#i didnt look up the page though i just drew it from memory

[lawnjarts]

harrowhark is too mad to be drawn properly right now

[yggdrasil-mith0s]

Tales of Symphonia is one of the most common answers I get when I ask "What was your first Tales of game?"

It's usually followed by "I didn't finish it my first time" or "I finished it but kind of forgot about it and didn't realize how good the story was."

Most of those people fell in love with the Tales of series through a different game than Symphonia even though Symphonia was their first Tales of game.

While this is okay, a lot of them also state that Symphonia is one of their favorite games in the series.

I have a theory on this and I want to lay it out. So... I will. Here is why I think Symphonia was a lot of people's first Tales game but wasnt the one that made them love the series.

First off, age. Destiny and Eternia (Tales of Destiny 2 in NA) were the only western releases before Symphonia. Destiny was released in 1998 and a lot of people weren't quite old enough to fully play through it all grasp the seriousness of the game and story. Those that were old enough probably weren't too excited about the gameplay and battle system which was mostly turn base at that time. It seemed weird, a little stiff, and a bit clunky at times. A lot of people didnt like that and the challenge it brought. It was also the first in the series (second ever) to reach the west. It had no fanbase and the internet wasn't exactly there like it is now.

Tales of Destiny II came out Seltember 10, 2001. That's right. One day before the Twin Towers fell, Tales of Destiny II was released.

Okay, I have to stop. It's Eternia. I hate they called it Destiny 2 in the west. Lol. I am going to say Eternia from now on.

Tales of Eternia had almost no good advertising for it's western release and the status of 9/11 brought about some weird thing where people only remember the towers and not much else going on. That being said, Eternia wasn't all that great and there were other things to be hyped about.

Namco thought that naming it Tales of Destiny II would be enough advertising since Destiny did pretty good in the west. The only problem is... they literally didn't do almost any advertising. They kind of just threw it out there to the west with minimal effort. A big mistake in my opinion but it sold enough to try the western market at least one more time.

Now it's on to Symphonia' release!!!

So here is the main part to my theory on why a lot of people begin with Symphonia but never finish or it takes a different game to love the series. This whole theory is more based on people 32ish and under.

It's because the beginning of Symphonianis bright, vibrant, and childish. I think people started it expecting some awesome adventure with a darker undertone than what we got in the first hour or the game. It takes a long time to get to the boss in the fire temple. There is one fight with humans. After that you fight bunnies and birds. Yep. You're supposed to be on a big adventure to regenerate the world and you fight bunnies, birds, and snakes at the start lol.

Also, your protagonists are children with two adults. Raine does make the situation better with her history enthusiasm but Kratos is kind of boring tbh. The cast is kind of dull at the start. They are immature (naturally) and fight bunnies lol. I digress when it comes to their decisions with the start to an otherwise epic, monumental game.

Symphonia was released in North Amarica July 13, 2004. Also, Final Fantasy was dominating the JRPG market and FFX was released a year prior and FF X came out just before 2002 and that's is arguably one of it's best games, mainly among FF/JRPG newbies. FF X-2 entering NA during December the same year (2004). Final Fantasy XI was kind of a disaster but it was there as well. Crystal Chronicles was a Final Fantasy game released in 2004 that was a multiplayer and kind of a 3D battle system (in a weird, "step outside the circle and you will die" kind of way).

There are a few other games that took attention away from Symphonia such as Drakengard. Drakengard got a bunch of advertisements that year. It was everywhere. I bought it abs remember thinking how amazing the gameplay and graphics were. It was one of those "test the limits, build an amazing story, and show off current gen capabilities" games.

Drakengard took up time. People had both saved to the memory card. A lot of people played both and sometimes never finished Symphonia or half assed paid attention.

Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was released. Star Ocean was a hit in the west and everyone waited forever for the new Star Ocean (TEOT). It finally came that year and Square Enix knew the west had been waiting forever for a new Star Ocean. Square Enix had the big name in the JRPG and did a beautiful advertising job.

All that being said, Tales of Symphonia is finally released. The gameplay and story were amazing. Word of mouth helped out. Couch co op existed and the 2 player option was actually fun. The second player felt way more involved and could move around during battle and at the time, a co op JRPG of that caliber didnt really exist. It drew some people in. Siblings could play an RPG together and it was actually a really good game with an amazing story and combat system.

Namco also advertised Symphonia and learned their lesson that name alone wasn't enough in the west. They had full page ads in Nintendo Power. They advertised it in EB Games (Electronic Boutique, AKA, Gamestop before Gamestop bought them). They actually advertised it very well. I think it was because Star Ocean advertisements were out there and that was their big competitor for that release (they had to beat that before they could step to FF even though SO and FF are both owned by SE).

So... I think the flurry of all these things created one of the best games of all times. However, all the other games surrounding it and what led up to it created a storm.

A storm that had almost everyone play it at some point.... but not realize it's a series. Having played it they eventually come across another Tales game and buy it or play it. Quickly they think "oh... that's a series? I played that. Oh... this looks good actually."

Thus.... we have a reason why so many people have ToS as their first Tales game, admit it's one of the best in the series, but then tell you it's not why they love the series lol.

Thanks for reading my essay. There is more but tbh I spent way too much time as it is and wrote out way too much. I highly doubt anyone is even going to read all this or be interested but here it is. My stupid, useless theory.

[arkus-rhapsode]

Eden’s Zero Chapter 1 Review

Hey guys, now before I dive into this already longer than usual review, I did wanna take this time to mention something. Its been no secret that I turned on Mashima and FT pretty hardly after the end of FT and some of you may be aware that I was moderately active in the fanbase with putting out my reviews and such. That said some may liken that shift in mentality to me not liking how the story went and a common critique of fans is that when what they’re fans of doesn’t gel with what they want they wanna destroy it. As if the fan has ownership of the source of the fanaticism.

I admit there are times that I’ve question decisions on Hiro Mashima’s end and has posted rewrites, but that’s not me doing it out of a sense of ownership. I’m doing it because I have a standard. Being a fan of something and letting your disappointment get to you and fester into salty, bitchy purest is one thing, but being a person who’s judging what a series puts out and actually caring about the quality of what’s in the popular media is important. FT got negative reviews in its latter half because it was that bad. By the end of the series it was legit that bad. Now I don’t say that is someone who was in the fanbase and hated Hiro’s decisions cause they weren’t mine, I hated them because it was bad writing. I’m a reader with standards, as are all of you, and in the digestion of media we make distinctions between good and bad. I make this claim with more concrete surety now that I’ve been around longer and have reviewed more series than just FT, I think it be harder to believe if I made this case when I was just starting and all I was talking about at the time was FT.

Some of you might remember when I first started out on MHA, my second chapter I ever reviewed I had found it boring and mundane and to date its my least popular MHA review and I still stand by that assertion. I hold everything to the same standard, and that includes FT. The reason I write this is that while throughout this review I will mention comparison’s to FT’s first chapter (and yes, even ways Eden’s Zero improved on it), but I will be holding it to the same standard. So this entire review won’t be me holding a grudge against Hiro, but it will be me holding it to the same standard as I do everything I read. That out of the way lets dive in.

We open on a hill side and met our MC named Shiki. Beside him is the mecha demon from the cover page and what they see is a... dragon. Yeah, Hiro I thought you wanted this to be wholely original?

On the hand I actually like this scene in the sense robo demon here is actually encourging actual adventure (something FT lacked) and its kinda amazing listening to this demon looking guy talking about friendship, yet on the other hand, damnit Hiro. Is this the only thing how to write about? Like damn man.

We cut to the future where we see our main female Lucy-I mean Rebecca! Y’know I could make a Rebecca from One Piece joke, but she’s kinda already a bit of a decisivee figure so I’m not gonna bother.

I mean its okay. Its just castle theme park. Also Rebecca we find out is apparently a youtuber. Look if DBS can have GodTube then I can put up with Blue Cate (Aoneko) website. Also yeah Happy here, no sugar coating its just Happy. Also Rebecca here purposely made her skirt short. Just because you point out the sexualization in canon doesn’t make it better, ya still drew it, Hiro.

We see that the theme park is full of robots and each one acts as an assist in sending the guest through some kind of medieval simulator. And if anyone has seen Westworld you know where this is heading. To be fair I love worldbuilding so please, explore!

So we find out Rebecca’s dream is to have one million suscribers and now here’s where I gotta give props to Hiro because he actual made a dream for a character that doesn’t seem like it can be achieved a chapter from now. Granted this seems a bit hard to actually quantify, but this dream could potenially evolve into something of why she wants the suscribers and could be like Nami making the map of the world that getting video of unknown locations may actually be worth something to the general population.

We see that Rebecca chooses to go on a monster hunting quest and they encounter...

...This thing. Also it seems Rebecca’s character quirk is she really likes cats I guess? But this doesn’t last long as someone crashes down on mecha cat.

Okay that was kinda funny. I mean if this was FT would’ve actually gotten the panty shot so maybe Hiro has learned his lesson! Also note that wrench!

Oh god damnit Hiro. So this tarzan guy after acting like an animal is knocked out by Rebecca. Y’know it took about 60 chapters before Natsu got all up in Lucy’s chest, guess we’re cutting straight to the chase here.

Okay is joke with here just going be about here short skirt? Damning it with faint praise here, but at least he still hven’t flashed us them yet. Also Tarzan here is the only human on the island.

We get some scenes of Shiki here wanting to be friends with Rebecca cause she’s a human and Rebecca isn’t interested and she returns to the Granbell town where Shiki is there and the robots know who he is.

Shiki’s expressions and creepy advances really gives off this tinge of sci-fi horror, unfortunate Hiro doesn’t really go that route and we’ll get to it. Also that wizard looking robot from the color page is also here.

They then have a party where the robots all celebrate them having a costumer for the first time in so long they have a party being nice to Rebecca and lavishing her with stuff outside is robot that looks like Robin Hood and he reports to his boss this machine king.

Oh look, Hades if he was a robot.

We see Shiki trying to bond with Rebecca and it leads to him expressing he wants to leave the kingdom and see another country, but we also learn he’s in charge of fixing this and the robots are acting up lately. We find out that the one who was talking to Shiki and is his “Grandfather” was called the Demon King a robot designed for playing that role in the park.

Umm Rebecca... That’s being a dick. So you don’t like it, so you decide to cut it, cause it bothers you. You could’ve framed it like, “If he fixes you up then maybe he needs better vision” or “He’s been so nice to me, let me do something for him.” And what makes this worse s that Shiki is asleep, so she doesn’t even consult his feelings. Like seriously, that’s not being a good friend . But for contrivances sake I’m sure Shiki will wake up and love it, won’t he?

