#i'm only tagging it as that for the line/scene about their weight just in case
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
x1tadpole1x · 8 months ago
Text
youtube
i can't stop listening to this i love the chorus so much
0 notes
stormz369 · 1 month ago
Text
☕💖 Can I Get Your Number? ☕💖 Ch 19
Jason Todd x (f)Chubby!Reader
written with a female reader in mind, first person pov, no use of Y/N, will probably get NSFW later, let me know if there's anything else I should tag this with!
warnings/labels: welcome to the draaamaaaa! non-consensual drugging (not reader), the vaguest hint of medical trauma, brief mention of chapter 2's assault scene
wc: 2.3k
Chapter Selection
Tumblr media
Thirty minutes after Alfred came to pick Damian up, a mandatory city wide lockdown was called into effect. The news mentioned Mr. Freeze and some botched experiment with Poison Ivy's pheromones. I immediately tried to call Jason; he had been planning to come over around dinner, but the lines were busy. It seemed everyone was trying to contact their loved ones.
I texted Damian, asking him to let me know when he was home, and pulled out a roll of duct tape to start sealing up the cracks in my doors and windows. I set out my emergency candles and flashlights. Then I filled pots, pans, and the bathtub with clean water, just in case. And finally, I began cooking a couple steaks I had that needed to be made sooner rather than later, just in case the gas went out before I got another chance. You never knew what a villain-fueled lockdown would bring, so it was best to plan to lose all of your utilities. I vaguely regretted not getting that camping stove when it had been on sale, but I also really didn't love the idea of storing propane in my apartment. 
Once my steaks were done, I checked my phone again. Damian was home safe, and told me in no uncertain terms that I was to remain safely indoors. But there was still nothing from Jason. I frowned, trying not to panic. He was probably just having trouble getting through, just like I had.
Me: Hey baby, lockdown's pretty scary, huh? Hope you're safe! ❤️
5:40pm
I settled in to watch the news, hoping the Bats would get things under control soon enough. The only footage available was from the traffic cameras, but the picture they painted wasn't particularly pretty. It seemed every vigilante was out for this one. I watched in a sort of terrified trance, remembering how tiny Robin was at the gala. But there he was, fighting Mr. Freeze. … He was strong, and a skilled fighter. But God, it just wasn't fair…
Me: Jace? You safe?
6:30pm
Eventually, the fight was over, and the reporter started talking about the plan to get the pheromones neutralized. We were instructed to stay in our homes for the time being while Gotham scientists worked out a solution. I sighed softly, honestly a bit glad for the excuse to not go in to work the next day. The boss had been getting a bit testy with me over not being available anytime, any day anymore, and I didn't want to deal with it.
Me: Hey baby, lockdown's pretty scary, huh? Hope you're safe! ❤️
5:40pm
Me: Jace? You safe?
6:30pm
Me: … Jason? If you're getting these, I'm getting really freaked out. Please tell me you're ok.
8:45pm
I frowned, texting Steph, Tim, and Dick next; ‘I can't get ahold of Jason. Have you seen him today?’ The minutes ticked by, an hour passed and no response came from anyone. I was curled up on the couch, trying desperately not to panic, when a sharp tap tap tap on my porch door startled me out of my panic spiral.
I carefully made my way over to the door, nudging open a spot in the blinds so I could peek out. There, on my porch, was Nightwing. He had some kind of breathing apparatus hooked up to his suit, and what looked like a cyberpunk face mask in his hand. When he saw me looking at him he waved excitedly, holding up the mask.
I frowned a bit; “... Um … hello?”
“Hello, citizen! … Your assistance is needed! I have a mask for you, go ahead and pop the door open for me?”
“... No?!”
“... Please?” He frowned a bit, holding out the mask more insistently.
“... What could you possibly want from me??”
He chuckled a bit awkwardly, shifting his weight between his feet. “... I really don't want to shout through your door for this …”
“Well that's just too damn bad. You can shout, or you can go.”
“... I assume you were watching the news this evening?” I nodded. “Well, one of my … co-workers' breathing filters got damaged, and he's inhaled some of the pheromone blend.”
I frowned deeply. “... I'm sorry? … Will he be ok?”
“We think we can make an antidote, but we need to get him to the Batcave to get a sample of his blood, and he's a bit … overly agitated for that. He won't get in the Batmobile. We have reason to believe you'd be able to help with that.”
I scoffed at that; “how, on god's green earth, am I meant to do that??”
“... I can't answer that. But I think you're the only person who would calm him down right now.”
“... Uh-huh. … Which one of you is it?”
“Red Hood.”
“... Why would I be able to calm Red Hood???”
“... I … can't answer that either. … Please come anyway. … Call it doing your civic duty?”
“Pft! That's not gonna work on me.”
“... How about helping a big, scared kid who doesn't know what's going on right now? He just knows his body is being ripped out of his control again, and he can't stop it, and everything seems like a threat.”
I froze, blinking a bit. Fuck, that sounded bad. “... How are we getting there?”
Nightwing perked up at that. “I've got my bike! Come on, let's-”
“Hold your horses, bird-boy! Let me get changed.” I sighed, shuffling into my bedroom. I pulled on a pair of jeans, my riding jacket, and grabbed my helmet, silently thanking Jason for giving them to me - and begging the universe that he be ok, wherever he was. Before leaving my room, I grabbed the red flannel Red Hood had given me all those months ago. Might as well return it, since I was going to see him again.
I ripped the tape off the door and knocked, getting Nightwing's attention. I took a deep breath, opened the door, and he passed me the mask. I slipped it on quickly; “Thanks. … I'm not going down this way, so I'll meet you in front of the building?”
Nightwing nodded, jumping off my porch, and I went back inside, sealing the door back up before I ran out the front door. I pulled my helmet and gloves on and hopped on the back of Nightwing's bike, sighing softly. “... Can't believe I'm doing this…”
“I can't believe you made me wait for you to change your clothes…”
“When my boyfriend finds out I got on a vigilante’s bike, he's probably going to have an aneurysm. If he found out I did it without proper protective layers on, he'd probably try to kill you. I’m trying to help you here.”
Nightwing chuckled a bit and we took off, flying down the road like a bat out of hell. I couldn't imagine how I was meant to fix this, or even what we would find when we got there, but I had to try. I couldn't imagine the Red Hood being scared of anything, but the way Nightwing spoke about him made him sound so fragile. ‘his body is being ripped out of his control again’??? Again??? What had this guy been through? And how was I supposed to help??
We arrived much faster than I would have expected, and I slid off the bike, looking around. Nightwing took my helmet for me, pointing to the alley. The Batmobile was pulled to the side, and Batman himself stood like a gargoyle by the driver's side. Spoiler was hunched over by a dumpster, murmuring softly. She looked up as I approached, sighing softly. “Thank God. You're up!”
Her voice sounded familiar, even through the breathing mask, but I didn't have time to dwell. I wanted to get home soon; with my luck Jason would finally text me back while I was out here doing this. I stepped closer until I could see him; the Red Hood, on his knees behind the dumpster, clutching at his chest and hissing softly, like an injured cat.
“Um … Mr. Hood?” I crouched, trying not to startle him.
He jumped anyway, looking up at me. His red helmet didn't show any emotion, but as far as I could tell he was focused on me. “... Hi, Mr. Hood. I don't know if you remember, you saved me from a would-be-rapist last March?”
I slowly held the shirt out, but he didn't move. “... I brought your shirt back.”
He continued to stare at me, so I slowly inched closer. When I was finally close enough to touch him he flinched, hiding his helmeted face in his hands. “N- no … no, go … go away … H- how'd you get here? … The lockdown …”
“... I … I can't really do that, Hood. … Nightwing brought me.”
He growled, a broken, choked sound, distorted by his voice modulator. “... You're supposed to be home … supposed to be safe …”
I nodded slowly. “... Yeah, yeah I am. So … do you think you can come out of the alley with me? … There's a lot of people really worried about you out here. They just wanna get you somewhere safe so they can take care of you.”
He shook his head quickly, choking out; “no! No needles! No needles!”
I nodded slowly, gently shushing him. “Ok, no needles. We don't have to do anything you don't want to do. … Let's start with a few deep breaths, yeah? Can we do that?”
He slowly tilted his head toward me, and I moved my hands slowly up from my stomach to my throat as I breathed in, then back down again as I breathed out. I did this several times before he started to follow along, slowly letting his breathing sync up with mine. “There we go, well done. Do you think you can stand?”
He nodded once, slowly rising to stand against the wall. I slowly approached, offering him the shirt again. Gingerly, he reached out to take it, being oddly careful not to let our fingers touch. His gloves were torn open, revealing bloodied knuckles. “Can we go to the car? Looks like you've got some cuts, I bet they have a first aid kit over there.”
He flinched, shaking his head a bit. “They'll heal.”
“... They'd heal best if we cleaned them first. Can we just get some water on them, rinse the dirt out?” I slowly lifted my hands, palms up, offering them to him; “please? … I won't let them do anything you aren't ready for, I promise.”
His body seemed to move on instinct; as our hands touched he froze, whining sharply. “... Fuck … no, … d- don't want to do this … m'sposed to protect you …”
I gently squeezed his hands. “You have protected me. You protected the whole city. You did your job, Hood, and you did it well. Now let me help you. Please?”
He shuddered and collapsed against me, suddenly wrapping his arms around my waist like I was a life raft in the ocean. I grunted softly, stumbling a bit, but managed not to fall over. It briefly crossed my mind just how pissed Jason was going to be when I told him about this; if vigilantes showing up near my work made him grumpy, what was he going to do about one clinging to me like this? But I pushed the thought away, determined to get Red Hood into the Batmobile so they could take him to get treated.
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, awkwardly patting his back. “... I've got you. You're gonna be ok. Let's get to the car, ok?”
He let me guide him to the Batmobile, clinging to me the whole way there. I could feel Batman staring us down as I slowly coaxed the giant man into the back seat. He let me rinse his scraped up knuckles with a bottle of water, but wouldn't accept anything else. Before I could leave, he pulled me onto his lap, nuzzling my neck and whining softly. “Ah! … U- uh, Mr. Hood, I do have a boyfriend now…”
He groaned softly, holding me tight and whispering. I only caught the occasional word, the voice modulator garbled the rest; “need ……. So pretty ……. Soft …… mine …. Love …. Fuck, just wanna …….. neeeeed~ ….”
Spoiler wrinkled her nose a bit, shrugging. “... It'll be easiest to get him treated if we just … let him be. …. Think you can sit like that for … 20 minutes?”
I sighed softly. “... I guess?”
I rubbed his shoulder gently, letting him continue to mumble and nuzzle against me. Jason would be pissed, but at least Red Hood wasn't being particularly handsy. He was actually keeping his hands very carefully on my calves or waist, never venturing between the knees and the waistband of my jeans, weirdly respectful for someone drugged out of their mind on Poison Ivy's pheromones, whether those pheromones were corrupted or not. Batman and Spoiler got in the front seats, and we sped away. I saw Nightwing riding behind us as we raced out of the city.
“... Should I be keeping my eyes closed or something?”
Spoiler turned back to face us and laughed a bit. “... Maybe? I guess. And you can take that mask off now. By the time we open the doors we'll be far enough away from the affected area.”
I nodded, sliding the breathing mask off and closing my eyes. Red Hood stroked my back, purring softly. I sighed, patting his shoulder more. I tried not to think too hard about how I was going to explain this to Jason. I'd think of something; something that would keep him from confronting the Red Hood when this was all over.
Tumblr media
Next ->
Divider by: @saradika-graphics
Taglist (open): @jawdropforkpop @krys0210 @snowy-violet @superthoughts @wordsfromshona @mystic60 @iwannabealocalcryptid @morstuavitamea-a @frosty--giants @arisa191 @prized-jules @phoenix666stuff @dinonuggysandhuggus @anuttellaa @whore-of-many-hot-men
120 notes · View notes
lucky-clover-gazette · 2 months ago
Text
kings rising highlights & annotations
chapter 13
indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!
also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!
i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.
this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.
