#his reaction to being betrayed by a family member who has tried to kill him and his friends multiple times isn't that crazy??
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ahoyimlosingmymind · 9 months ago
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fitz vacker would be a phenomenal and complex character if he was in any other world than the lost cities.
bro has 'I live in a dystopia' main character rage from circa 2014. stuck in a 'but violence is never justified' world.
He's built for YA, he's stuck in middle grade. He's been placed in the wrong genre.
he wouldn't get nearly as much hate for his anger if the setting was like- the hunger games or something. take away the 'no violence' aspect of the elves (which would also make the neverseen even more dangerous) for a minute, look at Fitz's actions and his character in relation to the keeper plot... is... he really that crazy now?
also i should clarify, this is not about his feelings on matchmaking, but his inclination towards violence, the willingness to kill in self defense or defense of others.
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alfredsolos · 2 years ago
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I don't like how some writers bash or exaggerate the other batkids' behaviour and personalities in order to whumpify their favorite batfam member.
If Dick Grayson is the main character in the fic, then every other batfam member are suddenly incapable of doing the most simplest tasks and ask Dick to help them. He solves every single problem of his family because he is the 'eldest'. And he always puts a smile on his face and let's them treat him like shit.
Yes, it is true that Dick has more responsibility compared to his siblings. Not because he is the eldest; but because he has to keep an entire city safe all by himself, mentor teen sidekicks, lead the Titans, go on missions with the JL and so on. And he does this not because he has to, but because he wants to.
Also he may be more emotionally open than rest of his siblings, but thats just it. Compared to his siblings. Nightwing says puns and jokes yeah, but he is not at all can be classified as emotionally vulnurable. Dick led and mentored so many teams, and you can't do that while being light hearted and smiley all the time.
Dick is serious and firm when needed to. He doesn't baby any of his siblings (especially Damian), or act like an angel all the time. He has anger management issues and does not take bullshit from anyone. Not even his family.
He lives in Bludhaven to get away from the craziness that is Gotham. He loves his family, but he simply does not have the patience to deal with them all the time.
When the fic is about Jason, most of the plot is about him being dead and how Bruce betrayed him by replacing him. That Dick threw him in Arkham and everyone treats him like a monster.
Well firstly, Jason is not all about his death. He doesn't really bring it up unless he wants to make a point to Bruce.
Jason doesn't hate Tim because he replaced him. Jason hates Bruce, for taking in another Robin when the first one actively get murdered because of it. He beat Tim up to prove to him and Bruce that taking in a child, and making him his partner is seriously wrong. Jason hates the idea of kids becoming soldiers for a war they didn't start.
Another point is that after Jason came back from the dead, he wasn't an anti-hero. He was a full on villain that tried to kill most of the Batfamily. And no I'm not talking about him beating Tim up in the Titans tower (It was to send a message to Bruce) or cutting his throat (which he didn't. It was a small scratch):
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I'm talking about Battle for the Cowl, when he beat Tim up badly because he refused to be his Robin. Jason thought Tim was dead at the end of their fight (Tim slowed down his heartbeat). And this is his reaction:
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And yet again in Battle for the Cowl, he shot Damian. Which resulted him getting more than 70 stitches:
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Also this was his reaction when a nuclear powered supervillain blew up Bludhaven:
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He poisoned 82 inmates while 'Dick sent poor Jason into prison :('
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Now does this mean Jason is a bad character? Fuck no! Infact he is one of my favorite characters. Jason is such an interesting character and sometimes you can't help but condone his mistakes no matter how bad they are. Even I do this.
So what I mean is that, we should stop babying him and see him as the flawed character he is. Every single character has their own flaws and that's what makes them special.
Jason was a hero, then a villain, then an anti-hero, then again a hero.
Also he doesn't get pit episodes. The only time he got one was right after getting out of the pit. Lazarus pit did not made him violent and it's not the blame for Jason's past actions. Jason was awake and aware of the things he did. And he feels guilty. But he learned to forgive. Both himself and Bruce.
Our next member is Tim Drake. Fanon Tim Drake is a coffee addict, he is thin and small, is quiet and doesn't believe he is apart of the family. Dick stole Robin from him and gave it to 'evil and cruel' Damian who bullies him every time they interact. Jason always calls him replacement and threatens to kill him most of the time. Dick is a monster that tried to lock him up in Arkham.
God I cringed writing this. Anyways firstly Tim is, in fact, not a coffee addict. I'd say he is more of a tea person and only drinks coffee to stay awake.
Tim is not short and all skin and bones. He eats properly and is very muscled. Especially around his back and biceps. He is also not short either.
Tim is quiet, yes. But not in a shy way. He is cold and calculative and sometimes a little apathatic. He isn't scared to do what's necessary and is always ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of the mission. He also definitely sees himself apart of the family.
Another really misunderstood point is that Dick took Robin from him, when it was actually Alfred who gave Damian the Robin suit.
Yes, Damian tried to kill him multiple times and it was very traumatising for Tim. But they do get along most of the time. In fact Tim may be the second closest to Damian among the family. Because no matter what happens he loves his little brother. As it was shown when he hallucinated and hugged Damian after he died.
Jason and him may be at odds from time to time, but Jason gets along with him more than most of his siblings.
And Dick most certainly did not try to put him in Arkham. Bruce was dead and Dick saw Tim. How devastated he was, so he offered him to get therapy. Like a good brother would do.
Last but not least is Damian. I think most of the time Damian centric fics manage to represent him properly. But let's start with the ones that are the most cliche-d and wrongly written.
Damian talks the Queen's British and is spoiled. Dick Grayson is his actual father and Bruce always insults him. He trains all day and goes to patrol at night. He hates his mother, always gets his ass handed to him in a fight. Tim Drake treats him horribly and everyone calls him Demon or Demon Brat. Jason is the best brother in the world and him and Dick always protect him from Bruce's wrath. Alfred annoyes him and Damian doesn't really care about him. All of his personality is summed up with: "Yes, Father."
In actuality, Damian is most of the time sassy or straight up mocking. He uses slangs and isn't scared of disrespecting Ra's or Talia and Bruce (in fact he may be enjoying it a little).
Dick Grayson is in fact not his father figure. That title belongs to Alfred, who was always there whenever he needed him.
Damian plays video games and his favorite one is cheese vikings.
He also loves his mother and forgives her even through all does horrible things she does to him. He is most likely conditioned to feel that way. Because it's not normal to treat someone normally after they murder you. He is also an exceptionally good fighter.
Tim Drake is possibly his second closest sibling. They banter and fight sometimes, yes. But they still very much care for each other. When Tim was thought to be dead, Damian was shown to be holding his bo staff and mourning.
Him and Jason were never close. Jason tried to kill him and so did Damian. They don't know each other well and Damian does not want to; since at the time he was Robin, Jason was a villain that actively tried to hurt him and Dick.
I don't think anyone ever called him a Demon Brat. Or if they did it was probably like one time, since I couldn't find any panels that refer to him that way.
Damian is the most rebellious and hot headed Robin. He doesn't shy from saying what wants or stepping up to Bruce. In fact those two are the ones who fight the most in the family. Even more than Tim and Damian.
And Bruce doesn't always insult or bench him. He just straight up ignores him or his needs and always puts him in second.
There are obviously way more than these, but I'll stop for today. No hate to the creators, this is just my own opinion.
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mywingsareonwheels · 2 years ago
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Yet more thoughts about Thursday in “Endeavour” 9.3
Here be spoilers
I don’t - I really don’t want - to excuse Thursday’s worst behaviour in the final episode. Not, ultimately, do I think he would want any of us to.
But I do just want to talk a bit about the mitigating circumstances, because there are lots. He’s always been a glorious mixture of selflessness, stubbornness, compassion, anger, single-mindedness, generosity, open-mindedness, unreasonableness, vulnerability. And the times that have brought the most extreme side of him out are when a) he thinks that he’s going to die soon so has nothing let to lose, b) when child abuse has happened, c) above all, when one of the four people he loves most (his immediate family + Morse) are in danger.
In 9.3, we see Fred:-
- having a severe dizzy spell which clearly indicates potential serious heart problems; he shrugs it off to Morse but there’s no way he doesn’t recognise that he’s ill. He doesn’t look well, either, throughout the episode.
- having his life threatened.
- recognising that his sergeant for two years had been abused as a child and he’d had no idea.
- being forced to stop the investigation into Blenheim Vale and let down Jakes and the others because...
- his life, Joan’s life, and Morse’s life have all been directly threatened by Lott (who has outright attempted to kill his brother) and this time he can’t find any way to save them without giving in and getting Morse to give in, and in any case he’s so tired.
- discovering that his brother has profoundly betrayed him, and that the act of foolish generosity and trust that nearly cost him his marriage and certainly did cost him retirement when he mentally and physically needed it was a trap all along (NB: I suspect this might have temporarily damaged his ability to trust anyone, at all, including Morse).
- realising that Sam has become an addict and a dealer and is far gone enough to have been stealing from him and Win (and to punch him, though that comes later); realising too that the young man is in serious danger as a result.
All within a very, very short space of time. And when he’s already exhausted, ill, burned out, absolutely past ready to retire and rest.
And then he sees a stranger, a gang member, trying to kill his son. And he is not to know - not in the least - that the stranger was a past victim of child abuse whose friendship once gave comfort to the young Peter Jakes.
I just... Thursday’s not perfect, and he’s never been perfect, and we see some of the worst of him here. Morse’s heartbreak over the murder is profound and desperately sad and completely relatable.
But it’s not an unforced error. I think Morse is more than halfway to forgiving him before they part, and I find that relatable too. Not least because Thursday’s reaction to being given the money back is that shocked sob. He’d utterly lost his faith in people, and here is Morse doing everything to restore it. I can keep going on about the symbolism of him giving up his service revolver to the truest friend (the true brother now, perhaps, rather than the true eldest son?) he’s ever had. He knows what he’s losing in Morse. He knows the sheer epic quantity of grace Morse is extending him. And I think he sees, in that moment, that he can use that grace to become closer to the man Morse wants him to be, even with them parted for good.
I think we’ve all had the moment (several, most likely) of being under extreme stress and obsessing about helping one person we love, at the cost of our own integrity, and the cost of pain to other loved ones. And then that moment when you realise what you’ve done.
I hate that Thursday commits a murder. I hate that he tries to justify himself. But holy crap, is it hard to entirely blame him for that murder, or that self-justification, at that time.
He’s not perfect, but he’s also not remotely a villain. He’s a mostly decent, mostly warm and compassionate, flawed, big-hearted, highly traumatised man who needs a fricking break and instead gets... all that. His love for Morse is real, and the times (oh Gods, the so many times) he’s saved Morse aren’t taken away by the events of one episode, even if those events end their active relationship. Endeavour has always been a show I think that encourages us to crack our hearts open that bit wider. To have compassion for a murderous gang member because we know something of what he went through as a kid, and what his friendship meant to another character we love. To have a compassion for the gang member’s murderer because we know exactly what kind of man he is, and what kind of horrors he was going through.
Gah, this show. Never runs out of layers.
Also I say again: someone give Roger Allam an award for his performance as Fred, it’s truly, truly extraordinary.
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scaryspears · 2 years ago
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How the Devil Gene in canon still works after Tekken 7
From what most Tekken enjoyers understand is that the Devil gene was retconned. But what if there was a way to watch all endings and past revelations without getting confused? Which brings my presentation. 
How the Devil Gene in canon still works after Tekken 7
To be clear, I haven't refreshed my memory of what went down in the storyline but I remember the basics, so feel free to call out any incorrectness. Most of this is just a ramble and I wanted to show it to anybody who would read it, along with using a bunch of gifs for artistic reasons.
When Kazuya was a small boy his father (Heihachi) threw him off a cliff, in Tekken 7 it is because Kazuya tried to fight him after Heihachi killed Kazumi, his mother. The reason Heihachi killed her is because he found out she came from a family of devil genes (or something). 
I don't think Kazuya was raised to know what the Devil gene was, so when Devil made himself present he naturally made a deal with Kazuya out of instinct of knowing what itself was but not the family history. Kind of like a kitten having the same tendencies as its parents but was taken from the litter and mother it belonged to. I think you guys know what I mean here.
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I theorise that the gene itself isn't present until something tragic and emotionally distressing activates it. At least that may be the case for those with it who go untrained not knowing that they have it, I don't know how it must've been for Kazumi. Devil Jin was activated through stress, and whilst Jin was in his teens, while Devil K grew with Kazuya.
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Dude's mum just disappeared and the person that's supposed to protect him betrays him with the actual intent to harm. I think Heihachi throwing Kazuya was kind of a disciplinary thing, because Kazuya still grew up with Heihachi, while Jin was left for dead. But Kazuya was 8-10 (poor memory) when he got thrown off, so his emotional/mental tolerance was... lesser. Not to say Jin losing his mum at an older age wasn't just as traumatic, but teenagers and children are different. Jun's presence also must also have something to do with it, as Devil Jin tries to resist her good powers.
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Devil Jin must've been waiting to appear for quite some time, in the back of Jin's mind watching everything. What we know of Devil Jin is that he's an absolute menace to society and a typical delinquent teenager. He's very playful in comparison to Devil Kazuya's maturity. He takes his time being a menace, knowing Jin would take control eventually. TTT2's special win poses between Devil K/Kazuya and Devil J make Devil K/Kazuya look a disapproving father. From DJ firing his laser out of control and flying away, with DK either crossing his arms or showing no reaction.
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In Tekken 4 the Devil in Kazuya says that he lost a part of himself and wants to take it back. In a way, when you put in the whole genetic thing he's kind of not wrong. Devil K is acknowledging that he has a son but not to the full grasp that he should. We all know how DNA works, reproduction, ect.
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Devil K however believes that 'part of himself' should be taken back, not getting that the gene is in Jin's blood. While I do believe Jun was protecting Jin, I don't think that's why his body rejected the gene getting taken away. Now, as seen with Kazuya's TTT2 ending he can absorb the evil off others for his own gain which is what he did to Unknown. Thing is, Unknown is more of a possession rather than an 'in the blood' situation. Sure TTT2 isn't canon, but it has shown 'what if' scenarios. Not only that, but we see Zafrina use Azazel's ball thing for her own use.
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So the Devil gene is still a thing, and it started out as just that, a gene. They can take power away from other forms of evil, but not their own family members. That may have been why Kazumi wanted Kazuya killed, because Devil couldn't be taken away from him, and she's no Jun Kazama or Angel so it's not like she could take it away from him. Not to defend her or anything, just saying.
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leviiattacks · 4 years ago
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May I request a Levi x Reader angst fic? Just barely any fluff, mostly angst going on lol. The reader is a traitor, formaly working for Marley, but betraying them in secret and putting their loyalty on Paradis. The reader is also a shifter and married to Levi for a couple of years. That love and care however is gone once readers identity is found. He truly despises them, insults them, maybe a bit violent with them, and outright tells them that they mean nothing to him anymore and hate them to bits. Readers punishment is to hand over her titan to Erwin, and they agree instantly, broken over everything, believing its all their fault. Once Erwin inherits Readers titan, he breaks down and screams, crying, because Reader was innocent the whole time. They never betrayed Paradis. Never killed anyone, never harmed anyone. They finaly know why they betrayed Marley, the abuse being to much for them, enough to just leave them behind for Paradis. Just... loving and caring as they all saw them. But now the damage is done. They wont come back, they're dead, believing that they died, hated and despised, with no one to mourn their death. Everyone regrets everything.
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author note :: i was thinking of leaving this in my drafts but i already wrote it and may as well post it. it didn’t end up going the way i hoped but yeah i hope it’s ok anon. anyways ANGST. ANGST, ANGST. as always i love feed back :-) ⟹ all of the headings with the years are just meant to mean it’s a different moment from that year so those moments don’t happen right after each other i hope that makes sense!! word count :: 7.2k warnings :: canon typical violence, death
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845, i.
Everything is falling in place when it shouldn't.
Sun never makes itself known in Liberio yet here it is shining down onto the bustling streets. You half expect for it to crash down and burn into the hundreds of civilians going about their daily business yet nothing of the sort happens. It's typical sunlight and you curse yourself silently for your sinister thoughts.
Secretly the voice at the back of your mind still whispers frantically but you don't wish to hear what it has to say. Instead you choose to drown it out with the sound of Zeke's voice. Finally deciding to pay attention to what it is he's been droning on about for the past ten minutes.
"Soon, soon, soon." He sighs dreamily looking a little delirious.
"Soon?"
Your question catches him off guard, he lightly shoves you with his elbow scoffing in annoyance.
"Did you sit here to not even listen to me?" He turns to take a sip of whisky and the hearty gulp he chugs shows his mild irritation. You assume he's been rambling on about Marley's plan to infiltrate Paradis. You have to admit that the idea of destroying those demons from the inside is amazingly well thought out. However it's all he's been able to discuss for the entire week now and frankly you're getting a little exhausted of it.
"I zoned out..." Quietly placing your glass back down onto the wooden counter you sigh closing your eyes. It's too early to be drinking and you don't trust Zeke enough to slip into ignorance and leave yourself vulnerable. Men are to not be trusted, especially Eldian men. The thought of Eldians triggers your flight of fight response, you want to shrivel up into a cocoon and never come out until the world is rid of the monsters. The lowest of the low, the dirt in between the crevices of Marleyan soldier's boots. That is what Eldian's are.
It's ironic coming from you, your entire family labelled as undesirable Eldians yourself but you, you know you're different. An honorary Marleyan is what you will become. What you are. The treacherous imps who are but an ocean away are the true evil.
Eyes flicking to Zeke he's lighting a cigar. Old habits die hard and he's yet to quit this self destructive custom of his. You couldn't care less if he chooses to cut his lifespan short by ten years, it's his own choice to make. A disgusting cowardly choice but it's a choice fit for an untamed man like him.
The Island Devils are said to be the bad apples but you can't help but stare at your fellow citizens from time to time and wonder what it is they could be hiding. If a demon slipped through the cracks you wouldn't be surprised. Sly in nature, persuasive in tone, that is how devils go about their daily lives alone The hymns they drilled into you all the way through elementary school echo and rebound in your mind.
Locking your bitter thoughts away you have to push yourself to not punt Zeke in the mouth when he teasingly blows a puff of hot smoke into your face.
Fingertips grazing with his he freezes at the sudden contact giving you the perfect opportunity to slip his cigar away and take it in between your lips. You allow for it to linger there but you aren't foolish enough to inhale its contents.
"Zeke, my dear friend. We shall soon be met with the fruits of our own labour but I assure you that discussing Marley's plan constantly will be of no benefit for you nor I."
The day you and Zeke had met had been at warrior training camp. Zeke was a miserable, unmotivated oaf. Always tripping and falling behind the rest of the warrior cadets. You felt rather bad for him, if you were born as unskilled as him you don't know what you would have made of yourself. Zeke, the only child of his parents ironically only ever ended up rising through the ranks after handing them over to the Marleyan government. His father and mother had been conspiring an escape plan but were executed immediately alongside their fellow team members once Zeke had outted them. Unexpectedly he was spared, the fact he turned on his own parents showed where his loyalties were. To his surprise, he was even allowed to continue his training with the other warriors - only this time everyone kept an increased distance away from him. The warriors weren't informed of what he had actually done but everyone had a gut feeling. Everyone apart from you stuck with that feeling. You thought strategically, If he were to become an enemy in the future you knew being close would come at your advantage.
The day you and Zeke had met your mother died, his mother passed away the same day. At least that's what he had told you.
The two of you bonded over the little things, told each other stories about your life at home. Reminisced about what it was you missed.
Then it all came crashing down the day Zeke confessed. The day he told you he killed his mother and father by handing them over to Marley. Your knees buckled underneath you, crashing the floor he tried to grab at you but you thrashed around in retaliation kicking and screaming not understanding why he did what he did. Yes, they were traitors but they were his parents and if the monster had the nerve to turn on the people who gave birth to him who's to say he wouldn't do the same to you or to Marley.
