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world0fmadness · 4 months ago

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FUNNEL OF LOVE

nico rosberg x wife! reader x ( platonic! ) oc daughter

♡ general headcanons for a valentine’s day with nico!

୨୧ my man my man my man! love him so much… i know valentine’s day has very much passed but just let me live <3 this takes place before little ladybug is born

♡ related smau available here, related hc available here and here | view my formula 1 masterlist here

reading music recommendations: funnel of love by wanda jackson - i wanna be loved by you by helen kane

♡ you and nico send rosie to her grandparents house the night before valentine’s day!

୨୧ as much as you both absolutely adore your little rabbit, rosie has been with you guys every valentine’s day since she was born…

♡ so for this one, you decided to spend it with just the two of you at home <3

୨୧ luckily you didn’t even have to try and convince her to go to her grandparents house for two days, she absolutely loves them and spending nights at their house

♡ it was honestly harder for nico to stop asking her if she has everything she needs, say bye and get back in the car after dropping her off… he hates saying bye to his little rabbit, even if he’s literally picking her up in the morning of the day after valentine’s day…

୨୧ you don’t think you guys have any plans, you’re probably just going to let your life flow with the day! oh boy, you’re wrong!

♡ when the morning of valentine’s day rolls around, you wake up ( much later than usual ) to the absence of nico’s arms holding you like they usually are…

୨୧ slightly peeved, you slide out of bed and make the short journey downstairs, looking for your husband

♡ you find him in the kitchen, cooking pancakes for you and they smell amazing

୨୧ when he notices you in the doorway, he gives you a beaming smile and comes over to give you a peck on the lips before telling you to go relax in the living room

“ good morning, miene liebe! you look beautiful this morning, as always, go watch some tv hm? breakfast, or i suppose brunch, will be done soon ” ( you’ll never understand how he’s such a morning person )

♡ while sitting in the living room, you can faintly hear him humming to himself and mumbling though you can’t make out what he’s saying

୨୧ when the pancakes are done, nico comes sauntering in to the living room, bending down to give you another kiss before giving you your plate and sitting down next to you with his, gesturing for you to lean into his side as you always do

♡ while eating, you notice nico is suspiciously smiley and giddy… but alas, you don’t say anything, figuring he’s just enjoying the peace of the morning without your crazy little rabbit running around and making a mess ( you should’ve known that wasn’t the reason, seeing his girl run around and make a mess does make nico happy because she’s happy )

୨୧ eventually after breakfast, nico asks you if you’d like to go into the local village with him, telling you he has to pick something up

♡ you’re even more confused now… pick something up? he hasn’t told you about him ordering anything and he doesn’t explain

୨୧ your curiosity is too strong and you agree, both of you heading upstairs to change into some day clothes

♡ nico could never get tired of watching you get ready, he thinks you’re the most beautiful person he’d ever seen and after giving him a child his love only grew stronger

୨୧ on the drive, his free hand rests on your leg, holding your hand under his, gently squeezing it every now and then… eventually, you ask what it is he’s picking up

“ it’s a surprise, meine liebe, you’ll know soon enough… ”

♡ when you drive into the village, the car pulls up outside of the cutest little flower store and nico asks you to wait in the car, giving you a kiss on the cheek before getting out

୨୧ you watch him enter the shop through the car windows, wondering what exactly he has planned…

♡ less than five minutes of him entering the shop, you see the door open and out he walks wearing a big grin and holding a gorgeous bouquet of assorted pink flowers in his right hand

୨୧ when he gets back in the car, you’re immediately leaning over the console and smothering him in kisses, thanking him as he goes to hand you the bouquet

“ you’re welcome, miene liebe, only the best for my beauty ”

♡ you’re beaming for the whole drive home, admiring the flowers as nico’s eyes drift over to you every once and a while, looking at you with a certain gleam in his eyes… oh, he’s not done

୨୧ when you arrive home, he’s helping you get out of the car ( opening the door for you and offering his hand, treating you like a princess getting out of a horse pulled carriage ) whilst you chuckle

♡ as you’re putting the flowers away in a vase, marvelling at them as they sit on the kitchen table, nico tells you to relax as he’s going to run a bath for the two of you

୨୧ and you do, by the time he calls you upstairs and you wander into the bathroom, the bath is full with a small layer of bubbles and petals on top… lit candles scattered throughout the bathroom which causes a smell of roses to enter your nose <3

♡ as you get in, you sit back against his chest, one of his hands stroking the side of your cheek whilst the other rests on your hip under the warm water

୨୧ the steam rising from the water makes you sigh, leaning your head back against his neck and gently kissing it as he looks down at you with nothing but love swirling around in his eyes

“ you’re so beautiful, miene liebe, i feel like i don’t tell you that enough, you know? ” ( he absolutely does, he tells you at least ten times a day )

♡ you guys must spend an hour in the bath, just giggling between yourselves as you place bubbles on each other’s face

୨୧ eventually, you both get out, the water having gone extremely lukewarm and nico tells you to get dressed up however you’d like as he has a reservation booked for dinner ( yet another thing you had no idea about but were very pleasantly surprised by )

♡ it’s quite a drive into the city where the restaurant is so it makes sense, by the time you get there it’ll be around dinner time

୨୧ when you’re getting ready, nico is again admiring you all whilst getting himself dressed up at the same time, buttoning up his shirt wrong as he was too hypnotised by you…

♡ you giggle as you point it out to him, reaching over to fix them for him as he chuckles

“ well, can you blame me? i was just too focused on the living art piece that stands before me ” ( god, he’s such a sap… but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t love it )

୨୧ you two look amazing as you prepare to leave, making sure your hair is fine and spraying on some perfume before you take nico’s awaiting arm and walk out the door

♡ on the lengthy drive to the restaurant, nico hums to whatever is playing on the radio as you admire him from the side… he notices and sends you a wink before beginning to talk about his little rabbit

“ i really am so proud of our little rabbit, miene liebe… she’s getting so big, so smart, so beautiful… just like her mother ” ( he has that proud dad smile on his face as he thinks about his little rabbit )

୨୧ when you reach the restaurant, nico again helps you exit the car, holding your bag for you and taking your hand

♡ the restaurant is beautiful, of course it is! nico wouldn’t settle for anything less for his beauty

୨୧ as you’re seated, nico takes your hand over the table, gently stroking over your fingers whilst you browse the menu

♡ dinner is unsurprisingly amazing, you and nico having giving each other taste tests of your food, jokingly trying to decide who has the best taste in food

୨୧ as you pay the bill and leave, both of you have the most lovesick smiles on your face, anyone passing you two would be able to tell how much you adore each other just by the look on your faces

♡ by the time you get home, nico is covered in lipstick kiss prints due to how many times you kissed him thank you for the amazing day on the way home ( i mean, really, you attacked him with kisses at every red light )

୨୧ as you enter the house, nico suddenly gasps and shouts at you to stay put in the living room, absolutely do NOT come to the bedroom!

♡ you’re laughing as he speed walks away and up the stairs, wondering what his final surprise of the day is…

୨୧ after a couple of minutes, he calls you up though when you reach the bedroom door it’s closed and nico is standing against it

♡ he takes your hand in his and suddenly goes on a huge ramble about how much he loves you, how happy you and your little rabbit make him, how he wishes he could give you the world… and how he hopes today brought you some happiness

୨୧ by the time it’s over, he’s almost out of breath and you’re nearly in tears, softly smacking him on the shoulder and telling him of course today made you happy, every day with him makes you happy, you could sit and watching paint dry with him but you’d still be so over the moon because you’re with him

♡ you’re both softly making out in the hallway after your shared confessions of love towards each other and he quietly gasps into your mouth, realising oh my god, you’re making out in the hallway like teenagers whilst the bedroom is right behind you!

୨୧ you share a laugh at his realisation before finally opening the bedroom door and you’re greeted by a dimly lit room, some lit candles spread around and flower petals laying atop your bed… so that’s what he was doing up here!

♡ you immediately turn to look at him and he gives a soft smile

“ wanted to give you one last surprise, you deserve so many, miene liebe… ”

୨୧ you smash your mouth against his, pushing him over to the bed as his hands wander your body, stripping each other of your clothes, the following two hours ( yes, two hours! listen, it’s been a while since you’ve really been able to get down and dirty since you’re had rosie ) are filled with sounds of pleasure filling the room, open mouth kisses being shared between you both as you make love on rose scented sheets

♡ oh yeah, this is the best valentine’s day you’ve had in a long time…

ynln: happy valentine’s day, i had the pleasure of begin treated like a princess by my own prince! ladies, don’t settle for anyone less than nico 🌸 🫧 🦢

nicoynforever: when will i find someone that treats me how nico treats yn? 💔

nicorosberg ✔️: only the best for you, miene liebe ❤️

loveyounico: where’s little rabbit?

> nicoynforever: in all of their past valentine’s day posts she’s been there so this must be their first without her 🥹

oldf1lover: that 6th picture… god, they look so good

#nico rosberg x reader #f1 x reader #f1 fanfic #f1 imagine #f1 headcanons #f1 smau #fluff headcanons #headcanons

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itsclydebitches · 4 years ago

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Worthy”

Happy Saturday, everyone! I mean that seriously for once. Regardless of what I have to say about this episode — and as always, there's a lot — I want it on the record that "Worthy" was leagues ahead of... pretty much everything else we've gotten lately. For all of RWBY's continuing problems, there's a level of effort here that I really do appreciate. Especially for the penultimate episode.

Our title, "Worthy," immediately conjures thoughts of Watts' speech about Cinder needing to be "worthy" of the power she craves and, what do you know, our villains work hard to prove their worth this episode. Hallelujah! We start with the heroes though and do you recall how last week I said that our opening may as well be a summary of the whole series since Volume 6, what with the grimm conveniently avoiding the team's airship and them just looking vaguely sad that the people around them are perishing? Well, same here. Or rather, same problems, different flavor. Oscar opens with the question, "What do we do now?" and no sooner has he asked that then the magic portal appears to give him the answer. Useful!

More seriously though, I've been intensely side-eyeing the group's wish since last week. Not (just) because of the awful decision to turn Penny human, but simply because the story emphasized how "smart" the group was, heavily insisting that their portal plan is a masterpiece of well thought out strategy... and I really don't think it is. There was a lot of confusion last episode about how exactly the group was using the vault, with my own interpretation — that they were funneling everyone to Vacuo's vault — proven wrong today, but one of the problems brought up was how Ambrosius could possibly create portals across a kingdom precisely where the group needs them. Yang asks him,

"Can you make a bunch of doorways in Atlas that open at a single spot in Vacuo?"

To which, simply, Ambrosius says no. He'd need, among other things, "coordinates and specs for each door" and "an explanation for bending space and time."

This is why, prior to the very end of "Creation" where we saw portals appearing everywhere, I thought using both vaults was the solution. Ambrosius knows (or can easily receive) the coordinates for his own vault and the one in Vacuo. As weird, alternate dimensions, they're potentially capable of bending space and time as necessary. If you put the portal in Atlas' vault and open it up in Vacuo's vault, you're golden. The only challenge now is getting everyone in the kingdom to the Winter Maiden's vault.

But then... that didn't happen. Apparently the vault just becomes the in-between place for everyone to pass through and the portals appear all over the kingdom, even though the group didn't provide those "coordinates and specs." What they did was show Ambrosius a schematic of the cities. That's not the same thing as telling him precisely where each portal needs to appear — which is what he asked for. I bring this long-winded explanation up not merely to emphasize "RWBY's wish isn't as smart as the story wants you to believe it is" but because this wreaks havoc on who is getting a portal. How did the group tell Ambrosius precisely where to put a portal for Jaune's group? Why didn't they try to make one appear for Qrow and Robyn? Or Winter? Or Pietro and Maria? They had to have been somewhat specific in terms of saying where these portals appeared because if they just wished for everyone to get one, Jacques and Ironwood would have gotten one too. Basically, the portals do appear for characters whose “Worthy” plot now takes place in this in-between space and the portals do not appear for those whose plot is still taking place in Atlas. That's a mess. To say nothing of how it implies that our heroes just don't give a damn about all their other allies — including an uncle (Ruby, Yang) and a father (Penny) — and that, ultimately, Ambrosius did the very thing he initially said wouldn't work. He put a bunch of doors around Atlas that opened on a single point in Vacuo without making the group meet these requirements first. The rest is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo to distract the viewer from the fact that none of this actually makes sense.

But that's a tangent. To get back on track, Jaune's group decides to "spread the word on foot" since they can't contact anyone via their scrolls anymore. What this translates to is Jaune going to one spot and Nora doing the rest of the work because she can suddenly ride her hammer like a broomstick.

You know what? I'm fine with it. Have we ever seen Nora do this before? Not that I recall. Is it a cute image that feeds my witch-loving brain? Yeeeeeaah.

They're not sure if the portals are safe though and everyone turns to Jaune as the joke test subject. Except everyone else is right behind him when the go through? Even the jokes in this show aren't consistent.

What I do like though is that we get another interesting team split: Oscar, Emerald, and Ren heading to Vacuo while Jaune and Nora help with the evacuation — even though Nora and Jaune aren't actually doing anything together. Still, I can see that (for this volume at least) RT has taken the duo criticisms to heart. It would have been incredibly easy to attach Nora and Ren at the hip again, despite her desire for space, so I'm glad that they're still striving to mix things up a bit.

Nora says that Shade is "armed to the teeth with huntsmen and huntresses." It is? I mean sure, it has its school, but so did Vale. So did Atlas. In fact, we've spent the last two volumes emphasizing that Atlas is really the only armed kingdom remaining. Remember the plan for them to protect the world after knowledge of Salem's existence threw everything into disarray? Well, the people know about Salem now. And Salem herself is attacking. And they're about to slam an entire kingdom into another one. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Nora ends her observations with the assertation that Vacuo will need as much help as they can get, but that worry feels far, far too late. Where were these concerns when Ruby made her announcement to the world in the first place? The fact that the group never went, "Hey, is it really worth telling people about Salem now when we can no longer provide the protection against the grimm that this announcement will necessitate? Yeah, we need backup, but can they even get here in time? I don't think so. Maybe we should hold off and try to find a way to solve this ourselves. Or, at the very least, just tell them Atlas is facing a massive grimm attack. That won't create quite the same panic as 'Magic immortal lady eager to kill you all' will."

Our heroes only acknowledge these problems when they're already neck deep in them. Forethought is not their strong suit.

For our obligatory humor, the people of Atlas are hiding behind the staircase after the evil portal appeared (weren't there, like, twenty of them in the last episode?) and a brave dude trying to toss a rock through accidentally hits Jaune. He — I kid you not — uses the Atlas huntsmen license gifted to him by Ironwood to gain authority over the group.

Talk about the story being tone deaf.

We segue to a shot of Penny who flies herself through the portal using the Maiden powers, precisely as she would have with her boots. Okay, I try not to pull many "I told you so"s because that's rude, petty, and all around just shit behavior... but boy is it tempting at times. Because RWBY's fandom is so staunchly against criticism that even the most polite pushbacks boil down to an equally rude "Just wait" mentality. Readers of these recaps know we were told to "just wait" for the group to talk to Ozpin. Or "just wait" for them to be punished for their crimes. "Just wait" for the complex forgiveness arc the group is sure to undergo with Emerald. "Just wait" is the go-to response when someone doesn't entirely disagree with our problems with the show, but still believes we're not giving RT enough credit. Most recently, I was told to "just wait" in regards to Penny. We don't actually know that her body is human. We don't actually know that her Maiden powers will still be the same. We don't actually know that this won't be the start of a long journey wherein she has to figure out how to use this new body, both on the battlefield and off. And the issue of RWBY failing to answer any of these questions isn’t valid criticism either because the only point being made here is that we’re not patient and supportive enough. Just wait. RT will prove you wrong.

Well... Penny's body still appears entirely human, her Maiden powers still work just fine, and now they've given her the ability to create all her old weapons out of aura, meaning she fights exactly the same as she did before.

The only thing making Penny human did was force her to fight barefoot. Oh, and erase her journey of accepting herself as an android.

Again, I don't want to be that asshole, especially when so many people want the show to be better — just like I do. By all means, hold out hope with me. But before slamming into someone's inbox to explain why they're being too negative because things are bound to be taken seriously down the road, keep in mind the staggering number of times we've decided to "just wait" and nothing ever came of it. Keep in mind that RWBY should be tackling these questions and expectations from the start. Now here we are, disappointed again. We're not pessimistic because we want to be, we're pessimistic because there's a clearly established pattern at play.