The intimacy of last night might have been too much for either or both of them.
sorry you’re not convincing me that scene was like groundbreaking relationship-shifting magical catharsis. but this is ultimately damen’s narration and his perception has never been 1:1 with what’s actually happening, in terms of authorial intent or what i analyze
They were gazing at each other. To Damen’s delight, Laurent reached out to trace a touch down over his body. Laurent was looking at him as if he couldn’t quite believe the fact of him, as if even touch could not quite confirm it. ‘What?’ Damen was smiling. ‘You’re very,’ said Laurent, and then, flushing, ‘attractive.’ ‘Really,’ said Damen, in a rich, warm voice. ‘Yes,’ said Laurent.
this is laurent being soft, but also still being laurent. if that makes sense. the one scene we’ve gotten through his pov has shown that he overthinks every aspect of a situation—the fact that he just awkwardly states that he has observed that damen is hot, in an attempt to ground himself in some kind of objective knowledge, is both adorable and poignant
‘Well,’ Damen owned, turning his head back to Laurent eventually, ‘You are too.’ Laurent dropped his head slightly, on the edge of laughter. He said, with absurd fondness, ‘Most people tell me that right away.’
damen always thought it, but i think laurent appreciates that he didn’t say it then. he really appreciates hearing it now, because damen actually knows him. the compliment has substance and weight and importance that it otherwise wouldn’t. it’s funny bc laurent has used his beauty to manipulate damen before—the baths, verisimilitude, etc.—but i think this is the first time he actually WANTS damen to find him beautiful. maybe even the first time he wants anyone to find him beautiful, for reasons other than strategy (like with torveld)
Sweet and simple in the morning, Laurent’s beauty was heart-stopping.
“you like it simple” my thoughts about that single line of dialogue from chapter 7 is going to continue to be a subject of importance throughout these annotations, as damen ~finally gets what he wants~ from laurent (not using quotation marks bc i don't want to make it look like that's in the text, but i'm being like sarcastic/ironic/whatever)
If there had been a chance for our countries to be—’ Friends.
i like how immature his thought here is, evidenced by the fact that he doesn’t even say it. damen knows it’s silly to think about politics like this, but he’s so attached to laurent as an individual that he’s starting to see vere as a person too. which is both great, bc it shows how much his character has evolved from accepting everything he once believed, but also highlights the way damen can lose himself and his critical thinking in his attachments
'I would have been trailing around tugging on your sleeve, trying to get a look in edgewise.'
cue a bazillion pieces of fanart
After a moment, Laurent said, ‘He would have liked you.’ ‘Even after I started courting his little brother?’ said Damen carefully. He watched Laurent stop, the way that he did when he was taken by surprise, and then lift his eyes to meet Damen’s. ‘Yes,’ said Laurent softly, his cheeks reddened slightly.
this is soooo crazy for them. while i think it does represent legit development, i also think they’re kind of acting the parts of people who are lot more healed and happy than they actually are. like they feel the desire for lightheartedness and vulnerability, and don’t want to deal with the things that make them uncomfortable anymore, so they’re just committing to the bit that they’re fine and seeing where it takes them. see also: the previous sex scene. but they still have big problems (see also: the previous sex scene again) and the book is not over yet
‘No. Listen to me.’ He felt Laurent’s hand firm on the back of his neck. ‘I’m not going to let my uncle hurt you.’ Laurent’s blue gaze was calm and steady, as if he had made a decision and wanted Damen to know it. ‘It’s what I came here last night to say. I’m going to take care of it.’ ‘Promise me,’ Damen heard himself say. ‘Promise me we won’t let him—’ ‘I promise.’
oh he already knows he’s trading himself for damen’s not-son, doesn’t he. which also makes the uncertain and uncomfortable vibes of the previous scene make a lot of sense. it’s kind of a repeat of their sex scene in prince’s gambit, except this time only laurent knows it’s probably the last time (or one of the last times) they’ll ever have together
actually wow yeah, laurent’s insistence here—“listen to me, it’s what i came to say, i promise’—that really nails down the finality and desperation he’s feeling. and damen just Didn’t Get It, and still doesn’t. which is interesting bc he was so pleased in the last scene that laurent was finally being honest, and accepting him for who he was. while laurent was accepting damen finally, and wasn’t even really LYING about his intentions (like right here, he pretty much deadass says it), damen is so distracted and overwhelmed by this romantic victory that he doesn’t notice the tragedy looming
also—“let him” what, exactly? “hurt him?” do you think laurent thinks damen knows what the regent specifically did to him, and could do to his son? bc if i didn’t know that he didn’t know, this line would pretty much indicate that he did. wow that is an incoherent sentence.
Laurent said it seriously, his voice honest; no game playing, just the truth.
damen isn’t actively trying to deceive the reader, but he is definitely incorrect in his certainty a lot of the time. but then again, those words were the truth—laurent is not going to let his uncle hurt damen’s not-kid, and it was the reason he visited last night.
The kissing this time had an echo of last night’s desperation, a need to block out the outside world and stay for a moment longer in this cocoon, Laurent’s arms winding around his neck.
okay what did i just say. we are so fucking back (in terms of actually good analysis)
‘Come in,’ said Laurent, turning his head towards the sound. Damen said, ‘Laurent,’ shocked and on full display as the door swung open. Pallas entered. Laurent greeted him with no self-consciousness at all. ‘Yes?’ Laurent’s voice was matter-of-fact. Pallas’s mouth opened. Damen saw what Pallas saw: Laurent like some dream of a newly fucked virgin, himself unmistakably above him, fully roused. He flushed all over. In Ios, he might have dallied with a lover while a household slave attended to some task in the room, but only because a slave was so far beneath him in status as not to signify. The idea of a soldier watching him make love to Laurent was breaking open his mind. Laurent had never even taken an acknowledged lover before, let alone—
ironic that damen was so overjoyed in the last chapter about this exact situation—that it was LAURENT who he had, being vulnerable and acting like his past submissive partners coughslaves —but when he actually gets spotted in this situation he’s like oohhhhhhh my goddddd nooooo!
like i know i kinda talk shit about akelions a lot, but the persistent theme that it’s inherently some kind of like natural entitlement of the “powerful” (royal, rich etc.) to possess and use people designated beneath them in status just truly reveals how weak and transparent their power actually is. like of course you’re going to look strong, if you only allow yourself to be seen with people you’ve placed in lower stations. some of damen’s shame here must be due in part to his akelion upbringing, but that same upbringing is WHY he got so excited about making someone as powerful and stubborn as laurent submissive and vulnerable to him. in a culture where it’s encouraged to keep it simple, he’s found himself deeply rewarded by the complication of laurent in ways he’d never anticipated, but also afraid of how that complication will come across to his countrymen.
Pallas turned blindly, and made for the door. ‘What is it?’ Laurent looked at Damen, who had detached himself and was sitting with the sheet pulled up to where he had clutched it to cover himself. And then, with the burgeoning delight of discovery, ‘Are you shy?’ ‘In Akielos we don’t,’ said Damen, ‘in front of other people.’ ‘Not even the King?’ ‘Especially not the King,’ said Damen, for whom the King still partly meant his father. ‘But how does the court know if the royal marriage has been consummated?’ ‘The King knows whether or not it has been consummated!’ Horrified. Laurent stared at him. Damen was surprised when Laurent dropped his head, and even more surprised when Laurent’s shoulders started shaking. Around the laughter emerged, ‘You wrestled him without any clothes on.’ ‘That is sports,’ said Damen. He folded his arms, thinking that Veretians lacked any sense of dignity, even as Laurent sitting up and pressing a delighted kiss to his lips had him slightly mollified.
love this lighter shot at the cultural miscommunications here. but MAN is it hard to ignore the giant dark shadow over laurent’s every word and action here. unless you’re damen i guess, but that’s part of why they’ve always worked well together (see other annotations about damen allowing laurent to feel like a person beyond his trauma because he doesn’t really understand it, while still being a fiercely protective and uniquely intuitive partner in romance and life)
Later, ‘The King of Vere really consummates his marriage in front of the court?’ ‘Not in front of the court,’ said Laurent, as if this were unspeakably foolish, ‘in front of the Council.’ ‘Guion is on the Council!’ said Damen.
it is very funny to realize how in vere, sex is basically a form of bureaucracy and political posturing. and it’s like, some people are having fun with it, but others aren’t. as opposed to akielos, where it’s also posturing but sounds like pretty much everyone who is high-class enough to have slaves is very happy to partake. unlike vere, they do it in the privacy of their bedrooms, and people are taught to believe it’s happening and respect it. in vere, if it’s NOT happening in a public forum, no one really gives a shit and it might as well not be happening at all.
basically, sex is a means of political posturing and demonstrating status in both kingdoms, but in distinctly different ways. in akielos, it’s the equivalent of subtly telling everyone at the hedge fund that you have an affluent lifestyle by wearing certain clothes and using advanced technology. you’re perceived and accepted as certified finance bro by tasteful implication. but in vere, it’s more like straight-up driving your third tesla into the office and loudly counting your money during staff meetings (i don’t know if hedge funds have staff meetings) so it’s garishly undeniable to your wealthy peers that you belong
‘I’m sorry Govart is dead. I know you were trying to keep him alive.’
“sorry for your loss, of the man you killed with a chair. we both fuckin hated the guy but he would have made great leverage” they really are rubbing off on each other <3
‘I thought he knew something that I could use against my uncle. It doesn’t matter. We’ll stop him another way.’
and what way would that be. laurent. (also, a surprise tool that will help us later!)
‘It was nothing. There was a knife fight. I got free, and Guion and I came to an arrangement.’
and it was one of the best chapters in the entire series
‘You were taken prisoner, you single-handedly escaped from the cells at Fortaine, and somehow managed to get Guion to switch sides on the way out?’ ‘Well,’ said Laurent, ‘not everyone is as bad at escaping as you are.’
laurent would enjoy tabletop roleplay gaming so much. also i love them
‘When you lost your brother, was there someone to comfort you?’ ‘Yes,’ said Laurent. ‘In a way.’ ‘Then I’m glad,’ said Damen. ‘I’m glad you weren’t alone.’ Laurent pushed himself away, up into a sitting position, and for a moment he sat, without speaking. He pushed his palms into his eye sockets. ‘What is it?’ ‘It’s nothing,’ said Laurent.
ohhhhhh my god (i wonder if mentally laurent is like, ‘well i thought he might have figured it out, but i guess not. how the fu—‘)
‘We should—’ ‘And we will.’ Laurent turned to him, sliding fingers into his hair. ‘But first, we have the morning.’
“and then i will turn myself in to my abusive creep of an uncle as a solution to the problem i’m ignoring. but for now, this is a romance novel, and i’m stepping into your genre for a change”
(which is i think the main thing i missed in my analysis of the previous chapter, by the way. i’ve written so much about damen being forced into laurent’s genre but remaining romantic despite the horrors, but that last scene was a subversion where laurent is forcing himself to ignore the horrors so he can both indulge damen’s perception of them and try to experience it himself as a relief from the imminent tragedy and his past traumas)
After, they talked.
great thing to write after a fade to black sex scene! reminds us what their relationship really is about, beyond the physicality and emotional catharsis. these two fell in love doing battle strategy, remember?
Servants brought a breakfast of fruits, soft cheese, honey and breads on round platters,
glad to see thematically appropriate fruit basket guy is still finding work, even though damen and laurent are un-marrieddivorced
Damen took the seat closest to the wall, affixing the gold pin he had recovered to the cotton at his shoulder. Laurent sat in a relaxed pose, in only pants and a loose shirt, its collar and sleeves still open. Laurent was talking.
i love prince’s gambit
Damen realised that Laurent was letting him in to a part of himself he had never shared before, and he found himself drawn in to the political complexities, even as the experience felt new, and a little revelatory. Laurent never opened his thoughts like this, but always kept his planning intensely private, making his decisions alone.
damen i think you’re underestimating how much laurent showed you in the last book, compared to literally every other person he talks to
‘You are not keeping slaves in your household.’ ‘I can’t imagine why,’ said Damen.
smash cut to the cover of captive prince, a novel by cs pacat
‘You hate the idea of slavery. It turns your stomach.’ Damen said it, a flat statement of truth. ‘If I’d been anyone else, you would have freed me on the first night.’
doing my analysis for me. how far we’ve come
‘When I argued the case for slavery in Arles you didn’t try to change my mind.’ ‘It is not a subject for an exchange of ideas. There is nothing to say.’ ‘There will be slaves in Akielos. We are a slave culture.’
wow, i’m actually kind of surprised damen hasn’t already committed to dismantling the entire practice. i know he gets there eventually, and maybe he wants to at this point—but he’s still like, “well other people are going to do it and that’s their right.” maybe that’s the incomplete part of his development here: he’s decided that it’s wrong for HIM to be doing, as a result of his experiences and tastes, but hasn’t quiet grasped that is a universally wrong practice, even if it’s his friends and allies doing it
Damen said, ‘Are pets and their contracts so different? Did Nicaise have a choice?’ ‘He had the choice of the poor with no other way to survive, the choice of a child powerless to his elders, the choice of a man when his King gives him an order, which is no choice at all, and yet still more than is afforded to a slave.’
yep, i’m a little rusty but i do remember a lot of my laurent character analysis having to do with the fact that he would rather be doing something on purpose even if it isn’t something he wants to do, than given no choice or ability to HAVE thoughts or preferences at all. free will is extremely important to laurent, and the idea of losing it is both terrifying and shameful to him. so even in situations of financial desperation or lack of power due to age or status, laurent still believes that there is more of choice to willing submission than just never being “afforded” the ability to make choices in the first place—even if slaves live under less stressful or overall comfier conditions. even the most desperate, poor, powerless victim still has more personhood and autonomy allowed to them than a slave. and without that foundation of personhood and autonomy, there is no purpose to life.
laurent thrives on having purpose, and suffers without it. and in his big pov chapter we're also told that he often has hope, despite everything, and has to regulate it in order to be realistic. there is no purpose for a slave, and there is no hope for a slave. at least with veretian pets, at least for laurent in the veretian court, he still had purpose, and he still had hope. i think the only time in laurent's life where he did NOT feel purpose/hope was when he was under the regent's thumb, which had only happened because laurent lost hope and purpose due to auguste's death and leaned on the regent for comfort. and that situation had only really changed because the regent stopped being attracted to laurent as result of natural aging, not even because laurent was eventually able to change things due to his own internal strength. that's fucked up, man. but it does explain laurent's perspective.
