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fumifooms · 3 months ago

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Don't really reblog or leave comments all that often, but I've been reading your Delicious in Dungeon deep analysis posts for a few days now and honestly I can't wait for that Kabru (& Mickbell) party rundown. They're a fine set of adventurers, if in dire need of people more capable of handling monsters.

Speaking of Mickbell's relationship with Kuro in particular – I think it does generally tend to be perceived from Mickbell's side, whether positively or negatively (which makes sense to some degree, since Kuro's perspective wasn't presented in full until the World Guide), as if Kuro isn't himself a maladjusted adult who spent an unspecified amount of time starving in a cage, his family situation unclear beyond "permanently out of contact", and is yet as overprotective of Mick as Mick is of him. I do recall a panel where he furrows his brows at the sight of Mick sitting on Inutade's shoulders, but other than that he is less aggressively isolating and self-insistent and more... coddling, I'd say, or overtly abiding. Kabru should have found Mickbell some books on kobold language tbh.

This is not intended as a criticism of the earlier webweaving post so I apologize if it does have shades of passive-aggressiveness – it's an incredibly on-point assessment of Mickbell's relationship with Kuro and his reasoning. Thank goodness Mickbell isn't a master magician, or else he'd make for a rather tasty dungeon lord (and Kuro would probably end up in a cage again, if not worse).

[context: ask sent on april 14th, soon after I posted my Canines web weaving]

Don’t worry, I loved getting your ask and didn’t read in any hostility! I didn’t want to reply before finishing my party masterpost-analysis (🤡 man it’s been too many months) but Kuro fans are begging for scraps and clamoring for Kuro meta and content everywhere I look including my askbox and man. Man yeah I should throw a bone you guys’ way at least in the meantime. The thing though you see is, one does not simply talk about Kuro without trying to cover every ground and every single piece of info we get. I’ll end up repeating myself a lot on this in my longer upcoming post but that’s just how analysis tends to be, so flash Kuro segment focusing on the Mickbell-Kuro dynamic

In a way I talk less about Kuro because compared to Mickbell his situation feels more straightforward to me somehow, the abused is usually the one who gets empathized with and liked more over the abuser so I don’t feel the same need to explore and explain. But… Kuro is not only generally hard to read but has so many layers. Kuro is both a self-effacing follower who’s communicative but polite & behaved and somewhat stoic, making it hard to gauge how much he’s voicing himself or even repressing, and functionally devoid of the ability to speak most of the time. He emotes in doglike ways but mostly because, lacking words universal body langue and cues like growling are the only way he can emote and communicate, not unlike how tone of voice is what’s important when talking to say, a pet dog. Kuro’s extra where he talks with Kabru is truly the Kuro bible, without it we’d have a much kess clear vision of how he lives his situation with Mickbell. And… It’s whiplash inducing and disconcerting when we see then that Kuro has everything rationalized, that Mickbell is still an angel in his mind and this is normal, just a guy who’s a little insecure that he must bend every which way for if needed.

Mickbell & Kuro’s relationship is fascinating because they each have a totally different view of the relationship. Mickbell thinks he holds the reigns, he’s the employer, the master, he’s manipulating Kuro consciously to some degree and withholds things like salary or permission to talk with others from him, and he thinks this is how he gets Kuro to not leave him. Kuro has seen through the matrix and pinpointed Mickbell’s insecurities and has decided he must do everything in his power to never make him anxious or upset and be his emotional support, EXCEPT that hilariously he seems to genuinely think Mickbell is a kid. He’s 22. Like, tallman equivalent of 27. Kuro is 18. Kuro has chosen to stay consciously and keeps choosing to stay because he wants to, because he’s chosen to devote himself to Mickbell’s wellbeing. In Kuro’s eyes, before being employer and employee, Kuro is the guardian and protector of this sensitive kid that he must follow and protect at all costs. What everyone is seeing as wage slavery doesn’t even register to Kuro because he’s never really thinking about the money, he dgaf. Kuro could choose to snap Mickbell in half with his jaw at any second and is more emotionally mature than Mickbell, but otherwise the power imbalance both financially and manipulation wise and using whatever he can to keep Kuro where he wants him is 100% tipping the scale towards Mickbell.

The amount of miscommunication they have for being each other’s most important person + person they spend most time with is insane, but tbh I think part of it is that Mickbell is terrified of what would happen when Kuro becomes fluent in common. Not only because Kuro would have the whole world of opportunities open up to him then (and in Mickbell’s mind, who would pick him over the world?), but because then the relationship would inevitably shift, Mickbell would lose some of that power imbalance, he would have to do more listening and both of them would have to learn to know each other better, and rectify wrong assumptions. It’d remind Mickbell that Kuro is truly his own person with a lot of thoughts and it’d make him feel less safe in being able to keep the relationship secure…

This all is why I’m less into mickuro in general, because unless Kuro puts his foot down one day for both their sakes, the status quo would just… Keep going, on and on. Canon supports this too, since Kuro’s profile in the complete adventurer’s bible in the post-canon blurb mentions very pointedly he’s still being worked for peanuts by Mickbell. Kuro being able to speak fully would make it a bit healthier I think like I talked, but Kuro would still be complacent to Mickbell’s unhealthy obsessive needs and man… Man……. Mickbell feels safe only when taking and Kuro wants nothing more than to give, if that makes sense, and that might be a shaky decent enough way to live for them but it also is far from healthy the way it is. I also don’t think getting that house he wants would fix Mickbell. Could even be a huge breakoff point if Kuro mentions his dreams is travelling around.

So yes I definitely agree with your assessment of Kuro being coddling and overly abiding. Both of them are very protective of each other like you said, the difference being that Kuro is selfless and even self-sacrificing with it meanwhile Mickbell is more selfish and possessive. (Although his overcontrolling nature does to some degree come from a protective place. Which would especially if he sees Kuro as helpless because of his language barrier or the way they met. But moments that go towards this is him being worried for Kuro after the chimera fight, after being stung by an aquatic monster in a monster tidbit, Mickbell often mentioning being worried the union or Kabru will steal Kuro away in a borderline trafficking undertone. Beyond just the care he shows him on the regular like washing and brushing him for hours ofc. Mickbell is not uncaring, his worrying and insecurities just bring his worst instincts out of him. Ehem Mickbell tangent over, my apologies.)

I know Kuro also being possessive is a common reading, but I don’t think I really agree 🤔 The support for this is the way he frowns at Mickbell being on Inutade’s shoulders, but I think that and the other hostile over Mickbell behavior he shows fall more in live with being protective. From Kuro’s perspective, Mickbell (the kid who must be protected who might fall and break his neck at any moment or something) is now on the shoulders of this very tall stranger he just witnessed pull off a sneak attack Laios’ party with ease, not something considered particularly honorable or trustworthy, and now she’s handling Kuro’s most precious thing in the world? Yeah better watch them like a hawk. Also remember, this is on top of his language barrier meaning he hasn’t had the same opportunity as others to converse with them and understand what they’ve been saying and thus form bonds outside of "my party trusts you for now so I’ll follow their lead." He also explicitely distrusts Izutsumi. I’ll also say though, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say Kuro doesn’t know what to do with himself when he’s not looking after Mickbell, there’s the secret studies sure, but his whole life is always centered on him otherwise, so I can definitely imagine this being out of a restless feeling as well, though if that qualifies as possessiveness depends on the behavior it causes imo.

Other times where he growls or such is also defensive in nature. If anything, Kuro unlike Mickbell with him seems very alright with Mickbell making friends with the party and forming relationships outside of him. This does go in line with his "Mickbell is just a sensitive young lad I must do my best to protect until he feels safer and better, I want him to be happy and healthy" mentality. Near the end, we even see Kuro encouraging Mickbell to go towards other half-foots and implicitly join the half-foot union, the very same that Mickbell has told him would take Kuro away from Mickbell. So if it’s for Mickbell’s sake, even if Kuro might feel afraid of change or losing him to some degree (I don’t think he feels threatened bc he doesn’t think Mick would leave him), Kuro is even willing to endanger his situation/relationship/status quo with Mickbell.

Kuro is peak guardian angel……… 🥺😭

You’re also right Kuro is very maladjusted, with his past it feels very unsurprising Kuro would end up like this. Having a language barrier alone is extremely isolating: not being able to really communicate with others is his default with or without Mickbell, so it isn’t innately alarming or anormal to him, even when someone actively tries to make it harder for him. This is of course without mentioning the experience of being taken away from your homeland suddenly, and brougth against your will to a country you know nothing of and have no resources or knowledge to live in. Who knows how long he’s been in a cage— and as we see the living conditions were awful, similar to Izutsumi’s when she was part of a freak show. He was visibly starved and food was all the payment he could have wished for and that + following this guy who got him out of his chains were all the motivations he needed. And this makes sense for the overprotectiveness on both ends, Mickbell is all too aware of how particularly vulnerable kobolds are as targets and Kuro’s second interaction was mauling a guy who was trying to hurt Mickbell. Mickbell did "hire" Kuro as a bodyguard first and foremost, after all. Mickbell was scared of Kuro at first, echoing how he reminds Kuro during canon that his snarling is scary and not to do it. Even at first, the professional aspect to their relationship is a very shaky facade, it’s always been more like mutual aid that evolved into life partnership. Kuro was used to being alone, Kuro was used to having nothing and being starved and beaten, Kuro was used to having everyone dismiss him as a beast that’s not worth even trying to talk to, so of course Mickbell seems heavensent.

Man. The fandom has been so scary esp with the anime wave, Mickbell discourse is something I never expected would be so divisive 😭 Sometimes I hear things about Kuro like "he’s too smart to be abused" which is not only as a broad statement untrue but also harmful and vile. Abuse is complicated!!! You are bending over backwards to justify literal Mother Gothel behavior!!! No one is telling you you can’t sob over Mickbell and want mickbell & kuro fluff oh my god let’s just not normalize well known abuse tactics such as isolating them and controlling their finances and social circle.

Ok fun last ending note, it’s also interesting to note their dreams for the future and directly contridactory. When they have some money saved up, Mickbell wants to settle down with a house with Kuro, and Kuro wants to travel the world with Mickbell. Ohh to be a guy who’s been denied ressources all your life and has lived in constant danger who now wants nothing more than to have the ideal of a stable peaceful life, vs being a guy who’s been kidnapped and traded around and denied your freedom for so long who wants to see the world you’ve always been kept away from…. They’re each other’s world but they’re not a place they can live in, not sustainably not while thriving…….

Ahh, mickuro, mickuro, the ouroboros of codependence…

#OOOOH KURO MY KURO MICKBELL MY MICKBELL…..#Kuro #kuro dungeon meshi #yodan dungeon meshi #Mickbell tomas #mickuro #analysis #Dungeon meshi #spoilers #dungeon meshi manga spoilers #Ask #Am i the only one who had never noticed Kuro’s face and sparkles in that last panel oh my god they’re sending me #Truly them summarized #Kuro is so noble… Dog best friend of man but is man best friend of dog is the question……….#Btw when i say mickuro flip a coin on if i mean it platonically or romantically. I used to think it was a messier mix but now i generally #see it as queerplatonic. With familial undertones as adventurer’s bible suggests #I’d like to talk more about that and a romantic mckuro take one of these days but man this got long #I’ve been dedicating my month to mickbell plush. Embroidering is going decently well. His hair color is so fcking hard to find fabric for #To other kuro anon askers: I see you!! You have no idea how many thousands of words have been brainstormed on discord idk how to present #all the mickrin timelines coherently snd decently concisely

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tobiasdrake · 6 months ago

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Digimon Adventure 01x09 - Clash! The Freezing Digimon / Subzero Ice Punch

Previously on Digimon Adventure: Devimon proved himself to be a remarkably talented centrist, working between the aisles to bring both parties together for a single goal. What goal? Doesn't matter. What matters is that he achieved unity, and isn't that what's really important here?

With File Island broken up, things seem awfully dire for our kids.

We open on Devimon's home gradually descending from dark clouds onto the top of Infinity Mountain. Surprisingly Greco-Roman in architecture, but this is Digimon World. Dub Tai calls this his "castle" but it lacks the defining qualities of a castle. It's more of a megaron or possibly a temple.

But Taichi has bigger things to worry about right now than a lesson in historical architecture.

Inside, Devimon announces his intentions to the audience: The Chosen Children are still alive, but they're isolated. He'll be able to pick them off while they're stranded out there. Devimon conjures up more Black Gears, sending them off into the scattered fragments of the island.

He's stranded on a frozen shard of what used to be File Island and will shortly die of hypothermia. Dub Tai comically exclaims, "Okay, so Mom was right; I should have worn a sweater!" which doesn't make much sense contextually. They can't all be winners.

By pure coincidence, all of his clothes happen to be on this shard, which he finds immediately. This is a bit of a plot contrivance, but one I'm sure we will all accept without question because it means Taichi doesn't have to spend the rest of this arc in his underwear.

His clothes are frozen solid, but Agumon thaws them out with a couple precision shots of Baby Flame. His shirt comes out great, but Agumon gets overzealous with the shorts and singes them.

Standing in front of another Digimon World anomaly, a long line of post boxes, Taichi takes out his telescope and scouts the surrounding area. While he scouts, he takes a moment to chat with Agumon and reflect on how bad this situation is.

Taichi: (examining Infinity Mountain) We're getting steadily farther from Infinity Mountain. I wonder what happened to Leomon? ...oh, and everyone else. (scans other island fragments) Everyone else is gone; We've all been separated. Agumon: Hey, Taichi? Where do you think we're headed? Taichi: How should I know? Agumon: (nervously) I don't know anything outside of File Island. Taichi: What about the other side of the ocean, that Devimon was talking about? Agumon: I know nothing about it. Taichi: (gazing across the ocean) The world on the other side....

This is the worst it's ever been. The kids are alone and crossing the ocean in every direction as Devimon's planned invasion of the rest of the world gets underway.

Taichi doesn't mention the post boxes. But in the dub, Tai's pretty interested in them.

Tai: What? Mailboxes? Agumon, maybe people really lived here at one time! I wish we could mail ourselves home... (examining Infinity Mountain) ...but it looks like the only way we'll ever leave Freeze Land is to take a real long, cold swim back to Infinity Mountain!And I have a feeling that... (scans other island fragments) ...if the mountain is drifting farther and farther away, then our friends are too! They must all be out there on those other islands! Agumon: Where will we end up if we just keep on drifting around like this, Tai? Tai: Why would I know that? Agumon: Because you're from another world, Tai; I've never left File Island! Tai: But Agumon, I've never left my world either! Agumon: Well, I guess it could be worse. There could be evil Digimon attacking us; It's too quiet here!

Dub Tai never mentions Leomon and is instead more concerned with the fate of his friends. Which. Y'know what? Fair. He met that guy this afternoon. He's known the others for at least five days!

But there's also a tone difference in how they talk about their separation; Taichi describes it passively, while Tai sounds determined and motivated to find them.

The dub also snips all the conversation about the other side of the world. They keep in Agumon's trepidation surrounding leaving File Island but snip out the talk of their destination.

All of this serves to distract from the important context of this dialogue: Tai's worried about his friends but more interested in seeing the other side of the ocean. This is vital context for what will become the plot of this episode.

Suddenly, Dub Agumon's tempting of fate conjures a new menace to the both of them.

