#just thinking about the accident is insane

[zylian]

been thinking about Ls s6 actor au where they all live on set and retake so many scenes cause they keep laughing at things just never going right

Mane messes up his lines when fighting so after the 20th take they had to rewrite the script and nobody ever lets him forget about it

Flame begged the director to rewrite his crash out cause his super cool reputation would plummet but the director promised it wouldn’t and even though they was right flame still hates them for it

Wemmbu watches all the scenes cause he has to be there for his 10 second cameo every time so he’s constantly making remarks throughout (he practically lives in the break room)

Zam cannot be bothered after his scenes and immediately takes a nap wherever he can, any chair, couch, cushion, it doesn’t even matter if someone is there, zam could not care

Spoke took all the snacks after finding out he has to let himself get pranked, he sympathizes with flame and it led to them getting a bigger snack table as an apology to him

Minute pops in regularly and helps out a little too much where the director thinks he’s taking their job so he gets thrown on the set to improv and actually be an actor

Mapic keeps questioning the script, from the start and judging everything (siding with wemmbu) so the director made his character extremely lucky once so he would stop (it worked)

Kab is constantly rehearsing her lines and just carries the whole script on her always cause her lines never seem to stop changing

Squiddo walked onto set by accident but they improv’d and it went through as the final cut which made ecorridor scream (he did not know the improvs could actually be considered) ((and got stressed))

4C had to go insane by himself for a scene of his return and he panicked on not knowing how to act panicked which he didn’t understand why everyone kept telling him he would do fine

Planet hides from the director and camps out on other actors trailers to not be found but when he is he is thrown in to improv whatever is happening (the film crew do their best to make him not wander off)

Jumper fainted when she saw her script and the director felt bad so they delayed her characters ever so long project to be silly so she wouldn’t run away

Sb is the first one on the set and the crews favourite since he’s always on time and ever so happy since he’s practically the only one content with his character

[lycanpunk666]

Out of topic but who the fuck is Jimmy and what he have done?? (I just know he's probably a horrible person and is hated by half of the fandom)

Genuinely horrible disgusting guy. Okay so explaining all of this essentially involves every Mouthwashing spoiler conceivable but essentially the plot of mouth washing is centered around Jimmy and his horrible, selfish decisions. And I'm going to need you to think critically about his character and read my whole post and not just highlight a couple of words and immediately disengage. The cast consists of a 5-person team of people making a cargo delivery (Curly the Captain, Anya the Nurse, Jimmy the Co-Pilot, Swansea the Mechanic, and Daisuke the Intern) through space on a trip that was supposed to last about a year and a half or so. Jimmy sexually assaulted Anya (foreshadowed first with Anya mentioning to Curly in a flashback saying something along the lines of "Did you know that the nurse's office is locked but the bedrooms aren't?") leaving her pregnant. This is the catalyst for every single event in the game through a bunch of chain reactions, but essentially, Anya ended up telling Curly, who said he'd do anything to protect her but ended up trying to just keep things "neutral" after talking to Jimmy, who said he'd "fix things" because he's mainly spiraling about what would happen to HIM once they landed, and started ranting to Curly about a story the news would make about nobody on the ship surviving the trip in some tragic accident. Curly doesn't think Jimmy's serious and he's generally trying to figure out a way to defuse the situation and he's willing to sweep a lot of what's going on under the rug for his friend. Jimmy ends up crashing the ship on purpose, resulting in the fire that permanently disfigured and disabled curly and left him unable to speak (Jimmy framed him for crashing the ship, and Curly, not being able to speak, not being able to convince anyone otherwise. But people don't hate Curly at all on the ship, since to them, he's a good captain. Jimmy's not too pleased about this whole situation at all but he keeps talking about how he's responsible for everything because he's the captain now (and he's being haunted by hallucinations of crying babies and horses) and he's deliberately avoiding everything that has to do with thinking critically about what he did to Anya and is instead focusing on what he did to Curly especially. The crew slowly starves and slowly goes insane, there's pretty much nothing to eat anymore but the cargo they have, mouthwash, something specific happens but I don't entirely remember what (I think it was Anya trying to OD on purpose to abort her pregnancy and ending up dying) but it resulted in Daisuke getting injured to the point of no recovery and getting PUT DOWN by Swansea, Jimmy shooting Swansea in the head, and one of the last scenes in the game involves Jimmy cutting off Curly's leg and feeding it to him. My description here is genuinely not doing the game justice, there's a lot more to it and a lot more nuances that I missed here ("I hope this hurts", the lack of autonomy with the painkillers, the surprise birthday party, Jimmy's obsession with Curly that's a bit more subtle, the fact that Anya's character is purposefully muted due to Jimmy's perspective of her in the game, there's so much more) but yeah holy moly this game is insane. (It's less of a game and more of an interactive movie) Jimmy is such an insanely interesting character, he's like a train wreck given human form. Absolutely understandable that people hate him. But by god it is sssssSSSSSSO repetitive to hear nothing BUT how much people hate him.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Sorry, but can I just stress something about Louis that drives me insane? 

In his route where you've saved him, he kills Dorian. Louis directly kills another person. He shot her with a crossbow through the mouth.

It’s unavoidable. 

Sure, it’s considered an accident, and even so, it was also self-defense—Dorian sure wasn’t there for a friendly chat, after all. 

But here's the thing... of the Ericson crew, we know that Clementine, AJ, and Marlon have killed someone. And Minerva if you want to count her, too, since she once was part of the group . But the others? Maybe they have killed before and we just don’t know about it, whether it be out of mercy or self-defense.

Violet in her route had the chance to kill Minerva, but understandably, she didn’t. She opted to shoot her in the shoulder instead… but we never see her kill anyone herself. 

Maybe you could count indirect kills because of the bag of bricks/log that kills Yonatan, and maybe you could consider Mitch’s death as indirectly Tenn’s fault… Speaking of Mitch, he tried to kill Lilly, but we all saw how that turned out, didn't we? 

…but Louis? He killed Dorian. That was his first kill. His first. 

And he feels awful about it! He apologizes to the body as it lays warm at his feet! He’s shaking and can barely speak!! It feels like bile! He doesn't even have time to process it because uh oh, the boat's going to explode!

But he’s also been so hardened over the season by everything that’s happened to him that he comes out of it glad that he has it in him to kill because if that’s what it takes to protect Clementine, AJ, and his family and home, then he’ll do it even if he doesn’t want to.

How does that not drive anyone else utterly mad?

Fandom considers him the funny guy! He's cute and silly! He makes Clementine laugh!

He's also done murder! He's taken a life! Just like Clementine and AJ have! Just like Marlon did!

