#i felt like the fighter class would be most fitting

[tiny-chubby-bird]

alright,

time to romance karlach

[martialartslover7]

Why I think Kishimoto isn't sexist, but just VERY tonedeaf and an idiot

Boy, will I have some venting to do today. I mean, at this point, it's not a secret, that Kishimoto has consistently stated that "he can't write women", to save his life. And to this day, for as long as I was a fan of the series, I am going to be absolutely real: This statement is so full of shit. Why? Simple. And allow me to express it in very big capital letters, so that even the last giant mental invalid can understand:

WOMEN ARE HUMAN-BEINGS WITH BREASTS AND A V BETWEEN THEIR LEGS. WHAT TYPE OF "NUANCES" IS THIS GUY TALKING ABOUT? THERE IS NOTHING "COMPLICATED" ABOUT THEM. WHAT NONSENSE IS THIS?

Like, this entire statement is bullshit for a completely reason altogether: Why even reduce his own point to the fact that the shinobi just so happen to be female? This just sounds like excuses on top of excuses, especially considering the competition like One Piece and Bleach, who all have badass, memorable and sometimes, quite well-written characters, that just so happen to be female.

Let's count up a few IPs that I am aware of, written or directed by males, that has some of the most badass, and most memorable females in all of media:

One Piece

Bleach

Soul Eater

Kill la Kill

Jujutsu Kaisen

Code Geass

Persona

Tekken

Street Fighter

SoulCalibur

Fire Emblem (not all of them, some of them, from what I have seen, can be insane jokes)

And so on, and so forth, the list goes on. And you know what all these IPs have in common, that make them stand out, compared to what Naruto does to its females?

THE FEMALES AREN'T GETTING BOGGED DOWN BY IRRITATING, REDUNDANT AND DOWNRIGHT OFFENSIVE TROPES, THAT FLAT-OUT RUIN THEIR POTENTIAL AND APPEAL AS STANDALONE CHARACTERS!

Like, allow me to list up all the tropes, that Kishimoto made use of, while writing the manga, or being involved in the process of writing / directing the anime, along with the movies.

1. Making the women overtly dependant on the male characters

This one, is not as egregious, but it's a good kickstarter. In the context of the world these characters operate in, to me, it does make sense to show that, like in the Edo period of Japan, women were always seen as second-class citizens, always needing to be tied to men somehow, otherwise they are "worthless". Considering the corrupt, militarized system that most of the girls work in, mostly operated by wrinkly, old farts, who enjoy playing god too much, it does remain understandable to me, that they would be hesistant to be 100% committed to the job, and just ask for normal lives...

...BUT...

...it does leave you asking: Why did they choose to be ninjas in the first place, then? To get smitten with the boys (not counting Hinata, by the way, because she was literally forced into this role)? Just applying as literal child soldiers in a war, that they didn't even start to begin with? And yes, I get it, kunoichis excel in areas that male shinobi struggle with, like silent reconnaisance, charming other men, or sometimes women, to tickle information out of them, being healers, but here is the thing: As the Naruto progressed as a story, this pattern kept repeating, every time a female character got introduced, it would fall back on the following checklist:

Is this woman a healer?

Is she obsessed with looking for a boyfriend / a husband?

Is she lacking in combat-based strength, to the point where she needs protection from either of the male characters?

Because, except for the healer bit, which is more of a specialized field, I just brought it up, because I felt it to be awfully noticeable how often the girls requested to be healers, as if they have to fit into such a mold, or they aren't capable as shinobi, the other two questions get repeatedly answered, for pretty much 98% of all female characters, especially by the end of Shippuden.

And don't get me wrong: This is NOT a negative, per se, that they desire a boyfriend, or someone to spend the rest of their days with, this is not what I am complaining about. In fact, a good chunk of ships in the series are hella cute, and I don't want them to go away. Because to an extent, the romance aspect feels genuine, especially between Naruto and Hinata, or Sasuke and Sakura (yeah, fight me on that, I will defend these two as a ship, until I die), or hell, especially Shikamaru and Temari, which are the GOLD standard, of what a good ship needs.

What I am complaining about though, is that, the series kind of uses this romance aspect as a shield, or excuse, to undermine the female characters, in the long run. Think about it, when was the last time when Sakura, in spite of all the grueling training she had to suffer through to become this strong in the first place, not wanting to be a hindrance to anyone, legitimately kicked ass, after killing Sasori? Not counting the war arc, because this arc is frankly, an inexcuseable mess, and Kishimoto should be ashamed of himself for making it suck this hard for how many asspulls this arc had. Nope, the moment Naruto goes berserk, and Sasuke just... appears... she is reduced to a whimpering mess, who can't stand on her own two feet, and has to be saved by someone. And this happens. ALL. THE. TIME. That's all that happens with her, sure, she heals countless ninjas during the war, but again, healing isn't the only specialty she got:

SHE IS A SHINOBI! SHINOBIS FIGHT! THEY DON'T JUST STAND AROUND LIKE IDIOTS, AND EXPOSING THEMSELVES TO ENEMY FIRE! GET! ON! WITH IT!

I swear, man, this just frustrates me beyond any reason, and the worst part, even someone as awesome as Hinata, who kicked so much ass in Part 1 (especially the filler arcs, don't get smart with me, I watched the anime, suck a small one on that), who had a whole, potential story arc hinted at with Neji, and the issues regarding their entire clan, was reduced to a simple Naruto #1 fangirl for the entire duration of Shippuden, not even the filler could salvage her in any way, and for someone like me, who relates to Hinata on a spiritual level, I find this just so damned pathetic. And whenever I watch The Last, all I could think about was this one coherent thought: You. Had. ONE JOB. Kishimoto. And you failed her. As a standalone character. Causing the entire movie to come off as if you were just shoehorning everything together, as if we only liked Hinata, because of the NaruHina ship. Well, newsflash, it couldn't be further from the truth. So, screw you, and the entire The Last movie.

Plus, I am sure I am speaking on everyone's behalf here: Anko Mitarashi and Tenten were done the MOST dirty by Kishimoto. Nuff' said.

On that note, that brings me to my next point:

2. The angry Karen housewife stereotype

I swear, this meme right here...

And Kushina's entire existence truly proves my point that, Kishimoto is really not doing himself any favors, whenever he says "I don't know how to write women". Oh, but then THIS is your answer? Is this how you see them all, the very second they get married and have kids?

So let me get this straight, the moment a woman, in the Naruto universe, gets married, has kids, and takes care of them, they become:

Aggressive, to the point of physically assaulting their own kids (Kushina definitely would have done so, let's not lie to ourselves, I love her, but this behavior of hers, combined with Sakura's general attitude towards Naruto, would have definitely made him suicidal after a while, if it weren't for the fact, he accepts it in his mom's case, because she doesn't know any better, considering her childhood)

Unpleasant to be around for their husbands (as if, we get guilt-tripped into thinking, the wives are the ones being selfish, wanting their lovers to be home with them, which, by the way, is a serious piece of shit way of thinking, because, they are married for a REASON, and not to stay apart all the time, THEY ARE FAMILY, at least, from how it gets painted as, in Boruto, from what I have seen so far)

Becoming total sociopaths, as if their genuine worries and concerns get painted as something so abnormal and "creepy"

...and this is how you see them all? THIS is your answer? Again, I know, we have ZERO evidence to prove that Kishimoto himself, is sexist in real life, it would be irresponsible of me to put that out there, because I just don't know the guy. I am just saying that, with how the housewives were all written thus far, and how, from Naruto's POV, he began having a fear of angry moms, calling them "scary", and how the females got seriously underrepresented in the course of the story...

...IT DOESN'T DO HIM ANY FAVORS.

I can't even believe I have to say this, because, newsflash, Kishimoto, and I will say it in caps: NOT ALL MOMS IN THE WORLD, ACT LIKE THIS!

They can get mad with us, they are fully in the right to whenever we do something stupid, no matter how old we get, because they will always view us as their babies that they cradled in their arms. But the problem here is: In Boruto, it gets painted as if the moms are the ones in the wrong here, just for being a tiny bit more concerned than others, because again, the world that they live in, is dangerous. And leaving the Otsu*redacted* aside, I can fully sympathize with them, so seeing someone like Boruto himself taking so many liberties being a spoiled, rotten brat, who never suffers serious repurcussions for his behavior (I know, he lost his headband for cheating, but for someone like him, who wished literal DEATH on his own father, just for him not being around enough, needed a way harsher punishment, you just don't say that your parents, dude, this doesn't take a genius to understand, especially since this is Naruto and Hinata we are talking about her), once again, it undermines the females, as if the kids ALWAYS "know better", and they "just suck, because moms are scary". Fuck off. Seriously. This is just disrespectful. No excuses. It shouldn't be written this way. Even more so, because the POV of the mothers gets never tackled, making this seem one-sided.

3. A few romances fall back on tropes, that disrespect not only the girls, but also the guys

OK, I will probably get some flack for saying this, but, regardless of the explainations in one of the Retsuden mangas, the InoSai ship, is perfectly encapsulating to me, how the romance in Naruto isn't without its flaws, and it mostly stems from how some of the characters just never get the privilege of gaining their own story sections about their own individual struggles as standalone characters.

I AM LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU, CHOJI AND KARUI! THEIR ROMANCE IS SO OUT OF LEFT FIELD, IT'S NOT EVEN WORTH JOKING ABOUT, EXCEPT, IT'S LITERALLY A JOKE, DUE TO THEIR NAMES BEING POLAR OPPOSITES TO ONE ANOTHER. HA. HA. HA.

Personally, to me, Sai is not that interesting of a character to me, I was never able to connect with him in any way, despite the importance he had in the story, alluding to the ROOT Anbu under Danzo's leadership.

But his "romance" with Ino, was seriously pushing it to me, not only because, it just regresses Ino's entire character, pushing her back into this mold that she is only interested in brooding, mentally ill edgelords like Sasuke, which paints her a shallow person, but it just paints Sai himself, as a stand-in for Sasuke, too, which undermines his own character, unintentionally. There are so many things wrong with their overall dynamic, I can't even put it properly into words.

And don't think, InoSai are the only exception to this rule. As much as it pains me to say this, NaruHina and SasuSaku are also affected by this, not as severe, but it's still pretty noticeable.

NaruHina

The fact that, with NaruHina, we needed an entire freaking movie, which, frankly, should have never happened, had they done a better job at utilizing Hinata as her own character, with Naruto present to help her out with her clan, and it all hinged on Naruto himself regressing as a character too, needing to be put in a fucking Genjutsu, just to see how he "truly felt" about Hinata... I am sorry, what is this? I mean, from a writing standpoint, this is just straight-up BAD. It's clichéd, it's painting Hinata as a damsel in distress, needing to be saved by Naruto, and Naruto himself being pardoned with "he is just dense", and overall, you can really tell, this is all just hamfisted into a single movie, because they needed to desperately convince us: Look, this is a thing. They are together now. Now play the emotional music, because that's all it needs.

Listen, I know Naruto never had a clear grasp on his own emotions, but the overall pay-off, to me, is just not there, no matter how hard I try. It just feels hollow, I don't feel happy with this. Because, for this to ship to work, they had to go through all these extra lengths to regress them both first, as individual characters, just so they can shut the lid on the whole thing. Made even worse by how this confession of Hinata during the Pain Invasion arc, was never brought up again to Naruto, until the freaking movie, and I still don't understand why. I know he didn't "ignore" her, but why does he fail to recognize Hinata's love confession, but the moment Sakura drops by to confess to him, too, he immediately calls it BS? Please. Make it make sense.

SasuSaku

Listen, nothing will stop me from loving these two as one, they deserve the peace amongst themselves, but the problem is, like InoSai, it falls back on the trope of, the girl bearing this mindset of "I can fix him", and while Sakura certainly did succeed... hear me out:

This is a purely universal thing now, this isn't just applying to SasuSaku. Otherwise, both ships have a solid foundation, ruined by shit writing. Nothing else to say.

That moment of Ino crying for Sasuke, really made me realize: Kishimoto really is clueless, not just about women, but men, too.

Because, again, for how often some of the girls bore this mindset of "I need me some brooding hunk of meat", essentially, desiring a man that knowingly treats them like crap, just so they can bear the delusion of "I can fix him", while downplaying and belittling the "uncool" guys like Choji, Rock Lee, or hell, even Naruto or Kiba, guys who, for the most part, have a solid grasp on their moral compass and their self-worth, denouncing their advances with "ew, no", is honestly disgusting to me. Like, come on, man, they aren't as cool as the edgelord teammates, but why downplay them so hard in the presence of the girls? Don't they deserve love too? Why belittle them for their eccentricities, it not only paints the girls in a bad light, but it straight up mocks the male "goofball" teammates for being the way they are. In short: NO ONE IS THE WINNER HERE.

Phew, OK, I hope, I made my point, loud and clear now. Because these points have been bothering me for a VERY long time now, and look, correct me if I am wrong. I am never 100% foolproof, so if I left out anything, feel free to correct me.

I needed to vent about this, because I felt so genuinely pissed off for how underpowered and underepresented the girls are, and how unkind and unforgiving the writing was to them, overall.

Peace.

[allykakamatsu]

Twisted Wonderland DnD

Title says it all, basically here's what I think the NRC boys classes and species would be in Dnd

Notes:

This is me trying to adapt their powers not what they would pick, for example if I was going on what they'd pick Epel with be a goliath barbarian

Everyone's going to have a level cap of 15, with the exceptions of Leona, Malleus and Lilia cause they're noticeably older than everyone else so I felt fair giving them a few more levels due to more experienced.

I'm sticking to cannon species if I can, but I will be mixing it up in the cases where either A, there isn't a good substitute or B, I think it would be funny.

Just cause I like to I tried to give everyone a multi-class. Also this is being done with base 5e rules so none of the new 2024 stuff.

Obviously this is just for fun idc about being optimal here.

And with that House Keeping done, let's go!

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Riddle: Human, 3 Zealot Barbarian 12 Abjuration wizard

A caster with barbarian levels, well if there was ever a way to prove this was just for fun this would be it- Jokes aside the subclass doesn't matter too much here, I just had to squeak some barb levels in here cause of Riddle being a very angry boi plus him somehow having the strength to throw Floyd across the room during their orientation. The wizard levels are more straightforward, he's a smart boi and abjuration is where all the 'no magic allowed' spells are so yeah.

Ace: Human, 8 Arcane Trickster Rogue 7 Glamour Bards

Unlike everyone else sans Ortho, I didn't really have any unique magic stuff to use as a baseline for Ace, however one of his talents is sleight of hand tricks so I figured rogue would be a good fit, and Arcane Trickster with it's invisible mage hand in particular would be pretty fitting. As for bard, that one's mainly to show that he's a show off and Glamour is the one I always kinda see as the most flashy. Plus, look me in the eye and tell me Ace wouldn't be a Vicious Mockery spammer.

Deuce: Human, 5 Champion Fighter 10 Redemption Paladin

Probably one of the easiest ones for me to figure out tbh. Some flavour of fighter for his delinquent days and him getting into a lot of fights then (I went champion cause of crits but tbh any could work), and then redemption paladin cause he's trying his god damn hardest to be a good boi now, not much more to it.

Trey: Human, 8 Transmutation Wizard 7 Shepard Druid

And in contrast to Deuce being one of the easiest to figure out, Trey might just be tied for the hardest because I did not know where to begin here. Eventually I went transmutation wizard cause all of it's spells are about changing something which fits with his UM, and then Druid due to the nature and healing spells combo being a decent fit for his cooking and his big brother instincts. Again, this is the one I'm least sure on so if you have any other ideas please tell me.

Cater: Half Elf, 10 Lore Bard 5 Illusion Wizard

That moment when I have to justify the species more than the class-. Tldr, some writers, namely @ladyazurith , have sold me on the concept of half fae Cater so I wanted to throw that in, and since their isn't a half fairy race half elf will have to do. Meanwhile the class was really easy, Illusion wizard cause while there's no spell that quite replicates 'Split Card' their collection comes close, and lore bard cause Cater as a bard just feels right, though I'm open to thoughts on the subclass.

(rest underneath cut). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leona: Tabaxi, 5 Battle Master Fighter, 11 Storm Sorcerer

I love my lazy cat man, in general but also here cause he's easy to figure out. Any fighter subclass would've worked, I just went battle master cause some of the manoeuvres like tripping felt like things Leona would do in a fight, and the Sorcerer levels were mainly cause I wanted to get him disintegrate which was the closest spell I could find to King's Roar, I just went storm cause none of the other sorcerer origins seemed like the best fit

Ruggie: Tabaxi, 12 Thief Rogue 3 Enchantment Wizard:

Another simple enough one. Given his upbringing thief rogue just made way to much sense, and as for enchantment wizard well, that's the school of magic Hideous Laughter and it's stronger Tasha version belong to and that's such a good fit for 'Laugh for Me' it's not even funny.

Jack: Shifter, 10 Moon Druid 5 Cavalier Fighter

Thank you Savannahclaw for being simple- Jokes aside, Moon Druid is the class all about better wildshape, the ability that lets you turn into animals so it's perfect for 'Unleash the Beast', and again the subclass didn't matter too much for the fighter I just wanted it for more melee strength (+Jack wanting to copy Leona) and I went cavalier cause I thought it would be funny if he got the bonuses when he was the mount- Also went shifter cause there's no werewolf race and I had to improvise

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Azul: Simic Hybrid, 10 Fathomless Warlock 5 Whispers Bard

And in complete contrast to the last dorm the Octotrio were collectively a pain to figure out. Eventually I did settle on this though. There's no octopus race so I went Simic Hybrid purely because it can have all kinds of aquatic limbs including octopus tentacles so 'close enough' and Whispers is the spy bard so all the public charms plus a lot of sneakiness. As for warlock, look, I know realistically Azul would more likely be a patron than someone making a devil deal given how he is, but I couldn't resist plus nothing's stopping him from making deals of his own to take down his boss-

Jade: Triton, 10 Spores Druid 5 Whispers Bard

Before anyone makes the joke yes the twins being a species named Triton is ironic but again I didn't have the best options here. That aside, the class here was easy enough, the bard levels were mainly for fast friends and zone of truth which combined make a pretty good representation of 'Shock the Heart' and I went Whispers for the same reason as Azul. As for the druid levels well, Jade clearly loves nature given how he started the Mountain Lovers Club and all, wildshape is a good way for him to turn back into his true form, and well, Circle of Spores specifically is a creepy mushroom themed subclass which just fits way too well.

Floyd: Triton, 2 Land Druid 13 Hexblade Warlock

Despite how long this one took me to figure out this one's pretty simple. Druid for wildshape though unlike Jade Floyd isn't sticking around nearly as long, and Hexblade cause well, I wasn't actively writing down spell lists but I was keeping them in mind and out of all the classes that had the spells I wanted for him (shield and counterspell to try recreate 'Bind the Heart') warlock was the only one that gave any kind of melee game, plus idk Floyd does seem like the type to find a cursed sword and keep it as a pet. Also,I'm not going into abilities but he also absolutely gets the grappler feat cause boy has gotta squeeze.