Yukidarumon bursts out of the ground, roaring his own name like a Pokemon. Identifying him as an Adult-stage Vaccine-type Digimon, the narrator gives us his rundown.

Narrator: Yukidarumon. A freezing Digimon made up of icy snow. His special attack, Zettai Reido Punch, can freeze anything!

His name is derived from "yukidaruma", the Japanese term for "snowman". Meanwhile, "Zettai Reido" is the Japanese term for Absolute Zero, the theoretical coldest possible temperature. So that's an intimidating attack name.

The dub calls him Frigimon, based off the word "frigid", and has Agumon take over his rundown.

Agumon: Frigimon is a food-friendly snowman. But don't worry, Tai; He's a good Digimon!

What the hell does "food-friendly" mean? Weird. Though I appreciate the dub this time getting in on the "He's a good Digimon OH GOD HE'S ATTACKING" bit this time around.

Yukidarumon hurls a giant snowball at the boys, forcing them to slide down the ledge they were scouting from. As they slide, Agumon exclaims in confusion that Frigimon's a peaceful Digimon; He doesn't know why this is happening! The dub cuts that line because they already took care of that bit in the rundown.

As they slide past Yukidarumon, the problem quickly comes into view.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Yukidarumon turns on them, throwing his Zettai Reido Punch. The dub calls it Subzero Ice Punch, which is slightly underselling the coldness but nonetheless works. The boys dodge, causing his attack to hit one of the post boxes and demonstrating its power.

Let's not get punched by that.

Confidently insisting on taking care of this problem, Agumon lets out a Baby Flame. Yukidarumon blocks it easily.

(I don't know what he expected to happen there. Got a little cocky, Agumon.)

Plan B: The boys run for their lives and try to avoid being punched. Taichi asks Agumon to evolve, but as with last episode, Agumon's still tired and starving. He doesn't have the energy for evolution.

(At least he was able to put out a Baby Flame. The last one he tried petered out.)

Typical of corrupted Digimon, Yukidarumon's dialogue isn't sensible. All he says is his name. "Yukidarumon!" as he attacks. "Yukidarumon!" as he blocks Agumon's Baby Flame. Chanting "Yuki Yuki Yuki" as he chases them.

Yukidarumon corners Taichi and Agumon against a wall. At that point, they have no choice but to fight. Agumon has a plan: He wants Taichi to throw him so that he lands on Yukidarumon's back. Then he can destroy the Black Gear with a point-blank Baby Flame. Problem is, he's too heavy to lift.

Surprisingly, it goes pretty well, as Taichi and Agumon end up sliding between Yukidarumon's legs and avoid another icy fate. Yukidarumon's fist slams into the ice wall that had been behind them, burying himself in an avalanche.

While they have a moment to breathe, Taichi modifies the plan. He instructs Agumon to curl into a ball. Once Yukidarumon emerges from the snow, Taichi declares, "I'll show you the miracle kick of an ace striker!!!" and shoots.

Perfect shot. Agumon flies over Yukidarumon's head and manages to come down on his back. Just as planned, he vaporizes the Black Gear with his Baby Flame and frees the Digimon from its corruption.

With Yukidarumon released, he sits up and reveals his much more polite persona.

Yukidarumon: Huh? Why was I acting so violent? Agumon: Devimon was controlling you with his Black Gear. Yukidarumon: And you got rid of it for me? (bows) Thank you. You're not hurt, are you? Taichi: We're fine. We don't have a scratch on us.

The dialogue in the dub is mostly the same, but... uh... Except for this one thing....

Frigimon: Ugh, what am I doing laying here? What happened? Agumon: A Black Gear was on you and you almost turned us into ice sculptures! Frigimon: Oh, I'm so sorry! I just hate when I do that! But... (bows) Thank you for destroying the Gear. I'm glad you're both alright.

Hey. Uh. Hey, localization team? What the fuck is "I hate when I do that" supposed to mean? XD Apparently, murdering travelers with Subzero Ice Punch by mistake is a regular occurrence for Frigimon. We may need to review his Vaccine-type certification.

Moving along, the good news is that Yukidarumon saw another one of the kids land nearby. A boy with a Gabumon. The bad news is that he landed over there.

Ehh, we can walk, it's no biggie!

That is, in fact, how we get over there. As thanks for saving him from the Black Gear, Yukidarumon offers to use his Zettai Reido Punch to freeze the surface of the ocean as they walk, forming a path they can cross to get to the other island.

Meanwhile, on the other island, Yamato's not doing so well. His island's caught up in a blizzard, but he's exposing himself to the elements in desperation. Freezing cold, weak, and coughing, Yamato has only one thing on his mind.

He keeps going until his legs give out and he tumbles into the snow. Gabumon pleads with him to find shelter and points out a nearby cave. Yamato springs to his feet and races to it, screaming Takeru's name as he enters with hope in his heart. But the cave is empty.

Gabumon makes a small campfire using some kindling and his Petit Fire, and urges Yamato to stay here and get warm. He's already starting to come down with a cold. But Yamato insists that he's fine and wants to go back out to look for Takeru.

As a compromise, Gabumon volunteers to go look for Takeru in his place, explaining that his fur coat can insulate him from the cold. Yamato relents and stays behind, staring silently into the flames. But after several seconds, his anxiety gets the better of him; Shrieking Takeru's name, he abandons the fire and goes back outside.

The dub adds a bit of internal monologue to break up the long span of silence.

Matt (V.O.): Poor little T.K. It's just not right! He's my little brother. I should be the one out there looking for him!

Meanwhile, we check back in with Taichi, Agumon, and Yukidarumon. It's still a long way to Yamato's island, and the boys are getting tired. Taichi and Agumon want to stop for a break, but Yukidarumon points out how counterproductive that would be: The island's moving, so it will get farther and farther away the longer they linger.

Taichi laments that Agumon can't fly, with Tai in the dub directly comparing him to Birdramon. Agumon takes offense to that, forcing him to backpedal in the original.

Taichi: It's just a joke! Don't succumb to an inferiority complex. Agumon: I don't have an inferiority complex!

While in the dub, he tries to puff up Agumon to make him feel better.

Tai: Birdramon probably can't fly in the cold anyway. No one toasts my clothes like you! Come on, laugh! Agumon: No way!

They both try and fail, but American Tai makes the better attempt. Nobody has ever been made to feel better by being told they're having a complex or episode or what have you.

Yukidarumon has a solution for this whole thing. Picking up Taichi and Agumon, he rests them on his shoulders and gives them a ride for the rest of the ice march.

(Uh, be careful with that, American guys; Sometimes Frigimon murders people by accident.)

Yukidarumon walks in silence, but Frigimon has an anecdote for the boys. "Did I ever tell you about the party I went to that the Numemon crashed?" he starts as we shift focus back to Gabumon.

Back on Yamato's island, Gabumon laments his inability to find Takeru. But as he heads back to the cave, he comes upon exactly what he didn't want to find out here. Yamato unconscious and half-buried in the snow.

Gabumon brings Yamato back inside the cave and sets him up on a bed of leaves, but it's not enough. Though he's reluctant, Gabumon recognizes that extreme circumstances call for extreme measures and takes off his fur pelt, giving it to Yamato to keep him warm before curling up with him to share body heat.

Then Gabumon lays down to rest beside Yamato and we zoom out, lingering for a moment on a shadowy Digimon watching the cave from outside.

By the time Taichi's group finally arrives on Yamato's island, the sun's already come up. The boys seem to have gotten some cold but otherwise fairly restful sleep, riding on Yukidarumon's shoulders.

(Dawn of the Sixth Day)

In the dub, Frigimon is still telling the Numemon story.

Frigimon: This one Numemon kept following my sister but I handled it. A little Subzero Ice Punch show and tell! Hey, you two, wake up! We're here!

I'm not sure how much sleeping they got to do given that he's apparently been telling this story all night. He does tell them to wake up, but the shot of the boys yawning and stretching is reframed to them shouting "HOORAY!"

Yukidarumon directs them to the forest in the center of the island, which is where he thinks he saw Yamato and Gabumon land. It doesn't take them long to find Yamato's discarded bed.

Taichi and Agumon set to work, calling out for Yamato and Gabumon.

Meanwhile, back in the cave, Yamato finally wakes up. As soon as he stirs, Gabumon takes his fur coat back and flees around a corner, putting it back on as quick as he can. Recognizing what Gabumon did for him and that Gabumon caught his cold doing it, Yamato expresses his sincere gratitude.

He's so grateful that the art bugs out and accidentally gives him a thousand-yard-stare during his bow.

Those were not the correct eyes for this moment. XD That expression is not, "Thank you for saving my life." That expression is "Yamato has seen what must not be seen and he will never be the same again."

Clearly, Gabumon was not fast enough in retrieving his fur coat.

Suddenly, they hear Taichi calling their names and race out into the daylight.

Taichi explains that he found Yamato thanks to guidance from Yukidarumon. Yamato asks if Yukidarumon saw anyone else, but he insists that Taichi and Yamato were the only ones who fell on these islands. He speculates that their friends would have landed on other islands.

Gabumon sneezes, revealing his cold to the new arrivals. This gives Yukidarumon an idea, and he stomps off without explaining himself.

It takes these boys no time at all to start bickering again.

Gabumon: (sneezes) Taichi: (playfully) Oh, so even Digimon can catch colds! Yamato: (grabs Taichi by the arm) Stop making fun of him! Gabumon was-- Taichi: Oh come on, I was joking! Why are you getting all worked up!?

This harkens back to Taichi threatening to steal Gabumon's fur way back in the Seadramon episode. Taichi's a jerk to Gabumon sometimes.

Though the dub takes his side over Yamato's.

Gabumon: (sneezes) Tai: How'd you get sick? You're the one with the fur around here! Matt: Stop making fun of him! Leave him alone, Tai! Tai: Hey, why don't you chill out, Matt!? I was only trying to see how we could help him!

Instead of Tai acknowledging that he's being a dick here, the scene is painted to make Matt look like the unreasonable one. Tai's trying to check up on Gabumon's condition and Matt flies off the handle for no reason.

Agumon takes Gabumon into the cave to rest while Taichi and Yamato discuss next steps.

Taichi: Now then, what should we do? Yamato: Isn't it obvious? We're going to look for the others. Taichi: Okay but how are we going to look for them? I'm sure everyone's separated and they're all on different islands now. How can we look if we can't fly? Yamato: I'll swim if I have to! Taichi: You idiot, this place is like the North Pole. We'll die of heart failure within a minute. Yamato: Then I'll build a raft from the trees, okay!? Taichi: Yamato, calm down. Everyone is fine! I'm sure everybody's getting along fine even though we're separated. More importantly, aren't you concerned with where this island is heading? Yamato: "More importantly"? Taichi: I think it's heading to the other side of the world, just like Devimon said. Yamato: What do you mean, "more importantly"!?!? (shoves Taichi) Is there anything more important than looking for the others!? What's all this talk about "the other side of the world"!? You can go there yourself; I'm going to save Takeru! And the others!

Taichi's curiosity about the other side of the world crops up here again, in the worst possible way. He slips up, revealing priorities that Yamato violently disagrees with. No sooner are they reunited than the boys are fractured once more, as Yamato bails on Taichi to go figure out a plan for himself.

The dub translates all of this almost completely faithfully, with only one significant difference: The part about Yamato wanting to swim and Taichi pointing out they'll freeze to death is removed and replaced with a different option.

Matt: So I guess we'll ask Frigimon for help. Tai: Weren't you listening to me!? He said they're scattered all over the place. He only has two arms; He's not an octopus!

The delivery here's a bit off. Matt's line is delivered in a sarcastic tone, with a jealous sneer as he says Frigimon's name. He says this like he's being passive-aggressive about Tai's new bestie. But from the context of the conversation, he's clearly supposed to be proposing this idea sincerely; Yamato/Matt's desperately grasping at straws to find any possible way to reach the other islands.

Additionally, when Tai blows off the wellbeing of the others with his whole "Ehh they're probably fine it's fine" bit, his dialogue is written to be more sympathetic.

Tai: Matt, calm down! Wow, what's eating you, dude? I'm on your side; I'll help you get off this island if we have to build surfboards, okay? Look, the others will be fine without us for now; We gotta focus on the real deal.

The core sentiment, that Taichi is more interested in riding this island to its destination than in going to look for the others, still gets expressed. But his flippant dismissal of them is replaced by an expression of concern and solidarity for Matt.

This tonal difference in their argument continues into the next scene.

Putting those soccer legs to work, Taichi runs Yamato down and tackles him into the snow.

Taichi: If we go to the other side of the world, we might find a way to see the others again! I understand how you're feeling but-- Yamato: Like hell you understand how I'm feeling! (punches Tai in the face, knocking him off) Your insensitivity is pissing me off! Taichi: What did you say!?

Tensions explode from there as the boys' argument devolves into a full-blown bare-knuckle brawl. The dub censors out multiple shots of Taichi and Yamato punching each other in the face.

Dialogue-wise, the dub version is basically the same, but Tai gets to talk more which weakens Matt's side of the argument.

Tai: Nobody runs away when I'm still talking; Now listen! Maybe there's something across the ocean to help us find the others! Why do you have to get so bent out of shape!? I know how you feel, Matt. Matt: (punches Tai in the face, knocking him off) You haven't got a clue how I feel, Tai; You're acting like such a jerk! Tai: Who are you calling a jerk, jerk!?

It's a bit more unfocused, again pulling the attention away from Tai's insensitivity, as Yamato put it, to instead focus on Tai and Matt here in the moment.

Watching their fight in the original Japanese, Taichi comes across like a complete asshole in this argument. Yamato may be a little too gung-ho about finding everyone; He almost died last night because of it. But it's super easy to take his side over Taichi, who's ready to abandon the rest of the group to their fates in order to satisfy his curiosity.

But in the English version, it's Matt who comes off like a total dick. Tai's the one who now seems like he's grasping for ideas to solve this problem, with "the other side of the world" being more sincerely expressed as an idea to save their friends. Meanwhile, Matt comes across like he's just freaking out, too overcome by his anxieties to think straight for five minutes and see Tai's point of view.

Either way, it all comes to a head when their fight nearly takes them off a cliff, and Yamato opens up.

Once Taichi sees this, he understands and relents. The fights ends on a softer note, as Yamato expresses his feelings about Takeru. Feelings that are slightly different between versions.

Yamato: Takeru... he can't do anything on his own!

Again, this harkens back to the Seadramon episode. Remember that moment with the cooked fish, when Yamato wanted to de-bone it for Takeru but then Taichi taught him how to eat it instead? This is part of Yamato and Takeru's arc through the series.

In the dub, we get:

Matt: It's T.K. He's out there on some strange island and he's all alone!

We get Matt's concern for T.K., the love and terror that's driving this moment, but we don't get the signaling to Yamato's chief character flaw with regard to his relationship with Takeru. It's a purely sympathetic moment, missing that little nugget of poison buried in the original.

And then the ledge gives out and they go off the cliff anyway.

Taichi catches Yamato and hangs on to a branch, swearing to hang on.

Taichi: I won't let go, even if we both end up dying!

That's a little dark for the dub, so they go with:

Tai: Whatever you do, just don't let go of my hand!

Notably, Matt can't let go; Tai's holding him by the back of his wrist. Yamato has no control over this situation.

