#i screwed up the vanishing point so the room's got more depth than it should LMAO

[akiacia]

tried customizing maggie's step 3 bedroom!

[that-was-anticlimactic]

22 with Zukka for the prompt list? Also hi :)

"Give me a brush. I'll fix your hair for you." + zukka

Zuko was angry.

He supposed that wasn’t that shocking—he was angry a lot—but the amount of genuine anger and frustration he was accumulating due to his hair, now that wasn’t fair nor normal.

It was stupid—he had to attend some dumb public event since he was the Fire Lord and stand at the side applauding politely, then say a few words. Really, he’d been through more stressful times in his life than that.

Even still, there was an hour left before he had to arrive, and he was getting ready in his chambers. Or, he was supposed to be getting ready. He was still in his sleeping robes, aggressively pulling a brush through his hair

Honestly, at this point, he was just beating his scalp.

No matter how carefully or slowly he ran the brush through his hair, it was still tangled. It still looked greasy, and even when he said “screw it” and just threw his hair in a top knot, he nearly chopped it all off because it looked terrible. The bumps at the top of his head were so large it looked like he hadn’t even brushed his hair in the first place!

Logically, he knew that his dad was far far far away right now and would in no way, shape, or form be attending the same event or see said event, but he couldn’t block out Ozai’s voice in his head telling him how big of a disappointment he was due to the state of his hair.

Zuko grunted, throwing the brush across the room and leveling the cursed object with a furious pout. It’s what the brush deserved.

“Hey, Zuko! I can’t decide whether I should wear my cobalt robes or my lapis robes. I know you don’t think there’s a difference, but I swear to you—are you okay?”

The angelic sound of Sokka’s voice caused Zuko’s face to shift from fury to a soft smile. He turned around, his fingers twitching when the brush left his sight because it needed to know how angry he was, and shot Sokka what he hoped was a soft look.

His boyfriend was also wearing his evening robes, something far too casual for the event they were attending, and it took everything in him to focus his gaze on Sokka’s face rather than his shoulder where the fabric was slowly slipping off.

In his hands were two tunics which absolutely looked the exact same color-wise, but he just chalked that up to Sokka being picky about his wardrobe (no, he wouldn’t acknowledge that he was unsure whether it was that or the fact that he couldn’t see properly out of his left eye).

Sokka’s hair looked impeccable, tied tightly in a wolf tail, much unlike his own.

“Sunshine?”

Oh, he’d been staring, hadn’t he?

“Sorry,” he mumbled, running a hand over his face and collapsing onto his bed. “I’m just trying to get ready.”

He watched as Sokka’s eyes flickered between Zuko’s tapping foot, his hair, and the brush on the floor behind him.

His face morphed into understanding and he carefully draped his clothes over the back of Zuko’s vacant chair, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Give me a brush. I’ll fix your hair for you,” he said gently, nudging Zuko’s foot with his own.

“Get it yourself, Lazy,” Zuko muttered, but either way he shifted his position so he could roll onto the other side of the bed and reached, swiping the brush off the floor and tossing the cursed object at his boyfriend.

Sokka poked at him with his finger (and Zuko tried not to melt at the way Sokka tapped in patterns of three—it was the nonbender’s favorite type of pattern, he did everything in three’s. It became Zuko’s favorite number as their relationship developed and became not only a form of comfort for Sokka when he had his bad days, but also for him) until he got the signal and turned so his back was to Sokka.

“Your hair is very pretty,” Sokka remarked, gently grabbing a small chunk of his hair and starting at the edges.

“It’s greasy.”

“No, it’s really not. You know I don’t like touching greasy hair. I wouldn’t touch it if it was greasy.”

They both knew that was a lie—Zuko’s hair was an exception.

“You wanna tell me what’s wrong?” Sokka asked, twisting the edges of the now brushed section of Zuko’s hair while separating it into a second section.

“My hair.”

“I got that.”

“It’s not… it’s not perfect…”

And that was it, wasn’t it? The event wasn’t that big of a deal—in fact, it was so insignificant to him that he wasn’t quite sure what exactly it was, but when his hair wouldn’t work the way he wanted, he started getting stiff and on edge.

If his dad saw him like this… Zuko couldn’t help but shudder at the mere thought.

“Babe, Sunshine, light of my life,” Sokka began and oh how Zuko practically melted, “you don’t need to be perfect.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” Zuko shot back. “But I do have to be perfect. Everyone’s watching me—I’m the Fire Lord! If I don’t look perfect then…” he trailed off, squeezing his eyes shut and attempting to focus solely on the feeling of Sokka’s fingers in his hair.

“Oh, I get it,” Sokka said softly. “This isn’t about your hair, is it, baby?”

Zuko just sniffed.

“I know I’m not the best person to talk to about being okay with things being imperfect, but something I’ve begun to learn over the years is that there’s never a time when everything’s perfect, no matter how hard you plan… or brush…”

Zuko chuckled.

“But something that you can always count on is me being there; you know I’ll always be there, right? Because I will be,” he continued. At this point, Zuko was certain Sokka had set the brush down and was just using his fingers, which was somehow more comforting despite the slightly uncouth method.

“Besides, you’re already perfect to me. You don’t need to try and please everyone else anymore. Quite frankly, they’re all idiots.”

Zuko laughed. It was quiet and more half-hearted than anything, but it was a laugh all the same. He could feel water beginning to pool in his eyes, and Zuko let out a choking gasp. “Sorry.”

“Shush, you have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I just… I saw my hair and it wouldn’t—it wasn’t right and I didn’t know what would—“

“Shhh.” Sokka coaxed him into silence, purposefully taking deep breaths along the way to remind him to breathe (which was really helpful since he had forgotten).

“It’s just me. No one else is here—he’s not here. It’s just you and it’s me. And I, personally, think you have the prettiest hair in the entire world, even when it’s greasy.”

Oh, what did Zuko do to deserve someone like Sokka in his life?

Sokka stopped running his fingers through his hair, and Zuko felt the bed shift as Sokka adjusted his position. The nonbender flung his arms around Zuko’s neck, holding him close.

“You’re going to have the best public appearance in the history of pubic appearances today,” Sokka informed him, and Zuko hummed, allowing himself to fall back into Sokka’s embrace. “And if anyone complains about your hair, they may have a run in with my boomerang.”

“Thank you.”

Zuko opened his eyes, allowing his face to fall into its natural frown, but prayed to Agni that Sokka could see the appreciation and adoration in his eyes.

He slowly rose, pushing himself off of his bed and turning so he could see his reflection in the mirror.

His hair it… it wasn’t bad. But it still made his muscles clench and his breath hitch. There were some strands tumbling out of his top knot, falling out of rhythm with the rest of his demeanor.

It was so insignificant, but that’s what Zuko thought when he was younger.

(There was nothing insignificant when it came to Ozai.)

He felt more than saw Sokka stand beside him, and together they gazed in the mirror.

Despite knowing he was being self-conscious, Zuko found himself biting his lip in anticipation as Sokka looked at him. He knew Sokka didn’t think he was disfigured or that his hair was an awful mess, but that wasn’t enough prevent his heart from racing and his fists at the ready to raise to block his—

“You’re beautiful,” Sokka breathed, his eyes so wide that Zuko thought they could contain the depths of the entire ocean, encompass the entirety of the night sky. What made his face flush was that the stars in Sokka’s eyes were directed on him—focused solely and only on him.

“Oh.”

It pained him that that was all he could say. Sokka could compliment him like it was nothing, but Zuko couldn’t do any more than reply with one word.

Sokka frowned and no, that wouldn’t do. Zuko didn’t like when he frowned—more so, he hated being the reason his boyfriend’s smile vanished.

“Are you still…” He cut himself off, his neck jerking and lips pursing, then he waved his hands around for emphasis, as a way to finish the sentence.

Shamefully, Zuko nodded.

Without warning, Sokka grabbed hold of Zuko’s hands and placed them on the top of his head. He intertwined their fingers, almost as if they were holding hands, then started moving them.

For a moment, Zuko held his breath because what was this idiot doing? His hair was the definition of perfection—no strands were loose, he looked regal, the blue and red beads in his hair were perfectly placed… and here Sokka was, guiding Zuko’s hands around his head and messing it up.

Zuko tried to pull away—tried to free his hands from Sokka’s grasp because they couldn’t do this—they couldn’t mess up is hair! The Fire Nation was already terribly critical towards Sokka, being Water Tribe and all, not to mention being the Fire Lord’s boyfriend meant more publicity than either of them were comfortable with… the public would tear Sokka apart if he walked out with messy hair.

“What are you doing?” Zuko hissed through grit teeth, still trying to yank his hands away to no avail. “You’re messing up your hair—I’m messing up your hair!”

Sokka ignored him, but Zuko couldn’t find it in himself to glower at his idiot because his tongue was sticking out of his mouth the way it did when he was concentrating and it was so authentically Sokka and so adorable and—

“There,” Sokka said, interrupting his thoughts. “Now we match!”

It was then that Zuko realized his hands had been released, and he clutched them close to his chest defensively.

Sokka was cheekily grinning at him, his eyes shining, and his hair… oh. His hair was a travesty. His wolf tail became undone and half of it was falling out. The top of his head looked like someone build hundreds of tiny bridges with the way his hair had been tugged at.

As terrible as it was, Zuko was basking in the absolute adorableness of his boyfriend.

“It may not be perfect,” Sokka started, locking hands with Zuko once more, “but we’re doing it together. Okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Penguin.”

Sokka leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Okay, then: should I wear the cobalt or lapis tunic? I feel like lapis is a more luscious color, but cobalt brings out my eyes…”

Most of what Sokka was saying made absolute no sense to him, but Zuko knew Sokka so he knew that his feeling weren’t being brushed aside. Sokka was just trying to distract him—to make him laugh.

So, Zuko sat back down and listened to Sokka ramble about the pros and cons of each color, even though they had to be at the event in half an hour.

Sokka was right (he always was)—it was never about his hair (maybe it was a little about his hair, whenever Ozai was involved, it was about everything). He spent the majority of his life trying to live up to the standards of everyone else—his hair had to be perfect, his back had to be perfectly straight…

The Fire Nation thrived on the idea of perfection. So much so that Zuko knew if Sokka had been born and raised here, he would have been isolated or forced into muteness due to his imperfections, or his tics. It was a terrible thought that was proved true by the looks he saw shot his boyfriend’s way by some elders—from the way that some people would address Zuko rather than Sokka when they were together or ask Zuko why he hadn’t fixed Sokka or what places he took Sokka to to do so.

But they weren’t imperfections, Sokka’s tics. Zuko reminded him countless times that they were just a part of who he was, something that made him as special as he was. And he supposed that’s what Sokka was trying to show him… though through his unorthodox and irritatingly charming methods.

Zuko never did fix his hair for the evening—he wanted to continue matching with Sokka.

[this can be seen as a mini prequel to threshold of eternity hence why zuko gives azula the advice about how to 'handle' her hair and toe kind of inspired this one hehe]

'101 ways to say i love you' prompts

[benedictscanvas]

all the wrong places [5/7] - spencer reid x reader

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: 2k

Summary: It only takes a moment for Spencer to realise that he doesn’t just want to marry you someday, he wants to marry you as soon as he possibly can. But since he can’t come up with a solid plan, he turns to his BAU family for help in planning the most important day of his life so far. Is that a mistake? Most definitely.

Warnings: Series probably aren’t meant to be exclusively fluffy, but this one practically is! I need some fluff in my life, damn it! There may be some mention of regular Criminal Minds things, some language but mostly just good ol’ Spence lovin’

a chapter every day for seven days! (20-26th July 2020) so please drop an ask if you’d like to be tagged <3

---

Chapter Five - Heat of the Moment

There hadn’t been anymore meddling in his relationship with you since that day on the jet. You’d been on a case the whole time, so there was little opportunity for them to do so, but Spencer got the feeling it was more than that. All of them had started feeling too guilty about all their previous meddling to do anymore.

That, and Spencer was pretty sure JJ had taken everyone aside and put her foot down about it. No more bets were placed, no more money exchanged hands. Spencer was ridiculously relieved. The case was still tough, but at least he could pour all his focus into it rather than being worried what the team might spill at any moment.

“The geographical profile is all over the place,” he told you from his spot at the board, looking back at you over his shoulder. You were sat cross-legged on top of the conference table, files splayed out all around you, eyes tired and slightly wild. Everyone had been up for hours without sleep, but it affected everyone differently. You and Spencer were both the type to keep working without breaks, running solely on adrenaline and copious caffeine and then crash completely as soon as everything was over.

“I know,” you murmured, “Come look at this.”

You didn’t need to ask twice as he made his way over and perched on the tiny scrap of table he could find uncovered by paper. You pointed to one of the files to your left and he had to hold onto your knee as he leaned over to read it.

