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fanmoose12 · 3 years ago

Text

the devil you know

Сharacters: Hange Zoe, Levi, Moblit Berner, Zeke Yeagar, Armin Arlert

Genres: Action / Drama

Summary: Can you still miss a person, if everything you knew about them was a lie?

Сhapter 4/?

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Every single night, she was tormented by the same nightmare. Every single night, the same memory replayed behind her closed eyelids. She saw that fateful night, the night when she had decided she couldn’t keep pretending anymore.

It was the night before the great battle, and, as always, Levi fell asleep in her bed, curled around her body, holding on to her almost desperately, as though he was afraid that should he let go even for a second, she’d vanish.

Levi thought that his embrace could keep her with him. Hange wished for it to be the truth.

Getting out of the circle of his arms was a considerable effort, he held her too close, too tight, and Hange… Hange didn’t want to leave that sweet embrace. Levi was wrapped around her like a vice, he was a poison ivy that had its twigs engraved so deep it reached to the very depths of her heart.

Hange had to cut it out, to cut him out. And, by gods, was it an unwanted progress.

But after a few moments of quiet struggling, of silent curses and pants, she slipped out from his embrace and their bed. That small victory was well-earned, but not enjoyed. Hange felt her heart break the moment Levi’s arms were no longer around her. Without him, she felt so cold. With every inch she put between them, the ice that began covering her heart continued growing.

Next, she packed her scarce belongings. She wanted to take more, she couldn’t do it. Everything she’d take back home – her uniform with Wings of Freedom splayed proudly on the back, her heavy notebooks with dozens of notes and sketches done by her beloved assistant, that book Erwin had once given her, the scarf Mike had knitted for her, the flower Levi had gifted her, the very same one she treasured just dearly as the memory of him confessing after the gift had been presented, - all of it was going to be looked at and thoroughly analyzed. By her Marleyan comrades, friends and possible prosecutors.

She could take nothing that could be conceived as dubious, but that jacket, the one that was shared by both of them and still held his scent and warmth— she wasn’t strong enough to leave it behind.

So she put it on, praying for it to give her strength.

A long way home was awaiting her.

And Hange couldn’t leave without giving him, the one man she truly loved, a goodbye kiss.

“I know you won’t,” she whispered against his brow, her fingers caressing his hair with a feather light touch, “but please try to forgive me. It was out of my control, Levi.”

It was his fault too. When Levi came, the ground had been kicked from under her feet. And a simple mission turned into a tragedy.

When she gathered enough strength to leave the room, the hallway was empty. Hange knew it would be, she was familiar with the workings of Survey Corps like the back of her hand. She strolled through the well-known hallways without fear, trailing her hand along the walls.

The Military Headquarters back at Liberio was better built than this building. Even Warriors’ barracks, despite being designed to hold Eldians, were built so much better. Those buildings were sturdier, more technologically equipped, much more comfortable.

But, god damn it, she was going to miss Survey Corps’ headquarters, this shitty building that was situated in the middle of nowhere.

Compared to Marley, everything in Paradise was ancient, outdated, useless. But it didn’t stop her from loving that fucked up little island. It didn’t stop her from loving people that were living there, despite them being branded as monsters by her nation.

She turned the corner, took the stairs, and, at the end of it, just near the exit Hange saw a shadow.

She meant to duck behind the corner, to run and hide, but the form of that shadow was all too familiar, and she was just as familiar to that shadow. Hange had no choice but to stop and surrender to another cruel twist of fate.

“Squad Leader!” Moblit ran up to her, smiling and endearing as always.

Fucking hell, and Hange thought that saying goodbye to Levi would be the hardest task. However, Levi, at least, hadn’t been awake.

“Are you nervous, as well?" he asked, curiously peering into her eyes. Was she nervous? That was an understatement. "Personally, I can’t sleep! I’ve been thinking and thinking, and I even wrote a letter to my Momma, do you remember her?”

Of course, Hange remembered Moblit’s Momma, the soft and caring Mrs. Berner, a far kinder woman than Hange’s Momma was.

“I told her about our mission and how proud I am for participating in it. And… I added a second part, the one that would be sent in case…”

“No.” Hange shook her head resolutely, her hands clenching into fists. No, no, no, she refused to even entertain that foul idea. Impulsively, she took a step forward, circling her arms around her sweet assistant. “No, Moblit,” she repeated, voice muffled by his shirt. If he heard the quiet sniffling, Hange didn’t care. Moblit never minded her eccentricities. “You will survive. You will survive this shit and the next one you will undoubtedly face. You will make your Momma and everyone else around you proud.” You will make me proud. “And you will leave a glorious, happy and long life. You promise me?”

“Squad Leader…”

“Promise me!” she demanded, bordering on desperation.

In that moment, the dream always divided from reality.

In reality, Hange waited until he had given her a promise, and then feigned exhaustion, leaving Moblit to use another exit. But in a dream, Moblit made her stay, coercing her to have a cup of tea with him. And in the candle-light lit mass hall, they met Erwin, then Levi joined their impromptu party, gluing himself to her side and blinking sleepily at everyone who had gathered.

In a dream, Hange never left. She stayed under Moblit’s care, was guided by Erwin’s wisdom, was surrounded by Levi’s love.

And that’s why that dream was a cruel, excruciating nightmare. It showed her things that could never be. It showed her the future she desperately wanted to come true. Escaping from the clutches of that fantasy was hard, painful. And if that was complicated….

Well, waking up in that bed was pure agony.

Every single morning, Hange woke up lost and disoriented, and had to spend a few long moments, making sense of it all.

Her first instinct was to stretch her arms, to yawn and reach out – to warmth and comfort, to loving embrace, husky voice and reluctant kiss. To him. To everything she had lost. To everything she never actually had.

But she was alone in that bed.

There was no Levi, lying next to her, complaining about her morning breath. There was no Squad Leader Hange, no four-eyes , who would smile and start singing in Levi’s ear.

There was only she, a broken, empty shell of a person.

A Marleyan who fell for an Eldian. A war chief that devised weapons for her enemies. A fool with twisted loyalties and convoluted goals.

She betrayed her homeland, she didn’t have a home.

She was abandoned by her fellow countrymen, was rejected by the people closest to her.

But, strangely, as pathetic as she was, as miserable and wretched, she was not alone. Even in her sorry state, despite her vile betrayal, she still had a friend.

He was by all means her enemy, a monster and a devil, and yet he saved her life more times than she could count.

Even now, when her lies had been discovered and her villainy uncovered, he remained by her side, continued to care for her.

If all Eldians were truly as monstrous as she had been told since her birth, then how to make sense if the existence of one extremely brave, inexplicably kind Moblit Berner? Hange, as genius as she was, couldn’t understand him, couldn’t explain why someone as good and bright as him had decided to stick with her.

“Good morning!” he walked into her room with a smile, carrying her breakfast on a plate.

He had been repeating the exact same routine every day for the past month. He had been doing this ever since Erwin had appointed him as her assistant.

In that room, that bed, nostalgia, memories and regrets were impossible to escape.

Hange tried telling Moblit that he didn’t have to this, didn't have to care for her as though she was still his comrade. But Moblit was relentless. And she was too lonely and miserable to cut off the only kind soul that remained loyal to her.

“I managed to get your favorite biscuits this morning,” he continued, moving around the room to put the cutlery down on a table and open the curtains to let the sunshine in. “Almost got in a fight with Sasha because of it.”

Despite herself, Hange snickered. Moblit always had that kind of an effect on her. He possessed the uncanny ability to cheer her up with a simple, but heartfelt and caring gesture.

There was only one other person who was better at it than him. But after everything that happened between them… the hell would freeze sooner than she would hear praise and a comforting word from him.

Waving those sullen thoughts away, Hange stretched her arms and rose from the bed. She followed the sweet aroma of biscuits to the table Moblit had set for her.

“Any updates on Gabi and Falco?”

That was the first question she asked every morning. And every morning, Moblit gave her the same disappointing answer.

“I’m sorry,” he ducked his head solemnly. “We didn’t manage to locate them yet.

Hange expected as much. And yet, the lack of news still troubled her. Where were fierce Gabi and adorable Falco? Were they—

She shook her head, pressing lips together. Of course, they were still alive. They were candidates, the best of all best. Mentally repeating that mantra a couple of times, she forced her mind flow into different direction.

“What’s our plan for today?” she asked through a mouthful of biscuits. “Are we going to work on a new uniform again?”

Working on that project was fun. Having Mobllit as her assistant once again was fun. In the moments, when her brain was too occupied with an idea, she could almost pretend that everything was normal. That she was Squad Leader Hange, working with Executive Officer Moblit on a new project. Sometimes, Hange got so lost in that little game inside her head, she even expected for the door to burst open to let a grumpy Captain inside. But, of course, that couldn't happen.

These distant memories, they were comforting. They reminded her of the rare times in her life when she was truly happy. But the past... was in the past.

“Eh, you see…” Moblit raised a hand to his head, scratching the back of it with an apologizing smile. “Armin asked me to look into something. I was actually wondering if you would like to accompany me. I bet you’re getting sick of spending days in these four walls.”

She was starting to feel like a wilting flower, that was true. It would have been nice to go outside. However…

“Am I even allowed to leave this room?”

Moblit winced. “I’m not really sure about it… But I was assigned to look after you. I think it wouldn’t hurt if you go with me. Besides…” he sat on the chair next to her, looking at her almost pleadingly. Oh, Moblit and his perfect puppy eyes, Hange could never resist them. “I’d like to have your company. And, perhaps, your advice as well…”

“Advice?” Hange frowned. “On what? What is your task about exactly?”

“Don’t know if I can tell you,” nevertheless, Moblit leaned in, lowering his voice to a whisper. “But they found out that one of the volunteers, Yelena, has been conspiring with Eren. They asked me to interrogate the other volunteer.”

“Oh?” that sounded both ominous and intriguing. Hange curled her lips into a grin and raised an eyebrow. “You want me to use my interrogating skills?”

“No!” paling slightly, Moblit frantically lifted his hands, shaking them from side to side. “No reaping out nails, please! No threats of bloody violence! Just… talk with him.”

She almost forgot how easy it was to tease and embarrass Moblit. Oh, how Hange missed him.

“Alright, I’ll do my best to control the violent urges,” she winked at him, laughing at his scandalous face. “And thank you for inviting me. It’s been ages since I saw the world outside that room.”

“There is another thing I have to ask of you...” Moblit cast his eyes down, playing with the sleeve of his coat. “Technically, I’ll be representing Survey Corps, so…”

Oh. Hange shifted her gaze to the wardrobe, where her old uniform was still hanging. That feeling inside her, she couldn’t quite identify it. Was it shame? Or trepidation?

She showed nothing of it to Moblit. As their eyes met, she faced him with an easy smile.

“Sure, I don’t mind. I do wonder if that thing still fits me.”

“It is. It always will.”

The remark was short, it could be read as meaningless. But Moblit’s voice was deep and gravely, full of conviction. Hange tilted her head, stealing a moment to study him more closely. He looked back at her, his hazel eyes honest and kind.

A lump in her throat was thick enough to make it hard to breathe. It brought tears to her eyes. Hange closed them tightly, to keep the tears from falling down.

“I need a moment,” she murmured, facing away from Moblit, “I’ll be ready in five.”

“I’ll be waiting in the hallway,” he said and let her be.

___

Walking through the streets of Sina was both pleasant and excruciating.

Feeling the sun on her cheeks and the wind in her hair after so many days of being confined to a one single room was enjoyable, enough to put a smile on her lips. And Sina, so very different from Liberio, was a lovely city with interesting architecture and narrow clean streets.

But these places were too familiar, the alleyways etched into her mind too deeply. And the uniform… the long green coat fitted her too well, and, at the same time, suffocated her. The shiny Wings of Freedom were burning her even through the clothes.

This proud emblem, it wasn’t hers. She wasn’t worthy of wearing it.

And the looks people had been given her, the awe and pride— fuck, Hange would rather prefer they cursed and flanged stones at her.

“Their smiles make me uncomfortable,” Moblit confessed. “They used to throw shit at us after every expedition. But now that Eren has killed a bunch of people, they suddenly decide that we’re heroes.”

“You always have been heroes.”

You, not we. There was nothing heroic inside of her.

“Remember that tavern?” Moblit’s cheerful voice and excited expression didn’t chase away the shadows completely. But the shadows took a step back, frightened by his light. “We had a glorious fight with MPs there.”

