#it’s possible it wasn’t specific to her and someone just targeted kids

[iwatcheditbegin]

I don’t know what the motive behind this tragedy was. But I will say All the misogyny and normalization of wishing violence on Taylor and her primarily female fanbase in the name of “ jokes” has real consequences. The harm doesn’t go away just because Taylor is rich and white. It’s normalization of violence.

[hbyrde36]

The Crawl

Part 4 of 5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 AO3

WC: 5670

-Eddie-

Eddie thought the weirdest thing that would ever happen to him was Steve Harrington, of all people, trying and eventually succeeding in becoming his friend. 

It was unexpected, the way they got along so well and discovered that they actually had more in common than either of them would have thought, but not as unexpected as Eddie realizing that his unrequited crush on the former king of Hawkins High was possibly not as unrequited as he’d initially thought. 

That became his new weirdest thing, for a while. 

Eddie would have never dreamed that someone like Steve, queer or not, would be interested in someone like him, but after he caught the guy staring at his bare chest for nearly a full minute the first time he answered his door shirtless, and subsequently every time he was shirtless thereafter, it was too obvious to deny. 

Not that he ever intended to do anything with that information. 

Eddie was, in certain situations at least, a coward after all. The closer that they got, and the more Steve started to mean to him, the more afraid he became to ruin things. Steve never said anything outright, never acknowledged the electricity between them, so Eddie didn't either, happy to live in the liminal space where they danced around it, because it was safer. Steve stopped dating, Eddie continued his streak of not dating, and they never talked about it. 

Then Chrissy Cunningham was murdered by an unseen evil wizard right there in the middle of his living room, and he found out just how naive he’d been about how weird shit could get. 

Along with that epiphany came another one. Life was too fucking short to keep playing games, and Eddie was so tired of being scared. 

Angry hick mob launching a witch hunt? 

Scary. 

The Upside Down? 

Fucking terrifying. 

But, Steve? 

Steve was safe, he was comfort, he was home.

Eddie wasn’t afraid of Steve anymore, he was afraid for him, terrified that once they parted on the brink of battle they’d never see each other again, that he’d never get to tell Steve that he loved him.

He’d done it, in the end. Eddie was brave. He called out for Steve and they’d gotten their moment, a few feverish kisses at the end of the world, and a promise.

Afterwards he climbed up on top of that trailer with his audience of two to play Master of Puppets with a new fire running through his veins. 

This was for Chrissy, who’d died a terrible agonizing death at the hands of a foe she could never have imagined. It was for Max, who'd been targeted because of her suffering, as if the suffering itself wasn’t enough. It was for El, who endured a hellish upbringing that no one should ever have been subjected to. For the boys and Erica, whose childhoods were cut short by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time and helping their friends. For the older teens, Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Jonathan, who were still kids in their own right, forced to grow up in an instant and become protectors, crushed under the weight of that responsibility. Hopper and Joyce, who despite their efforts had little choice but to let all of these children become soldiers in a war none of them signed up for. 

And finally, for himself. Eddie knew his life would never be the same after this. Whether they defeated Vecna or not, whether his name was cleared or not, some people would choose to continue to see the worst, to see him as a murderer.

He did everything Steve asked him to do. Well, almost everything. 

As soon as he spotted the bats on the horizon, a rapidly approaching cloud of wings and gnashing teeth, and it was clear that the creatures had taken the bait, he abandoned his concert and took the two boys back down into the house. The entire trailer had been reinforced, doors and windows boarded up with bits of wood and corrugated metal, and, at Steve’s curiously specific request, Eddie made sure the air vents were sufficiently blocked. 

It held them off for a while, but eventually a few of the little fuckers managed to squeeze their way inside and Eddie knew he had to act fast. He rushed Dustin and Will up the rope and fully intended to follow after them, really he did, but the demobats seemed to have the same idea. 

It wasn’t even a choice. 

He couldn't risk letting the bats get through the gate and go after the boys, or be let loose into the Right-Side-Up. Eddie used his spear to dispatch the winged menaces closest to the portal and then took off, screaming and shouting like a lunatic to entice the remaining monsters to follow after him as he ran outside. He kept up a litany of loudly delivered taunts and jabs as he mounted one of the bikes that they’d left behind before and managed to draw the horde away from the trailer, chasing after him alone instead. 

He didn't remember hitting the ground. When one of the creatures pulled away from the pack and swooped down to knock him from the bike, he only barely registered the sensation of falling before the world went black. 

He swam in and out of consciousness several times before finally waking up for good. 

At the time he hadn’t even been sure if any of it was real, thinking maybe he’d died and it was all some kinda weird hallucination on his way to the afterlife. 

Eddie’s eyelids fluttered open and he found his face pressed against an unfamiliar chest. He must have moved because the arms around him tightened protectively as the man attached to them spoke, his voice low and rumbling. “Don’t worry, kid. We’re gonna get you out of here.” 

It sounded like Hopper, but before Eddie could get a look at him to be sure, he blinked and was suddenly being jostled around in a car, cradled against a body he was a little more familiar with. 

Steve.

He tried to say it out loud, all but screaming the name inside his own head but no matter how hard he tried all that would come out of his mouth was a whimper. Steve shushed him and whispered soothing nonsense as he pushed Eddie's hair back to press kisses against his forehead. He tried hard to stay that time, but he was powerless to resist the pull of the darkness. 

He blinked again and was surrounded by strangers in a cold room with too much light. He squinted against the brightness, realizing only after he’d started panicking that the beeping he heard was mimicking his own heartbeat. He was in a hospital, and the strangers around him were nurses and a doctor. He relaxed, finally accepting that he wasn’t dead and the beeping slowed to match his pulse. He sank into sleep less reluctantly then, knowing he would wake again eventually and hopefully this time someone he knew would be there to tell him what the hell had happened. 

When Eddie finally woke up for real, it was a gradual ascent into consciousness. He took a deep breath before opening his eyes, turning his head slowly and carefully to take in his surroundings. The room was dimly lit now and the night sky was visible through the open blinds on the windows. There was no one in sight save for a lone figure with their arm in a sling slumped over in a chair next to his hospital bed.

“Steve?” Eddie croaked out, dry throat causing him to break out into a coughing fit. 

The other boy jumped up from his seat, instantly awake and quickly grabbed a nearby cup of water before returning to his side.  

Eddie took a few grateful sips but couldn't take his eyes off of Steve’s arm. When he could speak again it was the first thing he had to know. “Are you hurt? What happened to your arm?”

Steve shook his head, the ghost of a smile coming over his face as he settled back into the chair, taking one of Eddie’s hands with his good one. “You just woke up after being nearly eaten alive by demobats and the first thing you ask is if I’m hurt?”

“I just want to make sure you’re okay.” Eddie grumbled, sinking back into his pillows. “And I didn’t almost get eaten… I don’t think.” He paused trying to think back. “Okay, honestly I'm not sure. I don’t really remember anything after falling off the bike.”

Steve nodded as if he’d been expecting that. “Yeah, you hit your head when you fell. You’ve got a lump on the back of your head, and some bites. There, on your cheek” He said, eyeing up the bandage Eddie could feel taped to his face. ”And a few more on your leg.”

That, Eddie hadn’t known. He wasn’t really feeling any pain at the moment. They were probably pumping him full of pain meds, so between that and the adrenaline from seeing Steve and finally being awake, he was feeling pretty good. 

“Oh.” Eddie began, letting it all process slowly. “How long has it been?”

“A little less than a day, it’s only the next night.”

“Did we do it? Is he gone? What about Dustin and Will, are they… Did everybody make it?”

Steve started to laugh but it cut off abruptly on a choked sob. His eyes shimmered with unshed tears and he looked away for the first time since Eddie had woken up. 

Eddie’s heart sank, the sudden racing of his pulse given away by the sound of the heart monitor. 

Steve squeezed his hand, wiping his eyes on his own shoulder and finally looked back up. “Vecna’s dead. The Upside Down is gone, for real this time. They’re all okay, you were the only one who got hurt. I promise.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows, looking pointedly at the dark blue sling the other boy was currently wearing. 

“I’m fine.” Steve insisted. 

Eddie frowned. He could accept that maybe Steve’s arm wasn’t bothering him, but it was clear that he wasn’t, in fact, fine.

“If everyone’s okay then why do you look so sad?” He asked softly.

“Sorry. I’m… it’s just… “ Steve stuttered. “I’m just so glad you’re okay, Eds.”

He knew Steve meant it, even if it felt like he was leaving something out, but Eddie didn’t want to push the issue. He gave a little nod. “I’m glad you’re okay too, Stevie.”

He let the silence settle around them for a moment, hoping that Steve would say a little more. When it was obvious that he wasn’t going to do that, he pressed on. 

“What else did I miss? Tell me everything. What’s the cover story? Am I going to be arrested when I get out of here? Has anyone gotten in touch with Wayne? He must be worried sick. Are the-”

Steve cut him off mid question, laughing again, only this time without the tears, to Eddie’s  immense relief. 

“Slow down! Jesus! You’re supposed to be taking it easy.”

“I’m literally laying in bed, Harrington. I couldn't be taking it any easier if I tried.”

“Alright.” Steve said, blowing out a long breath. “You were passed out on the ground when we got back from the Creel house. There were bats laying dead on the ground all over the place. We figure they must have dropped when we killed Vecna. I, um, tried to pick you up but I dislocated my shoulder fighting the vines so Hopper carried you out and we rushed you here, to the hospital. Like I said, no one else was really hurt. Officially you’ve been cleared, but no details have been released to the public yet. Hopper said they’re still working on the story.”

“They?”

“The lab, I guess? Or the government? Both? I don’t know, I was always a little confused about all that.”

“Okay.” Eddie said. Fair enough, it’s not like he had any better idea of what was going on behind the scenes. Who was in league with who, shadowy government conspiracies and all that. 

“They do have an officer on your door, Powell and Callahan are taking turns keeping watch, but it's for your protection, not the other way around. Just until word spreads that you’re innocent.”

Eddie didn’t have the heart to argue that it probably wouldn’t be as simple as that. Steve would see in time, or maybe the citizens of Hawkins would surprise him, prove him wrong. Either way that was a problem for another day. 

“Innocent is a strong word, baby.” Eddie teased. The term of endearment sliding off his tongue so easily. He nearly winced at his own use of it, but Steve didn't seem to mind.

“We haven't been able to get in touch with Wayne yet, but Hopper is on it. We know he was put up in a motel somewhere so it’s just a matter of finding out which one. 

“It’s probably for the best. I don’t know what I'd even tell him, or how to explain where I've been.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

Eddie was overtaken by a huge yawn, his eyelids suddenly felt heavy and drooping. All the talking really had taken a lot out of him. 

“You should get some sleep, I'll still be here in the morning. You need rest.” Steve said.

“So do you.”

“Hey, I was sleeping just fine in this chair here until you woke me up.”

Eddie hesitated, he didn’t really want to be alone but he felt guilty. He didn’t want Steve to feel like he had to stay. “You should go home, you need real sleep. In a bed.”

A look of hurt crossed Steve’s face, but was gone again as quick as it had come, as if he was carefully schooling his expressions. It was concerning, and it made Eddie’s throat tight.

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No.” Eddie answered honestly.

“Okay.” Steve said, and that settled that, apparently. 

Eddie dropped off to sleep pretty quickly. It was easy with Steve's hand still resting warm in his. It had to be uncomfortable, reaching his arm across from the chair like that. He almost asked Steve to join him in the bed. It would be a tight squeeze for sure, though Eddie wouldn't have minded, but they still hadn’t talked about what happened between them in the Upside Down.

He dreamed. 

Or would it be considered a nightmare, he wondered, since the slightly off scene was set in the woods of the Upside Down. He and Steve were walking beside each other, just as they had done in real life. Steve was shirtless again and wearing Eddie’s battle vest, a combined visual that had gone a long way in making Eddie feel better about where they were, and what they were doing at the time. The big difference here was that Steve was hurt. His middle was wrapped in a makeshift bandage of some sort and he was bleeding. A ring-like wound wrapped around his neck, making it look like someone had tried to hang him. Before Eddie could make sense of it the ground beneath his feet in the dream shook, and he jolted awake. 

Though to him it felt like hardly any time had passed, he must have been asleep for quite a while because it was morning, and late morning at that judging by the light, confirmed when he finally spotted a clock that hung above his room’s door. He could also see the silhouette of a person standing just outside of it. Whichever cop that had drawn the short straw on being his bodyguard today, he supposed. 

To his disappointment, Steve was gone. He wondered if the other boy had just stepped out, or if he had finally taken Eddie’s advice in the night and gone home to his nice warm bed. Part of him hoped so, the other part tried not to be upset by the absence.. 

He didn’t have long to dwell on it though, because only a few minutes later Uncle Wayne came walking through the door. 

Eddie wanted nothing more than to get up from the bed he was stuck in. To stand and hug the man who maybe hadn’t raised him, but had, with absolutely no hesitation, taken in a troubled teenager that showed up on his doorstep unannounced and cared for him like he was his own. 

He settled for pushing himself up into a sitting position and accepting the gentle one armed embrace his uncle could manage while hovering over the bed. 

“I’m sorry.” Eddie blurted out.

Wayne waved him off like it was ridiculous, but how could he not be sorry for upending his uncle’s life like this. Eddie let it go for now, they could come back to that later. 

“Christ, boy. I thought I'd never see you again. How you feelin’? They tell me you’re pretty banged up.”

Shit.

“Yeah, I feel okay, actually. Considering, uh… '' Eddie trailed off, hesitating. He still had no idea what he was supposed to say, allowed to say?

“Don’t worry, son. You don’t gotta tell me nothing. Hop already warned me not to ask if I wanted to be allowed in to see ya.”

Eddie was a little taken aback, it wasn’t like Wayne to accept an ultimatum like that. He must have really been worried. It was a relief. He didn’t enjoy keeping things from Wayne, but this was bigger than just the two of them. 

“Sorry,” he said again, for lack of what else to say. 

“If you don’t stop apologizing.” Wayne muttered, shaking his head. “I only wish I coulda been here sooner.”

“It’s fine. Steve was here- for a while.” Eddie said, not quite managing to keep the disappointment he’d felt earlier at waking up alone off his face. 

“No need to look so glum, he’s only down in the cafeteria getting coffee with that girl who’s always hanging around with you two.”

“Robin?”

Wayne snapped his fingers in recognition. “That’s the one.”

“Oh.”

“He was headed this way when we bumped into each other in the hall. I told him he was welcome to come along a’course but he said he wanted to give us some time to ourselves.”

“That was… thoughtful of him.” Eddie said and began to worry at his lower lip, forgetting about the wound on his cheek. He winced as the movement pulled at the stitches there.