Damen felt again the shock of hearing Laurent voice his private beliefs. He thought of him, helping Erasmus. He thought of him visiting the girl from the village, teaching her a sleight-of-hand trick. For the first time, he caught a glimmer of what Laurent would be like as a king. He saw him, not as the Regent’s unready nephew, not as Auguste’s younger brother, but as himself, a young man with a collection of talents thrown into leadership too early, and taking it on, because he was given no other choice.
damen, assessing laurent’s situation: he was given no other choice, but he’s still trying his best :(
laurent, miserable and tired but possessing free will: i am MAKING the choice to do this to the very best of my ability, using my compassion and intelligence in a way no one else could. even if it sucks, even if i could do something else (because i absolutely could), i am CHOOSING to be the kind of king my people deserve. having “no choice” would mean lacking the will to choose to do anything but the exact thing i’ve been trained to do, which is how both akielion slaves and princes are groomed to live (re: the latter—consider damen’s musing on his father, the military, and tradition)
I would serve him, he thought, and that itself was like a little revelation.
back in book 1 i highlighted the overall thematic question: can there be honor in submission?
yes. like this. so much has led to this line, subtly and slowly, and we’re finally seeing it said outright. damen would serve laurent because of the person he is, not the royal status that has been put upon him by birth. and he’d be doing so as a person with free will, acknowledging laurent’s complications as well as his own, instead of the imitation of a slave who can’t choose anyway so might as well just go along with it.
in other words, he’s leveling up his commitment to the bit <3
‘I know what you think of my uncle, but he is not—’ Laurent spoke after a pause. ‘Not?’ ‘He won’t hurt the child,’ said Laurent. ‘Whether it is your son or Kastor’s, it is leverage. It is leverage against you, against your armies, and against your men.’ ‘You mean that it hurts me more that my son is alive and whole than it would if he were maimed or dead.’ ‘Yes,’ said Laurent.
laurent: i know that you think my uncle is simply bloodthirsty and evil, and would only think to injure or kill your not-son, but you don’t understand that he would rather sexually abuse a young boy than kill him. because he did that to me. which you haven’t figured out. although you did know about nicaise. but you seem to have a blind spot about the entire topic.
damen: wait, what do YOU think i think of your uncle?
laurent: ignores the question basically, the kid wouldn’t get hurt, because it’s useful to my uncle to keep him intact as leverage against us both. (especially against me, because i know what he would do to that boy, but if i explained that i would have to explain why, so i’m not going to mention it specifically)
damen: so like. he won’t kill the kid because he can torture and manipulate us with it more effectively if it’s alive
laurent: somehow i have told the truth and you do understand it, but there is so much that you still don’t understand
He said it seriously, looking into Damen’s eyes. Damen felt every muscle in his body ache with the effort of not thinking of it. Of not thinking the other, darker thought, the one that at all costs must be avoided. He tried to think instead of a way forward, though it was impossible.
possibilities for “the other thought”:
1) the obvious one, and the most likely in my opinion: the regent would assault the child.
damen has a reason to suspect this, because he is aware of both nicaise and aimeric
in terms of craft and characterization, this a little hint that damen might have considered laurent being abused, but eventually dismissed the notion because it is TOO dark and too upsetting to acknowledge
^^^ active repression is in-line with damen’s overall tendencies
2) the other darker thought is the death or torture of the child, which laurent is explicitly telling him will not happen. damen is accepting that “comfort” uncritically because it doesn’t make him feel as upset or powerless as the alternative. the regent’s abuse of young boys is not being considered at all.
‘My uncle knows you won’t move against him while he holds the child,’ said Laurent. And then, calmly, steadily, ‘So we get him back.’
not going to lie, i’m not the biggest fan of the baby as a plot device. but i get why it’s used, and how it connects a lot of characters, especially like jokaste and kastor who haven’t been present in previous books. i just think it might have been more effective if it was a child that damen and/or laurent actually knew—although i do understand that the baby’s “royal lineage” probably comes into play here. but i also think a big theme of the series is about honor coming from integrity in action, rather than blood or status. but it is just a fuckin baby, and a baby is the ultimate symbol of innocence and helplessness. so maybe it’s just kind of a wash.
also the confusion about the paternity kinda just annoys me. i get that to damen it doesn’t matter, but then like. make it kastor’s baby for sure, then. that would give damen’s integrity and family oriented nature even more of a spotlight.
(maybe it is confirmed to be kastor’s at some point. i didn’t pay that much attention to this plot beat the first time around)
He looked for changes in her, but the cool, untouchable air was the same, as was the particular way that her eyes regarded him. She had the same colouring as Laurent. She had the same mathematical mind. They were like a matched pair, except that her presence was different.
it’s both telling and sweet that damen is so used to having his mind changed by laurent, who ended up so much more honorable and understandable than originally believed, that his first instinct with jokaste is to look for signs of that same potential. as opposed to damen in captive prince chapter one, whose first thought seeing laurent was “he would be an expensive sex slave”
There was a part of Laurent that was always in tension, even when he affected calm. Jokaste’s unassailable composure seemed like serenity, until you knew she was dangerous. A similar core of steel, perhaps, existed in both.
i think you might have just been down bad for jokaste in a specific way, and down bad for laurent in a different way. jokaste definitely isn’t making you feel serene now, is she? and laurent, inversely, is a great comfort to you when you first thought he was unpleasant. another example of the overarching damen nice=/=good and mean=/=bad theme.
She didn’t seem perturbed by her incarceration, or even really to notice it.
like damen in the cell, internally attentive to every little detail. i bet jokaste is too.
He said, ‘Is there a child?’
he wants it to be untrue, so the regent doesn’t have leverage over him. i also think he’s partially asking if it’s HIS, although that’s more of a personal thing that wouldn’t impact his actions in saving the kid
‘I have told you that there is,’ said Jokaste. ‘I wasn’t talking to you,’ said Damen. The attending women seated around Jokaste were of varying ages, from the eldest of perhaps sixty to the youngest, Jokaste’s age, around twenty-four.
he's learning!
‘Let me tell you what is going to happen. You are going to be executed. You are going to be executed whatever you say or do. But I will spare your women, if they agree to answer my questions.’
damen immediately doing what he’s so upset the regent is doing to him and laurent is fascinating. like “oh i have an idea of how i can challenge jokaste into talking! use human lives as leverage! wonder where that came from, anything recently happen…? oh right.”
He said to the soldiers behind him, ‘Take them.’ Jokaste said, ‘This plan of action will mean the death of the child.’ He said, ‘We haven’t established that there is a child.’ She smiled, as if pleased to discover a pet capable of a trick. ‘You’ve never been very good at games. I don’t think you have what it takes to play against me.’ He said, ‘I’ve changed.’
this entire war hinges on schroedinger’s inconvenient baby
also, jokaste was born in the wrong kingdom. i think part of the reason she’s so terrible is that she’s bored in akielos. vere’s political landscape would be enrichment for her and she’d probably thrive in that environment, and feel no desire or need to establish her status by getting pregnant by a prince
okay sorry but like. au where laurent reluctantly teams up with young noblewoman jokaste a year or so after the regent stops assaulting him, and they work together to overthrow him through complicated court political maneuvers. laurent is motivated by obvious reasons, and jokaste is mostly just personally slighted by the regent’s misogynistic court and therefore annoyed, but deep down they both know she cares about him and wants things to be better. and obviously he cares about her bc it’s laurent and he cares about everything, just doesn’t want the world to know it
‘You are the only one protected in your arrangement. These women are going to die. Unless they talk to me.’ She said, ‘You have changed. Or is this the new power behind the throne? Who am I really negotiating with here, I wonder?’
damen wouldn’t. he knows it, jokaste knows it, and laurent DEFINITELY knows it. he would not tell damen or expect damen to do this as anything more than a bluff to assess jokaste’s commitment to the bit
He was already nodding to the nearest soldier. ‘Start with her.’ It wasn’t pleasant. The women resisted, and there was screaming. He watched impassively as soldiers took hold of the women and began to drag them from the room.
wait holy fuck did he do it?? it’s not entirely clear. but i think he fucking did??? is it written vaguely to make the reader have this exact confused reaction?? hold please i’m reading more
EDIT: it's "women" and not "woman." i originally read it as "woman," meaning that the first was specifically resisting and screaming as she died, and then the soldiers seized everyone else. if it's plural women, i think it's safe to say that the first woman did not actually die, the soldiers just mobilized in a way that made kyrina scared enough to tell damen the truth, despite jokaste's warnings
‘No,’ said Jokaste. ‘He will not kill a roomful of women for loyalty to their mistress, Kyrina.’
still not saying outright if he killed the one woman, and i have to wonder WHY, if not to intentionally confuse and stress out the reader. it could go both ways with these carefully chosen words of dialogue—“he will not kill a roomful of women for loyalty.” “roomful” could imply that he already killed one but she thinks he wouldn’t kill multiple (but from what we and jokaste know of damen, that assumption makes very little sense—he’s not really like a utilitarian trolley problem kind of guy, although i guess laurent is). but “for loyalty” implies that she does understand damen, and the assumption that he would not kill for the REASON of loyalty, because it’s something he respects in himself and others. hhhhh
EDIT: see previous annotation
‘There is a child. He was taken to Ios.’ ‘That’s enough,’ said Jokaste. ‘None of us know if the child is yours. She says it is.’ ‘That’s enough, Kyrina,’ said Jokaste. ‘There’s more,’ said Damen. ‘Exalted—’ said Kyrina— —as Jokaste said, ‘No.’ —
turns out when your status is predicated on power earned by force rather than earned respect, the people serving you are going to submit to the strongest person in the room. unfortunately for jokaste, she just stopped being perceived as the strongest person in the room
‘My lady did not trust the Regent of Vere to protect her interests. In the case that there was no other way to save her life, the wet nurse could be instructed to bring the child to you—in exchange for Jokaste’s freedom.’
she’s out-veretianing the regent of vere.
oh ALSO!! it’s neat how based on jokaste’s attendant calling him “regent” and not “king,” jokaste must also casually refer to him as such, not actually respecting him or his false title
Damen sat back in his chair, and lifted his brows slightly at Jokaste.
that’s laurent-brand cuntiness. should have added a lean though
'There is no way to circumvent my conditions.'
that phrase is like catnip to damen and laurent. one time damen ripped a metal grate out of a wall
Jokaste, he thought, believed that it was impossible for him to travel into Ios, and that there was no place where it was safe for him to attempt an exchange. But there was a place where two enemies could meet without fear of ambush.
i like how the kingsmeet is set up for a way for damen and laurent to ensure that the regent doesn’t hurt them, but in a twist it ends up being the regent’s plan to anger damen so much that damen breaks the rules and tries to throw hands
‘But you’re a fool to trust him. He has his own plans.’ ‘He has never pretended otherwise,’ said Damen.
true. and perfect for this exact conversation. this is what‘s really being said, i think—
jokaste: laurent may be giving you good ideas, but it’s stupid to trust him because he’s definitely also keeping some of his manipulations from you
damen: he’s never claimed to be honest, which ironically makes him more honest than you. i know he has secrets and i trust him anyway, because i know him. you never even gave me the chance to know you, for whatever reason, and i was a fool for trusting you and faced the worst consequences imaginable. at least when laurent tortured me, we both thought he was my enemy. you tortured me when you were supposed to be my ally. you have not earned my trust and respect, and laurent has, and ultimately that’s your loss. because i know you appreciated my integrity and honor, two things that you believe that you can not afford to have yourself.