Agumon and Gabumon climb down to try and help, but there's little they can do. They're both still hungry. Fortunately, backup arrives to make things much worse.

Oh good, it's that guy that was watching the cave earlier. He's an Adult-stage Vaccine-type Digimon. The narrator gives us his rundown.

Narrator: Mojamon. He's an elusive rare animal Digimon said to live deep in the snowy mountains. Normally, he has a quiet personality and does not pick fights.

For the diegetic rundown, Agumon skips the part about Mojamon's elusive nature and goes straight to the Good Digimon gag.

Agumon: Mojamon is a peaceful mountain Digimon that doesn't like fighting! Gabumon: You'd better tell him that! He doesn't look very peaceful right now!

Seizing a perfect opportunity to kill the children, Mojamon strikes with his Icicle Rod, destroying the ledge and sending them all tumbling to their intended deaths.

The dub calls this Ice Cloud, presumably to pull attention away from the gigantic icicle spear he uses for it.

By purest of luck, the kids land directly on top of Yukidarumon, breaking their fall on his big floofy snow body. He's on his way back from foraging for food as well as herbs for Gabumon's cold.

In the dub, Frigimon quips, "It's raining kids and Digimon again; I'm going to have to start carrying an umbrella." XD That's a good one.

(If he had a nickel for every time children plunged from the sky these last couple days, he'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.)

Gabumon eats the herbs while Agumon finally satisfies his hunger. But the fight isn't over yet; Mojamon descends the cliff to finish the job. While the kids run for cover, Yukidarumon steps up to fight Mojamon.

He tries his best, and briefly knocks Mojamon back into the cliffside hard enough to expose the Black Gears moving the island.

But Mojamon quickly overpowers him nonetheless, slamming him into the ground in front of the kids with a shoulder throw. Mojamon then reveals his other signature move, Hone Hone Boomerang; "Hone" being the Japanese word for "Bone", as previously seen in Ogremon's Hone Konbou. It's a curved bone that he throws in a curved arc, returning to his hand.

The dub calls it "Boomerang Bone", which flows better in English than Bone Bone Boomerang.

The kids and Yukidarumon narrowly avoid the boomerang, and then it's Agumon and Gabumon's turns. Finally getting their strength back up, they evolve to Greymon and Garurumon, the latter of whom shows Mojamon exactly what he thinks of Hone Hone Boomerang.

With Mojamon disarmed, Greymon lets off a Mega Flame. But Mojamon's too nimble to hit; He dodges the blast and kicks Greymon in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Creeping up behind Mojamon, Yukidarumon has a solution for this problem.

The full nelson. If it's good enough for Raditz, it's good enough for Mojamon. Yukidarumon holds him in place while Greymon lets off another Mega Flame, nailing the Black Gear and sending them both hurtling back into the wall. The impact exposes even more of the Black Gears responsible for the island shard's motion.

Garurumon lets off a Fox Fire to take care of those too.

No longer corrupted by the Black Gear, Mojamon shrinks down to about half his previous size. The Digimon explain the situation to him, while Taichi and Yamato revisit their argument.

Yamato still wants to go out and find Takeru, but before they can talk about it, the damaged Black Gears suddenly throw into reverse. Their island piece begins moving back towards Infinity Mountain, returning them to Devimon.

Recognizing that they have bigger problems right now then their previous difference of opinion, Taichi and Yamato agree to focus on this. Taichi offers Yamato some reassurance of his main concern.

Taichi: I'm sure Takeru is doing his best. Yamato: Yeah. He is my little brother after all.

While in the dub, the boys ignore T.K. and instead just agree that they're very cool.

Tai: Hahaha! No stinkin' Gears are gonna stop us! Matt: Yeah! Together, we're gonna be allllright!

Glad to see you boys are gung-ho about this.

Then we close on the boys waiting at the shore with their Partners, as well as Yukidarumon and Mojamon. Waiting in silence for their island shard to return to Infinity Mountain, and for the battle ahead.

As it often does, the dub fills this space with dialogue.

Matt (V.O.): And now I know my little brother will be alright because he has Patamon to take care of him when I can't be there. And I think, as long as we can all trust each other, together it's a sure bet that we'll be able to fight and beat Devimon!

...he says "I know T.K. will be fine because he has Patamon" like that's a valuable lesson he learned over the course of this episode? But. Like. The only place he could possibly have learned that was when Gabumon took care of him, and that was before the big fight with Tai.

Probably should have just stuck with "He'll be fine because he's my brother," which isn't so much a lesson learned as it is Yamato trying to reassure himself because he has no other options.

Assessment: Yeah, like the Meramon episode, this is another one that the dub butchers. They screw up the core argument between Tai and Matt which serves as the episode's emotional core. Taichi wants to see what lies beyond the ocean and Yamato wants to go save their friends.

Taichi's kind of a dick in this one, but that's okay. He's a flawed character. They're all flawed characters. Taichi's defining characteristic is his courage; He takes bold action and assumes everything will work out for the best. In this bitter fight with Yamato, we see the dark side of those assumptions.

But we also see the dark side of Yamato's overprotectiveness towards Takeru and to an extent the rest of the group. The way he nearly kills himself because he can't bring himself to just be still even when he's dying of hypothermia. Not if Takeru's in danger. Yamato is the kind of person that those airplane "Put your own mask on and then help your child with theirs" notifications are for.

We get that in this episode for Matt. We see plenty of Matt's rough edges on display here. But the dub of this episode sands off a lot of Tai's, resulting in an asymmetrical conflict that leaves Matt looking bad - sympathetically so, but still the sole aggressor - and Tai looking good.

#digimon #digimon adventure #revisiting digimon #revisiting digimon adventure

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highlordofkrypton · 2 months ago

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ACOTAR wips // high lord's meeting ft. eris 💅

I wrote this chapter yesterday, or the day before, and I really enjoyed it. I think a few people would too, since it features Rhysand as a villain and Eris doing anything but be the side character I meant him to be. I loved it so much, I had to share.

This chapter is part of cosmogeny on AO3.

CONTEXT: This happens post-ACOTAR, with the ACOMAF and ACOWAR events mashed together. Rhysand is twisting and exaggerating events to make Tamlin look bad. It doesn't quite work out in his favour.

WAR LORD, Chapter 27

Seven seats for seven High Lords. Four of which are empty—

One Lord glows in a far corner by the window, looking out at the city of Lautnita, basked in Dawn’s copper glow. Another Lord has been replaced with a pale imitation of himself, a son who will never ascend to the throne. One seat speaks of the absence of Winter, a loud statement in the face of supposed peers. The last Lord was never invited, for there is no room against a duplicitous villain.

“Well, then, Great Lord of Night,” Eris leans against his jeweled hand, already bored. “Tell us what urgency requires the presence of Prythian’s leaders.”

“One of which you are not,” Rhysand clips, his violet eyes staring down the imposter. Beron doesn’t even trust his spawn to take his throne, why should Rhysand ? His absence marks the unimportance of this meeting in his eyes, and Rhysand takes that as an insult. “Do not think we are equals.”

“And yet, you are not my superior, so get on with it before you find yourself proselytizing to an empty room.” Eris cocks a perfect auburn brow in Rhysand’s direction. “Unless… you plan on keeping us here? Do you miss the undeserved attention from under the—”

“Enough!” Thesan snaps. This is his home, and the only Court willing to play neutral ground for seven High Lords, half of which are volatile and violent. Every single one of them is reeling from the damages done by Amarantha, and he refuses to sit and listen to childish snarking. “I do not mean to rush you, High Lord Rhysand, but please, do get on with it.”

Rhysand’s gaze lingers on Eris for a long moment, considering punishment or worse. There will be a time and a place, but there are more important plans in motion. He offers Thesan an apologetic smile. “Of course, my apologies. It’s just… with the news that I have, you can understand my nerves are a bit frayed.”

Eris rolls his eyes, but everyone else seems amenable to his excuses. Everyone being only Thesan, Helion, Eris himself and Tarquin. The youngest High Lord looks uncomfortable, despite his perfect composure. This is his first High Lord’s meeting since his cousin’s death, and he is doing his best. Rhysand would commend him for that, if the situation were less dire.

“We all swore that we would never allow an evil to take hold of our lands ever again. We all understood it when we brought back the Cursebreaker.”

Feyre is a symbol to them all—not only of their salvation, but of their own failures to protect their people. They owe it to her to protect her.

“Unfortunately, the High Lord of Spring has abandoned all hope in us. Hybern’s emissaries have been in his lands for the last three months. They patrol the wall and they gather information about our efforts to rebuild. They know we are struggling to unify our efforts.”

The meeting is a perfect reflection of this. Some of them couldn’t be bothered to show up for Prythian’s sake. (They couldn’t be bothered to listen to Rhysand who has been working to protect them at every turn. It is not his fault that they have limits to how far they will go.)

“They’re harboring a weapon,” Rhysand adds, in hopes of driving his point home.

Most of the Lords are old enough to school their expression, but Tarquin’s eyes widen ever so slightly. Thesan, traitor to his own composure, reaches to touch Tarquin’s hand and offers him comfort. They will get through this, one way or another.

“And what weapon is that?” Helion purses his lips. As the oldest between the Lords present, he’s seen his fair share of curses, monsters and innovation. Very little surprises him anymore.

Rhysand clenches his jaw, guarding the smile threatening to slither onto his handsome features. There is something validating about knowing something the other Lords don’t. He steels himself, despite his eagerness to see the inevitable shock on their faces.

“A Death God. The Death God.”

Tension spears through each of them, knitting them together with the taught string of fear. Only Helion remains unbothered, hiding behind his usual carelessness, but Rhysand knows he couldn’t have expected this.

“How,” Tarquin clears his throat, faltering on the word. “How do you know?”

“Mine is the only Court that houses several of them.” Rhysand answers, pride lining the proud upward tip of his chin and the strength of his shoulders. “I would recognize a death god if I saw one.”

“Until now,” Eris points out.

“The Spring Court has no control over theirs. Ours are imprisoned, as they should be for their crimes against our ancestors. Tamlin is playing a dangerous game, and we need to prepare for war.”

“We should speak to him,” offers Thesan. “It has been hard coming home for all of us, I’m sure. Perhaps our first mistake was trying to heal on our own.”

“You expect us to work together with him ?” Eris juts his chin in Rhysand’s direction. “Prythian’s turncoat?” He sighs. “I suppose it takes one to know one.” The eldest Vanserra son whistles sharply, and a hound appears by his side, gray smoke rolling off it. It regards the other Lord with bright red eyes. Eris whispers something in a foreign tongue, and the herald disappears. “Father will want to investigate, as our territory borders Spring’s.” Eris nods at Tarquin. “On both our behalfs. I will send a hound with updates.”

The Autumn prince stands, done with this conversation.

“Wait,” Tarquin speaks up. “I meant, how did you know Spring is doing all this? Tamlin has been avoiding meeting me since his return. I’m surprised you were able to go and see for yourself.”

This time, Rhysand’s jaw ticks in anger. “You’re forgiven for your ignorance, Tarquin, but do you not know I’m a daemati ? Very little escapes me.” He raises his hand, a generous High Lord despite all his power. “I don’t use it freely. That would be boring. Feyre came to me after Tamlin beat her as a reward for saving Prythian. I believe he wanted the glory for himself. She gathered as much information as she could before coming to me.”

Eris doesn’t care, he turns to leave. Rhysand stands, slamming the door closed with a breath of magic.

“I’m not done. If you think this is simply a matter of checking in with Tamlin, then you are sorely mistaken. He has let Hybern in. War has come. We are past negotiating.” Rhysand stands leaning on the great table before him. A clear glass presides over the mechanical marvel that is a map of Prythian with moving parts—creatures and characters of interest to Thesan.

He glances at each and every Lord present.

“If you think Amarantha was a nightmare, then you have sorely underestimated what now infests our lands. If you will not move against Hybern, then against the hellish creature that will seek to destroy us all. It is not faerie or human. It lacks our morals and rationality. It must be stopped.”

Rhysand should not have to campaign this hard; this is the right thing to do. Fists clenched, he considers forcing them to yield.

“I’ll need time to think about this,” Helion says, and fades into the sunlight, riding the sliver of warmth home.

Coward. Rhysand expects the others to follow suit.

“I’ll wait for Eris’ assessment.” Thesan decides, and Tarquin nods.

“If you’re so sure of yourself, Rhysand, why are you so concerned whether we agree now or later?” Eris smirks, and forgoes leaving by the door. In his wake, a falling curtain of smoke.

#my wips #anti rhysand #anti ic #anti feysand #anti feyre #villain rhysand #eris vanserra #pro eris vanserra

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niuttuc · 1 year ago

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New budget Commander cards: Wilds of Eldraine: White

You know these by now, we'll go color by color, mixing main set and commander set. Reprints can be included if they brought the price down under our bar or are otherwise notable. All the cards presented here are under $2 at time of writing Note that the set hasn't officially released yet, so some prices may still be inflated, and others might spike in the future. Cards will be evaluated as part of the 99, not as commanders. Adventures with off-color parts will be carted off to the multicolor section.

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This shrewd fella is white ramp! Not very good white ramp, mind you, but it's serviceable in some decks. Needing to wait a turn cycle to get the first treasure is very slow, and getting a single treasure a turn cycle at best is also not great. It has the advantage of being white catchup ramp that doesn't turn off your other catch-up ramp, but most of the time, I'd prefer to get a land that'll die much less easily, or even a Commander's Sphere to be completely honest. The card draw mode is present, but at four mana for a single card (you're giving up a treasure), it seems only useful in the most dire of times AND if you've got treasures already. With that said, it'll do the job, and I wouldn't be ashamed to have this in a deck, I just don't think it makes the cut over a rock even on a budget in most cases.

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White board wipes are so numerous these days, it's hard for one to break in more than an archetype or two, and this one also works in a crowded space. Just within the low-power board wipe, there's at least 6 different options just in white. With that said, the ability to control the power you're cutting off at is pretty great to adapt to various situations, and it's almost a strict upgrade to Fell the Mighty, since you don't need to have a target with the right power, and it can't be fizzled by removing said target. If you were playing Fell the Mighty, upgrade to this. If you are playing a go wide deck, that's too tokeny for Dusk//Dawn or it and the Battle of Bywater is missing a lot of key pieces in your meta at 2 power, give this one a try.

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Play this in every white deck you can fit it in. It is better than Generous Gift at lower powers where lands aren't doing quite as much by themselves, and slightly worse at higher power where lands are Like That. It doesn't really matter in this case, most white decks can probably find room to run both of them.

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The monarchy is great and fun. It is hard to hang on for an entire turn cycle, but in this case, you don't really care, both options here are pretty great. As Sun Titan proves again and again, getting back a permanent mana value 3 or less is quite valuable in white, especially when it doesn't specify nonland. Getting it to hand is less good, but it's a three drop, you'll be able to redeploy it if you really want. Card's great, play it if you find room for it in any deck, it doesn't really fit into most themes. (except you, monarchy decks, I see you.)

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What if you had several turns to do the fiend hunter/O-ring trick instead of one stack? If you can blink enchantments, this will just exile a creature every time, and every time you do, you guarantee the one before that will never come back. As mentioned, unlike other tricks like that, you have plenty of time to figure out how to blink (or sac) it. Also some flying and damage sometimes, but that's not why you're playing the card.

