#it's like how loop wanted help so badly they lost everything in pursuit of it when all they had to do was be honest with their friends.

[codacheetah]

5 for the isat ask game!

5 - What's your favorite optional event?

VERY TOUGH ONE TO ANSWER. I'm gonna go right ahead and disqualify twohats bc it's a predictable answer. If I had to choose just one though I think it'd probably be the sus event. It really got my goat on my first playthrough bc I didn't realize you had to do it in ACT 4. If I remember correctly I think sus is the only optional event locked to ACT 4??? Now that I've actually done it though I'm quite fond of it.

Sus event is one that you really have to go out of your way to do. It kind of reminds me of the True Ending in SASASAP but More and I'm sure that's intentional. Like the requirements for sus quest necessitate that you're going to do it, if not the loop before ACT 5, very soon before it. You have to know pretty much everything about Time Craft and Wish Craft already, so whatever you're doing in the loops now is basically taking out any optional stuff before you hit the end. You have to pretty thoroughly remember how the script goes just so you know all the best ways to break it. I feel like if the True Ending route is Loop going through the motions so many times that they can't deal with holding their facade together any longer, the sus route is Siffrin waving a big red flag around for help. There's just no way you're going to stumble into sus without preplanning what to do to rack up your points and make Odile aware of how Wish Craft works.

So I think it's interesting how much Siffrin pushes back against Odile trying to figure him out. It's a pattern of behavior that I am well aware of where you're desperately going "HELP ME" but you're not willing to accept it when it's offered to you.

Siffrin spends an entire loop screwing everything up, to a point that's frankly kind of egregious even by Late Stage Timeloopers standards, and then they can't reckon with the consequences of it. I don't think sus event is as intentional of a cry for help for Siffrin as it is the player, mind you. But I do think it's. Very tragic. Yeah of course "it's too late" in the sense that Siffrin's about to talk to Euphie and the whole journey will end, but moreso it's that by the time that Odile can piece together all the information necessary to figure Siffrin out, Siffrin is just far too deeply entrenched in his self hatred and fear of abandonment to be dug out. I think if Odile could somehow figure it out in, like, early ACT 3, or if Isabeau was just a bit more pushy in getting Siffrin to do a feelings talk, maybe they'd actually be able to reach Siffrin a little. But they're always just a little too late, every single time.

I think the fact that you start really getting a bunch of weird points in ACT 3 gives this event a lot of buildup. For potential dozens of loops you'll see Odile brush against the truth of the situation, and then just barely miss. By the time she figures it out, it's too late. Explodes

Expounded upon slightly more in tags bc I don't like typing in post bodies I feel like a fish on land. eek

[zevexsii]

Hello! I saw your post on petals and decided to come by and drop a ask! Any chance you could do sfw and nsfw hcs about Emma x tall fem hunter! (Based on and looks like japanese folk lore Hachishaku-sama) with gentledom and praise kink in the nsfw part? Sorry if this is a weird ask!

thank you so much! don’t worry, it takes a lot to weird me out lmao

emma woods with a hachishaku-esque hunter gf (sfw + nsfw hcs)

SFW

*well, mark me down as scared and horny intensifies*

emma is one of the more peaceful survivors; she’s more intimidated by your arrival than intrigued. at first. 

your hunter abilities are downright terrifying- who wouldn’t be a little scared! you have earned her respect with your proficiency at the game, though.

she writes her interest in you outside of games off as mere curiosity- you’re a supernatural being, after all! 

still, she’s captivated by your kind behavior outside of matches, compared to your fierce pursuit of survivors during matches.

you bond in the gardens; emma isn’t hard to befriend and the more you know about gardening, the more instantly pleased she is.

emma has slower auditory processing, especially when she’s busy with something she’s passionate about. you might have to call her name a few times, but she’ll look up with dirt smeared on her cheek and the biggest, brightest smile known to man.

wipe the dirt off her face or straighten her hat and her face reddens to a concerning point- ask if her if she’s feeling alright and she’ll combust on the spot. pretty supernatural lady?? asking her if she’s alright??? *gay panic*

eventually, emma brings up the way your mere presence gives her butterflies and how your smile makes her day to vera and the other female survivors in the manor- they inform her that this is, in fact, a crush.

Oh Fuck???

it becomes more and more obvious that emma has a soft spot for you; she memorizes your favorite flower and makes a point to grow a section just for you! maybe someday she’ll gather the courage to ask you out to the flower bed after dinner. someday. 

her pining is noticeable! so, there are two ways you can go about this; emma is one of the people who you can just sort of, “slip” into a relationship with- keep being tender and you’ll get closer and closer. everything feels good and soft and right. this isn’t to say that you two won’t discuss important things! emma is very easy to communicate with.

the other way to go about this would just be to confess; it’s easy and light. emma is terrified that you might reject her, but you haven’t rejected any of her affections, right?

after the confession, things don’t change too much. emma is still affectionate through gifts of beautiful flowers, or planting herbs and spices that you like! she’s very observant and an incredibly quick learner when she’s interested in something.

not incredibly interested in pda; she’s got so many other things to think about!! emma’s got a very bubbly personality all around. when she thinks about it, though, she’ll loop her arm through yours or clutch your comparatively enormous hand in her tiny one. she’s also obsessed with the size gap. let her sit on your shoulders and she swears she’ll love you forever. 

like she won’t already

really enjoys forehead kisses. soft, innocent affection that she can think about all day makes emma positively melt. cup her face in your hands and she’ll nuzzle your palm.

definitely the little spoon. she doesn’t have the words to describe how safe and at home she feels when you curl up behind her or let her lay on your chest, her head buried in the crook of your neck. scratch her back or gently run your fingers through her hair and she’ll be asleep in an instant.

it’ll come as no surprise that emma is highly inclined to flower-oriented nicknames. her favorites are sunflower and gardenia- she loves you more than any flower she’s ever grown and she intends to make you aware of that every opportunity she gets.

NSFW

emma woods is another capital b Bottom. pretty vanilla, too. 

she’s not very focused on sex in general; she’s pretty new to relationships of this nature.

that being said, emma’s naturally curious about a lot of things; she may be a bottom and more of a pillow princess if truth be told, but she’s eager to please either way. if there’s a certain position you’d like to try or a certain toy you’d like to use, she’s up for it.

emma would want to set up a safeword, just in case. nothing too elaborate.

lives to be praised. tell her how good and wet she is for you in a low murmur as you curl your fingers inside of her; the sight of the gentle smirk that spreads across your face is enough to make her whimper.

her entire body shivers slightly when you lay soft, sweet kisses on the side of her neck and up her jawline. she’ll grip the bedsheets and whine about how badly she needs you, scratching your exposed back with her nails. 

if you decide to use a strap-on, you’ll need to be extremely gentle the first time. go down on her- it won’t be hard to continue after you hear how incredibly loud she is. leave hickeys on her thighs when you go down to prep her, the sight drives her wild after the act is done.

lace your fingers together when you push the material inside of her- emma’s breath will catch in her throat, all of the things she wanted to say burned away by the uncontrollable wave of pleasure rolling over her. 

as soon as she can form a coherent thought, her first words are something along the lines of “please, (y/n)-”. emma begs quite frequently; not because she thinks you get off on it, just because every statement she would’ve kept quietly to herself is forced out to the rhythm of your hips against slamming against hers as she cries out for more.

very easy to overstimulate. emma loves it too- not long and you’ll have her nearly screaming at the gentle pressure of your tongue to her clit. if you tell her to pull your hair, or tug on it ever so slightly, she’ll be nervous. this is about love, right? why would she want to hurt you?

reassure her that it’s pleasurable to you and get back to work between her thighs. soon enough she’ll be lost in waves of ecstasy and will forget all about her apprehension, especially when you emit a low groan from the tension. 

not too big on giving oral; she doesn’t know exactly what to do and she’s afraid of disappointing you. reassurance is key. you’ll have to tell her what you like, being extra vocal the first few times will definitely help. 

when emma cums, she loses control completely. depending on how many orgasms she’s had, she’ll get more and more vocal, almost to the point of screaming. her hands will shake as she moves to wipe the gathering drool away from her lips, sweat beading on her forehead and flushed red all the way to the tips of her ears. 

every slight bit of praise you coo tightens the knot in her stomach and before you know it, she’s been totally unraveled. 

aftercare is very important. run emma a bath and massage sweet-smelling shampoo and conditioner into her hair while she breathlessly thanks you for everything earlier. take her to bed, dressed in one of your shirts (it’s long enough to be a dress on her at this point) and hold her close, whispering kind things until you both fall asleep.

[shihalyfie]

Shihanne’s Kizuna meta -- Part 1: The meaning behind Kizuna, and the actual cause of partnership dissolution

Kizuna is a very easy movie to misunderstand, and it’s not helped by the fact that the official translation kind of sucks. (Seriously, I highly recommend you check out the translation of one of the novels -- the Dash X or the Shueisha Mirai version -- because of how badly the official one sucks.) On top of that, a lot of its information is packed in the subtleties of a lot of its lines, which means that, without paying very close attention, you can walk off with a completely misleading interpretation of what the movie is trying to say. A lot of times I see people talking about how the movie’s message is about adulthood sucking, or partnership dissolution being an inevitable thing...when the movie actually makes multiple indications that this is not the case.