(maybe it’s not that deep. but i think it’s satisfying to consider, with the little we’ve been told about their history)
He looked at her, alone on the low couch. He couldn’t help but remember the day they met. She had been presented to his father, daughter of a minor noble from Aegina, and he had been able to look nowhere else. It was three months of courtship before she was in his arms. He said, ‘You chose a man who was bent on destroying his own country. You chose my brother, and look where it’s left you. You have no position, no friends. Even your own women have turned on you. Don’t you think it’s a shame things had to end this way between us?’
NOPE IT’S THAT DEEP I NAILED IT
“i loved you so deeply and immediately and would have done anything for you. kastor doesn’t give a shit about you or this country. the way this ended between us was your choice, and it was a bad one. your loss.”
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Kastor should have killed you.’
and we know he’s right, and that he hit a vein, because the woman who pretends to be cool and detached and in control basically just tells him that she can’t handle him being around.
32 notes · View notes
angie-j-kay · 10 months ago
Text
OC in Fifteen, doubling as a Snippet Sunday because I AM TIRED.
I'm sneaking into @k--havok's open tag, and tagging @dyrewrites and @doublegoblin. Also leaving an OPEN TAG FOR EVERYONE as well. :D
Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!
Writing for Agent Bethany Larson, FBI. We'll meet her in Chapter Six, I believe.
1.
"Well, the fellow at the desk called me 'Missy,'" she shrugged. "I showed him my badge and everything, and all Officer White did was grumble about how 'first Nelson let the perp go, now the feds are here effing things up.' Only that wasn't the word he used. I don't like that kind of language. Besides, I didn't get this far by not being curious."
2.
"Yes, that's a lovely thing to say in front of the FBI agent, Chief Perkins. Great job. Now could you give him the keys before you write up his dismissal paperwork? For some reason, I just don't trust you to give me the right evidence."
3.
"To be fair, anything that can shred a man without leaving any signs of forced entry is probably outside of your weight class."
4.
"Ever get a really bad feeling about something?"
5.
"She's gone, glitter or no."
6.
"That's not mildew in the bathtub ... that's blood residue or I'm Martha Washington."
7.
"... if you're not here to kill [SPOILER] then... I really don't know why you're here.”
8.
"...I take it you were responsible for that, Little Miss Arson?”
9.
“You picked a heck of a damsel to play shining knight to"
10.
“This isn't about one person's job, you know? There are things out there, very real things that could cause a lot of death and destruction if they wanted to. You cops couldn't handle it. The army probably couldn't handle them either, some of the things I've dealt with... Demons, monsters, cultists. That one in ten case I investigate, I wasn't kidding when I said you needed a stiff drink afterwards.”
11.
“It's pretty far off, don't you think?” Miller cocked her head sideways at the church. “If you want help from a higher power, though, we've got the time.”
12.
“Get your danged gun, Rutledge!”
13.
“Good guys do not dismember people, Rutledge!” Miller yelled back. “I shouldn't have to tell you this!”
14.
“Son, I drop this gun and your mole escapes!” she called back. “Now why don't you go radio your boss and tell him I have the genius who burned down [SPOILER]'s office, hm? ... Can you do it fast, please? This one's got kind of a foul mouth on her!”
15.
“A peace offering, that's all.” Miller dismissed him with a small hand wave. “You've got bigger problems, [SPOILER], and I think you've already lost people to that problem. Now, I also think that young lady in there knows more about this murderer than she wants to tell me. She might tell you.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Angie's Patreon
Angie's Ko-Fi
Alright, folks, I've got my first Patreon and Ko-Fi rewards queued up and ready to go! For $3 USD a month, Tier 2 supporters on my Patreon and Ko-Fi can download printable chapters of my novel, What You Cast Out: A Tale From Little Egypt. The first two chapters are set to go live on February 1, though if I'm completely honest my first time posting things on Ko-Fi glitched a bit and all of the February rewards are already available for download there. Oops.
Anyway, while Tier 2 supporters will be able to read this before everyone else, chapters will be made available every other Monday on both of my sites starting on March 5.
All of the art on these covers is made by me, a combination of watercolor, collage, and just a smidge of digital manipulation for the covers themselves. NO AI WAS OR EVER WILL BE USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF MY ZINES.
--------------------------------------------------------
If you like this post, I'd love it if you shared it so more folks could see it. The more people share this post, the more people will be able to read the novel!
And if you'd like to join my taglist, let me know!
The current taglist: @wedgie-of-destiny, @nightacquainted, @storminmywake, @brokenandlonelysouls, @tattur, @theamazingchickenman, @solstice-muse-collective, @axl-ul, @tucsonhorse
4 notes · View notes
some-other-number · 9 months ago
Text
ok so decided to do it and watch the cinemasins original star wars video. which is it. a new hope. anyway I watched this when it first got posted because I was really into star wars. so. I said in my tags that I wondered if the older videos were originally satire and this got dropped in favour for more views so I'm gonna go through and comment on every single sin on whether I think it is a valid criticism or not and whether this thing has any form of satire in it or not
it's just reading. how does this constitute a 'sin' (I'll be saying this a lot won't I)
sounds like terrible short term memory to me. also the opening crawl is a unique way of giving the audience context without lots of exposition and allows for the iconic opening action scene
suspension of disbelief.
again, suspension of disbelief
either it's to reveal the force later on in the film so that the focus of the audience is on the plans, or it's a goof. I think it's the former though
there are a multitude of reasons why the stormtroopers would fire on the ship that would likely not result in fatalities, because this is a world with spaceships and you would figure with space warfare there would be a way in which to do that. also the passengers would likely not be the ones firing at a hostile boarding party. again. suspension of disbelief and a total lack of critical thinking.
admittedly, what leia does is fairly stupid. but there needs to be a reason why she gets captured!
they are robots their data can be recovered whether the robot is fully functional or not especially at this technological level
they need a way to escape the ship. suspension of disbelief
whilst I think it is a valid criticism and question to bring up, it's a case of the plot needs to move forward. if this moment wasn't there the cinemasins people would still complain about the lack of a scene saying why they didn't shoot it down
OR there are many cases of accidental escape pod jettisons during docking to a larger ship, or that the wiring got damaged due to the skirmish, or that a power surge went through from the larger ship to the smaller ship, and these are all far more common explanations. what a total lack of creative thinking or critical thinking, use your imagination
goof. I can see how this constitutes a 'sin'
they're on a planet and the empire does not have unlimited resources in which to station a trooper every five feet! lack of critical thinking
again suspension of disbelief. the plot requires them to be together later, so naturally they would end up in the same place
yes??? how does this constitute a 'sin'
I'm going to refrain from commenting on whether the 'updated' effects were a good idea or not. this is a pointless nitpick that really only holds weight if you have the same opinion as cinemasins
goof.
suspension of disbelief!
how does this constitute a 'sin'
not only is it exposition for what c3po is, but even in-universe it would give uncle owen an idea about how well c3po performs his function. lack of critical thinking
first off, that's subjective. second off, yeah that's actually a reading you could do of that line. half marks for that
suspension of disbelief
of course, worldbuilding gets marked as a 'sin'. why
hm! I wonder why uncle owen goes for the droid he dismissed previously! maybe the one he originally went for broke and he had to make a second choice that maybe wasn't up to his original wishes! hm!
ok valid metatextual criticism
that's an assumption. it's not even a good assumption because you're going for the boring option for the sake of being ~ironic~. not even anything about the character and worldbuilding of the line itself. the sex joke is kinda funny though
suspension of disbelief. limitations of practical effects do not necessarily have to be what exists in-universe
lack of critical thinking on display yet again... just because luke's aware of the war does not necessarily translate to knowing who leia is. especially considering that it's not just interplanetary warfare, it's war across entire star systems. use your brain
whilst I have to agree with the nitpick, I am gonna tell you it's something that requires suspension of disbelief! for the millionth time already
not a 'sin' that's something GOOD you dolts
I'm not gonna do a whole dive on astronomy and star brightness levels and heat but it's entirely possible the suns have a combined brightness level similar to our sun. but anyway that's something best left to - say it with me - suspension of disbelief!
not only is that not a 'sin', but circumbinary systems are a search away
not a 'sin'. ever heard of cinematography. ambience. quiet moments
can of worms I'm not the person to touch but I think this is a failure to think critically about what that might mean worldbuilding wise
suspension of disbelief
either a goof or a lack of critical thinking
kinda funny joke, not a 'sin'
suspension of disbelief
not a 'sin'
y'know what this gets a pass. don't like how he's using it for a joke, and it's a fairly obvious observation, but it's fine
don't think this quite counts as suspension of disbelief mostly because I am already sick of saying those words but the joke is kinda funny
on one hand, kinda funny joke about the phantom menace. on the other hand, don't know if that's strictly necessary to bring up in this film. not a 'sin'
unfunny joke not a 'sin'
time and a place man
I feel like this is missing the point of the scene, which comes right after obi-wan telling luke about the force. it shows how vader uses it and what the opinions of it are held in the wider world. this is neither a lack of critical thinking or a failure to suspend disbelief, but it's still not great
hm! it's almost as if it's a big planet where the troopers have a general idea of where to go and what to look for but can't find the proverbial needle in the haystack!
I can't exactly say that it's wrong, but that criticism feels like it was made in bad faith. wow wonder why
neither a 'sin' nor a joke. I'll get to the aim thing later but good god
firstly; needed to happen for the plot to move on. secondly, we don't know what went down between the troopers and luke's aunt and uncle! they might've told them luke had left for good! do I need to say it again? suspension of disbelief!
suspension of disbelief but this time for theming and unified aesthetics to create a sense of identity for the empire
I begrudgingly have to agree with the criticism, but again that's a suspension of disbelief thing. I admit it's one of those times where it's stretched
lack of critical thinking. it assumes a burial custom that isn't actually shown and cannot be confirmed nor denied
the plot needs to happen
not a valid criticism and another assumption. luke mightn't have fully processed what happened yet or maybe yeah! he did cry earlier! what even is that comment
not a 'sin' nor a joke
ah back when the prequels were the worst part of the franchise. not a 'sin'
probably but was that worth dedicating a whole 'sin' to?
not a 'sin'
not a 'sin' but a funny enough joke if it wasn't being told by what is rapidly becoming the most punchable insufferable voice on the internet
not a 'sin' nor funny
again was that worth dedicating a whole 'sin' to?
not touching the 'updated' effects discussion because that is subjective
I'll give this one to them. who shoots first is actually a reflection on the way in which han solo is depicted and the changing attitudes around what a character of his type should do, or even what sort of character he's meant to be
continuing in a part two
1 note · View note
janearts · 2 years ago
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Overall, I liked it. I've written another goddamn essay under the cut and tagged it as spoilers just in case, but if you've already played EA, then this'll be nothing new to you.
Based on what's currently available in EA, I thought the premise of the romance was well executed. Gale felt a romantic connection with Mystra, was unceremoniously dumped by the Goddess of Magic, and is still pining after her. And he mourns not just the relationship, but grieves his own deeply human error and the loss of the power he once held as a result of his goddess' favour.
I really love Gale's backstory because it reminds me of a lot of mythological stories where a mortal strives to equal a supernatural creature and/or crosses a line ("Don't do this." → Proceeds to open that box, fly that high, etc.) and is punished for their hubris. His romance storyline begs the question, "Well now, where do we go from here?"
While I liked this set up to Gale's romantic storyline and enjoyed romancing him this playthrough, I am not sure he would be a good romantic choice for my canon playthrough with Roisia (I say, completely seriously, as if they were real and I was some sort of matchmaker). There are two things that make me think maybe Roisia wouldn't choose him or, if she did initially, would not choose him again if the opportunity arose. One reason is character-driven and is not the fault of the devs and the other is more about how Gale's romance was written, which falls within the realm of the devs.
