an ideal balance yet, and they cannot until Sora completes his journey. 

After the protagonist returns from their spiritual journey, they experience an “Urgent Yearning to Reconnect with the Feminine.” As the main character recovers from their period of soul searching, they embrace the parts of themselves that they had neglected in their pursuit of outside approval. Their Descent allowed them to recognize their value as a person and an individual outside of their ability to fulfill the role that they were expected to fill. Following this realization, they go about “Healing the Mother/Daughter split”. Reclaiming the aspects of their personality they’ve been repressing gives the protagonist the clarity necessary to gain a different perspective on their old way of thinking. This new understanding is what will allow them to find the inner balance needed to truly complete their journey. 

The Japanese version of the “My friends are my power” mantra often repeated across the series is “Connected hearts are my power.” For Sora, who has long relied on his connections to others as a source of strength, he should come to realize that these connections go both ways: that his friends draw strength from him just as much as he draws strength from them. This should help him come to accept that he is still strong and worthy all by himself. Ven’s version of the mantra from the English version of BBS summarizes it best: “My friends are my power. And I am theirs.” After he accepts this, Sora will finally be able to use the full extent of his emotional abilities.

After achieving that new perspective, the protagonist’s next step is “Healing the Wounded Masculine Within”. This is the stage of the Heroine’s Journey where the main character, having come to understand themselves, reconciles with their Animus, thereby symbolically integrating the aspects of their psyche that the Animus represents and permanently healing the rift between the two characters. This will be where Sora and Riku need to have a longer, more in-depth conversation than the one they had on the Dark Magin at the end of KH2. Where they talk about why Riku acted the way he did and finally address the underlying reason for why he was so jealous of Sora in the original game. 

The final stage of the Heroine’s Journey is the “Integration of Masculine and Feminine”. This is the point at which the main character and their Animus finally achieve a perfect balance between them. They are united both internally and externally. There are no more secrets between them, and they are now free to move forward and overcome the main antagonist together. 

Part IV: Conclusion: 

While there’s too many different possibilities to completely predict every twist and turn of the series’ lore in future games, once you understand how Kingdom Hearts fits into the framework of the Heroine’s Journey, the broad strokes of how the story will go in terms of Sora’s growth and character development are entirely predictable. When Re:Mind first released and the rest of the fandom was reacting on Twitter, I was sitting back with a smug smile on my face thinking:

[Image Description: Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi sitting aboard the Death Star II with the caption ‘Good, Good. Everything is going according to plan.’ End Description.]

While I didn’t expect the precise mechanics of how Sora went about saving Kairi, Re:Mind was exactly what I expected it to be in terms of themes and its place in the Heroine’s Journey framework, and then the Secret Episode came along to reinforce that the next game is going to be Sora’s Descent.

While there isn’t a complete guarantee that the series will continue to follow the formula, I find it extremely unlikely that it won’t. Kingdom Hearts follows the stages of this framework too precisely for me to ever believe it happened by accident. So as long as there is no corporate interference from Disney like what happened to Voltron, I’m confident that Nomura’s plan for the finale of the series will be exactly what the Heroine’s Journey predicts it should be, no matter how unexpected future additions to the lore may be.

Special thanks to @dragonofyang and the rest of Team Purple Lion for everything I know about the Heroine’s Journey. I wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about analyzing the story of Kingdom Hearts if they hadn’t taught me the vocabulary to realize the kind of story that Nomura has been telling right under my nose for the last 18 years.

Sources:

[1] “Kingdom Hearts III Ultimania interview with Tetsuya Nomura”; March 12, 2019

https://www.khinsider.com/news/Kingdom-Hearts-3-Ultimania-Main-Nomura-Interview-Translated-14763

[2] “Iwata Asks: Nintendo 3DS: Third Party Game Developers, Volume 12: Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Part 3: Square’s Intentions”; April 2012.

https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/creators/11/2

[3] “2004 GMR Nomura Interview 2004!”; Translation by Kingdom Hearts Insider posted May 5, 2012. 

https://www.khinsider.com/news/GMR-Nomura-Interview-2004-2563

[4] “E3 2018: Tetsuya Nomura on If Kingdom Hearts 3 Is the End of Sora's Story”; June 14, 2018.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/06/14/e3-2018-tetsuya-nomura-on-if-kingdom-hearts-3-is-the-end-of-soras-story

[5] “Character’s Report Vol. 1 Translations”; Jul 16, 2014

https://www.khinsider.com/forums/index.php?threads/characters-report-vol-1-translations.195560/\

