#it has GOT to be a class thing they still see themselves as upper class filipinos and because we are like their drivers and maids

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. it’s so fucking funny and ironic to me that the people that have been the worst gatekeepers when it came to western classical music, already a place where people like me are so horribly underrepresented, were people in my own fucking ethnic group who are also themselves horribly underrepresented. and it was the americans who have welcomed me with open arms and like. loved me and cared for me and made me fall in love with music and re-fall in love with music. so how do those boots taste huh

[malfoysprinces]

In The Middle Of A Betrayal, There is Love

- draco malfoy-

Pairing: Draco Malfoy x Slytherin Reader

Summary: Draco saves you and finds his way back to you.

Warnings: Breakup, Bellatrix Torture, Angst with a happy ending.

Word Count: 3.5k

Author’s Note: Feel free to give feedbacks & requests.

“Now is really not a good time Y/N.” Y/N has lost the count of times that she heard these words came out of Draco’s mouth in this past couple of weeks.

 He was cold, distant, and bothered. Almost like bothered by her presence.

She has never felt this particular way during their 10-month long relationship or their 16-year long friendship.

Sound of Draco’s feet walking away from her was nothing but an unbearable ache in Y/N’s chest since he started acting this way. Without wasting time, she walked away as quickly.

There she was, walking alone to the Astronomy Tower. A place once belonged to Draco and Y/N, as their hiding spot. Whenever things got too heavy, they always found their way back each other which led them to spend countless nights talking at Astronomy Tower.

“I think I'd rather pitch myself of the Astronomy Tower if I thought I had to continue here for another two years.” his exact words echoed in her ear.

With the rise of the Dark Lord, a lot has changed for Draco and Y/N’s family. Y/L/N’s was as upper class as Malfoys was. They were amongst the Sacred Twenty-Eight and they had a long line of pure blood witched and wizards in the family line. Their loyalty was to no one but Dark Lord.

Although Y/N had nothing to do with the dark side, her faith was intertwined with it. She just didn’t know it,yet.

She knew one day Draco would take over Lucius’s work, but she would have never guessed that he would push her away. And she also didn’t know that she was going to pay for her own father’s actions. Yet.

As she heard footsteps, it was nobody else than Theodore Nott. Y/N’s best friend.

“Theo” Y/N said in a shaky voice.

“Oh, Y/N, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Theo asked in a worried voice.

There was no one else who understood Y/N better than Theo did. So, she just spilled the truth.

“Draco, he is- he has been distant and cold, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Theo was also a death eater. That he already got the mark. Y/N didn’t know it, just yet.

Little did he know, Theo was there for Draco when he received his mark. Little did he know, he had to lie to Y/N to protect her. As commanded by her father. It was just like the old times. Y/N’s father asked Theo to watch over her. But this time not from enemies, but for themselves.  

“Y/N just give him time. He is going through a though time.” Said Theo.

“I know, Theo. ”

“Still, he has been so distant to me for so long, I can’t remember when this all started. It is that long and he is barely speaking to me.” Just when Y/N finished her sentence, Draco approached to them.

The look in his eyes were obvious. Things were coming to an end between Y/N and Draco. It’s just that Draco would have been the one to speak it up.

“Hi Draco, and goodbye. I have to go check something.” Said Theo.

As if he ran away from the breakup between his two friends. As if he ran away from what he has been expecting for some time now.

“Hi” Draco said.

“Hi Draco.” Y/N said.

The rest was predictable. Draco called it quits that night. All I could say is, you could rip all the skin from both of their bones, and it would hurt them less. I leave the rest to your imagination.

Y/N was stuck in the moment she lost him. She could see the breakup coming, but she never would have thought she wouldn’t be able to breathe again. It took everything in her not to fall apart in front of him.

She walked and walked until she reached the Slytherin dungeons. The night was silent. No one was in the common room as she headed to her dorm. As she entered her dorm, Y/N let out a deep sigh. Memories of her time with Draco flooded her mind, making her heart ache with longing. She sat on her bed and buried her face in her hands, trying to suppress the tears that threatened to spill.

Meanwhile, Draco was struggling with his own demons. He had been tasked by Voldemort to complete a dangerous mission, one that could cost him his life. He knew that he couldn't involve Y/N in this, no matter how much he loved her. He had to break things off to keep her safe.

Days turned into weeks, and Y/N tried to hold on as best she could. She went to her classes, but her heart wasn't in it. She missed Draco terribly, but she didn't know where to find him. Meanwhile, Draco skipped almost all of his classes, disappearing for hours on end. Still his ass was always saved by Professor Snape, everytime.

As Y/N was going through the worst weeks of her life, her only anchor was Theo. Her best friend was here for her as he always was.  

“Mate, she is not doing well.” A voice echoed in an empty classroom.

“Oh really Theo? Do you really think that I can’t see that?” Draco said.

“DO YOU KNOW HOW FUCKING MUCH I WANT TO BE WITH HER RIGHT NOW?” Draco finally lost it.

“Draco, listen to m-“ Theo was interrupted.

“NO THEO, YOU FUCKING LISTEN TO ME! DON'T GO AROUND LECTURING ME, YOU SAW WHAT I HAVE BECAOME, HELL YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN I AM.”

Draco was in tears.

"Just keep her safe, will you?"

“Of course man, she is my best friend, I knew her before you did.” Said Theo in a comforting voice.

“Y/N” shouted Daphne “Come!”

“How are you holding up?” Daphne asked

“Fine, I guess.” Y/N answered.

“You know, Draco hasn’t even blinked since you sit at the table. His eyes are all on you.” Daphne said in a rather comforting voice.

“Daphne stop. I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Whatever.” Said Daphne.

“Y/N Y/L/N” said Professor Snape. “Your mother is waiting for you in Dumbledore’s office.”

“What?” Y/N was in shock.

The whole group was in shock. It is not common for parents to come to Hogwarts. Actually, they never did.

“Hurry Miss Y/L/N.” Snape insisted.

As Y/N was walking to Dumbledore’s office she heard a familiar voice.

“Y/N” said Theo, stopping her halfway. “I heard that your mom is here, everything alright?”

“I don’t think so. Something must be wrong or else she wouldn’t have come all the way from London.” Y/N answered.

“My father what??” Y/N was in total shock.

“He betrayed the Dark Lord. Now they are looking for us everywhere. We gotta run.” Said Y/N’s mom, trembling.

“Mum, what are you talking about?” Y/N was still trying to understand what happened.

Y/N’s father was working for the Dark Lord, she knew he had the dark mark. But still, what could he have possibly done to betray him?

"We don't have time for all the details now," Dumbledore interjected. "The important thing is that you and your mother need to leave Hogwarts immediately. You're not safe here."

And just like that, Y/N found herself packing her stuff in her dorm room with her mum.

“Mrs. Y/L/N, it is a pleasure to see you here.” Said Pansy.

“Hello, darling.” Y/N’s mum answered. “Sweetie, we got to get going.” She said to Y/N.

“Going? Where?” asked Pansy in a shock.

“Pansy darling, you and Y/N can catch up later. We don’t have much time left.” Mrs. Y/L/N was shaking.

“One last time” Y/N thought. “I need to see Draco one last time.” She said to her mum.

“Sorry, we have to go now.” Mrs. Y/L/N insisted.

And just like that, they were gone.

Not so long after the word has spread. Narcissa owled Draco saying Y/N’s father has betrayed the Dark Lord and Dark Lord is looking for Y/N and her mum everywhere to get back at her father. Bellatrix was helping them, as well. News was traveling fast around Hogwarts. Y/N’s father’s betrayal was the topic all the student were talking about.

The consequences of betraying the Dark Lord were dire, and for Y/N and her mum, the price was high. Betrayal meant a lifetime of running, hiding, and living in fear.

They had been living in hiding for days, constantly on the move, never staying in one place for too long.

But they were caught off guard when a group of Death Eaters found them in the forest one night. Y/N and her mother had been camping, thinking that they were safe for the moment. But the Death Eaters had been tracking them, and they attacked without warning.

Y/N and her mother fought bravely, but they were no match for the skilled Death Eaters. They were quickly overpowered and taken captive.

As they were dragged away, Y/N could see the fear in her mother's eyes. She knew that they were facing an uncertain fate, and she was terrified for both of them. But she also knew that they had to be strong, that they had to find a way to survive no matter what lay ahead.

They were then taken to Malfoy Manor, a place that had become notorious for being a hub of Death Eater activity. As Y/N was being dragged into the Malfoy Manor, she couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity wash over her. She had grown up with Draco and the Malfoys, and the grandeur of the mansion was a sight she had seen many times before. However, this time was different. This time, she was being taken in as a prisoner, and she knew that her past relationship with Draco would not do her any favors.

As she was led to the dungeon by some low-ranked Death Eaters, she saw Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy waiting for her. The looks on their faces were a mix of curiosity and contempt. Y/N could feel their eyes scrutinizing her, and she knew that they were aware of the danger Y/N and her mum was in. She couldn't help but wonder if that was the reason why they had come for her.

Lucius sneered at Y/N and her mother. "What a disgrace to the pureblood name," he spat. "Betraying the Dark Lord, how could you? You and your father have brought shame upon our community."

As Narcissa watched Lucius mock over Y/N and her mother, she couldn't help but feel a deep sadness. She had known Y/N's mother for years and considered her a close friend. The thought of her being subjected to such cruel treatment made her sick to her stomach. She had always felt uneasy about the Death Eaters, but her loyalty to her family had kept her silent.

Eventually, Bellatrix arrived, accompanied by several other Death Eaters. Y/N and her mother could feel the fear creeping up inside of them as they realized that they were about to be tortured. Bellatrix was known for her cruel and sadistic nature, and they knew that they were in for a terrible ordeal.

Bellatrix sneered at Y/N, "Well, well, well. Look who we have here. Draco's precious little girlfriend. Or should I say ex-girlfriend? Accompanied by her pureblood, posh mum. Oh and she is a dear friend of my sister Cissy." She laughed mockingly as Y/N gritted her teeth. "How does it feel to know that the boy you loved is now a loyal servant of the Dark Lord? Bellatrix addressed towards Y/N.

Y/N clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms. She wanted to lash out at Bellatrix, to scream and curse her, but she knew it would only make things worse. She had just learned that Draco is a death eater, as well.

As soon as he heard that Y/N and her mum was captured, Draco came back running to Manor. Knowing exactly what Death Eaters are capable of.

Draco rushed into the dungeon to see Bellatrix and several other Death Eaters surrounding Y/N, who was strapped to a chair, bruised and bleeding. It was written all over his face that he was scared. His heart sank at the sight, and he felt sick with fear and anger.

"What's going on here?" Draco demanded, his voice shaking with emotion.

Bellatrix turned to him with a sneer. "Ah, Draco, just in time. We were just getting started with your little ex-girlfriend here."

Draco's heart clenched at the mention of Y/N as his "ex-girlfriend." He knew he still loved her, despite everything that had happened between them.

What followed was a brutal and horrific scene, as Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters subjected the reader and her mother to various forms of torture. They were forced to endure the Cruciatus Curse, which sent waves of excruciating pain coursing through their bodies. They were also subjected to the Imperius Curse, which robbed them of their free will and left them completely at the mercy of their torturers.

Bellatrix stepped closer to Y/N, her wand still pointed at her. "Tell me, dear, why did you think it was a good idea to betray the Dark Lord?" she sneered.

Y/N clenched her jaw, refusing to answer. Bellatrix let out a cruel laugh. "Oh, I see. The little pureblood princess is too good to speak to me, is that it?"

Y/N gritted her teeth but remained silent.

Bellatrix continued to circle her; the tip of her wand tracing patterns in the air. "You know, I find it amusing that you were once Draco's girlfriend. It's quite the fall from grace, isn't it? From being the object of a Malfoy's affections to being a traitor."

Draco walked forward, his wand drawn, and faced Bellatrix with defiance. "You can't do this. She's not involved in any of this. Let her go."

Bellatrix laughed cruelly. "Oh, but she is involved. Her father has been conspiring against us for years. She knows things that could be very useful to us."

Draco's heart sank further at the realization that Y/N's family was involved in the Resistance. He knew this would only make things worse.

He stepped closer to Y/N, taking in the sight of her battered and bruised body. "Y/N, are you okay?" he whispered, his voice trembling with emotion.

Y/N looked up at him, her eyes filled with pain and fear. "Draco," she whispered, her voice barely audible.

Draco's heart broke at the sight of her, and he felt a wave of guilt wash over him. He knew he had to do something to save her. Draco's eyes flicked to Y/N's mother, who was also being held captive. "Please, Bellatrix, let them go. They have nothing to do with this."

"Please, Bellatrix, let her go," Draco pleaded again, his voice desperate. "They are not involved in any of this. I'll do whatever you want, just please, let them go."

Bellatrix looked at him with contempt. "You think you can save her? You think your love for her will protect her? How sweet."

Bellatrix pulled back, a wicked grin on her face. " We'll teach you the true meaning of loyalty." Addressed to Y/N.

Draco gritted his teeth, his anger boiling over. "I'll do whatever it takes. Just let her go."

Y/N closed her eyes, bracing herself for what was to come.

Draco’s voice quivered as he spoke, “Bellatrix, please, she’s innocent. Don’t hurt her.”

Bellatrix sneered, “Innocent? You forget, dear Draco, that she is a part of a family of blood traitors. She’s just like her father, a betrayer of our Lord.”

“But she’s not like him. She didn’t know anything about her father’s betrayal. She’s not involved in any of this,” Draco pleaded.

Bellatrix cackled, “Oh, how sweet. You still have feelings for her, don’t you? You still think she’s special.”

Bellatrix raised her wand, “Watch me.”

Draco stepped forward, “No, I won’t let you. If you want to torture someone, torture me.”

Y/N watched in disbelief as Draco stepped in front of her, shielding her from Bellatrix’s wand. Bellatrix laughed, “How noble of you, Draco. But I think we’ll have to do both of you. After all, what’s a little torture between star-crossed lovers?”

“No!” Narcissa shouted. “Draco, you stay out of this” Lucius added.

Y/N watched as Draco stepped closer to Bellatrix, his wand pointed at her. "I'm warning you, Bella. Let her go."

Bellatrix just laughed again. "Or what? You'll hex me? You don't have the stomach for it, Draco. You never have."

 Draco was being held back by both of his parents.

Y/N felt tears well up in her eyes as Bellatrix carved the word “traitor” on her arm. She couldn’t believe this was happening.

Through gritted teeth, Draco whispered to Y/N, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Draco was in tears.

Y/N'S mother was already unconscious, and she couldn't bear to see her suffer any longer.

As Bellatrix continued to torture them, Y/N and Draco exchanged glances filled with pain and regret. Despite everything that had happened between them, they both knew that they still cared for each other. But in the midst of the chaos and violence, it seemed like there was nothing they could do to save themselves.

Suddenly, there was a loud crack that echoed through the room. Everyone turned to see Dobby, the house-elf, apparate into the room. He was holding a small kitchen knife, but his eyes blazed with a fierce determination.

"You will not hurt Master Draco's friend!” he squeaked, brandishing the knife.

Bellatrix sneered at the tiny elf. "What do we have here? A little rat trying to play with the big cats?"

Dobby didn't flinch. "You will not touch Master Draco's friend and her mother!" he repeated.

Bellatrix laughed cruelly. "Oh, how adorable. And what are you going to do about it, little elf?"

Without warning, Dobby lunged at Bellatrix, brandishing the knife. Bellatrix was caught off guard, and stumbled backwards, giving Y/N and her mother an opportunity to run towards Draco.

Draco quickly took hold of their arms, leading them towards the fireplace. "Come on, we have to get out of here!" he urged.

But Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters weren't about to let them escape that easily. They started casting spells in their direction, trying to prevent their escape.

Dobby darted around the room, dodging curses and hexes. He was small and nimble, and surprisingly quick with the knife. He managed to keep Bellatrix and the others occupied long enough for Draco, Y/N, and her mother to make it to the fireplace.

As they made their way through the streets of London, with Dobby trailing behind them, Draco explained his plan to Y/N. "My aunt, Andromeda Tonks, lives in the Order of Phoenix Headquarters. We can go there and stay until we figure out what to do next."

As they stand in front of the Order of Phoenix Headquarters, Y/N turned to Draco, her eyes filled with fear and gratitude. "Thank you, Draco," she said, her voice shaking. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been there."

Draco's heart swelled with love and relief. "I'll always be there for you, Y/N," he said, his voice soft. "I'll never let anything happen to you."

Y/N nodded, grateful for Draco's help. "Thank you, Draco. You're risking so much for us."

Draco smiled sadly. "I'll do anything to keep you safe, Y/N. I just hope it's not too late to make things right between us."

“I love you and I never meant anything to happen to you. I ended things to protect you.” Said Draco rather in a sad voice.

Y/N looked at Draco, tears streaming down her face. "You can't just protect me by pushing me away, Draco," she said, her voice breaking. "I love you too, and I can't bear the thought of losing you."

Draco's eyes softened as he reached out to cup Y/N's cheek. "I know, and I'm sorry," he said, his voice filled with regret. "I was so scared of losing you, of putting you in danger. But now, I realize that pushing you away was the worst thing I could have done."

Y/N leaned into Draco's touch, her heart pounding in her chest. "So what happens now?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Draco took a deep breath, his eyes locked on Y/N's. "Now, we start over," he said firmly. "Together. We face whatever comes our way, and we do it together. I love you, Y/N, and I never want to let you go again."

