#she deserves to steamroll everyone in her path | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

novantinuum · 4 years ago

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Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: Teen Audiences

Words: 6.3K~

Summary: In another world, he doesn’t have his mother’s sword or shield to hide behind when Bismuth lands her strike. The bubble pops.

Steven falls apart.

Chapter summary: In which freedom is a future worth fighting for.

Finally finished this chapter, yay! I promise I throw canon off a ravine entirely next chapter, I just needed to set up some stuff. Hopefully the Ruby POV makes things somewhat fresh.

If you read this and enjoy, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos/comments on AO3. Thank you! <3

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Chapter 13: system/REBOOT, Part 1

The whole mission is Garnet’s idea.

By this point, they’ve known about Homeworld’s rushed Beta Kindergarten project for about fifty years. Frankly, its composition leaves much to be desired. The area is rich in the iron and silicon deposits necessary to produce a strong batch of quartzes, but the foundation they incubated all their new soldiers within is red clay cemented sandstone; it’s soft, and in constant danger of erosion. According to all the rebellion’s peridots, many of them top Homeworld kindergarteners before their eventual defection, this type of stone is critically unfit for Gem production. It can’t compress the inclusions of injector fluid at the correct pressure, can’t reliably bar the excess from draining through the porous material. As a result many of the individually incubated sites are predicted to ‘weep’ and lose critical volume, which will inevitably cause the emergent quartzes to be ‘off-color’ in some fashion. Some may be under regulation height, some may exhibit crystal twinning, some may be incapable of standard abilities like shapeshifting or weapon summoning, so on and so forth.

As a fellow off-color herself, Garnet carries a deep empathy for all those who are forsaken and unwanted. She can foresee the dire fate of these Beta Gems creeping over the dawning horizon even without the benefit of future vision, can foresee that despite all of these soldiers’ loyal programming, they’re ultimately cursed to be eliminated within the cruel machine of Homeworld. One day beyond the battlefield, the so-called Great Diamond Authority will see no further use in their existence, and then they’ll be purged. Harvested for scrap. Trapped within a myriad of Gem-powered objects. Crushed and used within their drop ships for fuel.

It’s pure tyranny.

Thus, she refuses to let their cruelty stand without a just fight. They have to give these Gems a chance beyond Homeworld’s rule, because abandoning them would be abandoning everything that their brave rebellion stands for, that she stands for. She refuses to stand powerless and idle in the face of a Diamond’s commands like the Sapphire and Ruby she once was, refuses to let another tragedy slip by without at least attempting to mend its damage. She is Garnet, she is freedom, and she is love.

And deep within her core, she believes these soon-to-emerge soldiers deserve the same opportunity for renewal and hope as any other Crystal Gem.

For all Ruby’s aware, a whole geological era could have passed between that fateful moment she first set eyes on Jasper and the shards-late arrival of Amethyst and the others. All three of them duck behind the low rock formations she’s hiding in the shade of, Steven still breathing heavily from the no-doubt harried and concerned exertion of their sprint towards her. Hard light coursing from the gem in her palm to all other extremities at random intervals amidst crackling cinders of immobilizing terror, (she’s almost surprised her form isn’t flickering at this point), she desperately attempts to babble an explanation. She’ll admit— it’s not a particularly coherent one. Ask her mere minutes later, and there’s little chance she’ll be able to repeat what she said. Heck, she’s not confident about her words now, in the heat of the moment. It’s probably something about holes, something about injector scrap, about all those Gem monsters, a-and—

"Whoa, what the heck!” Amethyst blessedly interrupts, raising her head above the rocks and pointing across the clearing at the orange and red striped quartz diligently prowling the area like a true squadron leader. “Jasper’s here, too? Did everyone decide to skip on over to Beta today, or somethin’?!”

Peridot’s face scrunches in confusion as she regards her former mission partner. “What is she doing?”

“She’s got all those corrupted Gems in cages,” Steven murmurs with realization, a tiny spark of outrage lighting up behind his eyes on those creatures’ behalf. “They’re not even bubbled, they’re just… trapped, and scared!”

Ruby brings her fist to her mouth, nervously nibbling at her fingers for a moment to anchor herself back to this present. Above all else, ignoring every thread of trepidation and insecurity she bears, there’s one burning question that pulses at her core with an unmatched luminosity about this whole scenario:

“B-but why would she want so many corrupted Gems in the first place? Doesn’t she know she can’t tame them?”

The purple quartz growls, the fringe of her hair casting a dark and menacing shadow over her features as she tilts her head down and glares at her self-proclaimed rival. “I don’t think she knows nothin’.”

And as— instinctively, mistakenly, running off of over five thousand years of deep engrained habit— she attempts to open her third eye towards the winding tributaries of potential futures they may soon find themselves wading through and fails, it slowly dawns on her just how isolated and lost they all are, without Sapphire’s sight. Without her love.

“Neither do I…” she says softly, her stature shrinking in the throes of that suffocating inadequacy. Riding an abrupt wave of frustration, she slams her foot into the coarse dirt, gripping thick chunks of her coily hair between her fingers. “Aughhh, this is a terrible time to not have future vision!” she huffs, spitting out each word staccato.

“Pipe down!” Jasper hollers at the poor corrupted Gem cornered in the distance as she kicks one of the bars of its cage, her booming voice easily reverberating off the cliffs’ curvature.

All four of them can’t help but bite back their gasps upon this clamoring startle. Peeking her head just above the rim of the rocky outcropping, Ruby watches the fur covered quartz visibly shrink back at the soldier’s command. Jasper continues, her unwavering act of confidence currently undeterred by this reaction.

“You take orders from me now. You used to be a quartz too, didn’t you? What happened to you?”

Utterly failing to comprehend any of her words in this vulnerable, animalistic state, the corrupted Gem merely snaps its fangs at the bars, and then tilts its head sideways to begin chewing on one of them. Jasper scoffs, her lips rising in a mild sneer. Taking the risk to edge closer, she continues to verbally berate the poor thing, talking the same sort of smack Ruby’s former Homeworld commanding officer, Condor Agate, used to dish out. Ruby grinds her teeth together so hard as she watches this display that the pressure and heat alone might be enough to form a brand new batch of Gems. Jasper even finds a moment to rope Amethyst into her insults, which almost has the stone in question summoning her whip in pure unfiltered fury. It’s only Steven and Peridot’s quick clutch on her shoulders that holds her back from steamrolling into the clearing with zero preparation and potentially making a terrible mistake. Still, she’s gotta admit, the temptation to whoop this Homeworld brute’s butt right this minute is devilishly hard to resist.

Ruby growls, one of her gauntlets emerging into existence on her clenched fist with a burst of light. “Oh-hoh, do I wanna launch this baby right into her dumb, chalky face…!”

“But maybe first we should go back to the temple and grab reinforcements?” Peridot whispers hastily, whirling around to face her. Panic visibly tightens its grip on her form with each passing second.

She pauses a moment to let the logic of this suggestion sink in, gaze hardened, and self-consciously aware of how her fellow Gems are (wrongfully) looking towards her as their leader in this chaos. What options do they even have? They can choose to fight, that’s one. They could disengage. They could retreat to Beach City and seek backup. If they were truly desperate, they could surrender. (Although she’s not confident Jasper would gracefully accept anyone’s defeat, not until it ended with their poofed— maybe even shattered— gemstones littering the coarse sand.)

As the gears are still pirouetting in her mind, she turns towards Steven, who nods in vehement agreement of Peridot’s strategy, his mouth stretched thin.

Sighing with frustration, she loosens her grip, recalling how even Garnet was barely able to match up with Jasper’s might. “Yeah, you’re right. She’d beat us into the dirt without Pearl or Sapphire.”

“Okay, so far we got three votes for retreat,” he says, holding up the appropriate number of digits as a visual. “Amethyst?”

In sync, the trio turn towards where the quartz just stood and find nothing but faint granules of recently upended dust filtering through a beam of sunlight. Both Peridot and Steven let out a fearful squeak at her absence.

“W-where is she?” the former Homeworld technician cries, craning her neck over the top of the rock formation to try and secure a visual.

“Up there!” Steven exclaims under his breath, pointing at a ridge a good ten feet above them that crosses from the arched entrance of this natural amphitheater all the way to the other side where Jasper stands, her back still turned to them.

Following the path of his index finger, Ruby catches a flash of purple, black and lavender stealthily advancing along the narrow rim towards the very soldier who reportedly poofed her with a single strike about a week back. The light sustaining her form nearly drains from all her limbs and rushes back to her gem.

“Oh, shards no…”

Stars above, what the hell is her problem? she thinks, her mind riding in a narrow track between exacerbated vexation and dread. Does she have a death wish, or something?? Surely the last place a rational person would choose to run is directly into the arms of the Gem who clobbered them into a senseless cloud at their last meeting. Surely a rational person would instead choose to retreat and regroup. However, as she glumly reflects upon the dour happenings of the past few days, Amethyst’s actions prove she’s currently unable to think rationally about Jasper or any other kind of conflict. She’s been markedly sullen at everyone around her ever since she first got her butt whooped. Obsessed with her private training sprees. Emotionally stand-offish. Prone to making rash decisions, like letting her mouth run off at poor hapless Steven about matters that aren’t his fault, or slashing her whip right at people’s feet to push them away, or… or rushing directly towards Jasper in an enclosed space with little to no backup just because she’s desperate to show her up for the sake of her own self-worth, or whatever.

And Ruby gets it, to an extent. She understands how cripplingly powerless it can feel to be written off as ‘the weak one,’ as nothing but an expendable. She understands the vivid temptation to let one’s anger drive such antagonistic confrontations. However, she’d also like to believe that she carries enough self respect in this gem to not throw herself right on an enemy’s anvil. Whether or not Amethyst possesses the same level of restraint is another question entirely. She flexes nervous, twitchy fingers at her side as she watches her dear friend creep further along the rim, ever closer to what she fears will be her unquestionable demise.

With the corrupted Gem’s racket still occupying Jasper’s undivided attention, Amethyst leaps from the cliff’s edge and into the clearing, pulling her whip from her gem in midair. The moment her toes touch the ground again, she slashes its barbed ends at the bars of the cage, right next to the quartz soldier’s hand. Jasper yanks her digits back. Her entire body snaps tense upon this disruption. Watching from behind their rocky cover, Ruby, Steven, and Peridot bite back the urge to gasp in shock.

“HEY!” Amethyst yells, lowering on her haunches right behind her opponent.

Now, there’s obviously no way to prove it without somehow obtaining intimate knowledge of her headspace, but upon external observation, Ruby swears that this big, buff Beta Kindergarten quartz is masking surprise. The sentiment is visible in the alignment of her shoulders, lifted high and tight against her neck. It’s visible in her narrow stance, light years away from the proper form of a soldier expecting battle. Flexing her thick, dexterous fingers at her side, she makes a blatant show of puffing out her chest before she turns to face her challenger, an almost predatory smile curving upwards on her lips as she regards her.

“You back away from her,” Amethyst hisses, nodding towards the Gem in the cage.

Jasper lets out a hearty chuckle. “Oh-hoh, what do we have here? You finally decide to crawl back for a rematch, runt?”

She grits her teeth, tightening her fist around the pommel of her weapon. “That’s right. I’m back, and I’mma wipe you all over these cliffs!”

“Perfect,” her opponent practically purrs, cracking her knuckles in anticipation. “I’ve been needing a light warmup.”

Rose approves her mission without question, when she first brings her the idea. Of course she would, in retrospect— the hidden diamond she was.

Garnet takes forty of her fellow soldiers and friends with her to the Beta Kindergarten. They don’t wield any weapons. These Gems are brand new, stepping into the light for the very first time. There’s no need to threaten them; all she wants is to peacefully talk, to introduce them to the concept of freedom, of choosing their own path beyond the Diamonds’ rule.

At the time, all she wanted was to follow her beloved leader’s example and choose peace and harmony over subjugation and brutality.

But with the bitter truths they know now, and reflecting upon the horrid atrocities they themselves participated in amidst the war… despite Rose’s self-proclaimed ‘pacifism,’ despite the shaky justifications of their cause being different than Homeworld’s brand of violence... she’s increasingly unsure if any of them ever had a choice.

Tragically, it only takes mere seconds for the initial triumphant beats of Amethyst’s war against Jasper to devolve into a one-sided thrashing.

With a mighty, almost frenzied yell, Amethyst moves one foot forward for counterbalance and slings the weighted, barbed tip of her weapon directly at her opponent’s face. Jasper catches it midair, mere inches from her gem. An arrogant smile paints her visage. After winding the whip’s end around her hand, she yanks its user towards her with a snap of her wrist, swings her in a wide arc, and effortlessly slams her into the nearest cliff wall, blowing up a huge plume of pulverized rock and dust. It all happens so fast that the rest of the party barely has any time to react. As the rubble settles, Ruby finally spots her friend amidst the chaos, collapsed on hands and knees in the dirt. The poor Gem’s hands are nearly trembling as she vies to rise to her feet again, vies to stand her ground and keep fighting.