[6] “A Look Back: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania Gallery Comments Part 1″; August 30, 2019;

https://www.khinsider.com/news/A-Look-Back-KINGDOM-HEARTS-Ultimania-Gallery-Comments-Part-1-15519

[7] “How Kingdom Hearts III Will Grow Up With Its Players.” September 24, 2013

https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/25/how-kingdom-hearts-iii-will-grow-up-with-its-players

[X] “The Heroine with a Thousand Faces”; June 13, 2019;

https://www.teampurplelion.com/heroine-with-a-thousand-faces/

[X] Murdock, Maureen. The Heroine’s Journey. 1990.

[X] “Maureen Murdock’s Heroine’s Journey Arc”. The Heroine Journeys Project. https://heroinejourneys.com/heroines-journey/

[cindrelle]

much of lukas’s emotional numbness can be attributed to the environment in which he’d grown up.  almost constantly,  by his father and brother,  he was emotionally  (  and sometimes physically,  by the latter,  until he was strong enough to defend himself  )  a.bused.  it’s a very natural response to that environment and,  being someone with very little control in his life,  all he could really do was block out what they did to him.  he was forced to train to be a soldier when he’d prefer to be a scholar,  a nurturer.  he no doubt wants to help people,  a trait he likely got from his mother,  but by killing and bloodshed is not the way he wished to achieve that.  she faced similar neglect and passed away due to illness.

he has a very skewed sense of self worth and feels like an impostor when he does something worth merit.  he just does what he can,  he can’t take credit for it.  it’s not as if he was every allowed to anyway.  anytime he achieved something,  his brother would step in just to diminish that victory and insist that he’s superior.  though certainly the more capable son,  lukas’s father would pit him and his brother against each other.  you want to be heir,  earn it.  lukas never wanted the title,  and he could tell he was being used to make his brother work harder,  and he’d no choice lest he face his father’s wrath.  he feared the loss of what little he held dear and knew that he couldn’t make it on his own were he thrown out.  

until,  he was older,  stronger,  yet still going through the motions and courting a woman he didn’t even like in the way that he should have,  hoping that this would be a way out and the family could provide him with the funds to be a proper scholar or teacher.  one,  flickering sense of passion in someone who’d otherwise become convinced that he was broken.

therefore,  it’s a good thing that he was sent away to join the deliverance.  his brother did a great job convincing their father of all the boons lukas could earn them in the new world order,  a rather rigelian idea befitting their vicinity to the border.  it’s most definitely not the path he chose,  as he explains,  but if he were to die along a path he didn’t choose,  he wouldn’t mind since the alternative had been allowing himself to be smothered.  he feels broken,  though,  it’s now looking to be something that he can work through because he has friends and allies now.  he’s not alone.  there are people that make him smile,  laugh,  feel a sense of joy.  even anger,  when he’d otherwise be resigned to others’ treatment of him.

and,  at the same time,  lukas takes on everyone’s burdens.  no one needs to be burdened like he has in the past,  should they be worthy of it,  should it not be at his emotional expense  ---  and most of the deliverance is.  an ally in need shouldn’t be denied.  he went through it,  so he’s stronger for it  ---  that’s his way of justifying being the one to do what must be done.  be the one who must be strong.  be the iron wall.  he’s strict because the alternative is unneeded pain,  upset,  stress,  or hassle.

the last thing he could desire for anyone,  even his worst enemy,  is for them to be left horrifically alone without anyone or anything.  he’s too sweet,  too kind,  too supportive.

but,  really,  the most considerate,  wonderful people have been through the most bullshit.  it makes you wonder how they managed it,  how it didn’t destroy them  ...

[imlostinsantacarla]

Anonymous said: I hope I'm not too late for this! Not sure if you wrote it before 'cause I can't find it. Could you write David or Paul from Lost Boys having a crush on you would include? Whenever you have time but could you please let me know if you've got my ask? Tumblr like to eat them sometimes

(a/n: heya hun! sorry that i didn’t answer this one sooner. i would have lost the request if i had. also my apologies for how long it’s taken me to actually get around to having written this piece as well. i’d experienced a really bad case of writer’s block! i also decided to do the rest of the boys, so i hope you don’t mind that. thanks for requesting and i hope you enjoy reading! - admin kat 🌙❣)

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

The Lost Boys Having a Crush on the Reader Headcanons:

David:

° When David’s interest is peaked by someone in a romantic sense, he’s surely unable to look away from them. So be prepared to catch him in the act of staring at you more often than you had previously noticed. When you make eye contact, he 

° He’s not a stranger in the department of having the capability to come up to you and strike up a conversation. No, he’s more than capable of doing that. Only, he much prefers to hang back and wait for you to come to him. He wants to know that you’re interested in him as well, he sort of plays hard to get.