Y/N smiled through her tears, feeling the weight of the past lifting off her shoulders. "I love you too, Draco," she whispered, before leaning in for a kiss.

[spontaneousglitterbees]

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The paper has it spelled out like sunrise over a lake; she can’t help but look at it until she has to make herself look away. Her first ‘client’, the fellow student she’s meant to be shadowing for the week, the person she is tasked with protecting if she wants to pass this class after transferring in partway through the semester is none other than–

“Ooh, bad luck.”

(Part of the TAPP AU, also on Ao3)

Ouma’s voice squeaks out from beside her upper arm so suddenly she flinches.

“Oh please, Harukawa, don’t tell me I caught you off guard. That’s like, your entire thing, now!” he sounds so jovial, without a care in the world, but his chest heaves as though he also just shuddered down to the core.

“You did this.” She states it without room for uncertainty.

“Why the hell would I do that?” he flicks his hand toward the sheet of printer paper pinned to the corkboard, the one that has condemned them for the next one-hundred-sixty-eight hours. It’s up there for the whole school to see. “It’s not even my MO to hack this school’s ancient copy machine, or whatever, I’m out for a good time. Besides, I’d like to live, thanks much.”

Maki is entirely unimpressed. “It is precisely your MO to stomp on my nerves in every way you can,” she enunciates with each step forward.

His grip tightens around the handle of his cane, still smiling. His knuckles threaten to rip themselves to shreds.

“Actually,” a voice chimes in, stern but not unkind. “It makes perfect sense, does it not? You are both in Class 79, which ought to alleviate some of the initial awkwardness.”

Silver hair catching the artificial overhead light, teaching assistant and upperclassman Peko Pekoyama overshadows the pair from behind. “Besides, as the Ultimate…” her eyes narrow, incredulous. “... Supreme Leader, Ouma is going to need a security detail someday.”

Maki glares up at her for all of a split second before dutifully lowering her gaze. It's less that the Ultimate Swordsman is intimidating than that she's so... coldly supportive. The kind of person whose praise is lined with mist and whose fury is a downpour. It'd be a shame to disappoint her, especially over Kokichi, of all people.

"Oh, but Peko-peko-chan, don't you know? Maki and I have been sworn enemies since we were kids! You'd really let that mean ol' teacher pair me up with my nemesis?! That's so cruel!" Kokichi leans in on his cane for leverage, arms crossed in front of him as he acts out the phrase in big, encompassing gestures. That's a lie. But...

Unfortunately for both of them, it only seems to reassure Peko that the path forward is clear. "It'll be a fine challenge for the both of you, then. You’ll be able to focus on two objectives at once: gaining experience staying alert, and equal experience working with difficult clients.”

Kokichi scoffs in the background, of course, but it's hardly worth arguing. He tries to get in your head and stay there, after all. If anything, being ‘difficult’ is a point of pride for him. His eye still seems to twitch a little at the admission. It’s probably just the dry autumn air.

Maki, inventing new curses in her head and keeping them there, nods sagely. "Of course, Ms. Pekoyama. I won't let you down."

She looks over to her current mark.

It's going to be a long week.

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

The week starts off innocuous enough. The worst of it comes at the beginning of each day as Kokichi pulls his books out of his locker. Literature, World History, ... Calculus II? Each slams into the floor with a resounding thud, one after another.  Some of them won't even see use until near the end of the school day, but he insists she carry them now. Spiteful little shit.

Many of their general education classes are shared to begin with, fortunately, meaning the two of them simply have to walk between classes together for a while. It isn’t quite embarrassing as much as it is frustrating for Maki. Does he even really need a cane, or is it just a ploy to get the teacher’s sympathy? They saunter down the hallway in either case, uncaring of the actual time they arrive. Five minutes late, ten minutes, even; neither incurs a penalty, a bit of an affront to her own persistent punctuality. ‘This school is his’ indeed.

No. The real trouble starts brewing during their free periods.

"The autumn leaves are home to a variety of bug species," lectures Gonta, sitting cross-legged in the courtyard. Kokichi sits beside him, dredging through a pile of leaves; pick up, flip, sort, over and over. Maki remains stock-still and focused on defense. Peko could be hiding around any given corner, assisting a teacher lying in wait for an ambush just to make a point about vigilance. 

But it’s a bit hard to stay on edge when things are so… unremarkable. So normal. 

"As an example, early-emerging populations of Actias luna in North America lay eggs on the undersides of leaves to keep larvae and pupas safe during winter until the adults appear in March." Despite Gonta’s better efforts choosing a more palatable bug for discussion, neither Kokichi nor Maki seems to be paying actual attention. 

"Which has to be why the leaf piles make such a good crunch when you jump in'em, riiiiight?" Kokichi teases, crushing the pile of leaves he's sorted beneath the base of his palm. He throws his back into the motion with a sadistic smile. It breaks into the same mischievous laugh as usual soon after, nishishi~! 

Gonta, however, seems unalarmed; perhaps he sees the un-smashed pile, the ones with even just the potential to have 'stuff on'em'. Instead, he smiles. "That might be the beetles, they love hiding in leaves."

"Ewwww!" Kokichi wipes his hand on his pants, despite the distinct lack of bug entrails on them. "Great! Gonta, you can't just ruin fall like that! Now I'm gonna be thinking about nasty beetles when I just wanted to have some fun..." he makes a point to frown, but seeing no real reaction the expression disappears as quickly as it came. 

"I not– I'm not ruining fall, it's too hot out to be real fall. It's messing with the bugs’ hibernation cycles...."

Maki finds she's won a fourth consecutive mental game of tic-tac-toe with herself before she finally sighs. Would it be out of line to suggest going inside? Perhaps a more enclosed space will help her readjust to the objective. 

Before she can suggest such a thing, Kokichi beats her to it.

“Yeah, it’s waaaay too hot out for September, I’m beat. Harukawa-chan, can we go back inside now?” he doesn’t bother to pout, eyes going from half-lidded to three-quarters wide seeing the barely-contained irritation on Maki’s face. 

“Gladly.” She stands without hesitation, turning to Gonta. “Thank you for having us.”

“Of course, is only polite thing to do,” smiles Gonta. Kokichi is a touch intrigued.

“What are you thanking him for, I bet you weren’t even listening! You haven’t taken that scowl off your face all day.” He leans a bit to his left, accentuating the roll of his eyes.

“I knew that you wouldn’t.” Maki says simply, opening the cold glass door.

Kokichi is shocked, appalled he’d tell you, with a loud gasp! Then he shrugs a little. “Eh. I wasn’t bored, anyway.”

Gonta waves, cheerful as ever, as the door swings shut.

The foot of his cane practically skids across the terrazzo tile as Kokichi takes off down the hall.

“What’s got you in such a hurry?” Maki asks before she can think better of it; Ouma is still faster than she’d given him credit for.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Ultimate Assassin.” The reply comes quick and sharp, bitterness rising in his voice that hasn’t seen the light of day since well before the game ended.

Before she can ask ‘why now?’ or some such thing, as though there’s any logic behind what Ouma does in the first place, he’s looking at her expectantly from his perch just at the threshold of the main library doorway.

“Dunno about you, but I, for one, have homework. I’m looking for a book, silly, don’t you guys use those?” he shakes his head lightly, keeping the door open by leaning on it and waiting for her to go through. It takes a moment of the two staring at one another to determine who is going to relent; Maki walks a step inside as Kokichi beelines for the reading chairs.

Ah, the reading chairs. Only marginally more acceptable than the stiff, borderline crunchy upholstery of most of the furniture on campus. At least there’s no punishment for sitting on these. Surrounded by deep forest green carpets and a dim, subdued atmosphere one risks sinking into should they stay still for too long, the library is quiet. Starkly quiet. The sound of breathing itself seems to echo, not at all damped by the depth of archways and sub-sections of books and books upon books.

Kokichi looks idly up at the rafters, looking for something he must not find.

“What’s wrong?” Maki reluctantly asks, curiosity overpowering her better sense.

“It’s hot in here,” Ouma replies, his voice… uncharacteristically soft. It’s impossible to tell what emotion comes attached, if there is one at all.

“The air conditioning has been broken in this building all day, I hear.”

There is an awkward silence between them, an absolute vacuum of small-talk.

He takes a deep breath, only to look back over at Maki. “Welp. This place is huge, so. Might as well get crackin’, book’s not gonna find itself!” He smiles a little too wide for his face as he launches upright, looking over his shoulder and taking off into the canopy of books. “Be back in a bit!”

“Alright,” says Maki, striding over to meet him. “Where are we going first?”

Kokichi shakes his head. He’s sorely mistaken if he thinks it’ll be that easy to get rid of you. “Hmm, iunno. I’ll know it when I see it,” he chirps as he changes directions, taking a few dizzying turns before coming to a brief pause.

What is his problem? What does he get out of making this difficult for the both of you? Surely boredom can’t overtake the selfish want to do less work… yet, sure enough, he’s speed-walking away again.

Maki doesn’t need to look up to explain the sudden chill down her spine.

“Kiyo-chan! Fancy meetin’ you here,” Ouma laughs, stepping to the shelf opposite Korekiyo as Maki walks up to the two of them.

“Not exactly, Ouma, you know quite well I’ve been tasked with the maintenance of some of the anthropology department’s rarer books,” Kiyo shakes his head, adjusting his mask. “... No, I won’t be taking you to them. I was actually looking for a project on Minoan mythos in relation to pre-Hellenic…” he cuts himself off. 

Really, Maki thinks to herself, it’s hard to believe this awkward kid could have been the monster he once was. That’s the thing about monsters, though, isn’t it? In real life they don’t have horns or tails like the minotaur…. 

“Say. What are you visiting the library for? Your field is not precisely predicated on a large literary basis, is it?” 

“Kiyo-chaaaaan! No fair! Are you telling me I don’t look like I read? ‘Cuz I can read plenty, as long as it’s not BORING me to death!!” Kokichi leans on his cane, slightly swaying. “I like libraries. They’re like obstacle courses, and half the time nobody is even in them to get in the way!” he smiles. “But that’s a lie.”

“He’s looking for a book,” Maki chimes in, startling both Korekiyo and Kokichi back a few steps. 

“Oh, is that all? What kind of book are you looking for, Ouma? Certainly I could be of assistance.” Kiyo nods, possibly(?) smiling, and at the very least visibly trying to maintain a less standoffish posture.

“That won’t be–”

“Binary star formation,” the two phrases come in at the same time. Kokichi continues, “and the history of their discovery.” 

Kiyo stares at Kokichi for a moment, in (confusion? Disbelief? It’s difficult to tell, with so much of his face obscured and those piercing eyes ready to strike at any time…) before nodding. “Of course. I believe I recall where that one is, it was returned quite recently.”

Ouma stares idly into the distance for a split-second, an automaton re-calibrating on the fly. “Right. Duh, but I need it now, so.” 

Sure enough, Korekiyo is only away for a matter of minutes before returning with a single large tome. The book seems more focused on general astronomical phenomena, but must have a chapter or two dedicated to binary stars. Should have picked something more obscure, Maki huffs at the thought, if you really just wanted to cause trouble. Let me guess, that isn’t–

“That’s exactly it!” says Kokichi, who excitedly starts flipping through the pages. Korekiyo looks like he wants to scold him, be more careful, but restrains himself from doing so. Nonetheless, the two share a look; Kokichi suddenly feels like maybe he should slow down, lest unsavory things happen to his nerves. 

Just a feeling.

Things look, for once, to be going well again. Ouma is reading (or, at least, glaring at a page), freeing up Maki’s attention to better scope out the area.

… At least, until “Kiyo-chan? The text is so small, I can barely read a thing!”

Don’t get involved, don’t worry about it, Maki, you have a mission!

“Then why don’t you take it back to one of the reading areas? It’s certain to be brighter there.”  Korekiyo shrugs, back to looking at the shelf ahead.

“Can’t you read it to me, Kiyo-chan? Pleeeease, you have such a nice reading voice!”

Korekiyo stops, for a moment, glaring at Kokichi. “And that’s a lie, certainly.”

“What! You’re calling me a liar! Kiyo-chan, that’s so, s-so,,” the tears start to well up, if only slightly. Is he losing his touch with the waterworks? “Accurate, yeah, but not this time! If I didn’t tell the truth some of the time, it’d make the lies too obvious! And that’s no fun at all.”

“... Ah,” says Kiyo, uncertain of how to take a compliment.

“So?”

“Oh yes, right. Hmm. It can’t be that large of a diversion, surely…”

Such is how Korekiyo winds up over by the reading chairs, telling a dubiously-interested Kokichi about disk and turbulent fragmentations. “Where the instability and arbitrary motion cause a core to split off into multiple masses of gas and dust that collapse into independent protostars,” so the reading goes, “that are close enough to one another they become entangled in mutual orbit.” 

Maki can hardly say she’s particularly invested, even if it would be nice to have a better idea of what Kaito’s blathering on about half the time now that classes are in full swing. Still, something in her can’t help but hang on to this itch of unease, as though at any moment something will go wrong. She’s supposed to be watching Kokichi, but finds herself looking more at Kiyo than the surroundings. There is no danger there, anymore, though you’d have been more likely to get hurt than Ouma. But this feeling you can’t… no. That you refuse to name, this resentment, it takes residence in your bones and won’t let go. Is it because he’s been programmed as having been a killer? Aren’t you the very same? And when it really mattered, didn’t both of you decide to k–

The slightest sound makes Maki jump into action, fists at the ready to block an incoming blow, only. Huh. It seems it was just the weight of the book closing.

Kokichi sits up a little straighter, speaking a little louder (before, begrudgingly, quieting down, because this is a library). “Thank you, Kiyo-chan~ That would’ve been soooo boring to get through alone, you know? Nishishi, I’ll still be expecting your application for DICE one of these days! Best not disappoint,” he leans back in the chair, only to swing up to standing.

Korekiyo simply rolls his eyes, but there’s something undoubtedly fond in the gesture. If there weren’t, the fact would make itself known near-immediately; instead, Kiyo simply picks up the book to put it back on the shelf. “Is that all you needed, then?” 

Kokichi exaggerates a sigh. “Not by a longshot, but I think I left the rest in Miu’s lab,” he rolls his head back, momentarily looking at the spot where Maki has planted herself, arms crossed. “So I gotta run. Laters!”

As Kokichi is picking his cane back up (and staring at the foot for a moment, making sure he’s placed it on the correct side for now. Working on making the ruse more realistic, perhaps, Maki posits, though she dares not say such a thing aloud), Maki nods in acknowledgement of Kiyo. 

After an awkward pause, Kiyo nods back. “Miss Harukawa.”  

But the pair are off again, out of the library and en-route to Miu’s lab.

The silence between the two of them is thick. Neither is perturbed by the light traffic traveling in either direction down the hall, staying steps apart but not quite identifiable as a ‘group’. Much remains unsaid between the two. Neither dares disrupt the precarious balance maintaining a stoic facade, and the awkward silence stays.

At least, while only in the company of one another.

“Hey!” Kokichi yells, swinging open the door to Miu’s lab with reckless abandon, startling a very focused Chihiro and Kazuichi sitting at the far end of a long table. “Where’s that boisterous blonde–”

“That is the best most bodacious boisterous blonde bitch to you, ‘ya shitstain.” Miu looks up from her workbench, approaching the opposite side of the long table with a haughty laugh. 

“Mm, nope. Too wordy. Might mistake you for a nerd,” he teases, pointing up and down at a Miu dressed in her lab coat and covered from goggles to toe in smears of motor oil.

“Oh please, haven’t you figured out yet that I’m beauty and a brain?”

“And a nerd, yeah, I got that.”

The pair bicker like old friends, though it’s only recently they’ve had a chance to talk over their time in the killing game. Perhaps it’s easier for them to act like it never happened; it’d be hypocritical of Maki to judge.

Although…

“So you’ll concede she’s beautiful?” Maki tugs on her hair, wrapping it around her finger with a smirk. One sentence sparks a good five minutes of playful arguing, nuh-uh yuh-uh, and mild shoulder-punching. In terms of the assignment, it’s permissible, but on thin ice.

The perimeter seems clear in here, anyway, only the five of them. Chihiro and Kazuichi seem too engrossed in whatever project they’re working on to bat an eye at the two’s banter, and there’s no good angle for an ambush. Besides, it’d be irresponsible to initiate a confrontation with so many metal scraps and machines around. Still, she has to remain on alert.

… Though she can’t help but listen when she hears Miu launch into a small tirade: ���What I’m always working on, dumbass, and a couple things besides. Picture this: you’re me, and you’re ‘getting a regular checkup’ because you’re ‘recovering from a traumatic experience’ and all that junk. And I’m sitting there, wasting valuable workable time between classes, just for them to call me up to do, like, the same three tests they always do? And I think to myself, man, wouldn’t it be genius if you could just step into a booth, or a pod, or something like that when you get there, and it does all of that preliminary stuff on you at once so you can just be done with it already? And this was like, two? Days ago? So you know I have a prototype.”

Kokichi looks nonplussed, to say the least.

“Haven’t you been working on anything less… totally mundane, than that? Maybe like a shrink ray, or a portal device or a body-swapper, or something exciting?”

“Well, you know I’m building an android, but we all know how you feel about that.”

“I do not need the list of features you’re giving that thing. Nobody, needs the list of features you’re giving that thing.”