Wayne eyed him curiously. “Something on your mind, Ed?”

“Nah, it’s nothing, compared to everything else going on.”

It was the truth, he was being ridiculous. Not that him being worried about Steve was ridiculous, but the fact that Eddie was starting to wonder if it had something to do with him, with them, as whatever it was they were to each other now. There were more important things. 

“Not if it’s bothering you this much.”

Eddie sighed. “It’s Steve.”

“I gathered. What about him?”

Eddie wasn’t dumb. He was sure his uncle knew he had a giant crush on his friend, Steve hung around the trailer so much that he had his own mug and everything, but he didn’t want to out Steve by talking about what happened between them without his permission. 

“I think something’s wrong and he won't tell me what it is. He said…” Eddie paused, choosing his words. “He gave me an explanation, but I could tell that wasn’t all there was to it. It feels like he’s keeping something from me.”

“And you feel like this thing, the something that’s wrong, is to do with you?”

“Maybe.”

“Hmm.” Wayne hummed thoughtfully. “He know you're freaking out about it?”

“I’m not freaking out about it.” Eddie huffed.

“Whatever you say, but you should try and talk to him about it again. He wouldn’t like knowing he’s got you this twisted up over it. Whatever it is.”

“I’m not twisted– how do you know?”

“I might be getting older but I'm not blind.”

Wayne wound up sitting with him for over an hour, and it was the most relaxed he’d felt since before this all started. Wayne kept it light, updating Eddie on all the work drama he’d missed and the trailer park gossip, steering clear of anything related to the events of the past week.

He was still there when Eddie’s doctor and a nurse came to check on him, surprising them both with the news that, barring any new complications, he could be released in just a few days. He’d had only a minor concussion and the wounds on his legs weren’t as deep as it was initially thought. 

He stood for the first time, with help of course, and found that while it was painful, it was doable. He might have to use a cane for support until everything healed completely but that was a small price to pay.

Eventually Steve and Robin appeared, and at Eddie's insistence, uncle Wayne took his leave. He would have stayed all day, all night if Eddie had asked him to, but he knew Wayne would be more comfortable back at his motel, and selfishly he hoped to get more alone time with Steve. 

Steve, who he couldn't help noticing had deep bags under his eyes. It didn’t look like he’d gotten any sleep the previous night. 

Eddie didn't say that out loud though, and he never got to bring up what was bothering him either. Robin stuck around for the day and the three of them hung out until well after visiting hours were supposed to be over. He couldn't complain, it was nice to spend time with his friends even in these conditions, and he appreciated the little play-by-play that Robin acted out for him detailing their takedown of Vecna. 

By the time her parents showed up to drag her away and drive her back home, Eddie was beyond exhausted, and Steve could tell. With very little effort he coaxed him into laying down, wordlessly assuming the same position they had been in the night before, Steve slouched uncomfortably in the chair with his arm stretched out and propped up on the bed rail so he could hold Eddie’s hand. He was asleep before he could even consider rethinking asking Steve to share the bed. 

Another dream plagued Eddie's rest. This one a little more vivid than the last. It was odd, usually once you know you’re dreaming you either wake up or are able to take some control of the events around you, but in this case Eddie could only hold on tight and go along for the ride.

Steve was wearing his vest again- still? And watching over Eddie’s shoulder as he hotwired his neighbor’s RV. They talked while he worked. It was a story he’d told Steve before, albeit under very different circumstances. His father, being the great fucking influence he was, had taught a little bright-eyed bushy-tailed 8 year old Eddie how to hotwire a car. A skill he no doubt thought would be useful for an up and coming Munson, assuming Eddie would grow up to carry on the legacy of the family name. Even then he knew he didn’t want to wind up like his father, it was why he’d run to Wayne when the shit hit the fan. He knew his uncle was a good man and a better parental figure than Al could ever be.

The dream warped and changed. They were headed to The War Zone. In reality they had called Hopper and the chief had been in charge of outfitting them all with weapons. Now, Steve was behind the wheel of their stolen camper and Eddie was sitting in the back with some of the kids and Robin, watching as he flirted awkwardly with Nancy who had taken up the passenger seat. 

It was truly a bizarre scene, but that was dream logic, he reasoned. Steve and Nancy had been broken up for years, they were friends now and nothing more. Steve hardly looked at her twice these days. Eddie knew that and still the sight before him, fake or not, made his stomach tense and his chest ache. 

He woke abruptly, eyes snapping open though he was unsure at first of what had disturbed him. He registered several things at once. 

It was still dark outside and he had the feeling that not much time had passed, a fact that was proven true when he glanced at the clock and found it was only 11pm.

Steve was no longer holding his hand, he was curled into a ball in the chair, arms wrapped around himself as he wept like his heart was breaking. It was completely silent but Eddie could see how the great big sobs shook and wracked his body. 

Pain be damned, he began to get out of the bed, sliding his legs over the side to try putting weight onto them. There was a walker next to his bed, the same one he'd used earlier to make an agonizingly slow trip to and from the bathroom. He just needed to get to Steve, to comfort him and–

“Eddie, what are you doing? Get back in bed.” Steve said, clearing his throat to try and hide the fact that he was sniffling, and desperately wiping away his tears as if his red rimmed eyes wouldn’t give him away regardless. 

“Fine.” Eddie conceded, lifting his legs careful back onto the mattress and scooting back up against his pillows. “Just… come over here and sit with me then?”

“Eddie.”

“Please?”

He did as Eddie asked and came to sit next to him on the edge of the bed, but refused to look him in the eye. It hurt, and Eddie started to spiral. 

Maybe Steve didn’t want to be here at all. Maybe he just felt like he had to, out of some misplaced obligation or something. Did he regret what they said to each other? The kisses? Everything? Had Steve only done those things because there was a chance they were both about to die? Eddie hadn’t thought so at the time but his confusion over Steve’s sadness was making him question everything. 

He swallowed it down, not voicing any of those anxieties, at first. 

“Are you okay?” Eddie asked.

Steve rubbed his face hard, something he did often when he was tired and frustrated. “I’m fine. Everything is good. I told you. I… I’m just tired.”

“I’m sorry but I don't believe that, and I know I shouldn’t push but I know there’s something you’re not telling me. Please, Steve. Just tell me what’s wrong.“  Eddie laid a tentative hand on Steve's arm, aiming for comfort, but the other boy stiffened under his touch. It was a bad sign, all but confirming his fears, but he pressed on anyway. “I care about you so much and I hate that you're hurting. I just want to help.” 

He prayed that Steve would say something, anything, but he remained frustratingly silent. 

“Is it me? Did I do something? If you… we can forget about what happened between us If that’s what you need, Steve. I just want you to be okay.”

He was met with only more silence and this time Eddie couldn't bring himself to break it. 

Several agonizing minutes passed before Steve finally raised his eyes to look at him and spoke.

“I don’t want to forget about it.”

Eddie froze, almost afraid to even breathe.

“I love you. I’m in love with you, Eddie.”

Eddie gasped. “Oh.”

“You don’t have to say it back. I just needed you to know.”

“I do, though.”

“What?”

“Love you- too.”

The invisible wall that had been building between them finally broke as Steve leaned in to press the gentlest of kisses to Eddie’s lips. As much as he wanted to deepen the kiss, he allowed the act to remain soft and chaste, appreciating that Steve was trying to be careful of disturbing the wound on his cheek, but as far as Eddie was concerned, kissing Steve properly was worth a ripped stitch or two. 

All too soon Steve pulled back, though he kept his arm tucked around Eddie’s waist. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you think any of those things you said.”

Eddie moved over as far as he could in the bed and pulled Steve in close, encouraging him to lay down beside him. He remained quiet, stroking Steve’s hair. He had a feeling the other boy was on the verge of opening up and he wanted to give him the time and space to do it at his own pace.

“There’s some things about all this, about the Upside Down that we haven't told you, that I didn’t tell you. I was trying to protect you, it was already so much… but you deserve to know, if you want. It would be nice to talk about it with someone.”

“With someone other than Robin, you mean?”

“How do you know Robin knows?”

“Is there anything you don’t tell her?

Steve smiled despite himself and rolled his eyes, but the expression quickly fell, replaced with something more worried and serious. “Are you sure you want to know this?”

“It’s about me, isn’t it?” Eddie guessed. 

Steve nodded solemnly. “Yes.”

“Tell me.”

Over the next few hours Steve told Eddie all about his other self and what he’d done for the party. How there was an alternate timeline where everything that they’d just been through had happened before, except Vecna had won and Eddie had died, only to rise again and discover that time worked differently in the Upside Down and that maybe all hope wasn’t lost. Steve made him sound like a hero.

He was glassy eyed as he talked about meeting the other Eddie for the first time, when he got pulled through the gate at Lover’s Lake, and wept again when he spoke of their final meeting at the edge of the trailer park as the other dimension and everything residing in it was dying.

Eddie didn’t blame Steve for keeping this from him. He was right, it was too much, a heavy burden when they already had so many other things to carry, but he was happy that he knew the full truth. 

He understood Steve’s sorrow now. He was mourning Eddie– even as Eddie was still sitting right here in front of him, alive… It had to be a bit of a mind fuck. He wasn’t sure if he could have handled it had their roles been reversed. To have to say goodbye to Steve like that, alternate version or not, might have broken him. 

He knew he should have been more freaked out about the time travel of it all, and the fact that he’d died, or be obsessing over the differences between that reality and this one, but there would be plenty of time for that later. For now he just wanted to comfort Steve and enjoy the fact that he was alive, that they all were.

They fell asleep like that, smashed together in the too-small bed holding on to whichever part of the other person they could manage, too tired and emotionally drained to care if a nurse came in to catch them in such a compromising position. 

Eddie dreamed once again, as he had every time he’d closed his eyes for the past 24 hours, but this time it truly was a nightmare. 

He was back on the bike in the Upside Down, pedaling as fast and as hard as could, glancing back every now and then to keep an eye on the swarm that flew ever closer. The feeling of deja vu was intense as he was knocked to the ground, but this time he didn’t lose consciousness. He got up, and he stood his ground, and he fought to the very end. He hated himself a little bit for what he put Dustin through, having to watch him die like that, though he was so grateful to have not been alone in the end. 

He woke with a big gasping breath feeling a little hysterical. It had all been a bit too real, he’d felt himself die. Steve was startled awake by his outburst, and he held Eddie close while he tried to calm down and relearn how to breathe. 

“Bad dream?” Steve asked.

Was it just a dream? Was it a coincidence that he’d dreamt of the exact circumstances of his other self’s death, a way for his subconscious to work through everything he’d learned that night? Or was it something more. 

If it was just the one nightmare he might have dismissed it, but knowing what he knew now…

He thought back on the other things he’d seen in his sleep, the walk through the woods, familiar yet different, the adventure in the RV, an alternative way to gather weapons in a world where Hopper was gone. He could feel it in his bones, there was a reason he was seeing these things. 

“I don’t think they’re dreams.”

“What do you mean? You’ve had others?” 

“Yeah. I think… Steve, I think they might be memories.”

Steve was skeptical at first but once Eddie detailed everything he’d seen and felt, even he had to admit it seemed possible. 

Steve stared at him for a long time, studying his face intently as if he might be able to see the other Eddie inside, looking out through his eyes.

“Maybe when he died the two of you sort of… '' Steve trailed off sounding hopeful, weaving his fingers together with Eddie’s to signify what he meant, instead of finishing the thought out loud.  

Eddie hummed noncommittally, raising their joined hands to his mouth and kissing the back of Steve’s “I guess we’ll find out one way or another, if it keeps happening.”

Part 5 (final)

Thanks forever to @penny00dreadful for being the best friend, cheerleader, and beta in the whole fucking world 💜 truly could not do it without you. Also special thanks to @hitlikehammers for all the discussion and encouragement on this!

@hissunflowers @sadisticaltarts @gutterflower77 @epiclazershark @yeahhhh-suga @soapyscoobert @thetrueghostqueen @guppynuggets @reh-hateshumans @katdeerly @kolorzapster @useless-nb-bisexual @sammyammi @ellietheasexylibrarian @thesecondfate @eleganttidalwavecloud @localcrustrat @letsmo6 @justaquietnerd @marvelobessed @femmeratale @carriethesaint @novelnovella

[cherry-pop-elf]

Oh yeah shit I forgot to tell you I finished the HP movies!

Rubs hands together

Time for some drum roll please

Random Bill Weasley Headcanons!

Bill Weasley, as a curse breaker, has built up an immunity to curses and extreme magic. This is why he and Fleur were able to get along so well. Her Veela blood didn’t cloud his vision. It’ll also be the reason why he wasn’t properly turned when attacked by Greyback

Speaking of Greyback I have a theory that Bill was specifically targeted by him. One idea is that Bill was possibly working on finding a cure/some kind of new medication for werewolves given he’s a curse breaker and close with Lupin. The other idea was that he possibly smelled like Remus and it Greyback wanted to hurt someone close to the man, or at least leave a message. Either way I have a strong theory there was a reason Greyback chose Bill

He is SOAKED in protection ruin tattoos. And I do mean soaked. Much of it of Arabic origin given his stay in Egypt.

The reason Ginny doesn’t seem to have any long term trauma from the Chamber Of Secrets incident was because Bill took care of her. Definitely not just a plot hole or forgotten detail. No way. Definitely not

Also we all know it would hardly reach the third book if Bill was involved because he would know about horcuxes and how to destroy them and probably even as far as how to save Harry with out AKing him. Just saying facts

Greyback isn’t a sweetheart. We all know his face is not gonna have that anime scar treatment. Like sir? Sir is scars are less visible than Lupins. Lupin has an excuse of being a child and growing up with them, and Greyback’s whole purpose was to infect than kill. Bill would 100% have a blind eye and face be hella fucked up. Like exposed teeth and cut into his hair line. LET DISABLE PEOPLE BE DISABLED

All the goblins at Gringotts are just a bunch of old men that took Bill in as the community kid. He canonically was taken in to be a curse breaker after he finished Hogwarts. Meaning he was under some kind of internship before then. Wouldn’t be a surprise if he would be classified as the world’s youngest curse breaker even. Not even eighteen and working as one at Gringotts of all places. Think about it

He’s a victim of third parent syndrome. So expect lots of him being more of a parent than a brother, and the emotional and mental fatigue that comes with it

His old patronus was a lion but I morphed into a wolf after he was attacked

Bill is the mostly ‘muggle’ out of all the Weasleys. You could drop him in the middle of a muggle city and he would blend in rather well, and actually function relatively well. He’s still a pureblood, but if for some reason he had to hide out in muggle society he can successfully do it. Blame it on all the rock bands he’s gone to listen play live

Given he had lived in Africa for a while he already knew some French, so when he and Fleur met he had impressed her with what he knew. Was a good ice breaker to explain his curse breaking career

Like every Weasley man he likes his women that can kick his ass

Definitely a massive perk of living on the beach was eating all the raw meat he wants. Fleur 100% planned that but don’t let Bill know that. He’s self conscious enough about it as he is

He used to be relatively tanned because of living in Egypt, but a side effect of having werewolf blood is getting sickly. He also returned to working at Gringotts when the war was over so he was trapped underground a lot. At least he can blame that for being pale

Definitely uses it as a excuse to check in on George and Ron at WWW

Ever since the attack chocolate never tasted the same to him. Also gave him a morbid realization on why Remus seemed to ‘love’ chocolate. Poor guy

Much like all kinks they stem from trauma. And that means someone here has a thing for pet play. Whoopsies.