There’s only one thing she knows for sure, watching all this: if hard light were consumable rather than indelible, she would quite literally be chipping away at her knuckles with her teeth by now.

His expression blown wide with fear, Steven breaks their communal silence to holler Amethyst’s name. Hands flexing in and out of fists, he darts away from their hiding spot. And they tried to stop him, they really did— it’s simply that he’s far too nimble for either of them to catch in time.

“Steven!” Peridot cries, trying and failing to grab his hand to hold him back.

“Steven, no!” Ruby yells, arms outstretched, as he sprints into the clearing— entirely blowing any remaining amount of cover the three of them had, placing his gem at Jasper’s mercy, and causing a thousand living nightmares to flood into her consciousness in but a millisecond. “Come back!!”

“Wait! Wait,” he gasps, waving his arms wildly to catch the larger quartz’s attention as he passes into the center of this natural coliseum, firmly planting himself at Amethyst’s side. “Stop! We don’t need to do this!”

Giving a growl that would rival that of a corrupted Gem’s, Ruby clenches her fingers around thick coils of her hair at either side of her head and yanks. “Aughh, why does nobody listen to me when I’m short??”

A faint trail of glowing embers marks a record of her path as she leaves Peridot by their rocky outcropping and storms right into the open after him. Oh, hoh, hoh— that boy can disobey her clear, simple orders all he wants, but in his folly he’s forgetting one very important fact: rubies are stubborn Gems. And she’ll fight to protect him from the crossfire of Jasper’s hubris and Amethyst’s self-destruction even if that means braving her deepest terrors to run out there and drag him back to safety herself.

(Ideally, she’d be able to drag Amethyst with her out of the thunderdome as well, but she’s also quite the stubborn one. So try as she may, that’s not likely to happen.)

Ruby strides towards the middle of the clearing and defiantly plants her feet in the sterile soil right in front of Steven, and adjacent to Amethyst. She summons her gauntlets, her features twisting in a scowl. “Stand down and let them go!” she shouts up at that bulky orange quartz with all the Garnet-like confidence she can muster. “This is not a Homeworld controlled planet!”

“Steven, Ruby, get out of here!” Amethyst hisses under her breath, her battle-ready stance solidifying with a strange mixture of apprehension and anger as she regards the two of them.

“No!” she shoots back, tugging at her arm. “Come on, you know I can’t just leave you here.”

Jasper’s molten amber eyes narrow, her steely gaze colliding right into her.

“ You,” she says, enunciated as sharp as a dagger. “One half of that vile war machine.”

“War machine?!” Steven cries, distraught by the very implication. “She’s not a war machine! Garnet fuses for love!”

“Yeah!” Ruby jabs her fist in the air loud and proud.

The Homeworld warrior scoffs, seemingly not impressed by their display of solidarity. She folds her arms solid across the Yellow Diamond insignia emblazoned upon her chest and steps closer to address her directly. “And where’s this love now?” she spits, mockingly stooping to her level.

And despite the faint, triumphant memories of her last incursion with this quartz, (well… Garnet’s last incursion), she can’t help but cower in her presence, can’t help but crumble like the deficient sandstone of this very kindergarten under the cruel, personalized precision of her blunt words. Because... she’s right. Because that’s the whole problem, the pulsing heart of life’s cruel game. Fusion offered her a tantalizing taste of freedom, a glimpse of a reality where, together, a lowly guard and her sapphire could achieve literally anything through the strength of their love!— but that world feels like nothing more but an unobtainable mirage now. She’s absolutely useless on her own, just some pathetic waste of resources! No authority, no power, no wisdom of foresight— she brings nothing to the Crystal Gems’ cause. She never did. It was always her. Tears bead at her widening eyes, her gauntleted fists already beginning to tremble at her sides.

“I-I…”

“Where’s any of your power now?” Jasper continues as she raises back to her full height, lifting both open hands towards the empty, cloud-streaked skies. She throws her head back as she offers them all a bright, boastful chuckle. “To think I used to view you traitors as a threat, but now even your disgraceful cause is falling apart, isn’t it… Rose?”

Still standing a step behind her, Steven’s immediate reply brims with tones of frustration. “I’m not—“

“But you’re wrong!” a high, familiar voice urgently calls out from behind them all.

This whole messy confrontation breaks to a halt as everyone turns to gape at the lone Gem poking her head out above the rocky outcropping. Peridot gasps at the sudden influx of attention, and hastily ducks for cover again.

“What are YOU doing here?” Jasper growls with annoyance, grinding one of her feet in the dirt as if inwardly hoping she could shift the very earth they stand on and finally gain the advantage of surprise once more.

“I-I…” the green Gem stammers, slowly creeping out from her hiding spot, summoning newfound confidence as she lays her eyes on each and every one of her friends. “I’m here because our cause hasn’t fallen apart! We live on Earth to be free, to learn new things about ourselves. Like how I can bend metal to my bidding!” she exclaims, tossing enthusiastic fists into the air.

On the cliff face over twenty feet away, a skinny length of metal from one of the injector’s legs slips from the device, falls straight down, and noisily clatters as it collides against the rocky soil. Amethyst facepalms. Meanwhile, Jasper appears so underwhelmed by this display that in any other circumstance, her glazed-over expression could be comedic.

Peridot briefly scowls at her botched handiwork. “And sure,” she shrugs, nodding towards that shard of metal, “nothing’s ever perfect here, but together, we work to help and support each other, just like we’re supporting Amethyst now. Isn’t that freedom worth fighting for?”

A few beats pass as the heart of this proclamation sinks in, the ticking seconds seeing Steven beam in pride at his friend’s progression since the beginning of her stay on Earth, and Jasper’s features scrunch inwards in an almost sour manner. Between the stifling roots of her own despair, even Ruby herself can’t help but feel a little uplifted by this hopeful sentiment. It’s a well-timed salve to an old burn, a naive yet ultimately truthful promise of lighthearted days to come. After all, hasn’t her time as a Crystal Gem taught her by now that no circumstance is permanent? That a single unifying cause can collapse empires like a wildfire, can continually reshape one’s entire understanding of existence? Her gauntleted hands shift at her side as a new spark of timid confidence ignites at her core. What was she thinking, letting this brute of a quartz tower over her and define the very pillars of her own story? She’s better than this. For the very sake of her friends she has to be!

But alas, before this newfound bravery can see its hour of triumph on this secluded battlefield, she finds herself once again cast aside by one of the very friends she’s vying to protect.

Amethyst growls in frustration at their continued presence, and summons her weapon. “UGH, you GUYS!” She slashes its barbed tips against the cliff face right above Peridot, not close enough to hit her, but certainly with enough force that it spooks her into diving behind the low rock formation again. Scowling, she then turns and plucks an actively protesting Steven right off the ground. “Get out of here!” she yells, tossing him back towards the clearing’s entrance. “This isn’t your fight!”

Ruby gives a sharp yelp as she just barely leaps backwards to dodge the business end of her whip, swinging low in a vain attempt to tangle up her feet. “Hey—!”

“It’s just you and me, Jasper,” the purple quartz breathes heavily, and abruptly whirls around to jab her finger towards her opponent. “ONE-ON-ONE!”

Silently, a consenting smirk riding over her lips, the taller Gem summons her ramming helmet in a glittering flash of light.

The mission is— in the terms of the brave humans they sometimes fight alongside— a bloodbath.

When they first warped in, Garnet only expected to find a small handful of disoriented jaspers, citrines, and carnelians roaming about. Gems they could talk to. Gems they could reason with, just as Rose reasoned with her fellow quartzes at the very start of this bold rebellion. Instead, what emerges soon after their arrival is more shocking and unpredictable than any future Garnet could’ve ever visualized.

Bursting from the very heart of this slapdash, rushed Kindergarten, despite every single locational and structural disadvantage this place stacks against one’s favor, is Her.

The strongest, most perfectly formed jasper she’s ever laid eyes on. She’s seven feet tall, built as solid as diamond, her flawlessly faceted gemstone gleaming bright and proud in the rising sun. She wastes no time in following the miserable orders the Great Diamond Authority cruelly embedded deep within her soul, immediately calling the hundreds of scattered and confused off-color Gems surrounding her to action.

Garnet and her squadron simply don’t have enough time to intervene, to try and settle this skirmish halfway peacefully. They don’t have the numbers.

Twenty three Crystal Gems are shattered that day. Numerous more on both sides are cracked or poofed.

And yet one of the greatest tragedies, in her mind… is that these emergent Gems never got the proper chance to consider any purpose beyond their assigned station. Never got a chance to glimpse the promise of their own freedom.

Everything happened so fast.

She took this place for granted— thanks to her own preconceived notions about the kinds of Gems that could emerge here, utterly failed to foresee this potential turn of events— and in the end it cost lives. Both those of her fellow Crystal Gems, her friends … and those of the Beta quartzes she failed to save from Homeworld’s damaging influence.

That night, as she bitterly weeps for the recovered shards of the beloved they lost, clenches her gauntleted fists tight around her gemstones, she vows to never let such a harrowing tragedy escape her vision again. No more.

A leader like her is not allowed to fail.

With the mighty roar of a lion, Amethyst stamps her leading foot to the ground to center her balance and rears her weapon-wielding arm back, wholly intending to defend her pride from this boorish bully. The first and second slashes are fruitful, one striking Jasper in the face, and the next hitting her chest with such intense force that it slams her into the cliff wall a few feet back, but Ruby can’t help but dread the litany of unknown possibilities haunting their future as she watches, powerless in her lack of second sight to influence their present. Could Amethyst win this fight? Sure. There’s gotta be at least one river of time where that occurs, where Jasper is so wrapped up within that facade of insufferable hubris that she fails to take her seriously as an opponent and pays the price. But on the other hand, she senses so many chinks in Amethyst’s armor that she can’t help but fear the opposite. She’s blinded by her anger, unable to consider consequence rationally. Her form in battle— compared to her usual performance— is notably sloppy, as if she’s throwing herself at this fight with such an explosion of tangled, raw emotion that her years of training and refinement have all but melted away in the inferno. Her fingers are trembling as she tightens her grasp on the whip’s pommel.

All of this stated, Ruby may not possess the gift of Sapphire’s future vision, but she has more than enough experience on patrol and on the battlefield to recognize a soldier who is woefully unprepared for a fight. Something terrible is about to happen, she can just feel it.

“Be careful!!” she cries, cupping her hands around her mouth.

“It’s fine, she’s totally rocking this!” Steven says with a huge grin, seeming uncharacteristically calm, given the circumstances. He whoops, and punches his fist in the air. “Go Amethyst!”

Ruby and Peridot briefly match eyes, the noted concern in their gazes pointing towards the fact that they both think that Amethyst’s insistence to fight is reckless and naive. In retrospect, of course her friend would agree with her. She spent a lot of time cohabiting with Jasper on their journey to Earth, so she’s bound to be well aware of her fundamental nature.

At the moment however, given the shorter quartz’s tunnel vision, she’s certain that any of their valid concerns would fall upon deaf ears.

“Who’s weak now, huh?” Amethyst spits from across the clearing, flicking her wrist to activate the triplet spiked balls at the ends of her whip, an upgrade gifted by Bismuth she surprisingly hasn’t seemed to have abandoned. With a holler, she swings her leading arm back and around to build up momentum and then slashes at Jasper’s chest three times in succession. The last hit comes with enough force to push her backwards in the dirt a few feet. “Who’s powerless NOW?!”

Then, just as Ruby fearfully predicted, the winds shift.

The firestorm doubles back upon them, Jasper merely swatting the flail ends away like they were nothing more but a momentary nuisance. Her expression narrows into a scowl. Emergent shock mingles alongside the dark cloud of Amethyst’s anger like wayward lightning bolts as she growls in frustration, the side-swept fringe of her hair shadowing her features. In retaliation she summons a second whip and immediately slashes them both against the soil, endowing them with a crackling, purple-tinged energy, almost a fire of her own making. She tucks into a ball and literally hurls herself at the quartz warrior, her form only recognizable in the heat of that moment via a dazzling blaze of light.

The resulting collision throws up so much dirt and smoke that Ruby has to throw her small body in front of Steven’s to shield him from the worst of the debris.

When the thick curtains of dust finally part, the consequences of this overly-impulsive move are revealed. Jasper still stands proud and tall, her mettle unaffected by this attempted show of strength. Barely a scuff even marrs her uniform. Meanwhile, Amethyst lays hunched over on hands and knees, hacking up fragmented remnants of sandstone she likely swallowed amidst the impact. (Alas, that’s the price she pays for choosing to always reform with an semi-operational digestive system.)

“Is it sinking in yet?” Jasper queries pointedly, advancing towards the trembling Gem on the ground.

Amethyst is so exhausted she can’t even muster the strength to respond, her arms quivering beneath her as she vies to hold up the simulated weight of her hard light form.

Her foe roughly kicks her in the chest, her foot striking mere inches under her gem. Ruby visibly cringes at both the shallow huff of distress that this hit elicits from her, and Steven’s cries of fear in response.

“It doesn’t matter how long or hard you fight,” Jasper boasts, her imposing figure hovering like a bad omen over her quartz sibling’s, “because I’ll always be stronger! Runts like you never had a chance. Runts like you are worthless.”