° But once a conversation is struck, he’s a true flirt, albeit subtly to begin with, which creates wonder around whether or not he actually is. It makes him simper wildly at you, some of his comments going straight over your head. However, once you do pick up on the fact that he’s interested, and you reciprocate those feelings in return, he’s a shameless flirt all round!

° It’s a common occurrence for David to thus offer your rides on the back of his bike. He even allows Star to begin riding with either the likes of Paul or Marko. When you accept, it’s a humongous ego boost!

° David is both protective and possessive, bordering heavily on the verge of territorial. So don’t be surprised if potential threats are either scared off or wound up being found washed up on the shore. You’re his. He’s made up his mind and there’s no room for anyone else.

° As stated above, in David’s eyes you’re already his, so in his opinion, you might as well get comfy for the ride because you’ll be his for forever. He’s not like Paul, he’s either in all the way or not.

° When David is experiencing a crush, he’s certainly attempting to win you over heavily. So he spends a lot of the time complimenting you. It’s a very direct way for him to communicate that he’s interested in you. He only enjoys it all the more if you become flustered in response.

° If you knew him very well, you’d completely comprehend why the boys look at him gobsmacked when he’s less snarky with you, in conjunction to being happier with you around. They guys surely thank you profusely for that!

° David is an all in or none at all kind of man. If he’s interested romantically in someone then he’s going to be giving you all of his attention. He expects nothing short of the same in return, so don’t be surprised when he sulks slightly when you laughed at Paul’s dumb joke for thirty minutes straight.

° Although he loves his boys, he also is a man and needs his alone time. So, during his alone time, he enjoys spending that time with you. It’s one of the rare moments where he allows a slightly softer side to come forward. It’s a chance for him to get to know you more intimately, and not just in a sexual manner.

° When you’re in the hotel, David situates you on his lap, especially when the other boys are around. Again, it’s an ego boost, but it’s also a direct way of telling them to back off and you’re his. Not that they’d try anything anyway.

° When you’re doing your own thing on the BoardWalk, expect this suave vampire to run his eyes up and down your figure because damn! He scored lucky. You catch him every time and the guy winks at you.

° The majority of the time he’s quite literally eye fucking you. This is especially the case in public or around the boys. He knows that he’s doing it, but do you complain? Hell no!

° Again, he even winks when you catch him red handed. He’s not shy about it, even if it makes you feel embarrassed. David enjoys watching you squirm underneath his smoldering gaze.

° He’s definitely the type of guy to catch you off guard because your momentary fear boosts his pride in himself. He laughs at how you jumped at his presence.

° Unbelievably to the other boys, he actually shares his cigarettes with you, which is a first! The last time Paul tried to pinch one he got a swift kick up his backside for it.

° David never stops smirking around you when he likes you! It’s physically impossible for him not to.

° He also teases you relentlessly, especially when it results in you becoming abashed.

Dwayne:

° To begin with, it’s challenging to tell whether Dwayne likes you or not because he’s already so quiet. You genuinely assume that he hates you or something which causes you to avoid him a lot as he’s quite intimidating.

° But nevertheless, he finds himself staring at you a lot more. You catch his eye immediately with little effort and peak his intrigue.

° You also just so happen to catch him in the act of staring at you. It’s a process that tends to fluster the pair of you, your eyes meeting for a flicker of a second before finding something else to focus on, as though both of your lives depended upon it!

° This sort of thing happens for a couple of months as it takes a lot of courage for Dwayne to be able to talk to you. He also doesn’t trust people as easily as Paul does, which can make him come across as unapproachable and intimidating, but underneath he can be really chill and gentle if you get to know him.

° Whilst all of this is happening, the other boy’s are busting his balls for being such a pansy about it all, which gives him the courage and edge of defiance to actually go up to you and introduce himself. The whole ordeal leaves you a stuttering mess, which he finds utterly adorable!

° And to the surprise of the other boys, he speaks to you a lot more frequently and in quantity than with most people, - including them -. It’s quite bizarre for them to witness, leaving them wondering what you’ve spiked him with! News flash, boys, it’s nothing.