As if Fleur could ever companion. Dommy mommy over there

Guard dog rights am I right?

Definitely has a bad habit of chewing.

Only got worse after the attack

Just look at Fleurs neck. HEYOOO!

Only allows his family, and the goblins, to give him any kind of dog or wolf nickname. If anyone else calls him such he WILL bite you

That also means he loves scritches

Give him all the scritches. He’s earned them

He also will chill out at Dobby’s grave to do paper work or just enjoy the sun. A means to keep him company. If anyone has intense respect for the dead it’s the guy who’s dealt with mummies

And that’s enough from me for not because I’m tired, busy with college shit, and period is around the corner so I’m very depressed. Don’t ask how many drafts I have. It’s alot. Hope you enjoy/share your own headcanons!

Rolls away

[zazuharrington]

will’s connection to the upside down

i’m sure we’ve all seen the posts of the similarities between 001/henry creel and will. drawing on those similarities, i have a theory about just how deep his connection to the upside down runs. i believe that will wasn’t a random or unlucky victim in season 1, but was rather chosen by vecna and the mind flayer.

let me evaluate as to why.

when nancy and robin went to see victor creel in season 4, victor talked about his son, henry. he described henry as a sensitive child. 

we also see, back in season 1 when will went missing, joyce was talking to hopper about will, and described him in the same way. she said will is a sensitive kid.

will’s sensitivity undoubtedly makes him susceptible to possession and makes him an easy target for things like that, much like you might see in a horror movie where emotionally vulnerable people are targeted by demons.

it is also revealed to us in a flashback that when henry was a child, he was drawing pictures of the mind flayer. however, we also know that henry did not actually lay eyes on the mind flayer until he was sent to the upside down by eleven and became vecna. this appears very similar to will’s “now memories” in season 2, which made it possible for him to see the mind flayer and replicate it in drawing. 

going back to my theory now, i feel that 001/henry, as vecna in the upside down, picked will specifically to become another “him” in the present time so that there was someone like him in the real world again. even though he had access to the world through the gate that eleven opened in the lab, it wasn’t enough. i think that he picked will because he knew it would give him a way to access eleven-and it worked, because it led to her directly and led to her/her friends entering and interacting with the upside down. and this method worked, because over the seasons as he controlled will more and more, it sent their world spiraling, until season 3 when he was finally able to get el. he told her in the s4 finale that he sent the mind flayer to collect her power because he needed more strength. and who did the mind flayer mainly target? will. 

this post is a little incoherent, but my point is that will is definitely a lot more connected to the upside down than any of us realize. and i think some of that connection will be revealed in season 5. 

[alienqueen4]

(*Erwin comes in to his office as he surprisingly got a surprise visit from Loba*)

Loba “Well there he is”

Erwin “Loba, to what do I have the pleasure of your visit”

Loba “I see you haven’t changed this mediocre of a school”

Erwin “Well this was your home”

Loba “No it wasn’t”

Erwin “…What are you doing here”

(*Loba throws top secret files*)

Loba “I been digging up top secret files of mutant cases and the most recent one is a mutant which I find out one of your students is in here”

(*Erwin surprised to see Erin’s name*)

Erwin “Erin? How could you be sure-she is not involved in any crime”

Loba “As a matter of fact her creator is targeting her…there’s been several incidents of robberies, specifically DNA testing centers that are conducting toxin research”

Erwin “…Why would her creator wanna target Erin”

Loba “You never knew? Erwin your student is an extraterrestrial from an unknown universe she could be dangerous-“

(*Erwin slams his fist on his desk*)

Erwin “I did not came here for you to talk bad about one of my students”

Loba “I’m not saying it that way just please hear me out Erwin…..her creator is a well known scientist Dr. Mason and he’s been working under the White House to capture mutants”

(*Erwin finds photos of dead corpse of mutants and the autopsy shows they all been killed by toxins*)

Erwin “Well what do you suppose this Mason wants with Erin”

Loba “I’m not sure but whatever it is he won’t stop until he gets what he wants, you need to protect Erin”

(*Erin walking down the halls still feeling sad wiping away her tears till she bumps into Chris*)

Chris “Geez watch where your going”

(*Chris kools down when he saw Erin crying*)

Erin “*sniffles* Sorry….what are you doing up here anyway”

Chris “…Nothing I needed some air”

Erin “Whatever”

(*When Erin decides to walk past by Chris he suddenly transitions into a sudden vision contact of the future visioning anti-Mutant people invading the entire school kidnapping all the kids in the school then kidnaps a student crying for help that are targeting someone and turns into a vicious 10 foot monster attacking the people and sees a mysterious man in the vision*)

Chris “*gets nervous*….”

Chris “…Wait”

(*Erin already left the halls to go back to her own dorm*)

Erwin “You really think this Doctor Mason could be capable of experimenting on Erin and make her mutant powers more dangerous”

Loba “It is possible, your talking about an extraterrestrial toxin mutant here that could destroy anyone or anything”

(*Levi knocks opening the door*)

Levi “Oh I’m sorry am I interrupting something? Loba nice to see you here again”

Loba “Tch you know you love me darling”

Levi “In your dreams”

Erwin “Are the kids alright”

Levi “Yeah they’re all good, they’re just watching a marathon of movies just hanging out nothing unusual”

Erwin “Good…well I must finish up my final task of the day, Loba if you would excuse me”

Loba “Don’t say I didn’t warn you”

Levi “I’ll clean up what’s left in the dining room”

(*Downstairs*)

(*During the movie marathon all the kids enjoying their little get together when suddenly a knock at the door rings when one of the kids decides to go open the door*)

.

.

.

.

“Heyo! Did somebody came in through the back door or something?”

(*Walter and Jake Sully suddenly freak out realizing the security has been breached*)

(*A little kid suddenly sees flashing lights aiming at the entrance of the house when Jake and Fuse ran after the kid when Jake hold on him into his wide arms and Fuse activates fire crackers from each direction before they shot trampolizer darts*)

Fuse “I’ll take care of these blinkers!! You get the kids to safety!!”

Jake “Let’s go let’s go!!”

(*Jake gets the kid along with him to grab the kids to safety as mysterious fegutives are breaking in the school surrounding the hallways*)

“Stop where you are!!”

(*The kids become scared as Jake fights back head blocking one of them and kicking another*)

Jake “Come on!! Down the basement everyone!!”

(*Jake runs towards the entrance of the basement to get the kids to safety*)

(*A sudden man sneaks behind Jake Sully to beat him up until a surprise from Ruki camouflage his skin behind a wall to attack him down*)

.

.

.

.

Jake “Thanks kid”

Ruki “What’s going on professor Sully”

Jake “I don’t know but whatever it is I need you to protect the kids down the basement”

Ruki “But I wanna help”

Erwin “Jake!! What’s going on”

Jake “We have unknown breach going on! I have the kids down the basement”

(*Kids started to scream downstairs when anti-mutant officers are kidnapping all the mutant students*)

“Sleeeeep”

(*A mutant demonic creature puts the students to sleep as the officers gather all the students to their custody*)

“Hehehe my what adorable children”

(*Jake Sully lands down the basement seeing the officers take the kids*)

Jake “Hey stop right there!!”

“Sleeeeep”

(*Jake got distracted when he is put under a deep sleep transition spell by the mutant*)

Ruki “Professor Erwin the kids are gone!”

Levi “What?!”

Erwin “…Oh no”

Erwin and Levi “Erin!!!”

[myheartismadeofstars]

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I tagged 605 of my posts in 2022

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Longest Tag: 139 characters

#(you know sam's girlfriend who called him a creep for working at a motel and fixing her drain and forced him to take a dog he had no abilit

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Headcanons for skills Nie Huaisang has that Da-ge actually approves of:

Math (while he tests very poorly, Huaisang is very good at practical math)

Astronomy (bless Fatal Journey for this)

Rites (Huaisang proves to be pretty good at remembering how ceremonies go, when he doesn’t adamantly refuse to participate, usually due to being too emptional to focus)

Archery (Huaisang is a Great archer! So long as the target isn’t moving... but he probably wouldn’t starve if he needed to hunt for himself)

Butchering (Huaisang butchered his first animal when he was seven, but he witnessed butchering since he was 3. He’s not actually afraid of blood or gore, he’s just very clean)

98 notes - Posted January 30, 2022

#4

I think people are sleeping on the idea of Damian taking Anya's surname when they get married. Damian eventually realizes how bad his family is, and Yor and Loid have always been kind and loving. So he associates Forger with a loving family, plus Anya is so attached to Forger. Also I just like the sound of "Damian Forger"

also something something "new blood old money"

207 notes - Posted July 14, 2022

#3

Okay I am still pretty knew to the hanfu community but I want to know: are Hanfu season specific like kimono are? Like would it look strange to wear hanfu with spring flowers on it in fall? I've looked for information on google but I don't find the right information. Obviously kimono is influenced by Hanfu but that seasonal thing could easily be something Japanese specific.

232 notes - Posted October 16, 2022

#2

Thinking about how Leon and Hop have at least 3 adults living in their house...but LEON (who has to be ~5-8 years older than Hop) raised Hop. Like??? That’s literally the biggest red flag for a neglectful family I’ve ever seen? I wonder if Hop was an accident and Leon was the only one who really was invested in his little brother (also Hop isn’t exactly a name I would normally see for a child...but if a little kid named them?). And Leon would have learned early that mistakes could mean Hop gets sick or hurt. No wonder he became so observant and while he gets lost most of the time...he can find Hop when he’s in danger (Slumbering Weald). This means that he became very guarded so people can’t find his weaknesses, and it did benefit his pokemon training. Then Hop started looking up to him, and he started getting praised for being “Unbeatable” so he parrots it. (Because if Leon was forced to care for Hop, he probably wasn’t getting his own needs met. At the very least not his mental/emotional needs, so he probably relies on praise for his self esteem). I think Leon being defeated by Eternatus was the first time he ever was forced to rely on someone else (and it was Hop!! And Victor/Gloria) and then being dethroned as champion...it made it possible for him to finally find something for himself. He doesn’t have to be the perfect champion. He doesn’t have to raise Hop anymore (but he still adores his little brother). He can LOSE! He can MAKE MISTAKES! And Galar and Hop won’t suffer for it! He doesn’t have to be perfect anymore!

246 notes - Posted March 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I think Loid should become a father figure to Damian. Damian sees how good Loid is with Anya and Damian starts wanting his attention too. Like Loid comes to pick up Anya after a test and Damian "casually" points out that he got full marks! And Loid smiles and tells him he's impressed and that his father should be proud. Damian would still be tsundere about it, but he'd look up to Loid. Crush on Anya, looks up to Loid, lots of reason to hang out with them. Loid is thrilled that Damian talks to him all the time. And he really starts to hate Donovan after realizing how unhappy Damian is.

I just think Damian should have a good relationship with his future father-in-law! (especially if Loid picks up on his crush on Anya)

901 notes - Posted July 14, 2022

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[ace-scientist]

relisten liveblog:

"It’s not like we’re wrestling with tape recorders" Is this an inside joke to make us scream? (I did) But given the VA is the same and the other events of this episode, the possibility that this is the TMA universe Celia transferred over through Hilltop Road just went up.

Alice bestie it doesn't "kinda make sense" this is not remotely how sound cards work

CELIA ASKING THE RELEVANT QUESTIONS: Does something set apart the episodes that get read out loud (or: are they a parallel to the statements that wouldn't record on digital tech?)? Could you search for specific themes, like "buried alive" or "meat" (or: her starting categories for how this work match up with The Fears)

brb we'll come back to "Hilltop Center" in a sec. in the meantime my first reaction is do you need supernatural intervention or do you need a union.

The vocal sarcastic quotes on "chill" and "all good" lmao

Ok so the employees remind me of the anatomy class kids. Evidence (at least for the first two): extremely clueless about life but generally excited to learn, give gifts that are viscerally unsettling but the giver doesn't actually seem to realize or intend this,. Maybe evidence: hard remember their names (all the equivalent of John Doe), travel in groups, possibly not impacted by bullets.

what's the "good cause"

It's now giving Buried vibes. Overall this one is more similar to the statements than the Protocol episodes so far: more a vibe of someone in the wrong place at the wrong time who got targeted by something scary than someone who courted dark power, survived to tell the tale, narrating in an official report.

Who is the guy who got her out? Is it someone we know? Details: "heavyset man in black clothing", carrying a gun, initially not sure if narrator is a victim or not, narrator thinks he may be a security worker.

"Do not contact me again unless it is to discuss additional compensation." Hell yeah assert your employee rights.

"the voice threw me" Ok so Celia says the voice threw her--not the fact that there are voices, or how they don't sound like TTS systems. This is leaving open the option that she recognizes it as Jon's voice.

"No I’m fine really. Do you know who voices 'Chester'?...Just thought I recognised it for a moment...Maybe. Doesn’t matter. I’m sure it wasn’t anyone important." CELIA

Option 1: She DOES recognize Jon's voice, but is trying to cover up her reaction. Option 2: She's telling the truth here, because she only has partial memories of what happened in the TMA universe for [reasons]. (Obviously Option 3: red herring and she doesn't know anything). I think both of these options--Celia is infiltrating the OIAR offices to get information, or Celia is maybe drawn to OIAR because of partial memories she may or may not actively be trying to figure out--are really interesting.

"I got a weird email from 'John' with a random name and an address and it looks like it’s from an internal email so" listen I was already screaming about the Celia implications but I YELLED at this

We'll have to wait and see what the contents were, but the fact that it's an internal email? And the computer system has Jon's voice? HMMMM. Assuming this isn't a red herring (it's not like it's a unique name), the thing I'm thinking about the most right now is that whatever remnant of Jon or beholding-stealing-Jon's-voice is writing, it's signed "Jon" not "The Archivist."