Angrily, she grinds her teeth together, cradling the vulnerable gemstone on her hand.

Worthless.

Who the hell does this square hunk of stone think she is, slinging such heavy-handed words around like the blunt end of a mallet?

“Get your worthless, sorry forms back in formation!” wretched old Condor Agate used to scream at her and the others in her squad, back when she spent eternity guarding empty corridors, back before she was eventually reassigned to Sapphire’s personal guard. “You’re an embarrassment to your commanding agates, all of you!”

Ruby growls, finding her resolve. That’s it. No more. She can’t bear to stand at the sidelines gripped in fear while some bully is literally beating her friend into the ground, both physically and emotionally. She can’t bear for Amethyst to fall prey to the same type of unwavering torment she herself experienced all those years ago on Homeworld, torment that utterly deformed her sense of self-worth until recognizing any ounce of good in herself became a gargantuan, near-impossible task. Admittedly, she still hasn’t healed from those days. Not entirely. Sometimes she’s unsure she ever will. But it’s her duty to put an end to this, to what’s happening in the here and now. After all, what’s the point of being a Crystal Gem if you don’t look after the people you love?

“We have to separate them,” she says firmly, turning towards Steven and Peridot. “She’s gonna get clobbered!”

The former kindergartener’s expression warps to despair under her visor. “But how? She doesn’t even want us to be here! And none of us are strong enough to face Jasper…”

“Could we make a distraction?” Steven suggests, his voice tinged with the same sort of urgency she feels thrumming like a frantic drum line at the depths of her core.

Humming in thought, Ruby considers the status quo. To no success, she attempts to ignore her friends’ expectant gazes, trustingly falling upon her exactly like all those fellow rebellion soldiers used to look at Garnet… as their de facto leader. But she’s no leader, far from it. Garnet would barely have to think before coming up with a genius, foolproof plan, but she’s going into everything blind. She can’t weigh out potential consequences before rushing into action. She has no ability to pinpoint the most ideal outcome and work backwards from there. With all this in mind, it’s really no wonder that Garnet passed command of the group to Pearl instead of her. At least Pearl has experience leading missions solo.

And yet desperate times call for desperate measures.

She scans their surroundings for inspiration, considering what options may be open to them. At this point there’s no time to double back to the barn or the temple for reinforcements. (And she strongly doubts Lapis would care to so much as match eyes with Jasper, anyways.) One or more of them could always charge into the fray to attempt and break up this small skirmish by force, but that would risk their safety, too. The last thing she wants is to knowingly throw her friends into harm’s way. No, the best option would be breaking the two quartzes up using something in their immediate environment, something large and heavy but capable of being quickly moved, something like...

Her eyes snap wide. “That injector!” she whispers excitedly, pointing to the hulking piece of junked equipment precariously hanging from the cliff wall, only stabilized by a few legs that still penetrate the cracked sandstone. “It’s right above them. If we knocked it down, then maybe…”

Peridot flashes a hopeful smile, and nods.

“We’re on it,” Steven says, summoning his shield. The two of them glance at each other, perhaps silently coordinating their plan, and then leap into action.

“Metal powers activate!” she exclaims, and throws her hands up in the direction of that rusted injector.

Subtly but noticeable, its legs begin to shift and creak under the force of her ferrokinesis, loosening from the eroding stone. Licking his lips, Steven aims his weapon and hurls. It strikes the device directly at its center, clanging against solid metal. The injector wobbles for a moment, its delicate balance obviously destabilized by this force, and then begins to slide free from the porous kindergarten wall. One still-impacted leg snaps under the torque as the cylinder’s immense weight plummets towards the ground.

“Heads up!” Steven calls out, causing a bemused Jasper to flick her gaze skyward, towards the falling object staining the soil with an ever-growing shadow.

The collision of the junky old injector almost appears like a small explosion, flinging dirt a good ten feet into the air and resolutely separating the two quartzes. But Ruby barely has time to high five Peridot and celebrate their success before the kid she’s supposed to be keeping safe darts off into the clearing once more. She hisses a small curse under her breath. Drat, of course he’d run straight to Amethyst’s side again at his first opportunity! She should’ve seen that coming a whole star system away. At least Jasper’s been temporarily marooned on the other side of that busted Gem tech, though.

The real question is, for how long?

Nibbling at her lip, she hastily sprints towards the edge of the injector to keep a watchful eye on their opponent as Steven attempts to have a mid-battlefield heart-to-heart. (At least, that’s what she assumes he’s doing. Admittedly, they kinda failed to hammer out the fine details of their plan before sprinting into action. Her fault.) Thankfully though, at first glimpse it seems the impact’s force has effortlessly knocked Jasper clear off her feet. She seems slightly dazed, but beyond that remains unscathed. Time will only tell if this strategy was a beneficial one. Briefly turning back towards the group, Ruby watches Steven crouch next to Amethyst. She’s muttering something to him, she thinks— her expression raw with fresh tears— but her words are far too hushed to make out. Whatever she shares, however, it’s clearly enough to elicit a strong emotional reaction from her companion.

“No, no!” he pleads, hurt painting his features. “My mom- Rose, she doesn’t matter. Whatever Jasper thinks doesn’t matter. She's the only one who thinks you should be like her!”

“But-”

“Stop trying to be like Jasper. You're nothing like Jasper! You're like me!”

“But even you’re different!” she explodes at first, but any anger present in her form immediately evaporates into something more innately hesitant, more self-conscious. Her fingers claw thick troughs into the reddened soil as she curls them inwards. “I’m not like you at all, I’m not some di—”

“No, that’s not the point!” he says, tears of his own budding at the corners of his eyes. “You’re like me because we’re both not like anybody. And yeah, it sucks. Everyone always expects us to be someone we’re not, but you know what? At least I've always got you. And you've got me! So stop leaving me out of this!”

Slowly pushing herself to her feet behind the junked injector, Jasper groans, her voice strained with newfound exhaustion Ruby never imagined she possessed.

“Y’guys, she’s getting up!” she calls out to her friends behind her, equally a warning as it is a call to action. After all, if this bold stunt finally managed to crack through the first layer of their opponent’s armor, then they might genuinely stand a chance now.

She’ll never know if they heard her, though— because in the same split second she turns back to check on them, the now embracing pair is engulfed in a blinding white light.

Even in the absence of a soldier's fire, everything turns to smoke.

#su #steven universe #ruby #amethyst #jasper #peridot #su fanfiction #my writing stuff #crack the paragon

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archivepolarisornah · 5 years ago

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The meeting | Hayden

A walk around town always done him some good to regain control of his temper whenever he few off the handle. The incompetence of some of the men under the rankings almost astounded him if it didn’t already infuriate him to no end. Hayden slipped a cigarette into his mouth and sparked a match to light it, drawing in a deep breath in an attempt to soothe his damned soul. Passing the other establishments in town, he headed towards the social hub of Mount Olympus. He approached all sorts of commotions coming from inside and out of the bar and drinks flowing meant money was steamrolling in. Hayden finished his smoke and made his way through the parting sea of customers to the front of the bar.

James had a habit when it came to having a free day, and that was enjoying a drink. However, he couldn’t recall things being this busy last time he came to check out the club. Rather it was pathetically empty that very first time that he even ended up leaving early. This sudden change was both unexpected and unwanted. He found himself sighing as it took ten minutes to even get a bloody drink now. His patience was running rather slim.

Should have gone for a drink at home. He muttered to himself, inaudible throughout all the noise. As he turned, drink in hand his eyes crossed with a particular individual. He gave him a simple nod. He knew too well that respect is something earned, and it wasn’t like him to be impolite without reason.

Hayden walked straight behind the bar and was handed a drink by one of his lackys. He must admit, they’ve been trained well enough to give him something without him even asking. He stood back and watched the crowd growing around the bar. Drinks and money being exchanged like rapid on the stock market.

He spotted James and gave him a respectable nod. He had nothing against the man and they’re paths never quite crossed enough for them to ever become more than acquaintances but Hayden wasn’t going to burn bridges unless he had good reason to.

Deciding to step in and intervene, Hayden lifted up the side of the bar and motioned for James to come in. There was a separate space in the back for people that wanted to drink and socialise in peace without the drunken animals surrounding them. He figured he owed the guy the gift of keeping his sanity instead of leaving him around screeching customers and blaring music.

James couldn’t help but roll his eyes as the customers pushed and yelled and most of them were drunk way too quickly. He couldn’t believe that one of them just finished a beer and already clung to one of his pals as if they were love-struck teens. Oh lord.

He did, however, get distracted when Hayden returned the nod and James smiled, seeing he got a drink himself. Hayden had quite an air around him that just either scared you, made you immediately respect him or lured you in.

When he made a movement for James to follow, James did just that. Wondering if the air was also reflected in the way Hayden talked to others. It wasn’t as if he didn’t understand that air. But it certainly made him curious.

“Well this is certainly a lot more quiet.”

Hayden turned and leaned against the bar now that they were away from the rowdy crowds. “Yeah, this area is for business people and the fair few that I believe deserve peace and quiet to enjoy a drink.” he shrugged.

Reaching into this pocket, he pulled out a cigarette and lit one up, breathing out a cloud of smoke “Smoke?” he asked, holding out his packet to offer James one out of courtesy.

“So what brings you into my bar, its not often you’re seen around here. Those employees of yours finally drive you mad?”

“It certainly looks like a great place to hold discussions.” At the Neverland hotel, that would be his office, and that at times lacked the professionalism since Tina and Peter decided they could walk in at any time. He should consider putting a lock on that door. For his own sanity as well. “Then I certainly am glad to have received the believe I belong to those people.” He smiled.

“Yes, though I smoked more when I was younger.” Age started to catch up on him and he’d try to lessen.

“You reading minds now?” He couldn’t contain an eyeroll but eventually had to nod. “Threw Tina in the pool so the tantrums are worse. Peter is well Peter.”

“Well you certainly put it to good use, it makes me want to expend my own office.” James couldn’t help but smile. Fun guy that Hayden, pretty easy champ to talk to huh? “Of course, ever since I was a child I knew that I had to earn money.” Not everyone got to knock on daddy’s door asking for help when in trouble. “Been with a certain crowd in my youth, you got to start somewhere.” Especially as an orphan.

“Guess you can do stuff like this as well.” He inhaled deeply just to blow out some smoke and to inhale it. “Back in the day that used to be a thing, smoke tricks such as the ghost inhale.” He rolled his eyes. “We don’t remain forever young but old habits don’t die easily.”

He rolled his eyes. “To be fair I could have done worse than throwing her in a pool while jumping along-” He could have dropped her alone. “And you know her she is a trouble maker. She thought she could flirt with me to turn me into an embarrassment. She was also pretty drunk.” He shrugged. “The water sobered her up quite quickly.”

“Smoke tricks. There’s a throw back that shows our age” he smirked “Nothing wrong with ageing. Whiskey and wine age well” he shrugged and motioned to his bartender to bring over the bottle and leave it next to them.

“Wait you jumped with her?” he asked “Why is she complaining, you jumped in too.” He didn’t see the problem but then again he also knew that if he did that to Megan that she would hit the roof “Trouble maker is a terms I’m most familiar with thanks to Megan.” It seems like James and himself had the same issue with trouble making staff “Well you were being considerate sobering her up.”

“Yes, we are officially ageing well.” James returned the smirk. “With age comes wisdom, after all, can’t say the kids at my place have plenty of those.” He nodded. “Can’t say no to a good whiskey.” He was more hard liquor than refined wine, but he could appreciate both.

“Didn’t know if she could swim.” He would have to jump after her if she couldn’t. “Because it’s Tina?” That should be reason enough, she could complain about anything if it included James. “How is Megan doing?” He didn’t care in particular but it wasn’t bad to keep this small talk going. “True, I’m a nice guy after all.” He wasn’t always but one could say he improved a little from the time when he was fresh out of the orphanage.

“Couldn’t agree more.” he said raising his glass “I can’t speak for you’re lot but I can assure you, mine definitely don’t.” he replied, taking a swig of his drink. He poured them both another glass and placed the bottle to the side of the table.

“You didn’t know?” he repeated, a smirk crossing his face. He wasn’t going to lie, it was funny. Hayden figured that it wasn’t James’ fault that Tina didn’t find it funny, but he sure as hell did. “Megan is Megan. Too sarcastic for her own good and a pain in my ass.” he shrugged. She was of no concern to him but the deal they had is what tethered them together. “Isn’t that what employees should thank their employers for after all. We’re considerate people.”

“Well, I can’t say I hate it when people agree with me. I feel like at work that’s a rarity. And one of the issues of the agreement is working in itself. I swear the amounts of times I want to kick out Peter is rather pathetic, but I can’t abandon the kid.” He sighed. “He got lucky to have a roof and food above his head without paying rent- I know if I request it from him he’ll just run away and I am not in the mood to chase his ass.” Honestly, if it wasn’t for Tina he wondered if he would have been this patient with him.