Huh? I was wrong instead we got shitty 80s comedy. I don’t know if that’s better or worse.

Y’know I said I’d give Hiro atleast two free fanservice moments for his first 3 chapters. He’s now used all of them up in a single chapter. Also Rebecca is tied to a stake while robots with torches surround her along with the machine king.

Shiki is also there and here’s something that did remind me of rave, the tightness of the first chapter. Everything seems to flow like one continuous story and doesn’t seem to do some dumb interlude like FTs first chapter did with that awkward moment where Lucy leaves Natsu and she’s just randomly in the park reading.

The King wants to use her ship to leave this world and we get som kind of motivation out of him.

Oh wow, for a first chapter villain that’s actually a really deep thing to unload. That as amusment park hosts they must’ve just been seen as pleasure tools and with no one around these robots who seem to be senstinent must’ve felt betrayed and...

Oooooor you cut out all moral ambiguity by just saying they have a virus. Sure. Trust me, this is where it gets stupid really stupid. And that’s the inconsistency.

So these robots I guess are like the ones from the Animatrix where they just kinda develop sentience out of nowhere. But unlike Animatrix it doesn’t seem to imply when they developed this sentience and that they began to think they were being abused.

Tired of Friendship already, it ain’t leaving.

So why do you hate humans? They abandoned you I guess, but there’s not other robot saying “hey our times were fun together” no everyone is like they left us to rot  so we hate them. Not like Humans did anything legitimate bad. We actually see that at the end of the chapter that there is some sort of central battery on the park that all robots are hooked up to. You could make their reason for hating humans that. That even though they left these sentiment robots still had a little kingdom to themselves, but realized that its all just going to end one day and humans didn’t even bother to unplug them. They’re existence is literally knowing when they’ll die, imagine that as why they harbor negative emotions and maybe Shiki actually fixing things might’ve actually been prolonging their lives so maybe that be why they kept him around. This whole sentience things just feels like Hiro wanted to do a trope of crazy robots and ended using multiple to fit the whatever story purpose at the moment.

You do run the planet, dumbasses. This entire plane, apparently for hundreds of years, has been solely controlled by you. Maye this should be rephrased as, going to the place that built you to get revenge or as I spoiled with the battery we’ll take the ship to get more power for our kingdom?

Shiki doesn’t do anything and kinda lets the robots just wail on him as he found out all things in his life were a lie. Then Rebecca gives a friendship speech. A stupid stupid friendship speech.

You’re right, Rebecca! Too bad we didn’t see that. I’m serious we barely see memories of Shiki with any robot outside of the demon king and Michael so there’s no weight to this conflict. We only get the vague sense they raised hm, but there’s no moments of Shiki really laughingg and enjoying their company outside of the party with Rebecca which rather is made more for getting Shiki to like Rebecca for this moment.

Shiki remembers what his Grandpa the Demon King said and just blows them all away.

We see Shiki’s hand and apparently he has these marks indicating he has Ether gear. The power system of this series.

You’re sentiment! You have out grown your programming! You can choose to have a concept of friendship.

So they fight with shitty action scenes (If I can give Horikoshi a hard time for how he draws his fight choreography, then I sure as hell will give Hiro the once over.) Happy manages to save Rebecca and like Happy from early FT, he basically spots off exposition on powers.

So is it like a literal gear? Because Happy afterward destincties as the Gear of Gravity, so is it like a devil fruit? Is ether in all humans, but this specific gear brings it out in a certain way? If its internal then I guess its like the magic circuits from Fate? And then every of has their own unique variation like Nen? Like cause Happy gives it the distinction of Gravity it doesn’t seem like Shiki gives a reason why he has this power. I’m hoping \its like devil fruits, literal gears you implant and then it brings out your ether in a certain way.

Shiki punches out the machine king and cause a massive collapse.

Credit where credit is due, Hiro actually did build up the reveal of this power throughout the chapter and its actually really well done. Kinda reminds of something Oda would do with subtly building up a devil fruit power without revealing it. Like Crocodile drying out a flower but it isn’t stated his power is specifically sand.

They then flee when the other robots rally and Shiki takes Rebecca back to her ship.

This scene would actually be really nice if we actually saw more young shiki actually having fun with the machines and not a being a creeper with them.

Shiki and Rebecca take off and we see the universe.

Not gonna lie, that’s a really pretty shot. Like damn, I could get behind this.

It seems like worlds in this universe are basically like kingdom hearts worlds. They’re not real “worlds” so much as they are islands in space.

Sure, keep the mystery alive why don’t you, no that be too much.

Well great place to end the chapter. Little dry of a first story, but I definetly see that has room for improvment and there is something-Wait this isn’t the last page? But what else is there to talk about. There’s nothing left-

Oh for fuck sake. That’s right they were trying to send SHiki away. Because apparently these robots thought there was no way to restore battery life even if stayed.

Here’s a tip, ifyou really care, and had such a close bond, maybe tell him to leave? Tell SHiki the truth that you guys are tied to a battery and instead of Shiki vowing to leave for the stars so he can make 100 friends (I’m not kiding that’s his actual goal here). Then this would be an interesting goal.

But no, you have to act like human hating jackasses and shatter the boy’s entire reality, just so you he would go out and “change the universe”

This would be a really nice scene with a very nice amount of character development starting point, if we actually saw their past. All we know is they raised Shiki, but its never really seemed like they’re loving or caring or Shiki openly gets upset if one of them had a problem. Again the biggest flaw with this chapter is that it sacrifices seeing one potentially interesting relationship (Shiki and the robots) for another one (Rebecca).

So we end on this page which reveals that Shiki’s goal is to have a hundred friends. Not going to say something snarky I just realized this is the same motivation as Yuki from future diary. Like before the crazy yandere shit.

Post Chapter follow up:

Lets be positive and look at the good stuff in this chapter. The first thing great about this chapter is it improved upon two of the biggest failings in the first chapter FT. Goals established and world building. Not only does this set up force Hiro Mashima to actually world build (literally) but each person in the first chapter has a goal that doesn’t seem like it can be accomplished quickly. It means we can have investment in the story.

Another thing I’ll give is Shiki is an okay MC. He has more personality than Natsu, but not as much as Haru and this first chapter is about him. Its easy to understand that Lucy is often considered the MC of FT because it literally focuses on her for the story than Natsu. But this chapter had a healthy balance.

Also the power system at least seems to have some definition. Unlike how anyone could have magic yet normal people just don’t choose to use it like in FT. Ether Gear seems to be a powersource that only a select few can use. Now we need to see first if there are ways of combating it like technology or such so a non ether gear person can still fight.

It also has its own unique aesthetic. Ft is a pretty generic fantasy world. It doesn’t have the bleakness of bereserk or the Japanese aesthetic of naruto. You could say Black CLover, Fairy Tail, and Seven Deadly sins all had their first chapter happen in the same world and I’d have trouble arguing it.

Now on to the crappy stuff. This series suffers from the usual Mashima foibles such as the sexual harassment, the stupidly way it tries to justify and give all conflict happy ending, not actually bothering to have a situation drawn out ad built up too, etc. I mean for the first conflict of the chapter its a heavy one, these guys raised SHiki yet their own mentality is against humans so Shiki has to choose, but instead of actually answering that question, it turns out there was no real conflict and the machines were just faking.

As for my like for Shiki, I flat hate Rebecca. She is so pointless and useless. Look I will defend Lucy and she actually can d things. First chapter she saved Natsu by using aquarius. But Rebecca? She’s just all of the bad traits of post timeskip Lucy. She is used for pointless fanservice, does nothing contribute, and becomes a mouth piece for friendship.

Speaking of friendship as a concept and goal here, Hiro just rewrite what you mean. Have deeper meaning than friends for once. There is ways you could take the motivation “I want to make 100 friends” in a compelling way. Prehaps Shiki is going out to make his own world where he can make a happy place for people where they can laugh and cry in harmony. Like story telling wise its pretty weak.

Like me personally, I would’ve taken the first chapter like this, the robots are sentinet and they are nice to Shiki and Rebecca and they have genuine fun together. They gradually reveal that they are shutting down maybe one starts acting wonky and tries to hide it and maybe the machine king is the real bad guy. He has sentinece and hates humans and he wants to eliminate SHiki and Rebecca and that’s because they’re shutting down. The other robots say they don’t care they were abandoned, they were mad at first but Shiki showed them that why they loved catering to humans. King and Shiki fight and they all reveal they’re shutting down and Shiki cries he doesn’t want them to go. The robots say its inevitable and they don’t hpw to recharge the battery and Shiki vows to leave the planet and search for a power source to bring them all back. Then that’s shiki’s goal and it even can cause questions like “Is it worth all this for machines?” or “who designed them maybe we can figure out the right substance to power them up?”

or if Hiro wanted to go a more darker route. Have the machines have no sentience and literally be dolls for the King who turns out to be a human who stayed here on Granbell and made his own little kingdom. Make it a bit meta on how Shiki’s only friends were just hollow imitations of people who were only friends because that’s what their programming dictated and they can all be switched off. It be meta as critiquing Ft and how all the guild characters basically had no conflicts, all got along, and were just friends with no depth or reason.

This all highlights the issue with Hiro Mashima and that’s he is not a good a writer. Hiro is an incredibly talented person and can come up with incredibly unique ideas and looks, which is why his cover pages are the best things he puts out because its him free forming. But writing. He has a limited scope on that and stuff like sci-fi and fantasy can be very morally grey things. But Hiro doesn’t seem to understand tragedy in the sense that its tragic because a person fails or dies unsatisfied. But he only seems to know how to write painfully obvious concepts like “save the world” or “friendship” instead doing a concept like “what it is to be a hero” like MHA does which can have a variety of answers to it.

So what’s the final verdict? Well I actually am going to do something different than usual. I’m going to say what I though the quality was compared to FT and then to what I’d consider this work compared to anything else.

In comparison to FT, Eden’s Zero gets a Final verdict of 8/10

Improves on a lot of FT’s first chapter flaws

Created a more unique environment for a story

And actually has a lot tighter narrative

But in comparison to everything else...

Final Verdict: 5/10

Even if it wasn’t Hiro, its a pretty generic start (some names aren’t even all that inspired like Machine King, Demon King)

Potential to grow into something better is there

Nothing is outright offensive

Cool concept

[il-michael-corleone]

The Godfather II: La Continuazione Read below.

"Remorse is the poison of life" 

The quote whispers itself in such a way that Michael is seduced awake. He slowly blinks up at the ceiling, repeating this quotation in his mind. Kay had said it—read it, spoken it aloud for him, the way she had many pages of many books. Her voice was soft and intimate as she had recited it, in that yellowing evening.