(The rest of the post contains major spoilers for the movie, so be warned.)

Do note that the below is only my personal interpretation, and because there is a lot to unpack with this movie, please feel free to disagree with or disregard any of my interpretations here.

Kizuna has a lot of things to say about adulthood, but the most obvious theme is, of course, “don’t be too trapped in nostalgia” -- represented by Menoa’s desire to trap everyone in Neverland so they can never move forward, and, on a meta level, the ridiculous amount of Adventure imagery associated with people who can’t move on (yeah, they weren’t really subtle about that part...). But as a result, the idea behind the movie is often taken the wrong way -- does this mean that they’re trashing on the very series they’re meant to honor? Is the movie about people having to swallow adulthood being painful? After all, the movie says that partners disappear when you become an adult! Isn’t the movie saying we all have to accept that (even though the sheer existence of the 02 epilogue should imply otherwise)?

Nope! The movie actually does have another inner layer about what it means to become an adult, and how to develop a healthy relationship with your adulthood that isn’t just violently cutting everything away -- in fact, it considers that to be another unhealthy extreme that it warns against. It’s just that this theme is a little more latently hidden, and you have to connect the dots a little to figure that out.

I think a lot of the reason so many people miss this is predicated on the fact that you are not supposed to take Menoa’s statement at face value. It’s her statement as presented in the official trailers and a lot of the advertising material, so it’s easy to think that she’s supposed to be the deliverer of the movie’s message, but that is very much not the case! Understanding this is key to understanding the core theme of the movie, and what it’s trying to say in terms of a lead-up to the 02 epilogue.

Menoa’s statement on adulthood, which is what the concept of partnership dissolution is supposedly predicated on, is the following (quoted from onkeikun’s translation of the Dash X Bunko novel, which uses the movie script):

Do all of you know why it’s children who are chosen to be partners with Digimon?... It’s because children are full of possibilities... The future is rife with limitless choices. You grow as a person by making those choices. “Growth” and “possibilities” together produce vast energy. As I’m sure you guys are already aware, the evolutions of your Digimon partners are triggered by your growth... When that power is gone… Your partnership with your Digimon ends.

Keep in mind that Menoa has built this “theory” based on her own experience. She’s convinced that her “choice” to become an adult was what took Morphomon from her. She’s convinced that Adulthood is Bad, and that Choices are Bad. Menoa is very much biased from her own experience, and her theory is not reliable. Seriously, do you think someone who eventually decides that forcing everyone into an eternal loop of their childhood is an excellent idea is a reliable source for these kinds of things?

Not only that, she’s also claiming that this is supposed to apply to all adults just because this happened to her. Although she claims that this is part of her research, there clearly have not been enough cases of partnership dissolution for this to be a well-known issue. Given that she lost Morphomon at a young age, and she’s one of the oldest Chosen Children, it’s natural that she might think that this might be a universal phenomenon and that it might not have “kicked in” for everyone else, but nevertheless, she’s committing a major no-no in scientific research -- extrapolating based on a painfully small sample size, and letting her own biased perception of events manipulate what she sees as the result.

When Gennai supposedly “confirms” the partnership dissolution phenomenon, note that he does not actually confirm Menoa’s theory.

Unfortunately, you are experiencing the case where your partnership is dissolving... But if you guys still have infinite possibility…Then it’s possible…

The fact that Gennai refers to it as a “case” is very important (it’s very clear in the Japanese line too, jirei). This is a thing that may happen. It is not a thing that is guaranteed to happen, and it’s not necessarily a thing that comes with adulthood like Menoa thinks. What’s more, he even acknowledges that “having infinite possibility” is still possible for adults -- something that doesn’t fit with Menoa’s theory on Adulthood Being Bad and how it diminishes possibility.

As the movie eventually goes into Menoa’s plan for “saving” Chosen Children, she justifies her motive by saying that losing partners is “fate” (shukumei). She thinks that losing partners is an inevitability. She thinks that this is just something that comes with adulthood, and that unless she forces everyone to stay in their childhood, their only recourse will be to suck it up and to be miserable.

This is why the climax is dedicated to Taichi and Yamato proving her wrong.

“What you’ve chosen wasn’t a mistake!” “But no matter what waits for us after making that choice…!” “We have to live with the decisions that we make!”... “We might not be able to change our fate. But!” “We can change our destiny!”

In essence, Taichi and Yamato are disproving both parts of Menoa’s theory on Adulthood Being Bad. It’s not that choices are inherently bad, it’s just that sometimes there are consequences of said choices...but it’s not like said consequences lead to dead ends. Taichi and Yamato, in contrast to Menoa’s belief in “fate”, believe in “destiny” (unmei) -- the difference being that they believe in being able to change that predetermined fate by their own efforts.

The concept had come up earlier in To Sora, too --

Hey, Sora-san. I think it was destiny that we became Chosen Children. But I don’t think it was fate.

It’s a completely different conversation, but Mimi is basically talking about the philosophy that pushes the Chosen Children forward -- that sure, some things seem to be predestined and beyond simple luck, but also that they’ve had choice in manipulating the events and changing what seems normally inevitable.

So if Menoa’s theory about partnerships dissolving in adulthood is questionable to begin with, then what does cause partnership dissolution? Again, it’s not actually established that this is something that happens to everyone. We only have four confirmed cases within the scope of the movie: Menoa herself, Taichi, Yamato, and Sora. So what do they have in common?

Well, the night before the ring appeared on Taichi and Yamato’s Digivices, they had this conversation:

“You should take Gabumon with you to your classes,” Taichi said jokingly. Yamato smiled wryly. “Don’t be stupid. Why don’t you take Agumon to your classes?” “It’s not that simple. I have my own life to live.”

And during the events of To Sora -- which presumably happened right before the ring appeared for Sora -- this happened:

When Piyomon had come to inform her that Koushiro had sent a message, Sora had said to her angrily, “Don’t bother me!” The distress and irritation of her practice not going well had caused Sora to take it out on her. But even when lashed out by that irrational anger, Piyomon had been the one who apologized. When she saw Piyomon hanging her head apologetically, Sora had felt a surge of regret but no room in her heart to apologize as well. “I need to focus on this right now…” She had said as her excuse, and looked away.

And in Menoa’s case, a certain something shows up in the Shueisha Mirai Bunko version of the novel -- it’s implied in the movie itself, but the novel itself says it pretty explicitly:

Waiting in front of the swing at her family’s home, where they’d always played together when Menoa was a child, was her beloved friend. Lately, she’d been studying so much that they hadn’t been talking to each other at all, so she wanted Morphomon to lavish her with praise. She wanted her to say, “Menoa, you’re amazing!”

See a pattern? All of the known cases of partnership dissolution involved neglect of their Digimon partners in pursuit of “adulthood”.

Taichi and Yamato ditched Agumon and Gabumon at the start of the movie and left them with their siblings. Agumon hadn’t even been to Taichi’s room before, even though Taichi lives by himself and is clearly lonely -- his reaction when Agumon finds his AVs, “you have to be an adult -- “ tells all, because he clearly thinks of Agumon as “a child” who shouldn’t be near his New Adult Life. Sora may have apologized later, but it sounds like there’s been a constant pattern of her starting to focus so much on her studies that she’s emotionally neglected Piyomon. And, of course, Menoa herself rushed so much to become “an adult” that she neglected her beloved partner in the process -- they weren’t even talking anymore! And the fact that the swing is discussed in past tense, when Menoa was a child, indicates that Morphomon may not be the only thing Menoa had tossed away in pursuit of “becoming an adult”.

(Note how Menoa constantly talked through the movie about the fact she and Morphomon had “always been together”, as if Morphomon had been ripped unfairly from her suddenly and for no reason...only for the revelation that Menoa was guilty of neglect to drop at the end. I repeat: Menoa is not a reliable person to be taking words at face value from.)

It really, really doesn’t seem like coincidence that Taichi and Yamato’s Digivice rings appeared the day after they flippantly laughed at the idea of taking Agumon and Gabumon to school because it would get in the way of “having their own lives to live”. Recall that Digimon in the Adventure universe have always generally been taken to represent an alter ego, or a part of oneself. (They were literally developed to represent part of the human soul in physical form.) On a symbolic level, your partner disappearing is representative of you losing touch with yourself -- and your own childhood innocence -- because of some arbitrary, societally-enforced standard of “becoming an adult”.

Fun side note? As mentioned in the movie, Eosmon is named after the Greek goddess of the dawn, who also has another interesting story about her: she fell in love with a mortal man and, not wanting him to die before her, requested that he be given eternal life, but neglected to ask that he be given eternal youth, and was forced to watch as her lover kept living on and on and withered further and further with age. Neglected the concept of youth, huh.

That’s why partnerships seem to dissolve with adulthood, but it’s not from the simple act of becoming an adult -- it happens when you take that adulthood and decide that you’re going to reject all of those “childish” things about yourself in pursuit of that goal, and lose yourself in the process. And sure, they may have tried to fix it right away, but these things aren’t just momentary moments of weakness; they build, and build, and build, and build, until you’re at the point of no return and need to take drastic measures to get it back.

