#risk and betrayal

[aventurineswife]

The rain was relentless, a cold, steady downpour that made the world around you blur into muted shadows and shimmering reflections. The alleyway where you had led Aventurine was eerily quiet, the only sound the gentle hiss of raindrops against the concrete and the distant rumble of thunder.

You straddled him, your knees pressing into the wet ground as you held the cold steel of the knife against his neck. His eyes—those damn eyes—were locked on yours, a mesmerizing swirl of intensity and mystery. The tip of the blade gleamed in the dim light, its weight a constant reminder of the task you had set out to complete. The task you had promised yourself to finish.

But now, as you looked at him—really looked at him—you couldn’t deny the truth that had slowly crept up on you.

You had fallen for him.

Aventurine's lips curled into a faint smile, that all-knowing, cocky grin of his that never seemed to fade. He didn’t look scared. Not really. If anything, he looked... intrigued. Amused, even.

"My best enemy is you," he said softly, his voice almost drowned out by the storm.

Your heart clenched at his words. He always had a way of twisting everything, even now, as your knife hovered over his throat. Your fingers tightened around the handle, but you couldn’t bring yourself to strike. The reality of what you were about to do weighed heavily on you, a crushing burden that made every breath feel shallow, every thought fragmented.

“Shut up, or I’ll slit your throat open.” you hissed, trying to keep your composure. But your voice wavered, betraying the turmoil within you.

Aventurine’s smile softened, almost imperceptibly, but his gaze never wavered from yours. He reached up slowly, his fingers brushing the side of your face, his touch light but deliberate. The warmth of his hand made your breath catch, a sharp, involuntary response to his touch. You flinched, a reflex you couldn’t control, and he noticed. His fingers lingered in your hair, tucking a wet strand behind your ear as he whispered, “You’re beautiful…”

The words were gentle, and they cut through the storm in a way nothing else could. His voice, low and sincere, felt like a knife to your chest. You felt everything—his warmth, his tenderness, and yet... everything you had worked for, everything you had planned, suddenly felt so fragile.

You pressed the knife harder against his throat, the cold steel against his skin a tangible reminder of your mission. But your resolve was slipping. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He was the enemy. You were supposed to end him.

"Don’t... don’t say that," you whispered, your voice trembling despite yourself. "I’m not... I'm not who you think I am."

Aventurine’s eyes softened for the briefest of moments, a flicker of understanding in his gaze. His hand remained in your hair, the touch lingering, as if he knew the battle raging inside you.

For a moment, there was only the sound of the rain, the distant thunder, and the beating of your own heart. The world seemed to slow, the decision you had to make hanging in the air between you like a fragile thread.

And then, he whispered again, "You don’t have to do this."

You wanted to believe him. You wanted to so badly. But the knife in your hand was the only thing that felt real, the only thing that tied you to the life you had chosen. The life you had to live.

But even as you wavered, even as your heart screamed at you to stop, you knew it was too late. You had already crossed the line. There was no turning back now.

You pressed the knife just a little harder, feeling the tension build between you, both of you trapped in this moment of conflict and pain. The rain soaked your clothes, plastering them to your skin, but it couldn’t wash away the weight of your decision.

Aventurine's smile never left his lips, even as your hand trembled, poised to strike.

And in that instant, you wondered if he had known all along. If he had always been playing the game, just like you.

"Goodbye..." you whispered, your voice barely audible over the storm.

You closed your eyes, the knife ready to deliver its final blow, but then you paused.

What if, in that moment, you weren’t the only one playing the game?

The rain fell harder.

