#help me all my ships became canon and I’m going insane | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bifuriouswaterbender · 2 years ago

Note

Wait? Will you do some of the song things for Willow??? Honestly whatever ship you want! Song 13?

Send me a ship (or fandom) and a number between 1 & 101, and I’ll use my Spotify Wrapped as fic inspo

13: She Knows It by Maggie Lindermann -- I went with Kit and Jade because this was absolutely my excuse to write a pre-canon fic about Jade learning of Kit's engagement.

AO3 link

Jade had been Kit’s mirror for as long as she could remember now in life and in their fights. She knew a time before Kit, of course. She had the blurriest of ideas—because they weren’t quite memories—of what her life had been before Tir Asleen. She knew there had been a time before Kit had been her closest companion. But she’d been drawn to the princess even before the two were truly close, and when the queen had asked her to stay close, how could Jade refuse? It was her duty to the realm.

It was easier to justify her feelings when she could put them in those terms. She was loyal to Queen Sorsha, and Kit and Airk were an extension of that. Jade was just doing her duty.

Duty became a sour word after Kit found out about her mother’s plans.

Jade hadn’t been there to find out firsthand.

Her presence was one Kit found helpful, but Sorsha didn’t necessarily include her in the important things unless Kit insisted on dragging her along. Jade occasionally felt like a doll in those moments—nothing more than the thing Kit dragged around the castle with her.

Then again, Jade had heard the stories of a three-year-old Kit’s legendary tantrum when her then-favorite toy had disappeared. The entire castle had been turned upside down in an attempt to find it and soothe the young princess. While Jade didn’t enjoy likening herself to something that had eventually been found under Airk’s bed, she did wonder if Kit would similarly upend the castle for her.

Wishful thinking. Jade was a friend. A good friend, but nothing more than a friend.

That was only reinforced as Kit came to her with tears streaming down her face.

“I’ve been betrothed,” Kit cried as she threw herself into Jade’s arms.

The proximity was good. Jade didn’t have to fix her face if Kit couldn’t see it. “You knew this was a possibility,” Jade said, trying to stay neutral.

Kit snorted, and hell, she must care for the princess if the wet noise Kit made around her tears was one Jade found endearing.

“My mother’s talked about political marriages, yeah, and I knew she’d been in conversation with Galladoorn. But this is bullshit! Why me? Where’s Airk’s engagement? He’s the one good at wooing. He’s the one who put time into developing the skills to be useful on his back.”

“Kit!” Jade couldn’t help her own admonishment.

Instead of being offended, Kit started crying anew. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m being cruel. I just… All this work. All this training. I’ve tried so damn hard to be my own person, yet I’m still just a bargaining chip.”

Jade swallowed hard. “Are you to go there or is he to come here?”

“It’s an alliance,” she said bitterly. “Someday we’re supposed to rule both together. He and his father probably see it as some kind of peaceful takeover. If they think I’ll quietly give up my kingdom to some man’s control, they’re insane.”

“Your mother wouldn’t expect you to.”

It was true, but it was the wrong thing to say.

Kit pulled away from their embrace to glare at Jade. “How dare you! Don’t take her side in this! I trusted you. Don’t you turn on me too.”

“I haven’t,” Jade promised, trying to look Kit in the eye without focusing on the tears streaming from them. Despite her own self-preservation, she reached up to cup her princess’ face, wiping away the tears with her thumb. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to look on the bright side at how this values your strength and conviction, but you’re right. It sucks. I hate that this is what doing your duty means.”

Kit sniffled, then flung herself back into Jade’s arms. Jade held her tight. She always would.

Against Jade’s neck, she mumbled, “I wish things could stay the way they are forever—you and me just like we are.”

Jade’s heart swelled, and she tried to tamp down the emotions whelming up in her throat. Kit didn’t mean that, not the way Jade wanted her to. They were friends. Kit wanted her as a best friend, as a sparring partner, and as someone to rely on. She didn’t want what Jade wanted.

Still, Jade let herself lean against the wall, still holding up Kit in her arms. They stayed that way in silence until Kit’s tears had subsided. Even then, they stayed together.

Eventually Commander Ballantine found them. Jade refused to shrink under the scrutinizing look he sent her.

He cleared his throat, and Kit pulled away. Jade had known she would.

“Your mother sent me to find you,” he said and at least managed to sound apologetic. “She wanted to give you some space before continuing your conversation, but she’s hoping you’re ready to return to her chambers and discuss the details of your engagement.”

Kit’s face tightened. She reached for Jade’s hand seemingly without realizing she’d done it. As she squeezed it tight, Jade definitely noticed and so did Ballantine. Once again, he said nothing about it.

Eventually Kit sighed. “I can’t promise it won’t turn into another fight, but fine, I’ll let her talk if she lets me talk too.” She squeezed Jade’s hand again before dropping it. Kit sauntered forward, turning to take a few backward steps as she looked at Jade. “I’ll be back later. Hopefully not crying this time, but we’ll see. Maybe I’ll make Sorsha cry this time.” She offered a quick salute before whirling back around and heading out of the room.

Ballantine and Jade watched her go.

“Not a word,” Jade warned.

He chuckled. “Was there something for me to comment on?”

She swallowed hard, ducking her head. When his hand landed on her shoulder, it was surprisingly gentle.

“Jade, you’re a good kid. You’re a good fighter. You’re a damn loyal person, even to your own detriment.”

Jade flushed, but she said nothing yet. Ballantine was clearly going somewhere.

“Your talents are wasted playing unofficial bodyguard to the princess. She can take care of herself enough to defend herself within these walls, and she’ll never be without an entourage far outside them. How long will your loyalty allow you to last when you start to hurt yourself with it? To the wedding? How far beyond it? When she has children and proof of her marriage?”

“Don’t.” Jade jerked away. She had never taken such a harsh tone with the commander. She refused to apologize.

“I’m not criticizing you,” Ballantine promised. “I’m commending you. You have a great talent, Jade. I’d like to help foster it further. I've done all I can. I want to help you reach the next step.”

She looked up sharply, eyes wide. “What are you proposing?”

“I’d like to recommend you to the Shining Legion.”

“But I’m not…” Jade took a deep breath. “They wouldn’t take me.”

“They would with my word,” Ballantine said. “I can almost promise that if I recommend you, they would take you.”

Jade looked off down the hall, still seeing Kit in her mind, even though she’d long since left. “How fast would it happen?”

Ballantine shrugged. “Hard to say. You’ll at least have time to say goodbye. Probably longer.”

“I… Thank you.” They weren’t the touchy kind, so Jade nodded to him instead of trying for a hug or anything more familiar. “You’ve already done more than enough for me.”

“You’ve deserved that and more.” Ballantine’s voice was firm, leaving no room for Jade to disagree. “It’s my honor to do this for you. I mean all the respect to Princess Kit, but you belong somewhere you’ll shine, not pining in the background for someone destined to be with someone else.”

Jade blinked fast. She tried not to let her hurt reach her face, but she wasn’t sure how successful that goal was. “She won’t love him.”

“She doesn’t have to,” he said, not unkindly. “But she will marry him. She’ll marry the prince chosen for her because she is a royal. It’s what they do. They make sacrifices for their kingdoms. And often, those sacrifices are either the ones they love or the ones who love them.”

“Doesn’t she deserve to be happy?” Jade asked, already knowing that was beside the point.

Ballantine didn’t answer directly. He squeezed her shoulder and asked, “Don’t you?”

#willow 2022 #willow #kit tanthalos #jade claymore #Tanthamore #princess knight #kit x jade #my writing #my fanfic

22 notes · View notes

marvelmaniac715 · 11 months ago

Text

Thank you so much for tagging me @snarky-wallflower and @weltato! I’ll try my best to answer these questions because I am literally obsessed with writing fanfics and discussing the process is amazing:

1 - How many works do you have on AO3?

I currently have 26 works published and loads of half finished works on my Notes app waiting for the momentous day where they’re completed and released into the wild.

2 - What’s your total word count?

I just checked AO3 and my total word count currently rests at 45,641 words, which is… insane. Listen, I didn’t even know that I wrote that much, but I guess that just goes to show how much you can write when an idea takes over your brain and won’t let go until it’s became a published story or poem.

3 - What fandoms?

Chucky (mostly on Tumblr and Wattpad), Good Omens (my Ineffable babies deserve happiness), Hatchetfield (of course, that’s my main focus and my one true love), and one original work that’s a sort of eldritch horror story.

4 - Top five fics by kudos?

Gotta Get Back To School (470 kudos) - my longest fic on AO3 which has taken off in a way I absolutely didn’t expect

Brothers (224 kudos) - Hatchetfield sibling angst focussed on the Spankoffski bros with my trademark LiB cameo at the end

The Godchildren (110 kudos) - an au I really should continue

Unexpected Help (102 kudos) - Spankoffski bros angst where people die and nothing is good

The Lords in Black and Webby being a ‘functional’ family (100 kudos) - pure crack, I love it

5 - Do you respond to comments?

Always, no matter what. I am so grateful to every single one of my readers, and if you leave a comment I’ll reply as soon as I see it (I check my inbox every morning to ensure I don’t miss anything).

6 - What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably If I Loved You or Unexpected Help, maybe Ted’s Alternate Apotheosis or Metamorphosis (anything involving the Spankoffskis suffering basically).

7 - What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hands down, Gotta Get Back To School, it’s fluffy and hopeful and contains a chance at sibling bonding for Webby and the LiB, the happiest ending I could possibly write for that au.

8 - Do you get hate on fics?

I have been blessed with the most wonderful readers who never say anything cruel or untoward about my writing, and for that I’m very thankful.

9 - Do you write smut?

I gave it a shot a few days ago for the first time, but I’m very inexperienced. The characters got into bed… and I stopped. I don’t know how to write smut; I might find it easier in the future but for now I prefer crack and angst - it’s the writing styles that make me feel comfortable.

10 - *the wind whistles, for there is no 10th question to be found*

11 - Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Luckily, no. I once saw a fic with a similar concept to mine but I’m convinced it’s sheer coincidence, that’s the closest it’s ever gotten for me and that was very far from ‘stealing’.

12 - Have you ever had a fic translated?

I haven’t been granted that honour yet, but if someone wishes to translate any of my fics I’d be over the moon about it, feel free.

13 - Have you ever co-written a fic before?

As a matter of fact, I’m in the midst of writing two co-written fics: a Chucky ancient kingdom au with my amazing mutual @fanficwriter284 and a Hatchetfield au based on a play that @feathertru and I were in together this summer.

14 - What’s your all-time favourite ship?

I’m tempted to say Paulkins because their romance is so beautiful in every timeline, and I’m even more tempted to say Ineffable Husbands because the end of Good Omens Season 2 broke me (just let them be happy, @neil-gaiman) but my heart will forever belong to Lautski. Young love is a favourite trope of mine, and they’re so happy together; it warms my heart to write about them and see them interacting in canon.

15 - What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

Five Questions. I liked the concept and actually uploaded two chapters to AO3 but I’ve written so many fics like it and I’ve sadly lost motivation to continue that one.

16 - What are your writing strengths?

I’d have to say angst, countless fandom references and seamlessly incorporating the Lords in Black and or Webby into almost every fic I write.

17 - What are your writing weaknesses?

Planning. I write all of my fics in one go with only vague plot outlines. Gotta Get Back To School didn’t have a proper plot until around Chapter Four.

18 - Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I’m only fluent in English, but for one fic I used some Latin (Google Translated of course) just for realism (it was a god reciting a spell).

19 - First fandom you wrote for?

Chucky. I’d been posting Chucky fics here on Tumblr for about a year before I made the switch to Hatchetfield.

20 - Top three fics I’ve ever written?

Gotta Get Back To School - I am so proud of this fic and all the love it’s received, thank you for welcoming my High School story with such great enthusiasm and open arms - every time I nearly gave up, I was spurred on by bookmarks, comments and kudos reminding me who it was all for.

If I Loved You - my first ever angst fic on AO3 which reminded me how much I love writing angst, also very well received which I’m so thrilled about.

Pandora’s Descent - an original story I wrote about a very curious little girl whose questioning gets her in a spot of trouble. I’d love for all of you to check it out; it currently has 7 hits and I’m ever so proud of it.

Tags: @silvershewolf247, @fanficwriter284, @feathertru

20 Questions for Fic Writers

@snarky-wallflower Thanks for the tag! This was a lot of fun :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

67 currently, but I have deleted a few old ones lol

2. What’s your total word count?

Now, when I tell you I went overboard on this question, I went overboard. My private, unposted, solely-written-by-me fics' total word count is 227,868. My total word count for fics I've collaborated with @charismabee on is 477,549, and my total word count on AO3 is 389,530. However, quite a few of my AO3 fics are collabs with Red, so if you take away everything like Wilting Flowers and Owl House but Kindergarten, you're left with 225,235 words written solely by me. So, if you total up 225,235 + 227,868 + 477,549, then you get a grand total of 930,652 words! Then, of course, there's the whole matter of my old fics on regular Word and not Docs, which would probably add up to at least another 50,000 total considering we're talking about my ASOUE and DT17 phases, as well as all of the private Viva Pinata and miscellaneous musical stuff lurking in there, and we've got that weird writing app on my tablet that I used a lot a couple of years ago whenever my phone got confiscated, but I cannot be bothered to search through all of that right now. So, it mostly rounds up to around 1,000,000 words. Fanfiction may or may not be taking over my life. (Gosh I love maths <3)

3. What fandoms?

I've written mostly for the Kindergarten 1 and 2 fandom, my total fics on AO3 for it totaling 38. However, I have written a heck of a lot of OMORI as well, and dabble in the Owl House, DHMIS, a few webseries on YT as well as the Hatchetverse sometimes, too!

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

1. World's Okayest Uncle at 799. My latest WIP, written for the Hatchetfield Universe and based around the concept of Paul Matthews becoming the accidental uncle of every kid in town. Each chapter focuses on a different child (the three so far about Alice, Richie and Pete respectively), and once all of them have been sufficiently adopted, I've been considering adding some slice-of-life stuff, exploring the changed character dynamics, and looking into parts of canon that would change in the AU as well. 2. Hollow at 455, a Hunter-centric one-shot for the Owl House set immediately after season 2 finished. It was written in the post King's Tide craze of awesome Human Realm content, so it got quite a lot of hits at the time. It focuses on Hunter dealing with the aftermath of Belos seemingly having died, and himself having being thrown into a completely new, unfamiliar world as an unfamiliar God took over his own :) 3. Flapjacks at 279, another Hunter-centric piece because TOH fans can't get enough of him lol (I am very much one of those fans). I began writing it back when Thanks to Them was first released, then got the motivation to finish it after I saw Watching and Dreaming. It focuses on Hunter returning to the Human Realm after the Collector's defeat, as well as Camila's thoughts on being a parent of who knows' how many kids at this point. Hunter finally gets the chance to mourn, and finds out what a flapjack actually is. 4. Gravesfield Historical Society, at 275. In which it's only natural that the Boiling Isles' leading Human Expert decides to do some research, and Gus does his very best to ignore the images plaguing him from looking into Belos' mind. Vee looks for some closure, Hunter is very protective over his little siblings, and Gus just wants to have a fun day at the museum. Things... Don't go to plan. 5. Fading, at 215. Yet another TOH work (I was around when the fandom was active as heck), one of the shortest pieces I've ever written at only 722 words. It's from Flapjack's POV during that scene in Thanks for Them. You know the one. I made lots of people cry, and sacrificed the birb.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Of course!! I thoroughly appreciate every comment I receive; they really make my day. Being part of an active fandom with the Uncle Paul AU has sort of taken me by storm so my inbox is pretty clogged at the moment, but I promise that I have read and smiled over and will reply to the comments all of my lovely readers have left behind! It means so much that someone's not only taken the time to read what I've written, but that they liked it enough to leave a comment behind. Even just keysmashes or "<33"s are really lovely to see, so thank you to the wonderful commentors out there! You guys are awesome :D

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Ooh, now this is a tough one! Pretty much 95% of what I write is angst, with a good 70% being Hurt No Comfort. Still, I think the angstiest ending I've ever written would have to be that of either "Enough", in which 13 y/o me decided it was a good idea to follow the perspective of kindergartener Theodore Huxley as his brother pushed him to his death, or "Wilted", in which 13 y/o me decided it was a good idea to follow the perspective of suicidal kindergartener Lily as she gave up on finding the one person who cared about her and committed suicide as a result of being bullied. Wilted should probably win out considering the implications of what would happen to Billy as a result, and bc the ending subsequently led to Nugget's death too, but Ted's train of thought in Enough is so gosh darn sad.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Definitely "McDonald's". That's the fluffiest thing I've ever written, no doubt about it. Not a smidgen of angst, just a bunch of kids with colourful eyes and pointy ears walking into a fast food restaurant and discovering what chicken nuggets are. It literally ends with the promise of more cute adventures to come, so I'd say this one's a no-brainer loll

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've only ever received hate once, on a little Gravity Falls AU I made entitled "Puppet Strings and Stage Curtains". I got some pretty nasty criticism on it and, as a kid who was still very anxious about posting stuff online, it really impacted me at the time. I'm still a little nervous even now to open up my inbox because I think I might have gotten another comment like that shfjdhhgkjh. I wound up abandoning the fic because my motivation was completely destroyed, and I couldn't even look at the thing without feeling ashamed. However, I haven't received any hate since, which is great! There's just no reason for it, really; if you like something, leaving a comment is wonderful, and it makes the author happy! If you don't, just don't read the fic. Leaving a hurtful comment isn't going to make anyone happy, and can be really damaging to writers. Shoutout to @weedkillercentral, who, without fail, leaves the bizzarest comments known to man on almost every work I post.