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Kalim: High Elf, 12 Divine Soul Sorcerer 3 Creation Bard

After the fishies gave me a lot of trouble we're back to simple thank god. Kalim does scream sorcerer to me due to the 'being born with more magic without having to work as hard for it' thing (I mean this with love I love my sunshine boy) and I went with Divine Soul to kinda reference Kalim being one of only three students at NRC to use light magic plus given all the assassination attempts the various healing spells it comes with probably come in handy (also sorcerer's in general are good with con saves which is what you need to beat poison). The bard levels are pretty much just cause he likes performing and making people smile, subclass doesn't matter too much, and lastly high elves are like the typical high magic rich people race which I think is a good fit.

Jamil: Yuan-ti, 4 Assassin Rogue 11 Enchantment Wizard

Time for my babygirl everyone- My bias aside this one was fun and thankfully pretty simple. I went with Yuan-ti cause that's the snake race and I couldn't help myself (also it has advantage on poison saves so extra fitting), Assassin Rogue cause rogue is generally a good class for getting through social interactions, notably with deception which is fitting, plus I have a sinking feeling Jamil at least knows how to kill if not has already done so. And finally, enchantment wizard cause that's where all the mind control spells are, notably level 11 is when you get mass suggestion which is basically what Jamil did at the end of book 4.

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Vil: Human, 10 Alchemist Artificer 5 Glamour Bard

I know I could've been more creative with the species choice here but Vil was one of the first I worked on and I wasn't going full hog wild yet- That aside, this one was surprisingly simple, Vil is the best potion maker out of the dorm specifically dedicated to that so the subclass that's all about making potions was just way too fitting, and glamour bard because Vil is absolutely a bard and I tend to associate this one with being the most bright and showy which is a public image I think Vil would like.

Rook: Wood Elf, 12 Fey Wanderer Ranger 3 Eloquence Bard

A rare case where I knew the class right away but the subclasses were hard to nail down. I know hunter ranger seems like the obvious one but tbh I'm not crazy on it and the 2014 version especially is kinda boring so I looked at the others and I think Fey Wanderer fits Rook a bit better cause of his love of beauty and all Fey being pretty in their own weird little way, plus it's more light themed and since he's one of the light magic students I wanted to lean into that. Meanwhile I think the bard stuff he picked up from Vil and I went eloquence cause that one's all about the fancy words which Rook is full of. As for the species, I have no deeper reason other than Wood Elf feeling right admittedly-

Epel: Halfling, 3 Wild Magic Barbarian 12 Swords Bard

Sorry Epel, I love you but in my mind you're a tiny boy holding a comically large axe- As for why I didn't push that gag further, well that's mainly cause I wanted to replicate UM when I can, and for Epel the closest I could get with my level cap+multiclass rules was Wall of Force so he had to go caster, and since I realised the rest of Pomfiore were at least part bard I decided Epel can join in on the 'fun'. Though I did do him the mercy of picking College of Swords cause Vil can force this angry boi to play music and charm people but he's gonna do it in the most violent way possible-

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Idia: Fire Genasi, 10 Battlesmith Artificer 5 Shadow Sorcerer

This was easier than I was expecting ngl. Tldr, Fire Genasi was the closest I could get to... whatever is going on with his biology, Artificer is the resident builder class so it's a good fit and battlesmith in particular is all about making weapons which is kind of what Idia did with Ortho, and Shadow Sorcerer cause his weird blood basically mandated some sorcerer levels and shadow is all about death which fits Idia's deal pretty well.

Ortho: Warforged, 8 PSI Fighter 7 Shadow Sorcerer:

And in complete contrast to his brother, Ortho is probably tied with Trey for the character I had the hardest time with but hopefully this'll do. Warforged is the resident robot race so that was a shoe in, I just kinda assume Idia used some of his magic to create Ortho hence the sorcerer levels plus spells like magic missile is the closest I can get to his laser beams, and fighter cause it's the generically good combat class, again subclass is debatable. I tried but I have no idea what I was doing for this one tbh-

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Malleus: Fairy, 12 Draconic Sorcerer 5 Dreams Druid

Okay, I know Dragonborn is the obvious species here but man is literally the prince of the Fae and there's plenty of spells to transform into dragons so screw it Malleus is a fairy. Other than that it's pretty straight forward, Draconic Sorcerer cause no duh, and Dreams Druid cause A, Fae prince aka tied to nature and B, after book 7 I don't think I need to explain why Malleus having a sleep themes class is fitting.

Silver: Human, 13 Twilight Cleric 2 Dreams Druid

Okay, hear me out with the class here, namely cleric cause I don't think I have to explain Dreams Druid here either. Tldr, I wanted Silver to have plane shift cause that was the closest thing I could find to his UM. Unfortunately it's a high level spell so I can't properly fit in a martial class while keeping to my level limit. Fortunately cleric is one of the classes that has Plane Shift and it's good with melee weapons as well as armour, plus it's all about holy aka light magic so it's honestly kind of perfect. Also I went Twilight Domain cause Lilia found him at night and it's a nice way of showing how despite where he was from Silver true place is with the Fae rather than his birth family.

Lilia: Dhampir, 5 Eldritch Knight Fighter 15 Bladesinger Wizard

Okay I know I should've made Lilia a fairy along with Malleus but we all joke that Lilia's a vampire so when I remembered Dhampir was an option I couldn't resist. That aside everything else is fairly simple, a melee fighter with spell access in Eldritch Knight and a caster that prefers to fight at melee in Bladesinger, perfect for a former war general, and this way most of his actual spells can go to fun utility options, as well as more... questionable spells like ones to 'help' with his cooking.

Sebek: Lizardfolk, 10 Ancients Paladin 5 Storm Sorcerer

Again, there isn't a half fairy option so I had to get creative, but instead of just going half elf again I decided to do a silly and lean into the crocodile jokes. As for the classes, Storm Sorcery was mainly for the lightning spell access, and paladin was just too good of a fit for Sebek. I was tempted to go Crown due to his loyalty to Malleus but I decided on Ancients due to his pride in his Fae side but this one is pretty debatable. Though a bonus for paladins in general is Aura of Protection which provides allies advantage against fear.... the situation was more despair instead of fear but it still works pretty well for a certain moment in book 7

If you made it this far, thank you for indulging my bullshit

[monikashinswife]

omg omgggg i love ur monika fic and i need moreee 😭🙏🙏

Ask and you shall receive<3

(also she looks so tiny hereeeee)

"If you really love me, get me a husband next teachers day."

-this is inspired by the Street Woman Fighter 1 Gala Talk show, when one of her students brought the Teacher's Day incident. Enjoy reading<33

Everyone knows how Monika has been single for a very long time. And it has been a constant topic whenever she gets interviewed by hosts. It was almost too much, but Monika answered them enthusiastically.

The constant bringing up of her love life was also briefly brought up during the gala talk show of season 1 of Street Women Fighter. Where the powerful ladies were there to have fun. During one of the segments, everyone gets to ask the leaders a question.

One of Monika's students brought up the teacher's day incident. Which made Monika tear up because of how she felt during those times. And to make it up to her. She then told them playfully "If you really love me, get me a husband next teacher's day."

Monika didn't know that it was coming for her. After the success of Street Woman Fighter, opportunities were given left and right and they kept coming. Monika was invited to many interviews and most of them asked about her love life. And like always, Monika would talk about how she still doesn't have a boyfriend.

They kept going throughout the year and it was always a delight for Monika.

And speaking of opportunity, yours came when Kirsten. One of your close friends invited you to join her for Street Woman Fighter Season 2. Kirsten drags you to join her since you've been dancing together for a very long time. And who are you to refuse your best friend?

With that, Jam Republic Crew is formed with other members. It was destiny, you thought. To be with these very people. You were very excited about this new adventure.

And that adventure would be going back to South Korea. You immediately contacted Lip J. Telling her that you would be going back to Korea, but without telling her the reason. As it is said by the staffs.

You and Hyo Won met in a competition in New Zealand. You were attached after that. You continue to contact each other even if you're living across multiple countries from each other that doesn't stop you from being friends.

With Hyo Won's influence, you started learning her language. It's been a while since you saw each other. It was very clear when your squeals and screams could be heard throughout the area where the passing people saw two best friends hugging each other like lunatics.

"Oh my fucking God I missed you!!" You exclaimed once the hug was broken. Lip J's eyes can't be seen from how wide she's smiling.

"We literally Facetime each other almost every night!" She answered, but you both know you missed each other. You're each other's therapist.

"You know you missed me" I winked at her and she gave me a disgusted look. I gave a mock offense before I lightly slapped her arm and we burst out laughing. After that interaction, our day started. We pamper ourselves with things that we both love doing. Knowing that this is something we don't often do together.

" would you like it if I invited you to one of our dance classes?" Lip J asked casually while eating her ice cream. I look at her while also eating mine, "with PROWDMON?" I asked, she hummed and I nodded. Hyo won quickly grabbed my arm to drag me back to the parking lot.

"Hey, where are you taking me?" I whined while I followed her like a child being dragged by her mom. "To our studio" she answered casually. "Dressed like this?" I pointed to what I was wearing, she quickly scanned my tight-fitting dress before shrugging. "I'll borrow some spare clothes if that's the case. And besides, this is the first time I'm taking you to our studio. It's teachers day and I have to give this gift to Monika Unnie."

"Is it okay?" I asked carefully, making sure that I wouldn't be a bother when we got there. I understand that it's an important day and they must be doing an event to celebrate their mentor.

"Yes, but you know what's not okay?" Hyo Won suddenly sounded serious. "What?" She chuckled at my hurried response. "You, not meeting Monika even though we've been friends for so long." I stopped whatever I was doing on my phone to look at her.

"Holy shit, you're right!" I laughed loudly because of the situation. I never met her best friend and what an odd situation that is, considering we often FaceTime.

And just like that, the car ride was full of singing and talking. That was until we arrived at their studio. I can't help but feel excited. Wordlessly, Lip J passed me the gift that she was supposed to give to Monika and we went in.

"Unnie!" Shockingly we heard a loud call. We both looked around when we entered the practice room. I automatically smiled when the students hugged their unnie. "Oh, my-" I gave them a wave as a greeting and I giggled at their shocked reaction.

They all squealed when they saw you. How could they not? You are an icon when it comes to dancing. And it was a pleasant surprise as the students were also a fan of your work.

Monika, overwhelmed by the warm greeting from her students, looked pleasantly surprised to see you with Lip J in the studio. Her students, not wanting to waste any time, immediately handed her the gift they'd prepared for Teacher's Day.

Lip J, with a playful grin, nudged you forward, introducing you to Monika. "Monika Unnie, this is Y/n. She's a dear friend of mine and has joined us for today's dance class."

Monika, still in a state of disbelief, accepted the gift from her students and then turned her attention to you. "Nice to meet you, Y/n. I've heard so much about you from Lip J. Thank you for being here with us on this special day."

You exchanged pleasantries and chatted with Monika and her students. As the class began, you watched Monika in action, impressed by her teaching skills and her close bond with her students.

After the class, Monika approached you and Lip J. "Thank you both for coming today. It means a lot to me. How about we grab a meal together to celebrate Teacher's Day?"

As the sunset and the city lights began to twinkle, the atmosphere between you and Monika started to take on a more romantic hue. The restaurant you chose had an intimate ambiance, and the three of you shared a cozy corner table.

Monika's students, sensing the chemistry between the two of you, excused themselves, leaving you and Monika alone. The soft glow of the candlelight and the background music set the mood for a heartfelt conversation.

Monika, her eyes reflecting the warm light, looked at you and said, "You know, I didn't expect this Teacher's Day to turn into such a beautiful surprise. Meeting you here, spending this evening together—it's been so special."

You gazed into her eyes, feeling a strong connection, and replied, "I feel the same way, Monika. There's something truly magical about how we met today. I've heard so much about you from Hyo Won, and I can see why she admires you so much."

A faint blush tinted Monika's cheeks, and she smiled, her fingers gently tracing the rim of her wine glass. "I must admit, I've enjoyed our conversation and the time we've spent together. Y/n, I hope we can get to know each other better."

Your heart skipped a beat as you took Monika's hand across the table. "I'd love that, Monika. Maybe we could do this again sometime, just the two of us?"

Monika's eyes sparkled with excitement as she nodded. "I would like that."

The evening continued with shared stories, laughter, and a connection that seemed to grow stronger by the minute. By the time the night came to a close, you and Monika had taken the first step towards a blossoming romance, all because of a playful challenge, an unexpected visit, and the magic of a serendipitous encounter.

Maybe the reason why she still doesn't have a husband is because she is destined to have a wife.

-

(not proofread)

[darkdevasofdestruction]

Being in a relationship with Gaoh Ryuki...

( Disclaimer: This is going to have darker tones to it, Reader is from the Inside, and well... We know how awful the inside is, especially for women :) )

Y/N smiled passively, listening to music loud enough to tune out the world as she walked to Yamashita-san's company. As usual, she managed to successfully skip class, so she decided to have her lunch with the old man, whom she sees close to a father figure. Needless to say, though she was so young, she felt the most at home around the old CEO, his secretaries and all the Kengan Fighters, since very young, when she first got involved in the Underground world.

Fixing her cute summer dress, she knocked on the door of his office, and entered. "Yo, Yamashita-san, I brought my famous bento lunch! Let's eat together today!" she spoke cheerfully, only to freeze upon making eye contact with a familiar face. Though she wasn't greeted by the manager himself, she saw her classmate, Koga, bored out of his mind and rather frustrated. She wanted to laugh in his face - She almost couldn't believe he finally managed to get himself in relation to the Underground after so long; But what caught her attention was that brunet man, looking absent-minded. "OH MY GOD, OHMA, YOU'RE ALIVE!" she squealed cheerfully, the lunch pack falling to the ground as she jump-hugged the man, holding him tightly. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I KNEW YOU COULDN'T BE DEAD! I KNEW IT! YOU'RE TOO STRONG TO DIE, OHMA!" the man didn't speak a word, bewildered, but unable to voice any kind of protest out of shock and confusion. Koga was long since forgotten, yet it was Yamashita Kazuo who cleared her throat, and in the gentlest voice, called out to Y/N. "Y/N... I'm sorry, that's not Ohma. Look again." Y/N froze, and in that moment, the stranger placed his hands gently on her shoulders, pulling her at arms' length, so she could take a better look at his face - Indeed, that wasn't Ohma, but by hell, he looked like they could be twins, or at least a younger brother. "Oh no... You're right... You're not Ohma... But you look so much like him... But you're a bit shorter, and your body isn't as buffed up. Even your hair is a little longer and lighter in shade. Your eyes too... They are dark, but gentler. I should have known better... You couldn't be Tokita Ohma's younger brother by any chance, can you?" she tried, but the boy shook his head, earning a sigh from her. "Sorry to disappoint, miss, but I hope you see this Ohma again some day. My name is Gaoh Ryuki, and I'm here to become a Kengan fighter." Y/N looked up at him, unable to break eye contact, and she smiled. "Yeah, I can see that, alright. You are going to fit very well in this matches. I can feel these things, y'know?" she giggled playfully - Not only was she sure any person with the last name 'Gaoh' would be an excellent fighter, but a survivor of the Inside like himself was sure to make it big in an underground fighting arena. "My name is Y/N L/N, it's lovely meeting you, Ryuki. And I'm sorry again for mistaking you for someone else, that was unnecessarily rude of me."

"Hey, are you just going to ignore me?!" Koga's voice made both Y/N and Ryuki look at him. "How'd you get here, anyway?!" "Question is, how did YOU get here." Y/N chuckled teasingly. "I've been associated with the Kengan Association since I was 10 years old. I have to say, it was rather hilarious seeing you stumble around, trying to find your way to the underground. Gave me quite the laughter." "Wh-What?! How could you -- Hey, why didn't you tell me?! You knew how much I wanted to get in the underground!" Koga frowned, stomping in front of her like a little brat throwing a tantrum. "Why? I think that's obvious, isn't it?" Y/N gave him a wicked smirk, completely shocking the boy, who only knew her as that kind and sweet girl who could do no harm. "It's because you would die the second you stepped inside the arena!" she laughed mockingly at him. "There's no way someone like you, as you are now, could POSSIBLY compete with those MONSTERS!" she turned around properly, stepping in front of him, dangerously close, as if to provoke him. "In fact - You couldn't even defeat ME, let alone an actual fighter!" "What the heck, Y/N, are you trying to challenge me to a fight or what?!" based on her impish, mischievous smirk, the short-tempered boy only got angrier. Before he even got the chance to react, however, he found himself being thrown into the shelf, the whole world rotating aggressively with him. "Yes. I was challenging you. If you can't even react fast enough to defend yourself against a girl, you stand no chance, Koga. You have to gain experience and train properly if you ever want to make a proper debut." Koga seemed to be mumbling, pissed off but unable to protest after what happened. The poor manager was freaking out a little, concerned for the silver haired boy's well-being. "Well, Y/N, Koga is now Yamashita Co.'s apprentice, so he won't fight in an official match any time soon. As you said, he needs to get prepared. As for Ryuki, he is going to become an official fighter." the old man spoke in his usual gentle voice. "Sounds about right. Where does Ryuki stay?" it might seem like a peculiar question, but the old manager knew very well the reason behind it. "Both Ryuki and Koga are staying over at my place." he explained simply. "How about that. Ryuki, would you like to stay over at my place? I bet it gets rather crowded at the old man's place." Ryuki looked attentively in the sly girl's eyes, and he could easily pick up on the undertone behind her proposal. With a quick look at the old man, seeking approval, Ryuki smiled innocently and agreed.

Y/N didn't wait to hear Koga's yells of protest, for she hooked her arm to Ryuki's and guided him out of there, enjoying a nice walk all the way to her home.

"What is it that you wanted to speak with me?" Y/N smiled, hearing his words. "Ah, pretty AND smart, I like it." she chuckled leisurely. "I know you're from the Inside - Surely, you know that about myself also. I didn't want to reveal it in front of Koga, he doesn't get these things. He is too... Innocent." "I noticed." he nodded his head. "Have you gotten out of the Inside recently?" she asked softly, and he affirmed. "Did you have anyone to teach you how to read and write?" he shook his head. "And do you want to?" "I suppose that could be useful." he shrugged his shoulders absent-minded. "I got adopted when I was 10 years old, and we escaped. Mum was super smart, and she started studying and became a CEO. Dad became her fighter. I had the privilege of leading a rather beautiful life for the second half of my life." soon, they arrived in front of a large mansion, with a beautiful flower garden and an outside pool. Ryuki could only stare, mesmerised at the lush opulence displayed before him. "Please, make yourself at home. Dad's going to love you." "Y/N... This is really too much." Ryuki mumbled, feeling a little uncomfortable. "I know, it took a while to get used to it - For all of us - But, you know... We deserve it, after what we've gone through, don't you think?" the boy looked at her with a small yet appreciative smile. He couldn't say that he went through that many atrocious things to begin with, but he wasn't blind to the suffering of the others who hadn't the privilege of being adopted by a man to care for them and teach them how to fight. He couldn't imagine what Y/N went through, but at least now, she was fine.

✩ Here, at your home, you taught Ryuki how to read and write.

✩ You often hung around with him and Koga for pubs, restaurants, shopping and what not - Though obviously, Y/N paid for everything, as she was the only one actually earning money to begin with.

✩ Though Ryuki needn't glasses, he got a fashion pair, and you thought he looked adorable.

✩ Also, you loved buying him all the most ridiculous and cute Tshirts and sweaters.

✩ He even agreed to have matching outfits!

✩ You could completely understand why he spoke so freely about killing, and his lack of remorse - You were the same, and unfortunately, you always end up indulging him, without realising.