The fond memory brought laughter to her lips. “You almost got your arm broken in that fight.”

Moblit chuckled along with her. “Thanks to you I didn’t. I thought that punch of yours would get that guy obliterated.”

Hange touched her knuckles tenderly. Moblit was right, that was one hell of a punch. If she closed her eyes, she could almost feel how the force of the hit had reverberated through her skin, tendons, muscles and down to the bones. Perhaps, that time, she had overdone it. She always had troubles reining in her anger.

“And remember that guy Captain Levi kicked? I see him around from time to time. Because of his broken jaw, he still has trouble speaking clearly.”

Ah, Hange remembered that guy as well. He was red-headed and had an ugly moustache. He also left a nasty bruise on her cheek. Levi’s kick to his jaw was a payback for that.

“Those were the times, huh?” Moblit nudged her, offering a kind smile.

Hange averted her eyes, feeling her lips quiver. Yeah, those were the times. Distant times, now they seemed more like a dream. A dream Hange wouldn’t want to wake up from.

Sensing her discomfort, Moblit steered them to the side, taking their conversation in another direction as well. “Speaking of Captain Levi, I sent him the new uniform. He wrote back that he liked it.”

The uniform she accidentally created with Levi’s size in mind. It was in no way intentional. She thought of Survey Corps’ soldiers when she was making a design. And in her mind, the perfect example of the scout was Levi. She was surprised she still remembered his size. Although, considering how much time she had dedicated to studying his body…

The new uniform was a sudden project, a product of the abundance of free time on her part. She wasn’t going to show it to anyone. Even Moblit found out about it by pure accident, when he stumbled upon her crude drawings. She was surprised he liked it. She was surprised Levi liked it. Did he really, though?

“He actually wrote so?”

“Well, he wrote that it could be useful, and in his words…”

Oh. As high praise as one could get from Levi.

“You write to him?” truthfully, that was another surprise for Hange. She didn’t remember Moblit and Levi have any sort of relationships, especially this close.

“We talk a lot,” Moblit shrugged, looking anywhere but at Hange. She was starting to wonder why, but his next words quickly unveiled the mystery. “Technically, we’re the only adults in Survey Corps, and after you left, we… found that we have a lot in common.”

Well. At least, her betrayal had one good outcome. It gave birth to a new friendship. And destroyed several old ones. Hange winced at the last thought.

“Oh, look where are we!” Moblit once again pulled her out of the abyss with his clear, loud voice. The wonder, added to it, however, seemed a little bit too faked. As smart and sharp as he was, Moblit could never excel at lying and pretending.

Not like she did.

Forcing these thoughts away, Hange followed the direction Moblit was pointing at. She couldn’t help but smile at what came into her sights.

Sina’s pastries. The best bakery in the city. In Hange’s humble opinion, the best bakery in the whole damn world. The one they had back at home, on the corner of the street in Liberio, right next to her apartment, didn’t even compare.

Just looking at the sign made her mouth fill with saliva.

“Moblit,” she grasped at his sleeve, her hold desperate. Her eyes were still trained on that shiny sign made in cursive. “Moblit, I know I’m asking a lot—”

He grinned. “Want me to get you that cherry pie you loved so much?”

Oh god, yes. Right now, Hange wanted it more than anything else.

“I understand it if you can’t. I mean, I’m a prisoner from a foreign country. Isn’t buying pies considered to be treason in this case?”

Moblit chuckled warmly. He looked at her, and his expression was kind and gentle enough to make the saints weep. He curled his hand around her shoulder, and from the place where he touched her, warmth spread through her body. “I wouldn’t mind committing treason for a friend.”

Fuck. Hange felt it once again. Her heart squeezing painfully, her throat constricting, tears welling in her eyes. She had to shut her lids to keep them from falling down her cheeks.

Her eyes still closed, with her voice cracking, she asked, “Would it be weird if I give you a hug right now?”

“Don’t know. Is it weird that I really want that hug?”

Her sob turning into a giggle, Hange surged forward, falling right in Moblit’s waiting arms. He pressed her close, his palm patting her on the back. Hange buried her face in his chest and relaxed against him, inhaling his faint scent of citrus and cinnamon. Sweet and pleasant, just like Moblit.

What was she doing all that time, without him at her side?

Moblit smiled at her as they separated. Hange meant to smile back, but in that exact moment— her stomach gurgled. Loudly.

She cringed.

“So… about that pie?”

“I’m on it,” Moblit promised and darted to the bakery.

___

Perhaps, it was fate. It was destiny, divine intervention, that led her to this moment. To the wooden bench in the park, to the bird’s singing in her ear, to the sweet, heavenly taste in her mouth.

The pie was perfect, so much better than Hange had remembered. It was soft enough to melt in her mouth, leaving a pleasant aftertaste. It was sweet, but not sugary, the cherry toping adding slight bitterness.

Fantastic, the pie was fantastic. If Hange could, she’d stay in that bakery until the end of her days, devouring those phenomenal pastries until she exploded. Ah, what a happy death that would be…

Moblit observed her with an amused grin. “Did they not feed you at all in your Marley?”

“Not like this.” Hange managed, despite her full mouth.

Food in Marley was more diverse than on Paradise. They had more resources, they had a bigger variety of products and ingredients. But Hange was a soldier. She either ate at barracks or she cooked for herself at home. Food, made by army cooks, was nourishing, but lacking in flavor. And the dinners, prepared by her, almost always consisted of something quick and extremely simple.

The only place where Hange could eat to her heart’s content, where food was made out of the best, freshest ingredients and prepared by the most skillful chefs, was the official events, organized by the brass. And as the leader of the research facility, one of the most recognized war chief and the only child of her father, one of the Marleyan’s biggest heroes, Hange was always a welcome guest on these events.

But they were so boring that not even a promise of good food could make her sit until the end of them.

“Well, wait until you try Niccolo’s food. He is a true master.”

“Already did,” her stomach once again gurgled, this time the embarrassing sound was provoked by the memory of Sasha and Connie treating her to some of the maestro’s masterpieces. Sasha certainly was a lucky girl. “I ate so much, I thought I was gonna puke.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” bashfully, Moblit rubbed his neck. “The first time he made food for us, I was eating like the man starved. I was so ashamed, but then I looked around,” he chuckled lowly, a wistful smile tugging at his lips. “And realized I wasn’t the only one.”

“I see you had a lot of fun,” she said, swallowing the bitter taste in her mouth. She wasn’t one of them, and never was. The suddenly appeared sadness was foolish and unwelcome. She had her own friends back home. Perhaps, they still thought about her. Perhaps, they still cared. “And what about that guy you need to interrogate? Is he also an amazing cook?”

“No, he is a soldier, he taught us so much about your technology! He was the one who was in charge of controlling the airship we used to get to Liberio.”

So their new friend was a pilot? And, apparently, a skillful one at that. Navigating through Liberio during all that chaos was certainly a challenge. Hange wondered if she knew him.

“So what is the name of that ace pilot of yours?”

Moblit lifted his chin, something close to pride appearing in his gaze. "He really is amazing. His name is Onyakopon."

Hange's jaw dropped. Her precious pie almost dropped as well. Hadn't she misheard? Onyakopon? The same Onyakopon who had spent almost a year as her understudy? Who taught Hange how to pilot the plane? That Onyakopon?

Could it really be? Could they really meet here, after so many years, on Paradis of all the places? Or was it some other Onyakopon who also happened to be an ace pilot?

"Hange-san?" a worried crease lay between Moblit's eyebrows. "Are the two of you—"

"Don't know," she shrugged, promptly finishing the last of her pie. "Shall we go and find that out?"

Moblit nodded resolutely. Hange felt something like nostalgia stirring up inside her.

___

For a man who was supposedly under a close watch and a possible suspect, Onyakopon had the nicest of accommodations. Much better than Hange's single room.

The house was small, but cozy, surrounded by pretty garden and vast green fields. If one were to ignore the lonely guard who was munching on an apple in the shadow of the tree, the front yard possessed absolutely no flaws.

Hange immediately shared her observation with Moblit, telling it to him in a faint whisper.

"Let's hope Onyakopon isn't a traitor and we won't end up dragging him from this heavenly place," he answered her.

If their Onyakopon was the same Onyakopon Hange knew, they wouldn't need to take the drastic measures. He was a smart, honest and good man. And, judging by Moblit's set expression, he knew that too.

As they approached the house, a man came in their sights. Dark-skinned, tall and handsome, he was reading a book on the porch, a look of complete concentration on his face.

All doubt left her mind. It was the same Onyakopon. The bright, curious young man who wanted to learn from her and who taught her something in return.

At the sound of their footsteps, Onyankopon looked up. And recognized her too, from just one glance. As their eyes met, his grew in size, almost comically. So he didn't know she was there as well. Strange, Hange would have thought he overheard the commotion she had caused on their trip back to Paradis.

But, perhaps, Onyakopon was too focused on piloting the airship and keeping all of them alive.

"Hange?" his voice was no louder than the wind's song. Hange nodded swiftly, having troubles finding her own voice. She wasn't sure it would obey her. "Oh I'll be damned!" Onyakopon jumped to his feet and all but ran to her. He squeezed her elbows, peering into her face in disbelief. "I'll be damned, Hange! I've heard the talks about some Marleyan soldier, but I could never guess that it was you! No one told me that you were captured."

Well, captured might be a strong word to describe what happened to her. Levi didn't capture her, he simply caught her - unaware and unprepared. Hange saw the face that was haunting her dreams and didn't even think of fighting against him.

She thought that Levi came to kill her then. She was almost ready for him to do it, to finish it once and for all. Being killed by the humanity's strongest - was there a greater honor? Being killed by the man you loved so dearly - was there a bigger joy?

Gently, Hange pried Onyakopon's hands off her. "It's a very long story."

"I have—"

"You don't," Moblit took a step forward, partially hiding Hange behind his back. "We need to talk, Onyakopon. I'm sure you've already guessed why."

"Yeah. Your friend here," Onyankopon threw an accusing glare at his guardian who was enjoying the afternoon shade, not disturbed by their conversation. "Already warned me. Alright," he let out a defeated sigh, "Do you guys want tea or coffee? Maybe, some snacks?"

Moblit gave him a tight-lipped smile. "We've already eaten, thank you."

"I— I'll bring some tea anyway."

He disappeared inside the house without another word. Hange and Moblit watched him go, then, when he vanished from their sight, they shared a look.

"He doesn't seem nervous," Hange remarked.

Moblit seemed to be of the same opinion. "He looks rather disappointed. I really hope he is innocent. But..." he shook his head and mumbled, more to himself than Hange, "I was always bad at figuring out liars."

Ouch. If after everything she had been through, Hange still possessed a heart, Moblit's words would have dealt a fatal blow.

Alas... She felt but a small pang. It didn't make her wheeze with pain, only forced to cast her eyes down.

___

Onyakopon returned after a few minutes, carrying a tray with three cups on it. Jerking his head into its direction, he led them to a table on the backyard.

Once they all took their places, heavy silence hanged over them. Onyakopon was the one to break it.

"So, no offence," he tilted his head to the side, his gaze slowly switching between Hange and Moblit. "If this is the official business, then… why Hange is here?"

"It's a long story," Hange said at the same time as Moblit claimed,

"Hange and I have been working together before."

"Wait..." a frown appeared on Onyakopon's face. It was almost immediately taken over by the look of shock. "Are you telling me that the famed Marleyan spy I've been hearing so much about, the one who spent five years on Paradis and almost became the Commander of Survey Corps, is Hange Zoe, one of the brightest minds of Marley?"

"Something like that, yeah," Hange took a cup of tea in her hands, hiding her embarrassment behind it.

"Wow... that's certainly... a lot to take in. I heard so many things about you."

"Nice ones, I hope?"

The corners of Onyakopon's lips slid down. "Not really."

"Ah... Understandable, I guess."

"But if you're the famous betrayer, why are you here? Are you—"

"We've been working together for a long time," Moblit repeated. "I trust Hange's judgement."

"I have an exceptional talent of picking out bullshit. And," Hange grinned, the curl of her lips just this side of being feral. "I'm a master of reaping fingernails out."

Onyakopon promptly chocked on the tea he was drinking. Sending her the most disappointing of his looks, Moblit jumped out from his seat to help the other man to cough it all out. His panicked face did awake a bit of shame in Hange.

