#like we’ve got to admit that this is strange behavior over a ship that you don’t like

[soldierandawar]

people wanting a happy ending for a queer ship and character genuinely offends some of you and I’ve yet to make sense of that.

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

𝑴𝒂𝒇𝒊𝒂! 𝑨𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒛: 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝑶𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝑩𝒂𝒃𝒚

Disclaimer: In no way am I condoning, justifying, encouraging or promoting mafia behavior or lifestyle. This is simply a work of fiction and not meant to represent real life scenarios.

❥𝓚𝓲𝓶 𝓗𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓳𝓸𝓸𝓷𝓰

"Ok ok stop fussing now. I'll get you out now."

Hongjoong walked over to the portable crib and picked up his son who was currently whining and kicking his legs around, hating being cooped up inside the contraption for too long. Hongjoong picked him up and looked at him.

"You know, not even the people we lock up in solitary confinement complain as much as you."

The baby reached his tiny hands out, gently patting at his father's nose and cheeks, making Hongjoong chuckle.

"Then again none of them have ever been half as cute as you are. It's a crime to be this cute. I should punish you."

Hongjoong nuzzled his nose against his son's, causing the baby to let out a happy squeal. A tiny buzz let Hongjoong know Yunho was calling him.

"Hey Hongjoong. Your boss is on the line."

Hongjoong rolled his eyes at Yunho's teasing, always saying how you were the real boss. Putting the baby down so he could crawl as he liked, Hongjoong picked up the phone.

"Hey honey." He greeted you.

"How's the baby doing?" You asked.

Hongjoong got a deadpan expression.

"Well hello to you too Mrs. Kim, I'm fine too thanks for asking."

Hongjoong was so concentrated on your conversation he didn't realize the door was open and the baby inadvertently went out.

"He's fine don't worry. And he's no trouble at all, he's currently crawling around my office-"

Hongjoong abruptly stopped when he realized the baby was gone.

"Hongjoong....? What's going on?"

He could hear you getting ready to scold him if anything happened to your child. He stammered as he began looking around for him. A beep on the other line let you both know someone else joined your call.

"I think an enemy spy has infiltrated our base, but honestly, I don't have the heart to fight back." Yunho's voice was followed an incoherent babble, belonging to none other than your baby.

"Oh my God! Yunho is he with you?" You were relieved to find out the baby was ok.

"Yep, and although I'd usually send out a ransom note, I think I'm keeping him hostage for a while." He chuckled.

Hongjoong fumed as he walked out of his office.

"Heck you will! Give me back my son!"

❥𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓴 𝓢𝓮𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓱𝔀𝓪

Seonghwa peeked his head into the room, 7 pairs of eyes staring at him intently. Hongjoong sighed softly.

"You're late." He told him.

"Sorry. Got caught up with something." Seonghwa apologized.

"Whatever. Just get in. You haven't missed much of the meeting." His leader assured him.

Hongjoong was about to resume speaking, but he, like the rest of the members watched as Seonghwa opened the door and went to take his seat, a baby carrier on his left hand with his baby daughter inside.

"Night light!" San exclaimed the nickname they all had for Seonghwa's daughter.

"Night fury got stuck with babysitting duty?" Yeosang raised an eyebrow.

Seonghwa glared at him, about to say something but was stopped by Hongjoong.

"Guys! Meeting! Focus ok?"

Hongjoong began talking once again, detailing about a government cargo ship that was soon to land in the city, containing secret weapons.

"Now, if our information is correct, it'll get here in-"

A soft and subtle sneeze interrupted him, followed by a chorus of 'aaaws' and 'ooohs'.

"She's the deadliest weapon ever!" San clutched his heart.

"Yeah! Who can resist that level of cuteness?" Mingi agreed, crouching down to poke her tiny nose.

"I know! Isn't she adorable?" Seonghwa beamed with pride at his baby.

"Guys, remember? Timeline-" Hongjoong tried to get their attention again.

"Has she started talking yet?" Jongho asked.

"No not yet. But she's babbling a lot more, mostly songs in movies or cartoons though." Seonghwa explained.

"Ooooh! Can she do the banana song?! Night light! Watch uncle Woo."

Wooyoung began singing the minions song, not really getting a reaction out of the baby and further causing Hongjoong's annoyance to spike up.

"One more interruption and I'm shooting you all in your legs!"

They all stayed quiet, not wanting to further anger their leader. Hongjoong let out a sigh of relief.

"Now, as I was saying-"

"Ba ba ba, ba na na." The baby interrupted him as she tried to sing the song Wooyoung was previously singing.

They all stared in shock and adoration at her.

"Ok, that's actually fucking cute." Hongjoong admitted.

Seonghwa only giggled as he picked up his daughter and kissed her cheek.

❥𝓙𝓮𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓨𝓾𝓷𝓱𝓸

Yunho tried shushing the whimpering baby underneath his desk.

"Buddy come on. You're going to get me in trouble. Now shush."

Having no alternative, he picked up his baby son, cradling him in his arms as he tried to keep him from making anymore noise. He cooed at him and even made funny faces, but the boy didn't seem to calm down.

"Why are you being like this?" Yunho pouted.

The baby nuzzled his face against his father's chest before opening his mouth against it. Yunho immediately pulled the baby a few inches off him.

"Ok I get it now. You're hungry. Please don't do that again. My body doesn't work like your mom's."

Setting the boy back in the carrier, Yunho reached inside the baby bag and got out the bottle and baby formula. He quickly mixed them together, careful not to spill any of it on his desk. He looked around and realized he had absolutely no idea how he was going to heat it up. When the baby began fussing again, he quickly stooped down, trying to quiet him down.

"Uhhh Yunho?"

Yunho hit his head as he quickly stood up, looking at Yeosang who was right in front of him with a folder. Yeosang noticed the baby bottle in his hand and snorted.

"Is that your new guilty pleasure?" He teased.

"I'm not in the mood Yeosang. In case you haven't noticed, I sneaked him in."

Yunho picked up his child and rocked him in his arms, trying to stop his crying.

"Hi junior." Yeosang waved.

Scanning the baby, Yunho and the bottle, Yeosang ended up deducing what was going on.

"Give me the bottle, I'll heat it up for you." Yeosang offered, taking the bottle away from him.

"You will? Thanks Yeo. I'd really appreciate it." Yunho thanked him.

"No problem..." Yeosang looked at the bottle, studying its structure and model.

"I kinda want to try out the new fire weapon I created and this might just be the perfect test subject..."

When he heard those words, Yunho quickly stopped Yeosang.

"A microwave will do Yeosang! Don't fucking use my son's bottle for one of your weird experiments!"

Yunho gasped when he realized he cussed in front of his kid.

"Don't tell your mom."

❥𝓚𝓪𝓷𝓰 𝓨𝓮𝓸𝓼𝓪𝓷𝓰

Yeosang carefully weighed the powder into the brown paper bags, careful not to go above the amount he needed. His eyes trailed to the tiny hand that tried reaching up for the contents he had.

"No no no sweetheart. Don't touch anything."

He put what he had in his hands down and picked up his daughter, setting her down and making her rest on top of a stack of books he had.

"Ok. Here you go. Play with this. Your mom says you like it." He handed her the rattle that was shaped like a chicken leg before going back to concentrate on his task.

The baby shook the rattle a few times before becoming bored with it. Instead, she was fascinated by all the intricate colors and strange devices inside her father's laboratory. Looking next to her, she saw a display of assorted test tubes that had different liquids in them. Curiously, her hand reached out to grab the red colored one. At that moment, Yeosang had finished weighing the stuff out and placed them in a container. When he looked back, he saw his daughter pulling out the test tube.

"No don't touch-"

Yeosang quickly scooped the baby up and covered her with his body as the tube fell to the floor, not only splattering the contents, but immediately setting off a tiny explosion that spread a horrible smelling gas in the air. Yeosang covered his daughter's face as he quickly got them out of the room. At that moment, Jongho came running down the hall.

"What was that?!" He immediately asked.

"One of the test tubes I was working on." Yeosang explained, as he scanned his daughter to make sure she was all right.

"Seriously Yeosang?! We've told you time and time again to be careful! How did it even happen?"

Yeosang immediately turned to his daughter, who was merely sucking on her thumb, looking at him with the most innocent eyes ever.

"You're lucky it was one of the least deadly ones and I got you out of there in time. Otherwise we'd both be laughing ourselves to death." Yeosang chuckled at her and kissed her forehead.

Jongho shook his head.

"I swear to god, if your daughter becomes another crazy scientist like you, I'm joining another gang."

❥𝓒𝓱𝓸𝓲 𝓢𝓪𝓷

The diminutive man strolled from one corner of the alley to another, sighing as he stared once again at his watch.

"Where the fuck are they?" He shook his head, hating people being late above anything else.

Finally hearing footsteps, he saw the two figures approach him. He smiled contentedly until he saw that one of them had a baby strapped to his chest.

"All right Changbin, we got the money now where's the drugs?" San asked, not yet giving him the bag of money.

Changbin looked at San, then back at the baby boy.

"Don't look at the baby, look at me." San gestured to his eyes.

Changbin raised an eyebrow at him before looking over at Wooyoung, who looked completely unfazed.

"Just don't even question it man." Wooyoung suggested.

Changbin hesitantly got out the package from his coat. He was about to hand it to them, but he stopped when he looked at the baby again.

"Don't look at the baby, look at me." San repeated himself.

"Look man! It's just feels completely unorthodox to make illegal transactions in front of an innocent baby ok?! Did you kidnap it or something?" Changbin scanned him.

San scoffed in offense.

"This is my kid! Can't you see the resemblance? He's as handsome as me."

Changbin raised an eyebrow.

"You're seriously bringing your kid.... you know what? Never mind."

Changbin opted for giving the package to Wooyoung and then taking the bag of money.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

San waved at him when he departed. As him and Wooyoung made their way back to the car, his son started babbling something incoherently. San looked down and patted his head.

"Yes I know he's a mean, grouchy dwarf. Don't worry about him."

❥𝓢𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓜𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓲

Mingi sat down on the stool in front of the bartender, setting down the carrier on the chair next to him.

"I'm here." Mingi told the man who had his back turned.

"Oh Mingi you've come. Tell me what can I get-"

The pink haired man stopped when he saw the baby and pointed at her.

"Just give me my usual and don't worry about her. She's covered."

Mingi opened his trench coat and took out a baby bottle before taking the baby out of the carrier so he could feed her.

"You got the info Hyunjin?" Mingi lowered his voice.

Hyunjin rolled his eyes as he prepared him his drink.

"Mingi you brought a baby inside a bar. Forget trying to avoid unnecessary attention, everyone is already looking at you weird."

Mingi looked around, noticing a couple people staring at him as if he was crazy.

"Oh...right."

Hyunjin set the drink out in front of him before pulling out a folder and sneakily handing it to Mingi.

"Even got a few of the members' names gathered for you. Don't be fooled by their small numbers. These guys are very deadly and are slowly gaining momentum in the criminal world."

Mingi nodded and stuffed the folder in his coat. At that moment, his phone started ringing and he panicked when he saw who it was.

"Do me a favor. Hold her and cover her ears."

Hyunjin obeyed and cringed when Mingi fired a gun at the roof.

"I'm gonna need all of you to be quiet for a minute or else I'll put a bullet in your heads."

Mingi then quickly answered the phone, suddenly changing his tone.

"Hey baby. Oh nothing. I'm with Seonghwa, he wanted to see the baby.....no! I'm most definitely not working at the moment." He laughed awkwardly.

Hyunjin shook his head and looked down at the baby girl in his arms.

"Mind sharing some of your milk with me? I think I need it."

❥𝓙𝓾𝓷𝓰 𝓦𝓸𝓸𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓰

"Wooyoung? Do you see the target?" Yeosang's voice echoed through his ear piece.

Wooyoung casually tilted his head to the side.

"No. There's too many people. " Wooyoung answered casually.

He looked down when he heard his daughter sneeze.

"Bless you." Wooyoung cooed at her.

"I'm literally trying to put a bullet through a man's head and you're giving me your blessings?" Yeosang asked.

"Not you idiot! My princess just sneezed and-"

"Oh my gosh! What a lovely baby you have!"

Wooyoung turned to find a young woman standing in front of him, twirling her hair in her finger as she looked at him and his daughter.

"Thanks..." Wooyoung answered.

"Is she yours?" She asked, stepping closer to him, reaching her hand out.

"Yeah...mine." Wooyoung shifted in his seat, moving the baby so she wouldn't touch her wandering hands.

Wooyoung tried not to cringe as the girl didn't seem to get the hint and continued talking to him.

"Want me to put a bullet in her head?" Yeosang offered.

Wooyoung immediately declined the offer as quietly as possible, not hearing what the girl said until she repeated herself.

"I asked if there was a mom in the picture."

She tucked her hair behind her ear before sitting down next to Wooyoung, her hand brushing on his shoulder.

"Cause if not.....I could help out in more ways than one." She bit her lip.

Before Wooyoung could even respond, he was saved when you suddenly showed up.

"I'm giving you ten seconds to run before I pull the trigger."

The girl froze when she felt a gun pointed at her back. Wooyoung waved.

"Hi honey." He smiled.

"Don't 'honey' me. First you take our daughter out on a mission and then I find some skank trying to take my place?" You scoffed.

"Should have taken my offer when you had the chance." Yeosang poked fun at him.

❥𝓒𝓱𝓸𝓲 𝓙𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓱𝓸

Jongho kept his eyes on the road, occasionally looking at the rearview mirror to check on the little boy in the baby seat.

"Getting sleepy there buddy?" Jongho chuckled when he saw the baby's eyes open and close slowly.

"Don't worry. After we deliver this package, I promise I'll take you to get ice cream......just don't tell your mom I've been feeding you that before you're old enough."

Jongho began to sing softly, hoping it'll help the baby sleep faster. However when he looked at the rearview mirror again, he noticed a strange looking car tailing right behind him.

"Huh....strange..... very strange."

Jongho gripped the steering wheel tightly. Looking back at his son, he noticed he was now fully awake.

"Buckle up buddy cause we're in for a fun ride."

Shifting the gear, Jongho immediately pressed down on the accelerator before rapidly making a u-turn, momentarily confusing the car behind him. Jongho drifted through the different alleys, hoping to loose the car, but it still seemed to catch up to him. His son on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the fun ride.

"Oh shit." Jongho cursed when he saw you were calling.

Pressing the button, he answered your call.

"I just got off work, barely going back. Think you can handle the boy for a little bit longer?" You asked.

"Take all the time. I'm going to be late too."

Jongho made a rather sharp turn that had your son squealing excitedly. You immediately sensed something was off.

"You're on a mission aren't you?"

"Yeah and we kinda ran into some chasers." Jongho chuckled rather amused.

You sighed softly.

"Where are you?"

"Gangnam district. Near the old abandoned factory." He answered as he continued trying to loose the car behind him.

"Give me 5 minutes and I'll be there."

Jongho couldn't help but bite his lip at your words.

"God baby, I love you so much."

He then turned his attention to his son who was still having the time of his life.

"Hear that bud? Mommy is gonna be joining us soon."

Gifs not mine, credit goes to their respective owners.

[huntertales]

Part Two: Who’s A Good Boy? (Dog Dean Afternoon S09E05)

Episode Summary: While investigating two bizarre murders, Y/N and the boys realize there is an eyewitness to both gruesome deaths–a German Shepard. Anxious to find out what monsters they are dealing with, the three look up a spell that can help communicate with the dog. When Dean decides to be the one to perform the spell, he quickly realizes it comes with side effects no one saw coming. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Word Count: 5,741.

Previous Part | Supernatural Rewrite Masterlist

By the next morning you and the boys could add another body to the list. A young man was murdered late into the evening, at an animal shelter of all places. You had a feeling it wasn't a coincidence from the one you were looking into. Both of them dealt with animals in the location of where they were killed, but the difference between the two was how it was done. Max had his body contorted in a violent manner, the newest victim's body was covered in his own blood after being clawed to death. You took one more good observation before the body bag was zipped up and the coroner pushed him out to the van, where the man would be shipped off to the morgue.

“Claw marks?” Dean noted the different cause of death. 

"Yeah. The cops said all the cats went missing." Sam added on to the weird factor of the case. You didn't understand why someone would go through all the trouble to steal all the felines from the shelter only to leave the rest of the animals. You highly doubted there was a crazy cat lady/animal lover behind both of these murders.

You passed by the dog kennels as you and the boys made your way through the shelter, all abandoned for one reason of another and in need of adoption. All their little faces and adorable eyes made your heart melt. What you wouldn't do to be able to give them all a good permanent home. "Right, so," You focused your attention back onto the conversation. "Yesterday we're dealing with some sort of snake monster. Today it's a killer kitty. Makes sense."

"Hey." Dean stopped at a particular cage when he spotted a German Shepard that he swore he saw before. "Why does that mutt look familiar?"

You reached out to grab the clipboard and glanced at the dog's information to see what his name was. Dean was right. You had seen him yesterday. "That was the taxidermist's dog."

"So, he's been at both crime scenes?" Dean found all of this to be more than just a simple coincidence. You merely shrugged your shoulders, Sam nodded at the similarities. "Maybe he’s a suspect. You know, may—" He stopped for a moment when he saw an officer passed by before continuing when the man was out of earshot, continuing on with his theory to who might be to blame for this. The dog sitting inside the kennel. "Could be a skinwalker, maybe a shapeshifter."

You stared at the German Shepherd, who merely sat there with his tongue wagging out, the sight alone made you smile from how innocent he looked. "Doesn't look like a monster to me." You crouched down so you were at level with the dog and stuck your fingers through the fencing, letting the Colonel move forward and sniff your skin to get your smell. When he felt comfortable enough you scratched under his chin. "More like a handsome boy."

"One way to find out." Dean took out a silver dollar from his pocket and sank down to the ground next to you. "Come here, boy. Hey. This isn't gonna hurt at all. Unless it hurts"

Dean rubbed the coin behind one of the Colonel's ears, and like you suspected, nothing out of the ordinary happened. "Huh. Guess we can rule out killer." You said. You scratched one of the dog's ears, smiling in delight from how he reacted. "Isn't that right, boy?"

You pulled your hand out of the cage and pushed yourself up to your feet right when the Colonel changed his tune. You watched as he went from a content dog to barking at the stranger who approached from behind. You looked over your shoulder to see that it was just the sheriff. For some reason the Colonel did not like him.

"Do you agents need any further assistance?" He asked. You noticed right as the sheriff took off his hat the barking stopped. You didn't think much of it. You presumed the Colonel who the stranger was and stopped.

"Officer, I think we're okay." Sam said. "Thanks."

“All right, well,” The sheriff nodded. “let me know.”

You noticed right when he put his hat back on the Colonel started barking again. Dean picked up the observation as well. He pushed himself back up to his feet and stopped the sheriff from going anywhere, needing to test a possible theory from asking a strange favor from the man. “Officer. Excuse me, can I borrow your hat?”

The sheriff willingly handed over his hat. You watched as Dean turned over to the kennel and merely placing the hat over his head caused the Colonel to erupt into barking again. Right as he took it off, the barking stopped. You crossed your arms over your chest and looked over at the boys, each of you seeming to have the same idea. You heard the sheriff make a remark about the kind of trouble the dog was going to have getting adopted before being on his way. It was something more. You turned your attention back to the German Shepard as he continued barking before the man was gone.

“Okay, so, the Colonel’s not a suspect.” Sam said, noticing himself about the strange reaction.

“Yeah, but he’s a witness.” Dean mumbled. “Hey, boy. You speak sign language?”

“That’s monkeys.” Sam corrected his brother on the animals he was thinking about. “You know what? This is gonna sound crazy. I read this book about this guy who tried to teach his dog to speak after it witnessed a murder.”

“And it worked?” You couldn’t help yourself but ask out of curiosity to see if it was a success, despite how you chuckled at the bizarre idea. Sam shook his head. “But he wrote a book about it?”

“Yeah, well, he doesn’t have what we have.” Sam said. He pulled out his phone and pulled up the number of someone who was able to help you. You had a feeling you knew where this was going. “Kevin. Hey, it’s me. How do we speak to a dog?”

+ + +

To say you were excited about spending the afternoon with the German Shepard was an understatement. You ignored Dean’s annoyed stares and remarks from having the dog ride in the backseat with you and the chance of getting the interior ruined. You needed the Colonel in order to figure out who killed his owner. And he was on his best behavior. You sat on the floor of the motel while Sam gathered all the supplies you would need to make the spell in order to speak to the dog.

"You are just so handsome." You cooed at the German Shepherd, petting him and scratching behind his ear when you found a spot he liked the most. "I think this might be my favorite hunt we've ever done. A cute face like yours will get adopted in no time. Who's a good boy? It's you. Yes, you are."

"Don't get too attached to the mutt. We're not keeping him." Dean reminded you. He didn't understand why you were gushing over the dog. It wasn't like you were going to be able to keep him. He wasn't a personal fan of dogs. Didn't understand what the big hype was about. They bark at the smallest things, not to mention how they liked to shed everywhere. It was like having a child covered in fur. "We're doing the spell, figuring out who killed his owner and it's back to the pound."

"I know that. But it's not everyday we get to work with such a pretty dog. German Shepherds have always been my favorite. I wanted one as a kid. But my mom was allergic." You explained to the older Winchester why you were attached to the Colonel. You smiled and continued speaking to the dog in the kind of childlike voice Dean always found irritating. You praised the mutt for doing nothing but sitting there. Despite how this annoyed him with everyone else, he had to admit he liked seeing you so happy. It’d been a while since he got to see how your face lit up and with a genuine smile. You seemed to notice the older man’s pessimistic behavior. "He's a grump. Dean doesn't like dogs. But how can you not love such a cute face?"

You softly patted the Colonel one last time before you got back up from the ground when the door to the room opened, revealing Sam with all the ingredients you would need for the spell. You made your way over to the table to get started. However you felt a nudge on your knee, distracting you from participating. A smile crept on your lips when you saw the Colonel was back at your side. He rested his head on your lap and stared at you with those puppy dog eyes. You playfully rolled your eyes before you went on petting him, listening as Sam got started.

“An inuit spell?” You asked.

“Yeah.” Sam said. You watched as he reached for another ingredient and mixed it into the plastic bowl he found in the motel that was supposed to be used for ice. “Who knew the Men of Letters had its own Eskimo section?”

“I swear, you discover something new in that place.” You mumbled to yourself. “And it’s supposed to let us communicate with the Colonel?”

“Yeah, well, that’s the plan.” Sam answered. He reached out and plucked a hair off the Colonel’s backside, the strange disruption from you scratching his head made the dog lift its head up from your lap to see what the younger man was doing. Sam dropped the hair into the bowl and stirred it into the mixture to make sure it was all combined together. “Kevin said it’s like a sort of human/animal mind meld.”

“Meaning?” Dean questioned his brother, wondering about the simplified version of the spell.

“If it works,” Sam explained to his brother as he poured a vial looking brown liquid into a clean cup. Your face scrunched up slightly from realizing that you were going to have to drink that for the chance to communicate with the Colonel someway. “we should be able to read the Colonel’s thoughts.”

“All right, I’ll do it.” The older Winchester declared, snatching the cup off the table before either you or his brother could jump on the opportunity. You let out a loud scoff from the move that he pulled, prompting you to give him a look to explain himself of why he wanted to do this.“You got enough on your plate, sweetheart.”

“Like, what?” You questioned him in a frustrated tone of voice.

"Uh, like...you're tired." Dean sniffed the drink before giving a bogus response. You quietly laughed from the answer even you knew was crap. You weren't tired. Sure, you weren't back to yourself one hundred percent, but you didn't understand why you couldn't do the spell. "You're on the mend. Okay? Plus, Sammy's got a sensitive stomach. Last thing we need is him chucking this stuff up. Huh?"

“You hate dogs.” You pointed out to him.

“No, I don’t.” Dean chuckled off the accusation. The Colonel turned his head and let out a quiet noise that sounded like a bark. You quietly laughed. Guess the dog disagreed. Dean rolled his eyes from the petty argument. He turned his attention to the drink that he had to unfortunately swallow. He had his fair share of weird food and drinks over the years, the stuff should have gone down easy. “Doesn’t look so bad.” Dean drank the entire thing like it was a shot. He let out a sigh from the aftertaste that lingered. “I was wrong.”

“You wanted to do it…” You muttered under your breath.

“Come on.” Dean waved a hand for his brother to fork over the words he needed to say to make the spell complete. He coughed a few times from the way the drink snuck up on him as it settled into his stomach with consequences. He managed to chant a few lines without barfing up the ingredients. You examined the Colonel to see if anything might happen. The dog continued to rest at your feet. “All right. Let’s get this party started. Tell me everything you know.” The Colonel responded by letting out a yawn. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” Dean amused himself with a corny joke as he let out a quiet chuckle. You and his brother didn’t think it was funny. “Tough crowd.”

The Colonel threw the man a bone when he lifted his head up and let out an unexpected bark. You raised your brow slightly and looked over at Dean, hoping somehow it was the dog’s way of communicating. Dean merely shook his head. You let out a quiet sigh from how the spell failed. Well, it was worth a shot.