“W-W, h-hey! I’m not gonna be weird about it,” Miu pouts, voice getting soft for a moment. “That’s like, totally crossing a line…” only to pick back up. “Nah, I’m not gonna load in any kinky shit until I can ask him about it!”

“Is that finally an answer to the question I’ve been asking for like three months now? We’re going with ‘robots only have dicks upon request?’”

Maybe it’s better to stop listening, actually. Not that Maki is given the choice.

“Point is, I still need a test subject! Why not you, while you’re right here? Every experiment we’ve run so far has been demonstrably fine, quit your worry-warting already ‘ya buzzkill.” Miu scoffs, rolling out a wardrobe-sized booth on a dolly.

“But Iruma-channnn,”  Kokichi whines. His eye twitches, scanning the new device up and down, only more resolute that “there’s no way I’m gonna go in there unless it’s got AC!”

“That can be arranged,” says Miu, writing at the bottom of a spare paper. “Now, get over here so we can get this show on the road!” 

“Nnnnn can’t make me.”

“Come on.”

“Nah.”

“It’ll be fine!”

“For you, maybe.”

“You know what? Fine. Hey Maki!” Miu calls, waving to where Maki is stationed around the corner. “C’mon, this’ll only take, like, two minutes, you in?”

Great. You’ve been Acknowledged.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Maki starts to stammer, but Kokichi has suddenly lit up.

“Ooh! Do it, do it Maki!”

“I really don’t think I should distract from–”

Suddenly, both Miu and Kokichi are peering over the table, all but pounding their fists against the wood as they chant “Do it, do it!”

If anything, their exuberance makes her want to give in less, but the coast is clear, for now… Chihiro gives Maki a withering look. Doesn’t seem like they’ll run out of steam any time soon. 

“... Fine.”

Kokichi and Miu turn to one another and high-five, cheering in unison. 

“Great,” Miu breezes by, opening an entrance to the box. “Come on in.”

Maki is immediately enveloped in what at first looks like a photo booth but, upon examination, has too many blinking lights and moving parts to be one. In lieu of a screen, a plexiglass barrier shows off the dim reflections of the moving mechanics, leaving the subject to back up into position. A thermometer pops out of the front panel at the same time as a blood pressure cuff restrains her left arm, a bar descending to the top of her head to record her height. Every metric is recorded on a tiny screen on the outside of the chamber.

Experiment: success. The device certainly does its job. Whether it’s been done well is questionable, but it certainly has been done.

Meanwhile, Kokichi has been lounging in quite possibly the single Good Chair in the entirety of Hope’s Peak, talking to Miu about something indistinct. By the time Maki walks out of the machine a matter of minutes has passed.

It feels like it’s been hours. 

And Maki is not happy.

“Ouma? I need to talk to you.”

“Can’t it wait? I sorta–”

“Now. Ouma.”

Kokichi keeps his head down, but follows Maki’s footsteps.

“We’re leaving. Goodbye, Miu. Hope you got your data.” Maki states, perfectly deadpan. She turns, practically dragging Ouma by the wrist.

“Harukawa, I’m sorry i–”

“That’s a lie,” Maki helpfully completes the thought, marching out into the hallway. “You’ve been lying all day, making up any excuse you can to be as distracting as possible just waiting for me to screw up. But it isn’t going to work. We are going, to your room, and you will stay there, and it will be quiet. Do you understand?”

Kokichi stops walking. He does not pull away from her hand any further than the natural distance that comes as he stops, glaring up at her with an oddly-canted eye. 

“You think you can ground me, Child-Caregiver? All I want is to hang out with my friends, and get to do it at a decent goddamn hour, and that’s SO bad? Aww, am I inconveniencing you? What would you rather be out doing. Huh? Would you rather be hunting me down for sport–”

Maki snaps out of her shock, shaking her head. “UGH! Not everything is always about YOU, you know!” She storms a few steps ahead.

“Well excuse me if you aren’t exactly open about your hobbies,” Kokichi scoffs, jogging up a few more stumbling steps to meet her. “If you insist on making our little forced-bonding-time absolutely miserable, I guess, be my fucking guest.”

“It’s not about fun, it’s about salvaging the entirety of this semester! Out of all of us, you should understand that!”

“Oh, so there is an ‘us’! I thought it a mere myth on the breeze, oh please, Harukawa, regale me with tales of how our miserable myriad of troubled teens that calls itself a class constitutes any kind of Unit,” he coughs on the end, running out of breath. A bit of spit drips from the corner of his mouth, hastily wiped away by a hand before he makes a big swinging gesture with his cane. 

This, it turns out, is a mistake.

First, his cane clatters to the floor. In and of itself, this isn’t surprising; at least it didn’t go through a window or otherwise launch across the hall, instead dropping down at Kokichi’s side.

Then Kokichi falls down with it.

He nearly faceplants, the only buffer coming in the form of outstretched arms in front of him that immediately buckle. 

Maki stifles half of a laugh. That’s what your overly-theatrical-ass gets when you try to act larger than life itself. She holds out a hand to help him back up. Frustrated as she may be, she isn’t cruel.

… But he doesn’t take it.

In fact, Kokichi doesn’t seem to be moving much at all.

Thinking fast, she immediately turns him onto his side in a recovery position. Still breathing– heavily, at that, as it’s taking up the majority of his focus just to do that much. It’s a full minute before he starts trying to talk. 

“Mmaki’alls sumiki,” is about all he can say, saliva rolling down his face, eyes glassy. One eye moves slower than the other as he tries to look up at her in that disturbingly blank way of his.

He says it again.

She doesn’t know what to do.

In for four, hold for four, out for four.

You can’t react this way to a little surprise. Cool heads prevail, Maki, you know this.

She feels a hand on her shoulder.

“Maki? Thank goodness I was following you. Listen, both of you, I’ve called my classmate Mikan. She is a nurse. What I need you to do, Maki, is help me pick him up. Ouma, just keep breathing…” Peko Pekoyama commands, picking up the cane to carry with her bag as she prepares to pick up Kokichi.

There’s an upset indignant note from him, an ‘uh, no shit,’ that pierces through the existential terror. That’s a good sign. That means not every scrap of consciousness needs to be dedicated just to staying alive. “I ‘ust, ‘eed’an ninit,” he tries to speak again, getting steadily more exasperated with himself. Even so, he does not cry.

No matter how he may want to, he does not cry.

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

Kokichi Ouma finds himself in a hospital room yet again. Maki Harukawa, however, finally finds herself at liberty to have him out of sight as she leans against the closed door.

Now you can panic.

“Maki?” Peko asks, tilting Maki’s chin up to meet her gaze.

Nevermind.

“You did the right thing, initially. Okay? You put him in a position where he could breathe, which is probably the most important thing you could have done.”

Maki stammers, tugging on her hair with an iron grip. “I did not do the right thing, initially. That’s the problem,” she admits, shaking her head. It’s difficult to stifle the ghost of tears blocking out her vision.

“Hm? What do you mean?” Peko asks, guiding Maki over to sit in a pair of chairs beside one of the many windows on this floor. 

No matter how hard she tries to stop them, once they start the words won’t stop flowing. “I mean that it’s my fault he’s like this!”

“... Maki, I saw it, it was an accide–”

“In the game, I shot him. Twice. With laced bolts, he. He just took Kaito, and was planning, s-something, and we were all so scared and I thought he was going to kill him so I covered them in strike-nine, and I shot him. Twice! And I went for a third…”

Peko is taken aback for a moment. Class 79 tends not to talk about their experiences in the simulation, so to hear things like shot and kill only confirm every terrible rumor she’s heard about the entire debacle. She blinks, once, then twice.

“Maki, I. I had no idea.”

Maki pulls on her hair, looping it around her whole hand and it still isn’t enough. “I know, I know, I’m an assassin, Ms. Pekoyama, and he’s the only mark I’ve ever actually killed myself.”

Peko is loath to let the silence spread between the two of them, yet she isn’t sure of what to say. Still, she says anyway: “I am. So sorry, that happened between you two. I assure you, I did not have an understanding of this. History, before I suggested you be paired together.”

“A-and now, now it’s my fault he collapsed, because whatever is wrong with him started because I poisoned him, because I’m a heartless, murder machine a-and,,” Maki hiccups, a hand over her face. She hasn’t even gotten this far into the story with her therapist, yet she sees enough of herself in Peko to entrust her with this secret.

“... I know what it is like to live with regret.” Peko offers. “It is never easy to choose one life over another. I don’t think that it should be, either. You should never have had to make that choice, but you did, and you made it as well as anyone could. You wanted to defend your friends, Maki, and you did. You cannot agonize about how things might have been after the fact if you want to move forward.”

Maki just stares at her hands, and cannot scrub away the illusion they are bright, bold magenta.

“... Maki?”

But Maki is far down the hall, watching Kaito close the door to that damn hospital room, because he’s betrayed me, again. 

“... I hated him.” She takes a deep breath, and lets the words swish around in her mouth for a moment before spitting them back out: “I hated him. I wanted him to suffer. He was irritating, and a threat, and I didn’t– I don’t understand him, and I wanted him to get away from me and everyone I care about.” Deep breath in. “So I shot him, with a crossbow, and I laced the bolts with the slowest-acting poison I could find, so he wouldn’t know peace the same way the rest of us hadn’t.”

“Ah,” says Peko, surprised but without any tone of judgment. After all, it is Peko’s turn to think, wouldn’t that be hypocritical? “Multiple things can be true at once, you know. Just because some part of you wanted vengeance does not overwrite your intentions to defend. I’ve only ever known you to want to protect the innocent, Maki, and even if you haven’t always been that person, that is the kind of person you are becoming. Every last one of you was in significant distress at that time, and that includes you. You shouldn’t let self-hatred cloud your perception.”

Maki nods ever-so-slightly. 

“What you did was. Excessive, yes, and you should not have done it. But it is in the past now, Maki. The fact that you feel remorse for it proves you aren’t ‘heartless’. You made a poor decision, with a high price. All that can be done for it now is to atone in ways you can. Sometimes, remembrance is all you can offer. But you,” Peko points at the flower on Maki’s uniform, “have a unique gift in all of this. Ouma is still alive now. In this life, you can still make amends.”

Maki sniffs, then holds her breath. In for three, hold for five, hold for four, hold forever… the tears just won’t slow. “It was cruel. I, was cruel, I don’t. I don’t want to be that way, not even to him. I-I want to. Amends, I want to,”

Peko smiles. She takes both of Maki’s hands into her own. “Then you will. You’ve already started, after all.”

The more Maki thinks of it, this whole shadowing experience has shown off facets of Ouma’s personality she hadn’t seen before. He does not like bugs, but still tolerates them out of care for his friendship with Gonta. He could have been cruel and smashed all the leaves, but he picked out any that even may have had eggs on them. Kokichi could have been legitimately cruel, yet he wasn’t. Kiyo, quiet as he is these days, is willing to accept him because Kokichi has accepted him in return. Even Miu, after she tried to bash in his skull with a hammer, has come around to not just tolerating his presence, but coming to enjoy it. Enough to make a machine for the medical wing since he, her friend, is in and out of the hospital so often… so he’s claimed.

Maki can only reconcile now that at least some, possibly all of those claims of chronic pain and complications are very real. Part of her knew this all along, but didn’t want to believe it; it’s easier, after all, to lie to yourself. Hadn’t Kokichi said something to that effect, so long ago?

Despite how irritating he is, despite his best attempts to get under her skin, despite being Kokichi Ouma, he’s… admittedly, a decent friend when it counts. And, perhaps, someday they can be friends as well.

“I still. It. It’s so stupid,” she shakes her head. “I-I better not…”

“But you want to say it, right?” Peko nods.

“I still feel. Jealous? Kaito can do what he wants, of course, but ever since the simulation it’s felt like our trio with Shuichi is… different. Like he’s choosing Kokichi over us.” Over me, she does not say. Peko can see it in her watery eyes.

“That, I’ve certainly understood,” Peko laughs. “Sometimes the person you admire can be… short-sighted, maybe. But your admiration is your own, you know. You have to own it, and, if they don’t ultimately feel the same way…” She looks off into the distance. Imagining someone, no doubt.

“... Right. Right, thank you Ms. Pekoyama.”

“Just Peko is fine, Maki.”

“Thank you, Peko.”

“Of course.”

“... But maybe they do feel the same way. You. Never know until you ask, right?”

Peko snaps back to attention. “I… suppose.” 

“It’s just a matter of gathering the inner strength to ask, whether you like the answer or not. … I think you should,” Maki shrugs, drying her tears. “And maybe I should too.”

“Perhaps,” says Peko, unshaken as ever, until… she smiles, conspiratorially. “I will if you will.”

“Alright,” laughs Maki. “Deal. But I have someone I have to address first.”

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

Meanwhile, Kaito slowly closes the door to the hospital room. The cool air hits him almost immediately upon entering; the air conditioning must be turned up significantly higher than in the rest of the building. It’s a different room, this time; the slightly different decor is disorienting for a moment, while he allows it to be. There’s something far more important than misplaced flowers and chairs and abstract paintings at its center, though.

“Kokichi?”

There’s a disgruntled sigh from the hospital bed, and an equally disgruntled Kokichi hooked up to not-even-a-fourth-of the equipment he was last time, to Kaito’s knowledge, he actually had to stay here.

“‘eah. Yeah, ‘s me.” He even sounds tired, still slurring words together a touch at this point.

Kaito takes his left hand, the dominant side. The uninjured one.

Kokichi can barely curl his fingers around Kaito’s, for now.

“Like the worst case’a TMJ you ever had,” he tries to smile, but finds the effort fruitless to try. Out of everyone, Kaito won’t mind if you don’t pretend for him. He already knows what you are. “‘Cept it’s everywhere. Mostly.” 

“Maybe you shouldn’t be talking so much–”

“Tsumiki-chan said, as long as I focus on breathing, I can do what I want. Mostly wanna not-do-things, though. Boring. What’d you do today?”

“You’re asking me?” Kaito laughs, but humors the thought. “Class, mostly. Went out to train with Shuichi, he’s actually coming along pretty well. Still has trouble keeping up with me in the real world, though, lung capacity and all. Been missing Maki, though. She’s really trying her hardest for this class, you know, she’s even talking to that Peko girl right now.”

Kokichi looks away, both eyes now in-sync as he tries to look to the tile floor. “Yeah. She’s still Harukawa, alright.”

Probably not a great time to talk about it, it dawns on Kaito just a little too late.

“What even happened, man, can I ask that? Figure I may as well instead’a dancing around it,” Kaito says, just to banish the thought. To get it out of the way.

Kokichi laughs a little under his breath. It hurts, but there’s a degree to which he can’t help it. “Ask’er yourself.”

Kaito is confused for all of a moment before looking around the–

“Ah! I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you! I-I just thought I could answer any q-questions, so Ouma doesn’t have to-o…” Mikan Tsumiki, Ultimate Nervous Wreck, holds her clipboard to her chest.

Kaito is beside himself, unsure of how to get her to calm back down. Kokichi’s hand squeezes his a little tighter. Give her a moment.

“R-Right, sorry, you were wondering about his condition, right? Ouma’s, I mean. T-There’s good news! And. Bad news, which we’ve already talked about before you arrived, or. I did most of the talking because he’s having a hard time at the moment, but you knew that– Bad news we’ve already talked about, and good news.” Mikan looks up at Kaito expectantly, straining a smile. 

“... Do you want me to pick one? Because I’m sure whatever the bad news is won’t look so bad compared to the good,” Kaito nods, resolute.

“Oh yeah, s-s. Sorry. Yeah. SO the good news is this is just a flare-up, probably caused by a mix of stress and the heat outside. He’s been doing a lot better in this building since we have a backup generator for our climate control,” she continues. “But the bad news is that if he doesn’t take care of his condition, he could end up in a full-blown crisis, mister,” a darkness casts over her eyes “and if you do you won’t be able to breathe on your own, then it’s back on a ventilator for up to weeks at a time, and I know how much you hate that.” She picks her head up. “But, hopefully it won’t come to that!”

… It’s a lot to take in at once.

“What. Exactly, is his condition? How could he deteriorate so suddenly?” Kaito asks despite Kokichi’s half-hearted protest.

“It wasn’t sudden. I’ve been feeling it all day… it just got too bad to deal with. That’s all.” Mikan looks over to Kokichi before he relents and nods. “Someone else should know.”

“It seems to be an autoimmune disorder caused by the program. Not one that we’ve seen before, but one that’s kind of unique because of how it happened. The device ‘taught’ his immune system to attack danger that wasn’t physically there, so it started attacking what was there instead. It seems to include some of the signals sent between muscle groups to get them to move, leading to muscle weakness that varies in severity. This would be a moderate exacerbation, I think, so it really could be much worse!”

Mikan is still working on her bedside manner. Kokichi huffs a little, amused, while Kaito is still processing.

“Is. Is it ever going to stop?”

“I think you know the answer to that,” Mikan sighs, a little shake of her head. The same thing Kaito had been told about his lungs. “It’s impossible for us to know, but don’t count on it.”

“So… So what can we do? There has to be some kind of training we can do to make it a little less severe, right?” The impossible is always possible, is it not?

“Well. Physical therapy might help as part of the treatment, but it’s most important he’s taking his meds regularly and getting enough sleep,” she says. “But it’s pretty near impossible to enforce.”

Kaito looks over at Kokichi for a moment, then back to Mikan. 