      Just as quickly as it came, the thought is shut down. Rejected from memory. 

      A week had passed. Seven days since the death of his older brother, all of them meaningless in the stagnance. It was as if time had stopped, and all natural order was lost. Perhaps this is how it feels to fall from the grace of God.

      Michael squinted in the soft pervasive sunlight, rubbing at the soreness in his temple as he fumbled for the bedside table. He placed a cigarette loosely between his lips. He had begun to rely on them.

     With deep exhale, Michael's brow knit. There was a soft rapping on the door, despite his explicit requests for no disruptions. Neri listened intently for a response—or any other sound—knowing as well as anyone Michael typically rises early and without hesitation.

      "Go see to my children." Michael commanded, his voice rough and strained. Satisfied with this, Neri moved from the door as he was told. His closeness with Michael was such that he found comfort even in the Don's reproach.

     Michael brought himself to stand, listening as Neri spoke to the children from a separate room. Their voices, though muffled, expressed polite discomfort. They were desperate to return home.

      The day would have to begin. Michael was head of the family—of course he had to emerge and tend to his responsibilities. There was no one else. Lifting his chin to keep his cigarette upright, Michael gave his tan suit jacket a critical look over, holing it out and away from his body. And as he went about dressing, Michael found himself avoiding his own reflection, keeping instead far from the mirrors as he passed by them. This is a peculiarity he would not acknowledge, even within himself.

      Stepping into the softly-lit entry room of the suite, Michael gave Tom a brief glance in greeting. He felt distant, from his surroundings, from himself. Like a ghost, or someone in a dark dream. As he passed into the children's room, Connie was there, sitting in a rocking chair, keeping watch. She didn’t weigh on him the way Tom did, or Neri. His little sister still knew him—needed him, much the way his children did.

      "Good morning." He said, bending to kiss his little girl's forehead before flicking a glance to Connie. "Have they eaten?" 

      "Yes, I've taken care of it." She swallowed, watching him with wide eyes, very desperate for direction.

   "Good." He gave his sister a brief glance of acknowledgement, but it would be the only gesture of his appreciation for now.

   "Michael," she said, her voice shaking, “what���s.. Well what’s on your mind?”

      Her tone of voice caught him off-guard, seizing him in the stomach. Her grief and uncertainty was palpable, but what relief could he offer? The corners of his mouth were downturned as he looked to her. The situation couldn’t be discussed. Not now, in front of the children, who knew nothing about the passing of Fredo. It was the wrong time. He couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t.

      Michael pat his whimpering sister on the cheek, as their father often did. "I'll talk with you. Soon."

      Young Anthony sat in silence, facing away from them in his own emotional distance. Michael approached him from behind, gripping his son by the shoulders in wordless affirmation that everything would soon be alright. In truth, it meant little to the boy. The children's understanding of the situation was purposely limited, and Anthony—who was only eight years old—had already suffered enough. His fear of death and loss is severe; Michael was unprepared for his questions.

      He stepped out with a heaving sigh, a new cigarette dangling from his lips already. Tom made cautious approach out of love and concern for his brother, who looked physically weighted.

      "Save it." Michael said lowly, the cigarette bouncing with his words.

      "Ah, c'mon, Mikey," Tom rested a supportive his hand on his Don's back. "What's all this about?"

      Michael looked down over the dining table, touching a small toy Mary had left behind. Tom took a minute to study his brother, trying to find appropriate words of comfort. Michael was a difficult man to comfort. "Hey. They're children. It won't be long before they've outgrown the grief."

      Michael rubbed his eyes, the lit cigarette jutting from between his fingers. After a long silence, he softly exhaled.

      “Do you see the way Mary looks at me?"

      "Sure." Tom smiled.

      "I'm not a heartless man." Michael glanced to Hagen, studying his face for authenticity.

      "I know that, Mikey. I never.. I never said that." He whispered, apologetically, realizing now that Michael must’ve overheard a private discussion.

      "And my son," Michael continued, "he looks to me for approval. It doesn't matter what he's doing. He looks to me."

      Tom laughed quietly. "Well he admires you. That's quite an hon–"

      "I don't want him thinking he requires some stamp of approval from me. I'm his father, not his Don." He began to pant angrily, but softened expression for Tom’s sake. "I said we would become legitimate and I intend to follow though."

      Tom paused, watching Michael for a moment. His forehead had begun to sheen with sweat, which he would occasionally wipe away with his cigarette in hand. The Don's desire to legitimize the Family was earnest, but it would require support, patience, and many years. There is no "off switch" in the world of crime—there could be no immediate change.

      Taking a moment to overlook Reno from the floor-to-ceiling window confirmed that he had certainly lost all affinity for the city; Michael drew the vertical blinds to a close, darkening the room.

      "I'll not allow my children to live like this, Tom. They will be protected. I want guarantees," his voice was soft as he stood in pause, the smoke leaving warm off the tail of his sentence. "there are no guarantees in Our World. Changes must be made, and they will be by my hand."

[hujikin]

IR Community Post: Reason why IR makes sense

I figured that we could compile all the reasons that makes IR a good couple from what we have read on here and also from what we know ourselves , while also disproving some popular IH “points” that don’t make sense for fun lol. 

Keep It going guys

Rukia and Ichigo are connected by Destiny as Kubo drew in one of his older covers

 Rukia is the reason why ichigo has started smiling again since the death of his mother

(regardless of if people accept it) Tite Kubo purposely drew Isshin and Masaki’s panel similar to Ichigo’s and Rukia’s. As I asked, why did he choose Ichigo and Rukia, a non romantic pairing as you say, and not Ichigo and Orihime if he knew they were the end goal? It would only make sense to compare Masaki to Orihime since they are so alike, as many IR think, would it not?

Rukia dries up Ichigo’s sadness/rain. Ichigo has only been cheered up by Rukia throughout the manga, except for that one time that you stated that Orihime cheered him up when he was going to save Rukia. Even throughout the 16 months Orihime could do nothing to bring joy to the man she loves.

Orihime has been jealous of, as she stated when she was speaking to Rangiku, Rukia the chemistry she has with Ichigo. Why would Orihime get jealous if she has the best connection to Ichigo? Why would Orihime get jealous if she of Rukia if there wasn’t a possibility that Rukia may have something with Ichigo that she does not? Orihime stated that Rukia was doing for Ichigo what she can’t, what she should be doing for him as the person that loves him. If your significant other always had to go to their, supposed friend for positive reinforcement, happiness, strength, joy, if they felt like they gained peace because they are around, if their lives have become better because of them would you think that that friend was only a friend? Isn’t a good romantic partner supposed to do all the things that I stated, all the thing Rukia does for Ichigo? All the things Orihime said herself that she couldn’t do?

Despite what Rangiku states (when she gives advice to Orihime) these words that Orihime said still stands and Rangiku had never had more then one encounter with Ichigo. How could she give Orihime advice about someone she bairly even knows?

Tensa Zangetsu pulls out the hollow, that has caused Ichigo’s inner world to be flooded with rain, the hollow form that cause Ichigo to halt his progress, the hollow form that Orihime called on in a moment when Ichigo had a whole through his chest after she said, “ The next time we meet, I won’t look to you for help, Kurosaki kun, Ill be able to fight on my own”, and then began depending and screaming at the top of her lungs for him to save her. That Hollow form is what is causing him anguish even though it was accidently caused by Orihime she is still the cause. This is not to say that the hollow hasn’t been a problem before, he popped up when Ichigo was fighting Byakuya while saving Rukia, but the hollow was never the way it was till that moment with Orihime and you can’t deny that.

Ichigo always had positive emotional growth with Rukia, even after fighting to save Rukia and risking his life and almost dying multiple times he was happen internally and externally when it ended. That's why I compare Ichigo’s inner world after saving Orihime because after he saves her everything is the opposite, he’s not happy he’s depressed, he doesn’t grow, he isn’t happy externally or internally. Even though he saved the person that, he supposedly loves.

Orihime has doubted Ichigo, during the fullbringer arc when Tsukishima implements himself in her memories she stand by him and no Ichigo. Even though she would love him 5 times over. And I know what your gonna say, “he changed her memories”. Yes but he didn’t get rid of them, Those memories of Ichigo saving her and doing so much for her haven’t changed. That private moment with ichigo, before she was forced to go to HM, still happened. Does that love that she said she would have for 5 lives mean nothing? Was that love even as strong as she said? And I know you are going to say again “she had no choice her memories of Ichigo were changed”. That is actually false, she had a choice. When Byakuya’s memories of Ichigo were changed and Tsukishima placed himself in Byakuya’s memories he didn’t betray him even though he was trying to kill ichigo not to long ago. He said, I can not begin to repay the debts I owe you, such is my gratitude however, you are an enemy of Kurosaki Ichigo” (chap 473)

This shows that Orihime HAD A CHOICE to stand by Ichigo despite what Tsukishima did but she didn’t choose the man she’d love for 5 lives. I mean Byakuya has more loyalty then Orihime in this point, maybe he love him too lmao :) (all jokes but the point stands) And your gonna say “ he was like a brother to her” yes but Byakuya owed him everything because Tsukishima change his memories, he still choose Ichigo and Orihime ( and chad) did not.

Orihime’s fear for Ichigo’s hollow.( as I said I'm stating all the points lol) As I stated and as clearly shown in the other chapter pages Orihime ( reread chapter 4-6 and tell me where she is afraid) You say she was traumatized, traumatized is defined as (subject to lasting shock as a result of an emotionally disturbing experience or physical injury.) and then trauma is defined as (a deeply distressing or disturbing experience.) Now throughout those chapter while Orihime was being hurt by her brother she never showed distress or fear and she didn’t show she was disturbed either. While she was being gripped by her brother she tried to bite him move and get out of his grip to protect Tatsuki. She even allowed herself to get hurt by her brother so she could hug him and speak to him. She gained closure from the experience and closure is (Closure is any interaction, information, or practice that allows a person to feel that a traumatic, upsetting, or confusing life event has been resolved. The term has its origins in Gestalt psychology, but it is more commonly used to refer to the final resolution to a conflict or problem.) The traumatic moment in her life wasn’t the hollow experience but the experience of losing her brother and she was relieved after speaking to him. So no she didn’t gain trauma from the situation she gained closure. So her reaction to Ichigo, someone she loves so much was not due to her brother being a hollow.

It was because her image of ichigo; her crush who could do no wrong, a man she imagined as a prince. Was not the prince that she imagined all along. He didn’t fit her Ideal Image of him anymore, he was a monster in her eyes. Not the guy she loved, not a hollow that needed help like her brother, just simply a monster.