9. Do you write smut?

Nope! I am a ✨minor✨ (@snarky-wallflower dw I too am a nerdy prude, sex jokes are Ew). Still, I do enjoy writing romance from time to time! Some ships are straight-up hard not to enjoy reading/writing for :))

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Funny story, actually. I used to have Wattpad and, as much as I hated using it, a friend of mine liked the site so I used it to support her. I wound up posting some of my own stuff on there at one point. I will never be able to get over the fact that when you searched up my username online, the images used to show a picture of Sharkbomb Glomgold. How do I know this? Because small me got bored and looked up my username, and accidentally found a mirror site to Wattpad with some of my stuff on. It credited my username and everything, but I panicked about it because as far as I was aware, I had no control over whether I could take it down or what else could be put on it. So, I deleted everything on my account, and just like that, the fics on the mirror site vanished. So no, I've never had anything outright stolen-- at least, I hope I haven't-- but that was a Not Fun experience for little me a few years ago

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, I'm not famous enough for that lol. I did have an offer for someone to make a podfic of smth I wrote a few years ago, but they never got around to it. Still, if anyone ever wants to translate one of my fics, I'd love it if you did! Please just let me know and acknowledge me as the OG author; having a work translated sounds awesome.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Many thanks yet again to the amazing @charismabee, my dear co-author and the Kel shirt to my Maverick cosplay wig. The amount of hours I've spent writing with her is actually insane, as well as the times we've just messaged brainstorming AUs or having far too strong feelings about the show Elena of Avalor. We've done joint Whumptobers and Febuwhumps, fics that are combinations of the nichest stories and characters, a lot of redemption arcs for 5-year-olds... If you like my stuff, I thoroughly encourage you to go give her work a read at TheFearIsRed on AO3! :D

If anyone else ever wants to try collaborating on something, I think I'd be willing to give it a try! There are loads of talented authors on here, and co-writing is a lot of fun <3

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Hmm... Well, Paulkins is an obvious one (remember that one post about "hatchetfield fans when normal man and his barista crush show up for 5 seconds"? yeah that's me). They have a level of mutual trust and understanding that's just really nice to explore, they both have issues galore but will support each other no matter what, half infected Paul content is golden and as an avid Uncle Paul truther, Emma finding out about his many children is just too funny a concept to me. They act like teenagers when they see each other, they're both down bad, she knows he doesn't like the Christmas advert jingles, he thinks she's funny,,, they're so <3

Another strong contender is Pearla (Penny x Carla), from the K2 fandom. @goldmoth82 was the one who got me into writing about them with their absolutely incredible stuff (art, fics, you name it!). They're just a traumatised android and a thieving arsonist, what more could you want?

Gold rush (Kel x Mikhael) is another of my favourites though, mostly because it's so funny. Mikhael has declared them rivals, and Kel could not care less. Mikhael challenges him to races, and Kel beats him easily. Mikhael insults him often, but Kel doesn't retaliate. Mikhael wants to be independent and special, to stand out from everyone else. Kel wants to be appreciated as more than just Hero's brother, to be liked and acknowledged as himself. Mikhael would vehemently deny his feelings until Daphne and Bowen tied them up together and forced him to confess. Rivals are just lovers in disguise, everyone. One-sided gold rush is even funnier, because they're technically one-sided rivals. Kel was Mikhael's homosexual awakening. Mikhael looks so dumb and flamboyant because he's trying to impress him. Mikhael claims he hates him and that his bright red face is from anger after Kel effortlessly beats him time and time again. I love them.

But I think out of everything, Wrightworth would have to take my top pic for favourite ship. Gay lawyers who would die for each other for the win.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

Ohh gosh. There are quite a few, but I'd probably say this year's Whumptober. My mental health went schwoop this October and I only got up to day 11 despite my plans. I still intend to finish the collab one with Red when I have time again (exams suck), and I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to get around to completing it. At least there's always next year! :"]

16. What are your writing strengths?

Definitely characterisation. I have a lot of fun getting into characters' heads and making studies on them in different scenes or just overall, and have a lot of fun bouncing different personalities off of each other. Once I know a character, I know the character, and writing their POV is as simple as breathing lol. I'd also say that I'm pretty good at tension building and breaking, as well as Hurt No Comfort (you need some good old angst, I'm your gal).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes, for one, though I've been improving on them since I started the TOH Kindergarten AU! I'd also say that I struggle with slower-paced, filler sort of stuff. I might like to build up to an event, but chapters that don't have plot relevance just sort of stump me lol, even when they're necessary :)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I enjoy learning languages, and have been teaching myself Spanish for the past couple of years or so. However, writing them is a whole separate thing entirely. If I had a translator, I'd be all good! I just get a little worried when I write any language that isn't Spanish because google translate is unreliable as heck, so I typically tend to avoid it. Luckily, none of my fandoms really require it- but if that Franziska & Miles brainrot doesn't go away soon, I might be in a bit of a pickle trying to write German dialogue hshjhgfk

19. First fandom you wrote for?

A Series of Unfortunate Events (the Netflix show). It was the first fandom I got really, properly into, diving in headfirst at the age of about 12 and finding a lot of awesome content. The obsession I had with VFDBaudelaireFile13's Violet Snicket AU "Misery Loves Company" a few years ago was wild. My writing back then was very jolty, and I wrote in chapters that only lasted a few paragraphs with big, bold titles that often had at least two exclamation marks at the end. Still, ASOUE is one of my favourite shows to this day, and I don't regret a thing from my time binge-reading everything I could find for it (except that one lemons fic I accidentally came across when starved for content), nor any of the silly little unposted AUs I wrote on Word.

20. Top 3 fics I've ever written:

I puzzled over this question for ages, but found it impossible to choose just one! Ignore that I'm cheating a little here, and take three instead <3

1. An unposted collaborative work with @charismabee/TheFearIsRed that we called MPT. It was the first big fic I ever wrote, and it was probably what really got me into writing as a hobby. I got to spend time at random intervals writing about and whumping my favourite characters with someone I'm very close with, making up the plot as we went along. I remember coming up with the initial idea on a swingset, and spending hours colour-coding every segment of those 50,000 words based on each mention of a character as well as who wrote what. MPT is messy, and a tad repetitive in places, and while finished, I don't believe it's something I'll ever post. But it holds a special place in my heart, and it's a lot of fun looking back on my writing from a couple years ago compared to now 2. Not sure if this fully counts, but an untitled Omori WIP I've got going atm is definitely up there. It's Hero-centric with huge emphasis on his trauma, following the course of the year the events of the game occur in. I've had a blast writing his thoughts and time at college, and I'm geberally just really proud of it thus far. Hopefully, it'll be done by January in time for his birthday! :) 3. Now this one is a posted work– Magical Girls: Omori!, another collab with Red. We came up with the idea, binge-watched season one of Glitter Force on Netflix, and ran with the plot. We've planned out all of season 1 with ideas for season 2, incorporated a plethora of great characters, and been able to mess around with a fun fantasy high school full of our favourites. It's always wonderful to write, and I really like how it's been going!

Thank you again to @snarky-wallflower for the tag! You're amazing <3

As for people I know, I've tagged the vast majority of you already sjhkffg oops.

@charismabee @goldmoth82 @weltato @inprisonforsparkling hey there jpr the au mastermind, fanartist of the century, paul whump bestie and king of michie. you guys are some of my favourite writers out there, i'd love to see what you answer with for this (no pressure ofc!) <33

16 notes · View notes

phoenixyfriend · 4 years ago

Text

Commander Buir

Follow-up to this post. Not in any particular order, just spitballing ideas, with contributions from several friends on discord.

Like presumably it takes long enough for them all to meet up again that Anakin and Cody do, in fact, end up treating each other like family, just so I can have that good good "well, guess I'm Dad now" energy. Shmi isn't entirely sure what's going on but she's not a slave anymore and her kid seems to like this rando mando, so.

Anakin gets to have a mom and two dads, though one of the dads is arguably younger than him.

Also when they all meet up again and Cody explains the "General Skywalker got shrunk" thing, there are three reactions: (General) Obi-Wan: Oh, Anakin. Obi-Wan: [gestures to take him, ends up with an armful of clingy padatoddler] Anakin: You can't blame this on me, Obi. Obi-Wan, a little teary, because babies cause emotions: Of course I can, you absurd human being. ------ Rex: That's... my general. Anakin: I am, Captain. Rex: Cool cool cool I'm gonna go stand where I can't, uh, break you. Anakin: I'm not THAT fragile! ------ Ahsoka: [gasp] Skyguy is SKYKID! Anakin: Padawan, this is-- Ahsoka, grabbing him and cuddling: Oh my goodness you're adorable this is the best day ever. Anakin: This is humiliating, Snips, put me down. Ahsoka: Never.

Anakin hates being a toddler because of the lack of independence but Cody keeps picking him up when he's cranky and just holding him until he falls asleep and that's... nice.......

- The brain limitations aren't quite as bad as the situation with Sokanth and Ylliben in the other AU, but - Even if his brain is mostly adjusted he’s still got a tiny body with different needs that he’s not used to. Like, he needs to sleep more but he’s got more energy than usual when he’s awake and it’s all weird.

Cody carrying around toddler Anakin like "God you give me ulcers but you're adorable, you little shit."

Inconveniently tiny body aside, Anakin has a pretty great time in this au. His family are all together and safe and within reach. His wife isn't around, but toddler brain means he doesn't have the Romance Drive, so that's not as bad as it could be It could be significantly worse.

@atagotiak asked: Does Anakin get annoyed about being called cute? - To which I say, He bites the first few times but Shmi tells him that's Naughty so he stops. - Babies are cute so you packbond with them before they’re annoying, Anakin is cute as a self defense mechanism - He’s extra annoying so he needs to be extra cute

You know how you need to keep an eye on toddlers so they don't, like, fall down the stairs or put something toxic in their mouth? - They need to keep an eye on Anakin specifically so he doesn't rewire the ship they're in while they're in hyperspace. - He has less self control on account of being smol. He still has all the mechanical knowledge! Just less comprehension of y’know, consequences.

Anakin, with a sippy cup: This is demeaning. Ahsoka: Your hands don't work great enough to avoid accidents yet. Anakin: It's still embarrassing.

General Kenobi can't just kill Maul, not when Maul is baby right now (sixteen, which is baby enough) so he just. Kinda. Kidnaps a baby Sith. (It's fine. He's fine.)

General Kenobi (not to be confused with Padawan Kenobi) decides to declare Maul his new padawan because someone has to deal with this teenager, and Plo already claimed the rest of Ahsoka's training. And Anakin's three, so.

"What do we do with Maul?" "Eh, I can handle him. I dealt with teenage Anakin getting arrested for illegal pod-racing twice a month, I can work with this."

Maul bites, but only slightly more often than Anakin, it's fine

Ahsoka definitely bullies Maul whenever possible

Consider: Rex holding very still because Anakin wanted to be tall, so he climbed Rex. Being unexpectedly climbed is better than being unexpectedly yeeted. It's still extremely nerve-wracking. - Cody is perfectly capable of running around with a backpacking toddler General, but Rex freezes like a statue. - Ahsoka finds this hilarious

You know how little kids like to be thrown around and swung in circles and stuff like that? This must get even more ridiculous with force users. Can throw a child real high and catch them safely. - Rex panics whenever Ahsoka throws her chibified Master

Literally everyone except Rex loves being yeeted. Even Maul can appreciate a good tactical yeet no shut up he's not having fun this is TRAINING - Rex is Suffering - Cody, a very Tired Dad, deserves to mock his vod'ika a little, as stress relief - Rex, a certified Little Brother, shoves Cody off something tall. Jokes on him, Cody thinks freefall is fun too.

Tia asked: So the people who didn’t exist yet got flung bodily back in time and Anakin did the mental time travel. Why did Obi-Wan not become Padawan Kenobi? (I mean “because I want it that way” is def a good enough answer I’m just wondering if there’s any reason.) - Which, well, it really was mostly "I want to" but here's two options, both of which come down to Blame Daughter and Father. 1. They figured a responsible adult Jedi Master was needed to convince people. 2. Nobody was supposed to get de-aged but Daughter figured they needed to make Anakin less liable to kill things for a few years. - Also IDK the Force God-Manifestations also took away any risk of rapid aging and early death from the clones because uhhhhhhhhhhh I said so

Rex and Ahsoka are fumbling their way through a relationship where ages are just really confusing and awkward, so they're keeping it to just kisses and cuddles for a bit.

Cody is so tired he doesn't even realize anyone's hitting on him until it's been three years of co-parenting with Shmi and his General. - Somehow Anakin knows Cody is in a relationship before Cody does. Cody has never been so embarrassed. - How did he manage to be less observant than Skywalker? -- it was sabotage; all his brain cells were taken up in managing said Skywalker -- Because Skywalker was up at three in the morning whacking a training droid with a stick so he didn't have the energy for Relationships

Also Shmi's come-ons are super subtle, while the General's are... well, Cody's gotten very used to ignoring anything ambiguous on that end because fraternization rules, and also because Obi-Wan flirts a lot with everyone. So.

Please imagine Cody and General Kenobi walking around with Anakin tucked into a toddler sling while they do whatever work they've ended up with at the Temple. - Yes, Cody is helping the Jedi figure out the best plan of attack to take down this slave ring because his grasp on tactics is phenomenal and he knows how to deploy people at greatest efficiency, but also he's got a nosy toddler on his hip who keeps offering his own insane-but-competent ideas. - General Kenobi ends up with a Council Seat just on account of, like, being the kind of person he is. As often as not, he's got Anakin tucked into his robes, chewing on the ear of a stuffed tooka or something.

IDK what Shmi's doing but apparently Legends had it that some of the administrative and support positions in the Temple were held by non-Jedi civilians? So probably something like that.

GENERAL KENOBI LECTURING PADAWAN MAUL WHILE ANAKIN'S BALANCED ON HIS HIP AND GLARING AT MAUL FOR STEALING HIS DAD

General Kenobi: Ahsoka's babysitting. Anakin: I'm her master, I don't need babysitting, this is-- General Kenobi: Fine, then you need supervision, so that you don't blow up a training salle again. Anakin: And you think Ahsoka would stop me? General Kenobi, eye twitching: Fine, I'm leaving you with Plo.

Even if he’s mentally an adult Anakin always needs supervision Look at canon! Anakin was left without supervision for like two days and he became a Sith

Quinlan gets distracted by how attractive General Kenobi is and tells Obi-Wan "dude, you're gonna be so hot once you can get rid of the stupid haircut" and Obi-Wan pushes him into the nearest pond.