✩ Life on the Inside left a powerful mark on both of your lives, and even though you left that place physically, a part of you will always be affected by the time spent there, fending for yourselves.

✩ It wasn't until Himuro pointed it out to you, that you realised your lack of care of the life of others wasn't exactly normal behaviour.

✩ You, Himuro and Ryuki ended up pairing up, while Kaneda took Koga to Seki's Wrestling arena, to train.

✩ When the Kengan vs Purgatory Tournament was announced, you assigned your Dad to be one of the original fighters, along with Gaolang and Dad's best friend, Wakatsuki.

✩ You could tell that Ryuki was being just polite with you, at least at the beginning - There was a shallowness and emptiness to his smile, but with time, and your mutual hatred for the Worms, you started feeling some trust in one another.

✩ You cheered for him when he went to fight Jose in the wrestling ring, and even kissed his cheek as a victory prize, to which he smiled like a cute puppy getting a treat.

✩ You were impressed with his way of explaining the footwork game to Koga, and played the referee for them - It was easy for you to understand Ryuki's words, and even wanted to play with him yourself, it looked like a lot of fun, though Koga was getting a little frustrated.

✩ He couldn't understand Ryuki as well as you did, and you often had to translate it in easier words for him.

✩ Koga took Ryuki shopping again, and though he tried to get him to adopt a super cool street style, well, Ryuki definitely preferred something more comfortable and cute.

✩ Ryuki even admitted to you that it was rather fun hanging out with Koga once in a while, though he was a little weird.

✩ When the two boys were taken to the Purgatory to explore a little, you refused to go, out of sheer ego and arrogance.

✩ Over the time, Ryuki began confessing to you about his active effort in eliminating the Worms, and you supported him whole-heartedly; They had to be eliminated forever.

✩ This time, however, Koga witnessed his killing, and Ryuki couldn't understand why he was to upset and angry at him - Didn't he know how evil the Worms are?

✩ You try to explain to him that Koga is completely unfamiliar with the way the Inside works, and even the Underground, and that he shouldn't take it too heart, he'll get over it eventually.

✩ You even tried to talk to Koga, but he outright refused to listen to anything you said in Ryuki's defense.

✩ When you heard that Ryuki's proper employment match was against Akoya, you shuddered in deep fear and tried to reason with Yamashita, but there was nothing he could do.

✩ You told Ryuki about how much of a psychopath monster Akoya is, and how terrifying he can get, but he only smiled brightly at you, kissing your cheek and reassuring you that he'll win - For you.

✩ You have no idea when you started caring so much for Ryuki, but watching him getting brutalized by Akoya made your eyes sting with forming tears, and your heart was aching, the same way as when you watched Cosmo getting tortured by him.

✩ When you saw Ryuki stopping himself from delivering a killing blow, despite being mounted, on the ground, and vulnerable, you realised that Koga's words affected him so much that he allowed himself to get hit until he lost consciousness.

✩ "LEAVE HIM ALONE, AKOYA!" you yelled at him, jumping over the gate and grabbing his wrist as Paula the referee announced the match over. Thankfully, Katahara's bodyguards were there to aid you in stopping that psycho from killing Ryuki.

✩ You immediately knelt by Ryuki's side, helping him stand, and took a handkerchief to wipe away the blood caking his face, before pulling him into an embrace, his face cradled to your soft chest.

✩ If it weren't for the blood on his face, he would have blushed at the proximity.

✩ After the fight, you allowed him and Koga to make up, all alone, though you remained with Yamashita and Kaede, lowkey spying on them, happy that they were finally getting better.

✩ For the next month until the Purgatory fight, you watched Ryuki train in your courtyard, sometimes sparring with your Dad and getting better and better with each fight.

✩ And your Dad ended up liking his so much, that they have a Father-Son relationship of sorts, which almost gets you jealous. Just kidding, they are adorable.

✩ It was the first time you told someone of your Mum's tragic death, and how you had to take over as the CEO at barely 13 years of age; Though your Dad took it the hardest, and never recovered from the loss.

✩ You told him how you were an orphan at first and how you have no idea how you survived until the age of 5 in the worst district known to mankind, Rikuko, before a mafioso kidnapped you, trafficked you and pimped you out until the age of 10, when one of the newer prostitutes along with a client rescued you and took you as their own, with the wish of escaping this hell.

✩ It wasn't an easy escape, and you continued being in danger until you stepped foot over the custom line - And even then, you lived in poverty until your Mum's smarts and Dad's prowess landed you with a whole goldmine and a life of luxury.

✩ You even admitted to Ryuki only that you're still actually afraid of sleeping by yourself, and you don't feel safe even in your own home, despite the guards on the premises.

✩ Since then, Ryuki offered to sleep in the same room with you.

✩ Initially, he wanted to sleep on the ground, unable to look at your beautiful body wearing only a thin and short nightgown.

✩ When you pull him to bed and cuddle with him though, he's completely lost in the warmth and holds you to his chest without any seconds thoughts.

✩ Sleeping together like this becomes more natural for you than anything else.

✩ Sometimes, when he thinks you're asleep, he'll whisper sweet things into your ear, or play with your hair absent-minded, or kiss your forehead; All these things calm him down so much, though he doesn't know why.

✩ Your Dad always jokes about how cute you two are together, and how you'll end up getting married soon.

✩ You have cute dates just strolling around the park, enjoying a coffee at the cafe, or rollerblading around idly.

✩ Or, at night, he'd show you fun 'games' that his grandpa used to help him train, and considering the Gaoh style is more or less proclaimed a coward style, Ryuki thought it would be useful for you to learn, in case you got attacked and needed a quick escape.

✩ When you were told that Yamashita and Koga got attacked and the boy was in hospital, you quickly took the car and drove that way, only for the door to swing open and see, this time, the real Ohma.

✩ "OHMA!" the same as with Ryuki, you jumped on Ohma, this time, 100% sure it was the real one. The man patted your head, smiling down at you - He knew how much you missed him, even though you only met during the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, but with the amount of times he saved you from Rihito's harassing, he became as good as your elder brother. Not to mention, you always cheered and bet on his fights, especially after he destroyed Raian.

✩ Though, the pyscho Kure devil was also fun to hang around, but even better to tease - Yet it always backfired tenfold.

✩ Despite how friendly you were with the two fighters, Ryuki couldn't stand how they were telling Koga to give up on the idea of joining the competition - You had to agree with them though, despite how much he's worked out in the past half a year, he was still nowhere near the level of the veteran legends of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, which represented most of the roster to begin with.

✩ Both you and Raian had to point out, more or less, that Ohma simply meant he couldn't participate for the moment, especially with all those injuries, and Narushima seemed rather emboldened by it.

✩ Ryuki was in a gloomy mood the whole night though, and you couldn't snap him out of it until you were sent to the island where the Tournament was taking place.

✩ You were so happy to see most of your old friends again, and made sure to have nice conversations with all of them, especially with Misasa, with whom you shared a fighting style. Small and cute people like you had to defend yourselves somehow!

✩ Of course, for the first fight, everyone had to argue amongst themselves on who the should go first - Poor Gaolang got so pissed that he simply went on ahead to calm the waters.

✩ His shameless defeat shook you to the core, and you ended up protesting loudly at how unfair it was, playing by the weakling rule of a ringout.

✩ You hugged Gaolang tightly, reassuring him that he was the real winner in the Kengan's eyes.

✩ Next, that German Powerhouse of meat, Julius, won against Pineapple Head.

✩ Your favourite fight, however, was Misasa's, whom you nicknamed Ken, and you were Barbie the CEO. Not only was it fun to watch him fight, but he completely humiliated that traitor for betraying not only Kengan, but Katahara especially.

✩ The next fighter was Naidan, a Mongolian fighter, who coincidentally was also a White Worm, who directly provoked Ryuki into fighting him.

✩ Not only you, but your Dad also, tried to warn the boy to keep his wits about him and not lose his mind over revenge; Hopefully, he will be fine.

✩ Koga also got in the stands next to you, to get a better view of the fight, though all of you were on the edge.

✩ Naidan was, unfortunately, far stronger than Ryuki, and no matter how much the boy wanted to hold back from killing, to keep his promise to Koga... He had to get serious, otherwise, he would just end up dead.

✩ Naidan was provoking and confusing Ryuki so bad, to the point of him losing his mind - Though he started attacking faster, he completely disregarded his own safety.

✩ Just like in the fight with Akoya, Ryuki ended up on the ground, mounted and roughly strangled to the point of almost fainting.

✩ Though he wanted, even to the bitter end, to keep away from killing - Naidan forced him to kill him.

✩ Ryuki was devastated and lost completely.

✩ You were the first to run over to Ryuki, shamelessly kicking Naidan's corpse from above him, before falling to the ground and grabbing Ryuki in a tight embrace, telling him everything was going to be okay and that it wasn't his fault. It was self-defense. Koga agreed with you also, once he got over.

✩ You were so angry on Ryuki's behalf, that when Liu tried to attack him, you immediately leapt to your feet and deflected his punch, cursing at him and telling him to get the hell away from you.

✩ Thankfully, Ohma and the others came by also, taking over for you so you could return to Ryuki.

✩ During Agito's match against yet another filthy Worm, you and Koga tried, and failed, to comfort Ryuki.

✩ In the end, Ryuki asked to be left alone for a while, and you could do nothing but watch as he left the arena, into a dark corridor, to sulk all alone.

✩ Raian's fight was next, and you found yourself laughing almost hysterically as he split his Wu opponent in two. Poor Koga looked at you like you had mental problems.

✩ Meguro's supposed brother, Hayami Masaki, went on to win the next match against one of the two Kings of the Purgatory, Jurota, yet you had no clue that Ryuki ended up getting corrupted by none other than Kiryu Setsuna, whom you thought long dead.

✩ Akoya's match against Nicolas ended up in a draw, and unfortunately, Nitoku lost just like Gaolang, over a stupid Ringout, against that emotional idiot Liu Dongcheng.

✩ At least Naoya, wearing a clown outfit, won against Terashi... Though, you still couldn't quite understand why he was wearing such a ridiculous get-up to begin with.

With three more matches to go, Ryuki finally decided to return, all but bewitched by Setsuna's magic, yet just in time to say his good wishes to your Dad fighting; He had no idea why you looked so angry though.

"You will NOT be fighting now! Let Tsuki-san fight! Let Ohma fight! They won't lose their mind in a fight, but you WILL!" you yelled at your father. It was the first time anyone ever heard you raising your voice. "Sorry, honeybunch, but I gotta. Ain't no way I'm letting that fucker humiliate you like that." your Dad kept his back at you, cracking his knuckled. "TO HELL WITH HUMILIATION, SOME WORDS DON'T HURT ME ANYMORE! HE'S GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU MORON! WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITHOUT YOU?!" everyone in the Kengan arena watched as you kept screaming at your father, while he could only glare at the ugly bastard waiting and taunting him in the ring. "N'aww, cutie, why you got so little faith in me? Your mum woulda be much more encouraging." he chuckled dryly. "No, mum would have slapped your face for being so fucking dumb, that's what she'd've done!" you gripped the back of his shirt, trying to budge him. "I am the CEO! I am directly FORBIDDING you from stepping into the ring!" Your father hung his head, remaining silent for a few seconds. "Yo, Wakatsuki. When my little babygirl marries Ryuki, won'tcha be walkin' her down the aisle for me?" the poor man looked with extreme confusion and bewilderment at his friend. "I think you should be doing that yourself, friend." Takeshi replied. "He's saying that because this dumbass KNOWS he has every chance of getting provoked into a blind rage and getting himself killed!" your frustrated scream only shocked those around you. "Mama's really lonely up there, y'know? And I miss her like hell. Someone's gotta keep her company." your grip fell lax, and you felt your body grow cold and unresponsive. "What about me, then? Are you going to leave me all alone? Am I not your child? What about me?!" you felt tears streaming down your cheeks silently. "WHAT ABOUT ME?!" "My only happiness in life was your mother, and seeing you grow in the beautiful and intelligent young lady that you are. You're gonna be safe now." he started stepping towards the ring. "Forgive me, Y/N."

✩ You remained completely absent from everything around you, almost like you were all alone, in another dimension, forced to watch your father being massacred by the very mafioso who destroyed your early childhood. His looks could resemble Alan Wu after Raian ripped him apart.

✩ Ryuki's heart ripped in two, finally brought back to reality by the raw shriek of anguish, and the distraught expression on your face as you violently ripped and tugged away at your gorgeous velvety hair.

✩ When the mafioso dares speak ill of your father for being weak, and even throwing crass and improper comments on your child-body, not only Ryuki, but Wakatsuki also, wanted to beat the crap out of him - But you were faster.

✩ All spectators gasped as you took out a dagger holding your hair in a pretty updo, and with perfect Silat and Systema moves, you hacked away at the evil-doer, slashing away at his flesh, digging into his chest, ripping him apart, stabbing his skull, until he reverted into nothing but mush and porridge. People were screaming at the murder taking place for a fourth time before their eyes, and not the referee, or the fighters could hold you down.

✩ Ryuki was the only one capable of prying you away from that monster, and even though he tried to hold you into his arms, like you always did for him, you were on such high alert that you pushed him away, yelling at him not to touch you.

✩ Koga followed after you, and though he tried to reprimand you for slaughtering a man, his heart was also broken, having finally found out your story, and understanding now why you always took Ryuki's side and excusing his murders.

✩ When you got home, you cried the whole night and there was nothing Ryuki could do, except stay there with you, making sure you didn't feel afraid, all alone, in such a huge mansion. He, too, mourned your father's death, having gotten close to him over the course of time.

✩ "Ryuki... Do you want to be my company's fighter? I don't want to ever lose you. Not you too." he agreed.

✩ After the Kengan vs Purgatory Tournament, Ryuki joined Setsuna and Akoya in defeating the Worms, while you supported them with funds and information.

✩ Since then, you contacted Misasa, Retsudo and Rolon so that all three of you could teach you their own variations of Silat, as it was the best fighting style for you.

✩ When the Berserker Bowl took place, you cheered on Ryuki all the time - Though you were shocked when he ultimately lost against Koga.

✩ That wasn't the big issue though. What hurt the most was that... Rihito won. There is no atrocity in life bigger than Rihito winning anything in life. Useless man with ugly shorts.

✩ With this loss, Ryuki had a revelation, amidst a lot of confusion - He completely severed ties with Setsuna, and decided to speak to you, Ohma and Yamashita, about going by himself to the Inside, to have a talk with his grandfather. Too many of his convictions got shaken up in the few months spent Outside, and he needed to get some questions answered.

✩ Albeit reticent and afraid, you gave him the blessing of going.

✩ As reassurance, Ryuki kissed your lips for the first time, promising you that, when he returns, he will ask you out.

✩ Though you and Koga waited and waited, the Summer ended, and Ryuki hadn't come back. Naturally, you began to worry, so you created a small party to get to the Inside and rescue him, including Ohma, Retsudo, Himuro and Rei.

✩ Ryuki's GPS tracker stopped somewhere around Rohza district - Not the worst, but not the best place to live either. That place, however, wasn't a district anymore, but a contested place for a turf war by all sides, as every minute, the borders of the districts keep changing and changing actively.

✩ Both Ohma and you explained to Yamashita how dangerous it is to live in the Inside, and that not even people living there would dare cross districts through that place, and instead, take cautious steps through the Outside.

"So you're going through Rohza? That's a good choice." Kushida Rin spoke, once the four of you returned to Yamashita's office. "Rohza and Hachio are the more relatively safe parts of the Inside, but you'd have to go through Goyu to get to the disputed territory through Hachio." though she got a little flustered when Kaede mentioned how well versed she is about the geography of that god-forsaken place. It seems she wasn't aware Rin was also from there. "How about Rikuko?" Koga asked innocently. "THAT'S PLACE IS HELL ON EARTH! NEVER EVER GET EVEN CLOSE TO IT!" Rin shrieked, visibly shaken up. "... That was my home for 10 years." you bit your lip, shivering softly just remembering that place. "There are no words to describe that place. I bet even Hell is a kinder place than Rikuko. I home it gets burnt to the ground, along with all the people living there. No, rather, all those fucking monsters." Koga looked at your disturbed and disgusted face, and felt a tremor of sheer fright go down his spine.

✩ You reached the huge wall separating the Outside with the Inside, and felt your heart covering with a blanket of ice and numbness, seeing the destruction and desolation of this place. You never wanted to return to this place, but Ryuki needed saving, and you couldn't abandon him.

✩ You got to the Black Market, and followed the safest route that Retsu's men could scout, but before, you took lodging in a dilapidated place, provided by the General himself.

✩ Instead of going to eat with Ohma and Koga, you remained with the others, and though you couldn't find the power to speak much, you went through packs of cigarettes to try and sooth your stress. You didn't.

✩ Himuro especially expressed his worry for your helped, but you simply smirked and showed him you just puffed them as a bad fixation habit.

✩ When those two returned, Koga explained that Setsuna visited them and told them some info about Ryuki and Mukaku's safe houses and what not. When you told Koga that you were well aware that Ryuki continued to kill Worms with him, he got frustrated, grabbing yours shoulders and shaking you, screaming at you for allowing him to murder.

✩ You simply punched him away, not wanting to bother with explanations.

✩ The next morning after breakfast, the General sent a lackey to call them over, and he asked for one of the party to defeat one of his men, to see if you deserve an escort.

✩ Without a second thought, you stepped forwards, ready to face the hulky man with swirly tattoos.

✩ The only one to protest was Koga, but Retsu shut him up.

"I'm far too angry to pretend I'm an innocent little princess. I'm here to rescue my boyfriend and return home, with all the party members intact and in good shape. So, let's get it over with, shall we?"

✩ You took out your dagger and played around with it, before going to attack the large man holding a knife.

✩ Of course, you were in a playful mood, so like a cat playing with its prey, you confused him with a few good side-steps, before placing the tip of your dagger to his neck artery. "Should I kill you, or do you surrender?"

✩ The general stopped the fight, offering you your guide as he watched you high-fiving the other men in your party who praised your techniques.

✩ The Nameless Guide guided you through the Underground, through the Second Layer, and when descending back to the surface, they were brought to a path that led to a temple.

✩ Out of nowhere, an old man with a large meat cleaver attacked Ohma - He looked incredibly hostile, claiming you were Worms - Koga had to clear up the misunderstanding, though you could smell the bullshit. The old man was a shit liar, and the others seemed to be sensing the same.

✩ He claims Ryuki dropped by about a week prior, but he wasn't around anymore. Somehow, you couldn't believe him. Though he doesn't know where he could be, he explained that Ryuki is indispensable to the Worm, as both him and Ohma are clones of the Connector.

✩ When Himuro's phone beeped, you took out your cigarette pack and followed him and Retsudo outside of the temple, voicing your concerns of the blatant truth avoidance.

✩ You pointed out your belief that Mukaku might have attacked Ohma, thinking it was Ryuki - But why would he attack the child he raised?

✩ When you returned to the temple, Mukaku told you a story of his youth, of him getting in the inside, taking the many Niko as his students, how the Worms made the Inside, the Gu Chamber Ritual, and how during the field trip to Gakigahara Forest, the Nikos ended up killing each other as two of them defected to the Worm side. Ohma's Master, Tokita Niko, was the only one left.

✩ He went on to say that, after attacking a Worm base, he found baby Ryuki and took him under his wing.