“That’s interesting.”

‘Yeah I thought so too, but then I thought I was probably wrong.”

“I don’t think you’re wrong,” he said absentmindedly, picking up the file and dropping it into his lap to read in more depth. You sat quietly beside him, allowing him to digest what you’d been trying to make sense of for an hour.

“Let’s take this to Hotch, see what he makes of it,” he said eventually, hopping down from the table with the file clutched tightly in one hand, “Good work, Y/L/N.”

“Means a lot coming from you, Doctor Reid,” you chuckled, taking his outstretched hand to help you down from the table. You smoothed out the wrinkles in your shirt and then quickly reached out to pull his cardigan up where it had fallen from his shoulder, before heading out of the room.

Hotch was talking to a few officers when the two of you presented what you had found. A guy in the system who had previous convictions that made him a perfect candidate for the bomber you’d been trying to stop for over a week now.  A call to Garcia to look into his recent purchases all but confirmed your suspicions.

“We need to go,” Hotch said, mostly to the officers, once his phone had beeped to indicate Garcia having sent the address. You and Spencer were already grabbing your jackets and vests, strapping them on.

And then there were gunshots, Hotch was pulling you down onto the ground, you were pulling Spencer with you and all you could see was a pair of old, worn boots across the precinct from your position behind the desk. When the gunshots had stopped, the three of you slowly rose your heads above the desk, met with the face that lay in a file strewn across the floor a metre or so away from you.

There was a bomb strapped to his chest, which almost made you roll your eyes at just how obvious this next move had been and how none of you managed to see it coming. You scanned the room for the victims of the gunshots, but found only one body near the door, a young officer with a positivity that you had thought he would lose with time. He’d never get the chance. The rest of the shots seemed to be in the ceiling, if the chunks of plaster were any indicator.

Hotch was already stood up, hands out in front of him, moving forward towards the guy, Clive, you remembered, with slow steps and soft words. You looked to Spencer beside you, silently asking if the two of you should be doing something, standing up with him or pulling your guns. He shook his head, though only slightly, then he looked down and tightened your vest. No words. You did the same for him almost instantly, before the two fo you turned back to Hotch. Hands were poised on guns, but there was no use shooting the guy if it would detonate that bomb. It was enough to decimate the room, at least.

Heart pounding. Mouth dry. It was impossible to tell whether Hotch was getting anywhere. He was still getting closer, but Clive still had that rage burning behind his eyes that told you that Hotch wasn’t there yet.

When Clive suddenly took the final step towards Hotch that left his gun resting on Hotch’s forehead, you bobbed further up from behind the desk instinctually, and he turned to you. So did his gun. Spencer only just pulled you back behind the desk in time before another round of gunfire started up, this time directed at you. You crouched beside Spencer, eyes screwed shut as you clung to each other.

The gunfire stopped abruptly with a shout, but neither of you moved. Spencer’s arms were wrapped all the way around you, head on top of yours, with your hand on top of his head pulling it down as far as you could.

“You two okay?” JJ said frantically as she rounded the desk and rested a hand on each of your shoulders. You finally let up your embrace, checking each other over with military precision. No injuries.

“We’re good. Everyone else?”

“All fine,” JJ said through a sigh, helping you up with two hands and a squeeze to your right, “Morgan and I returned from our interviews just as Hotch was talking the guy down, and when he turned on you guys, we got our opportunity to bust in and wrestle the detonator from him.”

“Pretty badass, JJ,” you smirked at her, pushing at her shoulder and she shook her head at you, trying not to smile. She was off to check on Morgan without another word, who was already working with the bomb squad to take care of the bomb, but by the way he was laughing a little with one of the guys you guessed this must be a pretty easy one to sort out. Hotch had Clive cuffed and was taking him away. Rossi and Emily must still be out at the M.E. and you were glad they’d managed to avoid this.

Spencer beside you seemed to be surveying the scene as you were, but his hand was rubbing his shoulder with a grimace. Your eyes narrowed.

“Turn around, Spence,” you ordered him suddenly and he looked at you surprised, but turned around anyway. Your soft little gasp couldn’t be contained. There was a bullet lodged in his vest, just above his shoulder blade, “Oh fuck, get this off, Spence, get it off.”

You were quick to unstrap it, although still careful even if you were hardly thinking straight. When you finally lifted it from his head and stared at the spot where the bullet had been, there was no mark. No blood. You let out an uneven breath. There would be bruising, no doubt, but the vest had done its job.

“You know, I think I would’ve know if I’d been shot,” he said, slightly teasing despite the fact you had tears in your eyes, “And taking my vest off would’ve been the least helpful thing to do if I had, too.”

You were looking at your feet. Spencer winced. He had no idea you were actually that worried, but he could see you biting your lip and changed his course immediately.

“Shit, sorry,” you mumbled, but he was already scooping you into his arms and holding you tight, allowing you to cry, if only just a little bit. You hadn’t slept, no one had, so you figured you could get away with it this once.

“We’re alright, angel,” he whispered reassuringly, rubbing your back, your hair with insistent hands, “Everything’s alright, it’s done. We can go home.”

There was an extra little whimper at the mention of home, but also a resolve. You pulled away from him, wiping your face roughly until any trace of tears had vanished. He tilted his head as he looked at you.

“Sorry,” you said sheepishly, a small smile, “Just love you a bit, you know?”

“Yeah, I know. Love you a bit, too.”

He pulled you in by the back of your neck, gentle, a kiss placed to your temple and then another for luck. When he pulled away, you gave him another look and a ‘just gimme a second’, before disappearing away to the precinct’s bathroom. He figured you might have a few tears to cry in private, and while it made his heart ache, he understood. He might have some to cry later too, when the shock wore off and he was left with the ‘what if’s.

“You okay, kid?” Rossi was the one to come over next, even though Spencer had no idea he and Emily had made it back, “Made it out unscathed.”

“Almost,” Spencer was rubbing his shoulder again, because it actually really hurt and so had hugging you, but that didn’t matter. He saw the worry on Dave’s face, “It’ll just be a bruise. Don’t tell Y/N I complained about it.”

“Don’t want her to think you’re weak?” Rossi said jokingly and Spencer barked out a laugh.

“You and I both know I just don’t want her to treat me like a piece of glass for a month,” he said with a small groan, “You remember when I was shot in the knee right?”

“I do. Maybe she was a little over the top,” Rossi agreed, with Spencer nodding along. It had made him love you more than ever, but it had also been beyond frustrating, “She’s pretty enamoured with you, huh?”

Spencer paused for a second, looking over to the bathroom to make sure you hadn’t returned.

“No one’s more surprised about that fact than me, Rossi.”

“I’m not surprised. What surprises me, is that you haven’t put that ring on her yet.”

Spencer sighed. And it returned.

“Look-”

“I’m not having a go, kid. I’m just saying I think you should go for it. And I don’t think that woman-” he pointed discreetly towards the bathroom as you emerged, eyes puffier than they had been, “-is going to care how you do it. The woman who’s currently beside herself over your wellbeing even though you didn’t even get shot, is just going to be over the moon that she gets to marry you. Trust me.”

The pep talk had tears in Spencer’s eyes again. He kept his gaze on you as you walked over to Emily for a hug and the two of you talked. Rossi had said everything he needed to hear. He turned to the man with a grateful smile.

“Thanks Rossi. Seriously.”

He began to march towards you, even though the ring was in his satchel in the conference room, ready to confess every bit of how much he loved you. Ready to ask you to marry him right the fuck now, because no other time would be soon enough.

A hand on the back of his shirt pulled him backwards with force enough to make him stumble.

“Christ, Reid, I didn’t mean right now! We’re in a dirty police precinct, dumbass.”

“But you just said-”

“Yeah, I know what I said. But not here.”

Spencer frowned as Rossi walked off, shaking his head. At the back of his mind, he wondered whether this would count as his fifth proposal attempt gone wrong, or if he was only on his fourth.

Either way, he was turning out to be shockingly bad at this.

---

taglist (ily all <3)

@mrs-dr-reid @soda610 @alexxcorona113 @thupidalethea @may-beforejune-afterapril @ilovesupersoldiers @hurricanejjareau​ @stardream14 @mortallythoughtfulgurl @aperrywilliams @saranyx @anotherspencerreidblog @thegayestdestielshipper @burkgolden @reidsmyhusband-emilysmymistress @zozoleesi @baumindss @sargent-barnes​ @halseysunset​

[monomonomagines]

Part 2 of the V3 Boys as Monsters with a Human S/o

Hey guys! Sorry again for this being so long. Mod Kokichi loves monsters more than anything so this was something that we talked in-depth about for nights on end it feels like. Anyways, here’s part two! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it!

(Part 1 here)

Kokichi (9-tailed Kitsune)

Normally getting lost near the mountains on a rainy day would be considered pretty bad luck but it was more than a gloomy rainy day.

It was raining while the sun was shining. What a weird day to get lost but at least it wasn't dark and cold while you were getting soaked.

As you continued to try to figure out what trail to go on to get back home you noticed the figure of an older woman that you could assume was probably a local.

"Excuse me, do you know the way back to the city?" You asked as she turned to you with a gentle smile nodding.

"Oh yes, just go up the mountain path and follow it until you see a sign that points to another path."

Thank goodness! That wasn't difficult at all. You'd thank the old woman before you'd continue on the path. However, even as it felt like hours passed you were still stuck on the mountain.

Thankfully though, you encountered another local, this time a middle-aged man. You went through the same process when this time you received instructions that were slightly different.

Ok, guess the old woman made a mistake you'd thought.

Yet this process would keep happening, with another local and more wrong direction. Plus to make things worse, you had begun to hear footsteps behind you each time.

Frustrated after hours on end of this you'd yell out, "I know you're there so stop screwing with me and come out!"

You really hadn't thought that anything would come when you'd point your finger at a space behind you but to your surprise something did and it wasn't just something. It was a 9 tailed kitsune!

"Awww man! You caught me!" He says giving you a toothy grin. "You're a lot smarter than the other humans I've tricked today which meannnnssss I'll just have to take you to be my bride! It is the perfect day for it after all or were you planning on being late to your own wedding!?"

"What?" You could feel yourself almost falling over from the shock. "You...you're lying! You can't actually mean that!"

"Oh but I do! You're mine now and you have no say in it!"

Before you could protest he'd use his monstrous strength to pick you up, bridal style carrying you to a strange shrine in the mountains.

"When I want something I always get it so say hello to your new home!"

He would be enamored like Korekiyo with you but he'd be very sadistic even if you were to be his lover.

Kaito (Werewolf)

It was late at night when you'd heard a scratching sound at your door.

You cautiously would get up, walking to your door and looking through the peephole but nothing was there.

You sighed, bracing yourself and opened the door only for a full-blown wolf with a jacket tied around it to look up at you with pleading eyes.

Did it want in your house? Why would you let a wolf in? You thought when you finally noticed hunters in the distance.

Was this a werewolf? How could it be so docile if it was a werewolf though?

He again pleaded with you, letting out whines like a normal dog.

Common sense told you not to be fooled but there was something about this particular wolf that made it impossible for you to close the door on him.

It felt like he believed that you'd do the right thing and so you opened the door for him giving an excuse to the hunters in the distance that it's just your really big dog that you've been looking for all day.

Then all you could do was close the door behind you as the wolf merely gazed at you with a smile now.

He was pretty friendly, you'd admit that but what were you going to do with him for the night?

You were going to propose that he sleeps on the couch but he had already hopped in your bed by the time you came to that assumption. Guess he was sleeping with you tonight.

At this point, you were too tired to argue but you sure were in for a rude awakening in the morning.

Now there was a naked man with nothing but a star-patterned jacket over his body.

"Hey! You're up finally!" He beams at you.

"Yeah...uh...who are you?" You ask trying to avert your eyes.

"Kaito Momota Luminary of the stars at your service!"

"Right, uhm are you going to be leaving soon, Kaito? I thought you'd be gone by now." You question, too groggy to do more than look away from him in his nudeness.

"Oh right! I should be going but I need to repay you still for helping me out! I'll get you some gifts, and come by again alright?"

He barely even gives you time to respond already running towards the door as you barely get out another word. You were too tired for him being so energetic, so when you heard a knocking at your door in the evening you had already forgotten Kaito said he'd be back.

You open the door, more alert this time when the same wolf from last night comes bounding in with a small animal carcass in its mouth.

Before you can even ask him to set it outside he plops it down right on the ground in your living room. Why was he bringing you a dead carcass now?

As much as Kaito was nice this was a living nightmare and he only continued to bring more every night, running out of the house before you could ask him about it.

That is until one day he came to your door, fully clothed thankfully and tells you. "Hey, I know I've been leaving you gifts but I haven't gotten a response from you. I thought maybe you were rejecting me but then I realized you're human so I didn't have to court you at all! I can just ask you to be my mate."