And honestly, I think this also leads to him forgiving AJ for killing Tenn because at this point, he understands. He hates it, and he wishes it didn’t have to be this way, but he gets that AJ saw something that he didn’t. Louis knows that AJ’s hurting just as much as he is, he even says as much if Clementine says anything other than “AJ saved your life” on the bridge. 

He relived Marlon’s death when Tenn died, but it’s not like his hands are clean, either… and neither were Marlon’s. Clementine’s hands definitely aren’t clean. 

It drives me crazy that best friends Louis and Marlon have each killed someone in TFS but Marlon killed Brody in a moment of panic because he’s a coward who wanted hide what he did while Louis killed Dorian in a moment of panic because he was trying to save Clementine from Minerva and she came up behind him like… hhhhnnnnggggggggg, y’know?

Oh, and don't even get me started on the clouis aspect of this because I'll lose it. He talks to her about it because he knows she'll understand, just like how she's always understood him. How he goes out of his way to tell her that having a home means protecting it and he's going to protect it [that home being her, AJ, and Ericson] no matter what because he wants to build this new life with her aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I've lost it—

[hyperdramas]

aftermath (act two) | lee seokmin

part: 2 of 3 (part 1 here) | warnings & playlist are mentioned in part 1

word count: 2.1k words (lord bless)

Seokmin was starting to think he was incredibly drunk on something or finally going insane, but he couldn't stop watching you as you slept on his couch, face pressed into his silky white pillow as drool fell from the side of your pretty, parted lips.

It wasn't like him to wake up early on the weekends, but here he was, sitting in silence with nothing but a pair of sweatpants on as he watched you fast asleep on his couch. He was worried about you overnight, even going as far as to wake up from his own sleep to quietly make his way downstairs and check on you, adjusting the thermostat or covering you up if you were to push your blankets off of you.

Seokmin was caring too much, and he knew it. He cringed at himself as he watched the sun start to peak out from the clouds, basking your sleeping face in a warm glow. Even though you looked like you had fought a ghost in your sleep, your hair was delicately spewed over the pillow, falling in waves down the side of your face.

As the sunlight hit your eyes just right, you squinted them open, taking in your surroundings before you sit up in a jolt, surprised. You had forgotten that you had accidently crashed at MLB's star pitcher Lee Seokmin's million-dollar apartment for the night.

Not mentioning that you didn't actually mean to do it, either.

You slowly scanned the room, too surprised and embarrassed to take in the beautiful view or sleek white that was the pristine living room you were sleeping in.

"Good morning." Seokmin said softly, and you nodded, averting your eyes to the warm, white blanket on top of you. ".....Oh, um—Good morning." You replied back, and Seokmin stood up moments later, cracking his neck without flinching as he made his way to the kitchen.

Your eyes traced over Seokmin's back as he walked, taking note of his broad shoulders, study, muscled arms, and sculpted waist. He really took time to work on himself, and you could see it more and more as you watched him.

"Are you uh—are you gonna stay for breakfast?" Seokmin asked awkwardly, pulling out a pan from a cabinet as he opened the fridge door.

This was so weird—you had (somehow) found your way into a popular celebrity's apartment, and not only was he not being rude to you or making you feel lower than him, but letting you spend the night, sleep on his couch, and offering to make you breakfast. Seokmin wasn't like the other self-centered celebrities you had heard about before—he was down-to-earth, real about what he said and did. It was admirable to you.

You were attracted to that, you wouldn't lie. Lee Seokmin wasn't just a good looking baseball player with raw pitching talent, but an admirable person with a strong and dominant, yet sweet disposition.

"If not, you're free to go. I don't mind." Seokmin had added, and you remembered what he asked you, clearing your throat as you nodded shyly. "No, no—I can....I can stay."

Seokmin let out a quiet sigh of relief, surprising himself in the process. Why? He had a faint idea as to why, but didn't want to say it to himself or even think it to himself. That was the furthest thing away from the truth. There's no way that could be the reason. Right?

After twenty minutes of stiff chatting from you and Seokmin, the food is ready, and you sit on the couch, trying not to gorge yourself on the delicious eggs and bacon lying in front of you. Seokmin watches you as you eat, biting back a smile as he senses you trying to hold back.

"You can eat however, okay? I'm not going to judge you." Seokmin let out a little chuckle, and you looked up at him, deflating a bit as you matched his laugh and you took a bite of egg.

Not only was Lee Seokmin sculpted by the gods, with his sharp features and strong body—but a great facial expression reader.

"I'm sorry if I came off as weird yesterday for asking you stay the night with me. I had no intentions of doing anything..." Seokmin trails off, face betraying him as his cheeks start to warm you. You stare at him, slowly but surely getting the memo as he continues. "Anything that you wouldn't want to do. I just, shit, I—"

"—don't want to be alone." You finish for him, remembering what he had said last night. Seokmin nods once, looking back down at his nearly finished plate. "Yeah...uh, yeah."

You shake your head, looking up from your plate as you meet his gaze. "No, it's okay. You didn't come off weird at all."

"You're a really bad liar." Seokmin jeers playfully, and you can't help but laugh, nodding as you tuck your hair behind your ear. "Ouch."

The table falls quiet again as the scraping of plates can be heard, and you finish your plate, fork down as you look at Seokmin. He's on his phone, frown evident as his eyes scan something. You've never seen him frown before, at least in the time you've known him (that being a singular night), but you could automatically tell you hated it.

"Hey, what's wrong?" You ask, and Seokmin looks up at you, eyes hard as he doesn't say anything for a while. The air around him is thick with a certain feeling you can't seem to describe, and it makes you feel small, insignificant to him. "Ah, I'm—I'm sorry. It's not my business."

"No, no." Seokmin says hurriedly, phone hitting the glass table as a heavy quietness filles the dining room. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it." Seokmin lies straight through his teeth to you, and you don't catch on, nodding as you finish your cup of water.

The thing that "wasn't your business" was a text from Seokmin's PR manager. He was due at a photoshoot almost thirt minutes ago, and she was livid that he wasn't ready to be dressed and filming the video ad.

Seokmin didn't want to go—there were a million other things he could be doing rather than sitting in a stiff chair for hours on end as staff spent their time doing nothing but retouching the smallest little smudges of his makeup and hair while Seokmin was stuck posing endlessly for a tiny, four-page spread.

He had never skipped out on something planned like this, but he was going to do it now. He deserved to feel good for once—free, unbound by any time-constricting schedules that he wasn't interested in.

"Are you doing anything important today?" Seokmin asks, standing up as he takes his plate from his seating spot. He walks over to you as well, cologne wafting over you as your plate is stacked on top of his. "No?" You answer, although it sounds like a question—what is going on? Why is Seokmin so invested in you? It wasn't a bad thing, necessarily, but you were beyond confused and surprised.