“I wasn’t sure no, and the little princess seemed like she was scared so, safety first I suppose.” She was as red as a lobster and cursed his whole being. It was fun, though the anger afterwards wasn’t. She could be so moody at times, and then she would surprise him by lowering her walls. “She is a trouble maker.” And yet he was fond of her. “Yeah, I found her phone number on the floor - seems like someone threw it away. Well, I suppose we both know the pain in our ass when it comes to working then?” A tiny smirk came on his lips.

“I couldn’t agree with you more, I’d say we are the most considerate people in the whole joint.”

“That’s true. The down side of working with idiots and kids.” he shrugged “Kids these days will never know the value of money and hard work. We didn’t get things handed to us and nowadays most of them expect everything to be given to them for free.” Hayden’s age truly showed at times, even he had to admit that.

“Fair enough. At least you cared enough to give a thought about the girls safety. That was more of a thought than I would have given about it.” To be honest, Hayden would have let anyone who annoyed him enough to drown but he figured that most people had a conscience. “I’d throw it away too” he muttered “What’s working if you don’t have one employee that’s a pain in your arse. Unfortunately all of mine are”

“Touché.” For a moment his guilty subconsciousness slipped to smee. Well, the issue with the man was he was way too gullible. “Sometimes I wished I had a new addition to the staff, someone who is both capable and you know doesn’t treat me like a villain simply because I’m an adult male. Seriously, for someone who pays these dimwits, they truly lack respect.”

“Of course I care, I lack staff so if she drowns that would seriously be an issue.” He rolled his eyes. It was because he fancied her, and he absolutely hated it, especially with her recent betrayal. He shrugged. “I wouldn’t be happy if my info was just laying on the ground honestly. And hey all of mine are as well, maybe Smee isn’t but he doesn’t make work easier.”

“Well if you find one, let me know when you start seeing pigs fly because that will be when the miracle happens that a new addition like that joins the workforce” he smirked “They all lack respect because they expect everything to be done for them or they expect to get to the top of the world with minimum amount of effort.”

“You’re not wrong there. Can’t be down a staff member this time of year” he shrugged “Idiots, James. They’re all idiots. We’re stuck having to spoon feed all these kids when its about time they grow up and take responsibility for their jobs and actions”

James couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “I wouldn’t see why Neverland isn’t the most-” He couldn’t come up with the correct term. Fishy? He shrugged. “Well you do make a fair point, I don’t think we’ll get an addition to our staff anytime soon.” He sighed deeply. “They do. It’s like they think they owe the place yet when you threaten to cut their earnings they think it’s unfair. Though I wonder I’m just paying them for the work they do. One of my staff members takes a nap. Peter basically lives in Neverland sitting on his lazy ass. And smee, Smee gets seduced by Tina and the idiot falls for pretty much everything she says.”

He emptied the whiskey Hayden had poured in for him in one go. The burn felt nice against his throat. “They are. I didn’t become a boss so I could become a babysitter.”

#dash #The meeting #The meeting Hayden #Hayden #haydenbodaway #[I find a comrad in you - Hayden]#James #theneverlandjameshook

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cchellacat · 6 years ago

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Working On It

Love All The Marvel Ships Challenge

Day 5 ~ Kissing

Exactly no one in the Tower was surprised at how well Darcy and Bucky Barnes bonded once he and Steve moved back to New York.

Darcy’s bubbly personality coupled with her insatiable drive to fix people had her stalking the former Winter Soldier within hours of him stepping foot in the Tower. She was dogged in her determination to welcome him.

Under her constant assault of charm, light flirting and encouragement to join the larger group for dinner and movie nights, Bucky slowly came out of his shell.

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The first time she kissed him was in the heat of the moment. She’d been running form Sam after he discovered she’d replaced all his coffee with de-caff. She’d burst into the gym, breathless and giggling wildly when she came across her new friend.

“Hide me, quick, or Sam is gonna string me up.”

Bucky had flicked his eyes towards the vault box and lifted the top, revealing the cavity within.

Darcy wasted no time in running over and trying to climb in, but being short had its disadvantages. Before she could complain Bucky had lifted her up, princess style before lowering her in with a wink and replacing the top.

A few minutes later Sam had come huffing into the gym.

“Barnes, you seen Lewis?”

“Not since yesterday, why? You need her for something?”

“Yeah, something.” Sam muttered angrily before leaving.

Darcy held back the cackle that was threatening to burst. The top lifted and Darcy spring up like a jack-in-the-box, flinging her arms around his neck in a victory hug.

“My hero!”

He pulled her out and placed her down again but before he let go of her she placed a smacking kiss on his cheek.

“Thanks, big guy, gotta go… don’t forget, Saturday at 7, dinner and a movie.”

She was gone before he could do more than lift a hand to where she had pressed her lips.

Bucky stares in consternation at the door, wondering what the hell just happened.

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Steve’s not stupid, he’s seen the change in his friend ever since Miss Darcy Lewis had steamrollered into their lives. The girl is hell on wheels and doesn’t seem to take no for an answer.

There had been the Welcome Back cupcakes with silver frosting and red star sprinkles, Steve had nearly choked when she’d thrust the plate into Bucky’s hands, fully expecting him to react badly, but instead he had frowned at the girls hand, a tiny crinkle appearing in the corner of his eyes as he took in the silver pained nails, her middle finger’s adorned with a bright red star on each. Steve wasn’t sure what it was that Bucky found funny about it, but he had.

Then there had been the Harry Potter movie marathon she’d insisted they sit through. She’d provided pop corn and chips and beer and had proceeded to talk the whole way through, her feet propped up in Bucky’s lap like they belonged there as she explained everything she felt was culturally relevant. She ignored Steve’s attempts to indicate that she was invading Bucky’s space and, when about an hour into the first movie Bucky had grabbed her ankles to keep her still he’d thought the worst. Instead Bucky had just pulled her closer until her calves were over his lap and he’d slung an arm round her to support her back. Darcy had just snuggled right in and continued her ramble while Steve gaped from the armchair.

It had taken a few months for it to sink in with Steve that Darcy treated Bucky the same was she did everyone, with irreverent respect, tongue in cheek humour and tactile affection. She was a hugger, she cooked for people, she always had a way of cheering everyone up, even on the worst days. Other than Pepper, Darcy was the only one allowed into Tony’s lab without a security override. Bruce positively beamed as she chattered to him over breakfast tea and even Natasha let the girl drag her off shopping or to the spa. He’d thought at first that the art supplies that kept showing up in his apartment were from Tony or Natasha, but no, Darcy Lewis had somehow figured out his favourite brands and needs and provided them without expectation of thanks.

Bucky seemed to get the full experience though, she brought him shopping and encouraged him to buy things that made him feel good. She brought a pile of books after Bucky had casually mentioned his love for science fiction. And every Saturday night she made him dinner and played the big band music Bucky had loved back in the 40’s.

That’s what he walks in on, the music’s blaring loud enough that neither of them hears him come in and he stands still and watches the couple before him. It’s like he’s suddenly back in those crowded dance halls in Brooklyn. It’s like seeing a ghost he’s thought long dead. Bucky is grinning at her as she laughs, spinning out on the floor and letting him swing her through the air with shrieks of delight.

He doesn’t stay, but backs out of the room slowly, feeling as though he’s seem something he shouldn’t have. Before he can close the door, the music stops and the two clutch each other breathlessly, Darcy leaning into him, Bucky’s hands on her waist. He watched as his friend presses his lips into her hair-line bestowing a kiss, and thanks her for the dance. The radiant smile she returns to Bucky hits Steve like lightening.

As Steve walks away he ponders exactly what it is he’s feeling, but honestly it’s a jumble of emotions that all lead back to one fact. Where Steve had failed to find his old friend inside the damaged shell of the winter soldier, Darcy Lewis had succeeded. She’d brought him back, slowly but surely. Instead of the jealousy and resentment he knows is itching in the back of his brain he focuses on the gratitude instead. He can see where it’s headed, this thing between them and he resolves then that he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure they get their chance at happiness. Bucky deserves nothing less from his friend. Steve will protect Darcy Lewis till the day he dies because he knows, if something happens to her, Bucky will retreat and allow the soldier back.

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The first time he does more than press a kiss into her hair, it’s not because anything monumental happens. It’s a day like any other, Darcy has handed out packets to all the Avengers with the briefings for the press conference later that day and she is rushing around the common kitchen making sure everyone has had breakfast as she tops up her coffee and fixes one for Bucky since he’s only just come in. When she brings him the coffee and places it on the table in front of him he turns his head and gives her cheek a quick peck in silent thanks, she squeezes his shoulder briefly before leaving, calling out to remind everyone they’re due in the lobby at four.

Darcy keeps her smile fixed firmly in place until she reaches the elevator and the door close and then she allows herself a moment to freak out a little. He’d just kissed her, right in front of everyone and yeah, okay, he’s been pressing tiny kisses into her hair for a month now when they danced or snuggled on the couch and she hadn’t taken it as anything other than brotherly, but that…. That was… well it was something else entirely. It had felt like a sleepy morning hello, the sort of kiss you gave your other half after months of living together, like a part of your daily routine that needed no explanation, but they were just friends, right? Except friends didn’t have lunch every day and spend evenings watching Netflix together while cuddling on the couch…. Christ on a cracker, has she been dating him and never even noticed? Did he think they were dating? Were they?

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Christmas was only a week away and the Tower was hung with holly and mistletoe, trees were festooned with ribbons and tinsel and Darcy was about ready to cry with the preparations for the Christmas Eve ball. All she wanted was to go home and sleep for a week. Instead she was stuck counting chairs, ordering the place cards for the dinner and finding a seating arrangement that wouldn’t lead to a political nightmare.

She was just about to leave the common room and head to her apartment when a voice stopped her.

“Darcy, I’ve been looking for you, Doll.”

“Hey Bucky, what’s up?”

She was standing in the hall just outside the kitchen when he caught up with her.

Before he said a word, he looked above her and raised an eye brow. She tilted her head and smirked. There was a bunch of mistletoe hanging right over where she stood.

They both unconsciously moved a little closer.

Unbidden, her thoughts all went right there. He was so close she could smell him, the intoxicating scent sandalwood and gun oil making her dizzy. Although they spent a frequent amount of time together and he had kissed her cheek a few weeks ago, she still hadn’t managed to figure out a way to make a move on him. Now, overhead was the perfect way to settle the question once and for all.

“Huh, I guess I’m just gonna be stuck here till someone kisses me.” Her teeth catch her lower lip and she looks up at him with big blue eyes, willing the universe to please, just please listen to her just this once.

Bucky thinks if he doesn’t make a move now, they’ll still be where they are this time next year.

“Could be a while, everyone’s out right now.” He drawls mischievously.

“Yes, they are.” The smile on her face widens as he draws closer. He’s got this look in his eyes, like he thinks she might back out, but that is so far from the truth as to be laughable.

Darcy hooks her fingers through his belt loops and tugs him even closer, till there’s hardly a space between them at all. He mirrors her earlier expression, that bottom lip of his held down by his teeth like he’s stopping himself form saying something particularly filthy and a thrill runs up her spine

Slender fingers walk a path up his chest, and he catches her waist in one hand, their bodies now pressed together hip to chest and Darcy feels the hitch in her breath at the warmth of him. His other hand runs through her hair, tugging the locks back from her face before his thumb traces a line down her neck.

There’s a moment in that silence between them, before they kiss that feels like the universe paused for just a second and it makes her head swim.

Pressing up on her toes, her belly fills with butterflies. His eyes darken and the hand on her moves smoothly around till it’s splayed against her back, keeping her steady.

At first, it’s just a light brush of lips, both of them figuring out how this will work. It grows stronger and deepens, heat rushes through her blood as she hooks her arms round his neck and sinks her fingers into his hair.

The little moan he makes draws a smile to her lips and he traces the seam of her mouth with his tongue, begging entrance. Now it’s her that moans, as he teases into her mouth, all hot and wet and tasting like coffee and cherries. Nothing could have prepared her for the sudden zing of fire rushing through her core, the insistent need that ached for far more than a simple kiss. He felt it too she knew, if the way he intensified the assault on her mouth was anything to go by. Then she was drowning in him, sparks dancing over her skin where he touched her, his hands seeming to be everywhere at once. For those blessed minutes the only thing that existed for her was him, the firmness of his chest, the soft sweetness of his lips and the strength of his arms holding her up. Lightheaded they finally broke away from each other, surety and excitement in every short breath.

“Do I need to hang mistletoe everywhere to get you to kiss me like that again?” She asks him with a grin.

The soft smile he gave her turned to full blown laughter and he picks her up, spinning her around as she yelps in surprise.

“Don’t need nothing except you, Doll.”

@captain-rogers-beard

#love all the marvel ships #love all the marvel ships challenge #darcy/bucky #wintershock #kissing

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sparda3g · 7 years ago

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Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Chapter 263 Review

The arc ends but the question remains: what’s next? Who knows; maybe it will just end there. After reading the chapter, there are two things that came to my mind. The first one is how some of these characters aren’t truly done as it would appear that they will return under different circumstance. The second is what my friends would know me well for: “time will tell.” Why that thought? This chapter is a stepping stone for the next arc with many possibilities, though understandably concerning.