Ok covering up webcams is standard opsec/paranoia, but it is notable that one of the details mentioned about Colin's actions is very Beholding-related.

It's still not over?????

EXTENDED SOUNDS OF BRUTAL PIPE MURDER: THE SEQUEL?

Damn Gwen ok

So now we have not one but TWO more shady actors: Gwen and her source giving her videos of attempted murder, and Lena and whoever is putting out hits on people (former employees?)

ALL IN 20 MINUTES

ok I'm going to have thoughts on all the implications of the new Magnus Protocol episode, but first

ASELTIHAOIHTESOITESKMELKDGNOITESHJT

[scandalsavagefanfic]

Batman: Urban Legends, Cheer

I’ve talked a little bit about why Batman: Urban Legends is a bad story already, but I just saw a post talking about this panel and how well Bruce has been written in this story. And while the post didn’t really say anything about Jason, OP’s comments in the notes talked about how this seemed to be a direct response to people trashing Bruce for beating on the poor and disenfranchised, talking about how he’s finally “in character”, how he has a lighter touch and tends to think things through and how the story is teaching Jason a lesson about his “tendency” to brute his way through things without thinking about them, and how Jason wasn’t OOC.

My first post about UL touches on why that last bit is nonsense, but the stuff about Bruce reminded me of something else in UL that really, really bothered me. 

It’s the above panel and these, not just in the context that this story rewrites Jason as ALWAYS having been prone to violence and willing to wail on the weak, but also in the sense that Bruce, of all people, is the one chosen to teach this lesson to Jason. 

[that sentence ends in the next panel with “...stealing the Batmobile’s tires?”]

It’s just one more way DC keeps chipping away at what makes Jason (the Robin raised in poverty, the one who grew up with a first-hand insight into the way Gotham’s systemic corruption and crimes do the most harm to the poorest and least powerful people, and the only one to be personally affected by addiction) special and interesting. It’s just the most recent way they’ve bastardized his roots to villainize him (the poor homeless kid who was brutally murdered) so that Bruce (the billionaire) looks better, so that Bruce is absolved of all his responsibility in how Jason came to be the Red Hood.

Because in actuality, Jason taught Bruce that criminals can change.

Bruce didn’t listen. He stalked Penguin and when he found him, Bruce had to eat his words.

Penguin had actually tried to change. Bruce realized his mistake and tried to defend him after he was arrested, but the damage was done.

By the way, this is from when Penguin was just a jewel thief. Let that sink in for a sec. Go back up to the panel from Urban Legends with Batman and Robin in the alley and reread it.

And this, this story with the Penguin, is how it should be. Not that crap from UL. 

I don’t know why people have to keep saying this but Jason isn’t stupid. He’s incredibly smart and his actions, even his violence, are rooted in empathy and indignation on behalf of the innocent who are harmed, not rage. The above panels in UL are basically like saying that Cassandra Cain has suddenly changed her mind that everyone can be saved and decided to join Jason in killing super villains. This is the core of the character we’re talking about. It’s not the dumb little details like whether he likes coffee or eats cereal or whatever. It’s the heart of the character. It’d be like taking the circus out of Dick’s story, or the love of Robin from Tim’s, or making someone other than Talia Damian’s mother. 

Jason is very aware that petty crime is often motivated by desperation. He literally lived that life. That’s why he’s never targeted people like that the way this book shows him to.

Even when he returned, he was never an indiscriminate killer and he was never violent for the sake of it. He didn’t beat the shit out of addicts because he was an impatient little bitch. He was methodical and calculative and he only killed people who preyed on the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless. 

Like the mob’s drug lieutenants who dealt to kids:

Like these bastards, who were deep in denial and broke Jason’s golden rule, no dealing to children. 

Because drug dealers purposefully target kids, relying on addiction to make them repeat customers for life.

Rapists and the scum who prey on people at their most vulnerable:

And nazis.

The fact is, Jason certainly has his faults, but he would never, ever, do this to an addict:

Writing him like he would is out of character. Drastically. 

Jason doesn’t go off half-cocked. He doesn’t jump in blind. These aren’t lessons he needs to learn in anything except this story which specifically wrote him as idiotic and mean as possible to squeeze him into the box the writer needed him to fit into.

Jason has never been written quite this bad before, but even if you take the few random instances over the last 15 years, where he’s been written as meaner and dumber than usual as his core character, how can you stand there and say that Bruce’s style is a calmer, more rational approach and say how he’s been written for the last 30 years is ooc????

For the kind of story Batman: Urban Legends seems to be telling, Bruce is literally the last character this message should be funneled through. Bruce is a billionaire (or... multi-millionaire, for now in the main continuity but who knows what’s canon for this). It’s so fucking tone-deaf to keep writing this kind of interaction between Bruce and Jason. 

Do I agree that Bruce should be written as more understanding and empathetic and less vicious than he sometimes is since the 80′s, by the way, this isn’t new? Absolutely.

Do I think this was a good example of that or a reasonable template going forward? Absolutely not. 

DC needs to stop sacrificing what makes Jason Todd interesting, what makes the character an excellent tool to tell meaningful, topical stories, for today’s audiences, just to prop up Bruce. 

For starters, Bruce doesn’t need that?

Their roles in this story don’t have to be swapped. There are ways to write this kind of stuff that doesn’t fuck up a character. See the above example with Penguin. And that’s from the fucking 80′s. How are Reagan-era comics telling stories about poverty, addiction, and reformed criminals with more nuance and tact and consideration than something in 2021????

I just think it’s fucking sad.

And extremely frustrating. 

[angelsndragons]

*sing* it's been ~a while~

and i have been watching vm vs the nein a lot so let's talk about it. as always with me, this is a very long word vomit.

i said over on my mechanics post that the vm playbook requires urgency while the nein's playbook requires setup. here's what i mean. if the nein can make it to round 3-4 intact, that is if all of them are up, they are going to win. period. the nein simply have too many ways to steal turns from their enemies or to maximize their own effectiveness for things to go any other way.

if you want to see this in action even with a reduced roster, go watch the fire elemental fight in episode 129 and count the rounds. between caduceus' mass cure wounds and spirit guardians, caleb's slow, veth's sneak attacks, and jester's guiding bolts, the nein were able to scrape out a win thanks more to their bag of tricks than the damage output. veth only got sneak attack because of guiding bolt's secondary effects, slow kept veth safe from an opportunity attack and jester from a multi-attack, mass cure wounds gave caleb that round to cast slow, and the spirit guardians passively whittled down the enemies into KO range. the accumulated secondary effects were too much for the enemies to withstand and they fell hard. notice how everything built on one another here. that's what cockroach parties learn to do well. it was sloppier than a normal nein fight but they did it with a reduced roster AND with nearly all of their high level spell slots spent before the fight. yeah, they're fucking scary.

vm, however, is a whole different kind of scary. this team can put you down before you even know what's happening. it's harder to target the group's biggest damage dealers because you have a hulking barbarian and often an elemental up front locking down combatants. the dagger rogue can teleport and fly. oh, and give himself an extra action each round. the ranger and the gunslinger can stand back and just go to town. the freaking bear can maul you. the bard can make your life a living joke in your final moments. the cleric is a wildcard because the group is built to fight without her; if she's around, good luck because that's another round of attacks you have to take and an extra round vm can take. their DCs are ridiculous, as are their overall ACs.

but the thing to know about vm is that they have to put you down fast. they don't have the hit points for longer fights and they definitely don't have the utility for longer fights. their druid is offensively oriented, their cleric is often absent, and their bard is mostly support. he's often the only one running that bag of tricks. he can and will fuck up an opposing team given the chance and bolster his own, the problem is that he has almost no backup here. it's a giant hole that is begging to be exploited. it's an even bigger hole when that bard can only cast one spell per round.

so, going into the battle royale, the vm side had to down one member of the nein as fast as possible preferably in two rounds or fewer. it almost doesn't matter who, because if you down beau or fjord, that forces jester or fjord to spend their action or spell getting the downed member back up. if jester goes down, fjord has to do something about it. well, i say it almost doesn't matter but beau's deflect missiles makes her the worst target of the trio and yes, i'm including fjord's half-orc bounce back in that calculation. that gives you one round where the person healing isn't fucking up your team. vm's secondary objective was to monitor and control beau. her movement is nothing to compared to a hasted vax but her stunning strike is the most lethal weapon the nein brought into this fight. vm overall is not a melee group to begin with and their con saves are all garbage. vm has to find a way to keep her off their tails if they want a chance. we also know that vm's plan was to try to take out jester first so throw that objective into the mix as well.

all the nein have to do is survive the first couple rounds, monitor scanlan and pike, and get into position. that's basically it. the nein can absolutely withstand vax and percy's damage output for the first two rounds. pike and scanlan's damage output can be scary but pike in particular has to decide whether she wants to hold high level slots for healing. and she would need those higher level slots to get close to percy and vax's damage output. the nein know from experience that the support caster is where the real trouble will begin.

but before we kick things off, remember that matt specifically designed this battlefield to take turns away from the teams. the chests are an action to search and are located far out of the way in the field. the gem requires an action to activate, which basically means sacrificing your action for someone else's, and shifts between six designated points on the field. matt, who has a deep understanding of how both teams operate, decided to play on the nein's insecurities that they were at a severe item disadvantage and see if he could get them to bite. high risk, high reward. granted, this is me speculating but it does look like matt saw the fight very differently from the players and readjusted the field accordingly.

so we kick off and immediately scanlan proves why he is the top priority on the nein's list. he gets the gem, gets fjord prone on the ground, and comes within a hair's breadth of turning the fight into a five on two potential slaughter. travis brilliantly responds to these circumstances in the best of ways. see, fjord isn't the nein's utility magician for this fight; fjord's the bait. travis makes a very big spectacle of himself and fjord's predicament. and vm buys it hook, line, and sinker. ashley tries to continue with the original plan of gunning for jester only to discover that jester is who knows where.

vax, percy and scanlan? immediately take their shots at fjord. but fjord's on the ground which puts percy's awful misfire mechanic into reasonable play. so fjord gets lucky and doesn't take anywhere near the amount of damage he could have from percy. scanlan, after percy is removed from the field, decides he's better off trying to finish fjord but only hits a 3rd level thunder wave instead of a higher level one, which sam was probably saving for some counterspells or such. i don't think a higher level would have made that much of a difference but it is important to note.

more importantly, vax gets greedy. he got two good hits on fjord with his two actions, he could have left and hidden for the next turn. yes, vm has to down fjord as fast as possible. however that haste is going to be more effective over the long term if vax can keep it. but fjord's easy prey and he thinks vm can down him before jester can get over there to do anything about it. so he goes for the bonus action attack. pike eventually joins this mad dash scramble and like scanlan, she absolutely needed to throw something huge at fjord to get past his half-orc racial trait to have a prayer at downing him. but she did not because ashley seems to have been saving all her high levels for healing so fjord survives the round in honestly a very good position. vax can't target him from range with the cloud up, scanlan now has bigger problems than fjord with molly right up on him, and pike ran, taking damage and healing fjord in the process.

meanwhile, the nein's ladies are free to run and play the field as they see fit. jester has a big opening round flame strike. beau decides she can hold off on her round 2 blitz run to vm in favor of bringing molly onto the field. remember kids, never let a monk with 55ft of movement have the run of the place, it's bad for business. jester then makes a great play with her dispel magic at vax's haste. hashtag thanks, fjord. remember, kids, cockroach parties excel at taking turns and actions away from their opponents. in round 2 alone, the nein successfully remove percy from the field and remove vax's extra attack. that's both big damage dealers hobbled in one round. they also gave themselves an extra turn, adding molly onto the field. and oh boy, molly.

here we see the utility martial fighter molly could have been. sam's confused by the low damage that molly's doing his first round but the damage isn't really the point of the attacks. that brand of tethering is far more important, as are taliesin keeping an eye on which reactions will support the nein and molly's second attack wasting scanlan's reaction. counterspell is off the table for the back half of round 2-beginning of round 3, which is important if fjord wants to get the heck out of dodge.

in case it wasn't obvious earlier in the match that the nein are absolutely gunning for scanlan, round 3 begins with beau's blitz against scanlan. fjord's luck against the dominate person balances out with scanlan's save against the stun and beau missing one attack. here, vm starts to get distracted. they chose their focus fire target, fjord, but now do not, arguably cannot, follow through on it. we'll never know what could have happened had vm said to hell with beau and molly in our faces, we have to finish fjord.

vax tries to retaliate against beau but here's where the cockroach starts to come into play. molly blood curses vax, which saves beau a full sneak attack+ worth of damage. it also utterly wastes vax's turn. fjord manages to escape (and damage pike while he's at it) and regroup where it's safe. scanlan tries to dimension door but fails due to the brand. literally any other move scanlan could try on the pair of them had a better chance of success. instead, another vm turn is lost. taliesin recognizes the importance of getting beau advantage and supports her at the cost of two of his attacks missing, but not before scanlan is forced to cutting words one of them. another potential counterspell and cutting words lost. neither jester or pike contribute significantly to this round; the nein have done so much damage to pike in three rounds that she is forced to heal herself while jester chooses to dimension door herself to the gem and only a low damage roll lets it evade her.

beau takes molly's setup and gets the critical scanlan stun. he loses his full round. fjord takes the opportunity molly provided him to polymorph into a t-rex, bringing him fully back into the fight. vm is really going to have a time and a half trying to finish him now unless they can put up a big single damage attack. jester builds on beau's setup by casting flame strike, whose dex save scanlan automatically fails. he goes down. if you're the nein, this is exactly where you want pike focused, on her team and not on yours. she has access to most of the same spells that jester has and the more you pressure her to focus on her team, the better. it's not wasting her turn, precisely, but it is controlling what she can reasonably do with it.

now we come to percy versus beau. i don't want to diminish the insane good luck beau had to take only 26 points of damage from six shots because what matters here is that percy absolutely could not down beau. period. her hit points were too high and after she took almost nothing from the first two shots, it should have been clear that she was going to get her turn and she would absolutely attempt to stun and down pike and scanlan. i'm not going to monday morning quarterback this fight but i will point out that the more rolls travis has to make to maintain concentration, the greater the chance he fails and you get to hit fjord's actual hit point pool and trade fjord for scanlan. and if you can get him before he can get back into the fray, even better.

beau stuns the gnomes and drops scanlan again. her inner cockroach rears its head once more as she negates more than half the damage on vax's critical hit sneak attack. fjord-rex downs scanlan and grapples pike. the stun on pike here really helps negate that high AC of hers. after scanlan's death, it's a long slow death spiral. vax abandons the fight in the next critical round in favor of keeping the gem instead of targeting fjord. percy attacks beau once more instead of fjord due to fjord dangling pike over lava. he starts to focus on fjord only to get distracted by jester. pike goes down but vax gets caught by beau before he can get her back up. and so it goes with vm losing turn after turn after turn until finally the nein poof percy out of existence and bring molly back. a fitting end for the team who started their final boss fight with eight and came out nine.

bottom line here, the vm team played like they had way more time than they actually did. they had to commit to a target and see it dead as fast as possible. they had to control the battlefield quickly and keep it. they didn't so they couldn't. aside from building on damage dealt, they couldn't create advantages or opportunities for each other nearly as effectively as nein did. all of these factors meant that the nein did what they always do: grind their enemies under heel.