° Dwayne definitely finds a way to emotionally connect with you on some basis. He doesn’t outwardly say that he likes you, but his actions tend to speak louder than his minimal words.

° With that noted, he’ll probably buy (or steal) small things or snacks because they’re your favorite or the small item reminded him of you or you said you really wanted. It’s genuinely the kindest gesture you’ve experienced in your life and it wins you over. He’s spontaneous with his gift giving and very casual about the whole experience. He does stumble over his words a little when he tries to explain why he got it for you. But nevertheless, it’s very sweet!

° It doesn’t matter if you’re not dating Dwayne yet, he likes you which means that he’s already beginning to care about you as a person. This leads to him giving you his jacket on colder nights because let’s face it, this raven haired boy is really an angel sent from heaven! It doesn’t matter that he’s shirtless, he insists every time.

° To your amazement, he will make flirty comments to you, which puts you into a state of shock for a few seconds. He usually does this whenever the boys aren’t floating about, their beady eyes scoping out the scene makes him awfully antsy, and not in a good context.

° Dwayne compliments you so much, but in a respectful fashion because Dwayne drinks respect women juice™! And you can fight me on that one.

° He also buys you food, particularly your favorite icecream. It’s kind of a gesture of, “Hey, let me take care of you!”. Argh I love him so much!

° When you’re walking on the BoardWalk side by side, your hands do brush up against one another, yet it’s not until you’re on a ride that you’re scared to be on does he actually grab hold of your hand. It’s his way of letting you know that he’s never going to let anything happen to you when he’s around. It’s so fucking cute!

° It’s a very rare occurrence to see this boy smile, but when you’re around, he just can’t help himself! Paul and Marko think it’s hilarious and always comment on it.

° Dwayne laughs at all of your jokes, even the ones that aren’t particularly funny. He thinks they’re funny though, which is a plus!

° He drives you places at night if you need to go anywhere. He doesn’t think that it’s a hassle at all, he sincerely enjoys spending time with you.

° If it’s not already apparent yet, Dwayne becomes very protective of you because when he cares about someone, he’s willing to keep them safe.

° He will stand up for you whenever anyone is giving you shit. He usually tends to back away from violence or anything heated, but when it comes to you, he’s willing to defend you by tooth and nail.

Paul:

° Be prepared for extreme flirting and teasing! When it comes to Paul having a crush on you, he isn’t going to hold back. He’s going to pull out all the stops.

° When Paul likes someone, he’s inclined to speak far more often. Can you believe that’s even possible? Well, it is! And it’s practically on the verge of blabbering, but you find it adorable, nonetheless.

° Due to the fact that he talks nonstop around you, it’s almost a given that he becomes tongue tied at some point. It makes you laugh softly at him because you’ve never seen someone so happy to be around you before until you met Paul. It was a little overwhelming to begin with, but now you’re so used to it.

° It’s incredibly obvious that Paul likes you, even you can tell. He’s also up front about the entire ordeal by flat out telling you honestly that he likes you. He’s not shy and that’s a known fact by now.

° Though to begin with you thought he was joking, but it turns out he really wasn’t!

° Paul is the most shameless flirt out of all of the boy’s, which leads to him winking at you so often that you swear your heart implodes in your chest. He’s a huge fan of how embarrassed you get when he does it also. He can’t help but  laugh in response.

° Dirty innuendos as well as cheesy pick up lines are a given. This man spits them out like fire! And he’s not even worried if they don’t land well because he’ll just bounce back in with another one, and another one...

° Out of all of the boy’s, he’s the most welcoming and warm one. So, he’s not a stranger when it comes to physical contact. He encourages it whenever he’s with you. He hugs you a lot and will place his hands on you more, - not in a particular fashion that is sexual, especially if you’re not into that -. It’s his way of letting you know that he’s interested, it bridges the gap between you two, reminding you that he’s there and very much so interested in you.

° He wants to be around you all the time, honestly. Marko calls him a nerd because of it, but Paul just puts his buddy into a playful choke hold and calls it a night. Nah, Paul’s not embarrassed that other people know that he likes you, in fact, in his eyes it only makes it clearer that other people should back off. They really don’t stand much of a chance against him.

° Paul is a funny guy, so it’s just common knowledge that he’s going to make you laugh very hard on a constant basis. You pretty much have permanent abs now. Nothing is better to him than the sound of your laugh and the sight of your smile. When you break out those two things, Paul is putty in your hands! He prides himself on his ability to make you beam like the sun and laugh so hard that you’re crying. And that’s not even an understatement.