"Do you want to—uh, wanna stay over for the day? I mean—I don't have anything better to do, and I still don't want to be alone." Seokmin couldn't believe the words coming from his mouth, but he couldn't stop talking. You were making him nervous.

"Seokmin...." Boy, were you getting mixed signals from this guy. He had just met you yesterday, and here he was, asking you to stay the day and keep him company. It was a miracle you had come into his apartment, and now he wanted you to stay longer?

You didn't want to believe it, but your gullible, love-sick heart sat there thinking this was a sign that he was into you. There were so many things that screamed absolutely not, some being the fact you and him just met yesterday night, every conversation you have had with him was a mess of awkward sentences, and the simple fact he was a celebrity, for God's sakes.

"Sure. Why not?" You shrug, and Seokmin smiles, eyes lingering on your body for a bit longer than usual before he makes his way to the sink. You squirm in your seat, chest on fire as you watch him scrub away at the dishes. What was this feeling burning deep in your chest? Why were you feeling it now, while being with Seokmin?

"And that's how I got that knot on my head." Seokmin chuckles as you run your finger over the picture in the photobook. His eyes glance at you as he gages your reaction, and he feels his heart jump a little when your hand brushes against his.

One thing led to another, and here you were, sitting on Seokmin's bed as you looked through photo albums he had stashed away in his scarily neat closet. You would have never thought you've been able to say that you've sat in a celebrity's bed before and looked at their baby pictures, but here you were.

"It looks painful." You muse, noticing how Seokmin's eyes still squint like they do now, when he laughs. "I mean, you're crying," You laugh, and Seokmin just shakes his head, ghost of a smile on his lips as he answers with a simple, "It hurt back then, yeah."

You close the photobook, handing it back to him as he takes the rest of the stack you've already looked through and returned it back to its rightful place.

Seokmin shut the door to his walk-in closet, coming back to sit on the bed as you stared out the window, having a perfect view of the pristine pool down below. Seokmin's hands were sweaty, and his hands were clammy, but he couldn't stop the words that were bubbling through his chest and to his mouth.

"Would it be weird if I told you that I loved you?" And there it went. Seokmin had talked without thinking again, and threw you for a loop.

None of this was normal—you and Seokmin had created a bond over today, even if you started out as strangers just last night. He knew you now, and you knew him, as if you two had been long-lost friends who had just rekindled their old memories and started off again from where they had stopped before.

Seokmin had made himself more than just a popular, talented baseball player to you—he was just a normal person, having fears and struggles just as the rest of the human population did. He wasn't this untouchable, closed-off celebrity who just smiled and did everything perfect all the time. He was just like you—lost, confused, and alone, lacking in all the departments he thought he should have been ahead in.

"A little, yeah." You answered after a while of thinking, and Seokmin nodded, looking away as he let out a sigh. "Yeah, you're right. I'm—I'm sorry. I got caught up in the moment."

"Seokmin, I want to stay in this moment forever. With you." You muttered, and he turned back to you, eyes raking over you slowly as he took you all in. He looked at your sparkling eyes, warm cheeks, and small voice.

"As insane and ridiculous as this whole situation is, I think I love you, Seokmin." You whisper, and he moves towards you as you follow his lead, now just inches away from each other as he makes the first move. His hands are slow, slender fingers coming to move your hair from your face as he tucks it behind your ear.

Seokmin's too far into you to back out now, and he goes all the way, kissing you slow as you melt under him. All the tension between you two melts in the matter of a few seconds, and you cling to his shirt, sighing under him as his hands dance across your waist.

"I—fuck." Seokmin's words are beyond broken as he pulls away from you, and he doesn't even try to fix them, staring at you in your soft, breathless glory. You're still reeling from the kiss that just happened, mind somewhere else as your lips still tingle with the feeling.

"Are you still with me?" Seokmin questions softly, hand on your thigh as he looks at you with those eyes—those sharp, hungry ones you see when he's strategizing with his team or preparing to pitch.

"Yeah, I am," You breathe out, eyes meeting Seokmin's as you blush. You're in heaven, you think, because the feeling that you feel right now is something you'd never want to give up.

You'd never want to give Seokmin up.

But would he feel the same way about you?

feedback & reblogs are so so appreciated! let me know what you think lyrnation

[asirensrage]

Title: There's Something Wrong with Shinichiro Fandom: Tokyo Revengers Rating: Explicit Pairing: None. Side pairing Shinichiro x Unnamed Sano!OC Word count: 2306 Warnings: Dark!fic. Incest. Underaged teen pregnancy. Obsession. Forced Relationship. Emotional Manipulation. Swearing. Violence. Suicide. Canon divergence. Unbeta’d. *warnings are not exhaustive* Summary: There's something wrong with Shinichiro. Haruchiyo tries to get to the bottom of it. What he finds destroys everything he believes of the man. Shin is supposed to be the good one. Not this.

MAJOR MANGA SPOILER WARNING!

This fic mentions events in the manga that have not yet been shown in the anime. You have been warned.

Notes: I enjoyed writing this and the exploration in Sanzu's POV. It's a look at how desperation and fear can change a person and how distance can give the perspective needed to see the truth. I hope you like it.

There’s something wrong with Shinichiro. 

It started after Mikey’s death. Maybe even before it but Haruchiyo wasn’t around for a lot of that. Juvie does a number is keeping one out of the loop. He doesn’t regret it though. Not after what he heard those assholes say. But Shinichiro…maybe it’s because he was gone that he can see the difference. It’s not a gradual thing. 

Mikey died. A broken fucking fragile thing his friend never had any right to be. Emma left long before Haru got out. And people…he thinks people are forgetting there was another one. Another sister who was friends with his. He heard Takeomi say she ran away but Haruchiyo knows her as well as he knew Mikey. She wouldn’t do that. She was a fucking bleeding heart who tried hard to step up to take care of her family long before she had any right to. Shinichiro was supposed to be the eldest. He looked out for them. But then Mikey died and Shinichiro was going fucking insane which was saying something with how he knew people thought about him.

Haruchiyo tried to ask Baji. He tried to even ask his fucking brother who waved him off like it was nothing. When Takeomi ordered him to leave Shin alone and not go visit, he knew something was up. He knows something’s wrong and fuck Takeomi if he thinks he’ll listen to him. Haruchiyo isn’t a child anymore. He’s not afraid of his brother. Shinichiro was more of a brother to him than Takeomi ever was. If he can help him, he will. 

So he goes to visit him. 

But Shinichiro keeps him standing on the porch instead of inviting him in. It’s weird. Shinichiro was always welcoming to him. To any of Mikey’s friends. To anyone. It was part of why he was so popular, why he was a good leader. So the way he’s standing on the porch smoking, body angled in a way to keep Haruchiyo from even looking in the doorway sets his nerves on edge. 