“Maybe, on his own. What if he had a roommate? Then we’d share responsibility.”

“You’re kidding me,” Ouma says, doing his best to sit up a little. It’s more effort than it’s worth, but that does not stop him from trying.

“It’s that, or have you check in even more regularly than you already do. Even if I have to fish you out of the dorms,” Mikan shakes her head, tsk-tsk-tsk. “It’s not a bad idea. I’ll take it up with Administration. Unless you’d rather have an aide following you around…?”

“NO. ‘m good. It’s good. Could be way worse…”

“And I’ll see if I can get you an air conditioner in your room? It is very literally medically necessary.”

“Yessss,” Ouma seems happy enough, and settles down. It’s distinctly possible he’s too tired to put up much more protest, and takes the opportunity to start to nod off.

Kaito smiles fondly, and shakes his head.

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

Several hours later, Kokichi wakes up to the creaking of his door. He tenses, finding that he can, even if it’d be too much to disengage himself from ensnaring wires and monitors. He doesn’t bother. A moment later, it’s clear enough who it is.

“... Hello, Ouma.”

“Harukawa.”

Kokichi stares upward, idly counting holes in the ceiling tile.

The silence is deafening.

“I’m sorry,” Maki starts, a meandering sentence unto itself that unravels slowly from her tongue. 

Too slowly, for Kokichi. “Yeah, alright. For what?”

“Take your pick.” The courage she’s built up is thrown to the wind as she strives to just say it,  or at least say something.

“Sure. Forgiven. Whatever. Now, what’s it you want?”

“... That’s a lie if I’ve ever heard one.”

“Ooh, she catches on! Maki Harukawa, how do you do it,” he laughs. It’s a strangled sound. 

“Cut it out, Kokichi, I’m sorry. I’m sorry about what happened today. I’m sorry about pushing you too far–”

“You didn’t push me too far.” he says, but it sounds�� hollow. Sincere, insincere, it doesn’t seem to matter; there’s no substance to it, but it’s also packed with double-triple meanings and spite.

“I’m sorry anyway,” Maki says. 

This appears to appease him, if just for a minute.

“I’m sorry about pushing you around, and for blaming you for my own inability to properly focus.” she sighs. “… In my defense, you don’t make it easy, but. That’s not the point. The point is, I should not have done that. I got angry, and when I get angry sometimes I act rashly. So I’m sorry.”

There’s something bigger to that statement, of course. Something he cannot help but respond to with a brutal truth:

“I don’t know if I can forgive you. I want to stop being scared of you, but it’s not. Suddenly okay again.” He turns his head, half-muttering. “I’m not sure I’ll ever really be ‘okay’ again….”

The silence returns.

“... That’s. That’s okay. I mean, if you don’t. You don’t, have to. Respect is earned, and so… so is forgiveness, I think. I hope I can earn that in your eyes.”

“... Alright,” says Kokichi. “Fair enough.”

“See you around,” Maki shrugs, halfway to closing the door.

“And Maki?”

“Yeah?” she pauses.

“Thanks.”

[descendantofthesparrow]

Can't stop this feeling - Harry Hook x reader- SMUT FIC- P6

SMUT FIC-MINORS DNI- All ‘important’ characters are 18+!

warning; slightly dubcon due to drugged sex, only Harry is drugged (he fully aware about what’s going on and is consensual (both parties are), but its still drugged sex) basically sex pollen smut but its sex potion, SMUT, unprotected sex (don worry (y/n) is on birth control)

=

Finally, you returned to Auradon-and you had returned dating Harry Hook. The ship pulled into port, you and Harry holding hands with Uma and Gil on either side-CJ yelling up to her big brother with the smee twins at her sides-Harriet behind them looking down at her phone.

Harry grinned at seeing his family, curling his arm around your waist and leading you towards the exit landing, suitcases in hand as you stepped off the ship. “Harry~!” CJ cheered, throwing her hands into the hair as she bolted towards him, the smee twins close behind. “how was it? Did ja’ have fun? Blow anything up?”

Harry chuckled, setting CJ on her feet, as she had jumped into his arms, and shaking his head. “it was amazing, yes it was fun, and no-I’m not ye.” CJ pouted, since apparently if you didn’t blow something up-you didn’t have fun. Her eyes drew to you, and they widened at the sight of Harry’s arm around your waist. “Dude-did you get a girlfriend?”

Cj squeaked, pointing right at you, her eyes alight with mischief. Harry snorted while you felt your face flush, feeling Harry pull you closer to his side. “Aye,” he rasped, turning to you with those pretty eyes of his. You puffed your cheeks at him slightly, knowing he was enjoying your flustered state in front of his sisters. “This is (y/n), we met due to a certain….incident” Harry paused, his eyes dilating for a moment as he stared at you-and you knew he was remembering that first night.

You just huffed, smacking his chest gently. “We bumped into each other during the first week and hit it off, he decided he liked me and asked me out-now we’re dating.” Harry just grinned, chuckling as you smacked his chest again. CJ narrowed her eyes at the both of you, knowing there was more to the story but she had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to dig it out of her big brother.

“Okay then,” she snorted, grabbing your hand and dragging you away from Harry-who gave a sound of annoyance as CJ pulled you towards Harriet. "Welcome to the hook fam (y/n)! we're all insane and pyromaniacs~" Harriet bopped CJ on the head as the two of you reached her, prying CJ’s grip from your arm.

“Tha’ts jus’ you CJ, Harry and I don’t blow shit up jus’ by lookin’ at em” Harriet sighed, and you could spot the same scales that Harry had on her upper cheeks, the sun hitting them just right. So both she and Harry were half-mers then, cool. “I’m Harriet,” you took her outstretched hand and she pulled you just closer, her bright blue eyes staring into yours-her pupil sharpening a bit. “jus’ a small warnin’ lass, ye hurt Harry-ye won’t live to tha’ next day. Got it?”

You just nodded; you had no plans to hurt him. “Good.” Harriet murmured, a small smirk growing on her face. Harry stepped up behind you and sighed, rolling his eyes fondly “Was she threatin’ yeh?” Harry asked, curling his arms around your shoulders and pulling you into his chest, his smirk against your cheek. You nodded, turning your head to whisper in his ear. “I don’t think she has to worry though; I have no plans of hurting what’s mine.”

Harry giggled, his cheeks turning pink as Harriet rolled her eyes, turning on her heel to head towards the parking lot. “Come’ on ye runts, let’s get ye back to the school, classes start back up tomorrow.” Harry groaned at the thought of going back to class but followed, his hand finding yours and rubbing his thumb against the top of your hand.

-

In the weeks following the cruise, things went back to normal-well, as normal as they were but now you were dating the ‘hottest’ dude in school. You could tell many were jealous of you, but many found it in themselves to not jeer at you or be mean. All except one. Nyx. You could tell she had it out for you. Many times you found your things missing before class, your locker was broken into, personal items missing, one time your meal ticket was stolen and Harry had offered to share his tray; but thanks to Mrs. Potts being so nice-you were given a new ticket the next day and free meals for the day you didn’t have one.

Harry was getting increasingly frustrated for you, knowing the only reason you were getting bullied was because of him. He desperately wanted to know who was targeting you, he had many suspects but he had been unable to pinpoint exactly who it was just yet.

Harry sighed, it was about a month after the cruise, classes were done for the day and the weekend had arrived. He glanced around for you, knowing you were getting changed after finishing up swim club with Uma. He needed to find out who was fucking around, it was unfair to you; just because he liked you and chose you-didn’t mean you deserved anything horrid.

He glanced behind him, seeing Nyx staring back, her eyes hooded and dark, she licked her lips when she caught his eyes and he quickly turned away-shivers of queasiness running up his spine. Fuck he really didn’t like being in the same space as her; he had a strong feeling she was behind your bullying encounters, but he didn’t have any proof.

Harry felt another shiver go down his spine-this one pleasant and grabbing his attention. He turned, beaming as he saw you and Uma step into the hall, your hair still a bit wet from the club and your cheek scales shimmering in the fluorescent light of the hall. He stood from his spot on the bench, running over to you and grabbing you in a hug, muttering your name into your shoulder as you laughed; Uma teasing him as she went to get her dinner.

“I missed yeh,” Harry mumbled as he set you down, following you towards the line for dinner. You rolled your eyes fondly; he was such a dork. “You saw me two hours ago during history, Harry.” You hummed, taking his hand and giggling as he pouted. “Two hours too long,” he muttered back, smiling as you leaned up and pecked his cheek.

“Dork,” you mumbled against his skin, skipping into the line as Harry went back to the table he picked out, finally starting to eat his food as he waited for you and Uma, Gil was two tables over with Jay, Jane, and Carlos; leaving Harry alone with the girls. Harry grabbed his soda and took a sip-momentarily distracted as he watched you walk over to the table and sat down next to him-swallowing the fizzy drink without tasting it as he swung his leg over to straddle the bench to face you as you laughed at his actions.

It was his first relationship-so you had expected him to be eager, but this was all too damn cute coming from the hard-headed pirate. You said as such and Harry turned pink, pouting at you while you giggled behind your hand. Harry’s hand found your thigh and he grinned, squeezing it slightly as you gasped, glaring at him slightly as his hand gently traced up on your leg, his fingers towards your waist.

“Cute eh?” he mumbled, eyes going to your lips, a smirk on his. You grabbed his hand, narrowing your eyes at him playfully as he chuckled, he leaned close to you, his breath against your skin “I was thinkin’ you, me? At the lake tonight?” You hummed in agreement, a smile on your lips. Harry had been wanting to have a date at the nearby lake, not the enchanted lake that was too far to go out to even for a weekend. But it was a quant lake that had a few hidden caverns deep within the water, one you frequently went to when you needed a break.

You nodded, giggling as you felt Harry’s lips against yours in a quick kiss, he almost looked giddy with the idea of a date-you hadn't been able to go on a proper one since Puerto Rico-speaking of which; Harry always carried around his new knife and you were nearly always wearing the jewelry he had gifted you, the obsidian rock always sitting in your pocket.

“Great, meet me there at one am,” Harry continued to whisper and you giggled, curfew was relaxed on the weekends, but there were still enchanted knights and supervisors wandering the halls looking for anyone up and around past curfew. So you were going to have to sneak past everyone to make it to the lake to meet harry.

Luckily for you, your dorm faced the path towards the lake-so you could just slip out your window, meanwhile, Harry would have to go all sneaky-like. You glanced to the side as you felt eyes burning into your head, seeing Nyx glaring at you. You just looked away, not caring about her.

-

Nyx smiled from across the hall, seeing Harry continuing to drink his soda. While he had gotten up to greet you and Uma, she had slipped his half of the potion into his drink; which she had remade to be tasteless, and much more potent. With the two of you so far apart, thanks to the dorm building, this time-this time; She would be in his way, and he would finally be hers.

-

Harry clenched his teeth as he felt that now familiar heat bubble and course beneath his skin, sweat dripping down his face as he panted. “Fuck,” he whispered, gasping in pain as a cramp rushed through his body. shit-shit shit shit-and here he thought he was finally safe from that damned drug and whoever was drugging him.

But here he was, just minutes before 1 am, horny as all hell with no way to help himself. Thank the gods he had asked you out on a date. But he had to get there first, and he was still in his room, his swim shorts painfully tight and aches rushing through his body.

“Fuck.” Harry hissed out, curling in on himself as a wave of intense arousal hit his core, panting as drool dripped down his chin. He could smell you, his eyes drawn to your scrunchie that rested on his nightstand. He swallowed hard-your faint scent making him ache for you, his cock twitching beneath his swim trunks.

He scrambled for his phone, doing his best to text you what was going on, but he couldn’t get his fingers to cooperate, so he settled for calling you. “Lass?” he rasped out, gasping as another cramp ran up his spine, he nearly collapsed on his bed, your voice on the other side of the call calming the heat for only a moment. “It happened-fuck-again, i-i-I don’t fuuummm.” His eyes nearly rolled back and his knees hit the floor as a strong pulse ran from his cock up to his chest, blurring his mind. “H-help.”

You nearly panicked from the other end of the call, glancing back towards the path that led towards the dorm building. You were already in the lake-transformed into your mermaid form. “Can-can you walk at all?” you asked, biting your lip as Harry just let out a groan, which considering the circumstances, sent a shiver down your spine. Fuck-why did he sound so goddamn hot?

“no-no, it-fuck it hurts lass, like tha’ first night.” You cursed under your breath, tapping your fingers against your mouth as you thought about what to do. You could either go back to the dorms and sneak through the halls and possibly get caught trying to help him. or….or-OR! “I’m going to text Uma, she can teleport you here, okay?” Harry just groaned again, a near whimper coming from his throat. You swallowed, quickly hanging up and texting Uma, and no more than a minute later-something(someone) landed in front of you.

You looked up, seeing Harry kneeling before you, his eyes nearly violet as he panted, his body bare other than the jacket he wore and his swim trunks. “lass-“ he breathed, collapsing into you as you pulled yourself up and kissed him, curling your arms around his neck and tugging him into the lake-the cool waters nearly shocking his system but thanks to his half-Mer biology, he adjusted quickly and wrapped his arms around you, your scales pressing against his skin.

He whispered your name into your mouth, his cheeks bright red as you got to work pushing down his trunks, your hands finding his dick. “(y/n),” he whined, biting his lip and burying his face in your neck as you began to stroke him, the cool water with your hand feeling quite odd-but good. “shit-“ your mouth found his jaw, nipping and sucking at the skin as he shivered under your touch, melting into you as his eyes wandered-finding the black dress you had worn before getting in the water.

Fuck you probably looked so damn hot in that, those sheer long sleeves that were sparkling like stars probably looked amazing on you-he would have to ask you to wear it again-he was ripped from his thoughts as you dipped below the water, your warm mouth wrapping around his dick and your tongue pressing against the bottom. “FUCK!” Harry yelped, his head falling back as he trembled in the water, the cool liquid keeping his body comfortable from that boiling heat.

“oh-oh gods-“ he whimpered out your name, his cheeks bright red as he braced himself against the shore, his breath turning to steam as it met the cool air. You looked up at him through the water, putting your hands on his thighs as you pulled nearly off his dick and swirled your tongue along the tip, smiling as he shook at the feeling, your name coming from his lips again.

“(y/n)-fuck-I’m!” Harry gasped and shuddered, his hands finding your hair and curling his fingers into it, gasping as his back arched and he came. Once again it was an inhuman amount, but now you wondered if It was due to his half-Mer biology instead of the drug.

You swallowed most of it, keeping what you couldn’t in your mouth as you slowly breached the surface, giggling at Harry’s face as he panted, his eyes flickering between ocean blue and violet, locked onto you and dilated. “fuck, yer so fukin’ amazin’ love.” Harry groaned, grabbing your face and you just swallowed the last of his cum as his lips met yours, he tasted himself on you as he wrapped his arms around you, feeling himself ache and shudder as your hand found his cock and led it to a slit that sat around your tails crotch area.

Harry moaned as you took his hips and pushed him inside you, his skin meeting your scales and your hands found his cheeks, thumbs rubbing against the shimmering opal scales. Harry kept letting out sweet little sighs and gasps as you guided his hips, and you slowly pulled the two of you beneath the water, Harry’s gills opening up as your lips met again.

Harry snatched your hands and put them around his neck as something snapped inside him, a low purring growl erupting from his throat, his eyes flashing violet as he began to thrust wildly inside you, reminding you of that first night as he fucked you hard and well.

“fuck-ye feel so fukin’ good, so fuckin’ perfect-“ Harry gasped into your ear, his arms around your waist as his hips snapped into you. You could hardly hold onto him, this was different than the last two times-it felt-so fucking good-sparks of lightning traveling through your skin each time he moved, the mark on your neck tingling every time his chin brushed against it.

You realized-this was the first time you have had sex since the night you became bonded mates-so now everything was elevated to heights you couldn’t even imagine. You moaned out his name, feeling that familiar coil in your gut and sparks running up from the edge of your tail.

Your lips met again, your hands tangling in his hair as you felt that coil snap, fireworks traveling your skin as Harry groaned into your mouth, his hips stuttering as he came. You felt him fill you up, panting as he pulled out, his brows furrowing as he watched the slit close and keep his cum inside you. “mermaid biology’s weird” you giggled to him, and he laughed, taking your lips again taking you above the water, lifting you out and bracing you against the stone gazebo.

You let your tail split into legs, shuddering as Harry’s cum spilled out of you and pooled at your ass. “fuck,” Harry muttered, taking his hands and spreading your legs-getting a good look at your leaking cunt. “gods how lucky I am ta’ have ye,” You gasped as he slid back inside you, just as hard as he was when you had started. Your legs wrapped around his waist and arms around his neck-holding him close as snapped his hips against your thighs, gasping and crying out each time he hit that sweet spot inside you.

“Harry-fuck-ah!”

Just like that night he had a double dose back on the ship-Harry fucked you through several orgasms of his own, pushing you through your overstimulation and bringing you to new heights, your senses heightened and pleasure heightened thanks to your bond. By 2 am; you were exhausted, tingly, full of Harry, and sweaty. The bite on your neck tingled as Harry’s breath ghosted across it as he rested his head on your shoulder, still inside you as you both came down from your final highs.

“Damn,” Harry breathed, slowly sitting up and pulling out, huffing in exhausted arousal as he watched his cum pour out of you. “I didn’t even taste anythin’ in any of me drinks today…maybe they’re getting’ smarter?” Harry asked, not really expecting an answer but simply ranting, taking your overheated body and bringing you into the water, your heads dipping below the cool surface as your legs turned back into a tail.