Orihime did not encourage Ichigo to go save Rukia. If you read chapter 57 Ichigo had already intended on going to save Rukia after Urahara told him there was a way to go to the soul society. Then in chapter 58 Orihime says " I see she returned to where she came from, and so you'll be going to rescue her?" to which ichigo respond "hm? yeah yeah" he already was going to save her Orihime didn't tell him anything he didnt already know. She actually, in beginning, was stating in a lecture like voice, that wouldn't going after her mean that you are taking her from her family and friends, while knowing Rukia is in danger, almost like she convincing him on not going then she say surprise and states that even if she lectured him he already had his mind set on saving Rukia.

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Chapter Six: Flashback, one of two, and also Maya’s in it

[Beginning] [Chapter Masterlist]

“Hey, Chief, question: so murder’s murder even if it’s one of the Fair F -- the fae, who’s murdered.”

“Murder is murder when a person is killed, accounting for manslaughter, accidental death, and the like -- honestly, Phoenix, you just think a person doesn’t count?”

“No! I mean, like… It just surprises me, is all, that you would let a human court arbitrate it and not just…”

“Revenge ourselves on the suspected killer with our magics in our home realm?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s always a possibility -- but it’s far too messy. That sort of thing tends to drag others who are far outside of the disagreement into the fighting, by way of networks of alliances, and before you know it there’s a full war that began because of a stupid crime of passion in a human bar. Some time before me, our Courts decided that humans and your courts and laws are the closest to fair, neutral judgment available, and that we would abide by their verdicts. Oh, certainly humanity was not consulted, but it is to your benefit to investigate the killings of fae, so as the allies of the deceased will not strike a curse down on all who were in the vicinity. And besides, you don’t think that, if humanity agreed that fae deaths won’t be tried, that rule wouldn’t be abused? That any man might claim his neighbor was one of the Fair Folk and killing him does not ‘count’ -- that any mother might throw her child in a fire because it acted just the slightest bit strange and claim that its life was forfeit on her suspicion?”

“You say that humans are fair and then list out all that. Neutral, with our lying and biases and stupid foolhardy impulsive actions--”

“Other than lies, we have the same faults, but so often magnified. We are impulsive and petty and cruel, with bias bred into our bloodlines -- it is an imperfect decision, as we are imperfect, as you are imperfect, as I have found even your laws to be. We make do with our best. It is all we have, in the end.”

-

A cold iron stake through the heart will kill anyone, not just one of the fae.

The same, Phoenix thinks, would go for an iron bullet through the forehead.

It’s not that he doesn’t know what Magnifi was -- Zak told him that from the beginning, and Pearl’s gift confirms for him that he wasn’t lying. And even without it, he could still see the lingering traces that Zak was a witch -- once. Their powers fade quickly when their patron is gone. He knows that without asking.

If it should matter, though, there is no way to prove to anyone else what Magnifi was.

Fae corpses don’t leave evidence. If they leave a corpse at all -- most do, but not all, and those deaths by their nature are never judged but in the Courts of Kurain, if the dead has the allies to bring the matter forth -- it is indistinguishable from a human’s, a last residual enchantment to make sure they cannot be ignored or dismissed.

Or to fuck with those left behind, as Phoenix comes to understand of Magnifi.

The evidence of the trial made that much obvious: one shot to the forehead; you cannot refuse, and we both know the reason why. A final cruelty to impart on those whom he bargained with -- and why wouldn’t he? If he knew he was dying -- of age, a curse from another, whatever it was -- the Gramarye witches would outlast him. And even if his death would take their powers away, the fae never like to feel that they’ve been cheated. One last indignity: don’t forget what you lost forever to make a bargain with me.

There is a lot Phoenix does not know, answers he is still seeking, but this, he understands. The nature of the fae, he understands.

The Bar Association suspends his badge pending inquiry, the hearing scheduled for one short week after the trial. News travels fast about Phoenix, ever since von Karma, ever since Gant, two pillars of the legal system he brought crumbling down, and the prosecution already had done half of their inquiry for them, placing Drew Misham in the courtroom with a speed that made Phoenix’s head spin. His memories of the trial are patchy, direly so, when it comes to the diary page -- how he got it, why he didn’t find it too suspicious to present -- and that will be his own inquiry: who fooled him, and how. It probably wasn’t Zak; it very likely could have been Gavin, a prodigy looking to make a name for himself, with enough enchantments and glamours to make it happen. He is human at the core and nowhere else, but the old adage, foot in each world, doesn’t seem so true, not when he drapes himself in iron jewelry like he thinks it can ground him firmly on this side of the veil.

Phoenix doesn’t trust him -- Phoenix has five people whom he personally trusts -- but he can’t condemn him, not yet. Not without more evidence.

The first lead he chases down is the forger himself, Drew Misham. (No, not himself.) The forger is his daughter, Vera, a shy, sickly little girl, and a changeling besides. Drew seems to know, but he won’t say it outright -- Vera is “exceptionally talented”, “a genius”, and he never makes eye contact with Phoenix. She was the only one to see the client’s face, and whoever it was has done a good job of convincing her to clam up. A gentle smile, she says. Like an angel, but for the briefest of moments -- a slip in the upkeep of a glamour? -- Vera saw the devil.

Not exactly helpful, and definitely worrying when compounded with the secret charm that she won’t show, but she does tell him that she lays an enchantment on all of her forgeries -- not in those exact words. Phoenix isn’t even sure that she realizes what she is, that her powers are not human.

Valant is the second he speaks with, at the detention center where he has been interred for trying to pin the murder on Zak. Talking to him -- or maybe it’s that Phoenix retrieved the magatama to keep with him on this investigation -- brings one memory into sharper focus -- the girl, the little girl, Zak’s daughter, as human as her father but draped in magic even when it was fading from Magnifi’s two pupils. And that is definitely worrying, too; Phoenix has stumbled sightlessly into the dark, and something monstrous is lurking in it.

He nearly misses his hearing -- an unnecessary formality because there wasn’t one among them, except apparently Kristoph Gavin, who hadn’t decided that Phoenix’s badge would be gone at the end of it -- trying to track down Trucy. The Gramaryes were an elusive coven -- Valant tried to make a cursory protest on the terminology, “Troupe! We were not…”, and Phoenix broke the single lock by just staring him down until he rescinded his words -- who were never found by those desperate enough to seek them out, but instead would appear to them in the midst of their search. If they had a home base, Valant won’t say, and no one else in the world knows. Zak’s daughter, Trucy is her name, could be anywhere in the city, anywhere beyond the city, out to the mountains of Kurain, and Phoenix might never find her.

Getting an answer from her about who she received the diary page from would be a bonus; Phoenix is more concerned for her sake. He was only able to briefly See her, but he didn’t like the glimpse.

This is going to take some assistance.

The first thing he can unearth in his apartment that can make a circular shape is an extension cord; he drags it out to the kitchen and sets a cold half of a ground beef patty on a plate in the center. The fake candles are back at the office, but that is an unneeded trifle -- funny, but unnecessary. “Maya,” he says, stepping back from the circle and closing his eyes, “there is someone I need your help to find.”

A cold gust of wind batters against his face. When he opens his eyes, the room has filled with a slowly-dispersing purple mist, twisting in strands around the fae standing in the circle. She has gained an extra pair of eyes since he last saw her, smaller slits right along the browbone, all four glowing red. The remaining mist settles about her head like hair or the headdress of royalty, not quite blending with the void-black tendrils that frame her face. One of them extends, almost like an extra arm made of shadow, down to the floor, snatching up the burger and tossing it into her mouth. She grins, the truest cheshire smile Phoenix has ever seen, stretching literally from pointed ear to ear, displaying dozens of huge sharp fangs. “Hey Nick!”

Immediately she turns to face the refrigerator right behind her. “Are you holding out on me? That was a lame burger just now.”

“Cut me some slack. I just lost my badge. I’m trying not to burn my savings on food too quickly.”

She cocks her head, still staring at the fridge. The mist doesn’t move with her like something part of her should. “Where’d you have it last?” she asks. “If you lost it at the office, Sis will probably have it on your desk in the next couple days.”

Ah. Literalism. The main weapon and weakness both of the fae. “No, I mean -- I was disbarred. I am no longer allowed to work as a lawyer--”

He stops when he sees Maya’s face. She has finally looked at him and her expression, however hard to parse it can be, shifts rapidly, the briefest flash of something like horror that twists into fury, a contorted, monstrous rage. “Who did this to you?” she snarls, and he didn’t know he looked, physically, that bad, or that she knew how to read the depths of his exhaustion and despair from his aura. “You want my help to hunt them down and eat their hearts?”

“No! No, that’s not what I want!”

“Oh.” She frowns. “I would throw it in for free.”

“No!” He bends down to break the circle and stops. “On the condition of not eating any part of a person, I let you leave.”

“For the duration of this summoning, you have my word,” she replies. He could -- should -- argue that, try and make it a blanket deal for eternity, but he decides they can negotiate that some other time. For now, he has what he needs, and he unwinds the extension cord.

When Maya steps forth, the glamour settles over her in a wave, the mist hanging over her settling into glossy black hair, her two smallest eyes vanishing and the others whitening and gaining dark irises, her mouth shrinking, and the four small glowing orbs that drift lazily about her face sink down to become four large beads of a necklace. And then she looks like an ordinary girl, late teens or early twenties, her hair done up in a topknot and her smile small but still toothy and just a little too sharp. “So who is it that you want to find?” she asks. She frowns, but it seems like such a minute motion compared to moments ago. “Is your prosecutor in trouble again, too?”

“No; that was last month.”

And he leaves her hanging on that one and they sit at the kitchen table while he instead begins to explain his own case, his own worst situation, and the Gramaryes. She repeats Magnifi’s name to herself after he says it, again and again until her voice loses its human quality, sounding instead like the clatter of bells or a windchime, until suddenly she snaps back. “This fae you call Magnifi -- he was banished, many years ago, stripped of his power with his name and cursed to never return.”

“Why?”

“He strove for power and made those who had that power very mad,” she answers. “And so -- ouch.” She picks at some stain on the table and Phoenix winces, anticipating her leaving claw marks gouged into the wood. “He had a daughter. No other allies besides her -- she left with him, naturally.”

“Thalassa,” Phoenix says. Maya nods. “It was a far fall for him, huh, to end up where he did. Probably all he had left was the power trip over Zak and Valant, and all they had was pretending that they weren’t witches sworn to some bastard.”