[camels-pen]

he was a skater boy, she said help me log my brother's injuries before he goes and hides like an idiot

Summary:

Jazz sighed. “I don’t punch people.” “You punch ghosts.” “I blast ghosts. And only when someone’s in danger or Danny needs help.” She huffed, crossing her arms and hunching her shoulders. “I mean, semantics, but I think the more important thing here is that your brother, like, died.”

---

or, a look into Kyle's relationships with the Fenton kids.

Warning: Implied/Referenced Minor Character Death and Death of a Parent

based on @everystarstorm's prompt "Jazz has friends" and @kinglazrus' prompt "The problem with constantly transforming in public is that sometimes you get seen. So who has seen Danny change and what are they going to do about it?"

Ao3 Link

~

Kyle Weston was a guy of many things. He enjoyed the simpler things in life, was slow to anger, and loved messing with his friends.

Jazz Fenton was one of his favourites—she gave the best reactions—but he also knew not to kick a dead horse. The poor girl had been increasingly frantic with worry for her little brother since he started showing up to school with bruises and weird stains on his clothing. Kyle’s not an idiot, he can put two and two together and though he doesn’t exactly know how to help, he can at least offer to lend an ear and lay off the teasing for a while.

And ever since Wes started spouting about Jazz’s little brother being the ghost kid, he’s had a supremely easy target to focus his teasing on instead.

Before—when Wes was just complaining about the ghost attacks to him at any time of the day as if Kyle wasn’t experiencing the exact same attacks—Kyle would simply pretend ghosts were fake and make up some new conspiracy to explain it away. If there was one thing his brother hated, it was misinformation and inconsistency; using different and wildly outrageous conspiracies each time Wes started to complain was the best way to induce that specific red-in-the-face-completely-speechless-with-rage expression on him. Kyle would keep up an appearance of calm with an easy smile and eventually retreat to his room to laugh his ass off in his closet.

He’s got a bet going with Funny Gerry for how long he can go without Wes realizing Kyle’s messing with him. Considering there’s about $200 on the line, Kyle’s inclined to do everything he possibly can to make sure Wes believes him for at least a year.

“Do you know what I could get with that kinda money?”

“A… bigger skateboard?”

“Nah, man, I could get stickers. The good kind that doesn’t peel off when it rains.” Jazz wrinkled her nose.

“What about those new headphones you were talking about? The Shaver one?”

Kyle shrugged. “My dad already bought it for my birthday.”

“Your birthday’s in four months.”

“He’s pretty bad at hiding presents.”

Jazz huffed a laugh. “You probably tore the house apart looking for it when no one was home.”

“Oh, I totally did. Doesn’t mean I’m wrong though.”

Jazz rolled her eyes, though the smile didn’t leave her face. “And I’m guessing your brother knows too?”

“Nope. I hid it somewhere else after I found it and Wes is going nuts looking for it.” Kyle dropped the last of his textbooks in his bag and zipped it closed. “I’m still hinting about wanting those headphones though so he’s getting more desperate the closer it gets to my bday.”

Jazz chuckled. “You shouldn’t be so mean to him. He’s your only little brother, y’know? You gotta look out for each other.”

“Ehh, Dad’s got the whole support thing covered. My job’s to make sure he doesn’t get a big head.” He paused. “And probably make sure he doesn’t accidentally commit a crime.”

“Wes can be a little too passionate sometimes.” She sighed. “But I’m glad you do look out for him. In your own way.”

“It’s older sibling rights. You mess with them, but you also make sure they don’t go off and accidentally get themselves killed.” Jazz bit her lip hard and though she tried to rapidly blink them away, there were clearly tears starting to build in her eyes. “Woah, you alright?”

“Yeah,” she said, her voice wobbling. “Yeah, I’m fine. You just, um, said a line from…” She stopped to take several deep breaths and quickly scrub at her eyes. “You know, that one movie. The sad one that came out recently.”

There weren’t any particularly tear-jerking movies that came out lately that Kyle knew of, but Jazz also thought anything from the 90’s was recent, so he probably shouldn’t think too hard on that.

He pulled out a couple pocket tissues from the side of her bag and handed them to her, which she accepted gratefully. Kyle put a hand on the back of his neck. “Sorry man, didn’t mean to get you upset.”

Jazz waved a hand. “It’s fine. I can’t expect you to know—” There heard a loud crash from the floor above them before a figure of black and white fell through the ceiling and smacked harshly on the hallway tiles.

Kyle raised his eyebrows. “Oh shit, it’s that Phantom guy.”

Phantom struggled, but managed to lift up onto his elbows, make eye contact with Jazz, and say completely straight, “Three ninety-nine fish tacos at Denny’s.” before passing out completely.

Kyle blinked. “Denny’s has fish tacos?” Then a grin grew on his face. “There’s a Denny’s in Amity?”

He turned to Jazz to urge her to go check it out with him, but without him noticing, Jazz had run to Phantom’s side and ghosted her hands across his body. “Uh, whatcha doing there Jazz?”

“Checking for injuries. He usually hides them when he thinks I won’t notice.” Hmm. Well that’s generally concerning.

“Are you, like, friends with him or…?”

“Oh, uh—”—she paused, looking down each end of the hallway before speaking quieter—“Yes, we’re friends. He’s practically like another little brother to me.”

Kyle was about to joke about the chances of having two little brothers with the same name when there was a flash of light and a bright white ring appeared around Phantom’s torso, splitting into two and travelling up to his head and down to his boots. In moments, it was Danny Fenton laying there unconscious instead of Phantom.

Huh.

Well.

“Jazz, I think your brother died.” He took a moment to pause, remembering their conversation earlier. “Oh wow, I can’t believe you didn’t punch me in the face.”

Jazz sighed. “I don’t punch people.”

“You punch ghosts.”

“I blast ghosts. And only when someone’s in danger or Danny needs help.” She huffed, crossing her arms and hunching her shoulders.

“I mean, semantics, but I think the more important thing here is that your brother, like, died.”

“Danny didn’t die. He’s just…” Jazz waved her hand around. “Not completely alive.”

“And that’s different because…?”

“Because—” She abruptly cut herself off when Danny started to stir. When he stopped moving, she continued at a much quieter volume. “Just because, okay?”

Hmm. Kyle doesn’t like that answer. “Okay. Uh, is there anything I can do to help?”

With her eyes still trained on Danny, Jazz pulled out a notebook and paper. “I’m going to list his injuries and how long ago he probably got them. Can you write them down for me?”

He gave an affirmative hum and they set to work for the next ten minutes. A few of those injuries sounded a little like those examples of ‘near fatal’ injuries from his Intro to Anatomy class, but he’s pretty sure he’s remembering them wrong. At least, he hopes he’s remembering them wrong.

By the time they’d made it to his calves, Danny sprang up to his feet, awake in an instant and mumbling about something that made Jazz bite her lip much harder than before. She stood slowly and whispered something to him that made him start to relax a little. Kyle thought he was about to pass out again before he blinked a few times, stuttered some excuse about forgetting his homework, and dashed into a nearby bathroom.

A brief flash of light seeped through the cracks in the door and Jazz heaved a heavy sigh. She said her goodbyes, barely looking at Kyle before she left to follow the sounds of yelling and blasting, one of her parent’s anti-ghost guns held tightly in her palms. As she turned away, he noticed that there were a pair of dark bags under her eyes that he’d never seen before.

Kyle was a little worried about Jazz, and he should probably talk to her about not shouldering everything herself again, but, for now, he could enjoy the one clearly positive result from his new knowledge about Danny.

Wes came skidding down the hall, camera in hand and looking frantically around the hallway. “Fuck, I must’ve missed him.” When he noticed Kyle, he turned to him. “Hey, have you seen, ugh, Phantom anywhere?”

Kyle fought to hold down a grin. He’s going to have a lot of fun over the next year.

---

The great thing about Danny was that when his ghost sense went off, he didn’t actually do much besides a cursory glance of his surroundings before transforming and flying off.

And now that Kyle knew what to look for, he was nearly always seeing the guy transform at odd times in the day. Just an hour ago, he saw Danny fall onto the bench in the guys locker room, not far from Kyle himself, and then turned human just before the rest of the soccer team rounded the corner to drag Kyle into a group huddle before the game.

Honestly, Kyle’s gotta give Jazz some props; if Wes was half-ghost or whatever, he’d have definitely cracked and dragged Easton back from college kicking and screaming to handle that. Or he probably would’ve told their dad. He understands why Jazz doesn’t tell her parents, but Kyle is certainly not above begging either of his immediate family members to take care of it without him. Being blasted in the ass every time he pranked Wes would stop being funny real quick.

Speaking of Wes, Kyle apparently didn’t need to worry about losing the bet at all; the moment Wes saw Danny transform right in front of both of them, he had turned to Kyle, probably about to yell about him being right and that Kyle should never doubt him, and Kyle said, “It’s awesome how Danny’s trying to stick it to his folks like that, huh? I mean, it must take a lot of work to move his equipment so often.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Wes had asked.

“Those special effects don’t just happen at the drop of a hat. Y’know I think Danny’s almost as dedicated to this alien hero act as much as you are with your journalism stuff.”

Kyle smirked. He remembered exactly how Wes’ face scrunched up in disbelief and disgust.

“Literally never say that shit to me again or I will maim you,” he’d threatened. Then, before he left to follow Danny who’d flown away, Wes muttered the icing on this absolutely perfect cake. “Why do I even fucking bother?”

That $200 was definitely in the bag now. Kyle could almost smell those scratch ‘n sniff stickers. He’d have to wait for a few (seven) months or so, but he doesn’t have to pay a dime so he’ll just bide his time making a list of his favourite choices to consult when the time came to collect his bounty.

He was a little concerned about Danny. Mostly because he was really stressing out Jazz and Kyle hated seeing her like that, but also because from the few rants that Wes had gone on about the Fenton-Phantom connection lately, it seemed like Danny was having more trouble with ghost attacks than usual. Particularly in terms of injuries. And new injuries meant a stressed Jazz so he resolved to talk to Danny about it.

After the game had ended, he returned to see Danny still laying face down on the bench. He sat down beside his head. “Hey, you awake?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

Danny groaned. “What.”

“Your sister’s worried about you.”

“Huh?” Danny lifted himself from the bench, his skin sticking slightly to the polished wood as he squinted at Kyle. Oh wow, the poor guy really hasn’t moved the whole time. “Oh, you.” He rolled his eyes and let his head thunk back down on the bench. “Whatever you have to say, I promise I have heard it all before and there’s nothing you can do to change my mind.”

Kyle shrugged. “She’s literally worried sick about you. I think you should do something about that. Or I could help out.” He wasn’t sure how much help he’d be fighting ghosts, but maybe he could convince a few of them to pick up skateboarding instead of world domination as a hobby.

“Unless you can find a way to stop Dash from beating me up every day, then there’s literally nothing you can do.” Danny flapped a hand in his direction. There were visible hand shaped bruises on his wrist and burn scars on his arm that his long sleeves didn’t completely cover. “Now shhh.”

Kyle made a face. He was probably risking Wes figuring everything out this way, but… Danny probably needed this. “Look, I could help with Dash, and I will if you really want me to, but I meant something more along the lines of the ghost hunting kind of help.”

Danny froze and he slowly lifted his head just enough to reveal glowing green eyes. He stared coldly at Kyle. “How do you know about that?”

“Do three ninety-nine tacos ring a bell?”

Danny groaned and his eyes faded back to blue. “I thought that was a dream! No wonder there’s still shredded cheese in my pants.” He stuck a hand in his pocket and brought out a handful of shredded cheddar. “You want some?”

Kyle shook his head. “I might ask for some the next time I make locker pizza, but I’m good right now.”

Danny shrugged and shoved it in his mouth. “Your loss.”

The conversation petered off after that, and Kyle knew he wasn’t going to reach the school bus on time if he didn’t head out soon, but he didn’t like leaving things so open ended.

“Hey Danny, do me a favour, yeah? I don’t know what’s going on at home, but Jazz genuinely cares about you and wants to help you when you’re hurt. Don’t shut her out because of some misguided attempt at keeping her from worrying.”

Danny had flipped over to lay on his back at one point, so Kyle could clearly see when he averted his gaze. “You make it sound so easy.”

“It kinda is.”

Danny chuckled, a bitter note to the sound. “You don’t know the half of it.”

Kyle shrugged. “So tell me, I’ve got time.” He really doesn’t, but it seems like Danny might actually explain why he’s being stupid about Jazz helping him and if Kyle can figure out the reason behind all this, maybe he can prevent it so that his friend doesn’t get so overwhelmed with anxiety she’s barely able to function anymore. And that’s way more important than Kyle catching the bus.

“I can’t just tell you,” Danny said. “You’re her friend so you’re just gonna take her side no matter what I say.”

Well, he can’t really refute that. But he will at least try to be objective. He said as much to Danny, but the guy ignored him.

“Alright look, I’m not some genius psychology prodigy like your sister so I won’t be able to toss around theories about what’s all messed up with you, but I can lend an ear to let you vent. Promise I won’t say a word until you’re done.”

“And why would I agree to that? You’ll probably just tell her everything I said!”

Kyle glared at him. “Dude, I’m not that type of guy. I’m friends with your sister, but I’m not just gonna text her all your secrets the second you leave.”

Danny sat up and stared at him a moment, his eyes taking on just the faintest tinge of green before he slumped. “No advice or solutions or anything?”

Kyle mimed zipping his lips.

Danny let out a shuddery breath. “Okay. Okay, I guess, if you’re offering, I can rant a little.”

He started with the accident, then the trial and error process of figuring out his powers, the regular ghost attacks and the major incidents tied to first appearances with some of his rogues. He told Kyle about the school counsellor who only lasted a few days and wow was all of that a terrifying thing to hear about. He and Wes were both out at away games during spirit week because of dumb scheduling decisions from the coaches, but he’s honestly kind of glad he missed out.