He takes a deep breath after, adding "So wanna be my mate?

Kiibo (Ghost)

You were exploring an abandoned house for the hell of it, pretending like you were one of those ghost hunters or something.

It was just something to idly pass the time but you hadn't expected to actually be met with a real ghost.

You had been taking a break but apparently, he had been trying to get your attention the whole time you were there.

It wasn't until he snatched your phone and accidentally shone the bright flashlight function directly in your face.

When you're eyes adjust you'd be met with the sight of a semitransparent guy fumbling with your phone, obviously panicking.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know these things did this! We didn't have these when I was alive!"

When he was alive? Wait, you really found a ghost!

As excited as you were, for now, you needed to get that stupid flashlight function off.

You'd walk up to him grabbing the phone from his hands and turning it off with a sigh of relief coming from the both of you.

"Thank you, I hadn't meant to harm you in any way, I was just trying to get your attention."

Hm, that was strange though. He didn't seem harmful but why would he need your attention?

"Alright, well you've got my attention so what is it?"

Seeming surprised by your forwardness he scrambles for his words uttering out an explanation clumsily. "Well, I need your help actually. You see, I'm bound to this place and I'm not sure why."

Oh! So he was stuck. You weren't really sure what to do to help him but you ended up making a promise to visit him every day to try to help him out.

Eventually, he'd end up falling for you and your kindness, confessing to you rather awkwardly as he'd spring it on you out of nowhere.

However, you had grown rather fond of him yourself so you accepted his feelings, leaning in for a kiss when he'd vanish.

Did he pass on? That night you'd head home feeling quite dejected when the same ghost you kissed would make his entrance, appearing before you in your room.

"I'm sorry for leaving. I'm able to pass on now thanks to falling in love but I didn't want to leave you behind."

Shuichi (Jiangshi)

You were taking a late-night stroll to clear your mind when you began to hear a weird sound coming from behind you.

It sounded like something was hopping along behind you.

It wouldn't have been concerning if you were able to discern it as something like a rabbit but it sounded far too large.

You tried to ignore it at first but it just kept following behind you, sounding closer and closer.

You were ready to run when this time though you heard a huge thud.

Did they just fall? You turned to look behind you and they most certainly had.

You had thought it was some stalker but really it was a Jiangshi and a pretty bad one from the looks of it.

"Are you ok?" You ask tentatively approaching the strange monster.

"I'm fine...." He trails off getting up rather stiffly as he looks to you. "Why do you care about a monster like me though?"

He was asking you why you cared?

Well, it was obvious he was going after your lifeforce albeit badly, but you really couldn't help but feel bad for the guy.

He looked pretty disheveled even for a Jiangshi and clumsy as well, so after giving him a good look over you tell him. "Well, you seem kind of...clumsy so I guess I just don't think you'll cause me much harm?"

He sighs again looking downward as he admits, "Yes I'm probably not the best at trying to get others life force."

Oh, so he was after you. At least he seemed rather civil about it you supposed.

You didn't have much of a reason for it but it made you want to help him for some reason so you decided to give him a proposition.

"What if I help you? I'll help you to learn how to hunt better."

Truth be told, you didn't really know if you could help him but you thought it couldn't hurt. However, he seemed to think otherwise.

"How do I know that you won't try to hurt me though?"

For a monster, he was rather skeptical so you had to propose another deal then.

"Ok, then what if you came to live with me? I could help you during the night and there'd be no way I could destroy your home or try to harm you right?"

As skeptical as he was he seemed at least able to agree to that and so you began living together.

It was rather awkward at times, due to his shyness and clumsiness but you'd also easily grow close to him as you see his innate kindness.

He may have been suspicious of you but he'd just as quickly come to trust and depend on you which would turn into him falling for you.

He wouldn't confess to you until it was time for him to leave.

He was able to get lifeforce fairly easily thanks to your help but he couldn't have risked you hating him until it was time to go.

Before he'd be ready to hop off to his old home, you'd simply be pulled aside as he'd shakily admit that he's fallen for you.

"I love you, S/o, I know I'm probably just some monster to you but..."

[writing-in-verse]

The Birds and The Bees (and The Blackthorns) Part Five

Here is the final part of my collaboration with @ti-bae-rius! You can find links to Part One, Two, Three, and Four here! Click here for Lauryn’s headcanons! The master-list will also be linked here too!

Enjoy!

Kit and Ty had spent at least an hour trading letters back and forth, the burning paper vanishing as fast as it appeared filling the room with the smell of ash, pencil lead being worn down by audible scratching. The slight creak of the bedsprings faded away and the wooden headboard became a distant feeling against Ty’s shoulder-blades. The words enveloped him, filled his mind and seared themselves onto his eyes. Ty’s heartbeat was never calm or steady, but it beat felt more stable when he and Kit traded letters, kindling something within him as bright as the fire rune on the page.

I want you to come to the library. I’m running out of paper and I think someone is going to notice the smell of burning.

Kit xoxo

Kit wasn’t the most eloquent person Ty had ever met, not fed the literature and the ancient texts Shadowhunters had access to - not that Ty needed any encouragement. Ty wrote back,

I’m on my way, see you soon.

Ty.

He drew a fire rune, his skill at drawing marks was one of his less developed areas, and the paper lit up in a fluorescent blaze. He let the burning paper drop just as the flame touched his fingers and watched as the remainder burned away before hitting the ground. Halfway there another note materialised in front of him,

Soon couldn’t come fast enough. Most people have nicknames for people their going out with, but I don’t think you’d like to be called flower or honey. Besides, I wouldn’t want to call you anything other than Ty.

Kit xoxo

Ty smiled and wrote on the back,

I am not a flower, Kit. Nor am I a sweet product of pollen and the hard work of bees. I think Kit is a name you chose, and I wouldn’t imagine using any other.

Ty.

He was just reading over his message when he heard Livvy’s voice.

“Hey Ty-Ty, are you doing okay?”

Ty barely looked up as he replied. “Hey Livvy. I’m okay, Kit said he was hiding from Julian in the library so I’m going there.”

“That’s good, I’d seen him in there earlier and he looked like he would appreciate someone to pass the time with. I’m going to go find Dru, so I’ll come and find you later, okay?”

“Okay,” Ty replied as he passed her, barely stopping to talk. He drew another clumsy fire run on the paper and watched it burn in his hands, only remembering to let go when he felt the heat singe his fingers. He dragged his preoccupied mind out from the letters and found himself at the doors to the library.

Ty, for one of the few times in his life, hesitated.

He rarely stopped to consider his actions once he started on them, always trusting in his logical thinking to do the right thing, and he’d often been told by Livvy or one of the others that he might one day do something he regretted if he didn’t think it through. He felt like this was one of those times; a moment which could shape many moments to come if he wished it. It took him a moment to realise he was nervous, not in the all-consuming and heart-wrenching nervous he often felt, but a light and apprehensive nervous that came from expectation and the fear of disappointment.

Ty closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and stepped through the library doors.

The library had always been one of Ty’s favourite places in the whole of the institute. It was quieter than anywhere else; as if the noise of the rest of the building did not tread among the rows of books and scrolls and other assorted writings found within the shelves. There was always somewhere to hide and to be alone; Livvy had often found Ty here, among the stacks, reading Sherlock Holmes or one of the library texts.

Ty slowly swept his gaze along the large table at the centre of the room and saw all the half-screwed up notes and fire rune sketches littered the table along with some books with what appeared to be various drawing techniques. He stepped closer to the table and scanned over everything Kit had been doing over the last day, all the things he found interesting, the things he had half-finished, those he had spent hours perfecting, it all seemed to be centred around one thing; Ty.

“It’s a bit of a mess, but unless the Institute is hiding a librarian I’m sure no one will mind.” Kit’s voice came from behind Ty and he turned to see blue eyes looking at him. Ty had always struggled to read faces, could never quite understand some of the looks people gave him even if he did see every single one, but he could read Kit’s eyes and the nervousness in them. Ty thought back to being outside the library doors and the apprehension that sat on his shoulders, and almost sighed with relief as the weight lifted upon seeing that same emotion mirrored by Kit.

“If there was a librarian I would have found them a long time ago,” Ty replied. “And I think the ‘mess’, as you call it, is nice.”

“Well, as Dru could tell you, as much as I respect Julian and Emma’s authority I am not looking to be taught about sex. Especially not through using my best friend as a living diagram.”

Kit smirked at the sarcasm and Ty smiled, not at the obviously illogical idea of Dru as a living diagram, but rather at Kit’s smile, how it lit up his eyes and brought life to his features.

There was a moment when Kit went silent, when he stopped smiling, and suddenly cast his eyes to the floor, knotting his hands together. Ty wondered if he’d done something wrong in not responding to Kit’s joke or if he should say something to fill the silence. Before he could think of something, Kit spoke.

“I’ve missed you, Ty. The past couple of days have been…strange without you.”

“I saw you at dinner last night,” Ty pointed out with a smile.

Kit’s own smile returned. “Well, it feels like longer.”

“I’ve missed you too, Kit. I’ve wanted to come and find you, but a couple of things got in the way. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I put some things on the shelf in your room. I think you’ll like it.” Ty returned Kit’s smile.

Kit again went silent, but this time he walked slowly over to Ty, whose back was still to the desk. Kit put a hand on his arm and looked up at his face. Ty’s gaze caught on Kit’s eyes, the deep blue depths shining with something Ty could not decipher, and put a hand to his cheek.

If anyone was to ask either of them who kissed who first, they wouldn’t be able to give an answer. One moment they were separate and then they were together. The kiss started off slow, the boys initially uncertain of the other, but soon deepened and became hungry with need. There was a bang as Ty hit the desk behind him and Kit stopped.

“Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”

Ty just smiled and resumed kissing Kit, twisting them round and pushing Kit into the edge of the table. After mere moments Ty brushed pencil and books across the table, many of them crashing to the ground, and lifted Kit onto the now cleared space. Kit’s legs went around Ty’s, anchoring them both in place, entangling limbs with limbs like vines around tree trunks.

When Kit eventually came up for air and pulled away and Ty dipped his head, kissing Kit’s neck, the breath catching in Kit’s throat. Ty touched a hand to the goosebumps that had formed on Kit’s skin, running a finger along the newly-bumped flesh.

“I love you, Ty. I love you, I love you,” Kit said into his ear and at last Ty pulled back just to place his forehead against Kit’s. He stared into the other boy’s eyes, mesmerised by the deep blue contained in them. With Kit sat on the desk, the two of them were almost the same height.

“I love you too, Kit.” Ty kissed Kit again, but slower this time, as if sealing a promise.

Eventually, after much more kissing, they left the library, still littered with Kit’s drawings and notes, all the books he’d found and the pencils he’d used. They walked through the institute not hand in hand – not yet, at least – but side by side, Ty’s right hand brushing Kit’s left.

They reached Kit’s room and Kit looked at the shelf Ty had decorated, and his eyes shone as he smiled at Ty. The other boy shut the door and walked over to Kit and tugged him towards the bed.

“Your shelf looks great,” Kit said softly, kneeling up to admire it. Ty caught him by the waist, pulling him back down, his back flush to Ty’s stomach.

“Later,” Ty muttered, and Kit let himself be folded into Ty’s careful arms. He tipped his head back a little, laughing when Ty blew a trailing lock of blonde hair out of his eyes. “Why do you have so much hair?” Ty mumbled, and Kit grinned when the weight of Ty’s forehead met the space between his own shoulder blades. When he’d first arrived, Kit never would have imagined anywhere within this world would feel safe again, not with demons roaming the streets and the heavy onus of expectation to fight them. But there was safety, space to be created and to live within, places like the gentle circle of Ty’s embrace, one of his ankles tucked around Kit’s. Here, his mind wasn’t on demons and the history of a last name that still didn’t feel like his own, and it was easy to feel safe knowing these were the moments he wanted, knowing he’d made the right choice.

[stillebesat]

The Butterfly Effect -The Final Decision (24/26)

Sanders Sides: Thomas, Roman Inspiration: from @writing-prompt-s  “My domain is time,” said the Genie. “Instead of three wishes, you get three decisions. Go back and choose again.” Blurb: Roman has three chances to change his life for the better. Three chances to fix past mistakes. Three chances to totally screw it all up. But who said life is worth living unless one takes a little risk? Fic Type: Hurt/Comfort Overall Fic Warnings: Major Character Death (mentioned), Suicide (mentioned), Suicide Attempt, Partial Paralysis, Injuries, Blood, Punching/Fighting, Knives, Medicinal Misuse, Toxic Roommates (implied/mentioned), Acrophobia (fear of heights), Falling, Nausea, Bullying (implied/mentioned), Car Accident (mentioned), Prison (mentioned), Negative Self Talk, Panic Attack, Bomb (mention), Surgery (mentioned)

To Catch Up: Chapter 1  Chapter 2  Chapter 3  Chapter 4  Chapter 5  Chapter 6  Chapter 7  Chapter 8  Chapter 9  Chapter 10  Chapter 11  Chapter 12  Chapter 13  Chapter 14  Chapter 15  Chapter 16  Chapter 17  Chapter 18  Chapter 19  Chapter 20  Chapter 21  Chapter 22  Chapter 23

Thomas caught Roman’s wrist in the nick of time, preventing the actor from throwing his pocket watch into the river below. “What are you doing?!” He demanded, heart hammering in his throat. Of all the things he’d expected when he reappeared to hear Roman’s choice, this wasn’t it. Regret? Yes. Sorrow? Yes. Fervent Apologies? Sure. But throwing his watch? No.