I'm not sorry 🏃‍♀️💚💛

[frownyalfred]

in the realm of like, rich kid problems, I want to someday read/write a fic where Nightwing is slowly establishing himself as a full-fledged JL member and everyone is relieved because finally, there's a nice Bat on the Watchtower who doesn't just shoot down their plans and deny their mission requests. but. while Nightwing is kind, and polite, and charming in all the ways the Bat isn't, he's still Dick Grayson. and Dick Grayson grew up as a very rich kid's suddenly very rich kid, which is to say while Bruce might not take it personally, Dick has been fending off people almost his entire life who were trying to use him for his Dad's money. which is to say, I think once Nightwing is on board and the relationship between him and Batman is at least somewhat well-known, there is suddenly a rush of younger, less-experienced members trying to take advantage of Nightwing, mistaking that kindness and openness for willingness to either voluntarily, or involuntarily, infringe upon and cross Batman's clear-cut boundaries. bribing Dick for a better monitor shift with Batman is one thing (it doesn't really work, Dick can't bribe Bruce with much as it is) but trying to convince Nightwing to lie to Batman? to go against him? his dad? the man who pulled him up when he had nothing and gave him meaning again? that man?? and then comes the inevitable, chilling realization, that while Nightwing might wear a different mask, might wear an open smile on the Watchtower and with friends off-shift, there are some lines he won't cross, same as Bruce. he won't, sure as the sun rises and the rot rolls off the Gotham Harbor in the morning.

[starry-bi-sky]

do yall ever think about bruce/batman!clone danny standing in front of his bathroom mirror after finding out he was a clone and silently tracing his face. The slope of his jaw and point of his chin. The high angle of his cheekbones and the shape of his eyes, the curve of his brow bones and the shape of his nose. The volume of his hair and the way it curls and gets fluffy when it gets too long.

His hair is black the same way a crow's wing is black. His dad's hair is black the same way a black bear's fur is black. His dad's eyes are blue like the ocean is blue. Danny's eyes are blue the same way a glacier is blue.

His dad has a square jaw and straight flat hair, and he tans and gets a face full of freckles when he's out in the sun for too long. Danny burns like a lobster and his face remains untouched. Danny has a sharp jaw and tall cheekbones, and Sam says when he's not smiling there's almost something regal about him. You would never call Jack Fenton "regal" when he's not smiling.

Sam says when he's not smiling he looks scary the same way a stone statue is. Jack Fenton when he's not smiling looks scary the same way that german shepherd staring at you across the street is.

Do you ever think he grew up wondering if he was adopted. Because of course, he has black hair and blue eyes like his dad. But having the same color doesn't make you someone's child.

Or, worse, things he's heard from the other kids and the other parents and even some of his teachers growing up; that he was the product of an affair. And that his dad was just too stupid to notice. And Danny would defend his parents until the day he died, because Jack Fenton wasn't an idiot and Maddie Fenton wasn't a cheater.

But doubt comes in with fickle tongue. his parents swear up and down that he is their child when he asks about either. That Danny just had his grandparents' features, but he was their son and they loved him.

But Danny doesn't look like either of his parents. His mom's eyes are blue like an aquamarine and Jazz's too. And they burn like lobsters in the sun too, but Jazz gets freckles on her face and so does Maddie. And as Danny grows up he doesn't bulk up or get stocky like his dad did, and when he hits puberty he doesn't shoot up like a tree like Jack Fenton did.

He stays small, and they say he's a late bloomer (and he is), or that he just has his mom's height. But he's fast and has good stamina, and some days it feels like he's built entirely different from his family. That the things they went through growing up just didn't apply to him. Jack and Maddie Fenton both had acne and breakouts when they hit puberty, and Jazz inherits it and he's seen the amount of skincare products she keeps on her side of the bathroom.

And then he hits puberty and breaks out maybe once or twice, but his skin stays clear for the most part and the problems and changes his dad went through just don't happen to him.

And the truth is worse than all of the lies.

How horrifying.

[jaggedwolf]

arguing over whether caitlyn would make the shot or miss is stupid, because that's not the point. the fight scene prior gives us convincing arguments for either outcome - she easily shoots a pistol out of the child's hands right before, but is out of her mind and hextech could fritz her gun at any moment.

the point is that caitlyn and vi thought they were aligned until that moment. vi thought they were in agreement that they wouldn't risk a kid, or i think even try to kill jinx while a kid was around. caitlyn thought that after her hesitation in the s1 finale cost her mother's life (and the stability of piltover-zaun), they were in agreement that eliminating jinx was an ultimate priority and that vi would never try to stop her again.