+ + +

A little while later you and the boys settled down for a quick lunch as you discussed the next possible course of action. You weren't hungry as you thought you were. Every once in a while you ripped off a piece of your hamburger and fed it to the Colonel when the boys weren't looking. You felt like a kid feeding their unwanted vegetables to the family pet so you could be excused from dinner. He kept staring at you with those puppy dog eyes. You couldn't resist just giving him a treat. You’d find something else to snack on later like you normally did while you completed some more research.

“So, call Kevin.” Dean said. “Spell tasted like ass and it was a bust.”

“At least it didn’t affect your appetite.” You noted. “Geez. I’ve never seen you eat like that before. Take it slower next time. You’re not that young anymore.”

Dean rolled his eyes from your remark about his eating habits. He opened his mouth to try and excuse the reason for his ravenous appetite, but someone cut him off. “Change the station.” Dean heard a male voice come out of thin air. He turned his head head to the dog sitting next to him when he realized it wasn’t Sam complaining of the station he turned on the radio. The Colonel continued as he was while Dean observed him for any kind of change in behavior, his mouth hung open with a little bit of drool escaping his mouth. Dean heard the request again. “Change the station.”

“What?” Dean asked the dog for some kind of clarification. He wasn’t exactly sure how the spell might work if it actually did. Sam repeated after his brother, not sure himself of what was going on. When the older man did, he was quick to hush the both of you from trying to say anything else. The Colonel must’ve been speaking to the man telepathically. “You—shut up. It’s working!”

“It—go!” You hissed at the man.

“Say that again.” Dean told the dog.

“You call this classic rock? Next thing you know, they’ll be playing Styx.” The Colonel had an opinion on Dean’s music taste of all things. To say Dean was oddly offended would have been an understatement. One thing was for sure, he didn’t stand for something trashing his impeccable music taste. Not even a dog. “And Dennis DeYoung? A punk.”

“Dennis DeYoung’s not a punk.” Dean argued with the canine. “He’s Mr. Roboto, bitch.”

“Why are you arguing with the dog about Styx?” You asked him, becoming confused yourself at the one-sided conversation you were only able to hear.

Dean realized that you and Sam couldn’t hear the Colonel’s thoughts like he could. The man was having a full conversation with the mutt. “Wh—uh, yeah. Um, hey, boy.” Dean veered the conversation to the reason why he did the spell in the first place. “What were you trying to tell us about the cowboy hat?”

“The douche wheel who killed my best friend was wearing a cowboy hat.” The Colonel said. Dean wondered about the kid who was working at the shelter the night he was murdered. He was communicating with a dog. The man wasn’t sure if this was the weirdest thing he had ever done for a hunt. It was well up there. “Yep. Same guy killed both.”

“Ask about the cats.” Sam said, throwing his dirty rolled up napkins into the trash.

“Yeah, uh—” Dean was about to do that. But for some reason he was distracted by the ball Sam had thrown. He was overwhelmed with the urge to grab it from the trash can and placed it on the table. “And what about the cats?”

Sam picked up the napkin his brother fetched, unsure of why the man did it in the first place. “I don’t want this.”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t see much.” The Colonel said. Sam rolled up the napkin even more and tossed it once again into the trash hoping where it would stay there. “I didn’t exactly have the best view in the orphanage. Oh, but I could smell him. Guy reeked of red meat, dishwashing detergent and Tiger Balm.”

“So what’s he saying?” You asked the older man.

“Uh, that the—” Dean once again automatically reached for the napkin when he saw it be thrown across the table and into the trash. He tossed it back down on the table to Sam and went on with what he learned from the Colonel. “The guy smelled like ground chuck, and soap suds and old-lady cream.”

“Dean, what are you doing?” Sam asked. Once again he picked up the napkin he tried to discard twice now, only to fail after his brother picked it up like it was some kind of ball.

You noticed Dean was scratching behind his ear without much thought, like it was second nature. He shrugged his shoulders at his own behavior. “I don’t know.” He said. It seemed he wasn’t even aware of his strange actions that weren’t like him. The Colonel found it amusing when he titled his head and started laughing. Dean didn’t find it the least bit funny. “Oh, what are you laughing at?”

The Colonel was about to break the news to the man, until his ears picked up something that sounded like a car door sliding shut. He knew that noise. Suddenly he started barking like how he had at the shelter. Instead this time it was for an enemy all dogs shared. The expression that crossed Dean’s face was laser focused. He had the overwhelming urge to jump out of his seat and head straight to the window, and that’s exactly what he did. You felt your mouth part open in complete shock as the Colonel joined him, the dog jumped onto his hind legs as he peeked through the curtains to spot the mailman. Dean started banging his hand against the window as the Colonel continued barking upscenely, both trying to appear threatening to the stranger.

“Hey! Hey, hey! Yeah!” Dean shouted at the mailman just trying to do his job, only to be stopped by a grown man who was desperately trying to get his attention. For some reason the man pointed a finger at the stranger and shouted words at him, like he was trying to get his attention and seem threatening. “You! You!” The Colonel continued to bark as Dean did the same with his own words. “Hey, hey! You! You! You!”

Dean repeated after himself several more times until he saw the mailman go on his way, brushing off the man’s odd behavior. He felt himself let out a growl in frustration. “Hey! Stop that!” You were giving the command to the Colonel in an attempt to get him to try and behave, little did you think it would have the same effect on Dean. “Come on. Sit down.”

The Colonel did as he was told. He stopped barking and made his way back over to you where he dropped down to your feet. Dean followed just a second after. You smiled at how well the Colonel followed commands, it earned him another scratch under the chin you noticed how much he enjoyed. Dean found himself growing annoyed from the thought he was able to hear about how the Colonel could get used to this kind of treatment from you.

“Hey, hey. Don’t get cozy, pal.” Dean grumbled to the dog. “She’s my female, not yours.”

You suddenly stopped what you were doing at the words that came out of Dean's mouth. You turned your head to "I’m your what?" You asked, not sure if you should be weirded out or start laughing. It took you a second to realize what was going on when you saw Dean scratching behind his ear. Playing fetch. Barking at the mailman. You felt your lips stretch into an amused smile. “I think the spell worked. In fact, I think it worked a little too well.”

“What?” Dean asked.

“I think…you might be a dog.” Sam broke the news to his brother, trying his hardest not to laugh himself at the irony of the situation. The older Winchester was slowly becoming something he hated. Dean didn’t understand what the both of you were trying to get at, despite seeing the evidence. “You’re scratching your head. You’re barking at the mailman. You’re playing fetch.”

Dean opened his mouth and tried to deny the claim that sounded absurd to him. However the man was faced with the reality of the situation when Sam threw the napkin into the trash and for the third time Dean tried to grab it. He managed to stop himself when he realized what he was about to do. The urge to continue playing this game was strong, but Dean managed to refrain himself. He found himself letting out a low whimper. He wasn’t sure if it was because he couldn’t play, or it was the fact that he had the urges of a canine.

“Ruh-roh.”

+ + +

You had to admit at first you found Dean acting like a dog a bit funny. From playing fetch with his brother by accident to him subconsciously scratch behind his ear when neither you or Sam were paying much attention. It stopped being funny when he started getting clingy. Dean wasn’t much of an affectionate person on the surface. His actions spoke louder than his words. And his actions were showing you that he didn’t want to leave your side. You had to push him away several times when he was overwhelmed with the urge to sniff you like a bloodhound. He complimented you by saying that you smelled nice—like fresh fruit from your shampoo you used this morning, the hamburger you had for lunch, and chocolate from the bar you snuck in your bag. You could have done without knowing what you reeked of.

What pushed you over the edge was when he tried sitting in your lap after moving from the table to the edge of the motel bed. He needed to follow you wherever you went. He claimed it was an accident. You were about to yell at him to stay away from you, but the look in his eye—that stupid puppy dog pout, made you roll your eyes in frustration and compromise with the man. He was sitting right next to you with your shoulders bumping against one another. You swore he chuckled to himself when you gave him and whispered a thank you to the damn dog. You swore the Colonel taught him a trick on ways to get you to do what he wanted with a simple look. You refrained from making any remarks when you broke off a piece of chocolate and shoved a piece into your mouth.

“Yeah. No, that—okay. Alright. Thanks.” Sam finished his call up with Kevin after trying to find more out about the consequences of the spell his brother willingly decided to drink without thinking twice. You looked over at the man when you heard him end the conversation. “So, apparently, the inuit spell has some side effects.”

“Oh, well, that would have been nice to know before I downed it!” Dean grumbled in frustration at the situation at hand. “What kind of side effects?”

“When you mind meld with an animal, it’s…possible to start exhibiting some of its behavior.” Sam explained to his brother the bad news.

Dean turned his gaze over to the Colonel who sat right across from you, as if he had any answers that might help stiffen the blow of what the older Winchester put himself through. “Don’t look at me, hoss.” The dog said. “It ain’t my fault.”

“Well, how long am I gonna have the urge to…” Dean didn’t want to say it out loud, afraid how you and his brother were going to react. The Colonel didn’t miss a beat when he said exactly what the man was thinking. Dean chuckled in nervousness at hearing it out loud. He shook his head. “Oh, whoa. Hey. I don’t have the urge to sniff butts.”

“Yet.” The Colonel warned.

You nearly choked on the piece of candy you accidentally decided to swallow right when Dean decided to say the inappropriate sentence out loud. “What?” You didn’t know why you sounded so surprised from hearing the behavior. Dogs were notorious for their odd behavior when it came to their other fellow species. You slid down the bed to give the both of you a few inches apart, never breaking eye contact with him. “Do you really have the—”

“No!” Dean shouted. He was suddenly filled with embarrassment from the question you asked him. “Come on!”

“Well, Kevin doesn’t know how long it’ll last. It’s not like it’s an exact science, you know?” Sam gave his brother more bad news. Dean reached out and ripped the candybar out of your hands. He needed a little pick-me-up for the situation he was in. “But hopefully, when the spell wears off, so will the side effects.”

“I wouldn’t eat that if I were you.” The Colonel warned him from doing something stupid. Dean froze in his spot with a piece of chocolate hanging between his lips, not seeming to understand what the big deal was. "Chocolate? Seriously."

Dean let the piece of candy fall out from his mouth and drop back down to his lap before he could pull a stupid move. You shook your head and ripped the chocolate bar out from his hands. The three of you needed to figure out who was behind the cat-nappings and the two murders. You folded the candybar back up and threw it back into your bag for later. You got up from the bed and tried to get your jacket that was hanging off the back of the chair. All you could manage was taking a step before you were crashing into Dean. You let out a frustrated sigh when he was continuing the habit of following you.

“Good thing you’re cute.” You mumbled to him. You had to excuse his behavior from the way Dean was acting. He couldn’t help himself. But there was one line you didn’t want to cross. “If you start humping my leg, I’ll put you down myself.”

Dean swallowed and nodded his head in agreement. You clipped on the Colonel’s leash and followed behind the boys as all of you made your way out into the motel parking lot. Your time with the dog was nearing the end. But you had a possible theory that if Dean was acting like a canine, maybe he could communicate with others. There were several animals at the shelter who witnessed the crime. It was worth a shot. You had no possible leads other than the killer liked to wear a cowboy hat.

“Where are we headed?” The Colonel asked out of curiosity.

“Back to the shelter.” Dean informed him.

“To sniff out more clues,” The dog wondered. “maybe dig up something we missed?”

“All right, one more doggy pun out of you, and I’m gonna have your nuts clipped.” Dean warned the dog of a punishment.

“I hate to break it to you, hoss.” The Colonel broke the news to Dean about the operation his owner had done when he was still a mere puppy. “My sacks’ emptier than Santa’s after Christmas.”

As if today couldn’t get any worse Dean watched as the Impala’s windshield became dirty from a white blob that fell out from the sky. Some bird just pooped on his ride. And he cleaned Baby right before the hunt. “Aw, are you kidding me?” He grumbled. Dean looked to see it was a pigeon who was to blame. It sat on top of a street lamp with perfect range to drop another load on the Impala. “Hey, dick move, pigeon!”

“Screw you, asshat.”

“Did—” Dean thought he was only able to communicate with the Colonel. It came as a shock when the pigeon talked back to him. You and Sam were finding all of this amusing from an outsider’s perspective, having no clue the discovery Dean made. He looked down at the Colonel for some kind of answers. “Wait a minute. Can I hear all animals?”

“Yep. Animals have a universal language—like esperanto.” He said. “But this one actually caught on.”

“And I’m just getting started, too.” The pigeon said. “Brewing a real big one. Ha! Bet your ride’s gonna look sweet in white.”

“What’s he saying?” You asked, looking up at the pigeon.

“You—he’s being a douchebag!” Dean shouted in annoyance. 

“Who are you calling ‘douchebag,’ douchebag?” The pigeon mocked back at the man.

“Oh, shut it, you winged rat!” The older Winchester yelled. 

“Hey. Calm down.” You whispered to him, chuckling nervously to yourself when you saw a few people notice the strange behavior Dean was showing. It appeared to be the man was having a one-sided conversation with the pigeon that couldn’t talk back. “Just get in the car.”

“Ha, ha. That’s right, Sally.” The pigeon taunted, thinking he won the fight against the human with the last word. “Go cry to Mama.”

“Oh, that’s it, you son of a bitch!”

Dean whipped out his gun and pointed it up at the bird, ready to shoot the damn thing out of the sky. Before he could do something stupid and get all of you arrested, you managed to grab him by the arm and pinned it back down to his side. "That's enough!" You hissed at him. "Stop acting like a damn fool and get your ass in the car!"

You shoved him towards the backseat where you put the Colonel in as Sam awkwardly waved at a few bystanders who witnessed the whole ordeal. You rolled your eyes in frustration and got into the passenger side, letting Dean’s punishment be to sit with the dog since he wanted to act like one.

+ + +

The ride to the shelter was an interesting one at that. Dean insisted on having all the windows rolled down to let in some fresh air. However you noticed it for another reason when both Dean and the Colonel stuck their heads out to enjoy the breeze. You tried your hardest to stifle a laugh you felt coming on from seeing the joy on Dean's face of feeling the breeze against his face that caused an adorable grin. When you got to the shelter and the Impala came to a stop, Dean immediately broke out of his behavior when he figured out what he was doing.

“I think it’s probably best to just leave the Colonel in the car.” Sam suggested to his brother when he circled around and tried opening up the backseat door to let the dog out. Dean had a shift in behavior, as if he was taken back at the mere idea of letting poor Colonel be all on his own. “Well, all the windows are open.”

“You think we like that?” Dean asked him. You furrowed your brow slightly when you caught him using a plural noun from what he was talking about. “You think because the windows are open that that’s some sort of treat, huh? No, the dog’s coming in.”

You and Sam shared a look from the even more strange behavior Dean was exhibiting. The Colonel respected the hunter for understanding the desire to not be stuck in the car while humans did chores. They liked to go wherever their best friends went. Dean petted the canine before letting him out of the car to join the rest of you. You rolled your eyes and went on your way to the shelter. Dean followed behind with the Colonel right by his side like how he argued to have. The man found himself stopping when he caught sight of a view he couldn’t turn away from. You turned your head to see that Dean stopped for some reason with his gaze upon something that caused a glint in his eyes you weren’t all too happy with. You’ve seen it before when he caught sight of a pretty face that wasn’t yours before the both of you got together. You followed his gaze until you saw what he was staring at. You let out a heavy sigh from how weird this was getting.

Dean and the Colonel gawked at a poodle tied up across the street to a bike rack. She was a pretty dog from how well groomed she was and her pink accessories her owner dolled her up with. Both dogs were infatuated with the bitch. 

“Dean!” You hissed at the man, forcing him back into reality. He stopped ogling at the poodle and looked over to you to see that you weren’t the least bit amused. You crossed your arms over your chest and raised your brow, not sure if you wanted an explanation for all of this. You chalked it up to the spell that was changing his inhibitions. "You know, I'm not opposed to getting your balls clipped.” 

Dean understood the underlying threat you were hinting at without needing to hear more from you. He followed right behind you with the Colonel right by his side. All of you headed into the shelter in some kind of hope Dean might be able to use this spell for good and figure out who the man was in the cowboy hat. 

[Next Part]

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[dreamcatcherfication]

Dreamers in Fantasyland - Part 4

I keep forgetting that I tried to do a balance of old English dialect and modern English dialect, and it surprises me every time I edit this fic.

Final part, woohoo! We made it guys! A little sooner that expected, but that’s the fault of my laptop breaking. This is the last part of the fic requested by @theatergirl06 long ago when we had our ask war. As this door comes to a close, hopefully I’ll be able to open another... more sinister door...? This part is about to be very confusing, but if I’ve done it correctly, it’ll be (hopefully) a great ending. Things are about to get really meta. Buckle up, cause you aren’t ready.

Writing Masterpost

If you want to send a request or a prompt, my inbox is always open! I publish a story at 8:00 AM PST everyday, so I’m always in need of new ideas. If you want to be tagged in my works, just let me know and I’ll be sure to tag you!

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Trigger Warnings: Mentions of sexual abuse

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Things seemed a lot calmer on Anne’s boat, the world finally back on track. Cathy had no real sense of what was normal anymore, so she relied solely on the feeling of calmness she felt with Anne. They were sitting on the floor, backs against Anne’s bookshelves. “You know,” Anne commented, her hand unconsciously fiddling with the bandages on her upper arm, “I was afraid you and Cleves wouldn’t come.”

“Why would you think that?” Cathy asked, putting a hand on Anne’s leg.

The captain shrugged. “I barely know you, and no matter what I feel when you’re around,” Cathy had to hide a blush, “you have no loyalties to me. The only reason I could think for you tracking us down was to save my cousin. Thank you, by the way,” Anne tacked on at the end. Despite the melancholy in her voice, Cathy could tell Anne was being sincere. “And Anna, she may seem young, but she’s smart. She knew our ship had taken serious damage from Henry’s attack. I didn’t think she’d risk our crew just to come for me.”

Knowingly, Cathy replied, “I don’t think you were her only motivation.”

Laughing, Anne’s face lit up, if only by a little bit. “Yes, yes. I’m glad she’s found someone in my cousin. They seem happy together. I long for that.”

Cathy frowned, suddenly hyper aware of her hand on Anne’s leg. “What do you mean.”

Hanging her head, Anne’s hand crawled until it was sitting on top of Cathy’s. “You remind me of a past that I don’t have, Miss Parr.” Anne lifted Cathy’s hand and pressed a light kiss to her knuckles. “I feel as if we’ve spent a thousand years together, and those thousand years have been lost somehow. I want nothing more than those years back.”

Staring at her hand in Anne’s, Cathy took the leap and slowly leaned forward, pressing a chaste kiss to Anne’s lips. “I believe I understand what you’re saying,” she murmured, hiding the full truth from Anne.

Anne’s lips pulled upwards slightly, her eyes going soft as she stared at Cathy. “Everything is right in this world.”

A phantom hand shoved Cathy backwards, causing her to jump in shock. “No,” Cathy spoke softly, “everything is not right.” For some reason, she had been handed an answer. “Things won’t be right until you tell Kat that you are her cousin.”

Nervously chuckling, Anne shook her head. “I don’t think it’s best to drag up my family history.”

Grabbing Anne’s hands, Cathy leaned forward so that their noses were inches apart. “Things will never be the way they are supposed to unless you tell Kat.”

Anne was growing frightened by Cathy’s strange behavior. “How do you know this? What if she turns me away, knowing of the past with our family.”

“Kat is the most kindhearted person I know,” Cathy stated determinedly. “She is loving, and while she retains some of her naivete, she is intelligent. I know that girl better than she knows herself,” Cathy felt confident in her words, despite having only met this version of Kat a few days ago, “and I know she will not hate you. Kat is the last person to judge anyone on family matters. It will do her good to know the truth.”

At first Anne seemed reluctant, but she agreed. “I… I will tell her.”

As if summoned by Anne’s agreement with Cathy, Anna and Kat entered the quarters. “Anne,” Cleves greeted her captain, a hand around Kat’s waist, “It seems you’re doing much better.”

“Yes Anna, thank you,” Anne grunted, standing up from her sitting position. Cathy followed, brushing off the dust that had collected on her skirt. “Kat, if I could speak with you?”

The girl frowned but detached herself from Anna and moved over to Anne. “What is it Anne?”

“I…” Anne struggled with the words, “Do you remember when you asked me if we knew each other?”

Unsure of where Anne was going, Kat hesitantly answered, “Yes?”

“Well, the truth is, we do.” 

Kat’s eyes narrowed as her head scrunched in confusion. “How? I still can’t quite figure it -”

“Boleyn.” Anne blurted. “My full name is Anne Boleyn.” 

Eyes widening, Kat finally made the connection. “You’re my cousin,” she gasped, staring at Anne with wide eyes. Biting her lip, Anne nodded, expecting Kat to yell at her. Instead, the noble girl threw herself into Anne’s arms, hugging her close to her chest. “It’s been so long since I’ve heard from any of you,” she admitted into Anne’s chest.

It took a moment, but Anne reciprocated the hug, wrapping her arms around her younger cousin. “I didn’t think any of you wanted to hear from me.”

Pulling away, Kat curled her lip. “Our family is a mess. Everyone is constantly fighting and there’s never any peace. You may not have felt welcome, but that’s not your fault. It’s theirs.”

“Oh, Kat,” Anne’s voice was so full of emotion, it almost seemed as if she would cry.

“I want to stay with you,” Kat told her newfound cousin. “I want to stay with you and Anna and Cathy on this ship.”

“You want to be a pirate?”

Kat did the equivalent of a 15th century puppy dog pout. “More than anything.”

Unable to resist, Anne told her, “Well then, welcome aboard sailor Kat, I hope you're ready for some chaos.”

“I’m always ready for chaos if it’s with you.”

This, Cathy thought, this was right. This was how the world was supposed to be. The two cousins were together and happy, reunited after their family had torn them apart. Anna had found her happiness with Kat, and she had gotten her captain back. Cathy had saved the girl she loved with all her heart and Henry was gone from their lives. This should be the end.

…

But something kept pushing in the back of Cathy’s mind, telling her there was more. There was something that she kept missing, even when it was blatantly obvious to her. It was right on the tip of her tongue, infuriatingly so. “Anna, Kat,” she spoke up. “Would it be alright if I talked to Anne for a moment. Alone.”

“Of course,” Anna nodded, holding her hand out for Kat to take.

Before the two girls could leave, Cathy intercepted Kat. She pulled her friend into her arms, holding her tight. “I love you Kat,” she murmured into her ear. “You’re my best friend. Don’t you ever forget that.”

“I know Cathy,” Kat mumbled back. She pulled away and bounded to Anna’s side, holding her hand as they exited the room.

Shifting her attention to Anne, Cathy started to feel dizzy. Stumbling on her feet, Cathy had to press a hand to the wall to steady herself. “Cathy?” Anne spoke worriedly, promptly at her side. “Are you alright?”

Cathy wasn’t alright. Everything was hitting her at once like an epiphany and her mind couldn’t handle it. “Anne, Anne,” Cathy started to stutter, reaching out and grabbing Anne’s arms. Pulling her closer, Cathy spoke directly in her face, “Anne, I’m not from here.”

Laughing nervously, Anne nodded. “Yes, I could tell that by your skin color, but it’s not anything to be worried abo-”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Cathy cut her off. “I’m from the future. Or from the past and then the future. Or they’re both the future compared to now.”

Anne was at a loss for words. “Cathy, did you hit your head -”

“No,” Cathy stared directly into Anne’s eyes. “I am going to tell you something that sounds crazy and - and - and,” Cathy stuttered over her words, “You have to promise to believe me. Please,” she begged.

As confused as Anne was, she could tell when people were lying. Cathy was either telling the truth, or she was crazy, and Anne didn’t believe for a second that Cathy was mental. “Okay, I promise.”

Nodding, Cathy stepped away from Anne and started pacing around the room. “In my first life, I was married to King Henry VIII of England, known to you as Henry Tudor.” Anne’s face grew into a snarl but she said nothing. “I was Queen Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry. We never met, but I knew you well in that life.”

“How could you know me if we hadn’t met?” Anne questioned.

“Because you were Queen Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife. You divided England from the Catholic Church, and you changed the world.”

Anne didn’t like the way Cathy was speaking. It wasn’t in her tone, but rather the way her words made sense. Anne knew she should be finding Cathy’s claims preposterous, but for some reason they resonated in Anne’s heart. “Who were his other wives?”

Attempting to steady her shaking hands, Cathy started to explain. “His first wife was Catherine of Aragon. You might know her name, she’s the informant who run’s Aragon’s Pub.” The way Anne’s eyes lit up let Cathy know she did in fact know who that was. “Then there was you who pushed Henry to break from the church and annull his marriage with his wife. You two were married, but when you proved too much for him -” Anne scoffed, “he beheaded you.”

Falling silent, Anne looked at the floor. “Who was after me?”

