#love a corruption au that hurts them both/enables one to become worse

[tennessoui]

holy shit something about the image of obi-wan eyeing anakin up and down as he stands there telling obi about his wife’s newest bill meanwhile anakin just murdered the main funding backer of it on obi’s request. he’s wearing a nice shirt that padme bought him but it’s got blood all over it and obi-wan likes. (one of these days there’ll be an au where padme doesn’t lose everything so awfully but that is not today bc this au is so hot oh my god yes. i’m such a sucker for corruption arcs)

yeah!!! idk if it’s fear for his kids or fear for himself that makes anakin submit to doing what obi-wan wants and betraying his wife by giving away her secrets + probably actually killing people---

obi-wan starts him off easy, of course, he’s not a monster, he sends anakin to neutralize small threats. bad people. rapists and pedos and drug dealers selling to children. and then eventually he sends him after others. an acquaintance of his wife, who’s sticking her nose somewhere she shouldn’t. someone who refused to back obi-wan’s proposal.

i think obi-wan would probably know better than to threaten anakin’s kids. that won’t get him his loyalty. but i think if he threatened anakin’s lifestyle---told him he had all this evidence of him murdering Tup, that he could make it look in the courts like it was in cold blood, that he’d lose everything if he didn’t do this for obi-wan......i think that would be effective

but yes theres something so nice about anakin having tea with his wife and her friends and mentally making a list for obi-wan. even before obi-wan asks. he doesn’t need to even ask anymore. anakin just does it as he slowly starts losing faith in his wife’s version of the city, one where nothing gets changed.....

also i feel like it’d be delicious if there was like a bit of cody or ahsoka or rex being surprised at how obi-wan is treating anakin. they were prepared to have to just hide anakin’s body after a quick death, but this....this is basically torture.

make each other worse bring out the worst in each other make each other worse drag each other down to new depths

[noodlenibblescribble]

Been really thinking about the Amphibia Au Lost and Found by themissakat (check em out!!!) and its potential for angst like. Imagine Marcy's and Sasha's bad habits/unhealthy ways of doing things getting worse without Anne. Hell, getting worse BECAUSE of their overhanging worry for Anne.

For Sasha, she is still manipulative and more unapologetically so, giving in to seeing toads and other amphibians (other than Grime of course aaand maybe the other toad commanders once she meets em cuz i love em) as below her. She sees them as pawns, and being around enabling fellow commanders only enforces the belief that she’s above people. Yeah, I think she’d be known as the cooler commander  you can talk to about your problems, but just like with Percy and Braddock, if her mission interjects with something that makes her underlings uncomfortable, she’ll still force them all the same. If they don’t produce what she needs, she has all the ammunition to make them feel bad for not living up to her expectations, with a hint of a threat that she’s getting angry. Nobody wants Sasha angry with them.

Marcy on the other hand lives and breathes learning. She doesn't make many connections of her own and stays somewhat complacent with Andrias, Lady Olivia and Sasha being the people she'll circle to the most. Andrias I'd imagine is still corrupt and biding his time waiting for the third girl to show up, secretly impatient over it and playing the doting father figure more explicitly with the 5 years to do so. But this doesn't necessarily mean he's the BEST father figure either. Heck. Imagine a scene, maybe a year after they get to Amphibia and Marcy still hasn’t reunited with Sasha, where Marcy starts to ask too many questions or she finds something particularly incriminating and Andrias somewhat loses his temper and shuts Marcy up harshly. Marcy is scared seeing Andrias like this for the first time. After he calms down, he downplays it, makes the situation out as Marcy's fault, and uses a bits of threats to keep her from doing the same again. “I told you everything I could. Never imply that I’m hiding something again. Remember who gave you access to the royal library in the first place.” This pattern continues as Marcy is not one to sit still and wait for more answers, until something happens that twists the situation to Andrias’s favor. Maybe Marcy snoops something dangerous, like the shadowdfish under the castle, and her doing so gets someone killed in front of her. Andrias steps in once Marcy is terrified and crying, and with his most disappointed tone, chastises her. “Oh Marcy. Look at what you did.” All in all, Andrias twists this to get Marcy to be much more obedient. She grows up as a full Andrias supporter, never questioning him again, and along the way, becoming more involved with his hidden conspiracy, even growing numb to the consequences of hurting others if its for the ‘better good.’

Hrm. One last toxic thing before I move onto them actually meeting Anne... I can see both girls’ desperation to find Anne somewhat putting her on a pedastol in their minds. When they reunite and begin to talk about her, it starts with remembering silly things, moments where Anne was a dork.... and slowly it would build into talks about the times Anne was there for them. Leaning into shipper territory now cuz, big surprise, I’m a Sashannarcy lover:

Marcy especially has a complex over Anne. She’s filled with guilt, being the one that brought them over to this world. And on top of that, her rocky relationship with Andrias and her inability to befriend other people sometimes gets her to a point of tears. Times like those and times where she’s on a dangerous mission and nearly does something stupid, she remembers Anne. Anne’s hugs, Anne making her feel included in social situations, Anne saving her, Anne always being there for her. The image she paints of Anne is of a security blanket she misses dearly. Gone are the thoughts she had in ‘Marcy at the Gates’ where she wanted to show Anne how independent she’s become. She’s been independent long enough. She yearns to be coddled by her again.