[hayaang1]

yeah i did a whole pixel art thing just for a risk of rain meme why do you ask

[vaguely-concerned]

in his and davrin's banters, lucanis exhibits a certain little shit energy I don't think we see him have with anyone else other than illario and honestly I am living for this

[skunkes]

can i ask why ur getting the surgery? /gen curious /no hate

i am getting a bi(lateral)salp(ingectomy) bc i never want to be pregnant or be a parent!

Even if i do change my mind later about the parent thing (not super likely but things can change, sure) theres noooo shortage of single parents lmao

And even if I never End Up In The Circumstance(s) Where I COULD Become Pregnant in my life, I'd want the peace of mind anyway...

I've always felt disgusted that this is something my body is capable of. I want it to be MY body and not a site and vessel for potential tragedy in any direction. And I want it to be something permanent and not dependent on access to services/medicines or even laws!!! Dis is a gender affirming surgery for me honestly...

[spn-lesbian]

the reason for literally every love song being Destiel coded, is that Destiel covers every single romantic trope to exist

[dirtytransmasc]

saw someone say they're we're happy Alicent's and Otto's deaths forced them "realize what they had done" and like...

Otto's one thing, I get the animosity. but Alicent? your getting hot and bothered over her realizing she failed, she failed to save her children, she failed to protect them, to them alive? that she tried so hard, so fucking hard, making every hard decision, trying to get between her children and the fate they were damned to by Viserys and Rhaenyra? that she damned her kids, who were already damned to die to begin with, and had to suffer the guilt of them dying to her own hand? that she's going to drive herself mad with grief over her children, her grandchildren?

like... it's not satisfying (especially for show Alicent) watching a woman go so mad with grief it literally kills her because she fought with everything she had to save her children only for them to die anyway. ever since her father's exile, when Rhaenyra's lies took Viserys's favor, when Viserys ignored the Rhaenyra's sons bastardhood at the risk of the whole house, or when Luke took Aemond's eye and Viserys demanded good will; she knew her children's lives were forfeit. then Daemon killed Vaemond and her children's coffins were built, catching cobweb's all the while. she knew and she fought it desperately, taking risk after risk, living in fear until her moment came, she could out Aegon on the thrown, she could protect her kids, maybe, just fucking maybe they'd be safe... only for it to lead to a war that would kill her entire family.

her death, slow and tragic as it was, is heartbreaking. she didn't deserve it, she deserved to feel safe, to feel as though she could allow her past friend take the thrown without her children being at risk to feel as though she and her children weren't being circled by wolves and picked at by vulture's. she didn't deserve to live alone and die alone. she didn't deserve to have her hands coated in her children's blood.

[vitalazam]

also on that note zam redemption arc would be sooo fun. firstly bc i want to see minute fix a guy secondly bc it means zam would betray mapicc (again. how many times can mapicc put up with that ^_^)

[fusionsprunt]

dang.. so bee spent all this time getting back to her "home" (as you siad is not really her home) just to never feel anything again? to realize that the pepole she cared about and loved on fusionsprunt and on that planet and the happness she felt while being a robot/ humaniod being she would never feel again..

and she didn't know that reaching the point of becoming the comet again she would feel this way? this is so sad to me. if she cant think anything. if shes just there, like an infinite object, AND SHE CAN NEVER GO BACK EVEN IF SHE WANTED TO? 'PFJBKNSLGPDOJLVDSFJ (MB for the rant starbs, sorry if this makes no sense i panicked)

.

[t8oo]

there is some symbolism iv never considered in that one episod of pt5 where zenigata rescues fujiko before she kills lupin

[narwhalandchill]

its been like. nearly a year (How.) already but i cannot lie theres Still a part in the back of my brain occupied with and being thoroughly entertained by the way that childes confirmed 4.0 complete self-awareness over waking up the narwhal at 14 recontextualizes some key liyue things leading to some very funny self indulgent scenarios in my head

like yes chili is old news its basic please excuse me for predictable popular ship crimes (do NOT however associate me w the crimes of fanon against their actual range. theyre peak to Me) but i just keep replaying the imagery of zhongli and childe back on their homoerotic Professional Working Relationship bullshit where their flirting passed the jkjk unless treshold of even remotely plausible deniability like 8 exorbitantly priced business dinners ago and theyre just like. doing that whole song and dance now neither committing to a move except zhonglis presently feeling moderately conflicted (but nonetheless fairly unfazed at) by the prospects of actually developing some sort of a thing for the harbinger hes supposed to puppet master into executing the major story climax of his 67-step retirement plan bc he turned out to be quite the strangely charming ginger specimen (to His weird fucking 6000 year old tastes at least. they deserve each other) with some fascinating life ambitions he cant help but be enraptured by.