Reason the First: The Character
The first is that Gale is extraordinarily slow to open up even when you have high approval with him. Gale is not vulnerable with the PC; he demands vulnerability before showing vulnerability in return. For example, Gale asks the PC to swear to help him no questions asked. Only when the PC swears to assist Gale does he reveal he is, essentially, a ticking time bomb without the sustenance of magical artefacts. (Great, now you have TWO vampires in the party.) And even though the PC should be vaguely aware of Gale's relationship with Mystra, his grief over his loss of favour, etc., he does not reveal the whole story explicitly until after the PC has sex with him.
Now I clearly classify sex as an act that requires some degree of vulnerability and my character would likewise think that sex requires her to be physically and emotionally vulnerable with another, but I should acknowledge that this isn't a universal view nor does it apply to everyone under the sun (or moon, to include types like Astarion). So for Roisia, I think she would find this burgeoning relationship frustrating in that Gale takes before he gives. Usually there is simultaneous giving and taking in a relationship, but the start of this particular relationship feels heavily weighted towards Gale taking and Roisia giving.
That being said, I'm not convinced Gale's guardedness is a good enough reason to avoid romancing him in my canon playthrough because I wonder if this dynamic applies to all of the burgeoning relationships in Act I. I.e., are all the romances in Act I largely framed as your PC meeting the romanceable NPC's emotional/physical/whatever needs?
In any case, regardless of whether Gale would suit as the "canon romance" for my first playthrough, I'm super curious as to how Gale's romance plays out in later acts and down the line! So even if I'm like "Roisia would not choose this for herself", I'll do a playthrough of his romance just to see what it's like.
Reason the Second: The Writing
The second is that much of Gale's romantic story hinges on the fact that he was once a powerful wizard and you are not. So I'm guessing the Weave Scene would feel more magical and more intimate if you are playing a character who has no connection to Mystra or the Weave. Gale is inviting you into his world and, in doing so, showing you who he is and what is important to him.
As a wizard, however, you're already fuckin' there. Roisia may not be as high-and-mighty as Gale was under Mystra's favour, but she is powerful in her own right and in her own ways. And the game acknowledges this: the movements, the incantations, etc. are described as easy peasy in the game dialogue and when Gale asks the PC how they feel, the Wizard-tagged option is "The same as it always does." This can make Gale's whole "Follow my lead" shtick feel condescending and patronising. Where the fuck is the romance in that, Larian???
A Gale/Wizard romance has the opportunity to be a beautiful meeting of the minds and have that contribute to the spark of romance. I love the idea that Gale would write a Wizard PC off as not-good-enough upon their first meeting, only to be continually surprised at their ability and surprised again at their combined ability during the Weave Scene. (E.g., Maybe Gale felt weak after Mystra deserted him, but with you? Together you're a force of nature.) I would've much rather the gestures, incantations, etc. have been described as strange and obscure for your Wizard character, rather than run-of-the-mill-did-this-last-Tuesday. I felt like the devs did Wizard characters a disservice during that portion of the romance.
TL;DR: All-in-all, really enjoyed myself. Not sure if this romance would be right for Roisia in the end, but I'd like to try it out for a playthrough simply because I'm interested in Gale's story and I love him to bits as a character.
288 notes · View notes
themoonandotherslikeit · 4 years ago
Text
Painted - Chapter Two
Tumblr media
“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.” - Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Y/N has moved on, her scars are barely noticeable anymore, and she’s finally stable. Or at least she was. 10 years after the worst day of her life, Y/N found herself staring face to face with an unimaginable horror. In the wake of her worst nightmare come to life, she finds herself reunited with the man that saved her all those years ago - Agent Dean Winchester who had left her a decade before broken and wanting. Dean Winchester has spent the last 10 years trying desperately to forget Y/N and the tragedy that he pulled her out of, but when she called asking for his help he dropped everything to come to her aid as he knew he always would. Can Y/N and Dean solve the mystery that has resurfaced after all this time? Will they be able to resist the pull between them? Or will this be the final brush strokes on a canvas, sealing their fate for good?
No Beta currently, all mistakes are my own! Pairing: Dean/Reader Tags: Dark!Fic, Agent!Dean, Serial Killer Fic, Smut etc.
Chapter Two
He’s back.
It took Dean Winchester no time to drop everything he was doing and go to her. His coffee was left to cool at his desk, his computer booted up, and his case file open wide for the world to see. As he sped down the streets of downtown Boston, he clicked on the siren on his dash.
“Is he in the house? Are you in danger?”
“No. I’m safe.”
He gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles white. It had been ten goddamned years, but when he heard her voice he was shot back in time. He’d thought about disconnecting the number dozens of times. He hadn’t been a field agent in a long time, after all. Eight years away from the city, and only one back at the Bureau. He was getting his toes wet - not sure who he wanted to be.
But if Y/N called, he knew where he would be.
Making it to her house in record time, he drove through the already-open gate. She had followed his instructions and called in the break in. Local PD was already on the premises and seeing the squad cars let him breathe easier.
“I’m safe.”
It was why he had chosen the job, after all. To keep people safe. It was also the reason he left. He got out of the car, remembering to take his keys with him as an afterthought and pushed through the open door.
He stopped mid stride when he saw her. It had been a long time, a decade, a lifetime. She wore jeans and an oversized flannel, her Pitbull rested protectively at her feet. Her hair laid wet and tangled, pushed behind her ears as she nodded, talking to an uniformed officer.
She looked up, her eyes meeting his in a moment that completely slowed time. “Dean,” she exhaled his name like a sigh of relief.
“Hi Sweetheart.”
The officer turned to look at him, surprised. “The FBI? Agent Winchester, I didn’t realize you’d be here…”
“Have you taken her statement?” The officer nodded to him, his eyes still wide in shock. “Then I’ll take it from here.”
The Officer stepped out of the way, making room for Dean to go to her. Y/N stood as he approached, her hands flexing at her side like she was actively trying not to reach for him. “You came.”
“I told you I would,” he said quietly.
“I can’t believe this is happening.” Her voice broke, her eyes filling with tears.
“Hey, I’ve got you. You’re safe.” He reached for her, capturing her by the waist before she collapsed. He held her steady, lowering her back onto the stool.
“Sorry,” she said breathlessly, holding her head. “Haven’t eaten today.”
Dean crouched slightly to meet her eyes, his hands on either side of her. “Show it to me, then I’ll take you to get something to eat.” He reached up to push a lock of damp hair behind her ear.
“I can’t leave Castiel here.”
“We will take him with us,” he promised, offering a supportive grin. “We will eat on the patio.”
“Okay.”
She took his extended arm and allowed him to support her weight as they walked down the hallway. He didn’t need her to show him where the painting was, he just followed the sounds of crime scene techs talking, photographs being snapped.
“Did you notice anything else out of place?”
“Just the painting.”
One of the officer’s was calling to the prison. It was impossible that he could’ve gotten out, but it didn’t mean that he didn’t have resources to plant the painting. If Dean was sure of anything, he was sure of that.
He felt Y/N tug at his arm at the entrance to the hallway, halting mid-step. He glanced at her. Her pupils were wide and her lips were parted, ragged breaths escaping. “I’ve got it from here,” he told her, his hand lingering on her arm for a beat before releasing her and leaving her standing next to her dog.
Dean made his way down the hallway, officers making room for him like he was Moses splitting the Red Sea. He walked until he saw it, the painting. He settled on her eyes in the painting, delicate, detailed, but expressionless. They were missing the light that made Y/N Y/N, but it captured her likeness well enough.
He’d seen them before, of course. The paintings were famous. He thought back to the twenty-three year old girl who blushed in embarrassment the first time she saw them hanging on a wall. Dean didn’t look at them for her body, he knew it didn’t belong to her. He looked at the painting with the eyes of a detective. It was a piece of the bigger puzzle, just another clue. He leaned in closer to the painting and took a large inhale through his nose. He closed his eyes, trying to hold back any kind of reaction. He knew she was still watching him. They all were.
“Tape off the house,” he instructed, looking back to the techs and officers. I want this entire place looked over. Leave no stone unturned. I mean it. I trust you’ll secure the space, and then leave it to us. My team will be taking over from here out. Johnson,” he said, turning to an officer that he recognized. “Call the FBI field office and let them know the details and that I said I'm taking the case.” His gaze turned from the officers to Y/N. “Let’s get you some clothes. I don’t think you’ll be sleeping here tonight.”
“You read my mind.”
****
They sat at a table on the patio of a coffee shop, Castiel sleeping at Y/N’s feet. She watched Dean blow on his coffee. He looked good if she was paying attention. His strong jaw was speckled with light hairs, his full lips were pursed, blowing on his coffee to cool it enough to drink. He held the mug in large calloused hands. His moss green eyes flickered to her, catching her staring, and she suddenly felt unbelievably vulnerable.
“So, you’re a PI, huh?” He asked, his voice rougher than she remembered it to be.
Y/N shook her head. “Not frequently.”
“Why not?”
She held her own mug between her hands, tapping the lip with her index finger. “There weren’t enough wins. I couldn’t save…” Her voice trailed off and she sighed. “Well, you know what it’s like. So I opened a self defense gym. Preventative measures instead of cleaning up the messes after the fact. I’ll take special cases, and I consult every now and then. They say I have a special eye for it.”
“I suspect you do.”
“What about you, Dean?” She looked back to him, through the steam on her cup. It was the transitional time in Massachusetts when the summer shifted to autumn, and the chill nipped at her ears. “Where have you been the last ten years?” She wasn’t meaning to sound so accusatory, but that’s how it came out - pointed and full of resentment.
Silence settled between them, heavy and pressured. He cleared his throat and placed his mug down. “After everything that happened I was approached to be a part of a tactical team with the military. I didn’t feel I could decline.” Her eyebrow shot up in surprise. “I joined the Marines. I’d always thought about it after high school, it’s what my father did… and after everything that happened... I needed a change.” She watched his fast twist in itself, his lips curl and his eyes drop back to his coffee. He felt guilty for being messed up. She wanted to reach out to him and take his hand in hers to comfort him for that.
“You still answered my call… on the line that you gave me that long ago. Your work line.”
“I never got rid of it.” His eyes flickered up as he gazed at her through long dark eyelashes.
“Why?”
He chuckled low and shook his head. “It sounds insane.”
“I’ve lived insane. Try me.”
“I worried that this would happen… that someday you’d call. Every time I went to cancel it, every year that went by, I just sat in my car in the parking lot and never went in to do it. Couldn’t risk it.”
“This was your case… the one that changed you.”
He grunted, leaning back in his chair. “You sound like you’re saying from experience.”
“Well, it changed me too,” she said with a mischievous grin. His thick eyebrows shot up in surprise. She unsettled people frequently, especially when they knew her past.
“Of course.”
“Are you still in the marines?”
“Once you become one, you’re always a jarhead.” He grinned at her, a dimple pressing into his cheek. “But no, I’ve been out for two years. I got pulled back into the Bureau. They wanted me, begged me to do it.” He sighed.
“You don’t want it?”
Dean’s eyes locked with hers. “It’s been a lot of paper work. Never much wanted a desk job.”
“You’re not at a desk now, agent,” she challenged.
He grinned at her. “When a beautiful woman calls me I’m duty bound to come to her.”
She smiled and peeled her eyes from his. The banter was flirty, light, but it was a Band-Aid taped over a wound that was too close to bursting. “I’m glad you answered,” Y/N said quietly, Castiel nudging her leg with his nose. “It was instinct to call you the second I saw the painting.”
A jolt ran through her as he took her hand in his. He squeezed it gently, cradling it with care. “Y/N…”
She pulled her hand out of his and wrapped it around her mug instead, sipping her coffee. “I can’t.”
“Of course.” He nodded with an understanding that felt unfair, unwarranted.
“Do you think it’s him?” She asked, almost blurting out the question that was sitting on her tongue from the moment she saw Dean again.
Dean sighed heavily and clasped his hands together. “I don’t see how it can be. He’s been in jail for a decade, Y/N.”
“Are you sure?” Her eyes stung as fear pressed insistently against her chest preventing her from taking a full, deep breath. She didn’t think it was possible to live this way anymore, she didn’t think she had to. It was like for the first time she’d thought she could breathe easily again, just to get the breath knocked out of her in one swift kick to her stomach.
“As sure as I can be, but not sure enough to not check into it. Never sure enough to not check into it.” He leaned forward, his green eyes intense. “I’ll figure this out. I can promise you that.”
“I don’t know who else would do this.”
“Has he contacted you?”
“Not in years. He gave up eventually when I wouldn’t take his calls or write him back.”
“He wrote to you?”
“Every day for the first year. He’d send me drawings…” She tightened her grip on her mug, her knuckles whitening as a chill seemed to crawl up her spine. “I stopped opening them after the first week.”