Roman raised an eyebrow, his other hand gesturing. ~I thought that obvious, Thomas.~

He rolled his eyes, tugging Roman back inside, away from the balcony and its river view. “Throwing my watch away isn’t how you end a Warp, Roman.”

He knew Roman wasn’t happy with how it all turned out.

But throwing the watch away? He hadn’t expected that.

Though maybe Thomas would drop the thing in the ocean himself once this Warp was over. Of course...with his bad luck, the watch would barely last a week in the depths before someone managed to find it.

He let go of the Actor, taking a step back. “You hand the watch to me. You tell me you want to return to the original timeline and then I return you to your original timeline.” He stated, trying to hide the bitterness in his voice. It was his fault this warp was ending in Green. His cursed fault. “That’s how you do it.

Roman frowned, dropping the hand holding his watch to his side. ~You really think so little of me?~ He asked.

Thomas blinked. “What do you mean?” It was obvious what was about to happen. There was no need to soften the blow by pretending to consider it. Thomas had known Roman’s choice the moment he told the Actor he was Mute. Silence his voice? Forever? No. It wasn’t going to happen.

Roman clicked his tongue, sighing. =Sparkles.= He slipped the watch into his pocket freeing up both hands to sign. ~I. Choose.~

Thomas tensed, heart leadened in his chest. There was no reason to drag it out. He knew the outco--

~To Stay.~

His vision tunneled, focusing in on the sign frozen on Roman’s hands, a dull roar sounding in his ears as he swayed. What? Stay? No. He misunderstood. Thomas shook his head. “Stay? No you meant--”

=STAY= Roman clicked, his hands repeating the gesture for emphasis. ~Stay. Here. Stay. Now. Stay. Keep Three Decisions. Stay. Thomas. I Stay.~ =Comprende?=

No. He barely understood basic Spanish on a good day let alone in this moment. He--he had to be dreaming.

“You. want. to. stay. Here?” Thomas asked, voice cracking. He violently shook his head, taking a step back. “No one stays. No one keeps--It’s always GREEN!” Thomas looked up jabbing a finger at Roman, his skim shimmering like a vibrant fire opal. “My Warps Always Choose to Return. ALWAYS! They don’t Keep...I can’t…” His legs buckled sending Thomas to the floor, gasping for breath. This couldn’t be happening. It wasn’t… Warm, confident arms wrapped around Thomas, holding him close. A quiet series of pops and clicks met his ears, shifting into words. =It’s alright. You’re okay. Breathe. Thomas. Breathe. It’s fine. Thomas. You’re okay.= Gentle fingers ran through his hair, soothing him.

Even now. After all….Roman was choosing to comfort him? It should...it should be the other way around.

Somehow, he found his voice. “You’ll be mute.” Thomas whispered, shoulders hunching as Roman’s hand paused in his hair. “You won’t be an actor. How could you choose this?”

Roman exhaled, a breathy sound, before he clicked. =How could I not? Pat. Lo. ...Virgil. They have more to give than I do as an actor.=

Thomas shook his head, pushing away, staggering to his feet. “You can’t….” He trailed off seeing Roman’s tender smile, his eyes shimmering with their own tears as he also stood.

The actor swallowed, hands gesturing. ~I can. I--~ He shrugged, pulling out the pocket watch and placed it gently in Thomas’s hand, closing his fingers over the cool surface, before Roman pulled away, flashing him his widest smile. ~I had my fifteen minutes of fame, Thomas. It’s time to give my friends a chance to shine.~ He signed.

The watch flashed gold, vanishing back into the timestream before Thomas could stop it.  It’s job in this Warp done.

It wasn’t fair. Thomas searched Roman’s eyes. It wasn’t fair! This was supposed to be a chance to help Roman obtain a better life! “You’re sure?” He whispered. “You can’t change your mind after this point.”

Roman nodded without any hesitation. ~YES.~ He signed firmly. ~I’m sure.~

Confirmation. Thomas took a steadying breath. “Okay.” He said, reached out brushing Roman’s cheek, his hand glimmering as the timestream swirled around them, twisting and turning into its new course as Thomas removed his golden anchor points from Roman’s lifeline. “What once was, will no longer be. I give you the life of your chosen three.” He said, allowing the Actor’s lifeline to fade back into the timestream, his beige thread quickly disappearing among the more vibrant reds, greens, and blues.

Roman exhaled, closed his eyes, his hand rising to touch Thomas’s fingers. ~Thanks.~ He signed.

His heart twisted, a sob threatening to choke him. Don’t thank him. Please don’t thank him for this. Thomas inhaled shakily, pulling away, grabbing blindly for a ripple of time to take him away. “May you find happiness in your future decisions, Roman.” He said, his voice echoing as he fled, vanishing from the actor’s sight.

Thomas collapsed as soon as the Commons of the Ethereal Plane appeared, curling into a ball, tears streaming down his cheeks as he broke down, barely hearing the celebratory cheers of multiple Time Genies and Joan’s “YOU GOT A GOLDEN THOMAS! YOU DID I--” before they cut off, the room falling deadly silent as Joan whispered. “Dude, you okay?”

He shook his head, curling tighter into a ball. No. No he wasn’t. He’d finally gotten the Golden Warp he wanted….but at what cost? 

To Be Continued Chapter 25  Chapter 26

[jojo-lity]

Specularity

to @ocean0flove​, thank you for the commission!! and to everyone else, sorry i haven’t been doing much, i hope to get back to requests soon!

pairing: jotaro kujo/ocean0flove word count: 2514 rating: sfw

ao3 link

Attempt One.

Jotaro suddenly feels like an idiot for even writing that down. The pencil in his hand quivers a little bit (he’s more willing to believe in a pencil’s sudden rise to sentience than any weakness in his grip), alerting him to the urge to just toss it away. But he’s in the middle of a classroom, full of people that would get hurt if he launched a tiny wooden missile in their direction. Instead, he just scribbles the words out, taking some satisfaction in making each character unrecognisable.

Whatever. He doesn’t need to write anything down. He doesn’t even need a plan. He knows Jay, and they know him, as much as he’ll let anyone get to know him. Stupid as it is for him to have feelings like this (for the first person at school to treat him like a human being, no less), it’s not as if they’ll hate him for it.

In case he needed any evidence of not being hated, they don’t hesitate to drag their chair over to his desk at lunchtime. “So I found something you’re gonna love.”

“Really.” He folds his arms, keeping them loose to avoid a confrontational posture. While the classroom’s still full, he can’t open up as much as he might like to, so he takes what he can get.

“Really.” Seemingly not so worried, they lean closer, hovering at the edge of his personal space. How can he not appreciate that kind of consideration? “I was on the beach, that one near my house, and there was a boat, just sitting right there. I don’t know if it washed up, or someone left it there or whatever, but I left it a few days and no one came to get it.”

“So it’s yours now.” He’s not so much guessing as advising. Come on, it’s a free boat, he would have taken it way sooner.

“I guess! Well, it’s ours now, is what I was thinking.” Is it possible to fall for someone twice? Jotaro thinks he might have. “It’s small, but the motor runs. We could take it a few places, after school-“

“Let’s go now.” There’s only a few classes left, and really, screw school. He doubts he would even show up if not for Jay, and for science class, which is in the morning anyway. The teachers are used to him just giving up and leaving halfway through the day, and are mostly resigned to how little they can do to stop him.

Jay might be a little less casual about walking out, but it’s a beautiful day outside, and in the end, the temptation to spend time alone with Jotaro wins out. “All right, but we’re not gonna do this every day.”

“We’ll see.” He exits the room with his usual carelessness, not bothering to look at the teacher. If anyone sees him smuggle Jay out with him, hidden underneath his jacket, they know better than to say anything about it.

—

Sure enough, the boat’s engine starts easily, though it’s not very fast with both of them in it. Once they’re a decent distance from the shore, they’re content to just drift for a while, trailing their fingertips through the cool water whenever the urge strikes them.

He wants to say it, he really does. No matter how catastrophically he fails to transform what he’s feeling into the right words, and no matter how much he struggles to spit each of those inadequate words from his mouth, they would probably somehow get the message anyway, because that’s just how ridiculously understanding they are. After all, it’s their understanding of what he would like that led him to this moment in the first place.

In their temporary escape from the rest of humanity, shielded and cradled by the gentle waves, the atmosphere’s too perfect to spoil with a stumbling mess of a confession. It’s not that he’s giving up, it just has to be at the right time.

“Hey.” Jay’s voice brings Jotaro’s consciousness back into his body, dredged up from the depths below them. “I just thought of something. Do crabs think fish can fly?”

“That… huh. Maybe they do.” He points down, at the flickers of sunlight reflected on the scales of passing fish. “There they are, flying.”

Their answering laugh soothes something deep inside his heart, leaving him full of the feeling of having done something right. “They’re pretty. If I was getting fish, they’d have to sparkle like that.”

“Maybe I’ll get one now.” Jokes came much more easily to him in his uncommonly peaceful mood. “Just, grab it.”

Another laugh. There couldn’t be any prize in the world that felt better to receive. “I don’t know, aren’t they too slippery?”

“Doesn’t matter. If it’s for you, I could do anything.” The realisation that he did, in fact, say that out loud is quick to shatter his flawless calm. Dragging himself to his feet, he wastes no time in stepping directly over the side of the boat.

“Jotaro?!?” To Jay’s relief, he resurfaces within a few seconds, drenched hat stubbornly pulled down over his eyes. He has to be coaxed back into the boat, because they’re pretty sure he really will just try to swim to shore on his own, but they resist the temptation to make any comment on the way back home.

Attempt One is a resounding failure, but there’s always tomorrow.

—

The next day, day of the theoretical Attempt Two, is shot to hell before Jotaro can even start thinking about it. Some punks start hassling him on the way to school, and halfway through his response, he realises his own two fists aren’t the only participants.

A Stand. That’s what he has now, and it creeps him out, but at least he doesn’t have to spend much time looking at it. What would Jay think of it, the spectral warrior that’s supposedly his inner self but doesn’t seem to do much besides glare and punch?

If he’s lucky, he’ll just be able to forget about it. He’s never been so eager to get to school, just to have something normal to sink all his energy into.

Getting a nasty cut on his leg and falling down the stairs (in that order, strangely enough) isn’t the greatest of omens. At least Jay’s with him, their presence does a bit to deter girls from crowding around him. It’s not as if he needs help getting to the nurse’s office, but he’s not in any hurry to tell them to get lost.

They’re just outside the door when Jay stops, a conflicted expression briefly evident. “Hey, Jotaro… could you close your eyes for a second?”

Weird request, and not something he would trust coming from anyone else, but he’s willing to believe there’s a good reason for it. Still, because he can’t completely fight his instincts, he keeps one eye just barely open. The image is fuzzy, so it takes a second for him to completely focus on Jay, and the shape materialising next to them- Wait.

As much as he wants to open his eyes and ask what the hell’s going on, he decides to wait and see what happens. The shape, which might look human if it didn’t appear to be made of water, inches closer until it directly faces him. Nearby, Jay’s expression is one of deep concentration. What are they doing? He’s already sure that this is a Stand, but it doesn’t look anything like his own. Its abilities must be completely different.

“You know, now that I’m looking at it, there’s barely even a scratch. I think I just panicked when you fell.” Calm as can be, they move inward to take the place of their Stand when it vanishes. “Oh yeah, you can open your eyes now.”

He does, not that they were ever completely closed, and he checks his knee. Where he swears he saw an open wound just a minute ago, the skin is, in fact, barely scratched. So… a healing Stand, huh? That’s convenient. Maybe he would ask about it later, but they had to get to class-

A loud thump sounds from within the nurse’s office, followed by a woman’s screams. Before thinking about it, he’s already forcing the door open, to be confronted by the sight of glowing green tendrils disappearing inside of a convulsing nurse.

The fight that ensues is tough, and more than once he orders Jay to run, but every time they completely ignore him. Though it’s not worth the risk of them getting hurt, the healing does help him subdue Kakyoin a little faster than he otherwise might have been able to. Once he’s unconscious, Jay moves over to his crumpled form.