And in fact, if you inspect the staff interviews (which have been, presumably, deliberately vague about this in the hopes of having the audience figure it out), they hint at it, too:

For this movie, we had the concept of "separation from their Digimon", which means being able to completely separate yourself from your past self, or rather, wondering if it might be better to cut yourself entirely from your past adventures in becoming more like an adult.

Not only that, but this explanation tracks much better than what Menoa claims is the case. Under Menoa’s explanation of choices diminishing possibilities, characters like Daisuke and Jou who had their paths already determined from an early age should have lost their partners a long time ago, and conversely, Taichi and Yamato, who weren’t sure on what to do with their lives at the beginning of the movie, should not have lost their partners. But “emotional neglect from the obsession with growing up” tracks even with our “outlier” cases -- Menoa “forced” herself to become an adult at the very-not-adult age of 14 and lost her partner, while Oikawa also didn’t actually get to “meet” Pipimon until he accepted that exact same thing -- that he needed to embrace the “power to dream” instead of considering himself a “tainted adult”.

(Ichijouji Ken, who could be argued to be guilty of emotional neglect of Wormmon in some sense, initially seems like a violation of this principle, but closely observing the Kaiser’s behavior during 02 indicates an often paradoxical thread of behavior implying that he seemed to have been rejecting and yet wanting him nearby at the same time, which is part of the reason Wormmon’s death breaks him so badly. In fact, it often feels like he goes out of his way to acknowledge Wormmon for the specific purpose of rejecting him. In a metaphorical sense, knowing that Wormmon is representative of Ken’s own inner self, the metaphor of Ken being in perpetual internal conflict of constantly trying to outwardly reject his own heart for being “weak” yet never truly being able to escape it until he’s finally forced to accept it for good is not lost. It was not a positive relationship with Wormmon by any means, but it was, nevertheless, a conscious and active relationship, for which “neglect” does not feel like an appropriate word.)

When you look back at Menoa’s life and backstory, it then becomes clear how she made her mistake in her theory. Menoa basically threw away her childhood in order to become an adult, and she never learned to embrace the happy medium between having an unhealthy attachment to the past and violently cutting it off. Late in the movie, she claims that there’s nobody else who understands how she feels, and we also learn in her flashback that she had an obsession with doing things “on her own”, or in other words, she cut off any potential friends or people who could help her (Morphomon seems to have legitimately been her only friend and confidant). So in her mind, “losing touch with your inner self and having no connection to the happiness of your childhood” is fundamentally synonymous with becoming an adult. That’s how she develops her mentality of “adulthood is drudgery and has no value, and we’d be better off never getting there” -- and that adulthood strips people of possibilities and therefore provides no recourse from losing your Digimon partner, and that the only way to reclaim anything from your childhood is to just shove yourself back into its box. Her own life had no such hope in it, so she projects that lack of hope onto everyone else.

With that in mind, the two major questions that come from this:

Will this happen to everyone? Hard to say, but I don’t think it would necessarily. Remember, even though Menoa is one of the oldest Chosen Children and had this happen to her at an abnormally early age, not everyone has such an unhealthy relationship with adulthood, nor is as likely to neglect their partners nearly as much in the process of figuring out what adulthood means to them. That doesn’t mean that those it does happen to made some “mistake” or “messed up”, though -- press materials and the BD commentary made it clear that this was not a movie intended to endorse “one way to live”, and sometimes the degree of introspection and experimentation with what adulthood means to you does result in momentarily trying to cut things away until you figure your life balance out, especially if you want to take on a challenge with as high of a hurdle as Taichi’s road to becoming a diplomat.

So what’s the solution? Although it’s still left to everyone’s imagination to figure out the details, at the very least, figuring out yourself and snapping yourself out of this very unhealthy relationship with “growing up” and holding yourself to arbitrary, false standards is probably a great start! Menoa had her “vision” of Morphomon the moment Taichi and Yamato’s words reached her within Eosmon. Gennai specifically says that partnership dissolution will cause the Digimon to disappear in terms of losing their “form” (sugata), but given that Digimon in the Adventure universe are supposed to represent a part of yourself, they’re probably still there (just not there)! In that light, getting them back...is probably not actually all that hard, if they can sit down and take some time to figure themselves out. That’s why Menoa never figured it out this whole time in the last eight years; she was so busy focusing on “scientific” ways to get Morphomon back, and staying perpetually stuck in a twisted nostalgic version of her past, that she never actually sat down to think about herself and what she was doing. And that’s why the movie’s climax is about Taichi blowing the whistle to wake everyone up -- it’s still about moving forward, but it’s about using your past to move forward, instead of gravitating to the extremes of either latching onto it eternally or attempting to abandon it outright.

So really, the solution is for everyone to get some damn therapy.

Given that, the path to the 02 epilogue doesn’t actually seem that particularly difficult compared to how Menoa made the problem initially sound like. It’s not like every adult is going to inevitably have this happen as a process, and thus it’s not like everyone has to find some magical technical solution that’ll rectify one of the laws of the universe. The solution is really more somewhere between the unhealthy extremes presented in the movie -- Menoa’s fixation on nostalgia and the past being the only good thing in her life, and Taichi and Yamato (initially) rejecting said childhoods in favor of “adulthood” -- and figuring out how to use and cherish your childhood, past experiences, and inner self to move forward.

And given Sora’s revelation in To Sora about taking care of herself more, and Taichi and Yamato starting to settle on their career decisions for real by the end of Kizuna, they’re already on their way to figuring things out. Or, in other words, it’s likely that they’ll get their partners back simply through the natural course of making their way to the epilogue. Taichi’s starting to value his childhood experiences as important in his future work in diplomacy. Yamato, according to the Shueisha Mirai version of the novel, is becoming an astronaut to entertain the “romantic” dream of going to space with Gabumon. Sora, as per the 02 epilogue, will end up known not for being an iemoto heir but a kimono designer -- a skill that she’s presumably going to be discovering on her own, and not under obligations to others. Gennai himself said that there was hope as long as they still had “infinite possibility” -- something that Taichi, Yamato, and Sora were closing up on themselves at the beginning of this movie, but were starting to re-open the door to again once they started reconnecting with themselves and embarking on some proper paths by the end of it.

“We’ll definitely come to see you” -- indeed, they will.

(Next is the sequel to this meta, where I discuss Kizuna’s relationship with not only 02′s epilogue but also 02 itself as a whole, and the reason the 02 group has such an unusual position in this movie.)

[angst-fairygodmother]

Light Fingers (The Umbrella Academy)

Diego’s vigilantism brings him repeatedly across the path of a young cat burglar. But as he finds himself developing feelings for the thief, he begins to wonder if there’s more to her than meets the eye, and whether they’re really on opposite sides. And as their relationship deepens, it brings with it a plot involving his estranged adopted father, and threatens to destroy all of them.

CHAPTER 7: HEIST, HEIST BABY

Word Count: 2058 Pairing: Diego Hargreeves x Reader Rating: M Content Warnings: criminal activity, canon-typical violence  Cross-posted to AO3: here

Previous Chapter: Laid Bare || Masterlist

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After the first, most intense night of planning, it took three weeks before you were confident that the pair of you was ready to carry out your heist. You spent most of that time on “research,” staking out the warehouse to verify things such as guard rotations, security systems, and surrounding traffic, watching for patterns in shipment deliveries, hoping for a slip up, one missed logo on a shirt or van, anything to tell you who or where the crates were coming from. When you weren’t busy with that, you and Diego were going over the plan, discussing each person’s role and what you would do in different potential scenarios (in addition to being an almost normal new couple, getting to know each other even better and learning how to exist in conjuncture). 

Finally, you were satisfied that you had everything you were going to get from mere watching. Diego, trusting your instincts on the matter, agreed to your decision, meeting you at your apartment for last minute planning and then commencement of the main event.

You picked up the backpack containing your gear, turning back to grin at Diego. 

“Ready?” you asked. 

“Not quite,” he answered with a soft smile, stepping well into your personal space.

“What do you--” your question was cut off as he cupped your face gently between his hands and kissed you. You inhaled sharply, the breath slowly escaping again in a sigh as you melted into his touch. 

“For luck,” he whispered against your lips, eyes crinkled in a smile when your eyes fluttered back open. 

You smiled back. “I don’t think we need luck, but maybe you should do that again, just to be sure.”

“If I do that, we might never leave,” he said, voice low and gravelly in a way that sent your skin tingling. 

“Promises, promises,” you teased, shaking your head. “Alright, let’s get this party started.”

~

The streets were dark around you as Diego pulled his car to a park, about a mile from the warehouse. Your getaway secured, you made your way the rest of the way on foot. The agreement was that, given the size of the building, you would go in together and then split up to cover ground. Each of you would try to find a few worthwhile items to bag that were small enough to go unnoticed, and you’d make note of any information you found in the process that would tell what Reginald was doing with all this stuff, or who he was getting it from and sending it to. Exit the way you came and rendezvous at the car in two hours. You had a series of signals in place in case something went wrong, and what to do if it did (primarily scatter and meet back together when the coast was clear, possibly even a day or two later if necessary).