They end up with this weird "Uncle Jango" situation (uncle to Anakin, via weird brotherhood-ish to Cody) because Rex and Cody are just like "Uhhhhhhhhh yeah okay" about him eventually, and Jango just like. Drops by. Trying to Earn Affection Of Blood Kin by bringing weird gifts for them and their (ugh) Jedi.

"Okay, Rex'ika, I stopped by Shili--" "What?" "--and apparently this is a delicacy there, so just... your girlfriend will like it." "She's not my girlfriend." "..." "Okay, I can't call her my girlfriend. Jedi have rules about that sort of thing, and--" "This will make your Jedi happy, probably. Just take it, kid."

Baby Anakin got his arm back but for some inexplicable reason still has The Eye Scar. He matches Buir.

#disaster lineage #Anakin Skywalker #CodyWan #Commander Cody #Obi Wan Kenobi #Ahsoka Tano #Captain Rex #Shmi Skywalker #Maul #Darth Maul #Rexsoka #time travel #de aging #baby characters #Quinlan Vos #Phoenix Posts #Commander Buir

1K notes · View notes

slytherinsnekxvii · 3 years ago

Text

let's talk about lily evans and the marauders, aka moony, wormtail, padfoot and prongs. given that i didn't use their actual names, i think you can figure out where this is going. it's also long as hell, so. canon vs fanon, marauder edition, except snek is sleep deprived.

now, before we begin, i don't dislike the marauders. or lily, tbh. if I'm being perfectly, genuinely honest, i still go back and forth sometimes but they've been growing on me for a while now. the canon versions, at least. fanon does them real dirty, and that's part of why i'm writing this, because i'm genuinely tired of it. it's an injustice.

you can at least make excuses for james and lily, who were so undeveloped that jkr practically dropped a fill-in-the-blank sheet of character information in our laps, but sirius, remus and peter were around long enough for y'all to get real acquainted with them.

in canon, sirius black is an unhinged mf. genuinely. this isn't to say he's a bad guy, in fact, we see that he's still capable of doing good things, still capable of love, still capable of all the things that prove he's actually not bad at heart, just,,, severely traumatised and very steeped in negativity from his time with the dementors. what i'm saying is that this man is absolutely, no questions asked, no holds barred demented, and how could he not be? the guy sat wrongfully imprisoned in azkaban for twelve years, a good portion of which he spent as a dog in order to protect himself from the dementors. he certainly wasn't completely insane, but you cannot tell me that he was all there. he got out of azkaban fuelled almost solely by the intent to get revenge on pettigrew, tried to commit murder in front of three witnesses who were also children—one of whom was his godson—ate rats and was also malnourished, which i'm certain did not help the situation any. this man is off his goddamn rocker, and you know what? you love to see it. good for him.

oh, but, snek, that's what he's like as an adult. what about when they were at school? before azkaban? my guy, the reaction he has to grimmauld place is not the reaction of someone without trauma. i don't believe that walburga and orion were the type to physically abuse their children, but whatever happened in that house helped to fuck him up enough that he skipped the joke of part of practical joke, and pranked snape by telling him how to meet a werewolf that he knew would be fully transformed and dangerous to humans. more than that, the werewolf was remus, whom he's friends with, and who—best case scenario—would be facing a trial if james hadn't stepped in. you can say that maybe he didn't think about or understand the gravitas of his actions, but at the end of it, that's not how properly sane people react to people they dislike, and that's not how they treat their friends. if anything, it reads like he was in the middle of a breakdown and absolutely losing his shit and he wasn't thinking at all.

my guy went through some serious shit, and was in no way completely mentally stable. we can see pretty clearly that he's got a serious dark side to him that probably would have gone unbridled had he not disagreed with his family, and yet, fanon took one look at him and went, "teehee, uwu bad boi go vroom."

fanon said padfoot is a pretty boy with nice hair who is tastefully traumatised from his horribly abusive household. sirius rides his motorcycle and plays jokes and flirts with anything that moves, but he can do no real wrong and always comes back to his soft, bookish, chocolate-loving boyfriend remus, who will laugh about his lycanthropy and quietly disapprove but secretly laugh at his friends' antics while hiding his smile in his cardigan.

respectfully, what in the absolute fuck.

i'd put that meme in here if i could, the one that's like, "well done, you've broken _______ down to its bare essentials," but no. i can't bc it doesn't even apply. this isn't a meme, it's theseus' fucking ship.

fanon broke it down, and replaced the pieces one by one until we got to this point, where we need to sit down and ask ourselves, "is this even the same character?"

the answer is no, by the way. it isn't. when people talk about woobifying characters—you know, taking away every flaw they have, romanticising everything they do and making them only capable of doing good, wonderful, lovely things?—this is what we mean.

and it'd be one thing if it was just the one character, but, no. fanon went all in and made them all squeaky clean and boring, especially peter, who draws the shortest of the straws.

remus got fucked, too. not just because fanon insists on sticking him into a relationship with sirius. which, we'll tackle wolfstar in a bit, but that's not even the worst of it. here, we have yet another example of blatant, rampant woobifying. again, is he a bad person? no. we know he's a good guy, we know he's generally kind and well-mannered, we know that he wants to fo the right thing but hey, fun fact. did you know that you can be nice and a coward? did you know that you can be benevolent and good and kindly and have the greatest of intentions and still be shady as fuck? no? ask dumbledore. the man played people like chess pieces when he needed to, and he was a twinkly grandpa. these are things that can coexist.

teenage remus is a coward who, understandably, does not stand up to his friends, likely for fear of being ostracised, and doesn't uphold his prefect duties as he should and takes part in their bullying of snape as a result. he lets them romp with him in werewolf form while they are in their animagus forms and then, he lets them continue to do so even after they have multiple close calls, which, again, had anything happened, would have resulted in a trial in the best case scenario.

grownup remus is still a coward, he tells no one that sirius can move about the school in his animagus form despite wholeheartedly believing that he's a mass murderer, he tries to run out on his wife and unborn kid. he isn't deliberately making attempts to harm anyone, but he's content to sit back and let things happen to him and around him so he doesn't rock the boat, although he is capable of action, which we see when he is more than willing to help sirius merk pettigrew in the shack. he can be careless, he runs out to the shack knowing he hasn't taken his wolfsbane and ends up transforming in front of the students he, as a teacher, is meant to be protecting. of course, this doesn't negate his good qualities, it just bears repeating that his flaws do exist, and they're pretty serious.

fanon moony is always pleasant and kind and soft-spoken and bookish, and he always has to have his chocolate. he knows when to tell off his friends, and he'll do it, even if he's secretly amused by everything they do and laughs about it with his best friend, lily evans, who coincidentally spends all her time with them so he and sirius can go on double dates with james and lily and no one has to remember peter exists.

why. theseus' ship 2.0. does the actual character still exist or is this something entirely different thing bearing the same name?

as for peter, who needs peter pettigrew, the actual, legitimate, fourth marauder when you have lily evans? canon pettigrew is opportunistic as fuck. he's latching himself to the biggest bad on the block and he's going all in. for teenage peter, that was james and sirius, and for adult peter, that's voldemort. canon peter is good enough at transfiguration to master the animagus transformation, just like his friends, and he's good enough at potions to brew the potion that gives voldemort a body. and honestly, you can't say he wasn't brave. he could've run off somewhere and died, or changed his identity or something after he faked his death and framed sirius, but, no. he goes and resurrects voldemort. that's fucked up, yeah, but it happened and honestly, i respect that it. he stuck to his guns.

fanon wormtail is lucky if he exists beyond being a spineless sycophant for james and sirius, or an evil conniving little rat who's looking to toss his entire friend group to the wolves at eleven.

of course, this isn't meant to negate his bad qualities, he still murdered people and framed sirius and sold out the potters to die, but his good characteristics do exist, and james, sirius and remus genuinely were his friends.

and now, we get to lily and james.

we have hardly any information on either of them. they're a pair of cardboard cutouts that we can paint and stick flyers to and colour outside the lines however we want. we can do whatever the fuck, as long lily is brave and smart and somewhat kind and james is brave and willing to die for his family. we were essentially handed a pair of ocs.

and yet.

what little bits of canon we have are thrown out of the window regardless.

james is privileged and rich, and he throws hexes for fun. he's willing to hex lily when she disagrees with him, and then, he goes behind her back to continue hexing snape after she believes that he's stopped doing so. and that's all we know about him until he dies for his family at twenty-one years old. once again, say it with me: this does not negate his good qualities. he definitely had them, he took sirius in when sirius ran away from home, he became an animagus to keep remus company as a wolf, and he saved snape in the shack, thereby saving remus and sirius by extension. him having flaws does not make him a bad person.

fanon prongs is a feminist. he fights for equal rights for women everywhere, and he constantly treats his girlfriend, lily, like an absolute queen. he's the hottest boy in school and everyone claps when he walks through the halls. mcgonagall and dumbledore are always patting him on the back and making jokes with him. he has a built-in dark detector that helps him sense when someone is a evil and needs to he punished.

give me a break. the dude's cool and all, but was the gary stu treatment necessary?

...oh, he needed to match fanon lily? right, right.

canon lily is a contradiction unto herself. she's supposedly a great friend, but since we see her at a point where they were already drifting apart, we see her putting little effort into keeping their friendship afloat. she victim blames based on rumours, she doesn't seem to care over much about what snape has to say about the people who have been tormenting him since day one. and she's justified, of course, she doesn't have to stick around. canon lily is a bit of hypocrite, she says that snape calls everyone of her birth mudblood, but then that begs the question why she still hangs around with him if that's the case. he calls her mudblood, she retaliates by calling him snivellus, and finishes up with a dig about his underwear, which, sure, it's kicking a man with a rusty spoon and pouring salt in the wound, but she's, again, justified. i get where she was coming from. and then, of course, she dies for her kid after marrying the guy who relentlessly bullied her quote-unquote best friend for their entire school careers. but, like i said, canon lily is, in many ways, a contradiction.

lily is basically a plot device. she pushes everyone's narrative but her own, and does little else.

of course, this trend would continue in fanon. fanon lily exists to be the perfect girl who gets really angry over the slightest injustice, and of course, she gets to be one half of one of the oldest enemies-to-lovers "it was just sexual tension" cliche pairings in the book. she's just,,, a mary sue. in so many fics, so many headcanons, she's just pettigrew's stand-in, a girl to form a gang with marlene, mary and dorcas—who happen to be more undeveloped ocs who also get the woobify mary sue treatment—to parallel the marauders. there is nothing compelling about her character when she's presented as a saint, and even less when she's supposedly the other moral compass for the marauders that doesn't actually work because she thinks that james is cute.

and this brings me to the next topic. jily. what, why, how. this was supposed to be a healthy, happy relationship that would have lasted in the long run? absolutely not. even for its time, i can't say that i see it lasting.

first of all, jkr presents james' crush on lily as just that: a crush. a mildly obsessive one, but a crush nonetheless, which she tries to liken to the pulling of pigtails. and then, we see that james' way of getting her to go out with him consists of blackmail, and when that doesn't work, he resorts to threatening her. this could have been set aside if he had actually, genuinely changed when they started spending more time together, but as we're told by sirius and remus, he didn't. he just got better at hiding what he was up to. and it has to be that he hid it, because if she knew, this further damages the character that she's set up to have and paints her out to be either unable to stand up to him or an enabler.

regardless, they get married. and while i have trouble believing that it was out of genuine love, there are scenarios that could make some semblance of sense. it's wartime, after all, and maybe lily is worried about her stability in the wizarding world, so why not marry into an established family whose son is already showing interest? or perhaps, she falls into the trap of every bad boy cliche ever, and she thinks to herself, well, i got him to be better then, maybe i can get him to do even better in the future. or maybe, she doesn't get into a relationship with him immediately and sees him on and off, until eventually, she accidentally gets pregnant and they scramble to have a shotgun wedding so as not to leave lily alone at nineteen with a baby. or maybe they marry each other because they're there and sure, neither of then is ready and they don't know what love even is but what else is there to do when there's a dark lord about? anyways, the point is, they get married.

and then what? if we count pottermore into canon, he goes on to further damage her relationship with petunia and vernon, to the point where she ends up crying. if we don't, she fades into the background enough that nobody has anything to say about her. she's harry's mum, she's james' wife, lily potter, she was kind and smart and brave and that's it. her agency is gone, anything else we have of her personality is gone.

jily just,,, wasn't built to last. and, yeah, this,,, this is a hill i'll die on.

same with wolfstar, honestly. there are so many reasons why it wouldn't work, but fanon has made it so fucking prevalent that it's literally everywhere no matter where you look.

first of all, i've said it before and i'll say it again. sirius is more likely to get with james that he is to ever end up in a relationship with remus. their chemistry is just,,, underdeveloped. net zero for a relationship.

secondly, sirius instigated the werewolf prank, and lupin would have paid the price for it. this could have been overlooked, but he doesn't seem the slightest bit guilty about any of it when it's brought up in poa. he could have been responsible for lupin losing the security of his place at hogwarts in the best case scenario, and in the worst case, his life. and he seems to look forward to full moons, even though they clearly aren't pleasant for remus, which,,, yeah, you're going to have fun, but like, maybe be concerned about the fact that your friend undergoes excruciating pain and it isn't a pleasant time for him? read the room, my g.

thirdly, they don't trust each other as much as fanon seems to think they do. they were both willing to believe each other the traitor before ever suspecting pettigrew. sirius thought remus gave away the potters, hell, he thought remus was a spy for voldemort, and remus was convinced that sirius was a mass murderer. neither of them needed to be convinced.

fourthly, maybe i'm reading too much into it, but like. sirius had money. remus had no money, since, yk, he was a werewolf and struggling for cash and still, sirius,,, did not leave him any money. i feel like if you had money to spare, you would give to your friend who is literally poor. but, again, maybe i'm reading too much into it and this isn't as valid a point as i think it is.

and ehh, the fifth reason is that it's,,, actually very much not the representation for the ltgbt community that fanon says it is but y'all aren't ready for that conversation.

anyways, just,,, even when you set the couple shit aside, the power dynamics between everyone here is fucked. like, james and sirius are clearly at the top of food chain calling the shots and egging each other on. then there's lily, who isn't even a marauder, but is always ever-so-slightly above remus but still not on their level, because, well. neither of them actually listen to her. remus is the novelty friend, the friend who's,,, alright, i guess, but you keep them around specifically because they're funny or they can dance or they have something that you can either show off to other people or keep as your little inside joke, your little secret, yk? and peter is just sort of there. like, yeah, he can do what we can but does that make him as good as we are? no. does he have a funny little something about him that we can exploit? nah. therefore he sits at the bottom. and like, yeah, james and sirius are on the same level, but james is yanking sirius' chain, not the other way around. anyways, like i said. power dynamic's fucked and it bothers me that we were given all of this, and fanon decided to take it all and throw it away so they could give us flamboyant!badboi!sirius black x softboi!motherhen!remus lupin going on double dates with feminist!trustfundbaby!james potter and saint!lily evans while ignoring peter pettiwho?

theseus' fucking ship, indeed.

anyways, this needed to be said. it might not make as much sense as i want it to, considering it's 4:12 in the morning as i'm posting this, after taking a break from writing to do some research and coming across way too much content about fanon marauders, but it's here and it still makes enough sense that you can read it and understand what i mean. and like, at the end of the day, you can go ahead and headcanon whatever you please, you can write fic and make art and do whatever you like, just,,, remember that they're exactly that. headcanons. stop presenting fanon as canon. please. i'm literally begging. we actually have evidence against it. just,,, acknowledge that they're headcanons and stop putting them forward as though they're able to fit into canon. please.