“You sure?”

“It’s okay, he won’t wake up.” Sure enough, the healing leaves him undisturbed. “So you have one too. I guess I should be surprised, but… I don’t know. It kind of suits you.”

“Suits me? That’s a surprise, I only got it yesterday.” Kakyoin proves difficult to pick up, not because of his weight, but because his long limbs keep getting in the way. It doesn’t take long for Jotaro to give up and just sling him over his shoulder. It’s not as if he has any right to complain. “Come on. We’re taking him home, he probably knows something.”

—

What he knows ends up bringing them on a journey, one that he’s barely been able to enjoy between the perilous fights and hasty travel arrangements. This barbershop in the middle of Egypt, with its surprisingly comfortable seats, might be one of the most peaceful places he’s been since leaving Japan. For once, going with Polnareff seems to have been the less stressful option.

With Jay sleeping in the chair next to him, he even feels safe enough for the rare luxury of a book. He got it from the library just before leaving, so if he’s going to have to pay one hell of an overdue fine, he may as well read it. After nearly dying a few dozen times, octopus anatomy feels like a nice break.

“Is that an octopus?” Apparently Jay wasn’t as asleep as he thought. He tilts the book slightly so they can see.

“Hapalochlaena. Some of the most venomous in the world.” He pauses. “Sometimes people don’t even know they’ve been bitten until it paralyses them.”

“Piss it off too much and you die, huh…” They scoot their chair a little closer, enough for Jotaro to suddenly be far too aware of their presence. “But it only bites if it’s in danger. Mostly it just wants to hide between rocks, right?”

He nods, moving his head slowly, but not too slowly. “You know a lot.”

“I guess. It’s just something I really like, you know? Marine life and stuff.” The sincerity in their voice is tempered by the slightest edge of vulnerability, as if they’re admitting something deeply personal that has a chance of not being received well. It’s the type of thing Jotaro would usually miss, coming from anyone else, perhaps only because he wouldn’t know what to look for.

“Me too.” Maybe he would have said more, if Polnareff hadn’t screeched and leapt out of his seat at that moment, but probably not. He was never one to say more than he needed to.

“Okay, don’t move, I’m going to pull them out.” He hisses when a few remnants of Anubis’ shattered blade slide out of his stomach, but manages to keep still as Fountain of Youth’s water washes out the wound. He’s well-acquainted with that feeling by now.

Maybe he should say it, what he’s been wanting to say since before they left. If the rest of the enemy Stands are this tough, it might be a long time before he gets another chance. There might not be another chance, he almost thinks, crushing the thought without mercy before it actually gets to insinuate itself into any part of his psyche.

On the other hand, they might both be better off if he keeps that particular Pandora’s box of unexplored emotion closed for the time being. It’s worked out for him well enough so far- if Jay’s noticed any change in his behaviour, it hasn’t been anything worth commenting on. It’s enough to make him feel almost optimistic.

—

Standing over Jay’s unmoving body, he doesn’t think he could feel any less optimistic.

His heart spasms in a worrying way for a boy his age when they stir slightly, steady breaths warming his hand. Unconscious, and likely to stay that way for some time, but decidedly alive.

Dio’s nowhere to be seen, the bastard, but Jotaro’s certain he’s nearby. He can feel those eyes on him, empty of anything but a fierce, unshakeable, joyful bloodlust. Probably waiting for him to try and run.

He won’t run. He’ll stand right here and do what he does best: fight for the people he loves.

—

They get a flight home before midday. After parting with Avdol, Polnareff, and Iggy at the airport, they board a plane, patiently waiting for takeoff with the prospect of plenty of uninterrupted rest ahead.

“So… we made it.” The words on Jotaro’s tongue don’t quite feel like words. He might need sleep more than he thought he did. “Took long enough.”

“I guess! It’s weird of me to say this, but…” Jay leans a little closer, careful not to strain their seatbelt. “I think I’m going to miss it, just a little.” His feelings on that must be obvious, because they rush to clarify. “I mean, obviously there’s some parts I wouldn’t miss! But we had some good times, right?”

He just shakes his head. “Give me a break. You could have died. Then what?”

“Then what? I guess I’d be a ghost, heheh… oh.” They take a closer look at his face. “You were really worried, weren’t you?”

Then there’s nothing left he can do to express the ridiculously obvious answer to that question. They let out a little noise of surprise when they’re pulled into his arms, but offer absolutely no resistance. Then, because they know him almost too well, they ask: “How long?”

This would be the time that he gives up on words completely and kisses them, but there’s enough people around to make his skin crawl a little at the thought. “Too damn long.” Then they’re taking off, and it’s when he can see the ocean glittering below them that it really hits him: They’re going home. It’s hard to think about how they’ll go back to school after this, but Jay’s going to be with him. It’ll be worth it just for that.

He expects them to slip out of the hug eventually, but they only get closer, head coming to rest securely on his chest. Their warm, gentle closeness puts him in danger of succumbing to his fatigue, a fight he eventually loses. He might have felt a bit of regret for missing out on such a special moment, if it wasn’t the first of many more.

[sunlitroom]

Gotham s4e14 - The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause

As I watched it, and some random observations here and there.

Previously on Gotham:

Oswald faked Martin’s death to keep him safe.  Jim arrested Oswald for his murder.  Victor is a lying traitor.  Sofia played Jim for a dupe.  I screwed up, Harve.  Oh – Jesus – no, not the bit with Lee’s hand again.  Ivy’s brief reign of terror.  Oswald uses Riddler to plan an escape

As always, long post will be long.  There are likely to be rambling digressions. Gobblepot might appear (although I welcome all shippers and non-shippers alike :)).  There will be naked favouritism and naked not-favouritism.  Broader comments at the end on plotlines and parallels and general direction.

An abandoned-looking house in the city.  Martin sits with his back against the fireplace, guarded by hulking men, at whom he stares balefully while sketching them hanged in his little pad.  As he turns the page to start a fresh sketch, he finds the next page has a message.

Do you want to escape?

He looks round quickly before reading and following the rest of the instructions. Going into an equally abandoned looking kitchen on the pretence of using the bathroom, he turns the gas on, and returns to the living room.  

The men quickly smell gas. Martin smiles.  They pull their guns before going to check more.  The next message in Martin’s pad tells him to plug his ears.  As he does, we see a missile glide through the kitchen window.  There’s a huge explosion in the kitchen.  Martin sees a figure emerging from the smoke in the hall who turns out to be Ed.  ‘Uncle Penguin’ sent him, and now they’re going to get ice cream.

Cherry’s is under new management.  In the ring in the centre of the club, we see Samson brutally beating a man.  There’s not much in the way of cheering.  Lee approaches cautiously, a hood covering her face.

Samson is boasting about how he’s in charge and he collects protection.  We see the man’s terrified family watching from the crowd.  He begs Samson,

Please, my family…..

Samson replies

Do I look like an animal?

He tells the man he won’t hurt his family, and promptly shoots him in the head. His family scream and surge towards the ring, horrified.

In the crowd – Lee is aghast.  She leaves quietly.

GCPD.  Harvey and Jim are in what is now Jim’s office.  I wonder if Jim considers how much it might gall Harvey to sit in that office on the other side of the desk, given the circumstances?

Jim tells Harvey that before Don Falcone died, he warned him that he had no idea what he had brought to the city.  Jim says he knows now that he was talking about Pyg.  Jim says someone must have told him about Pyg, and that person also has evidence linking Sofia to Pyg.

Harvey asks Jim why he doesn’t just come forward with what he has.  Jim wriggles, and says that it would just be his word against Sofia’s. Harvey’s visibly impatient with him, and says he’s just afraid that it will bring him down too.  Jim says Harvey can be pissed at him, but that this is bigger than both of them.  

He puts Harvey’s badge on the table and says he needs to know he can count on him.  I dunno, Jim, I think you were still wearing your badge when you screwed Harvey over, so I don’t really think it’s a magical talisman, or anything.

Harvey takes the badge and says he hopes they take down Sofia – but he still wants Jim to pay. He adds that he knows a former Falcone assassin, the Scandinavian Skinner, and he wants to go find them. Jim makes to rise from his chair to join him, but Harvey brushes him off.

(An aside.  This is the set-up for the later revelation that Mr Penn was apparently a crucial mole that the narrative never for a moment hinted at back in the first half of the season.  It’s several kinds of lazy.  It also ruins that lovely line of Carmine’s

You have no idea what you’ve brought to this city

At the time, that line sounded like it was about Sofia (I suspect it was, tbh, and this is a retcon to fill a plot hole).  Carmine was finally acknowledging how dangerous his daughter was – out of her earshot, and right before she killed him.  It carried a lot of weight.  Now – it’s some stupid reference to Pyg, who Carmine apparently knew about all along. There, too, goes Jim and Harvey’s (and the show’s) weird notion that Carmine Falcone had some better code of honour than the other criminals.  If he knew about Pyg and did nothing, then he was complicit.)

 At Wayne Manor, there is a ruckus in the kitchen.  Cans of food are rolling across the floor.  Bruce approaches warily to find Selina rifling through cupboards, looking for something to eat.  She said she needs help.  Bruce clarifies that she needs money.  She wants to get back something she fenced.  Bruce asks why she doesn’t ask Barbara Kean, but Selina says she doesn’t want Barbara involved.

She promises him she’ll pay him back, and tells him that it’s the stuff she took from Roland Charles. Bruce realises she feels bad and tells her he’ll get the money.  He also tells her there’s oatmeal cookies in the blue tin.  He leaves, and Selina smiles – but still seems troubled.

 At Arkham, a yelling Oswald is being dragged to some kind of guard’s station, where he’s told he has a message.  We can see what looks like lots of Victorian maids in the background.  Maybe that will be relevant later in Jerome and Jervis’ breakout.

The guard delivers a riddle, the answer to which is ‘knuckle sandwich’.  Oswald receives a whopping punch in the face.

Harvey enters a delicatessen.  We hear children laughing and playing, looking at sweets

Hello Agnes

The Skinner, it turns out, is an old lady – who tells Bullock she’s now retired.  She looks away from him briefly to tell the children not to ruin their dinner.  They promise her – apparently their grandma – that they won’t

Harvey says they’re looking for someone who might have acted as Falcone's eyes and ears when he was down south.  She asks why she should tell him.  He says they have a history, but she remarks that ‘history’ got her four years in a gulag.

Harvey threatens to tell her grandchildren about her past, and goes so far as to call to the children. She caves fast.  She says Falcone only ever trusted the book-keeper who smelled of fish – but she heard he vanished.  Harvey leaves.

(An aside.  It’s debatable whether he would have gone through with it, but having Harvey use the woman’s grandchildren as a threat seemed ooc unsympathetic for him.

Was ‘Agnes Skinner’  a Simpsons reference?)

At the Falcone mansion, Sofia is throwing a tantrum about Martin’s disappearance.  She sends Victor to Arkham to kill Oswald – knowing that this is the only leverage she has over him.  Victor asks if he can take HeadHunter. Sofia doesn’t care, as long as Oswald dies choking on his own blood.

Harvey is also at Arkham, asking for Oswald.  He finds him in the infirmary. Oswald sits up when he approaches – not clear whether this is somehow part of the escape plan.  Harvey tells him (sarcastically?  Not sure. Sometimes there’s an odd amiability in cop/criminal encounters in this show – but Harvey is generally angry in this episode) that it’s good to see him.

There’s a scream outside. Harvey runs out to investigate. It’s Victor and HH, looking for Oswald. Victor remarks that he though Bullock stopped being a cop, but it clearly didn’t take.  He reintroduces HH to Harvey as Wendell.

Harvey tells them to walk away – but Victor says they can't.  They draw their guns.  I’m still generally cross at Victor – but good god those shoulder holsters do things to me.

Victor tells Harvey to step aside and he can live to get drunk another day. (this is the weird kind of amiability and sense of an actual relationship I was referring to earlier).

Suddenly, alarms start to go off.  Harvey looks back.  Victor and Wendell decide to try again later.  An announcement comes over the tannoy system that Oswald has escaped. Harvey runs back into the infirmary. Patients there are yelling and hitting their own heads at the sound of the alarm, because this show’s depiction of Arkham just continues to plumb new depths every damn time.

Harvey looks out the window. He sees Oswald heading for a van, and Ed, leaping about like a giant grasshopper, shooting his gun into the air

Nygma

(An aside – we never actually hear how Ed broke Oswald out, because it doesn’t really make any sense that Oswald couldn’t manage it alone.  He survived on his wits alone in season one – Oswald managed to negotiate his way out of a car that was seconds away from being crushed.  He bested Ed last season.  He managed to wrangle success from the Tetch virus mess.  But to shove the plot along, he’s handed the idiot ball here.)