“Jane Seymour, the one who gave him a son. She’s Kat’s caretaker back at court, although you’ve never met her. She died of natural causes. His fourth wife was Anna von Cleves,” Anne’s head shot up.

“Please don’t tell me -”

“She got the best outcome of us all,” Cathy assured her, breathing in heavily as she continued. “She had an arranged marriage with the King, but when she embarrassed him, Henry started calling her ugly and later annulled his marriage once again. Anna got her own palace and lived far longer than any of us.” Cringing, Cathy realized who she had arrived at.

Noticing Cathy’s apprehensiveness, Anne pushed, “Well? Who was next?”

“Katherine Howard.”

“No,” Anne choked. Cathy was only giving her a brief rundown, but Anne felt as if she was living through this experience with Cathy.

Swallowing, Cathy had to take a moment to steady her voice. “He married Kat when she was only fifteen, maybe a year or two older, none of us know for sure,” she refused to look in Anne’s horrified eyes, “But Kat had a terrible past where men had… sexually abused her. One of her friends in court took advantage of her and when the King found out,” Cathy’s voice hitched, “he beheaded her.”

Anne was devastated, even though she knew Kat was safe and sound. “That bastard,” she hissed. “I’m glad he’s dead.”

“Then there was me. The survivor,” Cathy was finally able to make eye contact with Anne. “I watched him die, and I thought I was free. I remarried, but died barely over a year later.”

“That’s… quite the story,” Anne muttered, unsure of how to process what Cathy told her.

Grabbing Anne’s hands again, Cathy set her face. “That’s not the end. After we died, the six of us woke up in a new world. The 21st century.”

“The what?”

Cathy knew it was hard to believe, but she had to get Anne to understand. “This is going to sound very confusing, but you have to understand what I’m saying.” Anne’s hesitant nod was all Cathy needed to dive in. “Five hundred years in the future, we live in the modern world. We tell our story as Henry’s wives to the world, and we reclaim our lives. You and I are in love in that world,” Cathy said fondly, running her hand over Anne’s, “and all six of us are a family.”

Anne was subconsciously smiling, content with the picture Cathy was painting. But it was shattered as Cathy started choking on her words. “I - I think that - that - that,” she breathed in deeply to control herself, “That this was meant to happen. Us being here.”

“What are you talking about?” As hard as Anne was trying, she couldn’t keep up with Cathy’s mind.

Resuming her pacing, Cathy made a variety of frustrated noises. “It all makes sense, doesn’t it! Right from the start, it’s been set out. I’m not Cathy Parr. Or rather, I’m not the Cathy Parr of this reality.”

Anne took a step forward, attempting to calm Cathy. “I don’t think you’re making much sense.”

“No, it makes perfect sense,” Cathy gasped. “When Kat and I snuck into Mary’s room, the only reason we were in there so long was because I couldn’t write her letter. If I had control of myself, I could’ve written that letter in five minutes. Instead, the actions of the other Cathy Parr, the real Cathy Parr, kept me from completing the letter. And because of that…” Cathy paused her pacing. “Because of that, we met. Anne, don’t you see!” she turned to the captain, “It’s all predestined.”

“What?”

A theory started to weed its way into Cathy’s mind, taking root. “What if, every generation there’s a Catherine Parr and Anne Boleyn. And a Katherine Howard and Anna von Cleves, Jane Seymour and Catherine de Aragon. We’re all destined to meet again and again in some new reality. Somehow, we all are connected, with ties to Henry.”

All common sense told Anne that Cathy’s theory was impossible. Yet deep inside her, there was some little bit of her that couldn’t help but believe what she was saying. “If you’re right, then why can only you remember this?”

“It must be some fluke in the system,” Cathy ran a hand through her hair. “Clearly I don’t have complete control of my actions. When Anna and I were getting information from Catherine, she asked what was in my satchel. The only thing that I had packed was a journal full of academic teachings, the exact thing Catherine wanted. I would’ve never thought to bring it, yet somehow it ended up in my possession.” There was awe in Cathy’s voice as things started to make sense. “The longer I stay here, the more I speak as you do. I’m speaking as this Cathy Parr would, not as I, my modern self, would.”

Anne nodded her head, understanding what Cathy was trying to say. “Every generation, the six of us are destined to be connected. Somehow, some way, and Henry’s involved.”

“Yes,” Cathy bit her nails, an anxious habit she didn’t know she had. 

“But I’ve never met Jane Seymour or Catherine de Aragon,” Anne frowned. “Surely that doesn’t make sense.”

“I said we were connected, not that each of us have to meet,” Cathy corrected. “Anna, Kat, and I never even met you in our lives as Queens. I - I don’t know Anne, but there’s more to it all than the surface level.”

Sliding back down against the bookcase, Anne rubbed her eyes with her hands. “This is a lot to take in Cathy.”

“I know, I’m sorry Anne,” Cathy came and sat beside Anne. “Just, promise you’ll still love me if I wake up someone else,” she pleaded.

Giving the girl a painful smile, Anne leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I don’t think it’s possible for me not to love you Cathy Parr.”

Giggling, Cathy rested her head on Anne’s shoulder. “I’m so tired,” she whispered, feeling her eyes drift shut. “This is all so much.”

Anne pulled Cathy into her lap and wrapped her arms around the girl. “I’ll be here when you wake up. No matter who you are.” And so Cathy gave in to the darkness.

Jerking out of bed, Cathy spun around, looking for anyone familiar. “Cathy?” Anne groaned beside her, shifting under the sheets. “Are you awake?”

“Shh,” Cathy shushed her girlfriend, slowing her breathing. “Go back to sleep Anne.” The bedroom was dark, exactly as she remembered it when she fell asleep here last. 

“Mmkay,” Anne hummed lucidly, “G’night babe.” Cathy watched her girlfriend fondly, holding back the tears that inexplicably appeared in her eyes.

“Sweet dreams, Anne Boleyn.”

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

Tag List:

@radcowboyalmondtree @boleynhowards @annabanana2401 @babeebobo @dont-lose-your-queerhead @everything-insanity @mindless-pidgeon @i-wanna-dance-and-sing-six @thedemidisaster @its-totes-gods-will @thatbolxyngirl @thenameisnoone @sixqueendom @totally-not-boleyn-falcon

[mywonuderful]

hey can i get a minghao x idol!reader where fans ship them and he thinks that reader likes wonwoo but they’re just close and asking wonwoo how to get hao’s attention

Sorry for the delayed response 😓 (finals are rolling up so I’ve been prepping for it). 

But aside from that, I’d love to take your request anon! In fact, Wonwoo and Minghao are both my biases (who am I kidding, all 13 of them are my biases) but recently, Minghao has been playing with my feels. I ended up altering it a bit (I’m so sorry if this wasn’t what you wanted) but I hope you enjoy it! I kind of got carried away with it so I hope you don’t mind a longer scenario!

Perfect

Pairing: Minghao x Reader Genre: Angst, fluff (ending) Warning: Insecurities

main masterlist

You and Minghao hosted for a program once. And that one time was able to bring out craziness in the fans where they started shipping you and him together over the interactions and how supposedly you and him share a lot of similarities. Even if you wanted to avoid him (why would you ever though), your group and his was under the same company, debuting around the same time, making it normal for both of your groups to get along well. But since ship broke out, it definitely made it awkward for the two of you as the atmosphere tensed up. You found yourself getting flustered over the smallest things whenever he’s around. As feelings started to secretly form in you, you know that he deserved way much more than what you can offer. How can a perfect man ever fall in love with a idol who doesn’t have just as much fame and attention as him? Thoughts of doubt of criticism fills your mind as you start getting insecure. Not only about your feelings about him, but your whole life.

You group along with many others have been preparing for an upcoming special program. You were in a middle of dance practice when your manager comes in, telling you that you’re wanted in the meeting room. You mind automatically thought if a scandal between you and Minghao breaks out. You slowly made your way, thinking about how to explain the situation when you felt a tap on your shoulder.

“Did practice finish already?” You turn around and saw Minghao softly smiling as he tilted his head. You melted at his expression.

“Not yet... My manager told me to go to the meeting room.” You explained as you saw Minghao’s eyes slightly widen

“What a coincidence.” He lightly chuckles as you mentally prepared yourself for scolding.

“Oh, Minghao and Y/N! You both seemed to come in together.” A staff welcomes you as you smiled and took a seat beside Minghao where the staff started introducing themselves as coordinators for the upcoming special musical program.

“Now, we’ve recently send out a poll asking what collaboration fans wanted the most. And when we got the results, it seems like the fans wanted a collaboration with the both of your groups!” The staff showed us the results as you took a look  and was shocked about how many votes you got.

“Why did you only call for us then?” You asked curiously as the staffs exchanged some nervous looks and shuffles with some paper. You felt yourself getting embarrassed on asking such question.

“Well... Here’s the thing....” One of the staff started off making you lean in, more curious about what she has to say next. “...They wanted a collaboration between the two of you.” Your eyes widen and looked over to Minghao as he made the same expression

“We understand how busier the two of you are with the performance that’s less than a month. Which is why we came to confirm and ask if the both of you would like to do a surprise collaboration. Not even your members will know about this.” They waited eagerly for your reply as you slowly turn your head to see what he says. He looks over to you as you look into his soft eyes before he gave a small nod as you did the same without even knowing as if you were hypnotized and he smiled back.

“We’d love to.” He replied as you blinked a few times before realizing that you agreed. Your mouth slowly opened as the staff started laughing

“Are you okay, Y/N? You seem a little shocked.” You saw Minghao turning to look at you as you quickly covered your mouth, shaking your head.

“We know it’s very last minute but thank you very much! The fans and us will be excited for your perform. We’ll let you know how the rehearsals in the near future.” You and Minghao bowed as you left the room, heading back to practice as your mind replays and registered what just happened.

“If you weren’t comfortable if it, you could’ve said so.” Minghao leans over to check your face as you look up into his eyes, quickly looking away as you felt your cheeks heat up.

“No no! That’s not it. I’m just shocked about the results.” You smiled as it falls silent next, knowing that either of you want to bring up the ship.

“Are you heading back to practice?” He breaks the silence

“Yeah, but I think they left back to their dorms already so I’m going to get my things.”

“Wait, my members left already as well. Since we’re together, we don’t we start preparing for the performance? Might as well make use of all the time we have.” He suggested as you nodded. He told you that he’ll come over to you as he gather his things next door. The both of you went through lists of music but still had no idea on what to use. As time past, you slowly felt yourself getting more comfortable around him as the two of you started joking around.

“I was think maybe we should do something different aside from dancing. Since that’s our major.” You thought out loud as Minghao nods

“That’s a wonderful idea! Like maybe singing instead?” You started looking for some ballad music when Minghao moved closer to you, as your arms rubbed against each other.

“We should totally do this song!” He cheerfully smiles as the music video starts playing. Your mind flashes back as you remembered listening to this song whenever you felt insecure or stress over yourself and couldn’t rant it out. You felt tears slowly forming but quickly blinked it away.

“Yeah... It’s a nice song.” You replied with a soft smiled and Minghao happily nodded, giving you a high-five as you raised your hand and felt his soft skin.

“The fans will love it! This song will be so touching for them!” Minghao starts going on about how touched the fans will be as your mind starts to worry if you can carry out the performance well enough. The next few days, you were able to practice with Minghao without having your members suspect too many from you. You only remember almost slipping the collaboration to Wonwoo, your best friend from Seventeen but luckily he didn’t think much of it.

****

“Y/N, aren’t you hot dancing in such thick layers?” Minghao asks in the middle of practice as the both of you decided to take a water break. You were wearing long pants and a thick hoodie in the middle of the summer but you weren’t confident in your skin, making your cover up regardless of how hot it may be.

“Nope, I’m fine.” You gave him a reassured smile as you saw worry in his eyes. You sweating to the core but you fought through it as best as possible. Luckily the performance didn’t have much dancing as it was more vocal. You and Minghao was going through the last practice of the day when your phone started ringing. Minghao walked over to stop the music and glanced over at your phone as the caller showed ‘Wonwoo.’ You quickly ran over, grabbing the phone and answered the call.

“Hello? No. What do you mean? I’m kind of busy at the moment. Uh, I don’t know. Wonwoo, for the last time, I am not taking the blame if you walk back to the dorm with a kitten. I’m busy. Bye.” You hung up and glanced over your shoulder, catching Minghao looking at you with a small pout for he turns around scratching the back of his neck as if nothing happened.

“Sorry, Wonwoo can be quite annoying sometimes.” you laughed and walked back to him as he silently nods. The rest of practice goes by without much talking as his face lingers in your head.

***

“Oh Hao, you’re back.” Wonwoo says as Minghao enters the dorm. “Where were you?” He starts munching on his snacks as Minghao enters the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water.

“Just practicing a new dance I choreographed.” He lied as Wonwoo nodded and walked away before turning around

“Did you see Y/N by any chance? She was there too.” He asks as Minghao choked on his water from you name, making Wonwoo step back from his sudden actions.

“U-Uh no. Why’d you ask?” He wipes the side of his mouth as Wonwoo shrugs.

“No reason. I was just wondering. I called her earlie-”

“Do you like her?” Minghao blurted out in the middle of his sentence and quickly covered his mouth making Wonwoo widen his eyes, taken back from Minghao. Minghao was known for someone who is rather more reserved and a listener but recently, he’s been acting rather moody every time someone mention your name, especially when he see’s Wonwoo calling you.

“Hao-”

“Sorry hyung. I didn’t mean to cut you off.” Minghao took a seat on the dinning table without looking at him when Wonwoo takes a seat beside him.

“I don’t like her. She’s just someone I hang out with often.” Wonwoo firmly says as Minghao lifts his head, feeling relieved of his answer. “Is something bothering you? You’ve been acting strangely this past days. Especially whenever someone mentions Y/N’s name.” He adds on, voice with concern as Minghao ruffles his hair in frustration.

“I think... I think I fell in love with her...” He muffles in his hands when Wonwoo pats his back.

“It’s been time since you admitted.” Wonwoo chuckles as Minghao looked up, surprised before burying his face into his hands.

“She’s kind of hard to read no? She’s rather reserved with her feelings. But one thing I’ve notice is that she’s been acting.... Different...” Wonwoo thought out loud as Minghao listens carefully asking for more as the two talked about your strange behavior for the rest of the night.

****

It was the day of the performance where many artist came to performance their music. There was still hours before the show, but during this time, you were getting ready with your group’s rehearsal. You saw your costume of what you were wearing and immediately felt insecure with how much skin should, especially in your outfit. You weren't fat nor skinny, instead, you were consider healthy which was what fans loved about how you emphasize a healthy relationship with self and mind. You quietly asked one of your staff if you could change your outfits but she said that they wanted to show off more of your figure, making you panic even more. You practically had to beg for them to switch outfits before they finally agreed, expressing their concerns on why you suddenly want to conceal. Feeling more relieved, you forgot to ask about the outfit you’ll be wearing for the collaboration. Your group will be performing after Seventeen so you waited on the side for them to finish their rehearsal. As they got off, you greeted them as you locked eyes with Minghao, where he gave a small wave and smile.

“Good luck.” he quickly said as you thank him before heading on to rehearsal. After rehearsal you and your members were lounging you waiting room.

“Wasn’y Y/N suppose to wear this?” One of your members asked as they looked at the stage outfits.

“I asked if I could switch.” You quickly answered, not wanting to explain. You and your members were really close to one another. But when it comes with worries, you always put your member’s worries first, ending up with you concealing yours because you didn’t want them to worry.

“But why? This outfit will look absolutely amazing on you! It brings out the amazing figure you have!” They tried convincing you to switch back but you gave them a firm no as they gave up. The members slowly left for lunch break when you got a text message from Minghao saying that the collaboration rehearsal is now. You quickly excused yourself before your members questioned you and left to meet Minghao in another waiting room. He was seating on the couch, looking through his phone when he saw you walk in and his face immediately creeps up into a smile. The special performance with him will be last so that the both of you will have the time to change outfits and that all the artist will be able to watch as well. You got nervous during rehearsal as you felt your voice shake when you sang.

“S-Sorry. Let me try that part again.” You apologized as the staff played the music again.

“You can do it Y/N. Don’t worry.” Minghao whispers as you nodded, trying your best to get rid of the nervousness. After the rehearsal, you and Minghao decided to eat lunch together before getting ready for the performance. Just when you were about to leave, he grabs your wrist, asking you to take a seat on the couch.

“You okay? You seem really nervous today.” He asks as you played with you fingers.

“Yeah. This is my first collaboration and all. I’m scared I’ll mess up-”

“You won’t!” Minghao turned up and grabbed your shoulder, making your eyes dart up to meet his. “Y/N, you’re such a talented and wonderful person. Someone like you shouldn’t be think thoughts like this. You won’t mess up. You’ll do amazing and I know and promise you will.” He soften his grip around your arm as looked down, trying to hide the tears forming in your eyes. He gentle lifts your chin so that you can look into his orbits.

“If you get scared, just look right into my eyes alright? So let’s do well together like we did during rehearsal and make everyone proud, hmm?” He hummed as your felt your cheeks flushed. The both you of walked back into the waiting as you and your members got ready for the show. The group was eagerly waiting to perform as each group finished. Seventeen was performing as your group stood on standby, waiting for them to finish. Your eyes fixed on Minghao as he sang and danced passionately as the fans screamed wildly. You couldn’t help but to smile. After their performance, you got ready as they walked down.

“Good luck!” He yelled over the loud music as you smiled widely at him. Even though it was dark, you were still able to see him blushing, making your heart swell as your walked on stage, putting on your on-stage expression for the fans as they chanted you group name.

Seventeen was settling back in their waiting room as they watched your performance through the TV. Minghao hummed along to your parts as you sang.

“She handles her expression really well doesn’t she?” The boys started complimenting on how well you looked on stage along with your members. After your song ended, Minghao switched out of his stage outfit and told his members that he wants to get some fresh air and that he’ll be back for the ending ment (which was a lie). He got dressed in the other dressing room and waited for you as his conversation with Wonwoo the other night replays in his mind.

-Flashback-

“She told me once that she wasn’t confident in yourself. Especially her looks and body.” Wonwoo expressed to Minghao“She has been wearing a lot of layers...” Minghao thought out loud“You’ve noticed?” Wonwoo questioned Minghao bites his tongue, regretting mentioning it.“I see her sometimes.” He quickly ansnwers“Y/N is normally really cheerful and motivated by recently, she’s really been concealing herself as a whole.” Minghao starts to wonder about what could be and remembered the fans shipping him and you together. “She’s been doubting herself which really isn’t like her.” Wonwoo adds on. ‘That must be it.’ he thought to himself. That night Minghao thought of ways of making you feel more confident and better as he tossed and turn, figuring out how to make you feel content again. Then, an ideas comes to his mind. A brave one.

-End-

You changed out of your stage outfits and told your members that you’re going to take a walk and will be back for the ending when you hurried to the other waiting room as the ending performance approaches. You quickly walked in to see Minghao already dressed into his outfit. He wore a elegant suit and seeing him sit all classy on the couch almost made your heart jump out of your chest.

“Does it look weird?” he looks at his suit as you snapped back into reality, cheeks turning red as you furiously shook your head. He stood up and smiled as he said that he’ll wait near the stage area to get his mic check as you got dress. As he left, you felt your palms starting to sweat as you waiting for the staff to bring your outfit, praying it won’t be too revealing. As they brought in the outfit, it was a beautiful, long, flowy dress that complimented Minghao’s suit. Your mind started blanking out when they staff helped you get dressed as they all threw endless compliments on how well it suited you. It was too late for you to change out of the dress as you were escorted backstage. You stood on the opposite side of the stage as Minghao sings first before you enter on the other side. You heard the artists and groups gathering around the front of the stage as they all waited for what was the ending ment. Goosebump starts to form on your skin as you got the cold sweat, making you rub you shoulder to keep you warm from such revealing dress. As the lights dimmed down, you hear people whispering about what was going on before music started playing, as Minghao stepped up on stage, singing the lyrics beautifully as everyone started cheering loudly. You were amazed and taken back from his voice that you almost forgot it was your turn to walk up when a staff reminded you. Your whole body started to shake as you tried to steady your hand holding mic as you took deep breaths and closed your eyes before stepping on stage.

“Well, I found a man stronger than anyone I know. He shares my dreams, I hope that someday we'll share a home.” you stepped on stage as the crowd goes wild. You looked right into Minghao’s eyes as stepped back, blown away from how beautiful you looked as his face blushed along with yours. Just like in rehearsal, you and Minghao stood side by side and sang beautifully as you saw your members in complete shocked as well as Seventeen, letting out a smile.

“Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms. Barefoot on the grass, while listenin' to our favorite song.” your voices harmonized as you looked into the crowd

“Now I know I have met an angel in person” You sang when you felt Minghao pull your arm as you turned to looked at him, surprised since this wasn’t what you practice. He looks at you fondly and smiles.  

“And she looks perfect. No, I don't deserve this,” He sang as his hand reached for a piece of hair and placed it behind your ear, eyes glued to yours, as everyone screamed. Tears started blurring your vision as they fell down on your face. Minghao gently wipes the ears of his face as he smiles

“You look perfect tonight” The both of you sang as you choked on your tears. The audience all started screaming as the lights dimmed down and curtains closed but neither did you or him moved. Tears continued to roll down your face as Minghao sweetly smiled, shutting off both your mics before speaking.

“I hope you realize how beautiful you look. Not just today. But every single day. Don’t think so lowly of yourself. The beauty you hold is skin deep that no one else has.” He whispers as you felt a hand travel around your waist, pulling you in as his lips kisses yours. You arms wrapped around his neck as tears fell. He parted and rested his forehead against yours, shooting his soft and charming smile as always.

“You’re perfect to me.”

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: “Spark”

What’s the current mood? I would sell all future RWBY seasons for one episode of The Mandalorian.

Okay, I exaggerate. Overall this episode had some really great moments, just (per usual) tied up in a lot of awful implications. Which frankly is a step up from last week’s more overt nonsense, so I’ll take it. I’ve just got Space Dad Fever like the rest of the internet so whenever RWBY does something stupid my brain goes, “Why can’t you be more like Baby Yoda? With non-forced cuteness and consistent writing?” 

Okay, okay I’m focused on the correct fandom. I swear. 

This episode opens with Penny waking the group up extra early. Yang wants to know what time it is. “Time to be huntresses, of course!” Really, the contrast between, ‘I love my job’ and ‘But my job makes me get up at an ungodly hour’ is easily the most relatable thing RWBY has done this season. I was also just greatly amused by the animation choices with in-world implications. Like that Weiss sleeps with her giant braid in. Or that the group owns nothing except for the new clothes on their backs. I wondered after the Volume Six’s train scene if most of their luggage had been up front with JNR, or if they’d lost it all during the crash itself. We only see three bags as they make their way to the farm. 

Did Oscar re-pack everything before they had to hightail it out of that burning, grimm-infested place? I don’t remember and I’m way too lazy to go check. Yang then loses her motorcycle. Who knows, if they did have stuff, whether it got onto the stolen airship. Doubtful. I mean, Weiss showed up with a massive amount of luggage, but that’s for hiding grandmas. Basically, what I’m saying is that I think the group showed up in Atlas, exhausted, and had to tell Penny they don’t have PJs anymore. Cue standard issue t-shirts and strange thermal-ish pants.

We then begin a montage of their different work. It starts out not with the missions they signed up for last episode but anything and everything connected to Amity Arena. Keep clearing out the mines. Protect resource transports. Fill in for the missing soldiers in Mantle, etc. On the whole I legitimately loved these moments showing the various relationships and life as a huntress in Atlas, with the exception of two scenes. The first is during the section where we see Blake and Yang working with Marrow, who makes the mistake of saying a) that they should consider partnering with other people sometime and b) pointing out that he’s not sure their styles are complimentary. 

Look, I get it. A few hours after the episode dropped and tumblr is already exploding with GIF-sets of this scene, celebrating how Blake and Yang are so in love they can’t even stand Marrow suggesting that they might spend some time apart. From a shipping perspective it looks like gold and as someone who also ships them I’d normally be inclined to celebrate too. Except that this is a really unhealthy pattern of behavior. Marrow is right. The group should practice partnering with other people for the simple reason that this is a job and they may not always get to decide who they’re going to work with. It’s a job with endless risks and they may not always be able to control who they end up fighting beside, because when was the last time a plan actually worked right? The advice of ‘Hey. Don’t stagnant by only fighting with the same person 24/7’ is sound, especially in an episode already focused on training and progress. As is the innocent observation that their styles don’t seem to compliment each other. Marrow isn’t being cruel here. He’s not trying to insist he knows better and separate them based on that. He’s just making casual conversation---and gets this in response. 