After the long series of “darkness,” it does feel pretty good to be back in a relaxing and humorous side that the series is known for. Because of it, this chapter is filled with amusing reactions. Everyone in the Rebel’s spectators were stripped, so all of them are in robes, but it doesn’t matter because they won. It’s kind of funny how they were about to celebrate with others without clothes since they probably would hug without any shame. Then again, they’re the one that broke the cage door before, so don’t underestimate them.

I got a good laugh with the celebration about to happen, but Erina ruins the mood, because now she can take her anger on Soma. An interesting fun fact: this is the first time Erina does a tsundere physical interaction with Soma and by trope’s logic, the pairing is drawing closer than ever. Still, it’s funny how she can’t let that grudge go and understandably so. I like how she looks like she’s about to pitch his cheeks until he can’t feel them anymore. Imagine if she wasn’t ready to charge ahead; the series would have its own everyone dies ending.

A charming rebound is when Soma let her know that he knew she can cook a perfect dish in ten minutes. He always knew. Wow, that is one smooth move there, my boy. Erina even got flushed by his comment. This pairing is going places. If anything, Erina has portrayed the tsundere character in its entirely here; from physical beating (well, just pitching) to trying to brush the sweet comment. Lovely. I hope everyone grew up by now and understand what Japan likes, or else, here we go again…

It’s a good thing Tsukasa finally got a wake-up call that his character was begging for. After his loss, it does appear that he is slowly changing his view about cooking; retracing his step to perfect cooking. It’s simple with the concept of fun, but since that’s the moral behind the arc, it’s fitting to execute this way. The good thing is he doesn’t have to be a “villain” anymore, so it’s a good chance to push his character further.

The same can be said for Rindou as well. I got to say, it’s really hard to argue against her being fans’ best girl or however they say it, because she seriously has charms, which is funny concerning how she’s like a vamp and eat exotic food that could turn some away. Not me, I’m cool with anything. Her expression while looking at Tsukasa is warm. He has to be one lucky S.O.B. I do hope there’s more to tell with her noticing his changes. Also, I hope her “fear” will be addressed soon, because it would be a shame to leave it unanswered, making it useless.

Speaking of unanswered, Azami got his clothes back, guess he’s that sophisticated to wear robes, and left without anything more. It could go two ways. One is the weak path in which leaves everything the way it is and never look back. I would be upset if that is the case, though if the series was rushed to end because of cancellation (not saying it is), then I can understand. The other is the rightful path in which will address those characters that have lost in due time and go back to develop/explore character further. After all, Azami technically holds the key to reveal more about Erina’s mother. If I can trust Tsukuda wholeheartedly, these characters aren’t done yet. They will return with a different agenda.

At least the judges give him a pity feeling; it’s the least they can show after getting steamrolled by his own daughter and everyone else. Erina does pay him a respect, which is a bit surprising. It is true that Azami did help her and even show actual concern of her health, but his ambition got the worst of him hence the brainwashing and led her to focus on one path. Again, this part needed more insight, so he has to return one day. There’s good and bad in this, but Erina only looks at the good side. It could have addressed it a bit better, but this is fair enough. Thankfully it’s not battle manga with deaths; otherwise, coolest guy ever returns.

After a funny return of Rotten Urara and her reaction, almost forgot Momo did the favor to toned her down, it basically enters the setup stage for the next arc. While the main plot is left unknown, the status of the characters is more or less determined. Everyone in the Rebel’s team are now Elite 10. I laughed at Isami “tackling” his brother for his achievement; one day he’s going to kill him. I won’t go into greater detail, probably saved for another post as this is a review, but this can lead to many interesting routes for characters to challenge as Elite Ten. Then, it enters a series of surprises.

What shocked me kind of is Soma’s position. I said “kind of” because Yuki somewhat gave it away that Erina wasn’t going to be First Seat; I guess she channeled me and other fans that thought the same. If one character say it before announcement, it won’t happen. Case in point, Soma ends up taking First Seat, all thanks to Erina. This could fizzle some fans since it is believed that this is his main goal and the series will now end. It’s no One Piece, so it’s not the end. Imagine if One Piece is found in the middle of the story; that would be unique.

Anyway, you have to remember the seating position is like getting called up first in any sports draft, since they’re open for anyone. Basically, Erina let Soma take it because his contribution did help her a lot. That’s nice of her. Naturally, this kind of reaction would mean it put all the spotlight on Soma the protagonist, undermining her achievement as significant. However and thankfully, Soma say otherwise.

I thought Senzaemon would reclaim his title as the Headmaster, but he’s so adapted to the outside world that he announces his retirement. Did he got carry away with the pairing love as well? He looks like he knows who should take over the title when he approaches to Soma and ask his opinion; those two are sneaky bunch. Everyone predicted Erina to take First Seat including me, but never came to my mind that she will take the Headmaster title. Her reaction is so funny.

His logic is because she carries Nakiri name, why not give the title to her right. That is such a self-aware logic. However, it’s his real reason that pleases me in many ways. He was actually upset that he got the First Seat because of her suggestion. It’s more of given than earned. The Headmaster is basically Zero Seat, so he wants her to get it. Why? Because he doesn’t want to think that he has defeated her. He will only take the First Seat if she takes the Headmaster. Aww…

Even if there’s no title behind, he won’t be satisfied until he defeats her fairly. I really like this because he pretty much didn’t accept the spotlight that could have undermine her achievement. It’s basically him acknowledging her to be a worthy opponent. I would like to think he passed the protagonist’s torch to her, but I am getting ahead of myself. The sweet spot is his re-declaration of his long-term goal: make her say “delicious.” Erina looks charmed by his words; it’s adorable to say the least. God bless for this subplot.

The arc finally ends and already got new positions for these characters. While we don’t know other characters’ seating placement, they’re now in the same circle. Before closing the review, I should go over the past parts. The Headmaster’s part takes suspension in disbelief. While the series is self-aware and even have Erina thinking it’s ludicrous for her to take it, it is indeed odd. I am grateful for my prediction to be wrong, but this decision is a tough call. It’s hard to predict or expect the outcome. For its world, it is acceptable. She has been working behind the scene for a while, so I guess that’s the idea.

I will briefly go over the next phase. It’s interesting and concerning at the same time with this path. It’s interesting because being in Elite Ten can treat us a different view of how it function and how they work around it. We only got to see them behind the scene and when they reign supreme, so a daily life routine is new. Plus it gives the characters a better focus. That being said it also comes with concerns.

What would come of Erina once she begins anew as the Headmaster? I wouldn’t mind her absence for a short arc or two. Her role has done so much to give her a long period of vacation days in writing sense; meaning it won’t make me think, “Ugh, the writer can’t write heroine for squat!” Okay, I won’t think like that but you get the picture. Still, I hope she doesn’t disappear for too long. Since the series acknowledge the baffling decision, it could be a sign of understanding on what to do next. I may end up eating my words but I prefer not.

The mix of interest and concern is what is next. Are we going International or something? I think it’s time to lay back and not have something overly crucial at stake as the series was doing great before “darkness.” Treat it as a sports series, where the competition is your only worry. Hopefully, it will head for a fun ride, because we deserved it. I believe this chapter is the last of the volume but I can be wrong, so this does reek for a new beginning. I’m ready.

Overall, it was an amusing chapter with a nice end to the arc. The artwork packs with plenty of charming expressions, including the two pairings get their own share. It’s pairing paradise. The setup is set for the Rebel’s team to be in Elite Ten with plenty of potential for intriguing subplots. Soma and Erina continue to shine and end on a heartwarming from those two. The decision for the title placement is questionable, but this is where I come in with my quote: time will tell. I won’t jump to any conclusion until the arc gets started. Will it be good? Will it be bad? No one knows until it happens.

I know some would jump ahead and say it’s awful, but who knows. Maybe it will surprise us. I’m not confident but I’m not against it either. It’s matter of patience that will lead us to a better path. It’s going to get a color page next, so that’s one way to rile up the hype for the new beginning. What is next? Only time will tell.

#food wars #shokugeki no soma #shokugeki no souma #chapter 263 #review #erina nakiri #soma yukihira #soma x erina

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wrestlingisfake · 6 years ago

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Evolution preview

Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella - Rousey, a former UFC bantamweight champion best known for a 12-0 streak in mixed martial arts, is defending the Raw women’s title. Bella is a two-time WWE divas champion (once holding the belt for 301 days), and probably the best representative of the WWE women’s division from 2006-2015, after Trish Stratus and Lita retired but before the “divas revolution/women’s evolution” angle. Rousey is the latest effort to build upon the new era, and Nikki is the veteran of the previous era out to prove she’s still on top.

This matchup symbolizes a lot of the problems with the way WWE books women’s wrestling. Rousey runs down Bella for being promoted for her look and implies she benefited from dating John Cena, with the gist being that Nikki isn’t a “real” athlete because she’s too pretty and/or a slut. On the other hand, Nikki’s heel act involves whining that she isn’t given enough credit for building the platform Ronda just waltzed into (the implication being that Nikki actually deserves no credit) and making light of Rousey’s losses in UFC (which was a legitimate mental health issue for her, at one point). We’re expected to decide which side is more awful and root for the other, but the entire spectacle becomes revolting in a way that (for example) Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman would not be.

In general I think WWE has a very disturbing mentality about top women’s bouts, where the basic trash talking we’re accustomed to in pro wrestling has to be distorted into this hateful, passive-aggressive metacommentary on what is wrong with types of women. Rousey and Bella aren’t fighting each other so much as what they each allegedly represent--carpetbaggers and starfuckers, respectively--and it just feels like it’s less important which woman wins than which type of woman is deemed acceptable. This has been a creative problem within WWE for at least 20 years, and getting past it is the last great roadblock for gender parity in wrestling. Unfortunately it doesn’t feel like WWE even recognizes the problem, because this match could have been the division’s John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar but they’re determined to turn it into a Jerry Springer segment.

A title change could be interesting, as a way to legitimize Nikki and level-set Ronda, but I doubt either of those things are goals for WWE right now. Rousey’s role is to steamroll through everyone in her path, and Nikki’s role is to pass the torch. Rousey is going to retain, probably by tapout; the only real question is whether it’s a brtually one-sided squash or if Nikki gets to employ enough heel tactics to make a real fight of it.

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair - Lynch is defending the Smackdown women’s title under “last woman standing” rules, so anything goes but the first woman who fails to answer a ten count loses, and the woman left standing will be the champion.

So this program manages to be the opposite of what bugs me with Rousey vs. Bella. That may be because it’s a secondary concern, or because it’s on Smackdown where Vince McMahon is paying less attention, or both. The vibe here is very much Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin from 1996, when Bret was still technically the babyface, but Austin was catching fire, but Austin couldn’t just be a babyface without losing the edge that was getting him hot. There is far less of a sense that this feud is substantially different just because the combatants are women, because the feud isn’t about “which of these women is the right kind of woman?” but rather “these two wrestlers are gonna fucking kill each other.”

I’m sure there will continue to be hand-wringing about WWE mismanaging Lynch and the wisdom of her heel turn. But what’s done is done and at this point, they’re on to something with her and it would be foolish to alter course. I can’t even recommend booking Charlotte as a heel because right now her “I just don’t understand why my best friend would treat me like this!” act plays perfectly against Becky’s bad attitude. If Becky’s going to be Steve Austin, it’s not time for a Vince McMahon to screw her over; she needs a Bret Hart who is aghast and scandalized that she would tarnish the principles of good sportsmanship, and WWE is shitty at packaging that sentiment in a heel unless it’s transparently conniving.

Lynch ought to win. I don’t know where that leaves Charlotte in terms of her direction for Wrestlemania. It’s starting to look like whatever feature role they had in mind ought to go to Becky anyway. But the right thing for the business as a whole is to figure out how far they can take Lynch’s new act.

Trish Stratus & Lita vs. Alicia Fox & Mickie James - Trish and Lita dominated the WWE women’s division circa 2000-2006, and they’ve come to be regarded as the living legends of women’s wrestling. This started as a feud between Trish and Alexa Bliss (one of the top women in today’s division), with the intent of adding Lita to make it a tag match (that Alexa’s sidekick James happens to be a veteran from the tail end of theTrish/Lita era is a bonus), but Alexa couldn’t get medically cleared for this show so Fox is filling in for her. What had been designed to be a clash of then vs. now has become kind of then vs. then slightly later.

I would expect this match would have originally been about giving Alexa the rub against two legends, but now that she’s just cornering the heel team it’ll probably be an easy win for Trish and Lita.

Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler - Sane won the NXT women’s championship from Baszler in August, so this is the rematch. Not much has changed in this feud because Baszler acts like the title loss was a fluke, so it’s still a battle of a big MMA bully and a little joshi underdog. They occasionally tease that Sane is going to hulk up (asuka up?) and bust out some epic strong style shit, but we may not be at that point in the story just yet.

Originally WWE acted like the entire NXT women’s roster would be on this show, but as of this writing the only NXT representation is this match. That, plus the fact that Baszler is one of the Four Horsewomen of MMA with Ronda Rousey, makes me think that there could be a reason they went out of their way to get Baszler on the show. Sooner or later WWE will want to do an angle based on that--if not now, when?