“Do you still have them?” Dean asked slowly, carefully.
Y/N was familiar with people walking on eggshells around her. It was no real surprise that Dean would do the same. He was cautious, calculated, a professional. She wetted her bottom lip with her tongue, a nervous habit to keep her from picking at the dry skin. He made her nervous. The situation made her skin itch beneath her clothes, heat rising up the back of her neck. “Yes. They’re locked in a drawer. I’ve thought about burning them a thousand times but I just…”
“Can’t bring yourself to?”
She nodded. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m punishing myself for not realizing. Or maybe it’s a reminder to never let it happen again.”
“I’d like to see them.”
She sat up a little straighter in her seat, her jaw tightening in an expression that she was sure resembled a grimace. “They’re personal.”
“I suspect they are.”
“What do you think you’ll learn from them?”
“I don’t know, which is why I need to examine them. I need you to trust me…”
“I trust you, Dean. I think you should know that by now.”
10 years ago
“It’s inappropriate, Agent Winchester! I gave you orders to wait. She needed to be evaluated, but you went in anyway and now… ” Captain McLeod was pissed, to put it mildly. Her nostrils flared and her eyebrows furrowed as she looked up at him. For such a small woman she was terrifying, and in any other circumstance he would’ve rolled over and played dead like she obviously wanted him to. But this wasn’t any circumstance.
“She's imprinted. I know that’s what the psychologist said. She trusts me. Only me.”
“You can't be her connection, Dean.”
“I have to be. We can’t take another thing from her. I can’t abandon her after everything she’s been through.”
“You aren’t trained in psychology,” she hissed.
“I’m taking pointers from the hospital psychologist. I‘ll take her lead. I’ll tread lightly. Come on, Rowena. This is the right thing and you know it.”
“She’s having a mental break,” his captain said, her voice low. She grasped his shoulder. “I don’t want you to get too attached to someone so unstable.”
He nodded, trying to keep his expression neutral, because if he was honest with himself he would have to admit that he was already attached. How could he not be? “I’ve got this. You can go, I’ll report on what I find.”
She looked at Dean suspiciously, but finally nodded with a sigh. She had no choice but to trust him, and that fact was to his advantage. He watched her leave, before quickly entering Y/N’s hospital room again.
The hospital room was bright, the blinds raised and the light bleeding in. She looked absolutely exhausted, deep purple half moons rested under her eyes. Her hair was freshly brushed, pushed behind her ears, and down. The monitors beep steadily, showing her heartbeat, blood pressure and a dozen other numbers that he couldn’t begin to decipher. The top of the bed was raised allowing her to sit up a bit, and her bandaged arms rested on her lap.
“Dean,” Y/N said breathlessly as her tired green eyes caught his. He could tell even from where he stood in the doorway that her eyes were more grey than green from her exhaustion.
“Hey, Sweetheart.”
“I thought you left.”
“I told you I wouldn’t.”
Her eyes flickered down to her hands where she picked at her nails. “I know you did.”
“I won’t leave you. You can trust me,” he promised, walking to her. He sat in the chair next to her and pulled it close to her bed. She looked so small and fragile in that bed. Seeing photographs of her before the incident was jarring, she looked like a completely different person.
“Okay,” Y/N said, her voice weak. She nodded and sucked in her breath.
“You can talk to me if you need to.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. Don’t feel pressured to talk.”
“You’re sending mixed signals, Agent.” She smiled then, it was weak but the spark in her eye wasn’t something he could ignore.
“Yeah, most of my dates say that.”
“Is this a date?” Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“What? No - of course not. I…”
It sounded better than he could’ve ever imagined, and fuck, he hadn’t expected it to come as soon as it did. She was laughing. “Relax, Agent.” She exhaled, trying to catch her breath. “I was kidding.”
“Sure, of course you were.” His back relaxed again. He felt tightly wound, stressed. He hadn’t been able to truly relax over the last twenty-four hours. Pressure was higher than ever and things hadn’t gotten much better. No one was convinced it was over, himself included. He would have to get some information out of Y/N eventually, but he wanted to tread lightly after all she had been through. Kindness was the least that she deserved.
“It’s over, Dean.” She looked like she was reassuring him. “Right?” Her eyes met him with fear and intensity behind the brave face she was putting up.
“I don’t want to upset you,” he said carefully.
“I’m already upset. Just spit it out already. You look like you’ve sat on a thumbtack.”
Dean wanted to laugh at her image of him, but there wasn’t much to laugh about. He hated this part of his job. Y/N had been smiling a moment before, she felt safe and that wasn’t something that should be squandered or minimalized. It was a big thing. After he told her what he had to say, she wouldn’t feel safe. Not really. “We think there may be more.” ------ Chapter Three Read on A03 Here Tag List:
@lyarr24
@dean-winchesters-bacon
@waywardbaby
@akshi8278
@sexyvixen7
@deanwanddamons
@siospins
@beanie-beebo
42 notes · View notes
moshymosh · 4 years ago
Text
Remember Me- Something’s happening
Tumblr media
When the love of your life suffers from a disease that affects their memory of their life with you, what do you do? Will you spend your last days with them, trying to get them to remember you? The life you had, or would you give up and let them forget you?
Summary- Dr. Spencer Reid felt his whole life change when Agent Y/n L/n joined the BAU. She came in like a cool summer breeze changing everything Spencer knew about love and his capacity to care for someone so much. Y/n came to the BAU with a tragic past, her only goal was to save lives and make the world a safer place for everyone. She meets a skinny shaggy haired doctor, which causes her whole life to change, much like Spencer, will she fall in love or will her tragic past or even her job prevent her?
Pairings- Dr. Spencer Reid x f!reader
A/N- This is a notebook inspired story, this story will be told and wrote like a chapter book. So some of the endings will not always make sense. Also I don't claim go own Criminal Minds or the Notebook, this is solely for entertainment purposes and for enjoyment. Some of the lines are from the notebook movie, again I don't claim to own either fandom/tv show/ movie. I try to make Y/n as vague as possible so shes more inclusive so if there is any descriptive things that don’t apply to you feel free to ignore them. Also just putting this out there as the story progresses Maeve is still alive and well, she is a good friend of Spencer and Y/n’s. There will be graphic content and sexual scenes in later chapters, warnings will be added as they go. Also if you want to be tagged send me an as or comment here, also send requests I'm down for making little fics.
PS- Please don't post my fics anywhere without my documented consent, thanks -Karma (MoshyMosh)
Warnings!- This chapter with have some sexual content, talk of sexual assault, and descriptions of kidnapping. If these bother you please don't read this chapter!
A/N 2.0- I am like half asleep, I will double check the spelling and any issues when I was up
Tumblr media
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Masterlist
Y/N laughed from her couch as she tossed some popcorn at Spencer, who sat on the other end of her couch.
"Y/N!" Spencer scolded as he looked over at her, with a smile, when he saw that she was pretending to be interested in the movie they were watching.
Y/N tried to hide her smirk, before she erupted in giggles as she looked back at him, tossing some more popcorn at him. Spencer groaned as he tried to swat away the onslaught of popcorn before he started laughing along with her. Soon Y/N had wiggled her way over to Spencer as she continued to rain popcorn at him before she straddled his hips. Y/N smiled down at him as she lifted the bowl of remaining popcorn above his head then tipped it, dumping the rest of the popcorn.
"Y/N!" Spencer laughed, as he reached up to grab the bowl from her hands. She chuckled and dropped the bowl behind the couch, her arms dropped so that they were draped over his shoulders. Spencer's hands dropped to rest on her hips, and let out a sigh of contentment when her fingers brushed against some of the hair at the base of his neck as she looked down at his face.
Spencer licked his lips as he nervously fiddled with her oversized sweater, his eyes looking between her eyes and her lips. "Screw it." He said quietly before he crashed his lips to hers. Y/N let out a soft gasp against his lips before she eagerly kissed him back, threading her fingers into his hair.
Spencer's hands slid under her sweater, his fingertips brushing against the band of her shorts she wore. Y/N pulled away from the kiss to pull off her sweater, leaving her top half bare. Spencer let out a breath and looked up from her chest, his hands coming up to card through her hair. He pulled her head down to crush his lips against hers again, his hips grinding up against hers slightly. The movie they had turned on, now forgotten behind her.
As they continued to kiss, Y/N let out a groan and pulled away from him as she heard her phone ringing on the coffee table. She slid off Spencer's lap and stood, reaching for her phone. Spencer bit his lip, as his eyes raked over her topless figure, as she bent to pick up the ringing device.
"Penny, you need to have a really good reason for calling on our week off." Y/N said when she answered the phone. "We have a case don't we?" She looked at Spencer as she reached for her sweater when he handed it to her. Spencer watched her slide it on and chuckled softly when he heard her next words. "No need to call him, he's right in front of me." She smiled at him, with a wink.
Spencer smiled back and stood from the couch to gather his things after he pressed a kiss to Y/N's forehead. "Was that a kiss I heard?!" He heard from Penelope's end of the call, causing him to chuckle again.
"Goodbye, Penelope." Y/N said before she hung up. "I'll get dressed then we can go to the office."
Spencer and Y/N rode to Quantico in a tension-filled silence after what happened before they were interrupted. Spencer looked over at Y/N as he replayed the kiss over and over again. He was pulled away from his thoughts as she pulled into her assigned parking spot in the lot. The pair got out and started walking to the elevator in the parking garage.
Y/N fiddled with one of the buttons on her blazer as they rode the elevator in silence. Spencer leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple with a smile, pulling away when the doors started opening on their floor. Y/N smiled softly and stepped out with Spencer, once they were inside the bullpen, she went over to her desk to drop off her bag.
"Miss Y/N..." Penelope sing-songed as she walked over to her, dragging Derek along with her. "You have some 'splanin' to do." She said in the 'I love Lucy' voice.
"I do not." Y/N said feigning innocence. "Also we have a case so now's not the time." She said as she began to walk upstairs to the meeting room, taking her seat next to Spencer.
Soon, everyone arrived and sat down around the table pulling their files to him, opening them up to look at their contents. "Ok guys. We're not traveling very far for this case. It's in our own backyard." Hotch said as he began clicking through some of the photos on the TV screen. Y/N listened to him in the background as she started looking through the pictures for the victimology.
"Every one of the women are Y/H/C and Y/E/C eyed, the only thing different is height and weights. Some of them were found to have Y/E/C contacts and a crude dye job if they did not have the correct look to the unsub. These things were noted in the autopsies." Y/N said as she looked up at the screen as pictures of the victims came up.
"There was some DNA recovered from the sexual assaults and under the fingernails of the first victim, there were no matches in CODAS." Derek said, reading the information from his file.
"DC capitol police think the first victim is Leah Ainsworth, 24, a tourist in DC on vacation." Hotch said. "The period of which the victims were reported missing and then to when they were found is 3-5 days."
Y/N nodded her head. " The extreme amount of wounds seems like overkill. 10 of the wounds on Leah were done postmortem. A lot of rage behind these attacks." She said as she closed her file and looked around at the rest of the team to gauge their reactions.
"There's something else..." Derek said. "Every victim was found with a note that said 'For F/I M/I L/I'."
"Could it be an activist group?" Spencer asked, sitting up in his seat.
"Could be initials." Hotch said rubbing his chin in thought. "Garcia see if those are a match for anything like that."
"Got it." Penelope said, writing down a note for herself.
"Reid, Morgan, go to the latest crime scene. Y/L/N and Prentiss go to where this latest victim was abducted and see if you can get anything from there. JJ your with me, setting up the evidence boards." Hotch directed.
"Let's do this." Emily said, getting up from her seat.
The team spent the day finding out new evidence and new possibilities. As they were about to go home for the night they sat in the meeting room going over the things they found out.
"Emily and I found out our latest victim was supposed to meet someone, like a date." Y/N said as she fiddled with her pen. "But the person never showed."
Emily nodded her head. "Customer parking is down an alley behind the building, the unsub could've blitz attacked and drugged the girls."
"Garcia, anything on the search?" Hotch asked, turning towards the woman in question.
"All I got were two activist groups and millions of names." She said, rubbing at her forehead.
"Alright. Guys go home, we'll come back tomorrow and look at this with fresh eyes." Hotch said before everyone got up and went to their desks to gather their things. Y/N smiled at Spencer as she held up her keys.
"Give you a ride home." She said before she mimicked Derek's voice. "Pretty boy."
Spencer chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. "Yes, I'll take your offer, but don't ever do that again." He joked as he walked over to her.