Zeke doesn't know it but ever since then you take the opportunity to sneak the occasional glance at him. Every single time you narrow your eyes in malice. If there's a man in Liberio who you don't trust in the slightest it's him, he must think the feud between the two of you from childhood has been put at rest but it hasn't.
Zeke takes another swig of his alcohol. On this occasion he downs it entirely slamming the glass down with vigour.
"ONE MORE GLASS BARTENDER!"
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846, i.
Another day of extensive training is about to end, your back is layered in uncomfortable layers of sweat and the same can be said for your forehead. Kneeling down in the under layer of the forest you're hidden waiting to strike. Going up against the elites is nerve-wracking but you're sure you can pull it off so long as you stay calm during this game of hunters against prey.
It's simple enough if you can conceal yourself and stay out of sight. The robust trees that surround you act as decent enough camouflage and your green cape paired with them lets you veil yourself, keeping you further into the foreground, blending into the environment.
No one will be able to catch you if they can't see you.
All of a sudden your previous thoughts are thrown away when you sense something in the atmosphere has changed, the hissing of the wind behind you isn't natural.
Turning to your side you don't bother to cover up the sound of leaves rustling and branches cracking, your priority is slipping away fast enough to hide again, a tug can be felt at your cloak and your reaction time barely covers for you, your gear fastens itself to a low enough tree branch and the descent is mind numbing. Your breakfast churns in your stomach but you ignore the uneasy feeling, leaping and diving wherever you find a small enough gap. You believe you can outrun your huntsman.
That is until you sneak a glance back and your muscles nearly tense up in pure astonishment, you've been kicked in the teeth just by the man's presence. Captain, Levi slinks behind you weaving through the gaps with increasing speed, he's gaining momentum and all the while his face stays relaxed, this isn't even his full effort.
Terrified you dart upwards and then left, a corner comes into view - Levi should assume you've turned into it and so you rashly choose to dart back down. Much to your hard luck you find that his senses are well adapted, the direction of the wind is enough for him to trace your whereabouts.
The pursuit resumes, and he stays disturbingly relentless.
Arm shooting to the right you think perhaps making it look like you're aiming to fly somewhere else again will completely catch him off guard, he can't expect for you to pull the same trick twice.
Setting your plan into motion your finger pulls at the trigger but you startle when the cable doesn't come out, it's jammed. Panic seeps into you and to make matters worse your gas is running out.
Without warning you're thrust into the body of a nearby tree, the bark scrapes against you and scratches begin to form anywhere you've made contact with the jagged surface, you want to admit defeat but the warrior inside of you denies Levi the pleasure of seeing you beg. In its place you deliver a harsh kick to his thigh, you're aware he's injured it and you're certain there are no rules to say you can't play dirty. Your boots hammer against leg hard enough for him to give out and let go of your body, but then you realize you lost this game from the very moment your grapple hooks broke, you have nowhere to hold onto.
Before you can even let out a shriek of horror Levi's shot back to you, he frantically accelerates and by a miracle humanity's strongest is able to grab a hold of you again. This time you don't dig your heels into his leg and you allow for him to clutch you by the torso.
Within a minute the two of you descend towards the forest floor and Levi throws you into the dirt furiously.
"You could have died. Being foolhardy will only lead to an early death." He barks as he directs his blade towards your neck.
"Am I dead yet?" Whispering back your gaze isn't trained on the blade but right up at him.
His nostrils flare up, his hair sticks to his forehead haphazardly and the knuckles that hold his pointed blades are white in tangled dissatisfaction.
Grabbing you by the hips he flings you over his shoulder choosing to not continue with the confrontation.
"I know what you're up to." His voice is still rugged from the pursuit and it takes you a split second to register what he's said.
Your eyes widen and your breath hitches in your throat, no way, there's no way in hell he knows. He's sharp but he's not a mind reader.
Your position means he can't read your face seeing as you're facing his back, instantly steeling your features you let out a breathy laugh.
"And what may that be?" Silently you pray he's worded himself ambiguously to catch a slip up.
"Being gutsy, you think that makes you a good soldier. It doesn't."
Relief floods you. He doesn't know.
"Soldiers need to be brave." Your retort makes him grumble.
"If  you die with no meaning by being reckless what's the purpose of being a soldier?" His question has you stopping and thinking on what the correct answer is.
Unable to think of an answer you ask another question.
"Are you saying your previous comrades died without meaning?"
"No. Their deaths fueled me slay more titans."
"So if I died back there who wou-" He swiftly cuts you off showing no inclination of wanting to hear what it is you have to say.
"I'll cut your tongue off if it's stupid." He clearly isn't serious about the threat but he does mean it when he warns you to not overstep.
Despite the consequences you say what's on your mind. "I just wanted to ask who would give my life meaning if I ever died. I don't have siblings and my parents died long ago."
Silence follows and the crunch of his boots against the muddy leaves tells you he probably doesn't wish to answer your question.
"Sorry-"
"I would. I would give meaning to your life." He says it with such ease you almost want to admire the enemy but you know he's said it because he feels he has to.
"You barely know me but I hope one day you can stop thinking everyone has to rely on you." You say it with taunting understanding.
Another bout of silence follows. Only this time the two of you feel warmly comforted, he doesn't understand how you've seen through his facade but it's easy for you to spot another liar.
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846, ii.
Brows drawn back you observe your surroundings attempting to mask your scrutiny. The place is running amok with uncontrollable Eldian folk. The stench of unadulterated sin makes itself known but you seem to be the only person able to smell it. Eren bumps against the table you're sat at and your face twitches a little but you say nothing. You're yet to get used to these people's lack of manners.
At least that's how you force yourself to think. To be truthful, you don't quite understand what it is these people have done wrong. Ever since you've arrived you've been nitpicking at every single minor inconvenience or possible issue. A girl stole a potato and broke it into uneven pieces to share and you attempted to twist the story in your head to make her look like an unfair, greedy voracious demon but... you found yourself finding very little to actually be angry at. These people are essentially normal in every way of the word, they aren't demons and you can't help but feel yourself slip away from everything you once knew as reality. You're finding it difficult to believe what years of Marleyan education taught you, the hymns that were once drilled into your brain permanently are but a vague memory.
You feel disgustingly under-dressed and out of place, you don't belong here not when you're meant to hate these people, not when you're meant to despise them. You should be fighting the urge to shove their heads onto pitchforks or to skin them alive and feed them to pigs. Everyone back in Marley told you to control your impulses but now you're here and you've settled down even having the opportunity to converse with these individuals, share their pain, share their loss, share their suffering, you wonder why you have no impulses to control. Have they brainwashed you? Or is it that you're the real demon in this situation?
Fingers mingling with each other on your lap you sit hopelessly alone. Interacting with the so called enemy is much harder than you expect. Worry consistently bubbles in the pit of your stomach and every night is spent tossing and turning evaluating then reevaluating who the bad guy really is. At first the task of daily interaction isn't a big deal, you find it easy enough to approach members of the team and fake interest in their lives until the original plan falls through. You do become invested in your team members lives and stories that it comes to the point where you don't have to force yourself to smile at their jokes or to sympathize with their tales of grief. You become one of them and you swear you're meant to feel like a traitor but eerily you feel like you belong.
Nevertheless you try your best to stick with what you know. You're nothing like Zeke, you're loyal, capable, faithful and trustworthy. Never will you turn your back on Marley.
Rising to excuse yourself from dinner you think you've just about made it and escaped finally able to hide away in the confines of your bedroom but your lips form into a straight uncomfortable line at the feeling of someone's hand latching at your wrist. You're halfway down the hallway just a few more steps away from your bedroom. You hope it's one of the rookies.
"Oi, come here."
Head shooting backwards your eyes land on Levi, his dark curtains fall in front of his eyes - you note that he hasn't trimmed them as he usually does. Despite his size his grip is firm and your wrist squirms around a little trying to manoeuvre out of his bruising grasp. He seems to notice he's underestimated his strength once again and loosens his hold on you. Narrowed eyes analyse your anxious form, they're grey and in this lighting almost glow appearing silver. For a brief second your mouth is left ajar by the delicate but rough manner of his face.
"Everything Okay?" He doesn't typically seem to care very much about anyone, the question activates your senses and you're on full alert but the eye contact you make with him seconds later slows down the gears in your mind, they only whir and hum in anticipation completely coming to a halt.
"Yes, yes everything is okay." You're playing around with the hem of your shirt and you silently question when you were ever this nervous around anyone. You're a Marleyan soldier for heaven's sake not an unrestrained, unsupervised child left to play in a park.
Despite your clear inability to cushion and shield yourself from your Levi's stabbing gaze you attempt to appear as nonchalant as possible.
"I'll be going I just feel a little —" At first you had thought to fake you were ill but at the feeling of a sudden strike of pain you hold onto your stomach, the ache burns into your abdomen and without permission it travels higher up towards your ribs. "A little unwell." You manage to wheeze out. Hand placed onto a nearby cement wall your thought process is hasty speeding up by the second. Have they figured you out and had you poisoned? No, you barely ate anything today.
You hunch over feeling the bile crawl up your throat, on reflex you clamp your eyes shut not wishing to anger a superior by acting insolent and disposing of your dinner in the hallway. Shaky palms reach hesitantly for your lips and you force yourself to keep it in. Levi would commit a murder if you heaved and gagged letting it all out in front of him.
You motion towards the door trying to emphasize that you can handle yourself in the privacy of your room. Tears bite at the sides of your eyes and your vision is so blurred you can only make out the faint outline of the man who was just in front of you.
"Relax. I'll clean it." Your hair is brushed away from your face securely held back and you can't hold it in any longer, the acrid storm surges through your throat, you retch at the harsh sting it leaves behind. Breathing heavy, perturbed and anxious you gasp in all the air you can get.
"I knew you looked ill." His hands hold your jaw gently, the pads of his fingers are calloused but his touch remains soft. A tissue dabs at your mouth wiping away the excess untouched sick.
Just like the sick which surged through you less than a minute ago you feel something else entirely tear into you. You can't put a finger on it but it's dangerous for you to not feel contempt.
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847, i.
Your heart accepts what your mind has been ignoring for months on end when Levi looks you square in the eyes after a heart wrenching expedition. The vacant look on his face is enough for the guilt to consume you whole but he doesn't know that. He doesn't know of your sins.
The wagon of corpses reeks of death and desperation. It's rotten and the smell is sickening. Forcibly you  stop yourself from feeling any more grief. The despair isn't yours to go through.
Your first ever personal loss outside of the walls and you've learnt Paradis is not home to demons. Cheeks burning in mortification you can't formulate any thoughts on your own accord, instead they continuously emerge in bursts and finally a single thought sticks out from the rest - Are you aiding in the destruction of innocent human life?
The both of you are sat on guard duty with the corpses, half of the team has been wiped out in one sweep. Your trembling hands don't seem to want to steady any time soon and you sit there with your guilty conscience strangling you slowly, your airflow is getting shallower. Shorter, quicker breaths leave you. The imaginary gash in your chest is bottomless, and your lungs push and pull in a power struggle.
Levi's coarse hands abruptly hold onto yours and the floodgates open again, he doesn't know what you've done to him, done to his soldiers, done to his people. If he knew who you really were, would things be different?
"This was out of your control."
Do you tell him?
The question sits in your mind for a while until you shake your head. He takes it the wrong way and think you're responding to him.
"This was not your fault." For the first time in months you've heard his voice crack under pressure.
"Pe- Petra she- I could have taken one for the team and died instead of her." All that remains of your dear friend is her blood soaked cloak. Her body was one of the few that had to be hauled away earlier to decrease the carriage's load.
The fabric still smells of Petra, smells of honey and chamomile and the simple soap offered at the base, but it still smells of her.
Firm hands grab your shoulders and Levi's fingers dig sorely into your flesh.
"Don't."
"But I- I didn't contribute as much as her and she has family who are alive." Hiccuping you try to bare with the fact that you'll wake up tomorrow and not see her preparing breakfast for everyone else. You know you could have propelled her out of the way just in time if you hadn't been so taken aback by the entire situation.
"You were her comrade. She made the choice to die for you."
You want to reach out, sob into his chest and yell that you regret it all, scream and tell him about the secret you've been hiding. A sorry excuse of a comrade you are to let her die on the battlefield not knowing your true identity. The tears roll down your cheeks and Levi feels his heart constrict and squeeze as he comprehends the lack of regard you have for your life. "It should have been me." Is repeated over and over again, your eyes are raw and bloodshot, the vicious wind sinks its teeth into you.
"Then die."
"If you're willing for her life to have no meaning. Die." The words he spits out are as cutting as the bitter wind. He feels cheated and you're finally able to come to your senses.
He's faired much worse but you doubt he's ever acted out the way you have in front of another person. In this never-ending void of darkness locking away the dull ache caused by deafening loss is the best choice for everyone.
Much like the night you had been sick he takes a grip of your jaw and directs your face towards his, this time he's not as gentle as before but you conclude that it's because he's drained, completely exhausted from the battle. The eyes are the windows to the soul but Levi's window panes are shattered, completely crushed by the weight of the constant burden he has to carry.
"I'm sorry." You croak out the apology. He grits his teeth because he doesn't want you to apologize but he doesn't voice out his opinion. As a substitute he presses his arms against you, the terribly raw panic is murdering you. Levi's gruff voice is a mixture of faux irritation but mutual understanding.
"Cry." He allows for your head to loll against his shoulder.
As the dark envelopes both you and him the scent of the dead only becomes more and more pungent, recalling fond memories of Petra and the others you know your heart settles on a decision before your mind does. You're a two timing back stabbing traitor for this. What you hated Zeke for you have become yourself.
Disloyal, unfaithful and fickle.
That day you place your loyalties with Paradis.
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847, ii.
Levi's wiping down one of the kitchen tables, you're kneeled on the floor scrubbing vigorously. The others have already given up, panting they've left using the excuse of fetching water from a nearby well. Your back aches but you find cleaning reassuring and somewhat of a decent distraction.
"Why do you like to clean?" You're used to Levi asking you abrupt questions by now, after all the two of you have been acquainted for well over a year now. Through that year he's learnt about you and you about him. When in the midst of what looks to be humanity's final year's, twelve simple months is enough to form a bond worth a decade.
"I'm not good at a lot but I am good at cleaning."
"You know that's not true idiot." The tone of his voice indicates that your answer doesn't please him.
"But I do think I'm good at cleaning? Maybe not as good as you but I am half decent."
"Not that. You're good at much more than half the people I've ever met." He sneers, his footsteps edge towards you. "Purely being a good person is a talent these days."
You suppress a flinch because you aren't a good person at all. Neither are you that middle ground between good and bad. Rough around the edges and uneven, you're shards of glass ready to slash and hack away at him if Marley somehow lures you back.
The confession, if you could even call it that catches you by surprise and anger fills you. You almost want for him to not trust you and call out your bluff. It's a little unnatural how badly you want for him to realize the truth.
Your head turns up to stare at the man who's a few steps away from you. "Or am I just good at acting genuine?"
You don't even mean to snap at him and you don't even realize you have until you see his eyes widen and mouth part in imperceptible surprise. Biting your tongue your attention is diverted back to the wooden floor. Driving your washcloth into the crevices and dips of the floorboards you ignore Levi's leather shoes which now stand right in front of you.
"Are you questioning my judgement of character?"
Be born in Marley, That's what you had done, trained to destroy people you thought to be devilish entities, foolishly chose to grow attached to the so called enemy. Your mind lingers onto a specific thought and you're deathly afraid to be thinking it in the first place but there's no more avoiding it.
Falling deeply in love with Levi is your worst mistake to date.
"What I did. It was out of my control." you reply, voice hard.
"Not disclosing what it was?" He asks.
Your silence is his answer. Kneeling down to where you are he disarms you, the washcloth is taken out of your hands and he places it onto a table.
"You are a good person." His voice is brusque and he states it like it's a fact, something you should know. Hot tears threaten to spill over, he's stupidly naive for not rethinking that opinion of his. Lips thinned and eyes watering you don't know how to feel.
"Levi. I'm sure you'd like to think that but I am not."
"You love the members of the corps unconditionally I can see it in the way you look at them."
"Sometimes you look a little sad when you stare." The last sentence he adds in has your pulse racing. He's right, you often feel miserable thinking about how everyone would react knowing who you really are.
"I'm not interested in bad people." He sounds distant saying such warm words and it takes a moment for them to actually sink in. You don't quite believe you've heard him correctly. The dread sinks to the bottom of your stomach and the feelings you've buried at the back of your mind hit you like a tsunami. The thought of him feeling the same way for you, is agonizing.
"Stop being ridiculous." The uncertainty is killing the both of you.
"Loving you is not ridiculous, if you don't feel the same way you can say that and I'll step away. We'll be back to normal."
"No, no, no. You don't get it. You're just saying that." Your voice quivers and the intensity of this new revelation is too large for you to cope with.
"Why would, you," He begins, voice just above a whisper, "ever think that way?"
"Why would you even look twice at me?" You reply.
"Because I worry for you."
"You worry for everyone."
"I worry for you the most."
Instead of letting you respond to him this time he carries on speaking.
"We both know we feel the same."
You already knew you were in love with Levi, you didn’t need for him to tell you. You knew you were in love when you tried to memorize his facial features, you knew you were in love when his laughter was the cause of your laughter, you knew you were in love when you threw yourself in front of that abnormal for him.
That's when you begin to understand what all his signals meant. You now knew why he'd let you stare so intently, you now knew why he laughed particularly hard when it was you who had made a joke, you now knew why he scolded you and nearly broke down at the sight of your injured arm after that specific expedition.
You know it. He knows it. You both know what this will lead to.
But you still lunge onto his lap, you still press your wobbly lips against his. You still choose to surrender yourself to him and he still reacts by taking a hold of your shaky hands which lay on his chest. He envelopes them in his warm grasp. Slowly but gradually the ice thaws and dissolves. Heartbreak, anguish and suffering when one of you loses the other will be the end of your romance, you're sure of it. Hell, the both of you are in the middle of a war but your heart flames up thinking of all of the possibilities.
Perhaps it'll play out the one way you wish for it not to.
Could your ending be in betrayal?
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848, i.
"Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded hus-"
"Cut the crap and kiss me." Levi's crude interruption isn't appreciated by Erwin but everyone knows Levi doesn't care all that much for formalities and hates being in the spotlight for too long.
Gripping him by the collar of his suit your lips are a centimetre away, he stops you tightening the hold he has on your waist. His lips gently press against your collarbone and his breath meanders towards the shell of your ear.
"Swear you won't die on me."
Gulping you look away apprehensively. You know you can't promise that.
“Oi, I’m expecting an answer.” His voice flickers slightly.
Forefinger holding your chin up you see your soon to be husband close to tears, he valiantly blinks them away. Levi has never been one to make his pain public and your heart twists in your chest as you realize just how much of a hold his feelings for you have over him.
"I can't promise that, you know it'll only hurt more." The strange bitter taste in your mouth won't let you comply with his request and by measuring his reaction you see his eyes cloud in an unidentifiable emotion, you're sure it's nothing positive.
"We may not have a happy ending Levi but we'll always have a happy middle."
Levi scoffs in derision, he has to think your attempt at being meaningful is ridiculous.
You lean into him and it's all so heart-wrenchingly familiar yet foreign. His body sags comprehending that not everything will go the way he wants it to. One of you is guaranteed to leave first.
Hands finding purchase in the cloth of his white dress shirt Levi doesn't cringe at you creasing the fabric as he usually does. He allows for you to call the shots this time, your lips brush faintly against his before you nosedive into him. No resistance is felt and he replies almost immediately. Everyone applauds as his fingertips press into the back of your skull and you find that this is all incredibly hideous. The innate disloyalty you feel, you throwing your entire life away for this man but you find yourself not caring. To hell with that miserable life crammed with sin.