You turned to face him, admiring his opal scales that glimmered under the moonlight that broke through the surface of the water, his eyes enchanting as ever as they returned to their natural ocean blue. “how do you feel about going to Neverland for your birthday?” you asked quietly against his lips, and his body froze, staring into your eyes. His face crumbled into unbelieving great fullness and he nodded, bringing you into the strongest hug you had ever felt.

You hummed into him, cuddling into his shoulder and wrapping your tail around his legs, your thumbs rubbing his scales as he whispered many ‘thank you’s into your ear.

-

“They-they fucking bonded him?” Nyx whispered to herself in pure outrage and disbelief, her eyes on the healed bite mark on Harry’s inner neck that mirrored the one on the boyfriend stealer. The fish bitch had actually bonded her fucking man-they had fully stolen Harry Hook from Nyx. “I’m going to fucking kill her,” Nyx hissed, forcing herself to leave as her ears began to burn hearing the mermaid's name from Harry’s lips.

This had gone on long enough-she was going to reclaim what was hers.

And if she couldn’t get rid of you? And free harry from whatever spell you had put him under-she would make sure no one could have him.

-end of p6-

P6 P6~ and Nyx is getting some-nasty-ideas, almost as nasty as her drugging harry in an attempt to rape him and impregnate herself through doing so~ :D yeah shes lil(very) fucked up. Uhhhhh idk when the next update is but yeah~!

taglist!

@sephiralorange @c-rose2081(MENACE) @rintheemolion

@living-for-romance

[melodyplucked]

what does ricky's family look like? outside of his mom and dad, who else in his family does he see often? aunts? uncles? cousins? does/did he have grandparents close by when he was growing up?

so we know ricky has an aunt who lives at least somewhat nearby from the show- whose name pluto brought back to my attention semi-recently is judy... but that's the only canon relation we get for him in the show beyond his parents, so ... i get my free reign here so here are some thoughts

so we learned that mike and lynne were high school sweethearts- (which explains her caution about ricky and nini) but they got together senior year, and admittedly, my thoughts are along the lines that they didn't both fully grow up there if that makes sense.

this is so far from your question, BUT- mike is the reason that the two settled down in salt lake and had/raised ricky there.

lynne grew up in a more standard american city (i say this because she has to have had more exposure to The World and see the potential of having MORE than salt lake and utah have to offer) (not chicago, given ricky's evidently never been there, or at least not that he can remember, given she offers to go see the bean) for much of her life, though more on the outskirts of it, before moving to salt lake halfway through high school when her dad got a new job. i'm almost thinking maybe they lived in arizona, like- phoenix or Maybe scottsdale, to keep them more in the west. lynne's parents, so ricky's maternal grandparents, potentially settled in cape cod or something along those lines like montauk or something, so there's more distance, but i'd also consider them being in scottsdale, arizona, making there a physical distance for sure, but also- it's potentially more Emotional Distance than real solid physical distance that would be truly troublesome to cover. lynne has two siblings, my thought is an older sister, and a younger one, but i kinda want to throw in an uncle, i haven't decided where. her older sibling ended up something of a disappointment to the family, leaving her parents to sort of have to help time after time. leaving lynne to want to Excel to the highest degree. feel good about herself and not be like the one her parents feel somewhat sorry for. it somewhat annoys her that ricky struggles in school since she doesn't feel like she had that option.

i've always thought that lynne came from money, in a way mike didn't so much. not like- rich rich, but- would call themselves upper middle class v much emphasis on the upper part not the middle part. raised the kids to work hard, hence the disappointment that the oldest just... gave up. her older sister has a job and everything, has a kid, ricky's oldest cousin, who he's met a handful of times, but lynne doesn't keep super in touch, and they live far away, so ricky doesn't see that part of his family often. his maternal grandparents he would see more often when he was younger, they'd come to visit when he was a kid, do easter together, that sort of thing. ricky's never really been outside of utah other than one trip to disneyland, and i'd say that trip was probably with his parents and lynne's parents, plus his younger aunt and her baby. (his younger aunt has two kids- both younger than ricky, a daughter, and i'll say a younger son, his cousins, and they're people he sees more often, but move away from salt lake later on, definitely before ricky hits high school). they make less of an effort to travel when he's older / things seem to get more complicated at home for lynne, especially when she starts travelling so much for work, and lynne feels like she did everything the right way, and well... especially as time passes... it drives her crazy that she did all the right things and her marriage still failed ... which- that upsets her parents too.

aunt judy is mike's older sister by a solid 7 or 8 years, and her kids are, as follows, older than ricky. she's the relative that lives closest for them, his parents live somewhat close to aunt judy so she can be near to help them out, and mike goes semi-regularly to help out too. judy's kids for ricky were the cool older cousins, and they were tasked with watching the 'kids' aka the younger kids like ricky, and- beyond that- his mom's younger sister's kids too when they were around. ricky enjoyed playing with the kids, and the big kids, but the older kids are in or out of college by the time he's in high school, and only around for breaks and holidays, and don't have as much space for the baby cousin ricky anymore, aside from maybe one of them who's the one who took him to the skatepark etc. growing up and still goes when he's home.

but ricky's seen a lot of people just- moving on and leaving in his life. for their own family reasons and growing up and college and real lives... but... it's something that sticks with him, and gets brought into what finally pulls the rug out from under him when he's 16...

i've got thoughts on mike's upbringing, but i don't wanna make this any longer than it is, and i already feel like i have stuff i could change in the paragraph or so about lynne's so i'm not gonna make further commitments in this post oops. but- ricky just- doesn't give me the vibes he has a lot of external/extended family really- Around... that he sees often... whether that's due to distance or lack of effort/lack of relationships... his parents and him are more insulated from that world...

[swearingcactus]

BOLD the FACTS

RULES: BOLD what applies to your OC I was tagged by @elvenbeard tysm! here's some little v lore before i hide in the bushes again 🏃‍♀️💨 and him being so touched people want to know MORE about him

⭕❌⭕ PERSONAL ⭕❌⭕

Little V grew up dirt poor as a Heywood kid who never joined the Valentinos. But he was smart enough to get himself by (even if he cuts it close sometimes!) Technically he's pretty well off after becoming the go-to merc guy that fixers call, but old habits die hard and he often forgets he could afford the bigger treats. He was also sickly when he was a kid due to his ganic lungs being bad and Night City's air being dogshit. But then he got himself synth lungs and was fit as a fiddle all the way until Johnny happened and now he's back in square 1. I once wrote a fic about his history with his cybernetics that doubles as a little snippet of him throughout the years !

Financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty Medical: fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / non-applicable Class or Caste: upper / middle / working / unsure / other Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed >> was arrested multiple times and actually went to prison for a bit for some crimes he couldn't wiggle out of and had to pull in party favors and bribe the guards to hotfix the system and get himself out faster than he's supposed to serve. the minor crimes record stuck though.

⭕❌⭕ FAMILY ⭕❌⭕

His nice "everyone helped each other in the streets" story he told River was code for leeching off the soft-hearted joytoys and two-bit thieves who plays hot potato with children just like him. He was either abandoned in the hospital once he was born, or his parents were dumb teens who got themselves killed, or he was dropped off in the middle of a crowded street--the detail's kinda fuzzy and he doesn't bother to try and clear it up. His birth certificate most likely just listed some random generated name the hospital got before handing him to the nearest person willing to have him, so he never bothered to identify himself with his surname.

Children: had a child or children / has no children / wants children Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased Affiliation: orphaned / abandoned / adopted / disowned / raised by birth parent(s) / not applicable

⭕❌⭕ TRAITS AND TENDENCIES ⭕❌⭕

Little V loves friendly quips, sometimes borderline into being a quick-tongued smartass (especially more so if he wants to annoy someone to death). he's always eager to listen to people's experiences and expand his horizons! that said, at the end of the day if it comes down to it, he'll always put himself first. he believes it's better off that he does things alone because of that, especially to minimize the chance of hurting others in the process.

♦ extroverted / introverted / in-between ♦ disorganized / organized / in-between ♦ close-minded / open-minded / in-between ♦ calm / anxious / in-between / highly contextual >> he tends to have a hard time sitting still but is otherwise calm in demeanor. ♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in-between ♦ cautious / reckless / in-between / highly contextual ♦ patient / impatient / in-between ♦ outspoken / reserved / in-between / highly contextual >> he tries to see other's POV and keeps his head down and mouth shut just to avoid prolonging time spent with people he disagree with. he won't sit still and take shit if it gets personal though. ♦ leader / follower / in-between >>he's not too happy that being the top dog means taking over the afterlife in the don't fear the reaper ending and would rather give the role back to Rogue, both because he knows she loves the place and treats it right; and because he can admit he sucks on making choices when they involve other people. ♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in-between ♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in-between ♦ traditional / modern / in-between ♦ hard-working / lazy / in-between ♦ cultured / uncultured / in-between / unknown ♦ loyal / disloyal / in-between / unknown ♦ faithful / unfaithful / in-between / unknown >> i headcanon that the whole dating both kerry and panam thing is consensual from all parties in a "this is my boyfriend v, and this is v's boyfriend kerry" thing; but he knows it isn't the real exclusive experience.

⭕❌⭕ BELIEFS ⭕❌⭕

I actually wrote a fic about his 'faith' so yes this works as ANOTHER fic plug. tl;dr-- he believes there's a higher power, somewhat, but just chalks it up to Death incarnate... and death's pretty fucking final. He also thinks ghost/spirits only exist in a manner of living on as memories/legacies. He loves aliens and thinks werewolves are totally real though, just to balance it out. Also used to like T-Bug's fun shakespeare-esque philosophies, makes for good convo starters.

Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious Philosophical: yes / no / highly contextual

⭕❌⭕ SEXUALITY AND ROMANCE ⭕❌⭕

little v's relationship with sex is pretty grim. He used to think he'll have more time to find actual love and something more than quick fucks when he's made it to the big leagues... but then the whole relic business started and now he can't waste time to fuck much less to properly find love. still, if presented with the chance, he's never going to say no. AND he likes to think he managed a little slice of real romance here and there, with his big feelings with Panam and his mutual crush with Kerry... even if both won't last and he eventually broke it off. his actual one true love is Night City, which really, nobody can compete with :/

Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual Sex: sex-repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable / naive and clueless Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious Potential Sexual Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all

⭕❌⭕ ABILITIES ⭕❌⭕

he quickly learned that his smaller stature gets him in tight places and if he could hack cameras and klep things without alerting any system in said places, people would pay him, and pay him well. sometimes his MO doesn't work out in his favor and he has to fight his way out; which sucks since he's HORRIBLE at aiming with a gun and would have to resort to close-ranged stabs with a knife or his mantis blades... but more often than not his stealth and quickhacks saves the day. he can read but he's not a reader. and he has no idea what could be considered art, much to Johnny's chagrin.

Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor/ none Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none Artistic Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

⭕❌⭕ HABITS ⭕❌⭕

it's not that he doesn't like drinking or partying, it's just that he thinks you should do a job sober, and you never know when the next job's gonna pop out. getting a snack doesn't count though. actually it should be encouraged. he needs the energy and all, right? and besides, quickhacks make him hungry! two fishball sticks please.

Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / rarely / sometimes / frequently / alcoholic / former borderline alcoholic turned sober >> he'll always order a drink at a bar, but he likes the taste of ice cold NiCola after a hard day at work more than he does a beer, sue him. Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker >> only smokes for Johnny. he had a bad experience with his ganic lungs to ever condone smoking Recreational Drugs: tried some / never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed / frequently / to excess >> uses stims and other combat drugs if shit hits the fan; and is generous with his use of Bounce Back and MaxDoc instead of visiting the nearest ripper. he tries not to think about the possibility he might be too reliant on them Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / rarely / sometimes / frequently / binge eater >> street food enthusiast ganggg Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic >> he hustles to buy the pricy things he want/needs and then it's "why do I need more stuff, I like the things I have now." Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gamble

PHEW that was a long one. thank you for reading about him if you managed to get all the way here! no pressure tagging @bunwithantlers @killyourrdarlingss @glitchinginthegarden @mail-me-a-snail and anyone who'd like to!

[princesspiratecat]

So, as someone who is really rather in love with Early American furniture, I thought I would take a few moments of your time to educate people a bit on it, specifically- 18th century furniture.

In the Sims Community a lot of people refer to the 18th Century as "Rococo", and most of what follows has a lot of white, pink, and gold involved. While that was certainly happening in Europe, particularly in France, in the colonies we weren't so fancy, even though people painted the hell out of their pine.

This is for obvious reasons- most colonists weren't very fancy people themselves, and a lack of craftsmen and a need for simplicity were the most obvious ones. So, we made furniture like this: The Ladderback Chair.

It's simple, it's utilitarian, and aside from the decorative finials on the top, it's pretty plain. And yet, it's light and elegant, which is why you can still find this design today, as long as you're not shopping at Ikea.

My absolute favorite when it comes to simple elegance is the Windsor Chair. After 300 years, you can still find this style, and the many variations it has, all over the country (including modern takes on the timeless design).

We have a few of these in our house, and I have to say how much I love them because they are so comfortable! The seat is fitted exactly for the backside, as each cheek is gently supported.The armchair we have in my house has arms shaped precisely to fit the body, and even the hand!

There are so many variations of the Windsor design, and craftsman started making them in this country early on. You've got your Continuous Arm, Fanback, Sackback, Bow-back and Combbacks. I see these chairs on offering from Sims creators, but they are rarely labeled correctly, mostly as "country" chairs.

I'm sure that's what we think of them as today, but the truth is they were everywhere, found in both upper-class and more moderate homes. And let's not forget how there weren't any power tools at the time, so craftmanship of these really needs to be viewed with that in mind.

Today, these antiques and replicas can go for a very high price, but luckily for me they are all over New England, so they aren't too hard to find like some things.

Anyway, I'll talk more about this later, but can we please stop calling them "country" chairs? That's like calling every house from the 19th century a "farmhouse." Neither of which was ever an actual style until HGTV got involved.

If you really want to nerd out about it, and I hope you do, you can read more about the Windsor Chair here, in The Magazine Antiques.

[1-800-deactivatednearu]

Naming Conventions: EMESIS BLUE is a Beautiful Name for a Baby Girl

analysis below read more :)

Detective Mannix and Lieutenant Columbo

[I.D.: Spy introducing himself and Soldier at the investigation at Scout's house: "I am Detective Mannix. This is Lieutenant Columbo (17:57-18:00) /end I.D.]

Funny enough, these two are referred to in the end credits as The Detective and The Soldier respectively. Are these their actual names? Fake aliases made up by Spy? Who knows!

So if their names sound familiar to any, it's in reference to two pop culture detectives! (I will now read the Wikipedia articles on these two LMAO)

Mannix falls under a very archetypical private eye, going about investigations by opposing his higher ups and finding his own solutions.

Interestingly, I believe this parallels the nature of Spy's own investigation, confusing and raising suspicion among government authorities. I doubt it would be a reach to assume that he and Soldier are acting on their own accord with the amount of trickery and probably illegal activity it takes to gain all their knowledge. (Seriously, did no one worry about the whole Soldier on the police radios ordeal?)

Colombo is known for his unassuming everyman appearance, acting clueless or bringing up seemingly unrelated evidence to slowly corner suspects into incriminating themselves or to simply confess.

While none of these comparisons necessarily scream "Soldier," it is interesting to consider how many on the receiving end of a good old-fashioned Colomboing are the wealthy upper-class.

[I.D.: Soldier repeatedly shooting Blutarch, the former of which is sitting in a black car. (1:40:46) /end I.D.]

A good old-fashioned Colomboing.

Whether this is their actual names or fake names made up by Spy is a funny thought to me. Keep in mind that the end credits does canonise some names while decanonising others, such as with Scout and Medic.

[I.D.: 2 screenshots. First is of Scout's termination notice. He is referred to as "Patient SC-10498 (Jeremy E)." (18:11) The second is a credit card of Cameron Nichols featuring as Scout. /end I.D.]

One such instance is Scout. We know his name is Jeremy in the canon of TF2 thanks to the comics, and yet he is still referred to as "Scout."

... Don't tell me his last name is "E." for "Elbertson" like Jerma, this is inhumane.

We know the files are likely trustworthy enough considering how Medic is given similar treatment.

[I.D.: Medic's termination notice, his picture captioned "Dr. FRITZ LUDWIG / authorized personnel of Builder's League United Industries. "(18:51) /end I.D.]

...His name in the end credits shows up later in this post. I'm not putting it up again. Trust me, it says Ludwig, which was canonised in the comics.

So the end credits can be a little inconsistent!

So in context of Spy and Soldier, it is interesting to consider whether the names Mannix and Columbo are their actual names and an interesting reference by the writers or a fake alias by Spy.

To be honest, I didn't read the description of the video, which confirms that Spy is a detective, and just decided he absolutely could not be telling the truth when introducing himself as a detective. I kind of think it is cute to imagine he sees himself as just (and committing so many crimes in doing so), as well as Soldier as smarter than people give him credit for.

Which would assume Spy thinks nice things about Soldier though. :(

Dr. Fritz Ludwig, Cyclops, and Stalingrad

On to the rest of them, we have...