He doesn’t get let in. Shinichiro makes some excuse to go to work or the shop (he changed his story twice) and leads Haruchiyo away from the house before he ever realizes what he’s doing. It makes him suspicious and afraid. He attended Mikey’s funeral but he wonders if they never cremated Mikey’s body. If Shinichiro has some kind of shrine set up…but he wouldn’t do that. Shin wouldn’t let Mikey be unable to pass on. So there’s something else. 

🪟

The next time he visits the house, he does when he knows Shinichiro is at work. He knocks on the door, but there’s no answer. He hears it though. Hears the soft sound of feet padding on the ground. Living in the type of home he did, surviving juvie without getting jumped, you pick up things. Including an acute sense of hearing to start. 

He moves as quiet as possible around the outside, trying to find the right window. Mikey used to joke about sneaking out as teens when they were kids. Before…before the accident. It’s never locked. Not that anyone would attempt to rob a dojo. 

He prys it open slowly, just enough that he can see first and freezes. She didn’t run like Emma. Instinct urges him to continue, to break in and demand what happened. He’ll fuck them up but there’s something warning him and he remembers sitting in Mikey’s funeral, watching Shinichiro grip his last sibling’s wrist tight, as if he was afraid she’d disappear too. It was chalked up to grief. 

He swallows tightly, shaking his head as he tries to make sense of it. He’s wrong. He has to be wrong. But Takeomi ordered him to leave it alone, no one asks about her anymore and the former Black Dragons have made every excuse about Shinichiro’s losses. They helped spread the rumours that both girls are gone. 

He closes the window as quietly as possible. And runs. 

🪟

“What the fuck are we doing?” Baji complains as Haruchiyo drags him along. 

“Will you shut the fuck up?” Honestly, it’s a miracle Baji even let him because the two of them haven’t been friends in ages. He thinks it’s the curiosity of Haru demanding his presence. That he has something to show him. Baji is the only one who Haruchiyo knows will react the way he should. The way he reacted. Haruchiyo needs him to prove that he’s not insane. That his suspicions are right.  

“Is this some fucking obsession thing? Does Shin know we’re here?”

“No,” he admits. “I was trying to see what was wrong with him and–” he can’t even bring himself to say it. Can’t air the thought that one of his heroes…

“He’s fucking grieving,” Baji says like everyone does. Haruchiyo shakes his head though and his former friend falls quiet. Thankfully just in time as they reach the house and sneak around to the same window. 

Haruchiyo prys it open the same way and looks, praying that she’s in the same spot today. He sighs as he sees her. Folding laundry now and looking too domesticated. It’s not right. He nods towards the window and moves out of the way for Baji to see. The other boy gives him an exasperated look but steps into the space and peers in. 

“What the fuck!?”

In the desperation for the truth, to know he’s not seeing things, he’s forgotten that Baji has never been quiet once in his life. 

Baji shoves the window open completely and pulls himself up into it. Haru follows quickly. He got him into this after all…and he needs to know the truth. 

She looks stunned to see them and a little scared which is ridiculous because they were friends. They are friends. “Yo–you can’t be here!” She says, looking around like she’s expecting something to jump out at them. 

“Who the fuck knocked you up?” Baji demands, storming towards her. “Does Shin know? Fuck, course he does. Who was it? Are they still fucking alive or did the dragons kill them?”

Haruchiyo can only stare at her, watching as she looks around, clutching the shirt she’s holding. Her stomach protrudes enough to make it obvious. She’s probably going to be due soon. She’s too fucking tiny to look like this.

“You need to go,” she tells them after taking a deep breath. “Shin-nii doesn’t like visitors. Not anymore.” Something about the endearment, the honorific attached to his name sits like lead in Haruchiyo’s stomach. It’s nothing he hasn’t heard her say a thousand times before, but it somehow feels worse now. 

“We’re not going anywhere until we get some fucking answers,” Baji stands his ground. “Why is everyone saying you ran away? We haven’t seen you in years! Who the fuck knocked you up? You’re fifteen!” 

“Is it Shin?” Haruchiyo asks, finally cutting in. Baji looks at him like he’s insane and ready to take all his anger out on him for the sheer disrespect. 

But then she looks away. She doesn’t protest the idea, doesn’t accuse him of telling lies and her silence is all the confirmation he needs. Baji seems to realize it too because he whirls back on her, staring at her in horror. 

Haruchiyo feels like his world is collapsing around him. 

Shinichiro is supposed to be the good one. The type of brother anyone could rely on. He was the type of person who laughed and nodded when his siblings’ friends called him ‘nii-chan’ and treated all of them like they were his little siblings too. He wasn’t supposed to be like this. Not Shin. 

“What the fuck?” Baji asks again, quieter this time, like he’s having as much trouble believing it as Haruchiyo is. 

“How–” his throat is tight. It feels like something is lodged in it. This is worse than seeing Mikey decrepit and fragile. “How long?” he chokes out. 

“It’s not what you think,” she says quickly. “He…he needs me…”

“You’re fifteen!” Baji snaps. “He’s your fucking brother!” 

She flinches at that. “I...I know. I didn’t…he needs me. We’re the only ones left!” she looks up at them pleadingly, as if trying to get them to understand. 

For the first time in a long time, Baji and Haruchiyo look at each other and agree with each other without a word. “Bullshit.” They say at the exact same time. 

“He does!” she insists. “Everyone’s gone! You don’t get it! We only have each other…we…he needs me. He promised he’d never leave!”

“Not like this,” Baji says. “This isn’t fucking right. Brothers don’t do this shit.”

“How would you know?” She snaps at him. “You don’t have any family.”

Baji scowls at her. “You’re my fucking family! You, Mikey, Emma! All of you!” He motions towards her. “No wonder Emma fucking ran if this was what would have happened if she stayed!” She flinches as he says it. 

Haruchiyo steps closer. “You know this isn’t right,” he says quietly. He thinks of his own younger sister and the hell he’d reach if someone did this to her. He makes a mental note to get her as far away from Takeomi as possible. His brother knows. Even if he’s not doing it himself, the way he warned Haru away makes it obvious that he knows what Shin’s done. “Have you even seen a doctor?”

She swallows tightly, tears building in her eyes as she nods. 

“Come on,” Baji says. “We’re taking you to my place. My mom will know what to do.”

“I can’t,” her voice cracks. 

Haruchiyo leans down, cupping her cheeks with his hands as he meets her eyes. “You can. Trust us.” 