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This isn't a very good card by itself, but the unrestricted aspect of the second and third chapter can make it worth its weight. Really good with token copies of stuff and such... But the neatest trick is to make a token copy of Three Blind Mice itself. Further chapters can then copy the saga token copy of Three Blind Mice, and give you an ever-growing army of mice, sagas and anthems after a few turns. It is the slowest combo in the world... But it's fun! And it will force your opponents to react, and they need to kill all your enchantment (copies) to do so, which isn't the easiest.

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Did you know: Flash is a powerful ability. This design isn't much new, but Flash gives it an entirely new dimension. On top of being a removal option in a pinch that can stop people going off on the same turn they play their commander, the Fox can also exile your most valuable creature in the face of a board wipe to preserve it... And in the reverse, if the board is getting wiped and you have a couple mana, you can sac the Werefox to give back the creature it removed just in time for it to be caught in the board wipe, negating some of the downside of these kinds of effects (not all, that still takes two mana.) With that said, Banisher Priest isn't the best card in commander. It's more a domain of Skyclave Apparitions and occasionally Palace Jailers. Still, this will have homes.

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Generally I avoid cards that have written in bold on them in which decks to put them, but, uh, here's a couple of them. You don't need me to explain in which decks to put this, I hope.

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4 mana 4/4 vigilance that immediately draws a card then keeps doing so every turn, while making you a friend. Or spreading the Oxen around to minimize their impact. This is quite good on rate, as long as you have a wincon beyond "swinging with a couple small creatures repeatedly". Oxen block very well. You probably don't want to go too overboard blinking this card either, or you'll find out what a stampede is.

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We just had a mostly-better version in this effect in Brothers' War, Recommission. But it's still a good effect, and if you're more of an enchantment person than an artifact person, this is an efficient option.

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Reprints

The enchanting tales in white bring down the price of some pretty interesting enchantments.

Blind Obedience is mono-white as far as commander is concerned, and Extort still scales very well with multiplayer play.

Grasp of Fate is an actual good O-Ring for commander (a lot of those today). It's not for every deck, but hitting multiple things at once is quite powerful, and this reprint at uncommon after so long brought the price down to pennies, and should keep it low for quite a while.

Karmic Justice is a weirder card than it reads. Due to its specific wording, it doesn't work against most common forms of targeted removal. If you want something like that in white, look in the direction of Martyr's Bond. Karmic Justice does one thing and one thing only: Shield you from most mass artifact or enchantment removal. Nobody wants to Austere Command, Vandalblast or Ondu Inversion when a Karmic Justice is around. Karmic Justice can target lands. So if you're a deck that heavily relies on artifacts or enchantments in specific and are in white, you might be interested.

Rest in Peace is the gold standard in silver bullets. It does one thing, and it does it better than any other card. Any graveyard strategy or even incidental recursion will be completely shut off from the moment Rest in Peace touches the board and up until it leaves it. I personally find Rest in Peace to be a bit too feast or famine for my taste: either it stops one player from playing the game entirely for long spans of time because their deck rely on the graveyard, which isn't very fun, or it doesn't do much and is a waste of cardboard. I encourage you to play graveyard hate in your decks... Just maybe go with something a bit more versatile and soft than Rest in Peace. But hey, it's budget now!

These two are in the Role Aura precon, and they actually haven't fallen under our threshold yet. They're incredibly powerful pieces for the Aura strategy, but only for this one narrow strategy, and this is the first reprint for both. In over 15 years for Retether. Hopefully, their price goes down further than it already has because of this precon, once it hits the shelves in greater numbers.

#mtg #edh #commander #sleeper #long post #White #Wilds of Eldraine #Eldraine #budget #Enchanting Tales

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gunebuggieswriting · 1 year ago

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Whumptober Day Six: Recording | Made To Watch | "It should have been me."

I've Died But You Can Still Break Me

[AO3]

Danny Phantom, Danny-Centric, Shocks, Torture, Nonconsenual touching (not sexual), Separate Danny and Phantom, Hurt no Comfort, Words: 2152

Danny woke up in a start, fresh beads of sweat going down his forehead. With wide eyes he scanned his dim surroundings, realizing he was sitting upright. He glanced down, and fear bubbled up inside him as he took in the straps wrapped around him.

His brain clicked and he remembered everything that led him here. How he took a nasty hit by a newly created ecto-gun the GIW was using. It had been like every other fight with them before that. He would try to solve his actual problem while actively avoiding the white dressed idiots. They were usually no problem, only a mere annoyance to Danny.

They changed, it wasn't the usual agents that went after him. They were trained, and Danny had never seen them until he was falling out of the sky. The weapon they used was new as well, and he had a sinking suspicion who made it. It became obvious whenever he saw the huge V engraved in the side, and he swore he'd teach Vlad how much the weapons he made really hurt. That not everything was worth money or power.

He couldn't right now though, and he was in a much more dire situation. As to make matters worse for him the weapon hit him hard enough to cause him to go unconscious, and therefore detransform. He knew it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't stayed up the night before studying for his finals, but he also knew he couldn't fail those tests if he wanted to move up the grade alongside his friends.

Not like it mattered now, whenever he was kidnapped by the government and stuck in some secret location. Who knows what the GIW will do to him. With them now knowing his secret identity there was no doubt they'd use that to their advantage. He can already feel dread at the thought of them having revealed his identity to the whole world. If he did get out of here, which he will, he has to, how will he deal with damage control? It's not like he could magically make everyone forget like the time he had the Reality Gauntlet.

It was times like this he wished he didn't destroy the ancient artifact. He couldn't allow it to get into anybody else's evil hands though, having already learned from Freakshow, so he supposed he did the right thing at that moment.

The GIW didn't seem to realize that Danny was awake yet, as they didn't come storming in demanding answers and confessions of crimes he didn't commit. It was only a matter of time before they did, and Danny should use this time to his advantage while he could.

He observed his surroundings with much more purpose, no longer lost in his anxious thoughts, trying to find anything that could help him out. His lips pulled down in disappointment whenever he realized he could see nothing but a mostly barren room. There was a single hanging light above him, a soft yellow glow illuminating little of the room, leaving most of it in shadows. From what he could make out there was a single door to his right, along with a huge window beside it. It was most likely one-sided, like he would see in those crime shows Jazz was so interested in. There was also a screen a few feet away from him, facing directly towards him, feeling pretty out of place. He had a feeling that they wouldn't be allowing him to watch cartoons on the television, and he didn't want to know what they had planned.

With nothing else to go off of, he looked back down to himself. That's when he realized that the straps holding him were just that, normal straps. They didn't seem ecto-infused, no abnormal glow around them. He squirmed and felt that they didn't sting him in any way, except for the way the rough texture rubbed against his skin.

He smirked and remembered just who kidnapped him. They may have hired better hitmen to try and take him out, but they were mostly the same bumbling idiots as before. Of course this would be a piece of cake for him. He would say he was surprised that they didn't remember to use anti-ghost things on him, but it was the same agency he was thinking about.

It was almost too easy, but it didn't matter. As long as he could escape and fix everything before it became too late.

Turns out it was too easy, as Danny soon learned he couldn't go intangible. He tried again, to access his ghost powers, and slightly panicked whenever he didn't even feel the slightest tingle of it. He quickly glanced at his waist, wondering if he somehow missed the Specter Deflector. Only to freeze when he saw nothing, no weird shaped belt that the government could have bought from Vlad.

He tried to go intangible again, hoping for anything. He would even take a shock at this point, something indicating that he was using ghost powers and they were being blocked by something. He still felt nothing, and he tried other ghost powers, nothing working.

His breath was beginning to pick up, and that's when he realized that something felt wrong. Something was missing from him. He was used to his breaths coming out colder than a normal person's, but right now his rapidly increasing breathing was hot. Too hot.

The place in his chest usually full and composed of emotions felt abnormally empty, and oh, his core was gone. His core, the very thing that made him, was gone.

He was too warm, no ice core to cool him down. He was too heavy, no power freeing him of gravity. He was too clear headed, his mind no longer competing with his core. He was too alive, no longer dead.

It all felt wrong.

His head quickly snapped back to the blank television screen, squinting his eyes to combat the dark room. It was then that he could see his reflection. His eyes immediately traveled to the one thing sticking out, a gray streak in his otherwise raven hair.

A clear and visible sign that everything was wrong.

The dim light hanging over him suddenly turned bright, and his eyes burned from the sudden change. He couldn't close his eyes though, too taken with his appearance on the television screen. Until that was taken away too, the screen flashing on, a white screen replacing the black one he could see his reflection in.

"Looks like you finally realized what happened to you." Danny's head whipped around, staring wide eyed at a tall man who had entered the room without Danny realizing it. The man had a smug smile on his face, and Danny gritted his teeth in annoyance.

"What did you do to me?" Danny spit out, venom tracing his words.

"We didn't do anything to you. Though we did do something to that ghost you were keeping around." The agent spoke with his head held high, looking down on Danny.

"That ghost is me." Danny tried, and knew it was pointless whenever the agent rolled his eyes.

"Then how were we able to separate you two? Obviously you've been allowing this illegal beast to use your body as a puppet for it's nefarious deeds. Don't try to stick up for it now." The man fixed his dark tinted sunglasses, something Danny didn't understand wearing inside, and began to move closer to Danny.

Danny watched his every move, suspicion and fear in his eyes. "You were able to separate me because you took my ghost core, which is practically ghost me all balled up in a single thing. If you whole lot weren't so stupid and ignorant maybe you'd understand that." He wasn't in the mood for any witty banter, and without his ghost half he felt like he wasn't in the position to. There were moments where it was more necessary to be serious, and this was of them.

"It seems to me that you're just pulling this all out of your ass. I mean, you could have at least tried to lie a bit better. You have ghost hunters as parents, surely you've picked up a bit from them at least? I suppose if you did you wouldn't be in this situation right now, would you?" The man continued, moving behind Danny and setting his hands on the boy's shoulders.

Danny tensed, now extremely uncomfortable, which was surprising given how uneasy he was to begin with. He shrugged his shoulders, trying to throw off the heavy hands, which only pressed harder. "All of what you and they have to say is based on biased observations, and false information. It's laughable how uniformed you truly are."

The man squeezed his shoulders, enough where it hurt, and Danny struggled against the man's touch. The agent bent over, leaning closer to Danny. "We'll see about that, now won't we? We'll be learning a lot together in these next few weeks."

Danny shivered, the low voice so close to his ear. The blatant threat made him nervous, not looking forward to what would be coming next.

After that the man backed away, instead choosing to move to the television. He pulled out a remote from inside his white jacket, and began to mess with it. Danny's eyes refocused back onto the screen, and watched as the white soon faded into a more pixelated picture replacing it. It was footage from a camera recording and Danny's eyes widened with horror as he realized just what it was.

On the other side of the screen was his other half, his ghost side, Phantom, strapped to a standing table. Shackles held the unconscious ghost in place, and Danny could tell that his ghost half wasn't as lucky as he was, the things holding him down glowing slightly. He was blindfolded as well, a bag covering his head, but Danny didn't need to see his face to know it was him.

"What are you doing? Why are you showing me this?" His words came out more like shallow breaths, his lungs barely working at this point.

"Well, one of you has to talk. Since we can't torture you, being a human still, and a minor at that, we decided to go with the next best course of action. We'll take the illegal being you've been hiding and experiment on it. Since you seem attached to the mindless thing, and it seems the ghost is refusing to cooperate, we'll just allow you to do the talking. That's if you're willing to tell us the truth, and not whatever bullshit you make up." The agent answered, seeming way too proud of himself for something so clearly evil.

Danny wanted to scream, to make these idiots see reason, but his throat was too constricted to do so. Truth? How was he supposed to tell them that whenever he couldn't speak? Any "truth" they were searching for was whatever they believed to be true anyways, so it didn't matter what Danny said, they'd keep going until they got him to say what they wanted. This whole thing was pointless, with the only "truth" they were looking for being what they "know".

"If you don't have anything to say, then let's start." The agent said, and pressed a button on the remote.

Danny flinched as he watched Phantom, him, become ignited in a wave of electrical shocks. The screams of pain was enough for Danny to want to cover his ears, or claw at them, to never hear that terrible wail again. It sounded the same as his time in the portal, and he wondered how many volts were going through his ghost half at the moment. Was it more painful considering that's how he came to be?

Danny tried to look away, to look at any other spot in the empty room other than the terrifying display being shown on the screen. The agent was behind him again, and soon his hands were on the side of his head, forcefully twisting it to look at the screen.

"Don't worry, ghosts aren't sentient. This is nothing more than a temporary reaction of stimuli. All habits to pretend it could feel something, to keep up it's living facade." The agent said, as if he couldn't hear the genuine screams of unimaginable pain coming through the speakers. "Still, if your heart is really that big that it carries compassion even for the most detestable of things, then just go ahead and tell us what we want to know and we'll stop."

Danny continued to breathe heavily, eyes forced to look at the television that had been pushed closer to his face. His eyes blurred with tears as his ghost half writhed in pain, and he began to thrash with just as much force as Phantom, wanting out.

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atlanticcanada · 2 years ago

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N.B. government's homeless numbers a fall short of outreach worker's estimate

Just how many homeless people are there in the Greater Moncton area right now?

It depends on who you ask.

At an affordable housing announcement in Moncton, N.B., Friday, provincial Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard said 222 people used one of the city's four shelters on a stormy night late last month.

“We know there are still others living rough. We can't force anyone to come to a shelter. I think we're in that 220 potentially, maybe a little higher. But at the same time we're working with our outreach workers every single day to ensure we're trying to get to anyone who is living rough,” said Shephard.

In November, Trevor Goodwin of the Greater Moncton YMCA told Moncton City Council over 500 people were living on the streets.

On Friday, Goodwin said Minister Shephard is referring to the 220 individuals on the YMCA's list of names which has not been updated since November and those numbers are only for individuals who’ve consented to being tracked.

"Recent data indicates 300 plus currently accessing shelters in Moncton and that does not account for individuals still sleeping outside in various capacities," said Goodwin in an email.

Shediac Bay-Dieppe Liberal MLA and Social Development critic Robert Gauvin agrees with the local outreach worker.

“The people who work in that field seem to think it's closer to 500 than 200. I tend to believe these guys because they have no reason to fudge the numbers and they know because they're on the ground,” said Gauvin.

Mayor Dawn Arnold said the city and the province are in agreement on the number of homeless people in Moncton.

Friday's funding announcement and the opening of the new cold shelter on St. George Street have made Arnold more hopeful about the situation than she's been in some time.

“It's been a really hard two to three years. It's been a slog but we've worked really hard from an advocacy perspective and I believe that the right players are around the table right now to effect the positive changes that we desperately need in our community,” said Arnold.

Gauvin said the state of homelessness and affordable housing in the city is bleak right now.

“You go downtown and you see, the last two years it’s just exploded. The price of having an apartment or buying a house, even the people who work can’t afford it. So, it’s going to get worse and worse if we don’t do anything,” said Gauvin.

CTV News spoke to a handful of homeless people this week who said the opening of the new shelter has been beneficial, but issues like housing and addiction remain major issues.

Mark Babin called the situation pretty dire.

“I think it has a lot to do with the drugs to tell you the truth. The drugs have taken a hold of Moncton. It's just unreal,” said Babin.