“That’s the funny part of it, kinda,” Maya says. “They didn’t even credit him, when they were saying they can perform spells for whatever sorry suckers show up hoping for a miracle -- they were just like ‘yeah, no fae involved, ignore that guy, we won’t screw you out of a deal’. And they by being like that probably screwed him out of dozens more deals with sad desperate humans. No wonder he decided his death should be one last one-over on them.”

Sitting cross-legged in her chair, her hands in her lap, she leans it back to balance impossibly on two legs. She likes to cause the double-take, to force Edgeworth or Franziska or whoever else to look twice at the way she twists the world around her. “And you’re looking for his granddaughter?” she asks. “Not his daughter?”

“Thalassa is dead,” Phoenix says. “And Trucy isn’t, yet, so yes, I’m looking for Trucy.”

“I’m vaguely flattered that you think I’m powerful enough that I can just find her, just like that,” Maya says. She doesn’t wobble. “It’s not so easy, not here in this realm, not without knowing her true name.” “Trucy Enigmar,” Phoenix says. “Or Trucy Gramarye.” Maya rolls her eyes. “I need to know which, Nick.” Names have more power in the Twilight Realm. It’s why Mia, even trying to be human, stumbled on names that weren’t Phoenix, the human whose life she owned, and Dahlia, the fae she defeated. It’s why Iris only ever called him Feenie. It was the kindest gesture she could make. In the same fashion, Maya calls him Nick. They don’t own him, not entirely, though they could. “It’s only two choices. You can’t guess?” “No. I need to know.” Half of magic is certainty, Maya and Dahlia so certain they have the world at their fingertips, Iris so much meeker and weaker than her sister, Vera knowing little about herself but knowing that once instructed she can create anything and that is all she needs to know. And Valant, weaker, because he was so sure he was second-best, a self-fulfilling prophecy, the only kind of prophecy that Phoenix ever sees. A spell can’t be cast on a guess. “Is there anything you can do if you go back to the Twilight Realm?” Phoenix asks. “Hm.” Maya holds her hands up, palms facing each other, and a purple glow begins to form around them. Then she claps them together and the light vanishes, her eyes glinting red for a moment in the sterile light of his kitchen. “I’ll ask Sis for help, first.” It has started to rain when they leave Phoenix’s apartment. Biking in this weather is unfortunate enough, but Maya insists on balancing herself on the handlebars, right in Phoenix’s line of sight, and this would be the most embarrassing way for Phoenix to die after everything he has been through. They are both soaked through to the skin but only fell once by the time they arrive at the office. The lights are already on and the heat is blasting a literal warm welcome. “Hey, Sis!” Maya calls into the silence. No answer comes forth, of course, but the smile on Maya’s face is one that shows her to be more at ease than in a long time. “I could use some help! Nick’s trying to steal a kid.” “I’m trying to help her,” Phoenix objects. “Honestly, Maya.” “Yeah, yeah.” Maya twirls through the office and her hair doesn’t move like it is heavy with water, or even like it has the weight of that much hair. She stops at the shelves of law books that Phoenix has meant to read for two and a half years and never did, running her fingers down the spines but not stopping at any of them and proceeding on to the binders and file folders full of Mia’s case references and research materials that Phoenix hasn’t known how to sort and get rid of. “Somewhere here,” she mutters, “maybe there’s something.” Phoenix gives her a moment to offer one before he asks for an explanation. “After our mother left,” she says, “Sis at some point moved some of the royal records out of the Twilight Realm. I think she was worried about our aunt getting her hands on them.” The pages turn without Maya touching them. Her bangs and the hair framing her face sway as though there is a gentle wind to tousle them. “But… nope.” She stops on a page and squints down at it, only to resume flipping a few seconds later. “This Magnifi of yours, his true name – it wasn’t just taken, but erased. There’s not even an echo for me to work from.” The binder slams shut and is tossed over her shoulder without her moving her hand. “If these witches were well-enough known, how did people usually find them?” “They didn’t,” Phoenix says. “Anyone who went looking for them, they would eventually appear to.” “Huh,” Maya says. “Well, we’ve got two options, now!” Phoenix is already bracing himself to hear them. “We can go out and wander until I find us a likely trail, or you can put up some – uh, wanted posters.” “Wanted? For the Old West, maybe, but—” “Then, a ‘lost kid’ kinda thing. You do that, right? With the description, and the phone number, and the reward money.” “That’s for pets.” “It could be for kids. Don’t let your narrow-minded cultural assumptions box you in.” “Ah.” Sometimes, Phoenix has no idea what the hell she is talking about. “If we’ve got to make a grid search of the city, we’d better get started.” Maya hops up onto the couch and pushes the curtains aside to look out at the rain. “Maya, do you know how big Los Angeles is?” She looks back at him with her head cocked. “No,” she says. “How big?” Again they set out, on foot this time. “We’re helping her by stealing her,” Maya says, jumping squarely into a puddle and splashing muddy streetwater up Phoenix’s jeans. “It’s not either-or.” She tilts her head back, face to the clouds that are darkening from gray to black as night falls. “I bet Sis can save her, like she did you.”

Streetlamps flicker as they pass, and in those brief spurts of shadow, Maya’s shape flickers too.

She leads him down streets he didn’t know existed, past storefronts that look long-abandoned, with neon signs still glowing in the windows but not the puddles they should be reflected in. “You definitely were enchanted, by the way,” she adds. “I can still see the residue.”

“It’s been a week,” Phoenix says.

“Well, double-layered enchantments are harder to shake off and take longer to fade.” She shakes her head. “You were doomed as soon as you took that paper, without anyone to help you. You’re only human, after all.”

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, I know.” A cheap, sad ball bounced back and forth between players of a game whose rules he doesn’t understand, then as in now, a pawn dragged to the other side of the board to be crowned a knight and turned back again.

“What did you say this coven called themselves, again?” Maya asks, when they’ve been out for a little more than an hour, Phoenix soaked through to the bone, Maya having given up the illusion that weather affects her the way it does mere mortals. Her skin does not shine wet in the light. Her hair still flutters like a ribbon with the breeze of passing cars.

“Gramarye.”

“The name itself might be an invocation,” she says.

“What, like ‘Bloody Mary’ three times in the mirror and she’ll--”

Maya squints at him. “I don’t know anyone who uses that moniker,” she says, very seriously. “Is that a meme?”

Phoenix regrets teaching her about memes, for many more reasons than this, but also specifically for this. “The -- the belief is that you say her name three times and she’ll appear behind you in the mirror.” He turns to his reflection, staring back at him out of the dark window of a closed-down ramen shop. “Gramarye,” he says firmly, despite feeling a little silly, and doubting that the reflection is even necessary. “Gramarye, Gramarye.”

“That’s not a mirror,” Maya says.

“I don’t wear makeup so I’m not going to just have one in my pocket--” Something flashes in the storefront window and Phoenix glances back. Something is glowing, a small pink light, and he figures that some neon sign in the shop has sputtered back to life until it moves, flitting about like a moth thumping up against a lamp. He looks back over his shoulder. There, down at the end of the block, the light is dancing up above the street. “Maya, look,” he says, nudging her, not even sure why he’s pointing it out but compelled to. “What’s that? We should go look—”

“Nope!” She grabs his arm and yanks him back. He hadn’t realized he ha started walking, toward it, until she stopped him. “What’d we just talk about, Nick?”

“Bloody Mary? Or that I’m only human?” The light pulses, brighter and softer, but never too bright that the glare is jarring in the dark and the rain.

“Yes! That without me you walk right into enchantments!”

“An enchantment?” He looks again at the light, really looks, but nothing about its shape or color changes and he takes another step forward. The edges of his vision are blurry, like he is staring through a sheet of falling water, and he should be able to see something—

He didn’t see anything suspicious about the diary page, either. Glancing over at Maya, his stomach momentarily turns over at the sight of the pale claws on his arm. “It’s trying to lead you astray,” she says, and even when she isn’t grinning, her full shark’s mouth of several rows of teeth is made visible, and she tugs at his arm again. “Back this way.”

The light bobs back and forth, sashaying forward as Phoenix moves away from it. “A will o’ the wisp?” he asks.

Maya nods. “A distraction,” she says, very seriously. “This is all very clever, actually.” One hand still closed around his upper arm -- he blinks and wills her claws to look like stubby nails and blunt fingertips again -- she pulls him back toward the storefront. “The doorway appears where there is a need, then the wisp distracts for the witch to step forth and seem to have just appeared from nowhere.” She reaches forward, touching a finger to the glass, and it wobbles and ripples like water, opening wider and wider a circle big enough to step through. “Because you can’t just teleport like that. There always has to be a door, but it adds to the illusion if it doesn’t look like there’s one.” Stepping to the side, she waves to usher Phoenix in first. He can see a stained wooden stairs descending, before they are swallowed up entirely by darkness. “Age before beauty!”

Even in the most human of her grins, he is reminded what she is.

Beneath his feet, the steps creak at every movement, the walls closing tighter and tighter as he descends, brushing against both of his shoulders at the same time. He fumbles forward, one hand stretched out groping blindly for an exit or a wall. Maya is prodding him in the back as they go -- “C’mon, Nick, you’re so slow!”

“I can’t see,” he protests, right as he walks straight into something solid, the impact of his hand against it jarring his entire body. “Ah.”

Maya’s hand brushes past his ear to reach over and tap the wall. With a loud scraping sound, a thin crack of light slowly spreads wider and wider, shifting aside to reveal the interior of a gaudy gilded room. It isn’t the decrepit shack he expected, no rats or exposed wires or broken furniture, but it still disgusts what slight aesthetic sense he has. Everything is gold, or red, or black, a collection of clashing decorative styles, Victorian-looking couches with abstract modernist tables and shelves, and a few implements that look like something from a circus, strange boxes and colorful flags and hula hoops.

Stage magic. Phoenix snorts.

Sitting on the couch, a blue plastic bowl in her hands, a spoonful of mac-and-cheese on its way to her mouth, is Zak’s daughter. “Oh!” she says brightly, through a mouthful of noodles. “Hi, Mr Lawyer! If I had known it was you I wouldn’t have let Mr Hat lead you away.”

Mr Hat? Phoenix mouths it at Maya, even though reasonably there is no way she will know what that means. She shrugs. “Hi Trucy,” he says, looking around for a place to sit and deciding he doesn’t trust anything in this place. “Your daddy hasn’t come back, has he?”

Her face falls. “No,” she says. “He hasn’t. But he told me I could trust you, Mr Lawyer!”

Why, Phoenix so desperately wants to ask, but he is trying to keep that trust and that question will not do him any good. “I did some digging to find out if you have any other family,” he says, trying to keep eye contact with her while also watching where he puts his feet. “And it didn’t seem like it, so I wondered if you wanted to stay with me for a little while -- until your daddy comes back.”