[I.D.: Credits card for Chad Payne featuring as Dr. Fritz Ludwig, The Detective, Cyclops, Maynard Conagher, Redmond Mann, The Hunter, Agent Stemmons, and Stalingrad. /end I.D.]

Wait.

[I.D.: TF2 wiki page of Soldier's domination lines of Medic, Heavy, and Demo. Highlighted for each character are the lines following lines:

Medic is "You just got dominated, Fritz!"

For Heavy is "Checkmate, Stalingrad!"

Demo has two highlighted quotes: "I love your death, cyclops; your death is sweet to me like love is sweet." and "You're like the Cyclops of Greek myth; except you are Scottish, and I hate you!" /end I.D.]

I love how Fortress Films took Soldier using vaguely ethnic-sounding names for characters as an insult and just running with it. It's not a bad thing, I just need the people to know that Soldier said "your death is sweet to me like love is sweet."

People are so mean to Demo. :( Yeah, I know it's not unique to Sodlier to point out the man has only one eye, but I think it's funny enough that three characters' names in film match Soldier's domination lines.

Heavy being called Stalingrad is real funny, especially since he has a given name in the comics--Mikhail.

Stalingrad isn't actually a name for a person. Rather, it's the former name of the Russian city Volograd. It breaks down into "Stalin" and "-grad," the Russian suffix for settlements (like the English "-town"). It's like naming your kid Bakersfield!

And now I skip this part of analysis because talking about history, especially in context of war, for an animated SFM with cartoon men fighting feels weird.

While a funny coincidence, Medic actually shares a name with the director of M (1931), Fritz Lang. (M (1931) is the VHS that Scout steals from Medic.)

Zed and Maynard Conagher

[I.D.: Credits card for Anton Pelizzari featuring as: Zed & Dell Conagher, injured police officer, funeral director, the bartender, police chief, and the limo driver. /end I.D.]

On the topic of films, isn't it real interesting how we don't learn the names of the Conaghers who run the Conagher Slaughterhouse until the credits? Their names are Zed and Maynard Conagher.

It's a Pulp Fiction (1994)* reference, in spite of being a good 16 years early to reference it accurately. It features accomplices sharing a name with the brothers, who fall under the archetype of hillbillies.

*Exercise caution in doing your own research on these characters, content directly related to them contains sexual assault.

Zed from Pulp Fiction is shot and killed with his own shotgun, mirroring the death of the second Conagher to his own sentry. Given these parallels, it's hardly a stretch to guess which is Zed and which is Maynard.

It's also a more exact science than comparing vocal performances with the other listed roles of the voice actors! I got the same answers though. Does this mean anything.

Honestly, it just means that there were some pretty solid voice actors on the cast. We should appreciate them more! Let's go rewatch the end credits and appreciate how much life they brought to the animation. :)

...the more I look, I realise there are more references to Pulp Fiction than I anticipated. There will be an attachment to my thoughts on this later. When I post it.

[shallow-between-stars]

Oops.

Hi, um, yes! Hello!

So, uhh, it's been seven years. I recovered my account about... a month ago and that was an ordeal, then did nothing with that for a bit, then lurked for a bit and am now posting.

SO WHAT HAPPENED YOU ASK?

Short answer: Life.

Long answer: Life, pets, work, and a side of what I think was HORRIBLE BURNOUT.

I didn't really notice I was pulling away from Tumblr, but I kinda did, which is absolutely my bad. Then, y'know, shit happened.

I got back from China in... 2017... promptly lost my job, ended up with a new job I loved for a company I hated, worked there for five years or so. Had to people, like, a lot.

My job was entirely dealing with people. Mostly people under 12. And my poor, introverted soul really struggled with that most days and came home, crashed on the couch and slept. When it wasn't school term, it was holiday care, when it wasn't holiday care it was school term. I was responsible for a lot, including making sure a daily average of 30 kids didn't hurt themselves.

And, y'know, about a year into that, my father (who I love a lot better at a distance) and I had a conversation (started by me) about my moving out of the family home. Mum and Dad basically refused to let me rent and (I'm showing my upper middle class, here, sorry) bought me a house that I am slowly paying them back for.

Yes, I know, and I am so very grateful for their support.

My dad and I shopped together and picked out a (unbeknownst to us) house-flipped 30 year old property with a great back yard and some small things that needed fixing, and I packed my bags and over the course of a week, I moved in.

And then I did what every responsible new home owner would do and waited until I moved in and was settled before making any more drastic life changes.

...

...

...Yeah. I'm lying.

I got two dogs. Ranger, who is the end result of putting all your points into Charisma and Constitution and using Wisdom as a dump stat, and Rogue who went the Int/Dex route but forgot that constitution exists. Seriously. I had her a week and she nearly died from -eating chicken.-

(She's allergic, we have discovered in the interim. She's also five now, arthritic and incontinent, the very definition of THE BEST DOG WITH SHITTY HEALTH ever. I'd say she's the living embodiment of 'adopt, don't shop', but the other dog's adopted and has an almost 1:1 ratio of "years alive" and "windows broken because he got scared".)

So. I worked a shitty job for five years (and through Covid, my job was considered an essential role which meant I worked straight through the pandemic, with children, which was low-key terrifying), and then in an episode of "nepo baby" a friend of my mother's got me a job at a high school for kids with behavioural issues where I worked for the better part of last year teaching EAL/D to refugees. I loved the kids to pieces, but as you could probably tell from the 'refugee' part of that sentence, these kids came with very heavy stories and my heart was broken for them more often than not.

Anyway, due to a contract kerfuffle at the end of last year I found myself out of that job, but my boss stepped in for another episode of "nepo baby" and sourced me a -new- job with a friend of hers working at a different school, where I am now. Still teaching high school, still teaching EAL/D and still loving every minute of it.

Anyway, I'm writing again, which is great, and something that I haven't managed to do consistently for years (See: HORRIBLE BURNOUT) and am excited to be -almost- ready to post some new content to my sadly neglected AO3, where the last thing I posted was about... two and a half years ago and at the tail end of Covid.

Surprising no-one, the content I have most recently written is Kal and Bull.

Surprising probably a lot of people, I still haven't played Baldur's Gate 3, but I've got three weeks of holidays in about a month so maybe I will play it then? Maybe?

[enbyleighlines]

Leigh plays Tellius prt 9

It's time to get the knight ring from Naesala!

I love Ike's attitude here. That being said, I did make the decision to have Janaff talk to Naesala, because there's no way that I'm going to fight Naesala. I like to imagine that Janaff did it of his own volition.

This map took me waaaay too many tries, because I was determined not to kill any crows. The crows did not make this easy for me. Additionally, drawing Naesala out without him destroying any of my units proved to be... a bit of a challenge. Finally, I just used Tanith's recruitment skill to summon some nameless NPC's to do that job for me. Sorry, random pegasus knight! Your sacrifice will never be forgotten.

A man with a killer axe attempted to attack Nephenee, but I gave her vantage, and she decided to one-shot him with a crit of her own. Oh, Nephenee, you absolute bloodthirsty menace you.

Time for the big reveal! I forgot this happened so soon.

Gosh, such a powerful visual. Poor Elena and Greil. They both deserved so much better.

Some people typecast Titania as the team mom, and I have no objections against it, but I think her sass is terribly underappreciated. I love how often she beefs with Soren, who at this point in the story looks like a literal child.

Two points here:

First, I (ironically) love how Mist's medallion is stolen the morning following Ike and Volke's conversation. If only Nasir had stolen it a little earlier, Ike would have had a very different reaction. Like, yes, family heirloom, it sucks that it's gone, but it's not the end of the world.

Second, I (sincerely) love how Ike is allowed to be a bit of an asshole sometimes. Like, when he gets stressed out, he lashes out at people. He gets cranky and irritable, like in that conversation with Jeorge about battle tactics. And it makes sense. He has a lot to shoulder during PoR, and he never asked to be put into any position of leadership in the first place. He's allowed to be angry and bitter about it.

I always forget that, on top of their prejudice against laguz, Daein is also anti-immigrant. Really, the toxic patriotism of Daein feels so painfully familiar at times. I feel like someone could write an entire essay on this subject. Additionally, I wonder if Jill has experienced anything like this, or is it different because she was born in Daein?

Man, I both do and don't feel for Shiharam. Like, okay, he's a good man. But he's also a man who allowed his daughter to participate in laguz hunts. I know it was all for the purpose of gaining the king's trust, but still. He kind of made this bed for himself. I don't know. It's such a complicated matter, and I like that he's a complicated character. My feelings about him just keep flip-flopping all over the place.

Gotta love Soren's pragmatism! I love how he deeply understands how society functions, while also being critical of the systems in place. I feel like you usually see this sort of pragmatism from characters who are rich and full of themselves, blaming the underclass for their own misfortune. Soren knows why things are the way that they are, knows that, because the people rely on nobility for protection, there is a huge power imbalance between nobility and the common folk. As he says earlier in Begnion: "From the moment of our birth to our final dying gasp, we commoners know we are not allowed to defy the upper classes."

So while Soren's lecture here is extremely brutal, I don't think it comes from a place of bad intentions. In his eyes, Elincia is naive and inexperienced, and has thus far been ignorant of the true horrors that the average Crimean has had to endure. He is angry because he cares. He is angry because he's worried about the future of Crimea.

I'm just... I love Soren. As Ike says, deep down he's a big softie.

And I finally got Mist to second tier! With this, I have officially gotten all of my main units to class up.

The Talrega map was a walk in the park compared to the previous one. I basically had a small group (which included Jill, Ilyana, Rolf, and Astrid) squat by the houses in the upper left section of the map, and their only job was to destroy as many wyvern riders as possible.

Everybody else just rushed towards the boss at top speed.

Next time: time to lay siege to Daein Keep!

[luchadorbard]

Fame, fortune and legacy (A D&D OC short story)

(CW: Violence, gore)

(Authors note: Highly recommend you read part 1 and part 2 of these short stories of this character.)

"The arena should be finished by the end of the month, my Empress." The page averted his gaze when Archrazaiel turned to look at him. "B-baring any unforeseen interruptions of course. "

"Good." She said as she continued her inspection of mosaic before her. The Dwarven warriors red hair still bright as bonfire even after the centuries. The deception of Talwynn wasn't perfect but it captured the Dwarf Gladatrix visage well enough, built for battle with patchwork of scars that covered her entire body.

A skilled warrior and even better performer, seeing her once was a blessing. She recalled that day so clearly, that trip to capital to watch the games was one her few bright spots of her 20th summer. Mothers mercurial moods thankfully didn't ruin that day. She traced her thick fingers on the weathered stone allowing herself to fall back into that memory, a warm wave of nostalgia empowering the revere.

---

"Hear me! Sons and Daughters of Bael Turath, the games start soon! Present your token to the Golems before you enter, lest you be added to the games!" The barker used magic to carry his voice across the tide of citizens who slowly made there way to the Grand Arena. Ana glanced at the sights of the sounds of capital of the Empire; performers dancing and singing for coppers, street vendors hawking meat skewers and fried bread stuffed with filling, Infernal emissaries speaking with Imperial officials.

"Don't look too impressed." Avitus smiled as he patted Ana on the shoulder. "You're a solider of the Empire, not a barbarian seeing civilization for the first time."

"Cynicism does you no credit. Surely this must have moved you at once point?" Ana adjusted her shoulder-pads, her uniform already drawing her many looks from the crowd as well a respectful distance in the street.

"The only thing that the capital 'moves me' to is a bigger villa once I've got my pay and a new front to do battle in." Scarred Tiefling chuckled as his tail swayed with his rolling laughter. Ana rolled her eyes, and quickly tossed a silver mark to near by merchant who exchanged it for a skewer of spiced meat.

"Besides, our seats aren't anywhere good enough to warrant any deference. Even less so while I'm rubbing elbows with these fucking plebeians." As Avitus spoke a poor soul accidentally bumped into him, his worried reaction growing tenfold when he saw crest of rank on tunic. The human quickly babbled out a hundred different apologies in heavily accented Infernal

Avitus kept up his scowl until the passerby had scampered away and then the laughter returned.

"Still, being a Legionnaire has some benefit."

Ana's tail twitched as she watched the human run out of sight, munching on her snack before she wordlessly continued down the concourse to the arena proper.

As the lower classes filtered there way through the many stairways to the upper seats. Avitus and Ana followed with the other soldiers, Magistrater's Apprentices tried and failed to make themselves more important then they were, merchants and foreigners of note haggled and wagered who would win what of the many games and contests that awaited them.

Each one ahead of them presented there lead token before the massive golem's passive visage. The only sign of assent from the stone constructs was they did not react when you crossed the threshold of the door and continued on.

Anna licked her fingers clean of grease and presented her token, hesitating as her feet crossed the threshold before she quickened her pace to keep up with her cohort.

"Quickly, bastard!" Avitus teased. "We may yet miss the opening at this rate!"

He cackled again and raced her to there seats, a modest slab of marble shared in a long row with a dozen other souls eager for blood and sport. For bread and games.

The voice the crowd unified when finally settle on to there part of the bench. As if one being rising and falling, a roiling choir of vulgar chants, cheers, jeers and singing. Ana felt the same familiar atmosphere of marching in formation, of training and drills with her fellow legionnaires.

"SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF BAEL TURATH." The master of games bellowed, his voice echoing through out the Arena. "Bear witness to the 59th Grand Games of the Empire!" The crowd erupted in delight, eager to begin. The ornate Master of games gestured and the musicians began, the many gates slowly opening as the Elven dancers sashayed and undulated to the music. Men and Women both with silk scarfs and tassels moving to the pipes and strings.

Like a cobra's swaying, the movements were enrapturing to the raucous crowd as they most fell silent. Some shouted bawdy insults and offerings to the dancers as they all gathered in the center, moving as one. Like birds in flight they rose and fell with the hammering of the drums before they all fell still and silence reigned.

The crowds voice returned, roaring and clapping at the display as some threw flowers and offerings to the slaves as the Elves quickly gathered what they could and then fled through one of the awaiting gates.

"To honor the victories of our brave Legionnaires recent victory against the Barbarians of the North, we offer you this, the Empire's mercy to law breakers."

Avitus grinned and pointed as the shackled prisoners were herded out of another gate. "This is us, Ana! Our hard work on display." He singled out a thin pale waif of a human. "That one! That's the one I captured in last battle! Offered him a choice between this or my Spatha."

The boy down there couldn't have been any older than 19 summers. His eyes wide in a sunken face as he looked like a lost lamb; he glanced to his fellow sullen prisoners for support and found nothing.

"It would have been cleaner to kill him then and there." Ana found herself speaking her thoughts aloud.

Avitus shrugged. "Not as fun, though."

"To those who survive! Your path to freedom begins! And to those who die! The Nine Hells will judge you justly!" The game master snapped his fingers as the prisoners were freed from there shackles and the pit gates opened.

The Saber-tooth tiger's growl could have shaken the heavens as it prowled out, the prisoners scattering. Some looking for weapons, others waiting for the beast to make the first move while some simply froze. Avitus' waif was one of them.

Almost a blur the creature took flight and then leapt at its target! The first, A dwarf, had his head separated with a single all mighty swing of its paw, blood and viscera staining his beard and the sand below in spraying crimson arc. The waifish man was next. He simply stood there as the beast leapt and its fangs found its mark, on his shoulder, then his chest and then his gut. The red bands spilling forth and spraying in every direction and his innards flopped around like eels out of water in the frenzy. If he screamed Ana didn't hear it as the creature feasted on its prey.

Avitus howled with laughter, clapping his hands in delight as watched the carnage unfold before him, his fellow spectators mirroring his reaction for the most part. While the beast gorged itself, the other prisoners rallied for there ploys of survival. Some found broken weapons or sharpened bones among the sands, while some foolish leapt with fists at the ready. Ana felt nothing as she watched the great cat tear apart the prisoners with single swings of its paws. It was hardly a contest of any skill so it lacked anything worth watching and the desperation made it so unseemly and unimpressive.

It's justice i suppose. The enemies of the Empire treated as they should be. Still, she wondered if crucifixion at the sight of their rebellion might have been a mercy for these men and women. The bloodbath ended with one of the prisoners, a hulking half giant, found a dagger amongst the rubble and found the Tiger's neck. His muscles tensing as he slammed down like a smith forging iron atop the cat's back until it fell still. The crowd was split between disappointment of the barbarians survival and delight at his unlikely victory as he raised his fists into the air.

"We have our winner! The first of many should he wish for freedom!" The Game master summoned the guards to escort the victor away, blood still caking his entire frame.

"When do actually warriors preform?" An edge crept into Ana's voice as she glanced at her cohort.

Avitus caught a loaf of bred being hurled into the crowd from the bakers cart near the edge of the floor. "Soon enough, bastard. Fear not." He tore a hunk and offered it to Ana who accepted it and savored its warmth. "The fun's just starting."

The other acts that followed at least didn't leave a sour taste in Ana's mouth. Mummers skits mocking disgraced Emperors of the past or foreign leaders. A chariot race between two teams sponsored by the members of the Triumvirate, as the navy once again defeated the army. Finally a performance of both actors and slaves to recreate Empress Tibera Severus victory over returning Elves from the flight from the Fey Wild. It was amusing performance but hardly real history or anything approaching a real battle.

The gongs signaled the half way break of the festivities as the pair rose to there feet and stretched there legs. The pair slowly made there way through the crowded throngs away from the seats. Awaiting like buzzards over a kill where prostitutes, hornless Tieflings and smattering of other races. Men and woman attempting to draw the attention of the milling crowd. Silver and gold exchanged hands and couples slinked away to find privacy, while others coupled openly in the shadow of the Arena. Avitus' eyes lingered on what was on offer before he seemed to think better of it and simply exited building proper.