So Penny's change is, at this point, meaningless for her development and, at this point, we've lost the chance to introduce challenges later. If RT does, we're forever going to wonder why Penny didn't express any doubts upon waking up in a human body, or why she didn't face any problems while fighting another Maiden. Like Emerald getting the group to laugh and immediately being trusted with important duties, it's too late to suddenly backtrack and insist that there's still work to be done here. RT missed their chance.

That fight is a few minutes off though. For now, Oscar and the others arrive in Vacuo to discover that there's a sandstorm going on. Who could have ever expected that?

Seriously though, this is just one of the many reasons why our heroes come across as stupid. They deliberately chose to send everyone "outside the city limits of Vacuo," in a desert kingdom, after Ruby got the entire world panicked about Salem, and they somehow didn't think that a) weather might be a problem or b) grimm were going to show up? These characters have been though enough shit that they should be planning for the worst and hoping for the best, not planning for the best and assuming the worst just won't happen to them. Why wouldn't they have everyone appear inside the kingdom if they (against Ambrosius' rules) got to choose where everyone ended up? Why in the world would they rely on communications being up when CCT has been spotty since Volume 3 and Watts just took out Atlas’ entire system? Our characters don't think anything through — despite Ambrosius’ claims otherwise — and it makes for some pretty awful characterization. Because RWBY isn't trying to be a story about teenagers seriously messing up their attempts at heroics, it's trying to be a story about True Heroes... and we're just supposed to ignore the endless number of times the group doesn't think the most basic problems through. So now, Oscar and the other stand there doing nothing for the rest of the episode because a sandstorm in the desert threw a wrench in their plans.

The only reason I didn’t bring this up last week is because I had no idea they had chosen to dump everyone outside of the city. I thought they were going to the vault, or at the very least appearing inside the border. Why wouldn’t you send everyone to the city??

It’s so stupid, but then Cinder arrives and blows a whole bunch of people off the edge of the pathways. HELL YEAH.

I mean, obviously not hell yeah for the poor civilians who just took a tumble, but yay the villain causing some damage. It's small potatoes compared to what we were promised at the end of last volume — Salem decimating a whole kingdom in The Fall of Atlas — but at least it's more than we were getting last week.

So Cinder is having her evil fun when the entire group leaves Penny to go after her. Again, stupid. You're going to leave the girl who (at this point) may not have been in a position to fight with her new body and stands vulnerable with a Relic? Not a single member stays behind to guard her? It would have served Team RWBY right if Neo had shown up and just clocked Penny, taking a second Relic for herself.

Cinder taunts the group with information she shouldn't have: “Your little friend Oscar was right, but the easy part ends here" then mimics them with the question "How’d you know about that?” at their shocked looks. This starts a flashback where we return to Cinder, Neo, and Watts in the alleyway.

Again Cinder is given more development than a supposed hero like Emerald, apologizing to Neo for not upholding her end of their bargain. In fact, Cinder displays more growth here than our entire title characters combined, it's just that her growth turns her into a better villain. She apologizes to Neo, compliments Watts as a means of acknowledging the work he's accomplished — “You tore this kingdom apart with nothing but your intellect. How about we finish what you started?” — and tells the heroes that she did learn something from them: “Sometimes, if you want to win, you simply can’t do it alone.”

I quite like all of this. Again, not that Cinder should be our biggest threat with Salem on the scene, but if you remove that context this is a great moment for her. She's actually learned something, but instead of following in the rather abrupt and, in Hazel's case, nonsensical footsteps of her peers, what she's learned has made her more dangerous, not a sudden, convenient ally. Since Volume 7 RWBY has hammered home the idea that only friends can truly be a good team and now, well, Cinder is kind of making friends. She's apologizing to Neo. She seems glad that Watts is happy. RWBY took the concept of working together and applied it to our villains with devastating effect. Team RWBY has been skating by on the idea that power comes from friendship, so what happens if your enemies become weird friends too?

To be clear, this doesn't erase the staggering number of other problems with Cinder's character, or the villains as a unit, or the volume as a whole... but it is an interesting step in the right direction. Props for that.

Granted, outside of the fight itself, the villains don't really win because they're smart, the heroes are just — again — staggeringly stupid. Cinder promises to get Ruby for Neo if she can ask Jinn a question... which she does!

This moment could have been avoided if our heroes had just put the Lamp in the vault. Or not had Oscar carrying it around. Or used up the wish after they'd already summoned Jinn. Cinder's victory here rests entirely on her own enemies' ineptitude. At least she has the smarts to exploit it. She asks Jinn what the group's plan is and our three villains are shown the revelation outside after saving Penny and the discussions that took place in the dining room. They learn everything they need to inflict maximum chaos.

And it’s great.

Three other details of note:

Cinder spots Emerald with the heroes during Jinn's vision, but doesn't have much of a reaction beyond her expression tightening.

Jinn looks sad when she reveals the group's plan, reinforcing the idea that she's biased towards our heroes. I'd be more on board with that characterization if a) she weren't created by Light whose own Good Guy persona is dubious at best, and b) she wasn't so cruel towards Ozpin. Again, it's just this strange insistence that everyone adore Ruby Rose.

Neo reveals the Relic by pulling it out of Roman's hat. Uh... is that how hats work? They contain objects twice their height? While resting on someone's head? This wasn't one of Neo's illusions, she literally just pulled it out like a real world magician. That's weird. Showy, but weird.

Anyway, the flashback continues as the villains infiltration the Atlas military headquarters. I really enjoyed the music and cinematography here. It's a strangely uplifting tune — rather Cinderella-esque — which doesn't appear to work until you remember that these moments are through Cinder's perspective. Of course this is a Happy Ending for her — even if it's not for the audience. The quick cut between her summoning some fire and the whole room alight, bodies everywhere, was an excellent touch.

The happiness of this moment is then emphasized by Neo skipping as she beats people and Watts admitting that this is "everything I’ve ever wanted." I'm really digging the contrast between this scene's celebratory nature and the knowledge that the story is celebrating the wrong characters. It creates an enjoyably uncomfortable feeling for us and helps flesh out the villains more. From their perspective, life is good.

There's even a shot of that #1 Dad mug. Sometimes, RWBY gets it right.

Watts in particular is enjoying himself. He snags a discarded apple — no fairy tale symbolism there, I'm sure — and casually rubs the blood off it before taking a bite. This guy has style!

Watts watches Jaune try to send out his message to the kingdom and cuts communication at the worst possible moment. But then, we knew that already.

Elsewhere in the facility, Robyn and Qrow are trying to round up the Ace Ops. They all feel Atlas shake, realizing that the group has used the Relic, and Elm is appropriately horrified. "They'll destroy the kingdom!" Robyn says some self-righteous words about how a kingdom is made up of its people, not the land it exists on, which, while ignoring the importance of land to so many cultures, completely ignores that right now the majority of people are still on Atlas, or below it, including them. "They set the house alight!" someone cries. "Who cares about a stupid house," Robyn says, uncaring that the entire family still resides inside and she's starting to inhale smoke.

As Robyn tries to paint herself as a hero, Watts hacks one of the droids and sets it to self-destruct, telling it to run full-tilt at the group. Their weapons don't stop it and at the last second Marrow throws himself in front to take the blast, shattering his aura. Uh... after everything we've seen in this show, a single, small explosion wipes out his aura? I don't care about that so much here, but I absolutely care about it for an upcoming scene. Keep this in mind.

Also, I'm not going to get into the potential problems of trying to execute Marrow, beating up Marrow, and then blowing up Marrow. Others can tackle that leviathan of a subject.

At least he survived? But only RT knows if Robyn and Qrow bothered to put him on their ship.

Because as Atlas begins to fall Harriet, free of Marrow's semblance, races for an airship going off the edge of the open parking garage. Idk what else to call that space. I'm sure there's something appropriately military-esque, but we're going with parking garage for now lol. This is the one — one — moment where I felt like the Ace Ops were actually written like they weren't friends, what with Harriet's willingness to race off and leave them behind. Again though, it's too late and there are, frankly, other aspects to consider. Like the fact that Marrow just betrayed her. I don't think she's in the right mind for trusting the rest of her team, especially when there are only seconds to save herself.

Vine uses his stretchy arms to grab hold of her ship though and heaves himself on board.

Cutting to the jail, Ironwood wakes up and is greeted with a despondent Jacques. As Ironwood realizes that the group has the Staff, Jacques goes, "That's right, you lose! … we both lose." Before there can be any interesting discussion though, Ironwood's cell... goes out???

I suppose the explanation for this is things falling apart as Atlas descends, but man is that another moment of head-scratching convenience. What's even worse is that Winter apparently just left his weapons beside the cell. "Hey, what should we do with Ironwood's giant gun?" "Idk, leave it for him on the off chance us removing the city's power source wreaks havoc with the electrical bars?" I mean seriously. At least Qrow had to go find his weapon in a locker.

For a second Jacques is thrilled, sure that Ironwood will open his cell too... right?

He does open the cell, by blasting the whole thing to smithereens, Jacques included.

You all know I'm horribly disappointed with how they've written Ironwood, but I can't bring myself to dredge up any fury over this murder. It's Jacques. You know, the abuser and slave owner who has never shown a single shred of decency? Can't say I'm sorry to see him gone, especially since one of the Schnee girls were never going to kill him. The only other thing they could have done was have Jacques die an accidental death.

So villain!Ironwood can have another murder, as a treat.

Meme jokes aside, it's interesting that Ironwood's never-seen-before-last-episode gun produces a green blast and fire. It looks incredibly similar to what Penny created as an android and the fire around her Maiden eyes. Unlike Watts' apple though, I don't think this is a parallel RT intentionally included. Not unless we want to dig deep for more “Metal bodies = evil” symbolism, but there’s already plenty more persuasive examples of that.

Returning to Team RWBY, we finally come to the highlight of the episode: Yang falling off the edge.

Okay, I want to praise RWBY for having the guts to kill off a main character... but we all know they haven't killed off a named character. If next episode — or perhaps even next volume — it's revealed that Yang is really dead, I'll happily eat these words. For now though, this is not the consequence that RWBY critics have asked for. This is, in fact, quite a mess.

Let's count up all the ways this scene has failed spectacularly.

No one believes that Yang is actually dead. Not just because she's a title character, not just because Ambrosius never confirmed that the void was deadly or even dangerous — "Don't fall," however ominous, doesn't actually tell us what happens to someone who falls — but also because we have been here before. Three volumes ago. Remember how it looked like Weiss would die only for Jaune to unlock his semblance and save her? Yeah. The audience is both genre and RWBY savey. This cliffhanger feels cheap because absolutely no one is fooled.

Feel familiar?

Worse, Yang falls because of another round of stupidity. Nothing about this moment is convincing.

First, she notices Neo sneaking up on Ruby. What's her reaction? To flare her semblance, charge her in fury, and be horribly injured. Oh wow, where have we seen this before?

This is the exact same series of events from Volume 3. A loved one of Yang's is about to be harmed, she gets mad, charges without thinking, and takes the brunt of the attack herself, resulting in a far more serious injury than likely would have otherwise occurred. Emotionally understandable, but stupid. More importantly, it's the exact thing Tai tried to warn her about. The fandom praised Yang's arc because she got a moment of calm with Mercury, but since then we’ve ignored that development, reverting Yang to the same, impulsive fighter as before. Volume 6 showed us this problem in a non-combat setting and this moment solidifies it. Yang has learned absolutely nothing since Beacon. She's the same protective, reckless fighter she was back then, getting herself grievously injured because she can't think before she acts. What was the point of sending her on that journey if she was never going to improve?

Neo cuts through Yang's aura in a single hit. A single hit. These characters have long, drawn out fights filled with crazy attacks and you're telling me a single slice of Neo's weapon is enough to shatter Yang's aura? Really, aura has been an absurd plot device for a while, but this volume has been particularly bad. Ren's aura breaks so the group is spotted by Salem's grimm, but then is back just a few minutes later so he can see purple petals around Emerald. Jaune's aura is said to be running just as low, but then is totally fine to boost Penny for the next hour until she reaches the vault. Now, Yang has had just as much time to rest as they do, but she’s instantly taken out?

This is a problem not because the loss of aura itself sends her over, but because the hit was apparently so powerful Yang passes out. She's groggy at least, blearily looking at everyone as she falls, but not reacting to them and, importantly, not trying to save herself.

Yang could have reached for Blake's throw. She has a landing strategy. She could have blasted herself up, or towards any of the three paths she falls past. Instead she just... plummets. In a show where our characters are introduced through their ability to survive being launched off a cliff. Neo's attack needs to be miraculously incapacitating to justify — "justify" — Yang doing nothing to get out of this situation, in an episode where, minutes later, Ren's aura will also go out (again) but he's standing up and ready to fight a horde of grimm. But losing her aura through one hit somehow incapacities Yang?

Also, to ward off the expected claims: she didn't hit her head. Yang's back hit the path and her eyes were closed before she ever made contact. Neo's hit just... knocked her out.

That's absurd.

Worse than her not helping herself, no one else on her team helps either. Except Blake. Ruby, who this volume has learned that she is basically able to teleport and negate the mass of carrying someone else, doesn't fly towards her sister. Weiss, who can summon flying grimm and create platforms for someone to land on, just reaches out a hand. They all had time to do something, Blake's action is proof of that, but neither of them did. Why? Because the show wants this to be a bees moment. I say that not as someone who hates the ship, but as someone who loves it. Or at least, I've always loved its potential, but if you need to prove their devotion by erasing the devotion of others... that's incredibly bad writing. And that's what this is. The choice to have Blake the only one capable of acting sends the message that she loves Yang enough to overcome the shock of her falling. That love powers her to act. But Yang is Weiss’ teammates too! Yang is Ruby's sister.

You’re telling me neither of them had the drive to push past shock and save her?

I find it particularly insulting that Weiss comforts Blake rather than crumbling in grief herself. I find it doubly insulting that Blake cries and screams, but Ruby stoically continues her fight with Neo. In trying to show Blake's love for Yang — and hers in turn — the show has unintentionally pulled back on the love everyone else has, even between siblings. This is a far more harmful repetition of Yang's moment in the outpost: she cares more about the imagined disagreement with Blake than she does the actual fight she had with Ruby. Blake shows more emotion for Yang's assumed death than her sister has. You can't prove love by diminishing it elsewhere. The scene 100% needed all three girls doing everything in their power to save Yang, failing, and then continuing the fight while expressing the appropriate emotion for such a massive loss. Ruby can fly towards Yang and be pinned by Cinder. Weiss can start to summon and have an attack disrupts it. Ruby can scream and cry while she fights Neo. Again: that's her sister.

There's nothing about this scene that works for me and honestly? After Yang returns they better kiss. Or there better be an "I love you." Something canonical. There will never be a better, more obvious time for a confession than after Blake thinks she's lost Yang for good and if we don't get one... the ship has well and truly sunk. We're living in a post-Supernatural finale world. You can no longer take your one, implied to be queer main couple, toss one into this fantasy's version of super hell, give them a second chance together... and then leave things dangling. RWBY has to make them canon when Yang returns if they have any hope of maintaining a large portion of their queer fanbase.

As a final note on this scene, I don't like what it implies about both Blake and our lost civilians. Like Yang, (and like Penny last episode) this attack undermines the growth our characters have undergone. Yang learns not to attack out of emotion with her semblance... and then does just that. Penny learns that she's a person with an android body... and then gets a human body to make her perfect. Blake realizes that she isn't willing to kill people in this war anymore... and then goes after Neo with an intensity that implies she's ready to kill her. It's a detail that might have been meaningful if Blake's struggle had existed in more than a single line in a single scene. As it is, it just feels like they've forgotten — or are ignoring — another character beat they introduced.

As for our civilians, will the show bring them back too? Look, I'm pleased Cinder blew them off the edge. I'm glad there were finally consequences for the kingdom-wide attack, even if none of have to come about from our main antagonist. But that impact was erased the second they threw Yang off the edge too. If they bring only her back, Team RWBY look like assholes who only care about their friends, not all the people they were charged with protecting (a recurring theme in this series). If they do bring the civilians back, we've lost that consequence. RWBY never should have tossed a title character into that void especially when, as said, everyone watching knows it's not a real consequence of this fight.

This was a terribly crafted scene, imo. If the only purpose here is to push the bees to confess, we could have gotten that after the whale. Yang was captured by Salem. That's more than enough danger to justify coming clean about feelings and the volume could have easily been reworked to make Blake aware of that danger, forcing her to stew in it until Yang returned, unharmed.