Levi smiles against your mouth, you assume you're meant to magically smile back but you can't make yourself. It's uncomfortable relishing in the undeserved happiness knowing it won't last forever.
The world you live in isn't ideal nor is it forgiving.
Momentary joy is all an antagonist can hope for.
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849, i.
Jean can’t take his eyes off the newly weds.
You’re cooing into your Levi’s ear gently, his cheeks flush scarlet at the feeling of your hot breath against his skin and he scolds you for having the gall to rile him up in public.
Jean sniggers finding some sort of odd delight from the interaction - he’s never seen the Captain this content and at ease.
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849, ii.
You don't know why you've dragged yourself out of bed just to stare at your husband's face but you have, despite the toll life has had on him he seems sound for once. His breathing peaceful yours is anything but that. When it's dark the weight becomes heavier, your skin tingles and your throat burns aching for release.
Eyes blurring your hands shake reaching out for him but you can't find the courage to make contact. Nothing will ever warrant plaguing him even more with your existence.
The memories become increasingly bitter.
"If we make it out of this alive we'll have children and they'll look just like you."
"I want them to look like you." had been your reply.
Levi winced not seeming to like the idea.
"No, I want them to look like you. You're beautiful."
How wrong he was for thinking that.
You, beautiful? He'd stab himself ten times over if he knew just who exactly he had said those words to.
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850, i.
Zeke had betrayed you after finding out who you were to Levi but you half expected that he would tell him the truth at some point regardless of that fact.
Tear stains travel through the mud and grime on your face, Levi's eyes are indifferent as he twists his wedding ring off his finger flinging it into the surrounding rubble.
Without your permission he yanks your arm forwards intending to take your matching ring away but you hold on digging your heels into the dirt beneath you.
"You disgusting bitch. Give me it."
You scream, high and awful, he continues jerking at your arm the muscle throbs crying out for him to stop but he doesn't and no one steps in to put a halt to any of it. Levi having had enough grabs at your neck ruthlessly. In any other circumstance he'd be labelled callous or cruel but everyone on the battle field shares a similar empathy for their Captain. Neither they or Levi had expected your disloyalty.
"I said give me the ring if you know what's good for you." His fingers slide around your neck, his seemingly low words cling onto the little respect he has left for you.
"No." Your defiance has his eyes hardening in and posture tensing. "I'm not handing it over."
Levi says nothing, he only holds onto your throat tighter, if he really keeps at  it your windpipe will be crushed in no time. You know he's holding out on purpose, he's still giving you a chance. He expects for you to stand your ground, say you never deceived Paradis, say something, anything to make him let go of you.  
"Marrying you... It just happened somehow. I know it was selfish of me." He squeezes harder. "I know it was. I'm sorry Levi." Gasping and breathless you clench and unclench your fists finding it too difficult to explain.
Your mouth opens, you want to tell him you haven't seduced him like he thinks you have, tell him you dropped that plan of yours long ago but then you falter at the last second.  It's typically hard to tell when Erwin's infuriated but it's painfully obvious when you make eye contact with him over Levi's trembling shoulders. It's enough to tell you to give up. Enough to tell you that you're beyond redemption, you've ran and hid long enough.
"Hand over your titan." Levi says nothing to Erwin's proposition, the hold he has on your neck loosens but his silence is sickening. It means he agrees.
This is fate's idea of a cruel joke.
But you agree, on the basis of one condition.
"Fine but-"
Levi cuts in, all regard for you devoid from his system.
"You're in no place to be making demands." He snarls, his patience quickly running thin.
However Erwin urges you to continue speaking taking you aback.
"If it's not too much maybe we can accommodate your final wish." Erwin had always been thoughtful in nature and you thank him for even bothering to show you a sliver of benevolence.
Everyone's looking, all eyes are on you. Some are blinking away tears, others are disgusted unable to stare at you for more than a few seconds at a time. Levi falls into the latter.
Brazen with not an ounce of shame you mention the ring again. "Let me keep it." Your left hand covers your right and underneath the flesh is the last symbol left of your union with Levi.
Whispers and murmurs orbit you, none of them are kind and Levi loses it.
His reflexes are paralyzing, he's back at it clawing your neck mercilessly but you don't scream or shriek as you did previously. You take it, you let him unload his frustration.
"Levi. Let it go for the sake of humanity." Erwin says pointedly. Irritation pricks him, he wants this over and done with and your rebelliousness doesn't look as if it'll be tamed any time soon unless you're given what you want.
Levi's face is crimson, the fresh blood from the expedition still steaming. "Y/N, I'll saw your arm off if I have to." But, you know he's already given into Erwin's orders when he throws you to the ground letting you crash and wheeze for breath.
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850, ii.
Levi's been appointed to guard you for your final night alive. The room feels wistful as you think back wondering if the life you lived was respectable.
"Why did you stare at me when I slept? Did you think of killing me?" Half commanding and half pleading his voice cracks. He coughs attempting to cover it up.
You jolt not expecting the interaction at all and you're not the slightest bit surprised that he had seen you all those nights staring so deeply. He'd always been a light sleeper. You turn your head up hoping he's looking at you.
He isn't.
"I wanted our children to look like you. I think you're beautiful."
It's now his turn to recoil, only he does so in repulsion remembering the familiarity of those words. They had left his own lips not too long ago.
"I'd never have children with the likes of you." He sounds tense then.
You understand. No one would want to have children with someone as hated and as despicable as you.
"I know." You whisper faintly.
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850, iii.
When Erwin's eyes glaze over unable to focus on anything in particular Levi assumes it's him growing used to the titan powers. What he doesn't expect is for his Commander to bang his head against the floor unrelenting screaming your name.
Pairs of hands move to stop him but he thrusts them aside wailing. Levi stresses trying to figure out what it is you could have done in the wake of your death.
But Erwin Smith. Courageous, brave Erwin Smith, who never cracked at loss of life for the sake of humanity, who always eloquently spoke to everyone around him at all times, finds himself slumping down to his knees and weeping for you.
The warm blood from his self inflicted assault still trickles down his nose, a tremor shakes through his entire body when he thinks of breaking the news to Levi.
The edge in Erwin’s voice grows dangerous.
"We made the wrong choice."
Erwin can't word it any better than that.
But Levi understands right away, he wishes he didn’t, he wishes he was ignorant enough not to.
Hange sticks an arm out aiming for his shoulder but he stumbles away nearly falling back into the floor not wanting to be touched by anyone.
He finds that he is not human enough to cry. It’s that or he’s not human at all without your presence.
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854, i.
Levi has grown old without you, lived to see months and new seasons without you by his side. Over time his eyelids have become heavier, the corners of his mouth naturally droop and he remains perpetually somber.
Sometimes you visit him in his dreams, each time you make a silly comment about how his grey eye bags make him look like he’s been punched in the face. “Levi Ackerman, I swear if you don’t sleep soon!” You cushion the blow by whispering sweet nothings, reassuring him that you still think he’s beautiful. 
Occasionally you add in that you don’t blame him for the past, but those conversations only last for a few seconds at a time.
“I don’t blame you.” It always starts off with the exact same phrase. 
“I should have listened to you.” Levi’s tone is stern and uncompromising .
“Lev, I was never going to tell you to spare my life. You tried to listen to me, I could tell you wanted me to deny it.”
Levi refuses to answer you, he still thinks he’s at fault.
Not a day goes by where he doesn’t think of that ring. He regrets throwing it away recklessly into the rubble.
Some day he’ll return to Shiganshina to find it. The idea sounds laughable but he has to find a reason to smile as he fights for his life.
That is what Levi thinks as two set’s of jaws snap shut onto his legs, a flurry of red surrounds him. His throat constricts at the feeling of his thighs being ripped away from the rest of him.
“I tried.” He whimpers to no one in particular, eyes blank and losing meaning.
“I know Levi, I know.” The same voice from his dreams soothes him.
“Do not despair. Find me again in another world.” The biting wind adds in.
Levi’s eyelids flutter shut unable to do much else.
He’s unsure if he has the courage to face you again in another lifetime.
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roscgcld · 4 years ago
Text
HEADCANON + GOJO SATORU || the gojo twins
request: HELLO^^ so I’ve been wondering this so long but do you think it would even be possible if Gojo had a twin sister that also has the sixth eye ? Probably not but, I’d kinda want to know what the clans higher ups and curses react to 2 sixth eye user.
note: I am glad I am not the only one thinking about this lol. like what if they were two gojos? absolute chaos the world has ever seen. i love it, this entire prompt lives in my head rent free lol
pronouns: she/her
gojotwins!au masterlist
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imagine the other clan’s reactions when they learn that not one, but two of the gojo clan’s newest heirs were born with the highly coveted Six Eyes?
gojo satoru and y/n - the newest members of the gojo clan, twins that are born with the Six Eyes. a first case that has ever happened in the family’s history. it was this monumental moment when the higher ups realise that things are going to be interesting
by the way - you’re the older twin lol. just so you can poke jabs at gojo for the rest of your life by using the line. “i’m the older sibling here!”
“only by like, two minutes!”
that being said though, over-protective twin brother who will scare all your boyfriends/girlfriends the first time they meet because of his height and overly nice personality that scares people even more
you’re just as bad though - if any girl or guy walks out of his room after a night of fun you will probably be a little bitch and make them feel awkward until gojo wakes up
“can’t you be a little nicer to them?” gojo groans after the person he slept with last night quickly left after an awkward cup of morning coffee with you. “I actually liked them a lot.”
but it’s all done with love, and if the other realise their significant other makes them happy, they will back off
the moment you two entered jujutsu tech, then yaga-sensei was about to hand in his retirement slip early with the sheer chaos that his year of students were bringing him 
ieiri was delighted that she wasn’t going to be the only girl at school; geto was amused how you two were basically copy and paste of each other, just in different genders
surprisingly enough, think you’d be the one who’d be the more studious and definitely more interesting in learning how to hone your skills better - gojo probably still has this ‘i am the strongest’ mentality that the elders planted in him because ✨misogyny✨
but he loves to compete with you - and you’re the only one who’d he ever admit defeat to, and will defend your honour whenever the elders talk down on you because you’re a girl. and to them, girls are just meant to be ‘a pretty face with strong genes to bring a strong generation into the world’
he’s probably the one who talked your elders out of arranging a marriage between you and an heir to another important family like the kamo clan - because there is no way in hell is he going to let some random ass man take you away from him
probably joking told you that if all else fails, to marry geto on the spot - and let’s be honest here, who wouldn’t? Geto looks so damn fine both the anime and especially in the Gojo Past Arch. rail me daddy-
*cough cough*
anyway - ever since that comment, geto and you might pretend to flirt with each other to get gojo riled up. playfully brushing your hand along his arm, playing with his hair between your fingers whenever you two talk, geto leaning close to you to whisper something in your ear with a smirk, or him resting his hand around your waist whenever he leads you about
it always gets gojo riled up, and he’d get in between the both of you; whining for you to give him attention instead
you probably sneak into his room, even as you got older, to hide in his arms whenever you have a nightmare - and he’d wordlessly just hold you close and cuddle you to sleep again no matter how old you two are
both of you share the same braincell - same reactions, expressions, and sometimes even finishing each other’s sentences. sometimes you two even say the same thing at the same time, to which you two just high five each other with a laugh 
freaks everyone out a little, since it’s just so random and natural for the both of you to do it 
nanami hates it whenever he has to accompany you two - as his senpais, he can’t complain much. he does learn a lot, yet at the same time, he can’t stand it when the both of you are sent on a mission together 
with you he’s fine; but he barely tolerates gojo 
ijichi loves you, since you compliment him on the smallest of things, or smile at him warmly whenever he does something right; may have a crush on you that he refuses to reveal to anyone
both of you probably have shopping trips every weekend; don’t tell me you two don’t splurge on clothing when you two can charge whatever it is you want to the gojo clan account 
you two probably got a lot of those roadside modelling offers - and sometimes you’d probably even joke about leaving the whole jujutsu world behind to become a model instead
“i mean - it pays. and all i need to do is sit and look pretty.”
a lot of ‘did not!’ and ‘did too!’ arguments all day long 
you two love to taunt the Curses together before you kill them - it makes them only more scared, but the ‘chase more fun’
“say, toru - it looks so weak for a semi-first, no?”
“must be a new born - how pathetic.”
bags of candies all over the place - somehow he got you addicted to candy as well, so whenever you two travel, you always buy different candies and different treats 
when geto betrayed you all in your third year, gojo turned to you as his pillar of familiarity; even more so when he was force to kill his best friend a few years later. the both of you leaned on each other as you start to pick the pieces of yourselves once more
both you and your brother share the same idea of changing the jujutsu world from the inside out, so you two decided to take up teaching together under the command of now principal yaga
poor man is deciding if he now regrets accepting both of your applications 
you took in megumi as your own by the way - so megumi respects you a lot since you’re like the mother he never had. but at the same time, he wouldn’t be surprise if he heard that you do something stupid with your twin brother
feel like gojo and you will spend your free time probably trying to unlock more secrets of the Limitless and how to use your Six Eyes better - and Gojo will teach you how to probably use Hallow Purple and how to use Reverse Cursed Techniques with the held of ieiri as well
you took in maki, inumaki and even panda as your own kids as well - teaching them whenever gojo is forced to go and solve some issue the higher ups throw at him; making the kids super protective of you
even when yuta came, you didn’t care about the special grade curse that was stuck inside of him; treating him like an actual person and training him up and build his confidence once more
when you heard what happened to the special-grade cursed object that megumi was tasked on taking the following year, you laughed your ass off for 10 minutes while megumi tried not to show his annoyance
“y/n-sensei, i almost died. it is not funny.”
but you still took yuji in as your own child, and when you were giving him a tour around campus, you raised an eyebrow when a pair of lips appeared on the side of his cheek
“even though i want to kill that white haired bastard, i might spare your pretty little face.” 
“hello to you too, sukuna.” you greeted with a smile while yuji slapped a hand over the mouth, apologising to you with a wild blush on his face. you just laughed and reassured the poor boy it was alright
when nobara came, you adopted her as well; and she loves you, and loves how in tune with the trends you are. you two even have a girl’s night where you talk about everything that happens and have a few rants about boys
all in all - highkey chaotic, but with more common sense then your younger twin brother gojo and knows how to act professional whenever you need to. you also tend to adopt all the students that walks through your doors, and they view you as a parental figure as well. you and your brother are a menace together, but you two get things done and no one can really complain
gojo is protective, but when it comes to you it’s worse lol. but you’re just as bad when it comes to making sure ‘your baby brother’ is safe. you two tend to be super sassy and throw shade at each other, but when it comes down to the basics, you two love each other a lot and will go the extra mile to make sure that each other are safe
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justauthoring · 4 years ago
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The Long Wait
Prompt: Eventually, the hoping became too much to bare. Requested by: no one.
A/N: This is basically a remake of this fic -- upon re-watching the GMG arc with my mom, I couldn’t help but look back at this fic and realize how much more I could’ve done with it. Thus, this was born. Pairing: Gray Fullbuster x F!Reader
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“What do you mean you’re leaving?”
Keeping your gaze trained to the ground, you absolutely refuse to look up -- because you know that if you did, your heart would break all over again.
“I’m sorry,” you mumble, words jumbled together, voice quiet that if the guild hall was so completely silent, they definitely wouldn’t have heard you. But they do, and they falter at the way you sound so absolutely broken. And of course, all of them were, but there was something different about the way you sounded -- it was like you were defeated. 
Macao steps towards her, you hear it rather then see it, and can imagine his hand stretched out towards you, trying to placate you. “Y/N, we understand--” and he halts, voice catching in the back of his throat. “We understand more then anyone how you feel, but--”
“It’s different.” You find yourself cutting in, voice sharp, and you wince at yourself because you sound so incredibly selfish and rude. Who were you to say that your pain was any different from theirs? Any worse? But, still, you continue, your emotions getting the better of you. “It’s just... different. I... I can’t be here knowing they’re... he’s gone.”
“Y/N-nee, we don’t know that they’re gone!”
Your eyes fall shut at the sound of Romeo’s voice.
“We have to keep searching for them,” he argues, defiant, adamantly shaking his head. “They’re somewhere out there, I know that. And Gray wouldn’t--”
“They’re gone,” you hiss, interrupting him and finally glancing up to regard your friends, your family. They rear back at your harsh words, and that guilt festers even deeper inside of your chest, with the way they’re looking at you. Jet and Droy look near tears, and you know they’re thinking of Levy. And Bisca and Alzack look in shock at your outburst, you’re usually so quiet and calm. Macao looks angry, and the rest just stare at you, varying reactions that all mesh together.
Because really, it’s the way Romeo looks at you, still so young, so full hope as your words basically slap him in the face.
But you’re too far gone now, and there’s no stopping you.
“It’s been two years,” you continue, voice softer but still cutting, still hurtful. “They’re not coming back. They’re never coming back.”
He’s never coming back.
They don’t respond. No one argues, even if some look like they might. Maybe they’re understanding, maybe they’re finally getting it -- it’s been too long now and no one from the island is coming back. You’d been hopeful at first, you’d been like Romeo -- you’d refused to lose hope. But your heart is broken and there’s no mending it and you can’t keep staring at those doors all day expecting, hoping, praying that he’ll walk through them only for him never to.
So, you turn, nothing but a soft, sorrowful, pathetic apology leaving your lips as you turn your backs on your friends and leave them.
And as you turn, you see his familiar face, the dark black of his hair, that drawling smirk on his lips, and his cold, but always soft when directed at you eyes looking at you, but when you blink, he’s gone.
-
You huff at the weight dropped around your shoulders, inhaling deeply when you see a familiar puff of blonde hair.
“Did you hear?”
You don’t need to ask what he means. It’s pretty obvious.
“Fairy Tail will be competing again this year.”
When you turn to look at Sting, he’s smirking -- all bright eyed and giddy, and you hold back your own snark as you regard him with a small nod. Sting was one of the few to know of the fact that you used to be part of Fairy Tail -- him and Rogue, given that they were the ones who recruited you, and then the master as well.
It wasn’t news you were eager for everyone to know. Fairy Tail was a laughing stock in all respects now, but Sabertooth seemed to have a particular fondness of mocking the way the guild had fallen. And it was easy to hide you’d ever been apart of it given you hadn’t been a particularly well-known mage back when you’d been a member. Your powers were relatively new, and with, regrettably, the help of the Twin Dragon slayers you’d definitely grown in aspects of strength.
Three years since you’d joined Sabertooth -- two years of training on your own, and three of being surrounded by much stronger mages had you adapting and constantly changing. You were practically unrecognizable.
You were known at Y/N of Sabertooth now, and it was like the Y/N of Fairy Tail never even existed at all.
“I’m surprised,” you hum, shifting as Sting moves to take a seat next to you, still whilst having an arm draped over your arm. You blink at the sudden arrival of Rogue, not having heard him, as he takes a seat in front of you, before continuing. “They weren’t in it last year, or the year before if I remember. After finishing last every year before.”
You hadn’t been apart of Sabertooth’s team, but you do remember watching.
It had been... hard, to say the least.
“Ah, well, this year they have a new team.” Rogue explains blandly.
“New members, you should say,” Sting smirks.
Brows furrowed, you shake your head at their words, confusion flooding at you at the particular gleefulness of Sting’s expression. He always got a kick out of embarrassing other teams, not even just Fairy Tail, but there was something different about the way his eyes sparkled.
Sting meets your gaze, and without wavering, adds; “or should I say, old?”
Your breath catches, and even as your mind starts spinning, you’re all too aware of the way both Sting and Rogue are watching you carefully.
You turn from Rogue to Sting, and absolutely hate the gleam in the latter’s eyes as he smirks down at you. Keeping a tight hold on you, he pulls you closer, leaning until he’s a breaths away; “it’s a good thing I managed to convince the Master to let you on the team this year, Y/N,” he grins widely, “you’ll get to reunite with your old pales.”
That... that couldn’t be possible.