He nearly said something when Danny told him about how close Jazz was to getting killed before remembering his promise and keeping his lips firmly shut. Danny had slowed down for a moment at that part, almost anticipating Kyle to speak up and, damn, was this all a test? To prove Kyle would really do as he said? Fuck, how often has Danny been let down by broken promises to automatically think to test someone’s integrity like this?

There was a gap in the dates around the time the ninth graders were taking the C.A.T., so at least Danny must’ve gotten some sort of break for a month or two before any other noteworthy ghost came back to bite him in the ass again. For that, Kyle’s happy for both Danny and Jazz.

He talked about defeating the evil king ghost dude and starting to work with Jazz more in ghost hunting, with a significant amount of time dedicated to complaining about her aim and how it did actually feel wildly uncomfortable being stuffed in the Fenton thermos multiple times a day. He tore a new one about his friend causing him to lose his powers and then relive the accident that killed him, but then almost immediately backtracked and said that it was necessary that someone with ghost powers stopped the genie ghost lady or else everything would’ve spiraled way too far out of control to ever be able to catch her. He continued, talking about how he does like his powers and that Sam wasn’t a bad person or anything, almost as if he’s trying to justify to himself more than Kyle that he shouldn’t be angry at his friend for literally killing him.

Kyle really struggled not to say anything, but stayed silent. He was not going to mess this up.

Danny went on to talk about a couple more stories behind major ghost attacks before finally explaining what knocked him out yesterday. “Lunch lady was going on a tour of the fast food places around Amity and when she saw the new option for fish tacos at Denny’s, she was a little upset.” ‘A little’ was definitely understating it. “And yeah, that’s pretty much everything up until now.”

It was late, very very late. Late enough that Kyle knew he wasn’t gonna make the last public bus if he asked this last question, but—“What does all that have to do with hiding your injuries from Jazz?”

Danny scowled. “What happened to not talking?”

“You just said you’ve told me everything and I only agreed to not talk until you finished nor give you any advice, which I’m not.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but slowly slumped his shoulders. “Yeah, I guess that’s fair.” He bit his lip and blinked his eyes rapidly. “Look, I’m—I don’t—ugh!” He looked up and made eye contact. “You have to promise me you won’t say anything to her.”

Kyle decided not to point out that he already promised that earlier, and nodded. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll tell you something embarrassing about Wes in exchange.”

Danny raised a brow. “Not gonna share something about yourself?”

Kyle shrugged. “I’ve been told I have no shame. And Wes’ll kill me if one of those secrets spreads to the wrong person. Probably get him investigated by the GIW or something.” Danny eyed him for a moment, his eyes tinting green, like they did hours ago, before he closed his eyes and let out a breath. When he opened them, they were completely blue.

“Alright, you’re probably telling the truth, so…” Danny took a deep breath. “JazzissmotheringmeandIdon’t—” the rest of the sentence was spoken so fast that Kyle couldn’t understand a thing.

“Okay, now say that again without acting like you’re auditioning for the next Alvin and the Chipmunks movie.”

Danny sighed, but repeated himself. “Jazz is smothering me and I don’t know how to tell her to stop without hurting her feelings and possibly destroying our relationship for good,” he whispered, his voice thick with the sobs he was no doubt holding in.

Woah, okay. Hold up there buckaroo. “You know how ridiculous you sound right now, yeah?”

Danny glared at him, a few tears slipping out. “Not helping.”

Kyle patted his shoulder. “I did say I wouldn’t give you any advice. This is just me saying stuff to defend my friend here.”

“You promised you wouldn’t do that either.”

“Semantics. Listen,”—Kyle threw an arm around Danny and pulled him into a side hug. For now, he chose to ignore how Danny practically melted into it—“Jazz is the nicest, most understanding person I know and right now you’re honestly kind of insulting to her ability to act more mature than most adults.” He paused for a moment to glance at Danny. The guy was resolutely staring at the floor and his fists were clenched at his sides. Kyle sighed. “I’m not trying to tell you this so that you’ll feel bad and immediately spill your guts to her, I’m just saying you should give her more credit; Jazz is always a fan of open communication, regardless of whether it ends in a positive or negative outcome. Holding in all of that stuff you vented about will just lead to an eventual outburst or breakdown, and probably somewhere inconvenient.

“That’s not even mentioning the fact that the more time you spend hiding your injuries without explaining anything to her, the more Jazz will hover over you and it’ll become a vicious cycle of resentment and—”

“Woah, woah, resentment? I’m just a little frustrated at her. I don’t resent her.”

“That’s the thing though,” Kyle said, trying to hold back the sad note in his voice. “If you never tell her what’s wrong and she keeps hovering over you, your frustration will just build and build and before you know it, you’ll do whatever you can to stay away from her as long as possible.” He chuckled wetly. “One day, she might die and you’ll never get the chance to hash things out.”

By the look of alarm on Danny’s face, Kyle figured he should tone it back a little. “I’m talking years down the line, but the point is to not let it fester. Start by telling her exactly what’s bothering you and go from there.”

Danny nodded, reaching up to wipe away some of the tears still caught on his eyelashes. “I’ll… think about it.”

“I’d be concerned if you didn’t.”

Danny snorted. “Okay, stop, that wasn’t even funny.” Despite his words, Danny was losing the battle in trying to hold back his giggles. Kyle didn’t mean it to be a joke, but if it brought a smile to Danny’s face, he’d take it. And because he felt they’d bonded well enough—plus, Jazz was his best friend and older brother rights are always automatically extended to best friends’ younger siblings—Kyle squeezed him briefly to his side before reaching up to harshly ruffle Danny’s hair, sending his long bangs into complete disarray. He swiftly moved out of the way from flailing limbs as Danny squawked, “Dude!”

So, Kyle might’ve ended up missing that last bus, but, as he and Danny parted ways at the intersection, a final joke leaving his lips and a loud giggling answering him, he definitely doesn’t regret it.

---

“Kyle?”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t have to sit out here in the rain.”

“Yeah.” But. “It helps to keep me from thinking too hard.”

Jazz didn’t say anything for a long while. The two of them simply stood there, one feeling the rain soak his clothes and skin and the other warm and dry under her umbrella.

“Thanks,” she said. “For that thing with Danny.”

“Don’t mention it.” Please don’t.

“Okay.”

He knows what she wants to say.

Knows she’d tell him it wasn’t his fault.

That’s what friends are supposed to do though.

Lie to make you feel better.

Just. Like. Parents.

“I’m here if—”

“I know.”

He turned away from the stone. “I appreciate it, Jazz, just—”

She nodded. “I’ll still be around for a few hours before I have to go home, if you change your mind.”

Kyle swallowed around the lump in his throat and nodded. He really didn’t deserve her.

As Jazz walked away, he felt a small cold spot on his shoulder and huffed a laugh. “Thanks Danny.” Phantom flickered into visibility for a moment, a sad smile on his face and his glow harshly illuminating the surrounding area before turning to invisible again. The cold spot was gone.

Kyle smiled slightly and turned back to the stone ahead of him. He moved to sit in front of the stone, but didn’t utter another word.

I’m going to be better this time, he thought to himself, I’m not letting this happen again.

He placed the rose in his hands on the grave and let his eyes read over the engraved letters that he had long memorized.

I promise mom, I’m going to be better.

[lorata]

This may be a very random question but do you think that in the outer districts that a older kid (17/18) ever volunteered for a young child that wasn't related to them simply because they felt bad for the child?

In canon, we know that volunteering in the outer districts is rare enough that Katniss stepping in for her own sister was a sensation, one which had never happened in the history of District 12. D12 is the only one mentioned to NEVER have one before, but we also get no mentions of any of the living victors having volunteered during the discussions of their Games, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that any who did, well, didn’t make it.

I’m not going to say never but I will say that the Games are specifically designed to demoralize and instil fear in people in the districts specifically so they don’t help each other. It’s not that they’re selfish or bad people, but that the Capitol exists by keeping people apart and enforcing random classifications that help to do so (not just between districts but also merchants vs Seam, quarry vs town, farm vs city, and so on). You don’t WANT a system where volunteering is common, you want one where it’s an option but people don’t use it because then (like the inverse of Squid Game, in a way) you can say the people do it to themselves. Oh, that poor child, if only someone had volunteered— but no one did.

In general, the more divided people feel, and the more people are punished for doing so (e.g. getting whipped for helping someone with their quotas in the fields), the more the narrative is that you survive by looking after yourself, the less likely they are to step in to help each other. The Games themselves are the ultimate reminder of that: every kid who dies is one more kid who isn’t you (or your sibling or your child). You want everyone stewing in a constant state of fear and relief and guilt.

So yes, it’s possible someone could have volunteered for a stranger, but I think that 1) that would be considered a subversive act and 2) if their mentor wasn’t quick enough to see that and find a way to redirect the story, that kid would have a target on their back. They’d have to work extra hard to make it out and avoid Gamemaker-assassination, and if they DID I think they would 100% come home to a dead family, Haymitch style. (You cared more about a stranger than your family, right? Couldn’t wait to get away from them? We took care of that for you!)

[buckys-broody-muffin]

Your Protector

Summary: You're a shy person but the best at your job on Stark's tech team. A certain soldier joins the team and you stick close to him.

Pairing: Beefy!Bucky x Shy!reader

Warnings: None, fluff :)

Words: 1,392

A/N: written for @the-ss-horniest-book-club ♥️ hope you all enjoy it :) I really didn’t intend on writing so much but this really got away from me. 

You don't really know why you were so smitten with the newest member of the team. There was just something about the quiet man that lured you in. His beefy figure making you feel nothing but safe in his presence. If he wasn't in the room, you would find yourself searching for him and feeling calmer.

You would often watch him sitting on the couch reading a book. His hair would be tied back in a low bun and you were pretty sure he slept, showered and lived in that red Henley of his.

It was so unlike you since you're the shyest member of the tech team. But you're also very anxious and it doesn't take much to scare you. Even a simple thing can make you tremble for hours. You do your job very well and the team of superheroes absolutely adore you. You were more comfortable being open and talkative with Natasha more than the boys. And if Bucky was near, your throat would close up.

Your anxiety and shyness meant you are yet to say a word to Bucky. The things you've learnt about him, such as how he likes his coffee, or what food he likes to eat, you've learnt from conversations from other members.

You've also learnt what movies he enjoys watching. What flavor popcorn he likes the best. The team has also noticed you like to be near Bucky at all times. So it didn't come as a surprise when you asked Natasha if she could talk to Tony about moving rooms so you were closer to Bucky. Which he of course did.

And none of this escaped Bucky's attention. He's also become aware of your quiet presence around him. Sitting next to him during movie nights, at the dinner table, everywhere he was, you would be too. And Steve couldn't keep the shit eating grin off his face when he told him that you had asked to move rooms.

It didn't annoy Bucky at all. He was actually flattered but he failed to understand why. Why did you want to be around him so much? He knew from his observations you were very shy and timid. Was it because he was also quiet? He didn't know.

"Pal, I'm telling you. Watch Y/N sit next to you tonight during movie night." Steve said with a chuckle and a pat on his back. Bucky shook his head, he must be thinking too much into this.

So the members decided to test something, to prove their theory.

Natasha sat next to Bucky on the smaller couch. Tony, Pepper and Sam sat on the larger one opposite. Steve, Clint, Wanda and Vision took the reclining chairs. Which meant there was just the soft large memory foam bean bag to sit on, a seat Sam usually occupied.

Everyone was in their comfy position with their popcorn and snacks. A few minutes later you arrived with your bag of chips to share.

You looked around the room and noticed all the seats were occupied. Especially your favorite seat next to Bucky. Your face dropped and tried not to think too much into it. But thanks to your anxiety, you were wondering if Bucky had specifically asked Natasha to sit there so you couldn't.

Your anxiety was building up and you started to bite on your nail. You stood there, not knowing what to do. Steve's eyes landed on your uncomfortable form and he was worried this was a bad idea. You were trembling and your eyes were glossy.

"Hey Y/N. Come and sit down." Steve motioned to the bean bag. You didn't like the attention, you felt everyone burning holes in your face. But nevertheless, your feet moved on their own accord. You were still biting your nail and you looked down at Natasha and she smiled up at you.

"Hey sweetie." She mouthed and you relaxed slightly. Your eyes flickered over to Bucky and noticed he was staring at the TV, you assumed he wasn't paying any attention but he was. He was waiting to see what you were going to do.

"Can I... Can I sit here please?" You whispered. Your face turning a new shade of red as you felt incredibly uncomfortable in the spotlight all of a sudden.

Natasha gave a knowing smirk and nodded her head. She sat down on the bean bag and sighed, sharing a look with Steve as you took a seat quite close to Bucky.

"Guys! I totally forgot. Should we go and get some pizza to bring back?" Tony suggested as he pointed to the others except you and Bucky.

He needed 8 Avengers to go and get some pizza?

"Great idea. We'll be back in 20!" Sam spoke up.

"Oh and kids. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. It's a new couch." Tony warned and your face heated up at the suggestion. You could barely talk to the man next to you, let alone anything sexy.

When the others left. You and Bucky were sitting in silence. It felt awkward and you didn't know what to do.

You were about to get up and leave when he finally spoke.

"Why are you always near me?"

You blushed and stumbled over your own words. You bit on your nail again and your eyes darted around the room.

"I mean... Why ME exactly?" He pressed. Turning his body so he could face you directly. He noticed your anxiety was going crazy and he felt bad for not wording it lighter.

"I uh... I...uhh..." You were close to crying. You weren't good at forming words and your heart beating itself out of your chest wasn't helping the situation.

"Hey. Calm down, it's alright. I'm not mad okay? It's just me. I'm just curious s'all." His flesh fingers pulled your finger away from your mouth and he noticed the bit of blood pooling on the corner of your nail where you had bitten it so badly. He tucked a strand of hair behind your ear and offered a soft smile. It unfortunately did nothing to calm your nerves though.

“I just feel...safe...with...you.” You blushed and kept your gaze in your lap. Your voice was so quiet that you weren’t sure he heard you. 

But he heard you perfectly. Bucky was taken aback by your confession. You felt safe with him? How was that even possible? Had you not heard about the carnage he was responsible for during his Winter Soldier days? The pain he caused hundreds of families when he was sent to assassinate a target? How could you feel safe next to someone like that?

“I.. know it’s weird... I’m weird... I’m sorry.” You whispered and went to stand up. His large hand wrapped around your smaller wrist to keep you next to him. His brows were furrowed as he tried to make sense from all of this. 

“You feel safe with me?” He asked. He needed to be sure you didn’t use the wrong words. But by his furrowed eyebrows and straight lips. You were worried you went too far. 

“I do.” 