° He always has an arm wrapped around your shoulders. Again, it’s about contact. He tries not to do it without your permission if you’re not a fan of physical touch, but he just can’t seem to help himself. He gravitates towards you like you’re his personal sun.

° One specific way to know that Paul is really crushing on someone is when he feels comfortable enough to share his favorite music and bands with you. He’s a big fan of rock and metal, wanting to share it with you comes naturally to him. He’d be stoked if you enjoyed the same music as him, but he won’t slander your taste in music if it’s different. He may not like it, but he’s certainly not going to force you to listen to something you’re not fixated strongly on. I mean, after all, he’s quite a chill guy.

° We also know that Paul is quite an emotional guy beneath all the hair and the dirty clothes. If he likes you, you automatically mean something to him, which means he’s protective of you. He won’t stand for anyone making fun of you, trying to put you down or anything negative regarding you. He’s stomping out that fire before it can burn you. And you better not be surprised when people wind up dead afterwards. No one messes with you. Period.

° Funnily enough, he also shares his weed with you (if you smoke that is. If not then that’s all swell too!). Yeah he’ll share some with the boy’s, but if he’s smoking a joint he won’t ever let them have a puff. He goes halfsies with you, the sight is astounding alone!

° Paul gives you piggy back rides whenever you desire. Sometimes he doesn’t even ask you!

° He lets you borrow his jacket whenever you want and tells you how good you look in it as well. Great, now there’s less work for him to make other competition back off!

° If Paul likes you he’s going to speak to you about his interests and will actually listen to you too, even if you have great knockers that he can’t stop ogling at! 

° He will include you in everything that he does because he likes you that much and wants you to be included. Excluding others makes him feel bummed out, especially when it comes to you. He wants you to feel comfortable around him and the boys and as though you matter because you do!

° It’s not a question of whether you want him to or not, but Paul will just pull you into his lap when he’s sitting down.

° He’s also kind of sweet because he’ll hold your hand when you walk with him, especially when the BoardWalk is packed that night, as not to lose you in the crowd. Like, any excuse to touch you he’s game for because he really likes skinship. He’s just so excited when you’re around him, he can’t help himself!

° He’s the type of guy where when he sees you come onto the BoardWalk that night, his eyes light up!

Marko:

° I’m not quite sure how this is even physically possible, but Marko will smile even more when you’re around. He just feels like you’re his personal sun and you have the ability to pull him out of the darkest of moods and into a much lighter one.

° Paul has quite the habit of teasing Marko about it, which just results in Paul getting thrown into the ocean 900% of the time. And you bet your ass that Paul is surprised each time it happens.

° It’s incredibly sweet when it occurs, but Marko’s eyes have a habit of lighting up like torches when he sees you. It’s genuinely the most adorable thing that anyone has ever seen. This especially happens when you first appear on the BoardWalk at the beginning of the night, and honestly, it occurs every night.

° Marko will flirt like a champ with you because he is the king of flirting! You thought Paul was good at getting the attention of girls? Meet Marko, the one with the ability to gain your attention with just one of his big goofy grins. And you can bet your ass that he makes your heart flutter intensely.

° One thing most people aren’t aware of how much Marko loves animals, after all, he’s befriended every pigeon and rat back at the Cave. So if you make an appearance in the hotel, it’s expected that he’ll show you his scruffy pets and he’ll allow you to feed them with him.

° The boys steer clear of all taunting then, because Marko isn’t afraid to beat their asses if they fuck this up. It’s happened before. But let’s be honest, Paul interrupts 9/10 times because he wants his buddies attention. You find that adorable.

° Physical touch with other people that aren’t his brothers is incredibly rare from Marko. This is due to his lack of ability to trust others. Marko is the most guarded individual in the group, being a strong contender with Dwayne and David. But with you, he finds himself hugging you more often. It’s an odd sight for the boys to see at first, which only feeds their suspicions that Marko indeed does have feelings for you.

° But nevertheless, the other boys particularly enjoy seeing Marko happy, so there is little room for complaints here.

° When Marko has brought back grub for the night, he’s more than happy to share his own food with you, which is a strong indicator that he trusts and cares for you. He happily sits back and allows you to stick your fork in his takeout box of rice. He’s totally relaxed about it.

° Now when Paul attempted to do the same thing, Marko almost bit his hand straight off. It’s fair to say that Paul was left traumatized.