Stitch MacLeod said most homeless people are good people.

“They're not bad people. Just having a tough time in life. That's about it,” said MacLeod.

There are currently between 70 and 80 people staying at the new temporary shelter every night.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/57QkEfz

#new brunswick #prince edward island #nova scotia #news #politics #canada #CTVAtlantic

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hirazuki · 1 year ago

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RuroKen (+ industry in general) thoughts, under the cut:

I've been keeping up with it and, yes, it's enjoyable enough as general entertainment; there's definitely a lot worse out there, and the studio is doing an excellent job with the animation, the visuals are gorgeous.

But -- and this is a very personal opinion; I've seen people make arguments for the opposite and they're entirely valid -- the distinction between Battosai and Kenshin is incredibly blurred; the transition is not jarringly abrupt, the way it is in the original anime (both visually, with his eyes changing color, but also in his mannerisms/posture/speech/air, etc.), and I feel it detracts immensely from Kenshin as a character.

It's much less a split personality type of deal. Kenshin is a lot mellower and even-keeled overall in the new series -- his highs are not as high (he has his goofy moments, but they're not as annoyingly "childish") and his lows/bloodlust aren't as dire (it's more like he settles into being slightly more serious, than anything being triggered). And this kind of calming him down at both ends, for me, takes away a lot from the trauma of the Bakumatsu. Like, yes, I've seen people enjoy this change because it brings Battosai closer to him and doesn't make it seem like they're two separate people -- which is very fair! For me, though, I'd always seen it as his cheerful personality being something he developed as a way to deal with the trauma of Battosai; as in, he couldn't, and the only way he could reconcile with himself was to fashion something new from scraps that were there, buried under the blood and the corpses, and deny himself both the sharp edge of a proper sword and the mentality of a killer. And that severe, violent separation necessitated a complete break from who he was before, giving himself a kind of self-induced amnesia that only dissipates when it's truly a life/death situation and adrenaline and survival instincts kick in.

Idk, I'm glad people who are liking the new series are finding things to enjoy in it and new takes on characters to explore, it's just not really doing it for me, personally XD

I might feel different if the series was less action/main plot packed and the episodes had been given some room to breathe -- which, honestly, isn't a criticism on this particular series or on anime studios in general, as much as it is on this current industry-wide trend I've increasingly noticed in the past few years, where seasons are getting shorter and something has to happen every single minute of runtime. It's so rare these days to see scenes being dragged out (in a positive sense), purely for nothing more than artistry for artistry's sake.

Like, where's the sense of drama? The narrative flair? The cliffhangers that keep everyone on edge, including those who have read the manga and know exactly what happens but are just as wound up with anxiety and excitement as the rest? The feeling of ending each episode well-fed while still having a sharp appetite for more? It used to be excruciating torture to have to wait week to week for the continuation; now, it's more like, 'Oh, okay, 'til next time' *closes tab.* I've noticed that episodes overall seem to be more and more self-contained (though obviously there are exceptions; KnY still does pacing very, very well), with introducing a problem and handling its resolution within the same episode, and. idk. Imo, it just detracts from the art of storytelling, which seems to be suffering all around, in all media, from all sides :/

It's especially noticeable with things like RuroKen and Bleach, because with those, we do have significant precedent of how they used to be in the past. I'm loving the new Bleach season -- visuals, music, voice acting, character interactions; all superb -- but it is moving at ridiculous breakneck speed; especially for being Bleach, which has always had the definitive staple (both manga and anime!) of taking its sweet-ass time. I saw someone say that, if this was ten years or so ago, the Zaraki fight would have never been paced like this and they are absolutely right. A Zaraki fight, lasting only a single episode?? Come on. The only time that's ever happened has been with cannon-fodder grunts that he swipes away like they're flies; never with a named, ranked character of the opposing side. His fight -- while I greatly enjoyed seeing him go wild ♡ -- should have been split in at least three segments: the first ending when he arrives on the scene, the second ending with him calling for bankai and his sword's name (without revealing the sword itself), and the third with the end of the fight.

tl;dr: barring a few holdouts and unlooked for gems here and there, I am finally coming to terms with the fact that the golden age of anime ended some time ago and really feeling my age T_T

#just some rambling ^^#it's the bittersweetness of summer's end it's getting to me like it does every year around this time #and i'm feeling all unsettled and weird and nostalgic XD #withoutwords

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thatmultifandomhoe · 4 years ago

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Wish Upon a Star

Our childhoods began with the magic that was found within these movies. Whether it be Disney, Pixar, or Studio Ghibli, our love has not once wavered. We’ve grown, and dare we say that we’ve matured, but there’s still a special place in our hearts for our favorite movies.

Except, these movies now have a twist.

We are no longer kids.

Welcome to Wish Upon a Star, where your favorite childhood movie finally grew up.

Disclaimer: The following stories are a combination of SFW, NSFW, or a combination of both.

Wish Upon A Star is collaboration of works containing stories based on some of our favorite movies from Disney, Pixar, and Studio Ghibli.

Writers from both the BTS Fic Hub and BTS Smut Hub servers (founded by @gukyi) have come together to write stories for the month of January. While this event is not directly affiliated with these servers, please feel free to check them out!

Name of the Game by @ggukcangetit

Movie: Anastasia

Starring: Seokjin and Reader

Summary: The Hotel - Strange, The Manager - Far Too Charming, The Situation - Dire, The One in Trouble - You.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 9th.

Two Birds, One Cake: by @pajaritojin

Movie: Brave

Starring: Prince Seokjin and Witch Reader

Summary: After Seokjin fails to return his mother to her human state because Y/N gave him the wrong spell, he is forced to release the Queen into the wilderness whilst he tracks down Y/N.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 20th.

That Famous Happy Ending by: @jinpanman

Movie: Enchanted

Starring: Seokjin and Reader

Summary: You don't know what you expected when you followed the Prince to Andalasia... but of all things, you didn't expect to fall for him and his kingdom so quickly.

Rating: SFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 21st.

The Medallion Calls by: @pajaritojin

Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean

Starring: Captain Seokjin and Governor Reader

Summary: Upon Seokjin’s wash up to shore after months of being lost in a wrecked boat, the town is attacked by a crew of pirates. Kidnapping Governor Y/L/N Y/N, the crew of pirates flee — leaving her friends and Seokjin to rescue her and keep the town at peace.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 29th.

The End of the Fucking World (or: the Alpacalypse) by: @hauntedlilies

Movie: The Emperor's New Groove

Starring: Seokjin and Reader

Summary: Over the past few years your life has been slowly falling apart. You didn't think it could get any worse — until your father comes home with a talking llama alpaca who claims he's the emperor of a lost civilization. But is he really who he says he is?

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 22nd.

The Ghosts of Daegu Town by: @cremeandsuga

Movie: Monsters Inc.

Starring: Ghost Yoongi and Phasmophobic Reader

Summary: For the last 18 years, Min Yoongi had been appointed Resident Ghoul for his Scare Ratings. He managed to scare the life out of everyone…except when your door came down before him.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 24th.

Second Star to the Right by: @thatlongspringnight

Movie: Peter Pan

Starring: Yoongi and Reader

Summary: Min Yoongi never believed in magic, but all it takes is a found shadow and one very frustrating girl to turn his world upside down. The real question remains: Will he keep that magic in his heart and choose to stay in Neverland, or will he abandon this magical world and the girl he's grown to love?

Rating: Combo

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 3rd.

Basil & Beliefs by: @cremeandsuga

Movie: Ratatouille

Starring: Sous Chef Yoongi and Heir Reader

Summary: When the long lost daughter of Gusteau reappears and gets hired at his restaurant, she is expected to stay quiet and stay out of the spotlight — but her and her server friend Seokjin can’t do anything to stay out of the eyes of the sous chef, Min Yoongi.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 14th.

A Restless Slumber by: @wwilloww

Movie: Sleeping Beauty

Starring: Yoongi and Reader

Summary: When one of you is always asleep, spending quality time together becomes easier to do in dreamworld.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 1st.

Coral Subconscious by: @hermosohoseok

Movie: Finding Nemo

Starring: Mermaid Hoseok and Mermaid Reader

Summary: When Y/L/N Y/N swims past Hoseok’s reef and saves his mother from the teeth of their terrorizing resident barracuda, he can’t help but feel indebted.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 15th.

Cactus by @hesperantha

Movie: Fantasia

Starring: Hoseok and Reader

Summary: Meeting a stranger at the club turns into an adventure. Starring Mickey!Hoseok, featuring Yensid!Namjoon.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 2nd

Bare Necessities by: @hermosohoseok

Movie: Jungle book

Starring: Bear Aspect Hoseok and Adult Mowgli Reader

Summary: After Y/N’s life is threatened by resident Tiger Aspects Yoongi and Taehyung, Y/N is forced to vacate the jungle and leave behind her friends. Along the way, she finds the bear that saved her as a baby.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 27th.

Smutocchio by @jinpanman

Movie: Pinocchio

Starring: Hoseok and Reader

Summary: You didn’t mean to fall for the growing dick man.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 13th.

A little less than 101 Meetings to fall in love: by @thatlongspringnight

Movie: 101 Dalmatians

Starring: Namjoon and Reader

Summary: Kim Namjoon has seen enough of the world to know two thing, dogs always look like their owners, and he's going to be perennially single. A chance meeting at the park changes at least one of those ideas forever.

Rating: Combo

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 10th.

The Aftermath: by @queridonamjoon

Movie: Big Hero 6

Starring: Engineer Namjoon and Friend Version Tadashi Reader

Summary: After Y/N dies in an attempt to save Namjoon, his dreams are nothing more than memories of her and their adventures together — so he builds Y/N prototypes for every scenario, in which he will always be able to save her.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 26th.

One Cube At A Time: by @queridonamjoon

Movie: Wall-E

Starring: Cyborg Namjoon and Cyborg Reader

Summary: Namjoon is the only functioning being left on planet Earth — imagine his surprise when he is made aware of a completely different world just a few galaxies away.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 11th.

Otherworldly Lovin’ by @thatmultifandomhoe

Movie: Flubber

Starring: Alien Taehyung and Human Reader

Summary: Not only did he crash land into you yard, but he also crashed right into your heart...among other places.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 6th.

In The Doghouse: by @mariposatae

Movie: Lady & the Tramp

Starring: Dog Hybrid Taehyung and Dog Hybrid Reader

Summary: After Y/N finds herself in some hot water with Jungkook and her housemates, she must trust from afar as they find a mate for her in a serial monogamist with a knack for knocking up.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 25th.

Bad Stitch 2.0: by @jinpanman

Movie: Lilo and Stitch

Starring: Taehyung and Reader

Summary: You and Taehyung finally get the house to yourselves and you’re not going to let it go to waste.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 5th.

Blood from The Emperor: by @mariposatae

Movie: Mulan

Starring: Solider Taehyung and Solider/Princess Reader.

Summary: Y/L/N Y/N is the only daughter to The Emperor, and when she escapes her luxurious life in the palace to join the military, Kim Taehyung is the one to discover her.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 12th.

Had it Been Another Day by @ggukcangetit

Movie: The Princess and the Frog

Starring: Taehyung and Reader

Summary: When the universe hated you enough to pair you with the most obnoxious guy in your class, for a project that would decide your future but had no such implications for him.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 16th

Fairy Wings: by @ezralia-writes

Movie: Tinkerbell

Starring: Taehyung and Reader

Summary: "You should have never crossed the border," he choked out, "I should've known better to stop this before it even began."

Rating: SFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 30th.

Unholy Lightning: by @sunnydelightjimin

Movie: How to Train Your Dragon

Starring: Lightfury Hybrid Jimin and Nightfury Hybrid Reader

Summary: Y/L/N Y/N was taught to soar in the clearest of skies and attack in the deadliest situations — crazy how she has a tendency to flip those in her mind.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 17th.

Chasing Waves by @magicalcrwn

Movie: The Little Mermaid

Starring: Jimin and Reader

Summary: From a young age, their curiosity grows stronger. For the human princess who has always been interested in the ocean’s secrets, for the merprince who has always been interested in the surface’s life. What would happen once they finally chase the waves to sate their curiosity?

Rating: SFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 18th.

Lava In The Afternoon: by @sunnydelightjimin

Movie: The Incredibles

Starring: Immortal Superhero Jimin and Immortal Villain Reader

Summary: Y/L/N Y/N has terrorized the City of Seoul for generations alongside her friends — and Jimin has been tired of fighting her time and time again.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 28th.

The First Snow: by @carinojungkook

Movie: Bambi

Starring: Rabbit Aspect Jungkook and Deer Aspect Reader

Summary: When the daughter of The Great Prince is presented before the forest on the day of the First Snow, Jungkook finds himself enamored with the doe eyes filled with fire.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 19th.

The Fourth Unforgivable by @ggukcangetit

Movie: The Lion King

Starring: Jungkook and Reader

Summary: Seven years is a long time. Enough to bring about many changes - new laws, dangerous associations, and the return of the one you had forced yourself to forget.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 23rd

Moves Like An Ape, Looks Like a Man by @carinojungkook

Movie: Tarzan

Starring: Tarzan Jungkook, and Animal Researcher Reader,

Summary: When animal researcher best friends Y/L/N Y/N and Kim Namjoon are sent on an expedition to gather information on the gorillas of West Africa, they aren’t expecting anything but — and yet, are met with none other than Jeon Jungkook.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 8th.

Abstract Thought: by @milktbaby

Movie: Inside Out

Starring: Emotion OT7 and Student Reader

Summary: When Y/L/N Y/N is leaving her hometown of Busan for university, she is faced with a series of unexpected events that make her realize she’s not where she needs to be.

Rating: NSFW

Being Released to a Theater Near You: January 31st.

You’re never too old to find yourself wishing upon a star.

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 3 years ago

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If Bella was somehow bitten somehow and woke up alone during New Moon, but the Cullens didn't find her (I don't know if this is still 'Edward mercy kills Bella' territory but if it is then maybe her gift knows this and starts blocking Alice) and she became a nomad, would she still do the diet and if so for how long?

This is shockingly in the realm of possibility and not necessarily in the land of Edward mercy killing Bella.

Though there are some dangers Bella would have to avoid somehow for survival.

Bella is Bitten Alone in New Moon

We have one vampire who meets Bella during New Moon and another who with very little difference in the timeline would have run across her: Laurent and Victoria.

In the case of Laurent, he and Bella have a chat, he decides Bella smells delicious and he'll spare her the pain of being slowly murdered by Victoria, and just as he decides to go for it he gets run down and eaten by giant wolves.

Bella survives her vampire encounter.

In the case of Victoria, she never really gets close enough to do damage until the fight between Edward and Victoria and Riley and Seth in Eclipse.

So we have a few ways this could go:

Laurent's a few seconds ahead of Sam and company. He manages to get a good bite in and doesn't crush Bella on impact. He's run off by the wolves and Bella survives.

The problem here is that Bella has now been bitten and there's no coming back for her. It's a tragedy, and the wolves will feel a shared sense of failure and burden that they failed to save her, but she's dead anyway. They have to kill her before she fully turns.

Bella's gift, while powerful, doesn't appear to help in this kind of situation. Though, that said, in her dire need it could suddenly give her the ability to project illusions like we see in Renesmee. Doesn't seem to be how Bella's gift typically rolls, but hey, this is her darkest hour.