“But why?” He asked almost immediately. You licked your lips and gathered your thoughts. 

“You’re a big strong man. Quiet, don’t... let harm...come to others.” You were having a hard time finding your quiet voice. “I just feel safe near you.” You offered him a sweet smile, which eventually he returned. 

Bucky pulled you into a tight hug and your nose brushed against the stubble that was growing on his throat area. His cologne was strong, but gorgeous. Your hands fisted his henley as he held you. Bucky would never know what made him transition. He had so many questions, but there was just something about you that made him want to protect you at all times. For now, those questions didn’t matter. You were innocent, timid and shy and if you felt safe with him, then he was going to make sure he wrapped you up in bubble wrap to protect you from the evilness of the world. 

“I’ll always protect you, doll.” You grinned into his chest at the pet name and you were thankful he couldn’t see the new blush on your cheeks. 

He would be your protector. And there was absolutely nothing you could do in the world now, to make him stop protecting you. 

My teensy-weensy taglist: @jobean12-blog​ @nano--raptor​ @finleyjayne​ @marvelgirl7​

[goldenfharry]

🌌 Wanted to quickly post this with the complied answers before leaving. I submitted a post late last night answering and explaining a question someone asked. I’ll message Mia when I’m free again and, if she’s open, and as long as questions are kept within the parameters of respect, I’ll return back to answer a few more.

Are people blanking on the fact that Harry skirted around/completely ignored Stern’s attempt to pry out personal information regarding Valentine’s Day? Here’s a refresher:

Stern: “You were robbed at knife point. When did this happen?”

Harry: “This was, uh, this was on Valentine’s Day. Which I guess, is like, that’s what you get for being single these days.”

Stern: “ARE YOU SINGLE RIGHT NOW?!!?-“

Harry, hearing but avoiding: “I should had had other plans-“

Stern: “You don’t have- you were single and you were, what, walking alone?”

Harry: “I was walking from a friend’s house-“

Stern: Crying your eyes out because you had no love-“

Harry: “correct. Yeah.”

… Harry and his team have already negotiated what all can be discussed. The drama of Holivia isn’t on the table to be discussed how people are panicking themselves into believing. DWD, and MP, will be potentially discussed in the context of sex, which Stern will probably then make a vulgar joke about. But that’s it.

The drama of Holivia is simply BEING USED AS FUEL TO GET THE GP, SHIPPERS, and HARRIES to tune in, thereby skyrocketing Stern’s listener rate for that day.

Also, possibly controversial: some fans are falsely accusing Stern of saying stuff he didn’t say in the last interview, simply because they felt uncomfortable with the previous interview questions or just don’t like him.

I’m a kid of the 90s, Stern is MUCH MORE tame now than how he was then. He never called Harry “a bastard of a divorce”, as that is an oxymoron itself. Divorce is the dissolution of a MARRIAGE. A bastard is to describe someone conceived outside of matrimony. That’s literally a contradiction.

Stern didn’t “insult his dead stepdad”. The therapist joke and “father issue” comment was vulgar of course; Harry’s team, however, allowed it since they knew Stern’s listeners wanted to hear something that Sternish (ie vulgar and unfiltered).

They also wanted to appease Harries, while also keeping his private life private, which is why no specific mentions of partners/Harry seeing anyone on Valentine’s day wasn’t hyper address/Stern wasn’t allowed relentlessly press into the subject, but left it alone, once Harry looked at him.

Regarding the father issue (Robin and De), Stern simply said that Harry needed a strong male figure in his life since Harry shared that his therapist was a female. Someone else or myself can elaborate further into that, but that comment wasn’t as vicious and horrific as some are exaggerating it to be. If it were, then the comment wouldn’t had been approved by Harry’s team.

Some of you do realize that Harry has, almost, a self depreciation sense of humor? It’s not good, but that is how he tries to lighten his issues. Otherwise he wouldn’t had said, “Well that’s what you get for being single these days” regarding the robbery.

As for the degrading/mocking his fashion/masculinity… Stern, himself, referenced the criticism Bowie received to affirm that fashion has no direct correlation to sexuality. That if a man wear garments that are considered “feminine” that doesn’t automatically indicate his sexual orientation. Stern, even, went a step further and said “I like the way you dress.”

I don’t care for Stern… even Olivia. However, it’s wrong and makes one lose credibility to falsely accuse them of doing, or saying things they didn’t do. Olivia has made ignorant/prejudice comments/actions targeted towards particular communities, but it’d be wrong to insert a claim that she has said a specific, very degrading slur towards a POC simply because you don’t like her for the reasons that are justified. Don’t falsely add claims in order for the public to see who she is. Let her expose herself for who she is, as she has repeatedly done so times prior.

For those who’ll feel offended and try to make accusations of “Well you have said stuff about Harry… Olivia… blah blah.”

Should I start now warming the bottles of milk and purchasing the Disney diapers before, possibly, seeing some of you during tour?

All of my statements have been made with facts and evidence, readily available to the public, to support them; be it Harry’s own words, and/or experts’ advice regarding any legal/psychological topic and such.

Outlandish claims just to emotionally bludgeon people into believing the narrative they want, and not the one that exists, paints one as a liar and attention seeker.

Of course I will be here for you! Don’t hesitate to reach out 💛 Also, like I always said, if you want to do questions, whether is to 🌌 anon or myself, respect is required! You don’t have to agree, but there’s no need to be rude. Going to leave this here for all of you to read!!

Thank you!

[moontheoretist]

General Dreykov IS terrifying.

I saw a lot of people complaining about Task Master. Some were displeased it was a woman, some that it was specifically Antonia Dreykov, some that the Task Master seemed not important in the movie and that it would be nice if she wasn’t sidelined and wasn’t a mindless puppet with no emotions. I disagree with 2 first on the principle of 1) it doesn't matter what gender Task Master is, as their whole thing is that they are a perfect mimic, who just does their own things somewhere and 2) the whole idea of murdering a girl which later comes back to haunt you as a killer set on murdering you is actually nice for Natasha’s story. I also in half disagree with the 3rd one, but mostly because I never assumed that Task Master was supposed to be a villain of the movie, despite the fact how it was sold by the media. I think the marketing did that to draw people in just like they did with Hulk in Infinity War to just fool us all, so then at the last moment they could come up with some “gotcha” reveal.

Through the whole movie I wasn’t bothered by the fact that Task Master isn’t in the movie more at all, that they appear as Terminator under direct supervision of Dreykov instead of being an independent mercenary I remember from cartoons, because I think a lot of people doesn't get how much more terrifying it is that Dreykov did that to someone else, and specifically to a woman.

Yes, it would be nice if Task Master was in more scenes, especially considering the hype, but it was NOT about them. The REAL villain is Dreykov, and he is scary not because he is some kind of genius or super powerful or something else which people would expect, but because he treats people like objects. He rips away their control, their agency, and forces them to do his bidding. And that’s also the reason why the idea of Antonia having emotions and learning all those fighting styles, because she is pissed at Natasha and what she did to her, doesn't fly for me. Because it is far more terrifying and disturbing that she was stripped from all of that. It was far more hurtful to be treated like that by your own father, someone who as a kid you are conditioned to trust, and it far outweighs some stranger you have no connection to setting a bomb on you.

I resonated with Antonia, because if I was blown up by Natasha, and then I was found by my father I would assume he will help me, he will make the pain stop, he will care for me and love me, but what actually happens is that he doesn't do that, he doesn't love her, doesn't care about her, he treats her like a thing and turns her into a weapon, tears her apart and puts her together as his toy which only he can control, takes away her agency, her emotions, her everything and on top of that mocks her for not being pretty anymore. The betrayal which Antonia must have to endure, all the feelings being restricted and closed inside, with her not being able to express how betrayed by her own father she feels, is far more terrifying and wrong and evil to me than Natasha’s murder attempt.

That’s why when Natasha chooses to help her, it works. It makes the vizier glitch, it makes Antonia wonder why, but isn’t able to stop the programming, isn't able to stop herself from targeting and killing Natasha until she is ultimately freed by Natasha. And that moment when she asks “Is he gone?” is so powerful, because they both were abused and used by Dreykov and having that monster be gone means that they are finally safe, that they are finally free.

This is an experience of an abused person and I think some people cannot connect with it, because they never had a chance to see it from that perspective before. For Antonia, Natasha’s murder attempt was a reason why she nearly died, but it was her father’s choice to make her a weapon that prolonged her suffering, broke her trust and betrayed her in the worst possible way.

[solena2]

So.

Tommy isn’t Theseus. Every time I see Techno’s analogy about Tommy being Theseus brought up I’m filled with endless rage and I’ve DECIDED!

That it’s about time I explained just why it’s so objectively incorrect.

-

First: a bit of backstory on Theseus, because I doubt many of you actually know much about him beyond what Techno said in his “so you want to be a hero” speech, which left out a lot of relevant details.

Theseus was a demigod with two fathers and one mother. His fathers were king Aegeus of Athens and the sea god Poseidon, and his mother was Aethra, Aegeus’ wife. Aethra raised Theseus on her own, far from Athens to avoid him being assassinated.

Aegeus left him nothing but a sword with the Athenian crest and a pair of sandals, buried under a rock so no one else could get them.

When Theseus came of age, he took the sword and sandals and headed up to Athens, slaying various monsters along the way. (It pains me to abbreviate it that much, but Techno left out everything before the Minotaur so it won’t help me much in debunking his analogy.)

Once he got to Athens, he met up with his dad, chased out his stepmom Medea, (yes, that Medea) and killed some people. Then comes the relevant part.

Crete had won a war against Athens a while back, and because of this, every seven years Athens was forced to send 14 tributes to be killed by the Minotaur. (Yes, this inspired the Hunger Games)

Theseus decided he’d volunteer and kill the Minotaur, thus ending the tribute system for good and getting one over on Athens. He promised his dad that if he won, he’d come back in a ship with white sails, as opposed to the standard mourning black that signified the death of the tributes.

So he went to Crete, met king Minos and his daughters Ariadne and Phaedra, and got sent into the labyrinth. Ariadne gave him a magic ball of string that kept him from getting lost, allowing him to find the Minotaur and then safely get out afterwards, providing he could kill it.

He killed it, led his other 13 tributes out, and sailed back home. On the way, Athena told him to leave Ariadne stranded on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, so he immediately did so, because Theseus was an asshole.

He got home, his dad committed suicide because Theseus forgot the white sails and his dad assumed he’d died, Theseus became king and married Phaedra, and then the fun began, because again, Theseus was an asshole.

First, he cheated on Phaedra with Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, so she left and took the kids. Next, he and his other asshole friend Pirithous decided to kidnap themselves some new wives. Theseus decided on Helen of Troy, who was a child at the time, and Pirithous decided on Persephone, which resulted in both him and Theseus getting stuck in the Underworld for a while due to pissing off Hades.

Once he got back up, he killed his son for fucking his wife, which is messed up on many levels, and then left Athens because his people were rightfully not super okay with that.

Then he goes and meets Lycomedes, who throws him off a cliff.

-

Next, let’s talk about Techno’s speech a bit.

He starts off by accusing Tommy of being a power hungry dictator (paraphrased), before asking him if he wants to be a hero.

Then, he provides what is apparently the archetypal example of heroism, something often associated with selflessness, kindness, and generally giving at least one singular solitary fuck about other people.

Theseus! Heroic hero who does heroic things, like, uhhh *checks notes* cheating on his wife, kidnapping children with plans to forcefully marry them, leaving people alone on tiny islands with no supplies, killing his kid, etc. etc...

So we’re off to a great start.

Then, he gives a short summary of Theseus’ life and times! He skips the first part of his life completely, which is hilarious to me because it’s the only time Theseus ever did anything actually heroic or selfless, and gets straight to the meat!

“Let me tell you a story, Tommy. A story of a man called Theseus. His country was in danger, he sent himself forward! Into enemy lines. He slayed the Minotaur! And saved his city. You know what they did to him, Tommy? They exiled him. He died in disgrace, despised by his people. That’s what happens to heroes, Tommy.”

-Technoblade

So first off, he doesn’t mention... really anything other than the Minotaur and the exile, which is leaving out a lot of relevant details, like why Theseus was exiled. (You know, killing his son in cold blood?)

Second, he doesn’t give details in general. Not that he should’ve given a full telling, or anything, but I’m always surprised by the shortness of this speech when I go back and listen to it. He pretty much just gives the barest bones of an argument and expects his audience to take it at face value. (Which they do, but it’s still bad practice)

From the more accurate (if still brief) summary if Theseus’ life I’ve just given, I’m sure you can see why this might be more than a bit dubious, as an analogy. Given cc!Technoblade is literally an English major, and doubtless knows significantly more about the myth than I do, I’d imagine this was never intended to be taken at face value.

Over and over again, c!Techno proves himself to be an unreliable narrator, and over and over again, the fandom at large takes his word as gospel.

-

Now, as far as a more in depth argument for Tommy as Theseus goes, I will attempt to debunk that as well, because there are some genuinely good points to be made.

First of all, most people make Dream out to be the Minotaur. Given the time this speech was made, I imagine Schlatt was the intended target of that, but with latter events in mind, Dream does make much more sense.

I’d say this is honestly pretty fair, but I don’t think Tommy takes the role of Theseus in that narrative. I’d argue he’s much more analogous to the role of Ariadne, giving the tools required to defeat Dream but ultimately not doing so through his own power, but because someone chose to take those tools and make use of them. This also provides the very interesting characterization of Punz as Theseus, which is an incredibly unique take that I hope some a Punz enthusiast does something with, because I don’t know enough about his lore to make a good analysis on that.

The idea of Schlatt as the Minotaur, as was probably intended by Techno at the time, makes much more sense, though I still think other characters fit the role better. Firstly, Schlatt wasn’t killed, he died of a heart attack, and if someone had killed him I think it’s more likely to have been Wilbur or Techno who did it than Tommy, as Tommy was still very hopeful and idealistic at the time, at least compared to his character now. You could posit Tommy as Ariadne again in this situation, given he was the one to mastermind the final charge, and though I think Tommy as Ariadne is an idea that’s worth further exploration, I’d say Fundy futs the Ariadne role here much better, with him giving the spy’s diary before being effectively shunned and left out in the cold by both Pogtopia and Manburg, much like Ariadne was abandoned in the original myth.

I’d posit the Theseus in this scenario as Techno, Wilbur, or possibly Philza, as they were the ones to actually kill things in the 16th, though Techno and Wilbur’s killings were more in the metaphorical sense, taking the second life of L’manburg.

As for the exile, Tommy exile was alike to that of Theseus only in concept. Both were sent from their kingdoms for a crime, resulting in a falling out with someone close to them, and had a precarious relationship with heights while they were gone, but that’s about where the similarities end and even then they’re superficial.