✩ Koga got all chummy with the old man, cutting log and wrestling around. Ohma and Himuro kept trying to find any lie in the old man's tale, while you looked at Retsudo speaking on the phone in the distance. He, like yourself, had your doubts about Mukaku.

✩ When finally Retsu returned, he told Mukaku that his men found Ryuki and was taken into custody. The old man's reaction, as well as his shift in gaze, was enough to confirm his lies.

✩ You tried to ask the old man of Ryuki's location - Clearly, he was somewhere on the premises - But the revelation came through, that Mukaku was actually a Worm.

✩ Retsu revealed the Gaoh style is a hoax, and it was just a revived Nameless style, and that the old man was a Remnant of Wowang. Of course, he got hostile, and though dumbass Koga had to go ahead and get himself in trouble, needing rescue from Ohma, you and Retsu, followed by the dumbass boy, ran away to a storehouse where Himuro was waiting. It was the place Ryuki was kept at.

✩ Not inside the house, but underground in a cellar that stank of death, rot and decay worse than anything you've ever encountered before.

✩ Using the lighter's flame, you went on ahead, seeing the countless skeletons and rotting corpses, and all the way in the back, shackled by the wrists, a beaten up Ryuki, half-conscious, was hanging there.

✩ Though Koga's loud scream rang painfully through your ears, you rushed ahead to rescue your boyfriend. Thankfully, despite how bad he looked, his breathing and pulse were just fine.

✩ Soon, Mukaku led Ohma to the cellar after surrendering - There was nothing else he could do, he says. He explained the true purpose of Wowang, and how they wanted to kill the Connector. He also mentioned how all the bones around are the remains of all the kids who couldn't become Niko. How awful.

✩ Though a little confusing, he spoke of Shen Wulong, the Connector, being a clone of his predecessor, and how the Worm was continuing to clone to create the most perfect iteration of the Connector. Mukaku wanted to destroy all closing facilities - Apparently, all attempts at cloning Shen were failures, and with the facilities destroyed, Ryuki was the last existing clone of him.

✩ That's why he sent Ryuki to Kengan - To lure the Worm and get the chance to kill Shen Wulong.

✩ Of course, Koga's temper got the best of him, and Ohma had to hold him back from injuring himself against that beast of a man.

"Guys, forget him, he's none of our concern. Shen Wulong is going to have a lot of fun, finishing the job of killing all those worthless Wowang cockroaches. We came here for Ryuki, so let's get him to safety already." though they agreed, Ryuki, woken up, used all of his strength to cling on you and get in a sitting position, to get a chance to speak to his grandpa. "Were you... Just using me... Grandpa?" his broken voice shattered your heart. "Why else would I keep you? The only reason you're still alive today is 'cause you're the clone of the Connector - That piece of shit wants you back, no matter what. Then again, I find it hard to believe - How can a weakling like you be one of HIS clones? What a failure the last clone turned out to be." it wasn't just Koga, but Himuro also, seething with rage and cursing the old man. "I understand. You're not my grandpa anymore." Ryuki sighed, defeated and depressed, hanging his head.

Before you left, you took the opportunity to land one clean punch, breaking Mukaku's nose. "That's for breaking my boyfriend's heart." you hissed at him, before slashing at his cheek with your dagger. "And that's for hurting him." you turned your back to him, supporting your boyfriend up. "Heed my words, old man. Run away. Shen Wulong is going to massacre a weakling like you!" you laughed, taunting him and rushing the boy out of the stinking cellar.

✩ Ohma spoke his sage words, reassuring the two boys, as Retsu simply suggested to get the hell out of there already.

✩ Ryuki got the best medical treatment, and you stood by his side, next to his bed, until he was finally released.

✩ He hadn't spoken much at the beginning, but in the end, he allowed himself to cry a little, in the comfort of your arms. The betrayal had hit him hard.

✩ When you finally returned to your home, he was very clingy and didn't want to spend any moment apart from you. He was like a cute, clingy panda, just seeking your affection and attention.

✩ It was during his most vulnerable time that he first confessed how much he loves you and how grateful he is for everything you've done for him, and especially, the endless love you bore for him.

✩ Koga would continue teasing you for being so overly affectionate with each other, but you simply shrug.

✩ The three of you continue hanging around often.

✩ When you get intimate for the first time, Ryuki is very attentive, to make sure you're comfortable and not afraid of his touch - He knows very well what you went through, and wants to make sure you're feeling okay all the time.

✩ He's so gentle all the time, and he kisses you the entire time. He can't get enough of your lips.

✩ He loves missionary the most because he can take it slow, with you in his arms, amd he can suffocate you with all his love and passion, cradling your face, kissing your forehead, seeing all of your cute expressions and those sweet thrills you make for him.

✩ Ryuki's love for you is pure and innocent, and he only ever focuses on you and your pleasure.

✩ He gets off on making you feel good, and he loves taking his sweet time in bed, taking you over the edge many times.

✩ Just like your Dad predicted, Ryuki proposed pretty quickly, after he won an important match for your company - Of course, your fighter friends were present and cheered for you.

✩ That night, he told you your Dad talked to him about you and the prospect of marriage pretty often, told him about his relationship with your mum, and it inspired him to become a better man for you, worthy of becoming your husband.

✩ He doesn't know yet entirely what real life in the Outside means, but he has time to learn, and people to teach him - His most important goals were to protect you and that precious smile of yours for as long as he's alive.

✩ Though your wedding wasn't big, with many guests, it was grandiose and all of you and your dearest friends of Kengan and Purgatory were invited. Alright, maybe that's quite a lot of people actually.

✩ As promised, Wakatsuki walked you down the aisle, and with Mokichi being the priest holding the ceremony, Elena was the flower girl and the ring bearer.

✩ Koga was the best man and Sayaka was your Maid of Honour.

✩ When Ryuki saw you as a bride, he almost started shaking with emotion, a huge grin on his face and shining like a happy golden retriever - He only needed a tail to wag.

✩ He was so impatient for you to get over to him already, and since he had no idea how the ceremony was supposed to go, he kissed you before Mokichi could even say a word.

✩ You are happy.

-----------------

Being in a relationship with Wakatsuki Takeshi... Being in a relationship with Yoroizuka Saw Paing... Being in a relationship with Kure Raian... Being in a relationship with Tokuno’o Tokumichi... Being in a relationship with Kano Agito... Being in a relationship with Gaolang Wongsawat... Being in a relationship with Gaoh Ryuki... Being in a relationship with Narushima Koga... Being in a relationship with Hatsumi Sen

[useless-catalanfacts]

Florenci Pla Meseguer "La Pastora", intersex antifascist hero

One of the most famous maquis (guerrilla fighters against Franco's dictatorship) is Florenci Pla Maseguer.

(thank you @neonbutchery for the suggestion)

He was born in a farmhouse in Vallibona, in the rural mountains in north of the Valencian Country, in 1917. His body did not fit the categories of either male nor female, so his family were left with the choice of what sex to register him as. His parents decided to register him as female so that he could avoid the mandatory military service.

He grew up in the farmhouse being a shepherd, and never went to school as was usual at the time for the rural working class. When he reached puberty, he developed male secondary sex characteristics.

When the fascists did a coup d'état in 1936, sparking the Spanish Civil War, he wanted offered himself as a volunteer to fight in the republican (=antifascist) army, and he thought that this way he would get officially registered as a man, but couldn't.

He kept dressing as a woman until he was 30 years old, but always felt a man. In his words (originally in Catalan in this interview in El Temps from 1988):

Interviewer: What did you think of your sexual condition? Did it cause you any worries?

Florenci: Problems...? Mainly because of the beard. They said I was half man and half woman, but I never felt a woman. I still remember the first time I dreamed I had an affair with a woman, when I was 13 (...)

I: Have you always felt a man?

F: Always, and I have always liked men's jobs and being registered as a man. In fact, when I walked the flock I carried a sarró [=a kind of bag], like men, and not a basket like women.

He kept wearing women's clothes until he was 30, when he joined the maquis. By then, it was 1947; the fascists had won the war in 1939 and, as a result, Spain and its occupied territories were ruled by Franco's fascist dictatorship, which persecuted the political dissidence, the national minorities (such as Catalans-Valencians) and their languages, and everyone who didn't fit the strict normative and nationalcatholic morale, prominently LGBTQI+ people and women who didn't limit themselves to the roles that the patriarchal society considered fit. The maquis were the armed resistance.

I: How did you change the flock for the maquis?

F: Since I lived in the mountains, I had sometimes talked to them. On a snowy night, three maquis took refuge in a house that was only inhabited in summer -El Cabanil- but one of them ran away -one who was from Morella- and everywhere he went, he spread the word, he snitched it. And the Civil Guard [=the regime's military police] followed their clue until they found them and burned the house down, because they were resisting. The next morning, they arrested El Cabanil's owner and I got nervous because I worked for him, and I decided to escape out of fear of being killed.

I: Was it because of the fear of reprisals or for the humiliations to which the Civil Guard put you through?

F: Yes, that determined it, too. That was on the morning of the same day they burned down El Cabanil, and it was "teniente Mangas" [="lieutenant" Mangas, which he says in Spanish], six guards and two militiamen, one from Torremiró and the other one from Herbesset.

I: And what did they do to you exactly?

F: They were curious to know how could a shepherd girl be half man and half woman. I had sold thrushes to the militiamen, and they told the Civil Guard about my anomaly. Teniente Mangas ignored all rules and made me take off my clothes, until their curiosity was fulfilled. And when they were done, they said "bueno, a hacer bondad" ["well, behave" in Spanish, as a way to say goodbye]. And I felt so much rage, so much helplessness. (...) I joined [the guerrilla] and I dressed as a man. There, I was a man like any other.

From then on, he lived as a man and named himself Florenci, though he was known with other nicknames like "Durruti" (after the famous anarchist leader) and, most famously "La Pastora" (the shepherd).

He ended up living in Andorra, but a journalist for the Spanish tabloid El Caso published about him, attributing to him the crimes committed by other maquis, even ones that he had never met. For this reason, La Pastora became famous in all of Spain and the police intensified the search. The Andorran police turned him in to the Spanish police in 1960, accusing him of robbery, banditry and terrorism. He was judged twice for the same crimes: a tribunal sentenced him to 40 years of prison and the other one sentenced him to death and later changed it to 30 years of prison.

He spent 17 years in prison. First, in a women's prison where the women (and him) had to wear very tight miniskirts. He was later moved to a men's jail, where the case was further investigated. The detective saw that there was no proof and that the story didn't match up, so it was impossible that Florenci had committed these crimes. He was freed with a pardon in 1977 and the detective officially registered him as a man.

Despite the slander published by the press, when he came back to his hometown Vallibona, everyone came down to the village from their farmhouses to greet him. He died in 2004, at 86 years old.

Nowadays, Florenci "La Pastora" is by far one of the most famous maquis, if not the single most famous one. He is talked about in songs, books and documentaries, and has become an icon of the antifascist resistance.

[dartagnantt]

Martial Archetype: Knight of the Fallen Oak | The trip spam fighter returns!

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here!

This was a patron request (hint hint, high tier patrons can just straight up ask me to make stuff) and I felt like it just so happened to fit this month's theme of inexorable, since this was inspired by 3e and pf1e trip builds where you make trip attacks and then keep making them as they try to get up because getting up provoked opportunity attacks back then in addition to eating up all your movement.

Tripping Hazard

With how 5e combat works, this wouldn't really be a feature if you tripped in place of an attack, sine you can do that anyway. Though it being a save is a difference. But this is how wolf bite attacks work, for instance. Why call out halberds specifically? Because tripping was their thing. In fact, they weren't even reach weapons or mechanically identical to glaives.

And Stay Down

This feature exists explicitly to replicate the old AoOs, and to lean in on a subclass that benefits on tripping

Opportunist

There exists a feat in pathfinder that gives you a number of reactions equal to your Dex mod, which is a bit much, as people noted the last time I gave a fighter this feature, but I felt like more opportunity attacks would benefit the previous feature.

Not So Fast!

Gave a bit of the sentinel feat, which is a popular feat for control builds especially when paired with the polearm master feat, which I also considered adding, but since the only reach weapon this specifically benefits is the halberd, having it be within 5 feet was less useful out of your turn.

Kick Them While They're Down

And because this subclass felt like being a dick, this one seemed appropriate to be mean.

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Words of Power

Maelstrom Hammer

Sealing Rituals

Otherworldly Patron: The Bound Demon

I also have three classes, and a splatbook over on DriveThrueRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

[herrscherofmagic]

Just a thought, what if the Knight: Moonbeam battlesuit had bird-like wings coming off of the arms, instead of the butterfly(?)-ish wings coming from the back? (featuring a super scuffed set of sketches by me)

I want to do a proper drawing with this idea sometime but I'm too tired to try and work on a proper illustration right now, and I also have several other WIPs that need my attention first x-x

but I wanted to share something so here it is! I think the idea is fairly straightforward so I figured a rough set of sketches would be good enough for a tumblr post lol

I've been thinking about making a fan redesign of Knight: Moonbeam sometime, not because I don't like the original battlesuit (it's one of my favs!!!) but rather because I kinda want to try and make it fit the other Godsbane battlesuits more closely (Shadow Knight, VKE, BKE, AKA). If that were the case, I felt that it'd be cool to redesign KMB as a sort of scout/ranger type of battlesuit.

Like if the Godsbane battlesuits were D&D classes, I feel like SK is the Monk (punchy gal), VKE is a Fighter (swingy sword), BKE is the Paladin (tanky fighter), and AKA would be a Rogue (sneaky? I guess? Rita likes sneaking around right?). So why not make KMB the Ranger of the group?

So I felt it'd be cool if KMB had bird-like wings instead of the typical "shooting-out-the-back" wings that most winged humanoids have in fiction, y'know?

Like KMB's wings aren't just the usual wings that let a Valk fly or whatever, they're special wings optimized for speed, letting the battlesuit user zip around the battlefield at Mach Fast. And it'd kinda pair well with the whole Gungnir Canon and missile barrage thing the battlesuit canonically has!

[glassjoe]

combining my bg3 nerdism with my punchout obsession

all of them would be monks in some way bc. panching. but theyd be multiclassed and use it during their fight, with the exceptions of glass joe and sandman as i think it makes more sense for them to just be monks as first and last bosses

i made this a while ago and dont remember most of my reasoning for the subclasses. just go with it. OH and i wanted only one for each multiclass, so no repeats.

if i fucked up dnd lore look AWAY im a bg3 and d20 boy im not hardcore

this is super lazy

glass joe- monk (way of mercy)

like i said, hes just a monk with no multiclass since hes the starting/warmup boss. he hasnt got enough exp yet

von kaiser- monk (way of the sun soul) & fighter (battle master)

i mean, with his soldier-y theme, both in appearance and voice, i feel him being a fighter is just the obvious choice. plus it feels like an easy jump from solo monk to fighter-monk

disco kid- monk (way of the shadow) & bard (college of valour)

hes groovin, and his dance theme is more prominent than flamenco's so it feels more appropriate to give it to disco. plus his headphones. enough about bards who play music give me interpretive dance bards

king hippo- monk (way of the ascendant dragon) & wizard (transmutation)

okay king hippo was the last one i chose a multiclass for and wizard was the last free class. ig he could be artificier but wizard felt more regal, like royal wizard. not too much reasoning for this one tho sorry lol

piston hondo- monk (way of the long death) & paladin (devotion)

another one i feel is relatively obvious. hes dedicated to what he does and seems to do nothing but train according to cutscenes. idk what to say hes just. paladin

bear hugger- monk (way of the sun soul) & druid (circle of the land)

i mean dudes best friend is a bear and he brings a squirrel into the ring. hes already a bear in two senses of the word, why not add a third and make it more literal? sure hed love to chill with mrs bear

great tiger- monk (way of the four elements) & sorcerer (wild magic)

i remember my subclass reasoning and it was just. three clones and him in his cutscene equals four. and they seem to have different "elements" associated with each. that said sorcerer feels like The Most obvious choice of the lot. he uses his magic naturally and deftly, but his knockout cutscene betrays a sort of lack of control he may have, so i went with wild magic. i could just as easily see draconic though and give him some cool tiger-like face scales.

don flamenco- monk (way of the open hand) & ranger (beast master)

hes a toreador and punts a bull into space, a class with an advantage over animals is the easy choice. plus based on vibes alone, rangers feel patient and wait for prey like he does in his fight

aran ryan- monk (way of the kensei) & rogue (arcane trickster)

honestly all the rogue subclasseses work with aran but i went with tricksger bc i felt more general. i dont think hed actually kill someone and theif was too specific for the general mayhem he causes. plus hed absolutely use illegal magicks in the ring.

soda popinski- monk (way of the drunken master) & cleric (war domain)

obvious subclass is obvious. cleric bc he heals himself in battle by drinking soda. war domain bc none of the others rlly fitt

bald bull- monk (way of the long death) & barbarian (wildheart)

okay a *lot* of the boxers could be barbarians but i feel like bull is the one with the most obvious "rage" mechanic, being his charge. wildheart bc bull theme

super macho man- monk (way of the astral self) & warlock (the archfiend)

i think smm was another one i did last but him selling his soul to be a rich and famous pro boxer feels fitting. i dont remember my reasoning for his astral subclass but i remember i really liked it so take my word

mr sandman- monk (way of the open hand)

again as i said before, i wanted him to be a "back to basics" sort of fighter. taking what mac should know most intimately and putting him through a ringer of all the typical "monk" things. open hand also feels like the most "basic" but powerful monk Thing so.

also. mac would be a monk but his multiclass would be up to the player, if they multiclassed him at all, and doc would be a way of mercy monk and a knowledge domain cleric, bc hes macs mentor, was a champion so he knows a lot. and heals mac if needed. (also a folk hero. dodnt do backgrounds for other characters but thar u go)

[slidersimp]

for the ficlet requests, maybe ice and mav first learning asl?

i love your mav service dog series so so much 😭 your hard work definitely pays off with it ❤️

Omg okay I love this request so much but I must warn you it turned super long for a little ficlet and got so fucking angsty I nearly cried. But thank you so so much I'm so glad you like the series!! I need to go write some Mav and Ice cuddling with Tess and Piper to heal me from the emotional damage that was writing this fic my god.

This is about 3,000 words so I might end up posting it on AO3 as well as here, so that's fun! I love feeling like a productive human being. Anyways! Please enjoy! Send me ficlet requests with ideas for fluff that I can write to make me (and hopefully you too) feel better after you read this!

---

Seeing Pete “Maverick” Mitchell committed to an institution was, quite frankly, terrifying.

Ice had known him for a long time. Maverick wasn’t in the Navy because he supported the military. He didn’t go to college because he appreciated academia. He hadn’t dreamed and planned for him and Ice to get married because he believed in the legal system that would bind them together. Pete Mitchell—Pete Kazansky-Mitchell—cared about people. Pete Mitchell joined the Navy because of his father. He went to college as a means to an end, and because it was what his mother would have wanted for him. He married Tom because he cared about Tom. For him, nothing was about the institutions he lived under, so when he suddenly committed himself their community college classes like a man who’d fight to the death to defend a city college, Tom knew the reason was not because he’d taken a shining to academia. The reality was much worse.