Y/N drove Spencer home, dropping him off at his apartment building with a kiss. Soon she arrived home, parked in her normal spot, and gather things before she let herself into the courtyard with her keycard. She looked through her keyring for her house key as she walked up to her door.
She stopped what she was doing with a smile, as she spotted a glass vase full of yellow red-tipped roses sitting in front of her door. She chuckled as she fished out her phone out and dialed Spencer's number as she reached to pull the notecard out with the hand holding her keyring, as she began reading it. She let out a squeal as she felt something press against her nose and mouth. She dropped everything she was holding to fight off her attacker.
"Y/N? Y/N?!" Spencer called over the phone hearing the struggle.
"I finally found you." Y/N heard in her ear as she felt her body go limp in her attacker's arms, succumbing to the drug. Her attacker lifted her body into his arms.
"Jason..." Y/N slurred out in the direction of her phone as her attacker pulled her badge and gun off her person. "Jason Dean... Spencie..." Y/N slurred again before she passed out.
"No one is going to save you, babe. I've got you now."  her attacker said as he stepped on her phone in his walk to his vehicle.
Spencer took a shaky breath and called Hotch after the line when dead. "Hotch, Something has happened to Y/N.
36 notes · View notes
curiousconch · 4 years ago
Text
Escape
Chapter 8 of Ricochet (An Open Heart AU)
Catch up here: Series Masterlist
Chapter Synopsis: Heather attempts to escape her captors. But will she succeed?
Pairing: Rafael Aveiro x MC (Dr. Heather Song) | Bryce Lahela x MC (Dr. Heather Song)
Words: 1.5k+ | Genre: Crime, Suspense/Thriller, Romance
Rating/Warnings: Mature (16+) / violence, language
Author's Notes: This chapter took me too long to complete, since I hit a creative block. Grateful for @eleanorbloom for giving me tips to overcome it (thank you! 🥰🥰🥰)
Thank you so much for taking time to read/comment/reblog this series. Please let me know if you want me to include/remove you in the tags list. Also, disclaimer: Majority of the characters are owned by Pixelberry, except the main character Heather Song and an OC Jordan Anderson.
Tumblr media
Heather held her tears at bay. Frankly, all she wanted was to let herself go.
But she can't. She didn't want to give her captors the satisfaction of seeing her break. When Declan Nash removed her blindfold, he thought it was enough to pulverize her will. Heather was determined to prove him wrong.
"I'll pick up the second dose. Start on getting rid of the pretty doctor first," she heard Nash say to the other man, right before he left.
She watched closely as another man approached her, his features slowly revealed by the dim light surrounding them. The hair at the back of her neck stood up when she recognized the face of her kidnapper.
Jordan Peter Anderson, the Edenbrook janitor. Pete, as he was mainly known.
Suddenly, it all made sense. That's how he had access to her things, how he can easily know her home address, her schedule, all details of her life without suspicion. He was just another face in the sea of people that came in and out of the hospital. A fairly common and trusted face, at that.
She just wondered how Declan was connected to him. She wanted so much to find out. But now, she had to focus on preventing herself from whimpering as Pete violently dragged her to sit on a chair. He tugged her wrists free before slamming them on a metal table. She instantly winced with the impact.
That was when she saw the back of her hand, where an IV cannula was attached to an exposed vein.
What the hell was he planning?
She found the answer sooner than she thought.
She followed his movement with her eyes as he picked up a syringe from a nearby table. It was filled with a clear liquid.
"I take it you're familiar with potassium chloride, Dr. Song?" The janitor sneered as she gazed in terror at what he was holding.
She knew. Potassium chloride overdose can cause cardiac arrest when administered via IV, and in overdose, was fatal. Her mind raced with comprehension.
He's out to kill. He's not going to spare me. This isn't just a game. Her mouth went dry, refusing to accept the possibility that she may not live another day.
Her hazel eyes can only stare at the man who was about to murder her. For a moment, she was filled with helplessness, the tiny semblance of hope in her quickly dwindling out.
No! I'll overcome this. This won't be the end of me. She willed herself to think. Heather Song is one hell of a woman and she won't come down without a fight.
When he was just a single step away from her, inspiration struck.
As he reached for her, she leaned her head back, waiting for the perfect timing. Once he was near enough, she braced for impact and gave him a headbutt. He fell down to the ground, howling in pain. Heather took the opportunity to flee, liberating herself from the chair.
As she tried to take off, a struggle ensued. She was instantly dragged backwards, the force nearly knocking her out. She felt a sharp prick on her neck before she turned and kicked the man on the groin.
He wailed. Heather didn't wait for him to recover and ran for her life, fear and desperation egging her on. Her bare feet heavily hit upon the concrete floor, as she removed the gag from her mouth.
"HELP! Someone, please help me!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, sprinting. Her bruised arms pushed back against the plastic tarps and navigated the narrow corridor blindly.
Soon, she saw an open threshold nearby. She decided to aim for it. When she was almost there, someone grabbed her from behind, making her scream. She strained to break free from the hold, only to be pulled back again.
"Heather," a voice urged. "Heather, it's me!"
She recognized the speaker, making her stop in her tracks. She turned around and looked back into the dark brown eyes of the man in front of her.
Rafael.
At the sight of him, an overwhelming sense of relief flooded her being. She leaned onto him, feeling his strong presence encapsulate her in a tight embrace.
As the panicked adrenaline to fight for her life slowly dissipated, a rush of tears stained Heather's cheeks like an overflowing dam. So she clung to him, convincing herself that she wasn't imagining him and that her whole ordeal has ended.
"It's okay, love. I'm here, you're safe." Raf whispered, his lips kissing the crown of her head.
But she wasn't.
She felt her knees begin to buckle, her whole body shook. There was a sharp pain in her chest, while her vision of Rafael slowly blurred.
The last thing she could remember was the gentleness of his touch, before her world whirled and faded into darkness.
***
He can only watch the helicopter that airlifted Heather to Edenbrook Hospital. When she was found, a syringe was stuck on her neck, and the paramedics suspected a type of poisoning. Her sudden collapse and the  unknown nature of what caused made the situation urgent, so the response team decided it was best course to fly. 
Even though he yearned to accompany her as she fought for her life, he was hastily denied that right. Rafael seized that away from him, taking it upon himself to stay with her instead.
He wanted to be the first person she sees when she wakes up, to hold her hand, to assure her that she will never have to face horrors like this anymore. But fate wasn't on his side this time. It never was. 
So Bryce chose action. He first called in ahead to give Dr. Ramsey the few details they have on hand. He couldn't bring himself to follow her to the hospital. His mind dictated that he wasn't useful there. Instead, he made himself useful somewhere else. 
And there he was, standing in the middle of the crime scene as he hang up his phone. 
Here is where I can help Heather, he thought. I have to find what was in that syringe. It might be her only hope. 
His tired eyes scanned the floor, trying to pick up any detail that may be valuable. He walked around looking down, flashlight in hand, determined to find just about any kind of clue. 
He winced when he saw blood. Heather's. His chest tightened, anger rising within him. That fucking sicko, I swear I'm gonna give him hell. 
Bryce continued prodding around until he heard a soft jingling noise, making him stop. It felt like he just kicked something. He knelt down and found a torn plastic case and a clear glass bottle. He put on his rubber gloves and picked it up, reading the label. Realizing what it was, he quickly dialed Sienna's number and waited for her to pick up. 
"Bryce?" he heard a familiar voice on the line, but it wasn't Dr. Trinh. 
"Jackie?" he felt an immediate pang of worry, hearing the frantic exchange of voices in the background. But he quickly shook the feeling away. He had to focus.
"I found something that might help Heather. There's a bottle of potassium chloride where she was taken, it's empty. I think that's what the suspect injected Heather with."
"Gimme a second," Jackie said. Bryce waited as he listened to Dr. Varma ask for Heather's blood workup from a nurse. "Her potassium levels are elevated, and she's in cardiac arrest. This makes sense, Lahela." 
"She's in cardiac arrest?" A lump in his throat formed, his grip almost slipping from the bottle he was holding. 
"Yes. But we're trying to get her out of it. Your intel's gonna help us figure the rest out," Jackie said, and he sensed her hesitation before he heard her next words. "She'll pull through. So quit yapping and get your ass over here."
The line went dead. 
It took him five minutes to scale down the building, get into his car and hit the road.
***
The environment in the ER was charged by the frantic beeping of the machine, signalling Heather's ongoing cardiac arrest. 
"We've got suspected hyperkalemia," Jackie sprinted to the doctors surrounding Heather's limp body as she got off the phone. 
"Of course," Dr. Ramsey nodded, as he referred to the latest lab results. "A potassium chloride overdose would've caused her coronary infarction. It may have also caused her temporal paralysis, making her lose consciousness. Do we have her weight?" 
"Yes, Dr. Ramsey," Sienna dictated Heather's latest weight to the senior attending, allowing for him to compute for the correct dosage for the prescription. 
"Calcium bicarbonate for the IV, Kaley please," the male doctor handed a piece of paper where he scribbled the dosage needed. 
"Don't we need to do haemodialysis?" Jackie stood beside him, as she prepared a tourniquet and tried to find a vein where the saline solution can be injected. 
"No, we aren't too late, the potassium haven't bound to the cells yet. Watch out for other symptoms though," Like a well-oiled machine, Heather's mentor gave instructions rapidly, taking the lead role in her treatment. 
The nurse went back with the prescription and Jackie setup the insertion. As the liquid began to flow, they waited and watched the heart rate monitor overhead. 
It took a few seconds before the beeping slowed down into a steady rhythm. There was a collective sigh of relief.
Heather Song just narrowly escaped death. 
Tags: @eleanorbloom @ramsey-lahela @choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics
9 notes · View notes
laurelnose · 4 years ago
Note
Im going to need u to explain to me what u said in the tags of the modding post in Simpleton words cause I'm. A fucking idiot when it comes to computer shit and the arm wrestling in TW2 is genuinely the most stressful thing ive ever had to endure in a video game
Also i forgot to mention this in my last ask abt being an idiot— i love u! You're rly cool. That's all ^`^
aw! ilu too anon. 
ok first of all: if the arm wrestling is the only thing about w2 that you want to fix you don’t have to fuck about with any of the unpacking nonsense! you do have to be playing on PC. I’m using this mod to always win dice poker/arm wrestling. steps as follow:
download whichever version you want (always win only arm wrestling, always win only dice poker, always win both). the file is a zip folder and you can put it wherever you want. 
extract the contents of the zip, also to wherever you want. inside is a README.txt and a file called base_scripts.dzip. you can ignore the readme, it’s just the description of the mod from the nexus site in a text file.
find your witcher 2 folder. if you’re playing on Steam, you’re looking for something like C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\the witcher 2\CookedPC. if you’re not sure, here’s how to view your Steam installation path. if you’re on GOG it’s usually C:\GOG Games\The Witcher 2\CookedPC. if not, you can find the installation path in the GOG launcher by clicking Witcher 2, then the settings button to the right of the center top bar, then “Manage Installation > Show folder”.
there should be a base_scripts.dzip already in the CookedPC folder—copy it somewhere else for backup or rename it to something like base_scripts_original.dzip
go back to your downloaded mod folder and drag and drop the mod’s base_scripts.dzip into the Witcher 2 CookedPC folder. if it asks if you want to replace the existing base_scripts.dzip say yes (but make sure to have backed up or renamed the original first!)
ta-da! load up W2 and go dunk on some arm wrestlers.
if you want to fix a BUNCH of things about W2 it’s a little harder. 
base_scripts.dzip is basically a special kind of zip folder with a bunch of smaller script files zipped into it. so for instance, the arm wrestling mod changes only the minigame scripts, while Conversation Skills Always Succeed changes only the scene_function script. technically, those don’t conflict, except the changed files have been packed up into two different base_scripts.dzip, and you can only have one base_scripts.dzip.
some mods don’t mess with base_scripts.dzip at all. True Encumbrance Remover (sets all item weights to 0 because inventory management sucks) is another one you can just drag and drop right into CookedPC, not even any file replacement required. the way to check if you’re going to need to do some fuckery for nexus mods is on the Files tab; click “Preview file contents” and if you see a base_script.dzip in there, it’ll require some fiddling if you want to use it with other base_script.dzip mods. how to do the fiddling: 
you will need:
Gibbed RED Tools
probably a copy of W2 on GOG because Steam’s a little bitch about DRM. if you have it on Steam you can redeem a free GOG copy of W2 here using the CD key you find in the Steam launcher here: 
Tumblr media
you can try doing this modding process with Steam files, but it’s entirely possible that it’ll throw errors for you talking about file access, and if so... switch to GOG and install Witcher 2 again. i know it’s a pain to have multiple launchers but if you’re willing to fuck around this much with mods it’s not THAT much of a pain. 