° Speaking of food, Marko will allow you to go on food runs with him for the boys. This is due to the simple fact that he enjoys your company, and also slightly because he knows that if he leaves you at the hotel with the boys, they’re 110% more likely to tell you a bunch of embarrassing stuff he’s done in the past. He’d rather spare himself the mortification, thank you very much!

° He’ll also get your favorite takeout whenever you’re at the Cave too, regardless of whether the other boys hate it or not. Even when the boys bitch about it, he’ll just grin and say something cheesy like, “The guests choice.” lmaoo what a nerd!

° Marko is also very talented when it comes to winning things at the arcade or the game stalls on the BoardWalk. He’s never been a stranger when it came to winning that adorable plushie you had been eyeing up for the past hour and a half. And he’s even more delighted when you carry it around the BoardWalk afterwards with an enormous grin plastered on your face. It genuinely just melts his heart!

° Marko is quite the independent man, which just amplifies his guarded nature. It’s scarce for him to ever ask for the opinions of others, yet he finds himself always asking for yours. Your opinion is one that he truly values because he enjoys hearing your thoughts and opinions. To him you’re equal and if you show him respect, he gives that back without hesitation.

° Catch Marko genuinely listening to you when you talk. To him, it doesn’t matter about the subject at hand, just the sound of your voice encapsulates him in utter focus. It’s especially so when you’re discussing something that you’re interested in or passionate about.

° Anyone can figure out that Marko has a crush on someone when he listens to their problems and provides solid advice in response, but only if you’ve asked for it. Although Marko would love to just waste anyone who upsets you, he knows you wouldn’t be a huge fan of that. Instead, he opts on listening to your issues and providing comfort where possible. This deepens your emotional connection, and overtime makes it easier for him to open up to you in response.

° Just insert fucking heart eyes everywhere by this point! Marko can’t get enough of you. It’s a wonder that you haven’t picked up that he likes you, but then again, the boy is a tricky one to read so it’s challenging for you to comprehend whether his actions are motivated from a platonic perspective or a romantic one.

° Marko’s most prized possession is his jacket, and he never parts with it, even during the mad heatwaves that constantly occur in Santa Carla. However, he’s managed to shed his jacket a few times when it comes to you. He’ll plant the article of clothing over top of your shoulders, particularly when you’re shivering in colder weather.

° Don’t make a big deal out of it though! It just embarrasses him and he becomes a gushing mess. Besides, he likes the way it looks on you, as well as warding off any potential competition. After all, Marko is a possessive man!

° Expect to be complimented loads of times during the night. He manages to do it such a nonchalant way you tend not to notice it, but he’s always gratuitous when you accept it and return a compliment. This also strengthens your bond, making it a rather positive one and helping him to unwind and relax around you.

° I headcanon that Marko is quite perceptive and observant. So it’s a common occurrence for him to notice new things about you like a new haircut/color/style, clothes, jewelry, etc. and he compliments you on them/it. He wants you to feel good and confident around him, as well as letting you know that his focus is primarily on you and no one else.

° Much like Dwayne, he will tend to get you small things and gifts that consist of your favorite candy, etc. which emanates the fact that he’s thinking about you. It’s a sweet small gesture that you never fail to thank him profusely for. But Marko just waves it off like it’s just the casual thing that he does for everyone, only he doesn’t and you know this.

° Marko will tend to whisper rather flirtatious comments in your ear, especially when he is behind you. This happens a lot whilst you’re waiting in lines for rides or for food. He can’t help but grin silly when you start to grow flustered over his words. 

° His nimble fingers will also brush the hair out of your face as he speaks to you. It’s a bold move considering how guarded he is, but he wants to see your breathtaking countenance when he’s speaking to you. The action usually makes you get abashed, which he honestly loves deeply.

° With Marko there’s going to be lot’s of eye contact incorporated with a ton of smiles! The entire ordeal makes you swoon for him, and he’s more than aware of this.

° He’s developed a habit of looking at your lips a lot when he's talking to you. He also checks you out fifty times in an hour. He’s not even abashed when you catch him! He just grins that much wider at you, because in his eyes, he can’t help it.

° Out of all of the boys, I believe he’d be the most nervous to tell you his feelings in fear of being rejected. But also, it’s foreign for him to let a new person in behind his walls, so there’s a lot of nervousness swirling in his heart and brain about it. You’re probably going to have to be the first one to admit it, which he’ll gladly follow suit in.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

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