Instead we get this.

Also, I don't even want to get into the implications of having Yang disappear in a cloud of glittering gold dust like Pyrrha did. That's a world building rabbit hole RWBY really doesn't need.

So Yang is gone but obviously not gone. Blake is the only one impacted by this enough to react emotionally. Penny hears her scream and comes running, showing the viewer that absolutely nothing had changed despite getting an entirely new body.

Cinder weirdly throws her voice — has she done that before? — to distract Penny and the fight continues, with Neo going after Ruby and Blake going after Neo. There's a moment where Blake realizes that Weiss is in trouble too, looking between her two teammates, unsure of who to help.

I'm calling it now: Blake will be the third semblance upgrade, splitting herself into multiple fighters capable of functioning independently, rather than just shadow clones to take hits.

It would make as much sense as anything else.

Cinder at least is fighting smart, attacking the civilians rather than Weiss directly, then blowing her glass up in Weiss' face. She then manages to catch herself in the air, but, you know, couldn't do the same for Yang.

At the very least don't have Weiss using these abilities seconds later, c'mon.

We thankfully leave this nonsense for, well... more nonsense. Vine and Harriet get into a fight about what Clover would have wanted, which means nothing to the viewer because we didn't know Clover long enough to develop that sense for ourselves. I'm sorry, but following an order to peacefully bring Qrow in for questioning is not proof that he would have seen things through in the sense of blowing up Mantle, yet that's what we're supposed to believe based on Harriet's assertions and Vine's take that "perhaps Clover was wrong." I really hate that RWBY has taken to bashing the guy before he had the chance to actually do anything. Everyone is criticizing Clover based on lies or assumptions about what he might have done if, you know, he hadn't been murdered. Qrow blames Clover for defending himself, not his own choice to team up with Tyrian. Robyn asserts that Qrow is a better huntsmen than Clover, even though the one scene they had together was Robyn deciding to attack Clover because she didn't like him doing his job. Now Vine is like, "Yeah, Clover might have tried to blow up a kingdom needlessly, but maybe he was wrong and a bad person, you know?" I don't even like Clover that much, but the story has really gone out of its way to criticize him when he's obviously not around to prove, disprove, or otherwise defend himself. That’s messed up.

The one good part about this scene is Harriet losing it, all her firm beliefs crumbling to reveal just an aching grief for losing Clover. Hark, is this humanity for the other Ace Ops I see? Some development and characterization? Vine reaching out sympathetically to comfort her because they've always been a team, no matter what Ruby might say about it?

Oh wait, no. They're interrupted by Robyn screaming as she slams her ship into theirs.

I think Robyn is, officially, my least favorite character in the series. Which isn't to say there aren't objectively worse characters than her — we saw one get blown up this episode — but no one has this particular combination of horrible acts, self-righteous attitude, and an absolute dearth of other positive qualities to distract from that. Robyn has brought nothing to the last two volumes except frustration and I can only hope she goes off to do her own thing when our finale is done.

Qrow goes feral, turning into a bird and changing at the last second to slam through Harriet's window. He taunts her about getting the fight she wanted and we see Watts hacking her ship while they're distracted.

Watts, I'm really loving the evil schemes, but don't you want to, uh... leave? Atlas is falling and you're one of maybe three people left on it. Best get a move on, chop, chop.

Those other two people are Winter and Ironwood, both of whom have come to the vault looking for Team RWBY. Ironwood lands a hit with his new gun, giving a short speech about how though he was always on the lookout for betrayal, he never expected it from her. He tells Winter to stand aside as his final order, to which she replies, “I’ve never wavered in fighting the enemies of this kingdom," preparing to fight.

I've explained the problems with Ironwood's downfall ad nauseam. I don't think that's needed again here. However, there are two final points I'd like to make.

Winter's characterization took a hit along with Ironwood's. Why didn't he think she'd ever betray him? Because they clearly cared for one another. The fact that Winter so quickly and easily gave up on Ironwood is a disservice to both of them. Even in the throes of being an emotionless killer, we still understand Ironwood's devastation at this betrayal: his shock when Winter attacked, his request that she step aside now, the single tear.

There's nothing like that on her end. No denial that the man she faithfully followed would do this. No insistence that the man who helped her escape her abusive upbringing be reasoned with. Nothing. Winter dismisses Ironwood with the same callousness the narrative has.

Which brings me to my second point: this isn't hopeful. I know the Emerald lovers don't want me making comparisons, but the story has already done that for us. You can't give us an all out villain — someone responsible for countless deaths across the series, attacks on kingdoms, lying to our heroes, willingly working for the enemy — and say that it's good to forgive her instantly, but it's not acceptable to even consider forgiving the man who has also killed, also threatened to attack a kingdom, was honest with our heroes, and always fought against the enemy. You can't give us an entire story about hope and forgiveness — Ruby reaching out to Raven, Weiss wanting to rescue Jacques, Oscar putting all his trust in Hazel — while saying that this character isn't worth compromising with. This character needs to be denounced to the whole world so there's no possibility of forgiveness. This character will commit horrific acts and his allies will immediately jump ship, but others? Their horrific acts are forgiven the moment you give them a way out. I'm supposed to believe that Yang, who knew Emerald only as the woman who attacked her school and has helped make their lives a living hell since then, will laugh with her within an hour, but Qrow, after years of being an ally and friend to Ironwood, is suddenly ready to murder him over an arrest he had no context for? That Ruby will try to make peace with every enemy she comes across, but not the guy who was the ally she betrayed? That Winter would extend more compassion to her abusive father than the man who helped her escape that? Ironwood's downfall isn't just horribly written, it messes with RWBY's core themes. Everyone deserves a second chance, is worth crying over, is worth reaching out to no matter how many horrible things they've done... except this guy here.

And when that guy is the PTSD riddled military vet who crumpled in large part because the heroes continually lied to, betrayed, and took extreme action rather than working to find a compromise... that's a really bad take. That shows a lot of bias on the part of RT. They're trying to write a story about the evils of the institution, but think they can reduce that to the evils of a single man driven to the brink. That doesn't send a teachable message to the audience and it certainly doesn't send a hopeful one. All it does is reiterate that if you rip away someone's support network when they're already falling they will, shockingly, fall harder.

Which brings us back to characters like Emerald. Because no, no one has to help Ironwood. When someone is hurting you and committing the crimes he has this volume, no one is required to extend a hand at their own, personal peril. But when the narrative is so heavily pushing forgiveness for other mass-murderers? When child torturers are extended a hand during the torture? That reframes everyone abandoning Ironwood into something unpalatable. Having Ironwood’s allies, friends, and really, family, so quickly toss him aside while other, equally bad people are welcomed in says that everyone struggling like him isn’t worth the effort. From a genre perspective, this isn’t a tragedy because the characters don’t care. No one is striving to bring Ironwood back from the brink. No one is crying over the man they lost. Hazel gets a moment of silence as Emerald kneels, stricken in the aftermath of his death, but one of the heroes since Volume 2 gets nothing but hateful looks from his second.

But we all knew we'd end up here. My current theory? The portal should still be open at the vault. Winter will fight Ironwood, escape through it, and it will close right before he escapes too. He'll fall with Atlas and everyone will act as if it's some beautiful, poetic justice for him to perish with the city.

Here’s hoping I’m very wrong!

Finishing with Oscar's group, Ren's aura breaks after trying to mask everyone coming through the portal. Oscar realizes that Penny should have come through by now and runs back to find her, only to discover that the portal is closed on this side. Why? Because Weiss wished for a "one way trip to Vacuo." Not only is this another example of our heroes being stupid — they come up with this complicated wish that doesn't actually makes sense, but don't bother to be careful with their words like Ruby was when helping Penny? — but it also just... doesn't add up? How does Oscar know what Weiss wished for? How does Ozpin? (His one line in the episode.) They recall this together, the flashback acting like a memory, but neither of them were there. Neither was Ren. Neither was Emerald. They haven't spoken to the Relic group since separating.

It looks like RT still needs to edit their scripts.

As Oscar realizes they're trapped, the emotions of the group summons a huge number of grimm to the area. At this point, my only thought was why none of them had used the time Ren was buying them to try and find Vacuo. I mean, they're not the only fighters with semblances here. They have the Happy Huntresses too and, I would think, the Atlas students (unless the army was abandoned like Pietro and Maria were. Where are Neon and Flynt?) There's no one in this huge crowed with an ability that might make scouting ahead a little safer? No one is even going to try and figure some plan out? Everyone on these teams is too passive. They encounter a problem — where's the city? — and instead of trying to solve it while they can, while they’re in a good position to, they wait around until the situation becomes unimaginably worse and they have to figure something out or risk dying. Now, the people are being carried off by grimm, they know something has gone wrong on the pathways, and Ren is about to enter another fight without his aura. Let's hope he doesn't take a hit like Yang.

Summary of "Worthy"? Excellent villains, terrible heroes. It's better than what we've gotten in a while, but choices like Yang's fall ensures it's still not good. Given the trajectory of the volume, it was inevitable that we would end up here: moments that look significant at first glance, but are (quite likely) no more than window dressing in the long run.

Finally, bingo is rather boring this week. Unsurprising, considering we're almost out of space. I'm keeping our "Army of grimm conveniently doesn't kill any civilians" square checked because the point there was for Salem to kill people, not for the group to lead the refuges into a grimm infested desert. We'll have to see how many people they lose though and whether Atlas "somehow survives." Here, like Robyn, I'm talking about the citizens, not the now clearly doomed hunk of land. At this point, Oscar doesn’t seem to at all care about his near death experience, but I'll hold off on that square until we're truly done, and there's still a near certain possibility that Ironwood will die, with a likely possibility that Qrow grabs a bottle when first given the chance. What RWBY has avoided though is a Jacques-Watts team up 2.0. Considering, you know, Jacques is dead.

Gold star for not doing the expected, iffy thing, RWBY.

That's the square I would have least minded seeing though 😬

Anyway, finale next Saturday, folks! What insanity will the end bring? Only time will tell. But I can't wait to see what state the fandom will be left in for hiatus!

Until then 💜

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #rwby recaps #rwby worthy

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whump-town · 4 years ago

Text

Whump. Very minimal, hardly there Hotchniss.

Jack is a big kid now and he’s still not forgotten the mortality of the adults around him-- not that they give a chance to

Jack puts up his best defense-- avoidance. Walking into the hospital, he holds his head high. He’d inherited his father’s height and in moments like these, it’s incredibly helpful. No one so much as blinks as he walks to the front desk. Looking more like a man than a seventeen-year-old, it’s not hard to garner some attention from the desk.

“What can I do for you, sugar?”

Jack clears his throat, counting fingers his fingers so that he doesn’t exhibit all of the stress tells he knows he has. “I’m looking for my--” he looks to the side for a moment. He’s looking for Hotch and Emily but he needs to establish a relationship to get anywhere near them. “The agents?” He asks, eyebrow raised. “The agents that came in, they’re my-- my parents.” He brings his hands together to rub nervously at his palms. “Agent Hotchner and Prentiss?”

The woman nods her head, not even giving his stuttering or hesitation a second thought. She’s seen plenty of kids and parents come in through those doors. Most of which, aren’t in the best state of mind. Rather one tracked with their goals in mind. Not that she can blame them.

“Alright,” she says, pulling up both files. “Well,” she clicks her tongue. “Agent Hotchner is, currently, signing himself out AMA on the third floor.” She looks up at him. “You can get to him through that hallway straight back,” she turns and shows him. “Agent Prentiss is in surgery so I can’t do much for you there.”

Without taking his eyes off of the door she pointed out, Jack nods. “Okay, thank you.” Suddenly, he’s lost his nerve.

“On through there,” the nurse repeats, her kind smile still in place.

Jack nods, “right.” Right.

Stepping into the hall he falters to put on some hand sanitizer-- which is always a good idea but it’s just a diversion. To keep as much space between him and all of this. Whatever has happened.

When he sees them, he pulls in a full breathe and straightens his back again. “You guys suck,” he announces to the room. Their heads shoot up and he gets a few forced smiles in response. “A family reunion without me?”

Dave forces himself up out of one of the uncomfortable chairs lining the wall. “How are you holding up, my boy?” Jack closes his eyes as he’s pulled into Dave’s arms. He stands just a little taller than him now but that doesn’t stop him from pushing his face into his Pop’s shoulder.

Jack has to fight back the tears Dave is attempting to wrangle out of him. “Me?” he asks, voice stiff with the emotions bursting in his chest. “Dandy,” he replies. “How are dumb and dumber?”

Dave chuckles and the sentiment is shared with the others. Jack can see Derek shaking his head, JJ even smiling and rolling her eyes. Good, he thinks. They need to laugh more.

Dave releases him with one final squeeze. “Emily,” he says, “is back in surgery. She was holding on pretty strong there until the end.” His face pinches as he fails to decide just how much of the truth he’s willing to divulge and how much of it Jack can handle. Placing a hand on Jack’s shoulder he smiles sadly, “she gave us quite the scare.”

Jack takes the news as he has to-- without flinching. He nods his head and digs his nails into his palms to keep his voice steady. “And Dad?”

No sooner than Dave can even process the question, Hotch steps out of a room. He’s leaning to the left, using his dominant hand to keep him balanced as he slowly shuffles the two steps through the doorway. “Jack?” His white dress shirt is pulled open and his hair is pushed in every direction by thick white gauze wrapped around his head.

JJ is the first to move. Before anything can be said, she’s moving to stand in front of Hotch. She starts to button his shirt, ignoring just how far off Hotch looks when he just stands and watches her deftly manipulate the tiny buttons into the equally tiny holes. Covering up his exposed chest because if he were in a better state of mind he wouldn’t want any of them seeing the scars littering his chest.

“You need to sit down,” JJ says, taking his elbow and gently turning him back towards the room. Hotch grunts but doesn’t go with her. She reaches up and cups his cheek, waiting for his cloudy brown eyes to find her. “Come with me, Hotch. Jack can come too.”

It makes Jack feel immensely guilty but he has no desire to be anywhere near his father right now. The sight of him so vulnerable-- his blood is still soaked into his shirt, confusion twisted into his pained expression, and the emotion in his eyes-- is too much. Of course, Jack understands everyone is mortal. His father will die. Maybe not today but eventually.

But he’s still a seventeen-year-old kid who can’t wrap his head around what he’s seeing right now.

“Don’t…” Hotch grunts again this time pinned between Morgan and JJ and losing any say he has in the matter. “I’m not gonna sit in that bed,” he mumbles, shuffling where he’s guided.

Morgan shakes his head, “it’s the bed or the wheelchair, Hotch.”

Jack scowls at the ground. As they’re all funneling into the room, Dave makes Jack go next right after Morgan, JJ, and his father. He’d much prefer being in the back. Away from all of this.

Settled into the wheelchair and grumply allowing Garcia to tuck a blanket around him, Hotch looks a little better. The blanket covers his bloodied t-shirt and the bulk of where the bandages sit on his chest. “How’s Emily?”

Jack keeps his eyes on the floor even when he’s certain his father is looking up at him. He just glares at the floor and wills his tears away. He does glance up as someone-- Dave-- steps into the room. But he’s looking at the ground again before he catches anyone’s eye.

“I just talked to the doctor,” Dave says. He comes into the room and Jack can feel Dave looking at him. “She’s doing well. They’ve put her in a room and she’s already responding to them.”

Jack makes the mistake of looking up and when he catches his father’s eye he feels a heat across his face. Hotch looks away first.

Dave clears his throat, “they’re gonna let Aaron back to see her--”

Jack looks up, torn between anger and ease that he doesn’t have to go too.

“So the rest of you can head on home,” Dave says. “Come back in the morning, well rested, and they’ll let us all back. But for now it’s just Jack and Aaron.”

Fuck.

They share awkward half-hugs which are really just bad because neither Hotch nor Jack do much more than limply allow the hugs they’re being pulled into. Hotch won’t actually look at any of them, not that Jack does much more than mirror Morgan’s chuckle and lean into Garcia’s hug.

“Come on, boys.”

Sooner than they’re ready for, it’s just Jack, Dave, and Hotch. The later of which is losing his fight against the drugs he was given upon being admitted into the hospital.

Jack down right looks pissed when he realizes Dave standing at the door means he’s being left to push his father’s wheelchair. Once again, he loves the man. Hotch has been an amazing father. He’s kind and loving and Jack’s never felt anything but safe and loved but… he’s uncomfortable.

Without a word, Jack moves behind Hotch and heaves all his weight forward. They go no where.