They’d enrolled in a class in American Sign Language a month or so after Ice’s cancer diagnosis, after it had become apparent that Tom might not make it out of the trial with his voice intact. They didn’t acknowledge the fact that Tom might not make it out of the trial, period. That was too large to acknowledge, the prospect too terrifying. If the instability of their lives had taught them anything, it was that they could control only what was in their hands, and fight as he might, Tom’s life wasn’t as in hand as he’d have liked, so they controlled other things. They went to their classes. Twice a week, in the evenings after they got off work or treatments, they’d duck home for a quick dinner and drive to to the college for their class. Sometimes Tom would have to meet Pete there, running late with this national security crisis or that cancer treatment. Regardless, they'd make it to the college for their class and they’d fit themselves into an arc of students, their professor standing in the center teaching them to communicate without their voices. 

Sign language was something Tom might have found interesting if he’d had the ability to learn it on his own, without necessity driving his pursuit of the class. Unfortunately, he didn’t have that luxury. Every time Tom entered the silent classroom, he felt his skin crawl. He’d lived his life, built his career in screaming fighter jets. He felt at home speaking over a radio, singing with Pete in their home, telling his husband he loved him with his own voice. He would be able to communicate even if he lost his voice—when he lost his voice, as his doctors were beginning to say—but the knowledge that he would have to lose it in the first place was debilitating. He looked at Pete signing beside him, the most vibrant, bold man he’d ever met suddenly subdued and silenced, and he could think of nothing else.

For the first time in his entire life, Tom was failing a class, and it was a class he was going to need to exist and communicate in the very near future. 

Pete, however, had the highest grade in the class. 

He practiced constantly, signing to himself, signing to the professor after the class dispersed, studying online in his free time, in his breaks at work, whenever he could manage. He was practically a teacher’s pet. He’d raise his hand at every opportunity, answering questions or participating in dialogues with full sentences when the rest of the class could only manage broken fragments. Tom knew Pete could achieve whatever he put his mind to, but he’d never seen him throw himself into something like this, but Tom knew why. 

The knowledge seemed to make it worse.

Tom spent every class distracted. Trying to learn, but caught in the brutal understanding that he had to learn. He felt the pressure and he tried to respond to it with grace, as he always did, but he couldn’t manage it. Stress drew him thin. He hadn’t relinquished all of his duties at work—it seemed he’d climbed high enough in the ranks that nothing short of death, not even retirement would get everything off his plate—and the additional stressor hung over him more than it ever had. He sat in class and wondered about national security, his eyes glazing over as his professor instructed the class. He wondered how he’d participate in the collect calls he had with the other admirals without his voice. How could someone even interpret for him if he didn’t know the language they would interpret? Pete’s elbow would nudge his as he signed to the professor and Tom would snap back into reality, witnessing his husband’s skill in stark contrast to his own ineptitude. The contrast was starting to breed resentment. 

He knew Pete’s skill could be explained as well as his failing could be. They were both stressed, their stress finding different outlets. In Pete, he channeled his emotion into focus, picking something he could control and grabbing onto it with everything that he could. Tom’s battle was more physical, but mentally it left him drained, and his mind decided to check out, to swerve into damage control and hunker down in everything that he already knew, to hold tight and not let go. It made logical sense that he was having trouble learning, but he couldn’t help the frustration he felt at the sight of Pete signing so skillfully. Their instructor had learned of their situation early on, but one of their classmates had suggested he and Pete practice together after Tom had admitted his own struggles with learning the language—a well meaning, reasonable suggestion—and Tom had nearly snapped at her. He didn’t want to practice ASL, at least not with Pete. He didn’t want to sign with him—though he did, whenever Pete wanted to—and he was constantly asking Pete to speak to him, to speak for the two of them as it became harder and harder for Tom to voice his own words. He didn’t want an ounce of Pete’s silence.

Still, he was trying to be graceful. He was trying to adapt, trying to be flexible, to learn and change as he had always done. Every life lesson he’d endured had taught him that message, but Tom found it harder now than ever.

“Tom.” 

Pete caught his attention as he stood at the kitchen counter, a glass of water in his hand. He’d been still for the past five minutes, sipping slowly, while Pete had been rushing to and from their bedroom frantically changing out of his uniform. Work had run late, they'd made it home later than usual and were both forgoing dinner in favor of getting to their class. Or at least, that was the plan.

“What are you doing?” Pete asked him, threading his belt into his jeans. “Go get changed, we’re already going to be late.” 

He made one handed signs as he spoke, running his thumb up over his chest, waving his hand down with his arm lifted out to his side, pointing away from them, towards their bedroom. Clothes. Late. Go.

He’d been signing like that for weeks now. Tom wondered if he even knew he was still doing it.

He set his glass on the counter. He was still in full uniform, the stars on his shoulders felt like lead weights, but there was still something known in them. Changing into civilian clothes, sitting silently beside Pete as he drove to the college—because Pete would insist he was driving—was so terribly unknown, so awful and foreign and different, that Tom was standing at the kitchen counter with a glass of water in his hands and stars on his shoulders knowing full well he was making them late. He felt like a child, and yet his feet wouldn’t move.

“Tom.” Pete said again. His voice was stronger. Tom wondered when he’d stop using it around him entirely, when he decide that it was crueler to speak to Tom when he couldn’t speak back, and he’d sign instead, because Tom was supposed to know how to sign back. He didn’t want Pete to be silent.

“I’m tired.” His voice was already rough and gravelly. He knew the sign for ‘tired,’ he’d place his fingertips on his chest and let his wrists fall down towards his chest as if pulled down by exhaustion. Pete would have made the sign but Tom kept his hand around his water glass, his other hand resting on the counter. “Go without me.”

“Tom, I’m not–” Pete broke off with a frown, moving towards him when Tom suddenly picked up his glass and turned from the counter. He brought his glass to the sink but didn’t look back. If he didn’t look back, he couldn’t see Pete’s signs.

“I’m not going to go without you.”

He made it to Tom’s side, setting his hand on his arm. Tom could see him out of the corner of his eye, watching him, imploring him to look back. He knew without looking that Pete’s face was filled with concern, open and honest and kind. He wanted to scream, but he knew he couldn’t. Even ignoring propriety, he couldn’t imagine the pain screaming might cause him. Just the thought of it felt like it could render him silent months earlier than he might be able to hold onto his voice.

“Then let’s not go.” He could feel Pete’s thumb tracing one of the bars on his sleeve through the fabric of his jacket, and he looked down, unable to help watching him.

“Tom.” His name again, soft and kind but imploring in the same way. Pete’s hand tightened on his arm. It was as good as begging Tom to look at him but still he didn’t turn.

“Look.” Pete swallowed loud enough that Tom could hear it. “It’ll be fine if we’re late, Scott will understand. Just go change and then we can go. We’ll come straight home afterwards, you don’t have work tomorrow so you can sleep in for as long as you want.”

The flow of reasoning off his tongue was nearly enough to make him turn, but he didn’t. He felt his eyes slip closed at the hint of pleading in Pete’s voice, like getting them out the door was something he needed. 

“Come on, Tom.” He pressed, his voice soft. “I know we’re not doing this for grades but you have to at least pass. They’re not going to let you move up if you don’t—”

“Stop.” He pulled Pete’s hand off his arm, prying his hand away with trembling fingers. “Please, just–”

“Tom–” When he finally turned to look at his husband, Pete’s eyes were wide with concern, fear swimming in the green, fear for Tom, for whatever mess was living in his head.

“Pete.” Now it felt like he was begging, but for what, he had no idea. Pete was right, he needed to go to this class, he needed to pass, but what did he want, now at this moment? Pete couldn’t take away his cancer, he couldn’t make him better, he couldn’t take away the exhaustion and pain hanging over his entire being. 

Pete’s hand reached up to cup his face, his eyes softening. Maybe it was at the sight of Tom’s face, the fact that he was looking at him now, maybe it was because there were tears welling in Tom’s eyes and Pete could actually see the problem rather than fumbling around in the dark, but the fear faded from Pete’s eyes.

“Talk to me, sweetheart.” He whispered, his free hand settling on Tom’s hip. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

There was so much love in his voice. Pete never failed to show him how much he loved him. He’d been doing it publicly only for a few years now, since he and Tom devoted countless hours to helping drive Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell into the ground, but he’d been doing it privately long before then. He kissed it into his skin, murmured it into Tom’s ears, promised it to him just with a moment of eye contact, a word over the radio that no one would suspect but Tom would know. Pete had been telling Tom he loved him since wingman had stopped meaning friend and started meaning family.

Tears spilled over Tom’s eyes and he suddenly felt like a failure. He could count the number of times he’d cried in uniform on one hand and most of them came from pain or panic. Watching Ron hang limp in his chute after he’d passed out from pain wrecking his shoulder on the canopy during an ejection. Tom had thought he died. Hazy moments of half-consciousness when he was dragged from his own plane after smoke started to fill his lungs, panic the only sensation he could feel. Showing up in a hospital sleep deprived, drowning in stress and being told he couldn’t even see Pete because of a records mix up that left Tom unable to prove his power of attorney to the partner he’d taken for life.

“I don’t want to stop talking to you.” He croaked, tears and pain making his voice rough. “I want to be able to talk to you.”

Pete’s features softened, sympathy in his eyes but also pain, sadness for what Tom was losing and what Pete would be losing as well. He stepped a little closer, wrapping an arm around Tom and guiding Tom’s head down onto his shoulder.

“I know.” He whispered.

“I don’t want—I don’t want you to stop talking, either.” He croaked. He pressed his tears into Pete’s neck, shivering at the feeling of Pete’s fingers brushing through the hair at the base of his skull. When would he lose that, too? “I love your voice, Pete. I don’t want you to stop talking to me just because I can’t talk back.”

“I’ll talk whenever you want me to.” Pete promised, but Tom kept going.

“You’re not quiet, Pete. And I–” he broke off with a gasp, his tears rapidly starting to push towards sobs, but he had to keep going. He was desperate to keep speaking. It felt like if he couldn’t speak now, he’d never have the opportunity to speak ever again. “I hate seeing you in those classes, I hate seeing you silent. You talk more than anyone I’ve ever met, I can’t lose that. Not like I’m losing everything else.”

The truth was almost too brutal for him to bear, and maybe it was for Pete, too, because he stepped back from Tom slowly. He took his hand instead, leading him from the kitchen and into the living room, where he guided Tom to sit on the couch. He nudged his legs apart and moved to stand between them, guiding Tom close and cradling his head against his body. Tom felt his hands curl into Pete’s clothes, holding onto him tight as a sob wracked through his body.

“I want to be able to tell you that I love you.” Tom rasped. They’d only just gotten married a few months before his diagnosis. They hadn’t even had a wedding anniversary yet. “I can’t lose that.”

“Tom.” Pete pushed him back by his shoulders enough to cradle his face again, lifting his chin until Tom was looking at him. “You will always be able to tell me that you love me.” His voice was firm, offering no room for argument. “I don’t care if you whisper it. I don’t care if you mouth the words. I don’t care if you sign it or type it out or use morse code or fucking flags, you will always have a way to tell me that you love me. And I will love you no matter what way you decide to tell me.”

Tom couldn’t hold his gaze. He pulled his face from Pete’s hands, hiding his face in the fabric of Pete’s shirt. He couldn’t stop his tears, but Pete didn’t seem to mind, holding him close even as he cried splotches into Pete’s shirt. 

“I love you.” He croaked through his tears. His arms wrapped tight around Pete’s waist and he held him close. “I love you so much.”

Pete pressed a kiss into his hair. “I love you, too.”

He held him until Tom stopped crying, until his tears dried but he breathed in ragged little gasps. He slipped Tom’s uniform jacket from his shoulders and tossed it onto a chair nearby, then guided him to lie down, laying on the couch with him. They lay together until Tom’s breathing had calmed, and Pete rested his hand on Tom’s chest, his thumb, pointer finger, and pinky extended. I love you. 

Tom picked up his hand, curling his fingers back in. He kissed them each individually, pressing his lips to Pete’s knuckles, then his palm, and the back of his hand. 

“It’s not really about me being quiet, is it?” He asked quietly, and Tom shook his head, tears threatening to well in his eyes just at the admission.

Pete pressed a kiss to his cheek. 

“I love you, Tom.” He murmured. “And I know this is hard. Probably the hardest thing we’ve ever faced, but we’ll go through it together. I’m going to be here for you, no matter what.”

Tom let his breath out in a slow, measured exhale. When he felt like he wasn’t going to burst into tears again, he pressed a sign into Pete’s chest, his thumb, index finger, and pinky extended. I love you. 

((p.s. shoutout to my asl professor Scott (sign name an S fist tapped on the chest) whom I’ve name dropped as icemav’s professor. Love you, Scott. What a fun guy.))

[missmilkie]

Ninja From Another Land

Part Two

Words: 1046

You proudly stared at your reflection. Your outfit was perfect, and you were sure to make a good impression at the academy. You trained before you began attending the academy. You actually were getting the hang of jutsus. You know the Cloak of Invisibility Jutsu, Clone Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu, and Transformation Jutsu. You could basically graduate right away ninjutsu-wise. Your taijutsu would need work though as well as your genjutsu.

Leaving your new apartment, you walked to school alone. You didn’t get as many stares as you fit in better now. Konoha was beautiful and at this point you didn’t know how, but there was no way this was just a dream. You were in Naruto and could be a ninja.

When you arrived, all eyes were on you. Some of the characters you’d come to love were staring you down. Your face burned at the attention.

“This is our new student, (Y/n) (L/n).” Iruka introduced you and had you sit down next to Sakura. Maybe you could influence her character development while you’re there.

“Hey, I’m Sakura Haruno.” She smiled at you.

“Nice to meet you, I love your hair.”

“Thank youu!” Sakura blushed and twirled her hair with her fingers.

At lunch you were invited to sit with Sakura and Hinata. Sakura told you all about how great she thought Sasuke was, and Hinata was quiet for the most part.

“You’re so naturally strong, Sakura. Have you ever thought of getting really good at taijutsu?” You questioned, eating the bento you had packed for yourself.

“No, not really.”

“I bet the skill would impress a certain someone. Who doesn’t like strong women?”

Sakura thought it over for a moment.

“You’re right! I’ll train in taijutsu and impress Sasuke with my hand to hand combat skills.”

“Be careful with using a boy as your motivation. You should really learn taijutsu for your ninja career, but a little extra incentive helps.” You added.

Sasuke ate alone and away from everyone else. He really was such an emo. Maybe you’d show him some songs some time.

At this point and time, Sasuke has not treated the people in his life terribly. He was still innocent and open to friendship as long as he could kill Itachi. You knew he would have to get bit by Orochimaru. It was a major part of his story and made him who he was. You just hoped that maybe he would change a bit. Maybe you could save him.

In class you were overwhelmed by the amount of technical things you would have to know as a ninja. Sitting next to Sakura really helped, so you were sure to pass. She explained things well enough for you to understand all the stuff you had missed.

On the other hand, you were gifted in using jutsus. Your chakra control was really good, so you had no problem performing whatever jutsus Iruka taught the class. Because of that, every now and again you would catch Sasuke staring at you. It was intimidating to say the least. There was no way he would realize that you didn’t belong though.

You had to walk home by yourself. Sakura offered to walk with you, but you lived in different directions. So you kicked rocks as you made your way back to your apartment.

“(Y/n) (L/n).” You whipped around to see Sasuke.

“Can I help you, Sasuke Uchiha?”

“You should train with me.” He removed one hand from his pocket to gesture toward himself.

“Sure.”

You followed Sasuke to the training grounds, a bit nervous as to the results of it. Maybe his intentions were innocent. Or maybe he brought you there to beat you up. You hoped for the former.

“So what are we doing for training?” You asked, trying not to let your nerves show.

“Just some taijutsu, nothing terrible.” He shrugged it off as if he wasn’t the best in your class at literally everything.

“Okay, well, don’t go too hard on me, I’m new after all.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

You took a basic defensive stance that you had seen in animes. Thank god actual fighters would go on the internet and rate anime fighting techniques. Sasuke settled into his own stance, and you felt your pulse skyrocket.

Absolutely terrified, you let him make the first move. He came at you so fast you barely registered him. Your arms came up just in time to block his hit. And the next. You couldn’t keep taking this.

You went for a low kick to sweep his feet out from under him. He jumped up, so you only caught one leg. Sasuke quickly regained composure and pushed you down with one hand. When you hit the ground, the air was knocked out of your lungs. He hovered above you, keeping you pinned to the grass. You greedily sucked in air as he stared you in the eyes intensely.

“You’re not very good at this.” He stated, not even panting.

“Thanks.” You rolled your eyes as you tried to catch your breath.

For a moment, Sasuke held you there. He just stared and you stared back for some wild reason you didn’t know. Middle school you would’ve killed for this opportunity. You were getting to the point where you were starting to notice the patterns in his dark gray irises. One day those eyes would become crimson and bring pain upon him and those he cared about.

“Your eyes look really pretty like this. Like the ocean before a storm. Deep and gray.”

Sasuke’s eyes widened and his pupils expanded. It was as if he had to take in every aspect of this moment.

“Hn. Don’t say weird things, new girl.”

“Sorry.” Sasuke got up, allowing you to get off the ground and fix your clothes.

“Let me help you. I can’t stand seeing someone be so pathetic.”

Sasuke taught you simple taijutsu techniques until the sun was setting low on the horizon. He provided demonstrations and helped you adjust your body to the right positions. You let his hands guide your body in the right movements. Before you went home, Sasuke had you spar with him using what you had just learned. You were one step closer to becoming a ninja.

[blues-valentine]

Kiara is such an interesting character and I hate the fact a part of this fandom is so mad that it gets in the way of their ship being canon that they spread the most misogynistic things about her. I’ve only been in this fandom for like 2 weeks and I’m kinda sick of it.

Kie is a character with a lot of layers. She has said and done things she shouldn’t have just like any of the pogues at some point. She’s not supposed to be perfect. She’s flawed as every human should be. Kia is such a complex character and I wish they would dive more into her thought process. It’s okay not to vibe with certain characters but despite what you feel about her you could never argue against her not being such a vital part of the pogues. Kiara is extremely loyal. She’s a ride or die for her friends. She’s such a kindhearted person and will be the first to run to you and sympathize with your pain. She will loudly speak her mind and be real with the person she cares about even if they don’t like it. She’s a real one.

Some people think they’re doing something by saying "she gets passed around in the group" and not only that is such a weird thing to say about a 17 year old, it’s also not the facts. The show started by telling the audience every single one of the guys had a thing for her. She didn’t pursue any of them. The boys made their move on her. John B kissed her first. I believe Kie never liked him romantically. In fact, it has a lot to do with what Pope said about Kiara overcompensating because she wasn’t there when Big John went missing. She started to be overprotective of him because she felt guilty and he also needed that extra care. Kie never said she liked John B romantically. The boys just assumed she did because of her switch in personality with him after everything. I think a lot has to do with the fact Kiara is very empathetic and is actually not afraid to show it.

Kie never liked Pope romantically either. He confessed to her. She was made to examine her friendship with Pope because of it. Think about the timing in which Kie kissed Pope. Kiara saw Pope beat up Rafe to protect her. She saw John B and Sarah scaping with the prospect of probably never seeing them again. She decided then to give Pope a chance at being together. It didn’t work out. That’s not her fault. She was trying to push something between them that just wasn’t there. She was very honest and mature about it. Yes, it hurt Pope but it wasn't Kie’s fault. She shouldn’t be blamed for not falling in love with Pope. And I also believe a lot of Pope's feelings for Kie were a projection (pixie dream girl type of way) which is common.