This scene would read completely differently if Blake and Yang were playfully smug after that attack combo. Then it becomes a moment of bonding where they’re correcting Marrow through a bit of teasing. Instead they’re legitimately mad. Mad enough that Yang’s semblance briefly activates. I’ve mentioned before that Yang has a tendency to think the worst of people and act violently towards them on instinct (Ozpin, bot in the street) and that Blake has a tendency to go wherever she leads, even when that makes no sense for her own characterization (siding with Yang’s anger over her own experiences as an abuse survivor). This is another example of that. Marrow gives them good advice and makes a casual comment? Immediate fury from Yang. Yang’s pissed off? Well I’m gonna be pissed off too. I try not to bring shipping too much into these recaps, but I do think it’s worth mentioning here. Big Blake/Yang fans have a tendency to paint everything they do as the most Romantic Thing Ever ™; anti-Blake/Yang fans have a tendency to make blanket statements about how their relationship is inherently unhealthy. But as usual the truth lies somewhere in between. They’re fantastic together, I think Rooster Teeth is setting up a relationship, and there are also aspects that are unhealthy. Not because it’s queer (which is the basis for most antis’ anger), but because the writing has them enabling their flaws in the name of “support.” Sorry, but if you can’t deal with someone making a comment as innocent as Marrow’s without beating up a grimm in fury about it... then you either need to work out that relationship insecurity or work on general anger management. Because Marrow didn’t deserve those cold looks and these two weren’t justified in receiving his panicked backpedaling. It’s one of those little things that presumably means nothing on its own, but combined with Blake and Yang’s entire development speaks volumes. Let them talk through Adam. Let someone call Yang out on her judgments. It’s ‘fine’ in situations like this; not fine in situations like Volumes 5-6. 

The other part of the montage that didn’t sit well was another ‘joke.’ Just like I’m not inclined to view Yang and Blake’s anger as cutesy romance stuff here, I’m not comfortable brushing off Jaune’s interaction with the kids’ moms as a bit of humor. Yeah, maybe I’m “sensitive,” but was no one else creeped out by that? Jaune might technically be an adult, but he’s, what? Nineteen? So a junior in college. Maybe a sophomore. A young adult is what I’m saying. Is it possible all these women are also eighteen to early twenties (it’s so hard to tell ages with RWBY) and they just had their kids early? Sure. It is possible that these women all decided to become single moms, or divorced their partners, or are open to polyamory? Also sure. But let’s be real here, that’s not the joke. The joke is that a group of older, presumably married women are thirsting over the young, hot huntsmen. People would be more willing to admit that it’s not a great humor choice if RWBY had done that to one of the girls, but when a guy is the target it’s seen as a funny victory. Look at Jaune getting all that older, adulterous attention! As Nora herself says, “It’s totally the haircut.” (Even though that haircut remains atrocious, sorry.) The message is basically that if a guy is hot enough it doesn’t matter that he’s just trying to do his job, that he’s probably far younger than you, that you’re probably married... go gawk at him and give him gifts that clearly make him uncomfortable. 

Again, I realize I’m being “sensitive.” It’s just a web series, just a stupid scene meant to generate a laugh, etc. But I’ve reached a point in my life where I simply don’t find that sort of stuff humorous. As a woman who has had much older men hit on me while I’m trying to do my job, I look at the same thing happening to Jaune and ask, “Why was this supposed to be funny again?”

But anyway, enough about all that. Other moments in the montage include Ruby and Yang fighting grimm together (presumably in their downtime. Nerds), Winter pretending to be unimpressed with Weiss’ summoning, and Ironwood telling Oscar that maybe they can “jog [Ozpin] loose” with a bit of training. 

Yeah, remember how excited we all were that, based on the Volume’s opening, we would at least see Oscar training with Ironwood? Remember how we all thought that this would provide him with some much needed character development? That maybe this would be the moment when he struggled with and potentially decided to come clean about their lies? Or he tries to talk to Ozpin while sparing with an incredibly difficult opponent? You know, since Ironwood himself brought up jogging Ozpin loose, we might actually get some interaction with Ozpin? 

Boy were we optimistic! What we actually get is them charging each other for one hit before we cut back to others training. Namely Jaune. And this right here is the problem with this entire episode: for however cute and wonderful these moments might seem, they’re all flat out ignoring the primary conflicts of the show. The ones the writing keeps refusing to grapple with. Who knows how much time this montage is supposed to cover, but it’s substantial. We get multiple flashes of different days, see the group working on different missions, a couple different moments taking place in the early morning, so I’d wager at least another week has passed. Combine that with however long it took Pietro to make their weapons and you’ve got the group fully entrenched in their lies. No one is questioning Ruby. Ruby isn’t making headway towards trusting Ironwood. Everyone is just kicking their heels, happy with the status quo until something forces them to finally make a decision. They now, officially, have no right to judge Ozpin for the time he took to trust people. We see them doing the exact same thing here and they’re all happy about it. With the exception of those two quick flashbacks in “Ace Operatives,” we’ve seen no evidence that the rest of the group is struggling with their own hypocrisy. I---like many---had hoped that Oscar’s training session would finally acknowledge and expand on the rest of the team’s initial hesitation. But no. 

(In which Jaune’s expression is me.) 

Jumping ahead just a bit, we see this same issue when Ruby, Penny, Qrow, and Ironwood are out driving the supplies. Ruby and Penny finally have some time to themselves! Will they discuss her murder and resurrection? Nope. Ruby vaguely references it with, “You know...” but there’s no actual depth to their conversation (and if you can’t even say ‘When you died’ that implies that maybe there are some lingering feelings about all this). Instead Ruby is interested in whether Penny has made new friends and she says that Ironwood claims she has no time for friends. Slot that in next to the Ace Ops’ ridiculous, “We’re not friends.” 

Second, we have this moment between Qrow and Clover where they reiterate the huge gap between age and experience here. Clover is hoping that “another generation” will do right by Remnant after we’re gone. Namely Ruby and the others. Continuing with that age theme, he reassures Qrow that “those kids wouldn’t be where they are without you” which is all well and good, but is anyone going to tell THEM that? The adults don’t need to know that they’re doing good work---even if it is nice for Qrow to get some validation for once---rather, the whole “we don’t need adults” fiasco came about because the teens refused to acknowledge that work. We don’t need someone telling Qrow that he’s helped keep them safe. Overlooking some insecurities (which RWBY isn’t tackling anyway), he knows that. We as the audience don’t need to hear it because we saw it all happen on screen. Rather, Clover should be put into a position where he reminds Ruby of all that her uncle has done for her. Just like Qrow talking to Ruby about her motivations for moving forward against Salem doesn’t accomplish anything, Clover telling Qrow, as one adult to another, that they’re worth something doesn’t accomplish anything either. These parties know all this already. 

As a side note, this is why you should mix things up. Not just so that Blake and Yang can practice fighting beside other people, but so that people who don’t already agree can be challenged for once. Put Yang with Qrow and have him comment on her anger, continuing Tai’s work. Put Ruby with Clover and let him talk to her about what adults have done to get her here. All these moments of potential development are lost by maintaining the expectation that the original partners have to be the priority. Rooster Teeth had an easy way of throwing new people together by assigning them various missions and they didn’t take it. Yang is still with Blake. Ren is still with Nora. Of course Qrow is with the one other guy his age who we have to pair him with. Reinforcing these relationships is great, but so is pausing them too. 

And then there’s the drinking. 

Hold up one second. I need to grab a bit of writing from my Volume 6 finale recap. Think back to Qrow and Ruby’s interaction in the airship:

And then Qrow lowers his bottle which… what? Alcoholism doesn’t work like that. Much more importantly, no one has tackled his drinking this season. Or the reasons he was drinking in the first place. Literally, Qrow’s semblance, his place in the war, Ozpin’s secret, none of it has been addressed. He has no reason to suddenly put aside his flask like he’s actually learned something. Does RT think we’re going to just imagine scenes that never actually happened?

After I posted this a couple of people pointed out that it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. We’ve seen other times where Qrow goes to take a drink and then thinks better of it, so it’s a reach to assume he’s magically given up drinking now. Which, fair. Now though it looks like that’s precisely what we got. Sometime between being found passed out on the front steps of the Argus house and reaching Atlas, Qrow just decided he was done with drinking and thus far we’ve seen no evidence that he’s struggling with that. Meaning, it’s not a conflict he’s working through. That doesn’t seem to be his arc this volume.  

Yet he’s an alcoholic. Qrow’s drinking may have functioned as a joke for most of Volumes 1-3, but Volume 6 made it abundantly clear that this problem is incapacitating for him, especially after learning about Ozpin and Salem. So what happened? What changed? Even if I choose to overlook Qrow just deciding not to engage with his addiction anymore without help or backslides that we know of (doesn’t work like that...), I can’t ignore the fact that there was no catalyst for this. If the show wanted us to work under the assumption that Qrow stopped drinking because it endangered his family then they should have had him stop after the farm. You know, when he was almost killed by Apathy and had to be dragged out by his nieces. As it is, his drinking continues on throughout their whole time at Argus. He’s not picking up his scroll. He’s passed out on the steps. He’s brushing past Ruby to go get a drink instead of helping them figure out a way past Cordovin. Then a day later they make it to Atlas. So what precisely in that 24 hour period happened to change one of Qrow’s defining characteristics? Or, if this is supposed to be an arc wherein Qrow attempts to get sober and struggles with it, why haven’t we seen that? Again, they’ve been in Atlas for weeks now. This isn’t a one day sober Qrow with a naively optimistic outlook. He’s apparently been managing this for a while now with no downsides, no difficulties, no regrets.

Blake and Yang getting mad at Marrow instead of acknowledging their trauma. Oscar taking one hit at Ironwood instead of grappling with their secrets. Ruby talking about new friends instead of the relationship she already has with Penny. Clover telling Qrow adults are important instead of anyone telling the teens that. Qrow revealing that he’s just not drinking anymore. For reasons. It’s amazing just how much space this episode provides for the characters to start working through their conflicts and we bypass every opportunity. This is RWBY’s primary problem. Beyond the pro-protagonist perspective is the issue that, especially since Volume 5, the show has made a habit of introducing intriguing problems and then either twisting them so they have simplistic ‘solutions’ (we don’t need to tackle Ruby’s hypocrisy. She’s just “different” from Ozpin) or ignores them completely. We don’t need a new friendship vs. professional relationship conflict. We don’t need a new luck vs. bad luck semblance conflict. Not yet anyway. Not until we work through the conflicts that have already been introduced. Let Ruby talk to Penny about their own relationship. Let Clover help Qrow get sober. RWBY is like me when I’m writing fic. Why would I finish the thing I started when there’s this shiny new idea over here? Except I’m engaging in a low-key hobby whereas they’re writing for their livelihood. For the love of everything, please solve the problems we already have before chucking in new ones. You can give us all the same moments and relationships, just tailor them so they acknowledge the things the viewers have been waiting for you to tackle. I don’t need to know why Ruby and her team are Super Special because they’re BFFs when everyone else in Atlas apparently rejects friendship like the plague. I do need to know why a guy who was introduced downing a glass of whiskey apparently got over his alcoholism off screen.

Ugh. You know what we need? Penguins. Everyone look at the penguins for at least five seconds and allow them to cleanse your soul. 

Heading backwards, before the transport scene we get a training fight between JNR + Oscar and Neon’s group. I honestly wonder how a team like theirs feels about them getting their licenses. After all, they fought at the Battle of Beacon too. The only reason why RWBYJNR got into extra, life-threatening situations is because they stupidly went off on their own. I realize that duh, as a story we can’t just have our protagonists twiddling their thumbs, but from an in-world perspective Ruby snuck out of the house to hunt down a woman who would absolutely have killed her and 100% would have been kidnapped if Qrow hadn’t followed to keep her safe. Everything else stems out of that. So not exactly a classically heroic basis for special treatment. All of which Neon and Flynt presumably don’t even know about because it touches on all those secrets. I suppose they just heard something along the lines of, “I, Ironwood, am giving two Beacon teams early licenses because they survived a horrendous battle. You, my actual students, don’t get them even though you did the same work.” It could have been really interesting to have some tension over this and for the group to see another complication of their secret keeping. Here they have to keep Cinder, the Maidens, the Relic, etc. quiet... but because of that it leads to some pretty awful miscommunication between friends. There are repercussions to your secrets and not all of them are things you can plan for or fix. 

We don’t have anything like that though. Obviously. Instead we just get a generic fight with a side of weird Nora/Ren stuff. Meaning, Neon calls him Nora’s boyfriend and asks, “Where’s that energy when he’s around you?” Later Nora asks if they’ll still get sandwiches before work and Ren heaves out an annoyed sigh.

That moment struck me simply because it doesn’t come across like one of his normal, happily indulgent sighs. Ren seemed legitimately annoyed. Which is even stranger when we consider that Nora isn’t being over the top here. Sure, she pops up behind him in a sort of silly manner, but really all she’s doing is expressing that she’s hungry after an intense battle. Can we please make sure we grab something before heading off to work? That’s a more than reasonable request. 

Ren shutting her down over his hair. Seeming to ignore her when she fiddles with it while on patrol. Neon’s comment about his lack of energy around her. Nora getting mad enough about it to give her a black eye (RWBY so rarely shows injuries). Ren seemingly put out by her theatrics. They’re all little things that only seem to paint a picture when put together, but of what exactly? It’s like I said last time, if the show wants to introduce some sort of arc for Nora and Ren this volume it had better do it soon. Really soon. Details that may or may not be setup can only take you so far. 

During this battle Ironwood smiles down at all their progress, which could be endearing or creepy, depending on whether you think he’s hiding something (more on that in a bit). Neon actually acknowledges Oscar’s existence and draws a blush out of him, so thank you for that, Neon.

I thought for just a moment that Jaune might compliment Oscar too, but he just compliments the other team instead. At least they’re letting him train with him. After last week’s episode I’ll take this small step forward. 

Back past the talk between Qrow and Clover, we finally get to meet the infamous Robyn Hill. She blocks the road to Amity Arena with one of her Happy Huntresses, the same faunus who was spying on the project last episode. And who I forgot to mention in my recap. Whoops. I love Hill already though precisely because she’s able to do what our protagonists couldn’t last Volume: stand down when a plan fails. 

Hill takes her shot by putting up the roadblock and asking Clover to be straight with her, but when that doesn’t work and it looks like they’re about to come to blows, she admits defeat and lets them through. That’s how you handle a tenuous ally. Keep the peace and regroup with a different idea. Show them basic respect so that they might help you in the future. Clover’s “good luck” regarding the election speaks volumes about how everyone does want to help each other, they just need to figure out a way to do it. Hill could have attacked the group and stood her ground purely because she believes she’s right---just as Ruby did with Cordovin---but she demonstrates her maturity instead. She didn’t risk lives for the sake of getting what she wanted right here, right now. Despite the fact that what she wants likewise involves the safety of the people. Take note, Ruby. 

Speaking of, everyone catch that guilty look when Ruby learns that Ironwood’s project is taking resources directly from the city that most needs it? Yeah, what did you think was going to happen? At the very least the group saw that they were taking manpower away. Ironwood needs them to help protect Mantle because most of his men are off in the middle of nowhere, so the group is well aware that their actions are causing a negative impact. I highly doubt that the eight of them (including Qrow) can make up for however many people Ironwood is pulling out, to say nothing of the fact that many of them (like Ruby here) are also on Amity duty. They’re allowing Ironwood to put people, money, supplies, and time towards an endeavor that they know is bound to fail. Sure, it would be nice to have communication across Remnant without fear of losing that to the grimm again, but we all know Ironwood is primarily doing this because of the Salem situation. If he knew about her immortality he’d probably go, “Hmm. Well, the first part of the idea is still nice, but I probably shouldn’t pour this much into just a regular communications tower. Defeating Salem potentially justifies me hurting the people to get this done. But not anything else.” I’ll say it again: Ozpin’s secrets didn’t endanger anyone. Everyone from Pyrrha to Yang agreed to put their lives on the line for reasons entirely separate from Salem. Their lives were in danger from the start and, given their choices, always would be in danger. Ruby is the one whose secret is not just threatening all of Remnant in the future, but actively hurting people now too. She has the ability to stop this and she chooses not to.

Or rather, she chooses to keep putting off the decision. We’ll tell Ironwood when we’re ready. Yeah right. I still want someone to challenge Ruby on what this magical ‘He’s trustworthy!’ moment looks like. They’ve spent weeks with this man, fighting for him, training with him, accepting gifts in the form of weaponry, armor, facilities... so what exactly is it going to take, Ruby? I’m not saying Ironwood is trustworthy, I’m saying you can never know until the day they betray you. If that day comes. So when is Ruby going to acknowledge that? That she will never get that magical moment and that she’s just like Ozpin, putting off telling someone because the information weighs so heavily and there’s just too much to risk? 

Hill thematically acknowledges the last two Volumes with, “It doesn’t have to be difficult. Just tell me,” while we all know it’s not that simple. Even if people would like it to be. Clover refuses, Penny spots two invisible huntresses closing in (nice), and as said, Robyn backs down. 

We then end this episode with a long bonding session between Winter and Weiss. We see them fighting with their summonings and Winter comments about how, “You’ve grown up a bit, haven’t you?” We get it. You’re not subtle. Weiss has grown up. “Make no mistake. School is over.” They’re adults now! If only we saw that more than we heard it. Weiss at least is a character who has had legitimate, excellent development over the last couple of volumes. I’m admittedly a bit confused though regarding how that development aligns with the old Weiss. Meaning, we learned early on that she wanted to become a huntress to redeem the Schnee name. Now Winter is talking about how separating herself from the Schnees was the best thing to happen to her and Weiss seems to agree. So is that it now? Is Weiss just concerned with being her own person, or is she still invested in being a Schnee? Just a Schnee who embodies what her family used to stand for? It’s unclear based on the conversation. 

Then. Ugh. They discuss Ironwood’s choices and Weiss snidely comments that, “Everyone thinks what they’re doing is right, but really they’re just looking out for themselves... and their secrets.” Yeah, Weiss. INCLUDING YOU. Are they really so dense that they don’t see how lying about how Ozpin disappeared was looking out for themselves, namely by making sure that Ironwood continued to embrace them with open arms instead of getting pissed? After all, it’s less likely that the group would have gotten a nice place to live, awesome weaponry, high-tech places to train, and early licenses if they’d admitted to their sins last volume. They’re also protecting their own secrets by spending these weeks nice and quiet, just ignoring the Ironwood problem completely. Weiss is protecting their secrets right now by encouraging Winter to question Ironwood’s intentions---subtly casting him and Ozpin in a bad light---while she herself is keeping secrets from Winter. I mentioned before that Ironwood’s smile could potentially be a bad omen if we follow the writing rule of, “If a character insists someone isn’t keeping anything from them... they’re definitely keeping something from them.” Winter’s belief that Ironwood doesn’t keep secrets from her sets up the expectation for the audience that he probably is. But we don’t actually know that yet. Weiss thinks Ironwood might be keeping secrets. Weiss knows for sure she and the rest of her friends are keeping secrets. Only one party is definitively guilty here, so I’m not sure why she feels entitled to act like she still has the high ground. 

With Ironwood’s honor in question, Winter takes Weiss to see the Winter Maiden. We really don’t get to learn much about her except that she still looks young-ish (again: RWBY ages are hard) and seems to like to paint. 

No one else can visit her---and thus we don’t hear the conversation---because Ironwood wants Winter to inherit the power. Okay. So that leaves us with a couple options now:

Older woman can inherit and Ozpin made a very iffy call in trying to foster that responsibility off on a First Year. Which is probably down to more writing concerns than Ozpin’s characterization. Meaning, you want to keep the conflict among the main cast, not bring in a random new character to do the volume’s Important Thing. So you set up Pyrrha as the Fall Maiden, even though in-world that looks like a sketchy decision. To say nothing of the fact that Rooster Teeth isn’t very good at setting down hard rules. What functioned as a limitation during Volume 3 can easily be wiped away in Volume 7. In the same way that we went from Qrow’s semblance being totally passive and range-based to “sometimes I can’t control it.”

Ironwood and Winter are assuming that Winter can inherit, but she’s actually too old now. They’ll be blindsided by this when the power unexpectedly goes to someone else.

Ironwood has convinced Winter that she can inherit but actually has some sort of other plan up his sleeve.

Really, my biggest takeaway is Winter’s speech about how she is choosing this. Regardless of whether fate forced her into a situation with only bad options. Regardless of whether others also want her to make this decision. It’s still her choice. 95% of the fandom needs to listen to that speech and then chuck Pyrrha into Winter’s place. Having only tough choices isn’t the same thing as having no choice. The fact that your choice coincides with what others want doesn’t lessen it. They both chose to take on this power and it’s wrong for others to trivialize that by claiming that the men in their life---Ozpin and Ironwood---manipulated them. It’s implying that they can’t make their own decisions. That making this terribly difficult choice doesn’t come down to their own strength. They know it’s dangerous, regardless of whether they understand every detail of that danger, and actively choose to take on that responsibility anyway. Because they want to do some good in the world. The fandom has worked its butt off to take that away from Pyrrha and I really hope they don’t do the same to Winter. 

Although... the death flags. Yeesh but Winter looks like a particularly enticing target for the end of this Volume. What with talk of destiny and all... I really hope the series doesn’t go the route of giving every Team RWBY member one of the Maiden powers, what with Winter in a position to think about Weiss if she dies with the power, Raven in a position to think about Yang, and Cinder obsessed with Ruby literally all the time... yeah. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m personally more invested in ‘normal’ people managing the impossible through hard work, belief in themselves and each other, all that jazz. Not already overpowered people (at least in Ruby’s case) getting literal magic to solve their problems with. There’s so much more you can do with that.

Finally, Jacques comes online to spew a bunch of BS about how everything ever is Ironwood’s fault and he’s totally suffering just like everyone in Mantle. 

Right.

As Winter says though, the lies are just enough of a “spark” to ignite an already pissed off populace. We close on an angry mob beginning to tear the streets apart. Guess we’ll find out next week how the group tackles that nasty problem. 

Until then! 💜

Minor Things of Note

What was that sandwich gag? RWBY is really pushing the humor in iffy directions this volume.

I enjoyed Qrow and Clover playing cards though. What a mess with their semblances.

Also, I made us a poster: 

[mobius-prime]

192. Sonic the Hedgehog #124

Sonic Adventure 2.5: Λlphλ

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: J. Axer and Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

All right everyone, we've finally made it to the "Endgame" of the fourth era! While it's not quite as epic and game-changing, this story, spanning this issue and the next, alters the setting and the plot quite a bit, and also sees the return of Shadow the Hedgehog, whom we only got to see a quick cameo of back in Sonic Adventure 2. Also, amusingly, the word "Alpha" in the title is actually spelled with the Greek letter Lambda, not the actual letter Alpha. I know it's for the Aesthetic™ and all, but it's still funny. But anyway, let's jump in and see what this era's finale has in store for us!

So first, we learn the story of how Shadow survived his fall from orbit. Turns out, he didn't actually fall at all! Before he entered the atmosphere, he was caught in a beam from an alien spaceship, and brought aboard.

Well now, isn't this interesting! These are the same aliens that transformed Eggman and Snively back to their organic forms a few issues ago. It seems they're quite interested in meddling in the affairs of the planet, for whatever reason, and now they're using Shadow as a method of escaping from a second spaceship full of different aliens who appear to be quite aggressive. Shadow tries to fight back against them, but the ship hits him with an energy beam, and he begins to lose consciousness once again, falling back towards the atmosphere just as before. Meanwhile back in Knothole, Sonic wakes up, seemingly excited about something big today. He races to Knothole Castle where he kisses Sally hello, the two now openly dating now that they've admitted their true feelings for each other. She asks him if he's ready to "pop the question," to which he says he… is… wait, what question is this, Sally?! You can't mean…

At the same time, in Station Square, the president finds himself contacted by Eggman, who tries to make him a deal to become allies in exchange for advanced technology and protection. Of course, he's trying to propose an alliance to the same people who literally nuked his city because they didn't like him, so this goes about as well as you expect. Naturally, Eggman doesn't like this response one bit.

Rouge swoops in to save the president and his driver as the car careens into a river, but just as they think they've escaped danger, the entire false sky above the city shatters under the attack from a mysterious foe… But before we find out who has done this, it's time to find out what question Sonic is supposed to be asking.

…okay, honestly, this is just bizarre to me. I get that absolute monarchies tend to want to marry their heirs off young to secure alliances, but really? These two haven't even properly dated yet, beyond a little these past months (as at least a couple months are implied to have passed since Sally's kidnapping), and now at the age of sixteen they're planning a future wedding? This entire bit seems so weirdly out of character for both Sally and Sonic, if you ask me. The comic has flirted with the idea of marriage between the two in the past, but that was mostly during the earlier issues when each story was only focused on being silly and telling a funny, self-contained story. Obviously, these two have had a deep crush on each other for years now, and have a lot of chemistry in their own way, but a de facto engagement between the two of them is just strange. Sally is much more pragmatic than that, having broken off a potential relationship once before in favor of focusing on her official duties, and as for Sonic, we've been directly shown before that he's flighty, afraid of commitment, and generally prefers casual friendships to heavily romantic relationships. Now, this might make more sense if you instead view it as an announcement of convenience, a plot concocted by the both of them to get Sally's parents off her back about being married off to a "suitable partner" as the future ruler of the kingdom. If it were portrayed this way, then maybe I could give this a pass. But we're given no such inkling that it's anything other than exactly what it appears to be. And that, to me, makes this plot point a completely bizarre departure from the usual attitudes of both these characters to romance and relationships. Even weirder, as we'll see, this doesn't even affect the plot of the comic at all in future issues - while there's a reference to it here and there, it's nothing plot-important and could have easily been written out without much trouble.