"It was a joke," she hurried to assure.

"A very bad one," Moblit grumbled, softly patting Onyakopon on the back.

"I see nothing has changed about you, Hange," after returning his breathing under control, Onyakopon raised his eyes, giving her a joyful smile.

Hange wasn't sure if his words held any truth, personally, she hadn't felt like her happy, curious and driven self from years ago, but, nevertheless, she answered his smile with the one of her own.

"Now, let's talk about you," Moblit returned to his place, sitting down on the opposite side from Onyakopon. His back was straight, his expression relaxed but solemn. He grew, Hange noted absentmindedly. He was no longer that timid, shy man she had met all these years ago. "Do you know what happened with Yelena?"

"I understand that she is in the same boat as I am right now."

"Not quite," Moblit retorted. "We've recently found out that she has been talking with Eren behind our backs."

Onyakopon put the cup down, his hands a little more unsteady than Hange remembered them to be. "I... didn't know about any of this. Do you know what they were discussing?"

"Commander Pixis and the others are attempting to make sense of it as we speak."

"And in the meantime you decided to interrogate me." Onyakopon's demeanor changed, his eyes flashing. "Have I not done enough, Moblit? For you and for the people of Eldia? Haven't we helped you enough? And yet, you still don't trust me. You come here with—" his gaze shifted to Hange, but whatever Onyakopon wanted to say didn't leave his mouth, Moblit's hardened expression stopping him.

"You know how hard it is to earn trust," Moblit spoke calmly. "Especially now. Personally, I don't think that you're involved in Yelena's dealings. But I have to make sure of it. Wouldn't you do the same, if you were in my position?"

"Besides," Hange chimed in, "Even Eren is imprisoned. Do you really blame them for not trusting foreigners?"

Onyakopon took his time before answering. His jaw clenched, as he fixed his gaze on the wooden surface of the table.

"Maybe, you're right," he said at last. At his admission, Moblit relaxed. But Hange knew that Onyakopon wasn't finished yet. "But I risked my life to help get Eren back. Doesn't that count for something?"

"Yelena took part in that mission as well." Moblit reminded.

"I'm not Yelena." Onyankopon harshly retorted.

Moblit scowled. Onyakopon was glaring back at him, hands crossed on his chest. Hange decided it was time to intervene once more.

"Are we thinking of the same Yelena?" she interrupted their staring contest, easing the air around both men. "Tall, blonde and absolutely crazy?"

Not taking his eyes of Onyakopon, Moblit nodded. "She also has a strange obsession with Yeager brothers."

"Ah," yeah, Hange knew her. How could she not? Yelena was... "A lovely girl. Even I get chills from her. I doubt that Pixis would be able to get something out of her."

"That what worries me," Moblit confessed, rubbing his temples. The gesture was familiar to Hange - Moblit always suffered from headaches when under stress. "The Queen is coming back soon. If we don't secure the capital..."

"Historia is coming back?" Hange wasn't aware of it. When she asked Sasha about a little girl that once was called Christa and then grew up to become a Queen, Sasha said that she was also getting ready to become a mother. Was bringing her to the capital a good call then? With everything in such state of disarray?

"It was her decision, not ours," Moblit explained. "When the Queen learned what is going in, she deemed it necessary to intervene."

"Hopefully, the Queen is loved more than Eren Yeager."

Yeah, that would be the best case scenario. For everyone - even Marleyans - involved.

"In these uncertain times..." Moblit hanged his head with a deep, weary sigh. "Hope is all we have. Thank you for your time, Onyakopon. We'll be heading back now."

Having said that, he stood up. Hange meant to follow his suit, but at the last moment, Onyakopon stopped her, catching her sleeve between his fingers.

"About what happened in Liberio," he stiffly began. "Marley destroyed my hometown," Hange solemnly nodded. She was forced to take part in that particular operation. She hated every second of it. "I can't and I won't forgive them for that. But..." his voice softened, his thumb rubbed comforting circles around her pulse point. "Liberio was your home as well. So I know what you're going through."

Taken by surprise, Hange blinked a couple of times, gawking at Onyakopon. She expected anger from him. In the worst case - pity. But he offered her only his understanding. She was grateful for that.

“Goodbye, Onyankopon,” she smiled sweetly.

“Hopefully, that wouldn’t be our last meeting.”

Hange could very well agree on that.

___

When they were back in Sina, the sun was already setting, painting the streets and buildings into shades of orange, red and pink. While walking through the town, Hange was once again reminded of how beautiful it truly was. The abundance of trees and flower bushes, the shiny cobblestone and petite houses added to its charm, making Sina look almost magical.

“Pretty as a picture,” Hange had once called it, during a walk through the town with Levi by her side. Her fascination, that careless mishap almost got her lie uncovered.

“You look like you’re seeing it for the first time, four-eyes,” Levi had thrown that line carelessly, but his had narrowed ever so slightly and his frown had deepened. “Didn’t you say that you have grown up in the city?”

In that moment, Hange had almost started panicking. She could almost see it too – Levi finding out the truth, Levi dragging her to Erwin, Erwin getting everything he could out of her, him, Mike, Nanaba, Moblit, Nifa, Keiji, Abel, Levi and countless of others feeling disappointed and betrayed. The story would have ended with her standing on the gallows.

Perhaps, this end would have been more merciful. But that day, her joyful, only slightly forced laughter and a meaningless ‘Don’t you know me, Levi? I always have my head up in the clouds?’ had saved her from the early demise. And doomed her to many years of torture, heartache and self-hatred.

“Hey,” a gentle hand on her elbow broke her out of the internal misery. Hange looked up, meeting Moblit’s hazel eyes. “It will take some time until we reach the headquarters. Can we talk in the meanwhile?”

“Sure,” she shrugged. “What do you wish to talk about?”

“I actually want to ask a question. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but…” Moblit trailed off for a moment, pressing his lips in a line. Hange smiled faintly, she knew that expression too – he always wore it when he was contemplating his next move. As soon as his mind was set, it vanished, the usual kind face returning. “I would like to know why… you came here in the first place.”

That was it? Hange almost exhaled with relief. She thought he was going to ask something truly awful.

“Didn’t I tell you already? Just like Hoover, Leonhart, Braun and Galliard, I was sent to retrieve the Founding Titan.”

“But you didn’t do it. You had countless opportunities to take Eren from us, and you never acted on any of them. So why did you really come here?”

That was… a question more complicated than Hange was ready for. She didn’t know what to tell Moblit, how much she was willing to share. She had never talked about this, not to a single soul. Her comrades and friends from Marley would never understand her anyway. But Moblit wasn’t Marleyan, he didn’t possess the same mentality. Perhaps, he wouldn’t judge her. Hange was counting on that.

Without another second spent on doubt, she began her tale,

“My father was a hero – a soldier, brilliant tactician, an even better politician. He was resolute, fearsome and absolutely merciless to his enemies. No surprise that many considered him to be an ideal Marleyan citizen. And I was his only child. Naturally, everyone expected me to be as brilliant as him. I began my training at the age of five, and by the age of twelve I was already a perfect soldier. However, that’s not who I wanted to be. I wanted to explore the world, to travel to distant lands, but as the child of my father, I had my whole life controlled by him, and then, when he passed away, by the expectations everyone had for me.”

Taking a pause, Hange chanced a look at Moblit, expecting him to be disgusted or annoyed by her whining. She had everything given to her on a plate, a bright future guarantied, and she still yearned for something more. It was pathetic, wasn’t it? She was pathetic. However, Moblit… didn’t seem to share that opinion. At least, his face didn’t show the signs of it. Instead of the outrage Hange had expected to see, she was met with sympathy.

It made the pain in her chest grew tenfold.

Nevertheless, she forced herself to continue.

“I could never decide for myself, my whole life was controlled by my father’s legacy. I wanted to break free of it, by whatever means necessary. So when I heard about the mission to retrieve the Founding Titan, I latched onto that chance, convincing the brass to send me there with the kids. But I’ve arrived earlier than them, and we got separated. And so… I decided to use that time to do what I always wanted. To study and explore.”

It was the most brilliant of her adventures. She loathed being a soldier and having to kill countless enemies of Marley. But there was no war at Paradis. The only enemies were Titans, and as much as Hange felt for their struggle, she managed to convince herself that she was killing them for their own good. That she was freeing them from their never-ending curse.

“No one knew me here, and I could be whoever I wanted to. And I liked being Squad Leader Hange, because Squad Leader Hange was allowed to be as weird and curious as I wanted. People here accepted me. For the first time in my life, I felt like I found the place where I belonged.”

Of course, that wasn’t true, a mere fantasy, a delusion on her part. She was a Marleyan, a child of the man who condemned thousands of Eldians. She had no place in their world. And yet, Hange was happy. It was the bitter truth she was afraid to admit for so long - she loved the persona of Squad Leader Hange. So much more than the persona of the Professor and war engineer, Hange Zoe.

But nothing could last forever. And when the time has come to return to Marley, Hange was devastated. She lost herself in playing her own game.

“That’s it, I guess,” she said, rolling her shoulders. Looking up, she saw they were almost by the stables where they left their horses in the morning. So deep inside her own head, she failed to notice how much time had passed. “I ran away because I was sick of my life back home. And I spent five years pretending to be someone else.”

“Were you really?” Moblit watched her, his gaze inquisitive. “Were you really pretending to be someone else, Hange-san? Or did you finally allow yourself to release your true self?”

That was… a scary statement. And much more loaded than Hange could deal with in that moment.

“I could be wrong, though,” Moblit shot her an innocent smile. Hange cursed under her breath, a true devil, that’s what he was. Getting her to admit to so much of her insecurities, Moblit surely had a talent for it. And to think he asked her to help him with interrogation. He seemed to be pretty adept at it himself.

“Stay here, I’ll bring our horses,” he started walking in the direction of the stables, but at the last moment turned away, and, meeting Hange’s eyes, added, “I’m glad that you took that mission, Hange-san. And I’m glad that I got to meet the real you. All of us are.”

Hange snorted, watching Moblit go. Perhaps, her father was right about something. Devils, all of them were. How else to explain the ease with which they wormed their way into her heart?

Her shoulders dropped as soon as Moblit had disappeared from her view, and she turned to stare at the setting sun. Certainly, it was one hell of a draining conversation.

But as her thoughts were still scattered in disarray, her heart felt so much lighter. She never shared this part of her with anyone, was afraid to admit it even to herself. But now she was glad she had finally done it. Perhaps, she should have done it a long time ago. Her life could have been easier then, the amount of regrets considerably lesser.

She swept her gaze around the plaza Moblit left her at. With the day coming to an end, not a lot of people were there. As far as Hange could see, the only ones still present were a happy mother with a two children, who were feeding the pigeons on the bench at the far side of the plaza, an elderly couple, and—

And a girl that sat at the edge of the fountain. The short stature, slumped shoulders, that luscious long black hair were familiar to the point of setting Hange's heart ablaze.

She couldn't see the face, was afraid to, but even so, Hange denied what her eyes saw. Surely, it was her imagination, her mind conjuring things that weren't there. This girl, she was—

A shadow, fathom. It couldn't be— it couldn't be her. Even the possibility of it was raising the hairs at the back of Hange's neck.

It wasn't Pieck, just a random girl. Hange was wrong, simply seeing things. Those familiar traits belonged to someone else. Pieck wasn't here, in Paradis, Pieck couldn't be—

"Hange?" she jumped, and whirled around so swiftly her head went dizzy. Before her stood Moblit, his eyebrows knitted together worriedly. "Everything alright?"

She exhaled with relief. "Peachy," she answered with a smile she didn't feel. Her eyes shifted from one side of plaza to the other, searching for the figure she had seen. But like all shadows do, she simply vanished.

"I brought our horses," Moblit gestured for her to follow him. Hange did, not looking back even once.

Even so, she felt someone's gaze burning into her back all the way to the headquarters.

___

"Sorry," Moblit stood at the threshold of her room, shifting his weight from one foot to another. "I need to report to Zacklay and Pixis."

His expression was nearly apologetic. Hange patted his shoulder, touched by his not so subtle concern. "Stop worrying so much, Mob. Nothing would happen if you leave me for one evening."

Moblit kept frowning, looking as unconvinced as ever. "I'll tell Sasha and Connie to bring you dinner,” he nodded to himself. “And if you need anything, just tell the guard to call for me."