Hotch glances back at him with a shake of his head, silent judgement. “Brakes, genius,” he rasps.

Jack puffs out an impatient sound and moves to the side, shooting Hotch a frown as he unlocks the brakes. “I’ll run you into a wall,” Jack threatens. This time, when he moves behind the wheelchair, they move when he pushes. “Lay off the brownies, old man.” It’s hard to take turns but he successfully makes it down two halls and an elevator without running them into anything. Not that Hotch certainly acts like he’s being reckless.

They take an elevator to the next floor up.

“Jack?”

He gets really, really hot. Glancing at Dave out of the corner of his eyes, he realizes that bastard has left him completely on his own. “Mhm.” He pulls his hands from the wheelchair he rubs at them nervously.

“I’m sorry.”

Jack turns his head away from Dave and Hotch, thankful the elevator stop just then.

He doesn’t say anything.

Hotch has been sorry for stupid crap like this Jack’s entire life. While he doubts whatever happened occurred without fault of some kind on his father, he also knows he can’t change his dad.

Hotch is a hero and Jack knows what happens to heroes.

His entire life he’s looked up to heroes. Equating his father with the likes of Captain America or… Ironman. Jack had seen how that ended. He’d gone to see the last Avengers movie with his friends, Henry amongst them. And when Ironman snapped, dying a slow painful death, and leaving behind his kids and wife… Jack had excused himself to the bathroom.

Because he knows that he’s more than likely going to loose his father in the same way.

Except, men like Aaron Hotchner don’t get memorilized. They turn into ghost and lessons.

Jack pushes Hotch right up to Emily’s side, never once looking at either. He settles himself into a chair on the opposite side of Emily, away from Hotch. He looks up at his father once, catching his eye. He has to look away.

He’s lost a mother, already. He remembers what that was like. To hug his mother for the last time while his father cried on the other end of the line. A serial killer standing in their living room and being told to go hide and just hope… what would have happened if Hotch wasn’t a little quicker? If he’d died that day or both of them?

Glancing up at Hotch once more time…

Jack knows his father wishes he’d died that day. That Haley were still here and Foyet had killed him.

Jack can’t imagine life going any other way than how it did. Would his mother take him out to the park every Saturday like he and Hotch had? Would his mother have stayed in touch with the team? Would he view his father like he now views his mother?

What he does know, is that he’s scared by the way his mother died but he’s glad his father is still around. He loves and appreciates Hotch fighting the way he did that day and everyday sense and one day, Jack will learn how to say that.

But for now he’s got to worry about Emily. Who is not only awake but reading his tension like an open book.

Jack fiddles with his thumbs, unwilling, or unable to look at Emily.

She doesn’t say anything about it. In the low light of the room, silent while Hotch sleeps peacefully, she’s content. Slowly, she keeps drawing her fingers through Hotch’s hair. His back is going to ache and his ribs will give him hell but for now, he’s bent over the side of the bed with his head on her hip. Snoring softly. Sleeping, as he should be.

“Do you want to talk about it,” she asks, keeping her eyes on the steady rise and fall of Hotch’s back.

Jack shakes his head, clutching his hands tighter and willing them to steady. “No, ma’am.”

Ma’am. That makes her snort a little. There’s nothing that really says Hotchner like manners popping up out of nowhere. Well, was she not the Queen of pettily calling Hotch sir just to piss him off? Maybe it’s just them thing. The three of them.

“I’m mad at you,” he whispers. He tries so hard to keep that humorous undertone but it falls sort of flat. Not that she doesn’t get he’s being slightly funny. “Always out running around like reckless kids.” He leaves out that if they die they’re leaving behind a kid. Him. And at seventeen it wouldn’t be a big deal having to deal with foster-care or even adoption.

They know Dave would take care of him. That’s just not the point.

“Baby,” she whispers, her own tears pooling over as one runs down Jack’s face.

He wipes it away angrily. “I’m fine,” he grumbles.

Her smile saddens. She reaches out to him, hand palm up on the bed. He takes it without really thinking. “You’re too much like your father,” she chides, softly. “You’ve got to get out of that head of yours and tell me what’s wrong.” Squeezing his hand, a hot tear runs down her cheek.

Jack sucks in a choked breath and he stands, not even asking when Emily opens her arms up and he buries his face in her neck.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she promises, holding him closer. “I promise, Jack.”

And, God, what he would give to believe her.

#criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #emily prentiss #jack hotchner #aaron hotchner #hotch whump #whumptowninwhumptober #hotchniss #but it's minimal #and you might not even really notice

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pentagonpimp69 · 5 years ago

Text

“Can you ever forgive me?” Tom Holland x reader Pt ll

I woke up feeling numb. I know that may sound dramatic but that’s how I feel. Numb, not angry or sad. Just numb. I just layed in bed for a while, thinking about what happened last night. After our conversation, Tom and I went to bed. While getting ready, I felt as though he was watching my every move. Maybe he was worried that I would bolt out the door, never to be seen again.

But actually, I haven’t really thought about leaving Tom since he told me. I can’t find a reason to leave someone that I love more than anyone for something they did while we were broken up and didn’t cause any serious harm to any one. I love him. I couldn’t leave him during this.

But I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of this girl. She was going to experience something that I only dreamt of experiencing with Tom. I have always wanted to be a mother and after meeting Tom, I just knew he would be the best dad. And now this girl was taking that experience from me.

But the more I thought about it, she really wasn’t. She was just a one night stand that happened to get pregnant by him. If I got pregnant, things would be so different. The more I thought about it, the more I felt bad for this girl. Tom said that he was the only one she had been with for a while, so she must be alone. Now she’s having a baby with a man she doesn’t even know. She’s probably scared. I don’t even know her name but I want to hug her.

A loud crash pulls me out of my thoughts. No doubt it's Tom attempting to make breakfast. I get up and put on my comfy robe and head down the stairs. As I turn the corner, I see Tom funneling pancake batter onto a fry pan. He had bags under his eyes, no doubt from the fact that he didn’t get any sleep last night. I stand in the doorway and watch him. He only ever cooks for me (or trys at least) when he feels bad. He hates cooking but does it cause he knows I like it. He cooked me a huge dinner that night after our first fight 3 years ago. I stand there and look at him. I can’t imagine what he’s going through. He’s going to be a father but not by me, the woman he loves. But by a stranger. I don’t even know her name.

“What’s her name?” My thoughts accidentally leave my mouth. Tom almost jumps out of skin from the surprise of my voice.

“Huh?” He says with a shy smile, a frying pan in his hand and spatula in the other.

“What is her name?” I ask again, “The girl.”

He sighs, “Grace.” He answers softly. I start walking towards him and put my arms around his neck.

“What’s her last name?” I ask, trying to force a smile.

“Levy, I believe.” He says. He doesn’t make eye contact. I turn off the stove and pull him in for a hug. He quickly embraces me back.

“When are you going to meet her?” I ask into his shoulder.

He pauses for a minute. Enjoying the tender moment in the midst of all this stress.

“At 1. We're going to Starbucks down the road.” He answers finally.

We stand there in a hug for a little longer. I can feel how much he loves me. I can also feel how awful he feels. I pull my head from his shoulder and give him a kiss. When we pull apart, I turn around and grab the pancakes and go sit at the table. We enjoy our breakfast in quiet, but every once and a while Tom would grab my hand and kiss it. I love it when he does that.

After breakfast, I go up and take a shower. I hear Tom dicking around the room, probably getting ready to hit the gym before he meets the girl. I mean Grace. Before he meets Grace. I finish my shower and walk out of the room and see him rummaging through his sock drawer.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Looking for my nice compression socks” He says without looking up, “You know the black ones?”

“They’re probably in the hamper, honey” I say, pointing to the hamper by the door. He smiles at me and walks over to it. He begins to go through it like he did with the sock drawer. I go to my side of the dresser and look for some underwear for the day. All of the sudden I think “What are we going to say to his parents?”

“Huh?” Tom says. Crap, I must’ve let another thought slip out.

“What are we going to tell your parents?” I ask, this time actually using my voice.

“What do you mean?” Tom asks curiously

“Well, you're going to have to tell them soon. That they’re going to be grandparents.” I say. Tom looks at me and then puts his head down. He must not have even thought that far yet. I was the first person he saw after he found out. So he probably hadn’t processed it enough to think about what to tell them.

Tom walks over to the bed and puts his head in his hands. Next thing I know, he’s sobbing. I jump on the bed and start patting his back. I hate when he’s upset.

“Tommy baby, please don’t cry.” I say, wanting to just hold him.

“No, I’m sorry. Y/N, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe this is happening. How can i be so stupid?” He says, his whole body shaking.

“Tommy take a deep breath baby.” I tell him. He swiftly stands up and turns to me, tears running down his face.

“No! I ruined everyone's life. You’ll never trust me again, my parents will be so upset, the guys will just make fun of me endlessly, and that poor girl is going to have a baby with someone she doesn’t know! Do not tell me to calm down!” He says, still crying. I mean, he’s almost hyperventilating at this point.

“Tommy please calm down.” I say in my calm voice, just trying to bring him back down to earth. Tom drops to his knees and hugs on to my legs.

“No Y/N, I’m so sorry. I love you. I was supposed to be doing this with you. I love you. Please don’t leave me. Please don't go” He sobs. Now he’s just having a panic attack. I rub his back and play with his hair, just trying anything to calm the boy.

“Tommy, I’m not going anywhere.” I assure him.

He looks up at me with his tear stained face and red eyes, “You’re not?”

“No Tommy, I’m not leaving you. I love you.” I say to him. He calms down a little.

“I am going to make this up to you.” He says, still crying slightly.

“Tommy, you don’t need to make this up to me.” I tell him, “But you need to tell your family about what’s going on.” He stayed silent, still breathing heavy.

“Maybe tonight we should invite everyone over and explain the situation.” I say. Tom looks up and tries to argue but before he could talk I say “You need to tell them. They need to know what's going on.”

Tom stays silent and shakes his head in agreement. He still has a tight grip on my legs.

“You should stay here and get some rest before you go and meet with her.” I tell him, still playing with his hair.

“I’m okay.” He says almost too quietly. I let out a little giggle at his words.

“Baby, you got no sleep last night, you’re exhausted. You need to be in the right frame of mind when you talk to her.” I tell him. Tom nods in agreement. “How about I make you some tea while you get comfy.”

Tom looks up at me with his dorky smile. The smile that I fell in love with. “Really?” he asks.

“Yes but you have to lay down and nap a little.” I warn him. Tom slowly gets to his feet and climbs to my side of the bed.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Your side is comfier.” He says softly. I giggle at him before walking out to the kitchen.

I fill the kettle with water and put it on the stove to warm up. While I’m waiting, I pull out my phone and begin writing a text to Nikki. Her and I are so close, but yet I can’t imagine how she’ll react to this news.

When I first met Tom’s family, they were all so warm and welcoming, they made me feel like a part of the family from the first time we met. Over the years, we all grew so close, that talking to them everyday was normal for me. But trying to write this text, made me beyond nervous.

How do I ask them to come over for some news, without getting them all so excited. They’ll probably think Tom finally proposed or maybe even that I’m pregnant. God this is hard.

“Hey Nikki, would you guys all want to come over for dinner tonight? Tom has something he wants to tell you” I say, trying not to seem overly excited or depressed, through text.

She answers quickly, “Of course! Be there around 7ish? Is everything okay?”

I sigh before I begin typing. Everything is far from okay, but she doesn’t know that yet. “Yes everythings fine. Just some life updates and such. 7 sounds great.” I answer.

“Can’t wait!” She answered quickly again. She totally thinks we're engaged or something. This is all too stressful and now I have to make dinner! Ugh!

The kettle begins to scream so I take it off and get Toms tea ready. Once I’m done, I head up the stairs and into our room. As I walk in, I see Tom sound asleep, so peaceful amongst this stress. He needed sleep, all he did was toss and turn all night.

I put the mug on the table and kissed him on the cheek. He lets a brief smile show before I walk off and start finding my clothes for that day. After I’ve changed, I climb on to the bed with Tom. I spoon him from behind and feel him get closer to me.

Although this is all so stressful, I still love him. I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving him. This is going to be the hardest thing ever. But I’m not going anywhere, even though I feel like all I want to do is scream.

Hello everyone! Thank you much for all the love part 1 got! I defiantly want to continue this story and see where it goes! If you want a part 3, let me know!

#tom holland #tom holland imagine #tom holland x reader #tom holland fic #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland x y/n #fanfic #writing #peter parker #spiderman

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procrastinatorimagines · 4 years ago

Text

New Traditions

Fandom: Legends of Tomorrow

Character/s: Mick x Reader, The Legends

Warning/s: *a lot of googling so sorry if I got it wrong*

Word Count: 1,428

Request: hi, could you do a x reader oneshot on where the legends try to cheer the reader up after she found out that her favorite festival "Uncle Billy's Day" was canceled (in Altavista, va), by throwing her a festival on the waverider (with games prizes, and her favorite sweets: Deep fried oreos, Sho cones, and Funnel Cakes). including the reader and mick getting together and sharing their "First Kiss" (after mick was caught flirting with the reader)!

Summary: Reader’s feeling down after her favourite festival is cancelled, but Mick helps make it a day to remember, in more than one way...

“What are you moping about?” Mick Rory asked, standing in the doorway of the kitchen, watching you slide your pancakes around with your fork absentmindedly.

“Huh?” You looked up to see him regarding you carefully, equal parts curious to know why you were down, but also clearly not prepared for an emotional conversation. “I’m not moping,” you told him a little defensively.

“Yes you are,” he replied gruffly, heading more into the kitchen, “it’s weird, you’re usually more annoyingly cheerful.” He approached you at the table and knicked a pancake off your plate, shrugging and looking at you as if to say, if you’re not going to eat it then I will.

You glared at him as he took a seat to eat your food, folding your arms and leaning back in your chair. He stared back at you unblinking. “Fine, you really want to know what’s wrong?” You took his grunt to mean yes as you continued. “My favourite festival was cancelled back home, Uncle Billy’s Day.”

“Why does your Uncle Billy have a day named after him?” Mick asked through a mouthful of food.

“No, not my Uncle Billy, Billy Lane, he founded my home town, Altavista in Virginia. The festival is an old tradition celebrating the businesses and people that make the town so great,” you explained, “great music, great food, great atmosphere...”

“That’s it?” He asked when he realised you were done, “you know we’re on a time ship right, just take the jump ship and go meet your uncle, simple.”

“He’s not my-” you realised that that was one part of the conversation that wasn’t going to stick with Mick, so you let it go and said, “-look, it’s not the same, though that does sound like a cool idea, but I just wanted to spend the weekend with my family, you know? Normal people stuff, eat some food, go around the market, watch the fireworks... You just- you don’t understand, it doesn’t matter.”

You reminisced about the many years spent visiting the festival with your family, this would be the first one in as long as you could remember that you wouldn’t be able to go to.

“What’s there not to understand? You don’t get to spend the day you wanted with Uncle Bill and your family,” you rolled your eyes but he didn’t seem to notice, “family’s important to you, I know that, doesn’t mean you have to spend the whole day moping though, frowning will give you wrinkles.”

With a sigh you pushed your plate away, with Mick willingly taking it off your hands and grabbing your fork. “You know what? Forget I said anything, I’ll be in my room.” You headed out the door, Mick watching you leave out the corner of his eye.

A few hours later you were blasting music out your headphones and flipping through an old family photo album. You loved being a Legend, and you wouldn’t change that for the work, but you missed the simplicity and normalcy of your life back home, the traditions you had with your family, and not being about to go to Uncle Billy’s Day with them was making you homesick.

You were so lost in thought that you missed the knock at the door the first time, but pulled your headphones down once the banging got louder. Heaving yourself out of bed you opened your door to reveal Mick, looking rather embarassed as he gestured for you to follow him. “Need you on the bridge.” Was all he said.

“Okay, yeah,” you followed after him, unsure why he looked a little fidgety. You’d never seen him actually look nervous before, but he kept glancing back at you as you headed towards the bridge, what was going on?

You realised, however, when the door opened, to reveal the rest of your crew shouting, “Surprise!” Around the room were tables of food, music playing, as well as various games and decorations.

“What’s all this?” You asked in surprise, looking from Mick, who avoided meeting your eyes, to the rest of the crew.

Nate replied as Behrad passed you a plate with a slice of funnel cake on it. “Well Mick mentioned you were a little down today because you couldn’t spend the weekend at your festival with your family, so we thought we’d bring the festival to you.”