My wrists hurt and this bit was not wildly interesting.  Bruce and Selina go back to the shop where she fenced the stolen goods, get into a big fight, make up, flirt a little, and then leave.

A street on the Narrows. Ed says he knew that Sofia would send hitmen when she learned Martin was gone.  Oswald anxiously asks how he is.  Ed says he’s snug as a bug in a rug.  Oswald’s face lights up to hear that Martin is safe.

Ed hands Oswald his hat, and wants to boast about how he found Martin, which somehow involved Victor loving disco and Ed dressing up as an old Polish woman.  Oswald, however, is not interested – and says they need a powerbase to fight Sofia.  Ed smiles and says he knows – loosening his tie.

A makeshift office somewhere in the Narrows, where Lee is sitting at a desk. The door opens, and she pulls a gun – understandably wary. It’s Ed – posing as whatever iteration of himself he was before, I’ve virtually given up at this point. Lee smiles – genuinely happy to see him.

You're back. How are you doing?

Worlds better

He spots her hand, and asks what happened to it.  There’s an interesting little break here.  His voice when he asks the question is feigned – because he’s still pretending to be old Ed, but that only serves to underline the contrast with him quickly noticing that something had happened to her hand, and the look of concern, which seem genuine in comparison.

Lee said that Sofia smashed her hand with a hammer.

Together we can get that bitch back. She can't take everything we built.

Ed straightens his tie and calls to Oswald, saying that Lee can’t help them.  A confused Lee asks what’s happening.  Oswald tells her about their deal.

I let him out of his cage, he let me out of mine

Lee stares at Ed.

You're him.  The Riddler

Ed stares back at her as he puts his hat on.  Lee looks him up and down.

He says was hoping she was still running The Narrows and could help – but he guesses not.  He’s still staring at her saying this and straightening his tie, even as Oswald tugs on his sleeve, and impatiently asks what they’re going to do now.  

Walking away from the desk, Ed says he has a backup plan.  He wants Victor Fries to put Oswald in a block of ice, and to offer him as a gift to Sofia – like a trojan horse.  Oswald laughs incredulously and tells him to try again.

Lee walks over to them, and tells them to let her help.  They continue to bicker and ignore her.  She looks indignantly at Ed.  Lee was infuriated to be overlooked during the Tetch debacle, too – so her annoyance here is consistent with her character.

You think I can't handle it

I know you can't

Lee holds up her hand. Ed’s eyes are again conflicted when confronted with her injury.

Look what she did to me. I will pull the trigger on that bitch myself

Ed says that’s tough talk, but only talk.

An impatient Oswald stops their squabbling, and says that they need muscle. Lee smiles and agrees with him

I can tell you where to look.

They both start paying attention to her.  Ed and Lee decide to lock eyes again.

Don't you think he misses you?

As she says this, she smiles at Ed, who catches on and smiles back.  Oswald asks who she’s talking about.  Neither acknowledges his question.

(An aside.  There’s quite a lot in that scene.  Ed superficially discounts Lee’s usefulness in the scheme to oust Sofia, since she’s lost The Narrows – but there was an awful lot of conflicted glancing at her hand.  In fact, there was an awful lot of staring at each other in general.  The smiles they shared at the end were also private – reminding us that they now have a close relationship and shared history.)  

Ed is in the sewer, yelling for Grundy – saying he’s his best friend and pal, and smart again, and generally prancing about, enjoying the fact that there’s an echo.  Ed is such an ass.

Butch approaches him. Ed condescendingly tells him he’s corralling allies to kill Sofia, and they need

A galoot like you for cannon fodder

He frowns, realising Butch looks different, and asks why he’s looking at him like that.  Butch growls

Oh dear.

Butch says he’s not the only one who got smart.  Ed fumbles saying that he helped him

Ed put out fire.  Ed help Grundy

Butch says he’s not Ed anymore, and he’s not Grundy.

Back at Lee's.  She’s relaxed, feet on the desk, waiting for Ed to come back to move on to the next stage of the plan.  Oswald, meantime, is pacing, convinced that Ed has betrayed him already.

Lee tells him to calm down. Oswald snaps not to tell him to calm down, she has no idea what he’s been through.  Lee calmly tells him that Ed will be here, and they will make Sofia pay. Interestingly, Lee doesn’t seem wary of the Riddler persona at all.  The trust she has for Ed carries over – which raises the question of whether Lee now simply sees him as an integrated persona.

An agitated Oswald says he can't wait, and storms out.  Lee rolls her eyes.

Jim and Harvey walking down a street in the Narrows.  Harvey is wondering aloud how Ed got in touch with Oswald anyway.  It’s called a plot contrivance, Harvey.  

Jim looks annoyingly crisp and smart in his suit when I'm still mad at him.  He’s told Harvey that the best way to find Oswald and Ed is to find Lee.  As they head down the street, Oswald approaches.  Jim and Harvey draws their guns

Or we could talk to Oswald right now

Oswald smashes a bottle and points it at them in warning.  He asks what they’re doing there.

Harvey says they’re looking for an Arkham escapee, about so tall, limp, and a mommy complex.

Oswald manages to look so livid that he’s tearful

(An aside - Go take a fuck to yourself, Harvey.  What on earth was that nastiness about?  Aside from being mean and unnecessary – it’s not really in-character for Harvey.  His first comment on encountering Oswald at the big showdown with Theo – in the midst of all the mayhem – was to tell Oswald he was ‘sorry about his mom’.   So what’s this?)

Oswald tells Jim that the trumped up charges he used to put him away have lost their teeth – Martin is safe and well.  Jim says if that’s the case, then produce him.

(An aside – Wow, Jim is capable of some mental contortions.  So, he probably didn’t think Oswald actually  killed Martin, but decided that the accusation was enough to justify arresting him, and even though he likely didn’t really believe the accusation himself, fell back on needing evidence to exonerate him)

Oswald quickly retorts no – Martin’s not safe until Sofia has been dealt with

Jim looks wide-eyed at Oswald’s statement.  Why would he be surprised that Oswald wants revenge on Sofia?  Anyway.

I think you and I both want the same thing, Oswald.  We both want Sofia to go away.

(An aside – he’s falling back on the same line he used with Harvey: ‘yes I fucked up, but hey, we both have bigger fish to fry, so please forgive me and let’s not dwell on my fuck up’

Oswald says if that’s the case

Then turn around and walk away - let me do what I do

Jim can’t have that, though – he wants her in jail

Harvey and Jim mention Penn, and Oswald's eyes bulge with rage.  He screams incoherently

That little weasel was working for her

Harvey tells him Penn worked for Carmine for years, and tells Oswald he needs to address his management style.  Oswald isn’t listening, on another level of rage now, chanting to himself.

I’m gonna kill him

Jim approaches him, lowering his gun.

Oswald, Oswald - calm down.

Bizarrely, after everything that’s gone on between them– and there is a lot of everything – Jim’s voice manages to break through Oswald’s rage, and Oswald makes eye contact.  Jim says they can make a deal.  If Oswald tells them where to find Penn, then he’ll let him walk away.

There’s a long pained look, before Oswald says.

I don't believe you

(I ship this - so you can take it or leave it - but imo, part of Oswald looking pained in that moment was because he wants so much to trust Jim, and hates that he now can’t immediately do that)

Harvey interrupts and says that Sofia sent Victor to Arkham to kill him.  She runs the Narrows now, and she’ll find him.

Jim and Oswald look at each other.  Oswald drops his bottle and they face each other without weapons.  Apparently  there’s a specialist spa that Penn visits, and he’s probably hiding there.

Oswald walks past them. As he does, Jim says his name.  He turns to face him. Oswald’s face looks raw and vulnerable.  Jim actually manages a sincere thank-you, and extends his hand.

Oswald’s face softens, and he looks down at Jim’s hand, and - taking it – smiles.

Unfortunately Harvey Interruptus chooses this time to start going by the book, and cuffs him

Oswald yells they had a deal.  Jim asks Harvey what he's doing, and Harvey says he didn’t agree to anything.  Oswald yells as they walk away.

Lee watches from the shadows

As they get to the car, Oswald is still furious, but Jim tells him to relax, and that if the Penn info is good then he’ll still be rid of Sofia.

Victor and Wendell appear across the street.  Jim quickly shoves Oswald into the car, which was technically protective, and so I’m taking it as a shippy moment and you can’t stop me.

Victor apparently has the sharpest hearing in the world, since he heard them mention Penn’s name from across the road.  There’s a bit of back and forth, where they realise Penn is important.  

A big shoot out happens, during which Lee swoops in and steals Oswald and the car.  Victor and Wendell shoot after her before giving up. Jim tells Harvey they need to find Penn, and also need to find a car.

(An aside - Oh, Oswald. Your easy forgiveness here makes my fic writing life much much easier, but…sweetie, really.  You have a very big Jim Gordon shaped blind spot.   Between this, and calming down when Jim spoke to him, and making a beeline for him when he was infected with the fear serum, it seems that Oswald still sees Jim as a ‘safe’ person.)

At Sirens, Barbara has a terrible, terrible headache.  She throws back a pill as Tabitha approaches, asking if it’s another migraine.  Barbara nods, before asking what that stink is.

It’s Butch approaching, dragging Ed.  There’s some back and forth nastiness, where Barbara realises that Butch is himself again. Which, interestingly, means that Tabitha didn’t share that information.  Out of a sense of shame at her response to him?  Wanting to protect him?  Not having as close a relationship with Barbara anymore?

Butch tells them that Ed tried to recruit him to fight Sofia, so he brought him to Tabitha as a gift, after the whole hand amputation business.  Why does this show hate hands so much?  Oswald got a brooch pin through his, Butch got his cut off with a machete, Ed guillotined Tabitha’s, and Lee got hers mangled.

Anyway, Butch turns to leave.  Tabitha calls after him

Don't just walk away again

What?  Why wouldn’t he?  Tabitha’s response to his reaffirming his feelings for her made pretty clear that she wasn’t interested anymore – and she didn’t complain when he left last time.  Are we supposed to have forgotten that?   I start to share Barbara’s headache.

Butch promises Tabitha that he’ll find a way to get back to what he was.  Like – seriously, aside from the hair and skin, what’s the big problem here?  Why is Butch living in the sewer, anyway?  Some foundation and hair dye and he’s good to go.  Butch, 99% of your trouble here is that your sleeves are too short and give you that weird ‘monster suit’ look.  Just go see a tailor.  

Butch leaves, kicking Ed as he does so.  Tabitha watches him.  Tabitha is wearing a seriously terrible satin shirt with weird, weird sleeves.  If anyone should be living in the sewer, far from society’s gaze, it’s her in that shirt.

Barbara, meantime, grabs her head again – almost collapsing against the bar. Tabitha asks if she’s OK. Well – clearly not, Tabitha.  Barbara says they should send him back to Sofia. She’ll torture him, Lee’s allies are gone, the rebellion is quelled.  Once Sofia doesn’t need Ed, she’ll kill him.  Same end result, less work.

(An aside – sorry, not remotely believable that Tabitha would pass up the chance to torture Ed herself. She’s generally sadistic, and enjoys torture – and she loathes Ed for what he did to her and Butch.  But now she’ll hand him over? Nope.)

Back at the Falcone mansion, Sofia is pissed to hear that Oswald isn’t dead yet. She’s dialling the phone when Victor mentions Penn’s name, and goes very still. She says they have to find Penn before Gordon does.  Victor asks which to prioritise, and she tells them to do both.

(An aside.  Sofia’s temper and demands in this episode are another nice parallel with Oswald.  It’s a reminder that the relationship was worth exploring and keeping a little more grey in terms of their similarities and understanding.)

Back at some location in The Narrows, Oswald thanks Lee for coming to his rescue.  Lee tells him not to bother, she needs him to get to Sofia. Well, at least she's honest with him. Oswald sarcastically replies

Touching

Oswald can't believe they’re doing this without Ed and Butch – this plan will likely get him killed. Ah – so they’re at Victor Fries’ lair. Lee says she doesn't care, as long as it puts Sofia in the ground, and Oswald's jaw drops.

Victor F enters the room. Now my jaw drops, because good God, is Victor F in fine shape. He’s also cross at Oswald because he didn't follow through with funding him.  We see him from another angle.  I’m so happy.

Oswald smiles, and says that the failure to fund him was an omission he regrets and will rectify if given the chance

Victor opens a tap on a gas canister and sprays himself with something to cool himself down.  

Oswald moves to investigate something in the makeshift lab.  Victor grabs his arm to stop him

Don't touch that

Lee tells him he needs money for research, and Sofia wants Oswald.  If he delivers her, then he can name his price.  Victor hands him something.  He says it’s short notice – but the best he can do.  Oswald turns to Lee and starts to say if this affects his brain the way it did Nygma’s then it’ll be a disaster.  He can’t afford….