"Alright, alright. Now go!" Hange gave him a forceful push. "And make me proud!"

She didn't get an answer out of him, but she did see a faint blush appear on his cheeks. That was enough for Hange to chuckle victoriously.

Once Moblit had disappeared around the corner, Hange shoved the door closed and leaned against it. It was an exhausting, eventful day. She wanted nothing more than to rest. She headed towards the bed to fulfill that exact goal.

But no sooner than she had seated down, she heard the knock on the door. Albeit quietly, it was repeated three more times.

Sighing, Hange stood up again and walked back to the door. She swung it open, expecting to see Sasha and Connie. She was hoping to get a warm meal inside while gossiping with the two teenagers. A second later, the door stood open. And Hange's throat was closed up.

On the other side of the threshold— there was no Sasha, no Connie. Only Pieck.

And so the shadow finally took form.

Pieck was dressed similarly to her, in the dark green uniform. Her hair was gathered in a low ponytail, a smile was playing on her lips. The subtle differences in her attire only added to the sense of disbelief.

At the sight of her lovely face, all air left Hange's lungs. She desperately tried to take a breath, opening and closing her mouth rapidly. She wasn’t sure for how long she would have continued gaping like a fish fresh out of the water hadn't Pieck taken the matters in her own hands.

"It's been a while, Hange," as always, she spoke in a quiet, sugary sweet voice. Usually it calmed Hange down. Now it was sending shivers down her spine. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

"Pieck," Hange meant to sound leveled, controlled. But even a single word came out shaky and unsure. "Pieck," she tried again, this time with more success. "What are you doing here?"

Pushing past Hange, Pieck walked inside the room, heavily sliding down on a chair. "Serving my country. Something you have forgotten about."

Pieck stared straight at her, hands folded in her lap, a picture of friendliness and innocence. But the smile Hange always found so endearing, now seemed almost chilling.

"Tell me, Hange, is this the part of your plan? Have you decided to use your old history with these people to destroy them from the inside? Or," Pieck paused, tilting her head to one side. She didn't look angry, or disappointed. If anything, she seemed simply curious. But the atmosphere in the room was tense, air electrified with trepidation. Hange knew Pieck all too well, she knew how dangerous the shifter girl could be. "Have you already forgotten what they did in Liberio, in our city? How they destroyed it? How killed thousands of men, women and children? These monsters almost killed Reiner, Porco," her voice wavered at the names of her dear comrades. But even then, she didn’t drop the unassuming façade. "And do you know what happened to Udo and Zophia? Have you seen what become of them?"

Stunned, Hange could only stare at Pieck. The words left her, her mind unable to come up with anything she could have used to explain herself.

Indifferent to Hange’s internal struggle, Pieck continued.

"Do you even care, Hange? About Marley, about us?"

"Of course, I do." How Pieck could even doubt that? Udo and Zophia, those bright, adorable children Hange couldn't quite imagine them being gone. "Pieck, you misunderstand, I've been captured, I'm not—"

"Don't make me laugh." Pieck interrupted curtly. "You have your own room, you walk freely through the town, you wear their uniform. Is this how they treat all of their prisoners? Awfully kind of them then, considering the monstrosities these devils committed."

"Pieck, listen—"

Pieck didn't want to.

"You always were a strange one, Hange," gracefully, the girl stood up, taking a step closer. With her hands behind her back, she started pacing, circling around Hange. "I could never understand what was going on inside your head. I still can't. But, naively, I thought that I knew you. That after years of fighting side by side, we grew close enough. And after the disaster at Liberio," she picked up a sheet of paper from Hange's desk, gave it a quick once over before disregarding it in favor of focusing her eyes on Hange once more. "I kept looking for you. I was so afraid to find your body under a fallen building or see you with a hole in the head. But you were nowhere to be found. Everyone was worried sick, the brass was livid - the devils from Paradis killed the Warhammer, took our Beast and now our brightest mind was missing as well. And then I remembered what I have seen during the fight. A short man approaching you, the same one who nearly killed Zeke, that Ackerman. I thought he had captured you, I thought you needed saving. Seems like I was wrong about that, huh?”

Even now, Pieck was keeping her calm. Despite the harsh accusations, her voice remained gentle, almost soothing. The smile was still in place, and her head was tilted up, peering into Hange’s eyes.

Hange did everything she could to escape that unsettling gaze.

“I also came to because I needed you,” Pieck continued. “I thought you would help me with my mission.”

Would she? Should she? Hange didn’t know. She knew what Professor Hange Zoe would have done. She knew what Squad Leader Hange would have done.

But what would she do?

“I guess it doesn’t matter. Whether you help us or not, the outcome will be the same. Paradis will fall, Hange. Consider it my only warning. If you wish to witness its demise alongside these devils, I won't stop you. But," without looking at Hange, Pieck laid a hand on her shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. "If your decision ever changes, I'll be happy to fight by your side."

After that, Pieck left the room, closing the door softly on her way out. Hange, however, didn’t move, remaining frozen in one place, too stunned to follow after Pieck and demand a more thorough explanation.

However... what was there to explain? Paradis will fall. Plain and simple.

Right now, Hange couldn't quite believe it, although she was supposed to expect it. What could possibly happen to that little island after Eren's desperate rampage? But even before that, Paradis was already doomed. The events that transpired at Shiganshina proved to the outside world just how dangerous the Eldians could be. And Shiganshina was simply a plant that had grown out of the seed of Grisha Yeager's crimes.

There was no hope for Paradis. There never was.

Paradis will fall.

What could she do to save it? Could she do something, anything at all? Could she help them, expose her nation's plans? Could she betray her motherland like that? If she shared the truth with people of Paradis, would they even believe her? Would her people forgive her?

Hange didn't know. Her mind was in frenzy, her thoughts flying from one horrible outcome to the other. It was in that catatonic state that Sasha and Connie found her.

"Hange-san? Is everything alright?"

Hange looked up, meeting their bewildered gazes. In that moment she realized - she didn't want these kids to die. She didn't want for them to suffer any more than they've already done. And the others - Moblit, Levi - Hange couldn't bear the thought of them in harm. But—

She didn't want for her fellow countrymen to die as well.

Fuck. Why was everything so hard these days, why it was so damn complicated? When would her heart stop tearing into two pieces? Why was everything out of her control?

It was always an issue of hers, the lack of control. This time was no different. Caught between crossfires, Hange didn't know which side to choose. Perhaps then... she shouldn't choose at all.

Perhaps, she should take the back seat. Let everything transpire the way it was supposed to be. Let them fight, let someone win.

And so, with a heavy heart and troubled consciousness, Hange came to a decision. She would not alert Paradis about the threat hanging over them. She would not help Marley in their fight.

But there was another side to all of this. Another warning, another trouble that couldn’t be ignored.

There was a danger of Marley invasion, but equally disturbing was the events transpiring inside the Walls. Something was brewing, a storm ready to swipe everyone in its path. And Hange had a nasty feeling that at the center of it, two figures stood – Yeager brothers.

Nothing could be done about Eren, Hange had doubts that even his closest friends had a single clue of what was going inside the boy’s head, what dangerous ideas were forming there. But Zeke, Hange knew how to deal with Zeke. She also knew someone who could deal with him in the most efficient way.

She didn’t know what Zeke was planning. But she was confident that Levi would be able to find out.

She just needed to give him a little push.

“Sasha,” Hange smiled at the girl, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “If you would be so kind, tell Moblit to visit me before he retires for the night.”

Moblit had mentioned that he was corresponding with Levi. The time has come to use this detail to her and the world’s advantage.

The world as they knew was changing, perhaps, it was already at the brink of collapse, horrible destruction. What did Moblit say? In these uncertain times, hope is all we have?

In that case, her only hope was Levi.

#does someone still remember that fic? i for sure had almost forgotten about it jdfsdkhgsjgh #levihan

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fanvisionstudios2004 · 3 years ago

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Ice Age: Freezing Finale (also known as Ice Age 6: Freezing Finale or simply Ice Age 6) is an American computer-animated adventure comedy-drama film produced by 20th Century Animation and distributed by 20th Century Studios. It is the sixth and final main installment and the seventh overall installment in the Ice Age franchise, and the direct sequel to Ice Age: Collision Course (2016), while ignoring the events of the previous film The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022), since the latter was declared non-canon to the entire series. The film was directed by Troy Quane and Nick Bruno, written by Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, and Mike Reiss, and produced by John C. Donkin. The music for the film was composed by Hans Zimmer and John Powell, the latter of whom previously composed the first three sequels.

In the film’s ensemble voice cast, Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Jack Black, Keke Palmer, Adam DeVine, Josh Gad, Jessie J, Jennifer Lopez, and Queen Latifah reprise their roles from the previous films. The returning cast is joined by Ryan Reynolds as a returning character from the first film, with Djimon Hounsou, Rachel Bloom, Diego Luna, Michael Peña, Gabriel Iglesias, Harvey Guillén, Josh Hutcherson, Zachary Levi, Bradley Cooper, and Dave Franco voicing new characters introduced in this film.

The computer animation for the film was provided by Reel FX Creative Studios, who had also provided animation for 2011’s Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas.

Originally planned as the seventh Ice Age film for Disney+, with Ray DeLaurentis penning the script, it was later redeveloped into the sixth and final mainline film and DeLaurentis’ version of the film was scrapped in favour of a new script, due to The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild’s poor critical reception and audience viewership.

The film received positive reviews from critics who praised its animation, themes, voice acting, humor, Quane and Bruno’s direction, musical score, human characters, and satisfying conclusion of the series. It was also deemed a significant improvement over its predecessor and was considered to be the best installment of the Ice Age franchise.

Ice Age: Freezing Finale was the final film in the Ice Age series to be theatrically released after Collision Course.

Premise

Some time after the events of the fifth film, Manny and the rest of the Herd are expecting their daughter Peaches and her husband Julian to have their first child after their marriage, until they come across a human friend Roshan, who warns them about a possible mammal hunting season that would change their lives forever. To save themselves from being hunted down, Manny, the Herd and Roshan team up with the other mammals and humans to defeat the hunters and create a peaceful life where both human and mammal can co-exist together.

Cast

Ray Romano as Manny, a woolly mammoth and the leader of The Herd

John Leguizamo as Sid, a ground sloth and the founder of The Herd

Denis Leary as Diego, a saber tooth tiger and the member of The Herd

Seann William Scott and Josh Peck as Crash and Eddie, two opossums and Ellie's brothers

Ryan Reynolds as Roshan, an adult human friend who reunites with The Herd to warn them about a possible mammal hunting season

Djimon Hounsou as Jeger, an evil human hunter who killed Manny's past family in the flashback and plans to start the next possible mammal hunting season

Jack Black as Zeke, a saber tooth tiger - Jeger's henchman and former member of Soto’s pack

Jessie J as Brooke, a female ground sloth - Sid's wife and former resident of Geotopia

Jennifer Lopez as Shira, a female saber tooth tiger – Diego's wife and former first mate pirate

Queen Latifah as Ellie, a female woolly mammoth – Manny's wife

Keke Palmer as Peaches, a female woolly mammoth – Manny and Ellie's daughter

Adam DeVine as Julian, a woolly mammoth and Peaches' husband

Josh Gad as Louis, a molehog and Peaches' best friend

Rachel Bloom as Lola, a female molehog and Louis' love interest

Diego Luna as Santiago, a Chalicothere and the leader of the Fantabulous Four

Michael Peña as Pablo, an Andrewsarchus and the member of the Fantabulous Four

Gabriel Iglesias as Carlos, a Gigantopithecus and the member of the Fantabulous Four

Harvey Guillén as Miguel, a grey wolf and the member of the Fantabulous Four

Josh Hutcherson as Leroy, the younger brother

Zachary Levi as Artie, the middle brother

Bradley Cooper as Everett, the oldest brother

Dave Franco as Baxter and Thraxter, a pair of twins

Chris Wedge as Scrat, a saber-toothed squirrel

Karen Disher as Mary, a female woolly mammoth – Manny's past wife who got killed by hunters in the flashback

Iain Armitage as Junior, a child woolly mammoth – Manny and Mary's past son who got killed by hunters in the flashback

Tara Strong as Sheldon, a baby woolly mammoth – Peaches and Julian’s son

Cedric the Entertainer as Carl, an Embolotherium

Stephen Root as Frank, a Brontops

Clea Lewis as Female Mini-Sloth

Jay Leno as Fast Tony, a giant armadillo

Will Arnett as Lone Gunslinger Vulture

Bill Hader as Gazelle

#ice age #movie idea #20th century studios #disney #animated movies #sequels #ideas #animation

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zekethebeastmaker · 2 years ago

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𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄: Zeke Swampson

𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍: Currently single/widower

𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐑 𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒: Magic, namely the ability to create animal life from a few basic ingredients; expert aquatic animal husbandry, fire breath, some alchemical knowledge, medical healing.