Anyway, Sonic runs out to investigate the boom only to find Shadow lying in a crater outside the castle. Man, lucky for him that he just so happened to land here instead of literally anywhere else, huh? Sonic approaches him and Shadow lashes out in confusion, knocking Sonic aside, before coming to and apologizing. All this does is rile Sonic up and he tries to attack Shadow in retaliation. Really, Sonic? You thought Shadow was freaking dead, and the moment you see him again you try to punch his lights out? Sally, luckily, steps in to reprimand him for his behavior, and Nicole contacts her, telling her there's an emergency message for them back at the castle. The Freedom Fighters, along with Shadow, follow her back in, where both Eggman and Rouge contact the royal family simultaneously, each claiming their cities have been attacked by an overwhelmingly strong foe. Shadow confirms that this is likely an attack from the same vessel he had just been fighting, but then… something happens. A telepathic message spreads out across the globe, echoing in the minds of every single sentient being on the planet, demanding the attention of the "inhabitants of planet Earth…"

Well, this is bad. And now, they're back to finish what they started… Eggman panics and tries to immediately get King Max to agree to an alliance of convenience, but Max cuts him off without another word, justifying his actions to his shocked onlookers as making sure Eggman is good and ready to accept a truce on his terms by making him sweat a bit first. Sonic expresses confusion that the aliens seem to be confusing Mobius with another planet called Earth, but they get a call from Angel Island at that moment where Locke offers his assistance. Of course the Freedom Fighters ask about Knuckles, and he sorrowfully informs them that he's dead. They're shocked and saddened, but don't have time to mourn, as they have to prove the Xorda wrong about their planet. Sally begins some research into the history of the planet, but Hope unexpectedly steps forward, offering her own insight into how the Xorda ended up here in the first place.

Oh boy, Shadow, I sense we're going to have some emotional turmoil over Hope in our future. Also, I just wanna note that this issue claims that the Xorda were last here three thousand years ago, but future issues retcon this into twelve thousand years. Anyway, Sally soon discovers something shocking in her research… Mobius and Earth are, in fact, the same planet!

This. Is. It! This is the big reveal that I've been so carefully dancing around for almost two hundred issues! I have been meticulously wording every reference to Mobius being an "Earth-like planet" to be spoiler-free but also totally accurate in the light of this reveal. Yes, ladies, gents and enbies, the Archie Sonic preboot takes place twelve thousand years into our own future. The first Xorda invasion was, in fact, the first recorded Day of Fury, which is why it's recorded as having wiped out nearly all life on the planet. And this is also the origin of the split between five fingered humans, and four fingered Overlanders. The humans survived underground, unaffected by the gene bombs dropped by the Xorda, while the Overlanders are the result of, essentially, re-evolved humans that were affected by the gene bombs. And as for Mobians? Well, we are talking about a weapon called a gene bomb, so Mobians obviously came about through severe mutations caused by said bombs, eventually becoming the dominant species of the planet! This is why the planet's continents look very similar to those of Earth, with the differences easily explained by not only twelve thousand years of continental drift, but the massive geographical alterations that such a dramatic cataclysm would have caused on the planet. All those old references to previous Earth civilizations exist because those things actually happened, even if the people making said references no longer know what the Confederate States were, or who the Aborigines were. I know this reveal wasn't particularly liked by a lot of readers, and certainly without the context of the previous two hundred issues it sounds downright absurd (hell, even with the context it kind of does), but in the end my personal opinion is that this was a bit of a masterstroke on Karl's part. It's a great way to tie a lot of old plot threads together and develop a more cohesive and solid history for Mobius as a planet, and ultimately provides us with a more clear timeline of events for the various races and civilizations of the world. And it's all thanks to a species of creepy vengeful Mother Brain octopus alien things deciding to commit genocide!

Afterlife (Part Four)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: J. Jensen

So, Kenders. With the big milestone issue fast approaching, is there anything you wanna add in this next installment of Afterlife? Like, perhaps, finally addressing what exactly is supposed to, y'know, happen in the afterlife? Knuckles certainly wants to know, having spent the last two issues doing nothing but reliving his entire previous life verbatim. Aurora explains that though he feels it's unfair that he died, it was unavoidable, as he simply came into his power too quickly and couldn't temper it or learn to control it quickly enough to pull off his saving-Dimitri stunt without essentially going supernova.

This part actually does interest me, because Knuckles' reaction implies that until now, the fact of his death hasn't fully sunken in. He seems to be under the impression that he can come back from it and just resume his life where he left off, instead of traveling onward into the next phase of life. Aurora apologizes and explains that everyone only gets one chance at life, and beckons him toward the mystical portal to the Chaos Force. Knuckles requests only one more thing, to become his normal red self once more, and when Aurora gently corrects him that he doesn't need her help for that, he finds himself instantly back to his old color scheme with a mere thought, which raises the minor question of whether he would have been able to revert back to red all along, or whether it's due to the malleable nature of existence in the afterlife that he's able to do so now. Regardless, the reign of Green Knuckles over the comic's B-stories has finally ended, and Rad Red steps into the portal, ready to claim his destiny. And thus, we get ready to say goodbye to our favorite echidna once and for all, as he takes his place amongst the… wait, hang on a second…

Good old Athair! I missed you, buddy. Aurora tries to argue that Knuckles should still advance forward into the Chaos Force, but Athair merely frowns and crosses his arms, leaving the ending of this story ambiguous… and ripe for a true conclusion next issue, as we hit another major milestone in the history of the comic!

[mittensmorgul]

9.06, Heaven Can't Wait.

YAY! BOBO!

so I neglected to mention Buddy Boyle and Bartholomew the fallen angel, and all the angel factions forming in the 9.03 report because I was trying to get through it as fast as possible, but ugh... guess I gotta mention them eventually. There, I mentioned them, just about as much as this episode did. :P

But this is directly relevant to Cas's current state of mind, which is relevant to the overall plot of this episode, because of Rit Zien angel and why he's come to this town where Cas has tried to make a life for himself as Sales Associate Steve. The Rit Zien seeks out pain-- originally mortal wounds on battlefields-- and either heals or else "humanely puts down" angels he cannot heal. Except, as Cas will explain in this episode, he doesn't understand human emotions, and that emotional pain is temporary... and then we learn that the Rit Zien was drawn to this town by the magnitude of Cas's suffering specifically. Which, if that's not a statement on Cas's current emotional state, I don't know what is.

The first victim we see is a man who literally hangs up on a suicide prevention hotline because he lost his wife. He even has a gun, but changes his mind when faced with the Rit Zien, but he gets exploded into pink goo anyway.

The next is a high school girl suffering a normal level of teenage angst, telling a friend she could just die of embarrassment because her boyfriend broke up with her in the cafeteria in front of everyone but in no way meaning it literally, and poof... pain disintegrated.

Despite his own pain having been kicked out of the bunker and feeling completely abandoned by Dean, Cas still calls Dean to alert him to the strange cases in town, but tells Dean he won't participate in the hunt. Dean manages to track Cas down working at the Gas N Sip anyway (Cas never told him where he worked), and pulls Cas into working the case with him.

There's the whole Nora thing, which Cas thought was a date but was actually a babysitting job... When the Rit Zien shows up for Cas, he thinks it's for the baby, running a fever and crying. But he's actually there for Cas.

CASTIEL: How'd you find me? EPHRAIM: Because you're warded? The same way I find all my patients – I just followed the sound of your pain. You have no idea how loud it is. I could hear you for miles.

And then the question we've been waiting on an answer for ever since:

EPHRAIM: Shh-shh-shhh. It'll be over soon. I'll take the pain away. CASTIEL: I want to live. EPHRAIM: But as what, Castiel? As an angel? or a man?

Because back in s9, this question remains directly tied to PAIN. To SUFFERING.

CASTIEL (to the baby): Nobody told you. Nobody explained. You're just … shoved out kicking and screaming into this human life, without any idea why any of it feels the way it feels, or why this confusion, which feels like it's … a hair's breadth (The baby stops crying.) from terror or pain. You know, just when you think you do understand, it'll turn out you're wrong. You didn't understand anything at all. Guess that's just how it is when you're new at this.

He thought he understood, and he's only just beginning to truly understand (and I mean, Crowley as almost-human this season too, despite having been human originally long ago, still suffers with the burden of human emotions, equating what demons and angels are capable of feeling even way back here, long before 10.03 when Cas will make that same comparison).

Cas is feeling the guilt of what's happened to the angels, and he's already hurting over it. So when Sam and Kevin discover (with Crowley's help) that the angel fall spell is irreversible, Dean doesn't tell Cas that fact thinking he's protecting Cas from even worse guilt. But meanwhile, it's still a major source of Cas's pain (and Dean's pain, because hell if he doesn't want to bring Cas back to the bunker here, but can't as long as Sam isn't healed enough...)

EVERYBODY'S SUFFERING! Lies all around. Dean specifically tells Sam that he won't be seeing Cas on this hunt, and yet he spends the entire time pretty much with Cas. But also Dean, lying to everyone, trying to manage his mounting lies in the name of protecting (or in the language of 14.08, "not wanting to burden them") or just out of pure FEAR because this situation is officially so far above his pay grade and he can't even talk to ANYONE about how bad it actually is without the whole thing crumbling down around him... and that's not even considering the Fallen Angels Fighting Amongst Themselves situation on top of all his personal shit...

Which interestingly is paralleled in the experiences of young Dean in the flashbacks in the next episode...

spn 9.07, Bad Boys.

Dean's put in a situation way above his pay grade, having been left to "rot" by John after getting in trouble for shoplifting enough for him and Sam to eat while John was off somewhere else on a hunt and Dean had been left in charge again. John had demanded that Dean tell Sam a very different story, one that not only covered Dean's "shame" at having been caught shoplifting and abandoned by John for several months while Sam was "shipped off to Bobby's" (and remember, Sam would've been about 11 years old at the time, ie old enough to have understood the truth of the situation, but maybe not why John refused to get Dean from Sonny's, that to John this was a form of punishment for Dean-- both isolation from everything he's ever known AND forced separation from Sam, like John was punishing him for failing to take care of Sam by isolating him completely...), but also was about John hiding his OWN culpability in any of this happening in the first place. Child abandonment, neglect, the fact he regularly left the boys on their own and disappeared for weeks or months at a time leaving them to fend for themselves on whatever meager sum he left them. Which, I mean, YIIIIIKES.

And this episode was really the start of my "sanitized for sammy" and "the story became the story" tags, of how fundamental to their codependency these small lies have always been, since they were children (and yeah, we saw that going all the way back to s1, with 1.18, 3.08, 4.13... pretty much all the flashback episodes, but this is where Dean gave that calculated deception a name-- "the story became the story.")

We really see the extent of Dean's lifelong struggle with managing all these secrets begins to break down, which exactly parallels his "bigger story arc" issues in early s9. With all that in mind, it's no wonder he breaks and feels his ultimate failure connected with the collapse of the tower of lies that all started with the best of intentions, and just spiraled out of his control. All in the name of protecting his loved ones.

Kinda like Dean trying to keep John's horrific final words from Sam back in s2 (even though that only lasted a few episodes), kinda like Sam hiding the truth back in s4, kinda like Cas hiding the truth in s6. So now they all will have this fun little problem in common (less dumb, less ass...)

But more interesting to me than the actual circumstances of this episode specifically, is how these lies begin to slowly unravel throughout the episode, and how the truth finally coming out affects everything going forward.

First Sam begins to learn the truth about that time, but it's still not really the whole truth. Dean plays it off as his own fault, shrugging the experience off. Sam also can't figure out why Dean's not only kept in touch with Sonny all these years, but also actually told him the truth about the hunting. The deeper truth slowly comes out in bits and pieces. And then there's Robin, who Dean never told the truth to in the past who learns it all in a shocking way... seeing it first-hand.

This had been Dean's one real "escape to normalcy" of the sort that Sam had spent most of his life running away toward (and which Dean's being forced by circumstance now to push Cas toward... let's not forget that the original airing order of these episodes put 9.06 AFTER this episode... which is why I've smooshed the two of these into one way-too-long post). And let's remember that it was only Dean's need to make sure Sam was safe that got him to leave Sonny's and return to John. He talked about his interest in fixing cars in this episode, and he could've had that life if he'd chosen to stay, because Sonny agreed to fight for him if he wanted that.

But even by the end of the episode, Sam only knows part of the truth, and Dean's still trying to protect himself with that tiny shard of a lie:

Sam: You just got lucky? Kind of like you did with this place. I mean, here I was thinking this was the worst part of your life, and it turns out it was the best. Why'd you ever leave? Dean: Never felt right. Sam: Really? Dean: It was two months, Sam, okay? And I couldn't wait to get out of here. I don't know what to tell you. It wasn't me.

And he can't bring himself to burden Sam with the truth, that it was literally Sam himself and his duty to protect him that made him choose to leave.

Then there's Timmy, losing his mother in a fire, Dean thinking it's the "I Clobber Evil" action figure that the mother's ghost is tied to, when in fact it was Timmy himself. Because it's not exactly that Dean sees himself in Timmy-- repeatedly running away from foster homes, clinging to "imaginary friends" -- It's SAM. He talks to Timmy like we have to imagine 16-year-old Dean would've talked to SAM. And doesn't that just say it all here.

And using this “decoder ring” of a couple episodes to help us unravel what happens when these dudes try to protect each other, to “not burden each other” with these sorts of secrets, things almost universally go sideways. Because this is, yes, what Cas was thinking in hiding his deal with the Empty to trade himself for Jack, but it’s also the sort of smaller concerns from each other regarding Jack’s behavior after 14.14. Each of them were worried for Jack, each of them had noticed small things in Jack, but NONE of them wanted to admit the truth to themselves, let alone to each other. Each of them held their tongues, not wanting to worry each other over Jack, or unfairly burden each other for nothing when all they really have are their individual suspicions and no actual concrete evidence that Jack’s soul is actually gone, you know? But the consequences of trying to protect each other are far more grave in s14...

[toonstarterz]

BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #154

The Sports Tournament Arc has come to a close (watch me eat my words), and while things may not have ended in the most spectacular or dramatic fashion, it does offer a healthy dose of retrospection after the flurry of emotions we’ve undergone during this whole thing. Tomoko’s world may be winding down for the moment, but as we all know, that just sets the pace for things to spring right back up. 

Chapter 154: Because I’m Not Popular, The Sports Tournament Will End

Watamote has always been relatively good at picking apart what it means to be female, and acknowledging their habit for casual grooming is just one of those times. But where this series shines is that it neither advocates or condemns stereotypical female behavior. Its stance has always been, “it is what it is,” and the reader is open to make their own opinions on that.

Well, I never expected them to win, honestly speaking. This ain’t no shounen sports manga after all, where the underdogs make a dubious comeback thanks to Nakama Power™. The obligatory homosexual subtext was there, though.  

Yeeeah, one of Yuri’s biggest flaws is that it takes her some time to admit, or even recognize her own responsibilities. Naturally, that includes pointing out other’s faults before her own. That being said...

Is Yuri being Bitchy or Awkward? An Analysis to Come in A Couple More Pages.

Tomoko, being the one to slightly raise up everyone else’s spirits? I’d be more shocked if her growth didn’t already make that actually kind of plausible.

This right here is the single coolest girl in the entire manga.

Side note: Komi’s rekt face is sublime. 

That hit had so much force, it burst through the panel borders. For once, poor Minami.

I see friendships all over the place.

In spite of (or perhaps because of) Komiyama’s overzealous nature, she can also be hit pretty hard with a sense of shame when her efforts prove fruitless. Maybe Itou plays the role of the ��Lift Their Spirits” Friend in times like this.

At least the other girls are also taking their defeat in stride. Although, Minami seems particularly down for once. Perhaps she surprisingly feels some disappointment over their loss.,,

....or maybe she just feels jaded watching Mike and her Boyfriend make kissy-face. 

The thing about Kiyota is that he doesn’t seem like an especially capable guy. But from what we’ve seen, the dude’s got a pretty agreeable personality that sort of just makes it easier for people to follow him. It’s the same reason why he became the class representative. Kiyota may not be at the top of the class in any way (that we know of), but his likability makes him a natural leader.

Of course, his true friends will still give him hella shit for it.

Like many loners with self-esteem issues, no one cares about winning until they actually start winning.

Hey, hey, hey! It seems that the disastrous fallout between Tomoko and Ucchi didn’t the stop the latter from making good on her claim to cheer Tomoko on. We don’t know if the Emoji Gang ever intervened after those events, but if Ucchi still has the nerve(cluelessness) to cheer the girl she berated, that can only be a good sign.

It’s kind of weird seeing Hirasawa next to her though, considered how Ucchi cut her down that one time. Long-term grudges do not exist unless you’re Tomoko.

Fuuka, eh? The gap between a character’s first major appearance and their revealed name gets smaller each time.  

So these two are close friends, I see. They certainly give off those “alpha girl’ airs, but not in an unapproachable way. Contrary to what Western media has fed me, bitchy queen bees aren’t actually that popular. 

I’m sure many a shipper thinks that Katou chose table tennis to be with Tomoko, but I don’t that’s the only reason. It could just as well be that she’s into the sport. For the longest time, Katou’s personality has increasingly contrasted with her appearance. On the surface, she looks like the stereotypical beauty whose friendly, girly, and is super popular. But underneath, she’s also rather unaware, possibly perverted, not actually that good with makeup, and frankly, a bit of a weirdo. She’s all full of surprises, and it honestly makes her feel more human.

That was probably not her intent, but a mini party is definitely more up Tomoko’s alley. She just barely made it through the KBBQ party after all, and while Tomoko would’ve probably made it through another large-scale party even easier, small get-togethers are the introvert’s bee’s knees.  

It’s still hard to get a read on Futaki’s sociability, but she seems like a middle-of-the-road case as far as we’ve seen.

Yuri using Tomoko as a support beam is way within my expectations of her. It hasn’t steered too far into the Unhealthy Zone (yet), but I do enjoy that Tomoko’s simple company is all Yuri really needs to enjoy herself.  

Introvert Problems #092: Preoccupying yourself with your beverage to break the awkward silence without realizing the social cue of waiting to clink glasses before drinking. 

Smooth move, me Tomoko.

Good taste, my girl. Very good taste.

I love how the artistic license in this series is played completely straight. Girls with cat smiles are a dime-a-dozen in manga, but it’s usually a visualization only apparent to the readers. But not here. Emoji eyes and a feline grin are just as ludicrous in-universe as it is to us.

Yeah...I have no idea what to make of this. Guess Yuri has her own weird quirks, after all. What makes it extra funny is when you remember that Tomoko is strangely good at cutting things. Ironic humor at its finest.

Harking back to what I said about Katou being full of surprises, it’s easy to judge Katou sorely on her appearance, given how much more refined she looks next to the other “plain" girls. But when you look beyond what’s skin deep, Katou actually has more similarities to Tomoko than she let on. Being decently athletic, but not sporty; having a high tolerance for perversion, and socially naive at times. Katou’s affection for Tomoko had always felt out-of-place when we didn’t know her personality too well. But now that we’ve gotten a good look at it, her budding friendship with Tomoko feels all the more authentic.

Being the Nucleus Friend is never easy, Tomoko. 

Ah, Tomoko, regrets are natural. One of the more informed aspects about Tomoko is that she doesn’t dwell on the past too much. Her episodes of cringe hardly have everlasting negative effects on her personality, and the only times she does dwell are when she comes to terms with the mistakes she’s made. The twist now is that Tomoko puts a positive spin on it this time. Instead of bemoaning how she did something bad, she now reflects on how she could have done something good. It’s a layer of positive reinforcement that I think Tomoko has truly benefited from.  

Futaki coming through with the Nakama Speech™. It’s a pretty good one, too. Not heavy-handed or overly sentimental, but it’s from a place of earnestness that many can appreciate.

And I just realized that Futaki has been going through a quiet development from being a single-player gamer to multi-player gamer. Damn, that was slick, Nico Tanigawa.    

Hey now, those Spot the Difference games are totally legitimate critical thinking exercises.

It’s easy to think from first glance that Yuri is being purposely insensitive by the way she’s ignoring such a heartwarming speech, but I don’t think that’s really the case. It’s not that she doesn’t care about it, it just that those dining table games are too damn engaging for her introverted mind to resist. Yuri’s personality is a lot of things, but a lack of empathy is not one of them. 

Even though that’s true, it sounds vaguely hypocritical coming from you, Tomoko.

As I thought, Mako the Mom is also Mako the Enabler. 

Is Yuri Being Bitchy or Awkward?

Neither. She’s being a weirdo.

We all know by now that Yuri’s no sheep. She’s not going to pretend she’s something she’s not just to reciprocate the mood. But at the same time, she’s aware enough to adjust herself in situations where just doing anything she wants would be potentially hurtful. Of course, that’s only when she realizes she’s being hurtful. And there’ve been a number of times where she failed at that. Yuri’s behavior is very much circumstantial, and in cases where she’s expected to fit in with the crowd, she can be bitchy, awkward, or neither based on how well she can read the atmosphere. 

And that, my friends, is why Yuri’s a weirdo.

I don’t know about that, Tomoko. As absurd as her face and gaming skills are, Futaki’s personality has always seemed fairly normal to me.

Don’t judge an emoji by its emoji.

You may laugh at their apparent difficulty at finding them all, but I read up that these specific Spot the Difference games are a reference to the ones they have in Saizeriya restaurants, which are known for being notoriously tough. (Seriously, a dude called up the manufacturer because he couldn’t find the last one). Thanks as always, /r/watamote!

Eat your words, Tomoko! Just because you have more friends now, that doesn’t mean you’re hot shit and too good for “childish” games. Not that I can blame her too much, though. It’s understandable that Tomoko feels there are certain social conventions that come with increased popularity. But if there’s one thing that Tomoko still has to realize, it’s that popularity doesn’t equal maturity. No matter how high you are on the food chain, doing dumb kiddie stuff is present all across the board. 

Didn’t I tell you that, “Not that I care” was going to be this series’ tsundere line? 

When you think about it, Yuri’s come a long way from how she was at the start. At the end of second year, she lamented that her new friends might drift away from her. Compare that to now, where she’s actually more optimistic about her relationships. Sure, the fact that they’re now in the same class is the key difference, but the sentiment is still there, and feels a lot more impactful given that Yuri has never really been this open about her feelings. 

That’s what happens when you get the last word in.

As with most of these arcs, it’s the journey rather than the end that has the most impact on our characters. For some, like Ucchi and Yuri, it was a major game-changer in their relationships with Tomoko. For others, like Itou and Hirasawa, it was an exploration of what made them the way they are. And then there’s Tomoko, still fumbling around with a degree of popularity she was never fully prepared for. 

But for everyone, it was all about trying. Trying something new, putting in the extra effort, and reaching out to others. While the results were kind of a mixed bag, nearly everyone came out of this tournament with some form of victory.

[thehollowprince]

Endgame - Tony Stark

WARNING: MAJOR ENDGAME SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!!!

I figured I’d start with Tony, because as anyone who follows me, or has seen my blog knows, I do not like this character.  This movie is no exception to that, in that I wasn’t a big fan of what they did with his character in here, but there were moments I actually did like.  So I’m going to make a list of what I liked and what I didn’t about his character and then some thoughts on his overall arc throughout this movie and the MCU in general.

I will try to keep the dislike section away from being blatantly “Anti Tony” but I make no promises.

Also, these lists will have bits from other characters that were a part of the main six’s journeys, so just keep that in mind.

Fair warning, the likes section is probably going to be a lot shorter than the dislike list, which won’t be too long either.  The Russos kept their word in that the Avengers from Infinity War that took a back seat were given more in this film, but Tony was still in it a bit too much for my liking, especially with how everything played out.

With that out of the way, let’s do this.

LIKES

Morgan Stark 

Pepper’s Iron Woman suit

Tony and Howard

“I am Iron Man”

Rhodey and Pepper being by his side

Proof that Tony Stark has a heart

Let’s start with what I liked about his story arc in Endgame.  I loved Morgan.  His daughter was adorable and he had a great little relationship with her, from what little we saw of it, away from everyone (left) and living in a cabin in the woods.  The whole scene where he says “Shit!” not knowing his daughter is sitting right there was hilarious and precious all at the same time.  Add to that the fact that she blackmailed him into getting her a treat for her silence and my heart was won.

How he acted with Morgan was a great shift in his character from all of the previous movies and I’m assuming it had something to do with having a biological child, as opposed to this whole concept a good percentage of the fandom likes to pretend is a thing (”Irondad”), but more on that later.

Pepper’s suit that she wore at the end was amazing.  I loved it so much better than any of the other IM suits used throughout any of the movies, and I loved during the epic battle at the end how well the two fought together.  Plus Pepper being included in the big Girl Power team-up at the end of the fight is the stuff of legends.