We don’t know what he can’t afford, because Victor cuts in

Ready?

Oswald splutters. Victor doesn’t listen.

I don't care

Victor freezes him in a block, like he did Ed.

(An aside - I know, by this point, that I’m essentially on a hiding to nothing if I wonder about logic and reasoning – but why didn’t Oswald fund Victor?  He knows what he’s capable of.  He’s greedy for allies.  Did he just not have the funds required?  Did he never really intend to do it all (again, confusing, given how useful Victor could be to him).  Did he forget?  It’s not a big detail but – again – it fleshes things out to know.)

(Another aside – I think I need some of that cooling gas canister stuff.  Wow.)

 At Wayne Manor, Selina roots through the jewellery while Bruce ices his knuckles.  She wants him to return it and he twigs that’s why she came. It wasn’t about the money.  He clearly and carefully tells her that she didn’t kill Roland Charles, Ivy did.  But Selina is guilty and ashamed.  She asks what she’s supposed to say, ‘sorry’?  Bruce says sometimes that’s enough, and they look at each other.

At the Falcone mansion, we hear drill sounds.  The dentist we met before is torturing Ed.  He comments that his strength of mind is impressive.  Sofia pats Ed’s shoulder, and tells him he will tell her what she wants to know, or this will look like a pleasant dream

Ed laughs, and says OK

I can be done with the teeth, the eyes or the mind - what am I?

I can be humorous, but I’m never funny - what am I?

Sofia stabs him in the thigh with a scalpel, and demands to know where Oswald is.

Ed laughs and tells her he already did – but she’s too stupid to figure it out

Sofia jiggles the scapel in his leg.  Ow ow ow. Ed screams in earnest.  They’re interrupted – they have a visitor.

It’s Victor F – with a frozen Oswald.  Ed turns and laughs – amused that they’ve gone through with his plan after all, and no doubt somewhat tickled to see Oswald in a block of ice.

Sofia asks if Oswald is alive.  Victor F responds that he might be, and asks for a hundred grand.  She agrees quickly.  Should have asked for more, Victor.

The other hot Victor enters as he leaves, eyeballs frozen Oswald, and says he’s not even going to ask – but tells her they found Penn.  A delighted Sofia kisses his forehead.  She tells the other thugs present to take Ed to the docks, shoot him, and throw him in the river.  Why does anyone bother doing this in this town?  It’s the least successful murder spot in the city.

She smiles brightly and bounces out of the room

Let’s go get Mr Penn

Victor follows, grinning like the cat who got the cream.  Wendell knocks warily at Oswald’s ice cube.

Jim and Harvey arrive at the Sumka spa.  They walk into a main hall.  Harvey speaks

What fresh level of hell is this?

Oh dear.  Not to judge – but this is a lot of no.

Jim says they’re looking for Arthur Penn.  The nurse says they try to guarantee anonymity.  They spot Penn trying to escape.  I’d rather exit this scene quickly without the need for description – so Harvey and Jim escort him out.  The end.

 At the Falcone Mansion, Oswald defrosts.  Once out, he screams incoherently at the dentist about he must have been working for Sofia too.  He asks where she is, before walloping him hard on the head and screaming in rage.

Lee is in the car. She answers her phone and asks excitedly if it’s done. Oswald tells her that Sofia left the mansion and is on her way to stop Jim.  He tells her to meet him at the spa and they’ll kill Sofia together.  That’s a bonding experience right there.

Ending the call – he spots Ed’s bowler on the table.  The dentist tells him Ed wouldn't turn on him (but did he actually reveal his location through his compulsive riddling?   Did anyone solve the riddles?   I’m terrible at it).  Oswald asks where he is now.  The dentist tells him they’re at the docks, and Oswald has a visible internal back and forth on whether to go immediately to kill Sofia, or go to the docks to prevent Ed from being murdered.

Back at the spa with Jim and Harvey.  Apparently, Penn worked for Falcone.  He asked him to keep eye on Sofia.  She found out, and made a deal – he had to report on Oswald.  Harvey expresses distaste at his triple-dealing, and Penn indignantly tells him it’s how you stay alive.  Sofia would let him live as long as her kept her one step ahead.  She also asked him to put her in touch with Pyg - so he did, and then told Falcone right away.

Jim tells him they need a statement, but they’re interrupted by the arrival of Victor and Sofia. There’s lots of shooting.  Sofia is wearing a terrible outfit – that soft pink trench-coat again, and high waisted white trousers.  

There’s general mayhem, and Jim gets shot.  He tells Harvey to get Penn out of there – he can make it until backup arrives.

Sofia advances, calling for him

James Gordon.  We could have had a good thing, you and I -  but you had to go and ruin it

Jim reiterates that Harvey should go, and makes it an order.  Sofia tells her men to find Penn and get Gordon.

Jim stumble/runs into the kitchen.  He takes another shot, from Sofia this time. He turns to shoot her, but he’s out of bullets, and staggers away, as Sofia follows.

Outside, Harvey passes Lee as he’s taking Penn away.  Lee calmly strides past him, asking where Sofia is.  Harvey says she’s in there with Jim.  Lee doesn’t deviate pace or fluster, just tells him to take the car as she walks on.  Harvey calls after her that Jim’s hurt bad.

Nearby, Victor and Wendell decide that the day’s more or less over at this point, and they should go get a milkshake.

Jim is stumbling, bleeding heavily.  Sofia is ranting.  She tells him he’s such a disappointment, and shoots again.  She asks if it would have been so bad, being in the palm of her hand, letting her chip away at his soul little by little.  Did he really have to rob her of her revenge?

Jim is on the floor. He tells her it wasn’t about him – he wasn’t going to give her GCPD. Jim – you’re bleeding pretty heavily and all, but she had GCPD.  You were a puppet.

Sofia doesn’t buy this. She tells him of course it was about him – his pride and arrogance.  What she wanted was no different than what her father had for thirty years.  Jim states.

Your father - who you killed

Sofia doesn’t wobble for a moment.

Yes - he disappointed me, just like you

(An aside – Sofia’s murder of Carmine was probably her scariest moment in how he justified it to herself.  A lot of her behaviour and beliefs are probably learned – her childhood sounds messed up.  But we heard her use the old ‘he made me do it’ before with conviction, and hear it again here).

Sofia crouches by him. She tells Jim she still cares for him. If he begs for his life and asks forgiveness, then they can start over.

(An aside - ugh – Sofia has feelings for Jim, apparently.  What did it for her? How easily he was duped by appealing to his ego?  How judgily he looked at her before any of their sexual encounters?  His eye-watering knack for hypocrisy? The way he immediately tried to drop her when she wasn’t useful anymore?)

Jim sits up slightly.

Sofia.  Go to hell

Her face pinches, and she rises

James Gordon - this is where our story ends

Before she can shoot, though – she is shot in the back.  She turns, face shocked.

You!

It’s a calm and smiling Lee

She pulls the trigger again – and puts a bullet through Sofia’s forehead

Yeah - me

Jim falls back to the floor, his head lolls to the side, and stares into Sofia’s open eyes.  We get flashes of Lee trying to keep him conscious as he eventually blacks out.

(An aside – it’s notable here how purposeful and calm Lee was, and how little Jim factored into her actions.  I’m sure saving him was likely pleasing – they have a history – but hearing he was in there didn’t produce a visible reaction, nor did her face change to see him on the floor.  She was entirely focused on revenge.

There’s a narrative logic to Lee killing Sofia, in terms of Gotham’s rules.  She was for a long time, and still is – in a sense – the closest thing the story has to a ‘good’ woman.  She’s nurturing and protective.  Her profession involves caring.  Even before her current stint trying to revive the Narrows, she existed as a symbol in Jim’s story: the motivation for moral redemption, something to protect, something to long for - the ‘love of a good woman’ trope.  For a long time, she hid her knowledge of Jim’s misdeeds – something she was only willing to use recently to protect people who had become more important to her.

In contrast, Sofia is set up as the wicked woman.  She founds an orphanage as a front, and then uses one of the children to manipulate Oswald’s finer feelings.  She uses the memory of his dead mother to do the same – serving up the goulash.  She also preyed on his vulnerability about his physical disability.  She uses sex to manipulate Jim, and uses his misdeeds to exert power over him. She endangers Martin.  She murders her father.  In just about any way a traditional narrative would function (and Gotham employs a lot of fairly traditional tropes) – she ‘fails’ at being a good woman.  She’s cold where Lee is passionate, destructive where she’s nurturing, uncaring where she is protective.

In terms of narrative, then – Lee taking Sofia out is the kind of moral judgment you’d probably expect. That Lee does it herself, and later seems to enjoy using violence, I suppose raises questions of whether the story now sees Lee as ‘tainted’ by her actions.)

 At the pier, Ed is being led, chuckling to the water’s edge.  One of the thugs offers a bad riddle.  Ed rolls his eyes, and tells them just to do it.  Before they can they’re shot.  Ed turns, and sees that it’s Oswald

He asks if he already killed Sofia, but he tells him no – she left the mansion to pursue Jim, and if he’d gone there he wouldn’t have made it to the pier in time. Ed is confused – Oswald gave up his revenge to save Ed?

Oswald looks out at the city.  He tells Ed that trust is so very hard to find in Gotham, but he trusts Ed. Really?   He thought he betrayed him, like, half an hour ago.  Whatever, though.  They both put their guns away and stare out over the water.  Ed says he has a strong desire never to see this pier again.  Oswald rolls his eyes, and heartily agrees.

(An aside - Oswald trusts Ed?  This makes no sense either.  Unless Oswald has essentially decided that Ed is ‘lawful evil’, and that digging up his father’s remains, humiliating in front of the public whose affection and respect he craved, and then attempting to murder him was a fair response to Isabella’s murder – and that therefore Ed can be trusted because he’ll only ever strike in retaliation. Play by the rules, and you’re fine.  

To be honest, I’d find it more believable if he did it to fulfil a sense of duty to the Ed whom he essentially buried alive when he enabled the Riddler personality to come to the fore, and who is – in a sense – an unwilling passenger in all this. But hey – why bother grounding actions in personality and motivation?)

Jim wakes up in a hospital room, with quite a good colour about him for someone who was shot so much. Harvey is there.  He tells him Lee saved him – even one-handed, she’s a damn good doctor.  Sofia is apparently in a coma. Wow – really? Right through the forehead?  OK

Jim frowns.  He tells Harvey when he gets out he’ll confess everything.  He has to come clean.  Harvey tells him no.  That would only benefit Jim’s martyr complex and make him feel better.   He tells him if he wants to pay his debt he has to live with it, like he does.  Oh Harvey. That would only work if Jim had a properly developed sense of guilt.  You’ve made the same mistake as Sofia.

Jim says that Sofia wins after all.  Harvey says it’s what the city needs.  

Jim asks after Lee. Harvey says she went back to the Narrow – unfinished business.

Cherry's – where Samson is being beaten.  Lee walks down the stairs, making an entrance, a hammer hanging at her belt.  Samson yells that he’ll go.  Lee smiles

Oh, I know - just not yet

She tells the men to hold his hand out.  Samson yells no – but to no avail.  Lee’s eyes light up, and she seriously goes to town on his hand – enjoying it quite a lot.

 At Sirens, Barbara is in pain.  Tabitha is going on about how they need to grab power, but Barbara snaps at her – in too much pain to listen.  Tabitha strops off sulkily.

Barbara looks down at her hand -which is glowing white, like the thing Ra’s gave her.  As she looks up, she sees him walk through the crowd.  She stares in shock, the air around her blurring and jolting.

General Observations

Forgiveness is the name of the game today.  It’s offered and accepted just about everywhere.  Jim and Harvey seem to have worked towards a tentative truce, even though things are still delicate.  Jim and Oswald have a meaningful handshake – forgiveness requested and granted hidden beneath the surface.  Ed and Oswald eventually seem to have reached a truce that will enable them to cooperate when necessary and maybe even sustain friendship.  Lee’s keeping Jim alive after he’s shot is mostly down to her personality and their history – but there’s also some tacit forgiveness in there, maybe, for his actions around Mario.  There’s a lot of pain and history to go round – but as Bruce tells Selina, sometimes sorry is enough.

Except for Sofia. Forgiveness has to be offered, but she demands Jim beg her for it.  In turn, she’s punished by Lee – who has no intention of offering forgiveness.

The practical result of all that is resetting the chessboard before the next big plot.  

Harvey is back at GCPD, and Jim is still Captain.  I’m not sure to what extent they’re completely OK with each other – but they’re working together now.

Oswald is out of Arkham. He’s established a truce with Ed which will enable them to cooperate. He seems to have forgiven Jim.  Sofia is temporarily gone, and Martin is temporarily safe.  He was willing to joint-kill Sofia with Lee.