I could easily see this going either way, but Baszler really has nothing left to do in NXT, so a second title run feels pointless. She should probably just lose and pick a fight with the Raw or Smackdown women to build to her moving on up.

Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm - This is the final match to determine the winner of the second annual Mae Young Classic tournament. I haven’t heard of any particular stakes in the tournament; it stands to reason the winner will automatically be added to the NXT (or NXT UK) roster, but that’s probably true of the loser as well.

I honestly haven’t followed any of this tournament, so I don’t have any useful insight on the match. All I really know about Shirai is that she was the ace of World Wonder Ring Stardom and is frequently considered one of the best wrestlers in the world today, male or female. Storm was a semifinalist in last year’s tournament, and also the first women’s champion in Progress. This could go either way but it feels like WWE is more into pushing Shirai as a major acquisition, while Storm is earmarked for the fledgling NXT UK brand.

Sasha Banks & Bayley & Natalya vs. Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan - Banks, Bayley, and Natalya have been out of the title picture for months, leaving them with little to do but feud with Ruby’s Riott Squad stable. At one point it looked like losses to the Riott Squad were going to trigger a Banks/Bayley breakup, but apparently WWE couldn’t figure out what to do with that so they just made up like it never happened. Natalya has been playing the role of Ronda Rousey’s sidekick, so she’s handy to round out the babyface team.

Banks has only just been cleared to compete after being sidelined with a concussion, so this match will be a litmus test for where she’s headed. If she scores the winning fall, that suggests WWE is confident about putting her back in the mix at the top. If she’s pinned or submitted, I think that indicates that they’re still concerned about her durability and want to hold her back a while longer. Unfortunately I’m not all that confident in WWE’s confidence in Banks, so I’m picking the Riott Squad to win.

Battle royal - This will be a standard battle royal where all the participants will enter the ring at the start of the match, and the last one that isn’t eliminated will win. Eliminations will presumably occur when someone exits the ring to the floor over the top ring rope. (Historically many women’s battle royals have dispensed with the “over the top” part, making eliminations easier, but WWE seems to have moved away from that.) The winner is supposed to be awarded a future title match, presumably for either the Raw or Smackdown championship.

This is largely designed to make sure everyone who didn’t have a match on the card still got to wrestle on the show. For Raw that means Ember Moon, Nia Jax, Tamina, and Dana Brooke. For Smackdown that means, uh, basically everyone except Lynch and Flair: Asuka, Naomi, Carmella, Lana, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, and Zelina Vega. Maria Kanellis is also involved, even though she’s on 205 Live now and has been doing a non-wrestling role since returning to WWE in 2017.

Returning to WWE for this match are Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly, Torrie Wilson, Molly Holly, Ivory, and Alundra Blayze. Ivory was around during the Attitude Era, but her pre-WWE career goes all the way back to GLOW. Blayze is the only woman on this show who wrestled in WWE before the women’s division was reactivated in 1998. Interestingly, both Ivory and Blayze are a bit older today than the Fabulous Moolah was during her iconic feud with Wendy Richter in 1984.

It’s tough to guess who would win this match. If the winner goes after the Raw title, I would expect her to get squashed by Ronda Rousey at some point before the end of the year, and I don’t see any of the Raw names fitting into that narrative. If we’re setting up a Smackdown title match, Asuka would make sense, although you might want to keep Asuka and Lynch apart for a while to build to something bigger. Naomi vs. Lynch would be good, even if I wouldn’t give Naomi good odds of winning. None of the returning veterans strike me as being groomed for a “coming out of retirement for one last title shot” storyline, but you never know--maybe they think Blayze chasing the title could be big at the Royal Rumble or something.

If I gotta pick somebody, Asuka is a safe bet, but I don’t really think this match will be about safe bets.

#wwe #evolution #wwe evolution #ronda rousey #becky lynch #nikki bella #charlotte flair

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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Supergirl: Inside Kara and Zor-El’s Return to National City

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This SUPERGIRL article contains spoilers for Season 6, Episode 8, “Welcome Back, Kara!”

Supergirl Season 6 Episode 8

Supergirl is back! But it’s not all ice cream cones and pizza parties just yet. She’s finally reunited with her sister and her team, and she got that long-awaited hug with Lena – without whom she would still be in the Phantom Zone, as she pointed out. But from the first time we see Kara in this episode under the sun lamps, it’s clear that the events of the first half of the season will stay with her for a while.

Guest star/CW legacy player Jason Behr (Roswell, Roswell, NM) caps off his time on Supergirl as Kara’s biological father, Zor-El, by getting to know the Girl of Steel’s life in National City before he heads to Argo City to reunite with his wife and the surviving Kryptonians. Posing as Kara’s Uncle Archie, Zor-El stops by Catco, lifts a big ol’ copy machine, flies to the rescue alongside Supergirl, tries to solve climate change, and apparently even found time to catch up on Sesame Street. We spoke with Behr about the episode, who called it “a real honor” to be asked to be part of the beloved show’s final chapter. “It was a lot of fun to be able to put that ‘S’ on my chest and to play like I was eight years old again.”

Nia and Lena’s bond continues to grow, and it’s a welcome highlight of this great episode, a return to form after the lackluster midseason finale. The pair are both smart, observant people who tend to keep struggles to themselves, who have been missing Kara each in their own way. They’re also uniquely capable of understanding what the other is going through, regarding their strained (strange?) relationships with their mothers. Hopefully they will continue to look out for each other as they set off on the very different journeys this episode sets up: Nia presumably taking on Nyxly and Lena looking for her biological mother.

Throughout the episode, everyone struggles with Kara and Zor-El’s time in the Phantom Zone. Kara tries to manage triggering reminders of the phantoms with friends, family, and at work, which is only compounded by the realization that the team’s efforts to save her unleashed phantoms on innocent people in National City and an assignment to cover how “Supergirl” took on the phantoms in her absence. It’s the kind of emotional fallout that makes sense for someone like Kara, who tries to always be the one shouldering the burden – which is probably why she’s also trying to hide the fact that she’s struggling now that she’s finally back.

Viewers know that Alex is experiencing something similar, but of course both Danvers sisters try to grit through it. She was so afraid for Kara’s safety that she can’t simply go back to normal. Hopefully these two will be able to lean on each other, because Alex is right – the only way out is through, and they can only get through it together. Seeing Kara take inspiration from fellow journalist Iris West-Allen was a nice touch – more of these little moments of connectivity and more acknowledgment of Iris’s journalism career, please!

For his part, Zor-El spent roughly 40 years in a world not only without hope, but thinking he was to blame for the destruction of his planet and the deaths of everyone he knew and loved. It turns out he saved his daughter as well as Argo City, but Zor-El had no idea until Kara came to the Phantom Zone. Behr says that this bleak time was filled with guilt, self-hatred, and sadness for Zor-El, and that the phantoms, “broke him down and sucked the life out of him.”

One thing the episode did especially well was balancing out the heavier elements with lighthearted banter from the team and the sheer joy of seeing the gang back together and Supergirl flying through the air again.

“I feel like after being seven episodes in the Phantom Zone, I think everyone deserved a little levity,” Behr says. And Zor-El deserved to get to know his daughter again, as an adult. “I think he wants to experience the life that Kara has created for herself on Earth, along with some of the other new Kryptonian perks. He wanted to experience some joy.”

Speaking of that joy: Behr got to fly with Supergirl!

“I found myself feeling like my eight-year-old self, running around the front yard with a red towel wrapped around my neck. I felt like all my childhood dreams had come true,” Behr says. “Both [Melissa and I] were grinning ear to ear, but I could definitely feel my face hurting after a little while. It was just a lot of fun.”

There have been many different versions of Zor-El over the years, but the one we’ve come to know on Supergirl is first and foremost a scientist. This episode brings that fact front and center as Zor-El takes on the alien equivalent of real life garbage patches in our oceans, like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In brutal 2021 irony, Zor-El delivers to Kara what he thinks is going to be shocking, heartbreaking information about the state of Earth’s environment, to which she must respond that everyone already knows. For Zor-El, this is history repeating itself. so he steamrolls anyone and everyone as he leaps into action – solo.

“What he did on Krypton to try to solve that environmental problem didn’t work,” Behr says. “His hubris and his ego drove him past what could have been a different outcome. When he saw on Earth, that he was heading down the same path as Krypton, he saw it as his destiny to make things right to correct these past mistakes. To, to be given a second chance at this magnitude, it’s the second chance of a lifetime.”

Unfortunately, Zor-El falls prey to the same hubris again on Earth, assuming he understands the situation and can solve it on his own, rather than working together with fellow scientists Lena and Brainy. His attempt to right the wrongs of the past, while noble, is, as Behr puts it, “Kind of a tragic thing.” Even six seasons in, it’s remarkable to watch a superhero show that prioritizes teamwork, thoughtfulness, kindness, and slowing down to make sure you have all the necessary information before acting to the extent that Supergirl does.

While that was a hard lesson for Zor-El, it’s good to see Supergirl resisting the temptation to offer up quick fixes by way of alien technology. Frankly, problems like climate change might be more interesting to watch supers tackle than traditional all-powerful villains or disasters, since they’re not mere matters of brawn, brain, speed or flight.

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Behr sees a clear connection between his character’s past and our planet’s future. “When I think about what we are experiencing here on our own planet, it’s the same thing on Krypton. It’s not a simple solution. It’s not a quick fix. It’s not one way, it’s got to be a collective. It’s got to be everyone working together to try to fix this problem, because it is a problem and because the time is running out.”

The post Supergirl: Inside Kara and Zor-El’s Return to National City appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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labellerose-acheron · 7 years ago

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Name: Queen MK

Characters: Belle Rose Beauton, Onyango Simba Lyons, Copper Thomas Russell, Drizella Catherine Tremaine, Toulouse Henri Bonfamille, Bambino Daryl Basurto, Perdita Mariel Faye, Joshua “Strongbear” Sweet, Maui, Urania of Hesiod, Attina Morgan Triton, Hercules Odysseus Persaud

**i just want to note that i wrote the vast majority of this at the beginning of the month before we got all our lovely new members, so just shout to everyone for being lovely writers and lovely people and making this community special!

Pick a thread from the past six months that you’re proud of and talk about why. Ugh, fuck, okay. I’m gonna try to go character by character bc so many good ones??

Belle: “Letter of Recommendation” - Beautibbs. Man, this thread straight fucked me up. It was supposed to be just something really chill, because Belle was a huge Charms nerd and she totally would’ve been a teacher’s pet to Tibbs. In HP world, I took advantage of the fact that Belle’s father left more recently than in current canon, and wanted to explore that and, surprisingly, Beautibbs was where I got to actually feel it the most. Belle is normally so composed, and the fact that she broke down--well, it was so real. She’d been putting so much pressure on herself and to see her crack was kind of cathartic for me, and for her. The fact that it was totally unexpected was what made it feel even more natural.

Simba: “Stays in Vegas” - Simber. I loved “Stays in Vegas” because the whole marriage thing was something I’d wanted to explore for a while. There are a lot of things about Simba and Ber’s relationship that are not what Simba anticipated in a relationship, and as someone who has spent his whole life thinking about the person he’s going to be with and what that relationship is gonna be like--it’s interesting to break that down. And I like exploring Simba’s insecurities too. Not his whole “I Killed My Dad” thing, but the fact that he is really always afraid of people leaving him in relationships, or that he is “too much” or pushes for things too soon. So, yeah, idk, that was really fun.

Copper: “Pixie’s Stalker” - Coperi. This thread was so good for me, because it had so many layers. It was Copper at his purest. He wanted to help Peri and give her good advice. At the same time, he was trying to think of Tink too, who he has kind of a special bond with. Then, thinking about his own mother, which he never really does, so that was nice too, because he does have some unexplored abandonment issues.

Drizella: “The Perfect Dress” - Double Trouble. What I really love about RPing with Kiara is that she has this natural instinct about the way a thread should go, and it just makes threads with her so pleasant. The chemistry that Zella and Ana have is so good, too. This thread was great because both of them were dealing with things that they weren’t talking about, it was all underground, but they still knew that the other person was dealing with things. It just felt really natural and totally sisterly.

Toulouse: “Miscalculations” - Berlou feat Roscoe. Big shout out to Lauren for this one, because when I first brought her the idea I wanted a duel, I didn’t mention anything about unforgivable curses or anything, but then she brought it up and I was really excited (especially because we didn’t tell Lauryl, sry lauryl.) It was just so great, because I always say Lou would be entirely ruthless if anyone ever hurt his siblings and I mean it. I finally got to show that, and it was so thrilling to write. Getting to write a really dark side of Lou was so great, and the fallout was lovely too.

Bambino: “On the Edge” - Merfawn. FUCK. This thread was so great. Like, I loved it because we didn’t have a plan for it. We just wanted them to RP together and they both run around in the woods, so it would be a good spot for them to meet up. It was Reanna who took it in such a great direction by having Ariel bring up the Prince. It was just such a good instinct and since this was one of my first threads with Reanna, it really impressed me and I just had a lot of fun with it.