636 notes · View notes

thestalwartheart · 2 years ago

Note

I loveeee the discussions that have been taking place on your page! I fell in love with Bond when spectre came out, fell out of it a little but after I watched no time to die earlier this year my love for Craig!Bond is back with a vengeance!! I love the point brought up about how MI6 deals with their employees on a psychological level. It would have been really interesting to see more of Bond in MI6 mandated therapy or something because if there’s one person who can make that a compelling emotional moment while still having it be in character and make sense for a Bond movie, it’s Daniel Craig. Anyway, all this has also got me thinking about our dear Moneypenny. I can only imagine how horrified she must have been after she shoots him off the train and for months she lives with this knowledge that she’s “killed” a fellow agent even though she didn’t make the call. I always wonder how MI6 would’ve dealt with that and what kind of support she was given, if any. We know she gets taken out of field work but what are some of the discussions surrounding that? I’ve read a few Bond/Moneypenny fics which deal with this to some extent but it would have been nice to see a moment between M and Moneypenny dealing with Bond’s “death”. I think overall something I would’ve liked to see more of is the relationship between Bond and his colleagues outside of just what they do for him on missions. I get that these are Bond movies and they have a lot of ground to cover in not a lot of time so in a way I’m not surprised that we only get small glimpses into Q and Moneypenny when they’re not doing things for Bond but Daniel Craig has talked a lot about how Bond considers the MI6 squad to be his family and it would have been nice to see that reflected more.

Hello! I'm glad you've been enjoying the discussions. You're catching me as I'm caffienating here, so I hope this response makes sense!

There is another ask coming up that talks about therapy, so I'm going to put most of my thoughts there, but you're so right about Daniel Craig's ability to balance Bond's character in heavy emotional scenes. I would have loved to see that.

Selfishly (again!) I'm going to use the opportunity to talk about Moneypenny! Because oh my God!!! She gets such a raw deal in both canon and fandom that it drives me insane. And tbh, if there was ever a ship I would write for outside of 00Q, it would be Bond/Moneypenny.

My (personal) opinion around the incident in Turkey, which I probably won't die on a hill for, but intrigues me anyway, is that she didn't get any support. I've read a few really great fics where she kind of became this outcast at MI6 and it's really wormed my way into my understanding of her in canon. Partly, I think it's because the MI6 psychologists aren't really there to help anyone heal (more on that later). The point you make about wanting to see M & Moneypenny mourning Bond is so interesting. I can see that happening, but I can also see M being very stiff upper lipped about it. I don't think she'd be so unprofessional as to resent Moneypenny for making that shot (though I've seen that interpretation around fandom too), but I think she would be quite realistic, and potentially a little cold-hearted about it.

There's an interesting moment with Nomi in NTTD which I always read more into than I should, where Nomi makes that "I see why you tried to shoot him" joke, and Moneypenny just looks so tired. Like, after 5+ years (probably like 7 or 8 at this point), it's still following her around. For all she's done in the meantime, she's still the Woman Who Shot Bond. I broke my own heart thinking about it all. It doesn't help that the writers just killed her personality from SPECTRE onwards. I don't know whether that was an intentional choice or not, but it was really frustrating.

In fandom, I find she's often relegated to a role in helping Bond and Q get together (which I've definitely been guilty of, but I hope I make her more of a true friend than a calayst/cupid figure). Also, I usually find - and this was the case in post-Skyfall canon too - that she's weirdly sexless in fic, unless you're reading Bond/Moneypenny. Which is bizarre, because the flirting and the innuendo, and the kind of angsty reality that she'll never see more from Bond than that is the point. All of it is such food for thought, and I've actually been writing a Moneypenny-centric fic that is helping me put together my thoughts around it all. I remain endlessly obsessed by Bond's colleagues at MI6 outside of his story. The last thing I want is the Disney+-ification of the Bond franchise, but I would kill for a well-thought-out spinoff that handled the inner workings of MI6.

Alright, I've ranted enough. Thank you so much for the ask! I hope I wasn't endlessly annoying by using it as another jumping off point ❤️

#ask box #unpopular opinions #moneypenny

19 notes · View notes

shima-draws · 3 years ago

Text

Some thoughts about Legends Arceus!

Okay okay okay I’m REALLY enjoying this game so far holy shit. I did not expect it to be so fun especially the Pokemon catching mechanic but that’s turning out to be a total blast.

-The music is so so so pretty and I love how there’s multiple tracks that take direct inspiration/are subtle remixes from DPP (looking at you Eterna Forest)

-THE INTRO??? It’s really a lot like a classic Pokemon game intro with a professor but instead it’s just Arceus going. Hey. Sup fam. Need your help with smth ;) Also Arceus talking in like fancy old speech like using thee and thou cndnfnnd

-Love how it’s confirmed from the start that you’re a time traveler. My question tho is is this the same Dawn/Lucas from Sinnoh as we know it now?? Is this pre-DPP before they became a trainer or post after they become Champion…real questions

-REI REI REI MY BELOVED. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. This has made me ship Dawn/Lucas even harder. I love that they have a bigger role in this game since they’re barely around in DPP. We lost Barry but we gained a rival and friend in Rei/Akari 🥺 But Nintendo WHY did you make their partner Pokemon Pikachu I’m going to fucking throat punch you you could have picked literally ANY OTHER Pokemon and it would have been better. Please.

-I LOVE THAT WE GOT A CONFIRMED AGE AND WE’RE ACTUALLY A TEENAGER IN THIS GAME. That feels WAY more appropriate than going out on a Pokemon journey as a baby 10 year old. This is the age I headcanon most of the Pokemon protags at so I was thrilled to see we’re actually getting it canonically confirmed this time 😤

-The fact that they literally tell you multiple times “Oh yeah you’ll most likely get attacked and die from a wild Pokemon” LIKE XNANGMSNSN BRO??? THIS SHIT GOT SO DARK ALL OF A SUDDEN. “A lot of people are too scared to even leave the village” “Some of our members got MAULED by a wild Pokemon and had to be taken to the medic” “Your chances of survival are super low” WHAT KIND OF BATSHIT INSANE WORLD IS THIS LMAO. How did the world change so drastically from “Pokemon are awful and evil and want to hunt you for sport” to “Pokemon are wonderful and amazing and are our friends! 😘” I need to see this transition in this game I expect it

-THE AMOUNT OF ANCESTORS I’VE RUN INTO HOLY SHIT. I’m absolutely loving it tbh. So far I’ve found Marley, Cynthia, Mira, Flint, Karen, Darach, Cyrus, Rowan, and Saturn’s ancestors, and those are just the ones off the top of my head, I am SURE there are more and I can’t wait to find them all

-WYRDEER 😭

-I’m so used to playing Genshin that I keep accidentally trying to do Genshin things since the open world mechanics are so similar and then I get sad when I realize I can’t jump lmao

-AAA THE OUTFITSSSSS I unlocked the Oshawott kimono and almost cried it’s so CUTE. I hope we get more options tho bc what you start with is p limited? I want to wear leggings with my other tops and not baggy pants please 🙏

-Idk if it’s just me but while the battle system in itself is fine WHY do your Pokemon take so much fucking damage holy shit. The amount of potions I’ve had to use is ridiculous. My level 12 Oshawott should not have lost over half its HP against a level 7 Buizel get out

Aaaaa I can’t wait to play more this game is ADDICTING and I mean that in the best way. It’s absolutely fantastic so far!! And while I’ve been spoiled to open world games with way higher quality graphics (coughGenshincough) the environments in this game are pretty decent and it’s not enough to detract from the overall experience.

Also again Rei I’d die for you

#Shima speaks #Pokemon #Pokemon Legends Arceus #Legends Arceus #Pokemon Legends Arceus spoilers

81 notes · View notes

shipcestuous · 2 years ago

Text

(submission)

So...I apologise in advance for the insanely long wall of text I am about to submit to you; like you, I am a long-time connoisseur canon incest, and also I just plain don’t know when to shut up even when I’m not talking about my interests, so this is going to be very detailed, haha.

However, upon looking over your lists, I couldn’t help but notice what to me looked like a big gaping hole: not nearly enough Fire Emblem!!! Growing up in the 00s, Fire Emblem was one of my first ever introductions to incest shipping, and boy is it a doozy! Back then, one of the franchise’s most well-known features was its bizarrely high amounts of incest, to the point that it became almost notorious for it; just look at its entry in some TV Tropes pages, or this comic right here! So, with all that being said, I wanted to give a run-down of the most important canonical blood-related incestuous relationships over the course of the franchise!

Edit: Ahhhhh I realised after I’d already typed all this up that some of these ships actually do already have write-ups, and I just didn’t see them before… But they were written like 5 years ago, so hopefully this is still okay!

Firstly, there’s quite a bit of lower-stakes incest or incest shipping across the franchise; there are quite a number of cousin or step-sibling pairings (either canon or optionally romanceable), as well as the requisite ‘noble girl so obsessively admiring of her older brother that it seems like she’s in love with him’ archetype that shows up often (see e.g. Priscilla/Raven from FE7 and Clarine/Klein from FE6). There’s also Fates, which allows its protagonist to date any of either their many blood- or non-blood-related siblings, but after the supposedly blood-related siblings fall in love it’s revealed they’re not actually related after all, so it doesn’t fit the strict restrictions of this blog! However, there are two games who are especially notorious for their blood-related incest content: Genealogy of the Holy War, and Sacred Stones!

First is Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (or FE4), which was released on the SNES. It’s actually the oldest game in the franchise to have never gotten a remake (but there are rumours that one is in the works!), and it’s actually a cult classic within the fandom, beloved for having one of the best stories in the entire franchise, as well as just being a really fantastic game! It’s also had a few adaptations and spin-offs, including a manga by Oosawa Mitsuki covering the events of the entire game, and canonising some potential pairings. FE4 is also known for having one of the darkest stories, and that includes incest. Warning that some of what follows will be heavily spoilery, and also that one of these ships is pretty dark and could be triggering.

Firstly, and least plot-relevantly, there is Eldigan and Lachesis! Lachesis is of the classic ‘noble girl practically in love with her perfect elder brother’ trope who refuses to marry anyone who can’t match up to him (no-one), while Eldigan himself is the picture-perfect image of the courtly knight. Except that in her case, she actually canonically is in love with him! This is confirmed by Lachesis’ daughter Nanna in an optional conversation between Nanna and her cousin Ares (and of course there are plenty who speculate that either of them could actually be a child of Lachesis and Eldigan together), right before she flirts with him, hahaha. Lachesis and Eldigan are half-siblings, though we never really hear anything about their parents; it sorta feels like that’s just to fit them in with the other half-sibling pairings below. Whether Eldigan returns Lachesis’ feelings is deliberately left ambiguous: a commoner woman in one chapter reveals there is ~scandalous gossip~ that the two are involved, but Eldigan never becomes a playable character, so his feelings are more mysterious. However, in the official manga – the one widely regarded as closest to canon – Eldigan eventually admits that he too loves Lachesis more than anyone, and we get this (mildly NSFW) incredibly romantic scene! <3

(Also while we're here please include this very cute official chibi of Lachesis gushing over her brother~)

Secondly, and Extremely plot-relevantly, we have Arvis and Deirdre. Absolutely everything about this is a spoiler, hahah, but it’s all really important for understanding the relationship. Also, I want to give a Warning, because this is the really not-wholesome relationship. Basically: in this world, magical power is passed down along holy bloodlines. It’s said that by mixing two people of the same bloodline, the child produced will be even more powerful, but that is considered forbidden. This being Fire Emblem, one of the bloodlines is associated with an evil dragon god, so the world tried to destroy that bloodline, eventually leaving only one woman left with that holy blood. She however escaped from her exile and bore two children from two different fathers – Arvis and Deirdre. The former was raised as a noble heir, and must hide his dark blood for fear of a witch-hunt. Deirdre was taken back into exile, and doesn’t know she even has a brother. The dragon cult know all of this, though, and since those two are the only ones left capable of bringing about what is basically the anti-christ, they try to manipulate them into meeting and marrying. Arvis goes along with this because Deirdre’s father is the king, and he has his own reasons for wanting power. Deirdre is magicked into losing her memories (including that of her husband, to whom she had already borne a child named Seliph) and meets Arvis, who she soon marries.

It’s left deliberately unclear how much Arvis actually knows about all this blood-relation stuff – he doesn’t actually want to bring about the anti-christ, and is only going along with the cult because he thinks he can outsmart them. Instead, he insists vehemently that he and Deirdre are in love, and the two siblings have two children together – Julia and Julius. We don’t know too much about their actual relationship, but it seems that Deirdre does believe that she loves him, and cares very deeply for all her children. (Of course, due to the amnesia and effective kidnapping, it’s not fully consensual.)

So, now we have some children, here: Deirdre’s son Seliph, with her first husband, and then Julia and Julius, with her second husband (and half-brother); Seliph is half-brother to them both, and is the protagonist of the second half of the story. He looks much like his father, while Julia looks much like her mother, and they meet (not realising at first that they’re related) in very similar circumstances to Seliph’s parents, framed in a really romantic way. They immediately become very close, not knowing yet that they’re siblings, with Julia clinging to Seliph as her protector and Seliph being so adorably gentle and soft with her <3 Together, they’re sorta the main duo of the second half of the game!

And here is the controversy: in this game, it’s possible to pair characters up together romantically by having them end turns next to each other; do this enough, and they will be married, which causes some gameplay effects. Julia and Seliph actually can be made lovers this way! ...sort of. While there aren’t normally any restrictions on lovepoint-building, the way to make Seliph and Julia get together is very arcane and specific, making it seem like maybe a bug, or something that wasn’t properly removed from the game. Either way, the start the game with the highest lovepoint total of any couple, so they’re clearly meant to be extremely close! And in a conversation between Seliph and a different character, it’s heavily implied that Julia has a crush on Seliph regardless of who you pair them with! Which ads even more interesting subtext to the end of the game, where they become joint rulers of the kingdom together, to the extent that marrying Seliph to anyone else sort of makes it feel more like a polyamorous deal, haha! He and Julia can’t be separated <3

And here’s the other big point: Seliph and Julia are actually a canon endgame relationship in the Oosawa Mitsuki manga!! I haven’t read it yet, but apparently it’s really straightforward and sweet! :) These two are actually really cute together in general, and I love how romantic everything about them is! <3 Once again, a canon (sorta) and consensual pairing! (Though unfortunately I’ve struggled to find screenshots from the manga; I’m not sure the English translation has even reached there, yet… However, here is official art of them both – Seliph is front left and Julia front right!)

Oh, and lastly, the first generation of this game includes a pair of identical twins, and it’s possible to pair their children up together, making them also genetically the equivalent of half-siblings!

So, that’s Genealogy. Now onto a game that, at least while I was growing up, was sorta the face of Fire Emblem’s incest shipping: Ephraim and Eirika! They are from Sacred Stones (FE8), which released for the GBA, and was the second Fire Emblem game to ever be released officially in English. Ephraim and Eirika are the two protagonists and are twins! Interestingly, the very structure of their game already sorta hints at some incestuous subtext: the game is inspired by Fire Emblem Gaiden (FE2), in which the protagonists are a man and woman who ultimately fall in love, with the plot splitting halfway through allowing players to follow either of their paths; FE8 does the same thing, splitting Ephraim and Eirika apart in the plot before joining them together in the end, as though they’re (thematically, at least) equivalent to the other couple!

Ephraim and Eirika are close. Very close. Eirika also dearly loves her older brother, but Ephraim is quite a bit more teasing than previous brothers, and often likes to fluster or upset her, like a schoolboy pulling pigtails. Most infamous is their first Support Conversation (i.e., the conversations that can be unlocked in-game by raising their affection points with one another; unlike FE4, FE8’s affection points aren’t necessarily romantic):

youtube

in it, Ephraim offers to ‘stroke Eirika’s face’ like they did when they were children, says that Eirika was always the one pestering him to do it when they were young, and when Eirika becomes embarrassed and reminds him what everyone would think if they saw them, teases her even further and remarks on how often and easily she blushes. It’s suspected by many that this was actually somewhat of a translation, and that truly it was just about Ephraim patting Eirika’s head, which isn’t uncommon in anime between siblings. (Not so sure about real life.)