As anyone who followed me over this last year knows, I’m not a fan of Tony’s (and his fandom’s) constant need to blame everything wrong he ever does on a combination of things, one of which is his relationship with his father.  This is probably the most screen time Howard got in any of the movies and I did love that Tony used it to connect with his father over something they now have in common - having kids.  It was nice to finally see Tony put aside all his issues and recognize that his father was a human being.  Also, Jarvis being there was amazing!

More on this in the Dislikes section, but Tony’s response to Thanos’ “I am inevitable!” line being “I am… Iron Man.”  It was a nice callback to the first movie and the comics and I’m glad they ended his character on that note.

As he lay dying, which I didn’t take nearly as much pleasure in as I thought I would, I did like Rhodey and Pepper being there by his side, and Pepper’s little speech to him, telling him he could rest now, which was a nice callback to earlier in the film where she asked him if he could rest if he didn’t help.  As much as I don’t like them together, it was a touching moment to see him die with his wife and partner at his side.

The wreath with the original arc reactor put on the lake was just a nice touch, in my opinion.

DISLIKES

Nebula

His return to Earth

The Five Years Later

Still building suits

His superiority complex and attitude in general

His treatment of Scott Lang

“Do you trust me”

The constant quips and sarcasm

Peter Parker

One

His funeral

Okay, this one might upset people, but I did warn you.

For starters, I did not at all like the way they (The Russos) had Nebula act around Tony while they were on the Guardians’ ship.  Granted, they did a lot of character assassinations in this movie, but this was one of the ones that stood out the most to me, especially given how she treated everyone else throughout the rest of the movie, with her usual disdain except for her sister and Rocket.  Having her be so kind and nurturing to him just felt like something out of a fanfiction by someone who worships Tony but never saw any of the Guardians of the Galaxy films.  Though, I will admit, having him in his dying moments open his eyes to see Carol blazing in to save him and then her setting the ship down like it was nothing was pretty spectacular.

The moment he’s back on Earth, he just starts in with his bullshit again.  I’m sorry, but blaming Steve for the epic loss that they all faced was such a childish move, but that’s become something of a staple for him.  Blaming all of his problems and failures on someone else, even when they’re not just his failures.  It’s always someone else’s fault, because self-reflection isn’t a strong suit of his character, nor is his capacity to let it go.  Him standing there and yelling at Steve, as if everything was entirely his fault because Ultron blew up in his face and his “suit of armor around the world” didn’t pan out the way he wanted was such a dick move.  We’ve seen how Thanos and his forces dealt with Wakandan technology, which we all know is better than Stark Tech.  So for him to think that the Ultron Project would have even been able to stop Thanos, especially once he was armed with the Infinity Stones is pure hubris and I’m sick and tired of it.

The five years later scene, particularly when Steve, Scott and Natasha come to him for help after they thought up a way to fix it all, just made my blood boil.  I know no one wants to admit this, but Tony didn’t lose anyone in the snap.  And no, I’m not counting Peter as someone close to him, because up until the scene where Peter went poof, he’d been nothing but disdainful or outright neglectful of him.  The three that showed up to ask for his help lost everything, and while it is understandable that he didn’t want to lose what he now had, his outright dismissal of them was infuriating.  Especially when you factor in that he had to have his ass handed to him, and watch everyone else lose their loved ones before he finally put aside his ego and settled down with Pepper.

Even with the world decimated, he still can’t stop with the suit building?  Seriously?  Sure, it came in handy later when Pepper donned it for the big fight, but he was working on that before Steve and Nat even showed up.  He wasn’t preparing for the fight, he was just doing what he always does and feeding his addiction to those suits.

Another thing that bugged me about them coming to him for help was his whole attitude about it.  Not only how dismissive he was to Scott, but since when is Tony an expert on quantum physics?  There was no build up to that, no mention of it before, and it just smacked of something they threw in there to try and find a reason for Tony to rejoin the Avengers for this final film.  Between Scott and Bruce, and with Rocket’s brilliance and Thor’s knowledge of Asguardian science, they should have figured it out.  But no!  We had to have the Tony be the one to save the day.

You’ll get a theme here about my dislikes all being related to the blatant fan service of those who worship Tony Stark.

In regards to the way he talked to Scott throughout the entire film - I didn’t like it.  I didn’t like his dismissive attitude or his constant barrage of insults.  Scott Lang is probably one of, if not the, nicest character in the MCU and he doesn’t deserve to be treated like that by some bored billionaire with a grudge.

The “Do you trust me?” line was aggravating as hell.  Anyone who watched these movies knows that Tony doesn’t trust his teammates, or even treat them with basic respect half the time, and given how he acted to Steve upon his return to Earth, and how they left things at the end of Civil War, I think the addition of that line was a slap in the face to any of the people who loved Steve’s character over the years.

The constant sarcasm got old about seven or eight movies ago.  At some point these writers and producers have to realize that being a sarcastic asshole isn’t really a personality, despite how much they try and pretend it is.  It’s 2023 in this movie, which puts Tony over fifty.  It’s way passed time to just let it go.  He doesn’t always have to get the last word in.

I am not a fan of all of this whole "Irondad" farse that so many people have fallen for. The few times they've interacted at all, Tony has been either outright dismissive, if he even pays attention to him at all, so for Peter to come back and that hug to take place, not to mention Peter crying while Tony was dying bugged me. We've seen absolutely nothing in the MCU that would support this behavior aside from blatant fan service.

Tony looking over and seeing Strange holding up his finger (not the finger I would have chosen) to indicate this is the one time in 14 million that they stopped Thanos annoyed me.  Not the fact that Tony got the stones for that final snap, but the fact Tony was even able to touch them.  Before anyone comes for me, I’d feel the same way if it had been Steve or Clint or T’Challa or Sam or Bucky or whoever.  One of the things we’ve been shown throughout the MCU was how damn powerful those stones were.  Hell, the Power Stone killed almost everyone that ever touched it, with my understanding being that humans would have been disintegrated on contact.  But someone, Tony Stark, the middle-aged man was able to hold all six Infinity Stones and perform a snap?  I mean, sure, he died in the end, but he shouldn’t have been able to do it at all, especially when we saw how using the Stones nearly killed Thanos, who has been proven to be vastly stronger than so many of them, Tony included.

I also really didn’t like the funeral.  Yes, it was nice to see his friends and family there, but the further back they went, the more I kept questioning “Why?”  Why were all those people there?  The Bartons and the rest of Team Cap and that random kid behind them?  Carol?  Some of those people barely had any interaction with Tony, if at all, and suddenly they’re all there to mourn him?  I don’t know if the whole thing was supposed to be an homage to the fact that an era has ended in the MCU, but the whole scene left something of a sour taste in my mouth.

FINAL OPINION

Anyone who has followed me over the years knows that I don’t really like this character.  It started out with mild dislike, but then just snowballed into outright hatred, so this film, which managed to pull him back even if only a little, helped me remember some of what I originally liked (read: didn’t hate) about the character. 

The whole Tony exiting the MCU thing by having him sacrifice his life just reeked of fanservice and RDJ’s heavy-handed negotiation skills.  It’s been a constant in every movie he’s been in, except Homecoming, that he has to have the big emotional climax.  This film marks the fourth time that Tony has decided to leave superheroing behind, and at this point, it’s just become a gimmick.  Even though this time he is confirmed as dead, I don’t really feel all that bad for the character because of MARVEL’s insistence in putting him in movies where he wasn’t needed and I’m sure they’ll find a way to bring him back somehow for future installments.

This character could have been so great over the course of the MCU, but the writers just stuck with the same tired old tropes and put them on repeat, even up to the big heroic sacrifice in the end, which fell flat to me because he already had more than one of those.  Those being his flying of the nuke into the wormhole back in The Avengers, and then his destruction of all his suits in Iron Man 3.

They tried this so many times already that it lost it’s uniqueness for any of those who are invested in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

[thekoshertribble]

“You’re no mystery to me. I know exactly who you are.” Women of Star Trek Blog Entry #12 “Space Seed” Marla McGivers

*rubs hands excitedly together* Oh boy, we’ve arrived. I’ve been thinking about writing this entry for a while now. This is gonna be a rough one, so buckle up people. This is will be another long post. As you’ve probably figured out by now, I’ll be discussing the main female character in this episode, Marla McGivers.

(content warnings: this entry will discuss abusive relationships both mental and physical in nature. Please proceed with caution.)

Before I crack this episode wide open, I want to relate it to my own life. When I was 15 I was involved in a very unhealthy relationship with an upperclassman at my school. While never becoming abusive, my “boyfriend” regarded me as a possession, and his aggressive tendencies towards others made me constantly afraid of him. I never said “no” to him, in fear of retaliation. This all ended many years ago, but I honestly haven’t been the same since. 

I went to therapy during the relationship and afterwards, and during one of my sessions I showed my therapist this episode.* She immediately understood why I was so drawn to this story. “Khan is [your boyfriend’s name]” she said, “and you’re Marla. I hadn’t realized that before, but she was right. For 10 very painful months, I was Marla.

Marla McGivers may be one of the most tragic characters of the Original Series. Even after it appears she redeems herself at the end of the episode, we learn in “Wrath of Khan” she pays for her mistake with her life years later.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, here. Let’s rewind to the beginning. 

Marla McGivers was a lieutenant on the Enterprise when it came across the Bontany Bay and it’s fateful cargo. She was the ship’s historian, apparently specializing in Earth’s history. We first see her in her quarters, working on a painting of a gladiator. (We don’t often see crewmembers engaged in hobbies, so it’s nice that we get this extra detail about her.) She’s quiet spoken, almost timid. It’s suggested that she doesn’t get much work on the ship, and that not many crewmen know her. When Kirk is talking with Spock and McCoy on the bridge, he says:

KIRK: I'll need somebody familiar with the late 20th-Century Earth. Here's a chance for that historian to do something for a change. What's her name? McIvers? 

So her lack of routine tasks and her timid nature probably makes her a rather forgettable and isolated figure on the Enterprise. (Spock remembers her name, of course, but he’s Spock - he probably has the whole ship’s roster memorized.) But now, she has an opportunity to apply her knowledge on a mission. Marla, Kirk, Scott and McCoy beam over to the Botany Bay. They find it’s full of humans in suspended animation, as Marla explains to the group:

MARLA: I've seen old photographs of this. Necessary because of the time involved in space travel until about the year 2018. It took years just to travel from one planet to another. 

Excuse me, Marla, but it’s November of 2018 and we still don’t have sleeper ships! Where are my goddamn sleeper ships Marla??

*clears throat* Sorry about that. Where was I? Oh, yes. So it finally seems that Marla can apply her knowledge on a mission...aaand then the shit hits the fan. One of the men in suspended animation is hot. And Marla gets, uh, distracted. 

KIRK: Could he be the leader? The leader. Lieutenant?

MARLA: (dragging herself back from just gazing at the man) Yes, sir. The leader was often set to revive first. 

They get the man out of cyro and bring him on the Enterprise to recuperate. Kirk is not exactly happy with Marla, and they have this conversation:

KIRK: If I were to rate your performance as a member of the landing party today I - MARLA: I know, sir. I'm sorry. KIRK: Lieutenant, at any one time, the safety of this entire vessel might depend upon the performance of a single crewman, and the fact that you find a man strangely compelling to you personally - MARLA: Not personally, Captain. Professionally. My profession is historian, and when I find a specimen from the past alive, I'm in the sheer delight of examining his mind. KIRK: And men were more adventuresome then. Bolder, more colorful. MARLA: Yes, sir, I think they were. KIRK: Good. If I can have honesty, it's easier to overlook mistakes. That's all.

It freaks me out that this conversation has not only foreshadowing but double and triple foreshadowing. It not only refers to Marla’s betrayal of the Enterprise, and then saving the Enterprise by betraying Khan, it also can be tied to Spock’s sacrifice in Wrath of Khan. Is your mind blown yet?

Apart from the foreshadowing, it’s an awkward conversation. Marla literally got distracted on her first mission, apparently because the guy they were rescuing was too hot. She tries to wave it off as professional fascination, but Kirk knows it’s not just that, and to her credit, she owns up to it. 

Marla reappears a few scenes later to meet the man they rescued from cryo, some dude who calls himself, “Khan.” She begins to introduce herself but he cuts her off. He already knows who she is. He asks her to “sit and entertain” him, as though she’s only there to amuse him. Determined, Marla sits and begins to question him:

MARLA: I'd like some historical information about your ship, its purpose and

KHAN: And why do you wear your hair in such an uncomplimentary fashion?

MARLA: It's comfortable.

KHAN: But it's not attractive. 

Khan stands, moves Marla to a nearby mirror and just starts pulling the pins out of her hair. “There. Soft. Natural. Simple,” he says, admiring his work as though he were a hairdresser. (If only he were that and not a dictator). Finally, Marla speaks up for herself:

MARLA: Mister Khan, I'm here on business.

KHAN: You find no pleasure here?

MARLA: My interest is scientific. Men of. That is, the world of the past. I'm sure you understand to actually talk to a man of your century - 

KHAN: There. Simple, soft. Please remember.

Marla’s subject is not being cooperative, nor does he seem to understand the concept of personal space. As she turns to leave, he grabs her arm and looks into her eyes:

MARLA: Perhaps some other time, when you feel more like talking about the past.

KHAN: I'm glad you came. Please do it again.

It’s...unsettling to watch this whole exchange. The average viewer might thing she’s starstruck by him, but I see fear in her eyes as well as awe. I think by this time she’s begun to realize just who he is - she can’t confirm it, but her intuition is guiding her. She has admired him and others like him across the safe distance of time, but now, the subject of her fascination is here before her, real and dangerous. This was something she never had to plan for. 

Following this encounter, we learn that Marla suggested inviting Khan to a dinner with the ship’s top officers. Perhaps she did this because she hoped that Kirk could get the answers out of Khan that she couldn’t. I don’t think she made the suggestion simply because she fell head-over-heels for him. It cannot be that simple. Before the dinner, Khan comes to Marla’s quarters, saying he wants her to escort him to dinner. He sees her paintings and compliments her on her technique and her choice of subject. 

The paintings double as a visual cue to the audience. It shows her hobby and her...interest: “old, brave, men of the past,” to borrow Khan’s description. Figures as Napoleon, Leif Ericson, and a gladiator named Flavius. It’s suggested that these men are not simply a “hobby” as Khan asks, teasing Marla. Khan then sees one of a turbaned man hidden under a cloth. He nods and simply reacts, “I am honored.” He holds Marla firmly in his arms, and adds, “but I caution you: such men dare take what they want.” He then kisses her, and we see Marla responding, pulling him deeper into the embrace.

We also see, as Khan indicates with satisfaction, that Marla rearranged her hair in the “natural” way khan had arranged it in sickbay. This and the kiss lead us to conclude that despite Khan’s dominating behavior toward her, Marla still feels some attraction to the 20th century dictator. 

The dinner Marla requested does not go well. Marla sits next to Khan, oddly saying nothing for the whole scene, while Kirk and Spock needle Khan into finally slipping and admitting that he and his fellows on the Botany Bay are in fact the ruthless genetically engineered humans who vanished in the 1990s. Khan is angered enough to leave the dinner early and retire to his quarters, where Marla finds him brooding. Keep and mind that she did not have to talk to him - she seeks him out because she feels the need to apologize for the actions of her superiors. 

MARLA: I wanted to apologize. They had no right to treat you that way.

KHAN: Quite understandable, since I'm something of a mystery to them.

MARLA: You're no mystery to me. I know exactly who you are.

KHAN: Do you? 

MARLA: Leif Ericson, Richard the Lion Heart, Napoleon. 

Marla says this last line with a little “gotcha” smile. Khan’s expression is one of slight surprise (even though he saw his portrait in her quarters earlier.) Then, Khan turns the tables and the fate of the Enterprise will be changed forever. Here is the conversation, with my notes:

MARLA: I don't know if you're going to like living in our time. 

KHAN: Then I'll have to remold it to my liking.

He reaches out to grab her suggestively, but she pushes him away.

MARLA: Please don't.

Angered by her sudden rejection, Khan pushes her away.

KHAN: Go. Or stay. But do it because it is what you wish to do. Well? 

Marla makes her fatal decision. 

MARLA: I'll stay a little longer. 

KHAN: How many minutes do you graciously offer?

MARLA: I only meant -

KHAN: This grows tiresome. You must now ask to stay.

MARLA: I'd like to stay. Please. 

Khan smiles in satisfaction and offers his hand to her. She takes it, and suddenly he is pushing her on her knees before him. She cannot escape his grasp. 

KHAN: Open your heart. Will you open your heart?

MARLA (her voice is small): Yes.

KHAN: I intend to take this ship. Do you agree?

MARLA: Oh, please don't ask me -

KHAN (squeezing harder on her hand) : I need your help.

MARLA: You won't harm anyone? 

KHAN (accusingly): Now you question me?

MARLA (fearfully): No!

KHAN: Will you assist me?

MARLA: Oh, please, Khan, don't ask me -

Khan throws her to the floor.

KHAN: Leave me then. Go, I say.

MARLA (whimpering): No. I promise. I'll do anything you ask.

(Khan smiles with cold-blooded satisfaction down on her as we cut to commercial). 

In a matter of moments, Marla has gone from confident and standing before her fantasy-made-reality to crying quietly at his feet. 

Let me pause the episode narrative for a moment to talk about the overall themes of this episode, since we’ve reached the major turning point. If you’ve seen this episode before, you probably remember the ending in which Khan alludes to Milton’s Paradise Lost, inferring that he is Satan cast into Hell, choosing to rule in Hell rather than serve in Heaven. We can actually expand this literary allusion to the whole episode. Khan of course is Satan, the snake in the garden of Eden, so what does that mean? Say it with me now: Marla is Eve, the Enterprise is Paradise (and Kirk is God, I guess?) Paradise Lost is a retelling of the Fall of Mankind - via the tempting of Eve by Satan - and the promise of Redemption by the sacrifice of Christ. Space Seed, similarly, is the story of Marla’s “corruption” by Khan, resulting in dire consequences for the Enterprise and her crew. And like Milton’s great epic, more than Eve’s repentance will save mankind. A greater sacrifice is required:

Anyway, so Khan and Marla work together to bring over Khan’s people from the Botany Bay, capture the Enterprise bridge and hold the crew hostage. By now, the crew know that Marla is working with Khan. Interestingly, Marla has apparently been given some authority by Khan over his people. We see this when one of Khan’s men begins to hit Lt. Uhura for not cooperating, and Marla loudly orders him to stop.

Marla then stands behind Uhura dominantly. She’s essentially become the “good cop” to Khan’s “bad cop.” 

And then we get to yet another turning point. When Khan threatens to suffocate Kirk in a sickbay decompression chamber to get the bridge crew to cooperate, Marla remembers the words of her dying captain:

Lieutenant, at any one time, the safety of this entire vessel might depend upon the performance of a single crewman.

She turns to Khan, and asks quietly but firmly, “Khan, there’s no reason I must watch this, is there?” This is the most assertive we see Marla. Something has suddenly changed. Khan nods, but remarks that he is disappointed, “I had hoped you would be stronger.” Marla leaves, apparently because she does not want to see her former commanding officer die slowly, and she heads down to sickbay, hides a hypo behind her back, and approaches the guard watching over the decompression chamber: “Khan said to watch him very closely. He may decide to co-operate.” The guard obeys, and as soon as he turns, she stabs the hypo into his neck. She frees Kirk from the decompression chamber, and immediately says: “Captain, I saved your life. Now please don't kill him.” Kirk frees Spock and successfully they regain command of his vessel. Yay! 

But wait...what about Khan and his people? and Marla?? Kirk tells Khan that a nearby uninhabited world is suitable for colonization and that he and his people will live there in exile. Marla, meanwhile is given a choice: court martial or exile with Khan. She chooses the latter. To be fair, it really isn’t much of a choice, between certain imprisonment or uncertain life on a planet. But it’s notable that Marla once again chooses Khan’s side, a choice that Khan admires: “a superior woman. I will take her.”

Sadly, going with Khan does indeed lead to her death by a Ceti Alpha eel some years later, causing Khan to go mad from grief and anger. And we all know what happens next...

Now, I do not mean to sound as though I am “blaming the victim” here. I do not mean to say that Marla got what she deserved or wanted, even though the events of the story revolve around her decisions. As you’ve probably realized, it isn’t that simple. Marla is a complex character - her motivations may seem clear but sometimes they’re clouded. Her behavior goes back and forth between assertive and submissive. Complicating all this is the abusive relationship she has with Khan. From personal experience, I know that when you’re in an unhealthy relationship, you don’t always find yourself standing up for yourself, even when your mind is screaming for you to. People ask you, “why didn’t you just leave?” If it were that simple, I would have left as soon as things went wrong. If it were that simple, Marla would not have apologized to Khan, or helped him take over the Enterprise, or travelled with him to Ceti Alpha V. 

I’m afraid I don’t really have any further insights into this character, so I’m going to end this blog entry here. However, if you have any thoughts on Marla and her motivations in this story, please share them in the comments. Maybe you saw something I missed? And of course, if you enjoyed it, please leave a like or reblog. See you next time, when I discuss: A Taste of Armageddon!

P.S. If you’re in an abusive or unhealthy relationship, please get help. It may feel as though no one knows you’re hurting but keep on reaching out until someone hears you. And please stay safe.

*My therapist had never seen Star Trek, and I wanted to show it to her to explain how it influenced me. We’ve both come to the conclusion that Star Trek very likely saved my life. It basically served as a coping system for a few years.

[the-wonder-duo]

Weekly Update #2

I’m afraid that we may have skipped one or two of these; we’ve been a little busy as of late. However, I wanted to take the time to post an update of all the things that have happened since the last time a weekly update post was made— just to fill in any newcomers on what’s been going on recently, or to refresh any of our other fans on the latest going-ons. 

Without further ado, here’s some of the important things that have happened over the past few weeks: 

The remains of Pro Hero InvisaInk was discovered deep beneath the city in a Quirk shelter. InvisaInk will be greatly missed by his friends and family. He was a beloved Pro Hero and a good man to all who had the fortune to have met him. 

Ground Zero and I, among several other reputable heroes, are currently working with the Hero Police Force to find whoever is responsible for this tragedy and bring them to justice.

At Kiyashi Mall, the #standNOW movement took place not long afterwards, in honor of InvisaInk, to support Generation Now. The event was interrupted by an attack of more than fifty villains; Ground Zero was responsible for apprehending the majority of these criminals. 

The tag #symbolofvictory began to trend on social media as stories of Ground Zero’s fierceness in the midst of combat spread; our publicist saw fit to change Ground Zero’s tagline from “The Explosion Hero” to “The Symbol of Victory.” 

In my opinion, Ground Zero truly has earned this namesake; he’s always shone so brightly, he’s blinding. 

After we returned home from attending InvisaInk’s funeral, I... discovered Kacchan sitting in the shower, bleeding from washing his arms with a stainless steel scrubbing pad. 

He is continuing to undergo professional treatment for this breakdown. 

Maintaining one’s mental health is important for Professional Heroes— maintaining one’s mental health is important for everyone. Please seek help if you’re considering self-harm; there is no shame in seeking professional assistance. One wouldn’t ignore a broken arm; please don’t ignore any mental ailments.

I talked a little about my biggest regret. 

I made Kacchan breakfast for his birthday, and we went hiking together! I gave him my present; I commissioned a pair of hearing aids from our support support items developer. 

Instead of just allowing Kacchan to hear more clearly, there are a few settings that will have Kacchan to have an incredible sense of hearing; he’ll be able to pick up on conversations that are taking place from several meters away. In addition, he’ll be able to render any nearby audio recording devices— reporters snooping and such, he always gets so annoyed with those —useless, and whoever’s listening in would get quite the nasty screech in return. 

In short, the hearing aids allow Zero to “kill with his ears.” 

I brought Zero back to our cabin in the woods, and our friends surprised him with a birthday party! We all spent the night there. 

Kirishima-kun even managed to snap a picture of Kacchan and I, ah, sleeping together. 

I gave Kacchan another massage. To my surprise, he demanded to massage me, instead. 

It felt, ah. Nice. Eventually, I fell asleep. 

A package containing InvisaInk’s heart was sent to Kacchan with the rest of his birthday gifts. 

Kacchan isn’t looking for true love. I am. 

When I found out that Kacchan was sharing personal information with someone else in our private messages, I was a little... upset after they’d taunted me with that information. Kacchan refused to tell me what the conversation had been about after asking me to step in once they’d flirted a little too much with him, and we got into a... squabble of sorts. The fight escalated, and I stormed out of the apartment after some heated words were exchanged. 

Kacchan always causes me to say the most heated things! He’s so infuriating. 

Kacchan also, ah. Apologized. 

And admitted that he’d been talking about his, um. Personal habits. In the shower. In short, he’d been occasionally using his shower time to masturbate. 

Which is perfectly healthy! 

Everyone does it!

Even me!

Oh god. 

I’m going to shut up now. 

Anyways. 