Perdita: “Isn’t There Any Hope?” - Fate. How could I not talk about this thread? It started in December, but I can’t help it. The first time Paul and Perdita see each other in 4 months and it was just so full of emotion. I loved that Lauryl and I had discussed kind of the entire timeline of their backstory because it made it really easy to draw from and their chemistry felt really natural. It’s always a worry with relationships that are pre-established, there is going to be no chemistry, but man, do Paul and Perdita have it and you could just feel the love they have (had) for each other and the struggle that they were going through.

Sweet: “A Code in Process” - Sweet Mouse. Ugh, this one was just so good. Mostly because I actually got to perform surgery!! And that was just so fucking fun, and Kiara made it a blast. It really kind of solidified Minnie and Sweet’s relationship during this high stress environment and I just thought that was super rewarding. (Shout out to the Mr. Crowley arc with Nala, Tibbs, and Minnie. It’s been so much fun and I’m excited for the conclusion.)

Maui: “Helping Hand” - Celaui. I think Katie listed this one as well, and well, yeah, totally makes sense because this is the thing that everyone wants out of a starter. The relationship that was built after this initial thread was so beautiful and nuanced and is continuing to grow, and I just love that.

Urania: “Follow Up Interview” - Star Destroyer. Fuck me, I love this thread so much. It was kind of a random idea that just steamrolled into what it is now, and it’s another one of those plots that just feels really natural to me. And I love the dynamic of both Urania and Dornan thinking that the other is below them. They’re totally underestimating each other and I’d love to play with that power dynamic more and dig deeper into it.

Identify a challenge you’ve faced in this rp. Reflect on why this is a challenge for you. Are there any strategies you can develop to overcome this challenge?

Like many people, I struggle with plotting. A lot of times I have an end goal in mind, but I struggle with how to get there. For me, I don’t have a problem approaching people, I love talking and I don’t mind bothering more shy people to talk to me, but I have a problem sharing my ideas, because I worry that people won’t like them.

I’ve just tried becoming more confident with my ideas. I get characters now with secrets, or an end goal that I can kind of use as a jumping off point for plots. It has really helped because I feel like I can almost always find a reason or a thing that my character is grappling with.

Pick one of your characters and talk about their growth (we recommend choosing an older character, but it’s up to you! ) What about their story has surprised you? What are you proud of? How have they changed from their original inception to now?

Copper. Copperrrr. My lil honey. So, lots of people know that Copper is my hardest muse. I really don’t know what the problem is, but it’s just always been that way. Recently, though, he’s come so far, and I’ve kind of finally unstuck him from his shitty thought processes. I think that was the problem, now that I’m writing this lol. He was so resistant to change, but I just completely broke him down. Between Tod and Rajah and Shego, I managed to break him and now I’m building him back up, and that’s really satisfying to me.

He feels much more malleable, which is kind of where I wanted him to start with. So, that’s really nice. And making him a dad was really the right move because now he has this thing that reminds him to stay grounded and to be patient and understanding and more open, because his daughter is going to have magic and he loves her so much, so how could it be bad or wrong?

I am curious to see what he’ll be like as a single dad. Should be interesting.

Zella, also, has been so great. I really wanna push her more, but I’ve loved what has happened with her the past few months. She’s made a lot of mistakes and she’s trying to distance herself from them and start being serious about her future and she’s growing so much (even if no one but me can see it lmao) and I’m excited to see what happens.

Pick another character and talk a little about where you WANT them to go. What are your plans for them for the rest of the year?

Well, like a good mother, I have plans for all my beebs.

Belle: she is growing so much and getting so strong. I want to continue that thread for her. I want her to go back to school (I’ve started planting the seeds for that already.)

Simba: ugh, my babe. He has some hard times coming up based on a plot that will come to fruition at the end of summer. Through that I really want to explore Simba’s plurality of independence and doing what is expected of him and how that will affect his relationships and, in turn, affect how he views his “duties” to his family name.

Copper: be a dad. That’s p much it. I think Copper has had a really hard life, and he deserves to just enjoy being a father and be as good of one to Isabel as he can be.

Drizella: I want her to have everything stripped from her (in the process of doing so.) I want her to become more of a champion for women and move away from her mother’s toxic thinking. I want her to grow closer to both her sisters and to embrace her own path.

Toulouse: ugh, i just want my baby to be happy. I don’t know what it will be that makes him happy, but I know it won’t involve painting, at least not as a career, and I want him to accept that and realize it doesn’t make him a bad son for wanting something different. Also, I do want him to find love again, because tbh I like him better in a relationship lmao.

Bambi: explore his sexuality more. Embrace himself. And definitely get closer with his dad. That’s super important and I want it really badly, because Prince is really the only one who can help Bambi heal from his mother’s death.

Perdita: Well, she knows about her post-partum now, which yay! So, now I want to work on her relationships. I want her to start mending the town’s image of her, because she’s really not as crazy as everyone thinks she is, lol. Like, she is a normal person, I promise. She won’t be having any more manic episodes or huge explosions. (Unless something goes real wrong, lmao.) I also want her to get a better job, that’s more in line with her long term goals for herself.

Sweet: MORE SURGERY. Also I want to explore his past more. I want him to open up to someone about his magic. I also need him to make friends outside of the hospital, pls and thanx.

Maui: I want him to fall. I want him to totally crash and burn. I want someone to steal his hook and leave him with nothing. (Before that, though, I want him to get risen up, and to help a few people so that when he crashes, they can come to his aid and make him realize that he’s good enough without his hook.)

Urania: She wants to take over the world. I want her to take over the world. Simple.

Attina: As one of my new babes, I have a lot of plans for her. I want to explore her relationship with each of her sisters. I want her to go on lots of dates and to get herself crushed and to have successful dates too. Also, long term, I want her to like re-examine her life and figure out that she really is not happy and wants so much more.

Hercules: UGH my lil babe, I have so many plans. I need him to learn to control his strength, though I want this to be a slow process. And I definitely, definitely want him to figure out where he is from. (I have a whole idea set up, but I just need him to get there. It’ll also be a slow process, probably.)

OPTIONAL (REQUIRED FOR THOSE WHO DIDN’T DO THE LAST QUESTIONNAIRE): In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 strengths and talk about why you think it’s one of your strengths.

Setting: I have a very visual memory. Like--I can remember where on a page something was, even if I don’t remember the exact wording, and I almost always remember what people were wearing during important events. So, I know details about where someone are can be really important and I love describing like the things around someone. All my characters’ homes (and their other spaces, like Chapter Three), I have the entire floor plan of.

Action: I was always taught that movement was really important in a story. And my teacher was big about character quirks, so I just naturally incorporated it into my own writing. Body language is super fascinating to me and I love including it into movement for my characters.

Character Detail: I’ve become obsessed with charting out my character’s lives. It might because I’ve gotten older characters recently, but, I find it really important to know like--everywhere my character has lived and their families (including uncles/aunts/cousins). So, I really feel like I know my characters as people. Which makes it easy for me to slip into their skin and know how they’d react to a situation. I know their little ticks and what their motivations are.

OPTIONAL (REQUIRED FOR THOSE WHO DIDN’T DO THE LAST QUESTIONNAIRE): In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 areas of improvement.

Rambling: Sometimes I feel like my posts have a point in the beginning and then the middle is a mess and then I’m like oh crap I gotta like do an action/dialogue/have a point to this lol. I think that kind of thing can work when you have a point, go on a tangent and weave the point through the tangent, but I don’t think ahead in my posts, so that always falls flat. It’s always a happy accident if I can find a way to draw it back.

Proofreading: I know it’s RP and we all write a lot so missing a word here or there or something isn’t a big deal. But, I feel like if I read back through my posts sometimes, I could incorporate later ideas in my post. That’s just something I wanna kind of work on, so I can be more thoughtful with my posts.

OPTIONAL (REQUIRED FOR THOSE WHO DIDN’T DO THE LAST QUESTIONNAIRE): Reflect on other writers you love– in the rp or out! How have they influenced you? What do you love about their writing that you want to bring to your own?

Man, I love all y’all. Shout out to some of our new babes: Silv does so great with backstory, I’m always so intrigued, and like I said above, I love planning that kind of shit out, so I always get hype when other people do it too. Also Reanna puts so much enthusiasm into everything she does, it makes me excited to RP, and I love that. Bee also cranks out some lines sometimes where I’m like umm?? Wtf?? That was so good?? Chloe too, just, ugh her writing sometimes. It’s so minimal but not in an obnoxious hemingway-way. Her one shots are so succinct. I love reading them.

I can’t wait to get to know our new-new babes tooo!

IF YOU DID THE LAST QUESTIONNAIRE: Alright, now pick an item from the Wishlist you completed in January that you’ve started to pursue. How far are you from completing this goal? Talk about the steps you took to make it happen.

I’m getting ready to (and have started to) explore race/sexuality in an off dash kenya thread w simba and kiara and ber and that’ll be interesting bc they all relate to their race/sexuality differently. It’ll be interesting putting them in an entirely different worlds. Of course, Simba and Ber have been lots of places, but mostly pretty liberal. Kenya is a place where sexuality is not really talked about and there is a bit of hostility towards white people. It’s basically the reverse of everything they’ve known.

I think it’s really interesting to explore Simba’s relationship with his race and sexuality through this, since he loves his family so much and he doesn’t like to lie; but he knows a good bit of his family doesn’t approve. And then, with Kiara, who is half-black/half-white and gay herself, and Ber who is white and queer--it’s gonna be really interesting to see them all navigate that space and still try to find a sense of belonging within it.

Oh, as for making it happen, I have mostly Lauryl to thank, though, I mean I orchestrated some of it myself. Simba was cut off from his family (voluntarily). He reconnected with his mother in July but didn’t reconnect with everyone else until around December, when one of his cousins had a baby. Which led to Simba connecting with all of his cousins again. And then, after everything that Kiara has gone through, Simba wanted her to realize that she does have a place that she belongs, and a family who love and support her; hence why they made the trip to Kenya.

IF YOU DID THE LAST QUESTIONNAIRE: Pick another item on your wishlist that hasn’t happened yet. We’re gonna do a MOCK-PLOT!!!

Zella Follows her Dreams:

This might be cheating, since one thread has already started, but we’re gonna use it anyways.

Milla confronts her daughter about not having any plans for after school. Zella confesses she wants to be a stylist. Milla cuts her off financially.

Zella throws a fit about this and disowns herself from the family, bumming around places. (Marie’s, Jenny’s, etc.) They start asking questions Zella doesn’t want to answer sooo

Zella finally shacks up with Ella.

Ella encourages her to #followherdreams and in return Zella tells Ella to get a fucking backbone (but hopefully she’ll be nicer at this point.)

Zella applies to a few internship programs and gets one!! Then she goes to follow her dreams!!

(I would also like to include Ana in this plot but idk how Ana will react so that is something I’ve got to discuss w Kiara.)

Finally: write a NEW wish list for the upcoming half of the year. It’s fine if you use a lot from your previous wish list if you still haven’t completed them and you still want to!

Smut – well, i still haven’t bottomed as a male; but i’ve done some hetero from the female perspective so that’s fun. My new smut goal is: different positions!! Different places!! Missionary is fun and all but;; gets borin and i like body positions so it’d be interesting to try some new stuff (i am talking about this like it is my actual sex life lmao)

Slow Burn – who doesn’t love a slow burn romance? i think it makes a ship feel so much more real when characters are angsting and pining and things keep them apart, whether it be timing, one of them dating someone else, miscommunication, or just general fear of hurt–ugh just give it to me (but not for months). This hasn’t happened yet and that is #rude someone get @ me.

Murder – i want to kill someone. i want someone to kill one of my characters. either one. both. who knows. Okay seriously; Urania needs to kill someone.

Kidnapping – someone kidnap one of my characters. ← still relevant

Abortion – i mean, i just think it would be interesting to have a character go through/have to contemplate getting an abortion. from either male or female perspectives. i have several possibilities /eyes zella in particular or tbh lou /eyes lou too ← also still relevant

Surgery/Illness – i love me some good ol’fashion hurt/comfort. also, sweet loves surgery, so if anyone’s characters need surgery, you want them to get hurt or sick, sweet is your guy. but, i mean we all know i love fucking up my characters (gave simba appendicitis, had lou get impaled, copp got shot like forever ago who remembers that eh?) so if you wanna beat up/attack my characters get at me ← always down for this if u wanna injure ur babe

Travel – i’ve had a few characters (lou, zella, simba) take trips to other places; but i would love to get out of swynlake for some threads. why not? ← always down for travel too

Race/Sexuality – i have a couple of characters who i’d love to explore their racial identity in a negative situation. swynlake is pretty free of, like, blatant racists (excluding magick-ists), so i would be curious to see how simba/sweet/etc deals with that. same with sexuality, swynlake is pretty accepting but i’d love for them to confront some homophobia because both that and racism, is, unfortunately realistic and prevalent. ← this is always something interesting

Big Plots – i LOVE big plots and i want to do them with more than just lauryl sorry lauryl i love u. but i want big plotty plots with EVERYONE! stuff that’ll fuck up your characters or my characters or both or they’ll GROW by the end, just stuff that will be an uphill battle. who wants to fight with meee? ← still RELEVANT

In more specific terms:

I want Belle to go back to school.