They were--They were dead. They are dead.
“I... I need some fresh air.” Shoving Sting’s arm off of you, you ignore his calls and his merciless laughter as you stock out the guild doors, bypassing Minerva which you know will get you in shit later. You don’t really care in that moment, you can’t even think straight, you need air. 
You need to breathe.
Sting must be lying. He has to be lying. There’s... they were dead, it’s been seven years.
Seven years.
How... why now? Why after all this time?
And you convince yourself he isn’t lying. You ignore Sting every time he tries to talk to you, and focus on training. It would be no good if you failed since you were on the roster this year -- Master would kill you if you failed to impress him and keep Sabertooth at the very top. And it’s easy enough to do, spend all your time training, pushing yourself to the brink, until it’s a few days before the games and you realize, Sting wasn’t lying.
You’d been trying to ignore it, ignore the urge, but eventually you give in and find yourself in the city of Magnolia. A place you haven’t been in a long time.
Fairy Tail’s location had changed, but you’d made sure to keep tabs on them. You never showed your face, mainly because you knew that in the end, you’d betrayed your friends. In their eyes, you assumed, you were the enemy, a traitor. You’d left them, left your guild in a time they’d needed you most, and almost instantly regretted it.
But every time you tried to go back, every time you made your way towards those doors, you’d remember the words you’d said -- “They’re not coming back. They’re never coming back.” -- and, like a coward, you were never able to face them.
From the moment you’d left, all you’d wanted to do was go back but it was too late for that now. And so you settled for keeping tabs, helping them where you could, always in secret -- you knew how they owed money, and you didn’t have a lot, but you always anonymously send some the guild’s way in hopes of helping. Sabertooth would kill you if they found out, specifically Sting, but it was your way of repaying all the hurt you must’ve caused them.
It’s why you know their new location. And, without even being there for more then five minutes, you see them.
A blue flying cat, followed by a white one, a tuff of pink hair, red hair, blue hair, blonde and most importantly, him. His dark hair, the fact that nothing’s changed and he looks exactly like he had those seven years ago when you’d wished him good luck on the S Class competition, and pressed a shy, chaste kiss to his cheek, the two of you blushing madly as he left, waving you goodbye.
But, they were there. He was there.
-
“And last but certainly not least, is the team that came first in the preliminaries... that’s right, you know them, you love them! Now, get on your feet and scream for the most powerful guild in all Fiore! The one and only, Sabertooth!”
You wince at the cheering, two steps behind everyone else as Sting makes his grand entrance, looking thoroughly most pleased and proud of himself then anyone else. However, even you can see the smirk on Rufus’ and Orga’s face. 
If anything, it’s you and Rogue that don’t look all that excited.
And you, for a specific reason. One that stares you right in the face the second you walk into the arena.
Elfman, Erza, Lucy, Natsu, but more importantly, Gray all look at you the second your team arrives. You can even feel Fairy Tail team B, and the rest of the guild up in the stands watching you and only you. You also notice with disdain that Sting had purposefully made way for you to be seen, even if you hadn’t been that hidden, you would’ve rather remained in the shadows.
That, and you’re not exactly sure what to say as they all stare at you.
“Y/N?!”
It’s Natsu who yells it, but it’s Lucy who steps towards you, baffled and confused; “Y/N, what’re you...”
But you only lower your gaze, eyes falling shut as Sting pulls you into his side, laughing loudly. “What a reunion!” He cheers, pumping his fist in the air, before turning to you. “Isn’t it so great to see all your old guildmates, Y/N?”
You meet their eyes, just as the announcer calls out;
“What’s this? A reunion? Could it be perhaps that Sabertooth’s own Y/N Y/L/N was once a member of Fairy Tail? What a twist on her debut in the Grand Magic Games!”
“This is so not man...”
Turning your head at the sound of Elfman’s voice, your breath catches in the back of your throat.
“Elfman,” Erza says sharply, pulling your eyes back on her and thus the rest of them, noticing with a thick swallow the way her eyes have never left your own. “I’m sure Y/N has her reasons.”
But as she stares at you, waiting for you to say something, you simply turn, walking off.
“I didn’t know you used to be in Fairy Tail,” Rufus drawls to you when you pass him, and your shoulders tighten.
That’s right... now, everyone knew.
“You never needed to know,” you say simply.
“Y/N.”
“It seems Fairy Tail’s Team A Gray Fullbuster approaches Sabertooth’s own Y/N Y/L/N, and the crowd watches in anticipation at the clear tension amongst the two of them--.”
Everything freezes. Shoulders tensing, you slowly turn, meeting Gray’s eyes -- the one you’d been specifically avoiding.
“We won’t lose.”
I know, you want to say. I don’t want you to, you want to tell him. I want Fairy Tail to win, you want to plead. But instead, knowing the eyes that watch you, you simply say; “neither will Sabertooth.”
-
This had to be some cruel joke.
Your punishment, maybe.
Sabertooth’s Y/N Y/L/N versus Fairy Tail’s Team A Gray Fullbuster
That’s what the board said, that what that God awful announcer calls with clear joy in his voice -- your first battle, the second day of the Games, and this way the turn out.
There was no way you’d win. 
Ignoring the fact that you had no doubt Gray was stronger then you -- you simply just couldn’t. You wouldn’t. Not against Fairy Tail and certainly not against Gray.
“Good luck, Y/N,” Sting calls as you move to make your way towards the arena. “Though I doubt you’ll need it.”
You hate his words, hate the way he knows, hate the way he seems to get such joy out of everything that had happened. This was his fault. His fucking fault that you were here, and that this was happening.
Though, of course, even you knew that was true.
“Sabertooth’s Y/N Y/L/N has never been apart of Sabertooth’s team, but we can expect something great from Fiore’s strongest guild, needless to say. Do you know anything about Y/N Y/L/N, Yajima-san?”
“I don’t know much about Y/’N now, but in her Fairy Tail days, she never really made a name for herself, but I do distinctly remember her powers being incredibly unique.”
“Ah! A mystery then. And of course, Fairy Tail’s Gray Fullbuster is a Ice Wizard, but after his performance in day one’s Hidden Competition, the crowd’s not too sure what to expect. Nonetheless, it should be an intense match between old guildmates now turned enemy’s.”
“Shut up,” you hiss to yourself, nails digging into the palm of your hands.
“Ah, I see you’re just as chipper as you used to be.”
Swallowing thickly, you inhale sharply as Gray comes to a stop a few feet before you. It’s closest you’ve been to him since that first day, and more importantly, then in seven years. You’d already known since that day, but he really does look exactly like he had that day. Hasn’t aged a day. You don’t know the story, you don’t know how he’s back, but you know you’ve heard the term ‘seven year blank’ echoing around.
That makes more sense as you stare at him now.
Still eighteen, you’re now older then him then a year younger like you had been before. 
Remaining silent, your head tilts back, where you know Sabertooth is, chest tightening.
“Y/N.”
Turning to Gray at the sound of your name, your lips part when you noticed the way his eyes have softened, even if only a little, like he caught something in the past moment you’d turned away from him. He looks so much more... concerned then he had the first day, and that was only yesterday. When he’d called for you, he’d looked so angry...
Now, he only looked worried.
“What happened?”
Swallowing thickly, you try to appear unbothered. “I left.”
“There’s more to it, I know there is,” Gray shakes his head, “the others told us about the day--”
Eyes clenching shut, a simply jerk of your head has Gray flying back. It causes a roar of gasps, surprise and anticipation in the thought that the fight is finally starting. But you know, unlike them, that it won’t get farther then that -- at least not from your end.
Gray hisses, slowly crawling to his feet, before he smirks at you; “you’ve gotten strong.”
“It’s been seven years.”
“Still,” he shrugs, stopping before you once again. “You have control now.”
You shrug, mimicking him with a smirk, “it’s been seven years.”
However, the facade falls all too quick when he takes a step towards you. Your body tenses, fists clenching as he continues to make his way towards you until he’s directly before you. He eyes you for a moment, quiet, carefully, and you nearly break then and there.
“It may have been seven years, but I know you best,” he whispers, voice low, “I know you’re lying.”
You shake your head, pushing his words away from your thoughts; “attack me.”
And he blinks, surprised; “what?”
“I need you to attack me,” you repeat, keeping your eyes trained downwards, refusing to meet his eyes. “I... I just need you to.”
And part of you expects him to -- you deserve it, you know, after all you’d done.
But, a second later, Gray’s stepping back, pulling your wide eyes on him as he shakes his head; “Fairy Tail doesn’t attack their own friends, Y/N. You know that.” And your breath hitches when his hand moves to raise.
“No!” You yell, before you can help yourself, eyes flashing a bright gold, like they had seconds before, holding Gray’s arm in place as he blinks back at you. Letting out a soft whimper, one you hope he doesn’t hear, you hold his arm in place, eyes falling shut as your own arm raises, the crowd falling eerily silent.
“I give up.”
And you knew, even as you feel the glares on your back, that there really wasn’t any other outcome that could’ve happened. You’d never hurt Gray, you knew, and you refused to hurt Fairy Tail anymore.
You were destined to lose this match.
-
“What’s so special about those fairies, huh?”
Wincing, you gasp at the squeeze on your throat, trying to suck in air that won’t come as your eyes fall on Sting’s own narrowed ones, glaring down at you. The brick of the wall behind you bites into your skin, and you know his grip will leave bruises, but even as you gasp for air and it feels like your vision is closing in on you, you have no regrets.
You never would, even if it’ll get you killed.
“What’s so fucking special about them?”
You refuse to respond, even if Sting wasn’t blocking off your air way you wouldn’t. Even if you could easily knock him away, send him flying, you don’t -- you’ll only pay for it more later.
“What’s so special about him?!”
He drops you then, and you fall to your knees with a thud, a cry leaving your lips as he sends a sharp kick to your gut, causing you to double over. It takes you a moment, a solid minute to catch your breath, and even then you’re still gasping, voice raspy as you raise your chin, eyes narrowing as you say the words you’ve been wanting to say to Sting for years.
“Fairy Tail is the guild Sabertooth could never be,” you hiss, your voice pathetic but your gaze menacing. “And Gray is a better man than you’ll ever be. All of them are. You’ll never be as good as Natsu.” You hit him where you know it hurts, the words having been on the tip of your tongue for years but you’d always held back in fear of what would happen.
Well, you’re no longer afraid. You’re too far gone now.
Sting’s eyes narrow and his face twists, ready to explode, before he breathes, and a smirk curls onto his lips. “You’ll never be apart of your pathetic guild again,” he hisses, “you’ll be stuck in Sabertooth for the rest of your life. Only, Master will make sure your life is a living hell.”
He sends another sharp kick at your side, but says nothing more as he turns, walking off with a huff.
It takes you a moment to gather yourself, slowly pushing yourself up to your knees where you stay, chest heaving, the pain radiating across your entire body, fingers finding your neck and touching the offended skin gently as you hiss in response.
You didn’t regret surrendering, but you couldn’t help but be terrified of what would happen when you walked into the inn that night.
You never should’ve left Fairy Tail. It was a regret you’d probably take to your grave.
“We actually have points thanks to you.”
Blinking at the sound of Gray’s voice, you slowly glance up at him, arm still wrapped tightly around your stomach as you stare up at him.
“I’m glad,” you whisper, smiling gently, “Fairy Tail deserves to win.”
Gray sighs, and stepping towards you, he reaches a hand out; “here,” he says softly, voice a mere whisper. You meet his eyes, before glancing at his hand for a moment, slowly slipping your own in it. He helps you to your feet, holding you up as you waver, hissing in pain, and then, before you know it, before you can even help yourself, you fall against him, forehead pressing against his shoulder as you let out a whimper.
“You know,” Gray says after a moment, “I still remember that kiss.”
Shaking your head, you let out a quiet, somewhat forced laugh.
“What happened, Y/N?”
“You were gone,” you whisper, finally answering. “You all were, but you were too. And... And I couldn’t handle staring at those doors everyday waiting for you to walk through them, only for you never to.” Pulling back, you meet his eyes, “I love you, I wanted to tell you that day, and it crushed me that I never did.”
Hands falling on your waist, Gray shakes his head; “no one would tell me where you were when we came back. It’s like every time I asked, this look would come over them and everyone would fall silent. When I learned it had been seven years, I wanted to see you first and tell you... tell you, I love you too.”
Biting your lip, “it’s too late,” you whisper. “The others must hate me and I... Sting will never let me leave.”
Gray’s grip tightens. “They don’t hate you, Y/N. Everyone misses you. I miss you,” and then, he shifts, cupping your cheek to pull your eyes on his own again. “I need you to come back.”
“But... Sting--”
“We’ll figure it out, Master will figure it out,” Gray argues, shaking his head. “The Guild needs you. I need you.”
Lips parting, you try to find the words, only to realize there are none. So, instead, you simply fall into his arms, holding him tight against you and hold on to his promise.
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ryoryeonggu · 4 years ago
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To begin with, I’ve never been related to any characters like Jang Han Seo. It was oblivious that he was suffering from depression, anxiety and PTSD resulting from the abuse that he had been endured at home, but it seemed like he had the sign of social phobia as well. As we could see in the drama, his life completely revolved around his brother, he had no friends, no interested in dating or attracting to anyone (if we can count Han Seung Hyuk as his “friend” since he might be closer to him than anyone other than Han Seok and before Vincenzo). It might be because of the tittle as The Chairman of Babel and being born in a wealthy family which make him aware that people wanted to get close to him only for money or taking advantage of him to get what they wanted. But the things is, he seemed to avoid any chance of building relationships that have the potential to be more intimate or more complex than basic communication, rejecting even the slightest touch, not just with Han Seok - the one he's afraid of but almost everyone else.
For example, back when Vincenzo (the one he became extremely close to later on) was only a stranger and he pretended to be a fan to approach Han Seo. He appeared to be extremely enthusiastic and just only showed the want of touching Han Seo, Han Seo immediately flinched away and made a clearly uncomfortable expression. He looked at his hand like a gun pointing at him. 
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Example 2, when Han Seung Hyuk - the one who had close relationship than anyone else besides his brother at that time, just about to go closer to him and he already gave the big “Don’t touch me bitch” energy and make a gesture for him to go away. 
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This is the first time he had met his sister-in-law (applying for both his blood and adopted brothers). It didn’t go well.
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Han Seo himself had proven to be an extremely clingy person and liked to actively skinship towards the people he was close to, but for others, when being touched, his body will immediately generate rejection and fear as a reflex.
Jang Han Seo had another trait that he was completely used to people ignoring him, not taking him seriously, but if someone liked him, complimented him, spoke well of him, then he didn't know how to react naturally as if his brain was immediately shut down. I totally understand this, because I have the same problem, if someone insults me even with the most hurtful things, I'll be like "you say nothing that I don’t already know. I also insulted myself like that every day so we have the same opinion bro” xD But if people compliment me with kind words, I will be extremely surprised, even scared and panic. I will be worried sick about how to make people continue to think well of me and what if I do something wrong later that makes them no longer like me. But of course, when the anxiety reaches a certain level, my mood will turn into: "Nevermind, let's care about it later. Who give a f*ck if they like me or not" lol But Jang Han Seo wasn’t like that. He remembered and held on to the praises of others stubbornly. Many people think that Han Seo betrayed Han Seok just because of Vincenzo, but in fact, the first person to put that thought into Han Seo's head was Han Seung Hyuk. He did not convince him with the benefits, fame, and money of being the true chairman of Babel, but that how he, on behalf of Babel’s member and as an employee of the company, valued and needed him. He hyped him up as the "sharp, ambitious and not murderous" ideally chairman, the only hope of Babel’s bright future and the only person that the people in the company could depend on. Before that, although he was really angry that Han Seok constantly rejected his offers, Han Seo kept saying "Are you telling me to betray my brother? Do you even know what you are saying?" showed that he completely accepted that he wasn’t able to run the company and continued to live in Han Seok's shadow, until Mr. Han opened a new vision for him. Han Seung Hyuk's words couldn’t tell that he was really meant it or not, and maybe Han Seo already knew he was untrustworthy, but it sparked the thought that he could actually do better than his brother and be capable of turning Babel into something good. When negotiating with Vincenzo, he mentioned not only that he wanted Vincenzo to spare his life but also Babel (not just the company itself or its property, but also the employees whose life depended on the company’s survival) Then Vincenzo came. Before Vin hyung appeared, Jang Han Seok was completely Han Seo's ideal model for him to look up to and learn from. He yelled at people’s face and throw hockey balls to their stomach to show his authority (like how his brother beated the shit out of him with a hockey stick when he messed up in the previous episode), making people afraid so they could listen to him (but most of his efforts failed miserably because he just looked like an adorable bratty angry kitten). Then Vin hyung appeared, encouraged him to study harder and gave him a completely different role model, the man he wanted to become. And that's when he started to change, showing his true self, he let his hair down, started to wear clothes that looked comfortable and youthful, laughed more often and looked more alive. After his brother went to prison, he turned into a friendly, gentle and loving chairman and didn't shout at anyone anymore xD Continued to episode 19, when Vincenzo mentioned the possibility of Han Seok being released from prison early and would come to him first, advising him to fly away to a foreign country, Han Seo, although trying to hide it, clearly shows his fear (of course when you've been terrified of something all your life, fear can't disappear within a day or two), but still refuses to run away because "I made a promise to you." Even when Vincenzo made it clear that "you can keep your promise to me later" and still tried to convince him, Han Seo was still determined to stay and fight to the end. Simply because Vincenzo showed his belief in Han Seo, that he had potential, he could change and become a better person, a trustworthy person that could count on, and because of that, he would do it everything to live up to that expectation (which he has proven he could - or at least tried to - do everything, except murders xD). Others' faith in him is Han Seo's biggest motivation, because he's probably used to being seen as a useless person without any value, a piece of trash that doesn't deserve to exist, not only for his brother, but also for his parents, who see his birth as an accident, a mistake of a casual cheating hook up, not a miracle result of their desire to have a child. That is also the reason why Han Seok completely failed to convince his little brother to betray Vincenzo by promising to give him all of Babel, it could be seen in Han Seo's reaction that there was not a bit of greed or joy, but a complete shock at his brother’s brutal request, and he still didn't move at all. It was only when Vincenzo took the initiative to kneel and asked him to do what Han Seok told him to do, Han Seo finally was able to stand up, and when Vincenzo said "It's okay", implying that he would’ve fully understood if Han Seo had chose to kill him for survival, in that moment he already knew what he had to do, even at the cost of the life that he treasured the most. Because what Han Seo longed from the beginning was never Babel, but rather to become a kind of meaningful existence, not only for others but also for himself.
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honeybunnybeez · 4 years ago
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HELLO! I was wondering if you do like paternal smp? If you do then I have this idea! It’s in the final control room in the first war. You’re erets child, when he pressed the button you realized your father just betrayed you and your friends-SOMETHING LIKE THAT! THANKS :D
"No other way" (ANGST) (PLATONIC)
♡Parent!Eret x Child!reader
♡Summary: You didn't know why your father wanted to keep you away from viewing the secret weapon he claim he had. What was so scary that he felt the need to ask you to leave thrice?
♡Gender Neutral Reader!
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"(Y/n), love?"
"Yes?"
"It still isn't too late to turn back now," Eret reminds you once again as you 6 make your way through a narrow hallway where you father claims he's kept the secret weapon.
You let out a groan as you step down another step, frustrated and confused as to why he would ask that question for the 3rd time since you all left for this place.
"I've already told you I wanted to follow. Why ask if I would like to come only to ask if I would like to walk away now?" You didn't mean for it to sound rude, but you wanted to state your point. If a simple 'no, I want to keep going,' isn't clear enough for him he should at least explain why he keeps asking.
"I just, don't want you to get scared of what you'll see, that's all."
His reason didn't seem to sound all that complete and you didn't really like that. Before you could ask him to clarify, Tommy speaks up.