Kacchan found me and actually carried me back to the apartment after throwing me over his shoulder. Which was really quite unnecessary! He even jostled me a bit when I was trying to update you all on what was happening. 

Tumblr user @rivie-arts​ managed to snap a picture of it. 

The internet... went a little crazy with that information.  Our publicist will never forgive us. Our blog has likely been denounced on every parental watch list that exists. 

I was hit with a inhibition-lowering Quirk; I said... quite a few blatant remarks during this time. 

I’m very sorry for this behavior, and I apology to anyone that I may have offended with my unfiltered commentary. 

We consented to attend the Museum of Nature and Science’s Annual Spring Gala (as an apology to our publicist) along with fellow Pro Heroes Creati, Celsius, and Red Riot. We also agreed to interview a set of guests, although our publicist refused to tell us who these guests would actually be. 

No matter what Quirk you may have, or if you may not have a Quirk at all— you matter. 

Ground Zero talked a little about the tumultuous aspects of our shared pasts and discussed why he still calls himself a hero in spite of his behavior back then; I pointed out that even when I thought that Kacchan was a jerk (to be honest, I still think that he is) I still found him to be amazing and inspiring. Now, of course, I think that he’s even more. 

To my surprise, Kacchan cut his hair for the gala; he now sports an undercut. I think that it suits him. 

We attended the gala; Ground Zero danced with Tumblr user @exoticjizz​ while he was there, who goaded him into allowing him to, ah. Grope his butt. In public. 

I, ah. Came to check up on him. And interrupted them a little. 

And decided to dance with him myself. 

A picture was snapped of this, too. 

We left early and went to an arcade together. I won! Since we’d made a deal that the loser would buy the winner a prize at the exchange counter with their tickets later on, Ground Zero bought an All Might toy ring for me. 

We interviewed the guests that our publicist had chosen for us, which turned out to be a group of fans that, ah, “shipped” us, and who had collaborated together to create a fanzine called Mirrors. One of the categories of this fanzine featured “BakuDeku,” which is, as we admittedly know, our ship name. 

Here’s a link to the transcript, which was typed in real time by our publicist. 

No, we don’t know why our publicist chose this particular set of fans to interview. Although it was strange to see, ah, artwork and stories of ourselves like, ah, that, the fans were very nice, and clearly very talented! 

If you’d like to pre-order a copy of the zine, please see this post, which also includes a coupon for a special gift! 

Neither of us have any plans for having children; our jobs and aspirations would not allow us to put that child first, and children deserve to come first. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that either of us will ever have the time needed to devote to a child. 

I like to massage Kacchan, because I want to help Kacchan feel good. He carries so much tension sometimes; I want him to know that the weight of the world doesn’t have to rest solely on his shoulders. I’m currently experimenting with different methods to help Kacchan relax. 

We are continuing to investigate InvisaInk’s death, and have made progress, though we’re not at liberty to discuss the breakthroughs in the case. 

[elcorhamletlive]

fandom: MCU (Post-Thor: Ragnarok) ship: Thor/Bruce Banner, mentions of Steve Rogers/Tony Stark tags: Fluff/Humor/Pining summary: The thing, however, is that Thor does not pine. Pining is for the unworthy, those of frailer bodies and minds. Pining is for Stark and Rogers and their strange, unbearably slow human courtship. Pining is not for the son of Odin, the heir of Asgard, the god of thunder (and not of hammers). Pining is so beneath Thor he could honestly say he doesn’t know what the word means. Because he doesn’t! Really! He gets why it would seem like it, for lesser minds, but there’s just no way he’d ever…

“Thor?” Banner asks, his nice, huge eyes blinking in his direction, clueless and innocent and adorable.

Ok, maybe his friends’ weakness is rubbing off on him a little bit.

It starts out very simple: Banner has nice hands.

Which is, obviously, not a strange thing to notice on a friend. Hands are important in battle, to keep the weapons steady. Thor supposes they’re useful for science stuff, too, which he guesses is not bad either, and that’s where Banner comes in. When he’s working on some weird new research, his fingers pick up the tools very carefully, and Thor can see that they’re long and somewhat elegant. They’re calloused, though, no doubt consequence of all the times they turned green and smashed buildings to pieces. Still, Thor watches, and it kind of just pops on his mind – that, you know, Banner has nice hands. They’re nice to watch, and, before he knows it, Thor’s mind starts wandering, and he thinks they must be nice to touch, too.

That’s when it gets complicated.

Banner has nice eyes.

That comes up when they’re on Earth, Banner talking to Darryl, trying to convince him that there was indeed a purple maniac man who wanted to wipe out half of the universe and they stopped him. Darryl seems to have some trouble wrapping his mind around the idea, and Thor quickly forgets him to watch Banner talking. He has these big, brown eyes. Now that Thor knows what puppies are, he can’t help but see a similarity. But it’s bigger than that. There’s a warmth in Banner’s eyes, something beyond his intelligence and apparent frailty, and it burns right through Thor as he stares, and his mouth goes strangely dry.

That… Is kind of a strange thing to notice in a friend, Thor admits. He doesn’t know why it fascinates him so much, but it does, and he can’t help but notice the way Banner’s eyelashes curl above his eyes, giving the warmth a small touch of delicate beauty. Thor watches carefully, wishes to feel that look on him, and surprises himself thinking it wouldn’t be a big loss if those eyes never turned green again.

Banner has a nice mouth.

This one is a slow process. It starts with a simple curiosity, when Banner licks his lips quickly and nervously after a battle, and Thor can’t help but follow the movement with his eyes. Then, it turns into something slightly more intentional – Thor watches the way his lips curl and press when Banner is trying to hold back a laugh, the way they move when he speaks, the way they chew distractedly into a pen when Banner is working. At some point, Thor lifts his glass to drink and straight up misses the mark of his own mouth because he’s too distracted watching Banner’s, and, yeah, that is as strange as it gets.

“…And he has nice hands.”

“Uh,” Steve frowns. “Okay?”

Thor rolls his eyes, frustrated. Steve is supposed to be the Avenger he can count on to explain the intricacies of human behavior to him, mostly because anything Thor doesn’t know is something Steve just learned recently, too. “I’m calling you in dire need of help here, Rogers, okay? Is that all you’ve got to say to my troubles?”

“It doesn’t really sound as troubling as you seem to think.” Steve says, and there’s a glimpse of a smile on his face. “Frankly, it seems that you’re just pining.”

Thor laughs. Over the years he has found that, while Steve is undoubtedly the paragon of human virtue, he can have an unusual sense of humor. “That’s a good joke, friend, but I was hoping to get some real advice.”

Steve smiles fully this time. “Just be honest about it.”

“What?”

“You know, let him know how you feel. You can start by calling him by his first name, for example. Just, you know, some kind of… Courtship.”

Thor’s eyes widen. “Courtship? I don’t want to court Banner!”

Steve laughs. He is openly mocking Thor now. “It sounds like you do, though. And you’re awfully bad at hiding it.”

“I-What?”

“I’m just saying.” Steve shrugs, and Thor curses the fact that humans haven’t figured out a way to punch someone over video calls yet. “You can try spending more time with him, too. You can come to his lab…”

“And what? Create a war that drives apart all of our friends and makes us stop talking to each other until an insane Titan threatens to destroy everything we’ve ever known?”

There’s a moment of silence.

The paragon of human virtue flips Thor off and hangs up on him.

Thor is aware that that was not his finest moment. He sends out a raven with an apology, but gets no answer. Still, he can’t get those words out of his head.

The thing is, however, that Thor does not pine. Pining is for the unworthy, those of frailer bodies and minds. Pining is for Stark and Rogers and their strange, unbearably slow human courtship. Pining is not for the son of Odin, the heir of Asgard, the god of thunder (and not of hammers). Pining is so beyond Thor he could honestly say he doesn’t know what the word means. Because he doesn’t! Really! He gets why it would seem like it, for lesser minds, but there’s just no way he’d ever…

“Thor?” Banner asks, his nice, huge eyes blinking in his direction, clueless and innocent and adorable.

Ok, maybe his friends’ weakness is rubbing off on him a little bit.

“Uh, yes? What is it?” Thor asks back, suddenly forgetting where he usually puts his hands.

“I asked which movie you want to see tonight.”

Thor frowns. “Tonight is your night to choose.”

Banner grins a little, shyly, and Thor pretends he doesn’t suddenly feel warm inside. “Uh, yeah, it would be, but you and Darryl got really upset with The Cove last week.”

Thor shudders at the memory.

“Yeah, I get it, really.” Banner continues. “But I’m researching the life and preservation of marine species now, and the only other movie I can think of is Blackfish, which is, like, even worse. Uh, not from a movie perspective, I think, I hear it’s really great, but-“

“We’ll watch it.” Thor interrupts. “It’s your turn to choose, Bruce, so it’s only fair me and Darryl respect your choice, regardless of our feelings about the works displayed.”

Ban-Bruce’s eyes widen. “Well, ok, I guess.” He says, and he smiles – he’s got a strange, dorky smile, Thor notices. A nice smile.

Darryl passed on movie night, refusing to entertain what he called “Bruce’s masochist taste for documentaries”. Now, watching what can only be described as ninety minutes of the cruelest and ugliest side of humanity, Thor kind of gets his point.

Bruce is sitting right next to him on the couch, though, and he seems completely wrapped by the story. Thor tries to enjoy the movie, but the moment he hears the cry of the mother whale mourning her son, he feels tears welling up in his eyes.

“Thor?” Bruce asks. “Are you ok?”

It’s not shameful for a warrior to cry, Thor knows, but, if this is indeed a courtship, it wouldn’t be advisable, at least not by Asgardian standards. The initial part of courting someone involves impressing them through charming talk, often accompanied by boasting of your most badass feats in a recent battle. It most certainly does not involves weeping over baby whales at 1 a.m.

“I’m fine.” He says, dabbing his eyes slightly, doing his best to hold the tears back, but the mother whale cries again, and, Balder, how can humans call this entertainment? “I just… Just…”

“Oh, Thor.” Bruce says, and Thor wants to think the fondness in his voice is not his own imagination. He doesn’t get time to think about it, though, because, the next minute, Bruce is curling up next to him, hesitantly offering Thor his blanket and patting his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, buddy. I know it’s hard to watch.”

The use of the word “buddy’ makes Thor frown a little - because, no, definitely not how a courtship should work – but Bruce widens his eyes and takes his hand off his shoulder immediately, and Thor grabs his wrist nervously, attempting to reassure him. “No, no, I… I enjoy the comfort.” He says, lamely, but apparently, it’s enough to soothe Bruce, who, slowly but certainly, passes an arm over Thor’s shoulders, pulling him into a hug.

It’s… Slightly uncomfortable, Thor has to admit, because there’s no way of denying him being held by Bruce is not the most physically logical arrangement for either of them. He curls up in the couch, trying not to lay his full weight on Bruce’s chest, but the sound of Bruce’s heartbeat and the feel of his hands making soothing circles on Thor’s back is almost enough to make him forget it.

“There’s, uh… Laws against this type of thing now.” Bruce says, and there’s a pink streak on his cheeks, which, in Thor’s opinion, only compliments the warmth of his eyes. “It’s an ongoing battle, but captivity is becoming rarer by the day, thankfully. And this movie was a big deal when it came out, it really helped…”

Thor feels his eyes getting heavy at Bruce’s words, focusing on the sound of his voice and heartbeat. He dozes off in a few moments, and, fine, that’s not how any courtship is supposed to go, ever, but he doesn’t really mind it.

The next day, Darryl seems extra nervous during breakfast. Darryl is always nervous, Thor thinks, and especially in the mornings, right before he leaves to go to that weird typing chamber he calls a job, but today he taps the table with his fingers in an almost distracting manner.

“Is something troubling you, my friend?” Thor asks, genuinely concerned.

Darryl sighs. He does this a lot when talking to Thor.

“Thor,” He says, slowly, massaging his temples. That’s also something he does a lot. “You know I like Bruce, right?”

Thor raises his eyebrows. “What?”

“I mean, I like Bruce, he’s a nice guy to have around. He’s probably the friendliest of your, uh… Coworkers.” Darryl makes a face, and, ok, Thor has to admit maybe leading the introduction of his team with Valkyrie and Loki was not a good idea. “But, you know, there’s a certain degree of privacy people need to have, even between roommates. And I know, yesterday was just movie night, no big deal, you guys were actually cute when I woke up, but I just… Uh… Wanted to make sure you know, like, your room has a lock for a reason.”

Thor feels his face heating. “Are you suggesting-“

“I’m just saying, man, you’re kind of… Out there with your habits sometimes. And with Bruce, again, I like him, I’m happy for both of you, but I really don’t want to risk walking in on the two of you… Uh…”

“Darryl!” Thor exclaims. “Do you think me and Bruce are going to… On your couch?”

“That’s kind of what I was hoping to avoid, yeah.”

Thor thinks of saying something, but he kind of can’t, because now his head is filled with images of him and Bruce tangled around each other in the couch, Bruce’s nice hands on Thor’s naked chest, his nice mouth on Thor’s neck and…

Thor stands up, immediately, knowing he needs to either spar almost to death with Valkyrie or take a long, cold shower to get rid of the rush on his chest. Before he goes, though, he turns to Darryl, resting his hand quickly on his shoulder.

“Thank you for your advice, friend. I will think about it.”

He turns around and leaves.

“Uh, advice? Thor, you know that that wasn’t, like, an idea, right? That was, like, the opposite of an idea. I’m not trying to… Thor? Thor?!”

Thor spends the next two weeks looking for the perfect moment. Ideally, on an Asgardian courtship, that would be right after a battle, with the taste of victory and glory on both of their mouths as they delighted in each other’s bodies. But at this point he’s already accepted that human courtships are different, and, honestly, after a battle the only thing Bruce wants to delight in is a cup of tea. Maybe the Hulk would be down for it, but Thor doesn’t want to court him.

(Well… Ok, he hasn’t given the idea much thought yet, but still. He at least doesn’t want to court him without Bruce’s permission.)

So, unable to follow what would be his usual plan of action, Thor feels… A bit lost, honestly. He keeps having impulses of leaning forward and kissing Bruce, sometimes during truly random, inappropriate moments - Loki has kept true to his word about not trying to kill him again, but Thor suspects that would change if their team lost the weekly charades competition because Thor couldn’t stop thinking about Bruce’s lips.

Plus, Thor doesn’t know if just kissing him is the right idea. Bruce is a man of words, Thor knows, and he guesses he would enjoy a proper declaration, but Thor doesn’t even know how to start something like that. He tries to write something down, but the best thing he can come up with is a poor copy of a phrase of the beautiful book about the notebooks Darryl likes so much, and it doesn’t fit, honestly – Thor is not a common man and there are tons of monuments dedicated to him, after all.

It all comes down to the day when, in the middle of breakfast, a raven lands on the window, scratching the glass with its paws until Thor lets it in. A more careful examination reveals to Thor that it’s a red, mechanical bird. It doesn’t stay long, though, just dropping a letter on Thor’s hands before flying away.

“Oh, you got your invitation!” Bruce says, excited. He’s drinking a glass of warm chocolate, and Thor does his best not to think about how his mouth might taste right now.

“My invitation…?” Thor opens the envelope, admiring the elegant, seemingly handwritten letter, before starting to read: You are cordially invited to celebrate the wedding of Steven Grant Rogers and Anthony Edward Stark.

On the other side of the envelope, there’s just "SUCK IT, ASSHOLE" written in huge, black letters.

Thor drops his glass on the floor. “Rogers and Stark are together?”

“I know, right?” Bruce says, with that small, dorky laugh that makes Thor want to end the universe in a thunderstorm. “I mean, they’ve been circling each other for so long now, I guess they can afford to skip a few steps. Took the world almost ending and all, but it’s great, isn’t it?”

There’s a noble part of Thor’s mind that agrees completely, feeling glad for his friends and their mutual happiness.

There’s a not-so-noble part of Thor’s mind that can only think he just got beaten on the “doing something about your feelings” race by Rogers andStark, which is the equivalent of being beaten in a regular race by a legless turtle with a severe anxiety disorder. And, wow, that stings.

“We should get married.” Thor hears himself saying, and Bruce gapes at him while lowering his mug on the table.

“We-what?”

“Ok, no, scratch that. But we should… Get… Together. In some way.” Thor babbles, watching Bruce’s blinking eyes. He feels that same warmth he’s been feeling for weeks on his chest, and, fine, part of him wishes Hela would knock on the front door right now just so he can have an excuse to run from this conversation, but he knows he needs to say it. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“Oh.” Bruce says. “Oh. …Wow.” He continues, and Thor curses the fact that he never really attempted to learn all the possible meanings of human onomatopoeias. “Are you serious?” Bruce asks, his cheeks flushing slightly, his eyes sparkling with something Thor wants to believe is happiness, but he can’t be sure.

“Like a heart attack.” Thor says, and he hopes he got the expression right, because the look on Bruce’s face is hard to read. “I have been wondering the… The best way to, hm, court you. Or, or flirt with you, I’m not sure which expression fits best, really, I’m working with Rogers’ advice here and I think we can both agree that isn’t really the best-“

Bruce cuts him off with a kiss – a soft, chaste kiss that makes Thor’s heart flutter. He pulls back after a moment, licking his lips nervously, barely containing a giggle. “I… I have been thinking about you too.” He says, and his hands are warm, calloused, and perfect, touching Thor’s face. “I don’t think I thought about courting, though? But I, I guess I wouldn’t mind calling it this way.” He grins. “If you want to.”

Thor smiles so hard his cheeks hurt. “I want to.”

Bruce beams at him, and Thor leans forward to kiss him again, longer and deeper, while steering both of them out of the kitchen and into the living room. He pulls back for a moment to take Bruce’s hand, sitting on the couch and pulling him into his lap.

“Oh, that’s, that’s a good idea.” Bruce says, between kisses, his voice low and shaky in a way that sends a shiver down Thor’s spine. He smiles lazily, more peaceful and happy than Thor has even seen him before. “A lot more comfortable than the kitchen.” He mutters, his breath warm against Thor’s neck, and, wow. Thor really needs to thank Darryl later.

[internationalhouseofblupjeans]

An Eighth Bird, Born Out of the Storm - Chapter 12

Based loosely on the Luume'irma headcanon from @interstellarvagabond

Lup and Taako get their decennial “visitor” just before the fateful trip on the Starblaster. Taako holes up in his room, meditating away the discomfort while Lup discovers a partner for the week. Unforeseen consequences arise. Bonds are created. An eighth bird rises.

Eighth Bird AU.

The crew reacts to Lup and Barry's decision. Plans are made. Lup and Barry make a connection

Next chapter will be on Faerun! Enjoy this little respite of fluff because next one will be a little ... less fluffy.

Thank you to Calcu from the writer’s chat for Beta'ing!!

Also on AO3 (link in the source)

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9  Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 below Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22

Elven behavior can become erratic the closer an elf is to giving birth. Unlike most races, elves will become anxious and long to travel away from their home. Usage of calming spells from clerics will help with this, however it is important to observe an elf during the last stage of pregnancy as they will try to hide their symptoms.

Elves will often die in childbirth due to succumbing to the instinctual desire to hide.

   - What to Expect When You’re an Expectant Elf

“Um … What the fuck?” Magnus asked.

Lup and Barry looked away from the rest of the crew.

“Um … Well, we found a way to get around the whole , ‘Can’t lose the whole crew in a cycle thing’,” Barry started.

“By becoming liches?” Merle asked. “You don’t think there was a better way of doing this?”

“The year with the Judges it … It scared us,” Lup started. “We can’t afford for anything like that to happen again! And it worked! We’re still here and we’re still us!”

“Lup …” Lucretia started. “What about your child?”

“Barry and I … we figured out how to only affect the soul. Our bodies should return to their recorded states every cycle … everything should return … Everything had to stay the same. If I lost a limb or Barry got stabbed, then it would have to be fixed by the time the cycle resets, right? It’s no different here! We just added a few extra runes and components to make sure!”

Davenport had been silent, something that was worrying to everyone in the room. He looked up at Lup and Barry and sighed.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” he finally asked.

“We … We needed to do this. We didn’t want to be persuaded not to,” Lup sighed. “And … I know we should have said something but we knew .. We knew that there was no way anyone except for Taako would be alright with this …”

“Of course,” he sighed. “Just … We’re a crew, right? We’ve been together for eighty-three years … We should be able to trust each other.”

Lup and Barry looked away.

“We should. It’s just … some habits are hard to break,” Lup whispered.

“Well, you do seem stable,” Davenport sighed. “Just … please … next time you decide to do something that might affect the crew and our bonds, please ask. Please tell us … Even if you’re going to do it anyway.”

They looked back up and around the room. Taako shrugged, Magnus looked confused, Lucretia was writing and Merle …

“Well, I need to check and see how well you two supposedly did,” the dwarf sighed, motioning for Lup to follow him.

“Do you want me to come with?” Barry asked.

Merle shrugged.

“Whatever. If it failed, then I guess you can see why you don’t do this shit.”

~

Taako sat outside the sick bay, Lucretia sitting on the floor across the hallway.

“So … They’ve been in there a while,” Taako sighed. “How much do you want to bet they fucked something up?”

Lucretia didn’t answer. She just stared between her journal and Lup and Barry’s notes.

“I … Hmm … Well, knowing them, they probably figured something out. Most of their spell theories have been flawless and airtight,” she started. “Looking at their notes, I can’t find anything wrong - about any of this. Granted, they have a couple decades on me,” she blushed.

“Yeah, I keep forgetting you humans are actually so young,” Taako laughed.

“Yeah …”

“Hey, not a dig on you guys! I just forget,” Taako laughed. “I guess that was one bit of good that’s come out of this whole thing. Lup isn’t going to be losing Barry any time soon,” he sighed.

Lucretia nodded and then started working on her journal some more. They sat in silence until Lup came out of the room.

“Well, our kid made it through the jump,” she smiled. “Barry’s getting read the riot act in there, however. For some reason, Merle thinks this was his fault. Something about Barry’s Year 9 research paper or something. I had no clue Merle was his counselor.”

Taako laughed, nervously.

“So … You don’t feel any different?”

“Nah,” Lup smiled. “Just same ol’ Lup.”

Lucretia continued to scribble in her journal.

“Come on, Koko, let’s go get dinner started. Barry will join us eventually!”

Taako followed Lup, looking back at Lucretia who was staring at her journal with a furrowed brow.

~

The rest of the crew was away, so Lup and Barry were able to rest on the couch, curled up together.

They talked about a world where they could live in a home, big enough for their entire family. They couldn’t imagine not living with the rest of the crew after all these years.

They talked about a yard, a dog for Magnus, a giant kitchen.

A greenhouse where Merle could be weird, away from everyone else.

Most of all, they talked about their child. Their child who Barry would be able to watch grow up.

Their child who still would not come. Not this year.

This year, they had yet to find the light.

And they were going to eventually lose a crew member to parley.

“Since this won’t be the year and I haven’t been as sick, think that I can go with you on the next survey?” Lup asked, her fingers intertwined with Barry’s.

“I don’t see why not,” Barry kissed into Lup’s forehead. “I miss having you on surveys with me.”

“I miss it too.”

They sat in silence for a moment before Barry pulled Lup even closer.

“I was thinking of going to the south to look tomorrow,” Barry started. “Maybe there will be someone down there who we can talk to about the light.”

Lup mused aloud, “Taako had said there wasn’t anyone to the north. I wonder if we got another uninhabited plane.”

“Maybe …”

“We could probably sneak off somewhere here and no one would know.”

“Or it would echo through the whole plane,” Barry chuckled. “Like during the day you planned for me,” he teased.

“You liked it and you know it,” Lup teased back, playfully nibbling Barry’s neck.

Barry laughed before Lup pulled him down with her on the couch. Their eyes met and Lup smiled before reaching up to kiss Barry.

“Ugh, get off my sister, Barold!” Taako’s voice complained from the doorway. “If you’re going to do that, at least take it to your room! Gross!”

“Hey, I don’t judge you and Magnus! At least we’ve admitted everything,” Lup laughed, sticking her tongue out.

Taako huffed and walked away, flipping Lup off as he left. Lup and Barry laughed harder before returning to each other.

“Maybe we should take this to the other room,” Barry smiled.

“Or, we could see if we can get back at Merle for that time we walked in on him and the honeysuckle.”

Barry laughed.

“Gods, I love you, Lup.”

“I love you too,” she smiled, reaching up and pulling him down for another kiss.

~

Memories are strange things.

Sometimes, memories are formed from vivid experiences. From traumas and pain or pleasure and joy.

Sometimes, memories are formed in words. Some are formed in silence.

Sometimes, you don’t even know the memory could have formed. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

Sometimes, memories are formed with a song whispered from a distance.

~

She hovered over her body. The body was mangled, having hit several branches on the way down to the ground.

That was a stupid way to die.

She sighed and floated over to Barry. He hovered over his own body.

“Well … I guess there’s a reason no one has said anything about the south,” Barry sighed. “I can’t believe our bodies fell that far.”

“Yeah …” Lup sighed. “I guess let’s head back to the ship? I doubt we’re going to find the Light down here.”