𝐄𝐘𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑: Reptilian green scelra, black pupils

𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑: None

𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒: Vidalia Swampson (wife, deceased), Eliza Mage (daughter), Dorian Mage (son-in-law), Lilly Mage (granddaughter).

𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐒: His various snails, slugs, and leeches around his hut, especially the snails that stick to him. He has a name for each one and treats them like his babies.

𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄: Magic Crafters, snobby attitudes, salt, people hurting his snails/slugs/leeches, his son-in-law, his daughter not visiting him, sickness, being unable to help.

𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐈𝐄𝐒 / 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒: Drawing, medicine making, fishing, slug/snail/leech breeding.

𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐔𝐑𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄: No, he's a healer not a fighter.

𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄: No.

𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌: Turtle. He likes to take things slow, is (sorta) wise, peaceful, and overall has a very pleasant aura around him that makes for great company- but can be quick to either close up or snap if provoked!

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐒: Has a bit of an issue with boundaries- tends to violate personal space alot (with good intentions). Also over-shares without really realizing. Slightly overbearing when he wants to help.

𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐒: Doesn't really have any- he's so old there's no one to really look up to anymore. Has alot of respect for Bruno- though he's much younger- for taking up the mantle of leader.

𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐔𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: Heterosexual/ Straight

𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐆𝐄 / 𝐊𝐈𝐃𝐒: He was once very happily married himself, and had a daughter and granddaughter. He views it as a blessing, something to undertake with the love of your life for the rest of your shared time together; very much loves children.

𝐒𝐓𝐘𝐋𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒: A leaf hat and his traditional crocodile tooth necklace seem to do just fine in terms of every day attire. He doesn't need anything fancy, especially since he's in and out of the water all day every day.

𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄: Vidalia, Eliza, Lilly, his snails, Damon, all of the other Beastmakers, Spyro, all of the new hatchlings.

𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐎 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐒: Ask Damon, and he'll probably tell you: you have to get used to Zeke's kooky sort of weirdness very very quickly if you're going to be his friend. Sudden late night calls over past spats randomly rekindled, long talks about the many different kinds of secretions a snail or slug can make (unprompted), and petty grudges and arguments- but if you can get past all of that, Zeke is a great friend to have, willing to give you the wings off his back; you'll never be in need of a listening ear, advice, or anything at all- Zeke will be sure of it!

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐊: Say what you will, but he really does enjoy iced sweet tea- with a little squeeze of lemon juice.

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐀𝐓: His front porch, sitting in his rocking chair or dipping his toes in the pond that surrounds his hut.

𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐌 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍: The lake. He's used to all of the swamps and bogs, and he couldn't take his snails in the ocean! Too salty- but he would be interested in seeing some sea slugs, snails, or collecting sea shells.

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐓𝐘𝐏𝐄: Sweet but strong, someone he could just talk to for hours on end and lose track of time; Vidalia was absolutely perfect for him. She was very tender towards her plants and Zeke's snails, and was almost as kooky as he was when it came to onions and tubers. Both could go on and on for a week about their own respective crafts, and both also loved to listen to the other during these rants.

𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐎𝐑𝐒: Camping. He's barely ever indoors if he can help it.

Tagged by: @twelvedozenterrors

Tagging: @dream-weaver-obasi @timekeeperlindar And whoever wants to!

#{🍃🐌~swamp grandpa~🍃🐌}#ask game #{tag you're it}

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olivetreehugger · 3 years ago

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SnK Scouts/Veterans as Health Care Workers

Note: features Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Jean, Connie, Sasha, Levi, Erwin and Hange. A part two to my “SnK Warriors as HCWs” post found here. warning: mentions of blood, trauma, gore (it’s healthcare). Also, I know Hange is nb, I headcanon them as female, so I will be using she/her pronouns.

Eren: this boy is definitely too involved in everything and has too many people depending on him at once to not be a nurse. The kid barely passed the NCLEX but that didn’t stop him from applying to every trauma center within a 25 mile radius of him. He got hired as a night shift trauma ICU nurse and he frequently picks up shifts in the ER. He wears the cheapest scrubs he can find, often stained with ink in the pockets area. He isn’t a shitty nurse per se but there are tasks that still need to be done at the end of his shift and he gives a crappy report that’s missing too many details. Nurses hate picking up his patients, it’s always a mess. His charting is really spotty and he gets called into the manager’s office all the time to fix it.

Still, he tries really hard to improve his time management and skills. He wants to be like his friends Mikasa and Reiner, who are the best nurses he knows. He wants to be involved in the traumatic cases and emergencies because he wants to learn as much as he possibly can. He’s really good at wound care, for some reason (hint hint). He’s kinda cocky sometimes too, which can be troublesome when Dr. Galliard is working. People know to steer clear of those two when they’re both in the ER. Also, Eren always has a black cloud around him; whenever he works it’s gonna be a hella busy day in the hospital. Lots of emergency surgeries, intubations, codes and deaths. He’ll always jump in to help you if your patient is crashing, though, no matter how busy he is.

Mikasa: she’s a prodigy. She was a straight ‘A’ student in nursing school, got a perfect 75 on the NCLEX and was immediately hired to the trauma ICU after doing a short internship there. She worked night shift for a year but her sleep schedule was so so fucked she started having night terrors, so she switched to day shift. Eren still calls her a traitor for it :/. She keeps trying to get him to switch over but he just hisses at her and threatens to chug a case of Monster energy drinks. She hasn’t given upon him yet, though.

This girl’s work ethic is beyond measure. She comes in exactly at 6:30 am, looks up her patients, takes report, gives a great update to the doctors when they round, and provides impeccable care to her patients. She knows exactly which treatments the doctors will order before they even speak. She’s incredible at inserting IVs--everyone in the hospital knows Mikasa Ackerman can put an 18g in a 90 yr old lady’s arm AND get blood return (just trust me, it’s flipping impossible). She has great skill when it comes to emergency situations and is a big believer in team work. If she notices your patient’s crashing and you don’t know what to do, she’ll calmly coach you and save your patient, too. All before lunch time.

It doesn’t take Mikasa long to be promoted to charge nurse. When she’s in charge all the reports, paperwork and audits are completed before shift change. She divides the patient assignments really well and is very fair to the new grads. All around she’s an incredible nurse and leader on her unit, but don’t be fooled. If it’s been a rough day, Mikasa will get in her car and sob so loud her throat goes raw. A lot of people depend on her and working in a trauma ICU is really, really demanding. A lot of patients are demanding, rude and busy. She has a lot of trouble with stress management and is thinking of cutting her hours down so she can catch a break. Someone please hug her <3

Armin: for some reason my brain is just SCREAMING respiratory therapist. Like, I imagine this beautiful blond boy in gray scrubs (the color for RT’s in my hospital) going around helping intubate patients, giving nebulizer treatments and doing blood gases. I can just see him huffing and puffing when the attending doctor is overzealous about weaning vent support. -“Why are we changing the patient to pressure support? do you see how tachypneic he is on volume control?”

-“are you gonna put in the order? if not, your patient’s gonna be on PRVC all day, I’m not changing it without an order”

-“Doc, the patient looks like crap and their blood gas looks like death...oh, you still wanna extubate? ok, well I’m gonna leave the ventilator in here just in case. better yet, let me call a pastor in here, too.”

This kid is sassy af and he knows it. He’s smart af too, knows everything there is to know about the lungs and respiratory care. Knows every ventilator mode better than most doctors. Will certainly tell a resident off for ordering the wrong type of inhaler for a patient. He’s so damn intelligent that he even made the ice queen Annie melt like a popsicle.

He has no chill when it comes to his patients and even less chill (like -4078875874670) when a doctor gets in his way. For this reason, Armin has recently been toying with the idea of going to PA school so he can have a little more autonomy. He works al over the hospital, usually frequenting the trauma, CV, and medical ICU. The nurses there love him.

Jean: Jeannie boy. Baby. Sweetie. He’s also a nurse. He is strictly dayshift and trauma. When he first started, he thought he’d do a year in the ICU and then go to CRNA school. He didn’t want to be around sickly patients with hopes and dreams and fears--it was too icky for him. But, over time, he learned that he LOVED trauma. Jean loves the controlled chaos that comes with the ugly, bloody messes that roll in through the ICU’s doors. He always gears up for trauma season (summer time) by bringing Dunkin Donuts iced coffee for everyone on the unit (day and night shift because he’s a supportive king). He gets really good at dealing with arrogant trauma residents and ortho docs who think they’re hot shit. When Jean sees a resident yelling at a nurse, he jumps in and threatens to have their license revoked. He will dig under their skin and page them incessantly throughout the day, too, just to get back at them. Jean is not a fan of lateral violence in the workplace, no sir.

He always, always makes sure every room is stocked and new bags are hanging for the next shift. He has a thing where if things aren’t properly organized on the unit his brain just spazzes. He’s on the unit council and education committee because he also loves to teach the new grads. He also doubles as charge nurse, when management can’t be there (there can be one or more charge nurses amongst the staff, they usually work different days, though) He and Mikasa work so well together, teaming up to get tasks done, coding patients, running them down to get scanned, etc. People joke they’re the mom and dad of the unit. It makes them both blush <3 (Eren doesn’t like it, lol)

Jean loves to see patients healing from horrendous injuries, he’s constantly cracking jokes with the awake patients to try to make them feel better, and he’s really good at calming anxious family members down. Our boy just makes such good connections with people. He’s the guy you call when your confused patient is one second away from ripping his breathing tube out. He can convince the most restless, agitated patient to chill out. He’s got the voice for it. Also people love his mullet. It looks great.

Connie: I really didn’t know at first but I feel like Connie would make a great physical therapist. He’s got great energy, he’s funny and I could see him dancing to Earth, Wind & Fire in front of his patients to hype them up for therapy. He’d be very sweet with them

Sasha: I’m sick and tired of the food jokes, quite honestly. She’s more than that. In my mind, she’s an occupational therapist, helping disabled patients learn to feed, dress and clean themselves again. She works directly with Connie as they round on all their patients in the hospital, they make a great team! She’s extremely patient and would make a very good nurse, but is unsure of where life is taking her. That is until she meets Niccolo the dietician in the cafeteria, and she falls hard. He encourages her to follow her heart and she does!

Levi: Hm. This one stumped me. Levi is a bit...cold. It’s not like he has incredible social skills. He’s meticulous and focused and kinda mean? He reminds me of an anesthesiologist, tbh. Like he’ll sedate the shit outta you for surgery, makes sure you don’t die on the table, and then drops you off to the unit as fast as he can. He never takes off his mask while in the hospital and he scrubs maybe four times before surgery. He is very good at medication calculations and knows everything about nerve blocks, intubation, pain medication and sedation. He can look at a person and just KNOW what kind of sedative to give and how much. Your blood pressure will never bottom out while he’s there, he’ll warn the surgeon and immediately get that norepinephrine started.

If Zeke is the one operating, Levi is on his ass to finish up the surgery ASAP and to not linger, because Zeke takes his time and ignores the tele monitor alarming in the background. After surgery, this 5′2 demon will scream at the 6′ resident about the importance of blood pressure management and sedation in neurosurgical patients. Levi plays no games and he also just really hates Zeke lol

He seems like a jerk but genuinely cares about getting his peeps through surgery. His favorite surgeon to work with is Hange Zoe, because she’s brilliant and fast, but also cognizant of her patient’s hemodynamics. Levi likes taking trauma cases as long as it’s with her. When he drops a patient off to the trauma ICU or goes there to intubate, he makes sure Jean or Mikasa are there because he knows everything is gonna go smoothly. He trusts them a lot. He likes Armin, too and even let him intubate a few times. On his breaks, he’s drinking tea and reading a Williams & Sonoma catalog or scrolling through cleaning Tik Tok lol.