“Yes we’ve got party poppers, streamers, and the most sickeningly America desserts you could ever imagine,” Constantine chimed in, glancing suspiciously at the deep fried oreos on a tray. You grinned as you looked around.

“Well don’t just stand there, come on!” Sara grabbed your free arm and pulled you into the room as you looked around at what they had done for you.

“You guys did all this?” You asked in equal parts gratitude and disbelief.

“Yeah well, you couldn’t be with your family at home, so we figured this was the next best thing,” Charlie patted you on the back.

“Thank you,” you told them, taking a bite of your cake and smiling widely.

“It’s Mick you should be thanking,” Ava replied as Mick shuffled awkwardly in the corner, “it was his idea.”

“Really?” You turned to face him and he cleared his throat.

“Yeah, well, you looked miserable, it was annoying so...” He shrugged, grabbing a beer and from an ice box next to a sno cone machine and heading to grab some cake, not giving you time to thank him properly. Emotion wasn’t really his thing, but it made you heart flutter that someone would care enough to do something like this, this was a big gesture coming from Mick.

“Well, what are we still standing around here for, let’s get this party started!” Sara cheered, “we couldn’t really get the carnival here so we’ve improvised some drinking games and added prizes to them.” You looked to where beer pong was set up at the side.

With a grin you put down your now empty plate and took a paddle, with Nate excited grabbing the other one before anyone else could. “This is going to be so much fun,” he said and you agreed.

This may not be how your day was supposed to go, but they’d made their own festival for you to make you feel more at home, and it was absolutely perfect.

The day was getting on and your sides were hurting from all the laughing, games and sweets, so you went to take a breather out in the hall while the others played some variation of Heads Up.

To your surprise you found Mick out in the hall, helping himself to the oreos that had somehow gone missing earlier. “Hey, you done already?” He asked, looking to from where he was sat against the wall. You slide down to join him and helped yourself to some more food.

“Just taking a minute, why aren’t you joining in?” You asked him.

“Not really my scene,” he replied, having another sip of his beer. “I’m just glad you’re enjoying it.”

“It’s better than I could ever have asked for,” you told him, noticing the corners of his lips twitch up into a smile. “Thank you, really, you didn’t have to do anything of this.”

“Team effort,” he said, looking to see you staring back at him. You put a hand on his arm.

“But it was your idea, you’re kind of the only one I told about today, so thank you for making it possible,” you noticed that he’d gone pretty still under your touch, eyes not leaving you as you felt yourself leaning in a little. “Thank you for caring, Mick.”

You could see his eyes glance down between your eyes and your lips, leaning in a little too but letting you take the lead as you planted a light kiss on his lips. He seem practically frozen in place as you drew back, unsure whether you’d been reading the signals right. But the shock wore off of him quickly as he pulled you back in with a little more force, kissing you properly - you’d definitely not been reading those signals wrong.

Your hand when from his arm to his collar as you pulled him into you, not wanting the moment to end as you both lost yourself in the kiss. When you eventually broke apart to breath you smiled at him, noticing the soft and caring look in his eyes.

“Sorry this wasn’t the day you had planned,” he mumbled, face inches from yours.

“That’s okay, today was a good day.”

#mick rory #legends of tomorrow #dcs legends of tomorrow #arrowverse #mick rory imagine #legends of tomorrow imagine #dcs legends of tomorrow imagine #mick rory imagines #legends of tomorrow imagines #dcs legends of tomorrow imagines #imagine #imagines

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demonicdiligence · 4 years ago

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Shivers

Your claws are alight with inspiration once again. Sharpened digits take to work with a natural rhythm. The charm in your hands is intended for one of those far-off universes, sitting on the tipping point between desolation and normalcy. You saw things again, Aamon. And you will never stop seeing them. Every world is a pinprick in your pores, making your hair stand on end. When the space between atoms sings to you, it vibrates in your skin.

The multiverse talks to you in shivers. And here it comes, clawing at your spine once more...

You stop working. It’s as sudden as a car crash. Your skin is clammy and your hair stands on end. Goosebumps raise, and your extremities shudder. But this has happened before. Sometimes you make these visions happen, and other times, they happen to you. Sometimes you convince the universe to sing to you, and other times it rips your maw asunder and screams down your throat.

It screams all truths, all states of all matter in all worlds, all in cacophony. Filter the noise. Ride the sensation.

[What is above me?]

[How about ‘above me’ in a metaphysical way?]

Your skin is slick with sweat. The cold takes you. You feel the expanse of nothingness all around you and under your skin. You smell the primordial soup bubble in a million-million worlds. It smells like rancid takeout and cheap perfume. You exhale and focus again.

[And the ones that carry life?]

[Nevermind that. What do we feel there?]

[What will happen to them?]

[And what can I do? Show me that.]

[But a small change could fix all of that...]

All the sudden, one of the scientists has a revelation.

If the brass gets worried about the risks of the device, they could always host their experiments on one of the newly annexed islands they’ve obtained during the war effort. Somewhere safe and private to hold experiments, and if the experiments go poorly, their research could easily be scuttled.

<Outraged, a member of the top brass will visit in seven year’s time, to “inspect” the operation for himself. This is a fabrication. He wants to look them in the eyes as he tells the science team that the station is to be abandoned. And yet things are too far gone. The war effort has turned. This one project has turned from a war-ender into a Hail Mary to get back in the game. It just needs a few small tweaks, and it will be ready for military deployment, they promise...>

Years of funding wasted. A weakness that can be capitalized on. Terrible violence, followed by hard-won peace. It’s surprising how often war is decided by mere paperwork.

You do not enjoy this death, Aamon. War is many things, but its primary purpose is the cessation of life. Even if you did not swing a blade nor feel your clawtip twitch on a hair trigger, having a hand in death-dealing at all turns your stomach.

Even knowing that more would have died had you done nothing is a paltry recompense, in the moment you nudge this world down a brighter path.

But in time you will feel their breath again. Two-billion voices sighing in disparate relief as this decades long, torturous brawl comes to a blistering end. The cold will settle, and the breath of new life will fill the world again.

And with their breath, echoing across infinity, the shivers will return.

...

You come back with a thud, slamming your head into a bookshelf behind you as your legs give out. The magical trinket you had been hammering away at falls to the ground. It clinks and clatters, rolling away into the inky blackness of your workshop - poorly lit as it is. Your form, half-propped against the wall, sinks slowly to the marble floor beneath you.

The burning starts in your stomach. Your throat tightens, trying to hold it down as you pull your hair back. Liquid heat pools behind your eyes, in tears, as you try to pull yourself through the doorway and outside.

Falling over yourself in a clump, you begin to retch. Pained sounds leap from your maw as you vomit up an acidic, bright-white bile that burns through the ground like acid. The deafening sizzling sound, as it melts anything too unfortunate to touch it, is muted by the pain ringing in your ears.

Trying to tap in to your powers in this body always does this. Searing pain rushes down your spine and you fall to the ground, on your side, vision hazy.

You need to rest. You feel your body begin to pass out, despite your resolve to push forward. Every part of you hurts. As you begin to phase out into blissful unconsciousness, a thought crosses your mind.

Despite the blistering pain in your ears, mouth, eyes, stomach, and soul - you feel sublime.

At least one world will be a better place now, and the shivers are gone.

#drabble ;;;#vomit cw ;;;#emetophobia cw ;;;#anyways here's a post-plot aamon drabble! Him being able to do this doesn't apply to all RP's by default #but there are enough people i know who are interested (and this is from another blog of mine anyways) so here!#also yes it is very heavily inspired by a certain video game i've been playing recently #so maybe not 100% canon with what Aamon calls it? But still.

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isafalco · 4 years ago

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THE FINAL BATTLE

Location: The Barn

Summary: The wolves fight Merci in one epic final battle

Involved: Literally everyone

@cash-stone, @mehtawolf, @presleystone, @codiemohren, @luciolontoc, @isafalco, @puckrigby, @peytonavery, @reyessalex, @erickaholloway, @vesperlinwood

Merci:

Merci stands at the end of the barn, with her hands on her hips, sizing up the empty space where her hose had been once. She lets out a frustrated sigh, and pivots on her shoe to turn back toward the exit, when the door opens. Two people come through it first. Cash and Moll. Followed almost immediately by Vesper with Salem, and Ericka. "I wasn't expecting visitors," Merci says with a tilt of her jaw. She doesn't know the social comings and goings of the manor enough to know that this is a strange combination of people. "Have any of you seen my horse?"

Cash:

He wasn't expecting to run into a vampire already in the barn itself. The vampire seems clueless enough, but that will change as more and more people file in. The entire damn manor is heading this way. His heart hammering in his chest, he puts an arm out in front of the group as he slowly funnels them in until he's the only one standing between Merci and the door, never taking her eyes off her. He thinks of Salem standing just feet away. "Your horse ran off," he answers. His throat feels tight with tension. "Don't think it's coming back."

Merci:

"Ran off?" She can't imagine where he'd have gotten to without some help. But even still. She takes two steps forward. And as she does, two more enter the barn. Puck and Codie. And then Cash stands in front of the door, his arm in the way. It's an immediately suspicious gesture. Merci's eyebrow raises. "What is this?"

Blair:

Riva might not be very big, but dead weight is still dead weight, and Blair has just been tased basically. There seems to be some kind of block in the doorway, and in her irritation, she shoves her way into the barn, nearly dropping the unconscious witch as she stumbles into Cash's back while the rest of the witches and wolves stream in behind her. Her eyes fall on Merci and flick to Cash, and she turns on a dime. Riva's body is haphazardly shoved towards Moll. "Stay back!" she shouts at them. "Cash, just like training." She goes for Merci's legs, hoping that she still has the element of surprise to get the vampire off balance.

Merci:

Merci is only staring at the scene in front of her, trying to parse why all of these people would be coming into the barn in this way. Something with the wolves, maybe. Though the full moon was recent. And then -- one of them yells, moves fast. But Merci is a vampire. She moves faster. She pulls the wolf up from where attacks, before she can reach her legs, lifting her by her hair to her feet and then wrapping her hands around the girl's throat, holding her feet off the ground. All so fast it is barely visible by anyone until Blair is in the air and Merci's hand is around her night. She narrows her eyes on Cash, as behind him the last of the escapees -- Alex and Peyton holding up haven, enter the barn. "I repeat. What is this?"

Cash:

"No, Blair––" He reaches for her, but his feet don't even move by the time Merci already has Blair in the air by the throat. Seeing how fast the vampire can move puts his senses on high alert and he becomes hyper aware of just how many people are now standing in the barn. Slowly, his eyes locked with Merci's, he lowers his arm. "Nico wanted us out of the manor, miss. Said he was done hiding out and wanted some entertainment with the others. Something big, for his wife. Silas is going to be here any second to make sure we all stay in the barn. But they've all been rough with us on the way out. We're all on edge."

Lucio:

They're all threading very dangerous waters, following Cash and Blair to the barn like they're in line for their execution. And Merci, standing there like the executioner about to pounce at the first sight of a threat. His first instinct, after Blair launches herself at Merci and Cash tries his best to diffuse the situation, is to pull Theo closer to him, who he's been holding hands with this entire time. But he knows her, the last thing he wants is someone to provoke Merci... So he covers her mouth with his hand, makes sure they're somewhat hidden in the middle of the small crowd and he looks at her with warning eyes and shakes his head at her.(edited)

Vesper:

The moment passes faster than she can comprehend, and Vesper hates how things always seem so slow when the vampires are involved. Salem is in her arms, and she tucks her close, angling her body so that there is at least one more body between the vampire and the child. Her heart is beating like a drum, and her limbs still ache from the ritual they had done to create the hand of glory. But doesn't dare to even breathe, as though she might attract Merci's attention and put Salem in even more danger.

Codie:

Codie's heart is in her throat the entire way from the manor to the barn. She can hear Cash trying to speak and then she's in the barn with the rest of the people who weren't supposed to fight and another vampire. She just feels sick. The moment Blair leaps, she takes a half-step back, almost on top of Puck, anything to put distance between her and the way her feet dangle in the air like a rag doll. They're nothing to these things, and Codie knows she's no use here.

Merci:

It's a reasonable enough explanation. Her sire and her family toying with the remaining inhabitants of the manor. And yet the angry girl dangling in her arms and the tension in all of their presences suggests otherwise. She watches, for another minute and then, fast and hard throws Blair as hard as she can onto the small loft catwalk that encircles the bond. She crashes through the thin wooden railing and into a heap against the wall. And just as she does, Merci hears a loud crash inside. And Thomas -- scream Silas's name. Now Merci needs to make a run for it. "Move."(edited)

Cash:

Cash tries hard not to react to Blair being flung farther than any other non-magical being on earth could throw another person. Just the wrong look, the wrong response, and they'd all be slaughtered. But now Merci has a goal and he's in the way. The only thing that may still be on their side, perhaps for another few precious seconds, is the lone vampire not knowing that the 'no killing' rule has gone to shit. He shakes his head at Merci and responds softly, but firmly. "I can't let you do that."

Merci:

It's brave. Noble. But Annoying. So annoying. So Merci reaches forward, grabs him by the shirt and tosses the wolf clean across the barn into a stall. He's bigger, thuds louder. And when she turns, there's another boy.

Puck:

Puck stands beside Cody, Ericka at his other side. And he doesn't know what to do. They're not strong. He can't fight. And yet -- "Hey, Cruella." It's unhelpful but it stops the vampire from stalking after Cash. Puck stands goes to step in her way and she moves at vampire speed, grabbing him by the throat and holding him far above her head as she squeezes. Squeezes. Puck's mouth gasps for air, he scrambles, hands searching for a grip to get her hands off. But she's so strong for someone who seems barely taller than him.

Codie:

Blair flies, then Cash, and Codie knows that if something doesn't give soon, they're all going to die right here and now. But she's frozen, eyes flitting back and forth between Cash and Merci, unable to bring herself to break the vow she'd made. For the first time, she finds she wants to do something but-- She doesn't have time to sit and analyze and wonder about why she wants to jump in, why she knows she won't because Puck is jumping in. The next few seconds seem to freeze as she watches the vampire's grip squeeze around his throat, and she watches the whites of his eyes turn bloodshoot. She almost jumps. Hesitates. He gasps for air, strangled and horrible, and she finally does, mimicking Blair's stance, but goes straight for her front and arm to hopefully try and knock her grip loose.

Cash:

Wood splinters in his landing beneath his body, but he's back on his feet in seconds, albeit a little disoriented. When he twirls around, everything's already falling apart. Merci has a witch by the throat and Codie's trying to get him free. Cash kicks the wooden gate he was thrown into and picks up a piece of it, long and sharp enough to be used as a stake. Propelling off the balls of his feet, he charges Merci from behind, raises the piece of wood above his head, and strikes down as hard as he can. The wooden point pierces skin and flesh and buries in Merci's back, but just misses her heart.

Merci:

As soon as the wood hits her back, Merci drops puck and turns around, swinging a fist square into Cash's face with vampire strength and sending him backward. Puck falls to a heap at her feet. She staggers a few steps away back toward the center of the barn and then pulls the stake out of her own back.

Blair:

Blair crashes through what feels like at least six pieces of wood, and she shakes out the ringing in her ears. The fight has begun in earnest, and it takes half a second for her to clock the situation. There is plenty of broken pieces of wood around her and she grabs one without hesitation. Blair jumps down from the catwalk, rolling neatly and using her momentum to barrel straight into Merci's body. Her ribs scream in protest as she raises her arm and stabs down, only send the stake into the vampire's shoulder as she fights back.

Merci:

Another stake sticks into her shoulder and Merci screams out. She swings fast again, tossing the girl that's on her back to the ground with the momentum and decking her square in the face too. She stops again, pulls the second stake of wood from her shoulder and this time, makes her way as fast her speed will allow her, toward the door.

Peyton:

The fight escalates. And escalates, and Blair and Cash get injured in the process -- she knows, in that moment, that she can't possibly let Merci escape without trying to stop her. She thinks of the people inside the manor and if she listens just close enough, she swears she can hear something breaking in the distance. She turns back from the manor and looks at Alex, then at Merci who yells out in pain. "Alex". She whispers. "Remember that frat party in college, that guy who got gropey and we tackled him in that room..." She doesn't elaborate more, but she points towards the door, right when Merci tries to swoosh past them. Peyton blocks her path and gets her arms around Merci's waist, but she's stronger -- without Alex's help, she'll just drag her along.