🪟

It takes ten more minutes until she agrees. They take her to Baji’s mom like he said, sneaking around and making sure that none of the Black Dragons see them. They get her out of the city, to Baji’s mom’s relatives, as fast as they can. Baji makes a show of complaining in public about his mom trying to reform him by way of the countryside. Haruchiyo stays far from him, making it look like they’ve continued to be on the outs, to not be friends anymore. Haruchiyo can trust that Baji will protect her.

He takes responsibility for redirecting the Black Dragons, current and former, as well as Shin. Shin who devolves quickly, reacting first with anger only to sink further into his darkness. The man known to be charming enough to bring together opposing gangs can barely bring himself to leave his house, praying for the return of his sister and their unborn child. His friends, the men who followed him, tear the city apart. 

Izana, leader of the Black Dragons, has his men drag Haruchiyo off of the street, demanding answers.

“You know, Shinichiro asked me to make sure you made it through juvie alive,” he tells him. “You asked about him. Why?”

“He picked me up when I got released.” Haruchiyo says, spitting blood out from the last hit. He glares up at the silver-haired man. “He seemed off. I wanted to make sure he was okay.”

“Why?”

“Because I owe him a lot.”

Izana scoffs at him, looking at him like he’s unworthy. “Where the fuck is my sister?”

Haruchiyo looks at him. “She’s not your sister.” He gets a kick to the face for that. 

“She’s Shin’s, that makes her mine.”

Haru wonders what it is about her that’s making these men like this. If it’s Shin’s provocation, if it’s contagious or if it’s just the way she’s always been kind and trying hard to keep her family together that draws people into her. 

He keeps his mouth shut. 

🪟

He hears through Takeomi, through Wakasa, that Shin’s obsession has grown. Not only is Tokyo being torn apart, but Shin has apparently gotten it into his head that the problem is Mikey’s death. That if he can find a way to go back, he can fix everything. He can have his brother back. He can get his sister back and their child. His child. 

It reinforces Haruchiyo’s belief that he’s doing the right thing keeping her out of the city. 

🪟

“Please, Haruchiyo.” 

Shin looks worse for the wear. His shirt is stained, hair unwashed and Haruchiyo thinks he hasn’t bathed in a few days. It’s almost sad seeing a man who was leader of one of the most powerful motorcycle gangs reduced to this. His grief is eating at him but instead of doing something about it, he’s spiralling. 

The only reason he’s talking to him is because Takeomi called, demanding to know what the fuck Haruchiyo did. He’s the prime suspect but even with the fading bruises and threats from Izana, Haruchiyo gave nothing away. Shin apparently clung to that and tracked him down, finding him to beg the boy for answers. Haruchiyo thinks it’s pathetic, even if he’ll never say that out loud. What happened to the man he idolized? 

“Where is she? Where’s my child?”

“I don’t know,” Haruchiyo answers. It’s not technically a lie. He doesn’t know exactly where she is. It’s better that way. 

Shinichiro sighs and looks up to the sky. “This is all my fault.” For a moment, Haruchiyo’s hope rises at the admission. If Shinichiro realizes he fucked up, that there’s something wrong with him, he can get better. He can– “I should have chained her to the bed or some shit.”

His heart sinks. “What?”

Shinichiro shakes his head. “I lost them all. She…she was all I had. If Mikey hadn’t…I thought I found the answer. I really did.” 

Haruchiyo watches in horror as Shinichiro gets closer to the edge of the bridge they met on. “Hey, wait! Stop!”

“We were happy,” he sees tears in the older man’s eyes. “I love her. I always have. No after how fucked up it was. Take care of them for me, alright? Tell my kid..tell them I’m sorry.” 

Haruchiyo stares at him in shock, seconds too late to lunge forward and stop him from falling over the edge. He didn’t want this. Never this. “SHINICHIRO!” 

🪟

Haruchiyo never thought he was insane, despite what people said about him. He always knew exactly what he was doing. But the moment he went from being glared at by a majority of people at Shinichiro’s funeral to being at home with a different series of memories in his head, he thought he finally cracked. 

But there are scars on his face that he never had before. 

Haruchiyo races, trying to find the truth. He heads for the Sano home as fast as he can and nearly crashes into Shinichiro headfirst. If Haruchiyo is confused then Shinichiro is just as surprised to know that Haruchiyo remembers everything. No one else does. 

He thinks that’s the end of it. Shinichiro is alive. Mikey is alive. Emma hasn’t run away and the last Sano isn’t pregnant with her own brother’s baby. There is a relief that settles in his chest at the fact that everything is fixed. Shinichiro fixed it.

But then he sees the way Shin looks at his sister when he thinks anyone isn’t paying attention and Haruchiyo is forced to face the reality that this Shinichiro still loves her in every fucked up way imaginable. When he stares too long at her stomach, Haruchiyo wonders if he’s imagining the baby that he put there. That he left behind.

He can see the obsession in the man’s eyes, the guilt and the way he holds her too long when she hugs him. Haruchiyo stays around the Sanos more now and he would bet all the money he doesn’t have that Shinichiro has to force himself not to send him away. That would gain questions because Haruchiyo has always been welcome. Everyone has.

Then, out of nowhere, Shinichiro is killed. 

An accident that Haruchiyo doesn’t really believe because who doesn’t know that SS Motors is Shin’s? Wouldn’t Mikey have taken his friends there? Guilt eats at him for the relief he feels. Haruchiyo doesn’t have to protect her from her own brother now that he’s dead. 

He promised to keep her safe. Even if he didn’t get the chance to respond, the nightmares he has of Shinichiro falling off that bridge, of Mikey’s expression as he ripped apart his mouth and told him to laugh. It keeps him awake sometimes. Mikey never used to be like that. He knows that. Something changed. It’s the same feeling that led him to discover Shin’s secret, so he stays by the Sanos, stays at Mikey’s side, and watches.

Just because Shin is dead doesn’t mean shit. Not when Haruchiyo remembers the way Izana threatened him at Shinichiro’s funeral the first time, promising him that he’d find her and raise Shin’s kid as his own. Nor with the way he sees Mikey starting to spiral after Shin’s death and the way her and Emma are stepping up to take care of him. The way he clings to them, to her, like they’re the only thing keeping him standing. 

He doesn’t trust the Sano men. Not with her. 

He stays. He changes his last name to Sanzu, to get as far as fuck away from his own brother he still sees as complicit even if he never was in this timeline. He keeps in touch with his own younger sister, keeping Senju away from their own brother and using her to keep track of the Sano girls as he remains at Mikey’s side. He couldn’t save her from Shinichiro, but he can try from Mikey. From Izana. 