"Scared? After all the shit they've seen? A little weapon isn't going to scare them none, right (y/n)?"
Distracted by Tommy's subtle praise you forget about your question and choose to grin proudly at Tommy's words, "yeah, it isn't!"
Despite how he is, Tommy's always been one to tell you how brave and strong you are and how he knows that you'll grow up to be a complete badass, just like the rest of them. Despite his mean behavior, he's the most supportive of your growth out of everyone.
"Didn't you scream earlier when a bat flew over us?" Fundy adds causing the rest of them to laugh.
"Hey! In my defense those fuckers pop out of nowhere-"
"(Y/n), language. You're only 12," your father reprimands lightly, but you don't miss the smile in his voice.
"(Y/n), swear louder, make it echo!"
"Tommy, don't make (y/n) turn out to be a gremlin child like you," Wilbur scolds playfully.
"Excuse you, I am the perfect role model for them!"
You can't help but laugh and listen on with fondness as you hear them all start to bicker with one another.
You're little resistence group was far from perfect, but they were your best friends, your family. So of course you were hurt when your father kept asking if you wanted to stay back. You wanted to be there with them during every big moment, you didn't want to leave them behind.
"Eret, what is this?" You hear Tubbo ask.
Finally snapping out of your thoughts, you notice a little blackstone room at the end of the long hallway. There were chests sitting in them too, all with signs to show who they belonged too, and you even had your own!
"This is the final control room," your father explains, looking around.
"This is amazing," you say in awe. You look around to see the others having the same kind of reaction too.
You can't help yourself from opening the chest with your name on it. Upon opening it though, there wasn't anything in it. That was odd.
"There's nothing in the chest," Wilbur exclaims before you get the chance to. You turn to look at him and witness as Wilbur's face changes from confused to concern as he looks over at Tommy who checks out the button in the middle of the room.
"What does the button do?"
"Tommy-!"
Something can be heard clicking and opening and before you know it, four armed men appear seemingly out of nowhere to ambush and kill off your friends.
"WAIT, NO-!"
Before you can react and aid them in combat, your father knocks your sword out of your hands with his pickaxe, dragging you into another hidden room with him.
"Fuck, (Y/n)-!" You can hear Tommy's cries end quick as the sound of his body falling onto the floor quickly follows suit.
"You traitor!" You hear Wilbur scream out before he too meets the similar fate his friend has.
You scream for mercy through the blackstone wall, begging them not to hurt your friends but it's too late. You don't hear anymore screams or the sound of swords clashing with one another. It's all just radio silence and it happened far too quick for you to truly process that this is all real.
Something your father steps on opens the hidden blackstone door once again and he steps out of the room with a smirk and a salute.
"Down with the revolution boys!"
You don't how to react, all you can do is stare wide eyed at the four lifeless bodies of your friends slowly fading away from where they lay.
They cheer, the bastards you've been taught to hate cheer and your father is cheering alongside with them. The man who took you in when no one else would, the man you trusted with every fibre of your being, is celebrating with the enemy.
"It was never meant to be."
Hearing your father say that causes all the rage bubbling inside of you to burst and for the first time in a while, you let out an ear piercing scream that echoes through the room.
"HOW COULD YOU!?"
All five men turn to look at you, the bastards still have grins on their faces but your father's face made you feel the sickest. He had the audacity to look at you with such worry, such concern.
"(Y/n)-"
"THEY WERE OUR FRIENDS,FATHER!"
He tries to open his mouth to speak again but you don't give him the chance to, cutting him off before he could even get a letter in.
"AND EVEN IF THEY WEREN'T YOUR FRIENDS, THEY WERE MINE FOR FUCKS SAKE, THEY WERE LIKE FAMILY TO ME! THEY WERE MY FAMILY AND YOU BACKSTABBED THEM!"
You heart starts to ache further and the tears you were trying so hard to hold back fall with no end in sight. You start to wonder if they think you were part of this plan as well and if they hate your guts too. God, you hope that isn't the case, you don't think you could take it if they hated you when you still loved them back.
He tries to come closer, tries to hug you but you use all the strength you can muster to shove him away, and you do a pretty good job at moving him back and shocking him.
"Don't touch me!" You cry out, wiping away the tears that blur your vision. "Don't ever touch me again, you fucking traitor!"
A chuckle can be heard coming from behind your father as you scream at him.
"Well, looks like someone has a tantrum on their hands," the joke Dream gives causes the other three members of his group to laugh and you can't help but grit your teeth and clench your fist as you struggle not to argue back or stab him right through his ugly mask.
"(Y/n), please, listen to me," he pleads, but your head is starting spin from the stress and you're trying to block out any and all sounds in the room. Begging any higher power above that this is just a nightmare. A scary nightmare that you'll soon wake up from with Tommy and Tubbo sleeping close by just as half haphazardly as you are.
"Why?" You whimper out before you can stop yourself. "Why did you do this."
You can't help but take a few steps back as he walks over to you and kneels down to your level. It hurts your father's heart to no end to see you terrified of him, acting like a skittish stray kitten from a village. He starts to doubt his actions for a moment when he sees how frantic you are, but a ringing promise in his head is what reminds him of why he did what he did.
"I did it so we would be safe. So that you could be safe," his voice is barely above a whisper as he says so, like he doesn't want anyone else to hear. Dream gives a quick glance, like he knows something, but he doesn't comment, choosing instead to continue talking the the others.
You shake your head, refusing to accept his bullshit answer, "There could've been another way, you didn't have to do this-!"
He tried to find other ways, he swears, but Dream knew too much and held too much power against him, against everyone. He could take everything away from him, he could take you away from him and he couldn't have that. Sure he now had a target on his head with the resistance, but it's better than having Dream target both him and you. He doesn't tell you all of this though, not yet, it isn't the right time to.
"(Y/n)," your father tries once again to hold you and this time you can't find any power left within you to shove him off again. So you let him hug you, but your arms remain firmly planted to your side, fighting the urge to hug him back for comfort.
"Trust me, there truly was no other way..."
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A/N: DID SOMEONE CALL THE ANGST DOCTOR? :D Ah, lord, I had a little too much fun with this but I may have gone out of topic and ooc so I'm very sorry if I did! I've read the parental smp stories before and I adore them to absolute bits so I may have squealed when I got this ask. Thank you anon for the request and I hope you all enjoyed it as well!
(Requests are open and anon is on!)
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awhitehead17 · 3 years ago
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Batfam Alphabet: H - Height 
Summary: When Bruce brings a new kid home who happens to be taller than him, Tim isn’t pleased. He already gets relentless insults about his height from the others so adding someone else into the mix will not help, in fact it’s just rather mean. How could Bruce do this to him?
Enjoy! :D
“Absolutely not. Take him back. Get a refund.”
Everyone turns to look at Tim in disbelief as his protest cuts through the silence of the room. Tim pays them all little attention as he keeps his focus on the person directly in front of him.
The newest member of their dysfunctional family stands opposite Tim with a look of uncertainty on his face, probably caused by Tim’s rather blunt comment. Tim already knows all about Duke Thomas, he’s heard about him and has even read what little documents there are on him but this is the first time they are meeting in person. He had been away for the last two weeks on a Titan’s mission and  only returned to the Manor that afternoon.
Just behind Duke, Bruce stands stiffly sending him a hard glare. “Tim, do we need to have a conversation?”
In a show of exaggeration, Tim pouts and sends a Bruce a betrayed look. “Yes Bruce. Let’s have a conversation, let’s talk about how this is just unfair of you to do this to me.”
The previous looks of disbelief turn into confusion but it’s Duke who speaks up first now looking both confused and upset. “Hey man, what did I do? This is the first time we’re meeting, surely I haven’t been able to piss you off already?”
At this point Tim has to bite back a grin. He’s only teasing Duke, he has absolutely nothing against the guy, everything he's heard is all positive and Tim honestly thinks he’s brave for willingly coming into the family as he is.  
“Tim do you mind explaining yourself.” Bruce demands lowly. His adoptive father is sending him a disapproving look, clearly he isn’t clicking onto Tim’s teasing.
Waving his arms dramatically at Duke, Tim explains. “This is unfair because he’s taller than me! How could you bring someone into the family that’s taller than me Bruce, especially someone who is younger! I thought you loved me.”
A few beats of silence pass by as everyone comprehends Tim’s words. The confused looks revert back into the disbelieving looks but for a different reason this time.
From the right there’s a snort from Jason. “Oh my god I didn’t even notice it, Tim is still the smallest in the family!”
As Jason cackles, because the bastard loves taking the piss out of Tim’s height, Bruce suddenly looks resigned. He sighs before running a hand over his face and Tim bets he’s questioning why he ever thought it was a good idea to have kids.
“Aw,” Dick coos from the side, he’s grinning widely glancing at him and Duke, “Timmy is still the baby bird of the family.”
“That’s not true!” Tim protests, he wheels around to pin Dick with a look. “Damian, and now Duke, are in fact younger than me, making them the baby birds of the family.”
“Aw Timmy…” Dick makes his way over to Tim and before Tim could react, his oldest brother has him trapped in a hug. Dick locks his arms tightly around Tim’s neck and rests his head on top of Tim’s, clearly using his height to his advantage. Tim squawks in protest and tries to push him away with no avail.
“Technically speaking, isn’t Damian the shortest one out everyone?” Duke questions looking a little frazzled at everything going on.
“Yes, but not for much longer,” Jason answers him, “it’s already obvious the demon spawn will outgrow Timmy here. The kid’s eleven, he has at least another three or four growth spurts in him. And have you seen the size of Bruce? There's no way that kid is staying short.”
Tim wiggles in Dick’s grip, trying to move his head around so he could send Jason a glare. “Hey! I have at least another one in me.”
Jason raises an eyebrow. “Sure you do baby bird.”
“What about Cass, she’s smaller than Tim isn’t she?” Duke speaks up again. Tim appreciates the way he keeps bringing up other family members but it also goes to show he has a lot to learn about the way they operate in this family.
Dick gives him a squeeze and Tim grits his teeth, even throwing a punch into the man’s side in attempts to break free from the octopus grasp he’s locked in. He feels Dick shake his head. “Cass doesn’t count, she’s in her own category. Plus she doesn’t get annoyed about it like Tim does, with him we always get a reaction.”
Using all of his force this time, Tim jabs Dick in the stomach before kicking one of his knees, the man stumbles and Tim uses the advantage to finally break free from his grip. Scowling he steps away from him. “Because you’re all assholes that’s why.”
Jason rolls his eyes. “You’re the one that brought it up Tim, you were practically asking for the teasing this time round.”
All Tim could do was huff and cross his arms over his chest because he’s not wrong and Tim can’t exactly deny it.
“It doesn’t matter how tall you end up being or not being.” Bruce suddenly declares. Everyone turns to stare at him, having completely forgotten the man was even in the room. He had been silently watching them converse the entire time.
The man walks over to Tim and places a warm hand on his shoulder, sending him a supportive smile. “Unfortunately we cannot control our genes so we have to work with what we got and make up for what we don’t. You know this Tim, you need to stop letting your brother’s wind you up about it.”
Tim opens his mouth to object against his words but Bruce doesn’t seem to be interested in what he has to say because he gives his shoulder a squeeze and without further ado leaves the room. Tim blinks after him, taking a moment to register what just happened.  
A silence falls over the room as the boys all look at one another and it soon becomes awkward as no one seems to know how to break it. In the end it’s Tim himself who breaks it, in a small voice he brings up the previous topic again.
“Being small can have its benefits I guess…” He weakly argues.
“Oh yeah? Like what?” Jason mocks, either humouring Tim or simply finding another way to tease him.
“Like beating your fat ass for one.” Tim retorts, trying to not fall for the trap again. This kind of thing really does hit a nerve and make him go on the defensive side. It’s one of his insecurities, he can’t help it.
“Excuse you, I am not fat. This is all hard core muscles, you little twink.” Jason counters back, even standing up straighter as if his height will intimidate Tim.
Tim rolls his eyes at the display, he may be short yes, but he is far from intimidated by Jason’s height. “Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night.”
“Alright enough.” Tim’s attention breaks away from Jason when Dick steps between them, intervening. “Enough with the dick measuring contest. As Bruce rightfully said, we work with what we’ve got and make up for what we don’t. Every height has its advantages and disadvantages.”
“Oh fuck off dickhead. That’s bullshit and you know it. We have to show Duke here how things get sorted here now he’s part of the family.” Jason says eyes narrowing at the oldest in the room.
“Real mature Jay,” Dick rolls his eyes, he glances at Duke afterwards, “this isn’t how things get sorted out between us, we’re better than this.”
Duke holds his hands up placatingly, “I don’t even think I want to know.”
“That’s probably a wise idea.”
Tim snorts. “Oh don’t worry about it, Jason here is just insecure because he knows that I can take him down. Even with my small size I can beat him.”
Jason points at him threateningly. “Is that a challenge replacement? Because I will take you down.”
“Will you now? And how would you do that, by sitting on me?”
“Right you little shit…”
Tim yelps as Jason lunges for him. He’s able to dart out of the way from being grabbed and has to dodge again when Jason lunges for him a second time. Knowing that Jason won’t stop until he’s had his revenge Tim dashes for the door to make his escape. As he exits the room he shouts over his shoulder. “Can your fat ass keep up? My smaller size allows me to be more agile than you!”
Jason yells in protest but Tim doesn’t pay attention to it, all he does it focus on getting as far away as he could.
Back in the room, Dick and Duke watch as Tim hurriedly exits the room with a furious Jason on his tail. Dick is unsurprised by the turn of events, having gotten used to this kind of thing a long time ago. Duke, on the other hand, blinks in bewilderment and concern. He opens and closes his mouth several times without saying anything as if he doesn’t know what to say.
Dick glances at him after a moment. “Don’t worry about it, this kind of thing happens all the time, you’ll get used to it.”
“So a simple conversation can turn into a fighting match?”
“Yeah pretty much.” Dick starts heading for the door, gesturing for Duke to follow him. “Come on, let’s go make sure they haven’t killed one another.”
Duke looks alarmed at that. “Wait don’t tell me that’s a thing we have to actually worry about!”
Dick could only laugh in response to that.
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deonideatta · 4 years ago
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@ohcoolnice @whyyoudo I couldn't get the concept of han seok and junwoo being two different people out of my head so on this vincenzo-less sunday I give you a loose rewrite of canon where jun woo is the third jang brother and han seok's twin!
They were born jang han seok and jang han sol, and han seok is the older twin. They were separated when they were very young, because of han seok and an incident which ended up with han sol in the hospital. It was supposed to be temporary, but one of the house staff took pity on the poor child and smuggled him away. His name was changed to jun woo and they didn't find him again until both him and han seok were adults
They grew up very differently, han seok under the jang family, tormenting han seo and becoming the unhinged, solitary figure we all know and hate, and jun woo in an adopted family somewhere across the country into the dorky, sweet intern we knew for a bit and loved
Both of them somehow ended up spending time in america, though neither knew and they never met. Han seok because his father sent him there and jun woo because he got a scholarship to go to university there
Very few people now know about han seok himself, much less his twin brother. Before han seok's chairman takeover, most people think han seo is the only jang child
Jun woo knows he has a twin brother, but he doesnt know who he is. He can't remember his name or his face, or those of his real family. When he receives an offer for a job at wusang, he takes it as a learning opportunity and accepts
The only one who has all the cards is han seok, and so when he hears that jun woo has become an intern at wusang he decides its time to play them
So he spends people to observe and record jun woo, and after things start heating up and chayenzo declares war on babel, he kidnaps and threatens him, and tells him that he has to let him cosplay as him so that he can scope out the increasing threat
This is not how jun woo had ever thought meeting his long lost twin brother would go. He tries to put up a fight, but han seok hits him in the stomach with the hockey stick he's wielding like some kind of ancient weapon so hard that he spits out blood, and that takes the fight out of him
Han seok crouches down in front of jun woo and stares him in the eye, and it's like looking into a mirror except his reflection is staring at him with chillingly blank eyes.
It's the same for han seok, except his reflection looks back with open terror. The feeling it gives him is unpleasant and han seok doesn't like seeing weakness like that on a face that could pass for his own. But if he wants to get what he wants, he can't harm his twin too much just yet
Visually they're identical, so han seok passes perfectly for jun woo. He doesn't get all his mannerisms right at first, but with practice basically no one can tell the difference unless they look hard enough to notice that han seok's eyes are always empty even when he's copying jun woo's biggest grin.
A part of han seok feels a flash of jealousy at the fact that his twin has had a pleasant and fulfilling life while he's had to live neglected in the shadows for so long, so he takes extra satisfaction in the way jun woo's face falls when he appears in front of him for the first time dressed in his work attire, indistinguishable from jun woo on the average week day, backpack and all.
To spite him even further, han seok mimics his cheery, enthusiastic way of speaking, smiling so widely that it's mocking, and embraces the glee that jun woo's downtrodden expression gives him
He does hate having to curl his hair to copy jun woo's usual hairstyle though
At this point han seo finds out he has a second older brother, because han seok wants him to be able to continue to act normal and not freak out if he sees him cosplaying as jun woo
This brother is identical to his other one but actually really nice to him and it's both incredible and completely terrifying. It takes han seo a while to warm up to jun woo because he looks so much like han seok, as well as for fear of han seok's reaction, but he gets there
Whenever they meet (usually bc of han seok) the two bond over their shared fear and hatred of han seok. There's twice the himbo power. Incredible
Jun woo had had no idea that he had a younger (half) brother, and his heart goes out to him for having to live under han seok's abuse for so long
So he makes an effort to get to know han seo when han seok isn't around to yell at them. Han seo appreciates this a lot, because jun woo is like han seok on his incredibly rare good days except much better and all the time
Being a veteran at Handling Han SeokTM, he gives jun woo tips on how to get on han seok's good side and avoid getting things thrown at you
Jun woo tells han seo that one day when they get free of han seok they should take a trip to disneyland. Han seo, who has never been to an amusement park before, makes him promise it
Han seok's babel boss reveal presentation goes more or less the same way, except it's also a twin reveal and choi myung hee and mr han have to deal with the fact that not only is their intern the babel chairman's twin brother, but they have also been switching places regularly
Meanwhile cha young, who is out there living her best anti big pharma life, thinks jun woo is acting weird. Some days he's super bubbly, almost too bubbly, and on other days he's more subdued, seemingly a bit on edge.