Erwin: This man. This beautiful and hunky beefcake. Omg. I HC him as someone who went to nursing school, became a charge nurse on the trauma unit back in the early 2000′s and fell in love with it. Erwin would eventually fall in love with leadership and educating, too. He went back to school and earned his Doctorate of Nursing Practice (a practice doctorate). He managed the trauma unit for ten years before his brilliant leadership skills and wicked smart brain got him elected as the Director of Trauma Surgery recently. He is the first person with a nursing degree and DNP to ever accomplish this, so it’s very controversial. A lot of toxic doctors threaten to leave the hospital for this (because they’re assholes), but Erwin threatens to fire them in response and it usually shuts them up.

He often holds lectures in the hospital auditorium. With a mind and voice like his, people are so drawn in by him. He advocates for nursing staff, for reimbursement when continuing their education, better staffing, parking, etc. He makes nice with doctors and gets them to sign petitions for the nurses to get these things. He’s a bit manipulative He’s also a fantastic manager and director, he’s really good at negotiating things. The nurses and residents all love him because he rounds on every ICU frequently, brings food, and asks them how he can help. He can be a bit daunting because of his height and deep voice but once he starts talking to you, you just get sucked in. All around an absolute king.

Hange: This character reminds me of a trauma surgeon and intensivist (ICU doctor) we have, Dr. Omi. A great surgeon, really really smart, but takes absolutely NO bullshit. She will yell at you if you freeze during intubating. She wants you to recite every step before you take it, otherwise she’ll take the tube from you and do it herself. In surgery, she’s the same way. She wants you to learn, but by her standards. If she asks a question, you better know the answer or fess up right away, she doesn’t like the “uhms” of uncertainty as you try to search for a shitty response. Either you know it or you don’t. And if you don’t, she’ll teach you. Yeah she can be rough around the edges, but she’s got a big heart. She loves her trauma team. She buys them breakfast and gives them funny personalized gifts. One time, she bought an apply tree for Mikasa and brought it to her car at the end of a shift. Mikasa forgot to plant it and it died in her backseat. Hange will sometimes ask, “Mikasa, how’s your apple tree growing?” and Mikasa will lie through her teeth. “It’s growing!” Fess up, Mikasa. Those google search apple trees are starting to look familiar.

All around Hange loves to work and teach. She is a wonderful trauma surgeon and has saved tons of lives.

#snk headcanons #attack on titan #eren jaeger #mikasa ackerman #armin arlert #jean kirstein #connie springer #sasha braus #levi ackerman #erwin smith #hange zoe #lama writes

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yhwhsdaughter · 3 years ago

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How problematic are they? Would they get cancelled?

content: cursing, mild spoilers, insulting your faves, long list of characters

EREN ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ soooo problematic and for what? in his defense, eren doesn’t actively try to come off as an asshole— he just has strong opinions and doesn’t really care if it rubs people the wrong way

MIKASA *ೃ༄ my girl out here getting hate for no reason. haters are just afraid because mikasa is a strong, independent woman who doesn’t care for their stupid comments

ARMIN ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ armin is perfect, he can do wrong in my eyes. he’s the golden child of attack on titan. i dont accept criticism on this sorry

JEAN *ೃ༄ mmm yes but no; people would probably just give him shit because a video surfaced of him treating his mom kinda badly. some defend him and others don’t

CONNIE ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ because he’s just a crackhead, connie might accidentally say something offensive. his manager will have to apologize on his behalf because he’d probably fuck it up and make it worse lmao

SASHA *ೃ༄ gets hateful comments because she’s unapologetically herself— doesn’t quite care for bullshit societal norms and does what she wants, which sometimes gets her in trouble

MARCO ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ this man doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, someone protect him. if anything, he might just get caught in jean’s drama at times

HISTORIA *ೃ༄ publicly, she’s okay but i feel like she’d have some really dark and questionable morals on the downlow

YMIR ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ misandrist. she’s not sorry either sjsjsjsj

ANNIE *ೃ༄ doesn’t really fuck with people. annie is the definition of “minding my business” but if someone gets on her bad side, bitch won’t be afraid to bring out the receipts

REINER ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ made a lot of bad decisions when he was young and now they’ve come back to bite him in the ass. he’s really just trying to live his life but people will bring back shit he did like 5 years ago

BERTHOLDT *ೃ༄ others have done worse shit than him but ppl just focus on one bad thing he did. like, they won’t let go no matter how much time has passed. tries to handle it with grace but kinda snaps

LEVI ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ do no harm but take no shit. levi might get a bad rep but he’s perhaps one of the least problematic characters. looks like he could shit in your dinner (and would) but only if you deserve it.

HANGE *ೃ༄ kinda crazy. hange is living life to the fullest, sometimes threading in dangerous territory but they are not offensive in general.

ERWIN ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ my man is no angel, he’s done his fair share of problematic shit but somehow smooth talks his way out of punishments??

FLOCH *ೃ༄ he’s easy to hate. mostly cuz he’s a shitty person but partly because he looks so annoying.

MARLO ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ he’s the one cancelling people. jk, marlo would try his best to be a good role model and dislikes cancel culture because he thinks it doesn’t teach people to be better by learning from their mistakes (this varies on the situation)

KENNY *ೃ༄ drunk uncle that can beat your ass no matter how old he gets. not a good parental role either!! homo— sexual? phobic?

RICO ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ this waifu might seem like a bit of a hardass with unsavory opinions but doesn’t have malicious intent so we give her a pass.

PIECK *ೃ༄ homegirl is asleep most of the time. she doesn’t have the energy to be problematic.

PORCO ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ porco acts really high and mighty for someone who’s quite problematic. always starts beef with reiner. it’s so random too, like ??

MARCEL *ೃ༄ the better twin. not problematic whatsoever. he’s actually the one who deescalates his brother’s fights. bless him

COLT & FALCO ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ really wholesome siblings and people in general. they’ve never done anything wrong in their life, ever.

GABI *ೃ༄ for a child, she gets a lot of hate. gabi doesn’t quite fully understand the adult world so she might say or do things that bother people. doesn’t mean she deserves the hate but anyway—

YELENA ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ a culprit by association. adores zeke at an unhealthy level and condones all the bad shit he’s done. knows the diff between right and wrong but ignores it. may or may not have mafia connections

ZEKE *ೃ༄ zeke is the type of person who’s in the wrong but refuses to admit it. his way or the highway.

ONYANKOPON ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ he’s an unproblematic king. wouldn’t be afraid to apologize or own up to his errors and that’s why we stan

TYBUR *ೃ༄ probably an incel. despite the obvious red flags, i feel like he’d manage to gaslight people into thinking he’s a good person. probably a cult leader too

NICCOLO ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ “you punch a couple hundred orphans and suddenly you’re mean” niccolo took ryan reynold’s a little too seriously. he’s gordon ramsey w/ everyone except sasha

GRISHA *ೃ༄ uhh well he’s not winning father of the year award anytime soon. grisha has made some mistakes and sorta learned from them? he’s trying his best but he’s on thin fucking ice

CARLA ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ unlike her son, miss carla wouldn’t get cancelled. everybody loves this milf (as they should). horny thoughts aside, she’s actually really sweet

REINER’S PARENTS *ೃ༄ i’d label them as the worst parents in aot but that title is reserved for historia’s parents. anyway, these mfs would have CPS on their asses since day 1

HISTORIA’S PARENTS ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ crème de la crème of being asshole parents. CEOs of shitty parenting. everyone hates them and for good reason.

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lyriccl · 3 years ago

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Okay so the fallen god AU got more likes than I thought so here is a few bullet points

An immensely powerful god who has fallen out of grace with the other gods due to her behavior and temperament.

Wields a double-edged scythe as her main weapon.

Has gained quite a following among mortals, after she challenged the hypocrisy of the other gods.

Her main compatriots are a group of reborn mortals, now pseudo-demigods, named the Loyalists.

There is Torin, the Titan Flame.

Nebula, the Ice Soveriegn.

Flora, the Pixie Queen.

Nico, the Warrior of Thor.

Cordelia, the Immortal Angel

And Ragnelle, the Wicked Seamstress.

There are more Loyalists, but those are the main leaders.

Is opposed by a faction of mortals who the gods sponsor, aptly named the Rebels.

There’s Taiyo, the Rebel Leader and the Sun Warrior.

Ashera, the Kind Demon.

Rona, the Cyborg Elf.

Lestra, the Frost Priestess.

Forge, the Ravaging Fire.

And Zeke, the Star’s Beloved.

The Fallen God doesn’t even have a name anymore, it was long forgotten to time.

Her face is almost always veiled. Only the Loyalists and the Gods have seen her face.

She’s violent, sadistic, and looks down on most. But she has a soft spot for her Loyalists. Ragnelle, the Wicked Seamstress, has known her since she was a young God and treats her like her own child.

It is thanks to the Fallen God’s powers that the Loyalists are alive at all.

#' the fallen one. ' | fallen god au #' so i've caught your eye? ' | headcanon #; long post

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teamsocialism · 9 days ago

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If you could be a god, what would your domain be?

well, this is kind of awkward lol

I'd probably want to be a goddess of justice - 📘

#ic (leader verity)#(spoilers: verity and zeke already are)#ic (admin priya)

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rjzimmerman · 4 years ago

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Excerpt from this essay from Rolling Stone, authored by Jeff Goodell:

“When it comes to the climate crisis,” says futurist Alex Steffen, “speed is everything.” Every molecule of carbon we dump into the atmosphere is another molecule of carbon that will warm the climate for centuries to come, and in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, reshape the world we live in. The changes we are making are not reversible. If we magically stopped all carbon pollution tomorrow, the Earth’s temperature would level off, but warm seas would continue melting the ice sheets and seas would keep rising for decades, if not centuries (last time carbon levels were as high as they are today, sea levels were 70 feet higher). Ocean acidification, caused by high CO2 levels, is already dissolving coral reefs and is having a major impact on the ocean food chain. Even after emissions stop, it will take the ocean thousands of years to recover.

Cutting carbon fast would slow these changes and reduce the risk of other climate catastrophes. But despite the world’s newfound ambition, political leaders are not moving anywhere near fast enough. Even the goal of holding future warming to 2 C, which is a centerpiece of the Paris Agreement and considered the outer limits of a Goldilocks climate for much of the planet, is nearly out of reach. As a recent paper in Nature pointed out: “On current trends, the probability of staying below 2 C of warming is only five percent.” If all countries meet the commitment they made in the 2015 Paris Agreement and continue to reduce emissions at the same rate after 2030, the paper argued, the probability of remaining below 2 C of warming rises to 26 percent (“As if a 26 percent chance was good,” Swedish climate wunderkind Greta Thunberg pointed out in a tweet).

The great danger is not climate denial. The great danger is climate delay. Instead of pushing for changes tomorrow, world leaders and CEOs like to make virtuous-sounding statements about what they will do in 2050. And then in 2050, they will make virtuous-sounding statements about what they will do in 2070. Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather calls this the “empty radicalism” of long-term goals.

What’s needed is action now. As climate envoy John Kerry put it at the World Sustainable Development Summit in February: “We have to now phase out coal five times faster than we have been. We have to increase tree cover five times faster than we have been. We have to ramp up renewable energy six times faster than we are. We have to transition to [electric vehicles] 22 times faster.”

#climate change #climate crisis

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stormrot-a · 3 years ago

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@gerichteter asked ❝ you gave me advice — i chose genocide. ❞

survival blooms in winter, the starvation of wolves more fear bringing than the warmth of summer, in marley they are made of ice. he, a supposed leader, even shivers in the cold. your days are running out yeager. the title of war chief will fall onto someone else. will you have done what you’ve wanted? ❝ you made the right call in the moment. ❞

hardened by memories too bloody to recount, he edges on the line between mentor and friend, between his true intentions and the good for another warrior, he is unlike bertholdt in many ways, he’s unlike anyone on marley in more. he sees beyond. zeke yeager’s eyes never leave the others, but his mind is not here. the conversation lulls, as the war chief lives in a world where he’s years ahead, planned for retribution. the thought stops.