But there’s more than just that. Their weapons are named Siegmund and Sieglinde; in Vagner’s opera Die Walküre, those were the names of a pair of twins who were separated in childhood, and then fell in love when they met later on! Sort of like the whole separation and reunion structure of this game…? (Fun fact: also in the myths these names come from, Sigmund is the father to Sigurd, who in FE4 is Deirdre’s first husband and Seliph’s father! Does that mean anything here? Not really, apart from the fact that Fire Emblem’s interest in incest is probably inspired from the same mythology it gets so many of its names from, haha.) And finally, if Eirika and Ephraim have the highest support points with one another by the end of the game, they also end up jointly ruling the kingdom together, like Seliph and Julia!

And wait: there’s more! When all of these characters were first added to Fire Emblem Heroes (a mobile game where players can summon characters from various Fire Emblem games), for some reason they added in Julia, Seliph, Ephraim, and Eirika all at the same time, on a ‘sibling love’ banner, which of course many players memed about being an ‘incest banner’. And in the English translation, when Ephraim first meets the player avatar, he for some reason immediately starts talking about how there are people spreading ‘disgusting’ rumours about him and his sister, and how they’re all totally false?! All while Eirika is telling him to be quiet because this is embarrassing?! This wasn’t in the Japanese version, and it immediately became a huge meme because of how bizarre it was, haha – like, it totally sounds as if Ephraim has thought wayyyy too much about this, hahaha :’) (See, e.g., this meme with NSFW-ish text~)

OH, and another potentially interesting thing about these two: another major character, Lyon, is heavily implied to be in love with either or possibly both of the twins! (They both consider him at least a dear friend, though romantic feelings are less implied.) So it’s pretty common for people to ship them all together, or at least let Lyon live out his twincest fantasies with them, haha!

Last of all, I almost forgot: there is a case of blood incest in Fire Emblem Fates (FE14, for the 3DS)! (And yes, I mean beyond the surprise revelation in the sequel game that the player avatar is the cousin of the main girl, who many people had paired together…) Leo, one of the main characters, is canonically in love with his half-sister (FE4 reference? FE4 remake confirmed???) Camilla! It’s probably meant to be due to their messed-up childhood, where their mothers were pitted against each other as concubines, vying for power. However, Leo’s feelings for Camilla are as far as I’m aware never directly stated in the text. Instead, it’s only revealed through supplementary material. And it doesn’t seem that Camilla feels the same way, as she’s generally too busy doting on her adoptive sibling, the protagonist.

Aaaand now I get to a much newer example of Fire Emblem incest: Heroes, the mobile game! The most important example here is Freyja and Freyr; the two are the keepers of the world of nightmares and dreams respectively, and refer to each other as brother and sister. They have known each other for a very long time, and Freyja has been madly devoted to her brother (of course!) ever since he protected her from being bullied as a child. (It’s unclear if they’re blood-related but the mythological deities they’re named after were also blood-related and incestuous soooooo) Unfortunately, she eventually becomes jealous of Freyr’s love of humans, and tries to destroy them so he will refocus all of his attention on her. He then sadly sacrifices his life to save humanity. It’s never explicitly said that her feelings for him were romantic, but pretty much everyone in the fandom assumes it. They later had a similar case of implied villainous incest with Otr and Fafnir (a very rare case of same-sex incest in Fire Emblem), but they’re adoptive siblings.

So that’s it! I think that’s all, as far as I’m aware of… Though it would not surprise me in the slightest if I missed out on a canon relationship or an extra piece of evidence or two, hahaha! And certainly there’s plenty to ship; I know that there are already plenty of tags on your blog from more recent Fire Emblem games with more active current fanbases, because hoo boy there are a lot of characters and a lot of siblings to pair up! <3

---------

Thank you so much for this great write-up! I have heard a lot about Fire Emblem characters over the years but this was such a fantastic summary of the bro/sis canon, with a few ships I hadn't heard about yet even though at least 20+ have already come up. Fire Emblem, you truly are amazing. There are a lot of Fire Emblem relationships that really deserve to be talked about a lot more. Thank you!

I'm laughing so much at the incest banner.

7 notes · View notes

crystal-moon-101 · 4 years ago

Note

Charmcaster and Mike!💚

I present to you the chaotic magical duo! They were pretty fun to draw with their colours and different body shapes, and these two I've been really wanting to talk about since I've made a lot of rewrite changes for them. Before I get into that, I recommend you read my Dagon Arc Rewrite, to get a better idea of where I've taken these characters, as I involved them quite a bit in that story line. Albedo will be the next redesign eventually, and I'm glad people are liking what I'm doing with these characters so far.

-Mike Morningstar-

Soooo, Mike. He's always been an interesting concept to me, because there are two ways you could make his character go. One way is to just go full out with the creep and power hungry factor, making him a villain through and through, which can provide a very eerie character, which is the route canon mostly too. The other way, which I've taken, is you could make him a very complicated character, tragic even, with the idea of "If someone was born with dark magic, how would the world treat them", and since canon (Both the original series and reboot timeline) as taken the more evil villain approached, I'm taking a much different approach because I think his story can add a lot of interesting dynamics. In terms of his design, I went for the "rich winter" outfit aesthetic, since this lad does know his fashion and tastes.

Mike is an Apotrodite from his mother's side, the dark magic equivalent of Anodites. This means Mike primarily uses dark magic, but unlike other people, his Apotrodite sides means he is in full control of himself, and can't be tainted by dark magic. But that doesn't mean everything goes well...

His parents are Lilith Morningstar and Samael Morningstar, both Plumbers who work in the magical department of things, and since Lilith can use dark magic without it corrupting her, the two get a hefty amount of money working in a field only they can really handle. So they're a very rich family, owning two mansions on earth, and some holiday homes.

Mike was an...accident, not something planned, but his parents wanted to see what it was like, not realizing how raising a child takes a lot of work, especially one that was born half Apotrodite. You see, since Mike was only half, his dark magic didn't come naturally to him for a while, needing to adjust and train himself. There were worries Mike would end up hurting someone, which both Lilith and Samael were nervous about, since Apotrodites didn't have a good reputation anywhere for their use of dark magic. They feared that if Lilith or Mike made a mistake, they'll both be shipped back to their homeworld, which none of them wanted...

Sadly, a mistake did happen one day. Mike didn't mean too, it just happened suddenly, but he ended up hurting two other kids in Plumber Kindergarden, giving one magical burns, and nearly draining the life out of another. He felt horrible over what happened, and couldn't stop sobbing for the rest of the day as everyone debated what to do, and had a long discussion with Mike's parents. Lilith and Samael ended up pulling Mike out from school to homeschool him from now on...and didn't trust Mike to leave the house on his own ever, the fears getting the better of them. So...you could say Mike's childhood was rather lonely and depressing. Eventually as he grew older, he got into lots of arguments with his parents, until finally snapping and running away sometime after his encounter with Ben and his friends. If everyone was going to treat him like a monster, then he might as well be what they say he was and do it being free...

Mike does have an Apotrodite form, much like how Gwen has an Anodite form, but he hardly ever turns into it, even if it would save him energy and make his human form 'rot' less. He doesn't like being reminded of what he is, the reason behind all his problems...

He loves cats, and has always wanted one since he learnt about them.

Mike did end up helping Charmcaster when she was losing herself in omniverse, during the final fight with her. He was one of the few who managed to snap her out of her insanity, and later when she was recovering, she tracked him down with the help of Ben, and managed to convince him to come to Ledgerdomain with her, wanting to repay him for his help. Along with knowing that Mike was really just lonely and tired with the world...something she could relate too...

His hasn't been in contact with his parents since running away from home, and they haven't made an effort to reach out to him, not sure how to approach their son after what he became...

Mike and Hex have a very...awkward dynamic, since neither know how to talk to the other, especially regarding Charmcaster.

Loves scarfs, he just likes the way they look and feel.

-Hope Charmcaster-

Miss Charmcaster, a character who keeps spinning on that plot merry go round. She was defiantly someone who went insane due to how often the writing changed her up, which is a shame since she is a very interesting character, so that's what I'm here for. For her redesign, I've always loved the idea of her being short, plump and very curvy, and entirely confident with her body and looks. She knows she's hot, and owns it. I kept her outfit similar to her original and omniverse style, but played around with the look of it.

Her mother died at childbirth, so her father had to raise her own his own, with the help of Uncle Hex from time to time. Eventually after what happened in Ledgerdomain with Addwaitya, Hex has been looking after her since she was 8, but it wasn't easy, especially when he started tapping into dark magic to find ways to fight Addwaitya, and eventually going power hungry. Charmcaster knows Hex was trying his best, but there are things she can't forgive him for, even if they're getting better during her recovery.

She has black markings on her hands due to her use of the Alpha Rune and dark magic. The Alpha Rune also left a mark on her chest right above her heart. She is subconscious about these things, and tends to hide them from everyone and herself.

Ben 100% had a crush on her as a kid, and she knows it.

Charmcaster has a sweet tooth, and loves desserts. Her favorite is cake, strawberry cake to be precise.

She's still trying to be the Queen of Ledgerdomain, which isn't easy with what's left of it, but she's slowly getting them and creating a new age for the Kingdom, having opened it out to any magic user in the galaxy that needs a place to go.

Gwen and Charmcaster have been building up a nice friendship finally now that Charmcaster is getting help. It's been sweet, with Gwen doing normal teen and girl stuff that Charmcaster hasn't been able to do in years. The little things always remind her that she is human after all.

She is still on the hunt for Addwaitya with the help of Gwen, Hex, Mike and the Plumbers, after the turtle managed to run away during the fight against her.

Later on Mike and Charmcaster do meet other Apotrodites, and visit their homeworld, and does feel bad for their situation. They pair end up letting a good chunk of them move to Ledgerdomain, where it will be safe for them from the outside galaxy, and their contribution of dark magic knowledge really helps Ledgerdomain in the long run.

#Ben 10 #B10 #ben 10 omniverse #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 original series #Ben 10 Mike Morningstar #Mike Morningstar #Ben 10 Charmcaster #Charmcaster #Morningcaster #Ben 10 Redesign #Ben 10 Rewrite #My Art

122 notes · View notes

cyokie · 3 years ago

Note

Xerxes or Oz 👁👁

Why not both? :D

XERXES BREAK

How I feel about this character:

I love Break! Though I will say that I think I love him a little bit less than the rest of the fandom. He's a very cool character, but in my opinion, he's one of the more trope-y ones...if that makes sense. Basically, I'm saying that I've definitely seen very similar characters all over anime/manga. But as with most PandoraHearts characters, he's unusually well-written and extremely well-done overall, so all his moments are super enjoyable!

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Hmm. I used to think about shipping in PandoraHearts more often when I was younger (I first read the manga when I wasn't even a teenager yet). I definitely shipped Reim with Break, and I still think this would be cute. Their dynamic can get very fun and almost tsundere-like at times (lol)!

I used to ship Sharon with Break too, but though I still think their dynamic is cute, I know this makes some people quite uncomfortable. I also know that their relationship was canonically intended to be more familial, and that Break was canonically in love with Sharon's mother, Shelly. So do with that what you will.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Honestly, Reim and Sharon could work for this question too?? They're the characters whose relationships with Break are the most meaningful to me. So yeah, I guess them again.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I'm not sure I have any super unpopular opinions about Break. Maybe just that I don't find him as interesting as a lot of other characters in the manga? I felt I was sort of able to predict the direction Jun Mochizuki went with his character/story, whereas this wasn't the case with a lot of the others in the main cast.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

Oof, this is a tough one too...I just wish there were more scenes expanding Break's relationship with Shelly.

- - -

OZ VESSALIUS

How I feel about this character:

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. MY BABY. MY BOY. Everybody who knows me is aware of this LMAO! Shut up about Oz Vessalius, they say. NO, I say.

In all seriousness, Oz is my favorite character of all time. I love PandoraHearts dearly for more reasons than I can say, but he is really part of what makes the manga for me. His character resonated so powerfully with me when I first read it and continues to do so to this day. He is such a nuanced, emotional, human character.

I always say PandoraHearts saved my life, but more specifically, Oz saved my life. He was so painfully similar to me when I first read the manga. I was going through a very difficult period of my life. Watching him become somebody who could believe in and accept love from those around him, as well as somebody who could come to love himself, was incredibly inspiring. He became a sort of role model, if you will--though it’s more complicated than that.

I am happy to say that today, I am more like the Oz at the end of the manga than I am like the Oz at the beginning of the manga.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

I’m going to be completely honest with you guys: when I was a kid, I was a passionate Oz x Gilbert shipper. I know that nowadays, people are extremely uncomfortable with this (and understandably so). Outside of this, I really wouldn’t say I ship Oz romantically with anybody, except for maybe Echo?

I can’t fully get behind Oz and Echo as a couple for some reason, but if Oz needs to be with somebody, I think it should probably be her. The way they helped each other see themselves as human, the way they developed such an intense and intimate respect for one another...it’s very touching.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Oz and Gilbert, probably. Their relationship is insanely dedicated and resilient. Though they are “connected by their darkness,” as Gilbert says, they are a source of hope for one another throughout the manga. I think this is beautiful.

Oz and Alice could also count for one of these. I really don’t like Oz and Alice’s dynamic when seen through a romantic perspective, and I’m only able to truly appreciate their relationship when viewing it as platonic. I will say that due to slightly conflicting feelings about Alice’s character, I would prioritize Oz and Gilbert over her and Oz.

My unpopular opinion with this character:

I’m not sure I have one. I don’t think loving Oz is that uncommon of an opinion, lol.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

Hmm, I don’t know about this one, either...I think Oz’s story is very nearly perfect. I guess...I wish the manga had more directly addressed the toxic aspects of Oz, Alice, and Gilbert’s relationship?

Early in the manga, the trio’s relationship manifests in rather unhealthy ways. As they grow as people and learn to cope with their pasts, their relationship gradually becomes much healthier. Though this is certainly realistic, the manga never really tackles this concept head-on, instead just showing us the trio’s relationship in a more positive light later on.

17 notes · View notes

beskarberry · 4 years ago

Text

Silver and Steel

Bargaining with Beskar, Chapter 2 (The Mandalorian x f!reader)

It was then you noticed the open wall next to you. The steel panel was slid open to reveal a vault packed corner to corner with more firepower than you had ever seen in one place. Your eyes roamed from blaster to rifle to flamethrower, noticing that not all of them were made for five fingered hands. This wasn't just an armory, it was a trophy case.

Rating: Explicit

Word count: 7.5k

Content warnings: ALOT. Descriptions of violence (a little spicier than canon) blood mention, near death experiences, hurt/COMFORT, fluff, smut exhaustion sex, top!reader.

A/N: I hope y’all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it but yeah PLEASE READ THOSE CONTENT WARNINGS!! It all works out ok in the end! Also good chunks of this was inspired by a particular filk song called Call the Navigator which I’ll link in the replies so the external link doesn’t ef up my post.

<-Previous Next->

"Med pack... junk....junk....spotchka?....is that all you've got?"

You were bent over a deep supply crate, your legs barely touching the ground while you dug through what you had hoped would be the food stock. There were several banged up tins of rations and a handful of miscellaneous junk, but nothing that looked real food. You were clean and dry after your shower, but the energy that had been spent in this very supply room just an hour or so earlier had to be replenished. "Where’s the rest of it?"

The silence coming from the cockpit was expected, but still frustrating. With a huff you grabbed two food tins and made your way through the old ship towards the ladder. At the top though a small antechamber you found your new comrade seated in the pilot chair, fussing with the buttons on the console. On either side and slightly behind his chair were two other passenger seats, though the one on his left was missing a good deal of padding. The cockpit was poorly lit save for the lighted console and the dusty starlight overhead. Though you were in the air, you could tell you were still on Tatooine. Hooray. Why are we still here? The great Dune Sea stretched out on all sides, sparsely dotted with sand people villages, but you couldn’t see any of the large space ports such as Mos Eisley or Mos Espa. In the ships’ darkness you couldn't tell what the lumpy thing was in the other chair, probably blankets or laundry. You went to toss it off the seat when a pair of huge black orbs peeped out from the heap of fabric.