Biggest red flag comes when she, him and vincenzo eat spicy food together
The spicy food tolerance gene missed han seok altogether and endowed han seo and jun woo with its power
So though he doesn't protest when cha young orders the extremely spicy dish jun woo usually gets for him, han seok struggles to finish the food almost as much as vincenzo does
Cha young thinks that's really sus, but she keeps her questions to herself because there's really no explanation for it unless jun woo was replaced by a government clone or aliens. Or his secret identical twin. Hah, imagine
She files the thought away for later and they continue to dig into the man behind han seo and babel. They find out about han seok, but there's no remaining information about jun woo in the files because the jang family thought losing him was supremely embarrassing so they tried to make sure no one knew
Meanwhile han seok is super happy he's gained another protective shield. If babel gets into trouble he can force han seo to go to jail for him, and if he ever gets personally exposed he can make jun woo take the fall for him. Genius
For that purpose he makes sure no one except the babel quartet know about him and jun woo being twins
He finds that it's interesting living as jun woo though, people interact with him in a way they never do when he's han seok. Jun woo's neighbours say hello to him when he goes by, and the lady in the local convenience store makes small talk with him and asks how his new job is going. And cha young is an incredibly unusual person, han seok finds that he has some level of attraction to her, and enjoys her company
While han seo is a puppet, jun woo is a mask, a protective measure and a means to explore the world, and han seok mentally pats himself on the back for having such useful brothers
But he has to stop spending time pretending to be jun woo for now bc he knows his identity is at risk of being discovered by jipuragi squad as they hunt down the person who exposed vincenzo as a mafia member
So when vincenzo does find out that han seok is allegedly jun woo, and tells cha young, it actually isn't han seok she's sitting with when she receives the news
Naturally she doesn't know this, and she feels supremely betrayed
And when vincenzo breaks into 'han seok's' house, it's actually jun woo's house. Jun woo, who was not expecting the mafia to break into his house, is understandably scared. The kneeling gun scene goes down, except there is no bravado on jun woo's part and he's genuinely terrified
Vincenzo is arrested as planned, and jun woo meets cha young in the police station as she goes to help vincenzo
She's furious, and jun woo honestly denies that it was him who killed her father and the babel victims, unable to expose that it was han seok because he's scared of the consequences and because it sounds like such a ridiculous excuse
Poor guy gets the double slap intended for his twin brother
When han seok hears about it he laughs a lot. Jun woo is understandably angry about his reaction, but he is forced to seethe in silence
Nevertheless han seok decides to go into hiding (and forces jun woo to do the same somewhere else, hiring guards to make sure he doesn't leave) because even if chayenzo think jun woo is the babel chairman, they still have the same face
Unfortunately for han seok this means that vincenzo's spy squad see him going into his own safe house, and he gets to be the victim of the drugged water
After a few more near death scares courtesy of the local mafia man, choi myung hee suggests he reveal himself as chairman so he doesn't die at the hands of vincenzo unknown and like a loser. And so he does
At the expense of jun woo, whose identity has more or less been stolen now, and who is now indefinitely confined to the family property han seok had him hide in
The war begins all out, and jipuragi squad works hard at removing han seok's support circle, starting with daechang daily, then the anti-union activities
Han seo watches all this unfold and starts to wonder how he can get his better older brother free while taking down the other one
The answer comes to him when he sees chayenzo cover han seok with pigs blood. They're the only people who seemed to consistently be able to one up han seok, and he has only heard good things about cha young from jun woo, not to mention the fact that surely even han seok can't defeat a mafia member in the long run
So he asks mr han to help him meet vincenzo, and he tells him he has twin older brothers and asks for his help in betraying the bad one and saving the good one
Vincenzo thinks he's messing with him, and turns down han seo's request to be on the same side
But then jipuragi squad opens the guillotine file, and there below han seok's escapades in homicide and the details on han seo's suffering, is the shocking secret of the jang family, the existence of a 3rd jang brother, han seok's twin brother jang han sol
Cha young remembers how jun woo hadn't been able to eat spicy food that one time and suddenly everything makes sense
For his part vincenzo remembers what han seo had said and mentally kicks himself for thinking it was a lie
They puzzle over what this could mean and where han seok's twin brother could be now. Is the man who revealed himself as the babel chairman the real han seok? Are both of them evil? Is one being used by the other?
Cha young silently wonders which times jun woo had just been jun woo, and which times she had been eating lunch or joking with han seok the babel chairman and serial murderer
They decide they have to find the other jang twin in order to answer their questions
Problem is that he's been absent from work for the past 2 weeks, and when vincenzo breaks into his house, it looks like it hasn't been lived in for quite a while
The trail seems to lead nowhere, and they turn their attention back to tearing down babel, with the new knowledge sitting uncomfortably in the backs of their minds
And then han seo shows up at the jipuragi office in all his coffee wielding glory to plead his cooler older brother's case again
This time, to han seo's surprise, they listen to him patiently when he tells them about his older brothers. He makes sure to stress that the only one he wants to betray is han seok, and that jun woo has done nothing wrong
If the fact that they've read the part of the guillotine file that talked about what han seo had had to suffer under han seok makes it easier for them to believe him, he doesn't have to know that
The only way they can strike at han seok and simultaneously clear jun woo of suspicion is to reveal that they're twins
To do that they have to find jun woo. Han seo doesn't know where exactly he is, but he tells them that han seok would probably try and use jun woo as a shield should he ever be sent to jail
The guillotine file gives them what they need to force the prosecution to put han seok behind bars under fabricated charges. It wouldn't last long once actual investigation starts, but hopefully it will be enough
Han seok takes the bait, unknowingly, and shuttles jun woo off in his place. There's not much that irritates him as much as the thought of going to jail, and this is the perfect chance to test jun woo's loyalty. It also gives him a blind spot to operate, while his enemies think he's in jail. You can't dodge a hidden dagger and all that.
When the jipuragi squad watches the arrest of the babel chairman on the news, there's a nervous hunch to 'han seok's' shoulders, and the impassive smile he seems to be going for isn't quite right
Vincenzo and cha young go to visit him in jail
When they first see him, cha young immediately feels bad, despite herself. He looks like he hasn't slept well in ages, and his expression is far from his usual cheer, sober and sullen. This had better really be jun woo, she does not want to ever feel pity for jang han seok
It is jun woo, and he really hasn't slept well in ages, as reuniting with han seok and his violent tendencies has reawakened the memories from his childhood in the jang household that he had supressed, causing all kinds of nightmares
He doesn't look up as they enter and sit opposite him. Cha Young takes charge, and vincenzo lingers behind her, a solid and present support
When she speaks his head snaps up at the sound of her voice, before he seems to want to correct himself and looks away
When he looks at her again there are no traces of jun woo in his face, his expression haughty and unbothered
It's chillingly like the han seok they had sat across following the pig's blood incident, and cha young has to work hard to push down the flare of anger the expression causes
She decides not to beat around the bush. She presses the printed page of the jang han sol section of the guillotine file up against the glass, and watches as jun woo's eyes widen, the facade falling as quickly as he had donned it
Jun woo takes in the picture of the two identical little boys and has to squeeze his eyes shut at the wave of fear that hits him
In its wake is a small flare of hope. If they know he isn't han seok, maybe they can help him
Cha young watches as jun woo seems to deflate at the sight of the document, and now she's sure it isn't han seok, because she's never seen him allow himself to show any form of weakness
When jun woo looks up again, there is determination mixed in with the weariness in his eyes
A while later, cha young exhales shakily as they walk out, vincenzo's hand steady and comforting on her back. She's surprised at how relieved she is to know that the jun woo she had known had not been an elaborate set up, a con which had seen her at some of her lowest moments. Her heart goes out to jun woo, but there's an undeniable joy at the confirmation that her friend still exists, because it means he can be saved
The plan is simply to collect evidence of the fact that jun woo is not han seok. Best case scenario a video of them together, though a good photo will do as well. It would also work if they can somehow get footage of han seok out and about while jun woo is in jail
The first obvious course of action is to look for cctv footage. They hunt high and low through the cameras at babel, at wusang, and around han seok and jun woo's houses, but the searches are largely fruitless
With han seo's help, they locate the safehouses han seok likes to hide out in, and vincenzo sends men to snoop around each property. This ultimately pays off when, at the 3rd property, han seok is spotted standing by a window.
The second stage begins with Mr ahn's help, and they get a swat team to raid the house han seok is hiding out in.
Fully believing that everyone thinks you're in jail makes you sloppy, and han seok doesn't see it coming until the black vehicles are speeding down his driveway
He doesn't stop to take anything much, he grabs a hockey stick and he runs, wild and angry, out into the dark of the woods surrounding the house
Vincenzo watches him charge into the forest on the cctv footage retrieved from the house and smirks
The footage hits the news the next day. The headline is in large, bold letters, "Chairman Jang Han Seok spotted at holiday residence, despite prison sentence." The picture below the tagline serves as the final blow, side by side images of Han Seok sprinting away from the house, and an identical man sitting demurely in a jail cell.
As the story breaks, people begin to step forward, old employees of the jang household who had known and seen both han seok and han sol. There's nothing like good gossip to get people talking, and the shocking secret of the jang twins makes the rounds in record time
Jun woo's identity is rechecked, and he is set free
Cha young, vincenzo and han seo go to meet him when he gets out. Han seo tackles him in a hug, and cha young smacks him heartily on the back. Vincenzo doesn't react much but he does shoot jun woo a smile.
Han seok hasn't been seen in days, and jun woo is unbelievably happy to be himself again
It isn't over yet though, babel still needs to pay and han seok still needs to be found. Search parties comb through the woods around the house regularly, but there's still no sign of him. In the meantime, jipuragi prepares their final attack.
Han seo lets jun woo stay with him, and the house is fortified by multiple levels of guards
It's still mildly unsettling for han seo to have someone with han seok's face in his house, in his own safe space, but jun woo makes for a far better housemate than han seok ever was, and gradually he relaxes
For a few days, despite the tension of not knowing where your psychopath brother who probably really wants to kill you could be lurking, when there is a spare moment in the evening, han seo and jun woo catch up on years of lost brotherhood
Han seo tells him about his mother, and jun woo talks about his adopted family. Neither of them mention han seok, they skirt around his name like he doesn’t exist, like speaking their trauma aloud to someone who had been there too would make it too real to bear. Jun woo knows he had gotten the better end of the deal, he had been separated from han seok pretty early. Han seo had lost too many years of his life to their psychopath brother, and jun woo isn't sure he knows how to confront that, or how to comfort him. He hopes he can learn
Han seo wants to ask what exactly had happened to lead to jun woo being removed from the jang household and separated from han seok, but he doesnt dare. Maybe later, maybe when they aren't still worried about what han seok could do to them
Then the jipuragi squad files their lawsuit against babel. Han seok still hasn't been heard from, and they begin to wonder if he got lost in the woods. Maybe he fell of a cliff, or into a river
Either way, the trial goes spectacularly badly for babel, aided by the fact that vincenzo had threatened the unjust judge before the trial. The verdict is guilty, and it serves as a means to kick-start further investigation into previously dismissed babel trials
The day after the trial, han seok reappears
He was lost in the woods for a while, but he found his way out and laid low for a while plotting a way to get back at vincenzo and cha young for destroying his backup plans and destroying his family and company's reputation. He will also have to deal with his traitorous brothers.
It's a big blow, but it's not one he cannot recover from. All he has to do is get his revenge, terrify his brothers back into submission, and go back to his plans for his babel.
So he requests the kidnapping of cha young, and he gets his men to attack the guards at han seo's house and take her there, cornering his brothers. He strolls in when he gets word that everything is done, cocky and confident, twirling a gun between his fingers
He takes in the open fear on han seo's face, the frightened anger on jun woo's face, and the sneer on cha young's face, and he laughs. They are consistent to the very end, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
All that’s left is vincenzo, and a short while after a brief and taunt filled phone call he arrives, eyes wide and angry. Han seok does not waste time in pointing his gun at the mafia man. He stops where he is, still glaring at han seok, eyes darting regularly to cha young
Because he is never one to turn down some fun, in a bid to further anger vincenzo, han seok crouches down and points the gun to cha young's head. He watches at vincenzo's face twists with anger and worry, and he revels in it. Out of the corner of his eye he sees jun woo has moved in front of han seo, like he's protecting him, and han seok wants to laugh
He speaks to cha young in jun woo's voice to spite them both, mockingly sounding out his words in his twin's bright tone
But suddenly vincenzo drops to his knees to plead for cha young's life, and han seok grins in satisfaction. The satisfaction is shortlived, however, as something solid suddenly crashes into the back of his head
It dazes him enough that he lets go of cha young for a moment, and she takes the chance to headbutt him so hard that he drops the gun. Vincenzo pounces almost immediately, and aims a kick to han seok's head, knocking him out
The last thing he sees before everything fades to black is his spitting image standing a distance away, holding a dented art deco lamp.
When they are sure han seok has been knocked out for real, the relief that sweeps the room is palpable. Han seo slumps down and jun woo moves to check on him as vincenzo unties cha young
Jun woo moves to call the police, but vincenzo tells him not to. 
Instead, he makes a call of his own, and soon two men enter and carry out the still unconscious han seok. Jun woo wants to ask where they’re taking him, but there’s a dark glint in vincenzo’s eyes that makes him swallow the question.
None of them see han seok again until he’s on the news. His body is found in a river near the family property he had first run away from, and the consensus seems to be that he fell in and drowned while lost in the woods
The whole matter has vincenzo written all over it, but no one is going to ask about it
Han seo and jun woo hold a funeral for him because it would be suspicious if they didn’t, but they work hard to make it as underwhelming as possible. When han seo cant stop shaking (whether it’s in weariness, relief, or anger at any traces of grief, jun woo can’t tell, and honestly neither can han seo) as they stand in front of the portrait of their deceased brother, jun woo silently rests a hand on his back.
After that is over with, they take a break to have a small ‘han seok is gone’ party, and then they both throw themselves into work
Han seo takes charge of babel, firing all of han seok’s people and working hard at cleaning up the stain of corruption he’d left behind. He works hard to transform the company’s reputation, and begins the process of compensating all the people who had been wronged by them in some shape or form
Jun woo leaves wusang and starts his own law firm. Han seo makes the company his first customer, and jun woo tries hard to run his firm without any traces of what made lawyers at wusang such monsters
Cha young and him have a friendly law firm rivalry going, much to vincenzo’s amusement
When they aren’t working, jun woo and han seo hang out a lot. Jun woo is determined to replace han seo’s memories of a terrible older brother with better ones with a more pleasant older brother. Han seo still struggles sometimes with seeing han seok in jun woo, but he’s more than happy to overwrite han seok’s image in his mind with jun woo’s
A few months after everything is stable again, they do take that trip to disneyland. The picture they take outside the park is framed on both their desks.
The next year, vincenzo and cha young get married, and han seo and jun woo attend the wedding. They bring expensive gifts, and jun woo cries like it’s his own family getting married. Cha young rolls her eyes at him, but she’s pleased to have him there
It will take a while to move on fully from the damage han seok caused, but they are all working hard at it. Because now han seok is gone for good, and everything is fine.
bonus
The Incident that led to han sol becoming jun woo happened when he and han seok were 6 and han seok, having decided that they had to see who was the superior twin, challenged him to a fight to the death
It was traumatic to the point that jun woo repressed all the memories of his childhood with han seok
Han seo once called jun woo hyung when speaking to han seok, and han seok got really angry and threw a lamp at him
Before vincenzo finishes off han seok, cha young slaps him six times to make up for the two slaps she mistakenly gave jun woo
After everything blows over, jun woo takes han seo with him the next time he goes to visit his adopted family. They dote on him like he's their family too, and han seo feels more loved than he has since he lost his mother. He says so to jun woo, and from then on he takes him along whenever he visits them
Cha young, jun woo and han seo meet up sometimes to eat spicy food, both because they like it but also to spite han seok’s memory just that little bit more
Because han seok died before he could find out about vincenzo’s mother, she’s alive and well and vincenzo visits her regularly
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spike-and-faye · 4 years ago
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Hello, I require your infinite wisdom please!! :O So I just finished cowboy bebop and I am so confused like who the fuck was Julia. WHAT was Faye's past. I literally never process tv shows and the bebop was not immune to my stupidity LMAO like... I guess the ending just really confused me, from what I gathered Spike and Vicious were friends? But then they weren't? And Julia dated Vicious but also Spike? And he? Went after Vicious even after Julia had died? I am Confusion. Please help. Thank u...
Oh BABEY I am so glad you asked! :) Be prepared for a long answer and I apologize in advance for how incoherent it will probably be.
ALSO Please note: this show is fucking complicated. I have watched it all the way through several times a year, every single year, for over a decade now, and I am *STILL* finding new shit every time I watch it. It's packed with symbols, motifs, allusions and underlying themes that are just so rich. It is so extraordinarily well-written that it could give a lot of classic literature a run for its money. I'm literally working on an in depth literary/film analysis my husband lovingly calls my Manifesto on the series right now. SO PLEASE don't beat yourself up about not catching everything on the first go round.
HEY BTW for anyone who hasn't finished the show, please know there will be MANY spoilers ahead!
Anyways ~
1.     Spike / Julia / Vicious:
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The information we get on Spike's past, including Vicious and Julia, is pretty limited considering how big of an impact they have on the story. We get our first glimpse in Session 1: Asteroid Blues, then again in Session 5: Ballad of Fallen Angels, Sessions 12 + 13: Jupiter Jazz, and Sessions 25 + 26: Real Folk Blues. I recommend reviewing these episodes for you Julia and Vicious fix.
What we know:
Spike and Vicious were both members of an organized crime syndicate called the Red Dragons, which is roughly analogous to the Yakuza or the Mafia. Their positions in the organization are not clear, but there are some images alluding to them being hitmen, and they likely rose up in the ranks as they were close acquaintances of Mao Yenrai, a Capo of the Red Dragon.
Spike and Vicious were close comrades. Spike taught Vicious everything he knew about fighting, and the two had a deep trust in each other. Which Spike fucked up ….
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^^Vicious looks hot asf here
Julia was Vicious' lover/girlfriend. One night in 2068 (three years prior to the time we watch in the Bebop) Spike is injured, presumably from a syndicate-related fight and he passes out in front of her door. She takes him in and nurses him back to health and he SIMPS HARD for her. We’re all but told he's in LOVE love with her. They start an affair, and Spike tells her he's ready to abandon the whole life - the syndicate, Vicious, Mao, all of it - and they could run away together.
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WELL Vicious finds out about this whole affair, and is DOUBLY betrayed because his literal best friend and girlfriend have been having an affair, and tbh I think he was just as jealous of Spike's attentions as he was of Julia's. (Whether or not it’s a sexual thing for Spike … well … I have my own headcanons about that). SO when he finds out they're going to run away together, he gives Julia an ultimatum: you can either kill him, or I'll just kill you both. Spike had written her a letter about meeting him in the graveyard to start their new life together, which she tears up to hide his location from Vicious. (This is the falling ripped up pieces of paper we see in Spike's flash back in Session 5).
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^^ r/gifsyoucanhear
**NOTE: There are those who disagree with this view, (looking at you Cowboy Bebop wiki) instead suggesting Vicious and Spike were buds in the past, but then hated each other once they were both considered as potential successors to Mao. That's why Vicious wanted him dead, and he was enlisting Julia (who he didn't necessarily have a romantic connection to) to help kill Spike since he knew Spike loved her. Personally, I think there is plenty of evidence that Vicious also wanted Julia, and in fact was already with her, when Spike started seeing her. If you want me to cite my sources please send an me an ask about it :)
Spike gets the idea, whether by her just not showing up or word around the syndicate being like YO Vicious wants you dead. Despite Vicious' ultimatum to Julia, he was gunna kill Spike either way. SO he sets up an ambush, and SadBoy™ Spike walks intentionally into their trap. Somehow, he doesn't die, though the entire syndicate thinks he did. (Note Annie's reaction to seeing him alive in Session 5). It’s also implied that this is where he lost his eye.
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HIS EYE - possibly the most important symbol in the show so I do have to mention it. In episode 26, he explicitly explains to Faye that one of his eyes only sees the past. (PS this isn't dissimilar to Jet's arm… we can get into that another time). Basically, he's constantly living halfway in the past and halfway in the present, and describes the past like a dream he can never wake up from. Because dysfunctional or not - the syndicate WAS his family. (Again - see his relationship with Annie, Mao, and Vicious (prior to Spike's betrayal)). It's his reminder that Julia didn't run away with him, and that he'd left behind that life for her. (He didn’t know she was being threatened until the final episode). Basically Spike is hyper-fixated on what he had and what could've been.
Not long after this, Spike starts bounty hunting because like? What else is he going to do. He doesn't care if he lives or dies but if he has to be alive, he may as well be able to eat. He joins up with Jet Black on the Bebop.
TL; DR: Spike stole Vicious' lover, Julia, so Vicious made Julia choose between her killing Spike or Vicious killing them both. She instead went into hiding and Spike thought he'd been stood up. He fake died and got the hell outta dodge.
2.     What was Faye's past?
Ok let me start by saying Faye is my wife and my life. HOWEVER I hated her the first time I watched this show circa age 13 because I thought she was annoying/vain/shallow (also because #internalizedmisogyny lol am I right fam). Good news! She is all those things! But she's also very lonely and scared and an amnesiac and secretly a sweetie and she realizes she loves the crew of the Bebop like family.