I want Simba to also go back to school lol

I want Copper to learn how to be a dad, even if that journey eventually takes him out of Swynlake to somewhere he deems “safer.”

I want Zella to go to her internship or w/e and embrace her differences and unlearn the toxic behavior her mother encouraged.

I want Lou to figure out that painting is not what he wants to do w his life. I also want him to date bc I like him better in a relationship lol

I want Bambi to kind of shed his reservations about being who he is and embrace it (both as the Young Prince and his sexuality.)

I want Perdita to continue to recover from her post-partum and mend her relationship with Paul so that they can successfully coparent their kids (and fall in love)

I want Sweet to make friends outside of the hospital. I also want him to mess up and have his hubris catch up to him.

I want Urania to take over the world.

I want Maui to get bolstered up and then I want him to crash and burn and then I want to raise him up again.

I want Attina to find love, but more than that, I want her to accept that she’s not gonna be able to control her sisters and learn to do her own thing.

I want Herc to learn where he’s from, but even more importantly I want him to accept himself for who he is.

#inspiration #questionnaire #bdrpquestionnaire #y'all hmu pls #tho im sure no one is reading this #if u r skimming pls go to the end at least #plot w me #also sorry i went extra on my banner love me

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wilwywaylan · 8 years ago

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Kiyoshi, Ruud and Sakae ? (... yup I ask for this universe a lot, sorry)

How differently do they think of each other now compared to when they first met?

Honeestly…. not much. When she first met him, Kiyoshi immediatlythought that Sakae was…. Something Else, with his overworldly smileand his weird humor. The kind of man you only meet once. And boyyyyyywas she right. On the other hand, Ruud gave her the impression of aman who could deal with everything life threw at him. Someone youcould rely on to help you during difficult times. Nice and stable,that one.Now….. well it’s still the same. Sakae is a uniqueman you only meet once (and maybe it’s good because she couldn’tendure two Sakaes), and Ruud is probably made of the same wood theymake clogs with. The kind of clogs that never gets damaged, ofcourse. Okay. She wasn’t ready for the hurricane of bad puns, thetoo loud music, the hair everywhere, the ugly santiags, the cats, the60 pounds of cheese, …. But to be honest, she wouldn’t trade themfor anything. Not even a spaceship and one billion dollars.

Sakae was immediatly impressed by Kiyoshi when she came into hiscoffee shop. He immediatly thought that this was the kind of ladythat gets things done. The kind that nothing could ever stop. He wasalmost scared to make her her coffee, because she would probably stepon him if she wasn’t satisfied. As for Ruud, he immediatly fell akinship with that tall, blond, Dutch man who seemed very concernedwith food. He didn’t take long to discover that Kiyoshi is anabsolute nerd, and Ruud a total weirdo. But Kiyoshi still impresseshim with her determination, but she doesn’t scare him anymore. It’svery useful when you want someone to do something for you. And she’sso cute in her dorkiness. As for Ruud…. well he’s weird, with hisweird boots and weird knowledge about strange things, but still, he’snice, he loves to put on music while they’re working in the kitchen(and they have discussions about the merits of jazz vs. Heavy metal),he’s very nice and takes care of he and Kiyoshi, and overall, is awonderful man. And he wants to cuddle the fuck out of them like acat.

Ruud took that weird pair entering in his little food joint as hetook everything : nicely, keeping his distance, exchanging a fewplaisanteries here and there while they ordered the fort. They were astrange pair, those two, but they sounded… nice. Interesting, too,and smart, talking about complicated things that he couldn’t help butlistening too. He immediatly felt drawn to that strange, butattracting people.And now, his advice hadn’t change a bit. Hestill thinks that they are nice, very interesting, fascinating, even,a little bit crazy. Kiyoshi is a very smart lady (and a dork), andSakae, if he’s happy working as a coffee clerck, isn’t less smartthat them. And they both are very, very, very wonderful.

What do their friends/family think of their relationship?

Come on : two daddies ? Two nice, smart daddies who knowa lot about things and can make, bake or cook the most deliciousthings ? It’s awesome. Pavel is so okay with that, there may notbe enough words in Japanese, Dutch or English to say how much he is.

Shizuka is very happy for Sakae. A good, nice relationship isexactly what he needs, especially after what happened with the lastone. Besides, Ruud can make some mean pasta dishes, and that’sperfect ! And hanging out with Kiyoshi means SCIENCE !PROFESSIONALLY-DONE SCIENCE !

Kiyoshi’s mums are very happy. I mean, two proper young men, niceand cheerful, taking care of their beloved daughter and grandson ?They are so polite and helpful when they visit, they cook AND cleanafter themselves, and Kiyoshi and Pavel are SO happy ! It’struly perfect !

Sakae’s parents had the confirmation they needed : their soncan’t do anything like anyone else (but then again, look at hisparents…). But since he’s truly happy now, with that strange ladywith a weird hat, and that not-less-strange man who likes to cookwhile humming under his breath, and the kid who loves to play withShizuka, they don’t say anything. What matters is their son’shappiness.

Ruud’s parents took it with calm, as did his brother. After all,their son / brother is an adult now, and if he wants to live with ajapanese lady and her dutch-japanese partner, it’s his right.Besides, they are nice, eat his food without complaining, gave him ajob, and keep good company. And bonus : instant grandson /nephew ! Yay !

How do their personalities/skills complement or contrast witheach other?

They are all fairly balanced in manners of emotions, reactions andskills. Kiyoshi can’t cook to save her life, and Sakae only knowsbasic dishes, but Ruud is there to help. Sakae is the best to cleanand wash AND make it look like it’s effortlessn while Ruud looks likehe’s dragging a backpack full of rocks through the desert, andKiyoshi complains the whole time. But Kiyoshi can balance a checkbooklike nobody else and manages to budget everything, and find the bestdeals during grocery shopping, while Sakae and Ruud are cataclysmicwhen faced with a budget.

As for personnalities, they don’t have lots of common traits,except geeky outbursts and the worst sense of humor. Kiyoshi’sdetermination is the driving force, she’s the one usually planningthe things they do. If Ruud or Sakae has an idea, she’s the onegetting everything forwards, and always offers them her help. Ruud,being the most laid back of the trio, is the calming force. He’s theone calming discussions, offering solutions, and helping everyonekeep his cool. With him, grave things don’t seem as bad andstressful. Finally, Sakae is the happy force. He can desarm anythingwith a good joke, and injets some well-needed lightness and fantasyinto their lives. As with Ruud, things don’t seem as important anddangerous when he’s around.

Even their knowledges complement each other ! Kiyoshi is verywell-versed in all kinds of science and science-fiction, and is atrivia monster. Ruud knows a lot about history, legends and stuff,and art. And Sakae knows a lot about jazz, movies, and weird thingsothers know nothing about. Sometimes, he feels dumb because he’s notwell-versed in interesting and useful subjects like the two others,and doesn’t have the diplomas to show his knowledge. Ruud and Kiyoshialways take great care to make him talk about his favourite subjects,and never miss congratulating him on them.

What is their favorite aspect of each other?

Kiyoshi’s independance is whatbrought Sakae to her. The fact that she doesn’t care about whatpeople think or expect of her, how they whisper behind her, or howthey think she doesn’t know what she’s talking about in her line ofwork. She knows exactly what she wants, and is ready to do whateverit takes for it, no matter who’s trying to stop her. Societalexpectations, especially those linked to her gender and socialstatus, are but a background noise for her. Ruud is in awe of herdetermination. She steamrolls everything in her path once she putsherself to a task, and she dares, be it in her line of work,or in her private life. For him, things can be interesting ideas,fleeting thoughts, but for Kiyoshi, it’s a goal, an aim, and she’swell-decided to get it done, sooner or later.

To be fair, what Kiyoshi likes most inSakae is his weirdness. He looks kinda weird with that huge smile ofhis and long blond hair, a strange mix of japanese and dutch traits,and he is kinda weird, with those tattoos covering his arm and wrist.His behavior doesn’t belong to any known pattern, and he’s alwayssurprising her, most of the time in a good way. What Ruud prefersin Sakae is his wicked brains. He’s very smart, even if he doesn’tbelieve it, and it makes for very interesting discussions andarguments during work in the kitchen. Sakae is a mine of interesting,strange or fascinating informations on very diverse subjects, andit’s always wonderful to talk with him. They never run out of thingsto talk about. That, and the latte art. It’s very impressive, tomanage to turn something so mundane into a work of art. He nevertires of watching him do it.

Kiyoshi likes that Ruud is SOLID.That’s a man you can rely on, a man who’ll see you panic before ameeting and offer you a cup of coffee, who’ll calmly grab theextinguisher if there’s a fire in the kitchen and take care of it,who’ll help you when you break your finger, calm you down, call 911and make you feel as if it’s not that bad. Ruud is a rock, and youcan build a house on that rock, it’ll never move. Sakae, asKiyoshi likes in him, likes Ruud’s uniqueness. He’s a curious blandof seriousness, all calm even during a crisis, respectability, whatwith being a published author and respected PhD. And fantasy, becausethat PhD is about monsters and myths and creatures, and he dresses ashe’s not seen new clothes since 1970, with pearls and pendants andamulets. And he cooks a very mean stew too.

Do either of them have pet peeves about each other?

Sometimes, Sakae can be a little….too carefree. He doesn’t give important things the attention theydeserve (or looks like he doesn’t, at least), and sometimes, Ruud andKiyoshi both want to grab him and shake him a little to drag him backinto the real world where things like bills and insurance matter.

Kiyoshi may be a very intelligentwoman, but she hadn’t yet leart to let go of certain things and lether partners live them down, especially embarrassing or painfulthings. Ruud can assure her that he’s quite aware that he oncebrought back sixty pounds of cheese from his trip in his homeland,and he would quite like her to stop reminding him about it.

Ruud being all calm and everything inthe face of troubles or crisis is very nice and reassuring, butsometimes, they can’t help but want to ask him to SHOW A LITTLESOMETHING, GODDAMMIT, OUR SON JUST FELL DOWN THE STAIRS CAN YOU LOOKCONCERNED I KNOW YOU JUST CALLED AN AMBULANCE BUT CAN YOU FREAK OUT ALITTLE ?

How would each reconcile with each other after a fight?

Sakae and Ruud go through the stomach to reach the heart. A nice coffee decorated with a heart in latte art, or a nice little snack, artfully arranged, can go a long way.

What would be their ideal vacation getaway together?

There are two countries that they will always love to visit, and that’s Japan and the Netherlands,for obvious reasons. So an ideal vacation would be a week or two in either of those countries. Nothing fancy, no five-stars hostels and posh restaurants, no receptions or anything. Just visiting either Ruud’s family and Sakae’s mother, or Sakae’s father and Kiyoshi’s mothers. In either case, it means time spent together relaxing, slow walks through the city, visits to places they already know and love, or new, unknown places, good, home-cooked food, family time, and the ever-lovely game of “do you remember when…?”.

Think of a new way (AU, different situation, etc.) they could have met for the first time.

Space!AU ? Space!AU.

Featuring, of course, KonohanaKiyoshi, proud captain of the Celestial Flower (aka The Big Flying Saucer according to everyone on board), the scientific ship cruising through space, looking for unknown lifeforms and planets. They land here and there, observ, take samples, make friends, and leaves for the next planet.

On board, of course, son and engineer Pavel, exploration leader and dog-like creature Inuko, and Sakae, the best drink-maker in all the galaxy. He can make the meanest hot drink with any fruit, leaf or root you give him, it’s almost magical. His kitchen has, besides the laboratory, the best equipment of that ship. And of course, he and the captain flirt like crazy.

They land on a planet renowned for their gastronomy, and populated by a race of tall humanoids, all elongated and lanky, with a strange, midnight-black skkin where beauty marks are all white, like stars. They meet with a delegation, who entrusts them to their best chef, to help them discover their culture. That chef is a tall (even by their standards) individual wearing a strange, orange cloth, and who looks very laid back. He cooks for them, endures Sakae’s idioctic jokes with a smile, and makes them the best meal they’ve ever tasted.

They like it so much, that they offer him a place on the ship. They need a cook, and he’s the best, they argue. The man doesn’t take long to accept. He’s very curious about those persons, and leaving with them means new ingredients and new dishes to try ! So he embarks with them. It’s a bit awkward at first, because he’s too tall for the doors, and he’s not used to the life in a spaceship, but he gets used to it quickly, and starts to cook for everyone. It takes him like minus five minutes to seduce Sakae and Kiyoshi with his magic food. Sakae is the first to ask him out because he’s like that, but the captain won’t let a coffee magician be better than her, and she quickly makes her move. Cue happy ménage à trois !

#lumeha #konohana kiyoshi #sakae #ruud van der loewe #you and me and the devil make three #pavel konohana #inuko #my OCs #all the idiots are here #they are so fun

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