Partnerships were risky in your line of work, but somehow it felt safe with Diego. 

Covering you both in a wavering reflectivity in case there was a camera that you missed, you tried the unsecured back exit that was meant to be your way in and frowned. This door, by all rights, should have been easy to open, kept unlocked and unhindered as an emergency escape for the employees. 

“Locked,” you said with a frown, deadly serious despite your light tone. “Now that seems like a safety hazard. Maybe we should fix it for your dear old dad.”

Diego placed a hand over yours where it trembled on the door handle. You turned your head to look back at him, heart clenching at the expression of concern and understanding on his face. You breathed a shaky sigh, blinking back the tears (mostly of anger) in your eyes and tried to get your mind back on the work at hand. Examining the lock again, you decided on the right tools and pulled a thin crowbar from your bag, twirling it in your hands a few times before holding it out to him.

“Would you like to do the honors,” you smiled at him, “partner?”

He flashed a grin back, placing his hand just over yours and taking the bar from you. You shifted back, watching - and greatly enjoying the view of - him make quick work of popping the lock, his muscles flexing visibly beneath his tight black sweater. He passed the crowbar back to you and held the door cracked open.

“Ladies first,” he said softly, bowing to you with a flourish that made you giggle. 

“You just want to be able to watch me walk,” you teased, winking.

He shrugged, gesturing as if to say it couldn’t be helped. 

The warehouse had a certain spookiness to it as you entered, slipping carefully through the rigidly arranged aisles of shelf after shelf of crate. Each one seemed to be perfectly aligned as a sharp, straight line from floor to nearly ceiling. Somehow, you weren’t surprised by this, given everything you had heard or learned about the infamous Hargreeves. But it gave you the creeps, nothing should be this perfect, especially not a warehouse of suspicious and possibly illegal goods. 

By now, you had lost track of Diego in the maze, and even though that was the plan, it sent a shiver down your spine. Eventually, you found your way to a more open section, clearly some sort of inventory area with half-opened crates and long metal tables covered in individual objects. 

As you glanced around in the dim light, something moved on the other side of the area, making you jump. Your foot skidded on loose packing material, sending you stumbling into one of the large rolling ladders and it subsequently squeaking across the floor.

“Who’s there?” a voice called from somewhere up above and behind you.

Freezing, not daring to even breathe, you called upon your powers more firmly while your mind raced. There were catwalks that weren’t on the blueprints, or the shelves were such that they supported security officers walking around on their tops. There was security inside the building that you had somehow missed, despite staking out for so long and tracking the comings and goings. How had you messed this up so badly?

Your eyes flickered to the ground where the packing material lay and noticed that it was only on the ground near where the aisles joined with the room, and the ladders happened to be positioned right next to those spots. 

“Shit,” you muttered. You had led the way straight into a trap. 

“I’m guessing you just noticed that this was a setup too,” Diego asked, voice barely audible as he appeared at your shoulder (you had been too busy scolding yourself for your mistake to notice him creep around the edge of the room).

You nodded, biting your lip as you continued to look around, feeling the walls close around you like a cage. 

Suddenly a bullet whizzed past your head as Diego yanked you out of it’s path, pressing tight to you and pinning you against the wall. He turned, whipping something from a nearby table at the guard, hitting him squarely and causing him to stumble back. 

You heard shouts and the pounding of more boots on the metal pathways above.

“Well Master Thief, what now?” he asked, breath ghosting over your face. 

“Now? Running’s always a good option. I don’t think these guys will be so amenable to flirting as a distraction while we make our grand escape as some.” You couldn’t help winking at him, teasing despite the danger.

He stared at you, incredulous at your brazenness, but still he nodded minutely in consent. You waited a breath before linking hands with him and pushing off, moving shadow to shadow and stretching your powers as best you could to aid in your flight. The two of you darted back through the shelves, and you prayed that you were indeed headed for the door you had left propped open and ready for escape. 

‘Why were there no alarms going off?’ You wondered, sure that there should be more concern at your presence. 

You burst through the back door, and kept going, lungs burning as you wove your way through the deserted streets. Eventually, you realized that there was no pursuit and slowed to a halt in a narrow alleyway, still positioned so that you could watch in case you were proven wrong.

Diego doubled over and you collapsed against him, holding each other up as you panted, breathless from the run. His shoulders shook, and you quickly realized he was laughing, almost giddy. It was an unfamiliar sound, and it made your heart light. Unsure why you were doing it or what could possibly be funny, you found yourself joining in, until you could both barely stand for a new reason. 

When your eyes connected, you instantly sobered, breath catching as he leaned closer, one hand finding the back of your neck to draw you in. No matter how many times he kissed you, it still felt like the first time, like a once in a lifetime moment. 

“What was that for?” you asked, dazed as he pulled away. 

“Do I need a reason?” he countered, smiling at you. 

“Hmm,” you pretended to think about it for a moment before kissing him this time. “No. You don’t.”

A few moments later, he sighed. “What happened back there? Besides a huge disaster. Nothing was what it was supposed to be?”

“I don’t know. And I don’t like it,” you said darkly. “It wasn’t a total failure though. I did get this.”  

You held up a long, looped necklace practically dripping with pearls and chips of sapphire, the jewels and metal glittering in the floodlight over the nearby restaurant back door. He shook his head incredulously, gaping in wonder at you and trying to figure out exactly how and when you had managed to slip that into your bag without him noticing. 

“Plus, you can’t tell me you didn’t have fun.” You grinned, waiting for him to try to deny it. 

But he didn’t even try, knowing that he, in fact, had. It wasn’t so much about the actual theft, and breaking and entering really wasn’t new to him, but having you there with him, working with you. It was perfect. And to see the delight glittering in your eyes as you inspected your prize, your expression too pure to be greed and too calculating to be adrenaline…

“I love you,” he blurted out. 

The necklace slipped from your hands, clattering to the ground, but you hardly heard it, ears still ringing and repeating what you just heard. 

“Diego. Did you just…” you murmured, hesitating, afraid that asking would make him backtrack and that your heart might actually explode if he did.

“I,” he took a deep breath, catching your now empty hands in his. “I love you, Y/N.”

Before you knew what was happening, there were tears rolling down your cheeks. Panicked, he dropped your hands in order to brush them away with his thumbs, cradling your face in his palms and shushing you soothingly. 

“What? Sh-should I have not said--” he looked crushed and frightened.

You shook your head as best you could from this position. 

“No, I just never…thought someone would...what I mean is that they’re happy tears,” you tried to explain. “And I love you too, Diego, so much.”

His grin was dazzling, brighter than anything you could have mustered even with all of your power. Your heart fluttered, so overjoyed that you struggled to focus as he leaned in.

Just as his lips ghosted over yours, a high-pitched scream cut through the night. The pair of you jumped apart, looking around for a source, tense and ready to fight. 

“We’re, uh, going to go investigate that, aren’t we?” you asked with a barely suppressed sigh of disappointment. 

Diego, shrugged apologetically. “We should.”

“Alright, I wasn’t expecting to do this whole ‘step into the other’s shoes’ thing both in one night, but lead the way, my stabby boyfriend.” You gestured dramatically and grinned.

Diego rolled his eyes fondly before taking off in the direction the sound had come from, maintaining a light jog and you kept up pace just behind him, pulling little motes of light from the streetlights you passed, just in case.

[maddrmatt]

Kairi’s Epic Journey: The Quest for Sora

New to this fanfic? Click here to properly begin!

Chapter 12: The Battle of the Jolly Roger

Never Land

Tick-tock.

Tick-tock.

Tick-tock.

“No sign of the beast anywhere!” exclaimed Damien Salt as the pirates continued to peruse the waters.

“There’s not even a bloomin’ ripple,” said Bill Jukes.

“Now men, we can still hear the ticking.  So, until we don’t hear it anymore, we keep looking,” said Smee.

“Perhaps the captain was only hearing things,” said Mr. Starkey.

“Then how come we all can hear it?” asked Mullins.

“Simple.  We’ve put up with the captain’s paranoia for so long that now whenever he thinks he hears the crocodile near, he has a way of making us all think we’re hearing it,” said Mr. Starkey.

The other pirates began to consider this outlandish notion.  But ever faithful Smee refused to believe.  “Now let’s not have any bad talk about our captain, men.  He’d take it as mutiny talk,” he said.

Suddenly, everything went silent.  The ticking had ceased.  The pirates gazed around in confusion.

“There, you see. The crocodile probably realized the captain wasn’t out, so he finally left,” said Smee.

“Then how come we didn’t see it?” asked Damien Salt.

Smee shrugged. “Maybe it’s trying to be sneakier. Heh-heh.  Not that it would help it in the slightest.  I mean the moment we hear that sound; we know immediately…”

“COCK-A-DOODLE DOO!”

The sudden crowing caused Smee and the pirates to nearly jump out of their skins.  They barely had the time to recover from the shock when a flash of green flew out from behind them and float in front of them, laughing his head off.

“It’s Pan!” exclaimed Black Murphy, an unshaven pirate dressed in green.

“Hello, fellas! Nice day, we’re having, isn’t it?” asked Peter as he tipped his hat.