"The fuck is THAT?!" You rocketed backwards, dropping the food tins in the process. The bug eyed creature made a soft cooing noise and lifted the rest of the blanket off itself, allowing two gigantic green ears to pop into view. It didn't look like a threat, in fact it looked kinda cute, but you knew it could still be dangerous. A pair of stubby three-fingered hands made grabby motions at you, the little creature giggling at your bewildered face. " Where'd you find this thing, is it some kind of pet?"

"He's not a pet." Finished fiddling with the console, Mando turned in his chair to readjust the blanket that had slumped off of the small beastie. It squealed happily and wiggled in its comfy cocoon before noticing the food tins that were still on the floor. He pointed the tiniest claw at them and chirped at you, demanding to be fed. "You'd better give him one of those before he gets mad."

It took you a moment to process what he said before scooping one of the tins off the floor, peeling back the lid and placing the dish in the seat next to the little thing. He greedily scooped the mystery mash into his tiny toothy mouth, gibbering between bites. You picked the remaining tin off the floor and leaned against the door frame, watching it happily chow down.

"If it's not a pet then what is it?"

"He's my..." the Mandalorian paused, fishing for the right words to say, "...he is my child."

That was not at all the answer you expected, if he had said emotional support gremlin you would have been less confused. The baby was still making a mess of his dinner, almost dropping his plate before Mando snatched it and set it carefully back in his lap. You had seen first hand that there was a human under all that metal plating, and your tired brain fizzled trying to make the connection between the two very different beings. Mando could tell by your puzzled face that he had some explaining to do.

He told you the tale of how he had been charged to bring the baby in as a high credit bounty, but after he used the reward to get new armor he went back and stole the child away from its captors. He talked about the Mandalorian concept of a 'foundling' and that he himself was one too. At some point you had popped your food tin open and started eating, though you were so captivated by his story that you couldn't remember doing so. When he'd finished you set your empty dish on the busted chair and gently held your hand out for the child to grab with one mush covered paw, who babbled excitedly at his new friend.

Behind you his parental guardian was rigid, ready to take you out if you made one wrong move against his precious cargo. Though he had been the one to steal you away and forgo freezing you in carbonite he still didn’t exactly trust you, your reputation as a hunter-killer was what had driven your bounty so high. He knew you were disarmed, but what else could you be capable of? However, you weren't paying mama-hen Mando any mind. Instead you let the baby play with your hand a bit before he returned to his food. You decided that the only place left to sit was on the floor. Squished into the tiny space between the passenger and pilot seats was cramped, but it gave you a fantastic view out the rounded transperisteel window into the vastness of the night sky.

“Your story sounds awful familiar.” You turned your attention to the metal clad man, watching him fidget with the steering controls. “You abandoned a guild reward for anothers wellbeing, like I did. Someone that didn’t deserve to be dragged back in cuffs. Is that why you picked up the puck on me? Some kind of kindred spirit something or other?”

“We’re nothing alike.” He was watching out the window, focused on flying the ship to unknown destinations, but he was bouncing the leg farthest away from you. So when the cogwheels turn in your head, the machine moves somewhere else. If you hadn’t experienced his human body first hand you could have easily convinced yourself he was a droid.

“Now that’s not true. You told the guild to get fucked because your moral compass was pointing the other way. I didn't just let that quarry go y'know? It was more than that. There was... there was someone she had to get back to. And the New Republic was just gonna lock her ass up and for what? It wasn't right." You remembered that Togruta woman, pointing a blaster at you with tears in her eyes and her belly swollen with a child that did not belong to the man she was being forced to marry. A few thousand credits weren’t worth another child being made an orphan, and you gave her your ship to escape in while you led hunters on a wild-bantha chase away from her. You knew it drove the guild insane but you wouldn’t have it any other way. A tiny green foot poked itself out from under the blankets by your head, bringing you out of your reverie. On reflex you tucked it back into the safety of his blankies.

Though you thankfully didn’t remember much of your early childhood, you knew you had come from Corellia. You didn’t know if you had parents or siblings, but there had been many other young street urchins in your alley behind the shipyard, and all you had then were each other. You never planned on having any kids yourself, but they were still something to be protected. At all costs, if necessary. “I’m guessing this little dude is happy with that decision.”

Mando had begun to take the ship closer to the ground, it was almost totally dark outside but you could see on the radar there was a large mountainous formation up ahead. Carefully, he landed the beat up craft on a sturdy outcropping of rocks, kicking up whirlwinds of dust and sand. Far out over the sand you could see a collection of lumpy looking ruins that were slowly succumbing to the march of the dunes. You guessed this was where your quarry was hiding out.

The baby was starting to get sleepy, his huge eyes disappearing slowly as the weight of his eyelids became too much. His little head rolled forward, threatening to toss him off his seat. Your big mean bounty hunter heart couldn’t take it, so you scrambled to your feet and scooped the baby up in your arms, sitting down in his seat to get him situated in your lap. He fussed and squirmed a bit, but you had learned a no-fail trick from the Corellian ship builders that would often help to sneak orphaned children onto their ships and off that skughole of a planet towards a better life. Many years ago they had done the same for you.

“Oh, I have sailed the midnight sea from Hoth to Arvala-5.

Seen the Cloudshape Falls of Alderaan, met rocks that were alive.

But soon I came to realize as world to world I roamed,

That nowhere in the galaxy could really be my home.”

The songs you knew were often sang by whole crews of starship sailors, loud enough to shake their durasteel walls, but you dropped your voice low and soft to turn the star-shanty into a lullaby. The baby was watching you with glittering eyes, he had stopped his wiggling and curled up tightly against your chest.

“So call the navigator, set the course and go!

We've stars and planets to explore, my wild heart tells me so.

Beneath the metal decking I can hear the engine sigh

And all I need is a mighty ship and a staaaa-aarr to guide her by”

A tiny yawn betrayed his wondrous eyes, and he gave up and closed them shut, rubbing his little hands on his face. You lowered your voice to almost a whisper.

“I've seen a million beauties and I've known a million fears,

And life is what I've found between the laughter and the tears.

Still I will sail the last frontier through worlds both tame and wild,

And marvel at their strangeness with the wonder of a child”

Soft snores were your only applause, the baby having drifted off mid stanza. You hummed a few more lines of the song to be sure he was asleep. The cockpit was as dark as the surrounding sky, but the glint of silver caught your attention. Starlight reflected off the beskar plates in a way that made the black of his visor seem darker than the heart of a collapsed star, and just as deadly. The Mandalorian was watching you intently, completely motionless.

The precious moment with the baby had made you very forgetful of the dangerous situation you were actually in. You had been captured, you were this man’s prisoner and yet here you were all cozy in the chair with his adopted son in your lap. You glared back at him, matching his fierce gaze when the little green bundle moved to get more comfortable, one tiny hand catching claws in the top you were wearing; a tunic that did not belong to you.

“Here, you take him then.” Your voice was hushed so as not to wake the child, and you raised him up gently to try and unhook him from your shirt. Immediately there were two gloved hands coming to lift the baby off of your lap. He was a monolith of leather and metal, but the way he pulled his son in close was so gentle that all the ferocity of his profession dissipated like mist. Mando carefully tucked the blanket under the sleeping little baby and wrapped him up tight before slowly turning away from you and the flight deck to head down the ladder in total silence, leaving you alone in the dark.

You watched him go, the top of his shiny silver head disappearing into the floor. Without the sounds of life in the cockpit the quiet of the night weighed heavy on your ears. He still hadn’t told you why he had kept you out of the carbonite, all you had done was let him use you as his personal play-thing... and maybe murder off some of his bounty hunting competition, but that wasn’t much to go off of. You had done worse for much less. Put your skills to better use, that’s what he had said. Absently you toyed with the end of your sleeve, no, not your sleeve. His sleeve.

That was another thing, what reason did he have to show you hospitality when his first interaction with you had been so violent? Binding you and marching your ass through the desert after he had fucking shot you. Your escape plan had almost worked, ha! All you would’ve had to do is tire him out and run but that had backfired entirely. The apex of your thighs still thrummed with sensation, warm and blissful. Though you’d had lovers in the past you usually didn’t still feel them so deeply afterwards. The smell of the fresher soap still clung to your body and clothes. Clutching at the collar of your sweater you pulled it to your face and breathed deep, letting the heady scent of it fill your lungs.

“Let’s go. We have work to do.” The modulated voice coming from the ladder startled you from your guilty indulgence and sprang you to your feet, but the source of the voice was already back down the ladder. You sheepishly followed suit.

“You plan on telling me what we’re up to exactly?” Down below the Mandalorian was loading himself with ammunition, each and every slot on his many bandoliers was packed to the brim with charges. His pulse rifle was slung over one shoulder, clanking up against a new piece of equipment you hadn’t seen before. Some kind of jet pack maybe.

“I have two bounties to catch on Tatooine. One of them conveniently fell into a sarlacc pit. The other one's hiding out down there." A bounty fob blinked red in his hand; quick flashes indicated that the target was close by. “If you help me with this, you’re off the hook. I’ll tell Karga you’re dead and the guild will stop sending hunters after you. But-” He turned to face you, he was holding your beat-up old back pack by one ratty leather strap. "If for one second I think you'll turn against me, I'll take the half credits for your corpse."

"You're one to talk!" You hissed, storming up to the gunslinger with the ferocity of a lothcat. "You kidnapped me! I didn't ask to be here."

The man in question didn't budge under your verbal assault. "Do we have a deal or not?"

He forced your backpack into your arms to accentuate his point. You ripped it from his grasp and stormed to the other side of the cabin. Everything was still inside; a pack of bacta patches, a few mementos, three busted tracking fobs and some blaster charges. Speaking of blaster-

"Where’s my gun, Mando?" Your question was answered when you turned back to face him. He was holding it by its barrel, extending the grip towards you. You met his visor with contempt, but took the old blaster from him carefully as not to cause a misfire. It would be nice to not be on the run from a guild you had pledged your loyal services to for so many years, that now wanted you delivered back to them in carbonite; and you knew that Karga would trust his favorite hunter. The life of a moisture farmer wasn’t what you dreamed of when you escaped Corellia. Fuck that. "Yeah, it's a deal. One hunt and I'm gone."

If he didn't want you to ogle his wares he should have closed the panel, but instead he joined you at the wall, picking up some extra plasma cartridges and a vibroblade with a curved handle, which he pushed into your hands. "Will that be enough?"

Either you trust me or you don't, pick a side, tin can. You didn't answer him right away, opting to pull a chest holster and another couple of blasters down from the wall. You cinched the holsters tight and tucked a blaster in on either side, slung a disruptor over your back and stuffed the knife in your boot. Once you had everything in place you stuck your fists on your hips like a superhero with a confidant nod. "Yeah, that should be good."

Mando was watching you with intensity, his visor going over each of your weapon choices. He tugged on your holsters’ cross straps to make sure they were secured. You rolled your eyes at him, "I know how to dress myself, sir."

No answer. Typical. He stopped fussing with your straps and turned back to the wall, selecting a heavy multi-ammo bandolier. He stepped closer to you, wrapping both arms around your waist to fit the belt in place on your hips. You tried to convince yourself that it was the cool beskar of his chest plate pressed up against you that sent a shiver down your spine. The physical contact was over as quickly as it had been initiated, and then he was back in the vault fishing out the tiny silver explosives that fit neatly into the circular latches on either side of your belt, handing them to you without a word. Finished with his selection he pressed a few buttons on his vambrace, one to slide the armory shut and another to summon an egg-shaped hover crib to float to his side. Inside its shell the child was sound asleep, a heart-melting smile on his tiny little face. As adorable as he was, you furrowed your brow in confusion.

“Is he coming too?”

“Where I go, he goes.” Mando said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He strode back to the supply crate you had been digging through earlier and packed a handful of rations into a bag for the journey through the dunes. Cool desert air gusted into the stuffy cabin as the access ramp fell open, and the three of you headed out into the darkness of Tatooine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your dreams were hazy and feverish, shots of blaster fire flickered through the fog from unknown assailants. The smell of blood and blast plasma strong in your nose even while unconscious. You saw the sneering face of a Twi’lek twist in agony and purple blood painted his face before he winked out of existence, replaced in your mindscape with bloody hands. Your hands. Then there was cold beskar on your cheek and strong arms hauling you from the carnage. Harsh wind in your ears and the ground spiraling away beneath you. The howling wind so loud you couldn't hear the questions being barked in your face. Pain, the smell of burning skin, then nothing. You felt objects moving frantically nearby, and something soft and green was pressing into your ribs. Your eyes, heavy as they were, fluttered open to see two huge black orbs staring up from your side where bright red blood was staining the sheets under you. Is that ... my blood?

“Hey green bean...what’cha up to?” Your voice was hoarse and weak, scratching its way out reluctantly past chapped lips. Talking made your head pound, you reached up to cradle your aching skull when two leather tipped hands caught yours and held them steady.

“Easy... Don’t move too much. Please.” Your hands were gently set back down at your sides, shooting pain up your arms. A large black and silver body was hunched beside you, frantically sticking bacta patches to your skin.

“Mand...do? What…what happened?” Your voice was barely a whisper, so faint the recycled air of the cabin threatened to whisk it away.

“You got the bastard, but that fucking Twi' managed to get a shot off in your gut point blank before he went down. You shouldn't have survived that but you did.” Is that a compliment? He was wrapping a long gauze bandage around your arm, fixing the bacta patches in place so they could do their thing. It hurt, but not as much as you thought it should have. Down by your side the child had rolled into you face first, passed out cold next to an emergency cauterizer. Mando nodded at his sleeping son, “And if it wasn’t for him, you’d be dead for sure.”

The baby? How is he involved with this? Thoughts echoed loudly in your skull, and you decided that thinky time was over. The little guy had the right idea, you should sleep now, embrace the comfort of the dark behind your eyes, let it swallow you whole.

“Hey hey hey! Not yet. Stay with me, ok? You need to drink something. Here.” An armored hand slid under your head, urging you to sit up just enough to take a drink out of the metal canteen pressed against your lips. “You need to stay awake, just for a little while.” Cool water graced your dry mouth and dripped onto your chin. Embarrassed by your mess you tried to wipe the droplets away but once again your arms were halted in place. A rough piece of fabric dabbed at your face.

“I’m not a baby, Mando. I can take care of myself.” The creeping sting of blast-burn that still scalded your skin told you that might not be true. The bacta was just starting to seep into your bloodstream, but it would take some time to work its magic.

“I know that. I was with you down there in the fray. A rancor would have been less terrifying to face than you. But right now I need you to hold still.”

Another compliment? Or was that sarcasm? You’re losing your edge, tin man. You tried to roll your eyes but the effort made your head spin; you glanced around the cabin, trying to avoid meeting the visor that was pinning you to the cot. Strewn about the floor of the ship was what was left of your holsters and weapons, splattered with red and purple blood. You couldn’t be sure, but it looked like one belt had been blasted to smithereens, torn strips of leather the only indication it had been there at all. Farther away you saw a dark block in the carbonite freezer. The Twi’lek from your nightmare was frozen solid, though from his limp posture you guessed he had stopped moving long before he was put in the chamber. One of his long lekku had been cut clean off, and even in carbonite you could see the wound was fresh. Something long and curved stuck victoriously out of the center of his chest. Your vibroblade, lodged to the hilt in his sternum.

Mando was still kneeling on the floor by your side, and though you couldn’t see his face his hunched shoulders gave you the feeling that he was distraught. He still had your head resting in his palm, his thumb absently toying with your hair. Maybe it was the bacta running through your system that made you start to feel warm and gooey on the inside, but the sensation of his hand on your scalp felt... nice. Nice to be touched in a way that wasn't just for survival. Though you had already felt his hands on your body this was something else entirely. Sincere. Maybe it was just the first time somebody near you wasn't trying to kill or capture you. You foolish girl, you've already been captured. Are you so lonely that a gentle touch makes you melt? Maybe it's you that's losing your edge.

"You should have left me for dead, cashed in on that half credit reward."

"That is not The Way." His mantra was rehearsed, spoken as easily as he drew breath, but you could hear the exhaustion in his voice.