Kiara is independent and free spirited. She does not like to feel constricted by a structure or classes. She choses her path. She chose to be a pogue instated of a kook. She chose the place where she feels like she belongs. The pogues love her because she’s Kiara. She’s a fighter, independent, volatile, loyal and smart. She struggles with her parents simply not accepting who she is and forcing her to be in a world she doesn’t fit in or feels comfortable in. I love that she stands up for what she believes. It’s only some fans that want to box her into one thing.

[z-iridest]

My Hero Academia- I Am Phoenix:

Chapter 23- Trouble's Storm:

The morning of our second day of the training camp began bright and early… At 5:30 in the morning. Most of us were still pretty tired, with Ochaco and Kaminari’s hair being disheveled, Kyoka and Tsu looking like they were gonna fall asleep on their feet any second, but Tokoyami seemed to be wide awake. Ochaco stretched a bit before Mr Aizawa greeted us. “Good morning, class. Today, we begin a training camp that will increase your strength. Our goal is to increase your skills exponentially, so that each of you earns a provisional license. This will allow you to face the dangers that continue to fester in the darkness. Proceed carefully.” He then turned to me. “Look alive, Yagi.” I easily caught the softball, though I was half asleep. “Try throwing that for me.”

“Got it, just like the fitness test.” I realized.

“That’s right. When you first started school, your record was 789.2 meters… Let’s see if you’ve improved.” Mr Aizawa challenged as I stepped forward to get clear of my classmates. 

“Oh, I get it! We’re checking our progress!” Mina exclaimed. 

“A lot’s happened to us the last three months. Maybe she can throw it a whole mile now.” Sero guessed.

“Come on, get it, Yagi!” Kirishima cheered for me. I tossed it up in the air a bit as I took my stance before I threw it as hard as I could, using my flames once again to rocket it into the air. 

“That was 790.6 meters.” Mr Aizawa informed me. 

“Wait, what?!” I asked, looking at my teacher.

“That’s it? Kinda disappointing.” Sero mumbled. 

“You’ve had a single semester at UA, and due to your various experiences, all of you have definitely improved. But, those improvements have mostly been limited to mental prowess and technical skill with a slight increase in stamina thrown in along the way. Your Quirks really haven’t grown that much stronger, not on a fundamental level.” Mr Aizawa informed us.

“That’s the reason for the training camp, right? To increase the strength of our Quirks.” I asked, getting a nod of affirmation from our teacher. 

“The goal of this training camp is to focus on improving your powers.” Our teacher grinned then, putting every last one of us on edge. “This’ll be so hard, you’ll feel like you’re dying. Let’s hope you all survive.” With that, our training began. I decided to work more with my fire since that was the weaker part of my Quirk, and try to figure out my mobility without using my wings… I started by maintaining my flames around me. I closed my eyes, listening to the sounds around me. I could hear Shoto training his quirk by switching between his fire and ice, Bakugo’s explosions going off every so often, and Iida’s engines speeding by every few minutes, though it got drowned out by Bakugo’s explosions every other time he passed me. After a few hours, I switched gears and did combat training with Tiger. But, for some reason, he had me do it blindfolded.

“In situations where you can’t see your opponent, most heroes gain a fatal disadvantage over the villain they’re facing. You, little bird, are an excellent fighter, but that will mean next to nothing if you can’t fight while your opponent isn't within your sights. Rather than rely on your sight, use your other senses to find your opponent and wait for the right time to counterattack.” Tiger told me. I could practically imagine him off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched. I hadn’t been told who my opponent would be, so I listened for any sign of who it might be. A sound came from my left, and I was able to block an attack that felt familiar. I ignited my hand, and a whine told me it was Dark Shadow. 

“Aww, how did you know it was me? Fumi and I were so quiet.” Dark Shadow asked me.

“I’d never forget how your touch feels, Dark Shadow.” I informed him before Tokoyami and I sparred for a bit.

“This is not only to help you with fighting when you’re not able to see, Yagi, but also to help Tokoyami strengthen Dark Shadow in the light. After lunch, the two of you will spar in a cave, that way Tokoyami can have a way to practice controlling Dark Shadow in the darkness as well.” Tiger told us, and we kept going until lunch. After we ate, Tokoyami and I sparred in darkness, with me not using my flames unless absolutely necessary, but….

Lemme tell you, while I was expecting Dark Shadow to be stronger in darkness, what I wasn’t expecting was for how damn scary that Quirk would look. Dark Shadow practically blended into the darkness except for his eyes being red, which worked as a way to track him, but still… It was kind of jarring. After a while, Dark Shadow started fighting with his eyes closed, making it harder except for the sounds coming from him, which were pretty much non-existent. I had a few close calls, but it only ended when the time to start dinner was called. 

“Now, remember what I said? We’re not serving your food anymore!” PIxie Bob reminded us.

“If you guys wanna eat, you’ll have to make your own meals! Starting with curry!” Ragdoll told us. By that point, we were all pretty tired.

“Yes, ma’am.” Most of us gave a lackluster response due to our exhaustion. Ragdoll giggled.

“Oh man, do you guys look exhausted! But, that doesn’t mean you can coast by making sloppy cat food.” Ragdoll warned.

“Oh! I see. An important part of saving someone recovering from a disaster is providing for their physical needs as well as spiritual. Ah! This is a great opportunity! Let’s make the most delicious curry in the world, everyone!” Iida immediately jumped back to his normal energy.

“How the hell are you even human?!” I snapped in my exhaustion.

“Yeah, okay.” Everyone else replied. I ignited the grill I was at, seeing Shoto doing the same with his group’s.

“Hey, Todoroki, can we get some fire over here too?” Mina asked him. On my other side, Sero turned to Bakugo.

“Bakugo, use an explosion to light that.” Sero told him.

“Uh, that’s a bad…” I started to warn, only to get cut off by Bakugo.

“This is so beneath me!” Bakugo snapped, doing it anyway and ended up destroying the grill altogether.

“Too much!” Tokoyami exclaimed, while I sighed.

“Rely on others and you’ll never learn to start a fire yourself.” Yaomomo put in before using her Quirk to make a lighter. “We should focus on acquiring new skills.” I snorted at the look on Kyoka’s face before I noticed Shoto walking over to Mina to help them.

“Here. Let me.” Shoto created a small flame with his left hand before using it to ignite the grill Mina and Ochaco were working off of. 

“Wow! Thank you so much!” Ochaco thanked him.

“Burn, baby, burn!” Mina cheered.

“But not too hot, okay?” Ochaco asked. The smile that crossed his face made my heart melt. I’d never seen him smile like that as a result of his fire. After the cooking, everyone sat down to eat.

“If I got this at a restaurant, I’d send it back, but after today, I’ll eat every bite!” Kirishima spoke as he scarfed down his food. 

“Don’t say that!” Sero told him. 

“Whoa, you’re scarfing, Momo!” Mina observed.

“Yes. My Quirk transforms lipids into brand new atoms to create inorganic materials. That means, the more I eat, the more I can make.” Yaomomo explained.

“Like how poop works.” Sero pointed out, making Kyoka, Yaomomo and I stop eating. My hair flared as I jumped out of my seat, poor Yaomomo embarrassed as hell, but Kyoka punched Sero and beat me to it.

“APOLOGIZE!” We both yelled at him.

“Okay, I’m sorry!” Sero whined. My anger didn’t last long, because I noticed Kota walking away as Mandalay called for him. I thought about going after him since I was finished eating, but I thought better of it. I wouldn't even know what to say and besides, a little while after Kota left, I saw Izuku leave with a plate to go after him. I decided to leave it to him, though knowing how Kota felt at that age, I knew Kota wouldn't listen to anything that was said. Actions spoke a hell of a lot louder than words… Same time the next morning, we kept at it, with me pretty much blasting with my flames all over the place to maintain airtime… Even though it hurt like absolute hell. By the time lunchtime hit, my hands were practically blistered from burns. Well… At least the training is strengthening my skin against my fire. I thought.

“I really gotta find a different way of doing this…” I mumbled.

“Oh man, those look pretty nasty.” Kirishima commented, though half asleep. According to Mina, they didn’t get back from their remedial lessons until nearly two in the morning, which explained Kirishima’s tired state.

“I’ll be fine.” I waved it off, washing my hands under lukewarm water. By now, I knew better than to run my burnt hands under freezing cold water. The cold water had just made things worse the day before… After lunch, we kept going, Tokoyami and I fighting in the darkness of the cave again. I barely used my flames except for small little bursts. The training though made me wonder why Tokoyami had said that Dark Shadow’s harder to control at night. Yeah, he’s more powerful and more aggressive in his attacks, but not once did Dark Shadow seem out of control. It made me wonder if there was more to it than just the darkness to release Dark Shadow’s darker tendencies…

After a hardcore training day that second day, Yaomomo and I ended up warning the girls of Class B about Mineta and his pervy tendencies, and sure as shit, he tried peeking on them. Mina, the girls and I had stationed ourselves to catch him in the act and the second he tried, Kyoka got him with her earphone Jack and Mina melted the wall. He tried to make a break for it, but I used my wings to get ahead of him. “Not so fast, pipsqueak!” I barked, making him stop in his tracks and scream, running right into the trap we’d set for him.

“Gotcha, ya little perv!” Toru exclaimed.

“Why the hell are you guys all clothed! This is a bathhouse, you should be naked!” The look on his face turned disgusting. “I can strip down too…”

“Kendo.” Kairi spoke the Class B president’s name and without a word, Kendo knocked Mineta the hell out. I groaned. 

“This is starting to get on my last nerve already.” I snapped.

“He really is the worst.” Ochaco agreed.

“Thanks for the heads up, girls.” Kendo thanked us.

“It’s not trouble at all.” Yaomomo replied.

“We knew he’d try something like he did last night.” I shrugged, waving off the thank you from her. I remained quiet as Kendo and the girls from Class 1-B gave us a bag of snacks as a thank you, Toru’s reply being that we should have a sleepover type deal to chow down and eat it all. I just listened to everyone as we went back to our dorm room. After Kendo and the girls got their stuff, they joined us in our room. The girls debated what to talk about before Toru brought up the dreaded subject… Love.

“We should talk about love! Has anyone had a boyfriend?” Toru asked. Everybody was dead quiet, although Kairi looked at me. She knew my history already, and I knew that she was dating Tetsutetsu. But we weren't about to say shit about the other… Kairi suddenly looked worried.

“Hino… I think it might be time to tell them.” Kairi hesitantly told me. I just looked at her. I really didn't want to relive the nightmare that was my relationship with Akako.

“Wait, about what?” Kyoka asked. Kairi waited for me, looking apologetic but unbudging.

“Before I got to UA, I had a boyfriend. But…” I sighed deeply. “It wasn’t a good relationship.” I turned my back to the girls and lifted my hair off my neck. On the back of my neck were scars from Yūgure’s Bloodwork quirk. I could hear gasps of horror coming from the girls as soon as the scars were shown. “I don’t talk about it a lot, but the scars on the back of my neck are from his quirk. He… Used it to make me do things he wanted me to… One of which being my first kiss.”

“What?!” All the girls except for Kairi exclaimed, sounding completely horrified.

“Nu-uh, that shouldn't count!” Mina shouted.

“Wait, so, he used his quirk to hurt you?” Ochaco asked.

“I get it now…” Kyoka murmured after a minute. “After all that, why would you want to date just to get hurt again?” When I turned around again, Kyoka looked worried too.

“Exactly. Besides, training to be a hero is more important right now.” I replied, albeit a bit gravely. It was dead silent.

“Well, that went depressing in three point five seconds." Toru grumbled.

“Sorry, guys.” I shrugged. Kairi spoke up then.

“Well… With training and all, there’s barely any time, but…” Kairi blushed. “Tetsutetsu and I are dating.” Mina instantly turned on Kairi, hounding her with questions. Kairi was blushing as she recounted the story of how Tetsutetsu had asked her to eat lunch with him at the Sports Festival, and how they’d pretty much hit it off and started going on dates on Sundays ever since. They did homework together, had lunch together and usually finished it off by going on a walk together. The girls swooned after the story, her classmates hugging her. I had to say, it was nice to hear that Tetsutetsu was making Kairi happy. She deserved it. 

“Okay, well, what about crushes?” Mina asked. I looked at Ochaco, who looked extremely red. I grinned, wanting to blurt it out, but decided against it. I was, after all, a hero and heroes didn't blurt out friends’ secrets. I listened as the girls debated about who would make the best boyfriend, each getting shut down for one reason or another, Bakugo being shot down for his obvious temper and Shoto getting shot down because of his Dad, and all of us agreeing that anyone was better than Mineta. The topic then shifted to who’s Quirks we’d wanna try out. Ochaco said Bakugo right off the bat, and I noticed that the other girls quickly followed suit.

“Kinda funny how it’s easier to talk about guys when the topic is off romance, isn’t it?” I pointed out after a second of silence.

“Well, you can’t help when you fall in love. It’s something that naturally happens. When that happens, we can talk about romance again.” Tsu chimed in.

“True.” I agreed.

“Wait, what’d you think makes a good boyfriend, Hino?” Mina asked me.

“I thought we’d jumped off the romance train already.” I reminded her, raising an eyebrow.

“Come on, please.” Ochaco begged. I leaned back against the wall, thinking for a minute as I looked up at the ceiling. 

“Someone who inspires you to be better, and not just in the hero aspect. Someone you can be your genuine self with and it comes naturally…” I shrugged. “That’s how it was for my Mom, though she never did get the chance to do anything about it.” I relented. When I turned my attention back to the girls, they had all gathered around me and were smiling like idiots. “What?” I pressed.

“For someone who avoids romance, you seem to think about it a lot.” Mina teased.

“I don’t, I just know what I want in a relationship.” As much as I like Bakugo and Shoto, I’m not ready… I added in my head. The girls strayed away from the romance topic again while I listened in, smiling a bit at the girls. I really was lucky to have them all as friends, as annoying as they could be...

The past couple nights, the nightmares had been going but then, that particular night, the nightmares suddenly stopped. Honestly, it felt more concerning to me than the nightmare itself. From the moment I woke up, I had a sense of dread, like something was bound to happen… I tried to shake it off as I trained that day, but things seemed off.

“Don’t lose focus! Each of you can move faster, and no matter what you’re doing, just remember where you started from. Don’t forget who you were before UA. Always keep in mind why you’re sweating, and why your limits keep getting tested. That’s what it means to improve.” Mr Aizawa told us.

“Hey, that reminds me… Mr Aizawa, it’s already the third day of camp.” Izuku stopped what he was doing to approach our teacher as I lost focus for a second and fell to the dirt. As I dusted myself, I listened to the conversation that was going on.

“Weren’t you listening? Stay focused.” Mr Aizawa told him, jumping down from his spot to be level with Izuku.

“I was just wondering if All Might-I mean, the other teachers from UA will be joining us.” Izuku wondered. 

“Like I said before we came out here, to keep the camp a secret from the villains, hardly anyone knows where we are.” Mr Aizawa answered.

“That’s why you get to work out with us four pussycats!” Ragdoll chimed in from an upper part of the training area, specifically where Mr Aizawa had jumped down from. 

“And think about it… We believe All Might’s one of the League’s targets, so we can’t have him here.” Mr Aizawa continued. “It’s for your own safety. For better or for worse, that’s what he gets for standing out so much.” Mr Aizawa snickered a bit after speaking. Seems like it's mostly for worse these days... I thought as I got back to training.

“More importantly, tonight’s gonna be fun! We’re pitting classes against each other in a test of courage. I know you’ve been training hard today, and later, you’ll get to play hard! How’s that for a reward?!” Pixie Bob informed us. 

“It just sounds like more training.” I heard Kendo say as I tried while firing off flames from my feet to try flying that way, though honestly I knew that way was more levitating in the air with my flames coming out of my feet like rocket boosters… 

“And training in the dark, no less.” Kyoka followed Kendo’s lead. 

“Revelry in the dark…” I definitely should have known something was up when Tokoyami started that weird stuff…

“How much can we do in one day?” I heard one of the Class B boys question.

“At least we’ll get to beat Class A, am I right?” Monoma replied.

“Not likely!” I sing-songed chaotically as I flew past them from overhead. 

“Don’t slack now! Make sure you keep pushing yourself as you work!” Pixie Bob told us.

“Yes ma’am!” We all exclaimed in return. After lunch, I went to the usual training with Tokoyami in the darkness of the cave again. After a few minutes, the attacks from Dark Shadow suddenly stopped.

“You seem unfocused, Yagi, what’s troubling you?” Tokoyami asked.

“It’s that obvious?” I asked, surprised that Tokoyami had caught that something was up.

“Call it instinct.” I could practically hear him shrugging. I sighed, putting down my guard for a second.

“It’s just… I’ve been having these nightmares lately… But all of a sudden, last night, they just… Stopped.” I told him.

“That would be a good thing then, should it not?” Tokoyami sounded confused.

“Normally, yeah, but… I don’t know, ever since this morning, I’ve just had this sense of dread…” I trailed off.

“There’s no sense dwelling on what could happen, it’s wiser to stay in the present moment and to take things one step at a time.” Tokoyami advised. I smiled a bit.

“Thanks, Tokoyami.” I thanked him before we went at it again. That night at dinner, I was carrying firewood over to my group’s grill when I noticed Bakugo cutting some vegetables… Quick and efficient. “Whoa, you’re pretty good with that knife, Bakugo.” I complimented him.

“It’s kinda weird…” Ochaco trailed off, having noticed too.

“WHADDYA MEAN, IT’S WEIRD?! HOW CAN YOU PEOPLE BE SO DAMN BAD AT EVERYTHING?!” Bakugo blew up, making me roll my eyes as I walked away.

“Look at that, he’s not blowing stuff up.” Kaminari commented as he passed by.

“I’m too tired for this…” I heard Kirishima murmur, looking fed up. That, my friend, is a complete mood. I thought as I set the wood down at my group’s grill.

“Did you need All Might for a particular reason?” I heard Shoto ask Izuku. “You asked Mr Aizawa about him.”

“Yeah… Um, I did… Because of Kota.” Izuku replied.

“Kota? Who’s that?” Shoto asked.

“He’s Mandalay’s nephew.” I answered his question.

“He’s right over…” Izuku tried to point him out, but the kid had already taken off to his hideout again. “Anyway, Kota doesn’t like heroes. Actually, he hates the whole concept of superhumans, Quirks and everything. I tried to talk to him, but I think I just made things worse. I was just wondering what All Might would have done to help him if he’d been here.” I mean, what would you say to him, Todoroki?” Izuku asked. Shoto seemed to think about it for a minute.

“It depends…” Todoroki trailed off.

“Of course! Sorry I asked!” Izuku apologized. 

“To have a complete stranger try to change your mindset sounds like a pretty irritating conversation. What matters are actions. You have to show him what you’re trying to prove, right? If you’re going to rely on words alone, then they’d better be incredibly powerful. What you say doesn’t matter near as much as what you actually do.” Shoto told him. I smiled a bit.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” I told him.

“You’re right. I went about this the wrong way… How can I, a stranger, say anything to him?” Izuku questioned.

“I don’t know what your goal is when it comes to this child, but it sounds to me like you shouldn’t be sticking your nose in a delicate situation. You tend to cut to the heart of people’s feelings… It can be annoying…”

“Right, sorry about that.” Izuku apologized again, making me snort. 