“Why, yes, it is,” said Smee pleasantly causing the other pirates to glare at him. ��

Realizing that he was not striking the proper tone, Smee cleared his throat and said, “Peter Pan, what business brings you to the Jolly Roger?”

“Oh, no reason.  Just thought I’d drop by and teach you ruffians a lesson about using my friend as a bait for my other friend!” shouted Peter angrily.

“Friend?” asked Smee confusedly.

“He means me!”

Smee turned around and gasped as he found himself face to face with Kairi as she pointed the tip of Destiny’s Embrace right in his face.  Pluto, Tink and the Lost Boys stood around her glaring at the pirates.

“If there’s one thing you pirates should know, it’s that I don’t appreciate being kidnapped to be involved in plans against my best friend,” Kairi declared as her friends nodded in agreement.

“The prisoner!” exclaimed Bill Jukes.

“She’s been freed!” exclaimed Mr. Starkey.

“Say your prayers, blackguards! We’ll teach you a lesson about how to treat a girl!” shouted Peter as he flew down to Kairi’s side and took out his dagger.

“Get them!” shouted Damien Salt as the pirates, with the exception of Smee, took out their weapons and charged at the Kairi and Peter’s crew.

“Scatter, everyone!  Except you, Kairi!  You stick with me and Tink!” said Peter.

“Right, Peter!” exclaimed Kairi as she ran alongside Peter and Tink while the Lost Boys spread all over the deck with the pirates charging after them.

Smee, however, just stood where he was and watched the battle unfold.  ‘The girl has a Keyblade?  Oh, the captain is not going to pleased about this at all.’

Then he realized what he should have been doing.  “The captain! He should know about this!” he exclaimed as he began to run toward the end of the ship where the captain’s cabin was.

But before he could get far, he was intercepted by Pluto.  His teeth were bared as he growled savagely.

“Uh nice dog?” asked Smee timidly.

Pluto responded with rapid-fire barking. With a shriek, Smee ran with the dog in hot pursuit.  Coming to one of the masts, he leapt onto it and began to climb.

Before he could get far up, Pluto leapt and caught the seat of Smee’s pants in his mouth.  The pants ripped revealing his underwear.  Smee scrambled up further until he was finally out of reach of the dog’s teeth.

“Shoo, dog!  Shoo!” Smee shouted as he kicked his leg at Pluto while clinging on for dear life with the irate Pluto barking at him as if he were a cat he chased up a tree.

In the meantime, the entire deck of the Jolly Roger had erupted into chaos.  Members of both sides were now scattered around engaged in combat with each other.

Kairi and Peter’s side, unfortunately, was at a disadvantage. The pirates were in far greater numbers and since Kairi and Peter were the only ones who could take the pirates head-on, Tink and the Lost Boys were outsized and outgunned due to the pirates being bigger and bearing better weapons.

Fortunately, they had ways of compensating for that.  They had their small size, their cleverness and they knew how to use the environment to their advantage.

“Come back here!” shouted Black Murphy as he chased after Nibs.  But the rabbit-suited boy kept running until he lured the pirate right where he wanted him.

Before Black Murphy knew it, the Twins pulled a cannon across his path.  He tripped over it and slammed face first into the deck.  He moaned in pain.

“You really ought to watch where you’re running!” said the Twins as they and Nibs ran off.

At the same time, Cubby had come to a pile of cannonballs.  Using all his strength, he struggled to pick one up.  Just as he finally did, he was confronted by Mullins who pointed a knife at him.

“Drop it!” the pirate commanded.

“If you say so,” said the boy as he dropped the cannonball right onto Mullins’ right foot. The pirate screamed in pain and clutched his foot while Cubby made his getaway.

As Mullins continued to hold his foot, he hopped backward.  He was so engrossed in pain that he didn’t see the looped rope on the deck. Once the foot he was hopping on was in the loop, Slightly and Cubby pulled on a rope and hoisted Mullins so that he was dangling from a beam much like Pluto had been earlier.

“It worked!” exclaimed Cubby as he and Slightly tied the rope down to leave Mullins where he was.

“Good thing you set up these traps while we were distracting the pirates with our ticking,” said Slightly.

“Well, let’s go see who else needs our help,” said Cubby as he and Slightly rushed off.

“Come on!  You almost had me that time!  Do you want me to slow down a little?” taunted Peter as he dodged a punch from the large tattooed pirate.

“Is it really a good idea to mock your opponent like that, Peter?” asked Kairi as she crossed her Keyblade with Mr. Starkey’s sword nearby.

“Of course, it is, Kairi. It’s actually one of my favorite ways to fight.  You see, the angrier your opponent is, the more careless they get.  It makes the battle easier and a lot more fun,” said Peter as he dodged another blow from the pirate, zipped around behind him and stuck him in the rear with his dagger causing him to yelp in pain.

‘I don’t know about making a battle more fun.  But getting an opponent mad to make them careless in battle?  That actually sounds like a good strategy,’ thought Kairi as she blocked another slash from Mr. Starkey.

Throughout the entirety of the battle with the pirate, Kairi had been trying to find a way to defeat him without killing or hurting him too badly.  Though she knew that even Sora had taken lives in battle, she didn’t want to resort to that unless absolutely necessary.  Unfortunately, this had kept her on the defensive and she had yet to make a single attack against Mr. Starkey.

“How pathetic!  If that’s the best you can do, girl, then you’re better off giving up!” cackled the pirate as he raised his sword for another slash.

‘Maybe if I just hold back a little, this could work,’ thought Kairi as she saw an opportunity and raised the tip of her Keyblade to the sky.

“Thunder!” she shouted causing a small bolt of lightning to shoot out of her Keyblade.  It struck Mr. Starkey’s sword like a lightning rod and shocked him into a daze.

‘Can’t believe that worked!’ thought Kairi.

Suddenly, Tink flew to Kairi’s right ear.  She tinkled while pointing in an upward direction.  Kairi followed the fairy’s instructions and looked up to see Bill Jukes swinging toward her on a rope while waving his sword.

But thanks to Tink’s timely warning, Kairi ducked just before the deadly blade could take off her head.  Jukes sailed past her and over the railing. Before he could swing back, Kairi threw her Keyblade at the rope, slicing through it and sending the short pirate falling into the water.

“You’re doing pretty good, Kairi!” complemented Peter as he dodged another blow from the tattooed pirate.

“Thanks,” said Kairi as she caught her Keyblade as it returned to her.  She then turned her attention to Peter’s fight with the tattooed pirate. Then she looked behind herself and what she saw gave her an idea.

“Tink, could you tell Peter something for me?” she asked as she turned to Tink who nodded in response.

Kairi whispered something to the fairy. After she finished, Tink flew to Peter’s ear and whispered what Kairi had told her.  Peter nodded in understanding.

Positioning himself between the tattooed pirate and Kairi, Peter stuck his thumbs in his ears, wiggled his fingers and mocked, “Hey, you big lug!  Nah nah! You can’t get me!”

That was the last straw for the tattooed pirate.  With an enraged grunt, he charged at Peter like a bull.

But before he could lay his hands on the boy, Peter dodged to the right just as Kairi shouted, “Light!”

A bright blast of light emitted from her Keyblade blinding the pirate.  Kairi and Peter then stuck their feet out and tripped him.  The pirate careened headfirst into a cannon.  The force caused the cannon to flip up and slam down on his head.  He was knocked out cold.

“Alright!  Your idea worked, Kairi!” exclaimed Peter.

“Yes.  It actually did,” said Kairi who could hardly believe it herself. She even had a hard time comprehending the fact that she had taken three opponents out of the battle.  She felt a sense of pride in that accomplishment.

‘I can’t believe I’m actually pulling this off.  Glad all that training these last few months is paying off.’

Kairi and Peter then scanned the deck and the ongoing battle.  So far, it appeared to be going in their favor.  The Lost Boys had incapacitated many of the pirates who were either out cold, tied up or knocked overboard.  Pluto still had Smee cornered up the mast causing Kairi, Peter and Tink to laugh.

“Once we finish with the crew, then it’ll be Hook’s turn,” said Peter.

“Peter, about fighting Hook.  I’d like to…” Kairi didn’t get to finish her request when she saw something awful happening.

Currently on a plank overlooking the edge of the ship was Toodles.  He was being forced near the edge of it by Damien Salt.

“Peter!” shouted Kairi pointing in the direction of the Lost Boy in trouble.

“Huh?” asked Peter as he turned to look. But just as he did, he was suddenly lassoed with a rope pinning his arms to his sides.  At the other end were a couple of pirates laughing wickedly. Peter struggled to get free as the pirates attempted to pull him to the deck.

“I’ll get you free, Peter!” cried Kairi as she aimed her Keyblade to throw it and cut Peter free.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, Kairi saw Mr. Starkey charging toward her.  She quickly turned just in time to block his sword with her Keyblade. The pirate pushed her backward until she was up against the edge of the ship.

‘I guess I held back a little too much with that Thunder spell if he recovered so quickly from it.’

“Tink!  Go help Toodles!” she cried.

The fairy nodded and streaked across the deck.  When she reached Salt, she immediately grabbed onto one end of his moustache and pulled it.  The pirate stopped advancing on the Lost Boy and turned his attention to Tink, trying to swat her with his sword and free hand.