Alex:

Alex's full focus is on Haven. Making sure she's safe, because she's in no state to fight. And as long as she and Peyton stay there, working on making sure Haven is alright, they're all safe. But she knows that isn't true, knows the fight will come to them. She's no stranger to ignoring violence but it becomes impossible. Peyton's story draws her attention and she nods. She remembers. They'd tackled him and then when the football team had taken too long to come get one of their own, they'd blocked the door. Alex shoots to her feet just behind Peyton, who shoots up in front of the vampire. And with her own new, barely controlled strength and a flash of fangs, Alex grabs Merci and launches her in the air across the barn.

Presley:

Presley clears the space between the house and the barn at a full sprint. She catches a flash in the doorway, blonde hair and she swears she sees Merci but she's moving too fast. In a second, she's through the door, through the small crowd. She looks at all of them, growls low and warning. It means stay out of the way. Merci sees her and scrambles to her feet. Presley growls and lunges, and within seconds, they're tangled in a fight that no one can keep up with. At every chance she gets, Presley bites down, again and again, any piece of skin she can make contact with, trying to ensure that no matter what happens, the vampire ends up poisoned. But despite the loss of strength, Merci gets in a good hit. Presley's back hits the edge of the stall with a loud yelp. And before she gets back on her feet, Merci lunges for Blair.

Ericka:

The fight is escalating and the tension within the group trying to stay out of the way is exhausting. Since the moment Merci picked up the guy who gave her the finger guns back at the library, Ericka has been on her hands and knees with her eyes closed, searching for something in the ground, underneath the barn, with her magic. She finds something, a network of tree roots and just a small distance from the barn towards the forest, some vines. She draws them out, summoning them forth, but her concentration is broken when a wolf comes barreling into the barn and starts snapping at the vampire. The wolf whose coat can only belong to Presley Stone gets flung into the wall and Merci turns her attention to Blair who appears to be on their team now. Ericka huffs, takes a few steps forward away from the group, and holds her hands out in front of her towards Merci, fingers clawed, remembering the night that she definitely attacked Presley. Through the spaces in the floorboard, vines whip up and wrap themselves around Merci's ankles, calves, thighs, wrists, anything they could reach to slow her down.

Presley:

Ericka helps. She gives Presley the time she needs to get back to her feet before Merci can hurt anyone else -- hurt Blair again. The vines come up from the floor boards, wrap around Merci and take her down. They only hold for a second with Merci's super strength but it's enough. As soon as Merci breaks free, she grabs Ericka, holds her by her throat in front of her and stares down Presley who freezes where she stands. Presley growls, paces closer, backs her up and up as Merci tries to make her mistake, no shielded by the other witch. it's a smart move, an easy way to get free because Presley won't endanger Erick. But it also helps Presley get Merci out of the barn, away from the others, so she takes it, growls again, paces forward, again and again, until they clear the door back into the yard.

Isa:

She can hear and see the commotion inside the barn, but she can't get a clear shot. The windows aren't big enough, even the glimpses she catches of Cash and Blair getting thrown around inside like rag dolls. All she can think about, while the witches and the wolves deal with the unexpected, is Presley's whereabouts, even when she keeps a close eye through the scope, in case she can get a clear view of the back of Merci's head. Or heart. Its not until she sees that speckle of blonde dash through the yard towards the barn that relief washes over her, even if it mixes with her fear of Presley being hurt once again, defending magic and every single witch in that house. She counts the seconds. Ten, twenty, thirty -- no one comes out, the commotion gets louder, she can hear Presley's snarls even from the roof, and then it comes. Merci, dashing out the door clearly poisoned with bites on her body, holding Ericka like a human shield. Through the scope, she gives Presley a glance, and then she gets down on one knee. She's not very fast, with the poison running through her veins, but its fast enough to pull Isa's focus. "Come on motherfucker, keep going". And then, the shot. It resounds through the vast property of Carden Manor, but it travels lightning fast towards the front of Merci's head, right through the forehead. If this were any human, witch, or werewolf, they'd be down on their knees, dead. But for Merci, its a painful inconvenience, but inconvenient enough that when she angrily drops Erick to the ground to grab her head as she yells out in pain, Isa cocks and loads the rifle one more time. Then.... Another shot. This one hits her chest and she cocks the gun at the ready to fire again in case she'd missed (she never misses). The vampires stiffens, she hears something like a breath caught in her throat, and her body falls with an audible thump on the ground, rock solid... desiccated. Isa lowers her rifle and looks at Presley from the top of the roof.

Presley:

Presley Stone has only ever killed once. The Compound. She hadn't thought about it as she'd prepared for this. She hadn't thought about how she's not a killer, not prone to violence, not angry and consumed by emotion -- not ever. She hadn't thought about the place where duty mixes with humanity, not until she's growling, with her paws on the ground and she hears a gun shot and another and Merci drops. -- isa. If she were human she'd be grinning, ear to ear, proud at how well this had come together, at them as a team. But she's not human right now and it isn't over. Because under the duty to protect the people in the barn is the duty to make sure that this vampire never sees the light of day again. She snarls once, and lunges, one clear shot at the vampires throat. She doesn't mutilate, doesn't make one single bite further than what is necessary. And when it's finished, she howls, low and clear toward the sky, a thank you to Isa, before she stalks back into the barn, blood on her nose, and sits, firm and steady in the doorway, facing the outside.

#posting this from isa but feel free to reblog it

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sky-scribbles · 5 years ago

Text

Kaas City shines in the rain.

The Republic news always shows it as grim and forbidding, endlessly smothered by floods. But anyone who’s lived here knows the city was built to be beautiful in a downpour. Gutters made of strengthened glass, refracting light into shining patterns as the water courses through them; funnels and spouts that catch the rain it trickles down buildings, channelling it into fountains.

Lana shines in the rain, too. But then, Lana always shines.

Neyna doesn’t bother to hide her smile as she leads Lana out onto the balcony of her apartment. This feels like the right place to talk: appropriately dramatic, what with the drumming of the rain on the canopy above their heads, and the city a shimmering artwork all around them. And here, she gets to see Lana in the light of the city. See the highlights and shadows thrown over her face. It’s a breathless experience – even though her robes are soaked and her hair’s sticking to her face – and Neyna very badly wants to kiss her.

She wonders if Lana has noticed her repeated glances towards her lips. Probably. Hopefully.

‘You didn’t have to come here in this downpour,’ Neyna says, leaning against the parapet. ‘Or if you did, you could have taken a taxi with a roof.’

‘I took the first one I saw as soon as I learned you were home.’ Lana smiles, and stars, Neyna will never get over what that does to her insides. ‘I wanted to see you as soon as I could. Besides, you didn’t have to buy me flowers, either.’

She’s still holding them, a explosion of amber-coloured petals – which, Neyna is delighted to see, match her eyes perfectly. ‘I did, really. It seems like the least kind of apology I can make for apparently-dying on you. And for taking so long to let you know I was alive.’

Lana is silent for a moment, her fingers twining around the flower stems. Then she says, ‘I missed you.’

Thunder crashes somewhere, and Neyna’s stomach clenches. The clouds hide the view of Zakuul’s blockade, ships in the thousands hanging above Dromund Kaas’s turbulent sky. She thinks of how those ships dropped out of nowhere, how she ran in a panicked dash to escape the Knights and droids that poured from them. Months spent dodging skytroopers as she battled towards home. Nights in cramped foxholes, lightsabre clutched to her chest like a child’s toy, thinking, Lana would know what to do. Lana would have made it home by now. I wouldn’t be anywhere near this scared if Lana could just be here with me –

She swallows, and her fingers clench over the edge of the balcony wall. ‘I missed you too.’

‘No. I –’ Lana’s voice catches in a way Neyna has only heard from her once before, when she was huddled on the ground on Ziost after trying to fight Master Surro. Blood in her hair, blood across her face. So much of it.

Neyna pushes the memory away, and focuses on the way Lana moves as she trails a fingertip over the edges of one of the flowers. Focuses on her voice. ‘I missed seeing you come into work with paint stains on your arms. I missed seeing you play with that bad-tempered kell drake of yours. I hated relying on stealth generators because I didn’t have you to cloak me with the Force. I hated sensing the empty space where you were meant to be at my back. Even –’ She stops, closing her eyes for a moment. ‘Even the Force felt wrong without you around. I won’t feel that again.’

Neyna steps closer. ‘You won’t have to.’

Lana doesn’t say anything. But she smiles. And there’s silence for a few seconds, broken by the sound of rain clattering on the canopy and on the streets and on a million artworks made to catch the water.

There’s no need to say anything more, Neyna decides. She and Lana both know what’s between them, it’s rippling across their Force bond with every second. How unnecessary words seem, and how foolish all those hesitations and missed chances feel, now the entire galaxy is going to change. Now they need to leave this shining city, leave the Empire. Now each of them is the other’s only still point.

Another sound joins the rain: Lana’s fingers drumming on the balcony in a very restless, un-Lana-like way. ‘I suppose we should probably talk about –’

Neyna can’t help the smirk that steals onto her face. ‘About the messages you sent me while I was missing? Your dramatic declaration of love?’

Lana looks equal parts annoyed and awkward, and Neyna shouldn’t be as amused by that as she is. But everything inside her feels too bright and warm right now, and she’s felt that way ever since she read Lana’s last message. My love, Lana called her, and Neyna cried, clutched the datapad until her fingers hurt, laughed in a way she hadn’t since the Eternal Empire came, then cried some more.

The sound of Lana’s voice breaks in on her thoughts. ‘We don’t need to talk about it now if you don’t want to. You’ve had a hard few months, and things are about to change a great deal. And you’ve never exactly made your feelings clear –’

‘I haven’t?’ The words turn into incredulous laugh. ‘Maybe I never said it in so many words, but – stars, Lana, didn’t I make my feelings clear when I said I’d walk through fire if you asked me to? When I gave up my own life essence to heal you on Ziost? When I forced myself to live when it was me against the whole Eternal Empire, just so I could find my way back to you?’ That bright feeling is growing stronger, and Neyna decides to follow where it leads. ‘Then let me make my feelings abundantly clear, Lana Beniko.’

And she steps forward and –

And she kisses Lana.

Finally.

It’s almost laughably easy, after all those months of watching Lana and wanting Lana and saying nothing. Take her face in both hands and lean in, find Lana meeting her halfway, pull her in close and bunch fingers into her hair and don’t let go, oh Force, don’t let go. Feel their bond in the Force flare up like an explosion, all of Lana’s surprise and delight and wonder hitting her in a punch. And something deeper. Something hot and fierce that’s both hers and Lana’s, something that makes Neyna hold on even tighter. Linger a little longer.

Lana’s eyes stay closed as Neyna moves back. Her lips twitch into a smile. ‘You’re squashing the flowers.’

Neyna pries them from her hands and set them down on the rim of the balcony. ‘You can collect them later.’

Because she’s not stopping at one kiss, not when she’s wanted this for more than a year, not when the reflections from the city walls are dancing on Lana’s face. And Lana’s eyes are open and it should be illegal to have eyes so vividly amber, and oh, Neyna is lost now if she wasn’t already, if she wasn’t the first time Lana ever smiled at her.

Neyna finds she’s very, very all right with being lost.

Because kissing Lana again and again is like the shock of a static spark from metal, the rich aftertaste of alcohol, the thrill of hearing music rise to a crescendo. It’s electric and it’s hungry and it’s joy in its rawest form, and there’s not a metaphor in the universe that’s strong enough right now. They told her back on Csilla that she would corrupt anything that touched her – and here she is with the most beautiful creature in the galaxy in her arms, and she’s laughing as she breaks the kiss, laughing with the triumphant glee of it.

So she nearly misses what Lana says. ‘Perhaps we should go inside.’

‘Must we?’ Neyna smiles the words against Lana’s lips. ‘You look beautiful in the rainlight.’

‘Rainlight? This is why I – ’ Lana doesn’t finish the sentence, just leans forward to kiss Neyna again. Soft. Warm. ‘I’ve never met anyone who sees the world the same way you do. Always seeing beauty.’

‘I know,’ Neyna says, looking at Lana in the least subtle way she can manage, and Lana laughs again. ‘But maybe you’re right. Maybe we should go inside. Somewhere nice and private.’

She would like to add, because I want you to myself and I want you as close as I can get you and quite honestly, I just want you and I have for so long. But she settles for grinning, a grin that’s definitely too smug, and Lana lets out a huff. ‘You’re insufferable.’

Neyna just keeps grinning, because she saw a familiar edge creep into Lana’s eyes. A look that says she’s seeing a challenge. Accepting it. And Lana can’t find her that insufferable anyway, because she keeps kissing Neyna even as they step across the doorway, not stopping as Neyna leads her to her room, only stepping back when Neyna turns the light down to a soft golden glow with a flick of her hand. Stars, she loves being a photokineticist. She turns back to Lana, and –

Oh.

There’s no awkward restlessness in Lana’s face now, no hesitation. The glow of her eyes in this lighting is downright ferocious, and Neyna feels her insides jolt so violently that she has a vague feeling that they might not even be in her body anymore.

Lana’s hand closes around the front of her robe. Pulls her close. Closer still. Close enough to slip Neyna’s scarf off with a single twist and hook purposeful fingers into the front of her robes.

‘I am done,’ Lana hisses, ‘with having distance between us.’

Which is absolutely fine, as far as Neyna is concerned.

And very soon there’s no distance between them at all.

#swtor #swtor fanfiction #lana beniko #lana beniko romance #sith inquisitor #oc: arn'eyn'arethua #otp: vibrancy #*slow claps* FINALLY #why did it take so long you idiots #but i think it was worth the wait :)#(also neyna is using she/her pronouns bc she's genderfluid #in case anyone is confused by the change)#sky's writing #does this need a tag for lemons? lmk

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kitzatara · 6 years ago

Text

Zatanna the Sea Witch

“Come in, come in. We mustn’t lurk in doorways, it’s really rude.” Came a voice followed by the witch herself descending gracefully from her chambers. Her black and blue tentacles glimmered in the faint light. Her hair was darker than the deepest trench water. Slowly the red headed merman drifted closer. She smiled at him and bobbed forward to her mirror.

“Now you’re here because you have a thing for this human, this prince Grayson. Not that I blame you, he is quite a catch!” Her laughter was light as she applied red to her lips and a substance to her hair. She made eye contact with the slightly trembling Wally. His crimson tail stirred up bubbles with its anxious thrashing.

“Well, angelfish the solution to your problem is simple. The only way to get what you want is to become a human yourself.” Wally gasped the faint yellow stripes and fins stilled in the water.

“Can you do that?” Zatanna smirked.

“My father was the greatest sea witch in the seven seas. He taught me well.” She said as she pushed off from her seat and floated to a gnarled and twisted stone that supported a crystal ball. She waved her hands.

“Etearc egami fo ecrinp nosyarg.” And there smiling at him with eyes blue like the sky was Richard. Captain of the Robin. Wally felt his heart flutter. He was so beautiful. Zatanna smiled at him resting a tentacle on his shoulder.

“Here’s the deal, I know a spell that will change you into a human for three weeks. Got that? Three weeks, almost a full moons time. In that time you’ve got to get dear old sailing Grayson to kiss you. Not just any kiss, the kiss of true love. If he does kiss you before the sun sets on the last day you’ll remain human permanently. But if he doesn’t, you turn back into a merman and the spell can not be performed again on you.”

“No Wally!” Came a shout from the door way as a dark merman with a black and red tail swam in, a blonde mermaid hot on his tail.

“Wally you can’t do this! This is crazy! Witchcraft is an abomination! You said it yourself it has no substance. It’s a scam, come back to Atlantica with Kaldur and I.” The blonde shouted. Her green tail flashing in frustration

“Artemis is right, I know you and your father have your differences but it is not wise to make such a rash decision from an... unfamiliar source. Take time to cool your head.” Wally scowled at them.

“Differences? He destroyed my souvenirs from all the shipwrecks I’ve explored, all the sailors I’ve rescued, all the treasures I found just because they’re from a so called ‘unfamiliar’ source. If you have such a problem with it why don’t you swim back to the castle and tell my father. Again.” He said pointedly and the both of them looked away in shame. Zatanna placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You know, there’s no time limit. You can decide on whether or not to do the spell whenever you’re ready.” Wally glanced at the image of the prince and back at his friends.

“If I became human I wouldn’t be able to see my friends and siblings again” Zatanna nodded.

“And if you are... unsuccessful, you’ll never be able to use magic to become human again” Zatanna cautioned. Wally bit his lip as doubt crept into his mind.