“You guys! Your hands aren’t moving! We’ll never make the best stew if you stop now.” Iida scolded. After I finished dinner, I decided to go see how Kota was doing and make sure he got something to eat. To be honest, finding him wasn’t all that hard. His hideout was a cliffside with a cave at the back of it, and a trail led right to him. He was scowling over everything when I reached him. When I landed and tucked my wings away, I could hear his stomach growling.

“I heard that, Spunky.” I told him, making his attention turn toward me. “I’m sure you worked up an appetite today.”

“How the heck do you guys keep finding me?!” Kota hissed, jumping up and looking like a cat that was growling with its fur on end. I set the bowl of stew next to him, sitting on the other side of it as I pointed upward toward the sky.

“Sometimes it’s worth it to get a bird’s eye view of everything.” I told him.

“I don’t believe you! You don’t even have wings!” Kota snapped.

“Some people have Quirks that allow them to fly without wings, but..” I let my wings out just then, letting him see them. “I don’t keep mine out most of the time.” I then turned my attention to the stars as I tucked my wings away again. “I can see why you keep coming up here, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful view of the stars than up here.” Kota was quiet then, but another growl of his stomach sounded off, followed by the sound of a spoon hitting the bowl I'd brought him. I didn’t look, just smiled a bit as I let him dig in. I hoped that we would never get in a situation where we could prove to Kota what a real hero was all about, but for now, I couldn’t really say anything. Like Shoto had said, and I knew extremely well, actions spoke a lot louder than words. You could say something all you wanted, but without actions to prove it… It was no use. Once the sounds of him eating stopped, I spoke up again. “It’s getting late, we should head back to the others.” I told him, looking at him.

“And hang around a bunch of wannabe losers? No thanks.” Kota snarled, stubborn as ever. I shrugged a bit. 

“Okay, but you’ll miss out on seeing those wannabes wet their pants in a test of courage.” I grinned a bit, though it faltered when he didn’t budge. I sighed a bit, letting my wings out to take off, but getting an idea. I took a loose feather off my left wing and gave it to him.

“What’s this for?” Kota asked, and honestly, I was surprised he didn't just drop it down the cliff.

“Just in case you get into trouble or just don’t wanna walk back, you can tap it three times and I’ll feel it.” I told him. He gave me another look that screamed he didn’t believe me. “Try it.” I told him. That was when the little shit decided to pull on a piece of it. My wings flinched in response. “Ow, hey!” I laughed a bit. He looked intrigued. “Seriously, if you need help, use that to let me know and I’ll come flying to help you… Literally.” I grinned before taking the empty bowl back to camp and washing it just as everyone else finished with the dishes.

“There you are, where’d you end up going?” Shoto asked.

“I made sure Kota got something to eat. I’d hoped I’d be able to get him to come back with me, but no such luck.” I answered.

“Brat’ll be fine, you worry too much.” Bakugo growled as he stormed past us.

“It’s not like I entirely have nothing to worry about, idiot. There’s still wildlife out and about.” I told him.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Shoto tried to reassure me, but the dread just kept building up. Something was completely wrong, but I couldn’t sense any taps on the feather I gave him, so at least he was safe for now. I tried to shrug it off, gathering with the others as we were brought to a clearing in the forest a bit ways away from the main building. 

“Perfect! We’ve filled our bellies and cleaned the dishes. It’s time for….” Pixie Bob started to announce. 

“A totally awesome test of courage!” Mina squealed in excitement, finishing for our mentor of the week.

“We’re gonna win!” Sero, Kirishima, Sato and Kaminari all chimed in.

“Not so fast. It pains me to say it, but the remedial class will be having lessons with me tonight instead.” Mr. Aizawa corrected.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Mina exclaimed, her excitement instantly deflated.

“Sorry. Your training during the day didn’t impress me, so I’ll be using this time too.” Mr Aizawa wrapped his scarf around the four boys and Mina and dragged them back.

“Aw, give me a break!” Sero, Kaminari and Mina protested.

“I just wanna test my courage!” Sato and Kirishima added in.

“Okay, so,” And we’re just gonna gloss over that like it didn’t happen? “Class B is gonna start out as our scarers. When they’re in place, Class A will leave in pairs every three minutes. There are tags with your names on them at the far end of the route. Your goal is to collect those.” Pixie Bob explained.

“Revelry in the dark…” Tokoyami muttered again. Why does he keep saying that?! I thought. 

“Now, those who are scarers aren’t allowed to make physical contact. Use your Quirks to terrify the others. Got it?”

“The winners are the creative students who make the most people piss their pants!” Tiger finished.

“Did we really need that visual?” Kyoka and I wondered at the same time. 

“I see! They’re encouraging us to stoke our imaginations as we compete with each other, all while showing us more uses for our Quirks in the process. As expected of UA!” Iida passionately exclaimed, making me facepalm.

“All right! Everyone, draw to see who your partner will be.” Pixie Bob told us. Shouji ended up paired with Tokoyami, Bakugo- funny enough- ended up with Shoto, Kyoka ended up paired with Toru, Yaomomo ended up paired with Aoyama, Ochaco ended up paired with Tsu, Ojiro ended up being paired with Mineta, Iida ended up paired with Koda, and I ended up paired with Izuku as the last group.

“Okay, so we’re together in this one…” I trailed off before I heard Bakugo.

“Listen up, Tail. Trade with me.” Bakugo demanded, jabbing his thumb at Shoto over his shoulder. 

“Aoyama….” I recoiled when I saw Mineta practically salivating with an aura of pervertedness around him as he stalked toward poor Yaomomo and Aoyama. “Please switch me partners, I should be with her!” Aoyama pretty much kept Yaomomo blocked from Mineta and kept his hands up, shaking his head. During the chaos, Tokoyami gave out another,

“Revelry in the dark.” The sense of dread seemed to get worse every time he said that…

“Next team! That’s you two kittens, Ribbity and Miss Floater.” Pixie Bob called to the next team about 12 minutes later. After a minute, though, I noticed a blue glow and the sense of dread got even worse. She suddenly sniffed the air.

“Huh… What’s that weird smell in the air?” Pixie Bob asked.

“Guys…” I trailed off, pointing toward where it was coming from. 

“Black smoke…” Mandalay observed.

“Has something been set ablaze?” Iida asked. 

“Maybe a fire on the mountain?” Ojiro added.

“No fire I know burns blue… Something’s up.” I answered. All of a sudden, Pixie Bob levitated into the air. 

“Hey, what’s happening?!” She exclaimed.

“Pixie Bob!” Mandalay called out to her. Before long, she was on the ground, bleeding from her head.

“First, let’s get rid of these feral cats.”

“What? No way!” Mineta backed up, looking as horrified as I felt. “I thought they made sure no one could find us! So why the heck are villains attacking this place?!” He shrieked. There were two people in front of us. The first was a woman (to be honest, she looked and sounded like a man to me) with quite a wide, muscular build. Her shoulder-length hair was smooth, and a reddish magenta color, her rather square jaw was also thinly covered in facial hair. Her lips were notably big, kinda like Sato’s except more pink. She wore triangular, white-framed sunglasses, obscuring her eyes. Along with these, she also wore a dark orange shirt, which was unbuttoned revealing the white v-neck she had on underneath, blue jeans with a belt, and plain dark brown espadrilles on her feet. The second was a man with a reptile-like appearance, with green scales for skin and a face shaped like that of a gecko. His hair was very long pink-purple hair and swept backwards, which stood out. He wore clothes that reminded me of Stain, the same mask, red scarf… Except his outfit was different: sleeveless shirt with blue spots and dark, baggy pants, along with black shoes and pale, metallic knee guards. He also had bandages wrapped around his arms and goggles on his head. The woman’s eyes seemed to turn toward me and I felt the feeling get worse…

“Pixie Bob!” Izuku shouted, but got stopped by Tiger and Mandalay. 

“This is bad…” Mandalay murmured. That’s when I realized Kota was still missing.

“Where’s Kota?!” Izuku asked, realizing Kita's absence too.

“He’s still at his hideout, I think…” I went quiet when I felt a sensation. My eyes widened when I realized that it was coming from the spot I had pulled my feather from… Three taps, quick, panicked… Kota was in trouble… “Oh shit…” I trailed off.

“What’s wrong?” Izuku asked.

“I gave Kota one of my feathers, told him to tap it three times if he ever needed help… I just felt it.” I told him. “We need to get to him…”

“Well, that’s a stroke of luck. One of the kids we need is right there.” The woman interrupted, and when I turned my attention to her, she was pointing right at me. Wait, one of the kids? I thought. 

“So? Use your Quirk and get her!" The male replied.

“If I do, it could hurt her, and our orders were clear. She’s not to be harmed, not even a scratch.” The female told him.

Attention, everyone! Mandalay’s voice suddenly sounded in my head, and I knew she was using her Quirk to let everyone know what was going on. Two villains attacked us. It’s possible that there are more coming. Everyone, return to camp immediately. We’re regrouping. Do not engage any enemies. 

“How are you this evening, UA High School? We are part of the Vanguard Action Squad of the League of Villains.” The male informed us. Shigaraki must be calling in that private talk he was talking about last time we met… Shit, this is bad. I thought.

“The League of Villains? What are those guys doing here?” Ojiro asked.

“I could crush this kitty’s head so easily. How about it, dears, should I?” The woman asked.

“Leave her alone!” I shouted. I wanted to do something about it so badly, but I knew I couldn’t. 

“You get away from her!” Tiger shouted the same time I yelled. 

“Now, now, hold on Big Sis Mag. You too, Tiger, calm down. When deciding if someone should live or die, we must be careful that we’re abiding by Stain’s principles.” The male interrupted.

“Stain?” Izuku and I murmured at the same time.

“So, you’re the ones he ended up inspiring.” Iida snarled.

“At your service. That’s us.” The male spread his arms out. “And you, four eyes, I believe I recognize you. You’re one of the self righteous brats who attacked Stain in Hosu City. Let me introduce myself.” He drew a huge sword that was mainly composed of a shit ton of knives and blades belted and taped together as one. “Call me Spinner. I’m here to make Stain’s dreams a reality.” I felt the three taps again, more urgent this time. I should have gone with the first three…

“I’m sorry, Mandalay, but I have to go find Kota before he gets hurt!” I apologized to her as I took off, flying as fast as I could towards the hideout. Kota, please be okay! I thought, my heart racing hard in my chest. When I finally found him at his hideout, someone had gotten there first, and it was the last person I expected to see there… Wendigo. "NO!" I roared, flying faster and praying my wings would get me there faster than Wendigo could move. Just as Wendigo brought his claw down to attack Kota, I got there, landing in front of Kota and stopping the attack mid-swing. “Kota, get out of here! Run!” I yelled at him.

“But…”

“Kota, I know you’re scared, but I can’t take this guy down if you’re within range of getting burned by my flames. I can’t take the risk of you getting hurt, just run!” I pleaded with him, struggling to hold back Wendigo. He’d gotten stronger, but I just had to hold off Wendigo until Kota got back to camp… I couldn’t let Wendigo get to the others, so many could die if I let it happen… No. I wouldn’t let it happen! I yelled as I burned Wendigo, shoving him and causing him to slide back. “Come on, ya son of a bitch!” I taunted, creating a fire whip and cracking it at him. He gave a blood curdling screech, but I was ready for him. I whipped him a couple times before he figured out how to dodge it and lunged for me. I quickly blasted him with my other hand, fighting as best as I could against a human with basically animal-like tendencies.

There was no pattern, and I could barely see him. But, I knew Wendigo could only see me if I moved, and I only moved when he did. I could only hope that Kota had gotten to safety in the nick of time. I fought as hard as I could, glancing over my shoulder every now and then to check where Kota had run off to. I felt a cut and cried out in pain as an attack, one that I wasn't paying attention to in my worry for Kota, hit and caused my old scars reopening like in my nightmare. But after a while, I spotted Kota poking his head out of hiding. Wendigo lunged for him, but that gave me an opening. “Get back here!” I was able to crack my whip and yank him back into me, giving a yell as I slammed him into the ground and burned him so much that he passed the hell out. By the time the fight between Wendigo and I was over, I was exhausted, and the skin on my palms was starting to scar. Just as I felt like I was about to collapse, I felt a force knock into me and small arms around my waist. Once I was steady, I looked down to see Kota, hugging me tightly.

“You came.” Kota sniffled. I knelt to his height and hugged him back.

“You called. I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to get here sooner, are you hurt?” I asked. He silently shook his head. I sighed in relief. “Good, that was too close of a call. We need to get you back to camp and fast…” He suddenly looked extremely pale, looking behind me. When I turned, I shielded him with my body as a tall figure cloaked in a black robe with a hood and some type of mask covering his face, my wings coming out wrap around him protectively.

“Well, well, I came up here scouting for a nice vantage point, and here I find someone on our list and another someone not on it. By the way, nice hat, kid. I like it.” He pointed to the mask covering his face. “Why don’t ya trade me for this lame mask, huh? They made me wear it because I’m new, said they couldn’t get a shipment of the good ones in time.” He took the mask off and tossed it to the side. “Ah well…”

“Kota, run!” I shoved the kid behind me and, this time, he listened to me. The cloaked man moved to get in front of him and I was just barely fast enough to get between the two again. “STAY AWAY FROM HIM!” I yelled, slamming my flames down to create a wall. He only laughed though.

“Feisty, huh? It’s been a while since I had a good fight! Why don’t you and I have some fun up here, kid? Ready?” His arm suddenly warped until the muscles in his body were covering all of his upper body except his neck. I thought the fight with Wendigo was hard, but this? I could tell this guy was way stronger… The guy was a large, bulky, and highly muscular man set wide with short, spiky, sandy blond hair and tiny black eyes. He has a large scar across the left side of his face, his left eye replaced with a prosthetic one, and another, smaller scar on the right side of his forehead. Underneath the black cloak was a red tank top, a dark jacket that hangs around his waist, dark green pants, and black knee-high boots.

“Papa! Mama!” Kota cried out, tears running down his face. His cry confirmed that this was, indeed, the man who had taken out his parents. My instincts were going crazy with a need to protect the boy behind me. As the villain punched downward, creating a trench and causing rocks to go flying, I dodged the attack, grabbing Kota and wrapping my wings around him as I hit the ground hard and rolled to my feet, placing Kota behind me again as I let my wings extend behind me, making me appear bigger. It did nothing to intimidate him though, the villain just laughed at me.

“You wanna rumble, little bird? Let's rumble!” The villain yelled as I charged, the two of us locking in the middle. I was tired as hell, bleeding out from my reopened scars… I knew I wouldn't be able to last long in this fight, but I had to try to protect Kota… I couldn't let what happened to his parents happen to him…

I just couldn't!

(Tag list: @qweenexplosionmurder13 @iheartbarbie)

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[negative-speedforce]

Eris has offered a combat lesson to each of your OCs - any weapon or fighting technique from throughout history. What fighting styles or weapons do your OCs choose to learn? Are there any who decline the lesson?

Siv: While she's already a fairly experienced fighter, they'd love to refresh on Muay Thai, since Eobard had them take classes in it as a teenager but haven't actually sparred with anyone in years without the intent to kill and/or maim, and they'd like to face off with a potential equal (Siv will probably get her ass kicked).

Hailey: Would love to learn how to fight with a spear or staff, since with her ghostly abilities + a little bit of additional technology to target her powers, she can use some minor cryokinesis and it would be convenient to know how to use that ability to fight with a giant-ass icicle

Jay: Would probably turn down the lesson, since he's not sure if it's accessible for a disabled person like himself. However, if he was absolutely sure, he'd love to learn how to do some kind of martial arts while in a wheelchair.

Cassandra: Would love to brush up on kickboxing (and she'd probably try to figure out how to adapt her fighting style to be able to fight in midair).

Esme: Mostly just wants to learn how to use self-defense in heels, since she's had a couple close calls walking home from clubs and she's tired of having to expose her powers every time someone tries to stalk her.

Gina: Would like to learn Tai Chi, mostly for health reasons but also so she can smack a bitch if they decide to mess with her

Arya: Mostly just looking for an excuse to spar with someone as ancient and experienced as themself, decides to take a lesson in knife fighting for the hell of it

Ember: Also wants to learn how to fight in heels, since most of the time they're dressed in drag anyway.

Cat: Prefers to use her wits and a gun, since she's physically rather small and weak, so she might turn down the lesson.

Kyle: Would love to do some wrestling! He's done it before, for a couple years in high school before he switched to football, and he'd love to pick it up again, since it was a lot of fun for him.

Max: Might turn it down, since he can summon his mech suits with just a press of his earrings and take care of any situation like that.

Eric: Prefers to use magic to fight rather than physical force, but he might take a Taekwondo class just for the fitness benefits.

Jacob: Acompanies Eric to his class, because he knows his husband is going to end up spraining SOMETHING because he has no idea what he's doing. This has happened many times before.

Khalil: Would love to learn boxing! He's always wanted to pick it up, but has always felt unwelcome in most classes because he's a rather feminine man and tends to get treated poorly by his classmates.

Antonio: Because he's literally twelve, he wants to learn Ninjitsu, and fight with a katana. His parents immediately object, but ngl I get the feeling that Eris is going to teach him anyway.

Reggie: Would love to learn how to use a shuriken, just for bragging rights with xer friends.

Ameerah: Immediately declines, she prefers her wits and her powers in order to take care of situations.

Rania: Would probably just want to learn some basic self-defense moves in case some idiot decided to try something on her walk home from work.

Director Hawke: Eris doesn't even get halfway through their offer before Hawke recognizes Eris as a metahuman, and a huge fight breaks out (never mind that metas and witches are almost genetically indistinguishable, she has to have her little group to hate)

Meredith: Would want to learn Kalaripayattu, since it's a lesser known martial art and it focuses both in armed and unarmed combat, both of which it would find useful.

Cory: Since Cory's pretty small, Mok Gar might be right up his alley, since it was designed to help a smaller, weaker person to overpower someone who is bigger and stronger.

Kelsie: Prefers not to get into violent altercations, and only uses her plant-based abilities to get out of situations. However, just for the knowledge, she'd want to learn how to use a trident.

Torryn: Is already highly trained in Jiu-Jitsu, but he'd love to take a class in order to refresh his skills and potentially learn any new moves that he didn't know about before.

Onnie: Is already a pretty skilled martial artist, but at Eobard's urging, she'd ask Eris to teach them Lethwei, since it's one of the most brutal, bloody martial arts in the world.

Pippa: Probably just wants to learn fencing, because she's always wanted to try it but never had the money. Also swords are cool.

Jessi: "Ew, no. This is genuine Balenciaga. Do I look like I want to get all sweaty in this?"

Hyun-Ki: Would probably be interested in learning Kendo, since while he doesn't really have a need to learn martial arts, given that he has bodyguards, swords are cool.

Marie: Would love to learn Okinawan Kobudo, since she's trying to get closer to her heritage after losing part of herself (memories, personality, etc) after her assimilation.

Liah: As a pacifist, she'd probably say 'no' right off the bat, though she might be convinced to learn how to use a shield in a purely defensive manner, in case someone tries to attack her.

Qiara: Is quite literally an all-powerful space god, and does not need to defend herself.

Soraya: Would love to learn Capoeira. While it's not the most useful martial art, Soraya is a former gymnast, and the complicated flips and moves would be right up her alley.

Thalia: Thalia would probably be interested in Hapkido, with its focus on both unarmed and armed combat.