Lee has embraced the darker side of herself.  She’s back to running the Narrows, and is now a formidable power as well as on the side of her people. Her focus on getting revenge on Sofia was impressive, as was her calmness throughout.

Ed is currently in his Riddler persona.  He’s mended fences with Oswald, but regained an enemy in Butch.

Ed and Lee warrant their own paragraph, I think.  I’d be surprised if we don’t see things develop further there.  We’ve already got the foundation of the Ed/Lee friendship, then we were shown Ed falling for her, then we got the little flickers of romantic expectation we saw from Lee in the previous episode.  In this episode, they couldn’t keep their eyes off each other, and there was tension crackling all over the place.  

Barbara’s having creepy headaches, Selina is pretty much awol, and Tabitha is trying to figure out how to grab power after they fundamentally backed the wrong horse.  Sirens is pretty much in disarray. 

Victor Fries has funding now.  I think we definitely need to see more of him for important narrative reasons.  Much more

Thoughts?

[daveyjacobss]

to kiss a girl | davey jacobs

reader x david jacobs

 [newsies modern day au] 

 request: “i’m almost offended you haven’t written any davey imagines??? how about one where davey invites the reader over and they’re bored and awkward and davey’s like ‘hey let me play something on the piano’ so he starts serenading the reader but poor boy is so nervous his voice cracks and he’s absolutely mortified an reader is in the back cackling. lol just suggestion you don’t have to if you want also i’m in love with your work <3″

 summary: Davey tries to impress Y/N by playing her a song, and it doesn’t go as expected.

 a/n: i’ve been listening to ben fankhauser sing to kiss a girl on repeat for like 3 hours so i really don’t know what you expected?? i hope this is something like what you wanted

 __________ 

 When his teacher had partnered him with Y/N for their project, Davey was pretty sure his heart had stopped in his chest. And when he’d invited her over to work on said project, she’d given him a smile that had quite literally halted his breathing. When she came over, they got to work straight away, which Davey was very grateful for because he didn’t really know what to say to her otherwise. They weren’t close friends, but that was mostly because he became too flustered around her to carry out lengthy conversations. She made him nervous; very, very nervous. 

All had been going well until they finished the project an hour earlier than Y/N’s mom was able to pick her up from his house. This proved to be a problem, because every time Davey opened his mouth something entirely unintelligible came out. The literal girl of his dreams was sitting on his living room couch and he couldn’t even talk to her. 

 "Do you want something to eat?“ He finally choked out.

 "Sure,” she smiled, standing up and brushing off her legs. He led her to the kitchen, trying to think of some conversation starters. Opening the fridge, he started to survey what food he had. 

 "Um, we’ve got - “ 

 "Is that a piano?” Y/N walked quickly out of the kitchen and entered the drawing room, where a grand piano sat in corner. She ran her hands over the sleek black surface, staring at it in wonder. Slowly, she made her way around to the bench, sitting down gracefully. She haphazardly played a few notes, sighing. “I always wanted to play, because it’s, like, my favorite instrument,” she explained. “But we never really had enough money for lessons.” Her face went red when she realized what she had just disclosed and he couldn’t help but stare in wonder at how cute she was.

“Well, I could play something…. If you want?” He asked, unsure of himself. She nodded eagerly, sliding over on the bench. When he sat down their legs were touching and he gulped. He loosened his hands a bit and prayed to God that he didn’t screw it up. He knew the music by heart, but he didn’t tend to do as well nervous. He played the opening notes, taking a deep breath before singing softly. 

“Oh, I’m no explorer, my vision’s not great, I get tired when I run for too long.” His voice cracked and wavered slightly on the last word, and he took a shaky breath before continuing.

“I still wake up groggy and go to bed late, and I guess it’s been true all along.” His voice was getting even worse, and he was very much regretting this decision. “That of all the world’s secrets, both this world and yours, from the depths of the sea to the eagle who soars.” Well, at least he was playing the right notes. 

“Beyond all the crap that us little guys face each day. Past monsters and prophecies, shouldn’t’s and should’s, past mayors and knights getting lost in the woods. I know it’s not much, I’m too young to unearth how it goes.” Y/N stood up beside him, and he could hear her walk around a bit while he played. Why on earth had he chosen a song where he had to sing?

“But whether the sun burns our skin or a westward breeze blows. Of all the world secrets and mysteries, from here to the tiniest star.” And that was it. He had completely screwed up the high note and she was definitely appalled by his performance. (She was actually muffling her laughter into her hand behind him, because she could tell how nervous he was by the cracks in his voice, and it was too darn adorable.)  

“The greatest one, is the simplest one by far: to kiss a girl, and hold her hand.” He was absolutely mortified, and all because he’d been trying to impress Y/N. (She stood behind him, still slightly giggling and absolutely mesmerized by the way his hands moved across the keys.)

“No monster in the land can understand when you kiss a girl, and just like that, the stars you’re staring at start to disband.” Davey was pretty sure at this point that there was no salvaging this performance, so he took a deep breath and stopped trying so hard.

“Then they form a path, and if you follow them blindly that’s where you’ll find she’s gone. So kiss the girl, and hold her hand, and travel on.” Y/N gave a small gasp behind him and he was positive that she was hating every second of this but was too nice to ask him to stop.(She was actually surprised by his sudden gain in confidence and consequently his sudden lack in voice cracks. It may have also just dawned on her that they were in a room alone together and he was singing to her about kissing girls and that may have taken her breath away.)

He continued to sing, losing himself in the song. It was one of his favorites, and he was immensely embarrassed that he had messed it up. Behind him, Y/N stopped laughing, feeling her heart stop as he put more emotion into the song. She was pretty sure she was literally falling in love while he sat there singing to her. Except there was one tiny problem: he was singing about kissing a girl with a ton of emotion, and there was a possibility that he was talking about an actual girl who wasn’t her, considering they hadn’t ever kissed (in real life, at least; both parties had fantasized). 

When he finished the song he spun around to face her slowly, a sheepish look on his red face. She looked entirely shocked, and any hope he had of it not being too bad vanished.

“Sorry,” he started. “I’m not really that good, so that was… um…”

“Amazing.” He looked up at her in surprise. “That was amazing. I mean, you could tell you were nervous in the beginning - which is normal because almost everybody gets nervous singing in front of people - but by the end? Wow. Whoever you were singing about is really lucky.”

Davey blushed an ever darker shade of red at her words. He became immediately flustered by the fact that she hadn’t caught on that he was singing to her, not about someone else. 

“There’s no one,” he blurted. Y/N tilted her head in confusion, furrowing her eyebrows. “I mean, I wasn’t singing about anyone,” he rambled. 

“Oh.” She took a few steps toward him, her hands innocently clasped in front of her. “No one at all?”

“No,” he choked out, attempting to ignore how close she was getting to him.

“Ever kissed a girl before?” His eyes widened at her question, but he wasn’t given an opportunity to answer. Instead, he was given her lips on his. It was short and sweet, but when she pulled away he felt completely breathless. She smiled at him, brushing some hair out of his face. “I liked the song,” she stated.

“It was for you,” he admitted, making her grin grow.

“Yeah, I had hoped so.”

__________

bonus: “You know I completely lied to you, right?”

“What?”

“You totally fucked up the beginning of that song and it was hilarious.”

“Wow, thanks for that confidence boost”

“Anytime.”

[dahliadreamcraft]

So a few days ago I made a post about why I thought Akechi’s character arch was so disappointing in the end. And a lot of people seemed to like it so I decided that I would make this post about how I think Akechi’s character could have gone.

To be clear, this post somewhat disregards “canon” Akechi. This is because I think Atlus originally wanted Akechi to have a different character arch, but because of Development Hell they ended up rewriting Akechi’s character into a more typical antagonist. There are left over voice lines for Akechi summoning Loki as well as I think somebody discovered that Loki was actually in the programming as a playable persona. Meaning there are signs that he was supposed to rejoin the Phantom Thieves at some point.

This is a sort of theory onto how a more sympathetic character arch could have gone had Atlus gotten the chance to flesh it out. 

So if you want the short version of why Akechi’s character was disappointing, here it is.

Akechi’s character was disappointing because unlike the previous traitors, Akechi never really had a choice. Akechi, just Akira and the other Phantom Thieves, was a prisoner of fate from the moment he got his powers. Yaldaboath specifically set Akechi up to be the traitor, pretty much screwing over his entire life and putting a fourteen year old at the heart of a deadly political scandal he had no chance of getting out of on his own. 

Now to get into how I think his character should have/was supposed to go before Atlus cut it out because of too many delays.

I think Akechi was supposed to rejoin your group, most likely in an alternative end to the bad route. I think (or at least hope) he was actually supposed to be a playable character from Shido’s palace rather than from his boss fight for a few reasons.

First of all I doubt it would’ve been after his boss fight because then he would’ve only been around for one more palace (Yaldaboath’s). Not only that, but this would take place after he seemingly shoots the protagonist in the head, which would make it hard to believe why he would suddenly join the phantom thieves after going so far.

But if in an alternate route he doesn’t shoot the protagonist in the head, it’s a lot easier to believe that he has a genuine change of heart. Assuming that Akechi was supposed to be a sympathetic character who was rewritten to be an outright antagonist, Akechi’s been dealing with a lot of built up guilt and self loathing over the things he’s done for a long time. However when he’s forced to kill someone who he actual genuine bond with, he finally cracks and can’t go through with it.

It would prove that he does in fact genuinely care about the protagonist (and the Phantoms), and him helping the team take down his father would also make his remorse seem real. It would also give the player a chance to see the “real” Akechi by having moments between each visit to the palace where he bonds with the Phantom Thieves more and more.

Now here’s the thing, I don’t think Akechi would be around for the Mementos Palace. I think that when Shido’s palace is finished, he leaves the Phantom thieves with the intention of confessing all of his crimes including the murder of Haru’s father, thus prove the Phantom thieves innocent.

However not long afterwards, the Phantoms discover that every trace of Akechi’s existence has disappeared. The public has completely forgotten Akechi and they’re the only ones who remember him (with the exception of anyone who has their rank maxed out). With the threat of police kicking down their doors soon and the mystery of Akechi’s vanishing into thin air, the Phantoms head down into the depths of Mementos to figure out what the hell is going on.

I think this because during Mementos the inmates mention a particularly dangerous criminal in solitary confinement. While we find out that the special cell is in fact the Velvet Room, we never found out who that ‘dangerous criminal’ was. Can’t be the protagonist, he’s outside the cell and if it had been him, the inmates would have been flipping their shit over him being out. It can’t be Lavenza because she’s been split into Justine and Caroline, so technically she’s two people. Can’t be Igor because the “Igor” inside the Velvet room is Yaldaboath and Igor was shoved out into subspace or whatever and can’t get back in until Yaldaboath leaves.

The one who would make the most sense would be Akechi to be the ‘dangerous criminal.’ Basically, because Akechi was set up as the Protagonist’s rival, when he decides to betray Shido he’s not just defying his father, but he’s also defying the role that was assigned to him. Because Akechi is defying his role, Yaldaboath tries to remove him from the game by erasing his existence. 

I also think this because it would still play smoothly into the protagonist needing to be arrested in the end. I think what would have happened in the end is that by the time everything is said and done and they win the day, they realize that Akechi’s public persona as the detective still doesn’t exist. Keep in mind, everyone is cheering for the Phantom Thieves in the end, not ‘The Phantom Thieves and the Detective Prince.” So while Akechi is restored in the public’s cognition as a member of the Phantom Thieves, the detective is still gone.

As a result Akechi can no longer confess to his involvement with Shido’s crimes, his story now contradicts the evidence as a big chunk of it involves him influencing the public with his fame as a detective. The Protagonist still has to take the fall if he wants to protect the rest of his team.

Akechi is upset with this and in the very end where everyone is working together to get the protagonist out of prison, there would be an extra scene where after Makoto makes the phone call to find out the woman’s identity, Akechi actually finds her and with Sae’s help convince her to come forward with the truth.

And I think that in the end when everyone is going on a road trip with the protagonist, Akechi tells them that he wants to become a detective again, this time through his own merits and no seeking any fame or recognition. He’ll just be a simple private investigator who helps people get the justice they deserve.

And that is how I think Akechi was originally supposed to be handled. The reason why I think he was originally going to get a redemption arch is because a lot of the game plays on your expectations. While the big bad being a god born of humanity’s negative feelings is one that has been done twice already, the way it was done to me was incredibly clever in both theme and execution.

Yaldaboath’s theme was control, and the completely insidious way he was able to control everything is mind blowing when it’s all revealed. However because of the bigger theme of rebellion and fighting against control, it makes perfect sense for Akechi to rebel against his role as the traitor. 

That’s my thoughts on the matter.