Sasha’s warped perception of Anne lies with how subservient Anne was and twisting that with perhaps some romantic feelings as well. Sasha is good at being in charge, but being praised for her qualities by toads is not the same as being praised for it by someone like Anne. In her mind, Anne was the perfect yin to Sasha’s yang. Anne never questioned her or disobeyed, she was always eager to be included and sincere with her wanting to please Sasha. Sasha would remember situations where she got Anne in trouble and Anne got her out of it and vice versa and see this as their being in sync. The thought that Anne wasn’t as happy in these memories never crossed her mind.

Now move onto the girls finally finding Anne.

Anne who has had time to change, grow, and stay true to what she believes is right. The girls love her and welcome her so warmly into their lives, even with the amnesia, because they've been waiting to getthe dynamic they missed so much back. But small things start piling up. Anne is super attached to her frog family, so everywhere she goes, they go. Anne can't remember their inside jokes and they dont understand her family's. While Marcy has been super touchy with Anne, Anne hasn't been reciprocating like she had hoped. During doing something dangerous, Anne hops in to help, much to Marcy's joy, but saves Polly instead of rushing to her. When asked about it, Anne tells her "You seemed capable enough. I had to help Polly." Meanwhile, Sasha's pushiness to get Anne to travel with her and leave her family is making Anne uncomfortable. Nothing Sasha used to do is working, it's only making Anne more defensive. Nothing is playing out like it should. It isn't until a sleepover where Marcy' and Sasha share their favorite memories of Anne that Anne realizes something. The way they talk about her isn't right. The old her doesn't feel right. Thus cracks will continue to deepen until something breaks.

[kazliin]

Kaz, you know what I'm going to ask ;) Because that Viktuuri rival lawyers in a murder trial AU is something the world needs to see

Ok so Lily sent this post  and then joked that it sounded like a Rivalverse fic idea and then because she’s an enabler and I have no self control this happened (I’ll do it in summary format because my ability to write proper fic is currently sitting at -10)  

Warnings at the bottom of the post for potential triggers +spoiler alert 

So rival lawyers AU set in an ambiguous time period but think Hamilton-esque. Yuuri is the tight-laced, by the book prosecutor who’s devastating in the courtroom and Viktor is the legendary defence lawyer who somehow manages to get even the most guilty person off through a combination of charm, charisma and using the tiniest of loopholes to his advantage. Yuuri hates him a lot for it and the only cases he can’t win are the ones when Viktor is the opposing lawyer and they have both been charged with contempt of court multiple times because they get into such legendary heated arguments in the courtroom over cases. 

Since this is Rivals AU the backstory is that back when he was young Yuuri really admired Viktor and wanted to be an amazing defence lawyer just like him. Viktor was already famous, fast track through college, opened his own firm young and still manages to win every case kind of thing. When Yuuri met him Viktor accidentally insulted him and from that day on Yuuri vowed to be an even better lawyer than Viktor and crush all of his cases. 

Fast forward into the future and Yuuri has made a serious name for himself but still can’t beat Viktor. And since Viktor keeps getting people off who are technically guilty, Yuuri thinks he’s corrupt and doesn’t care about the law and will do anything for a price to matter how immoral it is. Their rivalry in the courtroom has become pretty legendary and they’re constantly walking along the line of, ‘is this an insult or is this flirting’ whenever they’re near each other and tensions are always so thick you could cut them with a knife. Yuuri ends up realizing he’s super attracted to Viktor still and that just makes him hate Viktor more.  Everyone thinks that one day Yuuri’s either going to kill Viktor or bone him and Viktor is constantly provoking (flirting with) Yuuri which makes it worse. 

It all comes to a head a couple more years down the line when Yuuri is the prosecutor in a murder case. The murdered man was a complete ‘good citizen’ type, good job, loving now devastated family etc etc and Yuuri is determined to give them justice. Viktor is the lawyer for the accused and even though the person is 100% guilty he still somehow manages to get them off scot-free. Yuuri is furious and challenges Viktor to a duel (back to the Hamilton style) because he feels like Viktor is corrupt and arrogant and needs to be knocked down a peg or two. 

Then in true Hamilton style, things go wrong, mistakes are made and Yuuri ends up accidentally killing Viktor in the duel even though that was never his intention. 

It’s only after Viktor is dead that Yuuri finds out the murdered man he was defending was secretly an awful person and the murderer was a victim and had a very good reason for killing them when they did. But it wasn’t a reason that would hold up in court and they didn’t have enough proof of what the other man had done to defend themselves so Viktor had stepped in to get them off without prison time anyway to protect them. And it turned out that all of Viktor’s ‘corrupt’ cases were people who were technically guilty by law but not morally wrong and didn’t deserve the punishments they were facing and Viktor had been defending them because he knew the law was fallible and it was the right thing to do. 

So Yuuri takes up Viktor’s work in his memory because he’s so guilt-ridden for killing Viktor but nothing he does will ever bring Viktor back. 

To make matters worse, it turns out that Viktor was completely in love with Yuuri, he had been for years,  and had always intended to throw away his shot in the duel because he couldn’t bare the thought of hurting him. And he was planning on finally trying to ask Yuuri to date him before everything went wrong. So Yuuri accidentally killed the potential love of his life and someone who was genuinely a good person but he didn’t realize that because he was too blinded by hate until it was far too late. 

Trigger Warning for Major Character Death