“Well... thank you for not letting me bleed out.” You could see the top of the baby's green little noggin still curled up against your side, though the part of your ribs he was leaning on didn’t have a single mark. You looked for the blast wound that Mando was supposedly talking about, but aside from a handful of plasma burns your skin was smooth and healthy; the pool of dried blood under you was the only indication anything had been there at all. What kind of mando magic is that? And what did he mean about the child? Your first thought was how disappointed you were there wouldn’t be a good scar. Your second was realizing your top was missing. Shreds of it were still on your shoulders, but the front had been ripped off completely to get to your vanished wounds. Mando seemed like he didn’t even care, he had been so focused on patching you up that the idea of modesty was thrown out the window, but you couldn’t help teasing him. “There’s not a scratch on me, Mando. You just wanted me topless, didn’t you?”

His thumb on your scalp froze, his visor going from your face to your chest with rapid snaps. Without letting your head drop he used his other hand to tear his cloak from his back and throw it over you and the sleeping baby. “Better?”

Party pooper. “Yes, thank you.” Why is he being so nice? He must have ulterior motives, right? Why keep me alive if not to cash in on that bounty? You decided to push his buttons some more. “This bed sucks. Is this why you're so crotchety? Because you sleep on this Maker-forsaken thing? It’s making my back hurt.”

The cot you were on was spartan at best, more of a cloth covered bucket than a bed. It was recessed into the wall opposite of the armory, bits of machinery and droid parts hanging over the space above you. There wasn’t much of a gap between your head and the durasteel plating of the ship’s hull. Your teasing was rewarded with a long, tired sigh. The hand that cushioned your head moved down to your shoulders, pushing on you so that you sat up straight. You scooped the baby off of your side and into your arms, trying to ignore the dried blood from your wounds that stained the sheets before swaddling the sleeping bean in his father’s cloak. The metal man rose from the floor, letting go of you just long enough to remove his cross-belts and unlatch his chest plate, setting them on the floor with a dull thunk. He squished himself between the wall and your back, his dorsal plate scraping loudly without its cape. He scooched one armored leg around you until it was between your hip and the wall on your side, pulling you into his lap and turning his whole body into a pillow, letting your torso rest on his. He was used to the sharp metal bed frame, but that didn’t mean you should be subjected to it.

“Is this ok?”

You could only nod, your cheeks flushing red with a mix of emotions. It was more than ok, his formidable body was warm and comfortable. His arms wrapped around your waist, helping to support not only you but also his foundling. The spice of him was strong now with him on your back, worn leather and metal and that damn fresher soap that was making a fool out of you. Underneath his steady breathing the sound of something rhythmic caught your attention, it was quick and faint, but unmistakably the sound of his heartbeat. His heart is racing. Listen to that engine purr.

Behind you a man with a name you may never know watched your chest slowly rise and fall with each breath, not with lust but something unfamiliar though not unwelcome. He could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears, whether from the ordeal of keeping you alive or the fact that you were in his arms again he couldn't be sure. He sighed, trying to convince himself to calm down, but the deep breath he took only flooded his senses with the essence of you, threatening to melt the beskar off his head with the heat rushing to his face. He couldn't help the way his fingers traced over your skin, careful not to undo any of the bacta patches. He jumped slightly when your hands found his, but the weight of the child still in your arms made it difficult to reach your fingers. The glove you were touching was suddenly empty, and a bare hand snaked out from under the cloak that kept you modest. With the press of a button the child’s pram floated its way over to you from the supply crates. The baby’s adopted father carefully lifted the sleeping creature off your lap and into his hover crib, another button press on the vambrace and the shield door slid closed.

His hand returned to the safety of the cloak, pulling the other glove off before finding your fingers again. His skin was so warm you couldn't help but imagine his hands somewhere more intimate. Evil, evil bacta... Maybe you wouldn't have to.

"I should thank you properly." It was impossible to hide the tiredness of your voice, but he was close enough you only needed to whisper. His grasp tightened around you, your once plush pillow was now a rigid wall of muscle.

"You should go to sleep." the sound of his baritone words so close to your ear made your skin prickle. Too late for that. Slowly you guided his hand down your belly until your tangled hands bumped into your belt line. A low growl rumbled out of the modulator. “Cyar'ika... you need to rest."

The alien term of endearment made you hum, but you ignored his words of warning and pushed his hand under the tough fabric till his fingertips found your heat, both of you gasping softly at first contact. His free hand fumbled with your button, and after some difficulty you undid it for him along with the zipper. With space to work, with his wrist moved freely, lazily rolling a calloused fingertip against your clit; remembering his lesson from the first time he experienced your body, his touch was light as a feather.

There wasn’t much you could do for him in the position you were in, so you leaned back against him and relaxed, letting him enjoy you at his own pace. The bottom of his helmet was pressed into the crook of your neck, and though it was sharp you could feel something warm and soft underneath it. So there is a real man under there. Scruffy stubble brushed at your skin and sent goosebumps down your chest. Under the beskar his eyes followed the prickling trail that lead under the tattered cloak you still wore to your breasts, watching the way the fabric pointed where your nipples grew hard for him. His other hand couldn’t resist finding its way to your pert peaks, rolling them between his fingers in that way he knew flushed you with heat. Soft gasps rewarded his ears as he worked at your breast and clit, rubbing them in tandem. Your hips rolled into one hand and your back arched into the other, urging him to help you build your climax. He obliged, adding a second finger to pinch your clit softly between strong digits until you fell apart around him.

The pressure that was building behind you and pressing into your spine told you that if you wanted more from him you would have to give him a better angle. You started to get up, but the hands on your sensitive spots held you in place.

“What about your injuries? I don’t want to hurt you.” What injuries? There’s nothing left! His voice was filled with sincerity, a far cry from your first encounter. You didn’t answer him, instead you found each of his hands and squeezed them with a hum, asking him to trust that the bacta had set in and made you comfortable enough to move from your impromptu med bay. He slid his fingers out from your burning core, dragging the wetness from your cunt over your skin until his palms were on your back, helping to push you up off of him. The teeny tiny bed frame made it difficult to spin yourself around until you were facing him, and even more difficult to kick your pants off as you passed over top of him, but he never took his hands away from you to keep you steady until you were seated in his lap.

Straddling his waist you rolled your hips over where his cock was hidden from you, making him shudder under your legs. His arms glided from your knees to your hips, languidly making their way up your sides and past your breasts to the last remaining tatters of the black knit sweater he had allowed you to wear. Hooking a thumb under its ruined edges, he slid it up over your arms and cast it away into the darkness of the ship. His hands went right back to working at your breasts, massaging them like dough in time with your grinding hips. You took a moment to admire how he looked underneath you, his remaining armor glinting in the hazy ship light as his hands searched for every sensitive inch of your chest. You knew from legend that his helmet could never be removed in front of you, but you’d never heard anything about the rest of his clothes. Where his chest plate had been was a strappy flak jacket dotted with magnetic fasteners. Your hands went slowly to the first clasp, and the hands that were so indulged in you froze, his body stiff between your legs.

“Is this ok?” The irony of you repeating his question from earlier back to him made your lips turn in a sly smile.

“Y-yes.” His voice was nearly imperceptible, and you realized that he was shaking. You looked to his visor, watching him nod in consent before you continued. He dropped his hands to your hips, pulling down on your thighs and rutting up into you while you busied yourself with the complicated under armor until it fell away at his sides, revealing a pair of suspenders and an identical black knit tunic as the one that had been shredded off of you. You didn’t have the energy to peel every article of clothing off of him, so this would have to do. Without his cloak bunched around his shoulders you were able to see the flesh of his throat, so warm and inviting that you wanted to sink your teeth into it.

You bent down to nibble at the exposed skin, and the filthy moan that rattled out of the helmet sent shivers down your spine. The taste of him was exquisite, better than you could have imagined under all that fabric and leather. The overwhelming cocktail of his scent straight from the source made you bold. You kissed your way around the edge of his helmet where the metal met his skin until you found his pulse point and made good on your desires. His body convulsed when you bit down, sucking at the tender skin until you left blooming marks that would be there for days.

“Cyar'ika... Please...“ There was that word again, you didn’t know what it meant but the way he breathed it like a prayer felt like warm honey in your belly. Releasing his tormented neck you ran your hands down his broad chest until your thumbs bumped the leather suspenders that lead you down to his waist line where you were able to tug the edge of his shirt free, giving you a delicious window of his tummy; well-muscled and dusted with dark brown hair.

“What’s wrong, tin man? Nobody ever touch you like this before?” He was still shaking while you ran your hands under the edge of his shirt and through the soft treasure trail of fuzz from the top of his belt line to the bottom of his ribs. He couldn’t answer you, his breath caught in his throat at the sensation of your hands on his skin, but you were starting to put the pieces of his puzzle together. No, probably not.

You decided not to torture him any longer. The fabric of his pants was nearly stretched to capacity and wet with your slick. You had to stretch one leg out onto the floor to get enough of a footing to lift yourself high enough off him that you could free him from the canvas prison. His cock nearly burst out of its confines, and your face flushed red at the sight of him standing proudly at attention, twitching in your hands with a flood of shimmering precum made just for you.

His chest was heaving, ragged breaths forcing their way out of his modulator before you’d even taken his length. You used your hips to notch him at your entrance and his grip on your thighs clenched like a steel trap. Slowly you lowered yourself onto him, letting him fill you until you were stretched wide. Your eyes met his visor, though from the way it was tilted you knew he was watching himself disappear into you. His arms wrapped tightly under your ass as he thrust into you hard enough that he lifted you off the cot, quickly scooting both your bodies down the bed until he was flat on his back. You tried to stay upright, but his pounding soon had your head spinning until you were falling forward into his chest, digging your arms around his shoulders in a way you were becoming familiar with. Your hands found their way to the back of his helmet to where his hair line started, sneaking a few fingers under the metal edge to tangle in his curls. The Mandalorian’s hands were on your waist, holding you in place while he rocketed up into you, filling the ships cabin with the sound of wet slaps. His thick cock hit different from this angle, grinding up against the sweet spot deep inside you with each rut until you started seeing stars behind your eyes. He could feel you building up around him and he quickened his pace until you were gasping his name.

“M-mando! I... I’m gonna....” Your muscles coiled with heat until you burst, your sweet cunt fluttering around his still pumping cock until he went cascading over the edge of ecstasy with you, his helmet vibrating with a guttural roar. His feverish body shook, giving you a few short thrusts to milk the cum from his cock until it spilled out from where he was lost inside you.

His shaky arms held onto you so tightly, as if you would blast away into space if he let go. The endorphins flooding his head made him want to pour his heart out and tell you everything, bare himself in body and soul for the first time in his life. He wanted to tell you how nice you had looked in his clothes, how the loose knit fabric draped over your breasts was a work of art; even more so when you were standing before him armed to the teeth in his hunting trophies. How seeing you slice that fucking Twi’lek to ribbons was more graceful than any ballet. The sight of the bloody hole that had been burned into your side had made his skin crawl. Mando wasn’t ready to explain the child’s healing powers, he barely understood them himself; but if it wasn’t for the baby he would have been burying your corpse instead of tending your wounds. Instead of experiencing your living body like he was now.

His heart fluttered at the thought of his foundling healing you with his baby sorcerer magic, his tiny green paws pushed on your side where the blood was spilling from your wound. The thought of you dying for his bounty made him sick, but pride flushed the sensation away when he thought back to that first day with you up in the flight deck. How when his baby boy was restless that you acted, not with malice but with tenderness and care. He'd never wanted to rip his helmet off faster in all his days than when you sang his son a lullaby, the sweet tune of it filtering through his sensory equipment, and he longed to hear it as it was meant to be. In that moment he had been entranced, but the fierce glare of his visor had made you feel threatened. He didn't want that. He wanted to make you feel safe. The same way you had made his child feel, the same way you made him feel now. Like the galaxy itself couldn’t tear you from him.

But the ugly truth was that soon it would all end when you both went your separate ways. All the feelings he wanted to confess to you died in his mouth, leaving a bitter taste that brought him back to reality. You still straddled his waist, and though the blood had long since left his cock it still sat neatly in your heat, letting him feel your gentle heartbeat around him. Carefully he pulled himself free from the apex of your thighs and rolled you both sideways onto the unforgiving cot, letting gravity shuffle you down until you were nestled in the crook of his arm. He couldn’t help brushing a stray lock of hair from your face, meeting your half lidded eyes with his own behind the visor.

“I don’t think I can get to the fresher this time.” Your voice was barely a whisper, and the edges of sleep crept unbidden to your eyes; the traumatic activities of the day finally winning over your endurance. “You’re probably going to have to burn these sheets.”

Mando hummed with indifference, though for you he would burn all of Tatooine down if you asked. All the lovely thoughts that had danced through his mind came rolling through again, haloed in the warm light of afterglow. Only one made its way past his lips, sneaking out of the helmets’ modulator like a prayer.

“How does the song end?”

“Mmm?” You were so close to sleep, so cozy and full of cum that you knew would be a fun mess for morning-you to clean up. You wracked your brain trying to remember what the hell he was talking about. The star-shanty? “Why, do you need a lullaby too?”

“N-no. Just curious. When you leave, my foundling might ask me about it.” Liar. The calloused hand gliding up and down your spine brought the original contract you made with him ringing through your skull. One hunt and I’m gone.

“Leave? I’m not going anywhere until I see you tell Karga face to face that I’m rotting in a sarlacc pit. No take-backs. That old dog will probably dance when he hears he won’t have to part with his credits and I want to catch it on holo-corder.”

The rumbling sigh deep in his chest sounded more like an engine powering down than a mortal man, and it told you more than words ever could. The arm you had around his chest was met with strong fingers that intertwined with your own. He doesn’t want me to go. Who are you, Mandalorian?

“Tell me anyway? Please?” His arms tightened like a fortress around you. His words were distant, echoing out from somewhere in dreamland instead of right by your ear. Alright you big softie, if you’re going to beg me. You sighed heavily against him, trying to recall the songs of your distant past.

“The nights are long between the stars, and lonely too for me,

I wonder how I might have fared with home and family.

But the bonds of friendship I have formed will last my lifetime through,

Security is not for me, my dreams are all of you.”

The same soft snores that had been your original encore with the baby now ghosted in your ear, muffled by the mysterious beskar helmet but still unmistakable. Like father like son.

The weight of his arms around you was like nothing you had ever felt in your years on the run. You had traveled so far and met so many living beings but not once had you let another share your bed while you slept. You could get used to this. The thought was the last you had before sleep overtook you, your body slumping against his while you dreamed of silver and steel.

<-Previous Next->

TAG LIST

@mandoinevarro @mrsparknuts @cookiejuicedesu

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x you #hurt/comfort #fluff #smut

203 notes · View notes

joshuaalbert · 2 years ago

Note

*chicago mobster voice* koyk

alright spocko

favorite thing about them

I like the duality of him I think. like the man is completely fucking unhinged and hanging on by a thread most of the time but he’s also extremely clever and has the background knowledge to support what he’s doing and he does have these really interesting quieter moments. he’s representation for those of us who were quiet and nerdy in school and then became gay and insane and also representation for those of us who have had the first stanza of sea fever memorized since we were 15. i also just genuinely think he’s fun to watch. he has very few legitimate flaws as a character but because he feels kind of personally out of control a lot of the time, it doesn’t feel like the situation’s under control 100% of the time even though you know he will ultimately have the skills necessary to get them out of it. not to make this entirely a kirk vs picard point, but picard always feels far too in command of the situation and that’s less fun to watch imo.

wow what a surprise me talking about a character turned into a long post. continued after the cut

least favorite thing about them

i. do not like tos movie kirk in general especially as the series goes on. idk who that is but he's not kirk a lot of the time. like at times series kirk is short tempered or snarky at a time he shouldn’t be or something but he’s still very much driven by his love for exploration or humanity or his crew. it seemed like what they were going for in the movies was that he was going to be disillusioned in the beginning but then regain that, but if he did, it didn’t stick around. he just feels vaguely misanthropic to me and while hero decay is not inherently a bad arc, it doesnt seem like that’s what they were necessarily going for, because that’d be an uncharacteristically depressing throughline for tos content imo. I still haven’t finished VI lmao and part of that’s just because I was bored but part of it was bc I was like. I don’t think I like this character right now? part of it’s bc with age i increasingly look at him and go “yeah that’s william shatner” and not “yeah that’s kirk my friend kirk” but part is because he seems like he’s much more what a lot of Male Fans™️ thought the character was where he’s this cool guy who doesn’t care about the rules because fuck you. it’s not All the time, but he lacks warmth to me a lot of the time.

brOTP

i respect people who ship kirk/mccoy or spock/kirk/mccoy but generally i'd say kirk and mccoy are brotp to me. i also really enjoy his dynamic with chekov.