She nearly overturns her bowl trying to set it down. “So if I stay with you,” she says, “does that mean we’ll be family?”

“I, uh… I guess so?”

Maya is laughing quietly as she circles the room, plucking up the decorations on the mantles and setting them back down. “Who is she?” Trucy asks. “Will she be my new mommy?”

“Er -- no. No, no.”

Trucy’s face falls. “Oh,” she says. “Since my mommy disappeared years ago, I thought I might get a new one now too.”

“No,” Phoenix says, “she’s just -- a friend.” Sort of. As much as human and fae can ever be friends, without the tangle of deals and magic and curses that always litter those relationships. He’s heard of romantic couplings of fae and human -- ones genuinely built on love, he means -- but that was not his experience and he has no intention of repeating anything close to that situation.

“I’m Maya,” she says. “Nick and I have known each other for a few years now. You can trust him.” She grins. Trucy hasn’t recoiled from horror from her; it doesn’t appear that she has the Sight, and another quick glance over her confirms that. Phoenix hadn’t paid attention to that last time, distracted as he was by everything else that was going on, with her, and in general. Now he can see that her eyes don’t change, but marked around them is a teal glow, in the shape of a diamond, over each of her eyes like a variation on a domino mask. He can’t quite tell what it means; curses are always easier to read, a red slash across the throat only really meaning one thing.

In the meantime, until he can ask Maya out-of-earshot, he decides he should stop staring and instead deal directly with the situation he has invited upon himself. “Oh, Trucy? You don’t have to call me ‘Mr Wright’ or ‘Mr Lawyer’ or anything. You can just call me Nick if you want.” He scratches his head, as the depth of this is beginning to weigh on him. “Or even ‘Daddy’ someday, but not now if you don’t want to--”

“Okay, Daddy!”

Oh. Okay.

“I have to get my stuff, if I’m going to be living with you,” Trucy says. “I’ll be right back!”

She springs to her feet and runs off into the next room. Phoenix moves to follow her, not sure if this place won’t swallow them both up, never to be spat back out into the world. “It’s truth, if you’re wondering,” Maya says, opening an ancient-looking wooden cupboard and rifling around in it. “The blessing on her,” she adds, emerging with a pack of microwave mac-and-cheese that for some reason was stashed there, and tearing open the pack of cheese powder and shaking it into her mouth. “It probably doesn’t look quite the same as Pearly gave you, but I wouldn’t recommend lying to her.”

“I see,” he says.

“No, you didn’t See. You were wondering.” She grins again, and she swallows the package of pasta, plastic and all. Once she told him that she can unhinge her jaw like a snake to swallow anything as big as her head; he wishes that she could lie. He wishes that her sense of humor could extend beyond literalism into exaggerated falseholds.

He steps into the hall that Trucy disappeared down, just far enough to see her running from room to room, with the clattering of objects upended and tossed aside. “Do you need help carrying things?” he calls.

Trucy sticks her head back into the hall, beaming. “Nope!” she says proudly. “I have this!” She waves at him a huge pair of frilly pink bloomers, and part of him -- most of him -- does not want to ask, but he also does not want to trek back into this hideout when he finds out she didn’t bring any of her clothes. “My magic panties are better than any suitcase!”

“Can you… elaborate?”

She reaches in through the top of the bloomers and pulls forth a pink cape. “Oh,” he says, but she drops the cape in a heap on the floor and reaches again to bring out a t-shirt. “Okay, I see. Thank you.”

Maya has wandered into the kitchen area and is continuing to devour everything she can find in the cabinets. Phoenix decides against asking her to leave him some of it to bring home for him and Trucy now. “This really isn’t a liminal space, is it?” Phoenix asks. He would be able to see if it were, the way magic hangs in the very air in his office, the way Mia herself and the last traces of her life linger.

Maya shakes her head and sinks her teeth into three donuts stacked together like a hamburger. “Hidden by magic, but no closer to the Twilight Realm than anywhere else. She’d have at least a bit of the Sight if it were.” She leans up against the wall, watching Phoenix with eyes that glamour doesn’t quite have a hold over, flickering as they do to red. “But even then, she might still be too young to know to be afraid.”

[cupideya1314]

My Pride, My Joy, My love: The “Original Character” Trend

I remember when I was enjoying my life as a Middle schooler (over here we call it grade 6) I enjoyed a lot of the internet during that time. I became a fan of Minecraft and enjoyed all the modern cartoons at the time. Me and my friends were very into Five Nights at Freddy’s and during that time period is where a lot of good late childhood memories formed for me.  All these media has made me into the creative person I am today, despite my career choice of the moment, I’m very proud as an artist. Part of that pride is my creativity to make OCs (Original Characters). Like many other artists growing up to these trends, I would have all these ideas and draw them out in my notebook. Whenever I get home from school, I would finish my assignments just so I have the freetime to play Doll Dress up games to create stories and characters (This was such a highlight of my life tbh and im not ashamed!! DOLL DIVINE MY LOVE!)  Getting to play with these games and playing around with MS Paint was my humble beginnings of becoming an artist online (mygash i sound like im famous but im not XD) 

A confession, the first time I made my own original characters is when I was still dreaming about playing Minecraft [ yes, I dreamt about playing Minecraft one day because my dad won’t let me play it and we had to buy it heheh silly but I was real ecstatic when I was able to play it on mobile-- but playing it on PC, I was super happy like- this is literally a dream come true for me y’all, I can’t express my happiness ] I would create what my Minecraft skin would look like, I never really told anyone about that. But later on I slowly created a story behind these characters for my own pleasure and fantasy. It feels so wonderful like I’m back to my kid self being in my own world.

This eventually became something I got stuck with until now, creating original characters with their own storylines but never really posting them about it. I made Gemsonas (Steven Universe fan characters), Five Nights at Freddy OCs, Yandere Simulator, and many more until they became their own original thing for me.

I can’t really count how many characters I have made through playing online games but they we’re mostly revolved around my personality and my friends. As I matured I realized how cringey that is hahah I guess I don’t want to look back at my personality back then even though nothing much change hehe. Though I still like how some of the characters I have made reflect what I am and what I wanted to be you know; that goes for almost any character ever made by someone similar to me, a character to reflect them in a way or project something they want to be someday. Nowadays I make characters that reflect more to the stories I create so it would be more fitting for them. My love for Original Character making came from a place where I dream of being famous (who doesn’t dream about that right?) I thought the ideas I have made were unique and at the time not have been thought of. As much as I want to share these ideas there was no where I shared these but between friends and myself, mostly just myself. I tried wattpad but somehow I never got to finish the stories. I tried Deviantart but right when I think I want to post I refuse to because I know the internet is a harsh place and my skills were not as extraordinary like the people I support. So ever since then, as much as I crave the attention, I never really pushed to get it. Instead all these characters I made are for my own pleasure. And I think that’s okay, I did these art for myself and it makes me super happy to come up with ideas and concepts. It shows how alive I am. It also worked in my favor because I improved as an artist too. I’m not the only one who feels this of course but I don’t know, this creative part of me is very strong. I was really happy when I started my Instagram, I don’t have many followers but I don’t care, the internet showed me it’s okay to just share whatever you want. Though I still feel anxious whenever I post, I mean there isn’t anything wrong with the post but what if someone saw it and many more. And like I use the hashtags to get notice but also not too much to get really noticed. I contradict myself a lot with that hahaha but I’m slowly just not caring about it. You can say this trend was my comfort and coping mechanism, I do enjoy self-insert stories and projecting my self into these characters. So far that’s how much I can express my love for doing this trend. The original character trend is still as strong as ever and it’s more developed hahah. I admire those artists that indulge a lot to their characters even without a piece of media to fully express their world. That’s why I still fancy this topic a lot. I can talk about my original characters for a whole week but that sounds super annoying tho no? HAHAHA Anyway I am proud of this part of me and maybe I can express that part of me more soon when I feel it’s right. Right now I’m doing fanart but then it will be fanworks then original stuff. I have a bunch of original content made but it may take a long time to present it well. My love and joy for this is boundless ahahah that’s all I can say Extra: The pics are from my gamer childhood (I am best dress up gamer!!!) and ofc the characters I made throughout that time. Not gonna lie but looking at the old art I made as a gr6 is S U P E R  C R I N G E. I want to share more, believe when I say I have TONS of characters but I think I will regret every moment once I scroll my own page in the future HAHAHA.

I didnt draw this, my friend drew it for me during gr7?? Check him out, he’s a great artist! Insta: @/hitdhits, Deviantart: @/HitDJ

oh and if somehow someone got interested in my insta @/cupideya1314

[chikkou]

as a 15 year old who is into homestuck rn, your post was interesting! every once in a while i do feel like i missed a reference, but for the most part i feel like i'm getting the experience. i am insanely curious though: what could have possibly been going on in the fandom that inspired the trickster arc?

first of all im glad u liked my post!! i honestly just got really into my thoughts and i had to share it…. im a fake deep hoe LMAO

now to ur question! its a VERY gud one… but unfortunately the answer is kind of troubling. essentially, the short answer is “kids who were pro-social justice.”

to expand on that, u may need some background. homestuck during this time (2013) had a notoriously garbidge fandom, which was well known for being full of infighting. homestuck drew a lot of different fans from a lot of different backgrounds, and it caught on really well with kids on tumblr in the age range of 12-18.

during that time, social justice was getting really popular online, so i can safely say that most of the kids that were homestuck fans were also in support of sj. those who werent were usually intensely anti-sj, and rejected any notions of it, especially where homestuck was concerned. that might seem unrelated, but it actually plays a big part in a lot of problems that came about later on.

one of homestucks biggest positive points was the kids being aracial. hussie made it explicit in tweets and such that the kids were intended to be without race, so readers could fill in whatever they wanted. fan artists really liked that bc it meant they could draw the kids however they chose, and it would technically be canonically accurate. thats a very difficult thing for a webcomic of all things to do, so it was exciting to have the ability to make the kids super diverse, in any sense of the word! 

unfortunately, the problem with this is that a lot of those fan artists were still making all the kids white. it didnt help that, in early pages, there were references to the characters being white (specifically bro, though if memory serves, john is also referred to as white), and much of the official merch also depicted them as white, like as the tarot cards that were released a few years back. even though hussie claimed to be dedicated to the aracial concept, there was a lot of pretty damning evidence that suggested he was really just depicting them as white.