Otherwise, Jake could pull his alpha move much earlier in order to save Bella's life. He ignores Sam's order, flees with the turning Bella, and dumps her in the wilderness somewhere with a note from Jake that she must never return to Forks. She wakes up alone, only guessing though not knowing what Jake has done for her, and stares blankly at the wilderness.

If Victoria catches up to Bella, well, it's not looking good. All too likely, Bella dies painfully, and Victoria leaves a video tape of the entire ordeal in the Cullen house for when they eventually return (as they surely will).

Though, that said, the ease with which Victoria accomplishes this and the complete lack of Cullen intervention could catch her off guard. Perhaps... Edward doesn't actually give a rat's ass. That says terrible things about James' needless death, but Victoria's holding this girl hostage. She will die, in the most painful manner imaginable, and the Cullens aren't there.

Victoria might turn Bella out of pity or else turn her as she figures out, in part from Bella, that Bella becoming a vampire is Edward's worst case scenario. However, in that case, it's unlikely Victoria would abandon Bella, so Bella wouldn't be on her own.

Which, I think for this post, makes Jake's alpha sacrifice the most likely path. He dumps Bella's half-vampire body somewhere in nowhere Canada.

Bella After the Bite

Being dumped in the wilderness helps a lot. For one, Bella already has unbelievable control, for another this is Edward's penguin scenario. There is no one else out here for her to eat even if she wanted to.

So, following the diet is easy.

And it's something she'd very much wish to do. Bella sees the world of vampires divided into two types of vampire: the good Cullen vampires who don't eat people and the bad vampires who, well, eat people.

This left such a mark on Bella that she has very little idea of what a vampire even is.

Bella would be horrified at herself if she became a bad vampire. In wanting vampirism she wanted the vampirsim she sees in the Cullens. Bella might be miserable and alone, without a friend in the world, but she would be horrified to choose anything other than the Cullen way of life.

At least, at first.

The Return of the Cullens

There's a few paths for Bella after she's dumped in the middle of nowhere.

Alice sees that Bella's become a vampire, an abandoned newborn, and is wandering aimlessly around the wilderness somewhere. Even though Edward has forbidden contact, this is probably enough to motivate Alice who was genuinely worried.

She likely goes behind Edward's back and tries to find Bella with Jasper and possibly the rest of the Cullens.

Edward, of course, is still in Rio being a miserable saint for leaving precious human Bella.

Eventually, they manage to find her, and there's a lot of miscommunication, very hurt feelings, and heartfelt apologies even from Rosalie because look what happened to this poor girl. Though they each, either reluctantly or more enthusiastically, agreed to leave this was not what they had in mind.

Bella forgives them quite readily, as she did in canon, because she has the self-esteem of a thimble. The Cullens are awed and very grateful, Rosalie would never have forgiven them for this.

It probably takes them both a) a while to decide how best to tell Edward and break the news to him b) a while to get a hold of Edward because he's ignoring all their phone calls.

Eventually they do, it's a shit show, for the purpose of this post we'll say he does not mercy kill Bella. He might actually be feeling too guilty for that. Instead he grovels on the ground constantly, begging Bella's forgiveness, and refuses to enter a relationship with her because he's unworthy.

This undoubtedly upsets Bella, because she's also unworthy and Edward knows it and doesn't love her, but that's not the point of this meta.

In this world, the Cullens keep Cullening after picking Bella up, Bella's adopted into the fold and made Edward's twin sister due to looking the most like him (which, of course, makes them look actually incestuous in high school to add to the Cullen mystique).

With the support of the Cullens, living the Cullen lifestyle, and having the control that Bella has there's no question of ever leaving the diet.

Bella stays on the wagon.

Bella Seeks Out the Denali

Alice is successful and doesn't see Bella's future for whatever reason. Edward will be so proud. Bella is left alone in Canada to eat moose.

Eventually, Bella decides that however great being a vampire is, she's lonely and miserable. She wants companionship.

Well, obviously the Cullens hate her, so even if she could find them they probably never want to see her again. But what about the Denali?

Bella's already in Canada, she could head over to the Denali National Park in Alaska, and surely the least she could do is actually introduce herself.

Of course, the coven sounds blonde, hot, aggressively female, and very intimidating. Tanya's history of wanting to bang Edward has Bella feeling very small and worthless. More, the Cullens may have told the Denali all about how stupid and ugly Bella, Edward's current human girlfriend, is and they've all laughed at her.

However, Bella's so desperate for companionship, for some connection back to her old life, that she goes for it.

She makes it to Alaska, wanders around until she eventually finds the Denali coven, and introduces herself. The Denali are weird assholes, but Bella's so oblivious she actually doesn't notice.

That said, they've had their brush with the law, and Tanya doesn't want a newborn running around by herself. Eleazar also gives a truly pompous, awful, speech about compassion to their fellow man. It's unbearable, Bella finds it charming.

They take Bella in, she can be the dark-haired sister. Her control is so good the three single ladies quickly take her clubbing and encourage her to sleep away her troubles with human men.

Bella quickly finds that, when you're on the vampire end of the equation, the relationship with human thing is kind of gross. These people smell like food, are squishy and overly warm, and have the substance of tofu.

Bella feels even worse about her relationship with Edward.

She sleeps with human men anyway so that the Denali sisters won't judge her/will think she's cool.

They're so proud of her.

Regardless, Bella stays on the diet as the Denali follow the diet. She will likely have a few accidents with her human lovers, and will be inconsolable, but the coven will be there to offer comfort and help her get back on the wagon.

Bella stays on the wagon

Bella's Low Self-Esteem Wins and She Becomes a Hermit

Bella can't return to Forks and she's so ugly, stupid and boring that even though she's a vampire if she met anyone new they'd realize how ugly, stupid, and boring she is.

Better to just forsake society altogether and live with moose.

Bella's able to do this for quite a long time. Years even. And it's... fine. But her life has no purpose nor any direction to it.

She becomes tempted by society. How many years has it been? Has the world changed since she left? Has Forks changed? Is Charlie still alive? Is Renee? What about her classmates?

Bella starts travelling and visiting human cities and, thanks to her control, she does very well.

However, it's very likely that one day she'll slip, she takes her control far too much for granted and all it takes is one mistake.

And that's where Bella starts getting into trouble.

She's horrified at first, of course, and that likely doesn't break her. She gets back on the wagon, but the second time it happens...

There are no consequences to her breaking the diet. She has no companions, no one cares. Why is she living in constant agony, every single day, for people who will one day die anyway? Why is Bella choosing to suffer?

As time goes on, as humans start to mean less and less to her and all the humans that she knew when human herself are dead, Bella starts forgetting the reason that the diet seemed so vital to her existence.

At one point, it stops meaning anything at all, it's just Bella pointlessly choosing to live in agony.

Bella falls off the wagon.

TL;DR I think it'd take a while, at least ten years, but if she becomes a solitary nomad, it would inevitably happen.

#twilight #twilight meta #twilight headcanon #twilight renaissance #bella swan #jacob black #edward cullen #anti edward cullen #edward/bella #anti edward/bella #alice cullen #the cullens #the denali #tanya #eleazar #anti eleazar #meta #headcanon #opinion

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imoldgreggory · 3 years ago

Text

‘I feel nothing but fear. My grandma is on the other side of the front line’

My friend who lives in Germany (he has Russian roots and a wife with Ukrainian roots) and gets the news in either German, English or Arabic, texted me today with a single question, ‘How’s the atmosphere in Moscow? Do most people support the invasion?’ (okay that’s technically two questions, but yeah.)

I can’t give a simple answer to this. Propaganda is incredibly strong, all media are controlled by the regime and those that aren’t have been declared foreign agents and banned. The opposition is in tatters. This didn’t happen yesterday. It’s been going on for at least 11 years gradually becoming worse, to the point where people speaking out now realise there might be incredibly dire consequences. Especially the older generations have been brain-washed. I see frustrated younger people having bad fights with their parents who won’t see sense and continue to spew the nonsense TV has been feeding them. I don’t call my grandparents whom I dearly love, because I don’t want to hear it and argue. At the same time, not a single person around me personally, in my social media circle, is okay with the invasion. 800,000 people have signed a petition against it in three days, thousands of people from every profession (including local representatives) have written and signed open letters against the invasion - these are all educated people working in culture, science, medicine, etc. (some are already losing their jobs for it).

Anyway, my friend’s question made me realise that people from the outside really have very little information available - I mean, even less than we do here - and I imagine it’s largely straight to the point, or it is some analyst explaining the situation. You see photos from protests but little else.

Me, I literally cannot do anything else but monitor live news all day long. So in case anyone here was also curious about ordinary people’s feelings, I thought I’d share this single link to a piece quoting some Russian citizens on their reactions to what’s going on. The text is in Russian so use the translation feature in your browser, the translation should be pretty accurate/easy to grasp.

When we say it’s a war between brothers, we don’t only mean that the countries have a shared history from the Soviet era, or that we’re close culturally, linguistically etc. We literally mean we have family, friends and loved ones on the other side of the border. Almost every Russian who I know does. They will hate and resent us as a nation now, as is their right, and that realisation hurts - but it hurts even more on the individual level, breaking hearts and tearing loved ones apart one person at a time.

TL;DR: In case you as a foreigner who’s following the situation from the outside wanted a glimpse into ordinary Russian citizens’ feelings about the invasion, here are some quotes.

Here’s the link (use the translation feature in your browser):

https://meduza.io/feature/2022/02/24/ya-ne-chuvstvuyu-nichego-krome-straha-moya-babushka-po-tu-storonu-fronta

#just a piece i thought was worth sharing amid the chaos #this reflects exactly what i see around myself #ukraine #russian invasion #you have no idea the kind of propaganda and radicalism we're seeing #i'm incredibly scared #feeling like anything could happen

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sohin-ace · 4 years ago

Note

Bucci gang hc with a female team member that's always tired and sleeping but has lightning fast reflexes? Like, she's always tired and sluggish but she always manages to survive and complete missions. Every. Single. Dang. Time.

Didn't write dialogue for Abba because his HC was so long already.

Bucci gang w/ a chronically tired S/O HC

Bucciarati

The least worried of the group, but still somewhat concerned.

He knew what you were capable of. He took you in after seeing the extent of your abilities. It didn't matter what the gang thought of you at first, they would eventually understand, was what he told you.

He's never seen someone so physically drained in his life and he'd love to believe that you may have a clinical condition that explains it.

Gets so frustrated when you don't listen to him during briefings and go to do your things on your own in missions.

It's so dangerous and he gets so scared. Even if you always succeed, sometimes without a single scratch, he still can't help but worry.

He stomps to you and when you think he's going to yell at you or slap you for being so reckless, he instead takes you in his arms, relieved.

"It's only a matter of time until something happens to you... God you scare me..."

Otherwise, he has no problems letting you lean onto him when you're feeling spent, or want to nap on him in the car.

Abbachio

Really? That was the new member Bucciarati trusted and brought in?

He was so pissed and frustrated whenever you laid halfway onto the table during meetings, or dozed off when someone reported for duty.

You were so lazy, undisciplined and churlish he couldn't stand it at times.

Some people, like him, worked their ASSES off to get to where they were, and you were just hunched over and drooling?

He was okay with a member feeling a bit sick or tired occasionally, especially if it was Bruno who overworked, but you were just too much!

He constantly slaps you to wake you up or get your attention and scolds you for it.

The way you handled the missions with such endeavour and skill was so contradictory to your usual slow attitude, he was so surprised.

To be honest he's terrified. How could someone be so two-faced?

But now he finally understood why you had been taken here by Bucciarati. You were indeed a valuable addition to the team, he had to recognize it.

It takes time for him to actually trust you and make sure you won't betray them, but he's still very admirative.

Giorno

He wouldn't show it but he was a bit worried. About the gang but mostly about you.

He guessed that you had some vitamin defficiency or anemia maybe? That would explain it, but he was no doctor.

He likes to believe that you're not just plain lazy and careless. If Bucciarati took you in, it was for a reason, he wanted to trust you.

And he was absolutely right.

He had been stuck, alone and in the verge of death on one dreadful mission. Nobody was there, and he couldn't call out for help.

He had used Golden Experience as a desperate last resort to call for one of the members, but he had no hope of anyone coming just in time to save him.

He was beyond shocked when, barely a few minutes after his call, you bursted through the place at lightspeed and took him away, not letting anyone even find you as you brought him to safety.

How did you come in so fast? Where were all the enemies? Did you... take them out all by yourself?

"Thank you, Y/N... I... I owe you my life..."

Otherwise, he puts a bunch of flowers and leaves on your hair when you nap.

Mista

He was pretty laid-back and lazy himself sometimes too. When he sees you chilling, sleeping, looking all jaded he just chuckles and join you in.

When you join the gang at first, he doesn't doubt that you could be a great spy, or a healer, maybe you could spot enemies like Narancia?

Surely he was NOT prepared for what kind of abilities you truly hid behind your tired and deviant facade.

The way you were fighting and the speed and clarity in your movements, he couldn't even catch everything with his two eyes.

The pistols had called for you, as Mista was in a dire situation and surely enough, you were there mere minutes after. He wondered if you had teleporting abilities or if your Stand gave you some kind of hyper speed. Turns out, you were just that fast.

You told him to hang in there and took his gun to finish off the enemies. Taking them one by one.

Your tone and the energy you had in your voice sent electricity down his spine. You were so... Different than what you has used him to.

You patch him up with expertise and he can't help but stare at you like you were a Godly revelation.

"Not gonna lie Y/N, that was kinda hot..."

Narancia

Pranks you all day. And I mean ALL DAY.

There's a recurring joke about how you're going to be the first one to die because of how lazy you are and how you're probably gonna fall asleep mid-fight.

Bucciarati does not like those jokes, at all.

Takes great pleasure in waking you up in the loudest and most obnoxious way possible just to see you flinch and panick.

"Giorno, put a centipede in Y/N's ear. Come on it's gonna be fun!"

How do you manage to sleep with him, Mista and Fugo fooling around next to you all the time, that was a grand mystery.

He brings you pizza, claiming 'you need vitamins'. Because everyone knows pizza have the perfect amounts of nutrients...

He's so impressed and admirative of you when you absolutely kill it during missions. It's like you're a completely different person, he doesn't recognize you.

He's your number 1 fanboy, please sign him an autograph because wow, you're so incredible he can't believe you're real.

It's incredibly funny how you immediately start to yawn and sleep in the car right after the Tom Cruise stunts you just pulled 5 minutes ago.

Fugo

He thinks you're just lazy and he doesn't feel comfortable with you here at first.

Like Abbachio, he wonders what went on Bucciarati's mind to even recruit somebody like you?

But at the same time he's very curious. Did you have some kind of strange disorder he's never heard of?

Every time he saw you, you were either sleeping, slumped over, or just plain out of it.

Are you doing this on purpose to mess with him or piss him off? Because if you are, it's working.

He forces coffee, orange juice, soda, anything down your throat to keep you awake and focused on missions, and when you refuse, he starts biting his nails.

"You better stay focused on this one I swear to God...!"

He's so scared and anxious you're gonna fuck it all up and get someone, or worse even, yourself killed just because you're a careless slug.

When he sees how operational and strong you were and how incredibly fast you acted during missions, his view on you does a complete 180.