However, Salt had moved too far onto the plank.  Even with Tink distracting him, there was no way for Toodles to get past him and back onto the ship.

“Slightly!  Cubby!” Kairi called hoping that one of the other boys would hear her and help their comrade.  But all of them were currently occupied with fighting their own opponents.

Mr. Starkey gave an evil grin. “Yer wasting your breath, girlie. I hope the sharks like the taste of skunk!” he cackled.

Finally, Salt sliced through his moustache with his cutlass sending Tinker Bell flying away from recoil.  He then raised his cutlass and prepared to swipe it down on Toodles.

With no one to help him, it looked pretty bleak for the youngest member of Peter’s crew.  It looked like, for the first time, they were going to lose one of their own.

‘No!  I can’t let that happen!  I won’t let it happen!’

Then, to the surprise of Mr. Starkey, Kairi’s body began to glow with an ethereal white light.  The light erupted into a blast sending him flying overboard.

In the blink of an eye, the princess then vanished into a streak of light.  It travelled across the deck until it reached the plank.  Kairi rematerialized directly in between Salt and Toodles just in time to block the pirate’s attack with her Keyblade.

The pirate was stunned at Kairi’s sudden appearance.  But it was nothing compared to the princess’s own surprise.

‘What just happened?  How did I do that?’

But realizing it would have to wait, she took advantage of the pirate’s shock and leapt into action.  She quickly used her Keyblade to knock Salt’s cutlass out of his hand and then used the flat side of it to push him off the side of the plank.  The pirate screamed as he splashed down into the water.

Kairi gave a sigh of relief and turned to the Lost Boy she just saved.  “Are you all right, Toodles?”

The Lost Boy, as usual, said nothing. But with a big smile on his face, he hugged Kairi around the waist.  Kairi smiled down at him.

“Great job, Kairi!” called Peter who was now flying above the water.  He still had the rope tied around him with the two pirates who had been holding it now dangling from it.

“Let me give you a hand with those pirates, Peter,” saidd Kairi as she threw Destiny’s Embrace at the rope.  The Keyblade sliced through the rope and the two pirates dropped down into the water like a stone.

“And that’s the last of them!” announced Peter as he flew back to the ship and landed on the deck.  Kairi, Tink and the Lost Boys gathered around him.

“Nice fight, everyone!  I knew we’d win just like we always do,” said Peter as Slightly and Cubby removed the rope from him.

“We may have won, Peter.  But Toodles nearly walked the plank.  Weren’t you worried that he’d be hurt?” asked Kairi.

“Not at all.  I knew he’d be fine.  And he is, thanks to you and your incredible trick.  You never mentioned you could do something like that.  I never even saw Sora do something like that,” said Peter.

“To tell you the truth, Peter, I have no idea where it came from,” said Kairi who was still mystified about the mysterious power that enabled her to save Toodles.

“Smee?  It’s been far too long.  Is the crocodile gone?” asked a familiar voice

The group turned in the direction of the voice.  They saw that Captain Hook had finally emerged from his cabin.  And upon seeing his crew incapacitated in many ways and his archenemy standing in the midst, his face contorted in anger.

“Smee!  What happened?!” he demanded.

“Well, captain, it seems that while we were looking for the crocodile, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys snuck onto the ship and freed our prisoners.  Then they attacked us with absolutely no provocation at all,” said Smee as he continued to clutch onto the mast with Pluto growling below him.

“By the way, Hook, how’d you like the clock impressions we gave you?  We’ve been working on them for quite some time.  So good to know that they work because they certainly fooled you,” said Peter smugly as the Lost Boys laughed.

“You mean I was tricked?  Blast you, Pan!  This be the last straw!” shouted Hook as he drew his sword.

“Come face me, boy!  Today, we settle it once and for all!”

“You’ve said that so many times before. But I’m always happy to give you a fight so say your prayers, Hook!” shouted Peter as he drew his dagger and prepared to fly off to face the captain.

But before he could, Kairi held out an arm in front of him.  “Wait, Peter. Let me fight him.  One on one.”

Peter and his crew gasped.  “Are you sure about that, Kairi?  The other pirates are easy opponents, but Hook is the best swordsman out of all of them.  He won’t be as easy to defeat,” said Peter.

“I need to do this, Peter. Remember what you said about teaching Hook a lesson?  About using friends as bait for other friends?  I have to be the one to teach him that lesson.  He really crossed a line when he captured me as bait for Sora and he needs to answer for that,” said Kairi with determination.

“Kairi, I’m as mad about that as you are.  But that doesn’t mean you have to face Hook alone.  Sora didn’t even do that.  Even if it was just you and me, we could beat him,” said Peter.

“I know we could, Peter.  But it’s not just about that.  It’s also not just about teaching him a lesson,” said Kairi.

“What do you mean?” asked Peter.

“I don’t know what I am going to face on my journey.  There may be worse enemies than Hook out there and I may not have anyone to help me. I need to know that I can hold my own in a fight against a major enemy and not just minor ones.  It’s the only way I can get stronger so I can find and save Sora. So, please Peter.  Let me do this,” pleaded Kairi.

“But Kairi, what if you lose?” asked Slightly.

“Then you won’t be able to find your friend at all,” said Nibs.

“I’m aware of what may happen, boys. But, unless I call for you or it looks like I am going to lose, none of are you are to help me in this fight.”

Kairi then heard a whimper.  She turned and saw Pluto approaching her with a worried look on his face.

“The same goes for you too, Pluto. So, can you all promise me you’ll let me fight Hook on my own?”

Everyone looked reluctant to make that promise.  Kairi couldn’t blame them for that.  Truthfully, she herself would never have wanted to watch a friend try something so risky even if they felt it was something that needed to be done.

Finally, Peter smiled and put his hand on Kairi’s shoulder.  “If it’s that important to you, Kairi, then we’ll stay out of it.  We give you our word.  Right, everybody?” he asked causing Tink, the Lost Boys, and Pluto to nod.

“There you go.  We’ll cheer you on from the sides then.  But we’ll be watching the fight and the moment you call for us or it looks like you need help, then we’re jumping in no matter what.”

Kairi looked at everyone surrounding her who were all nodding in agreement.  She smiled gratefully.  “Thank you, Peter.  Thank you all.”

“What keeping you, boy?!  It’s bad form to keep your opponent waiting,” cried out Hook.

“Sounds like he’s getting impatient. Better not keep him waiting any longer. Also, here’s a little advice. Remember what I said about getting your opponent mad so they’ll get sloppy in their fighting?  Try it out on Hook.  It’s quite effective,” said Peter.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Kairi.

“Go get him, Kairi!” cheered the Twins.

“Show him that no one messes with our friends!” exclaimed Nibs

“Knock him overboard!” exclaimed Slightly.

“But be careful.  We don’t want to see you get hurted,” said Cubby.

Tink tinkled encouragingly while pumping her fist in the air.

Pluto let out several encouraging barks.

Toodles, silent as always, gave Kairi another hug around the waist.  She smiled and patted him on the head before he let go.

With a grateful nod to everyone, Kairi made her way to the stairs that would take her up to where Hook was. Behind her, she heard the cheering, tinkling and barking of encouragement from her friends.

‘I guess I should be grateful the Wayfinder brought me to a world where I can put my skills to test against a relatively easy enemy.  Compared to the likes of villains like Maleficent, the members of the Organization or Xehanort himself, Captain Hook is definitely not in the same league. Still, I’d better not take this battle lightly because the boys are right. I lose this fight and Sora’s lost forever.’

Kairi steeled herself for the upcoming duel with the pirate captain.  Whether it would end in her first great triumph over a major opponent or in a disastrous defeat remained to be seen.

________________________________________________________________

Onto the next chapter!

[recentanimenews]

Knowledge Is Power for These Five Heroic Anime Bookworms

As a wise time traveler once said, books are the best weapon in the world. Whether you're learning new skills, teaching people things they never knew, or folding up the pages and using them as deadly darts (okay, that last one is a really specific example), they're empowering in more ways than one. Anime shows that to be the case, too—which is good news for us bookworms.

  Lots of anime characters like to read as a hobby, but a select few actually use their love of books and their penchant for learning as a superpower. From magical girls to half-demons and everything in between, they show that knowledge is power in more ways than one. To demonstrate, we've picked a few whose heroism comes from, or is influenced by, their love of reading and learning... and one of these avid readers is beginning her journey as we speak this season!

  Which one is your favorite? Any more heroic anime bookworms you want to give a shout-out to? Be sure to join us in the comments to chat about them. For now, here are our five picks:

  Ami Mizuno (Sailor Moon)

It just wouldn't be right to start our list with anyone other than Sailor Mercury herself! The guardian of water and wisdom has an IQ of 300, and she won't let anything stand in the way of her pursuit of justice (or a perfect test score). She's so devoted to her studies, it only seems appropriate that her powers first appeared in the middle of cram school.

  Her super-smarts (and her computer goggles) help her serve as the tactician of the Sailor Guardians, making them the perfect mix of brains, brawn, and bravery. And if things had gone a little differently, she would have been even more computer-adept... an early concept of the character would have made her a cyborg! But Ami is 100% human, regardless of her super-smarts.