“Yeah …”

They floated towards the ship in companionable silence. Barry looked over at Lup, marvelling in how beautiful even her lich form was. There was an odd ethereal beauty about her, even more than usual. He supposed it was because he was looking at her very soul now.

Lup seemed to feel the smile that Barry tried to form in his spectral body. She turned to look at him and Barry could have sworn she glowed.

“The only thing that’s going to suck is that we don’t have physical bodies for the rest of the year,” she laughed.

Barry reached out a spectral hand. Lup looked down for a moment.

They hadn’t tried this. They hadn’t tried to touch yet, having just now experienced being solely spectral forms together. They weren’t even sure if they could.

Lup reach a hand out to his.

Somehow, Barry felt just as alive as he always had, if not more. Their souls seemed to meld where they touched, a tingle reaching through both liches. Barry looked at Lup.

“Well … this won’t be as difficult after all, huh?”

“Yeah,” he heard her smile. “Barry, I’m so … happy. If you had asked me eighty-three years ago if … If this would have ever happened … If someone as wonderful as you were to love me, I - I wouldn’t believe it. I feel like I must have done something right …”

“Lup …” Barry whispered. “I think I’m the one who got lucky. Before the IPRE - before you - I was … I was aimless. Lup, I was so aimless that I studied up on every class! It’s why I’m not as powerful of a wizard!” Lup giggled at that. “I studied fighting, sorcery, bardic arts … I even trained in being a rogue but thieves’ cant was a mess … I just, I didn’t know who I was or who I wanted to be but now … Now I know. I want to be there for you, no matter which world we’re on. No matter which plane. Dead or alive … I … I don’t ever want to know a day without you.”

They embraced, their souls intertwining and weaving together. It was a new experience, a new sensation as they felt their very essence joining together. For a while, there was no way to know where Lup ended and Barry began. They were truly one, just feeling each other’s emotions, each other’s souls. Any fears they had once had melted away. They were together. They were there for each other. They would always be a part of one another. Never truly alone.

If anyone had looked towards the south, they would have seen the pair of red cloaked lights swirling around each other, combining, dancing … Two beings of pure love and arcana energizing each other. It was freeing, more than either of them had expected it to be. Suddenly, giving into the thrall of being a lich made sense. To have this much power, it was addicting.

But they were each other’s anchors and they were able to still keep each other grounded. Yes, they had this near-unlimited power, but it was so that they would be together. So that their found family could be together. Could be safe.

So that every planar system could be safe.

Looking into each other’s souls, feeling each other’s souls, Lup and Barry found themselves falling deeper in love with each other. They weren’t just seeing each other’s bodies. Each other’s physical forms. The shallow trappings of flesh.

They could see each other as they truly were.

They would eventually make their way back to the Starblaster but for now, they could be content to just be alone together.

[squirenonny]

Clone Shiro Theory in Season 5

Okay, so this mess was inspired by talking with several people on Tumblr and discord about the Clone Shiro Theory in the wake of Season 5, as well as seeing posts in the fandom tags. And...I’ve noticed some common themes in arguments against this theory.

Please note that this is not meant to be a direct rebuttal to anyone, more... working out for myself why I’m so convinced that Shiro is a clone because I’ve got all these nebulous thoughts running around in my head and I need to organize them somehow. So feel free to read, respond, reblog, ect, but also feel free to ignore this completely if Clone Shiro isn’t your thing.

Season 5 spoilers and a very long post under the cut.

I’m going to break this down into three parts:

I. Why a clone and not something else (mind control, magical spyware, ect)

II. Why I won’t accept anything but clones at this point without crying foul

III. Clone Shiro vs Galra Keith

I. Why a clone?

I think at this point there’s no way to deny that something happened to Shiro in Operation Kuron. We’ve seen Haggar spying through him, the headaches are a recurring theme, and his behavior has changed to the point that he’s going behind his team’s back and lashing out at the team in ways he hasn’t before.

With most of the proof, you can make several arguments. Haggar’s mind-controlling him directly, but he still is Shiro. Haggar’s spyware is giving him headaches that’s making him more testy than usual, but he’s still acting under his own free will. Ect. But I think there is enough evidence to give the clone theory specifically an edge over other explanations.

Shiro’s hair grew roughly a foot during his captivity between seasons 2 and 3. There’s no clear answer on how long this was, but it seems like a fairly short time period. At the start of the season, Keith is still raw over Shiro’s disappearance, and though they’ve done a few missions without Shiro, they haven’t run up against anything that required Voltron. Which... considering how often they form Voltron both before and after this period, suggest to me that we’re talking a time frame of weeks at the longest. Then episodes 1-3 happen in pretty quick succession, with the lion switch and Keith immediately charging off, almost out of spite. We pick up with Shiro a day or two before episode 3 (which is where Shiro finds Voltron and then loses them.) He spends another week chasing them before Keith and Black find him. All told, this is probably in the realm of one month since his disappearance, maybe two. For reference, human hair grows on average half an inch per month. Shiro is shown to have significantly more hair growth in this time frame than anyone else gets in the entire series--even people who have been prisoners for extended amounts of time. Matt and Sam each get maybe a few inches, and Shiro’s hair was kept short during his stint in the Arena. This tells me that Shiro’s hair growth for The Journey is not an artist’s exaggeration to show that he’s had it rough. If it is, then it’s sloppy, and the animators on this show are typically pretty attentive to detail. If this is intentional, I can only conclude that Shiro has been in captivity for far longer than the timeline allows and/or the clone was grown in a short time and the accelerated growth also affected his hair.

Calling attention to the difference between Shiro(s1-2) and Shiro(s3+). These, I’ll admit, are more suspicious than damning, but they’re worth mentioning. The animators made a deliberate decision to give Shiro a new look after his return. We’ve seen people in different outfits, and Allura has a few different hairstyles (up, down, mice poofs), but no one has changed their “default” outfit like Shiro has, only their armor or other special outfits (pajamas, swimsuits, ect), and no one has gotten a new haircut, except Pidge (in backstory, as a plot point) and Sam and Matt (compare to Shiro on the Kerberos mission vs post-escape in s1.) They want you to be able to tell the difference between Shiro 1 and Shiro 2. At the same time, they call attention to this change by having Shiro comment about his “weird headache.” The writers also made a point of having the Galra refer to Shiro differently in the context of Operation Kuron (Subject Y0XT39 vs Prisoner 117-9875.) From a writing standpoint, this is a strange choice--not necessarily significant, but likely so because both designations are mentioned in passing and without context, so tossing both out there without reason is more confusing than world-building. And in-universe, it tells us that the people in charge of Operation Kuron couldn’t or didn’t want to refer to prisoners by their already-assigned number. Possibly this is for internal organization--i.e. if not all subjects were prisoners or if they had completely random prisoner numbers. But if it is clones, they would need new ways to identify them, since they’d all have the same prisoner ID. Again, not proof, but suspicious.

Shiro appeared in the Voltron bond. And it seems as though the Shiro with the team didn’t. Not just his head is fuzzy about it. He wasn’t there. Did you notice how Shiro-in-the-bond was translucent, only seen from a distance, and almost completely lacking in detail in the head area? Maybe to obscure the fact that he has his old haircut (both from us and from Lance)? Did you notice that he didn’t appear with everyone else, and how desperate he was to communicate with his team? There are two Shiros. The only question is whether the distinction is physical (clones) or mental (mind control with the real Shiro’s mind completely suppressed by Haggar’s persona)

Following up on this point, Shiro himself is questioning things. If this was a case of mind control, of Haggar taking over Shiro’s body, there is no way she would allow her puppet to question his own identity. If she has direct control, she certainly wouldn’t mention it to Lance, and if the real Shiro is still in there waiting to take his body back, she absolutely would put safeguards in to make sure her controlled personality stays in place.

And of course, the single biggest argument in favor of Clone Shiro: Operation Kuron = literally, “Operation Clone.” This can’t be a coincidence. It can’t. With everyone working on the show (how many of whom are anime fans and have at least a rudimentary familiarity with Japanese pronunciation?), and with Lauren Montgomery having talked about how Laith is a much better ship name for Keith and Lance, because Laith means Lion, I do not believe that they accidentally chose a name for this major plot point that means “clone” in Japanese (which is either Shiro’s native language or at least connected to his heritage.) I also don’t believe that it was chosen as a red herring to make us think this is all about clones when it really isn’t, because the target audience (which is, what 8-12 year olds?) will not pick up on that hint. It fails as a distraction for the core demographic, which makes me think it’s far more likely that it was meant as an easter egg and the writers didn’t necessarily intend for people to pick up on it. It’s like... This post about English name symbolism in FMA. It’s a clever nod to character traits for people who are in the know, but then you give that same name to an English speaker and it’s almost laughably on the nose. For people who don’t speak Japanese (most of Voltron’s audience) and don’t have social media to point it out (unfortunately, comparatively little of the fanbase), “Operation Kuron” is a subtle nod. In a novel, where people likely won’t engage with the fandom until they’re finished, it would work. Hell, for people not actively engaged in fandom, it works. The problem is that we’ve had months upon months and the power of the internet, so now everyone knows that JK Rowling named her werewolf Wolfy McWolfenstein the Galra named their secret clone project Project Clone. That isn’t bad writing. It’s perfectly fine writing tossed to the wolves of a global fandom that loves to theorize.

(Also, I was curious, so I checked, and “Operation Kuron” is called the same thing in the Japanese dub, so lol if it’s not clones, Dreamworks is going to have some explaining to do.)

II. Why having the answer be “Not Clones” at this point would be bad writing

Okay, see, this is way more subjective than part I, which was already pretty subjective. But here’s the thing. Dreamworks has set up Clone Shiro, almost blatantly so. I can forgive the fact that this twist is obvious to the Tumblr fandom, at least, because (a) the show is for kids, so the foreshadowing has to be a little bit more obvious, and (b) you cannot judge subtlety based on thousands of people working together to figure things out. Most of the fandom figured out Galra Keith before season 2 dropped. Some people hated it, but then, some people were incredibly resistant to the Clone Shiro Theory--still are. It feels like everyone and their grandmother figured these twists out way in advance, but if you took away the part where we all screamed about it and laid out our arguments? If you somehow reached out to the viewers who aren’t involved in fandom? I’ll bet you good money that a lot fewer of them have picked up on the hints. (And if they have, they aren’t nearly as certain about it.)

But if we get to season 6 and suddenly find out Shiro has been Shiro all along, just with magic in his head letting Haggar watch him? I’m going to be disappointed, because that resolution is almost guaranteed to leave plot holes. How did Shiro get recaptured/how did he disappear from the Black Lion in the first place? Why did his hair grow so fast? What’s with the change in behavior (I’m not talking about the snappishness and arguing with Keith and Lance, I’m talking about directly undermining the very teamwork he’s been the single biggest proponent of from the start by going behind the team’s back again and again)? Why didn’t Black accept him at first? Why did he have to prove himself to her again, after they’d been more closely bonded than anyone? Why was the project named Operation Kuron? Why did Shiro see another, hollow-looking, him on the exam table in that flashback? Why hasn’t he used the bayard yet?

The show might explicitly answer some of these, but I think we all know by now that it won’t slow the pace long enough to explain all of them. The clone theory explains or implies answers to almost all of these (especially if you couple it with “the original Shiro is stuck in the astral plane” or some such.)

So, no. Clone Shiro isn’t a twist at this point. Maybe it’s just me, because I’m usually pretty good at picking up on foreshadowing and figure out most twists ahead of time, especially if I’m given time to ruminate. But I’m fine with not having big, shocking reveals. Something doesn’t have to be a surprise to be interesting. I don’t have to feel like I was clever for figuring it out. I can’t wait for season 6 because I’m desperate to know that both my sons (Shiro and Ryou) are going to be okay--because I think, at least, that the Shiro with the team right now is not being set up as a villain. He may become a martyr, but he’s meant to be sympathetic, regardless of where he came from.

In the end, I don’t mind that the Clone Shiro Theory seems obvious, because the foreshadowing is aimed at kids and the adult fandom is bound to pick up on those hints faster. And clones explain everything so well that I honestly don’t think any other answer would make for a satisfying conclusion to the Kuron arc.

III. Clone Shiro vs Galra Keith

Okay, now this is interesting, because these are the two main theories that the fandom swarmed. One turned out to be true, and I honestly think the other will be proven right in June.

Also interesting is that, in terms of episode count, they both are paced about the same. It’s just that the Galra Keith plot happened over the course of 1.5 full seasons, while the Operation Kuron plot is going on 3.5 half seasons. Same number of episodes, but more spread out and with more breaks in between. Galra Keith was dropped into a single seven-month gap with a growing fandom and then confirmed immediately with the next batch of episodes. Operation Kuron was introduced in August, fans jumped on it, season 4 dropped, the fandom was split on it (because, admittedly, s4 didn’t add anything to the argument that couldn’t be explained by trauma and/or mounting pressure on Shiro), fans wrote a shitton of Ryou hcs/fic and drew a lot of Ryou art, season 5 dropped, with major new developments but no confirmation, and now we’ve got another break. At the earliest, it will be confirmed or debunked in June, a full ten months after it was first hinted, and with three season breaks for people to theorize, create fanworks, and otherwise dig into Camp Clone.

Can you imagine if the first two seasons had been done like that? (Note: I know I’m fudging the midpoint of season 1 a little bit, but bear with me here. I want to do a thought experiment.)

Season 1: We get hints of Keith’s knife and the major red flag of Keith opening doors that have been implied to be species-locked, so Hunk has to use a Galra arm to get past one door in the same episode Keith uses Galra tech with no problems. There’s also the word of god that says Keith is an orphan, so speculation runs wild. The fandom is split, with a small but vocal group on Team Galra, a vocal opposition, and a whole bunch of people on Team “Can’t we just wait and see what the writers have in mind, guys? We don’t have to fight!”

Season “2″: Little movement on Galra Keith Theory specifically, and both sides have arguments for what little we do get. Are those purple patches the effect of Galra heritage or is that supposed to tell us Quintessence does freaky things? Does Zarkon’s, “You fight like a Galra soldier,” mean anything (and is there a comma there/does that change the meaning? I can only imagine the comma drama if that had been one of the only new points for debate after three months.) The only major development is explicit confirmation of the species lock on Galra tech. All this is exacerbated by growing concerns in the autistic fanbase who worry that Team Galra Keith is starting to twist the legitimate autistic traits to support their own theory. (Believe me, I was there, and I was scared of Galra Keith for a good long while because of this.) The debate starts to turn bitter.

Season “3″: Ulaz shows up, we see Keith’s knife, we have Keith worrying that Zarkon “imprinted” on him, and though nothing comes of that, it still says something that the writers are even willing to acknowledge the theory. The season ends with no clear answer, but by now most of the fandom is on Team Galra. There’s been fic. There’s been art. There are headcanons and metas galore. The evidence is all laid out, and there’s really no denying it at this point. Some people are angry about it, and lots of people are hoping for Altean Keith or something, just because it would still be a surprise.

Season “4″: The Galra Keith reveal happens in episode one or two, and literally no one is shocked. Some people are angry, everyone is pissed that there wasn’t more fallout after four seasons of buildup. But we all knew it was coming.

Think, in contrast, how the Clone Shiro Theory might have gone if we hadn’t switched to half seasons. (In a hypothetical world where the theory is true, and it’s getting revealed next season.)

Season 3 now covers everything through Naxzela. Operation Kuron is huge in fandom discussion, but it’s partially overshadowed by everything else that happened--Keith joining the Blade, Lotor’s offer of talks, Keith’s near sacrifice, Matt’s return... Fewer people are as adamant about the clone theory because we’ve already seen Shiro back in the Black Lion and fighting alongside the team. There are lingering doubts, and people still lay out all their arguments, but it’s less splitting hairs and more the broad range we saw with Galra Keith, from adamant arguments on either side to a broad, casual fanbase in the middle who doesn’t know if it’s gonna happen and honestly couldn’t care less but sure as hell likes to play around with the idea. Like with Galra Keith, there is some evidence that’s either straight-up confirmation or lazy writing (Keith opening doors vs kuron meaning clone) but for the most part people are still uncertain.

Season “4″ drops and hits us all hard with new evidence. People are getting behind the Clone Shiro Theory in earnest now, but somewhere near the end of the season it’s confirmed, forestalling another round of theorizing. Lots of people are caught off-guard, lots of people are edge-of-their-seats “Holy crap, is that actually true??” The major, irrefutable pieces of evidence (Ulaz, Keith’s knife, his nightmares vs Shiro lying to the team, Haggar’s spying, Shiro calling out to Lance in the bond) are immediately followed up by confirmation.

Can you see how the spacing of the episodes drastically changes the perception of the theory? In all honesty, Galra Keith and Clone Shiro feel extraordinarily similar in terms of pacing, evidence, and alternate explanations--it’s just that Keith’s story happened much quicker, in fandom time. I can’t fault the writers for that. I just think half seasons were a bad idea, especially when the show was clearly written with full seasons in mind.

TL;DR Version:

There’s enough evidence that specifically points to clones that I’m 99% convinced that Shiro is a clone at this point. That last 1% is reserved for skepticism because, while I don’t believe the writers could provide me with a different explanation that fits as well as clones, they might try in the name of pulling one over on the viewers.

Galra Keith and Clone Shiro are set up in a very similar manner, and the latter suffers primarily from half season releases and a fandom who knows what tricks to look for.

The fact that the show is geared at a younger audience and so isn’t going to be super subtle is not a mark against it, but unfortunately if you’re active in the fandom, there’s a good chance you’re going to see a solid argument re: upcoming plot twists that spoils the surprise.

[master-riku]

[Bungou Stray Dogs] 55 Minutes Part 3

BACK TO TRANSLATIONS 

Disclaimer: [ The translation pace is solely dependent on the lone translator’s availability. Also, this translation was made for myself who is still studying the Japanese language, so the translation might not be up to par to some people’s tastes. Again, I translate pretty liberally.  ]

Notes: Also this is a very short portion, but the next one should take longer to translate - but its a hefty 30 pages. Lol. So, anyway...

Atsushi was walking on the cobbled street alone.

After completing preparations at the hotel, and after a quick meeting about future plans, Kunikida instructed Atsushi to go and meet the Captain. Kunikida will come afterwards. 

For whatever reason, someone had made a procedure error in the accomodation and Tanizaki and his sister, Naomi, were given the same room.

"This is no good at all," Kunikida then ran to correct the procedure error with his face changing colors.

Atsushi looked around restlessly at his surroundings. Everything that caught his eyes seemed new. The stucco houses with a slate blowing roof, the stone gargoyle statues standing still while gazing at the sky, the white libraries with elaborate eaves were not part of the land he was born and raised. Only in books, would he be able to see the scenery of London from old photographs.

I really seem to be in a new country, Atsushi thought. He had no experience of overseas travel, so that was why the ship was, in a sense, his first foreign experience.

Atsushi almost felt like he was in a fairy tale. 

In a backalley, there is a fairy, there is a king and queen in a castle, and there's Jack the Ripper sharpening his knife with a creepy smile in the dark underground. He breathed in, the fantastical vision spreading even to his lungs. Then when Atsushi looked down at the scenery, he heard a loud voice.

"Run away, follow me!"

Quietly, a loud and noisy voice reached Atsushi's ears. Busy adults were rushing through. What are they fussing about? Atsushi stretched his neck.

"Call the police squad!" "Did you see the face?!" "Quiet about the stolen goods!" Atsushi responded swiftly to the word "stolen."

There was an uproar in the southeat. Something was stolen.

--- The request was to catch a theif on the island.

Kunikida's speech came back to him.

Atsushi ran almost reflexively.

The noise seemed to be taking place in the cargo area near the harbor.　It was an area that carried in luggage, different from the passage Atsushi and the others entered from.

There are warehouses made of bricks. Several men in blue uniforms who seemed to be officials on the island were running away in the stone wall alleys of London.

"Hey, you. Have you seen a tall man with black hair around here?"

Suddenly, one of the officials spoke to him, Atsushi widened his eyes in alarm.

"Eh...ah, no, I didn't see anyone..." He finally answered.

"If you see them, please report to the police department!" With that said, the official ran.

"U-UHM!" Atsushi called out to the officer who's back was retreating. "What happened? Was anything stolen?"

"There was an illegal entry!" The staff cried before running away from the alley and becoming invisible.

"Illegal entry?" Atsushi tried to imagine a face in his head. There was an illegal entry in this island...What did that mean? People who did not have permission to enter. But what in the world for?

"Atsushi-kun, hey, Atsushi-kun!"

For a moment, Atsushi looked around his surroundings. The uproar was far away, and there was no one around the vicinity.

"Atsushi-kun. Ufufufu. What are you doing in a place like that? I'm over here, over here!"

This voice...

Atsushi looked for the source of the voice, and suddenly kept an eye on a street corner.

There was an zinc garbage can. It was painted in an inconspicuous gray so as not to stand out in the English city landscape.

The garbage can must have been near the height of Atsushi's waist. It also was sealed by a tin cover.

The garbage can was shaking and rattling. Bewildered, Atsushi approached it.  Placing a hand on the lid, he dared to open it.

"Baa!" "Uwaa!"

Surprised, Atsushi fell on his butt while still holding onto the lid.

Dazai was within the garbage can.

Disheveled hair and a sand-colored coat. White bandages wrapped around a neck. An unreadable face laced with a smile.

"How unusual for us to meet at a place like this?"

"W-..... What are you doing in there, Dazai-san!" Atsushi shouted. Kunikida had explained that Dazai was supposed to have been at the gathering place. 

...Could it be...

"Hey, you. Have you seen a tall man with black hair around here?"

"Dazai-san, are you....the illegal entrant?"

"That's great, Atsushi-kun. Just like a detective's reasoning. It's so pleasing to have one's subordinate grow up so fast."

Dazai laughs happily. As for Atsushi, he was not able to understand half of anything Dazai was talking about.

Dazai is his senior and the first person to admit him into the detective agency. To Atsushi, he is a senior, a superior, and a benefactor who had saved him. He is all of those things, but...

"Ahh, I was so successful with entering, but I was found out by the staff on the way, so I hid in the garbage can to escape the trouble. Since I didn't have time to take out any of the trash, my body is so smelly, right now. However, there's a wonderful feeling to being a part of meaningless trash, I wonder if I should live here.

No other words came out from Atsushi other than "Ha......"

The ADA can never read Dazai's actions. At work, Dazai often collaborated with Kunikida and the others, and every time he has a stomachache. Even so, the cases involving Dazai are always solved in an ideal way for some reason. And each and every time Atsushi watches him, wondering how in the world Dazai is going to tie up the next case.

"But Dazai-san, even if you do not have trouble entering the island illegally, shouldn't you have just ridden the same boat as us?"

"There are three answers to that question," Dazai wagged his finger. "First of all, I wanted to see what goes behind the scenes around here since this is a strange island. Secondly, Kunikida has recently got too used to my behavior and his reactions have become too normal, so I am aiming to surprise him! And lastly, it's still in the midst of progress, but there's another order we've received regarding the method of smuggling inside this island."

"Ha....Another order...is Dazai-san's work different from the thief extermination?"

"The thief extermination is only a part of the danger occuring on this island," Dazai's said with his smile suddenly disappearing.

Atsushi felt the surrounding temperature drop to several degrees just from that.

"A....danger..." Atsushi somehow squeezed out of his throat.

"That's right. ........Please report to me if you see a man with a camera hanging from his neck, he wears a black suit and carries an attache case. Oh, and you better not try to capture them, they're a very dangerous person. If you make one wrong move, you could blow up Yokohama."

"Huh...?"

Suddenly, Atsushi felt dizzy and furrowed his brows. Yokohama might blow up? "What does that mean....?"

"I'm still in the middle of investigating further details. But, for now, you guys will have to concentrate on exterminating the thieves because if that's not done, then I cannot continue from here. Also, would you please take the lid for a moment?" Dazai's smile returned as he pointed at the lid at Atsushi's feet. It's the lid that belonged to the garbage can that Dazai was in. Atsushi handed it over, puzzled. 

"Thank you," Dazai said when he received it. "Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I knew before arriving here that there would be Port Mafia members on the island. Up until now, I didn't know who, but you better be careful."

"The Port Mafia...?"

Atsushi frowned. He had no good memories of the Port Mafia. It is an unlawful organization that takes residence in Yokohama.And it is tied with the Detective Agency of whom has had conflict with many times.

"Don't make such a scary face," Dazai said with a gentle voice. "They will rarely appear in places with many people. Even if something does happen, no one can catch up to Atsushi-kun fleeing!" Dazai smiled kindly. "Now then, I will pray for your success in work!"

Dazai then re-entered the garbage can and closed the lid on himself. With a light voice, the trash can jumped and rolled sideways all the way to the back of the alley and down a slope.

"Bon voyage!!!"

Leaving with an unnecessarily bright voice, Dazai rolled away.

Rolling down the hilly slope, the trash can vanished in due time.

Later, Atsushi was left alone standing still.

"Got used to that person...huh....Kunikida-san is amazing..."