In the end, your down-toned presence was very cooling for his angry soul, and he couldn't afford to lose you so stupidly and easily...

Trish

The first time she saw you she wasn't too surprised to see you napping and being a bit slow.

You were in the mafia after all, not necessarily the calmest and chillest occupation. It was okay to feel sleepy once in a while... Or all the time.

She even believed that you weren't just tired physically, but rather maybe you were tired of them.

And honestly? She relates.

But when one day on a mission you went from dragging your feet slowly like a drunkard to swiftly grabbing her, lifting her in your arms like she weighted nothing and running like a freaking cheetah a second after hearing gunshots, she was FLABBERGASTED.

First of all, WHAT? Second of all, HOW? She is so shaken and her eyes couldn't possibly get any wider. You went from 0 to 100 REAL FAST.

She's even wondering if that's really you holding her right now or if you have been possessed or something.

When you show her a characteristic tired smirk as you run, all her doubts are wiped and she's so charmed and impressed, you litterally and figuratively sweeped her off her feet.

"You... You're amazing Y/N..."

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consumeconstantly · 4 years ago

Text

Lady Cross (first aid)

Summary: Somehow, Marinette always ends up biting off more than she can chew. It started off with a kid and a nasty gash on their knee. The sudden escalation to treating the new head of Gotham’s underworld? It can only be explained by the fact that she’s catnip for trouble.

_____________________________________________

Marinette supposed she should have expected something like this to happen eventually.

Really, she patches up a few street kids and offers a meal and some resources and suddenly she's made a name for herself in the slums of Gotham. It’s not like she’s doing anything revolutionary. Well, okay, maybe she does cheat a little bit and uses her healing powers on a few of the tougher cases that really should have been out of her realm of expertise, but she’s living near the slums of Gotham for a reason. That reason being Marinette is just a little broke and can’t really afford to send everyone she comes across to the hospital, and the people who are injured certainly can’t. It’s not like she can leave them to die. That would be heartless.

When she stopped treating scrapes and cuts for kids on the streets as she came across them and instead found her apartment balcony frequented by families who needed her help, she couldn’t just say no. And so, more and more serious wounds started coming in. Kids brought their parents and friends. The parents and friends brought... well, if the police stopped by her apartment any time soon, she’s fairly certain they’d have a field day.

But again, it’s not like she’s going to turn these people into the police when they’ve come to her for help and have a small army of people who swear up and down that they’re good people and only doing what they have to do in order to get by.

Morality comes in such a variety of shades, who was she to judge? Ladybug and Marinette have both certainly had their fair share of mistakes that they’d gladly go back in time to rectify, and her hands weren’t clean of blood either. Sure, the Miraculous Cure may have brought people back, but their deaths were still on her. And Hawkmoth? Yeah, he’s alive now, but she hammered him into the pavement after dropping him from the top of the Eiffel tower, and she’s not going to pretend that she didn’t take a bit of morbid joy in that moment.

But back to the matter at hand. Which was, the notorious Red Hood—responsible for a coup amongst Gotham’s drug dealers and responsible for taking down a man whose morality truly vanished with the wind, Black Mask himself— was currently bleeding out on her second floor balcony, smoking a cigarette and lounging against the rail like he owned the place.

“Lady Cross,” he inclined his head.

“Red Hood,” Marinette returned his greeting.

God, she really didn’t want to get involved with Red Hood. She wasn’t opposed to helping out street thugs and criminals, but Red Hood was a different league. He seemed to be a fairly decent guy, ensuring that kids weren’t dealt drugs and tried to keep them out of the circuit as much as possible. He took down plenty of worse criminals while he was at it. In fact, Marinette would go so far to say the Red Hood as one the good guys.

But the issue was, once she started treating people of a certain level, she’d be open game. And that didn’t seem very enticing to her. Not at all. Everyone knew that Red Hood had beef with the Bat Family for some reason or other, and also made enemies with almost every single rogue in Gotham, and a good number of enemies outside of it as well. Basically, Red Hood was a universal enemy of both the vigilantes and rogues. Someone she shouldn’t get involved with while she was trying to investigate the darkness surrounding Gotham whole running her online boutique and going to college at Gotham University.

Unfortunately, Tom and Sabine and her own stint as Ladybug taught her that she could never ignore someone in need. Marinette sighed and slid the mesh open, leading Red Hood to her living room. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

“Real nice place you got here,” he said.

With the mask covering the whole of his face, Marinette had no facial expressions to figure out whether he was poking fun at her current living situation or not. His voice sounded genuine, but vocal emotions were easy to fake.

The apartment she was living in was not on the nice side of town. There were three bullet holes in the wall between her living room and bedroom that she just didn’t have time to patch up, some pretty nasty looking stains on the ceiling near her kitchen, and a huge, spray painted red cross on one of her walls, which was where her street name derived from. Her floor and coffee table were also in states of disarray; she hadn’t gotten the opportunity to clean up after working on two commissions and the last guest whose wounds were heavy enough to warrant several rolls of gauze, which was now half stuffed into a garbage can sitting next to rolls of fabric. Perhaps not the neatest or most sanitary situation, but she didn’t have time to clean up before every single one of her unexpected guests came in.

Look, it wasn’t her fault that she didn’t have time to fix things up real nice and neat. She’d only been living in the apartment for a month and a half, and most times, she barely spent any time in it other than to sleep, cram last minute projects for her design course, or to help heal people. Her living situation wasn’t the biggest of worries.

“Sit,” Marinette gestured to the one of the few pieces of furniture that she specifically bought for the apartment. She didn’t mind the stained, half broken, and extremely creaky couch the last owners left behind for the first week, but after she started bringing back her first… visitors, it seemed important that the couch was comfortable, sturdy, and most crucially, cleanable.

Rummaging through a cabinet, she pulled out a tattered briefcase she thrifted a while back to keep all of her medical supplies in. Not the prettiest of things, but she tried not to keep expensive looking items in her apartment because she wasn’t a fan of getting mugged. The medicine she kept was already expensive enough, she didn’t need to attract everyone’s attention by owning one of those metal containers used in hospitals. Even though most of the people who dropped by her apartment were thankful to be treated, she had a few instances where people tried to steal things from her.

“What’s the damage, doc?” Red Hood’s voice came through rather tinny through his helmet.

Marinette grimaced. The helmet must have awful air circulation. It looked like some sort of metal, and wet and metal never smelled good together. “I don’t know, you tell me.”

“Thought you were supposed to be some mystic healer who came from the far east.”

She paused and looked at the man, trying to judge whether he was racist as well as rude. “That’s rather insulting.”

Red Hood shrugged. Marinette applauded the man for showing no outward sign of pain at that, even though there was a bullet embedded in his shoulder, and shrugging had to bite. “That’s what the word on the street is, though you sound French to me. Thought I’d come and check out who’s healing Gotham’s criminals. What’re you planning?”

“Sorry to foil your plans, but I’m not planning anything other than getting my college degree and not pissing off the people I live near.” She paused, flipping the lock on the briefcase upwards. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t use me as your go to healer from now on. You’re going to bring trouble my way.”

“Trouble? Me? Perish the thought.” His hand rested comfortably on the holister of his gun, ready to shoot if the girl pulled out a weapon from the briefcase. “We’ll talk about repeat appearances after I see how you do today.”

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Any wounds other than the obvious?”

“Just need the bullet out, and some stitches on the gash.” His shoulder and his abdomen, respectively. The gash looked nastier than the bullet; no shrapnel, but the cut on his stomach was jagged and wide. Not a normal, sharp blade. Probably needed a good cleaning.

She grabbed the tweezers, a sterilized needle, and medical thread. “That’s fine. Now are you going to undress, or am I going to have to cut your… costume… up?”

“Getting me naked already? We haven’t even had our first date yet.”

“Very funny, little Red Riding Hood. Now hop to it. I have class at 9 tomorrow and projects to finish tonight.” Somehow, trouble always seemed to find her when she least wanted it to. Not that she wanted to have trouble find her at all, but luck was a two way street, and for all that being Ladybug granted her good luck, she attracted criminals like catnip.

“And here my informants had me thinking you were a regular Florence Nightingale.”

Marinette snorted. “They wish. I’ve got to ask who told you, because everybody should know the rules. You know, the ones where they don’t speak of my existence to their higher ups?”

“I’m not a rat,” Red Hood said, taking the top part of his outfit off. “And it’s not like you would have gone unnoticed anyways. You might be treating small timers now, but people catch on to healers pretty easy.”

“Because some gauze and sewing skills make me such a prime target.”

“No, your magic does.”

Shit. Marinette never told anyone she was using magic, and she rarely used it unless it was a dire situation. If she could patch them up using regular skills, she did.

“Yeah right, if I had magic healing powers, do you think I’d be shoving my fingers into your shoulder to get a bullet out?”

“Not a very good liar, Lady Cross. You have this deer-caught-in-the-headlights look about you.”

“Thanks for the compliment. I’m also the deer that tramples through your windshield and takes a dump on the driver’s seat.” She maneuvered the tweezers a little rougher, hoping to make Red Hood hiss in pain. He just chuckled, amused. His high pain tolerance was getting rather annoying. She had half a mind to pour hydrogen peroxide over the wound just to see if that would make him show he was in pain, but thought better of it. Even though she didn’t like the man, she also didn’t want to piss him off. Or worse, have him come back and make her fix him up again.

Threading the needle, she made quick, small stitches on his shoulder, sewing the bullet hole up, then put some petroleum jelly to speed up the healing process and reduce scarring. At least the wound was in a position that didn’t require a lot of gauze. She needed to go out and buy some more soon. She barely had enough to wrap around Red Hood’s waist.

“So, the magic,” Red Hood started. “Is it a conditional thing? Can you not use it all the time?”

“Again, I don’t have magic.” Marinette did have to use some antibacterial on the knife wound. He would need to take good care of that one to make sure it didn’t get infected.

“So a meta, then. What are you doing in Gotham? Everybody knows Batman hates metas.”

“Not a meta, either, sorry to disappoint.” She tied off the gauze, then stood to wash her hands. “Make sure to clean the stomach wound well. Hope you have your tetanus shot, otherwise you should look into getting one.”

“Surprisingly, I’m inclined to believe you on the not-a-meta thing. Back to the first thing, then. Magic. Why don’t you show me the old razzle dazzle? Do you have to say one of those weird spells like the godmother in Cinderella? Bibbity bobbity boo?”

“You’re hilarious,” Marinette dead panned.

“How’s this for magic? Bibbity bobbity boo, kindly leave. Shoo.” She followed his suggestion, made a show of jazz hands as well. “Pity I don’t use magic otherwise you’d be gone now. Anyways, it’s time for you to make your exit. It would be great if you didn't visit me again. Ever. Thanks.”

She ushered him out onto her patio, then slammed the sliding door. He saluted her before dropping off the side of the building. She could imagine the man under the helmet smirking.

Marinette ran a hand through her loose hair. “He’s going to come back, isn’t he.”

@jasonette-july-2k20

#jasonette july #first aid #jasonette #marinette dupain cheng #jason todd #gotham #original content #bamf marinette #sassy marinette #miraculous ladybug #maribat #dcu #red hood hears of a mystic healer and decides to check her out

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cadopan · 3 years ago

Text

Arsenal’s player ratings for Birmingham City vs Arsenal FAWSL Matchday 10 (2-0)

So… it’s actually hard to think of a way to summarise this match because I thought I would be feeling anger and despair (like many others, perfectly justified reaction btw) but honestly as I look back on my viewing experience it was more of just falling deeper and deeper into the pit of disappointment.

A lovely mutual described it as “there’s a lot to be said yet nothing at all.” Which rings true imo. Certainly many things to unpack (the reasons why we looked like we were playing in slow-motion, Jonas completely folding in terms of his tactics and preparation for this game, etc. etc.) but really, it was many of the same things that’s been our downfall since the purple patch ended in mid-November.

Starting XI: Manu — 4.5/10. wasn’t the main culprit of our abysmal performance today and prevented it from getting worse, but those were mostly saves she’s expected to make. can’t say she looked assured in the box when she had that fumble with Lotte and almost let in a third with zero Birmingham players around her. Noelle — 2.5/10. far, very far from the usual composed and reliable Noelle Martiz we’re used to seeing who usually has the right flank locked down without question. misplaced passes all over (which was seriously a recurring theme for practically every player on the pitch today) and she barely supported Beth going forward too. Jen — 1.5/10. i’m done, she’s no longer a player good enough for this club/level of football and today was an undeniable demonstration of why. awful positioning and touches, getting outrun by Pennock and Sari all day long, and god knows what she was doing with that pathetic attempt at clearing the ball for the second goal. i’ve said it before, if you know you have absolutely zero pace to catch up with attackers, you at least have to have some decent positioning so you can give yourself a head start. and yet time and again she was getting caught in no man’s land and balls were slicing open the gaps between her and Boye. she also contributes fuck all when it comes to build up and takes a thousand years to release the ball to the fullbacks or midfielders. when we shift their defensive shape around a bit but then it constantly sits at Jen’s feet for over three or four Mississippis, there’s no option left to play and we have to start from scratch again. i almost pulled my hair out watching our two CBs and their woeful distribution today. ngl, this got on my nerves more than anything today. Simone Boye — 2/10. haven’t seen a single performance from her that’s been close to impressive and am still scratching my head as to why Jonas signed her. our defending and CB situation is just a joke at this point. no disrespect to them because they were fantastic today, but our backline was struggling and looking thoroughly outplayed by a Birmingham offence that had scored a grand total of four goals all season up till today. four. might sound cutthroat or reactionary (since it’s after a stupid loss) but i’m being serious that only Leah and Lotte should be part of our plans going forward. I’m sure they’re lovely people but the rest can be squad players; I don’t want to see them again in front of Manu because they’re going to lose the league title for us. whoever it is we’re signing this transfer window, start them ASAP. idc if they’ve never played in this league before or they’ve had all of one training session, they can’t be worse than this. Katie — 2.5/10. poor. it spoke volumes as to how dire the entire defending situation was when you’ve got the likes of Beth and Mana hanging out around our own corner flag getting so far back to help defend, and Viv dropping ever so deep repeatedly. Katie’s set-pieces and corners have been on a decline too, none of her deliveries came to anything today although it must be said that Birmingham defended crosses from both wings magnificently. always the first head to the ball, and barely let our attackers get a whiff near goal. also, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who noticed this, but what was up with Katie not passing to Mana at all?? (and later to Jordan too, when those two swapped positions). doesn’t like a vertical pass forward or doesn’t want to receive the layback from the winger in front of her? honestly, it played a big part in stifling our buildup and isolating Mana for a good part of the game. Frida — 3.5/10. no excuse that she wasn’t intended to start, there were just so many situations where she should have done better. i would say she was almost invisible in that midfield and was the player with the least presence out of the three. i mean, the commentators even singled her out with a closeup shot near the end saying that she was playing far below her standards today :( as i’ve said before in my reviews, it’s not the first time she wasn't offering herself as an outlet/option enough to receive a pass from the defenders, and even when she tried to progress the ball it was just passes into nowhere.

Kim — 4/10. had an open net to slot the ball into for the equaliser, but slammed it into the Birmingham defender instead. otherwise, she had one of the better performances in the team, but she was part of a midfield that was culpable in not getting on the ball enough and providing any form of service or final passes to the forwards. one gripe I have is that I didn’t really see a visible impetus from her to rally the team and get everyone to show some fight as the captain when we looked so disjointed�� Louise Quinn looked the superior leader and player on the pitch in every way today tbh.