He made a promise. 

tr tag: @mitsuwuyaa @blackfire2013 @bleach-your-panties @reiners-milkbiddies

I’m not tagging anyone else lol

[frogandbird]

oo ok i have a lot hold on.

raph: has absolutely massive lungs so she can hold her breath for a long ass time. she can slow her heart/body down in order ro like sneak around and not have pesky things like heart beats giving her away. can/has retractable spikes/claws on tail/fingers/toes. post kraang she develops gills and a scream similar to Primes (temp lock down of mistics/nimpo. not affective on other ‘hive’ members). very strong since of smell/taste, but very willing to eat anything. has scars teeth so if she breaks a tooth eating sm she’s not supposed to (caugh caugh her phone in that one ep) she can just pull it out and have a new one in a few days. also a living garbage can and can eat literally anything. poisons that attack through digestion are very weak to her. not completely immune but the amount needed for her makes it kind of pointless. downside is the same goes for meds :( needs like 3x the food her siblings do, so like 6x more then a human too. contradictory, she can go weeks wo food and water but she gets very sluggish after a week or so. once her scales are cut, it takes a long time clot over and is at the biggest risk of bleeding out should she get a major injury. She is also very easy to topple should you trip her tail. (should you head canon her w a tail lol) her scales are also so though it’s hard to feel things/pain. bc of that she tends to keep a invisible cover of nimpo to be able to feel things properly (personally think her nimpo is very sensitive to feel so she doesn’t kill someone on accident) but that means she is very easy to mistic attacks (mystics/nimpo leach onto more mystics/nimpo in my brain (also part of the reason the kraang could take over, but also the reason she could break free)). needs to soak often in order to make she she doesn’t over work her body, being so big makes it hard w to fight gravity sometimes.

Donnie: can breathe through their shell, better in clean water but still. bones are very fragile/rubbery(idk if that’s the right word lol), making them even more flexible then the avrage human. can also slow their heartbeat but not to the same extent Raph can. post kraang ship they gain the ability to communicate w other ‘hive’ members and technology (this gives them a headache after a bit but is very useful). strongest sense of sight/6th/feel out of all the siblings, can not taste a lot of things but texture can and will make them abandon most foods. also very very sensitive to anything tuching them, preferring silks and very soft cotton (or hugs from fam, scales and well cared for fur is fine most days). so sensitive to air currents and temperatures it’s kind of insane. eats the least out of their sibs, can go mouths wo food and weeks wo water. only eats once a day and that to much sometimes. like the others meds/poisons have litte\le affect. like raph, they have claws that can retract (but unlike her they are out by default). clots the fastest out of all the siblings, at almost no risk of bleeding out, but of internal blood clots do has to be careful about that. the least sensitive of mistics, but 2ed best user of nimpo. can dehighdrate very quickly. needs only 4 hours of sleep, has a physically bigger brain then the others too. overthinking is a common and big problem. scales are also very thin, hence the feel thing.

Leo: needs hearing aids, but has very strong eyes. scatterbrained was intended to be able to keep track of hundreds of people and thousands of pounds ok supplies but that did not turn out being useful in the good timeline (unless you count overthinking much like his twin). 2ed biggest brain but he don’t like using it lol. weak joints but very, very fast. has longest arms too, letting him run on four limbs should he feel so inclined (he hates doing it). gets sick the easiest but also takes meds the best. had the slowest healing factor as his body wants speed/strangth over health. only needs 3 hours of sleep at most, a few 10min cat naps over the day is often more then needed. post kraang his joints are even worse, and can not duck into shell unless he wants to risk a lot of pain and shifting his shell. (idk i don’t have a lot of thoughts on leo unlike most of the fandom)

Mikey: ironically the worst since of taste and feel out of the sibs, but very good hearing and eyes. also very flexible with rubbery (still the wrong word but idk what other word to use) bones/shell. thick scales letting him be almost completely fire proff and it takes nearly as much to cut/bruise him as it dose raph. has a mental affect that tells others to let down their guard and listen to the kid, for good or for bad. is the best at storing and using mistics/nimpo but it can/will eat them out from the inside out should he not use it properly (this following the pattern of his vains). gets very, very sleepy over the winter as his body shuts down. unlike raph and donnie this is not controlable and can be mildly dangrous if not fed/hydrayed enough. needs to eat the most often out of his siblings and is the one who needs to eat 3 times a day, unlike raph its not amount but time. can not prosses meat, at all. had the hardest time keeping to the rules of the univers due to his mistics/nimpo.

can you tell raph and donnie are the ones who i am fixated the most on rn? anyway, take thr pile of headcanons

Does anyone have headcanons for the Rise Turtles on like, 'Modified Biology' kind of headcanons.

Not just accelerated healing, and high resistance to poisoning/medicine. Though they are still applicable.

I've seen the whole Leo was engineered to need less sleep headcanon, which was not realized and just thought to be insomnia.

Maybe Raph, Donnie, and Leo have a kind of internal filter system that helps with swimming in contaminated water.

Okay, Mikey is a bit hard to figure what to add that would work, but maybe the Psychologist thing was kinda implanted to make it easier to get others to listen to him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Like I have an out there one for my AU Turtles, where when they ingest a poison, it secretes out into their saliva, so their bite is way more dangerous. Though it also acts as a roundabout way of injecting 'medicine' into the other turtles.

Though it does have the weirdness of them needing to essentially take medicine twice before their body realizes that it needs the medicine for itself. Aka they have to swallow their medicine filled saliva so that it will take effect. They're still basically immune to poison.

Yes, I made a pretty gross trait, but I wanted to find a way to nerf a character in a way that fits.

[what-the-fuck-khr]

bro Jeremy Renner might never walk again if he can even keep his leg jesus fucking christ. like I heard the accident when it happened but holy shit. plus blunt chest trauma and is still in ICU…

[starry-bi-sky]

don't you want to be a cult leader? - danyal al ghul au

this is mostly a joke post but i thought it was funny and had to share so--

his first mistake was, obviously, inheriting his father's inability to see an injustice and stand still. -- actually, danyal's first mistake was his lair being so big. a mountainous island with a large temple in the center resembling his old home in Nanda Parbat? With sprawling foliage and rivers and streams and waterfalls galore? What was he going to do with all that space? Let it go to waste? He had plants there! Native trees of the ghost zone growing from the soil! He couldn't let it all be left unchecked!

So naturally after helping a fellow teenage assassin ghost -- who he later learns is named Akihiko, -- from Walker of all people, he sent them over to hang low at his lair until it was safe enough for them to wander around the Zone. Walker couldn't get through Danyal's astrofield if his life depended on it, and trust him -- he's tried. Danny was clearing out debris from his stupid transport vans for weeks.

Honestly it wasn't so bad, he and Aki really quickly became fast friends and Danny loves having a sparring partner close to his level again -- he hasn't had this much fun fighting since he left the League. Aki was very dedicated and levelheaded, the both of them clicked really well because of it.