First of all, Tommy’s exile was far more because Dream was looking for an excuse to do it than because briefing actually means anything on the SMP, given how Dream had been griefing bases and blaming Tommy for it for a while before it went down. (Fun fact, Bad and Skeppy were going to burn one of his discs over this, but one of them got sick so they had to cancel the stream.)

Theseus’ exile, on the other hand, was entirely deserved, especially when you consider how serious a crime killing family was in Ancient Greek culture. It was pretty much the biggest no-no in existence, and I’m almost surprised he wasn’t just straight up executed for it.

Second, Tommy’s falling out with Tubbo was almost entirely due to outside forces, (Dream) rather than because anything Tommy had done. Though Tommy’s cavalierness towards the trial and attempts to threaten Dream with Spirit doubtless didn’t help things, Dream surrounding L’manburg in obsidian walls and threatening them to exile Tommy was entirely his own choice, and not something that can be pinned on Tommy, no matter what the apologists may say.

Meanwhile, Theseus’ falling out with Phaedra had begun long before his exile with him cheating on her. Him killing his son was merely the last in a long line of dominos to completely destroy their relationship.

Last, Tommy nearly killing himself is very different from Theseus being pushed off a cliff. Tommy’s near suicide was the direct result of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of c!Dream for what was canonically, I believe, several months? (Correct me if I’m wrong on that one.) Tommy almost jumping off a pillar because he was deliberately isolated from his support systems is nothing like Theseus being killed because he was a cocky asshole who thought he was god.

-

So that’s why I don’t think Tommy is anything like Theseus, and why I’m filled with endless rage by the completely uncritical acceptance of this parallel, but it’s not the whole reason it pisses me off.

It also pisses me off because, as stated earlier, cc!Techno is an English major. He knew what he was doing with this. The fandom’s insistence on refusing to acknowledge his character as an unreliable narrator is, in my opinion, acting as a massive kneecap to what could be a great analysis of how he thinks.

Specifically: why does c!Technoblade think Tommy is like Theseus?

Of all the Greek heroes to pick, why that one? Was it just the tantalizing opportunity to parallel Schlatt with a horned monster, or was it because c!Techno has some genuine in-character reason to think this myth specifically applies to Tommy.

Now, we all know people in the SMP have a habit of analogizing Wilbur and Tommy. The assumption Tommy wanted to be president, the belief that Tommy nominated Tubbo directly, the belief that he was intentionally deceiving Techno about Pogtopia’s intentions regarding Manburg... all of these stem from Wilbur. There are more cases of this, of course, but several analyses have been done in the subject already, and this is long enough without more padding.

So why does Techno think Tommy is Theseus? Well, it’s simple, isn’t it?

Wilbur is Theseus.

To be continued, because this is already too long and my brain hurts.

[mochegato]

I Can’t Fight This Feeling

Chapter 2

Chapter 1

This was supposed to be an easy job, the last thing he had to do before Talia would think he was ready and let him go on his own path.  Trail the heroes back to the Guardian, steal his miraculous, wait until the heroes detransform, steal their miraculous.  Lure the villain out and steal his miraculous.  Child’s play. He didn’t need years of training for this.  

But then they were kids.  Kids who started the same age as him.  Kids who weren’t being protected as they risked their lives protecting everyone else.  Kids who actually cared about the people they worked with.  Kids who weren’t self-righteous, condescending, assholes. Kids who deserved to have good lives. But they were kids who were sacrificing their lives for this fight and he could help with that.  

Once he finished the mission, they could have their lives back.  He takes their miraculous, tracks down Hawkmoth and takes his miraculous, and everything goes back to normal for them.  Their lives can go back to normal, like none of this even happened.  He just needed to track down Hawkmoth, but that shouldn’t be too difficult.  He didn’t know what the heroes had tried already, but they were civilians.  

Everything he found out about Ladybug, or rather Marinette Dupain-Cheng, indicated that she had no detective training.  He had been trained by the World’s Greatest Detective and the League of Assassins.  Even if the butterflies were impossible to track, he should be able to find something that would lead him to the villain.  Then he takes that asshole’s miraculous, and the heroes, more specifically Marinette, could have her childhood back, what’s left of it anyway.

He just needed to get started and since he knew Marinette’s identity, that made her the weak link, so he’d start with her.  He’d been hoping he could track her to the Guardian, but she hadn’t gone to him.  Probably because knew she was being tailed.  She hadn’t done anything definitive to show it, she was too good for that, so if he didn’t know the signs, he would have missed it.  But he did know the signs, so he hadn’t missed them.

He could see the way her shoulders would tense up when he was watching her soothe to one of her classmates when they were panicking. He could see it in the way her eyes lingered around the playground just a little longer than was normal when she was babysitting.  He could see it in the forced even breaths when she was feeding strays.  He could see it in the way she would be in a design trance, focused on sketching, her eyes bright, and she would suddenly snap her head up, snap her book closed and head home.  He could see it in the way her smile suddenly strained when she was helping a stranger.

After another few weeks of trailing her, he had finally decided it was time to take her miraculous.  Instead of trailing her to the Guardian then take her miraculous, he’d take her miraculous and trail Chat Noir to the guardian.  He was the second in command, therefore he was the most likely to approach the Guardian with the information and come up with a plan. Whatever plan they came up with didn’t matter, as soon as he knew where the Guardian was, it was over.

Now, he just had to come up with the perfect time to take it, without hurting her too much in the process, which was going to be a challenge no matter when he did it.  There was no way she would just let him take them and while he could definitely overpower Marinette, he was hoping to do it with as little violence to her as possible.  Everything he’d observed so far about her told him she would likely already feel like she failed once he took them, he definitely would have.  Hopefully she reacted better to it than he would have, because back then, when he worked with Bruce, when he had a home, or thought he did, he would have gone into a deep depression.  He already knew it was going to happen, but he didn’t want to make it worse. She didn’t deserve that.  She didn’t deserve any of this.

The easiest way seemed to be to knock her out as painlessly as possible.  So here he was, following her, hanging back more than a respectable distance so he wouldn’t alert her to his presence and waiting for the perfect opportunity to isolate her and use the tranquilizer dart in his pocket.  And that would have been the way things went except it seems fate had a change of plans, in a way that only a crowbar to the side of the head could do.  This time it wasn’t a clown wielding the crowbar, but the effects were just as devastating.

There was a somewhat sheltered part of the park Marinette was walking through, trees on either side of a narrow walkway, shielding the area from prying eyes.  If she kept the direction she was going, she’d walk right through it, and that was where he’d strike.  He gripped the dart tighter in his pocket, prepping himself for what he was about to do to her.  He’d just picked up his pace when someone burst through an apartment building wall. Or rather, something did.  

An akuma calling himself the Shusher jumped at the kids in the park, wielding a crowbar of all things, to silence all of Paris. Each hit stole a bit of volume, until it stole their life, which to Jason’s horror, he demonstrated on Marinette. She’d acted immediately, jumping in front of the kids, giving them time to run, drawing him away from the direction they ran.  She’d dodged well for the first few swings, but after that, she’d grabbed his arm and kicked his kidney.  If the man hadn’t been an akuma, Jason was positive he’d be on the floor, but with the magical reinforcement, the akuma didn’t even flinch.  Instead, he swung hard, and with the close proximity, she didn’t have the room to dodge this time.

Jason froze at the first swing.  Why did it have to be a crowbar?  He couldn’t get his body to move.  He couldn’t react.  He couldn’t help.  And he couldn’t tear his eyes away.  The first hit knocked him out of his stupor.  The sight was horrifying.  His body finally moved, but slower than normal.  It didn’t seem to respond to him like it usually did.  He didn’t reach them until Marinette was already on the ground, no longer breathing.

He watched the blood seep out from under her until it had saturated the ground around her.  A sickeningly satisfied smile spread across the akuma’s face as he examined Jason to see what he would do.  Jason looked to the side toward the sheltered part of the park and back to the akuma. He pulled his hood over his head until the only part of him that could be seen was his glowing green eyes.

“Game on, mother fucker,” Jason growled as he sprung at the akuma, catching him around the waist and rolling toward the shielded section of the park.  He let the akuma attack him, backing him up until they were fully shielded on all sides by the trees.  Once he was sure nobody could see them and no cameras could record them, he leaped up and attacked the akuma with a volley of kicks and punches that would have left any normal human dead and unrecognizable within seconds.

He continued to attack the akuma until he heard the miraculous team arrive.  He kept the akuma distracted while Marinette’s team found her body and took a minute to mourn.  When they approached with a new found determination, he backed into the trees, effectively disappearing from the scene.  The akuma switched targets quickly, more interested in taking the miraculous than continuing a pointless fight with him.  Jason watched the akuma jump away and the team follow him.

The fight was long and messy without their leader there to guide them and them emotionally thrown off by her death, but Jason kept a close eye on the news coverage of it in case he had to step in. Every fiber in his being was pushing him to join the fight and tear the bastard to pieces, slowly and in the most painful ways possible.  But he couldn’t do that.  If he did, Talia would know what he did, that he intentionally betrayed them.  He wouldn’t last the week, let alone Marinette.

And regardless of the outcome of the fight with the heroes, the man wouldn’t survive the week anyway.  Jason was going to make sure of it.  That thought was the only one running through his head as he watched Marinette’s lifeless body strewn out on the ground, her arms at odd angles, the bruises starting to form, the spots where the crowbar hit starting to puff up.  He could no longer make out the shape of her face.  Her eyes, which had always been so bright and hopeful and passionate, were now lifeless and dull.  

It stole his breath away.  He felt a sharp pain in his chest that wouldn’t go away, worse than if he would have taken a hit to the chest from the crowbar.  Which is exactly what should have happened.  He had training.  He had experience.  He should have been the one to jump into the fight, not Marinette.  She didn’t have any of that and she jumped in to save those kids.  She knew she wouldn’t be able to hold him off for long and she still did it.  

And he wanted to be angry or surprised but he wasn’t either.  Because he’d done his research.  He’d been observing her for over a month now in and out of the suit.  That’s just who she was.  That’s who he was supposed to hurt.  God, the idea of being the cause for her eyes to dull over hurt.  But he kind of was, wasn’t he.  And his plan, if he went through with it, would do it all over again.

After an eternity, a wave of pink and red ladybugs swept through the area, returning the surrounding buildings to normal. Marinette gasped back to life. She jolted up to sitting only to slump immediately after.  She took a few shuttering breaths before reaching up to feel her ears.  “No, no, no, no,” she started panicking and searched her surroundings.

“They’re gone,” Jason answered the unasked question.

She stared at him wide-eyed, fear lacing her eyes, quickly turning to a furious glare.  He held up his hands in surrender.  “It wasn’t me.  It was your friend so she could fight the akuma.”  She looked at him doubtfully, but nodded.  She was healed after all, so the akuma must have been defeated.  She kept her eyes on him and slowly urged her body to tense in preparation for whatever attack he had planned.

“Relax.  I’m not going to fight you, kid.  I’m not looking for a fight today… except maybe that guy with the crowbar,” he growled the last part of his sentence, his eyes wandering in the direction the fight had gone.

“No!  You can’t do that,” Marinette exclaimed loudly, almost lunging at him, but collapsing back down almost instantly from the shock of movement to her system.

“Are you serious, Goody Two Shoes?  He killed you.  He beat you until you stopped breathing.  He took your life from you with no remorse and you’re going to protect him?” Jason barked.

“It wasn’t him.”  Jason scoffed at her.  “I’m not saying he’s a good guy.  I don’t know him.  But, the akumas, they change a person, morph them, make them into someone they aren’t. It isn’t them.  And I don’t want anyone dead because of me.”  She met Jason’s glare with a determined one of her own for a few seconds before she looked away.  “And it’s Marinette, not Kid or Goody Two Shoes.”

Jason narrowed his eyes at her and pressed his lips together in frustration.  “Fine. I won’t kill him.  But you need to be careful because the League of Assassins is after your jewelry.  And stop telling strangers your name.”

Her eyes snapped back up to meet his.  “What is the League of Assassins?” she asked cautiously. “And like you didn’t know my name already.  You know it. Use it.”

“Fine,” he rolled his eyes.  “And you wouldn’t believe me about the League if I told you.” He shook his head lightly, but the serious expression on his face was enough to scare Marinette.

“Try me.”  Her voice held more confidence than she felt.  Like she was challenging him.

“It’s a league … comprised… of assassins.”

Marinette rolled her eyes and huffed out a long suffering breath.  He gave her a charming grin, maybe the first authentic, happy smile he’d given since before he died.  He looked in her eyes and suddenly turned away.  His smile faded to a frown.  “There's a timer on this peace.  They want the miraculous and they want them before you defeat Hawkmoth because they know they’ll have no way to track them once you’re not using them anymore.”

He looked back in her eyes.  “They'll send somebody else as soon as I leave here.  They’ll send more.”

“Someone better?” she chuckled mirthlessly.

Jason scoffed and gave her a roguish smile.  “Oh Pixie, there is no one better.”

Marinette actually laughed.  “Well then, I've already survived the best.  I'm sure I can survive the rest,” she said defiantly.  “And I told you to call me Marinette.”

Jason smiled proudly, but quickly shook it off.  As long as Hawkmoth was active, they were in danger, she was in danger and he wouldn’t be able to protect her.  The only way out of it was to become him.  “Not unless you're willing to kill them. They're not like me.  They won't walk away when they see who you are.  They'll keep coming until you kill them.”

She looked at him curiously.  “And who am I?  Who am I to you to make you stop?”

Jason looked away, his eyes unfocused for a moment before returning to her eyes.  “You're like me, like I used to be.  But better.  You're who I should have been, who I was supposed to be.”  His head whipped around to the sound of people calling her name. “Time’s up.  Good luck.”

“Wait…” she called after him.  She tried to get up and go after him, but he was already gone before she could ask more questions.

Two weeks later she received an email addressed to Pixie with a clear video shot through a window of Gabriel Agreste transforming into Hawkmoth.  A week later, she, Chat, and the rest of the team took him down, with video documentation of the whole thing and Officer Raincomprix as a witness.  Ultimately, once they knew who to go after, it was actually extremely easy to sneak in camouflaged and immobilize him.  They just needed that last piece of the puzzle.

The justice investigation was quick, as was the trial. Everyone involved was eager to get it over as quickly as possible, and with incontrovertible evidence against him, Gabriel didn’t have much of a defense to give anyway.  Waking up Adrien’s mother took a bit longer, but with the help of the monks in the temple, she made a full recovery.  Marinette’s memories of the previous three years, however never did.

Chapter 3

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