ok! step 1: getting into base_scripts.dzip with Gibbed RED tools
download Gibbed RED Tools and extract the contents. you can put the resulting unzipped folder wherever you like, just make sure you know where. 
open up the windows command prompt—open the start menu, type in “cmd”, right click the program that comes up, and hit “run as administrator”. SCARY BLACK PROGRAMMING BOX. it’s ok all we have to do is type some stuff in! hit enter after every command and be sure to include all the spaces and quotation marks.
hit enter! ok now we’re inside the Gibbed RED Tools folder. we want to tell it where the original base_scripts.dzip is, and what folder it should unpack that file into. create a new folder somewhere for the unpacked files to live and then type in the next command!
first command moves us from the default folder into the folder that contains our Gibbed RED tools. the command structure is: 
cd "path to Gibbed RED tools"
so for instance:
cd "C:\Users\laurelnose\Downloads\Gibbed RED Tools"
it should unfurl a whole long list of file names! you can navigate to the folder you told it to unpack to and see all of the little script files that make up base_scripts.dzip. now we’re cooking.
the command structure is:
Gibbed.RED.Unpack.exe "location of base_scripts.dzip" "place to unzip file to"
so for example:
Gibbed.RED.Unpack.exe "C:\GOG Games\The Witcher 2\CookedPC\base_scripts.dzip" "C:\Users\laurelnose\UnpackedBaseScript"
go back to nexus mods and pick out all the base_scripts.dzip mods you want. say, Conversation Skills and Dice Poker/Arm Wrestling. or even more than that, as many as you want! repeat these steps for EACH MOD INDIVIDUALLY:
find out which files they modified. Conversation Skills is nice because they say right in their description that they modified  game\scenes\scene_functions.ws . other modders, it’s a little tougher; Poker/Wrestling doesn’t say, so i had to poke around in the “posts” tab until i found a user saying that it modified game\minigames\dicepoker.ws and game\minigames\wristwrestling.ws 
download the mod, and extract the contents into a folder. create a new folder wherever you’d like—name it whatever, but you’re going to be making one for each mod so to keep them straight something like ModNameUnpacked might be best.
go back to command line. if you closed it before, repeat the cd command to get back into the Gibbed RED Tools folder, otherwise you can just use the unpacking command again to unzip the mod’s base_scripts.dzip into your ModNameUnpacked folder. 
open up the unpacked folder and navigate through the folder structure until you find the file they said they modified. so for Conversation Skills, find scene_functions.ws in the game\scenes folder.
for instance:
Gibbed.RED.Unpack.exe "C:\Users\laurelnose\Downloads\ConversationMod\base_scripts.dzip" "C:\Users\laurelnose\Downloads\ConversationModUnpacked"
pull up your unzipped original base_scripts.dzip from the previous section. move the modified file from the mod folder into the same place in the original base_scripts.dzip folder. so scene_functions.ws goes in game\scenes in your original base_scripts.dzip folder. let it replace/overwrite the original scene_functions.ws. 
repeat this for each mod individually. if you’re doing a lot of mods you’re going to end up with a lot of folders! we can delete them later. if by some unfortunate chance you want two mods that modify the same .ws file you’d have to actually figure out which lines each one modified and rewrite your original .ws file to include both, so... idk don’t get yourself into this situation lmao
ok, now that you’ve pulled out the modified scripts from each mod you wanted and put them into your unpacked original base_scripts folder, it is time to pack that sucker up into a regular .dzip again!
back into command line. again if you closed it before, use the cd command to get back to your Gibbed RED Tools folder, otherwise the new command we’re using is:
Gibbed.RED.Pack.exe "location to put the packed folder\base_scripts.dzip" "location of files to pack up"
this time it won’t put out a whole list of files, because it didn’t pull out any files, it packed them up all neatly. check the location you told it to put base_scripts.dzip and if it’s there you’re golden!
so for example:
Gibbed.RED.Pack.exe "C:\Users\laurelnose\base_scripts.dzip" "C:\Users\laurelnose\UnpackedBaseScript"
pull up your Witcher 2 CookedPC folder—if you haven’t already backed up or renamed your original base_scripts.dzip, do that—and move your newly-created base_scripts.dzip full of all your lovely mods into the CookedPC folder!
you can now delete all of the ModNameUnpacked folders you created. if you need to start over, just delete the modded base_scripts.dzip and either move your backup into the CookedPC folder or change the name of the original back to base_scripts.dzip and that should undo all of your changes. worst case scenario you have to uninstall and reinstall, but that shouldn’t happen if you backed up your base_scripts.dzip!
6 notes · View notes
makiema · 5 years ago
Text
SnK 118 and Armin's role in the future
I know I'm a lot late in addressing this but when the chapter first released I had my exams and didn't really have a lot of time in hand to write a meta. Anyway, now that I'm free, I'd like to spitball some ideas about this particular panel which raised a lot of questions in the fandom.
Tumblr media
What was the significance of Isayama including this moment from Chapter 90 and what exactly was he foreshadowing? Well here's my stance on this :
• Events of Chapter 90 : Let's revisit Chapter 90 and take a look at Armin and Eren's reactions and their eventual interaction when they reach the ocean.
•Armin :
Tumblr media
Contrasted to everyone else just having fun, we find Armin staring hard at something. When he sets foot in the water, he is shown looking at something intently - a conch shell. Now, it may as well be coincidence and I'm just being pedantic but, the conch shell is symbolic of other things. The conch shell stands for control, harmony and overall coordination among living things in Hinduism and Buddhism. Apparently, deities holding the conch or being sculpted in a manner that emphasizes the concentric rings found in a conch, symbolize their hold on civilization which maintains stability and peace. Thus, a conch stands for order and implies proper functioning of civilization.
Armin is a character well known for being rational, logical and most importantly for being the one who is always looking for a truce. He wants to "talk", he is more than capable of making the most inhumane decisions but he's always wanting to "talk" things out first. He's the one always seeking a diplomatic solution. Him coming across the conch doesn't seem to be a mere coincidence. Also, not to forget that Armin is the narrator of the show. It is possible that he will be the one to restore order in the chaotic world of SnK once again. He may be one of the key figures in ending the war, working for peace and order in it's aftermath and then he narrates the story to the future generation.
Anyway, going back to Armin and the conch, we see the scene getting plenty attention even in the anime. They cut out Hanji holding a slime but they assigned a lot of time to Armin holding the conch. It may after all have more significance than is visible on the surface.
• Eren : When Eren reaches the ocean, we see him depressed unlike the others. The whole mood is melancholy because of Eren's overruling depression. He has just seen his father's memories, the cruelty of the world has been shoved into his brain and the disturbing images keep resurfacing. We see that happening when he attempts to cheer up Armin. Eren cannot be happy again, he cannot be freed from those memories unless he does away with the cruelty- that much is clear to him. That's why we see him saying - " If we kill them all, does that mean we'll be free?"
Tumblr media
The ocean,or preferably sea, is more than often used in literature to epitomise hardships in life and the unfathomable human emotions that make it so complex. Here, the sea represents chaos, uneasiness and sadness for Eren. The people who think of him and his race as enemies reside on the other side of these unfathomable waters. Eren is at a loss and he fails to fathom their barbaric ways. There's no understanding between him and his foes (there cannot be any). He sees them as an impediment to freedom and feels impelled to kill them.
• Eren and Armin : We see how Eren and Armin find it rather hard to communicate. Or better put, they're not thinking along the same lines. It is not really possible as Armin has no clue about the cumulative weight that has fallen on Eren. He cannot grasp the strain of it all. There's clear lack of any meaningful interaction between the two of them. Eren is not interested in sharing Armin's enthusiasm upon seeing the ocean of his dreams. His voice is awfully impassive. What particularly catches my attention is how Armin is holding onto the conch shell and calling out to Eren to look at it but he remains unbothered. He just points at the horizon and talks about the enemy. Their thoughts are totally different and there is little to no connection.
Tumblr media
If the conch shell is indeed representing order, then we can say that Armin wants Eren to take a look at it but, Eren is thinking differently. He knows there cannot be any order as long as the world isn't even willing to see Eldians as humans. Eren has seen what happened to Faye because of Grisha's immaturity.
Tumblr media
The price that Grisha had to pay for freedom was this- the horrifying death of Faye. The world is cruel. It isn't willing to give room for deliberation. For now, Eren needs to eliminate his enemies to move forward. That much is clear and we see that happening with the Attack on Liberio. Eren had to wage war because he had to protect his friends. He knew very well that if the whole world went ahead with the idea of eliminating Paradis, there wouldn't even be an opportunity to propose a truce. It would be over. Eren had to be an agent of chaos out of necessity. That's why in Chapter 90 we see him indifferent towards Armin as well as the conch Armin is asking him to take a look at.
• Back to 118 : There's similar lack of communication between Eren and his friends. He has done his absolute best in trying to cut them off. But, given how dire the situation is his friends must proceed to aid him. Armin, when trying to make sense of Eren's behaviour, recalls Eren's words and says "No way".
Tumblr media
Most of us interpret that as Armin's realization that Eren is actually going to trample on the whole world and therefore, he doesn't want his friends to have any part in it. But, that's not gonna prevail. Eren is not about to abruptly wreck the whole world with his Rumbling. In the long run, it'll just make the world even more apprehensive of Eldians and they'll continue to be discriminated against. Nobody knows better than Eren that one cannot rule with fear and oppression. Also, he is the one who absolutely detests the idea of toying with human life as normalcy, no matter the situation. It's clear in this panel.
Tumblr media
It is unlike Eren to cause destruction just to show superiority of a race; it violates his basic nature. Eren did account for civilian casualties in Liberio but that was inadvertent. If he hadn't intervened there, the whole of Paradis would have been wiped off because they were simply not ready to defend themselves. He had to buy time, he had to act before it was too late.
However, things are different now with Armin coming back into action. The miscommunication between him and Eren that has been an issue will be resolved by Armin. Maybe that's why he's holding the conch, which stands for order and harmony. Isayama's purpose in including the panel could be more than just highlighting Eren's words rather, it throws light on Armin as it is essentially him reviewing his past. He doesn't know what happened to Eren at Marley- how he became empathetic toward his sworn enemies- but he does know that Eren will not hesitate to kill them if they stand in his way of being free. However, Armin is not about to let the world plunge into outright chaos with the rumbling. To make a show that Eldians can actually flatten the whole world will make things worse than ever. He will come up with a better solution, a solution that won't put the future of Eldians at stake AGAIN. He must be the one to bridge the gap between Eldians and the world using his diplomatic skills. Armin is the only one capable of bringing an armistice. He still has a card to play.
Also, it's highly likely that the devil is the ultimate villain and Armin will have to come up with a plan to defeat him in the end. Of course, Eren has to be the ace of Armin's plan. That has always been and that's probably the reason why Isayama shows Armin thinking of Eren. Armin still has a greater role to perform and that will most probably be him advising Eren in his battle against the devil. The devil or in that case whoever is pulling the strings seems way too crafty for Eren to deal with on his own. So, Eren will definitely have to depend on Armin to come up with a fool proof strategy in the final battle to save humanity. This could have been foreshadowed as early as in the serum bowl where Eren tries to convince Levi by citing all of Armin's achievements. He implores that it's not Erwin or him but, Armin who's going to save the world.
Tumblr media
Was he just bluffing to save his friend's life or did these words carry a subtle foreboding of the future? Let me also stress on Floch referring to Erwin as the devil out of nowhere in the same scene. We know, in the end, Armin survives and Erwin is made to rest. Is it mere coincidence that the one tagged to be the saviour prevails and the one referred to as the devil meets his end or is it another indication to the course the manga will take?
The last thing I want to talk about is Armin's dream. His dream is to see the whole world. It was never just about seeing the ocean. He wants to see the "lands made of ice", "snowy fields of sand", etc.
Tumblr media
Who's more convenient to bring peace in the world than someone who actually wants to see all of it? If the world plunges into chaos again, Armin's dreams will never come true. If the world continues to shun the Eldians, then Armin can never fully see the world in all it's beauty. Therefore, he has to be the one to unite it. Armin will intercede into any plans of outright wiping out another race and make way for pacification. He'll be the one to do away with all the warfare and discrimination. That's his role in the future; after all there's no one more apt.
233 notes · View notes