OTP

like. spirk is the og for a reason. when we started watching it my expectation was that I would be like “yeah I get where people were coming from” but not necessarily much more than that but by episode…3? I was like oh. yeah. okay. okay.

nOTP

in terms of things I’ve seen people actually ship I can’t think of anything off the top of my head, but fuck every time the show tries to stick him with like a 19 year old and even reading about the proposed johanna mccoy storyline makes me want to commit a felony so I’m glad they did not do that.

random headcanon

kirk is a real guy and he’s spent the last like 60 years fighting for control of william shatner’s body.

unpopular opinion

pour one out for every male character that gets called a himbo and is characterized as a complete dumbass in fanon despite being demonstrably smart and innovative in canon. yet another thing that got passed down to riker!

also fuck anyone (shatner and the kirk fanboys with terrible ideas about masculinity and a fundamental misunderstanding of the character) that thinks kirk would hate wesley. there’s literally no supporting evidence for that. he’s maybe not Great with kids but he tries his best with them (several episodes but charlie x stands out in this regard) and i think 2x13 obsession helps disprove this as well

song i associate with them

as with most of the information in this post you already know this but highwayman is a very kirk song to me. the last verse is obvious but I think he’d like the idea of having been a highwayman and a sailor and a blue collar worker across past lives.

favorite picture of them

yeah,,,,,,,,,,,,

#ty ty <4 #kirk #ask game #side note quark making like a callback joke about sea fever all the way in like s4 of ds9 was very funny to me #also I still have one more of these in my asks which I appreciate and I will get to it tomorrow! I’m. sleeby

5 notes · View notes

life-rewritten · 4 years ago

Text

The Gifted Graduation Series: An Ode to Pang and Wave’s love

As much as I try hard not to fangirl in this blog, and try to focus on just analysis and theories when it comes to this show. This time I can't help it, when it comes to this show I always wonder if I should call it a Thai bl? Or if I should just accept that it isn't and move on, but then they give me these two's interaction, and then I'm a mess screaming there's no way Gifted is not a BL series. You don't need kisses or explicit confirmations of love between two men for a show to be a BL for me; I call Great Man Academy a BL and it's a gender bender, but it's still a BL for me. Why can't I do the same with Gifted the series? Because honestly the love of Pang and Wave may not be canon / confirmed as a romance, but for me, there's nothing else to explain it? I've tried using the oh they're best friends who are soulmates line, but like that's even more of a reason why they're in love, it's not like they get mirror images to other BL couple scenes right? (but then we get the earphones sharing thing which was the same as Sarawatine in 2gether the series, PhuKao in oxygen the series), it's not like they're proclaiming out to each other how much they'd die for each other? (but then we have Wave going to sacrifice himself with a virus that could potentially kill him and take away his powers just so Pang stays safe and then Pang doing the same in order to protect him), it's not like they tell each other every day how much the other person means to them (but then you have Wave saying he's so stupid for never giving up on Pang) and it's like wait for what? This has to be love, this has to be romantic love, I can have many best friends, but I don't think I'd lean close to their face inches from kissing and say that I would gladly give everything, my life, my ideals, my hopes and dreams just so they can stay by my side forever maybe its cause I'm a lousy friend who knows?

But when I see that kind of soulmate, passionate and unconditional love my brain goes into overdrive. These two are made for each other if they were a boy and a girl (in this heterosexual forced society we're in) this would be the ultimate power couple heck we'd have seen them already make out by now multiple times. So let me just have this okay? Let me just write an ode to one of the greatest ships in NON-Thai BL history, and let me explain to you why The gifted series is a BL to me even if Pang and Wave don't end up on the rooftops telling each other how in love they are. I'm fine with that, in my head, they've already passed that stage and are lovers, on their way to defeating evil and saving the world and staying together for the rest of their lives. Let's begin

Let's look at episode 10-11 in the Gifted Graduation before I keep on writing essays about these two's dynamic—the Virus.

THE VIRUS

You know what Pang and Wave have is special, and obvious when even the villain who is a psychopath can see that Wave is Pang's weak link. Supot threatens the other students, so they don't hide Pang's whereabouts, but he ensures that he gives a long side-eye to Wave, he smirks like he already has a plan for him, like he already knows what's about to happen, like he already understands that Wave is no longer the Wave in season 1 who'd sacrifice everything to ensure he's safe and his powers are still intact, but Wave is now Pang's 'friend', the Wave that will sacrifice everything even if it means he's hurt for Pang. And low and behold Supot confirms this with glee later on. It wasn't even a possibility for Wave to betray Pang. For Supot it was a done deal, that he had found a way to secure Pang under his control. That reason was Wave.

REASONS FOR WHY WAVE TOOK THE VIRUS:

Because he can't betray Pang, that's an apparent reason. But it's more than that; at this moment Pang has shown that his idealism for the better world is a failure, he ended up doing the opposite and actually was the cause of Supot taking over the school system and being the messed up dictator that he is. Pang is the person who set his plans in motion. Wave should be furious, should be doubtful, should be tired, but no, one thing stays the same. He won't give up on Pang no matter what. Don't get him wrong he is furious, doubtful and annoyed, he even shouts to Pang this episode that he's so stupid for never giving up on him, for always wanting to save him, for always wanting him to be right. And if you know Wave who is the very optimum of knowledge and logic, him choosing to go against everything that is presented in front of him just to keep on believing in Pang is insane, his undying love and loyalty for Pang can't be broken. And he knows it, and he laments about it, but you know what he's okay with it as long as Pang is safe.

Because he was guessing how Pang was feeling after everything that happened. He could already see what happens next; Pang would be so exhausted, mentally and physically drained, and probably on the verge of giving up and choosing to end all his hopes and beliefs. He knew precisely how Pang would feel, so he took drastic measures, the only thing that could bring Pang up to his feet was if someone he cared about was hurt or in danger of being hurt by Supot. He took the Virus so Pang will get up and stop moping and hiding and do something. He believed that what they had would cause Pang to switch on and be determined to help again. It was the only way he could do that. And for Wave, Pang's spirit, idealism, and optimism were more needed than his own potential. Pang was his most trusted hope for the future, so he gave everything to ensure he didn't lose that.

Because he trusts Pang will find a cure. Because it's Pang. No matter what they've been through because Wave believes so much in Pang's potential and power, he knows that they'd be fine. It doesn't matter how many times they've failed before, it doesn't matter if the world is cruel and manipulative, it doesn't matter if people betray others, and change their philosophies, because, for Wave, Pang is his rock, Pang will keep fighting for what's right and one day he'll win because he's right. Wave has watched Pang fail and fail time and time again, but he always believes that as long as they're together, they're still hoping, and they still care, they'll be fine. Because Pang showed him why trust and unity are worth it. That's why in episode 4 he doesn't get shaken by Time betraying them he's just like, but we'll win. Because Pang is to him, his winner, if Pang cares and fights for it, Wave will be okay, and he'll be cured again. Because it's Pang, Pang will end up saving the world, and the gifted and Pang will be proven right. That's why although he feels stupid, Pang is the only thing he can't let go of in his mind otherwise his world would crumble; he'll be broken down, and his hope will be shattered, and he doesn't want to be that way like he was in Season 1. For him, Pang is his strength, so giving up his powers, his life, or his logic doesn't faze him because he'll be okay if Pang is still fighting for him to be.

THE REASON FOR PANG’S UNWAVERING FAITH

Let's look at what Wave is to Pang because I've already been repeating over and over again what Pang is to Wave (his strength, trust, hope etc.). Before we do that, let's analyse Pang's relationships when it comes to his idealism for a better world. His anchors should I call it, the people who make him still want to fight for a better world etc.

His friends/colleagues: From season 1, Pang got to be close to everyone, he became a leader for all of the gifted students in his year. He was the one who managed to convince them to fight for what's right. He had them as his team supporting and holding him up, and as we see in season 2, their hopes become frail, they become weak, and they can't keep up with their optimism as the world seems so dim and bleak. His friends trust and hope in him is what makes him determined to be a good leader. It's because of protecting them that he also gives into Supot this episode (after Wave) because he doesn't want them hurt or controlled in that way. They're his bargain chip for Supot. And luckily we see that because Pang is now weaker and controlled by Supot they've taken on the role to ensure that his vision for the world comes through, they've decided to trust no matter what in themselves and him to make sure his hopes comes through.

The students in danger: For Pang, he's the reason why Supot regained his control, and it kills him inside, so he gives up to protect everyone. Pang cares so much about what's right, and people. Equality for people is why he started his fight for a better system, and in this season seeing students be used as lab rats for a virus was very unsettling for him, it's because of this he trusted Supot because he had a way to cure them. The students are his source of determination. he wants to protect everyone and ensure everyone is safe. But now it looks like he's failed with that. However, I don't think, so he probably is still determined now he has Wave by his side (haha) because they're still being used and that's not okay to him he's just secretly looking for a new way to save them.

Grace, Third and Time: The next people that make him want to fight and stay true to his vision is the new generation of gifted who he's come to have to protect as well. Grace, Third and Time represent Pang, Wave and the other gifted students, like Pang they're determined to do what's right, they're optimistic. They don't care about the system, they are willing to fight and advocate for justice and equality. And they look up to him so much, he's their idol because he's inspired them to take on the system and fight for their beliefs. That's why we see them continue to keep on finding ways using their potentials to keep this vision alive. Grace doesn't care about adults, she really appreciates and is grateful for Pang for fighting for all the students, she's seen her friends (and thought one was dead) be used as experiments for this messed up system so yes she believes and wants Pang to be right. And Time started of doubting Pang's ideals, but now he also sees that Pang was right Supot is insane and evil, so he's even more determined to protect and help Pang to defeat Supot. Third likes doing what's right so he also believes in Pang because he can see for now that what Supot is doing isn't right. The new generation of gifted students is more determined now to keep Pang's vision, especially when they now know that change is possible. I'm sure Grace has already convinced Pang and Wave of a new secret way to ensure they have their vision come through, we just won't find out until the end when Supot is blindsided.

WAVE PANG’S FLOAT AND ANCHOR

And then finally there's Wave: See he has his own category for Pang's anchor. Wave is Pang's most needed anchor. He represents Pang's determination, loyalty, and faith in a better world, just like Pang's unwavering loyalty to his idealism for change, Wave returns that back to Pang, he's literally the symbol for Pang's anchor to his idealism. He's his biggest mission accomplice, his anchor when things seem stormy (the person who grounds him and wakes him up from giving up, so he starts finding a new solution, he's the person who reminded Pang of who he was when he lost himself and his memories at the end of season 1, he's the person who's the most loyal to Pang this whole season no matter what happens and he's the person who is determined to believe that they will succeed and fuels Pang with optimism).

He's his float when Pang is drowning, he's the person who reaches out to Pang as he finally wants to fall and give up, the person who gets Pang back up because of his actions, the person who Pang thinks of first when he's being controlled or tempted by Supot, he's Pang's moral compass, a reminder to stay true to his path, and to keep fighting.

Wave is everything to Pang and more, he's Pang's truest source of hope and light when everything feels dark and impossible. He's also Pang's strength. And that's why Pang runs to him every single time it's time to do something for the mission (Wave thinks he's just a tool but he doesn't understand how much Pang needs him to just be there). And because of his knowledge as well he's Pang's guide, and logic because sometimes Pang can get too up in the clouds and so he needs someone to bring him back down. Wave does both, he calls out Pang when he's too selfish and dreamy, and he pulls Pang up when he's being too pessimistic and hopeless. He's Pang's steadfast anchor no other person will do. He's his helper, his person, his confidant, his advice and his brains, no one else.

THE FATED PAIR

But there's also a fated/destined vibe with these two. They're fated to be together. Because in Gifted Graduation there's the fated pairs, two people opposite and partners who want to bring a change to the world. We have Supot and Yuth, we have Chanon and Pom, we have Wave and Pang, and we have Time and Third. The similarities between the fated pairs is another post, but its there on purpose, and so is their different paths/changes that occur in their dynamics. Wave and Pang are the most robust destined pair. One of the teams has the brains, information, the logic and the other has the idealism, the idea, the vision, the hope—each pair start of trusting each other, loyal by default and sacrificial as well for the other.

For Supot/Yuth: Yuth believes wholeheartedly in his friendship with Supot, he stays hurt and abused so that his dreams and his revenge for Supot's death isn't wasted, he refuses to give up on his vision because he believed it was also Supots. So he's delighted, and over the moon when he realises that Supot is alive, and he thinks its a sign that they'll win. So these two represent Wave and Pang's loyalty and belief in each other. The only issue is, Supot is a psychopath, unfeeling when it comes to his goals, so he ends up destroying his friend out of petty jealousy and also greed and ego.

Chanon/Pom: Chanon had hopes and ambition to push Pom to become a great teacher, to fulfil his biggest dreams, Channon was Poms inspiration and source of hope. Pom was Chanon's confidant and partner in crime. So they represent Wave and Pang's push, and inspiration to each other, except Pom, betrays Chanon when the world seems like its crumbling down. Chanon crosses Pom for revenge because of being traumatised by the world/Supot. Their trust and hope in each other are damaged. But Pang and Wave's is never going to be damaged.

Third/Time: Our newbies, they also start off being under each other's skin but automatically becoming each other's best friend, once Third gets his hope of becoming in the gifted program (because of Time's fight for it), he's grateful and loyal. Time is also appreciative for Third because he does what's right, but also he provides information (through his potential) to help their group survive. These two are just starting, but they represent the origins of Wave and Pang, that uncontrollable fate pulling them together to be a team no matter what. That destiny that ensures they find each other even if they hate each other to automatically start saving the world together no matter what.

WAVE AND PANG: PERFECTLY MATCHED

So Episode 10-11 Pang may be shattered right now with hope. Still, all the people he's inspired, all his anchors and reason for fighting are about to help and bring his vision back, and they'll finally show him how right he was to fight for them. How helpful he was to them and how he really did save all of them despite failing time and time again. But the funny thing is, it's Wave who's right there by his side as he's broken down. They're both right now sacrificing everything for each other.

Wave is holding Pang up as he is being under the director's control; he's the reason why Pang hasn't yet given in to evil because he's his moral compass in his head whenever he is being forced to do so. Pang and Wave stop each other from evil by just being there, they just need to show up by each other's side for them to want to trust and hope again that things will be okay. They save each other time and time again.

They're each other's opposite; teaching what they need to know, perfectly matched to help them improve from their flaws, Pang teaches Wave to trust and be more open to caring about others than himself, he pushes his walls down to believe again in feelings. Wave helps Pang be grounded and come back to reality, to look after others properly and to be selfless and be a good leader. They're logic and emotions a perfect match.

See why this is a BL? Why I'm shipping these two so hard. It's enviable to see what these two have formed. It makes me so jealous but also so giddy and just grateful that we have a couple like them despite not being stated as one. For me, these two are in love, these two have a bond that is unbreakable, and these two are soulmates destined for each other. They're the power couple who will save the world time and time again as long as they have each other, as long as they save each to other and as long as they keep on loving each other. As much as I couldn't analyse anything else this episode but these two, I will say that I don't believe these two have given up on their vision, they're probably secretly up to something, or they'll be pushed back to their hopes and idealisms next episode when they see all their peers fighting for them to trust again. As long as these two are together, they'll be fine. And so will the ending of the show, Supot will be defeated, he just doesn't know it yet.

162 notes · View notes