    Yuki Nagato (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)

From totally human to completely out of this world... the S.O.S. Brigade's resident reader really is more than meets the eye! With a cover story of wanting to join the (now nonexistant) Literature Club, Yuki infiltrates her way into Haruhi's strange antics as an alien observer... specifically, a humanoid alien created by the Data Overmind to see what Haruhi's whole deal is.

  Tha doesn't mean Yuki doesn't really enjoy reading and learning, though. In fact, her smarts have gotten the S.O.S. Brigade out of more than one scrape. Whether it's divulging the secret of the Endless Eight time loop or being so good at a game that she wins the club a set of shiny new laptops, Yuki's got their backs. Her knowledge of human fairy tales also guided Kyon to the actions that saved Haruhi and himself from a brush with Closed Space.

    Yomiko Readman (Read or Die)

Earning the nickname "The Paper" in the world of Read or Die means you have to exhibit some prestigious powers, and secret agent Yomiko Readman more than earns the honor. Combine her license to kill with the ability to manipulate paper, and she's a dangerous foe if you end up on her bad side.

  As you might guess from her name, though, Yomiko's love of books extends beyond her ability to turn them into literal weapons. "Bibliophile" might not be a strong enough word for someone who rented out a building for her book collection and now lives in it. The teacher, spy, and—let's just call it like it is—bibliomaniac has very specific tastes, and we wouldn't have her any other way. Plus, she got to make friends with her favorite author, teenage prodigy Nenene Sumiregawa.

    Ken Kaneki (Tokyo Ghoul)

Don't you hate it when you want to be left alone with your books and then a date goes really badly and you have to eat human flesh to survive? Ken Kaneki lost a lot of things when he became a half-ghoul, but his quiet nature and love of reading weren't amongst them. Fortunately, those things—plus his keen intelligence—would help him in his early days as he learned to cope with his new life.

  When Ken realized he'd have to learn to fight to protect his loved ones, he went straight for what he knew best: books. He picked up his martial arts skills just by reading about them. We'd say we'd kill for that kind of intelligence, but...

    Myne (Ascendance of a Bookworm)

Joining these heroic ranks this season is Motosu Urano, a librarian-to-be who was reincarnated into a fantasy world after being crushed under her own book collection. Her one dying wish? To be somewhere, anywhere, where she can have books. Now reincarnated as the frail six-year-old Myne, she... well, doesn't quite have that.

  Fortunately for both Myne and her new home, she's going to get books even if that means making them herself! She discovers early on that, in this world, books (and even the ability to read more than basic numbers) are the purview of the elite. But she's not going to stand for that. Determined to live in this new world with her beloved books, just as she did in her last life, she's setting out to reinvent how this world sees reading—but, more importantly, to have something to read whenever she feels like it.

    There are plenty more heroic bookworms in anime! Who are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!

-----

Kara Dennison is a writer, editor, and interviewer with bylines at VRV, We Are Cult, Fanbyte, and many more. She is also the co-founder of Altrix Books and co-creator of the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. Kara blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[sulietsexual]

Tell us why you ship Dangel! They have such a complex, layered history and are so horrible for each other yet still have this chemistry and connection...

OMG, Darla and Angel, they are such an amazing and dark and fascinatingand multi-faceted ship. So here, Nonnie, have an essay exploring their relationship and showing why they are soamazing together!

Darla and Angel have one of the most complex relationships in theWhedonverse, which combines hate, love, lust, violence, dependency, anger,responsibility, selflessness, selfishness, darkness and patience. First andforemost, Darla is Angel’s sire. She made him which means he will always belinked to her. She chose him because she saw something great in him, a darknessshe could share. Together they were a near-unstoppable force of evil, pushingeach other to greater heights of sadism. If Angel had never been re-ensouled hewould have stayed with her. Even when he has been re-ensouled he tries toreturn to her, because she is his constant. They do not love each other butthere is a deep connection there. They are each other’s “mate” for all intentsand purposes. Darla represents Angel’s darkest place and she will always be theperson who will tempt him the most. Wolfram & Hart recognises this which iswhy they choose to use her as a weapon against him.

When she returns as human, Angel recognises whyWolfram & Hart have brought her back. He understands instantly why theychose to deliver her to him because he knows how dark he can and has beenaround her. Darla, too, knows this, and it is a driving factor for her in herpursuit of him, possibly as a way to ignore her pressing soul and the feelingsand emotions she is not used to. When Darla returns as human, she once againfeels the pull towards Angel that she did as a vampire, but due to the presenceof her soul, these feelings are deeper, more real and affect her much more thanthey ever could have when she was a vampire. For the first time in centuriesshe is feeling real, deep human emotions, and I think she genuinely starts tofall in love with Angel over the course of Season 2.

Angel, meanwhile, tries to stay away from her,but once her soul kicks in he finds it impossible to resist trying to help her.In a way his helping her is selfishly motivated; he wants to see her throughthe adjustment of having a soul because no one was there to help him. Throughher, he can offer the support and understanding that he never had. He also feelsresponsible for her because he is truly the only one who can completelyappreciate what she is going through. He wants to help her but he can’t helpher in the manner which she wants – he refuses to turn her, as it goes againsteverything in his nature. He also knows that if he did turn her he would unleasha monster, one who could tempt him even further than before.

However, as soon as he finds out Darla is dying thedynamic changes. Now he truly is selflessly helping her. He recognises howWolfram & Hart have manipulated her, how cruel and vicious they have beentowards her, all to get to him. Once more, he feels responsible for her as shewould not be going through the hell she is if it weren’t for his battle withWolfram & Hart. He looks for ways to save her, and in his search he finallyfully sees her as human and his feelings for her start to change. In his eyesshe becomes someone he could love and someone he cares for enough to try tosave. In his most selfless gesture he offers up his life in exchange for hers,wanting her to have the chance that he feels he never will, the chance to leada normal human life, completely uninterrupted by supernatural forces. He wantsso badly for her to be human, to experience her life the way she was meant to.When they are informed that nothing can be done for her, his breakdown is inequal parts about her and about himself. He is devastated that Darla will nowdie but he is also devastated because he sees that there is no redemption, nosecond chances for her and by extension, himself. The greater forces will neverallow them peace and in that moment he realises that.

This is perhaps why he offers to turn her. He sodesperately wants her to be given a second chance that he contemplates siringher, saying that it might be different given that he has a soul. However, bythis point in time Darla has realised that she has been given a second chance.Not the one they were both hoping for but a second chance nonetheless; thechance to die the way she was meant to. Through Angel’s sacrifice, through hiscaring, she has accepted her fate and made peace with herself and with him. Sheasks Angel to make peace with it too, and he embraces her and says that shewon’t be alone in it. This is probably the most touching moment in theirrelationship, as together they accept the inevitable and connect on a level theyhad been unable to connect on before this.

This connection is only allowed a few minutesbefore it is brutally ripped from them, once again courtesy of Wolfram &Hart. As Angel watches helplessly, Darla is sired by Drusilla. This event has aprofound effect on Angel and on Darla. Darla is no longer the evil counterparthe needs to stay away from. She has now become someone real, someone human whomhe cares for deeply and was willing to give his life to save. To be forced towatch her die and then be turned into a monster again is more than Angel can takeat that point. He is left devastated that he was unable to save her. When hereturns to the hotel he is babbling incoherently, remembering the details ofhis own siring and thinking over what Darla just went through. He gathers hissenses enough to try to save her again. He doesn’t want her to rise, howeverthis time it’s less about the monster she will become and more about her. Hehas finally come to genuinely care for her and he doesn’t want her to gothrough existence as a vampire again. Yet when he comes face-to-face with her,these feelings are ultimately his downfall. As she looks up at him and asks“Angel?” he hesitates. He doesn’t see her as a demon anymore and in that onemoment he is unable to distinguish between Darla the human and the demon thatnow wears her face.

Darla, meanwhile, is suddenly a soullessmonster again, however, she is now a soulless monster who has recent memoriesof being human, of feeling human emotions and of connecting to Angel on a humanlevel. This is extremely important to remember, because it explains Darla’sconflicting and confused feelings towards Angel, and why his presence throwsher for a loop. Darla was a soulless vampire for four hundred years and she allbut forgot what is was like to be human. To become a vampire again after beingnewly human for so long allows her to develop very complex feelings forAngel, feelings which she fights and denies, because they are so foreign toher, but feelings which are ultimately her downfall, because she allows them totake control of her. 

Once Darla has been turned, things become much morecomplicated for Angel. Where once he could easily see Darla as demon and nothesitate to kill her (as he has done to protect Buffy) he now knows what it isfor Darla to be human. He has feelings for her now and has seen the true Darla,the one he never encountered as Angelus. This makes it infinitely harder forhim to kill her and in order to do so, he needs to access his darker urges. Heneeds to become darker in order to eliminate someone who has become importantto him, whom he now cares for. It will cause him pain to kill her, some ofwhich he experiences when stalking her and Drusilla. He admits that he is tooclose, that he has felt her heart beat, he has smelt her human scent and he isstill too close to those feelings. He cannot kill her directly so he choosesinstead to set her and Drusilla on fire before turning his attention towardsWolfram & Hart, seemingly forgetting about Darla in the process.