❝ while this may not be a complete success, we have enough information to report back. you’ll be welcomed home. ❞

pride / joy. a life of another that’s robotically controlled, just like his. but in moments, zeke’s hard exterior breaks to show the smallest inch of pride for the warrior unit. a coalition. ❝ the advice i give holds little more value than what they’ll tell you anyway. ❞

#CH : ZEKE YEAGER.#gerichteter #fairly short as i'm attempting to explore his voice but warrior unit stuff!#genocide mention tw

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arlingtonpark · 4 years ago

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SNK 129 Review

Attack on Titan is a very violent series. People get torn, crushed, cut, shot, and bludgeoned basically every other chapter. Loved ones are lost tragically. Mangled corpses feature regularly. The main character is one of the most ruthless people in the world.

What makes SNK so interesting is how it depicts violence. People have described the series’ depiction of violence as “unvarnished” and “real” and I’d say that’s true, but there so much more to it than that.

It’s not just that the series depicts violence viscerally. That’s been done before.

It’s not even that the series depicts violence as a fact of life.

What sets SNK apart is that it treats violence as endemic.

In Attack on Titan, violence is not only real and unfortunate, not just a fact of life we have to deal with, it’s ever present.

Yeah, this is a story about people who have to fight giants, and then the whole world, to survive. Violence would be an inevitable part of the plot no matter what.

But Attack on Titan goes above and beyond that.

It’s about the emphasis. Some stories would argue that violence should be avoided at all costs. The hero and villain are at odds with each other, but they manage to broker some kind of deal.

Or a story could acknowledge that violence is sometimes necessary. It could be an action movie that kicks off after the conflict has already spiraled into violence. In that case, the question of why people start shooting at each other isn’t necessarily important.

Or the story could show how the conflict came to violence, but emphasize the undesirability of resorting to war.

What makes Attack on Titan unique is that it focuses very much on the origins of violence, but doesn’t emphasize the undesirability of it.

Every conflict in this story is resolved using violence. If this were just a mindless action show, that’d be fine, but this is a series that invites the reader to dwell on whether violence was appropriate.

Unlike most stories Attack on Titan concludes, after all its philosophizing, that non-violent alternatives are a waste of time!

Paradis’ attempts to broker peace with the world are presented as flailing and unsuccessful. Every attempt by Armin to negotiate with the enemy fails.

King Fritz is depicted as a coward, a control freak, and a fool because of his ideology. His ideology of non-violence.

Attack on Titan seems to mock people who don’t want to have to kill. Because of that, the series almost seems to revel in its bloodshed, even as that bloodshed is depicted as gruesome and ugly.

SNK isn’t like Gundam.

Gundam has always had the theme that war is bad. SNK’s theme seems to be that war is unfortunate but necessary.

The difference between those two themes is huge but subtle.

Another important pillar of this series is freedom.

The Survey Corps rides out into the outside world constantly. Every one of them knows they’ll be trampled and torn apart at some point; they do it anyway because they believe in their cause.

That cause is to fight for freedom.

Freedom in Attack on Titan means being able to decide your own fate. If you want to explore the outside world, you can do that. If you want to found a family, you can do that. If you want to virtue signal by adopting the same dream as your friend, you can do that.

But people don’t have to literally be a slave to be unfree.

In Attack on Titan, you can be unfree just by being a slave to other people’s expectations.

People expected that Eren would be humanity’s savior. He was sold to the public as a trump card against the titans: a human who had their power. He was the advantage humanity needed to win. After 100 years, humanity catches a big break, and his name was Eren Jeager.

But it never panned out that way.

The expectation was always unrealistic. Eren was still one (not particularly bright) person, and he was never going to destroy all the titans himself.

Come the end of the Uprising arc, and Eren has not really contributed anything, and he starts to give himself grief.

When it’s revealed his existence seems to have impeded humanity’s survival, Eren begs for death. The weight of everyone’s expectations had crushed him.

Eren had been a slave to the Rogue Titan hype machine.

After Historia’s ahem “pep talk” and some post-cavern ruminations, Eren starts to let go of that way of thinking, and he’s better off for it.

He still works hard, but he doesn’t think he has to carry the world on his back, and thanks to Historia and the military overshadowing him in Uprising, people in general expect less of him, too.

Eren had been liberated from people’s expectations.

Freedom also means freedom from the past.

The Eldians are dogged by their history. Every major villain so far has thought Eldians deserved to die for the sins of their ancestors.

Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie were brainwashed to believe Eldians were devil children.

The Marleyans hammer at that point to this day.

Zeke is convinced Eldians are a curse partly because of the animosity caused by the Empire’s history.

We haven’t seen King Fritz yet, but he’s probably the craziest one of them all. He is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo convinced that Eldians carry an irredeemable stain because of their ancestor’s actions that he’ll let their enemies slaughter them.

So it’s not just what people do in the present that can make you unfree. Attack on Titan is also about not being held back by the past.

There’s one more aspect of freedom in SNK to bring up, and I think it’s one of the more underappreciated ones: the importance of posterity.

Isayama loves children.

Soldiers in SNK are asked to devote their hearts for the sake of humanity. “Humanity” means not just people alive today, but their progeny.

People join the Survey Corps despite the high death rate because even if they die, they feel they’re contributing to a future their children can enjoy.

Erwin’s soldiers know they’ll die when they charge Zeke. Erwin sells them on it with talk of paving a way forward for future soldiers.

Parents who abandon their children are presented as bad or weak people. People like Grisha, Rod Reiss, Reiner’s mother.

Gabi is spared by Mr. Blouse because she’s just a child.

Zeke thinks being born is a curse and wants to sterilize a whole race.

Oh, and there was also that hilarious non-sequitur speech Onyankopon gave about children.

The heroes fight because they’re working to a free future for future generations. For their posterity.

Attack on Titan implores people to fight for our own freedom, but also for the freedom of our descendants.

So Attack on Titan has two major components to its message: violence is necessary, and freedom for yourself and your offspring is worth bloodying your hands for.

But fighting for freedom has its limits.

…aaand because I need to tie this post in to the actual chapter I’m supposed to be reviewing, I’m going to use Floch and Gabi to illustrate this point.

In this chapter an ice cream swirl takes flight, ready to fulfil his dreams. They are mercilessly shot down by a kid with a gun. How did we get here?

Floch and Gabi were two wild fanatics starting out.

Gabi was born into a family that had a warrior in it, and it’s clear she aspired to follow in his footsteps. She and Reiner were close, and she wanted to carry his legacy.

Floch joined the Survey Corps because he heard a call and decided to answer. He idolizes Eren, and sees him as an example to follow. Eren is vicious when he fights, and Floch thinks that makes him a good leader.

Both of them wanted to free their respective peoples. Paradis is stuck on an island and feared by everyone around them. The mainland Eldians are stuck in a ghetto and feared by everyone around them.

Gabi believed the mainland Eldians would prove their worth by destroying Paradis, thus displaying their virtuousness to the world.

But Gabi was also a bit self-serving, too. She also wanted to prove that she herself was a good Eldian. She was showered with praise because of how good a fighter she was; she was driven to become that good to prove her own value.

Gabi was raised to believe her self-worth came from how well she fought for Marley. Sources of self-esteem are external for her. They come from the gratification of others.

Floch’s self-esteem is also external. He derives all of his self-worth from his identity as an Eldian. He pounds his chest about the glory of the Empire because if Eldia is glorious, then he, as an Eldian, will be glorious.

He wants to bask in the warm, glowing light of world domination. Of the knowledge that his race is the most powerful group of people in all the world.

I don’t know if Floch believes that Eldians are superior to other races, but that’s not the point. In his mind, the power of Eldia and his own power are inextricably tied together.

The big difference between the two is that Gabi isn’t an idiot.

Say what you will about her, but Gabi is actually talented. She’s smart, strong, a good shot, a good fighter, and a dutiful soldier.

Floch’s only talent is his absolute shamelessness.

He has no moral compass, so he’s willing to do things that his enemies won’t. He’s also stupidly audacious, so he’ll do crazy stuff most won’t consider.

This allowed him to get the upper hand at first. People didn’t expect him to leak information about Eren’s imprisonment to the public or that they’d work with Eren directly.

But now that our heroes are going against him in basically a fair fight, he’s losing badly. The only strategy Floch’s puny brain can muster is to keep spamming our heroes with redshirts.

Compare Floch’s shamelessness to Gabi.

Gabi…is a good person.

She wants to prove her self-worth like Floch does, but she’s not fucking pathetic about it. All she wants is for herself and her people to be recognized as equal to everyone else.

She does not, in the end, want to revenge kill Marleyans just to feel big and strong.

She only wanted to wipe out Paradis because she was indoctrinated to think that way. Once she realized that Eldians on Paradis weren’t devilish, and that the Marleyan system was crap…she stopped hating Paradis and didn’t hate the Marleyans for it.

Floch, on the other hand, nurses a massive victimhood complex that he uses to justify genocide.

This is where the series draws a line between justified violence and unjustified violence.

Floch does not give a shit about human life. He kills people wantonly, and the lives of his own troops doesn’t seem to be a factor in his strategy this chapter.

Floch, very expressly, fights to oppress others and take away their freedom. His big talking point is about Eldian freedom, but in reality his actions go beyond that into cruelty.

Gabi, even when she was a brainwashed fanatic, was never sadistic and hasn’t done anything egregious that I can remember.

In this chapter, Gabi shot a killed people with her rifle. The Yeagerists…didn’t actually kill anyone this chapter, but they tried.

But Gabi is with the good guys because she’s right on principle and isn’t motivated by sadism, or personal insecurity, or a desire for revenge.

The same is true for all of the Cringevengers.

They’re all fighting to oppose global genocide.

The Yeagerists, including Floch, are fighting because they think global genocide is justified if it saves their country.

That is inherently selfish.

Those are the themes of the series in a nutshell.

This is where things start to get questionable.

First off, I object to how pervasive war and violence are shown to be. War is an institution, meaning it is the product of human behavior. That means human behavior can be changed to make war less violent and less common.

And war has, in fact, become less violent and less common.

Attack on Titan has paid lip service to that fact, (see: Gabi, above) but it remains that we are 95% into the story and there is still zero hope for a peaceful resolution.

There is almost zero chance the Cringevengers stop Eren. Even if they do, the world will be whipped into a fury at the destruction he caused, and not only would Paradis be wiped out, the mainland ghettos would conceivably be overrun by angry mobs and Eldians would be killed in the streets.

By the way, I think this would happen even if Magath had lived. I do not understand why people thought just one person’s word would have mattered at all.

Obviously it’s not a peaceful resolution of Eren destroys the world.

Secondly, while the series makes a point that excessive violence is bad, remember that the series also makes the point that appropriate violence is often bloodier than we’d like.

The issue, as I just said, is that Attack on Titan overestimates how often situations calling for violence come up, so functionally the series seems to lean in favor of violence as a general rule.

The series flat out conflates pacifism with defeatism.

King Fritz is a defeatist. He chooses to let his subjects die rather than work towards undoing the caste system that he ruled over.

Instead of making Marleyans equal to Eldians, he let the Marleyans do as they pleased while hiding out on Paradis.

And if the Marleyans came knocking, he was going to let them kill everyone.

He hoped to create a utopian world in the time that he could. This world was built on brainwashing and dictatorship.

But King Fritz’s ideology isn’t identified as defeatist in the story.

He’s identified as a pacifist.

This is why I always thought it was ridiculous that people said Attack on Titan was anti-war. As if a series that implores people to fight could be anti-war.

This chapter was good on its own. I didn’t even mind the violence since it’s a battle and the never ending bloodshed was conveyed really well.

Then the wider context of this fight came to mind…

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #snk 129 #snk chapter 129

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heathsbitch · 4 years ago

Text

Treat You Better ➳ PEAKY BLINDERS

i. RUNAWAY

"Why the fuck did you do that? What were ya fucking thinking?" Alfie Solomons screamed at his daughter, Ivy. He continued to shout words of abuse at the girl and she stood there silently, heart pounding against her ribcage. Alfie had sold Ivy off to a stranger for the night because she needed to 'be taught a lesson', in his words.

But she didn't like that and she certainly didn't agree with it.

Ivy had panicked when she arrived at the man's doorstep and ended up running away without a second thought as to what her father would do when he found out." You are a fucking disappointment to this family, a huge fucking mistake." Her father finished off his soliloquy with a sentence that stabbed straight through the girl's heart. Ivy and Alfie had always clashed, ever since her mother left. But she still loved the man, and the feelings were reciprocated; until that last word came tumbling from his mouth. "I hate you!" Ivy finally replied. Alfie's hand came crashing down onto his daughter's cheek. She fell to the floor, her hand clutching the point of collision. Her cheek burned with pain and tears threatened to spill from her icy eyes. Her knees shook as she tried to drag herself back into a standing position. Alfie's chest heaved as he watched his daughter on the floor, a war of emotions plaguing his head, 'Was that necessary?'