pro-sj fans hated this, because even though the kids were TECHNICALLY aracial by the comics standards, it was clear that a bias was there. anti-sj fans defended the comic with their life against that criticism, saying it was the authors choice, and all sorts of similar things. that problem wasnt made any better by the introduction of kankri, a clear parody of Those Awful SJWs and a character which made it seem like hussie was siding with the anti-sj fans after all. at the time, i remember people trying to excuse it away by saying that kankri was an affectionate parody, or that it was only targeting Bad SJWs, or any other sorts of justifications.

it all came to a head in the beginning of the trickster arc tho, which, if you werent aware, originally had jane say this. it didnt help that he then went on to have ALL of the alpha kids appear in the same skin tone, and later made a tweet (that has since been deleted) saying that all of the trickster characters were white. it became pretty clear that the trickster arc, for all that it does contain some plot relevant stuff, was really just an excuse for hussie to isolate and mock the people that made up the majority of his fanbase.

though at the time i didnt fully understand that, looking back, it was a pretty swift knee to the gut for fans whose main reasons for enjoying homestuck had to do with the aracial aspect. on top of that, it was insanely audacious for hussie to even do something like that knowing that he was targeting a pretty sizable amount of his readers. to this day im not entirely sure what possessed him to do it. 

naturally, though, there was a MASSIVE backlash, and people were fighting about it for days. a lot of people i knew at the time stopped reading homestuck because of it, and those who stuck with it but dropped it later on cited the trickster arc as the reason why. it got so bad that, soon afterward, he edited the page to the version thats still up, which says “peachy” instead.

the racial aspect aside, even the stuff that happens in the arc proper is pretty clearly based in stuff that was happening amongst fans. in the arc, all the tricksters (except dirk) want to marry each other and have “a zillion babies.” it was a pretty clear joke about shippers in the fandom (especially since the arc ends with dirk and jake breaking up, and they were a fan favorite couple until that point). 

lastly, the fact that the arc just skips to the kids being in their respective moons, waiting to go god tier, seemed to be (in my humble analysis) a response to people who complained about the slowness of act 6. the trickster arc speeds the events of the story up considerably, to the point that we dont even see the path they take to get to the moons. they just. end up there. super hungover LMAO

but yeah tl;dr the trickster arc, or the handling of it anyway, was mainly a means of making fun of the pro-sj fans who rightfully addressed the fact that homestuck was failing as an “aracial” story, since there was a clear bias in favor of the kids being white. said mockery bombed spectacularly, cause, surprisingly, making fun of ur target audience is a bad idea. 

[imhereforbvcky]

Absolution - Part 2

Masterlist  -  Part 1  -  Part 3

Summary: Bucky must figure out how to live with some of his worst memories when he can’t shake one particular ghost from his past.

Prompt(s): Could you do a Bucky story inspired by Murder Song - Aurora?

Warnings: AAAAANNNNGGSSTTT so much angst. Ok, we’ve got swearing, nightmares, looks at Bucky’s captivity and the unpleasantness related to it, murdery sadness, I think that covers it?

Word Count: 1409

Author’s Note: Italics are Bucky’s journal pages/memories

Bucky watched his therapist seated across from him, holding the pages that Bucky had torn out of his journals to share. He could see his own dark heavy hand through the thin pages, and he worried. His hands fidgeted in his lap, as he studied the doctor across the room.

“How did you meet her?” was the only question the man asked. It was so… unassuming that Bucky felt nervous to answer, like it must be some trick.

“Um she… she was there, in Siberia when I woke up from the surgery.” Still no more questions, just… patient listening. “Not there, exactly. She spoke to me, through a drain pipe that ran through the wall between our… cells, I guess.”

“She was a prisoner too?”

He nodded. “There were a handful of them that came and went… She was there already when I woke up.” Bucky swallowed the lump in his throat, remembering all the whispered moments they’d shared. He remembered the desperation they’d each laid bare, unable to hold on any longer, only for the other to breathe hope through a rusting pipe. A voice through a hole in the wall had saved him. “That one’s my first memory of her.”

July 23

I slept through the night but I dreamed of waking up. There are a few hazy memories between the fall and when I first heard her, but they’re cloudy and they don’t fit together right.

She said I might never remember them, that I’d been in and out of medical because of the prosthetic. She didn’t know much but she said she’d heard them talk about how well the material was taking, or rather wasn’t taking and then I’d come and go for weeks at a time until they stabilized everything.

I’d woken in a panic, the memories felt like a muddy dream and there was a machine where my arm should be. She’d called to me through the pipe.

“Hey, shh! Hey, you’re okay!”

I sure as shit wasn’t. I clawed at the sheets and stumbled out of the bed, a sharp burning pain radiated through my shoulder and down my entire spine when I tried to push myself up with the metal arm. I was a soldier, and trained on how to handle captivity, but this… this was more than anyone had ever trained me to handle.

I think I nearly died of a heart attack right there when cold slender fingers reached out over mine. “Shh! Shh, just breathe,” that soothing murmur insisted. “If they hear you they’ll come sedate you again, they want you to heal.”

Finally, she pulled her small bony hand back away through the drain pipe. “There you go,” she encouraged as I dragged myself to sit up, finally settling my breathing into a normal pattern. She offered her name and asked mine. Nervous and taking in my surroundings in a soldier’s survival mode, I rattled off my service number.

“Okay, you’re a soldier,” she seemed a little worried. For some reason I didn’t want her to worry. “What’s your name, though?”

“J-James,” I finally breathed. “James Barnes.”

“That’s good.”

Was it? Why was that good?

“Hang on to that,” she urged, a serious firmness in her tone. “They’re going to try to take it from you, but remember who you are.”

“H-how do you know that?” I asked shakily, sweat forming over my skin from the pain of the gruesome seam where my skin met the shining metal prosthetic. “Who are you?”

She told me how HYDRA took soldiers and civilians alike, how they’d overtaken her small village and kept those who were fit for their work with Zola. The rest were executed immediately, the lucky ones, she called them.

“I’ve been here long enough now to see soldiers like you turn to monsters, and to see the ill cured only to try on a new disease or weapon until they’re dead.” Her voice wasn’t cold and removed when she talked about these things. She hadn’t adopted the self-protective dissociation I expected, she was devastated and so, so alone. “It’s easy to forget who you are. To start to think you’re just a piece of lab equipment or a gun. As soon as you do, you’re dead or you’re theirs.”

July 27

Sam has food poisoning I’m not surprised; he’ll eat any damn thing he sees. Just the smell from his room is horrifying. Before I can pass his door I see her. I see her. She’s leaning against the wall beside his door, holding her stomach as if her entire body would come apart if she let go. I know she’s not real. I know it’s a guilty projection from my trauma-ridden mind. But god I just want to help her. I can never help her. It’s enough to kick my memories into overdrive and it’s not just a picture in my head, I can smell it and see it and practically feel it.

I never saw her like that, hunched over and sick, I never saw it. But I remember it.

She moaned softly when they dropped her body onto the bed in her cell. I could hear the springs whine under the rough treatment. They didn’t say a word as they left. They never did, not to her. There was a loud clang as her door crashed closed.

“You okay?” I asked her as softly as I could through the pipe. It was best to be gentle when she’d just returned. It was hard to know what horrors she’d seen and sometimes even the sound of my voice startled her.

A stifled sob was my only reply before the bed creaked again. I heard her heaving and felt my own stomach flip. I hated them. I hate them. All I wanted was to comfort her, to stroke her back gently and whisper that she’d be okay. I couldn’t do either of those things. Neither of us would ever be okay.

I have no idea how many nights were spent that way, listening to each other suffer and trying to find any comfort. I won’t call it hope, because after a while there just wasn’t any to be found.

When she was sick from the testing I’d tell her about Brooklyn, and Coney Island, I told her how I wanted to take her dancing and about my favorite dance halls. I told her about my sister and laughed about what the hell kind of job I would get with a damn metal arm.

When I came back shattered and lost, not quite myself, echoes of words I didn’t understand lingering at the edges of my memory, she’d talk to me. She’d tell me about her village and what it was like to be from a place where everyone knew each other. I could hear the smile in her voice and wondered how she managed to smile in a place like that, after everything. I think she only did it for me. Or maybe I just want to think that. I loved her, I think.

“I can see you really care for her,” Bucky’s therapist told him, looking up from the pages in his hands.

Bucky nodded, pushing his hands into his hair anxiously. “I don’t even know how much time we had together, really. I don’t remember all of it. I hate that they took that from me, too.”

“It doesn’t have to be about the time, James.” He had that gentle urging voice on again. “We can form extraordinary bonds under extraordinary circumstances. Even if it was only a short time or--”

“It was years,” Bucky interrupted, “I know that. When I… When she died I had already been there long enough for the trigger words to work.”

“I’m sorry, James. It must have been difficult to lose her.”

“You haven’t even read it yet,” Bucky eyed him, slightly apprehensive.

“I can see how much you cared for her, regardless of what’s on this paper,” he lifted the pages like they were nothing, like they didn’t contain his patient’s worst memories. “Her loss is still painful for you.”

“I can’t get her out of my head.” Bucky chewed on his lip, staring at his hands in his lap, silent for a long moment. He could feel the doctor’s eyes on him, patient and understanding. He drew in a deep, shuddering breath, “I loved her. I loved her and I killed her.”