By the time Darla resurfaces Angel has losthimself so completely in his own darkness that any feelings for her human sidehave all but disappeared. She has reverted back to being his dark place, tobeing the demon that turned him and fed his most sadistic urges. This is whywhen he loses faith in humanity he automatically turns to her. He has just beentorn down by Wolfram & Hart and made to face all the evil that exists inhis world. He wants nothing more than to forget the world, to “feel somethingother than the cold”. In the moment he decides to sleep with Darla it is notabout losing his soul (which he knew would never happen with her) it is about acomplete escape from his good side. He wants, in that moment, to completelygive into darkness and Darla has and always will provide him with that. Withher he is allowed that darkness, soul or not. He uses her for his own selfishreasons but he would only do this with her. Sheunderstands his darkness, she will always encourage it and with Darla he cancompletely give himself over to it.

Darla, in turn, is still so caught up in herleftover human emotions, that she pretty much uses Angel back. She is hoping to turnhim into Angelus, to bring forth the soulless monster she once knew andconnected with, the demon who can sever herlingering feelings of humanity. She gives herself over to Angel completely,because she is hoping to see the return of Angelus andtherefore, the return of her mate, her darkest place.

Unfortunately for Darla (but not for Angel)sleeping with Darla has the opposite effect and actually provides Angel withanother important event, his epiphany. He recognises this and even thanks herfor it, although she in turn is disgusted and appalled by the turn of events.The gratitude that Angel feels for whoever provided him with his epiphany istransferred to Darla and he once again decides not to kill her, warning her tostay away as the next time he will not be so lenient. He then leaves her in hisroom, leaving her and everything she represents behind him.

When Darla returns Angel is able to distancehimself from her. Possibly spurned by the memory of what happened the last timehe felt compassion for her, he keeps himself aloof and refuses to engage her inany way. It is only after he has heard the heartbeat of the child she iscarrying and comes to the realisation that it has a soul that he allows himselfto feel for her. As her pregnancy unfolds Angel is unwittingly drawn closer toher, especially once the child’s soul starts to affect her. In one of theirmost beautiful scenes, Darla confesses how much she loves her child, and in thatmoment she and Angel are bonded together deeper than they ever have beenbefore. They have created a child with a soul, something no one thoughtpossible. They both love him more than anything in the world and will doanything and everything to protect him. This bond is one that neither Buffy norCordelia will ever share with Angel. Darla is the mother of his child and assuch he will always be connected to her through Connor.

In the hours that follow, Darla’s condition worsens, and as she starts to feel the child’s soul more she starts to realise what sheneeds to do. The revelation that Holtz is in their time allows her to realiseall the evil that she and Angel did and, for the first time, fully feel andappreciate what it means to have a soul. As she collapses outside Karatos andtearfully tells Angel that they can’t make up for anything they have done, hesees her completely for the first time. He recognises what they have donetogether and apart, what she has gone through as a human, then a vampire with asoul. He tenderly holds her hand and kisses her fingers and in that moment, heloves her.

Long after staking herself, Darla will remain apart of Angel and a part of his life. She lives on in his son. Theirs is acomplex, rich, complicated and deep relationship. Darla will always hold a partof him. She will always represent his darker half yet at the same time, throughConnor, she also represents the good in him. She will always be connected tohim and in the end, he loved her. Darla will always be a part of Angel and this is why I will always love this pairing.

[icantlose]

✨ LOVELY OOC MEME ✨

✨ TAGGED BY: No one, saw this floating around and I wanted to do it! It looks fun. :) ✨ TAGGING: @coyoteeugly @lupus-rubidus and @androsswannabe 

NAME: Rusty NICKNAME: Rusty, Parli AGE: 23 FACE CLAIM: Lilo from Lilo and Stitch  PRONOUNS: she/her but call me whatever HEIGHT: 5′ BIRTHDAY: April 27th

AESTHETIC: La Cosa Nostra; 1950′s Italian-American mafia, Sicily and Venice; gondola boats drifting lazily down the grand canal | playing cards, drugs and guns | masquerade masks, deception, hazy charcoal drawings and oil paintings with lost edges. 

LAST SONG YOU LISTENED TO:  Chris Cornell -- Climbing up the Walls came on while i was driving today

FAVORITE MUSE ( S ) YOU’VE WRITTEN: My most favorite muse ever is The Outsider from the Dishonored series, though I’m also super attached to my Nick muse from Left 4 Dead 2. I’m kind of warring with myself on my stance on Wolf. I love writing for him and developing him but simultaneously he stresses me out a lot. I’m also growing more and more fond of Andross the more I use him. A long time ago I used to have a Gary Oak that I was very much attached to for sentimental reasons. He was my first RP muse ever and I deleted him in an emotional meltdown after an ugly break up. He was poorly developed, badly written and lost in terms of direction but I loved him.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO TAKE ON YOUR CURRENT MUSE ( THAT YOU ARE POSTING THIS ON ): Being able to enjoy my time with my best friend. I started writing for him on twitter, but fell out of him pretty quickly and left him to collect dust. It wasn’t until I turned my best friend onto the Star Fox series that my interest in Wolf resurfaced. By this time, I had already moved to tumblr as an RP platform because it was a little more accommodating to my preferred roleplay style. I could be remembering wrong, but I believe my BFF expressed interest in creating a roleplay blog for a Star Fox character and I immediately jumped on the opportunity to have a chance to interact with him using a muse I had already established. I set up a blog and my BFF was kind enough to design a theme and we’ve been going at it since. It’s been nearly four years now.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE ASPECTS OF YOUR CURRENT MUSE:  It’s one of my most favorite and least favorite things about this muse: Wolf’s characterization; he’s incredibly complicated and his alignment is often difficult to gauge. His motivations definitely drive him. He has a very strong sense of justice that is very unique to his person. He’s not evil but he is capable of doing despicable things in the pursuit of his idea of justice. He’s not a hero but he definitely has a heart and is a very empathetic person. Wolf feels for the little guys, but he isn’t often seen helping little old ladies crossing the street. He’s a fun-loving goof, but he’s incredibly quick to anger and prefers to be taken seriously. Wolf is a huge mess of contradictions and it works for him a lot of the time because that’s how real life is. Real people aren’t programmed to respond the same way all the time. Sometimes they contradict themselves: sometimes you expect one thing out of them because of one opinion of theirs or one previous action they made and you end up being completely surprised. It’s one of my favorite things because it’s like sending secret messages; to those that aren’t paying close enough attention, Wolf appears to be a wildcard. But to those that follow him closely, his unpredictable nature begins to make more sense.............At least, that’s what my goal is. x)

WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST INSPIRATION WHEN IT COMES TO WRITING: Music, bouncing ideas back and forth between my close friends (James, Tardy, Nep, King ilu <3), reading, my life experiences -- and for Wolf specifically, Fredryk Phox’s Star Fox-related content. 

FAVORITE TYPES OF THREADS: AAAAAANGST! If not angst, then I’m totally into action. I love threads that are exciting. Being able to write action is like watching a baby exercise his little limbs, spread them out and see what he is capable of doing with them, y’know? It’s good practice for me too because I tend to fall into a literary pattern where I begin to loop with the same type of narrative structure over and over again. Action threads are very verb-oriented and because timing and sequences of events take on a bit more importance, it becomes harder to fall into the habit of typing “he did x while he does y; he does x as y happened”/

BIGGEST STRUGGLE IN REGARDS TO YOUR CURRENT MUSE: Everything. I don’t know what the fuck my problem is but I hold such a high standard for my Wolf (and all my muses, really) and it’s a huge fucking source stress for me because of it. I’m not referring to anyone here in particular but it’s common to for RPers to take Fox or Wolf--or any popular character of a well-known series, honestly--and write them as bare-bones as possible. These kinds of characterization are basic; it’s as though the people behind these versions of Fox or Wolf are building around a cliffnotes version of who these characters are. I see a lot of interpretations that appear as though the writer doesn’t have a strong understanding of the character they’re writing for and thus have been minimized and simplified into very easy-to-understand concepts. I personally find that to be disrespectful to the characters and I really try hard to not be lazy when it comes to my characterization. That said, my dedication to dynamic characters is a huge source of anxiety to me because I always am terrified that I’m working so hard on a character only to be missing the mark completely. My Wolf is a sort of hybrid of three popular characterizations: the dramatic performance we’re given in Star Fox 64/Zero, the powerful presence we unite with in Assault, and the charming, yet incredibly impacting clown that Fredryk Phox’s interpretation of Wolf is known as. I’m always afraid that I’m sloppily mish-mashing these three characterizations into one big unrecognizable blob, or that I’m doing an injustice to Wolf by portraying him far too much like a clown. Is he too goofy? Do people know to take him seriously? CAN they take him seriously? Is he not mean enough? Is he threatening? Is he angry enough? This choice of turning Wolf into a hybrid of three different ideas of who Wolf is often scares me because I’m attempting to appeal to many different people and when someone follows me for one side of Wolf and is subjected to another side of him, I always feel like I’m letting them down. I’m doing my best managing these three themes and deep down, I know they don’t match each other well.