Nonono, the real trouble began after Danyal met some long-passed League members and allowed them to come join his island as well. Apparently they had made a few enemies of the zone, and maybe Danyal still felt some loyalty to the League. He couldn't just let them be left to rot. Their zealotry could be overlooked so long as they kept it contained and helped him take care of his island.

And it.. snowballs from there? He meets a teen squire aptly calling himself Ambroise -- whether that was his living name or not is yet to be seen -- who died during feudal france, who is just about as dramatic and passionate as every french stereotype makes them out to be. He calls Danyal "my moon and great muse" -- which is both flattering and little uncomfortable, but Danyal's grown up in the League as the Grandson of the Demon Head, he is used to mild worship. he passes it off as nothing more, nothing less. -- and while his energy is overwhelming on the worst of days, he helps Danny draw out of his shell more in ways that Sam and Tucker still struggle with.

Him and Aki butt heads a lot, but the two seem to hold the other in at least some positive regard, so Danny doesn't worry too much about them fighting while he's gone. It only becomes a mild issue when Aki also begins calling Danny "my moon". It's a little sweet, so Danyal brushes it off.

Then he takes in a troupe of ghosts some time after he defeats Pariah Dark and they begin calling him "great one" just as the yetis do in the far frozen. This is where he meets the twins -- a pair of sibling ghosts who call themselves Trixie and Missy (short for Trick and Mislead) -- who aren't quite as passionate as Ambroise but more energetic than Aki. Eventually they also start calling Danyal "my moon" and attach themselves to his hip, even within the living. They like to hide in his shadow and cause trouble for the rest of the students. He makes sure they don't hurt anyone.

He's pretty sure Aki is jealous, same with Ambroise, but he can't be too certain other than the fact that they become much more lingering (re: clingy) whenever he visits the island.. Something he's trying to do much more often these days due to the increasing amount of people living there now. Since when did he become so popular?

Then there's Pēnelópeia from the Greater Athens, who ran away from home and joined his Island after he ran into her while she was being chased by Skulker -- and he's pretty sure the reason was because of her chimeric appearance. Her strange eyes and mismatched wings and lion's tail and talons. She assimilates into his friend group very easily, she gets along well with Ambroise and Trixie and Danny usually finds the three of them climbing the trees to pluck the most fruit from the top. They can fly and he knows it, but they prefer to climb.

Then finally there's silent poet Akkara who comes from ancient mesopotamia, who gets along most with Aki -- which is no surprise there considering their similar personality dispositions. he watches Aki and Danyal fight each other and leaves comments on this or that that he notices. He writes Danyal poems on clay tablets and leaves them by his room.

They're one big mismatched group of outcasts, and Danny's got the other ghosts on his island to tend to, because they're living on his island and he wants to be hospitable even if he struggles with that. But he spends the most of his time with them.

Sam and Tucker are making fun of him. Tucker jokingly tells him 'careful Danny, at this rate you're gonna start a cult'. Danny really wishes he had taken that joke more seriously.

He just. keeps. collecting people. Wayward souls lost in the zone, looking for shelter or refuge from something or other -- whether that be another hostile ghost, or a past afterlife, or just a purpose. Danyal finds them, he takes them in, offers them a place on his island until they are ready to leave. Many seldom do. He's not complaining -- he has the space, and it feels like it's only ever growing.

His close friends, his "inner circle" as he's heard the others call them, keep insistently calling him "my moon". He starts calling them his stars, because then it only feels fair. They're his stars, this is his constellation. It becomes a thing; little star halos begin forming behind their heads, picking them out from the rest. He loves them so much, it's hard to place. Sam and Tucker are also his stars, but they reside in the living realm, they're his tie to Life. Meanwhile, his friends here know what it's like to be dead, and sometimes its nice to relate.

Those living on his island keep calling him "Great One" and he's beginning to notice zealotry in their care for his island. He really, deeply appreciates it. His close friends gain nicknames -- as his stars, it's only natural for him to pick them out from the cluster in the skies. Akihiko, his Sirius and bright star. Trix and Missy, Castor and Pollux, the twins and troublemakers. Ambroise, his zealous Antares and close friend. Penelopeia, chimeric and loyal Vega. And Akkara, his Arcturus and strength.

It's ridiculous how long it takes for him to notice; he is, of course, a deadly trained assassin. He is meant to be observant -- and normally he is! But somehow this becomes a blind spot. One that becomes too big to be dealt with by the time he realizes it.

He should've noticed when Aki, his Sirius, stood beside him one day while Danyal looked over his island and saw the sprawling spirits carrying on about their afterlife and bowing to him as they saw him, and said: "I looked down into the depths when I met you; I couldn't measure it." They aren't one for flowing prose, it took him so off guard he was silent for over a minute before he finally spoke.

Danyal should've recognized devotion for what it is, and yet he didn't. He should've recognized it when Antares began spouting praises about him, crowing about his radiance and resplendence to the heavens. He just brushed it off as Ambroise being Ambroise. He should've recognized it when Trix and Missy nearly broke Dash's leg after he knocked Danyal's books out of his hands, he excused it as them being protective. Of them coming from times where such violence may have been customary -- after all, that's what he used to be like. What he was still like, sometimes, when his emotions nearly got the better of him.

He should've noticed it when the people living on his island followed his word like gospel, looked at him like he hung the stars in the sky. When his friends gifted him a shawl with the moon phases delicately embroidered into it, with silver, shimmering thread and moving stars lovingly stitched into it. Their constellations seen clear as day in the dark fabric. When he found small shrines dedicated to him -- but they lacked any image of him beyond stones carved to look like moons, so he ignored it. When the religious imagery began popping up.

He really, really should've noticed it when a bunch of cultists accidentally summoned Antares, and Antares had turned to him when he arrived and called them heretics. But he was so centered on the fact that they had kidnapped one of his stars, that he hadn't paid much attention to what Ambroise had said.

Sages say that faith is blind, they should also say faith in you is even blinder.

It really only hits him one afternoon while he's sitting in Sam's room studying with Tucker, Missy and Trixie lounging at his feet, Aki sat on his right, Penelopeia braiding his hair, Ambroise draped against him, and Akkara lurking over him. Its one of the rare few times they're all in one room together.

It hits him like a bolt of lightning. He looks up from his textbook. "Oh Ancients," he says in no amounting shock. Everyone looks up to him.

"I've become my grandfather."

[hiding-under-the-willow]

anyways. What

[essektheylyss]

One thing that I feel is really interesting and often forgotten about Essek is that fundamentally, his characterization has been from the start based upon his desperation for external perspectives and connection, which, along with much of his narrative and mechanical positioning, means that he actually has an extraordinary and almost (but not actually, as I'll show) counterintuitive capacity for both growth and trust.