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[millin21]

Spare- April and Dark Don

His arms trembled as he tried to pull himself up again. His neck still felt horrible after that… whatever invisible force shoved him off. That moment when he could have ended her. When he could have taken out one enemy. One less thing to worry about. He grunted as he felt the rest of his body, his shell screaming from being slammed into a brick just before he fell. Before he pulled himself on his hands and knees this very moment. He looked up, feeling his Then he saw the blade. Her tanto. Her kunoichi weapon. Hid eyes widened as many memories of blade meeting flesh flashed before him. Many of which he was the holder of. Whether it was to save his brothers or to end an enemy, he had lost count for both. But eight now, an ally of his ultimate enemy was standing before him. Hilding a weapon within six feet of him. In a state where he could not get up, still feeling the effects of that horrible landing when they both fell off the roof. His ankle was beginning to swell. And the rest of his body was in no shape to compensate for it. He was completely helpless. Something Shredder had told them never to be. That they would be dead within the second if they were seen defenseless. That they were to never lose their weapons. Or the hey wouldn’t walk away again. And here he was, on his hands and knees, staring at the blade held by his enemy. the one he had been trying to kill for the past few minutes. the blade that stayed unmoved. Hw counted the seconds that felt like minutes. Minutes that felt like hours. Eventually, he looked up at her, seeing why she didn’t move. And was surprised to see her shocked yet sad expression. He hadn’t seen a look like that since… before Mikey was convinced that killing was their only future. But, somehow this was different. It was like she was looking not at him but through him. It was like she could feel his fear. Like she was shocked that he could even feel fear. Usually in these moments of hesitation, they were taught to finish the enemy. But he could not move his body without feeling a heavy weight press on his shell. His fresh wounds pounding against his shell. Especially the back of his head that hit the wall on impact from the mysterious force that put him in his hands and knees. Like he was begging. Which was in fact what he was abour to do. Without being able to strike a hesitant for, he was left with only one option, one they never used… mostly because they never had to. But also because they never thought that it would work. “Please.” He heard himself say, how his voice trembled, struggling to plead. “Don’t kill me.” Memories of other faces and voices saying those words came. How he didn’t hesitate in bringing the end to them. How they died pleading, crying. How a bit of him died each time. There were times where he hesitated, but not for long. He knew their Master would hear of their survival. Ans it would be his brothers who would pay the price if not him. It was the reason they spared no one. Ans yet here he was, pleading the very same thing to a kunoichi of their enemy. Just like all those faces did. His body too hurt to run or fight back anymore. All he could do was stare at her, completely open for any attack. But she gave none. Instead, she held a saddened look. Like when Mikey had witnessed his seventeenth kill by Raph. Only this look had an emotion he never recognized on anyone but his brothers. It looked so foreign on someone’s eyes looking directly at him. “I won’t fight you anymore.” She said, her eyes looking… soft. Like Leo whenever he consoled one of his brothers. “I’m not going to kill you.” Don stared at her, completely at a loss. After feeling his heart beating three times against his chest, he spoke. His brows knitted. “I don’t understand. Why?” He heard himself breathe. He never expected this. How could he? No one shared those words to him. Was it a trick? Why would she trick him? There has to be something. Kunoichi are known for their trickery. But what was even more baffling was to see her reaction. How shocked she was to see him not understand. Baffled by his bafflement. Before she could respond however, her eyes went wide and she dodged our od Mikey’s Kusurigami chain. “Back off!” The freckled turtle shouted, dashing towards her to get her away from his brother. She quickly took to the fire escape. Dashing away from the incoming turtles. She took one last glance back at Donnie before she went. Locking eyes with him for one moment before she disappeared around the corner. The moment she left, Mikey came to his side. “Don! Are you okay? Did she hurt you!?” His tine turned from concerned to malice. Ready to pursue that red head. But Don didn’t say anything. Mikey looked at him. Beginning to shake his shoulder. Waving his metal hand in front of his face. “Yo! Don?” The red eyes turtle blinked. Tuening to his brother, reminded of his sore body. “Don? What happened?” He asked, more urgent. As though ready for a reason to bolt into a pursuit. He blinked for a moment. Turning back down to face the ground. A small puddle showing a reflection of him. The puzzled expression on his face. He didnt know how much tine passed before he jeard Leo speak. “Don?” He turned up, seeing the blue eyes of his big brother and the green eye accompanied by an eye patch. Leo and Raph staring at him, looking a bit worried. “Don, what did she do to you?” Leo asked clearly. As though worried Don was unable to understand the question. Were they asking him before? Don swallowed, taking a moment to let that… that, sink in. He didnt know how much tine had passed until he said it. “… she… spared me.”

This is a much shorter bit of what turned out to be nearly four full pages (which would take forever to type in a phone. So here it is! A much shorter Fanfic of @mesacat13 dark!turts AU. Based on their fanart of April sparing Donnie. I know I drew a thing similar to it but their fanart just inspired ne to make this)

Bonus: It would keep him awake for weeks afterwards. He would pave the floors of the lab trying to figure out her reasoning. One night Leo will wake up and talk with him. Sharing his own disbelief in how he first met Miwa. And how she spared his life after blinding him. How she had the chance to kill him, but she didn’t. Donnie would sigh and admit to his brother that they both had tricksters that kept them awake.

[ios-normandy]

The final three took a trip down memory lane and wrote some cute things about all of you! Yay!

Ashley: 

#Feminism 

Grace:

meninist king, you were super nice to me at least LOL

Madison: 

rip

Ashley: 

 I really have nothing to say.

Grace: 

no comment

Madison: 

rip

Ashley: 

ROBBED GODDESS! I was so sad you just ghosted and then quit. I was excited to play with you. 

Grace: 

wish you would've shown up you're honestly iconic

Madison:

 invisible queen

Ashley: 

My #1 fan apparently. I was so sad when you were voted out!

Madison:  

honestly wanting to be first boot is iconic goals and I'll never forget our alliance with Adrian that lasted for 10 minutes

Ashley:

 Didn't get to talk to you at all so not much to say.  

Madison: 

I never got to know if you were hot or not rip

Ashley: 

Was really hoping you were going to make merge but Queen Chrissa really did that!

Grace: 

I was lowkey like god damn it drew is here but I was actually really sad you were voted out because I wanted to work with you. Wikia forever (not really tho)

Madison:  

biggest premerge heartbreak, I was so sad when you left and you were definitely missed in this game

Ashley:

 Had a lot of fun playing with you premerge, was sad you had to go since I know how excited you were to play.

Grace: 

GOD IVE BEEN HOPING ALL SEASON I GOT TO THIS POINT JUST SO I CAN SAY YOU DID NOT DESERVE TO BE IDOLED OUT. I literally adore you so much and miss you dearly ❤️❤️

Madison:  

ROBBED, someone i really wish could've made merge

Ashley:  

Part of me was excited to play with you but part of me was only here for #AmandasRevenge hehe just kidding you were always really outspoken in this game which I can respect.

Grace: 

you were really chill on the first night and you/jay were people I really wanted to work with but unfortunately we never got to that point

Madison:  

It was so sad when you left because you were such a good person and I'm glad we met in this game

Ashley: 

QUEEN CHRISSA. Love you, you were doing so fucking well in this game and making moves, I’m proud of you. Unfortunately, everyone knowing you and Raffy had the an idol really fucked you over. 

Grace: 

honestly I don't really have much to say about Chrissa because the round she left I was #blindsided because I was working and couldn't get to my phone. I just knew Raffy liked you and a friend of Raffy was a friend of mine

Madison:  

An actual queen, you may not believe it but you were playing very well and it was a side of you I had never seen before and it was both scary and exciting

Ashley: 

Honestly I came into this game excited to play with you but then I heard from multiple people that you “hated me.” Eventually we talked and you said you didnt which I hope is true. I really only targeted you because of that and the fact that we never ever really talked and I knew that you would have sent a vote my way without hesitation. Hope we can actually get to know each other eventually becuase I hope we can actually be friends :)

Grace: 

ugh I'm still so fucking sorry because you didn't deserve what happened to you. I wish we could've gone farther together because I feel like we really got along personality wise :((((

Madison:  

You're one of the sweetest people I've known in the community and it was really great being on Malroux with you and getting to play with you

Ashley:

 I fucking love you so much Emily! You are seriously one of the nicest people I have ever met in the game and I’m so happy I got to play with you. Having to choose Grace over you was tough, I really didn't want to see you go but I had to prioritize people late in the game and it really sucked. You played such a good social game and I wouldn't be surprised to see you on allstars.

Grace: 

ugh queen. First off I actually think you're one of the sweetest human beings ever and I enjoyed working with you so closely throughout the game. You knew you were a giant threat to win and you were also really like idk what the word is, gracious?? in your words and exit and idk I really respect you. Love you girlie :*

Madison: 

I didn't know you prior to this game but I thought you were so sweet and pretty and you made the Bordel flag look amazing

Ashley: 

Jordan Pines… You are literally one of the funnest people in this community and I’m glad I got to play with you again. Dom and I were able to save you a couple of times which in the end made you a huge threat and meant you had to go. It sucked having to pull off that blindside but in a way I guess we are even for the whole Meredith thing hehe

Grace: 

no comment

Just kidding this kid right here is my son. I birthed him. He came out of my vagina. That being said, we definitely did not get along this game and I think that's partially because I'm used to hosting him and honestly after a while it was kinda fun to just be like fuck you Jordan Pines. I don't have much else to say Jordan except that you better stay out of trouble son. Thanks for helping become the entertainment of the season with me

Madison:  

My f2!!! My favorite person to play with, I know we could've turned this game upside down if you weren't blindsided.

Ashley:  

Honestly, I did not think I was going to like you as much as I did. At first I thought you were just going to message me everyday and ask me about my day just so you could say you had a social game. But I honestly do think you care about people and I love that about you. I know how much of your heart you put into this game and I really respect that, cutting you was difficult and I kept changing my mind over and over. In the end though I really think we will be friends and like I said before, your ass better pm me about my day still or else your will be BLOCKED.

Grace: 

honestly this one was probably the hardest voteoff this game for me to have to sit through. When I lost other allies I usually wasn't expecting it but knowing this was coming broke my heart into many little pieces. Honestly I didn't know if we would get along at first Raffy because I kinda saw you as being this like little kid who could be a twat but honestly I like adore you. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you at final 6, i don't know if I would be in any better of a position now had I listened but I know i ultimately am the reason you got fucked and I'm so sorry.

Madison: 

I remember when we would call every day in Malroux and play Roblox and I considered you a good friend in this game and you played such a good game.

Ashley: 

 I fucking love you so much! You're literally one of my favorite people I have ever met in this community. I hope you know that I could literally write 10 pages about how much you mean to me but I’ll keep it short. Had you asked me like a year ago if I would be best friends with a 16 year old boy from Ohio and I would have said youre fucking crazy but now I couldn't see it any other way. You being in this game with me was such a fucking blessing because honestly I probably would have gone fucking mad without you. I love you, thanks for being there for me when I felt like shit and wanted to just quit, it means more to me than you’ll ever know. 

Grace: 

holy fuck where to even begin. First of all I respect the fuck out of you for many reasons, one being that you played a super clean game, and the other being that YOU SOMEHOW BEAT ME AT A SLIDE PUZZLE LIKE WTF. Anyway, I really enjoyed getting to know you in the game, I always kinda knew who you were but didn't know who you were. I also always kicked you out of the hunties chat because I was bored and never talked to you LMFAO. You're a really cool guy and I hope we can talk outside the game.

Madison:  

MY BEST FRIEND IN THIS WHOLE WORLD it was wonderful playing this game with you and Ashley and i wouldn't have asked for a better ally and friend. Voting you out was the hardest thing I ever did and I can't wait until my next paycheck so I can buy you a Roblox gift card hehehehe

Ashley: 

So, you didnt play this game but you asked for this anyway. I love you so much and youre literally one of my best friends. I’m so happy we met, even though you hated me at first. You’re my favorite Italian and favorite roomie (fuck DCP)