“And, there is one more thing. We haven’t discussed the subject of payment. You can’t get something from nothing you know.” Wally whirled with eyes wide.

“But I don’t have anything!”

“I’m not asking much, what I want from you is your genetic speed.” Wally felt his jaw drop.

“B-But it’s been in our family for years, we’re the fastest merfolk alive. Traveling great leagues with the fin force. It’s what makes us heroes and warriors.” Zatanna smiled sympathetically.

“A big spell requires a big price, the other options are your sight, hearing, voice, or a limb. And since you won’t have find anyway. Your genetic speed seemed like the best answer. And it would only be while you were human. Should you become a merman once more, your speed shall return.”

“Wally you love your speed” Artemis tried.

“We can find another way” Kaldur pleaded. Wally shook his head.

“Let’s do it” he said firmly. Zatanna summoned a glowing contract and presented him with a quill.

“Wally! Don’t sign it!” He ignored Artemis and signed his name.

“Wally it could’ve said anything!” Wally rolled his eyes.

“Have a little more faith, I read it with my speed. It was a bit difficult, nearly took three seconds because the writing is backwards.” Zatanna grinned.

“That’s how I work my magic. Every sea witch has a system.”

“When do we start?” Wally asked, Zee answered by opening her eyes, which were now glowing blue.

“Oh I guess now.”

“Emoc sdniw fo eht naipsaC aes!” She cried and the water funneled around Wally, creating dry air in the eye of the vortex. She clapped her hands together and blue hands made of magic appeared.

“Ekam yllaw namuh litnu eht txen noom nehw eht cigam sbbe, dna eht rewop swolf kcab htiw eht edit. Ekat sih rewop fo deeps sa na gnireffo, ni egnahcxe rof sgel!” She cried and the hands reared back and sank into his tail. Wally cried out, it felt like he was being ripped in half. Artemis and Kaldur dashed forward trying to reach him as he screamed. Then the water crashed over him. He couldn’t breathe. He was thrashing but his tail wasn’t working.

“Quickly! Swim to the surface, he needs air!” Zatanna cried and Kaldur summoned his power over water and launched Wally out of Zatanna’s home and towards the surface. Fortunately, her lair was very close, otherwise Wally might’ve been hurt ascending so quickly.

Wally broke the surface with a gasp. And spit out water, coughing uncontrollably. Artemis emerged moments later fussing over him and helping him to the shore.

Back in the dwelling of the sea witch, Zatanna and Kaldur were gasping from the strain of their powers. Zatanna clutched the seashell necklace her father had given her, it now crackled with faint the faint lightning of the fin force.

“If he comes to any harm, we will come for you Witch.” He warned through his panting.

“If he comes to harm it won’t be from my magic.” She promised.

“Besides, maybe I want someone as handsome as you to return.” Kaldur glances at her in surprise. She winked and the merman looked away embarrassed before swimming off to check on his friends. Zatanna glanced down at her necklace once more.

“Just a few more ingredients father and I’ll be able to bring you back.” She whispered.

End.

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katrina-jutte-blog · 7 years ago

Photo

Emotion, so fickle a feeling, one that could never truly been contained. For years and years I'd tried, stowed it away, being cold and calculating. I'd always lied to myself, believing that I was incapable of ever truly feeling, world that cultivated me having killed that long ago. It was not the truth, reality was I did so to avoid being hurt. Pain could not come if I didn't feel, at least that was my rational. All walls come crumbling down however, nothing is forever.

School had whittled me away, made me promises that I didn't need to be afraid any longer. In some cases these promises were false, such as dreams of a family, but not all. Love and friendship were real, tangible entity I could feel with my entire being. Trust existed and was not a mere word that meant little. Wouldn't be a stretch to say Lucille and Devanea helped change me, opening me to the ability to be myself. They brought out a side of me that few would ever see, soon, they may lay claim to being the last so do so.

For I was unfortunately correct on one thing, emotions were a weakness, there to be exploited. For years I had done so in my line of work, was near fitting that the table's would turn, my end being brought forth because I'd let my wall down, allowing others passage inside. Now I had to decide if I retreated further inward or attempt to quell the flames engulfing the sanctuary of my heart.

Answer would have easily been flee inward, laying low until it was clear to poke my head outward. My life was more valuable than that of another. They were just another pawn used to protect the queen. Only this time things were different, a true queen didn't discard pieces on a whim, they cared for each and every one of them. Devanea was my best friend, a person that was deathly loyal, willing to sacrifice anything to keep me safe, even her own marriage.

She wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for me. They'd gone after her because they knew we were close, knew it'd be another strike against my psyche. My allies would be taken out one by one until only I remained, then and only then, would I be slain as well. They wanted me to suffer for my indiscretions, for daring to stand against them. Pleasure would not be allotted to them. Time for sending messages was over, now was time for closure.

Fight was going to be taken directly to them, act they would not expect. They knew my allies had dwindled to four, at most, however in disparate times, even old alliances can be rekindled, if only for a short time. Caleb and Elle would help protect Dev, ensure she made it out with her life. As would Dev's wife, Bekah. Thoughts of me should not matter, only the protection of Dev. If they thought otherwise, they'd only reveal themselves to be worse than me.

For as soft as I'd become, only one emotion prevailed over all the others, one that had simmered within me for months, now taking full hold of my body. Rage, pure and unbridled rage. Only one thing could satiate it, death of those hunting me. I didn't care how long it took nor how many bodies stacked up, Richard and his employer would no longer be a blight on this world. Then and only then, would both Lucille and Dev be safe.

That quest started here, at the restaurant that began it all, only locale I knew Richard frequented. It was time someone knocked on his front door without fear. Death no longer frightened me as it once did. My life was forfeit long ago, gods were just choosing now to collect. All I could do was make it as difficult as possible for them.

Hand gripped firmly around a glowing red stone, magical energy shooting through my body like a volt of energy charging a battery. That's all my body was now, a vessel that held the key to ending this. With this power, nothing could touch me, nothing could stand in my way. I could move mountains and shape worlds, but for now, I'd settle for burning this building to the ground.

I kicked open the door, entering the establishment with my face in broad view. I wasn't hiding anymore, they'd know just who they were dealing with. They'd look me square in the eyes and know who won.

“Where the fuck is he?!” I yelled, not giving a shit about the couple and two families eating inside. If they knew what was good for him, they'd get the fuck out of here.

One of the waiter's turned towards me, staring with a look of horror. Tray in his hand started to waver, dishes atop it chattering together. Others were no more filled with vigor, looking between each other as if waiting for something.

That something made itself apparent before my mouth could open again. An arrow whistled through the air, striking me in the right shoulder, sending my body stumbling forward. Arrow went through and through, leaving a hole in my shoulder, blood gushing from it. Hand gave a brief twitch before raising up to that same shoulder. Blood from the wound funneling into it like a vacuum, flesh trying to stretch over the area, enough to abate the bleeding.

Whirling around I slammed my hand against the wall, blood spreading out to form a sigil. It flashed, thick and jellylike substance spreading over the doorway. “No one fucking leaves until I say so.”

A worker near the back of the restaurant tried making a break for the kitchen. My eyes glowed a deep crimson, veins along my arms becoming pronounced, darkening in color. Stone swirled in front of me as if it were a pen on a parchment, creating another sigil in the air. Hound straight from a nightmare leaping from it. It's fur was gone, leaving the entire inter workings of it's body on full display. Saliva poured from it's mouth as it stared at the man.

“Bring me back an arm.” I stated coldly, watching as the hound sprinted to the back in a blaze. Wasn't long before you could hear a scream followed by panicked voices and finally a series of gun fire. Eyes narrowed, hand further constricting around the stone. Gunfire soon ceased.

Vision turned towards the others. “Start talking.”

“We don't even know who you are. Just let us go.” Matriarch of a family of four exclaimed, arms curling around her two youngest children.

“Then I wasn't talking to you, was I?” I glared at her. “Keep your mouth shut and your kids won't have to end up orphans.”

“E-even if you kill us, you won't make it out of here. S-seraph will be all over this place. You'll have nowhere to go.” Waiter with the platter spoke with the confidence of a man trying to ask out a girl well out of his league.

I walked closer, right arm feeling a growing numbness to it, same leg beginning to drag across the ground. “If that's the case, why not just tell me what I want? Or do you fear your wrong?”

Question caught him off guard, rebuttal fumbling out of his mouth. “Be-because I don't have to tell you anything.”

“Your right, you don't.” I reached out, grabbing him by the wrist, eyes flaring again. He struggled at first, trying to rip his arm away, but my hands were a vice, nails clawing into his skin. His eyes started to go glassy, feeling the effects of what had to be poison from the tip of the arrow. Wasn't enough to kill him, at least not yet.

His other arm swung meekly around, fist more slapping across my face than striking it. “What did you do to me?!”

“I'm fixing you.” Blackness covered my hand, loud chattering heard as it spread outward, scaling up the man's arm. He took two deep panicked breaths inward before collapsing to the ground. Brood of shadowed scarabs feasting on what remained of his flesh.

Eyes flicked to the last remaining staff member. “Do you value your life at all?”

“I-I don't know anything, h-he just told us to act na-normal, that it-it would be handled. We... I'm just trying to make a living you know?” Man looked ready to have a heart attack, eyes looking across the room as if pleading for help.

“Does it look handled?” I bent to a crouch, right arm stretching out, letting a few of the scarabs skitter upward.

“Wha-what your doing isn't go-going to solve anything. It-it will bring cha-chaos.” Man grabbed a steak knife off the table, holding it out like he was going to stab me with a rounded edge.

Scarabs helped the process of sealing my wound, using their bites as a makeshift staple, keeping the fresh and flimsy new layer of skin in place. First few times were painful. Now, it felt like a bliss, ever present reminder that I am in fact not dead.

I rose up to my feet, smiling warmly at the man. “Winds of chaos fuel a fire that shall burn this empire to the ground. And from it's ashes, it will begin anew.”

Kitchen doors swung open, mangled corpses of what had once been the cook staff shuffling out. Many had chunks torn from their flesh, others had shards of what looked like bone perforating their chest. One even had the lining of his intestines trying to flee his stomach. All of their eyes were lit with a similar red.

When the flames died down, perhaps I could have the life I yearned for, one of love. Embers still very much burned however. Now wasn't the time for love, only violence. None would be spared.

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dreamsofanenigma · 6 years ago

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C H. 4 - Strange Ties

Logged between Thurs - Fri, afternoon to late evening. [excerpt taken from Victoria Straud's Journal.]

Holly scanned the shelves for something interesting to catch her eye, reading the titles out loud she finally came upon a book reciting the history of Strangerville. Notable references included the construction of the Military base, the local Bar winning some kind of national prize for their entertainer, Ted Roswell's prestigious and rumor filled ascent to mayor, a local trailer park brawl, and a retired pilot named George Cahill whose plane crashed several years ago after being blindsided by a huge flash of light, he now lived on the outskirts of town.

Maybe I should pay him a visit to learn more about what happened, if he accepts visits. I wonder why he's so paranoid of the residents around here?

Holly stretched and checked her phone, doing a double take at the screen she did not realized it had become late. She packed up her bags and quickly called a cab. She couldn't wait to see what Victoria has in mind for the party.

Upon arriving back at home, instead of festive decorations Holly was greeted by an irritated couple, sharing cold looks at the table over plasma filled goblets and curt responses only confirmed it. Seeing no time to inquire about the Ball, she quietly returned to her room, leaving them to heatedly discuss changes in the community and whether or not the Mayor deserves to run for re-election.

She sighed when another rejection e-mail from a well-known agency popped up in her inbox, she decided it wasn't worth a second glance and answered some comments on her latest posts instead. As Holly went to turn in for the night she saw the ugliest piece of clothing imaginable strewn across her bed. Adorned with a slew of ruffles, striped pattern, and a stiff upturned collar. Did Victoria genuinely, indubitably, expect her to wear this? It had to be her idea of a joke, not great, but an attempt nonetheless. Holly carefully hung the dress on the back of her door, while she disliked it, this dress has probably been in the family for ages and damaging it would be highly insulting.

Holly couldn't understand why Victoria thought this was an appropriate outfit, but maybe this is done on purpose. Question is, why? Did she have something against her? Leaving bitter thoughts for the morning, Holly yawned and snuggled deeper under the covers, scratching absently at a bug bite on her neck, wondering why it seemed to hurt more than an average bite...

Perfect, if we ever have a child this will be perfect for their room... who am I kidding. Vlad would never approve of this.

"Darling? I'd like you to meet someone." Vlad called to me from downstairs. I wondered what he could possibly want at this hour, given I was still a bit cross with him.

An eclectic looking man stood nonchalantly in the kitchen doorway. His expression passive as I strode into the living room. Vlad handed me a white cup full of dark liquid, even with enhanced senses such as mine I could not narrow down any specific scent pertaining what this strange beverage is.

"What is this?" I started, but Vlad held a finger to my lips. His eyes indicated less I knew, the better.

"Vlad... I can’t...I need to..." My words came out oddly, as if I were speaking through a funnel.

You don't need to speak at all. Listen to the sounds. What do they say to you?

Vlad's voice echoed inside my head, I blink rapidly to focus my vision when the room suddenly started spinning. My stomach lurched as I tried to sit down, ungracefully I might add.

Come, let me enlighten you of a new path, all beginnings do not have to end. Choose now.

"Choose? What are you talking..."

Choose.

I felt myself falling as my eyes fluttered close. Falling into an abyss of kaleidoscope colors and muffled voices whispering excitedly. I then raise my hand only to see it blur against the motionless backdrop of a field appearing where the colors merged into one. A bright sunny day greets me and I instinctively wince, only to notice that it has no effect on me. In this field appeared a door, it towered over me as I approached, ancient scripts are carved into its wooden panel, vines weaved around the knocker as I reached out to twist the knob...

I must have blacked out, because the next thing I know Vlad has me wrapped in his arms, early morning light filtered through one of the heavy drapes. He was humming a song I hadn’t heard since my first turning.

"What happened?" I say groggily. Pushing through the heavy daze I feel different, stronger even. Power courses through my veins as I struggle to sit upright.

"Well, let's just say the Shaman won't be returning. As it is he's not very keen on sharing blood," The laugh we shared felt more real than anything he told me next, my mind swirled with thoughts and I feared I might faint again. “But enough of that, How do feel now that you are a Grand vampire?”

I see why no one sleeps in this bed; while comfy, those Gargoyles are the stuff of nightmares!

Holly huffed at the sound of her alarm going off, stretching and mentally preparing herself for another chore filled day. Rolling out of bed she hastily put on some clothes when a text chimed from her phone.

Unkown Number: Downstairs in five minutes, don't worry about breakfast. There is something I must discuss with you.

- Victoria.

She swiped at her phone and wondered what this could be about, Victoria has never texted before. Holly made a b-line for the stairs, a clap of thunder causing the stain glass windows to rattle as she caught a glimpse of her pale reflection, the hazy overcast sky seem to make the room dreary and cold.

“Good evening, Holly.” Something in the way Victoria says her name sends a chill up Holly’s spine, but she ignores it in favor of a greeting. Vlad’s mournful organ playing can be heard drifting from the basement.

“Have I done anything wrong?”

“What would make you think that?” Victoria’s smile seemed pleasant enough, but her body language is tense, out-of-place with her usual confident posture. “No, I simply needed to ask you if things are going well here. I want what is best for those who help us, the house has never run so smoothly.”

“Yes, I’ve made a few friends you could say and the pay is generous. Victoria, where is this going?”

Friends? No, we mustn't have that. No, that will not do. I can’t have anyone knowing. You belongs to us now, Holly. I will do everything in my power to keep it so.

“Good,” Victoria appeared to not have heard her, steely eyes in deep concentration. “That’s good. And Vlad?”

“What?”

“How is your relationship with him? He doesn’t...speak of me, does he?”

“Not negatively,” Holly isn’t sure how to respond to her questioning. Why does she care now? “I suppose we could be friends-”

In a flash Victoria was standing directly in front of Holly, irises tainted a harsh green. A menacing smirk stretched across her twisted features.

“Did you really think that to be true?”

Victoria pinned Holly’s arms to her sides and gazed deeply into her eyes, Holly looked confused as the spell weakened her defenses, it only took seconds until the youngest of the two passed out, Victoria was careful not to take too much but couldn’t help wanting more. Droplets of blood dripped from her mouth as she moved Holly towards the sofa, placing her in such a way that it appeared she fell asleep.

Victoria licked her lips, chuckling softly to herself and returned to her room, she had big news to tell Vlad.