(Buckle in. This is a long one.)

In particular, I would argue, knowing now that many places where the plot touches Ludinus have long been marked for connecting back into the current plot, that he was quite possibly built as a prime candidate for radicalization by the Ruby Vanguard. He felt isolated from his culture, he was desperate for other connection, and he was certainly of the type to believe he was too smart to be drawn into such a thing, given his initial belief that he could control the situation and the fallout. If things had gone any other way, he easily could've been on the other side by now.

As such, he has been hallmarked by being fairly open to suggestion, perhaps for this reason, but the thing about that kind of trait is that it is both how people are radicalized and deradicalized. This is certainly true of Essek, who experienced genuine kindness and quite frankly strangeness from the Nein and was able to move from the isolation the Assembly had engendered to meaningful and genuine connection, largely propelled by his own internal reflection. By the time Nein are aware of his crimes, he's already begun to express regret to an extent and, furthermore, doubt in the Assembly, including explicitly drawing a line against Ludinus, even in a position where he was on his own and probably quite vulnerable.

Similarly, when the Nein reach the Vurmas Outpost some weeks later, he has moved from regret for the position he's ended up carrying a heavy remorse. This makes sense! He's fairly introspective, seems used to spending a lot of time in his own head, and was left with plenty to mull over. It's not some kind of retcon for him to have progressed well past where the Nein left him; it just means he's an active participant in the world who has done his own work in the meantime.

This is another interesting aspect to him. I've talked about this a bit before but I cannot find the post so I'll recap here: antagonists in D&D have significantly more agency than allied NPCs. Antagonists are active forces, against which the party is meant to struggle; allies are meant to support the PCs, which means they tend to be more passive in both their actions and their character growth. Essek was both built as an antagonist, in a position that gives him significant agency, and also was then given significant opportunity to grow specifically to act as a narrative mirror for Caleb's arc. Even when he becomes a more traditional D&D ally, he still retains much of that, though he occupies a supporting role.

I believe that this is especially true because of the nature of Caleb's arc, which I've already written on; the tl;dr of this post is that Caleb is both convinced that he is permanently ruined and also desperate to prove that change is possible. Essek is that proof, because he is simply the character in a position to do so. But this also means that his propensity for introspection and openness is accentuated! He has to do the legwork on his own, for the most part, because that's where he is in the meantime.

But he still ends the campaign necessarily constricted; he is under significant scrutiny, he's at risk from the Assembly, and he goes on the run fairly soon after the story ends. He spends most of the final arc anxious and paranoid, which is valid given the crushing reality of his situation. It would be very easy to extrapolate that seven years into this reality, he would be insular, closed off, and suspicious of strangers, even in spite of the lessons he's learned from the Nein and their long term exposure.

So seeing his openness and lightness now is surprising, but at the same time, given this combination of factors in his position in the narrative over time and his defining traits, it's not by any means unreasonable.

But one thing that I found so delightful is how much trust he exhibits, which is obviously a wild thing to say about Essek in particular, given much of what he learns is both earning and offering trust, which was something he says explicitly in 2x124 that he's never really experienced: "I've never really been trusted and so I did not trust." It makes up much of the progression of his relationship with Caleb, and the trust that he is offered by the Nein in walking off the ship is the impetus he needs to grow.

But I think it's easy to talk about trust when it comes to people who have proven themselves to you or to whom you've ingratiated yourself, and that's really the most we can say about Essek by the time he leaves the Blooming Grove. There is this sense in a lot of discussion of trust (not solely in this fandom) that it is only related to either naivete or love, but there's far more to it. Trust at its best is deliberate—cultivating an openness to the world at large is a great way to combat cynicism and beget connection instead. It allows a person to maintain curiosity and be open to experience, but it can be incredibly difficult to hold onto.

It is clear that the Essek we meet now is a very pointedly and intentionally trusting individual. He trusts Caleb and by extension Caleb's trust in Keyleth, as he shows up and picks up a group of strangers from a foreign military encampment and walks in without issue. He trusts the Hells to follow his lead moving through Zadash and to exhibit enough discretion so as to avoid bringing suspicion upon all of them. He trusts that Astrid will respond well to his entrance, but he also trusts himself and the Hells enough to execute a back-up plan in the case that she doesn't. In the end, he even trusts them enough to give them his name and identity.

He doesn't scan as someone who has spent half a dozen years living like a prey animal, afraid of any shadow he runs across in an alley, withdrawn into himself and an insular family, which would've been an easy route for him to take. He scans as someone who has learned the kind of trust borne of learned confidence and a trained eye for good will and kindness, which are crucial weapons one would need for staving off cynicism in his circumstances—as if he has survived thanks more to connection and kindness than paranoia and isolation. (If we want to be saccharine about it, he scans quite poignantly as a member of the Mighty Nein.)

So it is easy to imagine this trust and openness as a natural progression of his initial search for perspectives external to his own cultural knowledge. Though he makes those first connections with the Assembly to try to vindicate his personal hypotheses, he finds in them exposure to the deepest corruption among Exandrian mortals, which could've—and did, for a time—turned him further down that same dark path.

But it's also this same openness to exposure from the wider world that allows the Nein to influence him for the better, and in spite of the challenges he's certainly faced simply surviving over the past seven years, he seems to have held onto this openness enough to move through the world with self-assurance and a willingness to extend the kinds of trust and good will that he has been shown.

(I would be remiss not to mention that I was reminded about my thoughts on this by this lovely post from sky-scribbles and their use in the tags of 'light' to describe Essek's demeanor this episode, which is really such an apt word for it.)

[aspennntree]

must be horrifying to wake up dead

[citrine-elephant]

the krauser/leon parallels thing. with krauser being what leon could have turned into if he turned into... hehee... his own resident evil-

anyways, so what if leon got injured in a similar way that drove krauser towards bad boy hours (i believe...? his arm injury...?)

taking leon's entire arm. yoink.

[galedekarios]

the plagiarist posting an "apology" to creators, including myself, who he has ripped for months on end despite us asking him not to while he still has us all blocked is... a choice

[greasydumbfuck]

guy having a very normal reaction to punisher max

[md-confessions]

Sometimes I wonder if Alice holds any sort of grudge against Yeva too since, from Alice’s perspective, she also left her and everyone else in that labs to die like Nori. Speaking of, how did Alice come to the conclusion that Nori just abandoned everyone instead of just assuming she was eaten by sentinels? Does camp 98.7 have security cameras Alice can access from the labs?

.

[stoleyourgender]

what if drumbot brian was magnetic. what if every mech's mechanism was magnetic. WHAT IF.