Reyna: Would want to learn how to use nunchucks, purely for the bragging rights. Eris, please don't trust Reyna with any potentially lethal weapons. It's already bad enough with her having a lightsaber.

Laila: Probably turns down the offer, since she prefers to learn on her feet, and challenges Eris to a sparring match.

Athena: Athena would probably go for learning Junshi Sanda, so she can turn her already brutally competent fighting skills into a full-on weapon.

Pyrrha: Would love to learn Aikido, since she's already an extremely competent fighter, but she would love to learn some less violent methods of taking down an opponent that don't involve gruesome death.

Samira: Probably would turn down the offer, given that she considers herself far more of the brains than the brawns, and prefers not to get into physical altercations.

Aldrich: Would turn down the offer, since he does NOT want to be in the same room as someone else's blood if there was an injury.

Matt: Probably would say 'no' to Eris's offer, since he's pretty sure he'll fuck up his joints if he tries any crazy new moves.

Sohelia: Would be very interested in learning Eskrima, given its focus on handheld weapons. Even a couple inches more of distance between her and someone else's blood in a fight could mean life or death.

Vanessa: Would love to learn how to use a crossbow, since she's only seen them in movies and it looks like a really cool weapon to use.

Dolores: Since there's very low risk of her losing control and hurting someone, she'd love to learn archery.

Victorie: Would turn down the offer, since she does NOT want to be in the same room as someone else's blood if there was an injury.

Kayla: Took judo when she was younger, would like to take a refresher course so she can remember everything she learned back then.

Dori: Because they are a huge nerd, Dori would love to learn how to use the chakram, given that it's Xena the Warrior Princess's weapon of choice.

Ellis: Given that angels have no need for human martial arts, Ellis would graciously turn down Eris's offer, since they can just go all "Be not afraid" and scare any potential threats shitless.

Gabi: Isn't much of a martial arts kind of gal, but she would love to learn how to use a medieval broadsword, just so she can use one at the Ren Faire.

[tiny-chubby-bird]

ffxv in bg3

so i kind of fell back into ffxv and ever since playing bg3 i can never look at the word and name ignis the same. but so i got into thinking, what class would ignis be if he were in bg3? who would he potentially romance? i myself decided on making a knowledge domain, ilmater deity cleric ignis, but i was also considering making him a rogue or wizard. maybe i'll multiclass him in the future. he uses daggers, a lance/spear and elemancy in fights, so he needs spells and be able to use daggers and spears. also, since he's the mom of the group he's the one healing everyone during fights, so cleric felt the most fitting out of everything, though i was unsure about which deity he would maybe worship since i don't rlly see him as a religious person. i chose ilmater mainly because of the whole "taking on the pain/suffering of others," y'know, the whole scene where ignis is ready to sacrifice himself for noctis and losing his eyesight. nothing else rlly sounded fitting. i wasn't sure about the domain either but ended up going for the knowledge domain since it felt the most fitting and gives him some extra proficiency points (i think). as a romance option i could maybe see ignis and gale, the cooks of the group, intelligent and well-read, talented in what they do, idk. i also made ignis a half-high elf, that felt very fitting for him and also the face option was the closest to what ignis looks like in-game. i also chose the noble background for him since he was raised alongside noctis to be his adviser, so i felt noble was as close as it gets.

anyway, the whole thing got me into thinking how fun it would be to play with friends and you all just make one of the ffxv boys and then just have the whole gang together. gladio would be the fighter class, maybe paladin but i feel like fighter is the most fitting. idk which race, i could almost see him as a tiefling maybe, otherwise human or maybe even half-orc. prompto could go half-elf as well, maybe half-drow for some angst and fantasy racism. also ranger class seems fitting for prompto, mostly using ranged weapons (bow, crossbow, etc.), maybe beastmaster subclass? but gloomstalker could be badass for him too. noctis is the hardest for me to decide, but i could also see him as half-high elf. since he isn't physically strong like gladio, idk how i feel about using the fighter class for him. sorcerer feels a little fitting so he would have a natural talent for using magic, maybe storm sorcery or draconic bloodline, but since noct mainly fights with weapons in ffxv it would have to be a multiclass with something more physical as well, though the strength stats would make that kinda problematic.

as for romance for the other boys, i could see prompto and karlach making a really cute couple. also prompto and astarion for angst and healing. shadowheart and noctis i can mainly see as friends, idk i have a hard time seeing noctis romancing anyone from the group but him and shadowheart for the moody goth/emo vibes lmao. gladio and lae'zel i really like, both passionate, strong and skilled fighters. and like i said, gale and ignis. wyll and noct would probably have a lot of topics to bond over too.

anyway here's my bg3 ignis.

[signanothername]

-slams table- Ohhh boi the hyper fixation is hyper fixating, Burn Bot’s caste headcanons:

Mini headcanons before hand 😅:

1. I believe that in order to be a rescue bot you need to have thinner plating in order to adapt to different types of vehicles, since they serves both in and out of planet and probably, of Blades is anything to go by, had to take different forms accordingly (maybe why they were traveling without any before arriving on earth)

2. Rescue Bots, despite being more aligned with the Autobots, are neutral in the war. They’ll help who ever needs it, but this was regardless a threat to the decepticons who play by a “you’re either with me or against me” rule

Heatwave: middle-upper working class. I believe he was hatched into the firefighter job, but I have two sub-headcanons for him.

Decepticon: Dude, your HW decepticon, joke or not, got my brain rolling and I really wanna put my two cents in: HW is definitely a fighter at heart and probably made friends outside of his caste, mainly gladiators. Watching how he’s friends had to fight for their life’s day in and day out just to be shown the barest level of respect really made HW despise the system, not helped by the fact that many didn’t make it back at all. So when Megatron first proposed to eradicate the caste system and grant equality to everyone he was all for it. Things change when the decepticon cause started to corrupt. HW has a strong sense of justice and harming so many innocent bots to send a message is not fair in his eyes. This leads him to turn to the rescue bots, a force that helps all, regardless of caste, or side. Orion would probably be the most recent prime at this point and he gives HW faith the the autobot cause, making him wish he could one day join the war.

Ps: I really, really want to hear more of your version of Decepticon HW cause you got my hamster brain rolling

Rescue bot: Starting again with HW being a fighter, seeing how his planet was starting to get divided, he probably felt like being JUST an on call fire fighter wasn’t enough, he wanted to do more, be in the field, but thin platting and intense battle don’t really mix so he wasn’t accepted as a soldier but recommended as a rescue bot. I think this would motivate HW to train just that much harder like we see in the show. In this version he would definitely see the decepticons as aggravators and blame them for the war. In a way this would cause a little tension between him and Blades but I’m getting ahead of myself

Chase: Upper/Civilian Velocitronian class: If Blurr’s anything to go by, Velocitron is definitely more laidback than Cybertron, but what may seem laidback to Blurr would probably count as borderline lawless to Chase. I genuinely don’t see him fit in una place like that, and since he would have enough privilege to do something about it, he’d move to cybertron looking for a better sense of structure. On the bright side, Cybertron does have more laws to enforce justice, on the down side, is biased against lower caste bots, something Chase would profusely disapprove of, so he transfers once again, this time from city police to Rescue Bot.

Boulder: middle-lower working class. Another bot who I believe was hatched to their occupation, kinda. Boulder was lucky enough to be given a name, and a designation that more or less aligned with his interest but focused more on demolition than construction. His strong interest in creating and learning rather than simply doing as told, combined with his more gentle spark would make him a bit of an outcast among his workers, but appreciated. If his painting on all spark day is anything to go by, he had friends out side of the Sigma, friends who probably noticed his more thiner plating and arranged for him to enter a Rescue Bots academy where he could explore and help others.

Anon holy shit

I had fucking blast reading through this, you my friend are a treasure

Time to ramble >:)

———

1- THIS!!! I completely agree, Rescue bots obviously need to adapt to different types of situations including being able to have the ability to get different forms

I don’t really believe it’ll be a mandatory thing, but I feel like depending on the bot’s abilities they might be assigned certain roles/ ranks depending on how much their plating helps

2- YAS YAS YAS!!!! I wholeheartedly believe the Rescue Bots are neutral, i mean, I find it interesting that in Academy, the younger bots are never taught to only save and protect “good people” or are even given any sort of rules that need to be met on order to rescue, help, save, or protect someone, only thing they’re taught is to serve, save and protect, regardless of identity, alignment or faction

And Whirl didn’t even know what a Decepticon was even, and while we could go on and on about the fucked up indications of what this could mean in terms of how Cons are treated after the war, and how it could take part as to why the rescue academy never teaches them, I believe the academy specifically doesn’t mention them cause it’s somewhat unnecessary (keyword: somewhat), cause it could put some sort of imaginary standard that there are “certain sort/type” of people they should be looking out for, which is unnecessary in rescue work , (i do, however, think they should’ve been taught a bit about accurate history)

The thing is, I wish Academy explored that concept of how Rescue Bots should do their work, we get the Laserbeak episode, but it doesn’t really go that deep into the morality of things, and I believe that is sort of cause

1- it’s for kids, so the show doesn’t bring up much of the darker themes integrated within TF as a whole

and 2- the 11 minute runtime that severely hinders the writers’ ability to explore such wide concepts (I will forever hate the 11 minutes runtime, shows need to go back to 22 minutes)

Anyway back to topic, I believe every rescue bot is trained that way in which they look at the world through neutral eyes, including HW, Boulder, Chase and Blades

In fact allow me to throw in my own headcanon: the reason the rescue bots even have the Autobot insignia is cause they were all forced to “choose” a side, war and what it does, cause it was practically frowned upon that neutrals even exist during a difficult time and neither side seems to trust them, so the rescue bots decided on the Autobot insignia cause let’s be real, Megs makes it difficult to align with him when he’s on a rampage, and y’know, better one side then no side trusting them, but they’re still pretty much neutral and would help anyone in need, Whether Autubot or Decepticon (and that includes Cons of higher ranks like Screamy, Soundwave and even Megs)

Tho as you said, that means Decepticons end up seeing them as a threat, which definitely made rescues difficult, tho I like to believe that the rescue bots kinda developed a protocol to deal with this problem, usually by using gestures that show they aren’t a threat like raising their hands with their palms facing the Con, showing them they don’t have any weapons and trying to calmly talk with them, getting them to understand they’re a rescue bot, and since it’s pretty much universally known that rescue bots are neutral, 7 times outta 10 it’ll work, while 3 times outta 10 it’ll end in disaster, depending on how jumpy and suspicious the Con they’re rescuing is, but that’s just part of the job in the end cause what’s rescue work if it isn’t full of danger

After the war, the factions were already integrated into Cybertron’s social system, albeit unfairly so where Autobots are seen as the heros and Cons are seen as the villains in a very (and i mean VERY) black and white view, so it’d be really hard for the Rescue Bots to suddenly go back to “hey we’re not Autobots technically” 

And while I believe some civilians choose to stay neutral, I feel like neutrals suffer socially in Cybertron’s new social system, cause with how everyone perceives Autobots as the “heroes”, people who stay neutral are immediately perceived as untrustworthy, it’s like “damn you’re a neutral??? That’s sus bro why wouldn’t you want to be an Autobot??? Are you secretly a Con???” Especially from younger bots and it’s really sad to think about

It makes me think that some neutrals end up putting on the Autobot insignia so they won’t have to suffer, kinda putting it as a front of sorts even if they truly don’t see themselves as an Autobot (cough the rescue bots included cough)

This entire franchise is tragic my god they need some happiness dhhxhxhxh

———

Heatwave: OOOHHH I LOVE THAT!!

Con HW (talking about your take here):

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE! Heatwave is a fighter, it’s his nature and social class absolutely means nothing to him, he’ll definitely become friends with lower castes and especially gladiators, and if we go by the headcanon that HW used to be an upper middle caste he probably would try to use any privileges he got to help his lower caste friends, whether by providing energon or protecting them from upper castes if the need arises

And as you said, he has a very strong sense of justice and that what would get him to join the Cons at first, only to leave when Megs became mad, Heatwave is a protector first and foremost and seeing so much energon spilled for no reason isn’t something he’d be fond of

I feel like Orion’s rising can definitely spark hope in many, especially Autobots and/or neutrals who wish to join a side

———

RB HW (talking about your take here too):

HW definitely hated seeing how his planet devided, and I love the way you connected his intense training with his desire to be a soldier

Y’know tho, I always felt like HW isn’t that great at differentiating between what he wants and what he needs, that’s why to me, he shouldn’t be indulged too much, cause just because he wants something, doesn’t mean he’ll be happy/satisfied once he gets it

He’s pretty impatient so he always jumps to any opportunities to get what he wants, never stopping to weigh his options or to truly think if he actually and genuinely would be happier if he got what he wanted, that’s why I think OP’s decision not to include him in his team at the beginning was of sound judgement

Cause when OP finally asks HW if he wanted to join him later down the line, HW refuses and says that if he did join, not only would OP be disappointed but also his own team

HW is a fighter, but not a soldier, not at heart, and I believe HW does realize it later on and it’s so damn heartwarming to think about dhxhhxhz

———

Ok since you wanted to know about my version of Con HW ahem

I like to think HW was a nameless low caste miner, immediately thrown into the mines under Cybertron to work there, and by extension, later participated in the gladiatorial arena as many others to get energon and healthcare

He didn’t participate in many fights, only what was necessary for him to survive, otherwise he’ll work in the mines, and his participations were brief and very few not cause he was afraid for his life, but due to how he despised the energon that spilled by his own hands, it made him sick and very angry, not only at himself but at the unfair social system that forced him into such position

He later abandoned the arena completely, and while it put his life at risk due to how low energon is, he found it better than the guilt and regret he holds over the energon on his hands, his conscious wouldn’t allow him to continue in that path

When working in the mines he was quiet for the most part, but don’t let his silence deceive you, he’s a storm on the inside, he absolutely got into fights with the guards responsible for the mines over their mistreatment of him or others, and it always was a nasty sight, so everyone (other miners, guards never seem to want to leave him alone) were always keeping a safe distance from HW, he’s a ticking time bomb and no one wants to be the poor soul that sets him off

He was transferred from one mine to the other due to said fights and his temper, and every mine is worse than the last

So here you have Heatwave, lonely, furious and broken, seeing Megs rise to fight the same social system that screwed him over, it seemed like a dream come true, freedom finally at reach, and at first? It was, he no longer works a job he never signed up for, he’s no longer forced to kill an innocent bot who was there for the same reason he was for a bloodthirsty audience just to get basic life needs like energon and healthcare, and he actually gets treated as an equal

So he followed with blind obedience, he’d do anything and everything to help further Megatron’s goal to destroy the caste system, that is, until things started escalating, the fight turned from fighting for freedom and justice to just fighting, and the more time he spent a Decepticon, the more he witnessed the energon spilled for no reason, the more his doubt grew

Until he saw Decepticons kill innocent civilians who weren’t even part of the fight, and that does it for him, this is not what he wanted when he aligned with the Decepticons, and so he runs

Having nowhere else to turn, he gets back to working in one of the few mines still working at the time, and it’s like he got back to square one, so you can imagine how hopeless he felt

I like to think that at some point, the mine he was working in collapsed, and HW, mostly unharmed but pretty much on high alert, tries to find a way out, he finds a few other miners who need help and without a second thought goes to help them, even going as far as donating some of his own energon to keep some of them alive even tho it puts his own life at risk

And to the horror and shock of the other miners, he also helps some of the guards stuck with them as well without any hesitation, and to further their shock, HW doesn’t wanna hear a signal complaint about it

Blind to time he just digs and moves every little rock to find a way out, goes as far as order some of the unharmed miners and even guards to help, and in doing so realizes how the storm inside him is quite, he feels at peace for the first time in his life, and it’s because he’s using his hands and his mind for actual good than mere tools to move rock or for spilling energon, he finally feels like his life has actual purpose

Eventually HW and the other miners and guards are saved by some bots who call themselves “rescue recruits” and it’s like HW’s eyes opened to a whole new world he never knew existed, he immediately asks the nearest rescue recruit -and ahem, I like to think it’s Chase >:) - if he could become a rescue recruit himself, and lo and behold he can, he’s lead to the rescue academy, still at work amidst the chaos happening on the planet

He starts his journey towards becoming a rescue bot, eventually gaining his name which I like to believe was an affectionate nickname his classmates gave him due to his temper, and HW finds himself attached to the fire fighter job

Enter, Rescue Bot Heatwave :D

———

Chase: YESSSS! Especially when it comes to him being velocitronian!!!

Like ngl the moment my eyes landed on Chase when I started the show I was like “YOU. Velocitronian.”

And yeah, Velocitron definitely isn’t the best place for Chase, he’s too lawful to be ok with living there, and just like HW, Chase has a strong sense of justice, so to see how biased and unfair the system is towards so many Cybertronians??? it just disgusts him, being a rescue bot would seem like the best option to go for, and in some ways, I feel like Chase did find that satisfaction in his rescue work over being a rule enforcer

And this may seem silly, but I often think of how it would go if Chase met IDW Prowl, both of them are super fixated on the rules, but how each perceive these rules and the contrast in which they enforce them is very fascinating, it makes me wonder how Chase would react to Prowl’s grey morality and uh- questionable behavior

That aside i feel like Chase didn’t have much difficulty in joining the rescue academy, due to the privilege he has he was aware of its existence early on, and so he immediately joined when he felt like the police forces on Cybertron are corrupt at best, and as a police bot himself, he refuses to align himself with these corrupt people, so he joins the rescue academy in hopes he finds it fair and just, and to his pleasant surprise? It is

———

Boulder: HELL YAAAAAA

Boulder is an engineering genius, and hope you don’t mind me throwing this in but I feel like Boulder was on very thin ice, i like to think he was gonna end up as low caste miner, but by very good luck and his apparent genius he was decided to be a lower middle caste engineer

Which Boulder is grateful for actually, better his luck than the poor guys literally fighting for their lives, and Boulder doesn’t strike me as the type to complain, he always seems satisfied by the little things in life, doesn’t mean he liked seeing the injustices that occurred, or how life seems so difficult, but he’d always try to focus on the positives than the negatives, and while I feel like others would definitely think of him as weird for it (an outcast as you said) they appreciate his positivity, they need some sunshine in their dark world

To me I like to think he became a rescue bot after meeting HW

To put it into perspective I like to think Chase was the first to join the academy, then Blades, HW and last but not least Boulder, and how HW and Boulder met was due to a rescue HW was tasked by, in which he met a very curious Boulder and a tiny bit impressed HW by Boulder’s kindness and positivity, HW proposed joining the academy to Boulder, and the ever kind Boulder who loves to help people immediately accepts, and joins the academy later on

I like to believe even after joining the academy, Boulder still visits his old home and friends, tries visiting them as often as he can, it’s strange to his friends why would Boulder willingly choose to visit the same old home that made his life difficult, but the home itself never mattered to Boulder as much as the people and relationships he made there, yes life was a lot more difficult but it was worth fighting for and he gets back home with as much energon as he can to share it with his old home

———

Woo boi that was a long one, nevertheless enjoyed rambling so enjoy reading xhhdhdgdgd

And cause your lil ask was fun here’s a lil art i made that I wasn’t really ever gonna share, it’s got nothing to do with what we’re talking about it’s just me exploring ideas in my brain (it’s very loosely based on my version of Con HW but something like an aftermath that has nothing to do with what I shared about him xhhxhxh)

Part 2 (of the ask)