Jordan — 4/10. likewise to Kim, had a killer opportunity 1v1 with the keeper but dinked it past when she should’ve at least been hitting the target. still, I’d say she was lively with her movement and showed some gusto to make things happen. coupled with her mid-range shot that flew into the sun during the first half, i think she actually had the far better scoring opportunities than most of the forwards? idk whether to be sad or happy about that actually...

Beth — 4/10. i mean, everyone could see that she was trying. giving a damn. beautifully clever layoff to Kim in the first half (that she also should’ve done better with) and Beth was doing her best to create on the right side but she was mostly on a solo mission and without support (from anyone! literally, the nearest player always looked at least 7 or 8 yards away from her). unfortunately became a bit of a passenger in the second half but you can’t really blame her for that.

Mana — 4/10. threaded some cute passes and looked one of the most likely to make something happen in the first half, but really it was a subpar day at the office for her too. drifted in and out of the game, and couldn’t get on the ball as much as she’d like to and even when she did it was too far down the pitch where she couldn’t do anything substantial with it. the commentator said at one point, “she probably wishes she was away at the Asian Cup and not here” and i was like, you think? even the European players wished they were away at the Asian Cup today.

Viv — 4/10. maybe the bun jinx is real 👀 jk, it’s fun to deflect the blame on that but sometimes we just have to admit that Viv isn’t nowhere near the form that the team needs her to be in and what knows she’s capable of. fair to say that the front three were really starved of service and any creative balls from midfield today, but girl, waaay too much dawdling on the ball and running herself into a cul-de-sac when she could’ve picked a pass instead. Viv also said, “my bestie got a yellow so imma be a supportive friend and get one myself too 🙃” still, i’m having none of that “Viv doesn’t care” or “she’s leaving” nonsense from some fools because it was evident that her passion (or frustration) was bubbling over from her desire to try and drag the team back into the game.

*you might think the attackers shouldn’t be this high of a rating, but I don’t think they to be marked down because they were really crippled by how ineffective our backline was. goes to show yet again, how crucial our buildup from the back is reliant on the CBs (namely LEAH) because it was due to her spraying passes and breaking the press that our attackers had room to play and create goals. today, the defence and midfield made it really hard for the front three to have the space or time they needed to generate chances. and worse so because we weren’t playing a Barca who suffocates you in possession or a typical lower-ranked side who just parks themselves in the box (which may actually have been better for us). it was an actual open game, and we still failed at stringing together simple passes to the forwards...

Subs:

Lotte — 3/10. i won’t fault Jonas too much for not starting her, but why tf wasn’t she brought on earlier when BOTH CBs were having an absolute mare?? she didn’t look the most assured, certainly with that mix-up with Manu from the corner, but she better start the next match.

Bonus:

Jonas Eidevall — 3/10. well he said it himself, he “takes 100% full responsibility.” but also that they “didn’t look like a team that understood the plan”? so was the failure the plan itself, conveying the plan, or the ability to execute the plan? anyway, hardly a convincing answer that gives me shades of the Chelsea FA Cup Final where the entire team crumbled in a similar manner and his excuse was exactly along these lines. but somehow, with the depleted squad and all the players looking devoid of energy and ideas, I can’t really condemn him so much for today’s showing. but as the ridiculous losses pile up, he’s just showing day by day that he isn’t anywhere near the hype he got early on in the season. whatever the team situation, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s got a stable of world quality, star players who should never be losing to a Birmingham team, no matter how determined and well-drilled they are. getting the best of our players who have proven individual quality to play as a team is his job, what else is he there for?

Referee — 4/10. some blatant fouls ignored (Viv’s one wasn’t a penalty by any means, but she didn’t even give anything at all for that one when Viv was clearly sent over). other than that, nothing could’ve been more of an issue with me than our performance itself, and Birmingham weren’t too annoying with the time wasting as other teams could’ve certainly been, had they been in the same position. kudos to them. Overall: the winter break really returned our girls in the worst possible condition at the worst possible time. (losing players to the Asian Cup, injuries nowhere near return, tough fixtures incoming and so on…) throughout the match, I thought the commentary was being way too poisonous and naysaying at every error made by our players, but there were also far too little positives to point out. we undoubtedly looked lethargic and playing with sandbags attached to our legs at times. how we’re going to get over the late Jan-Feb period and the way the title race with Chelsea might pan out is a whole other discussion so I’ll save that for the asks, but most of my hopes rest on the transfer window now.

oh, MOTM goes to Birmingham as a team for an absolute monster performance where absolutely everyone pulled their weight, but specifically their backline impressed me very much today. playing with conviction, constant organisation, in sync and perfect covering for each other — everything our defence aspires to be.

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my-emotional-self · 4 years ago

Text

Toxic Love Chapter 7

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader, Steve Rogers x Reader x Bucky Barnes

Summary: Finding out your soulmates were Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes was one thing. But when someone from your past comes back to haunt you, you have to figure out if a relationship with two super soldiers is something you really want to pursue or if you’d rather go back to your comfortable single life.

Series Warnings: 18+, Swearing, Angst, Fluff, past mentions of rape, self-harm, attempted rape, domestic violence, stalking, death threats, possible Dark!Steve?, Steve will be an asshole a LOT in this series but I don’t know how dark it will get, explicit sexual content, mental health issues, kind of A/B/O dynamics but not really (no they are not actual wolves, more like the hierarchy), mentions of suicide, flashbacks of suicide, nightmares

A/N: There will be no taglist for this story! I apologize in advance!

8 Years Ago – Age 17

“Y/N, do you know why you are here?” the shrink asked from across the large desk. You looked down at the typical uniform of a patient at a psychiatric ward. Yes you knew why you were in here. A few months ago you witnessed your father’s dead corpse hanging in your living room. The next thing you knew you were writing a suicide note of your own and your foster parents found it before you could do anything. Now, you were stuck in a psych ward, probably until you at least turned 18.

“Yep,” came your short response.

The shrink glanced down at her papers in front of her, going through all of your notes. “We want to help you as best we can Y/N. You’ve been through some very traumatic experiences in your life and you’ve witnessed a great deal. We are going to get you all the help you need.”

3 Months Later

“Have you heard of Borderline Personality Disorder Y/N?” your psychiatrist, Dr. Wang asked.

That made your head snap in her direction. Here you were, still stuck in the psych ward after three months and you weren’t sure why. “I’ve heard of that, yes. But I thought I was just depressed,” you mumbled, chewing on your fingernail.

You were clinically diagnosed with depression shortly after coming here.

“Well, that’s what we originally thought at first. But the longer you’ve spent time here, the more I and the rest of the staff have discovered it is BPD. You’re intense mood swings, combined with your ongoing feelings of emptiness and the intense bouts of anger you have are all signs of BPD. We are going to switch up your medications and that will really help with your mood swings and anger issues.

~~~

No matter how hard you tried, sleep never came to you that afternoon. You tossed and turned all afternoon in your bed and nothing seemed to be working. Not only that, but you were really starting to get more irritable as the day went on and you knew it was time to change the dosing of your medication. It was like clockwork, every year to year and a half. The only problem was that you couldn’t leave the tower without Steve, Bucky or an anyone else. How were you supposed to get an appointment with your Psychiatrist if you couldn’t leave the tower alone? This only increased your anger and frustration as you got out of bed to get ready.

You brushed your teeth and put on a some jeans and a t-shirt, not really caring what you threw on. All of the specific clothing you wore for work was in the closet of your game room along with your makeup and accessories.

Upon leaving your room, you saw Steve and Bucky sitting at the island in the kitchen of your shared apartment. They both looked deep in thought over some paperwork and you assumed it was for work.

Grabbing a bottle of water from the kitchen, you were about to head into the elevator as you didn’t want to disturb them, but Steve spoke up and caught your attention. “Where are you off to?”

“Oh, umm, I’m heading down to my game room. I’m going to work tonight,” you mumbled out as you pressed the button for the elevator. You noticed it was on the ground floor and it would take a few minutes to get to your level.

“What time do you plan on being done?” Steve questioned.

You huffed in annoyance, already irritated as anger began to creep through your bones. “I don’t know. Whenever I get done,” you snapped. Immediately you felt regret, but sometimes your emotions got the better of you when you were in dire need of a medication change.

“Hey, what’s with the attitude?” Steve commanded as he got up from his seat and stalked over to you, hands on his hips. You noticed Bucky looking at you from his seat with furrowed brows. They had never seen you angry like this. You were always so compliant and easy going.

“Look, I’m sorry. I’m just tired is all.”

Steve looked at you sharply, his lips in a thin tight line. “Alright. Just make sure you get to bed at a reasonable time tonight. Promise?”

“I promise,” you answered back.

~~~

In the comfort of your game room, you quickly got to work. Digging through your closet, you decided on a light pink tank top that said ‘Gamer Girl’ in black letters with two gamer controls on it. Since your webcam only showed your top half, you threw on a black pair of cotton shorts to be comfortable.

Next, you put your hair up in space buns, making sure they were situated just right so they wouldn’t be in the way of your headphones. You put on your typical game night makeup: bright pink eyeshadow with dark smoked out liner, some mascara and blush and you were good to go.

Turning on your monitor, you began to power everything up and once that was done, you logged in. Immediately your followers started putting in their messages off to the side and you smiled as you read them. You always tried to read as much of them as you could.

As the night went on, you knew you should pack it up and listen to what Steve said; getting to bed at a descent time and getting rest. But you were having way too much fun tonight and so were your followers. It was one of the best nights you’d had in months and not just money wise.

Ignoring the clock you continued to play and interact with your followers with the microphone that was attached to your headphones. Every so often you would glance to your messages box and see what some of them had said. Most of them were cheering you on but of course you always had some haters in there as well.

It was when you noticed the screen name of one of them that made your blood run cold. JSmith20. ‘It can’t be’ you thought to yourself, trying to keep as composed as possible as hundreds of people were watching you game in this very moment.

John’s last name is Smith and he always told you how his favorite number was 20, because that was how old you were when you met him. No, but he’s still in prison. He hasn’t gotten out. He’ll be in there for many more years to come. It had to be one of his friends right? The same friend that had been delivering those letters to your old apartment. ‘Yes, that’s right. It’s just one of his friends trying to torment you’ you thought to yourself.

Then, the person behind that screen name typed a message into your message box.

Hey babe. Do you miss me yet? I can’t wait to see you – J

Yep, your composure went out the window reading the message. Then another message from him popped up.

I see you are no longer living in that little one bedroom apartment. Did you really think you could up and move and I wouldn’t be able to find you? Oh babe, how cute. I will find you and we will meet again soon. I promise – J

As you stared at the words on your screen, you heard groans from the other players on your team. You had just lost the game.

“Shit,” you swore, anger bubbling up inside of you. “Fucking damnit!” You slammed your fist on the desk.

You rarely lost games. Losing always put you in a foul mood. But because of already being irritable and your emotions on over drive, losing just made everything worse.

Looking at the clock it was just before five in the morning so you logged off and shut everything down.

You took your hair out of the buns, immediately feeling the tension in your head ease. Ever so quietly, you opened the door and poked your head out into the hallway. It was bitch black so you used your phone as a flashlight and tiptoed to the elevator. Before pressing the button on the elevator, you paused. What if the noise of the elevator woke up Steve or Bucky? You had promised Steve that you would get to bed at a descent time and seeing as it was just about five in the morning, well, you kind of figured you’d be in trouble.

Instead, you opened the door to the stairs which was situated right next to the elevator. At least taking the stairs would be much quieter.

You climbed the stairs up a few levels until you reached your living level and you waited on baited breath for a few moments. Nothing. Nothing but silence. As quiet as a mouse, you snuck through the door and dashed to your room, thanking your lucky stars that the palm scanner didn’t make any noise.

You took a nice hot shower, washing off all of your makeup and the stress of the last few hours. As much as you wanted to forget John messaging you, it wasn’t going to happen, neither was any sleep.

Rather than even bothering to get into bed and try to relax, you sent an email to your psychiatrist letting her know that you would more than likely need a dose change on your medications. Frantically typing away at the email, you explained how you were beginning to get irritated and it was harder for you to control your bouts of anger.

Luckily for you, Dr. Wang was an early bird and she emailed you right back. She wanted you to come see her for an appointment and your heart immediately dropped. That wasn’t going to happen as one of your rules was that you weren’t allowed out of the tower by yourself. And as much as you liked Darcy, you couldn’t trust her to go with you and not say anything to Steve or Bucky.

Typing out your reply, you explained that you were unfortunately not able to meet in person and if there was anything else that could be done. After you hit sent, you began to pace in your apartment, clearly on edge with everything going on. You just wanted to feel better; you hated feeling this way. It was as if you weren’t in control of your body and you definitely weren’t in control of your emotions.

A notification came through your laptop and you rushed towards it, almost tripping over your feet. As you read her words, you could have cried right then and there. She had agreed to a phone call appointment and she had time right now to discuss things with you.

Grasping your phone, you dialed her number.

“It’s good to hear from you Y/N,” Dr. Wang stated as she answered the phone.

“Oh Dr. Wang it is so good to hear your voice.”

She let out a soft chuckle. “Yes, it has been a little over six months since we’ve last spoken. How are things going with you?”

“Where to begin,” you started off saying. You let her know that you indeed met your soulmates and had moved in with them. You went over the rules that Steve had given you and she made you feel better as she stated she had seen way worse rules. Hell, she said your rules were like a walk in the park compared to some she has heard.

“Alright, now, let’s get down to business. How are you feeling these past few days?” she asked curiously.

“Ugh, not good. Moving was stressful but I have been feeling really irritated over the last few and I’ve had a few bouts of anger rush through me that makes me want to punch something, but I’ve luckily been able to hold back on that.”

“What about any risky behaviors such as reckless driving, spending sprees, binge eating, drug abuse or sabotaging anything positive in your life?”

“Not yet,” you stated. You knew the routine. She was going over all the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder to see what has changed with you.

“Ok good. How about any intense fears of abandonment or rejection?”

That question always hit you like a punch to the gut. The only reason you had stayed with John for so long was because of that right there. He purposely wouldn’t let you see Dr. Wang or he wouldn’t take you to get your medications refilled and because of that, you were starting to feel those feelings; not wanting to be abandoned no matter what.

“Nope,” you replied.

“Ok then. I am going to increase the dosing on your current medications but I want to warn you. Without you coming in and personally seeing me and without getting some blood work done, I don’t know how well this dosing is going to work, if it will work at all. We might need to discuss changing the medication all together,” she stated.

“I understand Dr. Wang. And do you think maybe you could prescribe some sort of sleep medication for me too?”

“I can prescribe a one week trial of a sleeping medication for you. After that, I really need you to try and come see me in the office and we can discuss that further. Now, did you want me to send these prescriptions into your regular pharmacy?”

“Yes, that would be great. Thank you so much Dr. Wang.”

“No worries at all Y/N. Give the office a call and get an appointment set up.”

“I will. Thanks again.”

Now that you had your medications all taken care of, you had to figure a way to leave the tower so you could get them.

#steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x you #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers fanfic #steve rogers smut #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes smut #dark!steve rogers #dark! steve rogers

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