but because hes still 100% Locked In on his entire plan zhonglis also just . simultaneously dual wielding his coy-ass "i like you and am taking it slow to Savor this developing relationship (Also bc of the Geo Archon Shaped Elephant In The Room) except am old as shit so my languid sense of time inadvertedly Automatically turns my behavior into an equivalent of the dark souls boss of playing hard2get" act (cue "waddup im ajax 24 and im in fucking agony with this hot funeral consultant". Yes they live like this) AND also meticulously theorycrafting like 12 moves in advance for his 6d chess play of leaving the most subtly crafted trail of breadcrumbs behind for the tsaritsas 11th to follow into the intended & completely "Coincidental" idea of unleashing the one particular sealed sea deity that zhongli Specifically wants momentarily released for his sweet 6k retirement party and graduation test for the nation hes helicopter parented for 3.7k years .

like. this is zhongli we r talking about the guy Absolutely has it planned out down to a fucking art like he has an entire branching path dialogue tree planned and memorized like its a visual novel for every possible way he can conveniently namedrop osial in a non-suspect way and also that he just happens to be sealed right over there across the harbor (what a coincidence!) and also to slip in the intel about the latent power of the sigil of permission etc etc. like zhonglis just out there doing all this massive galaxy brain computational work simultaneously while infodumping on an academic level about whichever subject childes latest random comment of amicable small talk happened to remind him of because in his helicopter parent in remission mind its Absolutely Critical that the idea about releasing osial occurs Completely organically in childes mind it Has to he Cannot risk revealing anything . (hes in remission not in recovery guys.) so like here we are. he requested notes from the tsaritsa Personally on the character of her 11th just to ensure every move was painstakingly crafted to draw him Specifically to the intended conclusion without risking revealing his true identity .

except. the thing . neither he. nor the tsaritsa . would have been informed of . is that this simply isnt childes first fucking rodeo waking up an eldritch city sized sea creature . and he is very well aware of this fact . he woke that beautiful wonderful beloved huge fucking narwhal up by himself had his brain chemistry Immediately and Irrevocably rewired as a direct consequence do you fucking think hes somehow stopped thinking about that singular moment for even a second since then???

yeah . thought so.

so what actually ends up happening in reality is theyll be on another definitely-serious-business-not-just-a-date and zhonglis going to get down to like dialogue selection part 10 of the 86 step conversation tree at Most where hes only beginning to like Vaguely allude to the key pieces of information involved but it turns out Because Hes That Guy (TM) And Has Been There Done That Before childes basic pattern recognition and sense of irony simply proceed to kick in Way ahead of time and hes Immediately perking up like Hey wouldnt it be really fucking funny if i wake up an eldritch sea beast Again . like just in case. as a last ditch effort .

and zhonglis just sitting there seeing the gears turn in his head as they enjoy their cringe fucking picnic (bc they just stare at each other intently like that nowadays its a thing. being in a room with them by this point is essentially a human rights violation) and is just completely fucking flabbergasted and lost on how in the hell childes speedran his way to that conclusion at what amounts to barely a 13% completion rate in his whole overkill fucking plan (just 1 of 3 contingencies btw) and its like yes he has his intended outcome but also precisely 0 idea on how the fuck said outcome was reached the way it was this fast . like hes still winning its His plan thats well underway and ahead of schedule but How

(pov: ur selling the concept of waking up destructive sea creatures to the guy who woke up a celestial body eating cosmic whale at 14)

anyway its truly beautiful i absolutely detest these two and have prime liyue AQ hijinks nostalgia now thank you for the lore drop that allowed this to become canon in my head hoyo

[waraxarcana]

Hawkins' Hatred

Many assume that the person Hawkins hates most of his old alliance are Kid and Killer, but this is simply untrue. While he always disdained Kid and his feelings regarding Killer are...complicated, the one he hates the most is, and always will be, Apoo.