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SO my wife's backstory:
she was born in the 1990s (#only90skidsremember). There's some debate over her race/nationality, but due to the images of her hanging out in Merlion Park in Singapore, my bet is that she's Singaporean. She comes from a wealthy family with a big house, and we see some utterly *adorable* film of her as a child/young adolescent in Session 18: Speak Like a Child. I cry everytime </3
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^^ Holla for the representation
In 2014, circa age 20, she and her parents were going into space when the shuttle they were on had some kind of malfunction/accident and it killed an unknown number of people, including her parents. At the time, the technology didn’t exist to be able to save her, so she was put into a cryogenic sleep state. Meanwhile, the Lunar Gate accident occurs, breaking up the moon and causing rock showers on Earth's surface. Most people died, moved to Mars, or settled underground.
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She wakes up from her cryogenic sleep in 2068. (Also the year Spike leaves the syndicate.) She's 'woken' by the corrupt Dr. Bacchus who plans on charging her for the years and years of medical debt she's accrued. (See Session 15: My Funny Valentine.) Luckily a lawyer takes interest in her case (Whitney Haggus Matsumoto) and tries to help get rid of her debt. The two fall in love, but turns out Whitney is a Scumbag. He's actually Dr. Bacchus's nephew, and faked his death, writing Faye as the sole inheritor to his will. This means she'll take on all his debts. So baby girl has LOTS of debt at this point.
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In the intervening years prior to her joining the Bebop, she gambles, cheats, gains a lot of street smarts, and adopts a very seductive character to get her way. She joins the crew on the Bebop in Session 3: Honky Tonk Women.
TL;DR: Faye is Austin powers
YIKES this is so long I am so sorry. Bitches are obsessed with this show. (I am bitches)
3.     The Ending
Okay I'm going to present this in the way, in my scholarly opinion, would be correct, though there are SO many interpretations other than simply 'Spike died :/".
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To understand the plot of the last couple episodes we actually have to go back to Session 5: Mao is instructed* to sign a treaty with a rival syndicate called the White Tigers. (*He's instructed by The Van (Council of identical creepy old men) who are the actual head of the dragon. I think we only see them in Session 26.) Well - Vicious is a Bastard Man and he and his fellow mutineers blow up the White Tiger guys' ship and slit Mao's throat. Before he dies, Mao is like "Gotdamnit if Spike was still here this shit wouldn't have happened." Later in the Cathedral battle, Vicious explains to Spike he killed Mao because Mao 'lost his fangs'. He planned on killing Spike for good her, IMO, so there'd be no rival to take over as Capo for the Dragons.
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^^These guys are The Van btw
THEN in Session 25, the Van basically catches Vicious and is like “you killed Mao and now you have to go to Time Out.” The Van also decides to just kill everyone associated with Vicious, just 2 B safe. That's why there's a big ass shootout at the Loser Bar where Jet and Spike are chilling, drinking, (missing Faye and Ed and Ein lol) and Shin (younger brother to Lin, who's helping Vicious overthrow the Dragon) explains all this to Spike. OH and PS JULIA IS ALIVE AND HERE IS HER LOCATION :). (**Notice Spike's reaction at this point is different than his reaction in Jupiter Jazz when he hears there's a Julia on Calisto. Much less excited… hmm…).
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SO THEN you know we get some flashbacks of the past as previously explained *and* Julia just happens to run into Faye. She recognizes that Faye is one of Spike's friends from the Bebop (she was keeping tabs on him it seems) and picks her up. Faye doesn't know who Julia is but is like damn bitch I'm a little gay for you. (I mean … that may just be my bi ass projecting, but Faye is REALLY struck with her. Look at how she describes her to Jet, I mean come on.)
 Faye's like, 'we should team up' and Julia says 'no thanks but also tell Spike to meet me at *the place*'. Meanwhile back on the Bebop Spike and Jet are talking and Spike goes on about some dream woman who was his other half. (We assume he means Julia … I have my reasons to doubt this … I have a lot of angry DMs about my opinion here lol but I just do not give a fuck (: I can expand on this in another post or you can refer to the title of my fucking blog haha) Personally, I think Watanabe personally left this specific scene open ended, the same way he does with the ending and various other things.
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more like SIMP Spiegel
ANYWAY Faye comes back to the Bebop to tell Spike about Julia, and Jet gets intel from a former cop buddy that there's some shit going down with the Dragons. (Again, the Van is hunting down everyone ever associated with Vicious, including your pal Spike). Bebop is attacked, Faye tells Spike what's up with Julia, and he heads out.
 PAN TO VICIOUS chained up - about to be executed - but what's that!? It's a bird!? It's a pla- no it's just a bird. (With one glowing red eye … hm … reminds me of Spike, also the drug Red Eye. Pls let me know if you have any thoughts on this). Just a bird with a BOMB! Explosion (RIP bird c. 2065 - too soon), Vicious kills the elders, his buddies show up and are ready to go fuck shit up.
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this show could not be more of an aesthetic
MMMPhhh okay RAINY CEMETERY. Spike and Julia. She draws a gun, explains why she didn't meet him that day, and then hugs him. Now Spike is not *great* at showing his emotions but he literally just stands there. Maybe it's a stoic expression of how sad he is that he never knew she still cared, when it seemed like she dumped him. Maybe he's finally getting some closure on his past. Maybe the past doesn't mean the same thing it used to. (I'll elaborate later on this).
They go to Annie's to get stocked up on stuff, she lets them know she denied knowing Spike was still alive and hey also the Van was assassinated by Vicious and his guys so. Watch out for that. Then her shop is surrounded by Vicious' guys and she dies :(. Spike and Julia escape to the roof, but she's shot and dies in Spike's arms, and says 'it's all just a dream' :(. (Refer to: Spike living in a dream of the past).
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Anyway Jet SAID he wasn't gunna go after Spike but. Jet's parental instincts kick in (oh yeah he was shot in the leg earlier btw) and he goes to Sitting Bull to see if he knows where Spike is. He basically says yeah Spike's about to die somewhere. (I want to do a further analysis on all the Sitting Bull scenes.) Well conveniently Spike returns to the Bebop, eats, tells his story about a tiger-striped cat. (At one point Jet asks if he's going there for her, and Spike is like well she's dead now so whatever). THEN we get to the scene where Faye is like HEY YOU CAN'T GO OFF AND DIE ASSHOLE and he's like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I 've been living in the past so I might as well see if I'm living now. (**This will play heavily into my interpretation of the ending). Faye is pissed, shoots the ceiling and he goes off to the syndicate headquarters to fuck shit up.
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He basically John Wicks his way through the building, Shin dies, he and Vicious have the big boss battle and whatnot. He kills Vicious and stumbles back out down the stairs and says "Bang!" and collapses. We pan to the sky and see a star fade away.
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Well that explains the plot … now here's what I think happened!!! ALSO may I mention, anon - you picked up on something I feel like a lot of people miss out on. Why *did* Spike go back to kill Vicious if Julia was already dead??
Basically, once it became clear that anyone associated with Vicious was being killed, Spike knew they'd hunt him down, and they weren't beneath Kill-Billing their way to him, (i.e. systematically destroying this companions to get to him). And for all his apparent indifference - he really loves his new found family. Jet is literally like an older brother to him. Ed is a little sister. Ein is well … a very good boy. And Faye? Well the relationship is complicated, and I'm not going to get into the 69,420 reasons I ship them here, but I think it is beyond argument that he really does care for her, even if that just in a filial way. He didn't want the syndicates to kill them for their association to him, or in order to get to him. So he did what he had to do to protect them. *AND NO* I am not saying that he didn't love Julia. But it was clear that his desire was no longer to run away with her. I think he genuinely loved and cared about her, but at some point between Jupiter Jazz Pt 2 and now, he accepted that their time together was over. Now he had a new raison d'etre, which is the Bebop.
I think at this point Spike has 'woken up' to reality (as he implied to Faye in their final conversation in episode 26: "Look at these eyes. One of them is a fake, because I lost it in an accident. Since then, I have been seeing the past in one eye, and the present in the other. I had believed that what I saw was not all of reality...I thought I was watching a dream that I would never awaken from. Before I knew it, the dream was all over." (This is from the sub btw I'm too lazy to look up the dub transcript.) He wasn't going there to die, he's going to find out if he's really alive. This line is fucking cool and everything - but it's implications are multitude. I won't go into them all here but basically : what makes him alive now is that he's free from his past. He's alive because he has this new family and protecting them is all he really wants now. Spike was protecting Jet, Faye, Ed, (and Ein) by going and facing the entire syndicate, knowing that their lives would all be in danger.
SO - did Spike die? Well again - Watanabe has purposely and artfully left this open ended. Well, if we're following the symbolism from Sitting Bull, then yeah, the man is as dead as disco, and wouldn't that be a fitting ending? BUT at the same time, Spike always refers to having 'died' before (meaning when he was ambushed by the syndicate, and they all thought he died, and he pretty much did). Don't forget that in  movie (takes places roughly between episodes 22 + 23, and yes, was made AFTER the series but whatever) he like .. DIES dies. He goes to the afterlife and everything. He wakes up to find he's chilling with Sitting Bull, who's like nah it wasn't your time to die yet. So the fact Sitting Bull confirms Spike will die in the final episode, means yeah, Spike is pretty much dead.
BUT -- okay now hear me out -- could this death in the final episode be a death to his previous life? The person he was in the syndicate? Now that he's extinguished the Red Dragons for good, is it not possible that its merely *that* life which has ended? That's the optimist in me saying that, but if it keeps me from staying up all night crying, I guess it'll have to do. Watanabe definitely wants to leave it up to the viewer, so whatever you think, I feel like there's validity to it.
WELL any anon, sorry for the fucking lecture - and believe me, I could've said MUCH, MUCH more - but I enjoyed this question. I always love talking about this show so please all you fuckers feel free to message me or send an ask about anything any time. I am really slow at replying because #life'sAbitch.
Love you all.
SY,SCB <3
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maddcactus-art · 3 years ago
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Despite being highly introverted (and antisocial), Clark knows a lot of people. Many of them he likes and a good portion of them he hates. -=Family members=- Clark lived in a full family, with his mother and stepfather (he didn’t knew that, though has suspected as much), his older brother Fred and younger sister Penelope. His mother (Aelita) was very cold and absent most of the time, she ignored Clark a lot and wasn’t very empathetic towards him. After her husband found out that Clark wasn’t his child, he became very hostile towards her. She started to percieve Clark as a punishment for her sins, something like a burden she has to carry and feel bad for. The father of the family is a former military man, who commited a bunch of questionable things, he was dismissed from the army. After he came back from the war he started to drink. In a drunk hase he acted very violent towards Clark’s mother and Clark himself, if he dared to try and protect his mother. She was apathetic towards any abuse. Clark’s father is barely tolerable when he’s sober. He’s passive-agressive and quiet, and prefers to stay away from his family. Fred was the only person who tried to de escalate fights and scandals in the family. He acts like a reasonable young man and has to both try to work to earn money to pay for his own student debt, and manage the younger siblings. He, Clark and Penny have a very warm bond. Clark trusts Fred. For a very long time Fred was the only one Clark tried talking to when he felt bad. Fred was the only one who knew the reasons Clark used to self-harm. He tried to help him out as best as he could... Clark is very fond of Penny, he’s protective of her. They were spending a lot of time together, when she was young. (Surprisingly Clark is very good with kids) -=Classmates=- Alice is one of Clark’s best friends. She is a smart and kind person, to whom Clark always looks up to. She sees him more as a brother, rather than close friend, though there’s no denial that at one time they were romantically involved. Benjamin is also Clark’s best friend. He is one of those kind hearted people, with warm and infectious laughter. Clark liked to stay at Ben’s place any time he needed comforting and calm time. They watched movies, played video games and experimented in the kitchen together. Rita and Robbie are Clark’s artistic friends. They had similar interests. Clark liked Rita for being calm and reasonable, wise and oddly stoic for her small stature. Robbie he found simply amusing and was interested in chaotic and extraordinary decisions this rascal makes. Chloe is the only person in class, who acted with enmity towards Clark from the very beginning. She was jealous of him and suspected that there was something wrong with Clark. She didn’t treat him well. They both don’t like each other and try to tolerate one another’s presense, only because of Alice. Otherwise they’d try to end each other. Nise was also hostile at first, but when he observed Clark and got to know him better, he changed his mind. He spent a lot of time earning his trust and imperceptibly fell in love. Clark, for whom at the time, this kind of interest was a first, reciprocated his feelings. Later this bond was torn by Nise, who betrayed Clark’s trust. Clark hated Nise for this. -=Strangers to enemies\lovers\friends=- Gregg was from the same school as Clark. From the first day he disliked Clark and decided to bully him. He was a school’s most infamous hooligan, but with Clark his bullying escalated to extremes. Gregg kept pushing and pushing Clark with emotional, psychological and physical abuse, couple of times almost killing him (directly and indirectly.) But this all ended up badly for Gregg himself, when Clark finally snapped and almost murdered him. Gregg was lucky to end up in a hospital with a concussion and a bunch of broken bones. Shawn is Gregg’s step brother. Opposite to Gregg, Shawn was sympathetic to Clark and had a huge crush on him through the highschool and till the end. Shawn likes Clark causlessly, he finds him attractive, smart and witty, he forgives him a lot of shit and is always very patient and kind with Clark. Which Clark appreciates a lot and tries to be better for Shawn in return. Katy is a girl whom Clark hijacked with her own car. She’s stubborn, hardworking and takes no shit from no one. Clark liked her spunk, and very soon became fond of her, taking a role of a parent\older brother. Though, Katy would say (and rightfully so) that in their relationship - she is acting more like an adult. They both playfully tug at eachother’s nerves, but still deeply care about one another. -=#Emotional reactions#=- 1. Towards stepfather. Clark doesn’t like talking about him and any mention of him is painfull. 2. Towards Chloe. He’s annoyed by her very much. 3. Towards Shawn. Clark’s feelings to Shawn are very romantic and poetic, he speaks and thinks of him very fondly. 4. Towards Nise. Still salty about everything that happened between them. 5. Towards Alice. Nothing but respect and love for this girl, Clark would’ve spend his life with her, if she had allowed it.
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justcallmenikki7 · 5 years ago
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BTS Reaction To: Your Child Interrupting Them During a Meeting (Mafia!Au)
Summary: your child interrupts your mafia husband during their meetings.
Warnings: obvs mafia au so … you should know what comes with that, fluff, angst?, and cuteness
Request: Hi! can you please do an imagine/reaction on Mafia! bts where their child comes in during a meeting? you can make up the names for their child too if you want :) thank you!
Notes: i have missed mafia aus, this request was so cute
Jin:
“Daddy!”
A small voice yelled out during an almost act of killing. Jin automatically dropped his gun, being caught by Namjoon who is standing beside the Mafia boss. Going from killer mode to a bundle of softness, Jin step from around the traitor, making his way to where you and your kid were standing at the entrance of his office.
You held a nervous and apologetical look, something that Jin wiped away when he leant down and kissed you on the lips. “I’m so sorry, I totally forgot about your ‘meeting,’” you apologized, only to be shushed by your husbands’ lips once again.
“Don’t worry about it. I love torturing the ones who betray us.” Jin winked at you, earning an eye roll from you.
“You and your sadistic ways.” You giggled, looking down at your son who was playing with your husband’s tie.
Your son looked up at your husband in happiness, oblivious to the almost murder going on right in front of him. “Daddy!” He yelled in excitement, reaching out for his father.
“Hey buddy! What are you up to?” Your husband asked in a childish voice, entertaining your son. Lifting him in his arms, he turned his head to nod at Namjoon, signaling him to take the traitor to the dundgons to wait for his tomorrow death. “Now, that I have my family with me, how about going to McDonald’s?” Jin suggested, only to earn an excited yell from your son.
Yoongi:
Yoongi was sitting in his chair, hands linked together in front of him, face voided of any emotion. This forms nervousness in all of his men, besides Hoseok and Jungkook. They knew from this reaction of what happened at last nights shipment meant nothing but pure anger, and possible death, was nothing good. It brought fear to everyone’s bones.
Having to be under the wrath of Min Yoongi was nothing no one wanted to deal with.
Sighing, Yoongi stood up from his chair, casting a glance at both Hoseok and Jungkook. to which they nodded, before speaking.
A sarcastic chuckle escaped his lips, “Now—”
Yoongi was cut off from the sound of the door to the meeting room opening and a small, scared voice that brought him to his knees. “D-Daddy,” Sooni voice cracked, on the verge of tears.
Dropping his composed state, Yoongi charged towards his daughter.
“What’s wrong my princess?” Yoongi asked, trying to avoid tears. He hated to see you, his Queen, and his Princess, Sooni, cry. The both of his tears made him feel helpless.
“N-N-Nightmare! Scary man,” and that is when the waterworks began, and that is when Yoongi drew the line.
Family over work. So, dashing out of the meeting room with his daughter in his hands, he began to coo and calm his daughter down, leaving behind the grateful gang members,
Yelling and possibly killing someone today can wait, Yoongi thought.
Hoseok:
“Are you all just some fucking mistakes?” Hoseok shouted at the top of his lungs, throwing the manila folder down onto the desk. “How can you fuck up a simple drug deal?”
“S-Sir, we were outnumbered. A-and,” one of his men began, on the verge of possibly peeing his pants.
“A-And what?” Hoseok mocked, a pout on his lips, “You can’t handle a few other men?” Hoseok continued, drawing out his gun, smirk on his face. “Maybe,” He began to shake his gun in a mocking way, enjoying the scared looks that his men gave him.
“Daddy, why do you have a gun?”
And at the voice of his son, he put his gun behind his back, an almost scared look on his face. Being seen with a gun by his child is the one thing he did not want to happen.
“Sang, buddy, what are you doing?” Hoseok questioned nervously, tossing the gun to Taehyung, glaring at him during the process. “Wipe that smirk off your face, Tae.” Only to earn a chuckle from the man.
“I missed you. And you were gone when I woke up from my nap.” Sang pouted, crossing his arms in anger, “You promised you be there when I woke up.”
“I’m sorry buddy, daddy had to finish some business. But I promise you that I was going to come back,” Hoseok explained, picking Sang up in his arms. “How about this, you go back to your room and put on Cars and I’ll be right in there, okay? Promise.”
“Okay! But you better hurry or I won’t share my blankets with you.” Sang reasoned, wiggling out of Hoseok’s grasp, running to his room.
Sighing, Hoseok pinched his nose as he turned around on his heel to face the three scared gang members. “You guys are lucky that I am in a good mood now.” Those were his final words before he left his office.
Namjoon:
“But I want daddy!” Your daughter cried out in tiredness, ignoring your attempts at calming her down.
Being away from her father for the whole day was something new and she did not like it. Namjoon, your husband, always made sure to Jisoo at least three times throughout the day. Due to his busy schedule today made it impossible to see her, which resulted a sad and confused Jisoo.
“I know baby, but Daddy is busy with work. You know that he would do anything that he could to see you.” You tried to soothe, wanting her crying to calm down, which did not happen. Then an idea popped in your head, “Maybe we could surprise daddy?” You questioned, a small grin on your face.
The biggest smile appeared on your daughters face, nodding her head frantically. Whispering an okay, you ran to your husbands office with Jisoo in your arms, making her giggle and chant ‘daddy, daddy’ over and over. Not thinking, you opened the door to his office abruptly, only to freeze in your spot due to the sight in front of you. Your husband was standing over an unfamiliar man with a knife in his hand.
Shit, you just caught your husband during the act of killing. Well, almost. Hiding your daughters head in your shoulder, you apologized and closed the door loudly, scaring your daughter. “Why did you leave? I didn’t see daddy!” Jisoo whined.
“Uh, daddy’s really busy right now, give him fifteen minutes and he’ll be done with what he is doing.”
Jimin:
Jimin was exhausted. No whiskey or Tylenol will help him with the migraine that he was having right now. Having to deal with rookies is a bitch, and Jimin sometimes cannot handle his anger while having to deal with them. He knows that they are new, and he does care about them, but sometimes they push him to his limit.