Holly awoke a few hours later to the vibration of her phone. Her head was pounding, though it subsided after she got a glass of water. She finally checked her messages and saw one unread from Easton wanting to know if it was okay to come over. She replied saying it was fine, sitting back down and trying to piece together how she ended up in the living room asleep on the sofa.

I didn’t think I was tired enough to just nap right here, good thing Victoria and Vlad are still sleeping.

Holly rubbed at her neck where two puncture marks resided. She’d hoped her instincts were wrong, but the evidence is clear as day and much more visible than the last. Someone is getting careless, either that or they wanted to send a message. Her only remaining question is, what was she going to now? What if she became one of them?

The doorbell distracted her from a string of crazy thoughts, she had to act as if nothing was wrong and gather enough money to get out of here. Easton stood at the door looking slightly worried.

“I came to check on you.”

“I’m fine, thanks.” Holly chuckled and stepped aside, his eyes went wide at the size of the entryway. “Next time I’m in town I’ll bring a bucket of water with me.”

“Good, because I'm not really here to check on you.” He threw her a cheeky grin and made his way into the parlor.

“The Strauds are resting, so if -” Holly started, but Easton is well out of earshot and viewing a large painting depicting one of Vlad’s ancestors.

“Are they in a coffin? I have to see their coffin!” He asked, and before she could stop him Easton dashed downstairs towards the basement. She sighed and ran to catch up, but he was already staring open-mouthed at the dark casket shrouded in mist.

“Hey! There you are. Can we go back upstairs now? This place gives me the creeps.” Holly shuddered. The entire space gave off a weird vibe.

“Creeps? This is awesome! How much are they paying you here? I bet they’re loaded.” Easton seemed fascinated by the thought of living with Vampires, but Holly wanted nothing more to do with any of them and coaxed him back to the living room.

“Honestly, Easton, I have no idea what you like about this place. I can’t wait to get back on my feet and finally have a house to myself.”

“Well, I like you,” A lame attempt at flattery, yes, but underneath his enthusiasm Holly could tell he was slightly nervous and found it cute. “And you don’t have to stay here, I heard there are some great views in Myshuno.”

“I’m a Social Media model, not a Llama’s Secret model.”

“I thought that was a myth!”

Holly continued telling him about being featured in a two page article in the latest InSimStyle on up-and-coming media influencers, saving Vlad from a horde of angry crows, and the events happening at the Lab. Easton, however, got the feeling she was withholding something.

“What are you not telling me?” Easton raised a brow, he always harbored the distinct ability to read people very well, it sometimes came in handy when at work, but he often kept most things to himself as to not make Sims feel uncomfortable. But with Holly...things seemed different.

Holly glanced down at the glass in her hands, ice clinked loudly in the silence that follows his question. She’d never met a guy this observant of her feelings, she took a small breath and decided maybe it was worth taking a chance over. Throughout her explanation Easton was watching her with complete attention, he was in disbelief that they could do this to her.

“I think it’s Victoria. She has this... grudge against me. Like I knew I’d be friends with Vlad or something.” Holly rolled her eyes before continuing, this was harder than she thought it would be. “But it’s weird. One minute she’s nice and helpful, kind of like the big sister I never had, you know? The next, she’s sneaking me these scornful looks across the room when my attention is ‘elsewhere’. I have no idea if I should confront her.”

“Sounds like she sees you as a threat,” Easton had experienced this a few times, mainly from men who thought they were going home with a certain girl. “Whatever you decide to do, I’d be careful. Especially careful, Holly, because these are vampires we’re dealing with and you’re on her turf. Do you have any other place to stay?”

“No, and I’m not returning home. Ever.” Holly’s gaze seemed miles away, Easton wanted to press what she meant by this but thought better of it. No matter how well they got along, he really didn’t want to mess this up. Not like the last one.

“Well, I hope this doesn’t come off as shady, and I know we met like a week ago, but you’re always welcomed at my place. Togo might be a little wary though.”

“Togo?”

“My dog.” Easton brought out his phone and showed her a picture of a beautiful Husky playing in a field, Holly smiled in approval.

“You don’t seem like a dog person; maybe a parakeet.”

When Easton laughed, Holly thought it was the most genuine laugh she’d ever heard. They talked well into the evening and she made sure to make him laugh before he left, just to hear it again. Holly sighed and sunk against the door, thinking of the ridiculous situation she put herself into. Who knows, if things went well she may just take him up on the offer.

#desert of the void #Holly Davis #Easton #ts4 strangervile #ts4 story #the sims 4 #mystery #rough format on this one sorry #implied drug use #victoria straud #vlad straud #ts4 vampires #ts4 mystery

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onlinemarketingcourses · 6 years ago

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Google Florida 2.0 Algorithm Update: Early Observations

It has been a while since Google has had a major algorithm update.

They recently announced one which began on the 12th of March.

This week, we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see these tweets for more about that:https://t.co/uPlEdSLHoXhttps://t.co/tmfQkhdjPL— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) March 13, 2019

What changed?

It appears multiple things did.

When Google rolled out the original version of Penguin on April 24, 2012 (primarily focused on link spam) they also rolled out an update to an on-page spam classifier for misdirection.

And, over time, it was quite common for Panda & Penguin updates to be sandwiched together.

If you were Google & had the ability to look under the hood to see why things changed, you would probably want to obfuscate any major update by changing multiple things at once to make reverse engineering the change much harder.

Anyone who operates a single website (& lacks the ability to look under the hood) will have almost no clue about what changed or how to adjust with the algorithms.

In the most recent algorithm update some sites which were penalized in prior “quality” updates have recovered.

Though many of those recoveries are only partial.

Many SEO blogs will publish articles about how they cracked the code on the latest update by publishing charts like the first one without publishing that second chart showing the broader context.

The first penalty any website receives might be the first of a series of penalties.

If Google smokes your site & it does not cause a PR incident & nobody really cares that you are gone, then there is a very good chance things will go from bad to worse to worser to worsterest, technically speaking.

“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.” – Abraham Lincoln

Absent effort & investment to evolve FASTER than the broader web, sites which are hit with one penalty will often further accumulate other penalties. It is like compound interest working in reverse – a pile of algorithmic debt which must be dug out of before the bleeding stops.

Further, many recoveries may be nothing more than a fleeting invitation to false hope. To pour more resources into a site that is struggling in an apparent death loop.

The above site which had its first positive algorithmic response in a couple years achieved that in part by heavily de-monetizing. After the algorithm updates already demonetized the website over 90%, what harm was there in removing 90% of what remained to see how it would react? So now it will get more traffic (at least for a while) but then what exactly is the traffic worth to a site that has no revenue engine tied to it?

That is ultimately the hard part. Obtaining a stable stream of traffic while monetizing at a decent yield, without the monetizing efforts leading to the traffic disappearing.

A buddy who owns the above site was working on link cleanup & content improvement on & off for about a half year with no results. Each month was a little worse than the prior month. It was only after I told him to remove the aggressive ads a few months back that he likely had any chance of seeing any sort of traffic recovery. Now he at least has a pulse of traffic & can look into lighter touch means of monetization.

If a site is consistently penalized then the problem might not be an algorithmic false positive, but rather the business model of the site.

The more something looks like eHow the more fickle Google’s algorithmic with receive it.

Google does not like websites that sit at the end of the value chain & extract profits without having to bear far greater risk & expense earlier into the cycle.

Thin rewrites, largely speaking, don’t add value to the ecosystem. Doorway pages don’t either. And something that was propped up by a bunch of keyword-rich low-quality links is (in most cases) probably genuinely lacking in some other aspect.

Generally speaking, Google would like themselves to be the entity at the end of the value chain extracting excess profits from markets.

RIP Quora!!! Q&A On Google – Showing Questions That Need Answers In Search https://t.co/mejXUDwGhT pic.twitter.com/8Cv1iKjDh2— John Shehata (@JShehata) March 18, 2019

This is the purpose of the knowledge graph & featured snippets. To allow the results to answer the most basic queries without third party publishers getting anything. The knowledge graph serve as a floating vertical that eat an increasing share of the value chain & force publishers to move higher up the funnel & publish more differentiated content.

As Google adds features to the search results (flight price trends, a hotel booking service on the day AirBNB announced they acquired HotelTonight, ecommerce product purchase on Google, shoppable image ads just ahead of the Pinterest IPO, etc.) it forces other players in the value chain to consolidate (Expedia owns Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire & a bunch of other sites) or add greater value to remain a differentiated & sought after destination (travel review site TripAdvisor was crushed by the shift to mobile & the inability to monetize mobile traffic, so they eventually had to shift away from being exclusively a reviews site to offer event & hotel booking features to remain relevant).

It is never easy changing a successful & profitable business model, but it is even harder to intentionally reduce revenues further or spend aggressively to improve quality AFTER income has fallen 50% or more.

Some people do the opposite & make up for a revenue shortfall by publishing more lower end content at an ever faster rate and/or increasing ad load. Either of which typically makes their user engagement metrics worse while making their site less differentiated & more likely to receive additional bonus penalties to drive traffic even lower.

In some ways I think the ability for a site to survive & remain though a penalty is itself a quality signal for Google.

Some sites which are overly reliant on search & have no external sources of traffic are ultimately sites which tried to behave too similarly to the monopoly that ultimately displaced them. And over time the tech monopolies are growing more powerful as the ecosystem around them burns down:

If you had to choose a date for when the internet died, it would be in the year 2014. Before then, traffic to websites came from many sources, and the web was a lively ecosystem. But beginning in 2014, more than half of all traffic began coming from just two sources: Facebook and Google. Today, over 70 percent of traffic is dominated by those two platforms.

Businesses which have sustainable profit margins & slack (in terms of management time & resources to deploy) can better cope with algorithmic changes & change with the market.

Over the past half decade or so there have been multiple changes that drastically shifted the online publishing landscape:

the shift to mobile, which both offers publishers lower ad yields while making the central ad networks more ad heavy in a way that reduces traffic to third party sites

the rise of the knowledge graph & featured snippets which often mean publishers remain uncompensated for their work

higher ad loads which also lower organic reach (on both search & social channels)

the rise of programmatic advertising, which further gutted display ad CPMs

the rise of ad blockers

increasing algorithmic uncertainty & a higher barrier to entry

Each one of the above could take a double digit percent out of a site’s revenues, particularly if a site was reliant on display ads. Add them together and a website which was not even algorithmically penalized could still see a 60%+ decline in revenues. Mix in a penalty and that decline can chop a zero or two off the total revenues.

Businesses with lower margins can try to offset declines with increased ad spending, but that only works if you are not in a market with 2 & 20 VC fueled competition:

Startups spend almost 40 cents of every VC dollar on Google, Facebook, and Amazon. We don’t necessarily know which channels they will choose or the particularities of how they will spend money on user acquisition, but we do know more or less what’s going to happen. Advertising spend in tech has become an arms race: fresh tactics go stale in months, and customer acquisition costs keep rising. In a world where only one company thinks this way, or where one business is executing at a level above everyone else – like Facebook in its time – this tactic is extremely effective. However, when everyone is acting this way, the industry collectively becomes an accelerating treadmill. Ad impressions and click-throughs get bid up to outrageous prices by startups flush with venture money, and prospective users demand more and more subsidized products to gain their initial attention. The dynamics we’ve entered is, in many ways, creating a dangerous, high stakes Ponzi scheme.

And sometimes the platform claws back a second or third bite of the apple. Amazon.com charges merchants for fulfillment, warehousing, transaction based fees, etc. And they’ve pushed hard into launching hundreds of private label brands which pollute the interface & force brands to buy ads even on their own branded keyword terms.

They’ve recently jumped the shark by adding a bonus feature where even when a brand paid Amazon to send traffic to their listing, Amazon would insert a spam popover offering a cheaper private label branded product:

Amazon.com tested a pop-up feature on its app that in some instances pitched its private-label goods on rivals’ product pages, an experiment that shows the e-commerce giant’s aggressiveness in hawking lower-priced products including its own house brands. The recent experiment, conducted in Amazon’s mobile app, went a step further than the display ads that commonly appear within search results and product pages. This test pushed pop-up windows that took over much of a product page, forcing customers to either click through to the lower-cost Amazon products or dismiss them before continuing to shop. … When a customer using Amazon’s mobile app searched for “AAA batteries,” for example, the first link was a sponsored listing from Energizer Holdings Inc. After clicking on the listing, a pop-up window appeared, offering less expensive AmazonBasics AAA batteries.”

Buying those Amazon ads was quite literally subsidizing a direct competitor pushing you into irrelevance.

And while Amazon is destroying brand equity, AWS is doing investor relations matchmaking for startups. Anything to keep the current bubble going ahead of the Uber IPO that will likely mark the top in the stock market.

Some thoughts on Silicon Valley’s endgame. We have long said the biggest risk to the bull market is an Uber IPO. That is now upon us.— Jawad Mian (@jsmian) March 16, 2019

As the market caps of big tech companies climb they need to be more predatious to grow into the valuations & retain employees with stock options at an ever-increasing strike price.

They’ve created bubbles in their own backyards where each raise requires another. Teachers either drive hours to work or live in houses subsidized by loans from the tech monopolies that get a piece of the upside (provided they can keep their own bubbles inflated).

“It is an uncommon arrangement — employer as landlord — that is starting to catch on elsewhere as school employees say they cannot afford to live comfortably in regions awash in tech dollars. … Holly Gonzalez, 34, a kindergarten teacher in East San Jose, and her husband, Daniel, a school district I.T. specialist, were able to buy a three-bedroom apartment for $610,000 this summer with help from their parents and from Landed. When they sell the home, they will owe Landed 25 percent of any gain in its value. The company is financed partly by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Mark Zuckerberg’s charitable arm.”

The above sort of dynamics have some claiming peak California:

The cycle further benefits from the Alchian-Allen effect: agglomerating industries have higher productivity, which raises the cost of living and prices out other industries, raising concentration over time. … Since startups raise the variance within whatever industry they’re started in, the natural constituency for them is someone who doesn’t have capital deployed in the industry. If you’re an asset owner, you want low volatility. … Historically, startups have created a constant supply of volatility for tech companies; the next generation is always cannibalizing the previous one. So chip companies in the 1970s created the PC companies of the 80s, but PC companies sourced cheaper and cheaper chips, commoditizing the product until Intel managed to fight back. Meanwhile, the OS turned PCs into a commodity, then search engines and social media turned the OS into a commodity, and presumably this process will continue indefinitely. … As long as higher rents raise the cost of starting a pre-revenue company, fewer people will join them, so more people will join established companies, where they’ll earn market salaries and continue to push up rents. And one of the things they’ll do there is optimize ad loads, which places another tax on startups. More dangerously, this is an incremental tax on growth rather than a fixed tax on headcount, so it puts pressure on out-year valuations, not just upfront cash flow.

If you live hundreds of miles away the tech companies may have no impact on your rental or purchase price, but you can’t really control the algorithms or the ecosystem.

All you can really control is your mindset & ensuring you have optionality baked into your business model.

If you operate a single website that is heavily reliant on a third party for distribution then you have little to no optionality. If you have multiple projects that enables you to shift your attention toward working on whatever is going up and to the right while letting anything that is failing pass time without becoming overly reliant on something you can’t change. This is why it often makes sense for a brand merchant to operate their own ecommerce website even if 90% of their sales come from Amazon. It gives you optionality should the tech monopoly become abusive or otherwise harm you (even if the intent was benign rather than outright misanthropic).

As the update ensues Google will collect more data with how users interact with the result set & determine how to weight different signals, along with re-scoring sites that recovered based on the new engagement data.

Recently a Bing engineer named Frédéric Dubut described how they score relevancy signals used in updates

As early as 2005, we used neural networks to power our search engine and you can still find rare pictures of Satya Nadella, VP of Search and Advertising at the time, showcasing our web ranking advances. … The “training” process of a machine learning model is generally iterative (and all automated). At each step, the model is tweaking the weight of each feature in the direction where it expects to decrease the error the most. After each step, the algorithm remeasures the rating of all the SERPs (based on the known URL/query pair ratings) to evaluate how it’s doing. Rinse and repeat.

That same process is ongoing with Google now & in the coming weeks there’ll be the next phase of the current update.

So far it looks like some quality-based re-scoring was done & some sites which were overly reliant on anchor text got clipped. On the back end of the update there’ll be another quality-based re-scoring, but the sites that were hit for excessive manipulation of anchor text via link building efforts will likely remain penalized for a good chunk of time.

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evasalinasrest · 6 years ago