As soon as she gained her balance back, Ivy darted off to her room. Fading streaks of light from the streetlamps outside illuminated the small room. Wallpaper had begun to peel in the corners and the desk that sat in the corner was chipped with knife marks. With haste, the girl packed essential things in her bag and slipped two flip knives into either one of her boots. A gun rested in the holster strapped to her thigh for emergencies. Ivy had always been a cautious girl. Being the daughter of the infamous Alfie Solomons was a tough profession. Usually, she handled it well. But, this was the final straw. Ivy sprinted for the door, trying as hard as she could to avoid more confrontation with her father. As she hit the threshold to their home, shouts were heard from down the hallway, "Ivy, stop. Just think about what you're doing, yeah?"

She didn't listen.

The door slammed behind her and the bitter London streets hit the girl like a frozen wall of ice. Goosebumps rose on her skin, a shiver sliding through her body. She was dressed in a simple shirt and long skirt with some flat boots. "Should've brought a jacket." She whimpered to herself. She walked and walked. Ivy's boots slapped the grey pavement underneath. London was a dangerous city in the day, but she had no idea what it was like at night. Music from various clubs boomed through the streets. They stretched high into the night sky, casting eerie shadows upon her form and the foggy London streets. Callous laughter came from behind her. Ivy spun around on her heels to search for the origin of the sound. Two figures emerged from a side alley, both armed with what looked like small knives. "Shit." She whispered although no one could hear her. They advanced on the girl. "What's a pretty little thing like you doing out here at this time?" The taller man asked, a cockney accent sending even more shivers down Ivy's spine. The other one grabbed her arms from behind her ."No!" She yelled in protest. "Get off of me!" The girl wriggled, trying to get out of his grasp. The taller man swung his knife at her. It connected with Ivy's thigh, blood seeped out of the small cut. They started to drag her into a dark alley. Fists and legs were flying everywhere. Screams erupted from the teen's throat.

But it was of no use. She had to use a slightly more violent option.

Strong arms pinned her to the dirty floor of the alley way. It scratched her once-smooth skin, more crimson liquid began to stain her arms. She felt her skirt being lifted up. Her actions became more sporadic, until she could reach her boot. A cold object touched Ivy's fingertips. She tugged at it and thrusted it into one of the men. It was her knife. Blood came spurting out of the man, a pool formed at the girl's feet, partly tainting her leather boots. She hitched her skirt up just high enough so she could reach the small revolver that rested there. Bang! Bang! The bodies slapped the floor.

Silence. Her breaths came out, short and irregular. One thought raced through her head, 'What have I done?'

The girl's body shook and quivered, this time it wasn't the cold air. She heard shouts coming from the opening of the alley way. Ivy's legs gave way underneath her and her eyes started to droop. Arms grabbed the teen again, but they were to stop her from falling. "Fuck me." A strong Birmingham accent came from above. The world was spinning. Colours were merging with each other. "What the fuck happened here?" Another man said from above her, in a similar accent to the other one. The man that cradled the girl stayed still. He didn't speak. "Tommy. Tommy!" The first man shouted. Then he spoke. "We have to get her out of here." A simple instruction. "Did she just shoot them?" The second man spoke. "Help me." The supposed 'Tommy' said. No movement was heard so the man shouted again, "John, help me with her!" Her eyes gradually closed but she could feel her body being lifted up. Darkness consumed Ivy. Her consciousness drifted further and further away from her. She desperately tried to stay awake, but the void took over. The last thing she saw was a pair of piercing blue eyes.

"Remind me to never get on your bad side." His voice echoed throughout the empty hall. "Stop lying to me Ezekiel, I'm not that good." I complained as I gave the small revolver that once rested in my hand back to Ezekiel. The man chuckled, his voice reverberating and his smile stretched from ear to ear. He was a kind man and he never told any lies; I knew that. "I'm being serious, petal. You're incredibly talented, and lethal." With the last words falling from his thick lips, he grabbed my small frame and started to spin me around in his arms. Small squeals came from me as well as laughter from the pair of us. "Stop, I'm getting dizzy!" I warned and so the man complied, gently placing me back on my feet. I stumbled but Ezekiel kept a hold on me to support me. "Thank you, Zeke." I told him in a serious tone, His eyebrow twitched, "Why do you sound so serious? I only put you down." He chuckled. "For everything. You've always been so kind to me and you taught me how to fight. Not to mention your wife teaching me all she knew about looking after people. I'll never forget anything about you." I beamed. Tears brewed in the dark eyes of Ezekiel, his arms wrapping around me once more to pull me into a hug.

She woke up in an unfamiliar bed. It was only a dream, a memory, a lost memento.

The bed was comfortable, but foreign. Light flooded the basic room. Curtains hung above the chipped window sill. A shirt hung from the chair that sat at the old wooden desk. A cap hung on the back of the door. Something shiny was slightly poking out from it. Strange, 'Where am I?' Panic seeped through the small girl. 'Where am I? Am I with the men that tried to rape me? Where am I?' Then she remembered. She had killed those men and three different ones found her. They were from Birmingham, she thought, one of them was called Tommy, the leader presumably. Ivy tried to sit up but pain coursed through her small frame. Her eyes drifted to her arms. Cuts and bruises lay scattered over them. But there was no blood, someone had cleaned them. The door opened and a man with dark hair stepped in. "Good. You're awake." He said. She tried to sit up again, she wanted to defend herself. She didn't know if the man was dangerous or not. "It's alright, you can relax. If I wanted to hurt you, I would've done it by now." He sat on the bed next to Ivy and grunted in the process. She could see his face clearer now. She thought that it was the man that caught her, Tommy. He had the same piercing blue eyes. His jaw was sharp and his lips were thick and pursed but chapped. "Are you alright?" The girl nodded, scared to speak. The man put his large hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her, she flinched. "I'm not going to hurt you. We want to help you," We? Who else was here? "Now, can you tell me what happened in that street? The night we found you."

The pictures came flooding back into her mind. The bodies. The blood. The barbarity. Nausea pooled in her stomach. "It's alright if you can't tell me now. We can speak later." 'Tommy' stood up and walked over to the door. "I have some business to attend to now. Get some rest." And with that, he left. Ivy's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Nothing made sense.

She lied in that bed for roughly ten minutes before she got bored. So, she decided to go exploring. The man said he had business to do so he was out, that meant that she was probably home alone. Groaning in pain, Ivy managed to drag herself from the bed and to the mirror on the other side of the bleak room. "Shit," She breathed out with a laugh; a large purple bruise covered half of her right cheek. A deep gash ran along the corner of her eyebrow and her bottom lip was split. She ran her injured hands over the wounds on her face then smirked. 'At least I fought back.' She thought. The girl wore the same clothes from the day before, at least, she thought it was the day before. Her shirt was ripped at the sleeves, though, and tainted with blood. Her skirt was still fully in-tact. She no longer wore her boots which meant that she didn't have her knives to hand. She quickly lifted up her skirt to check if her holster and gun was still there. The holster was but the gun wasn't. Her eyes briefly scanned the room in search for the weapons, just in case she needed to defend herself from the strangers. They were nowhere to be found along with her bag. He must've taken them. Smart.

Curiosity got the better of the teen. She stumbled out of the room and started to explore the stranger's house. She was stood in a dark corridor with a steep staircase stretched out in front of her. She knew it was rude to go snooping around a stranger's house, but she was a very curious person. On the walls were pictures, some holding quotes from the Bible and some holding family photos. There was this one picture at the bottom of the stairs, though. Three men stood side by side, all in uniform. One of them the girl recognised to be the man that came into the room, Tommy. The other two must've been the others in the alley. She smiled at the picture. The men that were in that photo were probably completely different now. No one really came back from the war, but at least they fought for their country. Ivy moved into the kitchen. Green decor lit up the room. The smell of smoke and whiskey filled her nose.

Her ears pricked at the voices that she heard. She was alone in the room as she had been through the rest of the house. She turned around to look at the wall where the voices were coming from. A huge, velvet curtain hung there. The girl laughed at how obvious it was. Pulling it back, Ivy saw a double door hidden behind it. "Interesting." She mumbled to herself.

Taking in a deep breath, she opened the doors. Her breath hitched in her throat when she saw a very large number of men stood in the secret room. They stopped talking and all stared at the small girl. "Tommy!" A man with a wonky hat yelled "She's awake." She looked around the room. 'Is this a betting shop?' Ivy thought. A green board with multiple names and numbers scribbled on it sat at the opposite end of the room. Rooms with bars for walls were dotted around as well. There seemed to be an orange hew to the room which danced with the shadows of the workers.

A boy, similar to Ivy's age, walked in from around the corner. He had pursed lips, auburn hair and was wearing a similar cap to the one she had seen in the bedroom. His eyes immediately met hers and his lips twitched. Her heart pounded against her chest, but the world went silent. Someone was shaking her shoulders but she couldn't take her eyes off of the boy.

"Oi, are you alright?" The man with the wonky hat was the one shaking the girl. Up close, he was quite handsome. Bright eyes, although not as bright as Tommy's, and thick lips. He was one of the soldiers from the photo, the youngest of the three by the looks of it. "Tommy wants you in his office." She didn't move because she didn't know where Tommy's office was. The man in front of her realised this and shouted to the boy that had previously caught her eye. "Finn, take her to Tommy's office. He wants to speak to 'er."

The boy, Finn, came closer to Ivy and tripped in the process. His face flushed a bright shade of red. She tried to contain her giggles, but still didn't move. "Alright Finn boy, keep your cock in your pants." Finn's face turned an even darker shade of crimson at the comment and lightly took her arm in his hand. "Come on." He said timidly. He led the girl to a very well decorated room. A tall woman with short, dark hair sat at a desk, "She can go straight in." She told Finn. He very quickly let go of her and dashed back to the other room. Ivy hesitated before opening the door.

The room was fairly large. Golden decorations scattered the rim of it. A small table lay in the centre, three chairs sat neatly underneath it. This room was nicer than the entirety of the house. If he could afford a room like this, why couldn't he get a better house? With caution, the teenager walked up the steps that led to his desk. "I see you're up and about. Sit down," She looked at the plush chair in front of her before sitting down. She winced in pain; her injuries crippled her small body. His gaze bore through the girl. Tommy scared her in a way. He had a very dominant air about him. He reminded Ivy of her own father, in a strange way.

"What's your name?" Tommy asked, leaning onto his desk. "Ivy, sir. Ivy Solomons." His eyebrow twitched at her last name. Clearly he recognised it. "Any relation to Alfie Solomons?" His brow furrowed as he intently listened for an answer. "Yes, he's my father." Panic began to seep through the girl, how did he know her father? Who was this man? "Why aren't you with him?" Tommy lent back in his chair but his ears were still pricked, keen to hear what the Solomons girl had to say. "I-I ran away." The girl stuttered as her heart slammed against her chest. Tommy pulled a small, silver tin from his pocket as he processed her words. "Why?" A cigarette was pulled from the case, a lighter then held up to its end. The man's eyes met the girl again as he slipped it into his mouth. Ivy tried to think of something to say, 'He can't know the truth, I can't go back to Alfie.'

"Why did you run away, Ivy?"

"H-he used to beat me and we got into another argument. I-I just couldn't take it anymore." Tears began to slip from her eyes, tiny sobs slipping from her lips. She cast her eyes to the floor, her hands coming to wipe the tears from her eyes. Tommy's brows furrowed again before he spoke, "Ivy, look at me," She complied, their eyes meeting once more. "It's alright, Alfie can't hurt you here."

"You can't protect me, no one can." More sobs racked the girl's body. "We can. You're in Birmingham. We're the Peaky Blinders. And I'm Thomas Shelby. No one can touch you here."

ii. A NEW FRIEND

MASTERLIST

A/N: This is a Finn Shelby x OC x Michael Gray love triangle, NOT a Finn x Michael fanfic. There will be smut in later chapters, it will be clearly marked so if you’re not comfortable with that then you can skip over it. Thank you and I hope you enjoy!

#finn shelby #harry kirton #michael gray #finn cole #alfie solomons #tommy shelby #smut #fluff #peaky blinders #treat you better

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