Slamming his hands down on his desk, he stood up abruptly from his chair, kicking it back in the process. “Shut the fuck up!” He yelled, shutting up the two angry rookies who are at each other’s throats. “The both of you are acting like fucking children. If the both of you don’t stop this, I will—”
“Papa?” An innocent, tired voice asked him.
He swore that he could have killed himself from how fast his looked to his left to find his daughter standing in the doorway looking at him. There was a bear in her left hand and her right hand on the doorknob, looking innocent as ever.
In only three strides, Jimin got to his baby girl. “Hey sweetheart, what are you doing up this late?”
“I couldn’t sleep, and mommy’s gone and you weren’t in bed.” Yooji pouted, resembling you, something that made Jimin’s heart happy.
“Yeah, mommy’s gone isn’t she? How dare she?” Jimin accused, earning a giggle from his daughter. “How about we go and sleep in her and I’s bed, huh? Have a sleep over?” He suggested, creating a glowing smile from Yoonji.
“Yeah!” Yoonji cheered.
“Okay sweetheart, let’s go!” Jimin stated excitedly, allowing Yoonji to run off first, creating a good distance so he could have one final word with his men. “Your asses better be back in here at 8 sharp or I won’t be happy.”
Taehyung:
Taehyung was in the middle of yelling at a rookie when an excited yell from his son, Sam, and your desperate attempts of calling his name.
Looking to where the door is, he waited for the both of you to run in here. After three seconds, Sam charged into his office with you on his tail, yelling at him to not come in and to leave ‘daddy’ alone.
“Daddy!” Sam squealed in both excitement and fear. “Help me!” At that, Sam jumped into Taehyungs arms, laughing hysterically.
You looked up at your husband with an apologetic look, to which Taehyung gave you a wink. “What are my two favorite humans doing?” Taehyung asked, tickling Sam’s side.
“Sammy wanted to see you,” you answered, walking up to your husband and son, “He didn’t like it when I said that he couldn’t since you were busy.”
“I’m never too busy for my wife and son.” Taehyung said, snapping his fingers as a signal for his men to leave the room to give you three privacy. Sitting down in his chair, he perched Sam on one leg and you on the other.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah buddy?”
“Why is there a gun on the table?”
“Yeah, babe, why is there a gun on your table?”
Jungkook:
Jungkook threw his glass at the nearest wall out of pure anger.
Being told that he lost $500 million dollars during a shipment was the last thing that he wanted to hear today. Usually, he would not be this angry because of it being someone else’s money and not his. But, that was not the case today because that $500 million dollars was for you, your guys daughter Sidney, and him to use for a trip.
Of course, Jungkook has plenty of money. Plenty being polite, but this money had special meaning and the thought of letting you two down made him both furious and angry.
“You fucking fuck ups, how can you guys be so fucking stupid?” Jungkook screamed in fury, his neck veins showing.
Never has the gang, minus Yoongi and Jimin, have seen their boss so angry in their life. But what shocked them was how quickly his demeanor change when both you and Sidney walked in.
“Baby?” Jungkook asked confusedly, voice croaky from all of the screaming.
You gave Jungkook a gentle smile that, unconsciously, relaxed Jungkook. You noticed his shoulders slump, body relax, and the anger disappearing. “Kookie, Sidney was asking for you because she heard her daddy mad and was worried for you.” You explained gently, moving your eyes away from your husband so you could get Jimin’s attention. When you got the males you attention, you nodded at him, silently asking for him and the gang to leave to give your family privacy.
Jungkook took Sidney from your arms, cradling the three-year-old in his arms. “Hi princess,” Jungkook cooed, nudging her with his nose.
“Are you sad daddy?” Sidney asked, looking up at her father with wide eyes.
“No, princess. Daddy is just wanting his men to listen since they are not listening.”
“Do I need to chase Uncle Hobi around the house again?” Your daughter asked, referring to the time when she thought Hobi upset her daddy, so she chased after him with a knife.
“No, princess. Hobi is not in trouble.” Jungkook laughed, wrapping his arms around you and her so you all three were hugging.
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linkspooky · 4 years ago
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Shoko and Nobara
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Shoko is a member of the student trio of the previous generation along with Getou and Gojou. Despite having an important role as the only shaman currently alive able to use Reverse Jutsushiki for the purposes of healing. Despite this she doesn’t get as much focus as the strongest duo, so I thought it’d be fun to go over everything we know so far. 
1. Don’t Become Like Those Two, Okay? 
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Despite the fact that all three of them were classmates in high school and Jujutsu Classes are to begin with so small that it’s a thight knit community where everyone knows everyone else, Shoko is remarkably distant from both Gojou and Getou. 
Gojou has made it clear before that Getou was the only person he ever considered a friend in his lifetime. Gojou obviously thinks Utahime is useful, and cooperates with her well enough but he doesn’t consider her as a friend. 
There’s a unique comparison to be made between Gojou and Getou understanding each other better than anybody else, and being so close that they work better together, and better with each other than other people - and Shoko who isn’t particularly attached to either boy. 
What makes her even more different than Gojou/Getou is that while all three of them are vastly independent people even down to their abilities, Gojou carries the Jujutsu World on his shoulders, Shoko is the only one capable of Reverse Jutsushiki, and Getou betrayed the whole Jujutsu World for the sake of protecting the lives of sorcerers: Shoko doesn’t long for closeness in the way that Getou and Gojou do. Getou surrounds himself with his family, and part of his reason for defecting was that he was so empathic for the plight of his comrades it slowly broke him down. Gojou wants people who are strong enough to keep up with him, so he’s raising a generation that will surpass him. 
Shoko doesn’t seem particularly affected by loneliness the same way the other two are. Of the three she also tends to be the most uninvolved in other people’s lives. We’re shown that she deliberately runs away whenever Getou and Gojou get into some kind of confrontation. 
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That’s not to say Shoko is incapable of feeling closeness. In the character profiles it says that Shoko quit smoking mostly because Utahime asked her to, and they both list drinking as one of their likes. She’s also the only person who shows real concern when Utahime goes missing and the trio shows up to rescue her, while Gojou and Getou both tease her. Utahime at least seems to think that Shoko is a good person, and Shoko listens to her. This means something as we’ve shown again and again closeness is something to be avoided in the Jujutsu World and relaitonships easily fall apart and crumble like Getou and Gojou’s.
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When Getou defects, Gojou’s reaction is shock and horror and confrontation. Shoko just acts mildly amused, and avoids a real confrontation with Getou because she doesn’t want to be killed. If anything I would say that Shoko deliberately avoids getting close to people (for the most part with the exception of Utahime) out of a sense of self preservation in order to avoid the pain and feeling of loss. Despite spending their youths together, she’s almost nothing like Gojou and Getou. 
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2. No Sympathy
Shoko is a subversion of the two roles she occupies, the team medic, and the only female in a group of three. First, she doesn’t function as the heart or the empathy of the group. She doesn’t feel responsible for helping her boys get along, in fact she avoids it. 
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The second is that despite being a doctor Shoko isn’t the nurturing type or even particulary known for her bedside manner. Her role is that of a caretaker, but she has the exact opposite of a caretaker type personality. She seems far more fascinated dissecting dead bodies, then tending to live ones. 
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She’s even disappointing when her patient turns out alive and she loses out on the chance to disect him. Shoko is a doctor who doesn’t really act like much of a doctor, which makes sense considering she used Jujutsu to cheat her way through medical school according to her character profile. She has the kills and ability, but not really the personality of one. 
Though once again Shoko’s disaffected personality could be something she does to hide vulnerability. The principal remarks that she’s going out of her way to smoke even though she quit smoking and Shoko replies she’s feeling nostalgiac about her student days. That smoking could be to cover up for the sadness of the student days she has long lost. 
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Shouo also parallels Nobara the most out of the freshman student trio. While there are a few comparisons you could make in attitude they are also opposites in several ways. 
 Shoko is a reverse Jutsushiki user, a one of a kind. Nobara is just a country girl who’s very run of the mill compared to her companions but has an ego that disagrees with this. Nobara in the Origin of Obedience arc inflicted pain on herself in order to take down her enemy, whereas Shoko’s reverse technique works by using negative jutsushiki to heal herself. 
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Shoko is cautious and avoidant especially when dealing with the two boys, and acts mostly out of self preservation. Nobara is usually someone who picks fights and runs head first into danger.
However, the strongest character trait for both characters is their independence.
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Nobara gets abrasive and combattive when someone tries to tell her how to feel. Her own thoughts, feelings, her idenpendence is what’s most important to her. Nobara also repeats the same behavior that Shoko did once in the past, she basically chose to stay out of the conflict between Megumi and Yuji by keeping her mouth shut. 
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When the chips come down they’ll both always act to preserve their own independence. That’s the greatest similarity between them, though for different reasons. Nobara because she’s a lot like Gojou where she doesn’t like the idea of others influencing her at all and her world mostly consists of her own ego, whereas Shoko seems to distance herself to avoid the pain of closeness. 
They are the same but different. Shoko is an avoidant, bitterly sarcastic, introvert who tends to withdraw herself from others. Nobara is a confrontational, overly loud, extrovert who gets up close and personal with everyone she meets. Their main similarity is their lack of empathy, Shoko does it to protect herself, whereas I would say Nobara’s ego is protected by her lack of empathy towards others because not caring about the judgements of others is so important to her. 
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asprettyasyourown · 4 years ago
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How/Where do you think Jon and Arya will meet again? And how/where do you think Dany and Arya will meet?
Honestly, I can’t see Arya and Jon meeting anywhere else other than Winterfell. It would be such a satisfying “conclusion” to this aspect of their storyline. For Arya, both Winterfell AND Jon have been associated with home. She has tried since day one to return to either of them, and to see her do both at the same time would be so lovely. And Jon too, who has struggled for so long with his desire to have Winterfell (feeding his rivalry with Robb and his conflict with his status as a bastard) and Arya (contradicting his position as a member of the Night’s Watch, who have no family), would then get both at the same time. I know GRRM doesn’t like to hand things on a silver platter, and that “Be careful what you wish for” is a massive theme in the series, but come on. You can’t tell me they had it easy, and that they didn’t fight for it.
Now how and when is a little trickier.
Unfortunately, it won’t happen before a loooong time. Arya has a long way to go before leaving Essos, let alone reach Winterfell. She still needs to: 
Tie the story with the FM (including a “training” with the courtesans/the Black Pearl, and of course leaving them);
Deal with the wildlings women and children that are stranded in Braavos now that the Sealord captured the ship (= slavers) that intended to sell them;
As I’ve mentioned before, I very much see the Iron Bank being involved in her storyline, so there’s that to deal with as well;
Meet Dany (I’ll go back to this later);
Go back to Westeros;
Deal with the Riverlands, the Brotherhoods Without Banners and, most importantly, Lady Stoneheart;
Reconnect with Nymeria.
And all that doesn’t even take into account what GRRM could throw in her way on top of all of this. That’s a lot. And since Arya will definitively not see Jon anywhere outside of the North, it could only happen after she resolved all those things.
Jon too has a lot on his plate. He first needs to be resurrected (duh). He also needs to deal with the traitors who stabbed him and his future in the Night’s Watch. If you omit the whole murder thing (kinda hard to tbh), there is still the fact he broke his vows for Arya. He was already set to leave before he died. And since his last thoughts were about Arya, and we know the dead who get resurrected focus on their last conscious thoughts, his resolve to get her back will not be lessened.
Honestly, I think he’s done with the NW. I think he’s gonna do what he intended to before dying, aka kill Ramsay and get “Arya” back, whether by allying with Stannis or at the head of his own wildling army. I don’t know if he’s gonna become King in the North like in GoT, but he’s definitively going to be considered for the role; and since Bran, the legitimate heir, is still alive and will one day return to Winterfell, this could be the catalyst for the tension between these two George planned in his original draft. Not to mention the tensions it would create with the other northern lords, who would not see with a kind eye a bastard allied with the wildlings (enemies of the North for generations) and Stannis; or those who simply won’t appreciate a king not as malleable as a child (side-eye to the Manderlys).
(Oh, and there is also the matter with fArya and Theon. I’m going on a limb here, but I doubt he’s gonna be happy to learn that what he thought was his precious “sister” is really an impostor (though he might be happy to know the real Arya didn’t get what Jeyne had to endure). Or that she’s bringing along the guy who betrayed the Starks and supposedly killed Bran and Rickon. His first reaction definitively won’t be good, though it will probably soften once he learns what happened to them and how Ramsay is the real culprit. But I’m not anticipating much benevolence from him, especially since he’s in dark mode now).
So yeah. Lots of issues to be resolved before they can be reunited, and that’s without counting on the threat of the Others or what other characters might do. Honestly, I’m anticipating a reunion between the end of TWOW and the beginning of ADOS. On one hand, I think it would be more impactful in TWOW; most specifically, the last act of either Jon or Arya’s chapters. It would be a nice conclusion for the both of them, before the Others mess everything up. But I’m also aware that all the issues I’ve previously mentioned might not be resolved in one book, and that it might spill on the second one.
-----------------------------
Now Dany.
Honestly, it’s kinda hard to be sure of how they’re gonna meet. They will, that’s a certainty. There is so much hints, since the first book really. Remember this?
This time the monsters did not frighten her. They seemed almost old friends. [Arya, IV, AGOT]
Which is exactly how I’m anticipating their relationship. At first, things are going to be tense, especially on Dany’s side who has been fed lies about the Starks and their role in her exile (and who could blame her). So there’s definitively room for Arya to be frightened. But once she gets Dany to see her side to the story, and her vision of the events become more balanced, they’ll become fast-friends. They have so much in common, it’s impossible for them not to.
But, once again, the details of how they’re gonna meet is blurry. Arya will need to at least be done with the FM. And Dany... Dany has a lot on her plate too. She’s gonna need to deal with the khalasar she hears at the end of ADWD, and a possible confrontation (alliance?) with the Dothraki. She will also need to end the plot in Meereen (aka choose between “fixing” its whole culture or do what she always intended to, return to Westeros and seize back the Iron Throne). Of course, we know she’s gonna choose the latter - but a bunch of things can happen between that, and with them time passing.
At this point, Arya and Dany are very far away, each at one extremity of Essos. For them to have a chance to meet, I anticipate that Dany will end things with Meereen at the same time Arya closes the storyline with the FM (maybe even before, so Dany could already be on the road towards Braavos). Now is the tricky part. I have two theories on how they will meet: through the lost Wildlings and through the Iron Bank.
The lost Wildlings
We know the wildlings women and children in Braavos were “freed” when the Sealord seized the ship carrying them. Unfortunately, others were not so lucky.
“I know why the Sealord seized the Goodheart. She was carrying slaves. Hundreds of slaves, women and children, roped together in her hold.” Braavos had been founded by escaped slaves, and the slave trade was forbidden here. “I know where the slaves came from. They were wildlings from Westeros, from a place called Hardhome. An old ruined place, accursed.” Old Nan had told her tales of Hardhome, back at Winterfell when she had still been Arya Stark. “After the big battle where the King-Beyond-the-Wall was killed, the wildlings ran away, and this woods witch said that if they went to Hardhome, ships would come and carry them away to someplace warm. But no ships came, except these two Lyseni pirates, Goodheart and Elephant, that had been driven north by a storm. They dropped anchor off Hardhome to make repairs, and saw the wildlings, but there were thousands and they didn’t have room for all of them, so they said they’d just take the women and the children. The wildlings had nothing to eat, so the men sent out their wives and daughters, but as soon as the ships were out to sea, the Lyseni drove them below and roped them up. They meant to sell them all in Lys. Only then they ran into another storm and the ships were parted. The Goodheart was so damaged her captain had no choice but to put in here, but the Elephant may have made it back to Lys. The Lyseni at Pynto’s think that she’ll return with more ships. The price of slaves is rising, they said, and there are thousands more women and children at Hardhome.” [The Blind Girl, ADWD]
So the Goodheart was too damaged to go to Lys, but the Elephant wasn’t. It means there are still hundreds of wildlings women and children enslaved there. Honestly, I’m not sure how Arya could be involved in freeing them. Lys is a long way from Braavos, which means she would have to travel down there (with no resources and the other half of the wildlings), free them and get back up to sail across the Narrow Sea, deal with the Riverlands and then go North. It’s a little much for one girl, even one as resourceful as Arya. Sure, she could ask help from the Iron Bank (see my second point), but I doubt they would indulge her (high risk for no rewards).
But. You know who is as strongly against slavery as Arya, whose path might make her travel to Lys and who has the resources to fuck shit up? Yep, Dany.
The way I see it is, after being disheartened by Meereen and her failure to change the slaver(y) culture, Dany could very much decide to go home to Westeros - and set everything ablaze in her path. If she failed to abolish slavery from the inside, she might decide to do it by force, as a last FUCK YOU to the masters. This could be the beginning of her rock bottom, before she rises back again. It’s also coherent with the Dothraki culture of “Submit or be killed”, which could play a part if she allies with them again.
So I could see her attacking the big cities of Essos, destroying the masters and freeing the slaves as she goes along, until she reaches Braavos - who may be protected since 1. she would use its port to journey across the Narrow Sea and 2. they’re famously known for being founded by slaves and anti-slavery as a whole (and they actually enforce that rule, not just preach it and close their eyes when it counts). There, she could meet Arya through the wildlings women reuniting. Like I said, things would be tense at first, but if they might not be friends at first, they might respect each other for having their hearts set on the same goal (protecting their people). Friendship would come later, I’m not worried about that.
The Iron Bank theory
For me, the Iron Bank doesn’t get the recognition it deserves as a threat, and I fully anticipate them having a much larger role in the next book.
I really believe they will have a hand in Arya going back to Westeros. After she leaves the FM, I very much see them stepping in to offer their “help” to Arya. Personally, I believe the Kindly Man informed them of her real identity (though his motivations are yet unclear). I believe he’s aware of her value as a princess, and the (supposedly) last heir of the North. Look how people are rallying for her in the North when they hear “Valiant Ned’s precious little girl” is being brutalized. Do you think the Iron Bank is gonna pass on such a prize? I can see them trying to do to her what the Manderlys are doing with Rickon, or what Illyrio tried to do with Dany - offer their protection and help so she would be/feel indebted. They could get ahold of the North through Arya, and of the other Kingdoms through Stannis/the crown’s debt. Not too shabby.
But wait, there is a problem arising. A problem named Daenerys, who fully intends to take back the Iron Throne - and if she does, she’s not gonna care about reimbursing the debt her predecessors/usurpers left, thus lessening their leverage (and with three dragons, a Dothraki army and the Unsullied, threatening her is not gonna fly well). I can see them trying to step in too, promise the same things to her they did to Arya - except she’s not gonna fall for the same ploy like Viserys did with Illyrio.
(Btw, I’m sure Arya too will see right through them - she had a whole training dedicated to make her see beyond appearances, and she’s always been pretty observant (like when she didn’t fall for trap Cersei laid for her, with Lannister soldiers dressed as Stark men in AGOT). But she also don’t have the same resources Dany has, and if she frees the wildlings, she’ll have hundreds of mouths to feed and transport back to Westeros. I can’t see her do that without external help, so she might be playing along til a better opportunity arise.)
Now, both these theories have their flaws. The biggest one, for me, is time. Meereen is not gonna be resolved in a day (unless Dany just sets everything on fire the moment she arrives and takes off into the sunset, but I doubt that). She still needs enough time to travel to Braavos. Even if George takes his sweet time closing the FM storyline, dealing with the wildlings in Braavos and the Iron Bank, it’s not gonna take a million chapters. Unless he throws something in there to delay her departure, something that wasn’t foreshadowed yet? Because I don’t see them meeting first in Westeros. What would be the point of having them on the same continent if they don’t meet there? As always, there’s a lot left hanging in the air.
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