During the alliance, this was because the man was obnoxious and often an instigator of fights with Kid, making the whole working relationship more difficult than it should have been. While Hawkins expected the whole thing to crumble apart, he had always assumed that it would be due to Kid finally losing his cool and turning on them despite Killer's attempts to keep him calm.

Then came the betrayal. Not only did Apoo sell them out to Kaido, but he did so gleefully. It was his fault that Hawkins was put in the position where he would have to submit to Kaido or die. His fault that Faust was killed and his crew slaughtered. His fault that his chances of becoming Pirate King were brought down to 1% and he was forced to commit unspeakable acts in the slim hope that he could turn things around.

But he hates Apoo most of all because, for some reason, Hawkins is the one who seems to get the most derision for the betrayal. As if he had done so willingly. As if it was his fault that Kid was imprisoned and Killer ate a SMILE fruit. He feels he gets the blame for it all falling apart. People call him a coward and a traitor for agreeing to work for Kaido when he was merely trying to survive in the face of impossible odds. Apoo was the one who betrayed them all. Hawkins is just as much of a victim of the long-limbed bastard's betrayal as Kid and Killer.

He hates Apoo with every fiber of his being, and had he been given even the slightest chance, even if the cards told him the odds were slim, Hawkins would have attacked and attempted to kill him on sight. Would have taken him somewhere quiet and tortured him. Perhaps he even would have visited Kid in prison afterward and given him a few of their fellow Supernova's piano teeth as a gift. A token to remind him that they were both betrayed, but at least he got a little payback.

Alas, Hawkins died, and Apoo still lives. Such a cruel twist of fate.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

I get why the little papers that come with the meds have to tell you every possible thing that could go wrong but!!!!

It's horrible who scared you to take the pill that's supposed to make you feel better. I just took the first dose of my new meds and I'm like 😬😬😬 it says it can change my behavior and make me an addict to gambling or leave me with scars on my lungs and heart or other stuff like that 😬😬 what

[paimonial-rage]

I have a character analysis ask! :) (Although, it's not from the list you shared.) What would it take for Albedo to get really angry? Like a huge outburst? I have some ideas but I'm curious about your insights. - @mimi-cee-genshin

[Character Analysis Ask Meme]

This is a really interesting ask and I’ve been thinking about it ever since you sent it. There are three answers I have for you, but two are copouts and the last doesn’t satisfy the requirements.

The first two scenarios deal with the same thing: you scare him in some way. This can be achieved two different ways: Klee facing imminent danger that he can’t immediately mitigate and, if he cares about you, doing the same to yourself. Nothing scares a calculated person more than a sudden situation they have no control over. What this accomplishes is putting him into a state of panic. And, should everything be alright in the end, you can rightfully expect him to snap in fury before pulling you in for a hug.

However, the reason why I consider this a copout is that I think this kind of scenario would get most people to react in this way. And while he would be angry and have an outburst, I don’t really consider this scenario “anger.” It’s more panic, you know?

So that being said, I don’t really think it’s exactly possible to get Albedo angry to the point of having an outburst, at least in the typical sense. Albedo is not a burning fury kind of person. He is cold fury. When he gets truly mad, his emotions shut down and he turns into a heartless machine. Think of Scar killing Mufasa, except without the smile and glee. He’d look down at you with ice-cold eyes as he ever so casually pushes you back to lose your grip.

To get him into this state, though, I think it would take work. One possible scenario would be betraying him and then having everything go wrong. Not a cold calculated betrayal (he’d sense your untrustworthiness), but maybe one from fear? For example, he treated you as a friend, but upon getting threatened by the Abyss, you betray Mondstadt in fear of your life, and then whoops, people get hurt and/or killed. In that case, you both betrayed his kindness and ultimately disappointed him. He was wrong about you. You are no better than the dirt beneath his feet.