Ana needed to be away from it all, a place where her thoughts didn't push against the bloodshed and sex, at least for the time being. Her feet had to take her around what felt like half the length of the oval, until the echoing sounds seemed to finally die down. With one deep inhaling breath she felt like she could finally hear herself think. Her time in the capital had left her with much to think on and not all of it good.

The prisoners deserved a cleaner death than spectacle. She thought back to that younger prisoner who simply stood there as the beast killed him. Lawbreakers, rebels one and all and yet this cruelty that served no purpose. Kill them and be done with it. Some of the capital still had its charms. The Imperial library for one, finally allowing her truly read of Bael Turath's history; and the food was far better than both from home and travel rations.

"Is that one of them?" A high pitched voice in perfect Infernal asked from behind her.

"She's not a whore, you idiot. Look at those horns. And the armor." Another deep voice rumbled out in reply. Ana furrowed her brow, her hand reflexively reaching for the hilt of her spatha as she turned to see who just insulted her.

Her eyes went wide as two Devils marched closer towards her. A wiry Hamatula, a Barbed Devil in the Common tongue, flanked a towering Osyluth, or Bone Devil, both clad in the hell forged armor of Avernus.

"You! Solider!" The Osyluth barked as Ana. "We seek mortals of pleasure. Where are they?" She felt her self freeze her hand quickly withdrew from her weapon. The insect like outsider studying Anna with a growing impatience as his gosimar winged fluttered with each step as his scorpion tail lurked behind him like a snake waiting to strike.

The Barbed devil's spines twitched. "Maybe she doesn't understand Infernal?" His nasally voice also twinged with irritation.

"A-a thousand pardons." Ana quickly gave a deep bow to the pair of them. "Most prostitutes are on the lower concourse. Some silver is all that's needed."

The Osyluth snorted, as he took a step closer to keep inspecting the Tiefling woman before him. "We don't seek cheap flesh. We wish for higher quality entertainment. Where are the proper bordellos? An establishment with a roof and walls. Not back ally whores."

Ana felt her throat tighten as her eyes darted between the two Devils. Each her social superior. A void opened within her gut, helpless plummeting down and down as her legs felt heavy and leaden and her arms seemed to freeze.

"Well?!" The towering Devil demanded an answer as his scorpion tail curled behind him, as if ready to strike. Light footfalls echoed through the structure as another being approached.

"...Told you both it isn't necessary." Another Tiefling approached flanked by several armed guards. "I don't require to be coddled when it comes to such things. If I wanted..." He stopped dead in her tracks as he saw the scene in front of him.

"Ana? Is that you?"

"Galvus?" Ana's narrowed her eyes and focused to look at the small man in front of her. Galvus Pious. The man who would become Emperor. He was almost just as Ana remembered him. His skin an lighter shade of red that bordered on pink. Sleek horns that resemble that of a Ibex and a thin, wispy tail.

"I didn't know you were...Hello! It's a pleasure to meet you again." Galvus walked forward as his Praetorian Guard moved with him. The masked warriors towering everyone save the Osyluth. One having the broad shoulders of a Half-Orc while the other clearly a Dragonborn.

"I did not know you were at the games." Ana looked between the heir and Devils who looked puzzled, exchanging looks. Galvus suddenly remembered the Devils present and furrowed his brow.

"I reiterate my prior question. Why are you doing this despite my insistence?"

"We apologies your grace." The Barbed Devil scratched his the back of his neck. "But if our superior gives us orders for your well being, then we must follow them."

"Well, as future Emperor I order you to cease. I can find my own pleasure at my own time." Despite his confidence, his features still didn't match what an Emperor should look like. He still looks like a child playing at command.

The Bone Devil rolled its eyes, backing away as Galvus closed the gap, Ana's heart finally starting to beat at a normal rate as the Outsiders drew away.

"Here to enjoy the games?" He asked as his expression softened to that shy smile. Anna nodded as she glanced back at the two Devil conversing in hushed tones.

"Aye. With my fellow Legionnaires before our next tour."

"You should join us! I'm sure my booth is far more comfortable than the seats you would share with the average citizen."

Ana opened her mouth to reject the offer before her mind went back to those days she shared in Galvus' company and his entourage. Days shared with her.

"If you are offering, your grace?"

"Consider it an order from the future Emperor of Bael Turath." He turned to leave and waited for Ana to follow, her footsteps hesitant at first but she eventually followed with the two Devils skulking behind.

Luckily the group found Avitus on the return trip, confused at Anna's sudden escort but eager to join alongside the sudden elevation in social status.

"The two new guests are with me." Galvus spoke to the two Iron golem that guarded his box, there visages fixating on the pair of newcomers but accenting to there passage into the private booth.

Akin to stepping into a new world, from the common people stands. Cushioned seats with animated cooling fans, with small personal grills charring meat to perfection. Bowls of chilled treats and stuffed dates hovered around the chairs.

Inside there was a woman that resembled a human. Clad in a dark green low cut dress showing her alabaster skin. She might have been beautiful save for the insect like eyes that framed her face and thin gossamer wings that hung from her back.

An Erinyes, from Maladomini maybe? Outside of there full-plate it was harder to tell but Anna knew enough to treat the Devil with even greater respect, even with Galvus present.

Her heart skipped a beat when she her. Still dressed in long flowing robes, her lighting bolt horns surging forward from her head as the featureless mask covered everything save her lips.

"Claudia." Anna muttered under breath as she tried her hardest not to stare at the woman.

"My future Emperor, you return!" The Erinyes turned to see the guests and furrowed her brow. "And you bring...friends back with you?"

"I do indeed, Kelthala." Galuvs took his seat and gestured for Anna to sit next to him. "I spent time at Ana's family villa during my education."

She could feel the mild disgust the Devil had even lacking more expressive eyes as she then forced a smile. "Then they are welcome within the booth."

"Wonderful to see you again, Ana." Claudia tone was soft and breathy, and it almost started the legionnaire.

"Likewise." She returned perhaps a touch too quickly. "I missed our chats on theology."

"Indeed? I would be happy to continue them with you once if we find spare time."

Ana cleared her throat as she felt her heart ringing in her ears, she merely nodded in agreement, as the social pain stopped whatever cluttered words were about to spill forth from her lips.

Avitus quickly helped himself to the stuffed dates, his hands hesitating on each new one he took for fear would dire the ire of there host.

The games resumed with all the pomp and ceremony as there beginnings. Grand performances of several dozen member bands, and many more Elven dancers. More mummery followed, this time being actual plays rather than satire, something Ana was grateful for.

Then came the main event, the crowds anticipation reaching a frenzy as they chanted and cheered.

"We welcome, two of the finest dealers of death this arena has ever seen!" One gate slowly opened, like the yawning maw of a great beast. "He stands taller than any human! The blood of the north coursing through his veins! He is. Bjron Half giant!" Hair flowing like liquid gold, the human strode forth, a two battle axes in hand.

"And next the crowds favorite! With hair that burns like fire, as impassable as the mountains! The champion of this arena, victor over man and beast! Talwynn the Defiant!" The crowd chanted her name with a fervor that Ana had only ever seen reserved for Generals after victories.

"We thank the generous Triumvirate for sponsoring these games." The master of ceremony gestured to three seated Tieflings, all of whom rising to give curt waves to the masses. "Fighters! Ten paces away and then begin!"

The two Gladiators met each others stares before they turned to move.

"Whose has your money, bastard?" Avitus asked as he wiped the honey on his fingers on his tunic. "Mine's on the half giant."

"The Dwarf." Anna replied as she helped herself to a date, glancing at the devils in the booth who seemed to be making similar wages of there own. Avitus grinned and fished out a handful of silver and Anna reciprocated.

The Gladiators had finished there pacing and the mighty gong rang, they sprang into movement! Despite his height and size the human moved like a jungle cat, keeping low to the ground as closed the gap. Talywnn's warpick gave her reach, allowing her to swing and slash, forcing her attacker back, denying him his twin weapons there true target.

Ana found herself leaning forward in her cushioned seat, fixated on the back forth dance between the combatants, her fingers twitching as she tried to perceive every feint and parry the two engaged with. Finally, actually warriors.

The battle axes came down and met the steel of the pick, sparks flew in every direction as he tried again to hammer another blow, before the Dwarf, quickly gave ground to adjust her weapon to block another, and then another!

In another burst of speed that belied her stocky body, the Dwarf went shoulder first into the human's gut and chest, winding him as his axes flailed in every direction, denying Talwynn the chance to follow through.

One single solid blow and this can be over. The crowds investment in the bloodshed grew ever more belligerent, driving the warriors before them to do more. A brief pause as the human looked over his foe and then leapt back into battle!

The ringing of steel echoed through out the arena, no doubt more unseen mages using magic to amplify the spectacles, as they two grew more familiar with each swing and slash. Like a rising crescendo the battle grew faster and faster, the footwork of both combatant kicking up dust and sand as they moved almost with one mind.

Then it came! An opening and the Half-giant leapt with an axe raised high, but the Dwarf drove her head squarely into his chest to end his attack before it could connect, a single hooking swipe of the warpick and down he went with a thunderous crash!

She pinned him to the ground with a foot and leveled the blade, ready to swing down as she glanced to the Triumvirate in the stands. The Military pointed his thumb up while the Magisterium pointed it down, all eyes on the Navy as she slowly got to her feet.

She leveled her thumb, letting the high drama linger before slowly twisted it upward to the thunderous roar of the crowd! The Dwarf stepped away and let the warrior back to his feet.

"And there you have it sons and daughter of Bael Turath! Talwynn with another victory for the She-Dwarf!"

Avitus sneered as he tossed the jingling coin purse to Anna. Folding his arms and pouting.

"SHE-DWARF! SHE-DWARF! SHE-DWARF!" The crowd chanted in unison as the memory started to slowly fade and Anna found herself in the present once again.

---

Meet me again in that field of wheat...

Archrazaiel ground her jaw as she finally stepped away from the mosaic and returned to reality. It won't be in that field of wheat but I shall see her again. I vow it.

Glanced around at the Fire Giant building the new arena in her unliving city, aided by the skeletal workers. A new arena would stand, but its crowd would be the ghosts of the past rather than the masses of the present.

But the Gladiators who stride forward to do battle now would be no less famous, no less remembered.

Fame is eternal.

---

(As always I'm open to feedback and I hope you enjoyed. My next short stories on this character are going to actually be something overarching.)

[f0point5]

is george and carmen’s old money style “real”, so to speak? i remember you talked about how you previously thought george had a very posh accent but it turns out he doesn’t, and i’ve seen one of carmen’s stories saying that her family struggled financially during the financial crisis and that she paid off her student loans, but every picture i see of their family (incl old pics) looks like they’re incredibly well off so im not really sure. also idk much about GR’s background

i will say they definitely play into it, but not sure if it’s more authentic or more calculated/fabricated (which there’s no problem with)

Disclaimer - I am not an aristocrat or upper class or old money in any way.

But as a British person I can say with relative certainty, neither are they.

George comes from Cambridgeshire, from what I believe is a staunchly middle class area. He doesn’t speak Queen’s English, which is by no means a foolproof way of knowing someone’s social strata but it’s a pretty strong indicator. He went to grammar school, which doesn’t always mean you can’t afford private school (I went to a grammar school because of the academics (and then got kicked out and went to private school lol)), but a lot of the time parents who can’t swing a private education for all three kids but still want their kids to achieve academically will try and get them into grammar school. I am also pretty sure I’ve read that George’s brother had to stop karting because the family couldn’t afford both of them karting. Now, karting is very expensive for the average family so that doesn’t mean the family was struggling, but in contrast, Lando has several siblings who all attended public school and were fully supported in expensive hobbies. So George’s family probably didn’t have money money. So in summation, he comes across very middle class. He has such an Eton face and he’s at every high society event going so you just assume he’s Saltburn levels but I don’t think he is. Also, might I add, he doesn’t give rich kid vibes at all. Lando does, massively. George does not. To me, anyway.

I don’t know much about Carmen’s family, I read somewhere her dad is a lawyer, which again is a pretty standard white collar profession. I can’t speak to the socioeconomic level of her family at all as I don’t know too much about Spain. What I can say is that if you’re not a UK citizen (which I presume Carmen isn’t since she only came to the UK for university and seems to have Spanish/German ancestry) university fees will be on average 20k a year, and you aren’t eligible for student finance, which is the government loan which is set at very good terms. I think it would be unusual for Carmen to take out a loan for that amount to get her degree if her family could afford to pay for it upfront.

So that’s my evidence for saying I don’t think either of them come from generational wealth.

I could go on about the pure vibes but I would probably get roasted so I won’t. Suffice it to say I think their portrayal of themselves in the old money aesthetic is a little bit of a meta commentary on that trend.

I think it’s just how they’ve branded themselves. They both have the faces for it, George very much leans into the “English gent” thing, which fits with the Mercedes brand and also the Tommy Hilfiger brand. I think it’s a case of what opportunities you get offered and then you lean into the perception to keep up with those lucrative opportunities. Nothing wrong with that at all, but it’s definitely a curate couple image, in my opinion.

[indirecticn]

ROBIN HOOD AU HC:

Asgard never left Midgard and kept a heavy presence there beyond the age of the vikings.

As such, most of the monarchies served by Asgard's pleasure. Skirmishes between nations were considered only when they began to truly encompass a global footprint. Such things were then brought under the eye of Asgard who would ultimately back a ruler or.. be the reason an empire fell.

Most historical things that happened still did but maybe SLIGHTLY different and could always be traced back to influences by Asgard. Please note that it was likely the gross ass n/zis thought they would be favored and were VERY VERY WRONG and Asgard entered the war with America which ended it all VERY quickly.

Asgardians and Vanir are considered a higher class of being and thus are often in roles of higher regard even when said roles are on Midgard proper.

After the second world war the grip on the world got tighter as Odin was tired of these global wars. The division between classes became pretty noticeable, with those heavily supportive of Asgard gaining the most favor and aiding in keeping certain Vanir and Asgardian politicians in power by the means of popular opinion.

(Aka "i should KEEP running this country, your majesty, the people LOVE me" and it's like, but do they really? or is it that money talks??? hmmmm.)

In the 60's a movement began called The People of the Realm Eternal, headed up by mortals and mortal mutants in particular. This movement aimed to give the power back to the mortals and supported the full withdrawal of Asgard from Midgard. It began peaceful but there are various little cells that are more violent and have caused issues.

The division between mutants and non-mutants was not nearly as big a thing in this world, but it's still mildly there.. only non-mutant asgardian supporters tend to be those that dislike the mutants, and a lot of it has to do with asgard not liking any midgardians that are powerful enough to take on asgard born warriors or even asgard's finest noble lines that have blood-lines tied all the way back to celestials.

Loki questioned the status quo way more than Thor, however did so privately out of fear of what his father would think and because he already seemed to be falling into thor's shadow, thus his rep as the trickster/god of lies, ect, was already tarnishing him bit by bit.

He did not let the Jotun in on Thor's coronation day, but rather this seemed to be done by a group of mutants intent on bringing down Asgard from the inside. However, when he went to the treasure room to stop them with his father he accidentally touched the casket of ancient winters in an attempt to wrest it away from a giant. it was then his true form was revealed.

His anger and fear brought about the truth, that he thought the PotRE were more right than not to ask for Asgard to leave midgard, given that midgard was the largest realm under their "rule" and had so many intricate cultures and kingdoms that it didn't need a single ruler to keep peace, and that all asgard was doing was keeping the more corrupt asgardians and vanir in power because odin was too blind to see it.

He learned the truth of his own parentage and thought it possible he was not abandoned but perhaps had been stolen outright, to be used as a bargaining piece in talks with Jotuns at a later time.

Before he could be exiled properly (and powers stripped) he was saved from such a fate by one of the mutants who had helped the Jotuns get into the realm... Nightcrawler. The mutant teleported Loki away and the prince was introduced to a galactic arm of The People of the Realm Eternal.

Loki eventually took up an offer to join them and was soon leading his own three-man crew that did jobs that interrupted Asgard supply lines and took it upon themselves to redistribute stolen wealth of the upper class.

The crew consists of Loki Laufeyson (a prince either which way it's looked at but he never uses the title), Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler, Valkyrie, and Remy LeBeau aka Gambit.

[cptn-m]

One Piece chapter 1105 review

After two incredible satisfying steps forward, One Piece 2024 has its first transitional chapter, and at just 13 pages it definitely feels short and soft. Not quite recappy, but just playing through a lot of things that need to be played out based on the last couple of chapters' events. We start with an obligate page of Marine reactions to the Buster Call announcement and the start of their evacuation, all stuff that takes time but is important to show for the flow of the story.

On a first read I wasn't a fan of Sanji's group letting Vegapunk make such a huge sacrifice of staying back to distract Saturn while they all get away, but looking over the chapter again, I decided it's not that bad. Sanji goes right back after seeing the girls and the wounded Kuma to the shuttle, and we can assume that most of this chapter is taking place over a pretty short amount of time. Plus, Vegapunk's got whatever teleportation thing he used in his introduction, the one that got him stuck half in the ancient robot and then took him straight back to Labophase, so the dude maybe had an exit strategy to justify the risks.

Or did Vegapunk just insist, in his naivety, that he could appeal to Saturn's scientific side and save Egghead and genuinely believe it? One or two more times of this guy not realising he can't trust a thing the Government says and it's going to get frustrating that he isn't learning from it.

Saturn shows some classical dictator hypocrisy though, claiming the world needs no more advancement while coveting Vegapunk's advanced weapon systems for himself and the upper class. Fascism loves appeals to traditionalism even if the leaders would never give up the benefits of progress for themselves.

The scenes in the Labophase promise some exciting scenes in the coming chapters, but don't offer much to talk about on their own. Jinbe, Zoro and Lucci sounds exciting, but I'm curious to see where the issue with the ship sliding is meant to be going. Will it just be stopped casually with a gag, or will it fall into the middle of the melee in the Fabriophase, potentially making Kuma's teleportation truly the only way out of here?

The panel of Vegapunk sinking to his knees as his work is destroyed in front of him is a beautiful shot, but I can't help wondering where Saturn went to allow this to happen. He doesn't seem to be the type to just sit back and trust the Buster Call to kill the scientist. Oh, he'll monologue before making the kill, sure, but he had that readiness to step on Bonney and Kuma personally.

The final spread of this chapter is a gorgeous aerial shot, amazingly drawn with the ring of Pacfistas charging up in the corner. Very well composed and the definite highlight of the chapter. There was a similarly impressive spread for Garp's arrival at Fullalead during the cutaways last year, so Oda's either found a taste for these shots, or maybe found an assistant who's good with drawing structures from that high up perspective. Hope he keeps them coming.

Kuma shows another sign of life to once again protect his daughter. Will he stay switched on longer this time?

Luffy at the food machine is… fine. It makes sense that's where he'd go if he found just enough energy to start moving. I think we're still waiting on a reveal for how he got that initial serve of food, but we'll see.

I'm glad to see the escape vessel was allowed to live in the last couple of panels. The final few chapters of the flashback made of point of showing how the researchers were in on Vegapunk, Kuma and Bonney's relationship and cared for them too, and I found it truly dark and tragic that they had seemingly been so casually destroyed. But by who? I mean, we were shown the Blackbeard ship, right? We've been wondering when they'd make landfall and whose side they'd benefit, right? Just about everyone else who has skin in the game is at minimum days of sailing away and would only have heard of anything happening on Egghead at all, let alone how bad it's become in the past few hours, in yesterday's evening edition paper or today's morning one. So the debate I'm seeing over this one is flooring me.

Reading the takes on the various OP subreddits about this chapter after the scan release was, honestly, kinda depressing. The amount of people making top, upvoted comments that either hadn't noticed or completely forgot about Blackbeard's ship being established chapters ago, or Robin getting injured during the cutaway is insane to me. Not even claiming the Blackbeard ship was a red herring for the sake of a bigger off the wall theory, just straight up not knowing that it had been established. I'm fine with there being people out there who aren't as into this stuff as I am, who just kinda skim the chapters and don't analyse or sit with it all. And of course these people have every right to come online and talk the series anyway. But there being enough of them on the dedicated One Piece subs for their confusion to rise to the top, over any reasonable analysis or fully informed reaction, that's just sad. I hope this doesn't read too gatekeep-y, I'm just finding myself increasingly done with Reddit lately.

Anyway, griping about internet reading comprehension aside, I might be whelmed by this chapter but it's great to be getting three without a break again, which means all the exciting stuff this one was needed to set up is coming that much sooner.

[awoosmusehorde]

(♫)

Almost like a cancerous growth, a twisted and malformed castle had practically grown around the base of the massive tree at the heart of the city. The immediate area around Yggdrasil had to be evacuated, as it was now encapsulated by a barrier, and horrifying monstrosities roamed the area immediately around it, slaughtering anyone who got too close. It was now a No Man's Land, abandoned by the city.

People were beginning to question what was going on, but beyond the barrier and the patrols, nothing seemed to be happening. Nobody else was being killed, no operations disrupted, even the prana hadn't been cut off. Besides those who had been displaced, the people of Scholomance simply assumed that this was a grand, interesting new part of the latest Ascension Trial, even though taking civilian life was off-limits. Daily life was continuing on as always.

Even all this way underground, humans were still human, unwilling to see the horrors in front of them so long as they weren't directly affected.

From her balcony overlooking the city from on high, the raven-haired mistress of the castle, dressed in a blood-red gown, smirked at just how pitiful this "advanced magical civilization" truly was. Despite how much more highly they held themselves above their surface brethren, in the end, they were just the same. Selfish, stupid mortals, who turned a blind eye to things they didn't want to see until they were forced to accept it - and then they broke, like fragile glassware gripped a little too tightly.

"Mistress. Rider awaits you in the throne room to give her report."

A young woman garbed in a worn tunic that was, perhaps, elegant and upper class at some point, had entered meekly, practically making no noise in doing so. She spoke with such fatigue in her voice, as if uttering those few words threatened to make her pass out, and yet the mistress of the castle expressed no concern for the girl, simply smiling.

"Very well. I shall be there shortly. Wait here, 'Master'."

The final word was spoken with thick sarcasm, almost mocking, causing the young woman's gaze to drift to the floor and narrow, almost pained. And yet, she bowed, an act of subservience despite the title she once wore with perhaps a little too much pride. Her former Master stepping aside, the woman in red left the room and made her way through the castle swiftly, yet gracefully, before arriving at a throne she sat upon.

Stood before her was a silver-haired woman with a wide-brimmed hat that obscured much of her features, her body mostly obscured by a cloak seemingly made entirely of feathers, bowing briefly before the woman on the throne. The castle's mistress gazed upon her with a single blood-red eye, the other obscured by her hair, before nodding her silent permission to speak.

"I'm here to report on the progress with the four Servants you asked us to deal with, my lady. We managed to capture all four, but three of them chose to self-destruct their Saint Graphs rather than be taken prisoner. The fourth is in our custody, however."

Despite this news, the red-clad woman smirked; one out of four was more than she had expected, and to have captured them and forced three to self-destruct rather than simply kill them outright truly spoke of the skill of the Servants she had called upon. Even that beast of hers apparently had plenty of finesse when it had a handler...

"Did you determine their identities?"

The Rider nodded in response.

"The three that self-destructed were exactly who you believed they were, as they revealed through their Noble Phantasms. Archer of Lemuria - True Name: Hou Yi. Lancer of Elysium - True Name: Conall Cernach. And Caster of Ys - True Name: Deganawida. As for the Servant we've convinced to join our cause..."

The Rider snapped her fingers, and the doors practically flew open, but not by force of entry, rather as if some mysterious force opened them on their lonesome. Regardless, moments later, a short young woman in a simple white dress, her blue hair flowing about like she was submerged underwater, pushed another young woman forward, her hair bright red and kept short, save for it being tied into a single pigtail on one side.

Dressed in bronze armor that was a little worn and battered from battle, the red-haired warrior stepped inside, no weapons in hand. Looking up at the woman she had been brought before, then to the feather-cloaked woman to her right, she eventually bent her knee before the woman she was now clearly acknowledging as her new Master.

"...I am here in exchange for my former Master's life and safety. I pledge myself as the former Saber of Valhalla to your cause, Master, and from this moment forth, will act as your Servant, in the name of the House of Atlantis. And my True Name is..."

...

============================================================

(♫)

"You've gotta be kidding me! How many of these things are there living in these stupid tunnels?!"

Honestly, some part of you has to agree with the red-haired Assassin you'd brought along with you, the fiery Sun Shangxiang who was to serve as the primary muscle of your team - ironically, despite being one of the classes least-suited to frontline combat. Still, her martial arts were serving her well in dealing with the odd mole-like monsters that had been attacking your group on the regular almost since you arrived in the pitch-black tunnels your rayshift had seemingly dumped you in. If only this wasn't the fifth pack of the beasts that had come crawling out of the walls...

"Now, now, don't complain so much, Assassin. You're doing wonderfully."

Of course, fighting in the dark would have been much more difficult; luckily, you'd planned on that and brought along the ever-resourceful - if somewhat sardonic - Caster, Albert Einstein. Sure, using his Galvanism and Item Construction abilities to generate light for your group might have been a rather mundane use of his legendary scientific mind, but it was just one of many reasons you brought him - there was no guarantee you'd be able to see underground like in Agartha, after all!

"Says the one holding the metaphorical torch and not contributing to battle beyond that."

At least, so spoke the Rider you'd chosen to accompany you to serve as a jack-of-all-trades, but especially a diplomat - Maria Theresa, the Holy Roman Empress of the Habsburg Empire, herself! She was no slouch with a sword or a bow, of course, but she had a medley of abilities and a keen political and diplomatic mind, something you felt might be necessary if there truly was a Holy Grail War going on; you'd need as many allies as possible to get to the bottom of this Singularity...

"Hey now, no fightin' amongst ourselves! We've got enough trouble with these vermin!"

And the ever level-headed Archer, Annie Oakley, had a point, audible even over the ring of her gunfire in the echoing tunnels. An excellent scout and sharpshooter, she was no Assassin when it came to hiding her presence, but with keen eyes and ears, a fast pair of feet and an even faster trigger finger, she was sure to pull her weight when it came to keeping the party appraised of what was ahead of them. At least, she would be if they could ever get out of these tunnels...

"Master! I think we're almost out! I see another light source from ahead of us!"

But leading the pack and protecting the group from the bulk of the horde was your ever-reliable Shielder, Mash. Even without Galahad's cooperation, she remained your most trustworthy companion and eternal shield. And so, you trusted her implicitly when she said she saw the end of the tunnel, you urged the rest of your team to push onwards through the horde of strange molerats, eventually breaking through and escaping far enough that they no longer hounded you. And sure enough, after a short while further, you stepped into the area of a larger area...

(♫)

Only to be completely awestruck by what you saw. Back in Agartha, it was as if you had been transplanted back onto the surface, and that in itself was unusual, but here, in this massive cavern, you saw what could only be described as... civilization. Stood on a cliff overlooking an almost modern-looking city hewn out of stone and wood, this was no wild and untamed land of fantasy, no ancient battleground of gods... This was a bustling city full of people and life.

"Hey, am I just seeing things, or is that... the biggest freaking tree ever? Not counting those weird Lostbelt things."

Turning your attention to Shangxiang, who was stood a little higher on the ridge you had all come out onto, you looked in the direction she was looking in, and your eyes went wide. That was no exaggeration she'd made; while the Trees of Emptiness were certainly massive, they only vaguely resembled actual trees. What you were looking at... There was no doubt about it. That was an absolutely massive naturally-grown tree! Roots that divided the city into clear sections, a trunk that had to stretch for at least half a mile tall - ten times larger than the largest tree on the surface, from what you could remember - and the leaves... wait, the leaves?

It was only then that you realized the light of the "sky" above you wasn't actually the sky. It was... the tree's branches and leaves?! They glowed with such a gentle light that it was like there was a soft, blue sky above you, so easy on the eyes that you hadn't even noticed! It encapsulated the entire ceiling, save for a few large stalactites that almost looked like upside-down mountains protruding through the clouds from a land above the sky, making for a truly beautiful and wonderous sight...

Only for an oddly-familiar voice to break the silence and awe that your group was in as they overlooked the locale.

"Hm, so you're the source of all of that ruckus and magical energy. I don't recognize you. Who are you?"

Turning your head to look at the source of the voice, you felt your heart practically jump into your throat and silence any response you might've had.

♫

...It can't be.

You watched her die.

You stood helplessly as she begged for help, for a second chance.

How is she here?

A pair of golden eyes look over you suspiciously, that ever-familiar silver hair, that stern look judging you silently... It's been so many years since you've seen them, but you recognize them on sight. It's an appearance that haunts your dreams on occasion, still begging for help.

The first life you failed to save because of your own weakness.

Olga Marie Animusphere.

You can't help but say her name when your throat finally relaxes enough to speak, an action that causes her to raise an eyebrow on her part. And yet, while there is suspicion in her expression, her reaction... isn't quite what you expected.

"Oh, you recognize me? Well, that's good, it saves me some effort on introductions, but you still haven't answered my question."

In your complete focus on the woman in front of you, however, you failed to notice the individual at her side, a rather pretty young man with a sword at his hip and a polite, if disciplined, countenance about him.

"Master, those five... They are Servants. But the girl in armor is different, somehow."

That caused Olga to turn her attention to the young man who was presumably her Servant, and suddenly regard you with a much more suspicious look. Luckily, Maria stepped up to speak when she realized you nor Mash seemed quite up to the task.

"Apologies, our Master has been quite disoriented, as of late. Recent events, plus the strain of supporting multiple Servants, weakened as we might be, has taken its toll on them."

Thankfully, her words seemed to have the desired effect; rather than grow irritated as the Olga Marie you knew might have, the one in front of you seemed legitimately surprised, even a bit concerned.

"You're supporting them all on your lonesome? That would explain how you managed to survive out here without being discovered for this long... Still, that’s no easy feat. No wonder you’re not all there."

The Servant at her side still regarded you with suspicion, but it seemed for now that Maria had bought your group some tentative understanding, despite your shock and, admittedly, minor fatigue... Thankfully, the Mystic Code that Da Vinci provided was holding up and keeping the large amount of prana from overwhelming you, but you were still suffering some ill effects.

"Yes. If at all possible, we'd like to find some place to rest, if you know somewhere nearby... That preferably isn't infested with wild animals."

Mash had finally managed to speak, which also helped you gather your senses and agree with her. The how and why Olga Marie was here, of all places, you'd figure out later. For now, you needed to get a handle on your situation, and setting up a base of operations sounded like a good start.

"...Hm. All right, I'll bring you to our headquarters. We'll get you up to speed there, and who knows? Someone as talented as you, able to not just support but command clear loyalty from such a wide variety of Servants could be able to give us just the hand we need."

The genuine praise surprised you almost as much as her presence did, even if you weren’t entirely sure what she’d meant; the Olga Marie you knew wasn't one to give out compliments so easily to a stranger. Was this truly the same woman you had failed to save all those years ago...? For now, it seemed you'd have to follow her and her Servant to find out...

[dans-den]

Demon Slayer Season 3 Review

Hey everyone how's it going? Dan here and today I'll be reviewing Demon Slayer season 3!

Spoiler Warning (if you wanna watch it, just do the free trial for two weeks on Crunchyroll)

Now I've been looking forward to this season after season 2 which I thought was a near masterpiece thanks to the animation and the story as well as the characters. Season 3 has been hyped up for the last year and people have been frothing at the mouth (myself included honestly) waiting for this to drop. Though I will say I'm sure some people weren't happy it was exclusive to Crunchyroll only whereas Season 2 was on Hulu and Crunchyroll. Either way, people were ready to watch season 3 and I will say it's great but I think season 2 was slightly better.

I love Tanjiros journey and how he's slowly becoming a stronger swordsman and demon slayer and how we got more background into his ancestors and how they knew Yoriichi as well as more background into the dance that was passed down to them. I also liked that we finally got Muzans backstory animated and how he became a demon. If you've read the manga you already know how it goes but even so I always enjoy when we get these scenes in the pages animated since I love the medium. Speaking of animation, I also want to point out how they used 3D animation as well and I'll admit it, it looks well done. Doesn't clash badly with the 2D style and it blends well enough to be a pleasant visual experience.

Now the demon slayer cast this season was interesting. Instead of the main cast which consist of Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu and Inosuke, we get two Hashira's and someone from Tanjiros class Genya. Tanjiro and Nezuko are still the main protagonists and I did enjoy the Hashira's in this season. Mitsuri and Muichiro had great backstories but the one I think I liked most was Genyas backstory (though Muichiro was a close second) and explains why he is the way he is and why his brother Sanemi is the way he is as well. The upper moon demons this season were pretty insane. I thought the last seasons Upper moon was insane and to be honest, upper moon 6 was definitely better than the upper moon 5 demon. Upper moon 4 however, that was a complete unit themselves. Its a shame Muichiro spent almost all his fighting on Upper moon 5 who I thought was a bit underwhelming compared to upper moon 4 and definitely compared to upper moon 6. Though I will say the backstories for the Upper demons were near nonexistent. Upper moon 5 didn't get one and Upper moon 4 got a little bit of backstory but compared to last seasons Upper moon, it's not as significant but still decent.

Now my main complaint here is the absence of Zenitsu and Inosuke. Inosuke is my favorite character of the demon slayer cast while Zenitsu is my least favorite. Even with that as the case, I still feel they should have been in the swordsmith village arc. To me, Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu and Inosuke are a package deal. I enjoy seeing them train, go on adventures and battling demons together. They only appeared in the first episode and that's it, they made a little post credit cameo but that doesn't count in the main story. I'm sure they'll have a huge part in the next season but I felt it was the same without these two fighting along side Tanjiro and Nezuko continuing to get stronger as they battle upper ranked demons.

Overall I enjoyed season 3 and the ending to it. Despite my nitpicks here and there, this is still a great anime and a great season. Now I'm excited to see how things go in Season 4 with Muzan plotting to take Nezuko to complete his goal of being the ultimate lifeform. I hear the Infinity Castle Arc will be the best Arc in the entire series and with what's suppose to go down, I am once again ready for it!

Rating this I will give it:

8.5/10

I like it just like I like the other seasons, each one has its strengths and weaknesses but overall its still a great anime series and I highly recommend watching season 3 as well as the other seasons and movies of Demon Slayer.

That's all I got for today.

See ya!